I have not used the traits, it seems to me that there are a number of conflicts, though - https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=631880

With my hood building over the last year, I just did not have time to check it all out - but I may consider it in the near future.

A full bar nice sim with this aspiration would be so weird lol yeah I don't see how Deviancy will fit in the term Aspiration, anyway those wants should be for grouchy personality regardless of.
If the antisocial stuff is their thing, I imagine that during immaturity mode they would become repented and thus good for as long as it lasts?

I always get a giggle when very nice Sims roll a 'become criminal mastermind' want.

All of these aspirations sound so... tiring!
I want an aspiration for being lazy. But not just being lazy... being content, 'just leave me alone', happy-go-lucky, happy with where they are and what they have.
Pleasure would not fit this because you get wants for doing things.
Tranquility perhaps?
Wants could be to miss work, watch TV, have a bath, relax on the bed, hug someone, read a book.

Those sound like Pleasure wants to me.

Yeah, but a sim like that definitely wouldn't want to go to a community lot or throw a party or get a job, and sometimes they just wouldn't have any wants. Like, weekends are blank want slot days!

@Bulbizarre Couch potato would be great, but sometimes they might want to just go outside and sit on the lawn too?

Actually, thinking about it, that makes my argument for sub aspirations more appealing. Pleasure can have sub categories, depending on what you find pleasurable. Some people wanna party! and some just want to sit on a couch with the cat on your lap (sadly, not something you can do in Sims 2).

That makes me think and I can't remember. Are outgoing Pleasure sims more likely to roll party wants than shy ones and vice versa for the stay at home wants?

I was thinking I'd also like a sub-aspiration for popularity more suited towards shy Sims with a few close friends - less throwing parties all the time, mostly.

Popularity must be a difficult aspiration for shy sims. In order to be popular you really have to put yourself out there.

I actually like the aspirations being broad, but I agree that the power one should have been kept in, and I would like a creativity one I like the idea of altruism, too.

I am not a fan of the TS4 style aspirations, they are much too narrow IMO. Many of them should just be hobbies. What I really love about TS2 sims is that each part of their personality is determined separately and may be more or less significant for that character, rather than everything being narrow traits.

I quite liked the weighted aspiration system someone shared here the other week, but I tweaked it for my own play style since I didn't love all of the mini-aspirations. Each aspiration (except grilled cheese!) has two sub-types, which helps broaden them out but make them feel distinct at the same time.

I can't remember what the original ones were vs mine now but these are what I have them as:

Family - Traditional parent (invested in education, skill enrichment, etc) / Full house (chaotic, big family, big kid themselves)
Fortune - Business Savvy (hard worker) / Shady Character (crime/exploitation/woohoo-your-way-up kind of thinking)
Romance - The Player / Hopeless Romantic (with the idea being that they fall in love instantly with everyone they meet but can be prone to a "grass is greener" or "but maybe that person is my REAL soulmate?" mindset, which can cause issues for them)
Popularity - The More The Merrier (loves people, loves big groups, entertaining, parties) / Notorious (wants to be famous by any means possible)
Pleasure - Live for Today (no particular long term goals, happy with the little things in life) / Hedonist (wants luxury everything, avoids work etc)
Knowledge - Visionary (wants to improve the world, leave a legacy whether creative/science/altruism) / Mad Scientist (pushes the boundaries of what is possible/acceptable, cares less about social rules)

The only two I'm still not sure about are the hedonist and shady character ones - I think Fortune probably needs a split between someone who is a careful investor and keen to make money but not necessarily spend it, vs someone who IS a big spender, likes to splash the cash, likes to have the most expensive things and everyone to know that, and will fund it however (either by honest work or running up debts or exploiting people). So I think maybe hedonist fits better here. But then I'm not sure about the second one for Pleasure. Maybe Pleasure needs a subtype which is the shirker/slacker who wants everyone else to run around after them and do all the work while they relax?

