Em's Random Sim Pics and Projects

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Love those names (Quark and Nebula)

Those tend to be my go to names for aliens for some reason.

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I am lovin' that little plant Sim. I have never seen a wee one before.

I'll have some more pictures of little ones running around when I get to my plantsim household.   

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Yes, I noticed that as one of the talents Romance Sims can earn if they get enough aspiration points.
I haven't had one get that far yet, but I am looking forward to seeing it in action!

I noticed the talent before too, but I guess I didn't know what it was or how it worked.

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What fun! You have a Simmer in the making, too. How sweet, wish I could get my grandchildren interested.

But now we have to compete for computer time.   

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That's cool. I've never done it that way, but after a couple of generations I do end up keeping a sheet of paper with the particulars of each household on it for reference. I play my lots in rotation, so I also use it to keep track of where I am in the rotation.

I've done that too. For one of my neighborhoods I took a lot of time going back after the fact and trying to sort out what sims ages should be in relationship to each other, making a sheet to keep track of how many days I played each household and then later details about each sim. I haven't played that neighborhood in a year or two, but I still have my papers around somewhere.

Thanks for all of the comments, everyone!   

Cher wrote:

...but after a couple of generations I do end up keeping a sheet of paper with the particulars of each household on it for reference. I play my lots in rotation, so I also use it to keep track of where I am in the rotation.

Em wrote:

...making a sheet to keep track of how many days I played each household and then later details about each sim.

Great minds, ladies!  
I was tired of trying to recall details of Sims in my newest (Tres Lagos) hood.
I recently found a cute tin box in clearance for .25 cents.
I'm using it to hold index cards with all the important info & progress of my Sims.
I meant to take a snapshot of it last week, when I had all the index cards spread out by the tin!  

Anyhoo, it's really coming in handy so far! I refer to the cards a LOT!  

Sugah wrote:

I recently found a cute tin box in clearance for .25 cents.
I'm using it to hold index cards with all the important info & progress of my Sims.

Looking forward to the pic of the tin box... and its contents!

As many of you know, I use a spreadsheet to keep track of my sims. It's actually much easier than it sounds.   

Spreadsheet is a great idea, too, Mac.
I keep a couple of notepads by my desk to record things as they're happening, including which pics I take of my Sims, their career advancements, what I need to recolor for their individual abodes, interesting game antics to share here, etc., etc.
This weekend, I bought some "InkJoy" pens in multiple colors on sale.
I'm going to designate certain colors when recording on my notepads for quick reference (for example, orange might be for snapshots taken. Pink might be for objects I need to recolor, etc.).
I'm hoping to stay really organized this time around.
I still have to go through a ton of old downloads that need sorting from my old puter's game, but that's a whole different (ongoing, never-ending, tedious & very boring) project!!!  

You all have no idea how much joy it brings me to hear about all this note-taking and office-supply-purchasing.   
I can't wait to see pictures of that expensive tin box, Sugah!

Awesome! You should definitely share pics of your cute tin box and color coded system, Sugah!

I downloaded a program one time, I think I found it through MATY, that was a spreadsheet type of program for the sims. If I'm recalling correctly, I think it could actually extract info from the game or from Simpe for you. I only checked it out once or twice. I don't even see it on my computer, so I might have it stored just on my external drive.

I just use random, not-so-organized notebooks. I made a word file once with sim data that I printed out for reference. Before I knew about playing in windowed mode I had trouble tabbing in and out of the game easily, so something offline that I could look at while play was better for me.

I probably kept the most info for my original hood Eden (and it's remake New Eden). I even had a website once with information and I made graphs to chart population and genetics information. That's still on my external drive, I'm sure. The website is gone, because the host shut down, but I still have a blog that I haven't updated in more than a year.

In my more current hoods the only thing I keep track of is family relations. In my two hood where I'm trying to start a civilization from scratch starting with 8 sims and I have to keep track of which sims aren't too closely related to pair up. In my supernatural creature challenge hood I started a notepad file to keep track of how many of each type of creature I have in the hood and how many days left in adult hood each founder has.

SimEm wrote:

Before I knew about playing in windowed mode I had trouble tabbing in and out of the game easily, so something offline that I could look at while play was better for me.

