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What are your favorite and least favorite Lifetime Wants?
OliwkaWidmo
Posts: 45 Member
in The Sims 2
I've been playing A LOT of The Sims 2 recently and one of the things that really drive my games are my Sims' lifetime wants, so I have some strong opinions about them now. I'm curious what you guys like and dislike!
Ones I don't like:
Marry Off 6 Children, because I think it's actually quite hard to achieve if you want to have some roleplay elements in your game - you need to have at least 6 children (well, duh) and you know, sometimes you have a Sim that just doesn't feel right for marriage or at least an early marriage. You also need to rush things a bit (unless you're using the Elixir of Life very liberally), because a lot of time passes before 6 children grow up and get married - and if you do want some roleplay you don't just want most of them to get married to their teenage crush right after they become adults - and in the end you might end up with your Sim being dead before they complete this want.
Raise 20 Puppies or Kittens - that's just too many pets. Maybe it's just me, but having more than 1-2 dogs in the house always leads to a 🐸🐸🐸🐸 covered floors and complete anarchy. Maybe cats would be a little better for this. I guess it's possible to achieve this Lifetime Want by just adopting one puppy or kitten at time, instead of breeding pets, but this still doesn't sound super attractive to me. Still, I'm sure there are many players who are way more into pets than I am
Own 5 Top-Level Businesses - I don't think I've ever had a Sim have more than 2-3 businesses, and most of the time I have them only have one. I think handling 5 businesses at the same time would be tiring (I love the Open for Business mechanics, but I don't want my game to be business only)
Have 50 1st Dates - An average Sim's lifespan (without using the Elixir of Life or any other means of making the life longer) is something between 90-100 days, isn't it? That's including the toddler/childhood states, when it's not possible for them to date. So achieving this Want would require the Sim to have more than 1 date every 2 days for their entire adult life, and they would still achieve this Want right before they die. Correct me if my math is wrong. In any case, this just seems like too much planning and micromanaging. Maybe something like 30 dates would be more realistic.
My favorites:
Have 6 Grandchildren, because it's something a family oriented person might realistically want, and it's not too hard to achieve - a family Sim would have at least a few kids anyway, and at least some of those kids will have a kid or a few kids of their own, and boom, you get a big family. This definitely enhances the story, rather than just make you procreate in rush and panic, like the Marry Off 6 Children one.
Earn §100,000 - it requires some work, but is not impossible and there are many, many ways this could be achieved, so it's a very open goal.
Max Out 7 Skills - this is actually quite time consuming and requires some planning, but it's fun. Your Sim is always doing something, and there are so many ways you can achieve this goal, too. It's also definitely something a Knowledge oriented person could want (although I would argue that maybe they wouldn't necessarily care about the Body skill).
Have 20 simultaneous lovers/Woohoo 20 Sims - those two are very similar to me (although the simultaneous part can make a big difference) and I love them both, they're just the best possible wants for a Romance Sim. They require some effort and planning, but are very fun to do, and they really influence your Sim's lifestyle - they need to be out there talking to people and spend their free time on dates.
I do like all the career related Lifetime Wants, but I wish there was one for every career in the game - although I guess the careers that require graduating university are not available to premade adult Sims, so this could be a problem (but then again, sometimes premade elders have a career want that's impossible for them to achieve, I think? So that wouldn't be much different.)
I also wish there was a way to reroll the Lifetime Want without changing the Sim's aspiration.
Ones I don't like:
Marry Off 6 Children, because I think it's actually quite hard to achieve if you want to have some roleplay elements in your game - you need to have at least 6 children (well, duh) and you know, sometimes you have a Sim that just doesn't feel right for marriage or at least an early marriage. You also need to rush things a bit (unless you're using the Elixir of Life very liberally), because a lot of time passes before 6 children grow up and get married - and if you do want some roleplay you don't just want most of them to get married to their teenage crush right after they become adults - and in the end you might end up with your Sim being dead before they complete this want.
