What is your most commonly-chosen Aspiration?

[Traveler]

Greetings! :)

I apologize if another topic has been previously created that resembles this one, though I couldn't seem to find one. (After five seconds of searching, of course).

So, what is your most commonly-chosen Aspiration for your Sims? Which one do you think provides the easiest gameplay/benefits? Personally, my favorite is the Knowledge Aspiration, because all you need to do to keep your Sims happy is to build up some skills now and then.

~ Traveler

[Gcgb53191]

Knowledge and Family are my most chosen aspirations. I've been trying to add some popularity sims recently but now I've decided to use a dice so I can have more variety since my game is getting pretty boring.

[Orilon]

When I could play Sims 2, Knowledge Sims were my favorite since most of the time their wants are easy to fill and they don't get ridiculous wants like have 10 children.

[Mrmo]

Mostly Family for me. If I give it to kids/teens they get a want to do the homework and if a parent have family aspiration they want to help the kids whit the homework (I belive you alredy know this). But it's useful. And we may not forget about "Grandmas comfort soup".

[zumppe]

Pleasure. In my main hood, everybody is Pleasure. It's the hood where my self-sim (Pleasure, with secondary Romance) + hundreds of crazy family members and friends live a life of... well, pleasure. :lol:

In my other hoods I always choose aspirations very carefully based on the personality, interests, and wants/fears etc. of the sims, so there's no favored aspiration at all, they all get used.

(personally, my least favorite aspiration is Family, especially for females -a girl who wants a lot of babies, YAWN what a cliché- but I do use it, since I play my sims according to their own personalities, not mine. Well expect for my self-sim. Who is... me, anyway. :lol: )

[StrangeTownChick]

Family. Gcgb's dice idea sounds interesting, though. I usually choose family sims because I find they are the ones I like best. Second most used is Pleasure. I never much liked the other kinds, but I may have to start using them more as now I use them only for story purposes.
And to Mrmo, what is the comfort soup?

[Gcgb53191]

Family. Gcgb's dice idea sounds interesting, though. I usually choose family sims because I find they are the ones I like best. Second most used is Pleasure. I never much liked the other kinds, but I may have to start using them more as now I use them only for story purposes.
And to Mrmo, what is the comfort soup?

I havent started it yet but I will from now on I just have the same old boring family/Knowledge sim wants that get boring fast.

The comfort soup is a soup you can make if you have the family aspiration and can help with colds/flus :lol:

[dieKristina]

Family, knowledge and fortune are the most common aspirations in my game. Most of my sims have at least one of those aspirations, primary or secondary. I can´t really say which of them I like the most - I like them all in different ways. I love the breeding aspect of the game and family sims are obviously very happy with having lots a children. I also like my sims to improve their skills and discover new things - things that make a knowledge sim pleased with life. And finally I like how fortune sims always have a clear goal in their life, and how they know how to achieve their goals by getting wants to skill or make friends when that´s necessary for a promotion.

[DigitalSympathies]

Family, and then at second knowledge and romance tied. I haven't done much with any other aspirations.

[SusannaG]

I generally roll dice to determine aspiration, but am happiest when it comes up knowledge or family. I like fortune sims as well most of the time.

[mangaroo]

These days, I randomize for CAS-created Sims and game-born Sims transitioning to teenhood. Prior to that, I would always choose Knowledge, Fortune, or Family. Since this is back in pre-Freetime days, the most common situation for me would be creating a CAS couple, one Knowledge or Fortune and the other Family.

The bias toward those aspirations reflects my gameplay, which tends to be focused on skilling/economic goals (basically, accomplishments that can be measured by what the Sim can do or afford), combined with my desire to create the next generation. I still don't have a play style that suits Sims who exist to chat with other Sims, woohoo, or jump on the sofa. Honestly, most of my gameplay with Romance Sims seems to involve us spiting one another. Pleasure Sims just...their aspiration gets ignored and I focus on other aspects of their personality. Popularity Sims are the frustrating ones for me because they could be interesting if friendship in TS2 were more nuanced. I'd like to see flags for friendship chemistry as well as romantic chemistry. I'd like BFFs to be limited to one or two relationships (like the dog/master relationship from Pets), not the default for any best friend relationship that lasts longer than 3 days.

[Traveler]

Romance is always a fun one.. :)

I do like Family and Fortune also. Pleasure isn't high on my Aspiration priorities, mainly because it involves fulfilling Wants that give hardly any Aspiration benefit. Popularity is one I play occasionally.

Of course, Grilled Cheese is my least favorite one, heh.

~ Traveler

[frankokomando]

I mostly choose knowledge and family. Sometimes I choose romance. I've been trying to pick different aspirations so it doesn't get boring.

