Documenting the Genetic Lottery: A Sims 4 Challenge

Have you, a Sims 4 player, ever been the victim of “Same Face Syndrome” while engaging in generational play? I’m sure we all have. It was when experiencing this issue that I came up with an idea (inspired by Reddit user GiftedEarth) for a structured sim creation process that may allow for more genetic variety in a sim you choose to create in Create A Sim. I call it Documenting the Genetic Lottery. This is a Sims 4 challenge you can complete as either a short term project (able to be completed in 30 minutes to an hour) or a long term one (having each step done naturally in game).  Essentially what you will be doing is creating a sim (or sims) that has 3 or more generations of DNA encoded in their genetic information. I will provide an example of this in the rules.

Shoutout to Reddit user GiftedEarth for his/her excellent reddit posts doing this very thing with Gallery sims.

Short Challenge (estimated completion time: 30 – 60 minutes)

• Select 16 pre-made sims (that is, sims that are included in everyone’s game by default) to use as genetic bases (in this case I used 8 male and 8 female); you will eventually end up with a sim that contains inherited DNA from all of these sims. For this example I will be using the following sims:

Bella Goth

Salim Benali

Bob Pancakes

Eliza Pancakes

Count Vladislaus Straud

Caleb Vatore

Joaquin Le Chien

J Huntington III

Akira Kibo

Don Lothario

Elsa Bjergsen (aged up to a young adult, naturally)

Penny Pizzazz

Miko Ojo

Jesminder Bheeda

Liberty Lee

Jade Rosa

• Randomize the pairings of sims for the first round. I suggest using Random.Org to do this: simply add the names of each sim per grouping into a list (in my case I entered all the men first, then the women in a separate interaction to pair them up). When I did this I ended up with the following pairs:

Salim Benali + Jade Rosa

Count Vlad + Miko Ojo

Joaquin Le Chien + Liberty Lee

J Huntington III + Jesminder Bheeda

Bob Pancakes + Penny Pizzazz

Akira Kibo + Elsa Bjergsen

Don Lothario + Eliza Pancakes

Caleb Vatore + Bella Goth

• Create a child for each one. I chose to create an equal number of male and female offspring but with the game allowing you to ‘Play With Genetics’ in CAS with same gender sims this is not necessary. The results for me were as follows:

Salim + Jade = Lexie (f)

Vlad + Miko = Louis (m)

Joaquin + Liberty = Sam (m)

J Huntington + Jesminder = Moana (f)

Bob + Penny = Steve (m)

Akira + Elsa = Ivy (f)

Don + Eliza = Don Jr. (m)

Caleb + Bella = Heather (f)

• Again, use Random.Org (or any other random generator) to pair up these offspring and produce a child between them. Here is how my example ended up:

Don Jr. + Moana = Fifi (f)

Louis + Heather = Diana (f)

Steve + Ivy = Lance (m)

Sam + Lexie = Tex (m)

• Randomly pair up the offspring and breed them once again. I received the following:

Diana + Tex = Dren (f)

Lance + Fifi = Paric (m)

• Finally, pair up the final two sims to create the ultimate genetic mix. In my case:
  

  Dren + Paric = 2 children

  (one to showcase each gender’s genetic predisposition).

• Bingo, you’re done! Odds are you’ve ended up with a sim that does not suffer from Same Face Syndrome and does not look like a sim that you yourself create over and over again.

Long Challenge (estimated completion time: Maker only knows)

Select 16 pre-made sims and pair them up in-game and have them have a child together at least once. Raise all of these children to young adulthood and have each of these offspring have a child with another. Lather, rinse, repeat until the final 2 non-related sims bear a child together and raise said child to a minimum of teenagehood to behold the genetic results.

