February 3, 2009

In Which the Kids Are All Grown-Up

Hello all. Today I grew up the three oldest babies, Lorn, Raia, and Leara, to toddlers. I was originally going to edit the appearances of any offspring who visually displeased me, but I've decided against this now. I'm just going to keep them as they are, and if there are any that are just too repulsive... POPULATION CONTROL! They will either leave Naroni to be married/apprenticed/etc., or killed off, depending on my mood (do you ever get so frustrated with life that you just hafta, hafta kill a sim?).

Anyway, I decided to post pictures of all the current babies as adults, just so you can brace yourselves for the potential deaths/disappearances of some of these kids. Actually, I'd say I'm satisfied with six of the eight of them, so that's not too bad, I guess, considering the bad luck I've had with sim genetics in the past. If you don't want to know what they're going to look like as adults until they actually are adults (which will be quite some time), then feel free to skip this post.

I'll also be putting their personalities and the aspirations I picked for them (I've seen a few wants that have inspired whole storylines in my mind, so it is somewhat important to me to pick the right aspiration). They all got their aspirations from one (or in Lyraina's case, both) of their parents. Now, here they are, in order from oldest to youngest:

Prince Ietrin of Naroni
Born: November 30, 1154
Aspiration: Romance (from Geneva... obviously)
Maxis Sign: Aries
Actual Sign: Sagittarius

Sloppy | | | | | | | | | | Neat
Shy | | | | | | | | | Outgoing
Lazy | | | | | | | | | Active
Serious Playful
Grouchy | Nice

Verdict: Ehhhhh, not too bad, I suppose. Could be worse. I'm satisfied with Ietrin's looks. He's not my type, but I'm sure some of the young ladies of Naroni will find him quite attractive. He's definitely more handsome than his father, in my opinion. Shame his personality kind of sucks... oh well, if he gives me the right facial expressions, he'll paint himself a new one in the story.


Lornian of Armion
Born: September 2, 1155
Aspiration: Popularity (from Dalston... somewhat surprisingly)
Maxis Sign: Sagittarius
Actual Sign: Virgo

Sloppy | Neat
Shy | | Outgoing
Lazy | | | | | | | | | | Active
Serious | | | | | | | | | | Playful
Grouchy | | | | | | | | Nice

Verdict: Not the best-looking sim guy out there, if I do say so myself. I can live with Lorn's looks for the most part, except he has some crazy cheek action going on there (he got Dalston's chin and Celina's eyes, and for some strange reason, Maxis made the appearance of the cheeks dependent on the eyes when programming). I haven't quite decided how much this bugs me yet. He looks okay as a teenager, so maybe I'll just keep him around until he's seventeen or eighteen? Or maybe I'll just find him a hair that conceals those weeeeeird features. I do want Leara to eventually be a duchess, and marry a guy who's older than she is, so I would like to keep him around if possible.


Rahileine of Veldora
Born: October 17, 1155
Aspiration: Family (from Alina)
Maxis Sign: Capricorn
Actual Sign: Libra

Sloppy | | | | | | Neat
Shy | | | | Outgoing
Lazy | | Active
Serious | | | | | | | Playful
Grouchy | | | | | | | Nice

Verdict: Not sure I'd call her "pretty"--Raia looks waaaaay too much like her father to be conventionally pretty--but nevertheless, I do like the look of her. Very unique, very interesting, and probably the best-looking girl, with the possible exception of Lyraina. My only complaint is that she got Severin's nose instead of Alina's. It looks fine on her as an adult, and passable on her as a teen, but that nose looks pretty strange on kids and toddlers, as we will see three story chapters from now during a brief childhood flashback of Severin's. Oh well, I don't imagine she'll be looking for a boyfriend before the age of ten, so she should be fine.


