Opinions about imaginary friend

[Sprue]

I played with this thing a bit and it's freaking annoying. Apart from the creepy expression-less look it doesn't have any special functionality. Why would I want to play with it ? And the walking style is horrible. I think they wanted to do something like Pinochio but they failed miserably. It's just me or do you guys hate it too ?

[kennyinbmore]

I think it's hilarious

[jenieusa]

this is one aspect that i will be skipping....not my type of thing at all....

[juansfalcin]

I don't do kiddos, so meh.

[JosephTheSim2k5]

LOL I seriously need to check this out! ... I'm so behind on gameplay.. think it's time to make some children tonight :)

[emino]

Why the heck are you people playing with kids anyway? BOARDING SCHOOL RULES!

[AngelicScot]

As I posted elsewhere, I found them to be too annoying to be of any entertainment value.

[saeda]

I haven't been able to play a lot yet because I've been working but I think the doll and the moodlet icon for playing with it are super cute.

[tomomi1922]

Can we CAS edit them? I wouldn't mind a normal looking friend, but not a Ronald McDonald in his bad days.

[acid_fairy]

It was funny the first time, and I might be using it for kids that are only children (like me, I had an imaginary friend when I was a toddler apparently :lol:) but yeah, I can see it getting hella annoying. And the walk it does... isn't it just the stride of pride sims get after woohooing off their home lot?

[lewisb40]

Read on the official forum that imaginary friends that are turned human can have imaginary kids, the kid gets an imaginary friend. Also when the IF's kid can have the option to be human or an IF. O.o

[Robodl95]

I think that they're cute, I think it's adorable that they turn into a doll and sit next to the kids bed at night. Toddlers look very sweet playing with it. The only problem is that they follow your kid EVERYWHERE and it's creepy.

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4066/screenshot2489.jpg

He followed him into the bathroom while he was showering... and then he was watching the sister on the toilet :rofl:

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/7227/screenshot2495.jpg

[themango2806]

My sim got female imaginary friend and turn her into human . After that, my sim fall in love and got married with his imaginary friend .Actually , she has a green hair and few dáy later . they have baby with green hair . how adorable <3
After Imaginary friend turns to human , they can transform back to toy form but you can control them :D

[Robodl95]

How do you know if an IF is male/female?

[wisteriakm]

How do you know if an IF is male/female?

You can pick. You have the option of renaming your imaginary friend. When renaming, you can indicate whether it is a boy's name or a girls name.

[KiaraRawks]

AW, my toddler just got his in the mail but my game crashed before I could save it while he was at the park with his family.

[cherry85]

My kid plays with the doll all the time but no imaginary friend has popped up yet

[AngelicScot]

My kid plays with the doll all the time but no imaginary friend has popped up yet

You will eventually get a message saying that _____ wants to come out and play. Take them out of the inventory and place them on the floor and they'll come 'alive'.

[penumbra espinosa]

wow......i never noticed that :O.......i thougth they were more like a Simbot :D

[manicker]

Got sent some screenshots from a friend and so far it looks like the creators saw Drop Dead Fred one time to many...
Is it like an extra member of the family? Does it have needs, or is it like a ghost?

[MamaBruce]

You will eventually get a message saying that _____ wants to come out and play. Take them out of the inventory and place them on the floor and they'll come 'alive'.

I've only ever seen the thing act like one of the magical gnomes. When will it really "live"?

[birdyfly]

I've only ever seen the thing act like one of the magical gnomes. When will it really "live"?

For me, at the toddler stage, I took it out of the inventory the first day I had it and put it in the toddler's room.
Then, the toddler played with it almost 24/7 and would sing to it and talk to it. I would place it back in the inventory when I took the toddler to the park or to the garden (so the toddler can play with it when he wanted to).
When at home again, I placed it back in the toddler's room. The toddler began to play with it again and sing to it again.
Then at the toddler stage, I got a message that said something along the lines of: You shouldn't play with your imaginary doll so much or it may get a mind of its own! (I do not remember how the exact wording was).
I let the toddler play with it a few more times and then had the toddler grow up.

At the child stage, I had the child sing and chat with it a few more times, then had a tea party with it. During the tea party, the doll changed positions and then turned into an imaginary friend.


One thing you have to be careful of that happened to me was that when I turned my teen to a young adult before giving it the potion (was going to give the IF the potion on the Sim's birthday), the Imaginary Friend turned back into a doll and I haven't been able to turn it back to an Imaginary Friend since. I would recommend that you change the IF real when the sim is a teen or about to become a young adult at the latest, unless I have a glitch in my game.

[Sirah81]

I don't know about your game, but I had twins, Merry and Ariana in my family. Both got IFs and both played with them so much they got brought to life when the girls became children. Well, long story short, the twins both grew up, one of them (Merry) kept her doll in her inventory for most of her teen years so the house wouldn't be crowded. Now the girls are YAs. Ariana brought her doll, Michael alive and they are dating. Merry put her doll back on the floor and Ninna got up alive, no problem. I'll keep Ninna as a doll-form cleaner. Ariana will marry Michael next time I play, and Merry will live with them.

[Tony97]

awwww man, they disappear when you change households! Otherwise they are fun!

[birdyfly]

awwww man, they disappear when you change households! Otherwise they are fun!

I don't remember who posted this, but the SimTransformer (http://www.modthesims.info/d/383086) will give you either the imaginary friend doll or the imaginary friend, so you can "cheat" to get it back after you changed households. ;)

[s t i l l x d o l l]

I think it sounds pretty awesome

[SimsLover50]

Someone posted screenshots of the imaginary friend aged up and I must confess, they were cute/handsome for an EA creation! I might just do it to see if I can get a cute mate for my sim kid. Because the normal EA ones can be kind of fug. Although, knowing my chances, mine wouldn't look half so cool as the ones I saw aged up.

[birdyfly]

Someone posted screenshots of the imaginary friend aged up and I must confess, they were cute/handsome for an EA creation! I might just do it to see if I can get a cute mate for my sim kid. Because the normal EA ones can be kind of fug. Although, knowing my chances, mine wouldn't look half so cool as the ones I saw aged up.

You mean this image?
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3696/realimaginaryfriend.jpg

For an EA made Sim, I'm rather surprised. I'm actually quite jealous since all my Sims I create end up with tiny heads and huge eyes. :(

[waterfarie88]

I'm kinda sad. I ignored my IF for a bit and somehow she disappeared. I was going to turn her into a real sim and marry her to my boy but I guess I need to find him another lover now, lol.

[uchuujin]

I'm waay to into playing crazy sims to not enjoy this. I had no idea the IF "genes" could be passed on! :lovestruc

[SimsLover50]

You mean this image?
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3696/realimaginaryfriend.jpg

For an EA made Sim, I'm rather surprised. I'm actually quite jealous since all my Sims I create end up with tiny heads and huge eyes. :(

yes! Nice genes there. Good find. You must be psychic.. Exactly the pic I was thinking of!!!

[Redhead Creations]

I think it is quite annoying. Are there any option to turn the imaginary friend off, because I honestly think that not all kids do have an imaginary friend, more impossible is that it can talk and play with your sim kids, right?

I would imagine it's as easy as taking the doll away from the kid so they can't play with it.

The imaginary friend only shows up if a toddler constantly plays and builds a relationship with the doll. So, if there's no doll, there's no imaginary friend. =)

[acid_fairy]

I don't remember who posted this, but the SimTransformer (http://www.modthesims.info/d/383086) will give you either the imaginary friend doll or the imaginary friend, so you can "cheat" to get it back after you changed households. ;)

That only works as 'turn into', not 'spawn' :( I just moved neighbourhoods and now the imaginary friend is a doll again, boo.

[birdyfly]

That only works as 'turn into', not 'spawn' :( I just moved neighbourhoods and now the imaginary friend is a doll again, boo.

