Singular sim or married couple?

[joenewbie]

I've always played just a single sim so far and have never bothered with working out a married couple.  I want to try it though and have questions.

Does being in a married couple effect the traits you select when you're set up for a certain career type?  Like if you're an artist and you take Loner as a single sim to slow down your social drop, do you bother to drop that if you're building a couple or does it matter? 

In The Sims 1, as a couple my spouse would always ask, "Wanna have a baby?"  it got pretty annoying because I really didn't want kids.  But I also have Generations so I'm wondering how big a deal it is, and if it becomes an issue if they don't have kids.

Basically having more than one family member will let me explore multiple jobs and hobbies at the same time.  How does a multiple member family interact and what problems might I try to avoid? 

Any other hints/tips or tricks in regards to this would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

[Pam]

The only real time that traits can be a problem is if the couple have opposing traits, or if one has evil or mean-spirited.  By opposing traits, I mean like one has neat and the other has slob.  Things like that.  Otherwise, they will be compatible for the most part.  It's always a good idea to keep their relationship status high.

As for having a baby, it's not a problem, really.  If you have a family oriented Sim, you'll get the wish to have a baby more often.  You will still get it sometimes without that trait, but you can just cancel it and not bother.  That's really the extent that a Sim will express the desire to have a baby.

I'm also going to move this over to Miscellaneous Help.

[saltpastillen]

Depending on what EPs you have the only real problem you can get when two sims are married is if some other sim/or your sim is flirting with someone not their partner and they are caught (more like witnessed) by either their partner, their friends or their partners friends. This leads to the offended sim to feel betrayed and in some extreme cases has even made sims auto divorce and move out of the lot. But, unless you have a flirty sim that is not very likely to happen.

Another option you can choose is to make the two sims living together just friends. Then you can try out playing with two sims in the same house and decide later if you want them to have romance. If you want to make sure they have no romantic wishes for each other you could make them siblings.

Having a baby/child in the sims 3 is not so hard. It really depends on how important their future traits are to you. If you don't care about their future traits all you need to do is keep them clean, well rested and full, and since babies have needs bars like any other sim it's easy to keep track of when they need attention. Leaving the house is not a problem, because the game will make sure you hire a babysitter. I nice way to try out having a child would be to adopt one.

[Pam]

This leads to the offended sim to feel betrayed and in some extreme cases has even made sims auto divorce and move out of the lot.

The auto-divorce is possible, but the Sim won't move out if you are controlling him/her.  Do you mean a situation where they live together, but aren't married?  When Sims marry, both come under the player's control. 

[saltpastillen]

The auto-divorce is possible, but the Sim won't move out if you are controlling him/her.  Do you mean a situation where they live together, but aren't married?  When Sims marry, both come under the player's control.

I'm talking about when they are both living in your household and married. I have had this happen only once so it's not so common.

[athena]

I've been playing married couples in sims for the longest time. Answers to your questions, NO the traits need not change when married, however, if you get a mate with high social needs and your Sim is a loner, the mate will have a pretty low social bar all the time for being "neglected", same thing with a child, Sims need a level of socialization in the game. In Sims 1, there really was no option to make a baby, one only gets to adopt a baby that never grows and is extremely hard to take care of , I ended giving it away.  Anyway, if you intend to have children whether natural or adopted, and your Sim is a loner, make sure that your mate is at least sociable or has the family-oriented trait, so he or she will take care of the baby. Otherwise, the baby and toddler will have low moods and you will run the danger of it being taken away by the social worker. Socialization may be your biggest concern when married, so your Sim may have to work at it a bit as compared to being single and a loner.

[Janna]

doing a random town jump has led me to playing sims with traits that I have never dealt with.

For loner, in one family there were seven sims at one time and he was never stressed, it was family I think was the reason he was okay.  He had no problem with chatting with family members. 
Leave the house, however, and it if was more than two he became stressed.  For the ones who were friendly, chatting on the phone or computer kept the social needs high.  Even the loner will need to chat with someone, they just don't need to as much.  Chatting with family members, on the phone or computer lets the social needs be filled without the stress of being around others.

