I keep creating the perfect woman. Help me stop.

[Lord_Dweedle]

  I have an unhealthy addiction to perfection in Create A Sim.  For Men I find it is rather easy to make an imperfect male aesthetically and personality wise because I am a male myself.

Now, being a male, I am finding it extremely hard to create a female Sim.  I am, in a way, locked into creating the perfect woman which is driving me nuts because a perfect woman is a non existent being and in my game I'm trying to keep it as realistic as possible.

So, fellow simmers, I want to enlist your aid in understanding how I could make an imperfect female Sim.  I need to know what personality trait mixes, face slider mixtures you use etc.

I'm not trying to create ugly, I'm trying to create realistic, but not perfect.  Hopefully someone knows what I mean and can offer me some tips.

[Saltypaws]

First, welcome to the forum.  I tend to hit the randomize button and just go with what the games give me.  To be honest, I think I do the same thing with most of my sims.  There is really nothing wrong with trying to perfect a sim, because we all are different in our own right.  Try making a sim that is a wild color, skin, hair and personality.  I never use to use the traits, evil, insane, etc, but I have found, those can be quite amusing.  I don't think there is a right or wrong way to play with your sims, if it makes you happy to make your sims like that, then go for it.

[Lord_Dweedle]

thanks for the welcome.

The problem for me is that in every character creation in every game I've played i've always striven for perfection.  But in the Sims it's bothering me immensely because in my mind I know Sims should not be perfect people.  As I said I've managed to make fairly decent imperfect Males but yeah.. females its SO much harder.  I tried making one a few hours ago and I honestly spent about an hour just trying to choose the shoes.. with male Sims I never have to worry as much about shoes

I'll try out the randomiser button next time and see what it gives me.  Thank yee

[HopeAlive]

For me I chose traits I love and like. As for the looks of the sin I don't think they are the most beautiful...

But start with writing down what traits you want for the character. Maybe that will be easier for you?

Than consider the traits you pick for the sim doesn't make them perfect at all. I created my sims and they still amaze me with their...

Stupidly.

So try making the sim. They could be the most beautiful woman in the history of the sims..but the traits you pick for them could make them the most ugliest.

That's just from what I seen with making sims from scratch.

[saltpastillen]

Hi! I agree that getting stuck in CAS is easy. I try to always make my sims look a little different, so I usually decide on one feature that I will choose to make not as perfect as the others (too big a nose, mouth, ears ect. or to). Also, I always try to add atleast one trait that is not all positive or "nice" - that gives the sims a more interesting personality in my opinion. Also, I always choose the traits for my sim before picking hair and clothes - that way I can dress them to suit their personality, which is a great way to make them more individual.

[Schipperke]

Welcome to the forum, Lord_Dweedle.  I agree that the randomize button can often give you interesting results.  Using the sliders is also a great way to make unique Sims, rather than just accepting the default eyes, noses, etc.  It seems to me that in real life people with some distinctive feature (a bigger nose, wide-spaced eyes, whatever) are often more interesting and attractive (to me, anyway) than those with conventionally pretty and "perfect features."  And like saltpastillen, I also tend to give my Sims a trait that is somewhat negative.  I say somewhat negative because I can't bring myself to use the nastier traits like mean-spirited or hot-headed, but I like the idea of Sims having some "weakness" - it seems to make them more real, somehow.  I liked the "fatal flaw" that Sims Medieval introduced; this is kind of my own version of that idea.

[azokka361]

I have problems creating the "perfect sim," too, but the most unique sim I created, I spent hours on. It's very tempting to rush through Create-a-Sim, but take time to adjust each and every slider. I tried to make every feature unique, then take a look at the final picture--I think she's just about the prettiest sim I've ever had, and probably has the best mix of good and iffy traits.

[Lord_Dweedle]

So try making the sim. They could be the most beautiful woman in the history of the sims..but the traits you pick for them could make them the most ugliest.

ooh, good idea, I might try this.

[Janna]

I know that when I create my sim, whether it is the actual body, traits or clothes, it is based on what type of sim I am planning.  Is she going to be a business type person, an outdoor type, explorer?

