Tutorial: Restoring recessive genes in CAS for those without SimPE

[esmeiolanthe]

Hello! Are you on a Mac, or otherwise unable to use SimPE? Have you downloaded a Sim, or had a good friend extract and clone one for you? Do you know that the Sim used to have recessive genetics, but you're not sure if they do anymore? The short answer is: if the sim was shared correctly, then no, they don't have recessive genetics anymore.

Does that make you sad? Do you want to put the recessive genes back, but you don't know how? Then cheer up! I know how to restore recessive genetics with only the tools that come with the game, and I will tell you how!

First, open CAS and type in the last name of the Sim you want to make. For clarity in this example, I'm going to type in "Oakapple."



CAS automatically makes a Sim after you put in the last name. Make any adjustments to get a Sim of the same age and gender as the Sim you want. Since our target, Oakapple, is an adult male, I have selected an adult male. Give this Sim a name, any name you like. For clarity, I have chosen "Male." Click the picture of the six Sims in the top right of the panel. In this picture, it's the one with the writing over it.



The Sim Bin will pop up. (It's not the sim bin you get in the neighborhood screen, though!) Find the Sim you're looking for -- who will have a custom content star in the upper left -- and click them. In this shot, Oakapple is in the top row, second from the left.



Hey presto! You now have a Sim who looks just like Oakapple named Male. He is heterozygous, though, which means he has no recessive genes. Give Male any personality you like, and any turn ons and turn offs you like. Don't think too hard about this, since you will not be keeping Male around for very long. Accept the Sim.



Male Sim will show up in front of the backdrop. Create a new Sim using the button off to the left. In this picture, it's the one with the writing over it.



Create another adult male Sim. Name this one something different. For clarity in this example, I'm going to call him "Female." (It will make sense in a minute, I promise.)



Find Oakapple in the Sim Bin again and click him. Notice that this is still Female Oakapple.




Now change Female Oakapple from male to female. (If you are starting with a female Sim, change her from female to male.) The clothing and hairstyle will change also, but the genetics are all the same.



Go into the part of CAS where you select hair color, eye color, and so on. Change Female Oakapple's coloring to match the recessive genes. For the real Oakapple, he has a blond recessive for hair and a green recessive for eyes, so that is what I used for Female Oakapple. I also changed her hairstyle so I could see her hair, since the llama hat hides it, but that isn't necessary.




Give Female any personality you like, and any turn ons or turn offs you want. Again, this is completely irrelevant long term, so don't spend too much time on it.



You now have two Sims with identical genes for facial structure. They do look a bit different, because genes express differently on males and females, but the only genetic difference between the two is in the coloring. Make a third Sim using the "Make a Baby" option. In this picture, it is the button with the writing over it.



Use the pacifier to make a child of the correct age and gender. Notice that at this point the resulting Sim looks just like Oakapple except for the hairstyle and the shirt. That's because he was created from two clones. However, because one of his parents was blond, he's carrying the recessive blond hair gene. (And the same with the eyes: he has a recessive gene for green eyes.) Accept the Sim.



Name the Sim. For clarity in this example, I will name him "Real," but you should use whatever name you really want your Sim to have.




Fix the hair and clothing on your Sim so that they look right. Here I have given Real Oakapple his stubble, messy hair, and overalls.



Set your Sim's aspiration, personality, turn ons, and turn offs. This time, take the time to do it right -- this is the Sim you'll be keeping. (In this case, I have selected a random aspiration and personality points anyway, because Oakapple is a Grilled Cheese Sim and a zombie with fewer personality points than normal, and I will have to change both those things in-game.)



Now you have three Sims where you only needed one. Take a look at them -- can you tell which one is the original clone and which is the bred-in-CAS one? I would be willing to bet that you can only tell because of where they are standing. The differences between the two are entirely the recessive genes, which don't show. you don't need Male Oakapple now, and you can delete him. The button you use is the one with the writing over it in this picture.



You don't need Female Oakapple anymore either, so you can delete her too.



This leaves you with one Sim: Real Oakapple, who looks right AND who has the right recessive genes. Could life be any better? I don't think so!




I hope this tutorial comes in handy for someone at some point. Until next time, Happy Simming!

Comments

[joandsarah.livejournal.com]

I have heard about this being done before, but this is the first time I have seen how it is actually done and now it makes sense! A very clever idea for getting your recessives back.
So there is no chance the clones could produce a slightly different child? Or do you just keep clicking until he looks right?

Also Oakapple looks terrible as a woman! And that llama hat, so classy! Lol. ^_^

[esmeiolanthe.livejournal.com]

I don't know about there being no chance of a slightly different child. If I'd thrown skintone into the mix (which I didn't just to keep it simple), you might have to roll several times to get the right one showing. I really don't understand how skintone genetics work.

I did click several times for a new child, but all I saw changing was the hairstyle.

And pooh! Oakapple looks okay as a woman! He's got -- I mean, she's got the right number of parts in the right places, and generally proportioned well in relation to each other. No fish mouth or tiny eyes or anything. By my standards, that's plenty nice-looking. ;)

The llama hat is completely indefensible, though.