Sorry about that.
The only other thing that I have found for the imaginary friend is this mod:

Less/More Likely to get Imaginary Friends (http://www.modthesims.info/d/444659)

I will see if I can find a mod that spawns the imaginary friend instead of the doll. If I find something, I will post it here. :)

[treeag]

That only works as 'turn into', not 'spawn' :( I just moved neighbourhoods and now the imaginary friend is a doll again, boo.

You mean it didn't spawn any imaginary friend doll for you?

[acid_fairy]

You mean it didn't spawn any imaginary friend doll for you?

Well I already have a doll, but all the offspring in my family are now children which is too old for the doll to turn into an IF I think. I may well be wrong on that front but that's what I've gathered.

[jessica x gore]

One thing you have to be careful of that happened to me was that when I turned my teen to a young adult before giving it the potion (was going to give the IF the potion on the Sim's birthday), the Imaginary Friend turned back into a doll and I haven't been able to turn it back to an Imaginary Friend since. I would recommend that you change the IF real when the sim is a teen or about to become a young adult at the latest, unless I have a glitch in my game.

Actually after my Sim aged to a Young Adult her Imaginary Friend aged with her. I then made the IF real and moved her out so she would leave my Sim alone. So apparently they can age to Young Adult. Although it might be possible that something in my game went awry.

[birdyfly]

Actually after my Sim aged to a Young Adult her Imaginary Friend aged with her. I then made the IF real and moved her out so she would leave my Sim alone. So apparently they can age to Young Adult. Although it might be possible that something in my game went awry.

When my Sim aged to a young adult, he was off the lot and egging his neighbor's house. So, I didn't have a birthday party for him, he just automatically aged up. Maybe since I wasn't on the lot and trigger the party manually, the IF never was able to age as well and just remained stuck in doll form.

[SimsLover50]

All I can say is the imaginary friends grow up to be kinda hot. So I'm going to hook the triplets up with their imaginary friends when they grow older. Saves me having to hunt through bad EA genes to find something that looks good.

[Samchanchan11]

The Imaginary friend thing is... well so far I had only one so I can't say, I like them because they're convenient if my child lacking social interaction and need one in a jiff, kinda annoying when it follows the child to the bathroom and break her queue because of it. Once becoming real it's cool to have another life state in the house... but it's walking speed is sooooooooo slow it's really annoying so I can't really use it's doll form... Now I'm going to make my daughter (who dates his imaginary friend) into a vampire, marry the doll and see what comes out of a vamp/doll combo!!! xD

[fairycake89]

mmm Ok, I'm going to be a b*tch and just say it - IFs worry me a bit. I found that out of three kids in my household, the two without the IF had better relationships within and outside the house. The child with the IF tends to spend too much time with his IF and other relationships suffer. Maybe it's just me overthinking it all! lol!

[Samchanchan11]

Fairy... I didn't see that happening to my child (my 2nd child the only one that had it), her relationship with her housemates is just fine... if anything it's the youngest one that have low relationship with house members... mostly because I'm tired of listening to the crying and let my butler take care of her lol

[jessica x gore]

When my Sim aged to a young adult, he was off the lot and egging his neighbor's house. So, I didn't have a birthday party for him, he just automatically aged up. Maybe since I wasn't on the lot and trigger the party manually, the IF never was able to age as well and just remained stuck in doll form.

My Sim had her party on another lot as well. Actually awhile before that I told it to leave her alone. Then after she got back from the party, out of curiosity I wondered if she would still have the IF and sure enough after I apologized to it, it aged up too.

When I was playing another Sim (current Sim's Mother) I clicked trigger age when she was a toddler because she had already learned everything but the doll didn't age with her. When she was a toddler she played with it constantly. So I wonder if the IF aging up is tied in with the birthday cake? It sure seems like it.

[jennydb91]

I aged my toddler up without a birthday cake, just waited until she aged up, and the doll become an IF about one sim hour after my toddler aged to a child.

[SimsLover50]

mmm Ok, I'm going to be a b*tch and just say it - IFs worry me a bit. I found that out of three kids in my household, the two without the IF had better relationships within and outside the house. The child with the IF tends to spend too much time with his IF and other relationships suffer. Maybe it's just me overthinking it all! lol!

I've had my sims kid be so obsessed with the IF, that they would ignore interractions by their own father. I think to an extent the game AI made the IF's a bit too crack-like. It is like skinny dipping and sprinklers. Nearly impossible for some sims to resist.

[birdyfly]

The one thing that did get a tad bit annoying was when my sim was a teenager and he was working to make stink bombs, the IF would constantly interrupt him to say "You're my best friend! :)!"
I thought it was cute at first, but after seeing twenty messages of him saying the same exact thing over and over again, it was getting a little annoying.

However, I do think it's cute when the toddler plays with the IF in doll form and sings to it. Are you able to sing to the teddy bears as well? I haven't got the chance to see if you can or not.

[SimsLover50]

I haven't tried the teddy bear. It sat around my house unusued while the triplets crooned that irritating song to their IF's. Heh. I am almost certain any other toy is useless next to the IF.

[lewisb40]

Playing my niece's game, I finally got to see the IF interactions. Her sim's daughter would sing to the IF, but never touched the teddy bear in her inventory. Seems if the kid have a IF in the inventory, they lose the slept with teddy moodlet. I don't know if the sing to was added to the teddy, but I think that interaction is so adorable. Had her mother take home videos of it and watches it all the time. The toddler is now a child, and her IF grew up with her. Now her mom is trying to get the potions together, hopefully will make the IF real soon. :)

[fairycake89]

I haven't tried the teddy bear. It sat around my house unusued while the triplets crooned that irritating song to their IF's. Heh. I am almost certain any other toy is useless next to the IF.

I agree with this - The child with the IF in my household didn't set foot in the tree house, because he was so taken up with his IF, his IFless siblings used it and went fishing for frogs in the tiddler pond I put in their garden. The IF is way too demanding in so many ways!

*cue sinister moosic*

[ViolettaVie]

It would be great if insane sims were allowed IF that they could play with as adults.

[fairycake89]

Mmmm I just found out today that my latest child (male, evil and grumpy) has an IF who must be insane, as the IF talks to itself like the insane sims do AND it is setting booby traps in the shower and the sinks! I'm realllllllllllllllllllly scared now! I'll try and capture some pics of it doing these things :blink:

Editted to add pics ...

Speaking madness .....
http://i52.tinypic.com/18lmk6.jpg
Boobytrapping the sink ...
http://i54.tinypic.com/lguuu.jpg
Boobytrap complete ...
http://i54.tinypic.com/2motm42.jpg
Same wickedness with the shower ...
http://i54.tinypic.com/34ik1gp.jpg
http://i53.tinypic.com/2u70nzs.jpg

[owl_face]

I actually like the IF. It's probably my favorite occult so far, since it's so wacky (to be fair, I never played a mummy). My insane sim (Deane) got an imaginary friend, which made her crazier. I agree that the IF is time consuming, though. I didn't build a single skill with that child until I made the damn thing real. Also, IFs are attractive when they're made real, though mine had soulless black eyes. O.O

The IF I got (Ovid) turned out to be evil. He would constantly sneak up on Deane and scare the crap out of her. He also walked in on her in the shower once and didn't seem embarrassed, but excited instead. It's hilarious.

[Dojan5]

I think my imaginary friend vanished when my sim and her friend was fighting off a pirate invasion. He didn't leave or anything, just vanished.

It's actually rather sad to see my sim play by herself now. They were laughing all the time, now she's all alone playing by herself again. Sigh.

[Sprue]

the imaginnary friend looks ridicoulous, it's not even creepy but ugly ! Big inexpresive head, disproportionate hands it's like he has a desease or something....how can anyone like this...thing, bleah.

[fairycake89]

Big inexpresive head, disproportionate hands it's like he has a desease or something....

I had an ex-boyfriend like that ....

[Sprue]

I had an ex-boyfriend like that ....

at least you figured out on time lol :lol:

the idea of imaginary friend is nice but as usual EA is not capable of taking a good idea till the end. A pinochio type doll with some special abilities or needs would have been so much better, but they're lazy as hell. :|

[SimsLover50]

I am curious... Has anyone discovered if you let the 'game decide' the gender of the IF, what gender are they? I never really get the option to choose. I had one age up and she was a girl. Fine with it, but there are two more in my household and I'm curious if the sim who has the doll is a boy are they automatically girls or is it random?

