strangetomato | Sims Talk: Free Time hobby determination

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Sims Talk: Free Time hobby determination

I'm getting pretty ready to install Free Time, especially now that ~~InSIM~~ SimPE has been updated (that was fast). I will, however, need a plan of attack for all of my story sims, and their hobbies. I have a little list going already, and maybe I'll post it later to think out loud. I just found a list of traits that determine a sim's "true hobby", so I thought I'd share, in case you haven't seen it yet. This gives me a good idea of what my sims might end up with, but I'm not really liking how this element of the game works.

So it seems that the pre-determined "true hobby" that sims are given with Free Time is based on a combination of personality, skills, and interests. And here are the categories (I swiped this from the BBS somewhere):

Arts & Crafts - sloppy, nice - creativity - culture, fashion
Cuisine - neat, lazy - cooking - food
Film & Literature - shy, lazy - charisma - entertainment, culture
Fitness - outgoing, active - body - health
Games - playful, grouchy - logic - entertainment
Music & Dance - outgoing, serious - creativity - entertainment
Nature - sloppy, playful - cleaning - animals, environment, weather
Science - neat, serious - logic - sci-fi
Sports - active, grouchy - body - sports
Tinkering - shy, nice - mechanical - toys

I'm not really into this idea. It's way too limiting and it creates these "types" for each hobby. (Oh, but why don't I love grouping people into limiting categories? It's so much fun. *sigh*) Like aspiration, why not let us look at the personality of our sims and determine the hobby interest ourselves? Or let it be random, or at least more random than it is right now. The way it's set up now, you can only be into certain hobbies if you have a certain personality, which is, quite frankly, bullshit. I know plenty of musicians that are not serious, plenty of neat artsy types (more than sloppy ones, really), and why on earth would you need to be grouchy to enjoy sports? Argh, I say. Argh!

Using Buck Grunt as an example, he could end up with cuisine (not so bad), science (errm...), or he could end up with tinkering. Tinkering, people! What happened to him wanting to be a "pet stylist to the stars"? I have no idea why shyness would be connected to tinkering, anyway. Seriousness would be more accurate, in my opinion. But how limiting is that?! I want him to have arts and crafts (and he'll have it, don't worry), but the game creators have decided that a neat sim wouldn't like sewing? This makes no sense to me. Have they never heard of Martha Stewart? She's not exactly a slob.

... and Nervous Subject will probably like sports? That just seems wrong to me too. Shouldn't outgoingness be a factor for that one too? (I think I'm leaning towards film and literature for Nervous, myself. I haven't decided yet, but he does seem to like to read a lot, despite the high energy level.)

I'm not sure what to think of it all, really, but I don't really like it. It's just too limiting for me (but at least gender was not a factor). I think I will be taking the hobby destiny of my sims into my own hands, in most cases.

So what do you think?

Edited to add: My brain read that as InSIM, but I should have said SimPE. Oops! I need a nap.

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You're very right. If it is determined at the toddler transition, personality is all you really have to go by for it to make any sense from a programming point of view. Maybe I just dislike the idea of having a OTH at all (since who really has a predetermined hobby from birth?), but in some ways, it is an interesting concept.

I just wish that there were more characteristics considered, and more overlap. So that you weren't so boxed in. Like, if a sim was extreme in a personality category that is associated with a hobby, it would be considered as one of the random options, but you could be considered for any of the hobbies that this is true for. I'm sure it works something like that now, but if it's going to be limited like that, I'd like it to be more complex.

I dislike the way the game does the presets. I actually left a few of the families I've played since installing FT alone, but in my extra Strangetown I experimented with the Beaker household. I wound up changing Circe over to Film & Literature because I thought it fit her better (and getting her in the Entertainment track because she wants to hit the top of that track) and Nervous to cuisine since it made more sense with his LTW (celebrity chefs have to start somewhere, IMO). I dunno, it just made more sense to me. Plus, now Nervous has the most cooking points in the house and high enthusiasm in cuisine, so they're all eating well.

