The Sims 3 Create-a-Sim Guide
by Norma Blackburn
| Create-a-Sim | Hair | Looks | Clothing | Personality |
Personality Tab
Appearance is just part of who our Sims are. Their personality will determine how they behave and interact with other Sims.
When we first enter the personality section, we find ourselves at the traits and wishes tab. We can also select the Favorites and Voice tab or the Astrological Signs tab.
Traits and Wishes
Here we add traits and life time wishes to our Sim. Note that the number of traits and what traits you can add to a Sim is dependent on the Sim's age and what Expansion Packs you have installed. Toddlers can have two traits, children can have three, teens can have four and young adults and older can have five. See this list of traits by age to see what traits are available to the different age groups. Some traits conflict with each other, for example, if you have a Sim with the shy trait, they can't have the flirty, social butterfly or party animal traits. When you pick a trait that conflicts with another, the conflicting trait or traits will be greyed out so that you can't select it. For a comprehensive look at what all the traits mean, have a look at this list.
Lifetime wishes are only available for young adult Sims or older. For a comprehensive look at all the lifetime wishes see the Lifetime Wishes guide.
1. Traits and Wishes selection tab
2. Favorites and Voice selection tab.
3. Astrological Sign selection tab.
4. Traits: When you select a trait it will appear in one of these boxes. Clicking inside a box or on the add traits button will bring up the traits selection box.
5. Randomize Traits: Click this if you would like the computer to select random traits for your Sim.
6. Add Traits: This will bring up the traits selection box.
7. Suggested Lifetime Wish: Once your Sim has at least one trait, the game will give you a selection of suggested lifetime wishes based on what traits are selected.
8. Customize Lifetime Wish: If none of the suggested lifetime wishes appeal to you, you can select whatever wish you like.
9. Lifetime Wish: Once you have selected a lifetime wish, it will appear here with a list of goals needed to fulfil that wish.
Selecting Traits
When you click on a trait box or the Add Traits button, you will get the traits selection box.
1. Randomize: Click to be given random traits
2. Current Traits: Any traits assigned to the Sim will be displayed here.
3. Remove selected trait: If you have a trait in the top box selected, clicking this button will remove it. Double clicking on the trait will also remove it.
4. Add selected trait: If you have a trait selected in the bottom box, clicking this button will add it to the Sim's traits. Double clicking will also add a trait to the upper box.
5. All traits: Selecting this tab will display all traits available for selection.
6. Mental traits: Selecting this tab will display only traits related to the mind.
7. Physical traits: Selecting this tab will display only traits related to the body.
8. Social traits: Selecting this tab will display only traits associated with social interactions.
9. Lifestyle traits: Selecting this tab will display traits associated with lifestyle.
10. Available traits: This is where traits will be displayed for selection. Mousing over a trait will bring up a description of the trait. Double click a trait here to add it to the Sim's traits or click once and the click the add trait button.
11. Cancel: This will exit the traits selection box without adding traits.
12. Accept: This will accept the chosen traits and close the selection box.
Favorites and Voice
Choosing a Sim's favorites does not impact too much on your game. A Sim will get a positive moodlet from listening to their favourite music, however seeing their favourite color or eating their favourite food has little or no effect.
1. Randomize Favorites: Clicking this will give your Sim random favourites.
2. Favorite Food: Click this box to bring up a selection of foods to choose your Sim's favourite.
3. Favorite Music: Click this box to bring up a selection of music types to pick your Sim's favorite.
4. Favorite Color: Click to choose your Sim's favourite color.
5. Voice selection: There are three voices to choose from for your Sim.
6. Adjust Pitch: Alter the pitch of your Sim's voice.
7. Edit Biography: Useful for storytelling, clicking this will open a box to write a bio for your Sim.
Astrological Signs
While you can pick an astrological sign for you Sim, it has very little impact, if any on your Sims personality. However star signs can have a small effect on relationships. For more information on compatible star signs, read this guide article on Zodiac Compatibility
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1. Randomize Sign: Click this to have a random star sign given to your Sim.
2. Star Signs: Select the star sign for your Sim.
Creating A Family
So you have made a Sim to your liking. Let's look at adding to the family by creating more new Sims or copying and importing other Sims.
Let's look at the smaller CAS interface in the bottom left corner of the screen.
1. Options menu: Use this to save, go to the main menu and a few other options.
2. Navigation Wheel: Used for zooming in and out plus rotating the view.
3. Pre-made Sims: Here you will find a selection of pre-made Sims plus any that you have made and saved along with others that you have downloaded. Clicking this button will bring up another selection box, which we will have a look at in a minute. The pre-made Sims found here do not include townies. Later on, we'll look at how to import a townie to CAS for future use.
4. Undo: This will undo any action in CAS.
5. Redo: This will redo an action that has been undone.
6. Sims in household: Any Sims that you have added to the current household will be displayed in boxes along here.
7. More: Only displayed on the selected Sim, clicking on this brings up more option which we'll examine shortly.
8. Add Sim: Click this to add another Sim to the household.
9. Cancel and exit: This will delete the current family and exit CAS without saving.
10. Accept: This will accept the current Sims in the household and continue to allow you to edit relationships between household members.
