I use this default replacement (formal outfit) and pregnant sims look very good in it - http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=427948 (and Cat's normal pretty recolors and mesh edit makes it completely adequate for me).
I try to keep my clothing files down because I play very big hoods, and this one just helps a lot.

For me who's playing a fantasy hood, it's fun to use the button as well. Because I get to see at what point the gods and elves (who are all distantly related to the humans) lose relations with the humans (particularly the gods) and only have relations with each other in the undying lands (which is separated from the mortal lands by mountains).

And also for normal hoods. Sometimes I forget where I've moved other family members within a hood and then it can point me in the right direction. With a camera mod, you can put lots very far out.

Not to mention, it's very satisfying to see so many arrows from a house, that means they've well established their place in the hood and is the most popular!

If it was just family, I can see how that could help, but since it includes friends as well and since Popularity sims insist on being friends with everyone anyway, I'm really not seeing how it can help you find anyone. Your game must be very different from mine.

Something went wrong (pic attached). Turns out I already had a default for those pants. My game took forever to load and I even restarted my computer and ultimately had to try every trick I'd used to make TS2 load on my old garbage laptop before the game would finally load and then my game crashed which it never does, and I really don't know what would have caused any of that other than putting too much/the wrong new stuff in (unless that's just what happens when you accidentally have two DRs of the same mesh), so for now I pulled the pregnancy morph defaults back out and the "wear any outfit" mod out as well. It's not worth the hassle. I can just deal with boring Maxis maternity wear as I've always done. I'd rather deal with the maternity clothes than have to pick between a preg morph and having the top of the pants meet the bottom of a shirt instead of looking really awful (had that for a long time before I found the CatOfEvilGenius fix, and I really hated it). I feel like maybe other people have run into this same issue before me and maybe there's already a fix out there somewhere but it's really not that important, because like I said I can just play with maternity wear like I've always done.

Edit: aaaand I cause another hood reset. Guess I know what caused the last one now!

Maybe... At least I know where NOT to look, haha. But I usually don't have arrows to EVERYONE. And I don't often bother with the 30 best friends wants.

Not every house necessarily contains an advanced Popularity sim, Rosawyn!

Yeah I like to play knowledge sims more, but knowledge and popularity are my 2 favorite aspirations. At least when I'm playing my fantasy hood because they are most likely to be fulfilled. And I like the popularity and knowledge lifetime perks. (My least favorite is pleasure, btw.)

However more often than not I'm letting the random generator decide what aspiration my sims get. But if I "have the choice" my go-to is knowledge.

No, of course not, but what I mean is that in my game every hood has at least one...and that one sim ends up being friends with everyone else, which means every lot in the hood has green spider legs going towards the house where the Popularity sim lives. In my old Four-Corners Bitville, for example, I had one household with a married couple, both shy Knowledge sims, but since the hood contained at least 3 very eager Popularity sims, that house still had quite a few green spider legs popping out of it.

Nearly all of my Sims are Family Sims.

I used to have a "No Romance Sims Allowed" rule, but since I got Cyjon's Less Jealousy I no longer hate Romance sims (I actually enjoy them). But I don't have a default aspiration and never really have. I enjoy all the aspirations, and since all my sims at least eventually have a secondary aspiration as well they all end up as hybrids of one type or anther. I figured out rather quickly that the "best" combo is Popularity/Knowledge, but choosing that every time would be boring.

Wasn't sure where to put this, but figured here would work. It's definitely random.

About a week ago, rather suddenly, I was unable to pull up the cheat bar in game. It had worked the day before, but now -nothing! I scoured the internet for help. Apparently, it's a fairly common occurrence, having something to do with some other programing hijacking the keyboard short cut. Insert much interogatting of the other computer users in the house to find out what they'd done. I spent hours backtracking through the computer looking at updates and downloads and programs that had been used/installed/updated lately. I tried disabling various programs and running the game to check. Nothing. I couldn't find anything that seemed to alleviate my problem.

I was just about to give up completely, -days into my searching- when someone else, while using the computer, made an off-handed comment about a letter not working on the keyboard.
"I just changed the batteries yesterday!" I had bemoaned, because, I too, during my hours online had noticed the keys rather unresponsive on occasion.

