FAQs

Below are some of the things that have come up repeatedly across social media, some of which I sometimes struggle to properly answer without going into long-winded explanations. This is going to be an ongoing list style post and will be updated as needed.

So – this is a legacy challenge?

• Nope. Never played a challenge in my life, nor will I. This is legacy style gameplay, yes, but a generational based one (hence the motto “through the generations”) without those typical rules, except the ones I imposed upon myself, such as if a Sim dies, I cannot stop/reverse it, same goes for pregnancies, break-ups, autonomous engagements/weddings … (yes, I have all that enabled via mod). I can also not change a Sim’s genetic features. But I will NEVER pick just one heir and continue only with them. I love and play them all equally, even though not all make the storyline or constant FB posts, because I have everything going on, and some are just simple folks who go about their life, which I like, but doesn’t make for a very interesting chapter.

What lifespan do you play on?

• The short answer is EA’s normal lifespan with a significant number of days added to each age group via mod.
  
• The long answer would go into more detail as to how I arrived at how many days to add (come on, you didn’t think that was random, did you?). In a simplified nutshell, I chose the season length I was most comfortable with, then used the total number of days all four seasons combined gave me as base (= 1 Sim year). I already had a clear concept of how old Sims are when they age up to the next lifestage, so I used that number to translate it into years, then added the difference into the mod. End result: on average all Sims live almost 5000 Sim days, which depending on how much daily gameplay I get in, is about 1 real life year. I can also look at a Sims current total and determine, how old exactly they are at any given time. 🙂
  My pregnancy lengths are also extended to last three whole Sim seasons, mimicking the theoretical 9-ish months of a RL pregnancy. I am used to this now and it also greatly limits the Townie birthrates, since all this applies to them too.

Why such insanely long lifespans?!

• Many reasons, among them my preference to get as close to realism as I can. I invest a lot of time in each single Sim, to make them look right, develop their personality and individuality, it would be wasteful to have a 1 month turnaround time or something like that. By the same token, as sad as I get losing Sims, I dislike the idea of aging being off. Not an option for me.

How do you keep your game interesting? Do you not get bored?

• No. I can honestly say that has never been my problem. I never have enough time to do all I want to do, cos I still have this pesky thing called real life. Luckily have I been working from home for about 10 years now, which allows me to have the game going almost all day, even though admittedly often paused while I deal with RL stuff.
  

All your Sims look great!

• Thanks, but I can only take limited credit here. I did create the legacy founders (even though one of them was my Simself – cough, cough), but after that, it’s all genetics baby. One of my unbendable rules is that I cannot touch bone structure and genetics. If I wanted a green-eyed Sim but they inherited someone’s brown eyes, I cannot touch it. Nose crooked? Chin pointy? Oh well. Such is life. I will usually counteract that with certain hairstyles or once they are old enough, they’ll have a beard, but beyond that it is what it is. Since this original legacy first started in 2013 I have fine-tuned my mods to the point that I do get very reliable and great results as far as mix of parents’ features goes, I even swear occasionally I see grandparents’ influences in both appearance, likes and traits. I guess I can take some credit since I am their stylist. 😉

WCIF your Sims’ [insert CC item here]?

• This shouldn’t be a biggie, but sometimes is. First of all, a LOT of what people seem to like, i.e. backgrounds in images are not some edited in backgrounds, but my actual game. I run an obscene amount of overrides/default replacements and all of those are merged to lighten the load on my game. I also play the same game on several devices by transferring saves and new mods respectively. Much of my CC has been created or altered by me. I also collect CC items as I stumble upon them on various websites, but don’t save the links after I download, and probably won’t recall where I even got it from. I have gone out of my way for people who asked trying to find it again by searching online with the help of the file name and often had success, but sometimes the naming convention doesn’t include the creator or is very crazy and yields no results. Whatever is in my game though has gone through diligent checks (cos I am picky AF) and whatever passed to the next round got checked for correct categorization/random off etc. and then put into one of my MANY 295 subfolders in the Mod folder. I still purge CC items I got tired of sometimes so it doesn’t get cluttered. I got up to 32.7 GB of CC at some point, thought that was excessive, so I rebuilt all lots in all worlds to be CC-free, dumped all BB Mode CC, except my homemade things and now cap myself around 7 GB, but won’t ever allow myself to go over 10 GB for the total Mods folder ever again. I had no problems, game still loaded fast, but I felt that was just too much.

Wait, what?!

• Yes, you read that correctly and no, it is not a joke. I am what is probably called a ‘highly-organized person’ in real life (plus, I HATE CLUTTER!!!) and that doesn’t stop at Sims files. I like to think this may be why my game never gives me grief, even after big game updates. I could go into hour-long details on my sorting technique, but in short, rather than by creator I have it sorted by types, cos no update ever targets a specific creator, but specific items (chairs, showers, default eyes,…). So, I can just take them out until the creator fixed it or figure out how to fix it myself, and I know I don’t miss any outdated files when it gets time to swap it for the new ones.

Why don’t you upload your own created CC we see in your posts?

• Most of what I create is very specific for my own Sims, and I really don’t see what people would want that for. I also don’t have enough time to output things that are near perfection, I don’t own proper software for meshing, so I use frankenmeshes and such, and most of my troubleshooting is throwing ideas at the wall to see what sticks. Not something I would want to do broad spectrum.

Why don’t you share your Sims/Builds?

• Like most legacy players, all my mainline Sims are very dear and special to me, and I just can’t do that. Plus, as mentioned before, I run a lot of default replacements and Alpha content, I couldn’t possibly. But I have and will share several CC-free households, and I have uploaded all of my lots in a somewhat altered/redux version, since mine are tailored specifically to each household which might not make much sense to most players. So, whatever you download from my Gallery is similar to what I have in my game, but never 100% the same.
  
  While I do fully decorate all uploads, in RL and in game I DESPISE clutter with burning passion. Secondly, all my lots have to be screenshot friendly as we all know I take a LOT (!) of pictures every day. And last but not least, clutter items in piles are usually placed with MOO by many builders, which may look cool, but is known to often cause routing issues. Those may not always be immediately obvious and later you are chasing your tail trying to figure out what causes it. Just not worth it to me, while I very much want everything to look nice, I want it to be functional and issue-free first and foremost.
  
  You will not find a lot of the crazy primary (“fun”???) color combinations the developers and some Simmers seem so fond of in my builds. I am more the monochrome/muted type and like understated elegance for the most part.

Have you heard of this [insert name] ultra-realistic creator/mod? Why are you not using more realistic looking [insert item]?

• Chances are, yes, I am aware of the creators and the items, and there are very good (in my opinion) reason I am not running them. All CC in my game, including defaults, HAVE to work with genetics (meaning can be inherited) and none can severely alter the actual appearance of the Sim below, only improve it. Skins/overlays CANNOT impair a Sim’s ability to tan (well, except vampires obviously who have that blocked for obvious reasons).

Why is your legacy predominantly white? Why are there so few same-sex couples, other LGBTQ+, and this or that ethnicity, but why do you have abortions, miscarriages, adoptions, fosters, divorces, cheating, … etc.?

• Well, the legacy started out with my Simself and I am Caucasian. My Simself then proceeded to start a legacy with her also Caucasian white best friend, and so the story goes. By now we have several ethnicities mixed in, some just show the bi-racial more than others. Riordan is part Japanese, Blake’s wife Mila is bi-racial, their offspring shows it to varying degrees, Leonie’s husband is Spanish, Dylan’s wife is Pacific Islander, there is quite a list. We also have many same sex relationships, even though ATM not in the immediate lineage. I had same sex couples from the get go, long before EA even allowed that. I have mods that determine the gender preferences and so far, none of the current legacy has come out as gay or bi, and this is another thing I just won’t influence because of my rules, I see no need or point for that, whenever it happens, it happens and that’s that. I cannot say for certain how the mod determines that, assume random. I also have MCCC set to the most recent Census data I could find for all my percentages (employment rate, number of females vs males, age group percentages, etc.), among that same-sex vs straight households and also the adoption rates for both. The transgender thing is too tricky with my self-imposed rules where I am not allowed to alter genetics, plus, it’s a very sensitive topic I don’t want to misportray. The adoption and foster thing is a bit iffy too, even though I have had all of that, still ongoing even, but EA’s setup doesn’t recognize fostering without mods (which I don’t run) and while I do not do the ONE heir only thing, true lineage, by definition, HAVE to be blood-related to the legacy founders, which excludes adoptees, so I never saw a point in doing that when I can have them procreate and carry on genetics. Several Sims had pregnancies that weren’t carried to term before so I feel it’s as diverse and inclusive as a game like this can be.

How do you decide who marries whom etc.?

• I don’t really. As mentioned before, I run mods which help me with all that. One decides at birth the sexual orientation, another attraction preferences. I will not influence either.
  All of my Sims know a lot of people, a lot met their future partners in school or on playgrounds etc. Those who struck out with everyone in game get a pool of potentials for them to choose from, always a diverse group. They then go on several dates with each until we have someone that rings their bell. Or not, I have had Sims not click with a whopping dozen Sims I newly created, until a casting call entered someone that finally got their full attention. Complicated? Maybe. But one of the many reasons my game will NEVER get boring.
  
  While maybe not the most realistic way overall, my Sims kids usually end up best friends with the first kid they autonomously want to bring home from school. Now I don’t force that, but usually that kid was selected because they already built a level of friendship and it only increased with interactions, until at some point the “Best Friends Forever” option pops up.
  Several of my long-term couples are also BFFs for this reason. 🙂

How do you choose when and how many kids your Sims will have?

• Another one of those that require long explanations. With VERY few exceptions I do NOT. I do not have the Try For Baby interaction enabled, but instead all my Woohoo interactions bear a 3% chance of pregnancy. That being said, upon reaching puberty ALL my Sims get set up with TONS of birth control (and the girls with feminine hygiene products to boot) and they autonomously apply those whenever they do stuff when I am not watching. NOW – some of my Sims are rabbits, others not so much, and there is a built-in realistic failure rate. Judging by the extremely long lifespans and the fact that they all engage in certain bedroom-type pastimes at will without my directive quite often (which I don’t mind as it strengthens their relationships), the amount of Cameron Curse kids (unplanned births despite birth control) is very low. I NEVER sit here and decide who should have a kid now. It’s just not a priority to me and as much as I love all my Sims, little and big, without random pregnancies I would probably not have much of a legacy at all. Sometimes, on rare occasions, I decide I am ready for a couple to be parents, but I don’t have them woohoo till smoke appears, instead I simply take away their birth control and leave them be. Sometimes it’s near instantaneous, sometimes it takes forever and a day and sometimes it still won’t happen. I am okay with all the above. Realism.