A while ago I set to work updating various lists on what wants and fears each aspiration is capable of rolling. See the following threads for more information:

• Need Help to Modify the Career Related Wants for Sims Based on their Aspirations and Personalities

• Need Help Identifying All the Wants that Each Aspiration is Capable of Rolling

• Need Help Locating (or replicating) various Wants and Fears icons with SimPE

As you can tell by the posts in the threads that I've linked, this project is already well on the way towards completion. I have been taught how to decipher the following:

• The badge related wants that are identified as <!--Want name is EP3ReachBadgeLevelN_d088fcaf.xml--> in the WantTrees.

• The career related wants that are identified as <!--Want name is alphaEnterCareerTrack_cdb94200.xml--> and <!--Want name is alphaReachCareerLevelN_6dca4435.xml--> in the WantTrees.

• The major related wants that are identified as <!--Want name is DeclareMajorBad_8e954fa3.xml--> and <!--Want name is DeclareMajorGood_0e954f80.xml--> in the WantTrees.

• The object related wants that are identified as <!--Want name is alphaBuyObject_2db90e51.xml--> and <!--Want name is alphaBuyObjectMinCost_6db90e8f.xml--> in the WantTrees.

• The skill related wants that are identified as <!--Want name is alphaGainSkillPoint_4db943e4.xml-->, <!--Want name is alphaGainSkillPointforWork_0de0c970.xml-->, <!--Want name is alphaLoseSkillPoint 0dbb9f82.xml-->, <!--Want name is alphaReachSkillLevelN_2dca4468.xml-->, and <!--Want name is ReachSkillLevelXforMajor_2eb8b9ff.xml--> in the WantTrees.

I also accidentally learned how to decipher the following:

• The food related wants that are identified as <!--Want name is alphaEatFood 4dbcc44c.xml--> and <!--Want name is alphaLearnToMakeFood 8dbcc6e7.xml--> in the WantTrees.

There's just one major problem. I haven't learned how to decipher the social wants that are identified as <!--Want name is alphaDanceWithSim 2dc933c6.xml-->, <!--Want name is alphaGetMarried 0d9acdd3.xml-->, <!--Want name is alphaGoSteady 4d9acdc6.xml-->, just to name a few.

The issue is that I haven't learned to tell the difference between wants like 'Get Married' and 'Get Married to (Sim)'. Because they both look the same when viewed in the WantTrees. And I haven't learned which examples refer to marrying a specific Sim. And which examples refer to marrying in general.

If anyone knows how to decipher the wants and fears related to Sims, please tell me how.

The names seem to be in plain English to me. If you want to know what the object/career/major/skill is, that's determined by the target, not by the want. Similarly, there aren't separate wants for get married versus get married to sim, that's just based on whether the target is a sim or 0.

I know. That's because they are effectively the same want. As you already know, I am sure of it. However, I don't know how to tell when it's directed at a given Sim, or just any Sim. Which is why I'm asking for help on how to read them. I can only remember Family Sims rolling the 'Get Married' want. But I've seen Family, Fortune, Knowledge, Popularity, and possibly Pleasure Sims rolling the 'Get Married to (Sim)' want.

If I've ever seen Pleasure Sims roll it, it was a rare occurrence, since they don't normally want to get married. But unlike Romance Sims, they don't fear getting married. And will usually get good memories from it, except for the rare instances in later expansion packs where Sims sometimes get the wrong engagement and/or marriage memory.

Here are all the copies of the 'Get Married' want from the WantTrees in case it helps anyone to decipher them.

I think this data may determine whether a want is directed at a specific Sim, or not:

<!--simulation parameters-->
<AnyBoolean key="visible" type="0xcba908e1">False</AnyBoolean>
<AnySint32 key="lifetime" type="0x0c264712">0</AnySint32>
<AnySint32 key="frequency" type="0x0c264712">0</AnySint32>
<AnyBoolean key="regeneration" type="0xcba908e1">False</AnyBoolean>
<!--want override properties-->

<!--simulation parameters-->
<AnyBoolean key="visible" type="0xcba908e1">True</AnyBoolean>
<AnySint32 key="lifetime" type="0x0c264712">72</AnySint32>
<AnySint32 key="frequency" type="0x0c264712">0</AnySint32>
<AnyBoolean key="regeneration" type="0xcba908e1">False</AnyBoolean>
<!--want override properties-->

But this isn't something that I'm confident in trying to figure out. As I don't have the required experience to be able to comprehend them. If I just understood which ones were directed at specific Sims and which ones were just the 'Get Married' want in general, then I'd probably learn everything there is to know about all the various wants and fears, and which aspirations are able to roll them.