[Dojan5]

I am curious... Has anyone discovered if you let the 'game decide' the gender of the IF, what gender are they? I never really get the option to choose. I had one age up and she was a girl. Fine with it, but there are two more in my household and I'm curious if the sim who has the doll is a boy are they automatically girls or is it random?

You choose their gender by naming them with a male/female name.

[Birgitte Heuschkel]

I had an ex-boyfriend like that ....

So, did you have to use a potion to get him to turn back into a toy or did you just take out his stitching?

[SimsLover50]

You choose their gender by naming them with a male/female name.

They already have names... Like patches, and stiches and such. Where can I name them?

[Daiquiri]

You choose their gender by naming them with a male/female name.
And how exactly does the game recognize if the name I chose is male or female? I could name it whatever I want, in whatever language I want.
So far the gender of my IFs was random, I've had a girl with a male IF and another with a female IF. I think if you really wanted to you could change the IF's gender - I haven't tried it yet, but it's probably possible, I'm guessing with one of Twallan's mods?

I really like imaginary friends, though they were a bit creepy at first :D I looove their voice, especially when they laugh, and the way they run is cute and funny :) I'm really enjoying playing them.

They already have names... Like patches, and stiches and such. Where can I name them?
If you click on the doll you get an option to change it's name. :)

[owl_face]

They already have names... Like patches, and stiches and such. Where can I name them?
When your sim is a toddler, you can click on them to rename them. It'll let you choose between giving it a boy's name or a girl's name.

[Daiquiri]

When your sim is a toddler, you can click on them to rename them. It'll let you choose between giving it a boy's name or a girl's name.
I could have sworn you could only change it's name :wtf: I must've missed the boy/girl name option somehow, my bad! :anime: Now I just have to start my game and check that for myself, can't believe I missed that :lol: Thanks!

[Dojan5]

And how exactly does the game recognize if the name I chose is male or female? I could name it whatever I want, in whatever language I want.

When you click it, and the "Give name to Toy" or whatever the option is called, you get to a new menu reading "Give male name" or "Give female name", your IF's gender depends on what you choose there. :P

[Daiquiri]

I know that now :D I didn't see this before, oops. Guess I should have made sure before posting :rolleyes: :) It's good that we have that option. Actually, I think I might try to change one of my IF's gender so I can later make this IF my sim's romantic interest... Hm. Now I wonder if I can have gay imaginary friends :anime:

[SimsLover50]

I have to post a screenshout of it, but I made one of my sims' son's imaginary friend real, and it became female. One thing that is odd though, is that when "Patches" became a person, she has a gender icon in her panel right underneath her sign. It says female. I find that odd, since none of my regular sims show a gender there, and well, there is no doubt Patches is female, since she is a sim now. I Will take a screenshot, but this is rather odd. I wonder why IF's have gender and regular simmies don't?

[Dougy]

I like them (their walking and talking is hilarious) but I don't like that you can't get rid of it. For goodness' sake, my character's a teen, he doesn't need one anymore. And when I tell it to leave him alone, he turns into a doll but won't go away >> anyone know about the "running away" thing ? I saw a mod that would increase or decrease it but I have no idea what it is

[owl_face]

I have to post a screenshout of it, but I made one of my sims' son's imaginary friend real, and it became female. One thing that is odd though, is that when "Patches" became a person, she has a gender icon in her panel right underneath her sign. It says female. I find that odd, since none of my regular sims show a gender there, and well, there is no doubt Patches is female, since she is a sim now. I Will take a screenshot, but this is rather odd. I wonder why IF's have gender and regular simmies don't?
Mine had the gender icon, too--it's like the one babies have, where it shows its astrological sign and its gender. Even when I turned my IF into a very real boy, it still had that gender icon. Strange. :/

[Velve]

I've yet to get a doll to try them.

Three kids in my newest family and not a single doll in the mailbox.

[emino]

I like IF, but I just dont think its for every single kids I have. So I downloaded the less chance of IF and had been satisfied with it so far.

[tiffyandthewall]

I like the imaginary friends if only because your sim can have them clean up and get them food without adding another person to the house/having to hire a butler. They are definitely really creepy, but I think it's hilarious. I've received one with every child my sims have had - I'm up to the 3rd generation and there have been at least 4 kids - but I've only had one of my sims interact with their IF, and I'm thinking about making him real once there are fewer sims in my household.

[kennyinbmore]

I like them (their walking and talking is hilarious) but I don't like that you can't get rid of it. For goodness' sake, my character's a teen, he doesn't need one anymore. And when I tell it to leave him alone, he turns into a doll but won't go away >> anyone know about the "running away" thing ? I saw a mod that would increase or decrease it but I have no idea what it is

When it turns into a doll, have you tried to put it back in your sims inventory?

[emino]

at least you figured out on time lol :lol:

the idea of imaginary friend is nice but as usual EA is not capable of taking a good idea till the end. A pinochio type doll with some special abilities or needs would have been so much better, but they're lazy as hell. :|

No no no. THIS would be PERFECT!

http://x0e.xanga.com/e34b104354040199389956/z15699948.jpg

[kampffenhoff]

I like the Imaginary friend. My 3 year old has an imaginary Frog and it is a real pest, always sitting in chairs and falling down the toilet and having to be rescued. The EA version is much better.

[SimsLover50]

Well, 3 of my imaginary friends became human. 1 is a looker, with bright blue eyes. They seem to have all the same genetics, which is brown skin, red or blue hair. 2 of them have souless black eyes which I find kind of creepy. One has very thin lips, and zero muscle definition. Sadly, they don't seem editable in cas, like other members of the household which is too bad. I want to take care of those lips and deal wtih the jello-y body. I would've also liked more diversity. They are a bit similar looking for my tastes. They could be triplets.

[laceyharkness]

Well, 3 of my imaginary friends became human. 1 is a looker, with bright blue eyes. They seem to have all the same genetics, which is brown skin, red or blue hair. 2 of them have souless black eyes which I find kind of creepy. One has very thin lips, and zero muscle definition. Sadly, they don't seem editable in cas, like other members of the household which is too bad. I want to take care of those lips and deal wtih the jello-y body. I would've also liked more diversity. They are a bit similar looking for my tastes. They could be triplets.

I've had the same thing with one of my IF getting purple hair with red tips and the blue eyes, and the other blue hair with all black eyes. You can edit them, at least I have in CAS, but I use Twallan's Master Controller, and that could effect it.

[jennydb91]

This is how mine turned out:

http://img853.imageshack.us/img853/92/screenshot90f.jpg

She looked surprisingly good, and I liked the outfit for the female IFs better than the one for the males!

This is what it looked like while changing:

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/3047/screenshot88q.jpg

[Redhead Creations]

My first experience with the doll didn't go so well. It just disappeared on one load of my game. It wasn't in my toddler's inventory anymore.

Then I realized it wasn't gone, but invisible, because around midnight, I would hear this loud POOF and see a cloud of gold sparkles, so I knew it was moving around like the magic gnomes do, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Then when the kid grew into a child and I was redoing the room, I couldn't delete the crib because it said it had an object on it, so that must have been where the invisible doll ended up.

I had to use testingcheats to delete it.

Guess I'll try to play with one again next generation...

[SimsLover50]

Yeah, I don't do the master controller.

In the new CAS cheat EA added, sady IF's aren't editiable. I do like the outfits for girls rather than male IF's. The males look kind of half-assed like they weren't even trying.

[jennydb91]

Hmm, did you try sending one to the stylist to get a makeover? :) Maybe that works, Simslover.

[bbyboo22]

i know that this doesnt comply with anything but how do i post things and downlode stuff

[simsample]

bbyboo22, please click 'create' or 'help' at the top of the page, and read the relevant articles.