I enjoy the EP, but I wish it wasn't so limited. Although I admit amusement that my selfsim in PSV is a gaming enthusiast.... I see nothing wrong in any way with using Simgaroop's tutorial and changing out OTHs for storytelling purposes. I'm likely to do it myself in Weirdsville and the Legacy house when I hop back to them.

I haven't even heard about that issue yet! So that's a definite bug that comes with Free Time? I wonder if it will be fixed with a patch. (And there goes my nerve to actually install Free Time. I'll wait a while longer. I'm such a wimp like that.)

On a positive note... I could use that bug to maybe sneak Ripp into a marriage without him having a negative memory of it. *snicker* But I think that his wedding day, if it ever comes, is definitely not happening in the immediate future...

Very interesting. I think that I'll have to add that to my game at some point. I've considered it before.

I never use anything but Charisma bunny because that's the only skill I absolutely hate waiting for sims to build. Made easier by the Law career reward, but I hate having the podiums :/

I completely agree that the cuisine enthusiasm and the culinary LTW should match up, but I suppose these things would require a more complicated game engine. (Sims 3, anyone?)

I know that I will enjoy this EP too. A lot. This is just a minor gripe. I do have a way around it, afterall.

I'm like this too. I'm all about the charisma bunny.

Although lately, I've been less controlling, and I usually just let the toddler decide which toy they want to play with on their own. And... surprise! That's usually the toilet. :D

And, while rereading the comments as the thread grows and grows, I meant 'crabby', not 'crappy'. Dyslexia's entertaining! Also, I spelled it 'dyselxia' on my first try. Gah.

I personally think that everyone should set their selfsims as gaming enthusiasts. It makes so much sense to me. I was letting that house decide on their own and about died when D. plops down at the computer, boots up Sims 3, and the "Wow! I'm glad I tried that gaming activity" message pops up. Cue Katsuko damned near falling off her chair laughing.

I don't really like the fact that they have pre-destined hobbies. You should be able to pick them like you were with the aspirations and turn ons. No matter what though, they always assign random ones to the pre-freetime characters, which sucks.

According to this, my selfsim would have arts and crafts! Not bad, since I make jewelry, but I was hoping it would be music and dance since that's what she's OBSESSED with!

Hehe, Nervous with film and literature. Yeah, I think that's more fitting than sports. Pretty ironic though, since the Beakers probably never even realized that he could even read. Poor kid probably had to teach himself.

I used to be like that, but once BV started taking skill levels into consideration for attraction I stopped force skilling my sims for anything other than bare minimum university and job requirements. Now I just set the toddler down in a room with a collection of toys and let them go at it, it's kinda interesting which kids choose what. Of course some kids will prefer the dollhouse, the toy box or the potty over anything skill based :) Pleasure seekers in the making.

It mainly just opens job related lifetime wants though there are odd ones here and there, I've seen pleasure seekers that want 20 woohoo's (fittingly) and pops that want to marry off six kids.

The mod takes aspiration, personality, interests and mentor type professions into consideration. Example of mentor type professions would be that relatives of a Captain Hero would be less likely to want to be Criminal Masterminds.

Huh? Insim is already updated? That's awesome, because SimPe was also updated yesterday!

If you install Free Time, make sure you get this fix:

http://box156.bluehost.com/~aestudi1/forums/inteenimater/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=19

So far, this is the only "serious" bug that's appeared with Free Time, and only if you have sims with double aspirations, but so far I hadn't seen any issues in my game (but I installed it to be safe).

Hmmm... from reading the comments at this thread, it seems like all the Strangetown characters have the same predestined hobbies. Buck was science and Ripp was arts and crafts. And I've read in two different places about the Curious hobbies and they match too.

I think the way the hobbies are assigned is pretty silly! If I were a Sim, my hobby would be tinkering! :D I'm more a film and literature girl.

Good thing there's a way to change these predestined hobbies :). Good luck and have fun with FT!

