On the subject of siblings, I tried to create a family of 3 brothers. I wanted one to be a teen. It didn't give me the option for making him a sibling! He could be a child or a roomie. I found that a little frustrating.
Nonetheless, certain breeds of dog *HAVE* developed recessive conditions that bother them, precisely because they were inbred. Eugenics is not a practice that is viewed with popular favor, with arranged marriages falling out of style and all, around the time people actually figured out that it might be possible to breed superhumans. Also, with people, you can't just "discard" the sickly mutated ones. Infanticide, while practiced in some areas, is illegal in many areas of the world. The result being that if dangerous recessive conditions appear in people, you're stuck with them. You can't just make the deformed, sickly mutants go away like with dogs. It's funny how euthansia is humane when performed on animals, yet not permissible on people.
Alas, CAS families cannot have adult sims and children, or elder and adult sims, related as anything other than "parent/child of". Elders and children can't be directly related at all. You can't create an adult with his younger brother, you can't create a child living with his grandparents, and you can't create an old man and his young trophy wife. In fact, it's not terribly advisable in most cases to create Elder sims at all, since they don't have any skills, and can never get a real job, so they simultaneously make lousy live-in grandparents and can never earn a real wage, plus they can't be related to anyone except an adult sim. Better to earn your gray hairs the old-fashioned way.
Actually, this still happens, and isn't genetically harmful, since the two brothers were not blood relatives of the two sisters, and should not have any problems marrying each other. It is, however, less common nowadays with the decline of arranged marriages, but certainly can and does still happen regularly.
I thought it was very interesting Though, I figured that the reason behind those rumours was somewhat like that. It's not like they were marrying relatives because they enjoyed it, it was because they had too. Simple. As in any growing, small and underpopulated community, right? but today, the world is much smaller, you can get to the other side of the earth in hours, and socialize with anyone, anywhere and when you want (like we are, in this forum). No need too marry your cousin now I find it really intriguating and interesting with countries and people, and most of all, the differences between them. The internet is an eldorado for me =) But let's get bach to the sims, as you said
Inbreeding was also a popular practice among European royalty, so it's not exactly something restricted to hillbilllies, either. However, it's interesting to note that if it weren't forbidden by the game, Sims *WOULD* be likely to engage in such practices, since a Sim neighborhood *IS* a fairly isolated community, often run by the hand of somebody who wishes to breed Sims for some specific purpose, such as establishing an alien dynasty.
If I know when creating a sim family that this is a couple that plans to work and have children I create a grandma. I find them to be a wonderful nanny substitute. Since she doesn't have to work outside the home she cleans, cooks and cares for the infants and toddlers. She has the ability to potty train and teach walking and talking. She usually gets the child to sleep, cooks supper and goes to bed the minute the parents get home from work. She's rested and ready to handle the night shift when needed. I put her bed in the same room as the crib and she wakes up and runs to tend the child at the first sound. When the infants and toddler's hit childhood I can let grandma take a trip with the grim reaper.
I've done this, but CAS Elders are not very good cooks, since CAS sims start with 0 skills. They are, however, still better nannies than the nanny, as long as Free Will is off, or the sim is carefully watched, because when it comes to babies, freewill Sims are psychotic and forcefeed the baby endless bottles even when it's obviously not hungry and refuses to drink, resulting in a wasted, discarded bottle. Left alone, my sims invariably harass the baby, constantly picking it up, dropping it, attempting to forcefeed it, and not changing the diapers. Unattended sims have an unnatural obsession with food, constantly trying to stuff themselves even when they are not hungry. And this is with all sims, not merely the lazy ones predisposed towards overeating. While certainly hunger is one of the more critical needs, as sims can die from it, they're way too obsessed with food, and have no sense of timing: They'll try to stuff themselves an hour before the carpool arrives, even though their hunger bar is only slightly more than half empty, rather than waiting to take advantage of the free snacks at work like sensible people, or waiting for the resident chef to actually serve a real meal. Invariably you have to play Soup Nazi. No soup for you!
