Saturday, May 26, 2012

The Birds and the Bees - How Reproduction works in my game

Reproduction in my hood has always had a place in my thoughts. For those who have been following my blog for a while knows that my game loves to throw surprises at me. And by surprises I mean pregnancies left and right. lol

But for me I seem to have found a good fit for my playing style. While I do have my sims, or the majority of them, use the birth control that comes with Inteen, accidents do and have happened. I know that ACR also comes with a birth control option, but for me I prefer Inteen more.



So, how do I decide which sim will get to use birth control and which sim wont? Well that's pretty easy. I honestly can't remember when I got the idea, I'm leaning towards Apple Valley, but then again I could be wrong. It's been years (I started Riverdale back in 2007), but if anyone knows, please let me know!

I take my sim's personality points into play. Neat, Outgoing, Active, Playful, and Nice are all look at. Take Cameron Smith, she has 5 Neat points, 8 Outgoing points, 6 Active points, 3 Playful points, and 3 Nice points. Based on these I placed her on birth control. Since she's high on active and outgoing that tells me that she wouldn't be shy in asking her partner to wear protection, or going to the doctor and asking for birth control herself. And the 5 neat points tell me she's more responsible than a sim who is more lazy.

But if she has this going for her, and she's actively using birth control how did she get pregnant with her son? I can say at no fault of her own or Viggo's. Like Cameron, he too rates high in the points arena with Neat, Outgoing, and Active points.

If a sim has less Neat points, anything four and below along with low Nice points, and Active points, then they do not get birth control.

With ACR you can adjust the percentage of Risky Woohoo, I think the default is set at 30%. So what I did was factor in the prevention rate of contraceptives (i.e. condoms and birth control pills) in America. When reading the statics once can see that condoms are considered 98% effective when used correctly. And birth control pills are like 99%. But I also factored in human error, like a woman missing her pill for a day, or a man not using a condom properly. This drops the percentage of the effectiveness.

Based on that I've upped my Risky Woohoo percent up to 40%. I like this since sometimes sims who I think should have gotten pregnant by now haven't. Like Sarah Corbin, she is not allowed birth control and yet she has yet to get pregnant.

So for now I like the way I've made my adjustments. It works for me, but it's always open for more improvements!

8 comments:

  1. Sounds interesting, I love how you take into account all their personality, I only look at neatness like Laura of Lakeside Heights did, but that doesn't capture it all either, your method is more holistic.

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    1. Yes, Laura! That's were I got the idea from, thanks Starr!

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  2. Very interesting! I also only look at neatness but I'm going to have to reconsider.

    Just as another idea, if you *really* want to complicate things for yourself: while I was reading, I thought that I could see Playful points playing into this as well. It seems like a serious Sim would also be fairly likely to make sure everything was in order, contraception-wise, before having sex.

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    1. Yes, Carla, I also take that into consideration as well. If they are serious, because of course not all my sims are playful. So if playful points are 4 or less that means they are serious, and they get birth control.

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  3. This is very interesting. I followed what a few of the other bloggers have done with just looking at neat points but yours makes a lot of sense too. Someone who's lazy and playful is probably more likely to just go ahead and do it without protection than someone who's serious. I'll have to look at my current sims but I may need to find some family housing for my college students beforehand LOL. Changing things might just backfire and I get a bunch of unplanned babies :p. Thanks for sharing your idea!

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    1. LOL You know though, to my surprise I'm not getting that many unplanned babies. Hopefully it will be the same for you!

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  4. I like that you take outgoing into consideration. But wow on your rate!!! Mine is 5%. I don't believe I adjusted it ether. No wo see you have so many pregnancies.

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    1. LOL Are the babies that out of control? Maybe they are but it's died down quit a bit, wouldn't you say? It's been going back and forth in my head recently, but thinking about factoring if my teens who take sex education in school, would that impact their options when becoming sexually active.

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Thanks for taking the time to read and post! You guys are Awesome!