I use WindowsKey-M, to minimize my Sims screen to check email, surf the web, peek at my spreadsheet, whatever... Then just click on the icon in the toolbar to restore the game. My usual operating procedure is to load up the Sims first thing in the morning (about half an hour), then minimize it to do other things (via Windows-M) and restore when I want to play.

Em, I shared an image of my whimsical tin box and current index cards (w/ info on my Tres Lago folk) HERE back on June 26, if you're interested.   

Em wrote:

I just use random, not-so-organized notebooks.

That was my previous method of trying to keep track of my Sims and all that was going on in their lives.
But when I needed to look up something, I had a helluva time finding the info with that way of record keeping.
So, I'm hoping the color coded notes and the index cards will allow me to reference Sim/'hood data more efficiently.   

How is your supernatural hood coming along? Do you enjoy the concept?
I really like that idea.
Once I establish and make more progress in my Tres Lagos hood, I'm going to have some fun with supernaturals, Em.
We've got some really cool ones available for download here now, just waiting to populate their own Strangetown.

Mac wrote:

I use WindowsKey-M, to minimize my Sims screen...

I use the (hold down) Alt-Shift-Tab method to minimize my game, Mac.

Mac wrote:

I use WindowsKey-M, to minimize my Sims screen to check email, surf the web, peek at my spreadsheet, whatever... Then just click on the icon in the toolbar to restore the game.

Does that work differently than pressing Tab or ALt-Shift-Tab to minimize the game? I could probably use either of those methods now and be alright, but on my previous computer I would be stuck with a blue screen forever when I tried to maximize the game again. I might try it sometime instead of playing in a window, because the window cuts off part of the top of my game. I don't notice it while playing, but when taking screenshots, plumbbobs, thought and speech bubbles, and open ceilings show up in my pictures that I was careful to have out of frame when I take pictures, so I end up having to edit them out later.

My laptop (even my current one) could not handle having the game loaded all day. A few weeks ago we had a few hot days and my laptop was getting hot and lagging just using the internet.   

Oh, sorry, Sugah. I saw your box and index cards when you posted them, but haven't taken the time to post any replies since. I dropped a note in that thread today.   

I hope your new organization works out for you. Lack of organization kept me from updating Arrendale Heights before the summer semester started. I couldn't find where I'd written out the text when I had time to work on it. I have a multiple subject notebook that I tried to use different sections for different stories and purposes, but parts ended up overlapping as some sections were used up faster than others.

I do enjoy the concept of the supernatural hood. I decided that I'm only going to play the original household for each supernatural type as part of the challenge, but I'm still playing some of the other households of recruits that had moved out for fun and because I like to have equal aging. I don't know if I'll do all of them though. Zombies and servos who don't age and don't reproduce might get a bit tedious on their own. But my extra zombie households did have some major romance drama that was kind of entertaining. When I get some freetime, maybe this weekend if Chase is at his dad's I might post about my other supernatural households.

Sugah wrote:

We've got some really cool ones available for download here now, just waiting to populate their own Strangetown.

Yes, I know! Did I tell you that Chase saw your pics of some of them and wanted to play with them? I didn't realize that's what he wanted when he asked to play, so I didn't have the downloaded ones for him to choose from. Instead I made him sims of the default supernaturals in the game. Later we came back to the site and I asked him which ones he wanted to download. I think he ended up just wanting one since we already had a zombie and a werewolf and a vampire. It was one of yours a goldish, fairy type creature with wings and horns. I've been meaning to find that thread again and leave you a comment because the wings and the horns didn't show up with the download. I may be missing the meshes . . . or maybe the right EPs or SPs.

Em wrote:

I saw your box and index cards when you posted them ... I dropped a note in that thread today.

 

I saw your post and I thank you for responding, Em.   

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Does that work differently than pressing ALt-Shift-Tab to minimize the game?

I was wondering the same.   

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I hope your new organization works out for you.

You and me BOTH, sista.
Though I wish I had started sooner with the color coded notes.
Now I have a crapload of pages with all kinds of scribble on them and have lost track of the images I took a few weeks back when I was able to play.  
I'm such a goob! I need to sift back through a stack of notes the size of the pecos AND sort through my "Let us Play" pictures in My Documents.
This could take awhile...   

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I couldn't find where I'd written out the text when I had time to work on it....

I feel your pain, my friend.   

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I do enjoy the concept of the supernatural hood. I decided that I'm only going to play the original household for each supernatural type as part of the challenge, but I'm still playing some of the other households of recruits that had moved out for fun ...