I wouldn't take a sim and give her long loose hair, dress her in a fancy dress, high heels and send her into the tombs to hunt for treasure.  She will be wearing jeans, good hiking shoes, casual shirt, hair cut short or in a braid to make it more manageable.  Is she going to be outside, then tanned skin.  A career that has her inside, lighter skin color.  Is she supposed to be from a specific type of nationality?  Then I try to make her or him look as much realistic as I can of their specific appearance.  Each race has a special feature that says, hey, I am of this race, shape of eyes, noses, mouths, hair type, think stereotype of what a person from any country is seen as looking like. 
Your athlete, is the sim a basketball player, football or other?  What type of physical makeup is needed?  Football players, for the most part are more muscular whereas basketball are more lean, muscles not as defined. 
And as stated, think of the career and match traits, a military or law enforcement won't want someone who is a slob and couch potato, they want brave, disciplined, athletic.  An author doesn't need to be a party animal, but computer whiz and bookworm.  Toss in something for fun, insane, for example. 
Think ahead of what you may have in the future also, will you be having a Bonehilda?  A neurotic sim I had was always running screaming from her.   

Hope this helps

[Pam]

I'll try out the randomiser button next time and see what it gives me.  Thank yee

Another thing you can do is download a female Sim from our Swap Shop.  There are various Sims with all kinds of looks.  Some are from popular stories here on the Forum and some are just made by members.  You could download one you like and then make whatever changes are appropriate for that particular game.

[Lord_Dweedle]

oh wow lol thanks for the link, I think i'm going to spend a few hours looking through all these to get some inspiration and will download a few. 

[shibamistress]

I keep doing this in a way too.  I realized it the other night as I made a love interest for a female Sim, and thought....hmmm...he kind of looks like all the other male Sims I've made!  They all tend to be a bit too buff and too "pretty" like the perfect male model type.  I was actually kind of bothered when I saw that, because I thought, I really actually value individuality in real people, but somehow, hmmm...my Sims are all too perfect! 

I do tend to make the same female Sims too, but it seems more noticeable in the men.  I think for me part of the problem is most of the male hair I find awful, so I end up using the same thing over and over, and well...then I get the same thing!   

I might have to take some of these suggestions too!

[scoed]

I almost always make my Sims attractive male and female, especially the female Sims. Why if I am going to stare at them for a while I just don't want to be staring at an eyesore. Beside I play sims to escape realty for a bit. Realty is most people aren't supermodels, and I am as ugly of a male as you can find. Sims is a momentary escape. I get to be ugly in real life, why do so in Sims as well? I don't feel bad in the least 90% of the male Sims and 100% of the female Sims have supermodel type looks. You enjoy attractive female Sims more than less attractive ones. There is nothing wrong with that. Why worry? After all Sims is not real life and no ones feeling is being hurt, so do what makes your eyes happy.

[Janna]

I do the same, I prefer my sims to look like supermodels, being the short, fat and ugly type person, I don't want to look at an image of myself, I want to pretend for a bit that is how I look, pretty, slender, sexy.  The males the supermodel, or what I see as the romance hottie on the cover of romance books. 

Doing a project story, I can't change the looks and I struggle to not make them have pretty faces, not flat chested, skinny or fat. 

I see reality staring me in the face any time I see a reflection, I want to look at beauty when I play a game, which is for me an escape from the stress of real life.

[LivvieLove]

I've found playing with townie families has helped me break my need to make perfect Sims.
The Lifestates Dynasty created by this forum actually really broke me of my need for the perfect Sim.

When you start with townies and have them have children and have their children have children you start to fall in love with them - even if their traits aren't perfect or they don't look as pretty as some of the Sims you've made. When playing a LifeStates Dynasty all traits are random, this was so unusual for me! I got to my second generation and had twins, one twin Loved the Outdoors and was Brave, the other was Neurotic and Insane... can you guess who was the vampire heir? The Insane/Neurotic Sim. At First I was really bummed about his twin being a genie instead of a vampire but as he got older and gained the Loner, Loves the Cold (when it's summer all the time) and Hopeless Romantic traits I really started to fall in love with how different he was. It was such an unusual pairing of traits that it actually felt more real to me.
I usually hit up Genius, Ambitious, Family Oriented (occasionally)... but never any of the traits that don't affect gameplay (Never Nude, Insane, Socially Awkward) but now I'm starting to realize what a perfect collaboration these unique traits are turning out to be.

Try playing a townie family sometime though, have their children and raise them and see how different they look. Use random traits and let your Sims make their own personalities, you'll be surprised how soon you'll fall in love with them, and how soon you'll run them to the dresser to save them to the Sim Bin in Create-A-Sim to use later.