Sim Family Trees

[surprised_by_witches]

I keep a spreadsheet of all of my sims, which includes their interfamily relations. Someone asked me how I keep track of them all, and this spreadsheet helps. I tried the free product that lets you track this but it didn't cover the same things I wanted to cover, so I've abandoned it for now.

OK, so here's my extremely trivial problem: stepkids, including alien abduction kids. Are they related to their step-parents' family trees, or not?

I'm just trying to figure out what makes sense. It's been driving me batty.

Is anyone else as anal as I am about this? How do you figure your family trees, or don't you think about them much?

Anyone in the real world would think I was insane to even think about this for a minute, so I'm asking you.

How do you manage your family trees?

[Ruthie_Faye]

Well I really should create some type of spreadsheet, but I do it the old fashioned way: Pen and Paper. I guess I could put it on paper then when I get out of the game transfer that information to a computerized spreadsheet. It would be way more user friendly.

But I include step children, adopted children and alien abductions into both parents family trees. I figure if those are the parents raising them then they are related. I do allow cousins to marry though probably not as closely related as Maxis allows it though.

Ruth

[surprised_by_witches]

I agree. I don't think first cousins, once removed, should marry. Don't know why, just think it's a little too close. But their kids, sure. (Example: Max and Morgan are the children of first cousins. The game says they can flirt, I said, no way. But if their kids are attracted, that would work for me.)

I already count adopted kids as related, so you're right, stepkids shouldn't be any different. What I have right now is a column for stepkids (and stepparents) as well as step-grandkids/grandparents. But after that it just gets too messy.

So I think I will count them as cousins, nieces, great-grandhildren, etc. even if they're not, strictly speaking, related.

Such important things we discuss here. :D

Our lives are not like other people's.

[Ruthie_Faye]

Isn't that the truth! I look at houses now and wonder if that floor plan will work for the sims. When I rent movies I'll rewind and fast forward to see more of the house so that I can try and recreate it later. Also when friends and coworkers have babies I think "I need to jot that down that would be the perfect name for my sims next baby".

At least we understand each other! LOL

Ruth

[KatAnubis]

Somehow I don't believe that these issues are all that *uncommon* for us "rabid Simmers."

I keep a notebook of my families and I plot out my "eugenic plan" carefully. (Redirecting those Sims who think that they can start relationships where I haven't ok'd it. None of these back door relationships in *my* game!)

I also have pulled out all my architecture and home decorating books/magazines as well as added to them for use in building my Sims' houses. (But then, I've collected things like this even before I had heard of the Sims. Now I just have an "outlet" for doing something with them, other than building with my 3D Home Architect program.)

For keeping track of my Sims, I have some pages that I can print off (from my "Graph Paper Printer" program.) I keep track of things like their relationships, their achievements (from potty training through teleportation ability) and their genetics (eye and hair color at least.)

However, since my Sims don't get divorces (as I prefer my idealized version of life) and don't get abducted (so no alien pregnancies), I don't have to deal with the step parent/child stuff. That would make things inconvenient.

[surprised_by_witches]

Teleportation? Have I missed something?

Your world seems regulated, indeed. Mine is a little more messy! :D

[KatAnubis]

Teleportation? Have I missed something?

Your world seems regulated, indeed. Mine is a little more messy! :D

I like the well regulated lives my Sims live. But fortunately, there's room for whichever way people want to play. Long Live Maxis!

As for teleportation, it's an ability they can get if they have a 10 in logic and have done a lot of meditation. Unfortunately, they have to be in the "meditative" pose when they teleport and they always change into their exercise clothes to meditate. So it's not as useful as the "teleport" ability that the TS1 Sims had with Makin' Magic. (Shame really. I like the TS1 teleport.)

[surprised_by_witches]

So, where do they go? Can you choose? I've never had anyone try this! Xena's at body level 10, as are some of my other sims, so they could probably give it a whirl ...

You learn something every day!