I totally agree. It would be nice to at least have a built in way to change it, like they did with that Re Nu Port-a-Chug (spelled incorrectly?). It's not like you can't have more than one hobby anyway, but still.

Nervous does have a bookshelf in his little pit in the Beaker mansion, so I figure that he probably spent a lot of time reading down there, since he was always alone.

One of the things that worries me, is that it seems my sim offspring get stuck with the same predetermined hobbies their parents do. I suppose that's okay, but a little variety would do nicely.

Any word on when Lot Debugger will upgrade? Thanks for the notes on Insim. I'll download the next version before I play next time. At least V 2.7b (or whatever the last one was) didn't crash my game. That seems to be saved for the 'multi poli-tech' hack. :)

Oh, my mistake. I meant to type SimPE. I'll edit that. I think my brain just read it as InSIM. Wishful thinking, maybe? Wow. Maybe I need a nap...

Thanks for the tip and the link. :)

I guess Strangetown always would have the same hobbies, if it just follows this formula, since it seems pretty rigid in how it works.

I know. I don't think that I would get my actual hobby(ies) with this formula either. That seems to prove something to me, since many people are saying that.

I'm so glad that it's possible to change them. Thanks so much for that making that tutorial! It's really handy.

Serious kids always pick the logic skiller, while my outgoing ones choose the bunny. Others switch it up between the logic and creativity. Not one of my sims has ever chosen the bunny unless other toys were taken or I forced it. I think even after I get FT that I will force Charisma skill, especially since I don't think the 2-3 points during toddlerhood will really matter.

LOL I thought the exact same thing 'hey, we should all be gamer!', but your story is fantastic!

Yep, that ReNuYu Port-a-Chug was one of the best things they added in nightlife. It's usually the first thing I used when I start to play a maxis-made neighborhood that hasn't been touched yet. Especially La Fiesta Tech. If I see another turn on being swimwear and hats I think I'm gonna go insane!

The FFSDebugger, you mean? It`s already upgraded with a bunch of new FT options including changing your Sims`s OTH hobby. :)

All of MATY`s hacks have been updated for FT and some new ones have been created to prevent, for example, the hobby club members`s stalkerish behavior.

Lotfullofsims seems to work just fine for most people. A minority have reported errors, though.

I had to abandon lotfullofsims when I got Seasons. I'm using something else and I have no clue what it is. :/ I'm slowly looking up all of my hacks, and reading about new ones, in prep for an EP I won't get for another month at least. I like to be prepared.

(my turn to butt in!)

I was going to mention the LTW hack. I have it and I think (if memory serves) I got a knowledge sim with a "x kids graduate college" LTW (it was my wifeSelfsim!). But don't quote me on that.

If you can fiddle with it in simPE then you can get what you want (though I agree, that's a lot of work and irritating). And for the idle animations, I'm sure there will be a hack that will either squash them all together or an animation box so you can make a sim do whatever one you want.

I get irritated when existing sims (pre adding a new expansion) get crapped on by the new features. It's not enough that everyone gets reset (so they're maxed out needs in the dead of night when you'd just got them on a sleep schedule) but then (like with NL) they have dumb ass attraction and you have to fiddle with every sim so they don't hate the spouse they've been married to for "years". Bah.

And if worse comes to worse, can't you just ignore hobbies all together with pre-existing sims? (really, I don't know, I would think you could)

Ugg. Seriously? I apparently need to be hit by a clue by four, because I kept looking to see what the updates were, and the most recent thing I saw on Monday, was a warewolf fix.

Thanks for the tip. *goes to cry in the corner for being dense*

Just kidding... *goes to MATY to dl new debugger*

I don't like the idea of your hobby being determined by personality, I thought it was determined randomly. I was a music and dance sim, but I like playful sims and how they play in the tub. :/
Hopefully, someone will release a "Hobby Randomizer" hack, if that is even possible.

SimPE was updated, but it would just crash on me and then wouldn't work at all. It is in testing mode, right? Atleast I hope so, because I had to delete/download it like, three times. >:(

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