[SimsLover50]

Hmm. Just recently read the IF's aren't editable in the EA's version of cas, because, like ghosts and vamps they aren't 'creatable' in cas. That might explain things. Hmmm. May try the makeover. Its just its weird, one of my IF's just has zero body definition. Since he's the only male IF, he just quite frankly needs some tone.

I'm starting a new game anyway. While I enjoyed that one, the household got huge, and I think I'm going to have a few less kids. With two adults and 3 triplets plus their 3 imaginary friends it was too much for me.

I'm going to do it all over and see how it works.

[Scarysecrets]

My Imaginary Friend was going great, my sim's relationship bar was at it's max. But my imaginary friend started to pick fights, to the point that my sim couldn't even talk to her without being argued with...so I eventually had to wait until she returned to doll form, and place her back into my sims inventory.

Sad...


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Scarysecrets/Screenshot-122-1.jpg

[simittaret]

In general I like it, but I think that imagenary friend is just too common. In my legacy family 2 out of 4 kids has it. I will be bored with that...

[birdyfly]

In general I like it, but I think that imagenary friend is just too common. In my legacy family 2 out of 4 kids has it. I will be bored with that...

What I would suggest you do is get the Less/More Likely to get an Imaginary Friend (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=444659) and download this one:
lesslikelytogetifmedchancerunaway: Your sims will have a 20% chance of getting an Imaginary Friend (50% default) but they will have a medium chance of running away (relationship loss due to neglect is 3 instead of default 5).

I am not sure how you feel about installing mods, but I love this mod. It lowers the chances of if you get an imaginary friend, and is helpful when you are doing a legacy challenge and don't want to have your family overrun by IFs. :bunny:

[EleanorElephante]

If only they didn't move so darn slow! ><
And they get in the way a lot, especially when their kid needs to do something important, like eat.

[jennydb91]

The only thing that annoys me is how they keep walking into the bathroom when my sim is trying to pee/shower. Even if they're BEST friends, my sim still doesn't find that okay. Can't decide if I'm more annoyed with her or the imaginary friend. :P

[EleanorElephante]

The only thing that annoys me is how they keep walking into the bathroom when my sim is trying to pee/shower. Even if they're BEST friends, my sim still doesn't find that okay. Can't decide if I'm more annoyed with her or the imaginary friend. :P

It's sort of hilarious and sort of freaky at the same time. :lol:

[Megancummings113]

I like the IF's a great deal and like how 'whimsical' they look both before and after transformation... except that I've misplaced one of them at the moment. My female child sim (Gillian) played with him (Buddy) forever and then all of a sudden he was missing. I don't think he's just "imaginary" at the moment because when my sim is selected, he doesn't appear anywhere on the lot, nor is he in her inventory. In Gillian's relationship panel Buddy appears as her best friend, but as a real live boy! lol. Unless it was done autonomously, I never saw the option to make him real like I did with my other children's IF's. I can't select him to call him or invite over and I don't see him living anywhere else in my 'hood. I'd like Gillian to be able to talk to her b.f.f. but I'm not sure what's going on with Buddy. Has this happened to anyone else? IF's do get kind of distracting when you're technically keeping track of two children. Maybe he's at boarding school? I haven't sent any of my kids away yet so I don't know how it plays out.

[KirsiF]

I don't know if this has been discussed yet but there seems to be some kind of problem with imaginary friends at my family, too. Maybe the same problem as the previous poster has? :blink:

One of the kids has an imaginary friend but it isn't a doll - it's a real living sim but it acts like an imaginary friend not made real. Other's can't see it/her and the options are the ones made for imaginary friend! It's kind of annoying. I want an imaginary friend with the funny look and walk.

This whole EP seems to be a mess with so many bugs! I like the EP a lot, don't get me wrong. But when almost every new feature seems to be more or less bugged, it gets annoying very fast. There are problems with romantic rep, imaginary friends, prep schools, field trips/after school activities and so on. Frustrating! :faceslap:

[KaiRuh]

I will gladly give you my imaginary friend dolls for your real-looking imaginary friends. :(

[Velve]

I'm rather annoyed with IFs.

They constantly interrupt my sim. "COME PLAY TAG WITH ME NOW!" "BUT I NEED TO EAT" NO. TAG. NOW!"

[KirsiF]

I will gladly give you my imaginary friend dolls for your real-looking imaginary friends. :(Then let's switch. :P *hands over real-looking 'Peanuts'*

[ani_]

So far my experience with the imaginary friend is that I have a toddler who has the doll. He only plays with this doll, not any of his other toys, but it's fine, he'll be a bit stupid later on because he didn't learn any logic when a toddler, but I'm sure he can live with himself.

I can't wait for him to grow to a kid, I want to see the imaginary friend become a creepy living doll.

[jazzgurl]

except that I've misplaced one of them at the moment. My female child sim (Gillian) played with him (Buddy) forever and then all of a sudden he was missing. I don't think he's just "imaginary" at the moment because when my sim is selected, he doesn't appear anywhere on the lot, nor is he in her inventory.

Check the other kids inventory, i had this happen in my family, and the toddler had picked it up and was "making friends" lol

I also like them, to a point, but i dont like that you cant delete the doll (like sell it) and i dont like that your sim doesnt seem to grow out of them. Although i could be wrong, i havent gotten past teen with one yet. :jest:

[Velve]

Check the other kids inventory, i had this happen in my family, and the toddler had picked it up and was "making friends" lol

I also like them, to a point, but i dont like that you cant delete the doll (like sell it) and i dont like that your sim doesnt seem to grow out of them. Although i could be wrong, i havent gotten past teen with one yet. :jest:

You can delete the doll with testingcheatsenabled turned on. I think its ctrl+shift click the doll and press delete object.

[popcorngoddess1234]

My toddler won't stop playing with her fathers old IF doll and the only way to make her stop is to put the doll in her fathers inventory. This wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I play in a loose legacy type of style that causes the oldest sim in my household to be the catch all for inventory idems that belonged to dead sims and sims that have been kicked out of the house. I'm kind of worried that a few generations down the line grandma will be cluttered with dolls.

[ani_]

My toddler won't stop playing with her fathers old IF doll and the only way to make her stop is to put the doll in her fathers inventory. This wouldn't be that big of a deal, but I play in a loose legacy type of style that causes the oldest sim in my household to be the catch all for inventory idems that belonged to dead sims and sims that have been kicked out of the house. I'm kind of worried that a few generations down the line grandma will be cluttered with dolls.

There is a mod on this site that makes it less likely to get an IF, you should get that. My imaginary friend is still in the doll phase, but I know already that I really don't want every child to get one.

[Bibbis]

The IF in my game is really creepy.I have had an icon that told me she evil and she is! She always tries to start a fight and so on. Whats the use of an IF that's not nice to you? When the girl was a toddler I tried to make her sing to the IF but all she did then was putting the IF in her inventory. Bug/glitch? I tried to make a teaparty too but the girl only complained about lack of space. Why do sims some time refuse to do an action due to lack of space and in other cases just go to another room to do it?

[birdyfly]

Have you thought of using the Master Controller and to change the traits? I had an evil IF as well, but I edit it in CAS and gave it the "Friendly" trait instead of the "Mean Spirited" one, and now the IF is helpful and doesn't start fights or create booby traps anymore. :)

[tiffyandthewall]

i think i already posted my opinion on them, but i've been playing a lot and now i have IF related complaints. i had twins and they each had an IF, and they were ~best friends~ with their dolls and the dolls aged up when they turned into children as they should. but then, for some unknown reason, one day they turned back into dolls and now i can't interact with them AT ALL. my sims' relationships with their dolls are still really good, but now the IFs are just stuck as dolls. i guess it's a glitch, but i'm so mad. i had grand plans for those IFs! i spent 8,000 simoleons making IF potions to turn them into real sims, and now they're stuck. ;___;

[Celebriton]

The IF in my game is really creepy.I have had an icon that told me she evil and she is! She always tries to start a fight and so on. Whats the use of an IF that's not nice to you? When the girl was a toddler I tried to make her sing to the IF but all she did then was putting the IF in her inventory. Bug/glitch? I tried to make a teaparty too but the girl only complained about lack of space. Why do sims some time refuse to do an action due to lack of space and in other cases just go to another room to do it?

hahaha......don't blame the IF.