Tips, Tricks, and Suggestions

• My personal process for how I managed to complete the Short Version of this challenge in CAS alone without overloading the household was this:

1. Obtain the first 4 sims (2 pairs). Household = 4.
2. Create the offspring for these two pairs and then delete the first 4 sims. Household = 2.
3. Obtain the next 4 sims. Household = 6.
4. Create one child from one pairing and then delete the parents. Household = 5.
5. Create a child with the other pairing and then delete the parents. This will leave you with 4 sims. Save this household into your library (i.e. Simkids 1). Household = 4.
6. Add the next 4 sims into the household and delete the 4 offspring you just made. Household = 4.
7. Repeat the process starting at Step 2 for the next 8 initial sims, being sure to save this household at the end into your Library as well (i.e. Simkids 2). Depending on how your random matches go you may or may not need to merge Simkids 1 into Simkids 2 and delete some of the sims to make room for offspring; this is why you need to save both households into your library.

• (Optional) Use a random number generator to select the number of times to randomly generate a child with each pair. Or you could just randomize the child until you get one you like. Whatever. Doesn’t matter. However, I find that using the randomly generated offspring generally makes for a more interesting outcome.
• (Optional) Choose every pairing to try to obtain an optional or preferred outcome for the last sim standing.
• (Optional) Use celebrity or fandom sims as the starter sims. You’ll find that sims who don’t have the more standard sim features will tend to produce the most . . . uhh, interesting offspring.
• Avoid including blood relatives in the initial 16 sims. The game may or may not allow for accidental incest, and if the faintest idea of distant cousins woohooing and having children bothers you you may want to nip that in the bud. Married couples, such as Bob and Eliza Pancakes, are fine though as they aren’t blood related.
• Random.Org is extremely helpful for this challenge. Using the List section can allow you to make random pairings by randomizing lists of names you put in it; you can either do this in two bunches (i.e. males in one bunch, females in another) or just enter all 16 names and pair them up as they appear in the list. It’s your choice.
• Thanks to the versatility in the CAS Play With Genetics option, the gender of each sim doesn’t matter. Same sex sims can be used together just as easily as opposite sex sims. You do you; it doesn’t matter in the slightest.
• Using pre-made sims is not necessary; I simply used them as familiar figures in the example I gave. Use any sims you wish for this challenge. However, if you do want to use pre-made sims you can always find a copy of them in the Gallery. If you’re looking for these sims outside of the game, click on the Advanced button and make sure Maxis Curated is unselected. If you’re doing this in-game and don’t want to mess around with sims that have been uploaded after they’ve been given makeovers simply uncheck the Include Custom Content box and choose the Newest First option in the Sort By area when doing a search.
• If you’re going to post your process and results, that would be awesome! Be aware, though, that custom content tends to show up on randomly generated sims in CAS and if you happen to have any adult content in your game it may cause you to have to censor your video if you’re posting it on YouTube with the intent to monetize it.
• Names, Aspirations, and Traits don’t matter in the slightest unless you’re intending to actually play any of these sims. You’ll need to give each sim these when you’re generating the first 8 kids since you will have to make two separate households to contain all of the sims you create and the starter sims. Speaking of…
• Weird genetic anomalies can sometimes show up if a randomly generated sim happens to be spawned with custom content (i.e. a sim with two black haired parents ends up with blue hair). It’s up to you, the player, if you want to correct this or not. As an example, Dren ended up with blue hair because Miko’s lavender hair was passed down to her son, Louis, whose daughter, Diana, inherited blue hair. Somehow.
• I’ve noticed that darker skin tones seem to dilute the longer a generation goes. My tip is that if you want a better chance of having darker skin tones showing up you should probably try to space out darker skinned offspring into different brackets so more sims have a genetic history of darker skin. Using my example above, if Steve has a dark skin tone and Lexie has a dark skin tone, don’t have them couple together right away because if their child happens to inherit a dark skin tone (and they may not due to their grandparents’ genetics), it’s got a good chance of disappearing in the next generation if their partner has light skin.
• If you choose to use the Short method you will end up with a sim that is Legacy founder eligible. I’m just sayin’.
• Count Vladislaus Straud has some dominant genes. Ye have been warned.