Popularity I find tricky because I never know whether it should be about happy, clappy, all-get-along or whether it should be about some kind of more adult version of "being the most popular kid in high school" which is a very different thing - people pleasing vs establishing yourself as a social elite.

I had a really shy and serious popularity sim I thought would be a challenge to play, but he ended up one of if not the most successful of my popularity sims Reached his career lifetime want as an adult, and since he lived alone all his adult life all friends he made to be promoted were his own personal friends (not to mention he was besties with his parents and several of his eleven siblings). I specifically played him as a shy and serious guy, too - I didn't have him take much initiative socially and I never made him do interactions like joke or play. Probably helped that he was also extremely nice

Maybe they just want to be popular to cats. 😺

@Justpetro "I have not used the traits, it seems to me that there are a number of conflicts, though"

But you don't have to use all of the mods tied to them, you can pick and choose. By themselves they are just pictures in inventory.

Animal friends would also be a fun subaspiration for Popularity.

For starters, I would be very happy if each user-made career came with an appropriate aspiration.

I like the aspirations being very broad, leaving lots of room for my imagination to interpret them in different ways for different sims. I could see adding a few, such Deviance or Power, but a lot of the other ideas could be informal subaspirations. For example, I already treat some knowledge or fortune sims as creatively motivated, and I have romance sims that are devoted monogamous partners and other romance sims that will never be in committed relationships. I don't need separate aspirations for those things and I'd worry that too many aspirations made too narrow would feel shallow.

As for the 3t2 traits, I find them useful even without mods as a way to help me recall details about a sim's personality without me taking notes - such as the different types of romance sims, or if I want a fortune sim to be career oriented or focus on self-employment or moneymaking through hobbies, or a popularity sim to prefer parties and large friend groups or quiet outings with close friends and family. I use some of the mods, but they aren't crucial in how I view my sims.

Lamare's 50 new lifetime wants also adds some more variety to each aspiration.

I've often split aspirations like fortune between wanting to build up cash and wanting to spend it and a seconary aspiration has a little influance over the primary one.romance with Pleasure means more likelyhood of them not settling down or being likely to cheat on a partner.Popularity sims are more likely to be big spenders if the second is fortune.

I sort of wonder that sub-aspirations (or even tertriary aspirations) could be crurently done with new custom Traits.

It's easier than believed to have lots of friends because if you have Pescado's phone hack and another (by Dizzy) all you have to do is have your pixel call their friends more or less every day when they're not busy or otherwise engaged.

They will call the lowest ranked ones first, and then move up the ladder. Of course it's going to be difficult to get all of them done if the pixel has lots of friends, but it does increase their fun and social at the same time and keeps their friendships intact so you don't get the message (annoying as all hell, too) that your friend has stopped being one, and why don't you do something about it?

A few years ago I suggested splitting the Knowledge in two:

Sensible Knowledge Sims who learn about things on the Internet and in books.

and

Silly Knowledge Sims who get struck by lightning because they want to find out what it's like for themselves.

I try to encourage my Knowledge Sims to be sensible. I think Andrew has learned.

That would be cool! They would fear to meet new sim or going out. Maybe they would have unsocial bar instead the social bar. Otherwise they would get bored or tired fast if they are social. :D

Mine would be Love. It would be too similar to Family, but I would like to have one focused on a loyal relationship, marriage, etc.


I was so confused the first time I played the game and unwittingly gave my Sim the "Romance" aspiration and he got a negative memory for going steady. Also, Family keeps having these annoying pet wants, like the buy a womrat cage.

I've evolved my aspiration model a bit since I posted on this thread. A few years ago, I made a tumblr post listing out all the different aspiration combinations and what I thought about them but I've gone for a simpler interpretation.

