Family Oriented Trait Causing Multiple Births?

[Pam]

We've had several reports of unexpected twins being born of Sims with the Family Oriented trait.  Up until now, I really don't think the trait made a difference in that area.  I've played many Family Oriented Sims and they didn't have multiple births unless I did something to make it happen, like Fertility Treatment or watching Kidz television.  Sure, it happened once in a while, but it was rare and random.  Now, however, twins seem to be happen more often without any extra effort for Family Oriented Sims.  I also have a Sim with Fertility Treatment who has had two sets of triplets!  Normally Fertility Treatment on just one parent will produce twins, while both parents having it produces triplets.

If anyone has any information to share about this, I'd appreciate it. 

[Schipperke]

Pam, thanks for starting this thread.  I will be very interested to hear other peoples' experiences with this.  As you know, I am one of the people who had unplanned twins in my Dynasty with a Family Oriented mother.  Metro says there's no connection, but nevertheless I intend to avoid having my sims marry Family Oriented spouses if possible, just in case.

[Pam]

Pam, thanks for starting this thread.  I will be very interested to hear other peoples' experiences with this.  As you know, I am one of the people who had unplanned twins in my Dynasty with a Family Oriented mother.  Metro says there's no connection, but nevertheless I intend to avoid having my sims marry Family Oriented spouses if possible, just in case.

Metro's not giving bad information or anything, but I think it's possible that EA may have tweaked the Family Oriented trait recently so that it leans towards multiple births.  Not necessarily officially in an announced patch, either.  The game is in a constant state of change and this may be something new.

[LlamaMama]

I play Family Oriented sims often and recently, and have never had a multiple birth (knock wood). FYI, I have all the expansions and stuff packs.

[samoht04]

Well I often play with Family Orientated and it does seem that it may increase the chances of twins, I am not certain though.

[malteser60]

I must admit I've wondered that but I've come to the conclusion that I don't think it makes any difference. When I first started playing the sims all I got was twins and triplets, this was even without the fertility treatment. Then I went through a stage when Try for Baby was having no success. Now it all seems to have settled down and i'm getting single babies and twins/triplets with fertility treatment. So in all honesty I think it all depends on the calcs used by the programming and what factors are applied to determine the probability of twins/triplets being born with parents that have no fertility treatment, and so on.

[Pam]

@malteser:

Are you getting multiple births from Family Oriented Sims or from all Sims?

[Aiwe]

I've had a fair few multiple births, so I thought I'd add my experiences about what seemed to influence them.

Firstly, the kid's music channel is a definite. In one game I played I wanted to have multiple sets of boy/girl twins in a row and listening to kid's music during pregnancy produced three sets of twins without fertility treatment. So far I've only seen the kid's tv channel mentioned so I thought I'd add this.

There's also two other things that I've noticed seem to effect the likelihood of twins or triplets, I haven't done extensive testing on these so I may be wrong, but I've noticed that young adults seem to have multiple births more often than older parents, and parents who are themselves one of multiple births seem to have an increased chance of having more than one child.

[malteser60]

@malteser:

Are you getting multiple births from Family Oriented Sims or from all Sims?

From both Family Oriented Sims and sims that do not have that trait. I don't normally tend to play with that trait very much, that's why it surprised me. Especially when I didn't want multiple births. All I could think of is that there is a small probability of getting multiple births and I was unlucky (or lucky) enough to hit that probability within the game programming (hope that makes sense).

[Twinmum]

[quote author=Aiwe link=topic=2059.msg39878#msg39878 date=1285849065
Firstly, the kid's music channel is a definite. In one game I played I wanted to have multiple sets of boy/girl twins in a row and listening to kid's music during pregnancy produced three sets of twins without fertility treatment. So far I've only seen the kid's tv channel mentioned so I thought I'd add this
[/quote]

Actually in the parenting guide http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/skills/parenting/ it does mention the radio as well as the tv channel

I did a little testing earlier. I had two couples and all had the family oriented trait. With needs static and aging kids up straight away then moving them out, each couple had 4 pregnancies (before I got tired of watching then just stand around) and not one resulted in a multiple birth (yes there was room in the household for each to have twins each time I tried.)

