Aspirations

GrumpyGlowfish · December 2018

What are some of your favourite and least favourite aspirations? Do you think some are easier or harder than others? And what other aspirations would you like to see in the future?

I'm having a hard time with the social aspirations. I'm currently making my first real attempt at Friend of the World, and ended up "cheating" by buying my sim the Incredibly Friendly reward trait because I couldn't think of any other way to make friends quickly and keep them for as long as it takes to make as many more as the aspiration requires. Even Serial Romantic seems easier because it "only" expects three simultaneous romances at one point.

I also dislike aspirations bound to certain careers. I already decide on a sim's job while creating them in CAS, and they usually stick with it forever, so if my professional painter turns out to be quite the funny person and I consider making him a Joke Star when he's done with his current aspiration, it's not possible because he would have to become an entertainer. Some aspirations, like Bodybuilder and most of the artistic ones, don't require a certain career even though there is one to go with them, so why do others?

The Fortune aspirations are arguably the easiest. Unless you're playing homeless sims, they will have to make money to live, so it's not like you need to go out of your way and complete weird tasks to contribute to a milestone, and it's pretty easy to get rich in this game anyway. And if Mansion Baron demands more windows and paintings than you'd like, just place them once and remove them again as soon as the game registers them. If you're already rich and/or living in a big house while pursuing a different aspiration, quickly switching to one of these and back is an easy way to earn satisfaction points.

Evalyn326 · December 2018

I actually never complete my sim's aspirations. I'm more focused on building friendships and having a family. But sometimes I try to complete one like the painting aspiration, because you just need to make paintings and stuff. I think when your sim has a creative hobby, it's more easy to complete that aspiration. And if I take a look at the Successful Lineage aspiration, isn't that impossible to complete? Your (grand)child needs to reach the top of a career. But I think your sim will have died of old age by then.

GrumpyGlowfish · December 2018

Evalyn326 wrote: »

And if I take a look at the Successful Lineage aspiration, isn't that impossible to complete? Your (grand)child needs to reach the top of a career. But I think your sim will have died of old age by then.

Really?

This is another aspiration I've never completed, so I didn't even know about that. Does the game specify that it has to be an adult job, though? Because teenagers can work part-time, and their careers only have three levels. If that doesn't count, make sure your teens do well at school, because if they're A+ students at the time they become adults, they will jumpstart careers at level 3. But yeah, I imagine this goal can be quite hard to reach with aging on, and all for a reward trait that isn't even worth it:

"Vicarious
By being Vicarious, your Children's skill gains can contribute to your own!"

I mean... If a sim has lived long enough to have a child reach the top of a career, they'll probably have built all the relevant skills themselves by then, and even if not, some more skill points won't protect them from their inevitable death of old age shortly thereafter.

Unless you have nothing against youth potion, that is.

Stormkeep · December 2018

For normal gameplay (for me) where I follow a family through generations, I always go after the Soulmate and various Family aspirations except for when I want a generation where things are more dysfunctional. So I'd have to say those are my favorites, as I do them on almost every sim.

I generally start a sim (as a teen) with a different, more skill/career oriented aspiration and try to finish that in their lifetime as well. My first generation in my current game, for example, the father completed the cooking one and the mother completed one of the creative ones (forgot which...it was 3 generations ago).

I switch aspirations pretty regularly rather than completing one before doing the next, though. For example, with soulmate you need to go on dates and do romantic aspirations, so when I have a sim working on that one I switch to it when they are with their SO and going on dates...but I switch it back to a different one when they are skilling/working/etc. Generally, manage to complete 3 or 4 aspirations total before a sim passes from old age doing it this way.

Other aspirations I do alot, once a sim household is established, are the two fortune ones. Those both are practically instant-completes with a household that has been around for a long time.

In my current game, the heir just aged up from teen and has already completed both fortune aspirations and the Fitness aspiration all while still a teen. She's working on the Location one now as a new YA, while ducking in and out of the romantic ones while doing romantic things. Her parents are adults, not elders yet, and have completed the same 3 aspirations as her, as well as Soulmates, one of the Family ones (and are near completion of the other 2 Family ones), and 1 or 2 other skill-oriented ones each.

You aren't wrong about the Successful Lineage though...it is the last of the Family one that I manage to complete, and most generations the grandparent sim dies before it is achieved. Even when they haven't died...the reward trait is basically useless. I can see it being more practical for someone who plays with long lifespan or aging off though, or if you turn that sim into a vampire (or ghost) and keep them around a lot longer.

simgirl1010 · December 2018

The Sims Forums

Aspirations

Comments