[sierrakusterbeck]

Mostly fortune and knowledge but I'm gonna start adding romance/pleasure sims to screw with my hood and break up couples :x

[Clashfan]

I randomize for aspirations when a Sim ages up to teen and then they have a 50/50 shot of changing their aspiration when they reach their Jr year at Uni. However at the moment I seem to have an inordinately large number of fortune Sims I'm hoping to get the option to change a few of them.

When left to my own devices I almost always choose knowledge, family or romance. I do better not making these decisions since it's more fun to have a diverse hood.

[gazania]

Knowledge and Fortune.

[lil_princess_of_evil]

For me, romance and fortune tend to be my favorites for story telling, but I roll the dice to keep it interesting. I like family a lot too but everyone always just having large families gets boring after awhile. Knowledge is usually my secondary aspiration because it helps for quick career building. If it were up to me, I'd never pick pleasure because I find that one boring.

[punkrockgoth1988]

I'm sure that if I were to do a census of Huzat Village, I would find that Family and Knowledge Sims would be in the top two spots for most prolific aspirations. However, I do have a great many Sims with dual Aspirations which mixes things up a bit. For example, Meadow Thayer is a Family/Romance Sim, who has been busy with the boys in her University. However she'll probably settle down someday.

[omglo]

In my main hood, I choose the aspiration based on the Sim's history so there isn't one that's commonly chosen. In my commune hood, all the generation 1 founders are family, so they're motivated to have enough kids to farm the land and make the crafts that keep the neighborhood mostly self sufficient.

[lg135]

Popularity. It seems the most 'average' of them all, seeing as it's all about making friends. Mostly everyone wants to make friends right? Throw in interesting personality quirks and a secondary aspiration and you've got a standard, run-of-the-mill Sim.

-One who'll have a decent sex life without going crazy like a Romance. One who wants to well in leader-esque careers without focusing on money like Fortune. One who likes hanging out with their family and kids without being obsessed with marriage and baby making (Family). One who likes to have a good time without rolling wants to constantly have said good time (Pleasure). And one who's moderately smart, but doesn't want to be the next Einstein (Knowledge). Oh, and one who enjoys a grilled cheese sandwich.. occasionally.

Not saying my hoods aren't filled with other asps. Next largest would probably be Knowledge and then Family and Romance tied. Wealthy's next, and finally Pleasure (Pleasure is usually a secondary asp, but lately I'm using it more to create more selfish/self absorbed sims.) Oh, and maybe 2 Grilled Cheesers.

[Simsica]

I randomize when I start a hood. This is how I ended up with a population dominated by Romance and Pleasure aspirations in my favorite hood.
When child Sims age up, I go by their history of wants and by their personality combined. This requires me to be attentive. That is sometimes difficult, so some of them will be randomized too.
When they reach teendhood, they receive second aspiration too, and that one is based on their LTWs. Since I use Any LTW For Any Aspiration hack, that can be quite discordant with their primary aspiration, which is how my new population ended up being mostly a weird combo of Romance/Family or Pleasure/Family and how almost all my Family Sims ended up having Romance as secondary asp. (I swear, there was a cosmic conspiracy to favor Romance when I was creating this particular hood...)

So nothing is by the book in my game, aspiration-wise.

Before, while I was still doing it by the book (vanilla or with no aspiration related hacks installed), I created most of my CAS Sims as Knowledge and Family, and their in-game born or raised children would get an aspiration that corresponded to their personality scores. I used to have a system for this which ensured the easy life for them. An outgoing and nice Sim would invariably be Popularity aspiration. A playful and neat Sim would be Family. A playful, outgoing and reasonably nice Sim would be either Romance or Pleasure, depending on the whim of the moment (I do prefer Pleasure between the two, however). A serious and grouchy Sim would be Fortune aspiration (I have an issue with money-driven people in real life so this reflected in my game too, obviously.) Serious Sims that are also nice and relatively shy would end up with Knowledge. I had no grilled cheese aspirations back then, unlike now, of course. In fact, I have two current hoods and this is the aspiration that prevails in the second one, just like Romance does in the one mentioned earlier.

My new system is admittedly slightly crazy (it's not pure randomization nor personality-based but a combination of both these methods). But it does yield some interesting - or maybe just crazy - results. I enjoy it, though, and that's what matters.

[Bodhie]

I personally find all the inspiration a bit too extreme . Can't the money inspiration be about money without sounding like Picsou ? lol
I usually go for knowledge and Fortune . I used the family one too much :(
The romance and the Popularity one are to me the hardest to do . The romance always stress me out with lot of GF walking by lol and the Popularity one annoy me..cose the phone keep ringing with friends calling haha
The pleasure one I never tried...I don't get that one .