Yep, messy is definitely my style, as you can tell if you've read my little soap opera. ;)

[KatAnubis]

So, where do they go? Can you choose? I've never had anyone try this! Xena's at body level 10, as are some of my other sims, so they could probably give it a whirl ...

You learn something every day!

Yep, messy is definitely my style, as you can tell if you've read my little soap opera. ;)

Where they can go works like when you do the "move here" interaction for them. So, they can move just about anywhere there is room for them. (I've never had them transport into a wall or object. I suspect that without "moveobjects on" it won't allow them to merge in that way.)

[surprised_by_witches]

Ohhh, so they stay on the same lot.

I thought it was instead of using a taxi! :D

[Lynet]

Just an aside about teleporting in exercise clothes. I used body shop to make some everday outfits into swimming 'suits' because I wanted Errol, Harcourt and Alka to go swimming in their regular clothes, since they'd been thrown into the ocean by a sinking boat. It was easy to do, in case anyone is planning a movie or picture story and want sims diving into the pool fully clothed. Seems to me you could also turn everyday clothes into exercise outfits. :D

[AlisonSBurke]

Why didn't I think of that! Thanks Lynet!!!

[Mirelly]

Good tip, Lynet! One could also do the same sort of trick with the tracksuits so you keep perma-play maxed-out elders in perma-meditate ready to teleport into parties and receptions at the drop of a magical hat ;)

For those who like being ultra picky:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_chart
is a useful resource.

I also keep a notebook beside my keyboard, but I don't go overboard with detail. I tend to play a little like Kat and it makes a little wary of sometimes being a bit too idealistic, so on occasions I have thrown the odd spanner (wrench) into the works. For example two sisters both had attractions for the same man and he fathered children with both creating a consanguinity nightmare of epic proportions. I have another minor problem looming with Selsey who is expecting her second child. The father of the first, dormie, Mark Hanale, has been invited over to her parents' house where his daughter, Lissa and her mother still live, but he has shown absolutely no desire to pick up the baby. Hard cheese, sunshine! He can live out his days in ignominious Overlook Hotel until I decide upon a fate for him. Selsey's problem is that she was a bit tardy (actually it was me was tardy) in choosing/finding a soul mate. All her prime candidates married someone else ... but that merely sets up future complications that haven't been decided.

I would let cousins-in-law marry. (eg children of an adopted child with children of the adoptive family's nephews and nieces) On the cansaguinity chart, however, I shy away from allowing first cousins to join (not even tried it so don't know if it's possible) but I would allow 2nd cousins or 1sts once removed as there is ample new blood in the line to ensure genetic diversity ... though, again, I haven't tried this because I haven't needed, or wanted, to try, so I don't even know if the game would let me.

[Sacharissa]

So many interesting things to think about in this thread!

First of all, since someone on the Mac thread let me in on the secret of moving in and out of my gam without having to quit (THANK YOU, whoever you are!) it has mad it a LOT easier to play for a while, and then pop out of the game to make notes in a Notebook program I have. I've got tabs for Sim Biographies, storylines and story ideas, neighborhood notes, etc., all fully illustrated with pictures from the game. I haven't yet added an official family tree section, but I suspect I will have to very soon as my new neighborhood, Dunvagen Bay, begins to grow.

I'm also one of those people who is always mentally taking note of how the houses I see might work in the game ("Let's see - that lovely Victorian would be about 8 tiles wide, and 12 tiles deep...) I've been known to pause HGTV in order to take notes on featured homes!

And what a good idea to use Body Shop to create excercise gear out of street clothes! (I HATE the track suits!)

[MangoOrange]

(Edited to add attachments! Yay! )

I keep a "Family Spreadsheet". Basically, it groups together families with the same last name. Each generation is one column. So, in Veronaville, the oldest generation living at the start was Consort Capp, and the 2 Monty old people. They were Generation A column. Their children were listed in column B, with each one's spouse listed directly below them. I used bold black borders to denote married couples, with the spouse highlighted a different color. A dotted line between them denotes a non-married relationship that resulted in a child. Example of this is on the Capp tree.

