Traits and planning your character

[HtFde]

What is a Spinster? Is it like a name for someone who spins wool or something?

Well, English being a foreign language to me but as far as I recall spinster means elderly unmarried woman.

[Schipperke]

Spinster means an unmarried woman, not necessarily elderly.  In the days when women were married off very young, any woman over 25 or so who was unmarried would have been considered a spinster.  My game also has a woman called "Crone (whatever her name is)".  Now, Crone definitely refers to an older woman, but in my game the crone is quite young and good-looking.  I think the sims creators were just looking for terms that had an old-fashioned sound to them.

[Ricalynn]

The Crone in my game is evil and obviously a witch!  She petitioned the king for money to make her basement sound proof. 

[HtFde]

The Crone in my game is evil and obviously a witch!  She petitioned the king for money to make her basement sound proof. 

Let me guess - also the blacksmith's best customer? 

[Lestrade]

Merchant: Greedy and Haggler = Permanent happy  Drunkard, just put a barrel outside his house most of the time he stands there anyway for selling.

Wizard: Evil is a good one, just cast a driveby Magic Arrow on some random dude and evil laugh at them because he got wounded from your spell.


Creative Cook and Excitable is a good combination, both of them get an extra focus buff when cooking meals with ingredients.

Hopeful Orphan is a good trait for everyone, the third person you ask about your parents gives you a letter which you can use for a 12 hour +30 Focus Buff, it isn't even an action the buff just shows up. The letter can be used unlimited times.

Uncouth is a good negative, there is no negative Focus buff from that one. Sometimes you screw up in a socializing action but thats all.

Make one of your Heroes Bloodthirsty and when he is not your active hero watch him as he walks through town and beat random people up, priceless.

Avoid Insomniac and Fool, those gives you a really hard time when questing. The Fool might loose his walking destination at random and the Insomniac just falls over and sleeps at the most inapropiate time.

Drunkard is easy to please, just put a barrel in his house.

[Katluvr]

@ Joria - Thanks for the explanations on Elves! They are my favourite Mythical Creature so I think I shall be using a lot of them. I hate that Sims 3 doesn't have pointed ears, Grrrr!

You can make any sim into an elf during creation if you go to the advanced editing feature on ears.  There is a slider to allow you to adjust ears from rounded to pointy.  I found that point ears seem to look best (at least to me they do) if you make them stick out a little bit from the sim's head.  I believe the slider that does that is rotate ears or something like that.  Have fun with your new elfin kingdom!

[Carl]

Those are some really great tips Lestrade.  Evil  will give me a reason to actually cast those "attack" magic spells, and I'm definitely putting that on the Wizard guide that's almost completed. I kind of like Vain. Its extra buff for enjoying the view in the mirror has my Wizard gussying up all the time. Hubris is definitely the worst Fatal Flaw I've encountered so far. As others have said, it triggers all the time. Glutton is pretty bad, but at least they can make group portions. Whale Ate My Parents could go ok with that, as the Whale Stew absolutely rocks and kicks in a 1 day buff. Group servings could satisfy that appetite.

[Ricalynn]

Unkempt is a good one to have with Glutton because even if the extra portions spoil in your inventory the Unkempt trait makes them like eating it!

[Joria]

Thanks Everyone!

I don't need the traits as I was just wondering if they were limited or not but thanks for the offer anyway!

@ Joria - Thanks for the explanations on Elves! They are my favourite Mythical Creature so I think I shall be using a lot of them. I hate that Sims 3 doesn't have pointed ears, Grrrr!

What is a Spinster? Is it like a name for someone who spins wool or something?

While everyone is also correct in saying a spinster is "an old maid", not married female over age 25, a spinster is also a male who spins fibre into yarn.  A SPINSTRESS is a female, (like myself), who does the same.

The all time worst trait in my humble opinion, is Licentious.  My poor Physician just gets started on brewing a drug or healing or collecting and BAM!, she has to run off and kiss someone.  Not this isn't always as easy as you might think.  It can take several interactions before they pucker up.  So I married her off pronto thinking that would solve the problem.  Uh uh.  No, since married couples don't always live together, I STILL have to go running off for a kiss!  At least she can find him quickly because of the marker but what a nuisance.  I think I hate that one worse than hubris.

[Ricalynn]

That's why i married my doctor to his nurse! they're always in the same building... usually.

[Lestrade]

Those are some really great tips Lestrade.  Evil  will give me a reason to actually cast those "attack" magic spells, and I'm definitely putting that on the Wizard guide that's almost completed. I kind of like Vain. Its extra buff for enjoying the view in the mirror has my Wizard gussying up all the time. Hubris is definitely the worst Fatal Flaw I've encountered so far. As others have said, it triggers all the time. Glutton is pretty bad, but at least they can make group portions. Whale Ate My Parents could go ok with that, as the Whale Stew absolutely rocks and kicks in a 1 day buff. Group servings could satisfy that appetite.

I fiddled around with Vain a bit, I don't like it that much. You get an extra buff by gazing in the mirror but it's only +10 for 5 hrs. You also get 2 Socializing Actions with it but one of those two takes almost 15 Sim-Minutes to complete.

[Ricalynn]

If you have any Sims that are Adventurous, not only do they get to go on cool adventures every 11 hrs but apparently describing exotic locales is considered a flirting interaction.   My chivalrous adventurer just took a focus hit because I selected the locale one instead of adventure one and he now has a guilty conscience over the action since he has a girlfriend and all.

[Theo]

Hubris is a bother. My blacksmith has it and it seems to trigger every time he mines, fishes or gathers wildflowers. I did see it clear once. When I returned to my blacksmith after a brief absence I found the huge hubris debuff replaced by the smaller humiliated debuff. I do not know how he became humiliated. Any suggestions?

[Joria]

Metro, he became humiliated because while you weren't watching some sneaky npc chatted with him and said nasty things to him.  Happened to me that way.

[Katluvr]

I've found hubris to be something of a mixed bag.  I gave it to my first monarch and she never got above 1 stack of the debuff at any given time.  The -10 hit to focus was very easy to compensate for in her case by keeping her needs met and taking advantage of food and decor buffs whenever possible.  It was almost like the FF wasn't even there most of the time.

Next time around I gave it to my Jacoban priest.  BIG MISTAKE.  She went out to fish and very quickly ended up with a massive -50 debuff.  For any hero you plan to use for repetitive activities such as gathering, fishing, and crafting, hubris is probably a very bad FF to choose.  It might be a bit easier to deal with in a hero who tends to have singular responsibilities (e.g., duel the challenger instead of successfully collect herbs 5 times) and activities (e.g., hunt or adventure instead of fish or collect leeches).