[annoainthere]

Family is the most common aspiration in any of my neighbourhoods. Followed closely by Fortune, Romance, Grilled Cheese, Popularity, Knowledge and lastly Pleasure. Yup, I have more grilled cheese aspirations then I can poke a plate loaded with grilled cheese at... oh well I find grilled cheese the easiest aspiration to platinum for life anyway. Usually I end up with whole families of grilled cheese plus secondary aspiration - which works surprisingly well for me! :)

[Vimpse]

I've tried a lot of things to choose aspirations; rolling dice, going for the same thing over and over (family or knowledge) etc... these days I choose it based on their turn ons/turn offs when they turn into teenagers - it's not the cleanest system, but at least it's loosely based on it. For example if a male is turned on by logic and hard-working but turned off by jewlery, he's a knowledge sim, mostly based on his turn-off since if it was something random (like blonde hair) he could pass as a fortune Sim as well. If a girl is turned on by muscles and cologne but turned off by hats, she'd probably be a romance sim, possibly popularity too. Mostly it works out, but then sometimes you get really random ones and it's impossible to categorize it (like turn ons: fat sims and makeup. Turn off: brown hair. What in the world do those point to? :lol: )

[M.M.A.A.]

Right now, its knowledge, not sure about the other teens-to-be.

[Deryn]

I think my neighborhoods are filled with little Gadflies because the most common aspiration in them tends to be Popularity. however if I was going to make a list in descending order it would probably be:

1) Popularity
2) Family
3) Romance
4) wealth
5) Pleasure
6) Knowledge
7) Romance/Pleasure
8) Popularity/Family
9) Popularity/Wealth
10) Knowledge/Pleasure

So you can probably guess that most people in my hoods know everyone and gossip is one of the most common hobby among my little Simmies. Of course that means that my Simmies spend a lot of time on community lots just greeting anyone they might not have met, and those vacation gestures are a plague on my hoods, but it all makes for some interesting gameplay.

[Sunbee]

It depends--if I'm doing a challenge I pick according to what makes the best founder. (7 toddlers--family, adult start apoc--knowledge, etc) Pretty much all my CAS sims right now are for challenges.
In megahood, a sim has to have at least six playful points to have pleasure as primary or secondary; at least six neat points for family or have rolled mainly family related wants as a child; fewer than five outgoing for knowledge or have rolled mainly knowledge wants as a child; at least six outgoing and fewer than five nice for romance, unless they have a family secondary; at least six outgoing and at least six nice for popularity as a primary, nice doesn't matter for a secondary, or have brought other children home from school most days as a child; have rolled a lot of buy wants for a fortune primary. If a sim has not at least six active points and rolls a LTW for which body points matter, or a 5 businesses want, the LTW will be rerolled.

[StarlightBeauty]

I mainly use family because it's fun up until they get married and want babies. I don't always want to play out children. Personally I hate the "Get caught cheating" fear because it makes you think "oh so you're thinking about cheating on your spouse all ready?" So I use knowledge. I prefer having sims with romantic wants/desires for their partner, and their partner only. Knowledge sims can turn into Romance sims after a while. Pleasure is like no aspiration for me. I don't have much to say. Wealth is because... I don't know. Romance is one of my least preferred choices because other sims will swoon over the sim, and he/she will want to cheat. I tried using a Romance sim for romantic purposes when I was too young for this game, and I was angry at how he would lust over Nina Caliente instead of his friend :| I killed him off and made an exact replica of him, as a family sim. I know I'm a killjoy, but most Romance sims in my game are dead or have had their aspirations change. They can be really fun if you're willing to keep up on the relationships though. I had a sim who had a dream date with pretty much every woman in the neighbourhood. Good times. Then there was another who impregnated every single woman who fell for him. His wife always was asleep or in the house completely oblivious until he died with maxed out happiness. Popularity is a pain for me because most of the time I just want them to have relationships with sims in the household only. My game play has changed a lot since I have gotten sims 3.
So it's mainly:
1) Family
2) Knowledge
3) Pleasure
4) Wealth
5) Romance
6) Popularity

[smellincoffee]

Seems to depend on the hood. In Pleasantview, popularity and knowledge are the most common; in Wright, Fortune dominates the field.

[Julieryc]

I used to make a TON Of knowledge sims until I decided to do it more sim-by-sim based. (Popularity/knowledge is actually my favorite combination in terms of perks - primary popularity for the relationship boosts and secondary knowledge for the "Eureka!" skilling. I find the final benefit for family and knowledge sims least useful; I dislike using popularity or romance as the secondary aspiration because I find their third perks to be not as useful. Family's third perk isn't really useful either, but I do like having sims with either primary or secondary family aspiration so they'll roll wants to teach their toddlers.)