Adopted children are underlined. Children who married into another family are listed with their married names and italicized. They are elsewhere on the spreadsheet as spouses, with their children listed, etc. Dead sims are shown with shaded boxes.

It's not shown on this example, but aliens have green font and vampires have red font. Otherwise their family relationships are listed as normal. Alien kids are listed just like regular kids of the married couple, except in green. Each family name has a different background color on the spreadsheet - like the Capps above are all green. I have a bunch of single sims listed at the end, the ones who didn't come from any of these families and have not started families of their own. They all stay white until they either get married or have a child, when they qualify for a new family color!

On the Monty tree, you can see that Bianca married Kent, and they adopted 2 children and then had 4 more. Her son Hermes married Ariel Capp, which you can see in the Capp tree. Also, Antonio is listed twice, because he was married twice. Same with Mercutio. As for divorced sims, I list them just the same way except include all of their married names. For example, Mercutio's first wife Jasmine. She later divorced him and married Demetrius Summerdream. She's now listed in the Summerdream tree as Jasmine Monty Summerdream. Juliette is not listed here that way because she married another Monty. Juliette Monty Monty.

This method doesn't do a really good job of showing all the family relationships, like cousins, aunts, uncles and the like. But I don't really care about that. Almost everyone is related distantly to everyone else. I don't want to drive myself crazy trying to document every single family tie.

[Mirelly]

LOL Mango, I look forward to seeing it when you upload it :)

[surprised_by_witches]

My spreadsheet gives one row to each sim. I do like to keep track of aunts, uncles, and cousins, and have a column for each type of relative, including parents, step-parents, kids, etc. Since I'm on gen 5 that can get rather complicated, especially with all the aliens I've got now.

I also have columns for things like aspiration, LTW, hair/skin/eye color, gender, former name(s), significant other, whether they're married/engaged/attached/not, sign, stats, household and generation, and whether they're a vampire/alien/faerie or have ever been abducted (those are yes/no columns). I don't track things like accomplishments or skill levels. That's a bit more detail than I need.

I sort by household. That's just easiest for me. If I have multiple households with the same last name I add the first. For example, Spike and London are the Du Maurier household, Apollo and Sylvie are the Apollo Du Maurier household, and Max ... well, you get the idea.

I'm kind of a spreadsheet nerd, so I enjoy working on this one. I don't care that it's a bit complicated. I like to be able to sort, so one line per sim works very well for me. That way I can sort by gender, eye color, last name, whatever I want.

[MangoOrange]

I put pictures in my post above. :D

[surprised_by_witches]

They must have been on delay, or something. They're there, now.

[Poyo]

I tried making a graphical family tree... big mistake. I always find myself having to shuffle the entire tree because there's not enough room for all the offspring's from each sim. I have now found that I'm running out of room. By selecting all and mass expanding I of all of it it creates size inconsistencies. For instance the spouses are tiny compared to the sim they are attached to. Ugg

I'm thinking of trying a spreadsheet like you guys. It looks much more neat and complete.

[surprised_by_witches]

I tried the pictorial version, too, Poyo, but the spreadsheet definitely works better for me. The graphic version can't capture nearly enough data, and you can't sort it if you want to see, for example, just how many babies you have. (Yeesh. A lot. I did that last night and thought, what the *** was I thinking?)

Plus you can add different worksheets if you have more than one neighborhood, or want to track different things. I have a separate page that shows my more detailed plans for my sims.