The problem is not in the IF. Instead in your mentally sick / insane child sims.

IF is just a projection of an imagination from the brain. You should questioning what kind of brain to produce such IF?

Just kidding. lol :P

[CleoSombra]

You know what would be really, really, really nice for someone to mod?

That "Leave me alone" interaction. Make it so it doesn't reduce the relationship.

I had an imaginary friend when I was little, but it wasn't there all the freaking time. Only when I imagined it to be there . . . because it was my imagination. It'd be nice if I could turn the friend into a doll whenever I wanted without it looking like a fight. D:

[NutsAndDolts]

You can't choose the IF's traits, so they may get bad ones.

Mine was a total creep, even with innocent traits. He would always talk about cop cars. x.x

[FrancesWeyr]

They're kind of cool looking, but I'm not completely sold. The first toddler in the current family has one and because he played exclusively with the doll, he didn't develop any other skills or a good relationship with his parents. Now his baby brother got one, and I think I'm going to micro-manage Ian's relationship with Wiggles to see if he can age up out of toddler a little better than Seamus did with Cosmo. There are also bowls of spoiled canned soup showing up all over the lot, I suspect Cosmo is the culprit.

[LisOz]

I like the IF but I don't think they can be turned into vampires so that's my only problem. I created a family before generations and the sim I made got married and had two girls. Both the husband and wife were vampires. One daughter, the oldest, was not born a vampire but the other was. Once the older one grew and became married I moved her out and took her sister with them. She had an imaginary friend and worked damn hard to turn her real in hopes of being her lesbian lover and live forever with her as a vampire. But the offer to change/ask to be changed interaction was not there even though they were both young adults. So now she has to die in a tragic accident because I wont have her be old and die leaving my sim. Accident sounds better with the story.

[somethingelse]

all ya'll are saying it's not 100% a child will get an imaginary friend, but every child that's been born in the custom hood i've been playing has one. now granted that isnt very many, so i may be "calling wolf" when really it's just a buffed out chihuahua, i think only 3 kids have been born in this particular "town" so far.

now, about this renaming... what the heck gender is "jellybean"? i think that one is still a "child" too late probally to change the gender huh? but the other 2... they're toddlers, i can hook them up with future boyfriends. i think next time i play, rags and riley may become "boys"

so ok seriously, what gender is "jellybean" supposed to be? i suspect female, because for a minute, just after the first toddler became a child i kept seeing a stray child on the lot. i knew it wasnt one of my "offspring" because they better all be blue or green. mom is blue, the first ones daddy might be a vamp. it's not like momma is still buddies with her ex. and since i didnt hook them up, baby number 1 was pleasant surprise. then my studly green dude swept her off her feet, and her and her lil blue baby came to live with mr green, and she had an imaginary friend, named jellybean.

the twins they just had together are both bluish, and have imaginary friend dolls,

anyway, back to this "stray child" it was "normal" skintoned. didnt look dead, alien, or weirdly uber sunburnt like everyone else I'VE built for this hood, and she was kinda "stuck" to the very edge of the lot. i say "she" cause it had a lil weird denim slouchy sloppy lookin hat with what looked like a flower on it. but it's come to my attention that sometimes EA has gender confusion issues. like in the one thread where the poor simmers buttler wears ladies skivvies. not that there's anything wrong with that...

but she was stuck there, didnt do anything, i'd have the kid go try and introduce herself, and the interaction would just go away.
then, like the next sim day, i tried have a tea party, and it gave me the "lots to explore, put jellybean down and see..." whatever it is that it says, and i have pastel ronald mcdonald walking in on my oldest kid on the crapper and when she tries to play submarine in the bathtub.

i've had a little success with the "shoo" interaction for the kid taking a pee in privacy, then going up and being nice to jellybean. that doesnt seem to effect their relationship. and i dont know about ya'lls IF's, but jellybean will fix my kid a snack, and clean up after her if she asks.

i kinda like these things so far

[fairycake89]

You can't choose the IF's traits, so they may get bad ones.

Mine was a total creep, even with innocent traits. He would always talk about cop cars. x.x

You can get bad ones, my last one was Insane ... and got REALLY nasty when ignored.

[ocorreia]

I find them annoying and useless!

I'm just trying this one and it won't get past the teenager phase...

[secretsim]

Everytime I switch households, my IF disappears from my toddler's inventory. I have Twallan's MasterController, Overwatch, ErrorTrap and Woohooer. :-/

[charmedqueen]

I've only ever had one imaginary friend for born in game sims. But so far I like it. He's cute in a horrible ugly way. And it keeps my toddlers attention so I don't have to keep an eye on her so much. And in the future, perfect boyfriend. ^^

[Princess Leia]

I liked the imaginary friend when my Sim was still a child. The way he always seemed to hover around my Sim was a bit annoying (let the little girl pee, for god's sake) but for the most part he was not intrusive and only initiated (friendly!) interactions when both of 'em were idle.

But they are teenagers now and my IF has this inappropriately deep male voice -- and, well, I don't really enjoy having this overgrown sack of rice-man-clown thing running amok, happily skipping over to the bathroom to peep at my showering teen. :|

[Mhaxy]

yeah, it's frustrating... but it's tru at first is just.. curiosity? totally FAIL!

[HANGRYANGRY]

I love the imaginary friends ^_^
I didn't like the child life stage until I got Gen. And now, when my sim isn't schooling, homeworking or participating in extra curricular activities she has a special buddy to grow up with :D

[seraphime]

sorry had to
http://30.media.tumblr.com/1fdtdYBtyffocimuIMDRbWL5o1_500.jpg

[Willow's Tara]

I don't know if anyone else knew but the IF lasts right up to Elder, and when the Sim dies it goes back to being a doll, so I guess the IF is reborn and can have a toddler playing with him.

I don't mind the IF myself, kinda fun to play around with, although I agree the walk looks stupid, and it's a shame it takes the form of it's doll, would have liked it to take the form of a human really. It's nice to have a Sim in handy for your Sim to marry though, no need to go searching for one lol

[moogloo88]

You can pick. You have the option of renaming your imaginary friend. When renaming, you can indicate whether it is a boy's name or a girls name.

yeah but what if I enter a name like "guifhweuifbxqe" or "Jordon" (which is a girl and boy name)? How does the game know what names are male and what names are female? Like when you give your IF the metamorphin potion, what determines if they turn into a male or female? :blink:

[moogloo88]

Also, can one sim have more than one IF? for example if i have a toddler sim who plays with their doll, then they both grow to a child and the child somehow obtains the metamorphin potion (from chemistry set or opportunity), gives it to its IF to drink and he/she becomes real, can they get another doll perhaps using Treeag's SimTransformer, play with that one and then have it become another IF? the only thing is (assuming this works) is that by the time the child has the 2nd IF the 1st IF will technically be a controllable sim and not a true, unseen-by-other-sims IF.

wow. thats confusing. lol

[Princess Leia]

yeah but what if I enter a name like "guifhweuifbxqe" or "Jordon" (which is a girl and boy name)? How does the game know what names are male and what names are female? Like when you give your IF the metamorphin potion, what determines if they turn into a male or female? :blink:
Before you enter a name you'll see two options on the pie menu: 'Give Boy's Name' and 'Give Girl's Name'. It doesn't matter what the actual name is; you yourself indicate whether you think it's a boy's name or a girl's name. (Meaning you can name an IF 'Christopher' or 'John' or 'Arnold Schwarzenegger' but if you tell the game that it's a girl's name, it'll treat little Arnold as a girl.)