But now I go by Sim and not by usefulness. When it comes time to choose aspiration at teen, I look at what they've done. If they've made a lot of friends, they're Popularity. If they've either made a lot of friends of their gender preference (usually randomly selected by me, although sometimes I have premade story ideas) or if they don't have a lot of friends but their personality is outgoing, I'll think about Romance. If they've skilled a lot (either maxed out a skill or >20 skill points), they'll be Knowledge. If they've rolled a lot of the general playful (non-friend, non-skilling) wants, they'll be Pleasure. If they're best friends with all of their family members, particularly if they've befriended a ton of non-household family, they'll be Family. If they've rolled a lot of wants to sell lemonade or if they don't have a lot of other distinguishing characteristics, they're Fortune.

Secondary aspiration can stem from what happens if they fulfill multiple requirements (lots of friends + maxed Logic) plus a look at personality and/or a generic feel I got from playing the Sim. I virtually never play Grilled Cheese sims unless I want to indicate they're obsessive or a bit odd, and Pleasure gets played slightly less because of all the low-scoring wants. I'll also take a look at their parents and see what they were: coming from two Family sims might mean they've been encouraged to become Family (or, if they hate their Family-aspiration parents, they may rebel and become Romance.)

That keeps me from making too many primary Knowledge sims, or from making the primary/secondary combos ones I like is disproportionate numbers (the entire neighborhood can't be made of Popularity/Knowledge and Romance/Family sims!) I should really do the census numbers to see how many Sims of each primary aspiration I have - I would bet that it would go something like Fortune > Knowledge > Popularity > Romance > Pleasure > Grilled Cheese, at least for primary. I think I only have 2 sims with secondary Cheese aspirations, and none with primary - it's just too dominating.

[Peni Griffin]

My favorite is Fortune, Popularity my least favorite; but I just did a tally and to my surprise Family was first, Knowledge second, and Fortune only third. Popularity came in fourth, with Pleasure dead last.

Many of these aspirations were, if not out of my control, handed to me by the game. For example, five out of my twelve Pleasure sims are Tricou bastards. I have so far only changed the aspiration on one of these during junior year, partly because I decided I needed the practice in playing the aspiration (a decision that has paid off handsomely), and partly because a sim who begins in college doesn't have time for me to develope a confortable character arc.

I am inconsistent about how I choose aspirations to begin with. If I'm making sims in CAS, they typically have an intended role in the neighborhood, determining most of their traits. Born in-game sims are given aspirations based on their characters as far as possible. Some sims tell me almost with their first breath who they are and what they want; others are more flexible; and some are wide open. So, for example, when the Munny boys grew to teen, I wanted Frank to be Fortune like his Pa; but this was the one area (well, besides neatness) in which he absolutely could not be like his Pa. He'd been Popularity from the first time he crawled and there was nothing I could do about it. His brother Mark, however, could as easily have been Fortune like Pa, Knowledge like Ma, or Popularity like his brother, so I rolled a d3 (i.e., a d6, where 1-2=Fortune, 3-4=Knowledge, and 5-6=Popularity). When Sarah Ruben grew up, she had shown absolutely no trends in her character that I'd detected. I could have rolled a d6, but decided instead to increase the odds that she'd get an "immature" aspiration (Popularity, Pleasure, Romance, the things that preoccupy most teens), so rolled a d10, with two chances each for Popularity and Romance, three chances for Pleasure, and one each for the "mature" aspirations.

Even with weighted die rolls, it's possible to get statistical clusters, and a lot of my Family aspirations result from that.

[larky]

Huh. I'd have sworn that the most common aspiration in my primary neighborhood was Popularity, but the census tool tells me that Pop's actually third from last (with ten playables), only ahead of Pleasure (with seven) and Grilled Cheese (with exactly one). Otherwise, though, it's pretty evenly distributed besides those last two, with the most common--Family--having just sixteen of my eighty-eight playables.

I'm not sure what secondaries are most common; I don't have any quick way to count them. I only give my sims one FT perk a season, I roll a die to figure out which one they get, and I don't allow teens to have secondaries at all, so most of mine don't get one until middle age or later.

I pick aspirations, both primary and secondary, by ranking them in order of fit, then going down the list and flipping a coin until something comes up heads (so the best fit has a 50% chance, the second-best has a 25%, and so on; on occasion I'll let the best fit have two flips and a 75% chance). I used to roll a die, but it was too random--what it came up with only occasionally made sense for the characters--and of the different ways I tried to assign weighted odds, this was the simplest that gave me acceptable results. As-is, sims only get the absolute most bizarre aspiration for them one time in sixty-four, not one time in six, which is rare enough to be interesting. And if they're not doing well with the first aspiration they get, they can retry it during the Uni reroll (if they make it that far in Uni, of course, which some don't) and bump the old one down to a secondary.

My favorite aspiration's probably Popularity, though. They tend to have busy, chaotic households and large networks of loved ones without the population-explosion problems Family sims cause, and I have rules for friend-building that mean not all friendships work out (they usually have to use the Chat interaction to try and make friends, unless they want to do some other one in particular, and with the harder relationships mod, sometimes they just won't have enough in common).

[BurgundyStars]

I've been trying to mix it up lately, but Knowledge is by far the most common Aspiration in my game. Fortune comes in second and Romance is a distant third place. I used Knowledge a little too much when I first started playing TS2. Pleasure or Family are probably my least favorite ones, but I do like to use them as secondary Aspirations.

My favorite combinations are Knowledge/Fortune, Romance/Popularity, and Fortune/Pleasure. Oh, and I never ever touch the grilled cheese Aspiration.

[MimiSim]

It depends on the sim. Personally, I prefer knowledge, but I try to make sure that every sims aspiration matches their personality. For example, I wouldn't make a sim with few outgoing points a popularity sim. Also, I wouldn't make a sim with not enough nice points a family sim.

[maxon]

I don't think I have a favourite aspiration. There is certainly a variety in Little Carping. There is a preponderance of popularity/romance/pleasure but that's because I give those aspirations to nearly all my teens (a significant proportion grow out of them). There are aspirations that I like and respect (knowledge), that I respect (family), dislike and respect (fortune). Of the others, none of which I particularly respect, I like because of the drama they can bring - I would regard most as being self-centered to a greater or lesser degree. I like Grilled Cheese though it is the most uncommon - there is only one at the moment, and that's Danny Morgan. I also like the combinations. I would think of myself as knowledge with secondary knowledge (in the absence of a creativity aspiration) which explains why I have such a high regard for knowledge sims. OTOH, Knowledge, after Grilled Cheese, is probably the rarest aspiration in Little Carping.

[Saturnfly]

Definitely Knowledge. I can't sim without the Eureka! function. xD
Second would be Family.

[mr_db1]

I like to do the complete weird genetics thing so most of my sims are in the family or romance range

and then the house needs some work like repairs and I don't want the repairman with his bills
so at least 1 of the household (or my play-able guests) has a mechanical skill setting
and for savety I keep the first born for knowledge so he/she can go learn stuff

[StrangeTownChick]

Census of my brand-spanking-new city: 3 Family, 1 Fortune, 1 Pleasure, 1 Popularity

[dameautour]

I use the Aspiration Generator (http://home.comcast.net/~simsherry/Sims2/aspgen/aspirationgenerator.html). I get a lot of wealth, knowledge and romance Sims. Very rarely get Family or Pleasure. Popularity comes up from time to time.

[TychoH]

My most chosen aspiration is Family, then Knowledge, third Romance. Wealthy is fourth. I almost do not play Pleasure and Popularity Sims.

[Lady Scarlet]

I think ... Family, because I just like my simmies having lots of children ^^" And that way they like it too.

[TychoH]

@Lady Scarlet
What do you do with all their children when they have grown up? Do you give them also a large family?

[Lady Scarlet]

Well, because now I play a Medieval Challenge it's kind of a must to have big families, so yes, I give them big families too (like ... 6 or more children for each family, because infant deaths were quite frequent back then).I had families who had 6 children and one one or two survived and became teenagers, but I also had families who had 11 or 12 children who survived ^^ I just like big families ^^"

[TychoH]

How do you kill all that children? Just when they are ill > kill them? 0.o Never understand how children can die in Sims 2.

[mr_db1]

@ TychoH : how about they die drowning, flies, lighting, hail, fire

that last one happened to 4 of my toddlers 6 weeks ago

fire can kill a child and if he/she can still move while burning he/she can kill the family with those flames
for the flies the room only has to be dirty for days and a chiild could die by walking into, and therby desturbing, that swarm

----> http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Death#The_Sims_2_2
that link is just the 'bad news' page of sims.wikia

[TychoH]

Thanks :)

[Darby]

for the flies the room only has to be dirty for days

Not quite accurate. Once something is dirty and has flies swarming, it doesn't matter how long it has been that way. In other words, things don't get dirtier with time.

Fly swarms on dirty dishes (what else attracts flies? diapers?) periodically intensify into a localized swarm, and that's when they're deadly if a sim gets too close. The more dirty plates (or whatever) lying around, the greater the chance that one or more of them will be harboring the killer flies at any given moment.

[mr_db1]

ok thanks for giving even more info Darby (I didn't think it was important in this case)
and for cathing an error

I just took enough info from the "death" page to answer the death question

[Macaroodle]

I've started to do like some of the people here and pay attention to kid sims' wants and actions to determine their aspiration. To some extent I factor in their personality, too. Gallagher Newson was pretty shy and stuck around home, so he became a Family sim. It says in Lucy Burb's bio that she has a knack for trouble, so I gave her Pleasure secondary (first being Family). Etsu Cho's really only befriended boys outside of her stepsister, so I should, in theory, give her romance.... But I just can't do that to that sweet little girl! :lol:

Something I've found myself liking is to add a contrasting secondary aspiration sometimes. For example, I've given several Romance sims Family as secondary... I think it helps me like them more, like it gives them more morals than they'd otherwise have. In another hood I have a Family/Romance housewife who writes smutty novels in her spare time.

I've also stolen/borrowed one of Peni Griffin's ideas- to change their aspirations in their junior year of college depending on how they see the world now. For example, Johnny Smith's got his eye on following his mom into the medical field, and it's not quite as important for him now to be liked as it was for him in high school. So he's a Knowledge sim now. Similarily, Guy Wrightley's become more focused on finding The One and having a happy family like the one he grew up with. Now he's- you guessed it- Family. I imagine the same thing will happen to Ripp Grunt... he's Family for his secondary anyway, and I've decided in this version that he does want lots of dates and everything but with only one girl at once.

(Hopefully I've got that right, Peni!)

[Peni Griffin]

However works for you is right! I can't cop to having any particular guidelines to follow myself, much less to impose on anybody else; sometimes it's obvious, and sometimes I'm just feeling that the current aspiration isn't "working." And once in awhile I change an aspiration in accordance with the sim's subculture expectations (Guasimalan men tend to feel vaguely that they're "supposed" to be Family or Finance and that all the other aspirations, in a grown man, are either girly or immature; how this plays out depends on their degree of assimilation) or even to improve chemistry with their chosen partner; though I have to be really, really sure that the chosen one is right and that changing the aspiration won't mess up the sim even if it strengthens the relationship. I'm willing to give my two Fortune/Knowledge couples secondaries to reflect actual behavior, but it would feel like a violation of character to change primaries on one of them just to squeeze out an extra bolt.

[PolterGeist44]

I'd say that Romance and Popularity are my least used aspirations. Dunno why exactly.

[Simsica]

Reading this thread I realized that I'm in minority with regards to pleasure aspiration. I like that aspiration precisely because those Sims are oriented towards the wants that give them less points if satisfied. My pleasure Sims are always on the move - like buterflies with flowers, they jump from one com lot to the next in pursuit of their desires. I really abuse the com lot functionality though, so maybe that's why I love them so much. They give me even more excuses to roam my hood. As if I needed more of those...
They get married a bit later than anybody else, except romance obviously, and I find them to be an easy aspiration for a family life. But I do play more casually than most - I'm not after LTWs for example (they serve me only as a sort of a general direction for the Sims' behavior), so there's that. I can see how someone who plays vanilla romance and wants to fulfill LTWs could find them a bit difficult, if not even boring. Which is almost unimaginable to me. They're now among my favorite aspirations to play.

More generally, the secondary aspiration changed the aspiration aspect of the game completely IMO, adding depth to Sims. Playing a pleasure Sim with family, knowledge or fortune secondaries is definitelly more satisfying than just the pleasure aspiration was.

[katya_stevens]

I roll dice to determine a sim's aspiration which over a large span of time/number of sims should balance out to be roughly equal. I do seem to notice Pleasure sims disproportionately (largely because I find their 500-750pt wants annoying in that I have to fill a ton of them to get their aspiration meter up), especially as one family in my Prosperity challenge seems to roll more Pleasure sims than all other families.

Counting only primary aspirations, the last census I did for my prosperity town gave me 22% Knowledge, 17.5% Family, 16% Fortune, 14.6% Romance, Pleasure and Popularity.

[Fivey]

Normally knowledge. I relate to them a lot.

I like playing fortune sims, but they're harder to get into triple bolt relationships as they only want other money grubbers. I like variety, thank you.

Family sims are easy to play, but babies are ANNOYING. They work well with knowledge, so I tend to have a lot of them.

I usually have a lone sim set as town casanova/bike. They are fun to play, but I only have a few.

Pleasure sims are okay. I HATE POPULARITY SIMS.

[Peni Griffin]

I think you are mistaken there, Fivey! Fortune sims have great chemistry, per Cyjon:
http://drupal.cyjon.net/node/87

Though I always mentally flip-flop his numbers on popularity and pleasure, as it seems to work out that Fortune/Pleasure couples have better chemistry than Fortune/Popularity. I'm not going to argue with him on numbers; presumably this (and your experience with Fortune sims having poor chemistry) is an artifact of other factors in individual games. Some of my highest-bolting, widest-attracting sims are Fortune. I figure Romance and Family like them because they're good providers, and they like Romance and Family because they like providing.