Raise 20 Puppies or Kittens - that's just too many pets. Maybe it's just me, but having more than 1-2 dogs in the house always leads to a 🐸🐸🐸🐸 covered floors and complete anarchy. Maybe cats would be a little better for this. I guess it's possible to achieve this Lifetime Want by just adopting one puppy or kitten at time, instead of breeding pets, but this still doesn't sound super attractive to me. Still, I'm sure there are many players who are way more into pets than I am
Own 5 Top-Level Businesses - I don't think I've ever had a Sim have more than 2-3 businesses, and most of the time I have them only have one. I think handling 5 businesses at the same time would be tiring (I love the Open for Business mechanics, but I don't want my game to be business only)
Have 50 1st Dates - An average Sim's lifespan (without using the Elixir of Life or any other means of making the life longer) is something between 90-100 days, isn't it? That's including the toddler/childhood states, when it's not possible for them to date. So achieving this Want would require the Sim to have more than 1 date every 2 days for their entire adult life, and they would still achieve this Want right before they die. Correct me if my math is wrong. In any case, this just seems like too much planning and micromanaging. Maybe something like 30 dates would be more realistic.
My favorites:
Have 6 Grandchildren, because it's something a family oriented person might realistically want, and it's not too hard to achieve - a family Sim would have at least a few kids anyway, and at least some of those kids will have a kid or a few kids of their own, and boom, you get a big family. This definitely enhances the story, rather than just make you procreate in rush and panic, like the Marry Off 6 Children one.
Earn §100,000 - it requires some work, but is not impossible and there are many, many ways this could be achieved, so it's a very open goal.
Max Out 7 Skills - this is actually quite time consuming and requires some planning, but it's fun. Your Sim is always doing something, and there are so many ways you can achieve this goal, too. It's also definitely something a Knowledge oriented person could want (although I would argue that maybe they wouldn't necessarily care about the Body skill).
Have 20 simultaneous lovers/Woohoo 20 Sims - those two are very similar to me (although the simultaneous part can make a big difference) and I love them both, they're just the best possible wants for a Romance Sim. They require some effort and planning, but are very fun to do, and they really influence your Sim's lifestyle - they need to be out there talking to people and spend their free time on dates.
I do like all the career related Lifetime Wants, but I wish there was one for every career in the game - although I guess the careers that require graduating university are not available to premade adult Sims, so this could be a problem (but then again, sometimes premade elders have a career want that's impossible for them to achieve, I think? So that wouldn't be much different.)
I also wish there was a way to reroll the Lifetime Want without changing the Sim's aspiration.
4
Comments
The other which take a lot of time are about Grandchildren and golden anniversary. The rest are easy for me (probably because I've done them all so much.
*Oh, I forgot to say my Favorite.
I guess it depends on the Aspiration.
Popularity - 20 Bfs
Fortune - earn 100k
Family - any career
Pleasure - 50 1st dates
Romance - 20 loves
Knowledge - any career or the skills.
1. Ctrl + Shft + C
2. boolProp testingcheatsenabled true
3. Shft + click on a sim
4. Spawn... Sim Modder
5. Click on the sim modder (looks like a creepy baby)
6. Wants and fears
7. Lifetime want
8. Cycle for current aspiration
For Cordelia Capp specifically, I go with 'graduate three kids at uni', because of course.
Least favourite however, 20 lovers, 50 first dates and 20 pet friends. First two for the whole "cheating" element that'll happen. And 20 pet friends since I just don't want to constantly chase strays and start making my Sim pet them for hours.
Or the batbox/FFS Lot Debugger and Simblender can be used if it's lying around on your lot. Slightly quicker than enabling cheats when needed.
Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.
I never liked have 50 first dates. I don't let my Sims date townies.
There are many I never liked nor finished. I haven't made Sims fill LTWs in years so I really can't remember many of them that I didn't care to do anyway.
The former is way too dependent on either making the pets for it or hoping your game generates 20 strays and that you can get them all to come over consistently to become best friends with.
The latter is too much like a puppy/kitten mill unless the Sim is an immortal Sim like a vampire or servo.
My favorite are the career ones for any of them and the max all skills for born in game Sims.
I don't like career related LTWs because they are all too similar and frankly at this point I'm bored with sims who make living by... working (you see, I'm tired of this irl haha). I also don't like collecting lovers, and pets, and especially pets with careers.
I'd love to have much more LTWs overall.