Popularity = these sims want to fit in and be accepted. They are motivated by social approval.
Fortune = these sims want to be rich, and think in economic terms. They are motivated by money, which can make them ruthless.
Knowledge = these sims are naturally intelligent. They are motivated by curiosity and understanding things.
Family = these are sims who have a strong desire for children and stability. They are motivated by a sense of responsibility. They put their family first.
Romance = these sims want to be attractive and desirable. They have a strong sexual/romantic desire, which can override other motivations.
Pleasure = these sims just want to have fun. They are motivated by what is enjoyable or easy.

And then any combination of these is basically expressed by

Main aspiration = the sim's deepest desire/fear/motivation
Secondary aspiration = they are also motivated by this, but it's driven by their primary.

But it can also just be a sim that has both. I won't list out every single combination but for example:

Family + Fortune = they are motivated by money, but the money motivation is because they have a strong desire to support their family.
Fortune + Knowledge = typically quite committed and driven sims; they're the kind to laser-focus on a goal and get things done.
Pleasure + Romance = pretty much a pure hedonist, they care most about their own good time.
Popularity + Romance = this is interesting, because it shows a clear pattern where the sim craves acceptance and uses sex appeal to get there; they might be a people-pleaser who gives easily into other's desires, or they might be a charmer focused on their looks.

So I've evolved sophie-david's calculator again for my game. I borrowed the idea and the code, but I started from scratch with my own definitions.

First, I wrote out all 30 of the main combinations. I didn't bother with grilled cheese; it's too annoying and silly. I left a calculation for this off to the side and I might let someone have it somewhere if they get a very very high score for it. I also decided not to bother with primary-only aspiration. I decided that this was too simplistic and fitted better to teens. So I thought OK; on the teen birthday, my teens will get a primary aspiration and this will contribute towards their character within their teen years. When they get to college, during the middle year where they have a chance to change aspiration, they also gain a secondary. If they don't go to college, they get it on their adult birthday.

Then I looked at the subtypes for each primary and tried to divide these into roughly two categories. When doing this, I thought about teenagers/secondary school stereotypes. I ended up with 2 sub-aspirations for each of the main aspirations, and because there is a giant teen interest shift in the vanilla game, I made a calculator which ONLY takes personality into account. I decided to use this for CAS sims too, since their interests aren't visible. However the calculations for the 30 adult combinations do use interests.

So my teen (primary only) aspirations ended up being:

Popularity (crowd-follower vs "Prom king/queen") based on whether they are seeking to fit in and be approved of by others, or whether they are that "super popular kid" type.
Fortune (flash the cash vs entepreneur type) based on whether they are into things like brands, the latest tech and the trappings of being rich vs whether they are that kid who gets a job ASAP.
Knowledge (geek vs nerd) based on whether they are just smart and curious or whether they are so far that way inclined that they are actually out of step with everyone.
Family (sensible vs romantic) based on whether they are a responsible type who wants to please their parents, vs someone who is dreaming of their future life with a spouse & babies.
Romance (easy vs horny) based on whether they are more likely to be open to being pursued, or more likely to be the pursuer.
Pleasure (dosser vs thrillseeker) based on whether they are the "so laid back they are horizontal" type vs someone always looking for the next new fun thing.

And honestly, I don't think that any extra aspirations are needed. I can't actually think of any other motivations that I would want to fit in. Maybe altruism or creativity, but as I said before, I do think these are covered fairly well by the hobbies and personality side. And I really love the combination of all different personality types, interests, hobbies, and trying to work out how I can interpret different combinations.

For sure need a MOD so they will stop needing company (for my antisocial hermits)..although pets help. Have also been wanting a mod that totally stops sims from complaining about a mess..even sloppy sims will do this. Oh, you want ME to clean up your mess?

And I see that I HAVE mods that are mentioned as traits. AND have something that lets me change LTW, and lots of new (& funny) careers, like alien invader and psychotic. And all the "service" careers (like maid & gardener); those people are supposed to actually be available when a sim hires that service -- but that part doesn't work.

I dont know, but I like the aspirations that are now, I dont need any more. I like the broadness of them, they're more flexible and with FT's extra aspiration you can really add depth to a Sim's personality.