None of those look like they have anything to do with a target. It's probably the "inheritSubject" value.

They look familiar. But not familiar enough for me to instantly tell if they are indeed what I'm looking for:

<AnyBoolean key="inheritSubject" type="0xcba908e1">False</AnyBoolean>

<AnyBoolean key="inheritSubject" type="0xcba908e1">True</AnyBoolean>

I just checked all the career related wants. But they all seem to be set to false, which further complicates deciphering the 'Get Married' wants, even though the 'Get Married' wants are unrelated to the career related wants.

I was going to update some information on some pages. But I just don't feel comfortable applying all the updates until I've learned how to decipher wants and fears in the WantTrees that are directed at a target from wants and fears in the WantTrees that aren't directed at a target.

I'm not sure what's confusing about that. The career wants have the career as their target, which isn't based on any other want, so the target is probably hardcoded somewhere. The target for a marriage want is based on want fulfillment, if you fell in love with someone or got engaged to them, that triggers them to show up on a marriage want, so in that case the target or subject is inherited from some other want in the tree in a lot of cases.

Family Sims may roll the want to 'Get Married' if their aspiration level is in the red, even if they aren't currently engaged. Aside from that, I don't recall the 'Get Married' want showing up. I can only remember the 'Get Married to (Sim)' want showing up for Sims that are currently engaged, minus the Romance and Grilled Cheese aspirations. Not sure if I've ever seen the 'Get Married to (Sim)' want appear for Pleasure Sims. But the WantTrees imply that they are capable of rolling that want.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to how I'm supposed to figure out which aspirations are capable of rolling the 'Get Married' want and which aspirations are capable of rolling the 'Get Married to (Sim)' want. And then I must do the same with all the other wants and fears (e.g. 'Play with' and 'Play with (Sim)', 'Fall in Love' and 'Fall in Love with (Sim)', 'Go Steady' and 'Go Steady with (Sim)', 'Irritate Someone' and 'Irritate (Sim)', etc.)

But I can't decipher any of those until I learn how to read the data that determines how the wants and fears appear for each aspiration.

Get married/get engaged will roll during dates, if that helps?

Well, if you just want the answer to that question, I can tell you that every aspiration is capable of rolling those wants.

The Romance aspiration can't roll the wants related to marriage. At least not specifically. If you've ever seen a Romance Sim roll wants to get married, it's probably because one or more copies of the 'Get Married' want have Super Zero set to 'False' which means that any aspiration can roll them, however infrequently:

<!--Want name is alphaGetMarried_0d9acdd3.xml-->

<ads key="aspiration" weight="14" superZero="False" locked="False">
<bool key="Family" value="False" />
<bool key="Romance" value="False" />
<bool key="Fortune" value="False" />
<bool key="Knowledge" value="False" />
<bool key="Popularity" value="False" />
<bool key="GrowUp" value="False" />
<bool key="PleasureSeeker" value="False" />
<bool key="GrilledCheese" value="False" />
</ads>

I still want to learn how to decipher these types of wants. Just so that I have proof of which aspirations can roll these types of wants and fears.

For my research, the aspiration values must be set to true, (e.g. <bool key="Family" value="True" />) or it counts as them being unable to roll them.

Romance sims definitely do roll wants to get married. Anyone will roll that want in the right circumstances.

I've checked the WantTrees and all the aspiration values for the 'Get Married' want for Romance Sims have been set to false. However, the super zero aspiration value has been set to false for some of the examples of the 'Get Married' want, which means that Romance Sims may occasionally still roll that want. However, for my research, I'm only counting the aspirations that have a value set to 'true' for at least one example per want and fear. Since all the aspiration values for the 'Get Married' want for Romance Sims have been set to false, it isn't eligible to be listed as being able to roll that want.

So you're not actually collecting research on how the game really behaves, but based on some other criteria about how the want trees are structured? In that case, you have the want trees, knock yourself out. I'm not sure what use this research actually is if it's not intended to be based on how the game actually behaves.

I do have plans to list which wants and fears are exclusive to specific aspirations and whatnot. I'm already listing the ones that are never exclusive to specific aspirations, such as the 'Get a Job in the Law Enforcement Career' want. But for now, I'm just doing the wants and fears that have enabled for each aspiration specifically. Because that is the information that I need at this very moment. I would go through enabling and disabling each example of the 'Get Married' want one by one to see which ones refer to specific Sims and which are just the want in general. But who knows how long that would take.

And if I were to do it using that method, I wouldn't be able to learn what settings are causing some instances to appear as 'Get Married to (Sim)' and some instances to appear as 'Get Married' by reading the WantTrees data. Which is why I have to learn how to decipher them by viewing them in the WantTrees sooner or later. I've already learned pretty much everything else I need. Now I just need to learn how to decipher the wants and fears that optionally refer to specific Sims.

There isn't a difference between "which wants are exclusive to specific aspirations" and "which wants are enabled for specific aspirations". The want trees information about which wants are enabled in which circumstances. If they are not enabled in any circumstances for certain sims, they exclude those sims. The want trees don't specifically exclude any wants from appearing, they just control when wants are enabled in the first place, and I can assure you that the get married want is enabled for all sims, including Romance sims.

Like I said earlier, the target on most wants is determined at runtime, it's not hardcoded. You will not find the target hardcoded in the want trees, it is not there. The target follows from the target from previous wants in the same tree, and like I said above, it's likely the "inheritSubject" value that determines whether or not the target is inherited from the previous want in the tree.

Based on my experience, if all examples of a certain want or fear say:

<ads key="aspiration" weight="100" superZero="True" locked="False">

Then only aspirations set to true such as:

<bool key="PleasureSeeker" value="True" />

Can roll those wants or fears. I have evidence that further supports what I've said. I once removed all the WantTrees except for the career related ones to see which aspirations could roll them. And for the ones with superZero="True" in them, only the aspirations set to true could roll them. These were my results regarding which aspirations were able to roll wants related to the 10 base game careers:

• Get a Job in the Athletic Career = Fortune and Popularity are set to true. superZero is set to true. Only Sims with the Fortune and Popularity aspirations ended up rolling this want.

• Get a Job in the Business Career = Fortune and Popularity are set to true. superZero is set to true. Only Sims with the Fortune and Popularity aspirations ended up rolling this want.

• Get a Job in the Criminal Career = Fortune and Pleasure are set to true. superZero is set to true. Only Sims with the Fortune and Pleasure aspirations ended up rolling this want.

• Get a Job in the Culinary Career = Grilled Cheese, Pleasure, and Popularity are set to true. superZero is set to true. Only Sims with the Pleasure and Popularity aspirations ended up rolling this want. Although I haven't actually checked to see if Grilled Cheese Sims are able to roll this want with everything but career wants disabled. I was only thinking of ordinary aspirations when I did this experiment.

• Get a Job in the Law Enforcement Career = superZero is set to false. All aspirations (aside from Grilled Cheese which I didn't check at the time of this experiment) ended up rolling this want. Even adults with the Grow Up and Power aspirations rolled it.

• Get a Job in the Medicine Career = Fortune and Knowledge are set to true. superZero is set to true. Only Sims with the Fortune and Knowledge aspirations ended up rolling this want.

• Get a Job in the Military Career = superZero is set to false. All aspirations (aside from Grilled Cheese which I didn't check at the time of this experiment) ended up rolling this want. Even adults with the Grow Up and Power aspirations rolled it.

• Get a Job in the Politics Career = Popularity is set to true. superZero is set to true. Only Sims with the Popularity aspiration ended up rolling this want.

• Get a Job in the Science Career = Knowledge is set to true. superZero is set to true. Only Sims with the Knowledge aspiration ended up rolling this want.

• Get a Job in the Slacker Career = Pleasure and Romance are set to true. superZero is set to true. Only Sims with the Pleasure and Romance aspirations ended up rolling this want.

I did however find that Sims of any aspiration could roll wants to get jobs in the Dance and Science careers, based on their respective FreeTime hobbies. According to information in the WantTrees. I haven't checked yet, but I presume the same thing happens with some of the other careers.