  

I'd love to see some of your zombie romance drama images and learn more about your other supernatural households when you have a chance to post the snapshots, Em.

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Did I tell you that Chase saw your pics of some of them and wanted to play with them? ...
It was one of yours a goldish, fairy type creature with wings and horns.

  

Do you mean my Libellula of Atholla Odonata?

If so, thank you for letting me know about the wings and horns not showing up.
I will double check that and correct the issue, if necessary.   

 

Added later @ 5:05pm:

Em, I am so glad you alerted me about Libellula's wings and horn meshes not being packaged up with the zip file.
I found them and added them below her downloads link.   

Thank you so much for the heads up on that!!!   

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Do you mean my Libellula of Atholla Odonata?

Yes, that's it! I knew you would know the one. I'll have to go back and download the meshes sometime, if Chase gets interested in the Sims again. He's onto Lego: Star Wars now.

My game has been in a state of disarray since installing the Ultimate Collection, because I thought it would be a good opportunity to attempt to sort out my downloads, but I'm afraid, as usual, I will probably just end up shoving everything back into my downloads folder in the end. I decided to go ahead and just play anyway, since I've had more free time lately. I've been playing with a minimal cc game. I made sure to put in my hairs, default genetics, make-up, and most of my hacks and mods. I may end up leaving out most of my custom clothing . . . so many outfits I've had in my game for years are ending up kind of tired and overused. Sorting out objects is too big of job to want to think about. I've left those things out for now, so I can see what new things have been added from the EP/SPs I didn't have before. There are actually some really cute new outfits, but it seems like for every outfit that makes me think, "That's nice. I could see my sims wearing that," the next page has another outfit that makes we wonder, "What were they thinking? Why would I want to have my sim wear that?"

I decided I wanted to play my Arrendale Heights sims, but with the teens and children aged up, so I could play around with what they get up to in their adult lives. So I made a copy of my hood and backed up the original. Unfortunately, I was missing more of my mods than I thought, I didn't have the teleporter or insim or sim manipulator installed, somehow. So I ended up sending all of my teens to college in age groups, because that seemed the easiest way at the time to age them up. They've since graduated and I moved them into apartments, which I had never experienced before, so it's been interesting. All of the apartment residents were BFFs by the time they graduated, so they are constantly visiting each other. It's like they are still all living together and I never knew that sims could visit each other's apartments. I found that new and exciting.



This is pretty much what happens whenever I play these sims with freewill on, even when they were teens.

Julian and Meghan are romantic with each other.



Natalie and Jeremy.



Natalie and Vince. Jeremy and Maura. They're all friends and all quickly fall in love with each other and no one seems to mind. (Which, after awhile, starts to drive me crazy. I don't mind if they date around, but eventually I want them to just choose one (or at least one at a time)! And I don't want to have to be the one to choose for them either. )



There's not much studying going on in this dorm. The photo booth gets a lot of action.







While my Vince-Natalie-Jeremy- Maura double love triangle seems to have no problems with sharing, Julian does not share that mindset. He catches Meghan with Doug (in my other college dorm) and it's all over for them.



I don't know that taking it out on the poor cheerleader who was trying to perk up his spirits was the way to go. I don't recall what happened between the two of them, but she must have really, really annoyed him.



Now, Julian can't be on the same lot with Doug (or Meghan to a lesser extent) without a huge fight starting. I think I managed to keep Julian and Meghan far enough apart that once his fury ran its course, they could be civil towards one another and be friends again, but he and Doug still hate each other with a passion.



Julian eventually moves on with Kristin, briefly.



And then Maura. (As characters that are currently active in my story, they make an interesting pairing that I never considered. And, as you can see, Jeremy, does not mind that she's involved with Julian as well. )



But my most surprising, unconsidered pairing, also might become my favorite, because this match came out of nowhere and has actually been very stable and without drama. This is Judith and Artie. I think they are just so sweet together.













After graduation, they moved into neighboring apartments with their college friends.





They both wanted the same thing,



so they got engaged.







I had to put a rush on their engagement pictures and their wedding, since they didn't waste any time getting started on having a family.





I set up an elaborate backyard wedding for them at Artie's parents' house . . . which I guess I'll have to share next time since my connection is suddenly not letting me upload any pictures right now.

