on randomizing genetics

Hi Anon, sure thing!

Lots of simmers I know use internet dice rolling to randomize stats, but still, after all these years, I prefer a program someone made for TS2. Hook's RandomStuff Roller. I hope those files are still available for download, now and always. There's a very little bit of a learning curve to using it, but after an hour or two I found myself writing up ROS scenarios and randomizing EVERYTHING. It's so much fun, lol!

So when a sim is born in my town, I give them two rolls. The first is my aging file and the second is inherited genetics.


The aging file is a pretty straightforward roll of weighted outcomes.

Some notes:

- name: left blank for this example, but for my real rolls, I actually put the child's name into the file so that it'll output with the results. Then I can screenshot the result to keep in my files. Some of this I'll note on the child's profile, but not all of my children have profiles done.
- lifespan base relates to my system of lifetime health strikes, which I wrote about previously.
- toddler trait is meant to be given at age 2, if we had toddlers. My 2-year-olds are kind of in limbo at the moment though, so they'll be given this trait when they're aged up to child. Usually around age 3 or 4. If the trait is not child-appropriate, it will be noted on their profile to give later and they'll roll another one.
- child and teen traits: whether they'll get a positive or negative trait on those birthdays. The "zodiac" and "inherited" refer to how I'll decide which positive or negative trait they get. (I have another more through post about traits that I've been meaning to share.)
- braces: the age and extent to which a child will need braces. If they don't get the braces they need, I can give them crooked teeth overlays as adults, lol! (New ways to torture my sims!)
- acne: I use Sandy's acne details
- glasses and balding age: inflicted upon the sim at the noted age.


My genetics roll is much less straightforward and will probably make sense to no one, lol! But here it is anyway.

So how it works is that for each feature, a different genetic weight is entered for mother, father, and both sets of grandparents. The game will also give the child a certain allocation of genetics when they are born, apart from height, and many times I'll just go with what the child is born with. But since the game doesn't allow for dominant vs. recessive features (red hair vs. black hair is weighted the same in TS4), I'll sometimes let this roll trump what the child was born with if it makes absolutely no sense. If I'm keeping the genetics the game chose for the child, then I'll just use the height part of this roll and discard the rest.

My height roll is based on this theory of estimated child height based on the parents, but using 4 inches in the formula instead of 5 (to keep the range of sim heights a little tighter) and including the grandparents in the mix.

For example, this file was set up for Eris when I rolled the example. The roller chose "grandfather paternal" for her to inherit her height from, which would be Orion, who is 5'8". Minus 4" because she's a girl, which would make her 5'4" as an adult. (Likewise, if a boy inherited from a female relative, the result would be +4")

Here are my aging roll and genetics roll text files, if anyone would like to use or just view them:

TS4BirthRoll (text)
BirthGeneticsRoll (text)

You don't need the RandomStuff program to just view them. They're just regular text files.

Hope this is of use! Happy simming! :D