[somethingelse]

OH! so that explains why "jellybean" grew up to be a girl imaginary friend, and married her girl, but when i chose to rename the next set of kids's friends as boys, it tried to prefab me a "boy jellybean"

i coulda had the male and female jellybeanses fambily

i can think of SO many wrong places to go with names for their offspring

[moogloo88]

Before you enter a name you'll see two options on the pie menu: 'Give Boy's Name' and 'Give Girl's Name'. It doesn't matter what the actual name is; you yourself indicate whether you think it's a boy's name or a girl's name. (Meaning you can name an IF 'Christopher' or 'John' or 'Arnold Schwarzenegger' but if you tell the game that it's a girl's name, it'll treat little Arnold as a girl.)

hahah that would be really funny as an Arnold girl. But now that you mention that I almost dont even remember that with my child's IF! I honestly probably just clicked on whatever and named him, so who knows if it will turn out to be a girl or boy! LOL but thanks!

[Jenni-Girl]

Ive had some issues with my IF....I made Jellybean "Real" (She's so cute!) and had her marry someone from Champs les Sims...when she gets pregnant I get a glitch int he game where no sims can select to interact with eachother and they "pop" after selecting to sleep in a bed, they will pop out of the bed after a min...frustrating as all heck :(

[laceyharkness]

Ive had some issues with my IF....I made Jellybean "Real" (She's so cute!) and had her marry someone from Champs les Sims...when she gets pregnant I get a glitch int he game where no sims can select to interact with eachother and they "pop" after selecting to sleep in a bed, they will pop out of the bed after a min...frustrating as all heck :(

I've had that happen with regular sims too, I think it's just another glitch from Generations. Sometimes, not always, but sometimes if you switch the bed they will sleep in it. I've yet to find a fix for the resetting while trying to interact. Usually that one's a game killer and you have to start over.

[zebaroth]

I think that they're cute, I think it's adorable that they turn into a doll and sit next to the kids bed at night. Toddlers look very sweet playing with it. The only problem is that they follow your kid EVERYWHERE and it's creepy.

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/4066/screenshot2489.jpg

He followed him into the bathroom while he was showering... and then he was watching the sister on the toilet :rofl:

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/7227/screenshot2495.jpg

i think the doll is cute too in creepy kind of way

[mithrak_nl]

That doll is scary. I need to check if I can blow it up next time I create an inventor :|

[eldavis]

At first, I found them kinda cute. I made one into a real sim. After playing a house with twins, who both happened to receive Imaginary Friends, I got fed up with them.

[somethingelse]

i had a vampire kid who had one, and since she's a genius and all, i had her make her friend real, they went to prom together, all that teenage angsty crap, they watched her mother die together, they had a rough time. but they grew up together. it only makes sense they'd be all in love, right?

so now they're young adults, neither of them is willing to sleep in their mothers old bed, and my vamp has a "disgraced" moodlet from woohooing with an occult. (they've been woohooing in the shower and the hover bed i bought the vamp girl)

so yeah, i was unaware imaginary friends were considered "occult" i dont know why i'm surprised though

[Claire the Bear]

For some reason, my twins' imaginary friends turned into human form without me having to complete any task/opportunity...they suddenly just appeared in my sims relationships panel with human faces (no options to call them or invite them over though obviously) and then started creepily hovering around outside my sims house. Literally just standing there outside by the fence all day, unplayable, uninteractable and only visible to the sim whose IF it is.
'Peanuts' and 'Cosmo' have now both aged to adults which is quite sad in my opinion. I mean they have literally wasted half of their life just stood staring at my sims fence 24/7 (and continue to do so! :p ). It's a shame because 'Peanuts' is actually really attractive...

So, so far, my opinion on Imaginary friends is that they are pretty creepy and pointless. And I hate the way that children and toddlers obsess over them to the point where they literally have no significant relationship with any living sim because their IF obsession takes up all their time.

[virgalibabe]

Maybe a modder or tech savvy people who understand sims 3 code would know this; are the imaginary friend's appearance random or is it somehow influenced by the sim it's assigned to? It appears that their traits are random since several of you here reported that they got the evil/ mean spirited/rebel trait while the child sim owner didn't. Aslo I wonder if the child growing up badly or good has any effect on the child's imaginary friend.

[J. M. Pescado]

For an EA made Sim, I'm rather surprised. I'm actually quite jealous since all my Sims I create end up with tiny heads and huge eyes. :(I was not aware the head-size of a sim was variable. How did you manage this?

Maybe a modder or tech savvy people who understand sims 3 code would know this; are the imaginary friend's appearance random or is it somehow influenced by the sim it's assigned to?Neither. Unless you are using AwesomeMod's "No Vanilla Pudding", every sim created in the game that is not either a premade or a user-created sim is a Vanilla Pudding. Exactly the same, no slider mods, unless part of Foreignia, in which case they have the relevant Foreignian mods and nothing else. So anyone claiming their humanified imaginary friend is goodlooking is either using AwesomeMod to create different ones, or just really loves vanilla pudding, because ALL VANILLA PUDDINGS ARE THE SAME, except for differences in bodyshape and color.

[SweetDelight]

IFs are weird one of my kid sims had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and the darn thing teleported into the bathroom with her and they both were embarrassed :faceslap:

[DarkAmaranth]

Cute at first, tolerable until they and owner move out. NO NO NO Now, the IFs are marrying their owners/sibling and one sister married her sister NO! I killed off all of them real, doll, living doll whatever, gone.

[Pink_Pwincess]

I despise the imaginary friends so much x.x!
I'm doing a legacy challenge right now and I'm on my 4th generation.
I think about 9 children have been born so far within my lot.
7 of those 9 got imaginary friends.
I want to light the imaginary friends on fire, because they always become real. Sims seem to have an obsession with playing with them and making the Imaginary friend Metamorphium potion..
(However it's spelled.)

[virgalibabe]

I got more imaginary friend woes. I made a test family, mother, father and toddler. The toddler received an imaginary friend in the mail as soon as we got to the lot and I've let her play with it constantly. She aged well to child stage and soon after so did her imaginary friend.

Then I got the mother pregnant, she had a baby who also got a lil friend practically as soon as he was born. Unfortunately because me messing with the settings he grew up to a child in about a day or two without learning to use the potty and without having much play time with his imaginary buddy. I don't believe I ever took it out of his inventory and I believe it was still in there when the sim had his birthday.

So I had him play with the doll over and over and over as a child but he never got the message about something "interesting" happening if he kept this up. He did receive the message about him getting pretty fond of the doll though. I tried putting the thing on the floor, leave it in his inventory, nothing works. At first the doll did change position in the gnomelike way they are known to do. Not event hat is happening anymore.

There's no way to force an error on the object or do a reset. When I shift click I only get an option to get rid of it. It would be very helpful if we could be able to at least see how good the relationship is between the sim and the doll. Would help testing tremendously.

So does a sim have to grow up well for the doll to work? Do they need a good relationship with the doll before they age? Am I just unlucky and is this a glitch? I'll be doing some more testing but I'm rather slow so if there are more people who would like figure out the puzzle of the imaginary friend please help out by running some tests yourselves.

[IzzyBess]

In my case something similar has happened, my toddler grew up, and as a child she was playing almost constantly with her doll and nothing happened. But playing with doll as toddler (another one) has worked. Maybe doll can only work with toddlers? And after that it won't come alive?

[emilyhwithlove]

I wish you could turn them OFF. they follow you everywhereeee and the kids always obsess with them 24/7. I have an adult sim who played with their doll when she was a toddler/child and it came to life, but not into a human. So once she aged into teen/YA I had her stop playing with it cause that's just creepy. Every FREAKING simday I get a notification that says something like "Audrey is loosing relationship with Jelly Bean. Maybe she should play with him a bit more." I can't get it to go away!! asdfghjkl;

[Claire the Bear]

I wish you could turn them OFF. they follow you everywhereeee and the kids always obsess with them 24/7. I have an adult sim who played with their doll when she was a toddler/child and it came to life, but not into a human. So once she aged into teen/YA I had her stop playing with it cause that's just creepy. Every FREAKING simday I get a notification that says something like "Audrey is loosing relationship with Jelly Bean. Maybe she should play with him a bit more." I can't get it to go away!! asdfghjkl;

Completely agree! They are so creepy And those messages are so annoying. I normally get spammed with the 'Jelly Bean has become a very special toy to [insert sims name here]' one.
You have to constantly fill a child/toddler's action queue with tasks because if you leave them idle for literally a few sim minutes, they'll have pulled the freaking doll out again!
I've also noticed thst my toddlers are not skill building at the rate that I normally like them to be due to their IF obsessions. You can buy them every book and toy avaliable for toddlers but they will not touch them whilst 'Jellybean' is still there to play with....:faceslap:
They seem to pull them out in the stupidest places too. They'll sit singing to their IF's right in front of doorways, toliets, cookers, showers....basically blocking anywhere your sim wants to go/any objects that may be useful.