Pre-made Sims
Clicking the pre-made Sims button will bring up the following selection box. Note however, that this screenshot is taken from a game with Pets installed. If you don't have Pets, you will not have the option for animals.
1. All Species: This will display all available Sims and animals.
2. Sim: Clicking this will show only Sims and hide all animals.
3. Dog: This will show only pre-made dogs.
4. Cat: This will hide all but pre-made cats.
5. Horse: Shows only horses.
6. Show Sims of all genders.
7. Females: Displays only females.
8. Males: Shows only males.
9. Show Custom Content Only: Hides all but custom content Sims and animals.
10. Library: All available Sims and animals will be displayed here.
11. Delete Sim: Allows you to delete a selected custom content Sim or animal.
12. Share Sim: Share the selected custom content Sim or animal.
13. Accept: When you are happy with a selected Sim, this will accept your choice. If you exit using the x in the top corner, the selection will close and no pre-made Sim will be added.
More Options on Selected Sim
We can click on the more button of a selected Sim for a few more available actions.
1. Create A Twin: This is a very handy little tool. Click it and another Sim will be added to the current household. This Sim will be identical to the selected Sim.
2. Share Sim: Share the current Sim.
3. Save Sim to Bin: This will save the Sim to be available in the pre-made Sim selection box. Sims saved here do not need a name or traits.
4. Delete Sim: This will delete the selected Sim from the household.
Add A Sim or Pet
If we click the add Sim button, we get a few choices. Note that animal choices are only available if you have Pets installed.
1. Create A Sim: Adds a new household member in CAS.
2. Create Horse. Brings up a horse in the Create a Pet screen.
3. Create Dog. Brings up a dog in the Create a Pet screen.
4. Create Cat: Brings up a horse in the Create a Pet screen.
5. Play with Genetics: This will let you create a Sim sharing genetic information from members already in the household. Note that this option is only available if there is at least one adult male and one adult female already in the household.
1. Available males: Any males in the household aged young adult or older will be displayed here. Select the male you want to share genetics with the new Sim.
2. Selected male: This will show what male has been selected.
3. Selected female: This will show what female has been selected.
4. Available females: This will show any females aged young adult or older. Select the female you want to share genetics with the new Sim.
5. Play with Genetics: If you are not happy with the resulting Sim, clicking this button will create a new Sim that shares the genetics.
6. Female: This will make the new Sim female.
7. Male: This will make the new Sim a male.
The following are for selecting the age of the new Sim. Note that the new Sim is not technically an offspring of the original Sims, it can be the same age or older.
8. Toddler
9. Child
10. Teen
11. Young Adult
12. Adult
13. Elder
14. Resulting new Sim: This will display the new Sim using genetics from the original Sims.
15. Cancel: Leave the Play with Genetics screen without saving.
16. Accept. Accept the current new Sim and have them added to the household.
Edit Relationships
Once you are happy with the Sims in the household, clicking accept will take you to the household photo screen. Here you will see all member of the household together. From this screen, you can click the edit relationships button to define how members of the household are related. If you don't want any of the Sims to be related in anyway, other than being housemates, click the accept button.
If you want Sims to be related, click the edit relationships button. From here select the image of a Sim and holding the mouse button, drag the image on top of another Sim and release. Now you will have a screen where you can add a relationship. Choose the relationship you want and accept. Repeat until all relationships are set. Note that some relationships are not available between all Sims, for example, a Sim cannot be the child of a Sim who is the same age or younger.
Once a Sim or household is saved here, they will be in the library of Sims in game and can be chosen to move into properties.
Importing Sims into Create-a-Sim
Before we finish up, let's look at one last thing we can do. Say you like a particular townie and would like to play them, but you don't really want to have to try and get them to move in to your current house. There is a simple way to save them for future games. You will need to have testingcheats enabled for this , so Control + Shift + C at the same time on your keyboard. When the console comes up type in testingcheatsenabled true then hit enter. Now when you see the Sim you want, click on them while holding the shift key. You should have a selection of options to choose from on the Sim. Select the option 'Edit Sim in Create A Sim' and CAS will be opened up with that Sim. From here, you can edit them if you wish, or if you like them the way they are, just click save to bin on the lower interface and they will be added to the selection of pre-made Sims. They will even retain all their traits and their lifetime wish as well as their name. They will not however, retain any relationships or jobs they had in the game as a townie. Some townies will be in their work clothes and when you click them, you will get a message that the Sim must be wearing every day, formal, sleepwear, athletic or swimwear. If this is the case, and you really want them, shift click them and select 'Add to Active Family'. Once they are part of your family, you can shift click them again to edit them in CAS.
| Create-a-Sim | Hair | Looks | Clothing | Personality |