Do you have any idea what the 'weight="100"' in '<ads key="aspiration" weight="100" superZero="True" locked="False">' is for? I presume it helps to control the frequency of those wants and fears appearing. Although both Fortune and Knowledge Sims can roll the 'Get a Job in the Medicine Career' want, I seem to remember Knowledge Sims rolling it more. And although both Fortune and Popularity Sims can roll the 'Get a Job in the Business Career' want, I seem to remember Fortune Sims rolling it more.

It's probably a weight based on aspiration.

I started to modify some of the wants and fears in the hopes of forcing only the social wants and fears to roll. But it's just too time consuming to sort through them all. I guess I really have no other option but to decipher the social wants and fears the hard way. Except I don't have that type of experience. Which is why I was really hoping that someone here would be able to tell me how to do it.

Even when I try deciphering the wants and fears in Daniel Pleasant's personal WantTree by comparing them to the wants and fears in WantTrees that aren't personal, it doesn't give me the edge that I need to distinguish between the copies of wants and fears aimed at specific Sims and the copies of wants and fears not aimed at specific Sims.

I thought that comparing the <!--Want name is alphaGetCaughtCheating_ed9acdd5.xml--> fear in Daniel's WantTree to the copies of the same fear located in other trees would give me some idea of what to do. Since I've never known Sims aside from Daniel Pleasant to roll fears of getting caught cheating by a specific Sim. I've only ever known Sims to roll fears of getting caught cheating in general.

The only thing I've been able to dig up here is this:

<AnyBoolean key="inheritSubject" type="0xcba908e1">False</AnyBoolean>
<AnyBoolean key="inheritSubject" type="0xcba908e1">True</AnyBoolean>

inheritSubject is set to true for Daniel's personal copy of the fear. But it is set to false for all non-personal copies of the fear. So I'm guessing <AnyBoolean key="inheritSubject" type="0xcba908e1">True</AnyBoolean> refers to a specific Sim. While <AnyBoolean key="inheritSubject" type="0xcba908e1">False</AnyBoolean> does not.

Except there's only one copy of <!--Want name is alphaBeFriendForWork_6de0c5ec.xml--> and inheritSubject is set to true. Even though from my experience, it only ever shows up as 'Make a Friend'. It never shows up as 'Be Friends with (Sim)'. This is essentially a modified version of <!--Want name is alphaBeFriends_cddf33d0.xml--> which is specifically for Fortune Sims who are employed. Fortune Sims generally don't roll wants related to skill building or making friends unless they are directly linked to their promotion requirements.

I tried setting the inheritSubject value in all of Daniel Pleasant's personal wants and fears to false. But I didn't really get much out of it. Except the 'Get Caught Cheating by Mary-Sue' fear was replaced with the generic 'Get Caught Cheating' fear. All of Daniel's wants and fears involving Kaylynn were replaced with wants and fears involving Mary-Sue, possibly due to their marriage flags.

I don't get it. Am I supposed to remove most of the wants and fears like 'Fall in Love' from the list that I have, and keep the wants and fears like 'Fall in Love with (Sim)'? I would do that except I don't remember seeing Family Sims roll the 'Fall in Love with (Sim)' variant of the want. I can only remember them rolling the 'Fall in Love' variant of the want. Which is why I made the decision to list variants of the same want as if they were different wants in the first place.

Or am I supposed to try and decipher the information further up each WantTree in order to decipher which WantTrees cause variants of wants like 'Fall in Love' to appear and which cause variants of wants like 'Fall in Love with (Sim)' to appear?

Edit:

I take back what I said about none of the copies of the 'Get Married' want being enabled for Romance Sims. At least one of the copies of the 'Get Married' want has been enabled for Romance Sims that I somehow skipped or accidentally misread it as a 'Get Married' fear instead.

I have begun work on listing the wants that any aspiration can roll in the right circumstances by adding 'All' to the specified rows. While that will help to rule out or rule in certain wants and fears, it doesn't really help resolve my longterm issue. Which is deciphering the variants of each want and fear when referring to a specific Sim, from the generic variants that don't refer to a specific Sim. So until then, I won't be able to fully update or revise the information that I have.

Very useful resource, thank you.