[katrisims.livejournal.com]

About the chance of getting a slightly different child: I wouldn't know if there's a random element that would change the facial structure of the child, but with the coloring, I think it depends on the particular colors.

If you have a sim like Oakapple, who's genes are dark blue and green for eyes and black and blond for hair, it makes sense that the child would always look the same: dark blue is a dominant color and green is recessive (I think), so dark blue should always be the one showing on the child, and for the hair black is dominant and blond is recessive, so the same applies.

But if the sim has genes that are either equally dominant (like dark blue and brown eye genes) or equally recessive (red and blond hair genes), to my understanding both of the alternatives are equally likely to show up on the child. That's the case for several of my own sims. So a child of one red-haired parent and one blond-haired parent would be equally likely to have red or blond hair (assuming the parents both have two of the same gene), and in both cases, the other color would then become their recessive gene.

I'm not 100% sure but I *think* that would be how it'd work. :) The skin genetics work somehow differently and I don't fully understand it, but it has something to do with ranges. Supposedly if two parents of different skintones have a child, the child could have either of the parents' skintones, or any skintone that falls between the two. (So to my understanding with parents of S1 and S4, it would be possible for the child to have any of the four skintones, but how *their* genetics would then look I don't really know or understand.)

[esmeiolanthe.livejournal.com]

Yes, with parents who have equally dominant coloring (like brown eyes and dark blue eyes), you might have to click the pacifier several times before you get the right color combinations. I guess that's what you'd have to do if parent had different skintones, too.

The way you understand eye and hair color inheritance is the same way I understand it. *nodnod* I guess I'd have to wing it on skintone, though. Theoretically, Oakapple could be carrying a gene for S4, since his grandmother was S4. Sure, his mother displayed as S3, but her father was S1, and S3 is between S1 and S4, which are the only genes she could have... theoretically. I think that if I decide to restore skintone genetics, I'm not going to mess around with figuring it out, though. I'll just say "His mom looked S3, so Female Oakapple is now S3" and then roll the pacifier until he comes out with the right skintone.

It doesn't help that I can't tell the difference between s1 and s2, even when theyre right next to each other... :(

[joandsarah.livejournal.com]

I'm going to check everyone's skin again before I send you the list because even in simpe it's a little confusing.
One section shows the skin the sim has (the easy part) but under that is skinetone range and that doesn't always match the area below that which gives the recessives. I think on the first lot I might have just said they have this skin tone and this recessive and I ignored the range. I wasn't sure if that just applied to their own skin or what they might pass on. Tell me if you want it.

[esmeiolanthe.livejournal.com]

That would be good, if it's not too much trouble. It would be a list like this, right?

Skintone: S2
Range: S1 - S4

...Or is it more complicated than that? No mater what, the skintone genetics are going to change, because if Oakapple's genes are S1 and S4, but he shows as S2, then he's going to show up in CAS with S2. Although I could fiddle with that too -- it would just mean rolling the pacifier a bit more.

[joandsarah.livejournal.com]

Well it only gives you one skin for the range. If it said sk1-sk2 it would make more sense. But it might say

Dominant
skintone sk2
skintone range sk3

recessive skintone sk1

I just shut simpe, but I will find one tomorrow.

[esmeiolanthe.livejournal.com]

Jeepers, that's confusing. I might just handwave the skintone... >.>

[katrisims.livejournal.com]

Never thought of this method myself, but partway through it started making perfect sense. Very clever!

[esmeiolanthe.livejournal.com]

I figured it out last rebuild, and it really does work. (That's how Oakapple ended up with those recessive genes in the first place.) Sometimes it's nice to know that there's a low-tech way to get results when you can't use the high-tech ones. :) And it doesn't take too very long, although the limit on Sims you can built in CAS can be a problem if you have lots of Sims in a household. But in most of my households, at least, there are enough heterozygous folks around (who don't need recessives) that a little careful sequencing should take care of that. I hope!

[amylu1988.livejournal.com]

Ah, it makes so much sense! Glad I found this before I re-made the Psychologists; I do have SimPE, but it's nice to have a newbie-friendly alternative. :D

[esmeiolanthe.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it's helpful! :D If you have coloring that's equally dominant, you may have to roll the pacifier several times before the right colors come up, but that's easy enough to do.

[joandsarah.livejournal.com]

It's not hard to set your clones DNA in simpe though. It just doesn't work when you share them with others.

[miss-amaretto.livejournal.com]

While I don't have a mac, and don't have the issue of not being able to use SimPe, I have to say I was curious about this. Once I read it, I thought it was extremely clever! Wow!

[esmeiolanthe.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :) When you don't have access to the best tools, you have to find workarounds. This one works, and it's not too time consuming. I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of the process, but I might be the first person to take pictures of it that involve a llama hat. ;P

[simlili.livejournal.com]

I never thought about giving extracted sims their recessive genes back! Clever!

Thank you for the detailed tutorial :)

[esmeiolanthe.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you found the tutorial helpful! Recessive genes are one of my favorite things about this game, and I know of at least one heir in my OWBC who was chosen exclusively because he was likely to carry a red-hair gene, so restoring that is important.