[Lady L.]

The one I choose most is Family, I think, mostly because I have newhood-itis, and I always want my sims to start having babies right away. My second-favourite is tied between popularity and pleasure--and I love adding Family as a secondary to these two, especially Pleasure. I have a tendency to make Pleasure female/Family male couples, since I love that combination. (Dad being the sensible one, and Mum being the "dessert for breakfast? Why not!" type. The reverse just reminds me too much of a Seth MacFarlane cartoon.)

[Fivey]

I think you are mistaken there, Fivey! Fortune sims have great chemistry, per Cyjon:
http://drupal.cyjon.net/node/87

Though I always mentally flip-flop his numbers on popularity and pleasure, as it seems to work out that Fortune/Pleasure couples have better chemistry than Fortune/Popularity. I'm not going to argue with him on numbers; presumably this (and your experience with Fortune sims having poor chemistry) is an artifact of other factors in individual games. Some of my highest-bolting, widest-attracting sims are Fortune. I figure Romance and Family like them because they're good providers, and they like Romance and Family because they like providing.

It could always be other factors for my fortune sims cruddy chesmistry, of course. For example, I have Frances J. Worthington in a double bolt relationship with an alien hybrid with the family aspiration. The main reason for their lack of triple boltage is that their zodiacs signs don't do well together. I'm tempted to edit their peronalities, since I don't want to break them up (they created their relationship by themselves.)

Anyway, I don't like popularity sims. I've never been good with the whole friendship thing. Most of my sims like being alone.

[Peni Griffin]

If they're working on their own, don't mess with the chemistry, I say! Double bolts is plenty. If you date them a lot and get them into the PDA habit, you won't be able to tell them from triple bolters.

Trust me. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

[zumppe]

I think you are mistaken there, Fivey! Fortune sims have great chemistry, per Cyjon:
http://drupal.cyjon.net/node/87

My Fortune sims don't have great chemistry either, except with other Fortune sims. They're not as bad as Popularity sims, but good runners-up... Popularity and Fortune have the least amount of three-bolters in my hood.

[Fivey]

If they're working on their own, don't mess with the chemistry, I say! Double bolts is plenty. If you date them a lot and get them into the PDA habit, you won't be able to tell them from triple bolters.

Trust me. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

Ohhh, trust me. They've been acting like triple bolters way before they even developed crushes. The first autonomous action they did together when I moved in Apollo (the alien) was having bed Woohoo. Mind you Apollo didn't even have his first kiss yet, and here he was bending over for Mr. Worthington III. They were engaged by the end of the semester, dammit.

Compare that to Apollo's twin, Artemis. She was in a triple-bolt relationship all through college with a redheaded townie, and she had the engagement want locked forever because her boyfriend never rolled the want to get engaged. Or married, after they got engaged senior year. Damion was so much like Artie's dad it was mind bending. She must of had an Electra complex or something.

...ANYWAY, I guess the lack of triple boltage in certain relationships bothers me because I am pretty good at matchmaking, and can find triple bolters quite easily for my sims. It's that unbearable lack of control, you know? I might just like playing God way too much.

[Lady L.]

I always think of "chemistry" as a measure of compatibility--it indicates the potential for a match to succeed, not whether or not it will. I had two couples who chose against their boltage:

The first couple were a dormie I created (Rochelle) and a born-in-game sim (Charles). The born-in-game sim had dated another born-in-game sim (Juanita) in high school, with two bolts. Juanita and Charles had two bolts, while Rochelle and Charles had three. However, he refused to roll an engagement want for Rochelle, and when I took them on a vacation hoping to get him to roll the want, during a date I sent them on, he rolled the want to fall in love with Juanita. I broke them up, but Juanita was already dating someone else. Unfortunately, I ended up getting rid of that hood because I was having trouble with aging issues.

In the same 'hood I had a pair of one-bolt sims get married--and one of them was a Romance sim, too! He was having affairs with various two-bolter women in the neighbourhood, including one lady with whom he had twins, and I had him take one of his one-bolt lady friends on vacation. While he was there, he wooed a vacation local, and his other lady friend found out. Despite that, though, she forgave him before the end of the vacation--and he rolled the want to get engaged to her. Before I deleted the hood, they got married with two kids--although he continued his romancing ways, including that vacation local.

[StrangeTownChick]

I've really started paying attention to my sims lately, since I've made the rule of having no more than five CAS families in my new town (letting marraige and reproduction expand the population). I've notised, for example, that little Reyna Palenta would accomplish most as a popularity sim. Even as a toddler she's shown almost no interest in learning skills, being more fascinated in interacting with her parents and even guests that come over. Her favourite toys are the ones that give her Charisma points. So once she hits teen, she'll definitely be a Popularity.
Also, I've notised that Vy Hong (toddler) hasn't cried yet. She'll just sit in her crib and chew her hand when she gets up. I'm not sure if this is a personality thing (indicating future aspiration?) or just a glitch.