That's fascinating! I didn't encounter those problems with my grandmas! lol Since my couple didn't have babies right off the bat, grandma studied cooking and cleaning exclusively. She spent her spare time watching the yummy channel, too. By the time the babies came she was a fine cook and obsessed with cleaning. She took excellent care of my children. Devoted herself to their well being. In fact, the parents had a hard time having quality time with the children. When not caretaking she seemed to take great pleasure in cleaning showers and scrubbing counter tops. Grandma was wonderful! lol
If your granny is a neatnik, she will more or less autonomously clean everything she can get her hands on, because as a CAS Elder, she has very little else to do. You may, or may not, notice her compulsive forcefeeding habit as a result, because she disposes all of the dropped bottles. A neatfreak will probably also change the diapers often, which will, visibly, address the needs of baby. However, if your parents had problems getting "quality time" in, it is probably because granny was constantly manhandling and forcefeeding the baby! If the baby is not spending most of its time in the crib, your parents are probably harassing the baby. And no, I do not neglect the child: It invariably achieves best-friend state with both parents by toddlerhood, so it's definitely not being neglected. However, freewill will generally have the parents forcefeed the poor child until it explodes! No relationship points are gained from this. Instead, the poor baby's sleep is just endlessly disrupted by having a bottle jammed in its face. Overfed babies are also more likely to throw up when played with, in my experience.
I didn't have a problem with her overfeeding but then again I'm a control freak! lol I probably queue up the sequence of her jobs. Since I can't control the nanny and she finds feeding the solution to everything I like grandma better. I don't have to pay for nanny or maid and she's there when I need her. I found the puking a real pain. Since it bottoms out your hygiene I make it a point to avoid it. I found that if I play with them when they awake from naps they don't puke. I never do more than cuddle after they've had a bottle. I found a routine that takes a little time but avoids disasterous results and gets the baby back asleep. I usually change diaper. Put diaper in trash. Play with baby. Cuddle it. Bathe it, play with it. Feed it. Cuddle it. It's ready for it's nap then and all of it's other needs are cared for. It sleeps about 4 hours which leaves time for caregiver to get bathroom time and shower and meal OR some sleep. Parents come home and care for baby while grandma gets her 8 hours and time to catch up on her favorite tv shows that keep her happy. Parents don't have to cook or clean so they have time to woohoo, study and make friends. I find it a win-win situation! lol
Yeah, I'm a queuefreak also. I often forget Free Will is on, until I try to make Sims interact with each other, which generally requires that they go to the place they wish to interact, and then wait for their partner to arrive....and this is when Free Will rears its ugly head, and trying to keep the waiting sim from running amok becomes a pain. Still, it's much better than the old TS1 Free will. I usually leave it on in midsize households until it starts to frustrate me by this, or they go into "fridge raid" mode and start trying to ransack the fridge when they're not yet properly ravenous enough to actually make it worth doing, or when they're about to receive free food at work in 3 hours! The nanny is psychotic like that, yes. But this is not really the fault specifically of the nanny, so much as the general "interact with baby" AI that Sims have: Left to their own devices, especially if you have no choice, as with the nanny, they will ALL attempt to forcefeed the baby until it's about ready to explode, then shake the poor child until it pukes on them, rightly so. Never shake a baby, especially after you've just fed it. It will throw up on you. Naturally, this is because if you shake the baby after it has a full stomach, it will become upset and hurl. It can't do this if its stomach is empty. I mostly park it in its crib until it demonstrates a desire for attention. Then I see what it demands. If it is stinky, it gets a change and wash. If it is hungry, it is fed. If it demonstrates neither of these properties, then it just wants attention. Otherwise, it is left alone to sleep in peace unless one of the parents really wants to interact with it and needs a want roll. Even twins are not a problem here, since this keeps them relatively closely synchronized so they both demand the same things at around the same time. SimBabies are displeased by deviation from routine and respond by hurling on the offender.
