If you don’t play the sims, but you’re still reading this blog (for some odd reason) then you may come across the occasional phrase or term that may confuse you.
This is probably because I’m referring to some part of the game mechanics, or the legacy challenge itself – below are some explanations behind the terminology that might pop up in my posts.
Simoleons: The sims’ unit of currency.
LTW: An acronym for ‘lifetime wish’. Every sim has a lifetime wish, which is a long-term goal. It’s their life’s ambition, and is usually based on their traits. The completion of their LTW will give the sim a large quantity of lifetime happiness points.
Traits: These are the little personality quirks which make up the sim’s character. An adult sim has five traits, but these differ depending on age: babies and toddlers have two, children have three, and teens have four. Some adult sims may have more than five – they can get an extra trait by completing a degree or by having a lot of influence with a social group. Traits cannot be in conflict with one another – for example, one sim cannot love the outdoors and hate the outdoors simultaneously!
Lifetime Happiness Points: When a sim completes wishes (including the LTW) they gain lifetime happiness points. These are an indicator of how fulfilled the sim is, and can be spent on certain objects and abilities which make the sim’s life easier – for example, a change of traits or more attractiveness.
Roll a wish: Sims have ‘wishes’ based on their traits or needs; these are simply the things that they want. Normal wishes are more short term than the LTW, but are likely to drive them in the right direction – for example, a sim who wishes to become a surgeon may roll a wish (that is, they may generate a wish) to join the medical career. However, they aren’t all career related. Wishes can be anything from eating waffles to getting married and having a baby, and they all reward the sim with different amounts of lifetime happiness points if/when completed.
Lock in a wish: Wishes disappear after just a few sim hours (minutes!) if they are not ‘locked in’. Up to four wishes can be locked in at once, and if you wish to lock in another one, you must either delete or fulfil an already locked wish.
Legacy: The legacy challenge is a fun thing to do in the sims where you take one sim, and have them establish a family that you play for 10+ generations. The ‘legacy’ refers to the family.
Founder: This is the first sim who establishes the legacy. For example, our founder is Alex Aster.
Heir/Heiress: Each generation an heir or heiress will be chosen, who becomes responsible for having children and continuing the family name.
Spare: Sounds a little bit harsh, but it’s true – ‘spare’ refers to the children who are not selected as heir/heiress. They’re still important though, as they ensure the family’s bloodline in case the heir/heiress dies or is incapable of producing children.
Expansion Pack: These are a range of discs you can buy in order to add gameplay to the sims. These are themed: for example, ‘Ambitions’ added more job options and ‘Pets’ added… pets. Who’d have guessed?
Plumbob: The little diamond that floats above the active sim’s head. I usually hide it when taking pictures, but it’s such a fun word. Plumbob. Ha.
The Aster Legacy 