Em, what a great update! Looks like you have your hands full with this generation!
I can see why Judith and Artie might be your favorites, they ARE SO sweet together and make such a cute couple!

Looks like you've been having a lot of fun.

So far, since I've started over with my new computer and game, I've managed to keep the downloads pretty well organized. That doesn't mean I always remember my method of organization, so I still have to hunt in several places sometimes before I find what I'm looking for. I also have a problem whenever I download a lot here at Sugah's: There will be an item or two from a set, and I really like those items, and then I become obsessed with hunting down the entire set.

That last picture of Judith and Artie is my favorite. They look so happy and content together.

Thanks, Sandy and Cher! I've been using the download organizer program to sort my downloads into folders based on the type of download. I'm thinking about separating out my historically themed downloads from the modern ones and keeping them in separate games again. I had done so at least once in the past, but then ended up merging them.

If photo uploading will cooperate with me again, I'll share Arthur and Judith's wedding. The young couple didn't have the resources to throw a wedding, so I had Artie's parents, Lawrence and Eileen Arrendale host the event at their home. (You'll have to excuse any missing wall papers, floors, out of place objects, or weird make-up choices, since I wasn't using my full downloads folder yet.)



Eileen gets the party started by breaking out the champagne as soon as the guests start to arrive.





I didn't take time to plan the outfits of the guests, only the bride and groom and the hosts'. Most were dressed okay, except for Meghan. A Mrs. Clause suit for a 20-something, at warm weather wedding . . . I don't think so. Since everyone was already taking their seats for the ceremony I made her selectable and did a quick plan formal wear on her. I didn't take time to buy anything new first, so I knew there would be a good chance she would be wearing the same outfit as someone else, but that had to be better than her default choice. Joseph, Judith's younger brother that you can see in the corner of the picture below also has an unusual choice of formal wear, but since the outfit he grew up into when he went to college was also unique and flamboyant, I decided having a quirky sense of style might just be part of his character.



The girl wearing the backpack is a party crasher. Not one of my own playable characters and not invited.



Not only does she decide to invite herself to a private backyard wedding of sims she does not know, she also apparently thinks it's appropriate to take a seat in the front row. You'd think if you were crashing a wedding, you'd at least be discrete and hang out in the back. (It looks like the seat she took was Meghan's )



The father of the groom has to run inside for a quick bathroom stop before the ceremony starts.



I like that the rest of the groom's family happened to be sitting together, his sister Lorna, brother Lance, and mother Eileen. Behind them is the father of the bride, Edward Wilton, who doesn't look too happy. Maybe he's not thrilled that his daughter is getting married already or maybe he's not happy about being stuck in the back row and craning his neck to see.



(I need to give my sims more active points. Slouching at the altar... )











Love is in the air.





The Arrendale men.



I decided that since Meghan (who is the cousin of the bride, by the way) and Natalie were wearing the same dress and since they happened to match Judith's sister, Jacqueline, (who I guess was still a teen here, even though I thought should have been a young adult. I guess I had moved her into a dorm, but hadn't played her yet, so she hadn't aged up) I decided they could be bridesmaids. (If I had picked myself, I would have picked Maura over Natalie, since in my story she and Judith are BFFs. So I'm going to pretend that Maura had to decline because she had something else going on in her life and wasn't sure if she could make it. But happily, she was able to come to the wedding. Not that any of this will necessarily take place in the story. Some of the guests might be the incorrect ages here or may not be around at all at this point. This was just for fun.



Also, since Vince and Jeremy (brother of the bride) were sitting in the front row, I decided they could be groomsmen.



The happy bride!



I took the champagne bottle away shortly after this.



The parents of the bride. Still romantic after all these years.



And embarrassing their youngest two children to pieces.







Despite the buffet outside, some of the younger party goers decided to raid the kitchen for snacks instead.



And they took it upon themselves to take the party inside too.



I caught Jacqueline running away from the party crying . . .



I guess because the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom were getting into a fight for some reason. I don't know what they have against each other, but Eileen was wanting to start something with Alma the minute she showed up to the party.

Em What great fun! All sorts of romances, weddings, children, Oh My! Loved your wedding pictures. I find them difficult, though, all those people to keep track of. And what's a wedding without a crasher. I find they show up at most weddings. My self-sim even crashed a wedding once

Is there some hack you use to get more than 8 sims at once? (Not that I plan to use it - 8 are enough for me).

Regarding the two mothers getting into a fight, in a RL wedding, not a fight, but my dad observed that at the reception, all the friends and family of the groom were at one end of the room and all the friends and family of the bride were at the other end. My dad could always come up with just the right observation. In this case... "What God hath put asunder, let no man join"

Em, you put together a wonderful wedding story.

Em wrote:

but since the outfit he grew up into when he went to college was also unique and flamboyant, I decided having a quirky sense of style might just be part of his character.

I like that idea; it should be fun.

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Not only does she decide to invite herself to a private backyard wedding of sims she does not know, she also apparently thinks it's appropriate to take a seat in the front row.

I guess she's a believer in the saying, "Go big or go home."

Mac wrote:

"What God hath put asunder, let no man join"

Loved your pics of Arthur and Judiths' wedding! The decor and Sims were fun to see! And there was even drama! What could be better!

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Loved your wedding pictures. I find them difficult, though, all those people to keep track of.

I don't often throw big wedding parties, but they're fun to do sometimes. I just let everyone do their own thing, scrolled around to catch pictures of interesting interactions when I could and used moveobjects on to group a few sims together for group shots when I caught certain sims in the same vicinity.

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And what's a wedding without a crasher. I find they show up at most weddings. My self-sim even crashed a wedding once verklempt

I've noticed any sim that happens to be walking by during a party will invite themselves in. I think I remember your simself crashing a party (from your game thread posts.) How fun! My simself pops up unexpectedly sometimes. She recently came home from work with one of my apartment dwellers. In this hood, she's just a placeholder for a faux community lot.

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Is there some hack you use to get more than 8 sims at once? (Not that I plan to use it - 8 are enough for me).

I do have a hack that lets more than 8 sims live on a lot, but that's not what I used here. I had Judith throw the wedding party and invite as many sims as the game would allow and then I used Simlogical's teleporter to bring in the rest of the guests. There's a cheat to allow sims to invite more sims than normal, which I thought I had in my userStartUp.cheat file. Apparently I didn't though. I must have forgotten to add it after a reinstall. You can type "intProp maxNumOfVisitingSims #" (with whatever # you want) into the cheat box to be able to invite as many sims as you want. It should increase the number of sims that will show up on community lots as well.

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Regarding the two mothers getting into a fight, in a RL wedding, not a fight, but my dad observed that at the reception, all the friends and family of the groom were at one end of the room and all the friends and family of the bride were at the other end.

I notice this happening a lot at RL family reunions. We all tend to segregate with our immediate families when we should be visiting more with the people we don't see as often.

Disagreeable mothers-in-law must be a theme in this hood. The mother of the bride and groom of the next wedding I threw were also poking at each other after the wedding. Though I expected it in the second wedding. I knew those two didn't get along from the first time I played them on the same lot . . . and storywise they have reason not to get along. I had no idea about Alma and Eileen disliking each other.

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I guess she's a believer in the saying, "Go big or go home." laughin

Mac wrote:
"What God hath put asunder, let no man join"

Thanks for the comments on the wedding everyone! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

After the wedding I moved, Arthur and Judith into their own apartment. I thought the row of cute townhouses would be nice, but I didn't check them out closely enough, because the apartment they rented didn't have room for a double bed. Twin beds would be ridiculous for newlyweds and I hated to immediately move them out after they already paid their rent for the week. So I ended up moving everything from the kitchen into another room and just barely managed to squeeze a bed in behind the stairway. The apartments that come with the game are ridiculous. They're either humongous or so tiny that they're practically nonfunctional and you can't edit them even when they're unoccupied.



At least the landlady is nice, even if the neighbors look like rough characters. (They're actually really friendly guys though.)



As Judith started going into labor, I suddenly realized I forgot to change the multiple birth odds on the triples and quads hack. And of course she gave birth to triplets while living in this tiny apartment without room for even a double bed. I really didn't want multiple births in this case at all and even with the progress I'd made I was going to exit without saving, but I forgot and automatically clicked "yes" when it asked if I wanted to save, just out of habit. Since they were all boys and at this point they look all identical, I decided to pretend it was just a glitch, had them keep the first born and sent the other two to a lot I was already using as a foster home for storytelling purposes. I have to pretend it's just a glitch and that the other two were just duplicates, so I don't feel too bad about sending them away.