Princess Learianna of Naroni
Born: October 20, 1155
Aspiration: Fortune (from Roderick)
Maxis Sign: Scorpio
Actual Sign: Libra

Sloppy | | | | | | | | | | Neat
Shy | | | | | | | | | Outgoing
Lazy | | | | | | | | | Active
Serious | | | Playful
Grouchy | | | Nice

Verdict: Again, not exactly "pretty", but again, interesting look. I will hand it to Leara, she is quite the cutie as a toddler and child. My guess is the adults will be fawning over Leara in the kids' early years, and then the boys will be chasing Raia when they're teens. She may be a little on the plain side, but she's definitely worth keeping. I was sort of wishing she would be somewhat nicer, but neither of her parents have particularly high niceness ratings, so I guess that's sim genetics for you. Oh well, like I said, I play more off of facial expressions than personality. Two notable Naroni residents who also have a niceness rating of three: Halford and Severin. Bet you didn't see that coming.


Evera Ciramel
Born: November 10, 1155
Aspiration: Family (from Thetis)
Maxis Sign: Cancer
Actual Sign: Scorpio

Sloppy | | | | | | | Neat
Shy | Outgoing
Lazy | | | | | | Active
Serious | | | | Playful
Grouchy | | | | | | | | Nice

Verdict: Definitely more plain. Her cheeks are a little odd, but fortunately, I have hairs that can conceal this fairly well. Evera certainly lucked out in the fact that she takes after Thetis more than she does Norwan. She'll never be a great beauty, but hey, Thetis isn't the prettiest lady in Naroni either, and she's generally well-liked among her neighbors, and as far as I can tell, the readers don't exactly hate her either. So I think it's safe to say that Evera will live to her adulthood.


Byrn Ciramel
Born: November 10, 1155
Aspiration: Romance (from Norwan... although if I keep Byrn around, I think I'll break my rule of aspiration inheritance and make him knowledge or fortune. You'll soon know why)
Maxis Sign: Sagittarius (different from his twin sister...?)
Actual Sign: Scorpio

Sloppy | | | | | | Neat
Shy | Outgoing
Lazy | | | | | | | | | | Active
Serious | | | | | | | Playful
Grouchy | Nice

Verdict: *bangs head against desk and cries* I was reeeeeeeeeally hoping Thetis's son would look much better than he turned out. That's kind of a bad picture, so I'm not sure how it looks on anyone else's monitor, but from the eyes downward, he's even uglier than his father, and almost as mean. I can deal with weird noses, but his mouth is especially strange. He an awkward-looking jawline from the time he's a toddler; if anyone dies in infanthood, it will be Byrn. Although maybe I'll keep him around as some ugly old hermit who likes to sit on his porch and yell at kids to get off his lawn... hmmm... I'll decide later.


Hadrinian Indruion (don't think he's actually been in a post outside his mom's baby belly yet...)
Born: December 18, 1155
Aspiration: Fortune (from Adonis)
Maxis Sign: Leo
Actual Sign: Sagittarius

Sloppy | | | | Neat
Shy | | | | | | | | | Outgoing
Lazy | | | | | Active
Serious | | | | | | Playful
Grouchy | | | | Nice


Verdict: He's kind of at a strange angle in that picture (my bad), but I must say, in my personal opinion, definitely the best-looking male offspring these sims have produced so far. He did get his dad's rather large hooked nose, but it suits both of them, I think. I don't doubt that Adonis and Honora will end up producing the most beautiful children overall. Their most likely competition? Severin and Alina. Although as you'll soon see, Halford and Arydath didn't have a bad first effort. Anyway, whatever girl Had ends up marrying will certainly be lucky. I'm going to have him and his wife making babies for as long as possible.


