Imaginary Friends

[Kestris]

My first experience with this thing isn't great. Only because I haven't had one. My kid's been active probably 30-40 Sim days, so it looks like I'm not getting one. So, they don't all get them, especially those made in Create a Sim.

I have yet to have a CAS toddler get one. Even a few of my born in game babies don't get one, or if they do, they never get the option for them to become real imaginary friends (the living doll step), even if they do nothing but play with the doll all day.  Also,  they've never gotten one, no matter how many times I've moved them in or out of houses. The ones that didn't originally get one, still didn't get one even after moving.

Right now, my youngest sim had to be given one by a friend as a child, and has to build the relationship up from scratch to get to the living doll stage, in order to turn it real- he already knows most of the potions and has the imaginary friend one in his inventory- in roughly 10 days before he becomes a teen.

By contrast, his older twin sisters both got a doll as babies, in the mail, and as soon as they became children, the dolls became living dolls and are now both real sims, gaining them a 'brother' and a 'sister', respectively- thanks to their little brother's chemistry skills.   The Twin that had the IF become a boy is now romanticly involved with him. 

I've had other families where the older children all got dolls, then it'd skip a couple kids (one family had 11 children, as I was trying to see how many kids they could have before she got too old), and then the younger ones got dolls again.


So it rather seems to be hit or miss as to whether they all get one or not as well as when or how.

[MoMoll]

@Kestris: I have also had some games where they never got one; and other gams where they did. Srapped a few games because, even with CAS, the IF was horrible in personality and looks. Have a nexw one ferrmnting and am waiting to see what h looks like. Dad is  getting slow oon is potion discover.

[Pam]

I think it must be random, too.  I had 4 boys in a row get the dolls, then their baby sister didn't get one.  That's all the experience I have with it so far.  Oh!  And all 4 dolls turned into Imaginary Friends when the toddler aged up to child.

@MoMoll:

You've got some typos in your post and I can't make out exactly what you're trying to say.  Would you mind correcting them?  The Spell Check button may also help.  Thanks.

[MoMoll]

Sorry about the typos. My cat was chewing on my ear and I didn't check before posting.

I scrapped that game and started a new one.

The IF has some strange traits (kleptomaniac, easily impressed and technophobe) and he also has a football and a book in his inventory ("Mars Guide to Real Estate"). Maybe because he's a kleptomaniac. Did anyone else have something in their IF's inventory?

[Pam]

All 4 of my family's Imaginary Friends just got tossed back into the child's inventory.  Good grief!  The kids were hungry, exhausted, and smelly.  I got them fed and ready for bed, but the IFs kept interfering with the sleep command.  I'd send a kid to bed (with a completely red energy bar) and the IF would come start talking to him.  Over and over.  It was after 2:00 a.m. before those kids got to bed and they had school the next morning.  They got so tired they were passing out on the floor.  As soon as I finally got them to sleep and the IFs turned back into dolls, they went into inventory and that's where they'll stay!  

[MoMoll]

The IFs are cute when the kids are toddlers; but, I'm not sure (haven't gone that far yet) I want to continue with them into adult age. I think I'll pack him off to boarding school.

[RunAmokSims]

I'd keep at it if I were you two. I've gotten some amazing looking Sims from transformed IFs.

[samoht04]

I think that getting an IF is either 50/50 or possibly influenced by when the Baby is born. My reasoning comes from my Dynasty. Tristan Jade was born at around 9pm, he got an IF the next morning in the Post. His Cousin Percy was born at 5am a few hours before the post delivery and did not get one. I would bet that it is just 50/50 though and the timings were coincidence. I really want an IF I just have to keep Tris playing. Just tricky because of his Skills and he has to learn his Logic Block thing. Does anyone know if an IF's Gender can be changed after the Toddler becomes a Child?

[MoMoll]

The last one had the "mean trait, insane and clumsy". He was always fighting with my sim. I packed them both off to boarding school, because the mother was being run raggged. The IF was setting booby traps all over the house. I never saw it; but, she got hit by all of them. Partly because my butler never returned from his day off. Guess he couldn't handle it either!
I sent to two IF to military school to put some discipline into them. The two sim girls were sent to LeFromage (their mother is an artist). I'll wait to see if the IF males get some discipline. They keep in phone contact. One called to tell her "I like it here, I learned how to throw the ball... or was it kick the ball" (something like that).

[Laurencius]

So far the legacy family I'm playing has had 4 children altogether. All 4 have received the imaginary friend doll. One is buried in the sand.    ;D

[RunAmokSims]

I think that getting an IF is either 50/50 or possibly influenced by when the Baby is born. My reasoning comes from my Dynasty. Tristan Jade was born at around 9pm, he got an IF the next morning in the Post. His Cousin Percy was born at 5am a few hours before the post delivery and did not get one. I would bet that it is just 50/50 though and the timings were coincidence. I really want an IF I just have to keep Tris playing. Just tricky because of his Skills and he has to learn his Logic Block thing. Does anyone know if an IF's Gender can be changed after the Toddler becomes a Child?

I've found getting the doll and changing to an IF to be quite random. I had a family of three children all get the doll and only two became IF's. They all played with the doll the same amount of time. I had a family of two children both get the doll and neither became an IF. I had another family of three and only one doll came and it became an IF.

I know that there is an option under change name to choose a name for a boy or girl but I haven't experimented with it enough yet to see if that will ensure he gender of the IF.  I used that option once (changed to a girl's name) and the IF became a female.  Right now I have another IF in the same house that hasn't been changed yet and I used that same option. I'll let you know what I find.

[MoMoll]

So far for all my IFs, I chose the opposite gender of my sim. Each one turned out to be the opposite gender and each one had a compatible zodiac sign. What they were missing was compatible traits which can be changed in CAS. I don't like the fact that the IF gets the family name when it becomes real. Makes it weird if you want to marry them together. They should let you chose the name when they become real.

[Esther1981]

So far, all my IF's if I choose a boy name it's a boy and girl name is a girl. I haven't had bad traits either. The ones I have turned real, they are really beautiful/gorgeous!

[athena]

I haven't see an IF turn real, do they still look like a toy except with flesh? Or do they look like human Sims? When they turn real, can we change their attires from the clown suit to a real child's attire?  Request someone please post a picture of an IF who turned real. Thanks! 

[cathyknits]

When the friend "comes alive", they stay in the same basic shape as the doll - except that sometimes you'll see a Sim face in the relationship panel, and sometimes when the child is your active sim you'll see the "human" form of the friend hanging out in a corner of your lot. If you use a potion to make them "a real sim", they get a regular human form, but I think they might have the ability to turn into doll form - their offspring definitely do!