Then it hit me. I'm a dumbass. There was never anything wrong with the game. No program hijacked the keyboard short cut ... the stupid keyboard was dying. The shortcut hadn't worked, because one of the keys wasn't working.

I dug out an older keyboard, swapped out for the wireless one we'd been using and guess what? It works. I fixed it. Problem solved.

Hopefully my tale can be a cautionary one for someone in the future and I can save someone some time and frustration.

You're lucky that's all it was. I can't use fleles on my simming computer cause of the shortcut conflict.

Knowledge is probably my favourite. I'd probably be Knowledge/Pleasure. XD I'm curious, why is Knowledge/Popularity so good?

Because one of the knowledge perks is learning faster. And the popularity perks include group calls and faster friends. Both very convenient aspirations, and they're also easy and fun to fulfill. At least with my play style.

As a counter-question, why do you like the Pleasure aspiration?

I like all the aspirations. Popularity is probably my least favourite, because of all the friend juggling and extended relationships panel. Possibly also because I'm introverted and that many friends would be a nightmare for me. XD

But in RL I'd personally be Knowledge/Pleasure. Pleasure definitely because of wants like spending the day in pyjamas or playing video games. XD

I think it's interesting that one's own personality often bleeds into the game, even though it's supposed to be a life simulator where you play different lives you wouldn't/couldn't live.

Pideli basically said it, but for me the 3-way calling is mostly just a required step to get that top Popularity perk. I think it's called "Fast Friends"? It makes relationships build faster. And Knowledge's 2nd highest perk is Eureka, which is by far the most useful in that tree. None of the other aspiration perks come close as useful as those two and since they're the top of Popularity and the 2nd highest in Knowledge, Popularity/Knowledge is the power combo.


I know this wasn't aimed at me, but I'm gonna answer anyway: Pleasure is the "easy mode" aspiration because the wants are overwhelmingly short-term and simple. Juggle, change into PJs, jump on a couch... Pretty much impossible to go into aspiration failure unless you're actively trying to do so, I would think.

I added my mods folder to the Quick Access panel on the left of my File Explorer a few months ago. Makes it easier to pop in and toss new mods and CC in, right?

Well, that certainly would've been the case had said mods folder not been under an old backup of my game.

I've added about a GB worth of cc/mods. No wonder they didn't work until now.

Edited a pregnancy length mod to extend the time to 7 days (I'm a monster I know :giggler all so I can have more time to throw baby showers (if I feel like it). Since I've already started doing bridal showers, bachelor and hen night outings to liven things up and add a bit of realism, I figured lengthening pregnancies seemed like a logical next step too... especially since I use a pretty lengthy aging mod as well.

Edit: Another random thought... Finally finished making a bunch of convenience type foods Fridge Stockable ('cause even more fun food options for sims to buy is a total yes) and making the collection files, and am now trying to get the motivation to take screenshots at some point and hopefully upload them this weekend.

I agree with the first half of your post, disagree with the second half.
I think pleasure sims are about the only sims that ever have low aspiration in my game. It's simply too much micromanaging! It takes a lot of individual actions to keep the bar high, while another aspiration has larger wishes like skills, which you can leave them to work on on their own. And you get more aspiration points for it so it's easier to keep the meter high. Fewer actions for more gain is easier for me than more actions for less gain.

I play so slowly that both of those would be bad for me. I'm looking for things to slow down skill gain and I have plenty of time to make friends the old fashioned way. XD

Ah, I see. I micromanage everything.

Which is probably why I like them because I play super fast my sims run everywhere.

Maybe I should stop that btw because it's not really realistic, it's quite ridiculous.
But once you start you can't stop!

I used to make my sims run everywhere all the time (assuming they could in fact run) but my husband pointed out it seemed mean to make a pregnant sim run, so I've stopped making pregnant sims run or even skip and just have them walk. I also don't make them run or skip immediately after giving birth as that just sounds painful.

I just love how this game inspires such different playstyles. For me, if sims have to run, it's because the lot is far too big for me. My lots are small, my hoods appear walkable, aging is off, and autonomy is king.