[lastsummer03]

My IFs never work. I get them in the mail when a baby is born, but my toddlers can't play/sing with them at all. The dolls just seem to reset everytime I try and sometimes my toddler gets transported across the room. Has anyone else encountered this?

[Handbrakenz]

Mine does this too but not every time, and I saw one of the older toddlers playing with its brothers IF but couldnt play with their own. I think that one of the mods must be conflicting.

[fingersmith]

I've taken to deleting them with a mod. They are super annoying and I hate the way the children obsess over them. I wish you could turn them off though, that would be even better.

[IrresistibleAshGirl]

My IFs are really mean. I have two twin boys (Bakura and Ryou) who are teens now. Ryou's IF is always heckling him and Bakura's keeps insulting him and arguing with him for no reason...

[IrresistibleAshGirl]

I was not aware the head-size of a sim was variable. How did you manage this?
As far as I know (and I think this is what they mean) the only way to alter head size is the head width slider.

[Shadowed Corpse]

the only way to alter head size is the head width slider.
How about custom head size sliders? As I recall, there's one that's part of Jonha's body sliders.

[simbalena]

So once an IF becomes real can they do anything special other than turn into toy form? And do they get any benefit out of turning into toy form?

I've gathered a bunch of IF's into one household and intend to breed them, but I'm just wondering why I would do that if they don't do anything special!

One difficulty I discovered is that when I turned all six of them into toy form it was really hard to tell them apart.

[joandsarah77]

I leave mine in the mail box if I can and never let the kid form an attachment as they are a creepy pain and follow the kids into the bathroom.

[woooo!]

I dont hate it cos if u make a special potion u can make it into a actual sim and you can make a relasionship wiv it :rofl:

[IzzyBess]

They are a bit creepy but all in all I quite like them - mainly because of the option to turn them into real sims ;) Amazingly helpful in Nothing is Free challenge!

[tangie0906]

/begin rant

It's so ironic that someone resurrected this thread. I built a house and had my performer sim couple help me test it. So for the last two days I've been playing this family. Normally I play families because I find it very boring to just play one or two sims, and playing families is my favorite thing to do in the Sims. But I also tend to switch families a lot since a lot of the game play is so repetitive.

Anyway, for a sim week I've been playing this same family - he's a level 10 singer and she's a level 10 acrobat. To start off they had one teen son, one toddler daugher, and one baby, a son. Now the toddler aged up to a child and the baby became a toddler.

ALL. THEY. DO. is play with that freakin doll. The teen doesn't play with his anymore even though I occasionally get the message to let them out to play. But this whole EP is starting to drive be wacky. Between the child and toddler playing with the IF, the child wanting to sleep in the tree house instead of her bed, and the teen walking around setting booby traps everywhere, for the first time EVER I am tempted to uninstall Generations. And I NEVER thought I would EVER say that. :(

I have said from the beginning that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING needs to be customizable in this game. If I don't want to play with the freaking doll I should be forced to play with it or uninstall the whole EP. I feel like this game used to be about me controlling my sims and now it's about the sims' game designers controlling how I play. Grrr!

And please don't anyone tell me that I should 'go with the flow'. If you're that kind of player, goodie on you. I am not. I want to play the way I want to play, damn it! :p

/rant over

[Sunshine021]

I hate the imaginary friend. Like, seriously hate it. Every single one I've had likes to be a gigantic creeper and follow my kids into the bathroom when they need to use it. ¬_¬; I don't like the way the child(ren) constantly play with it, either. It's like, you have siblings and/or best friends for a reason, put the damn doll down and go be social! *facepalm*

I tried to hide the stupid thing once by burying it under some sand at the park, but it teleported back into the kids inventory as he went home. WTF? I've not tried detonating it yet, but something tells me that wouldn't actually work for me, either. -_-

I'm really surprised that there isn't a mod to get rid of the godforsaken things (or if there is, I'm not aware of it, yet). Definitely my biggest annoyance when I'm playing with families with children... especially more than one or two children. The concept of imaginary friends sounds okay, but it's very horribly implemented, and unless the kid grows into the loner, eccentric or insane trait(s), they really shouldn't be sticking around all the way into teen and adulthood, unless there's some hacks involved. :| Really f-ing annoying, especially considering what an otherwise great pack Generations is.

[anoukimoony]

I'm gonna be honest, I only just got this EP so I haven't tried out the whole Imaginary Friend thing yet (also because I mainly play with Young Adults), but I'm really curious now!
It sounds both awesome and creepy XD

[kithri]

It. Is. Very. Creepy.

Very.

:blink:

[310175]

It's like crack for kids. Whenever I hear that song kids sing to their "friend", I'm on it and cancel. My current family has triplets, so play with your siblings!

[Elledee]

I only bought Generations last week and tried out IFs the other day. I think they're pretty creepy. The two I had became real people and one of them was incredibly ugly. I don't think it's something I'll have them do too often. I might do it on occasion but a lot of times I just age the toddlers up as soon as they learn all the toddler skills and read their books so I wouldn't give them that much time to play with an IF.

[Sirah81]

Easiest ways to avoid IF is
A) Don't get the mail when doll is there. This is a bit extreme but I did it on one family that had No Bills Ever, just let it sit until the kid was a teen.
B) Take the doll out of inventory as soon as mail has been opened, BEFORE they have time to make a relationship. Babies only use IFs to get the sleeping with IF-moodlets anyway, and you can put a teddy bear in their inventory instead.
C) If the constant playing with the thing doesn't bother you just use the IF as a portable dollhouse, to satisfy social when parents are busy. NEVER take the doll out on inventory and it can't turn into the occult creep. When the kid turns teen they will stop playing with it and it's just a useless doll in inventory.

Good points of IFs:
1) Playing with the doll satisfies social and fun, like the dollhouse
2) The Occult (out-of-inventory) IF satisfies social needs, gets snacks and cleans
3) easy marriage material for those sims who are not good at romancing. All IFs made real have an unnatural hair colour that babies might inherit, many IFs are Face Ones.

Bad points of IFs:
1)Toddlers and kids will play and sing to the the doll more than any other activity, hinders skill gaining.
2)the Occult IF will follow the kid everywhere, usually interrupting peeing/bathing, initiating socials and taking up space. They will turn into a doll when kid sleeps, but often right next to the bed so kid will have trouble getting up.
3) All IFs made real have an unnatural hair colour that needs to be changed if you want natural-looking babies, many IFs are Face Ones.

[chuckles74]

The easiest way to avoid the IF is drag the doll into a parents inventory. I'm not sure if you need a mod to do this or if it will work with an unmodded game, but I have done it a lot so the child can't play with the doll.

[sparkinthenight]

I like the concept of the imaginary friends, but I dislike how they're implemented. I feel I would like them a whole lot more if they were rarer, and if I had some choice of customizing them. Have one kid with an animal type IF, another with a human looking one, and a third with a monstery looking one or something. It just strikes me as odd that every child imagines something that looks exactly same.

[kennyinbmore]

I guess I'm in the minority, I like the IF

[Mornath]

Ok, too lazy to read every post. So far, I played a lot around a single family with epic life span. First created a couple, a teenager daughter, and an aunt for the teenager. Even if both parent had the family trait (I play spanish version, so I don't know how it is called), I'm not very fond of children, so the teenager was the only one, and last child they ever had. Then I got Ambitions, and there was this LT reward to have a simbot. I expected it to be like Sims 1 robot (Can't recall its name right now, but I think it was Servo, or something like that), and I thought to myself: "A mechanich butler! I want it!" So I bought it, to my plain dissapointment. It was just another sim that walked ugly, sounded ugly, and looked crappy and junky. If that were not enough, It was very fond to sprinklers. So, Thinking myself to had ruined the family entirely, not strong enough to kick the robot out of the household, I started a new Sim in the new Ambitions town. After a few weeks, my new writer Sim was swimming in money, so I decided to move my previous family to town. Layla, the teenager from the first family, was moved to live with Sabrina, the new Sim, while the rest of the family moved not far in town. So, my new household had two girls. The teenager grew, and the girls coupled. All this story to tell that I have had no children at all. Closest approach was Layla's clone daughter, Katja, who never receiver her Imaginary friend doll. Time passed and Katja grew as a fine young adult, to finally marry some guy I created speciffically for the task. And thus, a couple days ago, they had their first child, Alexia. She was born, and when back to home, mail had the doll for her. However, that child grew up to toddler just to be unbearable. I can't stand little sims. They're such an annoyance, that I switched back to Layla and Sabrina, still YA due to the power of Ambrosia. So I didn't have time to try the imaginary friend. But from what I read up to now, It's plain annoying as it only is a "hard-to-earn" sim for your household, with an occult trait, which I find stupid and useless.



Sorry about the long story, but that's the way I play this game. Like a storytelling game, most of it invented and impossible to play ingame :P

EDIT:
Ok, I took my time to play a baby regardless of the annoyance. So far, I truly hate the imaginary bastard. I mean, good thing for the moodlets ans such. Toddlers can be less bother if socials can be kept up with that creepy wacko. BUT, when it wants to "come out to play"... Man.

Oh man. A real stalker for my kiddy. Doing homework? Nope, you got to be kidding me. I'll bother the kid so no homework. Having a bath? Nope, I'll go with him and bother. Using toilet? Not without the stalker friend. I even tried to lock him in the kids room. But the doll seems to teleport, so that doesn't work eiter.
Go get me a snack: What? I'm not your slut (and the doll has mean spirited trait). Let's chat a bit: Impress me, mortal (and ALSO a Snob). So, MasterController cheats, edit in CAS. Hell, I changed its traits. I had to made it friendly. It is supposed to be an imaginary FRIEND after all. And so in CAS, it has human-like appearence. So you got a beautiful sim from your doll? Then, I can't explain what is this african elephant doing in my CAS screen. Cute faces? Looks like a dog to me. It even had black hair. So, an ugly stalker awaits to be converted into human.

Ok, that's Imaginary Friends in my experience. An ugly stalker with unbearable traits so far. And did I mention it gets in the way of every sim in the house? I mean it, any sim doing something, well, this wacko gets in the way, of course, while stalking my kid. LET MY BOY LIVE, YOU CREEP!!

[Lady Starr]

I've only gotten four of them with my babies since I put on Generations. Once you turn them real, is there a way to change them into something like a vampire? I have one in one of my Bridgeport games who is married to a vampire and they both keep rolling the wants to change IF-Turned-Real into a vampire but there's no option for it. Also he has the option to change back into a doll form even though he's a YA now.

[MinghamSmith]

The easiest way to avoid the IF is drag the doll into a parents inventory. I'm not sure if you need a mod to do this or if it will work with an unmodded game, but I have done it a lot so the child can't play with the doll.

You don't need a mod to put it in someone else's inventory, you only need a mod to delete it. If you're using testing cheats, you don't even need that. It's an object, there's no restrictions on who can carry it.

And you're right, that is the simplest way to prevent it from developing into a sentient invisible entity or being a pain when it is already is one- I've used that one myself. Another tactic, though, is to swap the dolls belonging to two different babies if a multiple birth leads to both of them getting an Imaginary Friend doll in the post at the same time. It's basically exploiting a loophole in the game mechanics: A toddler playing with a doll only counts towards bringing it to life if the toddler in question is considered to be its owner- if the doll in its inventory is listed as somebody else's, it'll just gain fun and social like it would with a normal stuffed animal. But since the AI doesn't distinguish between different dolls, it's entirely possible to let two toddlers play with each other's for the entire life stage and keep themselves occupied without producing any NPC Imaginary Friends once they both age up.

[fullsheet]

I found them hilarious after I used a mod to switch owners to my old insane sims and brought it to life. It immediately aged to an old IF and walked with a cane and walked like it had arthritis.
It argued with the sim all the time. When I switched to another household it was awesome watching the elderly sim argue and even brawl with nothing.

[lilliandulcia]

I like the imaginary friends in general, but I don't like them going into my sim's bedrooms and blocking the beds so they cant get out or go in (my kids bedroom has 2 bunkbeds and it's pretty small). I don't like them following my sims into the bathroom every time. I don't like my sims choosing to talk to their imaginary friends rather than eat or whatever. But I still like the idea.

[jurocha]

My Imaginary Friend was going great, my sim's relationship bar was at it's max. But my imaginary friend started to pick fights, to the point that my sim couldn't even talk to her without being argued with...so I eventually had to wait until she returned to doll form, and place her back into my sims inventory.

Sad...


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v324/Scarysecrets/Screenshot-122-1.jpg

Do they start being just a doll again if you put them on the inventory?

I got my first imaginary friend a couple days ago and at first I thought it cute, and quite helpful to improve skills (I set him to play dominoes with the child all the time)... but I am getting fed up wth the following around. Sometimes my imaginary friend will stand in the middle of doorways and block routings of all Sims in the house, quite annoying!

[Nick-the-Greek]

I actually never understood how an imaginary friend works so I haven't played with them :(

[lil bag2]

I don't really like or hate them. I think they're creepy but they don't really get in the way. To be honest, I've only had maybe 4 sims actually play with their IF long enough for it to come to life when they grew up (and only one has been transformed into a real sim) All the other imaginary friends that my sims get are ignored. Not on purpose, I just forget about them. And my toddlers/children never autonomously play with them (I never downloaded a mod for it. They just seem to have the same level of indifference towards them as I do) so I don't get any unwanted IFs

I like the concept of the imaginary friends, but I dislike how they're implemented. I feel I would like them a whole lot more if they were rarer, and if I had some choice of customizing them. Have one kid with an animal type IF, another with a human looking one, and a third with a monstery looking one or something. It just strikes me as odd that every child imagines something that looks exactly same.

I second this. Why can't our sims have imaginations like the kids in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends?

[Trichelle]

I've had six sims born into my game and every single one of them got that doll. I don't really have a lot of feelings about it either way. The toddlers play with it the most, but sometime the kids do as well. They automatically go back into their inventories, but I do see that little message, but I so didn't know what that meant.

But what I do find creepy is having the option to marry the thing later on down the line. Wtf? That is just way too much for me to handle.

[Chetanzi]

A side-goal of mine right now is to have my current red-haired sim have a daughter. This daughter will be named Amy, and she will get her IF who will be named The Doctor. Whovians can see where this is going.

Other than that, I found the Occult IF to be alternatively creeptacular, oddly whimsical, and freaking annoying. The first time I saw one walking around the house (doing that weird...strut) I kind of just stared at it for about ten minutes. Looked like something out of a horror movie following my child sim around. :wtf: I usually play with autonomy turned off because I'm a control freak, so the constant playing with the doll was never an issue for me, but I feel like there's so many things for toddlers and kids and teens to do now that IFs have to be something you REALLY WANT in order to merit the attention they demand. I like the moodlets and the IFs are kinda cute in a "oh that's so weird" way, but overall I just ignore them because they're so demanding.

[fairycake89]

What I don't like about IFs is that they quite literally demand attention from the child and appears to stop the child having other friends or even family interactions because of it's demands on the child's time and affection - demands to the point that the child's needs suffer, homework suffers and the kid ends up a friendless loser ...