I finally found this post on the BBS. Should prove useful to my genetic experiments, much easier than trying to guess by sight. Also found a guide to the precreated townies which should save some time too. -
Spotter's Guide to Pleasantview Townies*************
The SimDNA cheat: See Genetics from inside the game! -notovny
There's a way to do this, allright. There is a cheat in the game that will let you do so. However, it's not a cheat that's normally active. There are two steps to this process: 1. Create a userStartup.cheat file containing the cheat boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true2. Start up the game, enter a house and use the cheat simDNA (firstname)
Step 1: Create a userStartup.cheat file.
A userStartup.cheat file is a file that contains lines of text that are effectively entered into the cheat window at the earliest possible time... during game startup. Even before the game loads neighborhoods. There are many things you can do with a userStartup.cheat file: You can edit it to put in any cheat that you would normally enter as soon as you open the game, so that you don't have to type it every time, or to make aliases to commonly-used cheats, so you can enter them in much shorter forms.
Create a userStartup.cheat file by opening up Notepad or WordPad. Once you've got a new document in it, enter the following line:
boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true
Now save it as userStartup.cheat to the directory My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Config .
When next you start up the game, and every time you start up the game with that file, the cheat will be active., with all that entails. If you're not comfortable with running the game with the debugging cheat active, you can shut it off by entering boolProp testingCheatsEnabled false once the game starts up. Step 2 will still work if you do this.
Step 2: The simDNA cheat.
This will only work if you followed Step 1. Entering the debugging cheat at any other time, even on the neighborhood screen, doesn't enable this cheat.
Once youve followed Step one, you can use the following cheat on any lot to check a Sim's DNA:
simDNA (firstname)
Replace (firstname) with the first name of the Sim. For instance, you can check Daniel Pleasant's DNA by typing "simDNA Daniel" at the Pleasant Household, when he's home.
The simDNA cheat will allow you to check the DNA of any Sim who is on the lot at the time you enter it; You can use it to check the DNA of visitors as well. It doesn't show stats or aspiration, just the genes that Sim is carrying for hair color, eye color, and skin tone.
Edited for accuracy, 6/22: If there are multiple Sims on the lot with the same first name, the cheat will show them all. If the Sim has a two-word first name, like General Buzz Grunt, youll need to surround it in quotes. as in simDNA "General Buzz"
The result will be like this:
http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/6899/dna015wd.jpg(edited 6/19 because tinypic lost my picture)
The game will list a pair of genes for Eye Color and Hair Color.. In each pair, the first gene listed is the one that the Sim will show in the game. The Sim carries both genes, and has a 50% chance of passing either one to his offspring. Next is listed the Sim's skin tone, and the range of skin-tones that Sim could have inherited from his parents.
After that is a list of dominant facial features the Sim is carrying. I'm really not sure how to read that.
But it works. It really does.
Special thanks to:LarryHookins, for giving info on the use of userStartup.cheat files and MaxoidTom, for mentioning this little tidbit in this post at ModTheSims2
Edit: This is a wonderful cheat! Now I have all the correct DNA stats for each of my sims. Let the genetic experiments begin! :)
