Discussion: Plastic surgery for premades

[strange_tomato]

I know that this tends to be a somewhat controversial topic for fans of premade sims, and I don't normally make adjustments to their faces (unless I had a good story reason for doing so, such as a character getting actual plastic surgery), but I'm considering making a couple of exceptions. Dora Ottomas is one of them

Comments

[anonymous]

I don't change my sims faces anymore (but I used to) and that's just because I'm playing for me, I don't show any pictures and I like to see the outcome. But for a story like this, I think it's OK to change them within reason, as long as they still bare a strong resemblance to the original character I don't see why you can't change them for your own purposes.

[strange_tomato]

I think retaining the resemblance is the key here, but the amount of change that one can tolerate probably varies depending on the simmer. I'd be curious to know what someone who is a big Ottomas fan would think of the changes I'm playing around with.

[skellington7d]

I think it's justifiable when it comes to sims where the face is distorted in a technical sense like this. I've been tempted to do surgery on unnaturally polygonal looking features, like Sharla's cheek dents or the way Chastity's eyes are bent in the middle. The problem isn't the attractiveness, it's that their faces are doing something a real face wouldn't do because real people aren't made of vertexes.

(Not that's it's a sin if someone does want to prettify sims to their own tastes with surgery, just not what I'd personally choose for my game.)

[strange_tomato]

I think it would bother me a little more in the case of something like eye shape, as this defines their look so much, though it makes sense in the cases you've mentioned for those exact reasons. Some of the things are just wonky, like the way Dora's brow and eye are fighting to occupy the same space, with brow poking through the eye. I can tolerate some pointy features, because we're dealing with pretty low poly faces here. Unless everyone's face is super rounded, they're going to have some sharp edges.

I think I'd also be more reluctant about doing this for a sim I was more attached to. I'm personally very reluctant to use anything but the Maxis skins (or slightly altered, like Ale's) because I feel the faces change too much with the different lip shapes, nose shapes, etc. But that's generally something that doesn't bother me much at all in other people's pictures. I just dislike it in my own game.

[cindyanne1]

I used to do (and still do, although I play less) lots of sims surgery, but... like you say... also within reason. Usually it was with offspring and unfortunate genetic combinations from the parents. I would clone the parents in Sim PE, and then go into CAS in-game and make a clone family and several children until I found one where I got pleasing genetic combos from that particular set of parents. Then I would use ChristianLove's Sim Copy Mirror in-game to copy the clone family sim-child onto the actual sim child

[strange_tomato]

It's possible to do that facial copying in SimPE. There's a tutorial for it here, though sadly the images are missing now.

I haven't done that in my story hoods yet, but it's something I've considered doing if I was desiring a certain outcome in the blending of the parent's looks. The problem with me is I get too sentimental with sims and even when I wanted a certain combination of skintone, hair, and eye colour, I often can't bring myself to exit without saving to try again because I instantly feel bad for the poor unwanted sim baby. :P

[jeeks]

I didn't really play my game giving sims plastic surgery, but I can see how (especially with the Ottomas) it would be ideal. I agree with what Queen-of-France said on your tumblr post, in that "if it makes sense" the adjustment is acceptable. It bothers me a bit that Cassandra and Alex look like Kaylynn and Goopy (who are fine, just not as Goth children). I plan to make a blend of Morty and Bella to get Cassie and Alex to look more like them (if someone doesn't already have them up for download). Meetme2theriver fiddled with the broken face templates as she got the megahood going. I have yet to put my hood together to see her face template for that family.

TL;DR: I never got to play the Ottomas before my hood broke, so I don't have that attachment to them and would be fine with you adjusting their face templates.

[strange_tomato]

I'm a little torn on giving the Goth children plastic surgery like that. I think it's an interesting idea to make them match their parents, but they're also so well known by their TS2 looks that I feel those are the official looks and wouldn't want to mess with them. It sucks that they're just lazy template faces, but Pleasantview is full of those anyway (or with very minor adjustments). It's one of those things where I'd choose to say they turned after their grandparents, though this is sadly not a functional part of the game.

Haha. That's the thing about the Ottomas clan. I doubt anyone would really complain about a minor change to their faces, since many people aren't really attached to them and most people dislike their looks (but this is TS2 fandom, so who the hell knows).

[dinuriel]

Of course it's acceptable. I realize that people do have attachments to the original premade faces, but ultimately, everyone has the right to do as they see fit in their own games.

Back in ancient history, I gave Hal Capp plastic surgery when he grew up to adult, since he had some of those borked facial features that look so drastically different in the adult stage (and I actually thought he had a pretty unique look as a teen). These days, I usually only fire up the game for pictures of my story Sims, but I have been chipping away at a Riverblossom Hills hood every once in a while. I haven't tweaked any of the premades there, but I have tweaked some of their children--not for "ugly", but for sheer implausibility. The Greenmans had some twins, one of which got no chin and some genuine "duck lips" while the other could fit another face between his eyes and and his nose.

Dora looks good, by the way! Still like herself, but more... yeah, I'll just stick with "plausible".

[strange_tomato]

I agree, and I will stand behind everyone's right to do what they want in their own game, even if that means changing all the premades to Face One and Two. That said, I know many fans of premade sims will check out of a story or image post pretty quickly if they see that a simmer has done that, so it's something to keep in mind.

Hal Capp is one of the sims that's based on a broken face template and changes once he ages up. It doesn't match his original face. That's one of the cases where I support correcting it to stay true to "canon" as his child face is the face he's presented to us with.

I wonder what's up with the Greenmans? I've similar results with their children. Maybe Rose has a longer face. Jason has (a modified?) Face One, which is short, so that could cause problems.

Thanks. I think she's still pretty Dora-ish, though I know it might not pass for someone who was really familiar with and/or fond of her face. I wonder how many people would have noticed if I hadn't said anything at all about it?