[suziesim]

I love this! Once again, I fiind that I'm not the only sim-addict that's also an excel geek. I love using the spreadsheets to keep track of my sims. I had an extensive one built for TS1, with all of my peoples and their interests, so I could sort by Travel or Food and find out who would be easiest to make friends with. We had ~ 100 neighbors, including the kids, so it was much easier to keep track of in a worksheet.
I've also built a family tree in Excel to keep my Verona ville teens from crushing on cousins. Most of the second generation (Bianca, Antonio, etc) were easy enough because they retained their last names, but almost all of the 3rd generation hooked up with someone from College & now have very different last names. I just started with Consort on the top left, Titania & Oberon top center and Patrizio & Isabella top right and then used arrows to draw down to direct children. Then I've listed the next generation down, with their spouses in column next to them. It's not something that can be sorted, but I can always insert an extra row to add another kid & it looks more like a tree. I also color code if someone is listed twice - like Juliet because she married Romeo is under the Capp tree & the Monty tree as as spouse.

[Kristalrose]

I agree: This is a wonderful thread! :)

I was keeping a journal for a long time. But I have a messy play-style, which means that if I get a whim to radically change my sim's lives, then they change. :) My Sims' lives are fantasy for me. Unlike real life, where we have to sometimes fight our impulsives and make long-term plans for the future, Sims can do something on a whim (such as quit a job or flirt with someone other than their SO) and usually, the results are entertaining, not tragic.

So, long story short, right now I have not updated my journal for awhile.

[KatAnubis]

Just an aside about teleporting in exercise clothes. I used body shop to make some everday outfits into swimming 'suits' because I wanted Errol, Harcourt and Alka to go swimming in their regular clothes, since they'd been thrown into the ocean by a sinking boat. It was easy to do, in case anyone is planning a movie or picture story and want sims diving into the pool fully clothed. Seems to me you could also turn everyday clothes into exercise outfits. :D

You can definitely switch clothes from being everyday to exercise. However, it makes it confusing as you can't tell if they're in their exercise or their regular clothes.

[KatAnubis]

(Snip for space)
Selsey's problem is that she was a bit tardy (actually it was me was tardy) in choosing/finding a soul mate. All her prime candidates married someone else ... but that merely sets up future complications that haven't been decided.

I would let cousins-in-law marry. (eg children of an adopted child with children of the adoptive family's nephews and nieces) On the cansaguinity chart, however, I shy away from allowing first cousins to join (not even tried it so don't know if it's possible) but I would allow 2nd cousins or 1sts once removed as there is ample new blood in the line to ensure genetic diversity ... though, again, I haven't tried this because I haven't needed, or wanted, to try, so I don't even know if the game would let me.

I try to have some extra college kids waiting in the wings for them so that I can add some more "new blood" to the "gene pool." I spent a lot of time in residency looking at the outcome of inbreeding so I try not to let my Sims end up like that. (Although at least they won't come up with some of the weird genetic diseases my patients had. I'm so glad that Maxis has resisted putting diseases of that sort into the game!)

[PlayLives]

I want to make an excel spreadsheet with my sims data. How do I start (column names, etc.)? I tried but I can't seem to figure out where to begin or how it should be laid out.
Also, do you guys keep track of your female sims maiden names when they get married, to trace back what family their from? I tried this yesterday by editing a sim's last name to be hyphenated; however when she had kids their last name was hyphenated too, which I didn't want.

[surprised_by_witches]

Here are the column headings I use, Playlives.

First, Last (this is where I put their current last name), Maiden or Former Name, Gender, Skin, Original Hair Color, Eyes, Status (age status, that is), Started As (age they started at), Adopted? (Y/N), Twin (name of twin goes here if applicable), Vampire?, Alien?, Abducted?, Cause of Death, Status at Death (again, this is age), Sign, Aspiration, Former Aspiration, LTW, Achieved LTWs, College Degree?, Career, Reached the top?, Businesses Owned, Type of Business, Former businesses owned, Household, Married?, S/O.

Then I have columns for each type of relative I want to track, starting with great-grandparents, though I'm thinking of putting kids directly after S/O. Next comes stats, then generation. I've got other columns as well but that's the gist of it.

Hope this helps (and doesn't frighten!) you!

[PlayLives]

okay thanks, SBW. I started with first name, last name but then I got stuck at how to track relatives (grand parents, aunts, cousins, etc.) using a spreadsheet. I will try it the way you've outlined it and see how that works. :knockedout: