BellaDovah’s Aspiration Calculator
I have come up with my own way of calculating what a Sim’s aspiration should be based on PleasantSim’s and TeaAddict’s calculators. This calculator takes both personality and interests into account.
I have changed what aspirations some of the interests belong to compared to PleasantSim’s calculator, such as Sci-Fi now belonging to Knowledge instead of Pleasure and a few other things like that that make much more sense to me. However, what is most unique about my calculator is that it actually takes opposites into account and subtracts from the scores. For example, if a sim has 0 interest in Sci-Fi, their Knowledge score is reduced by -5. Similarly, if a sim has 10 playfulness points, their Knowledge score is also reduced by -5.
I play rotationally so I have a lot of different sims and its important for me that they each feel defined and varied. I use my No Zodiac Chemistry mod so since Zodiac signs have no meaning in my game, basing aspirations on star signs is out of the question. So I personally use my calculator to decide both Primary & Secondary Aspirations, with the highest scoring being primary and the second highest scoring being secondary. However, you could use it to calculate only secondary or even only primary. I also recalculate my sims aspirations every time they age up and use the aspiration reward or the simblender to change their aspiration if the calculator gives me different results because I like the idea that sims sometimes change as they grow, but that’s by no means necessary, just an insight into my gameplay rules.
You could also leave the interest column blank to calculate only based on personality, or leave the the personality column blank to calculate only based on interests. Its really quite flexible.
How I suggest to use my calculator:
1. Click the link to the google doc and either make a copy in your own drive or download it as a spreadsheet, do not request edit access.
Note: the middle table is purely informational. This is where you can see which interests and personality traits affect which aspirations.
2. Fill in the sim’s interest scores in column B. These are intended to range from -5 to 5, with 0 being -5, 5 being 0, and 10 being 5. It would still work if you entered numbers 0 to 10 if you really don’t want low interest points to subtract from aspiration scores.
3. Fill in the sim’s personality scores in column D. The idea here is that only one side of the scale should be a number other than 0. These range from 5 to 0 on the left/‘bad’ side of the scale, and 0 to 5 on the right/‘good’ side, with 5 points being 0 for both sides. So, if a sim has 10 neat points, their sloppy score is 0 and their neat score is 5. If a sim has 8 neat points, their neat score is 3 (since 5 is 0 and 0 is 5) and their sloppy score is 0. If a sim has 3 neat points, their sloppy score is 2 (since 0 points would be 5) and their neat score is 0. If a sim has 5 neatness points, both their sloppy and neat scores are 0.
4. Use the scores that generate in column N to determine which Aspiration(s) the sim should have. If calculating for both Primary & Secondary, the highest score should be their Primary and the second highest should be their Secondary. If calculating for either only primary or only secondary, use the highest score only to determine this. The cells in this column are where the calculation formulas are, so be careful to not accidentally edit them as it will break the calculator. However, if you know what you’re doing, this is where you can make changes that make more sense to you, such as changing which aspiration an interest affects.
Note: The reason I have held off sharing my calculator for some time is because I’ve been trying to figure out a way for the School interest to affect the Knowledge Aspiration for Teens and Young Adults, but affect the Family Aspiration for Adults & Elders. My current solution is to have two calculators on separate sheet tabs. So if you look at the bottom left, you’ll see that the first sheet is meant for Adults & Elders but there is a second sheet meant for Teens & YAs. This means that 5 interests affect the Knowledge aspiration for Teens & YAs but only 3 interests affect the Family Aspiration for them. The other aspirations have the same 4 interests as in the Adult/Elder calculator. I couldn’t think of an interest to get rid of from Knowledge to replace School with and I couldn’t think of an interest to add to Family to replace School. If you have any ideas of alternative ways of doing this so that School counts for Knowledge for Teens & YAs, do let me know.
Keep an eye out for the next episode of my Opening Valley Let’s Play to see the calculator in action!
I hope that all makes sense and some of you can find my calculator useful, do let me know if you have any questions.
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