I would like to know how to change DNA information for sims in SimPE.

Before I realized how the game handles custom genetics (hair, eyes, skin) I had created some sims in CAS with custom hair. A female with a custom hair style will always pass her hair style to all female offspring and all male offspring will always inherit the father's hair colour. I've now realized this and I create all sims with original Maxis hair colours and then I update their appearance with the mirror in the game, if I want them to have a custom hair. However, I would very much like to fix this problem with existing sims.

Example: a female with a custom red hair style. I would like to fix her so she has the genes for red hair, which would allow for the possibility of a red haired son or daughters with their father's hair colour.

Is this possible and if it is, can someone please let me know how to do it? I've searched the forum and have not been able to find the answer to this question. I apologize if the question has already been answered in the past.

Thank you very much for any help you can provide :)

Erine

EDIT: I'm looking at the DNA info for a sim I want to edit in SimPE and I've found a similar post at modthesims2.com, so I may have found the answer to my question already. I will edit this sim and check her out in the game, have a few babies using boolprop to speed up the pregnancy and see if the problem is fixed. If it is, I will post the information for others who want to know this too :)

Okay, this took some time to figure out, since the information is listed in a different order for sims created pre and post Uni installation!

First, when you are looking at the SimDNA you will see different data strings. They may or may not be in a different order than what I've listed here (this is the pre-Uni installation order).

1 (dtString) is for the expressed hair gene
2 (dtString) is for the skin tone carried but not neccessarily expressed
268435457 (dtString) is for hair colour carried but not necessarily expressed
268435458 (dtString) is for the skin tone expressed
268435459 (dtString) is for the eye colour carried but not necessarily expressed
268435461 (dtString) was blank on all sims I check--don't know what it's for
268435462 (dtString) is for the skin tone passed on to offspring
3 (dtString) is for the expressed eye colour
5 (dtString) shows the dominant facial regions
6 (dtString) is for the skin tone passed on to offspring

In all the sims I viewed, the 6 (dtString) and 268435462 (dtString) were the same value but this may not be the case with all sims. All sims created in CAS should have the same values for expressed and carried hair genes, eye genes and skin tone genes.

Here are the values for standard Maxis genetics (don't know the values for Alien skin tone or eye colour--if someone knows these, please add them, otherwise I will add them after I've found them).

Hair Colours:
00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 Black Hair
00000002-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 Brown Hair
00000003-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 Blond Hair
00000004-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 Red Hair

Skin Tones:
00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 Light
00000002-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 Medium Light
00000003-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 Medium Dark
00000004-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 Dark

Eye Colours:
32dee745-b6ce-419f-9e86-ae93802d2682 Brown (Dominant)
2d6839c5-0b7c-48a1-9c55-4bd9cc873b0f Dark Blue (Dominant)
e43f3360-3a08-4755-8b83-a0d37a6c424b Light Blue (Recessive)
0758508c-7111-40f9-b33b-706464626ac9 Grey Blue (Recessive)
51c4a750-c9f4-4cfe-801c-898efc360cb7 Green (Recessive)

I hope this info will help others who want to muck around with the SimDNA like I did, and that it will save you many hours of looking at sims to figure out what all the strings and values mean! Happy editting :)

Hi erine

Are the DNA data you submitted uni or classic (since you said it differs in order)? I had a list before, and I've changed all my townies and NPCs several times, but I've lost my notebook.

The alien skin tone is 6baf064a-85ad-4e37-8d81-a987e9f8da46
I believe. The eyes I just can't figure out. Don't know why they aren't available in debug mode in CAS either, as that would make it easy to find out.

Alien skintone is 6baf064a-85ad-4e37-8d81-a987e9f8da46 and alien eye colour is 12d4f3e1-fdbe-4fe7-ace3-46dd9ff52b51. Also, I'm wondering if you've mixed-up numbers 2 and 268435458? In my game, the former is the expressed skintone. I do have Uni, but it's the same for pre-Uni Sims as well.

Thanks for the alien skin and eye values!

I honestly cannot say if the strings 2 and 268435458 are opposite in other people's games. All I can say for sure is that this is how they are in my game, by examining sims born within my game. The expressed skin tone is always shown in the 268435458 string and the skin tone carried is shown in 2. It is the same for sims expressing a custom skin tone and sims who express a Maxis skin tone and carry another Maxis skin tone.

The strings are listed in a different order for pre-Uni sims, but the information contained in each string is the same. I hope that helps. In my post I included the strings in the order shown for sims created pre-Uni. The sims created after installing Uni had the strings listed in the following order:

6 (dtString)
268435462 (dtString)
2 (dtString)
268435458 (dtString)
1 (dtString)
268435457 (dtString)
3 (dtString)
268435459 (dtString)
5 (dtString)
268435461 (dtString)

Now, I must say that I find it intriguing that in my game the 2 (dtString) shows the skin tone carried (not necessarily expressed) while 1 (dtString) shows the expressed hair gene and 3 (dtString) shows the expressed eye gene. It would certainly make sense for 2 (dtString) to show the expressed skin tone as well! However, in my game this is not the case.

My best advice would be to examine sims born within your game that carry two different skin tones, so you can be certain how the data is stored in your game. It certainly doesn't make sense that it is oposite in my game!

In my game some sims have their expressed skin tone in string 2 and some have it in string 268435458. And in one instance it is in neither. I have one girl whose parents had skin tones S1 and S3. She has those listed in the above strings. But her own skin tone is S2 which is listed in strings 6 and its partner. String 6 always shows the expressed skin tone. I have some sims that 6 and 268435462 are the same and some in which they differ.

It was my understanding from the Prima Guide that a child that expressed a different skin tone from its parents like the example above would still only be able to pass on what they had inherited to their offspring. But apparently that is not the case.

This was apparently changed with University but was the case with the original TS2 installation. Apparently Maxis decided that a sim who expresses a skin tone in the middle range between the parents should also be able to pass that skin tone on to their offspring--which does make good sense.

Thanks for the details of how the strings are used in your game! Again, it would definitely be good to check your other sims and see how the data is handled with them before changing the DNA of your patient sim.

I ADORE you.
This is exactly the answer I was looking for!
Thank you for your hard work!!