I haven't played this couple since then, except to move them to a better apartment. Next, I'll have to see what I can put together about the progress of their friends from college.

I gave up on the actual apartments. There's a very nice series of brownstones (all single houses, but of width 1 - beware helicopters). These fit very well in a row, although now and then a visiting sim might be trapped in between and have to be rescued. Here is a link. No problem with double beds and plenty of room.

There's also the Beach Terrace series. Actually not beach properties. Again, width 1 and work well as row houses. The Beach Terrace n lots have plenty of room. The na lots even more on 3 floors. (n = 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8  na = 1a,2a,3a,4a,5a,6a,7a,8a)

None of these have much in the way of a yard, and the brownstones and Beach Terrace n don't have garages but the na do.

As far as multiple births go, 1 toddler at a time is quite enough of a handful, thank you

I have a feeling I'll probably give up on the apartments too and go back to regular lots before long. But since this feature is new to me, I might play with it for a little while longer. The apartments have been kind of buggy for me. I did a little research and found out that the replacement mailbox I had in my downloads folder was incompatible with AL. I got rid of it so now the mailboxes are showing up properly again. I haven't tested it yet to see if that helps with any other issues.

I think I have those brownstones in my game or if not those, ones like them. I've used them a few times and I like them. I don't believe I have the beach terrace lots. They're very cute though. Thanks for the links.

I removed the triplets and quads hack for now. Right now, I'm not sure why I thought it was such a great idea in the first place. I like it for an occasional challenge, but it seems like even when the odds are set as low as they can go, multiples are not as rare of an occurrence as I would have liked. Since this is my storytelling hood, I kind of want it to be more realistic, so I'd only want multiples rarely and if it fits with a plot. I actually had another couple in this same group have triplets shortly after this, even though I thought I'd set the odds to only 2%. I did the same trick of sending away the two spares, which was harder this time because they had different skin tone and were obviously not clones. They were at least all the same gender though. I'm not sure how I would have reconciled it if I had a mixed group.

Em wrote:

I removed the triplets and quads hack for now. Right now, I'm not sure why I thought it was such a great idea in the first place.

I think twins are enough of a challenge! I don't mind a set now and then, but sometimes a family will have more than one set of twins, and then I'm a little scared to let them procreate again. If I'm thinking, I'll save just before I know the sim will give birth. Then I can exit without saving if I don't like the results. Sometimes I have to exit many, many times before I get the desired result.

Cher & Em The Sim Manipulator will allow you to select whether a pregnancy results in one or two babies (I don't know about how it interacts with multiple baby hacks).

I save the game some time before the birth, then restore and try again without saving until I get the gender of baby I want. Recently, however, I must have done around 9 iterations without producing the opposite gender (probability around 1 in 256 or so). Even tried "rolling the pacifier". Conclusion - at some point prior to birth, the gender, for a singleton anyway, is set.

Em, I've been reading about your glitches with apartments and thinking, "Odd. I've never had a problem with apartments." So I downloaded some, spent a huge amount of time redecorating them, and I have a glitch. When I click on the door to rent the apartment, the rent is some huge amount (as though it was an actual house) + a monthly rental amount. Like $23,000 + $4,325. It's not just that apartment lot, either; it's all of them. That's what I get for feeling all smug about how I've never had trouble with apartments.

Time to go back and take another look at the row houses you linked to, Mac.

Ack, oh no! I'm sorry I jinxed you, Cher! I hope you get the problem with your apartments sorted out.

Well, I do know that the pregnancy scanner from ACR will let you see how many babies your sim is going to have while they're pregnant. It always says 1 or 2, even when it ends up being 3 or 4, so my assumption is that the multiple birth odds hack randomly chooses the number of babies at birth, so setting the number probably wouldn't make any difference. As I recall, there's a version of the mod that lets you choose at birth if you want the randomly generated number or the number of babies that the sim was originally going to have. I chose the version that didn't give you the dialogue to choose.

Based on everything I've read and experienced, gender for sims is randomly determined at birth. Unless perhaps there are some other factors at play, like mods or gameplay factors, (I know in TS3 eating certain foods while pregnant can influence gender of offspring, like cheesecake in TS2 increases the chance of having twins) I'm inclined to think maybe you just hit that 1 in 256 chance and were incredibly (un)lucky that time.