Lyraina Diarn
Born: December 25, 1155 (yaaaaay Christmas)
Aspiration: Fortune (from both Halford and Arydath)
Maxis Sign: Aries
Actual Sign: Capricorn

Sloppy | | | Neat
Shy | | | | | | | | | | Outgoing
Lazy | | | | | | | Active
Serious | | Playful
Grouchy | | | Nice

Verdict: Other than the rather strange-looking mouth, quite nice. As is the case with Raia and Leara, I don't think the word "pretty" is quite applicable, but she certainly has a unique look. Either Lyraina or Raia turns out the best out of the girls, I can't quite decide. Not sure if she'll end up getting a Had, but she'll certainly do much better than a Byrn. I was thinking I would have to change her and her mother's eyes after the Great Reskinning (they're just a recolor of the Maxis ones that I whipped up myself in about five minutes, back in the days when BodyShop would actually open for me), but I kind of like the effect. They give her a sort of wide-eyed, curious quality.


So, any opinions? Anyone you seriously think should cease to swim in the gene pool? Any suggestions for couples in the very distant future? Whatever thoughts you have, please share :)

New chapter soon, promise!

8 comments:

Penelope said...

I actually like the way Lornian looks. His facial proportions seem more human and less simmy.

And Lyraina looks alot like Wynna Hogge.

I love the crap-shoot nature of having kids in the sims. It's often difficult for me to repress the urge to make my couples have dozens of children just to see what they will look like.

Van said...

Thanks for the feedback. I truly would like to keep Lorn around, I'm just worried that I'll end up having to kill off a bunch of his kids. Could be interesting drama, though...

Now that you mention it, she kind of does. I'll have to make sure she doesn't develop a Wynna-like personality too.

It is amusing. Sometimes I'll just take two random sims and see what their babies would look like. Actually, sometimes when I'm really bored in class, I'll pick two random classmates and imagine what their kids would look like... my teachers don't like me too much.

Oh well. If I ever need an Ashelia filler, it will definitely be random babies. I may use that over here sometime, too.

lothere said...

I seriously had to check to make sure I was looking at the right picture when you said Lornian was not so great-looking. It may be the hair or the lighting or the angle but I think he's the best-looking Sim on the page. Maybe, as Pen said, because he's the most human-looking. He has a wonderful face in that picture.

I definitely do see the hotness in Hadrinian however. Nice brows and chin, and you know my opinion of big scary noses. If only he didn't have a mullett...:-P

Sims genetics are pretty weird, especially outside-of-CAS babies. I find the blending of parents' features is better in CAS. In-game they really seem to just pick entire features off the parents' faces and plop them onto the new Sim without any attempt at blending. (Though that doesn't explain where Murchad and Synne's twins got their nose...)

After a few generations you can end up with some scary subjects. I find that "culling" the gene pool is sometimes the kindest thing you can do for future generations. ;-)

Van said...

Forward is definitely Lorn's best angle. He doesn't look too bad at all unless you catch him at an angle that allows you to see the weird cheekbones. I will admit that I gave him that hair because it's one of the Holy Trinity of Male Sim Hairs that make 99% of sims look good.

I imagine I'll have some new hairs by the time Hadrinian grows up. With the exception of Lorn, I kind of just picked hairs randomly.

Dayna said...

I looove going through my game and using insim to see what certain characters' babies will look like. :) I don't think any of your sim kids look too bad, though! Hairstyles and facial hair work wonders for questionable sims, in my opinion.

I really like Leara's look, by the way. And Lorn doesn't look too bad either.

Van said...

Thanks Dayna :)

Yeah, I know what you mean. It's amusing, hey?

The thing that bugged me about Lorn was the cheeks. In profile few, that kid has son straaaaange cheeks. Leara has an interesting look. I wish her eyes were a little lower on her face, but unfortunately, I don't have university, so I can't use plastic surgery :(

Lorn and Leara are probably going to end up getting married, by the way, since Leara is the oldest princess and Lorn is going to be the next duke. I wonder what their children will look like...

Adie said...

I love the way all yr sims look! They're quite distinctive! Mine always come out looking the same after they breed.

Van said...

The funny thing is... now that they're all adults, I ended up giving them very different CC and I had trouble recognizing most of them. XD