Norma

[Pam]

Firstly, the kid's music channel is a definite. In one game I played I wanted to have multiple sets of boy/girl twins in a row and listening to kid's music during pregnancy produced three sets of twins without fertility treatment. So far I've only seen the kid's tv channel mentioned so I thought I'd add this.

I've tested this with the kid's music channel and it has never produced a multiple birth.  Only the Kidz Channel on the television has given me a multiple birth.  I had pretty much decided that the part about kids music also causing a mutiple birth was unsubstiantiated rumor.

[Aiwe]

All I can tell you is that I've had it work for me reliably, three times in a row with the same Sim, who didn't have fertility treatment and didn't even own a television, I don't know whether she had the Family Orientated trait though, I suspect she might have and I can check later. It was also her favorite music, I don't know if that makes a difference. Also I literally had her listen to it every waking minute for the whole pregnancy from 'try for baby' onwards.

My experience with multiple births in Sims 3 leads me to suspect that the way multiple births is decided is something like this

<average or total of parents fertility> + <random number> = <initial fertility for specific pregnancy>

with that initial fertility determining an initial number of potential births something along the lines of: below a specific threshold zero births, ie no pregnancy, above that but below another threshold one potential birth, between that and another threshold twins, above that triplets.

Actions taken during pregnancy such as watching kids tv etc then push that number up and if it later crosses one of the thresholds you get an extra birth (or two).

I have no proof for this, but it's my gut feeling about how it works. I'll try and see if I can come up with some kind of test for it.

[Leto85]

I may be wrong, but I've noticed that young adults seem to have multiple births more often than older parents, and parents who are themselves one of multiple births seem to have an increased chance of having more than one child.

That sounds pretty obvious in my opinion. In real life young people are more virtile in the change of getting children (I'm just 25 so in theory I am one of them but I'll pass) so why wouldn't sims? Normally I let the sims first build up a career and when they hit adulthood than they will have children, but young adult is an exelent age. That way, the sim could even she his or her grand grandchildren, if the young ones will hurry.

But personally, I mostly choose for one kid, in a multi generation game, to prevent my family from extinction and to prevent myself with getting stressed out playing with a full family simpack.

@Pam: Because you play with so many kids in one family I've alwayse wondered; what do you with the kids when they reach adulthood? You will release them in the wild, let ghe stay in the family or something else?
I mostly don't know what to do with to many sims so I mostly go for one kid.

[Pam]

@Pam: Because you play with so many kids in one family I've alwayse wondered; what do you with the kids when they reach adulthood? You will release them in the wild, let ghe stay in the family or something else?

If it's a game I'm just playing for fun, I move them out in various ways when they grow up.  Sometimes I marry them off, sometimes I move them into their own house.  I pick whichever one I want to play and they stay in the house to carry on after the parents are gone.

[MomOfMany]

That sounds pretty obvious in my opinion. In real life young people are more virtile in the change of getting children (I'm just 25 so in theory I am one of them but I'll pass) so why wouldn't sims?

Actually Leto is it the opposite with twins they say:
•   The older you are, the higher your chances of having fraternal twins or higher-order multiples. A 2006 study found that women over 35 produce more follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) than younger women. Ironically, increasing levels of this hormone are a sign of failing ovaries and declining fertility. But FSH is also the hormone that causes an egg to ripen in preparation for ovulation each month, and women with extra FSH may release more than one egg in a single cycle. So while older women are statistically less likely to get pregnant, if they do get pregnant, they're more likely to have twins.

Found here: http://www.babycenter.com/0_your-likelihood-of-having-twins-or-more_3575.bc?page=2#articlesection3 For anyone who is more interested in it.