In children, family oriented will get more opportunities to have children, but you just ignore the opportunity (I think it is right click?) and no problem. 
As for a loner ignoring kids, that can vary depending on other traits.  My loner took great care of his kids, but that could be abnormal, not the norm for loners.  I never had one that had the dislike kids that I kept around, so I don't know how well that would work, but from other stories you can work around it. 

There are lots of ways to keep the moodlets high so that having a parent who dislikes kids, is a loner, or not family oriented doesn't bring them down.  Even a sim with loner or dislikes kids traits can be told to tickle or toss an toddler and it will keep the kids social needs up; not sure what it does to the sim, but I doubt much negative effect. 

If you want to have a family but aren't sure about raising a child, adopt a child where you can leave him at home and not have to worry about him or her.  They can chat on the computer or friends on the phone and keep their social needs high and not need the adults to interact with them.
This will affect their relationship, but if you aren't wanting them to be friends it won't matter.

hope this helps.
I prefer to play families, but they can be frustrating, especially if you end up with a large family. 

[KRae]

One thing I noticed playing the Thank you for Your Service challenge, where the mom was required to have the dislikes children trait, was that she kept shooing the kids from the room. They would drop whatever they were doing and just leave.

[Sindocat]

I've always played just a single sim so far and have never bothered with working out a married couple.  I want to try it though and have questions.

Does being in a married couple effect the traits you select when you're set up for a certain career type?  Like if you're an artist and you take Loner as a single sim to slow down your social drop, do you bother to drop that if you're building a couple or does it matter?

I have had loners happily marry. Even with couples incandescently in love, there is enough alone-time to benefit from this trait, and it has never been a hindrance. The only issue with traits that I can imagine is the one-time negative hit that arises from incompatible traits. I suppose other conflicts might arise - a light sleeper awoken by an inappropriate or insane Sim being loud at night? But that's just, you know, the game.  I say go ahead and don't worry about making a perfectly mutually traited couple.

In The Sims 1, as a couple my spouse would always ask, "Wanna have a baby?"  it got pretty annoying because I really didn't want kids.  But I also have Generations so I'm wondering how big a deal it is, and if it becomes an issue if they don't have kids.

Of the married couples I have played, only once have both spouses wanted a child at the same time. They are the ones who have one. In other cases, life has offered enough rewards that none of my Sims who showed an interest in child-raising were in any way devastated that I decided not to pursue it.

If you don't want to have kids, it won't be a problem. However, if you have your game set to high Sim autonomy and an opposite-sex couple and don't want children, keep an eye on your Sims, as they can decide to "Try For Baby" independently!

Basically having more than one family member will let me explore multiple jobs and hobbies at the same time.  How does a multiple member family interact and what problems might I try to avoid?

They usually will interact pleasantly. I am currently playing a 4 Sim household, Spouse 1, Spouse 2, Mother(-in-Law), Toddler. As often as not, while Spouse 1 is interacting with the Toddler or seeing to his needs, Spouse 2 is chatting in a friendly way (without my arranging it) with the Mother-in-Law.

Sims do get zany ideas at times, however, and keeping an eye on two or more when you are really only used to one can be challenging.

Any other hints/tips or tricks in regards to this would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

Game tables (chess, foosball, et cetera) and sports equipment like baseballs or footballs or soccer balls or kicky-bags are good things to have around to give your Sims harmless activities to initiate together. My first couple still tends to go outside and play catch if I don't step in and have them do anything else.

Save the game you have before you make the change, then save the couples game as something else. That way, you lose nothing for trying. And if you don't enjoy the new play-style, you needn't continue.

Good luck!

[Trip]

However, if you have your game set to high Sim autonomy and an opposite-sex couple and don't want children, keep an eye on your Sims, as they can decide to "Try For Baby" independently!

Autonomous Try for Baby does not happen in an unmodded game, just so everyone knows.

My most devoted, happiest couple in recent memory was actually one with a glaring trait conflict. Husband was mean-spirited, his wife was friendly. They never once fought with each other and were madly in love for their entire life. Traits do matter to some extent, because a couple will have more in common if they have shared traits, but they don't make-or-break a couple either. And I've had plenty of happily-married sims who were loners.