[Peni Griffin]

Look at her personality points. Generally the toddlers who don't make a big fuss about getting out of the crib are particularly low social, low active, and/or high nice. Active, grouchy, outgoing toddlers can't stand to be in the crib one moment longer than necessary.

[omglo]

The first couple were a dormie I created (Rochelle) and a born-in-game sim (Charles). The born-in-game sim had dated another born-in-game sim (Juanita) in high school, with two bolts. Juanita and Charles had two bolts, while Rochelle and Charles had three. However, he refused to roll an engagement want for Rochelle, and when I took them on a vacation hoping to get him to roll the want, during a date I sent them on, he rolled the want to fall in love with Juanita. I broke them up, but Juanita was already dating someone else. Unfortunately, I ended up getting rid of that hood because I was having trouble with aging issues.

IME, Sims have a preference for their first love. They seem to roll wants about them right around the time it's time to get engaged/married or as soon as they fall out of love with the Sim they're with. For example, in Pleasantview, Cassandra had problems with Darren and she rolled wants to fall in love with him again and she started rolling wants to kiss and fall in love with Don even though she hadn't rolled any wants about him since the divorce.

[Peni Griffin]

Sometimes it's not even the first love - sometimes it's the first date!

Way back when, Lourdes Iana, a Romance teen, went on her first date with Ezekial Gavigan (Fortune). They barely knew each other and the date was only half-successful, at best, but it was the first date ever for both of them. They didn't even get to friend level. Later in the same rotation, Ezekial's best friend Oliver (Popularity) went out with her and got his first kiss from her, and they did get to crush level; but then she went to college and Oliver took up with Billie Ghote (Knowledge). Meanwhile, it was almost time for Garrett Newson (Pleasure) to go to college, and for one reason and another hadn't had a date yet, and Pigeon Hawkins (Fortune) decided to have her first date with him, even though she was much younger. That one went to first kiss, and love, since they'd known each other a long time; but of course that was severed when Garret went to college. Ezekial and Pigeon started dating.

Fast forward. Garrett and Lourdes are dating around, and frequently roll wants for their teen friends from home to come to college. Once Pigeon and Ezekial arrive, it becomes clear that they're going to stay together; meanwhile, Garrett and Lourdes change their aspirations to Knowledge and Family, and are really into each other. However, when Pigeon and Zeke date, it's a done deal that he's going to roll a Fall in Love with Lourdes want and Pigeon's going to roll a Fall in Love with Garrett want, at the height of the date when for the most part they're focused on their partners. Garrett starts rolling wants to fall in love with Pigeon; and Lourdes starts rolling wants to fall in love with Zeke - but never Oliver! These couples are married now, and the wants still pop up with depressing regularity.

Luis Iana, who went from Pleasure to Family, is likely to roll wants to fall in love with his high school steady when he's with his wife (which would be darned awkward, since his high school steady married his wife's brother), but not for the skank he dated in college who cheated on him. So it would seem that this is a phenomenon most closely related to aspiration, and applies most often to relationships that changed amicably at the age transition. However, Oliver never rolls romantic wants for anyone but Billie, even after changing his aspiration to Family - even though Lourdes was both his first date and his first love, and Lourdes never rolls wants to fall in love with Oliver, only for Zeke, with whom she was never even the tiniest bit in love!

So there's something peculiar in the coding there. I can't figure it out, and just work around the wants when they pop up, not letting them worrying me.

[A.G.Doren]

I view my sims wants as an indicator of their thoughts not necessarially something to be acted on. So sometimes I ignore my sims when they have thoughts about their first love(whom they stood up at the alter) while happily married to their three bolt match with whom they have five kids.

[Fivey]

I view my sims wants as an indicator of their thoughts not necessarially something to be acted on. So sometimes I ignore my sims when they have thoughts about their first love(whom they stood up at the alter) while happily married to their three bolt match with whom they have five kids.

Same. No Reginald, you are NOT going to flirt with your ex-wife who cheated on you with Don Lothario and bore his child. You deserve better than that.

I usually take that as the sim needing to get laid.

[Briana2425]

The Aspiration I usually pick is family but I got bored so now I'm exploring more of the other aspirations and I find it very entertaining and now enjoying my game more. :)

[Simsica]

The Aspiration I usually pick is family but I got bored so now I'm exploring more of the other aspirations and I find it very entertaining and now enjoying my game more. :)

Exploration - the way to go! :gjob: