The Sims: Vacation -- Full Strategy Guide
FAQ written by PyroFalkon (pyrofalkon@hotmail.com)
Version 1.1
Last update: 04 April 2002
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||VERSION HISTORY||
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v1.1 (04 April 2002)
I'm up to my chin in readers' contributions! Time to clean out my e-mail
inbox... For a complete list of what was submitted, go down to section 16.
Also, I removed a contribution that I tested to be false. I also changed the
intro since I copied it from my old FAQ, and it's slightly behind the times.
v1.0 (26 March 2002)
This is an almost direct copy of my FAQ I wrote for The Sims: Hot Date.
However, I make no apologizes for plagerizing myself. ^_^ Anyway, all that I've
done is add info to the new area of The Sims world. Check it out on section 10.
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||TABLE OF CONTENTS||
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1. Opening blurb
2. Creating a family
a. Attributes
3. Buying a lot and building a house
a. Build Mode, and tips for building
b. Buy Mode, and tips for buying
ba. How sims cook
c. the Option gump
4. Taking care of yourself
a. Mood Bars
5. Taking care of others
6. Jobs and Money
7. Skills
a. Skill Gain Rates
8. Sim Love
a. Having and Greeting Visitors
9. Downtown
a. Having a date or friend with you downtown
b. Constructing buildings
10. Vacation Island: The New Area of SimCity
11. Throwing Parties
12. Kids
a. Babies
13. Disasters
a. Death
14. Strategies
a. PyroFalkon's Alpha Strategy
b. Money Strategies
c. Relationship Strategies
d. Other strategies and short tips
e. Strategies Submitted by Readers
15. Customizing your sims
16. Ending blurb and legal info
17. List of contributors and what they've contributed
18. Where you can contact me
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||1. OPENING BLURB||
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Ah, The Sims, a classic game by SimCity creator Will Wright. Vacation is the
fourth expansion for the game, and it adds a whole crapload of new happy
features. I'll cover as much as I can here, assuming that you know nothing
about any of The Sims series. If you've already played it, but haven't played
Hot Date or Vacation yet, head to section 8. Maxis changed the whole spectrum
of relationships this time around, so getting dates is a bit different; not
harder, just different.
This FAQ will cover every aspect of The Sims, from your sims' births to their
deaths and everything in between. However, because I don't want to ruin the
game for anyone, it will not contain detailed item lists and whatnot. Part of
the fun of this game is exploring your options; I'm just pointing you in the
general direction.
Okay, enough of that. Away we go!
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||2. CREATING A FAMILY||
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Once you get past the title screen and all that, you'll come to a view of the
neighborhood. There may be a few houses scattered around, one of which has a
big flashing arrow. That's the tutorial house, and I recommend you play it
before leaping into The Sims. Of course, you don't have to, and I cover in this
FAQ pretty much everything it says in the tutorial.
Across the top are a few buttons. The one you're interested in is the left-most
of the center group, the one with a few people on it. Click that and you'll be
taken to a screen that lists all the families that are not currently in houses
(I call this the barracks; what can I say, I'm a fan of Worms: World Party).
Click an empty line (or the button with a few people and a plus sign) to create
a new family.
You'll be prompted to enter a last name. For my examples, I'll refer to my
primary family that I've got going here... so, type in the last name that suits
you. In my case, "Falkon."
After that, click the button that lit up: the top one of the group of three.
Here, you'll get to personalize your first character. The simplest thing listed
is at the top, the first name. Obviously, "Pyro" goes here for me.
Next, you need to enter your character's attributes.
<<2a. ATTRIBUTES>>
The attributes are divided into five catagories: Neat, Outgoing, Active,
Playful, and Nice. You can assign up to 10 points to any attribute, but you
have a total limit of 25 points.
NEAT indicates how environmentally-conscious your sim is, and what the chance
is of it doing cleaning actions automatically. If it's set to max, then your
sim will always clear the table and flush the toilet when finished eating and
doing their business, respectively (at least, I HOPE it's respectively). A
minimum rating of zero will make your sim a complete slob who doesn't mind
being in its own filth. This rating has an indirect effect on the Room bar; see
Mood Bars in section 4 for details.
OUTGOING indicates how well your sim gets to know others. If set to 10, it
makes friends easily; if set to 0, it makes friends as easily as a corpse. This
rating had an indirect effect on the Social bar.
ACTIVE indicates how much your sim likes to move around. A high rating means
that it would rather play basketball, for example, than watch TV. A low rating
means just the opposite. Also, the rating directly affects how long it takes
for that sim to get up after it wakes up. A sim with an ACTIVE rating of 10
will literally leap out of bed. A sim with a zero rating will take one full
game hour to get out of bed once it wakes up.
PLAYFUL indicates how much your sim prefers games over serious things. This,
combined with ACTIVE, gives you an idea of what your sim wants to do with
itself to get its Fun mood up. Again, check out section 4a for details.
NICE indicates just how well your sim gets along with others. This, combined
with OUTGOING, affects the way your sim makes friends.
Once you have your attributes set, check out the series of seven buttons to the
right. The top two affect whether the sim is a child or an adult. Families
should have at least one adult, since children can't get jobs to earn money.
Below that are three buttons that change your sim's skin tone from light to
medium to dark. The bottom two set its gender; the one on the left is for
males, the one to the right is for females.
Once you have your sim's age, skin tone, and gender set, take a look at the
arrows that flank your sim's head and body. Using those, you can scroll through
the available choices of heads and clothes (called skins, which are explained
in detail in section 15). Don't worry so much about the clothes since those can
be changed in-game, but once you choose a head, it's locked in for eternity.
The attributes are almost permanent once you set them, so make sure you think
carefully before you confirm your choice.
At the bottom of this screen is a section where you can write a bio. It's
totally optional, but I think it's fun to give my sims backstories.
To confirm your choices, click the Done button. You'll be taken back to the
family screen where you entered the last name. You can add up to seven more
family members for a total of eight, but you have to be careful. The more
people you have, the faster you earn money, but the more maintenance you pay.
If this is your first family, I'd stick with no more than two.
For my strategy (outlined in a later section), I use three adults: Pyro,
Stephanie, and Pete. Well, Pete isn't the name I call him on my game, but I
doubt CJayC will allow me to use that word on an FAQ, so it's good enough for
now.
In the bios, I declare Pyro and Stephanie to be married, and Pete is Pyro's
brother. Now, there is no "official" way to set any relationship; I could
consider the Falkons to all be siblings if I wanted, or all be married to each
other, or both. Of course, since I'm normal, I'm just sticking with a simple
marriage with a tag-along brother.
If you make a mistake on a family member, you can click that sim, then the
second button of the Create Family screen to edit him or her. If things go
horribly wrong, you can click the sim, then the third button to end its life
before it even begins. Once you're satisfied with your family, click the done
button on the Create Family screen, but remember that you can never come back
to the Create Family screen again to edit anyone.
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||3. BUYING A LOT AND BUILDING A HOUSE||
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On the family select screen, click the family you just made, then the button in
the bottom-right (a family with an arrow pointing to a house). You'll be kicked
back to the neighborhood screen where you can select which lot you want to buy.
You have to buy a lot that does not have a family already there, but you CAN
buy one if it already contains a house. However, I like building houses (and
it's cheaper that way than buying a huge house off the bat). The more people
that are in your sim family, the less expensive the lot you should buy. It's up
to you, of course, but there's no reason to make this too hard if it's your
first time.
If the lot you want is taken by a family and/or a house, you can evict the
family and/or bulldoze the house to clear the lot. To do so, click the button
at the top of the screen with a bulldozer. Your cursor will change; click the
lot you wish to clear after that. If there's a family there, you'll be asked if
you want to evict them. Doing so sells all of their house objects (everything
but walls, carpets, and wallpaper), then throws them and their money into the
barracks. Either way, you'll then be asked to bulldoze the house. If you agree,
the lot is slaughtered. Trees and hills stay as they were, but the walls,
carpets, and roofs will be no more.
Make sure your family is selected, then click the lot you wish to move into.
All families start with §20,000 (simoleans), and once you buy the lot, the cost
is automatically deducted from your account.
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|3a. BUILD MODE|
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After the game loads, your family will be standing near its mailbox beside the
empty lot. There's a whole mess of buttons here, but this section of my FAQ
covers building the house, so let's worry about only the bear essentials for
now. Off the bat, click the small button that's fifth from the left; it has
three dots horizontally through the middle of it. That's the option gump, and
what you need to click is the disk icon in the top-left corner of the group of
six. That's how you save the game, and I seriously suggest you save it
immediately. If something goes horribly wrong during the construction of the
building, you can always load and not have too many problems.
Once it's saved, click the third button from the left of the main five; it
looks like a house. That takes you to Build Mode, the place you go to construct
your house.
The two buttons on the far left of the gump that just appeared are Undo and
Redo. Let's ignore those for now, since you haven't done anything yet. The
first tool for house construction is the wall tool, which is located in the top
row, third from the left. Click that, and you'll get a long list of choices for
everything relating to walls. The wall itself is the very first item, and it
costs §70 per section, which can add up to a crapload of money.
To create a wall, simply click-and-drag across the landscape wherever you want
the wall. To quickly make a room, you can hold SHIFT as you drag, and it will
make a rectangle for you. To undo a mistake, either click the undo button
(which also returns all your money), or hold CONTROL and click-drag (which only
returns half the wall cost).
You can't blow your remaining money on your house alone since you'll need to
end up buying things like toilets and refrigerators, so try to cut corners
whenever you can. The bathroom is really the only room you need to keep
isolated; you can combine the living and bed rooms for now.
Your rooms should not be more than 5 tiles by 5 tiles, but that doesn't mean
you can't have an "invisible" wall. Check out this crappy ASCII art to see what
I mean...
+-----+-----+
| | |
| | |
| KIT | LVR |
| | |
| | |
+-----+-----+
Now, this is two rooms that are 5x5 each (count the dashes, not the actual
distance). The one marked KIT is the kitchen, and the one marked LVR is the
living room. This is a good starting setup, but it can be improved by one
little change...
+-----------+
| |
| |
| KIT LVR |
| |
| |
+-----------+
Now the wall that separated the two rooms is gone, saving you §350, which is
enough to buy a burglar alarm and a phone with enough left over for a meal. If
you absolutely must have that center wall, you can always add it later. This
early in the game though, every single simolean counts.
I recommend that you make the bathroom no more than 3x4, and the bedroom no
larger than the standard 5x5. Again, this is ALL temporary; you can extend and
expand to your heart's content once you have the money.
To help you with the view, check out the buttons that are just above the clock
on the left side. Those are the various wall views you can use. From left to
right: first story / second story, roof view, walls up, walls cutaway, and
walls down. Don't worry about the story selection since you haven't even built
the ground floor yet. While building walls, I just leave the walls down. It
lets you see your design clearly without having to rotate the view or anything
like that.
If you do want to rotate or zoom the view, you can use the buttons in the
bottom left: the two curved arrows, and the plus and minus arrows. Play around
with the views as much as you want; time is frozen in Build Mode.
The next thing you need for your house is doors. The tool looks amazingly like
a door; just click it and you'll get a list of door styles. The doorless frame
for §150 is perhaps the most functional of them all, since your sims don't have
to waste time opening doors all day. Of course, I always put closed doors
around the bathroom; even though it makes no difference in practice, I don't
think my sims would appreciate being spied on during their moment of privacy.
Anyway, set up your doors however you see fit. Make sure you don't forget to
get a door on every room, but remember that you don't have to connect *every*
room to *every other* room. Also make sure you put a door on an exterior wall;
that will be your front door. Any room will do, but the bathroom is not
recommended unless you want all your visitors to get peeks of sims in showers.
(Note to self: make an all female sim family and test out this method of door
placement.)
You can now add windows, wallpaper, and flooring, but I recommend against all
of it for now. However, I'll tell you how to mess with it, whether you're doing
it now or later.
Windows are added like doors and can even go on interior walls, although I fail
to see why you would want to do that. The smaller the room is, the less windows
it needs to be fully lit. A 5x5 room only needs two windows max.
By the way, some doors have windows in them and do add to the light in a room.
They tend to be more expensive, but it's your choice.
Carpet can be chosen by clicking the icon that's second to the left of the
bottom row, below the water drop. After selecting the flooring patern you want,
you can click-drag an area that you want to cover, or hold SHIFT then click,
which fills the whole room. Wallpaper works the same way; just click the icon
of a paintbrush to get started. You can remove any flooring or wallpaper by
CTRL-clicking, or even SHIFT-CTRL-clicking, which will remove everything from
that whole room.
Finally, you need customize the roof on your house. Simply click the icon that
looks like a roof, and you can choose the pitch and style of the roof. You
don't have too many choices, but if you head to section 15, you can get some
info on roofs and other things.
I'll describe the other tools in Build Mode to you here...
The far left icon of the top row is the landscaping tool. With this, you can
raise, lower, or level the land; you can also grow or shrink grass, making your
lawn a lush green or a dusty brown.
Beside that is the water tool. You can add a pool with a diving board and
ladder with three of the tools. The fourth tool, big water drop, lets you
manually change tiles to little pools of water. In theory, you could make a
river, pond, or even a moat. I haven't used it much myself, but experiment to
heck and back.
Next to the water tool is the wall selection. What I didn't mention above is
that you can select fences and pillars here as well as the basic wall. Take a
look at the selection, but you probably don't want to buy any of it this early.
On the other side of the paintbrush is the staircase button. You can eventually
add a second story to your house, but that's insanely unimportant at the
moment. Keep it in mind in case you want to expand eventually.
The last icon of the top row is the fireplace tool. Again, those are so
stupid-expensive that you don't need to deal with it yet.
Now, the bottom row. The left-most icon is the plant tool. You can buy flowers,
trees, and shrubs to spruce up your lawn. This is another luxury you can deal
with once you're rich.
You know what the flooring, door, window, and roof tools do. The last one in
that row is the hand tool. You can use that to move objects, flowers, shrubs,
trees, fences, and a whole bunch of other stuff around. It's rather pointless
since your house is empty at the moment, but it's there whenever you need it.
+------------+
|3b. BUY MODE|
+------------+
The button to the left of the Build Mode button, the one with a chair and lamp
on it, takes you to Buy Mode. Here, you're greeted with a list of catagories of
Stuff To Buy. Watch your money, but don't neglect the basics.
You can use the eight buttons in the Buy Mode gump to select what precisely you
want to buy. You have chairs and beds, tables and other surfaces, decorations,
and electronics in the top row. In the bottom row are appliances, everything
relating to plumbing, lamps of all flavors, and miscellaneous items.
There's a secondary way you can sort the list. If you click the Buy Mode button
again, those eight catagories will switch to a room sort. Then, you can click
the appropiate button for the room you want to furnish, and go from there. They
are: living room, dining room, bedroom, and study on the top row. Kitchen,
bathroom, outside, and miscellaneous are across the bottom row.
Once you click any sort, be it a room or catagory, you get a subsort to further
your search. If you just want to browse a catagory, click the infinity symbol
in any subsort to view all the items of that catagory or room (this is the only
way to find some items).
If you click-and-hold on any item, a short description and larger picture will
come up. The price is shown along with any mood or skills it will raise. I'll
get more into the moods in the next section, and skills after that. If a
description of an item includes the line "Group Activity," it means that at
least two sims can use the item simultaneously, generally increasing the Social
meter as well as whatever else it normally increases. Some descriptions may
include "Can only be used by an adult" or "Can only be used by a child," both
of which are self-explanatory.
I won't go into details of why until the next section, but for now you're going
to need the essentials of living. Those are: a fridge, a toilet, a shower, a
bed, some form of entertainment, a chair, a phone, a burglar alarm, and a
bookcase. Most of these are obvious where to find them.
The entertainment form I recommend is a TV, although if none of your sims are
playful, you may want to just use the bookcase as your entertainment source (it
can double as such). The bookcase is listed under miscellaneous objects or the
study, depending whether you're looking at the catagory or room sort.
Make sure you put the burglar alarm outside near your front door, and place a
phone in any room but the bedroom. The phone rings in the middle of the night
often, and your sims hate waking up before they're supposed to.
If you didn't go nuts in Build Mode, you probably have plenty of money of left
over to get a few more items that will seriously help your first few game days.
First and easiest is a nice couch. It can double as a bed if need be, so take a
look. You could also get a cheap table, put a few chairs around it, and shove
it all in the kitchen as a temporary dining room.
Though you can arrange anything in any order, there's one specific piece of
advice I must give...
+------------------+
|3ba. HOW SIMS COOK|
+------------------+
Don't try this in practice yet, I just need to explain quickly how a sim cooks.
Sims start their cooking at a fridge, getting the ingredients. It will then
proceed to chop up the veggies if there's an empty counter, or use a food
processor if there's one present. Then it will move to the microwave or oven,
depending on which deals with hunger better, if one is available. Once the food
is done cooking, if it's a family meal, the sim will put it on an available
surface, preferring counters. If it's just a meal for one, the sim will take it
to a table if one is available, sit down, and eat.
Since you know this ahead of time, you can save your sims' time and effort by
building your kitchen and dining room in a logical order. Look at this flow
chart...
FRIDGE ----- COUNTER - OVEN ----- COUNTER --- SERVED FOOD
\ X /
-- PROCESSOR MICROWAVE--
So, the logical order to arrange your kitchen is thus...
+--------+ +-----------+ +------+ +---------+
| | | COUNTER | | | | EMPTY |
| FRIDGE | | WITH | | OVEN | | COUNTER |
| | | PROCESSOR | | | | |
+--------+ +-----------+ +------+ +---------+
Then you can position a table and chair strategically on the other side of the
empty counter. Efficency is the idea.
Anyway, you should still have the money to afford two of the cheapest counters,
the cheapest oven, and the only food processor. They will be worth their weight
in gold, or at least simoleons.
The last general tip I have for Build Mode is that just because you CAN buy
something doesn't mean you SHOULD buy something. Just because you have the
money to buy the §7000 DJ spintable doesn't mean that it'll help your sims' fun
ratings any more than that plasma TV.
Finally, if you ever want to sell an item, simply click on it while in Buy Mode
(or use the hand tool in Build Mode) to pick it up, then hit your DELETE key.
You'll get some of the money back; all of it if less than one day passed since
you bought it. To see one way you can use that to your advantage, head to
section 14.
<<3c. THE OPTIONS GUMP>>
Before we get into the game, you may want to save (or not, if you think all
hell is going to break loose and you regret your construction decisions). I'll
take a few lines here to explain all the other options.
Across the top row are Save, Neighborhood Screen, and Quit. The first saves
your game instantly without a prompt. The second sends you back to the
neighborhood screen after prompting you to save if you hadn't recently. The
last will send you back to Windows, also after a save prompt.
The bottom three allow you to tinker with the video, audio, and game settings.
The left icon of the bottom row gives you the display settings. You can change
the level of detail of the terrain and/or characters, or toggle graphic
options. All four graphic options, if checked, make the game prettier, but take
a bit more processor power (not an issue if you're using a GHz processor with
over 128 MB RAM). All of these are explained simply by click the words of what
you want described, so I'm not going to waste your time by writing them here.
The button in center of the bottom row adjusts the volumes for sound, music,
and voices. The sound FX is all the sounds made from objects, including the TV.
The music setting affects songs from the audio objects like radios, and it
affects the volume of the fanfare that's played whenever your sims do something
special. VOX is the measure of the sims' voices when they interact with each
other.
The last button is the game options. There are eight there, and I'll explain
them.
AUTO-CENTERING automattically brings the view to an event. If this is your
first time, you may want to keep it on so you don't miss when something unusual
happens.
FREE WILL gives your sims the ability to act on their own, though their actions
will be heavily weighed by their personality (for example, a sim with a Neat
rating of zero will never take a shower). If you enact this, you can give your
sims commands as usual, and your commands will always take precedence over
anything they come up with on their own.
EDGE SCROLLING allows you to move the view simply by laying the cursor against
the edge of the screen. With this unchecked, you can only move the view by
right-click dragging.
SIM IN BACKGROUND allows the game to run if you task switch (ALT-TAB) out of
the game. With it unchecked, the game will pause if you task switch.
QUICK TIPS affect whether little hints will appear in the upper-right corner of
the screen. If this is enabled, occasionally a box with a question mark will
appear, and you can click that to get a bit more information. This is always
enabled in the downtown area.
AUTO SNAPSHOT lets the game take a picture for you whenever an event occurs. To
take a picture manually, click the button that looks like a camera, then choose
the size and quality of your shot. A box will appear in the game view, and
another click will capture the scene for all of time.
LIVE PIP makes the picture-in-picture (shown during some events) show what's
happening in real-time. This SERIOUSLY drains processor power, and I recommend
you leave it unchecked. The PIP will appear anyway, but it will be a still
picture, not a moving camera.
EXPORT HTML forces the game to create webpages of your families when you save.
This has serious negative impacts on save times, so I leave it unchecked.
There's a global command on the neighborhood screen that makes webpages for all
the families, and I use that whenever I decide to make webpages.
+----------------------------+
|+--------------------------+|
||4. TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF||
|+--------------------------+|
+----------------------------+
When your house is built and the objects inside it are bought, click the button
on the far left, the one that shows two people standing beside each other. This
activates Live Mode, the meat and potatoes of the game. If your sims are on
Free Will, they'll probably poke around and check out what you bought, either
applauding or booing your taste.
On the bottom of the screen are portraits of each sim in your family, along
with seven buttons to the right of them. I'll describe each one in a moment,
but right now, let me teach you how to care for your sims.
Firstly, you can only have one sim active at once. Its portrait will have a
blue border around it, and a big colored crystal will appear over its head. To
change the active sim, you can either click on the portrait of the one you want
to control, right-click the sim itself, or hit the space bar. The change
happens instantly.
Once you have a sim under your control, you can order it to interact with
anything you have. Simply click an object, and a list of actions will pop up.
Some objects only have a few actions, some have many. Explore; I'm not going to
ruin the game by going over every little item. Once you give a command, a
picture representing the command will appear in the upper-left corner of the
screen. You can cancel the action before it's completed by clicking that icon.
Only nine actions can be queued at once.
The only things that need a special explaination are the fridge and bed. If a
sim clicks a fridge, it can either have a snack, make a quick meal, make a
normal meal, or serve a meal. If you select the snack, the sim will just grab a
bag of chips out of the fridge for §5. If you ask it to make a meal or quick
meal, it will go through the cooking process I talked above, with one minor
note. If you picked the quick meal, it will skip the process or chop step. This
is less filling, but takes less time. Either way, §10 will be taken from your
account. If you choose to serve a meal, the sim will make a plate of food that
has six servings, all for a measly §20. Get real intimate with that command,
you'll be using a lot.
No bed but one have any special commands, but I do want to point out that you
can't just sleep anytime. The sim's energy has to be low enough (I *think*
below 75%) before the sleep command will appear. Also, if you have a double
bed, the two sims who share it must be at least friends with each other, or one
of them will refuse to sleep there.
That's why if you have a double bed, you need your two sims in question to
start getting REAL friendly with each other. I cover sim love in section 8.
Right now, though, there are more important things to do.
It's time to start covering those buttons to the right of your sims' portraits.
The one that's probably already open is the mood button. If it's not, click it;
it's the one with the happy and sad masks.
Above and below that button is a graph. The graph shows the overall mood of
your sim, based on the weighted average of its eight individual moods. The
overall mood is graded positively and negatively by 5 levels, plus the neutral
mood. The color of the crystal above the active sim's head tells what mood it's
in; a green crystal is a happy mood, and the deeper the green, the happier the
mood. If the crystal is red, the sim is ticked off or depressed, and a blood
red crystal is just a more intense version.
I'll deal with the eight individual moods in a second, since they require their
own section. Let's take a look at the other buttons first.
The top button on the left, the one that looks like a word balloon, leads to
your sim's interests. This button is new to the series starting with Hot Date.
These are randomly generated, I believe. Poke around there for a moment if you
want. It shows what a sim likes and dislikes talking about, and it can have
serious impacts on friends.
Below that is the personality button. Here, you can see what astrological sign
your sim is, along with its attributes that you set in the Create Sim screen.
The bottom-left button is the inventory screen, also new starting with Hot
Date. If your sim is carrying any items, they will appear here.
The top-right button opens the relationship meters, which shows how well your
sim is getting along with others that it has met. Until Hot Date, there was
only one meter, but now there are two. The upper meter indicates the daily
relationship, while the lower one represents the lifetime relationship. I deal
with those in more detail in the love section, too.
The button in the right-center is the job button. There you can see what, if
any, job you sim has, what its salary is, and what its skills are. Take a look
at cooking. The higher that is, the more filling their meals are. Sims
shouldn't cook unless they have at least one point in cooking, or they may end
up setting the kitchen on fire. To raise any of those skills, your sim needs to
perform a specific action. For cooking, just have one read a book. Click your
bookcase, then click "study cooking." Your sim will grab the book and take the
nearest seat, studying its heart out. The blue progress bar above its head will
fill, and when it fills completely, you'll get a message that your sim gained a
point in that skill. I'll get into skills in more detail in a later section.
The last button, the one that looks like a house, gives you a rating on your
happy home. It's probably kinda low for now, but remember that you didn't have
too much money to deal with. That will change soon, I promise.
Okay, now it's time for the mood meters. This is the heart and soul of the
game. Click back over to the mood meters, and check out my next section.
+-------------------+
|4a. THE MOOD METERS|
+-------------------+
Remember I told you in section 3 that you'll need certain objects as essential
for living? This is why.
On the right side of the screen are eight mood meters. I'll describe each one
here, what it means, and how its weighed in the overall mood.
HUNGER -- This is arguably the most important meter of all eight. This
obviously is how badly your sim needs food. No sim likes being hungry. Make
sure you feed them often, or they could die of starvation. When the bar is low,
let them eat.
COMFORT -- This is how much sims are happy with their comfort, obviously. A sim
that is standing will constantly lose comfort, although not as severly as a sim
that's working out or swimming. Generally, this is weighed pretty heavily,
although not as much as hunger. Comfort can be indirectly helped when the sim
does another action, such as watching TV or eating.
HYGIENE -- This is how clean the sim feels, and it's also the first one that is
weighed by the individual sim. Sims that are neat are more interested in
hygiene than slob sims are. No sim likes to be around a stinky sim, though, and
if your hygiene is too low, it could affect whether others become friends or
more. Would YOU like to kiss someone who hadn't washed their face in over a
week?
BLADDER -- This is how much sims feel the need to visit their old friend John.
Take care of this one fast if it gets low, because if it drops to zero, the sim
will wet itself. That will cut hygiene to zero and make the sim terribly
embarrassed, possibly forcing bad relationships. No sim likes needing to do its
business, but this mood is not weighed very heavily.
ENERGY -- This tells how long the sim can go before it collapses (literally).
Every waking moment expends energy (unless the sim is drinking coffee), and you
need to send it to bed before it gets too late. Early to bed, early to rise
make a sim healthy, wealthy, and wise... and at least still employed in the
morning. I believe that sims with a high active rating can go longer than sims
with a low active rating, but I'm not entirely sure.
FUN -- No sim likes being bored, but sims have different things they like
doing. Sims with low playful ratings prefer reading books, and sims with high
playful ratings like watching TV. The playful and active ratings combine for
this one, too; if a sim has high active and playful ratings, it prefers
basketball or vitrual gaming. If it has low active but high playful ratings,
watching the latest episode of Malcom in the Middle or playing The Sims on its
computer is what it likes more.
SOCIAL -- The sim's need to talk. This is HEAVILY weighed for all sims; a sim
that has zero Social but 100 everything else will probably have a mood of +1
max. The balance of the weight comes in with the speed of the bar's decline. A
sim with a high outgoing rating will feel the need to be social FAR more than a
sim with no outgoing ratings. Also, a sim with high outgoing will fill this
meter a bit quicker than a shy sim.
ROOM -- This is the sim's opinion of the room it's currently in. All sims like
large rooms and lit rooms, but neat sims dislike dirty dishes and pee puddles.
Slobby sims are less picky, but even they get tired of the flies once in
awhile. Decorations boost this meter considerably, but try to buy better
windows or more lamps before you blow thousands on a statue or painting. This
also scores your lawn when the sim is outside.
If a sim has one particular mood extremely low, it may look at the camera
(i.e., you the player) and scream bloody murder with an accompying picture to
tell you what mood is suffering. You need to fix that quickly.
All eight moods are weighted, then averaged, and that becomes your sim's
overall mood. Its mood, among other things, severly affect what options pass or
fail when they do an action to another sim. I cover that in the Sim Love (#8)
section.
+--------------------------+
|+------------------------+|
||5. TAKING CARE OF OTHERS||
|+------------------------+|
+--------------------------+
Let's face it: just like real life, one person alone cannot do everything.
Maybe a particular sim stayed up too late and doesn't have time to cook the
next morning.
This is where a second sim in the family is very helpful. A second sim can pick
up the slack for another. Some methods could be obvious; one sim could excell
in the cooking skill and be the only one who prepares meals, for example.
Sims work best as a team. If any one sim is doing nothing, probably the rest of
its family is suffering or could at least better off. More on this in my
strategy section.
Your sim can interact with other sims whenever you wish it to. With a sim
active, simply click any other sim and you'll get a list of actions you can
perform. I talk more about that in section 8.
+-------------------+
|+-----------------+|
||6. JOBS AND MONEY||
|+-----------------+|
+-------------------+
Now that your family is settled in its house, you need to turn to earning
money, since bills arrive at your house every 3 days. At 9 AM every morning,
the paper is delivered to your doorstep. You can check that to see what jobs
are being offered, along with their salary. For the first day, take whatever
job is offered; "Beggars can't be choosers," as the saying goes.
You can also get a job by using a computer, but you may not be able to afford
it unless you "cheat the system" a bit. Check the money strategy subsection.
Once you take a job, your mission is to get promoted to the next level. There
are 15 career paths, each with 10 levels. You begin every path on the lowest
rung, with one situational exception, which I'll explain in a moment. Each job
pays daily.
I'll list all the career paths, the rungs of each, the salaries, and the
required skills to advance to the next level. Remember, the requirements for
jobs are just minimums. You can always have more than what's needed. Here's the
legend:
CO = Cooking
ME = Mechanical
CH = Charisma
BO = Body
LO = Logic
CR = Creativity
FF = Family Friends
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 120| | | | | | | |
| 2| 180| | 2| | | | | |
| 3| 250| | 2| 2| | | | 1|
| 4| 320| | 2| 2| | 2| | 3|
| 5| 400| | 2| 3| | 3| 2| 6|
| 6| 540| | 2| 4| 2| 4| 2| 8|
| 7| 660| | 2| 5| 2| 6| 3|10|
| 8| 800| | 2| 6| 2| 7| 5|12|
| 9| 950| | 2| 8| 2| 9| 6|14|
|10|1200| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 100| | | | | | | |
| 2| 150| | | 2| | | | |
| 3| 200| | | 2| 2| | | 2|
| 4| 275| | | 3| 3| | 1| 4|
| 5| 375| | 1| 4| 4| | 2| 6|
| 6| 500| | 1| 6| 5| | 3| 8|
| 7| 660| | 2| 8| 6| | 4|10|
| 8| 900| | 2| 9| 7| | 7|12|
| 9|1100| | 2|10| 8| |10|14|
|10|1400| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 120| | | | | | | |
| 2| 150| | 2| | | | | |
| 3| 200| | 3| | | 2| | |
| 4| 240| | 4| | | 4| | 2|
| 5| 400| | 4| | | 4| 4| 3|
| 6| 610| | 4| 2| | 5| 6| 5|
| 7| 800| | 4| 4| | 6| 7| 6|
| 8|1100| | 5| 6| | 7| 9| 8|
| 9|1300| | 7| 8| | 9|10| 8|
|10|1550| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 120| | | | | | | |
| 2| 200| | | | | | 2| |
| 3| 230| | | 2| | 2| 2| 2|
| 4| 350| | | 2| | 4| 4| 2|
| 5| 420| | | 3| 1| 5| 5| 4|
| 6| 510| | | 6| 2| 5| 5| 6|
| 7| 660| | | 8| 2| 6| 5| 9|
| 8| 850| | | 9| 5| 7| 6|11|
| 9| 975| | |10| 5| 9| 7|14|
|10|1200| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 240| | | | | | | |
| 2| 320| | | | 2| | | |
| 3| 380| | 2| | 2| | | 1|
| 4| 440| | 3| | 4| | | 2|
| 5| 490| 1| 3| 1| 5| 1| | 4|
| 6| 540| 1| 3| 2| 5| 3| 1| 6|
| 7| 590| 1| 4| 3| 6| 5| 1| 8|
| 8| 625| 1| 4| 4| 7| 7| 3|10|
| 9| 650| 1| 4| 4| 7|10| 5|12|
|10| | TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 140| | | | | | | |
| 2| 200| | | | 2| | | |
| 3| 275| | | 1| 2| | 1| 2|
| 4| 350| | 2| 1| 2| | 2| 3|
| 5| 425| | 3| 2| 3| 1| 2| 4|
| 6| 530| | 3| 2| 5| 2| 3| 6|
| 7| 640| | 5| 2| 5| 3| 5| 8|
| 8| 760| | 5| 5| 6| 3| 6|10|
| 9| 900| | 5| 7| 6| 4| 8|12|
|10|1100| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 200| | | | | | | |
| 2| 275| | 2| | | | | |
| 3| 340| | 2| | 2| | | 2|
| 4| 410| | 3| | 2| 2| | 3|
| 5| 480| | 3| 1| 3| 4| | 4|
| 6| 550| | 4| 2| 4| 4| 1| 5|
| 7| 625| | 4| 3| 5| 6| 2| 7|
| 8| 700| | 5| 4| 6| 8| 3| 9|
| 9| 775| | 6| 6| 7| 9| 4|11|
|10| 850| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 250| | | | | | | |
| 2| 325| | | | 2| | | |
| 3| 400| | 1| 2| 2| | | |
| 4| 450| 1| 1| 2| 4| | | |
| 5| 500| 1| 2| 4| 4| 1| | 1|
| 6| 550| 1| 3| 5| 4| 3| | 3|
| 7| 580| 1| 6| 6| 4| 5| | 5|
| 8| 600| 1| 9| 6| 7| 6| | 6|
| 9| 625| 1|10| 8| 9| 9| | 8|
|10| 650| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 90| | | | | | | |
| 2| 120| | | | | | 2| |
| 3| 190| | | | | | 5| 2|
| 4| 250| | 2| | | | 6| 4|
| 5| 325| | 5| | | | 7| 5|
| 6| 400| | 5| | 4| | 7| 8|
| 7| 550| | 5| 2| 5| | 9| 9|
| 8| 700| | 5| 7| 7| | 9|12|
| 9|1100| | 5|10| 7| 4| 9|15|
|10|1400| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 100| | | | | | | |
| 2| 130| | | 1| | | 2| |
| 3| 200| | | 2| | 3| 2| |
| 4| 300| | | 2| | 4| 2| 3|
| 5| 375| | | 3| 1| 5| 2| 5|
| 6| 480| | 1| 5| 1| 6| 3| 6|
| 7| 600| | 1| 6| 1| 7| 4|10|
| 8| 810| | 1| 8| 1| 7| 5|13|
| 9|1000| | 1|10| 2| 9| 7|17|
|10|1200| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 220| | | | | | | |
| 2| 300| | | 2| | | | |
| 3| 360| | | 2| | 1| | 2|
| 4| 430| | | 3| 1| 1| | 4|
| 5| 485| | | 4| 2| 2| 1| 6|
| 6| 540| | | 4| 3| 4| 2| 9|
| 7| 600| | | 5| 4| 5| 3|11|
| 8| 650| | | 6| 5| 7| 4|14|
| 9| 700| | | 9| 5| 8| 5|17|
|10| 750| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 120| | | | | | | |
| 2| 170| | | | 2| | | |
| 3| 230| | | | 5| | | 1|
| 4| 300| | 1| 1| 6| | | 3|
| 5| 385| | 2| 2| 8| | | 5|
| 6| 510| 1| 2| 3| 9| | | 7|
| 7| 680| 2| 2| 4|10| | 1| 9|
| 8| 850| 3| 2| 7|10| | 2|11|
| 9|1000| 4| 2|10|10| | 3|13|
|10|1300| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 155| | | | | | | |
| 2| 230| | | | | 2| | |
| 3| 320| | | 1| | 3| | 1|
| 4| 375| | | 2| | 4| 1| 3|
| 5| 450| | 2| 2| | 4| 3| 4|
| 6| 540| | 4| 2| | 6| 4| 5|
| 7| 640| 1| 6| 4| | 7| 4| 7|
| 8| 740| 1| 7| 4| | 9| 7| 8|
| 9| 870| 2| 9| 5| |10|10|10|
|10|1000| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 90| | | | | | | |
| 2| 110| | | | 2| | | 1|
| 3| 150| | | 2| 2| | | 2|
| 4| 180| | | 4| 2| | | 4|
| 5| 220| | 3| 4| 2| | | 6|
| 6| 280| | 5| 4| 2| | | 7|
| 7| 350| | 5| 7| 3| | |10|
| 8| 400| | 5| 8| 6| | |12|
| 9| 450| | 5|10| 9| | |15|
|10| 600| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
<>
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
|Lv| Pay|CO|ME|CH|BO|LO|CR|FF|
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| 1| 175| | | | | | | |
| 2| 250| | | | 2| | | 1|
| 3| 325| | 1| | 4| | | 2|
| 4| 400| 1| 2| | 4| 1| | 3|
| 5| 475| 1| 4| | 6| 1| | 4|
| 6| 550| 1| 5| 2| 6| 1| 3| 5|
| 7| 650| 1| 6| 3| 7| 3| 4| 7|
| 8| 725| 1| 6| 5| 7| 5| 7| 9|
| 9| 825| 2| 6| 8| 8| 6| 9|11|
|10| 925| TOP LEVEL |
+--+----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
Promotions will happen automatically, and you will be informed of them once the
sim who got promoted comes home. You'll get the next level's pay, along with a
one-time bonus that is twice as much.
For example, if a sim in the X-treme Career is at level 2 and gets promoted,
he'll bring home the new salary of level 3 (§325), plus twice as much for a
bonus (§650), for a total of §975. Generally, you would want to use the extra
cash to buy anything you may need to hone new required skills.
Demotions can happen too, if the sim keeps showing to work in a bad mood. I
haven't done it myself, but I'll test it out later and give a full report.
Carpools set to take you to work will arrive at a certain time. If two sims go
to work at the same time, they use the same carpool. Your sim has one hour to
start walking toward the car before it will drive away. Sims can miss work
without repercussion so long as they don't miss two days in a row. Two skip
days will result in being fired, but skipping one day, going the next day, and
skipping the third day is fine.
No matter what job you have, there's a chance a random event will happen (I
call them Chance Cards; what can I say? I love Monopoly.). Most are in the form
of skill bonuses, but many give you extra money. Chance Cards can be bad,
however; you may lose money or skill. The chance of a Chance Card appearing is
slim, but I don't know the exact percentage.
The most lucrative one I've found is in the Hacker career track. If you're
lucky, you'll end up getting a boost of a whopping §30000. Yes, thirty THOUSAND
simoleans. That's more than enough to remodel your house, including buying
carpet, wallpaper, windows (in any style), doors (in any style), and lamps (in
any style) for every room. And after that, you'll still have a great deal left
over. Personally, that's one of the main reasons I tend to favor the Hacker
career with Pyro.
If you stay at the top level of any job for awhile, you'll get a chance card
that will boot you to another career at about the 5th level. There's no real
positive of this, it's just a way for your games to be more random.
That's the only time you won't start at the bottom however. If you quit or get
fired, then take another job, you WILL start at the lowest level.
+-----------+
|+---------+|
||7. SKILLS||
|+---------+|
+-----------+
The six skills you need are Cooking, Mechanical, Charisma, Body, Logic, and
Creativity. Only four of them can help you directly; the other two serve simply
for the job. All skills start at zero can be raised to 10. They won't decay
unless you're unlucky enough to get a chance card during the course of a job.
When you start working on any skill, a little blue progress bar will appear
over that sim's head. When it tops off, you'll get a message informing you that
the sim gained in that skill.
COOKING and MECHANICAL can be learned by studying them from a bookcase or
buying and using the appropiate work table. The Cooking table is a homemade
preserves cooking set, which you can buy under miscellaneous items. The
Mechanical table, also under miscellaneous, is a wood working table. Both
enable you to work on your skills while making money, although you'll have to
work a little bit to see any profits.
To use either table, simply interact with it, and choose the sole option that
appears. If you're wood working, your sim will continue until it gets in a bad
mood or you give it a different order. The same applies to the preserves table,
but your sim will stop if it makes a set of six jars.
By far, the better item is the wood working table. While it chops at your
comfort level (since you're standing while you're working), you can make mass
profits from being fully knowledgable in Mechanical. If your Mechanical rating
is 10, then each gnome you craft with the table nets you §100 (you can sell the
gnomes in Buy Mode). A family could EASILY make a living on just that table
alone, but I'll deal with that specific strategy in the strategy section.
The homemade preserves table will advance your cooking, but you can only sell
the preserves for §60 a set when your Cooking is at 10 (these are sold as an
interaction, not in Buy Mode). However, you can use the preserves as gifts,
also with an interaction to the table itself, if you so desire. I cover gifts
in the next section.
Cooking contributes to how filling the sim's meal is. The higher the Cooking
skill, the better a meal (whether it be a family meal or a single meal) will
improve the Hunger mood bar. Mechanical affects how fast a sim can repair a
broken appliance or clogged toilet. With a low rating, it may be worth the §50
or so it takes to call a repairman.
CHARISMA is the next skill, and it's gained in only two ways. You can either
Practice Speech when you interact with any mirror, or you can buy the item
called Bezique's Folly Card Game, found in the miscellaneous items and PRACTICE
it. While the card game is a group activity, you don't gain Charisma from
playing with others. It doesn't make sense to me, but hey, I didn't program the
game. Anyway, there's no purpose for Charisma other than job advances.
BODY is gained from either swimming or working on the exercise equipment, found
in the miscellaneous items. This too has no purpose aside from job
advancements. By the way, while your sim swims, there won't be a blue progress
bar, but trust me, Body IS going up.
LOGIC is gained by either playing chess, looking in the telescope, or working
with the chemistry set. I prefer the chess set, since it boosts your fun as
well as logic; plus, since you're sitting, your comfort will be going up as
well. If you can find another sim to play with you, you'll have the social
meter getting a boost too. Logic determines the chance that making a potion in
the chemistry set will be a positive potion. I have always made good potions
when my logic was at 10.
CREATIVITY can be raised by playing a musical instrument or painting.
Creativity affects the quality of what you're painting too, but even a painting
that was painted by someone with 10 Creativity points won't sell for much.
There's no way you could make a living off paintings alone, verified by one of
my friends who was too stubborn to play one particular family any other way.
Anyway, try to raise your sims' skills as much as possible without compromising
your moods. Of course, you can kill several birds with one grenade if you can.
As I said up there by Logic, playing chess is a great way to raise Fun,
Comfort, Social, and Logic all at once. Besides, if two people play chess, they
both learn Logic simultaneously. Not a bad deal!
Just be careful with raising Body. It absolutely drains energy and comfort
levels, so don't try it if your sim is already uncomfortable or tired.
+--------------------+
|7a. SKILL GAIN RATES|
+--------------------+
To gain a skill, you have to use an item for awhile, as I said. But the
question is, how long must you study? The first few points don't take long at
all, but soon the process seems excrusiatingly slow.
I ran a few tests and discovered that it takes
whatever-point-you're-studying-for hours. For example, to gain the first point,
you need to study for an hour. To gain the second point, you need to study for
two hours. The third point takes three hours, and so on. This applies to all
six skills.
If you know ahead of time how long it will take, you can plan your day around
it (or plan it around your day). Or, you could devote a set time to studying.
Anyway, this means that one skill will take a total of 55 hours to max out. All
skills will be maxxed at 330 hours. Since your working sims can only study a
maximum of about 8 hours a day (the other 16 devoted to sleeping or working),
it will take at LEAST 42 days to max everything. And that's of course assuming
you spend no time eating, socializing, or taking showers, which is impossible
of course.
That's why I recommend the following: the first thing you should do is study
whatever skill is nessecery to get promoted. Once you have all the skill
requirements, study whatever skill is the MOST developed. The reason is because
whatever skill is needed in the first few levels of the career will probably
end up having to be maxxed at the end of the track. For example, the first Body
requirement of the Military career track is 2, but the final requirement is 9.
Instead of working on Body only when it's required, you should work on it any
time you have free. That will make the final promotion a bit easier on your
nerves.
+-------------+
|+-----------+|
||8. SIM LOVE||
|+-----------+|
+-------------+
"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amoré!"
...Well, something like that anyway.
First of all, let me start by saying that your sims start off their lives by
not having any sort of sexual preference... either that, or everyone is a
bisexual. In other words, any sim can fall in love with any other sim. I
suppose if you really want to, you could have incest stories going, but that's
a little weird.
The point is that you cannot "set" whether sims are homosexual, heterosexual,
or bisexual. However, you can point your sim in one direction or another. If
you want a heterosexual sim, just don't do any of the "love" actions (explained
below) to the same gender of sim. There are plenty of actions that aren't
considered love, although there are a few of each that I don't agree with. More
on that in a second though.
Remember the button that lets you view relationships? It's in Live Mode, and
the top-right button of the group of seven (the one that has the two people on
it). That shows all the sims whom the active sim knows. You may have scroll the
list if you know a lot of others.
I'm going to use my own sims as examples here so I don't have to say "your sim"
and "the other sim" every few seconds...
The background color of the portrait indicates the general feeling of your
active sim to the other one. For example, if Stephanie's picture is gray when
Pyro is the active character, it means that Pyro barely knows Stephanie at all.
If it's a faded green, it means Pyro is starting to know Stephanie, just not
all that well. When it turns bright green, Pyro knows Stephanie inside and out
(though that may not indicate love). It works negatively, too. A dull red means
Pyro sort of resents Stephanie, but he can suck it up for awhile. A bright red
indicates that Pyro openly wants to whoop Stephanie's candy ass whenever she
appears.
Directly below the portrait is a number, and below that is a bar. These show
the same thing, in different ways; they show how the daily (i.e., short-term)
feelings specifically. The number can range anywhere from -100 to 100. At 0,
Pyro just met Stephaine. At 100, they're very good friends. At -100, they're
enemies.
Below that is another, thinner bar, and another number. These show the lifetime
(i.e., long-term) feelings. At 100, Pyro and Stephanie have been lifelong
friends since childhood. At -100, they've been enemies before they were even
born.
Both the daily and lifetime meters combine to determine the overall feelings. I
assume they're weighted, but I'm not sure. The purpose of both meters allow
Pyro and Stephanie to be in love but be fighting, in theory. It doesn't work
that easily, though.
If two sims do not interact with each other, the bars will slowly go toward 0.
I've experimented and found out that the lifetime bar affects the general speed
of decay. For example, if Pyro has 100 daily and 100 lifetime to Stephanie,
there may be no decay at all before the day is done. If Pyro has 100 daily and
only 20 lifetime to Stephaine, the 100 may trickle down to 90 or so that day.
I got a contribution from Clay (nafai@texas.net) detailing this a bit more...
***
The top bar (current relationship) is similar to the old style bar. So, you can
directly affect it (higher or lower) through interactions, but it also degrades
by several points by itself. It also degrades a bit faster now, about every 2-3
hours instead of overnight.
The lower bar (long-term relationship) is the life time relationship and isn't
directly affected through social interactions. What it does is, every few hours
or so it moves a few points in the direction of the top bar. So if the lower
bar is at 20 and the upper bar is at 70, after a few hours the lower bar will
jump a few points up to 22 or so. All this bar ever does is try to match the
top bar. So, if you can keep the top bar high, the lower bar will eventually
match it.
***
And Sheepgood, who asked me to keep his e-mail address private, gave exact
numbers...
***
Every 90 Sim-minutes the lifetime bar moves towards the daily bar by 3 points.
***
Beware that just because Pyro likes Stephanie doesn't mean she likes him back.
In fact, most if not all of sims' relationships will be very slightly different
if you compare both sets of numbers. Generally, the numbers won't be TOO far
off; Pyro could be 95 daily/90 lifetime, while Stephanie is 92 daily/87
lifetime. Differences that small are more or less negligable.
Below the bars and numbers, two symbols may or may not be there. A blue smiley
face indicates that Pyro considers Stephanie a friend. A pink heart would
indicate that he's starting to feel some butterflies whenever she's around.
That heart could change into a red heart, which means he's head over heels in
love. Until the Hot Date expansion, there was only one level of love.
The numbers, overall mood, and love or friendship status affect what actions
are available when two sims interact, and whether those actions will fail.
Because I don't want to ruin the game for you, I'm going to just touch on the
actions sims can do with each other. I divide all the positive actions into two
classes: those that initate love, and those that don't. This is VERY important
to remember.
You see, if two sims love each other, they get jealous or angry whenever other
sims hit on their lovers. If Pyro loves Stephanie, and Pete tries to kiss her,
Pyro will be ticked. No matter how Stephanie reacts, be it positively or
negatively, Pyro will take a cut in his Social meter, and he'll normally stop
whatever he's doing to slap Pete. He'll also lose several points of friendship
against Pete too.
Now, the only actions that can do this are those that initate love. Pyro won't
get mad if Pete talks to Stephanie or gives her a friendly hug, but my namesake
will get very angry if Pete tries to sweep Stephanie off her feet.
Pyro can only detect this if he's in the same room, however. If Pete coaxes
Stephanie into his bedroom and tries to move in on her, Pyro won't know and
will ignorantly continue whatever he's doing. Wow, this is turning into the
latest episode of Days of Our Lives.
Anyway, the moral is that you'll want to stay innocent with other sims if
someone who loves them is in the same room. If you're in different rooms, well,
do what you wish.
In any event, all actions will boost the Social meter and add positive points
to the relationship bars if the move is not rejected. Just because the option
to kiss a sim appears doesn't mean your target will accept your advances. The
only option that is never outright rejected is Talk, although there's a slim
chance one sim will get a bit aggitated at the conversation.
I'm going to sound like a complete moron with my next statement, but I can't
think of a better way to put it: all actions that can induce love have a chance
of inducing love. That is, all kisses and a few hugs may make one sim fall in
love with other, or they may fall for each other at the same time. Typically,
the sims will go to a pink heart before a red heart, but I've seen a few
instances when they skip the pink heart step.
The only exception, the one that makes me scratch my head in wonder, is the
Compliment > Admire action. This causes other sims to get jealous, but it never
induces love. I can understand why Compliment > Worship would get some tempers
rising, but admiration? Ah well, just be aware of it.
If love is not your cup of tea and you just want to be friends with another
sim, your actions become slightly limited, but not significantly. No group
activity can induce love, so you can have two sims improve their friendship by
playing chess or watching TV for example.
Once the daily relationship meter is high enough, that sim becomes a friend and
the blue smiley face will appear. This generally happens around 50, but that
number could be significantly higher. If two sims have conflicting zodiac
signs, or one is particularly shy, or one is particularly mean, the number
could reach as high 90. It's one way the game more or less forces you to have
variety among your families.
When a sim becomes a friend, it's counted as a FAMILY friend. The number of
friends a family has is indicated in the bottom-right corner by the green
smiley face.
The reason I stress FAMILY friend is because that's the number that is
considered when a sim gets promoted. In fact, my main strategy takes full
advantage of that. You can check that out in the strategy section.
As far as I know, there is no real border to indicate whether a sim will fall
in love, but I do know that a sim will not fall in love with someone that's not
a friend first. Summary: "All lovers will be friends, but not all friends will
be lovers."
So by now you're probably asking how you get your sims to fall in love. It
sounds simple on paper, and may be simple in the game, but it could end up
getting rather complex.
Let's go back in time before Pyro and Stephanie were married, when they were
both still in SimCollege. The first thing that had to happen was a meeting.
After that, they talked casually about their interests, occassionally
entertaining each other with jokes or puppets. As their relationship grew, they
became friends, and started getting slightly more forward with one another. One
day, their hug was an intimate one, lasting longer than normal. That's when
both started feeling a little flustered.
Pyro and Stephanie did a lot of flirting, whispering sweet little nothings in
each other ears and sharing back rubs. Pyro eventually found the courage to
give Stephanie a little peck on her cheek. That kiss carried bucketloads of
fireworks. Stephanie returned the kiss with a passionate one on Pyro's lips,
and he got all red and giggly. Pyro's a dork, what can I say? They were married
soon after that, and Pyro started giving Stephanie back rubs from the front.
The point is, all you have to do is slowly get more forward with your target,
and it will happen automatically. There's just a few general rules:
1. WATCH YOUR MOOD -- If you're in a bad mood, you may hug a little too hard or
miss your aim with that kiss. It's best to keep it simple if you're ticked off.
2. WATCH YOUR TARGET'S MOOD -- Your target may be a little angry and doesn't
feel like being hugged or flirted with. Again, keep it simple.
3. DON'T BE STINKY -- No one wants to be kissed by a pair of lips that have the
remains of yesterday's pizza. If you're not clean, you may want to avoid trying
anything until a shower.
4. DON'T BE TIRED -- If you lean in for a kiss and end up falling asleep on
your target's shoulder, it kinda ruins the night for both of you.
5. DON'T BE TOO FORWARD -- If you met your target ten seconds ago, he/she is
not going to want a deep passionate kiss. Save those advanced moves until
you're both ready, Romeo. Don't make me get the hose!
Since friends care less about each other's moods and hygiene, you can pretty
much pull the meter up to 50 without any sort of issue of cleanliness and
energy. Still though, you want to be in the best mood you can be at all times
anyway.
Some say that you can get from a relationship rating of 0 to 100 in one day,
while others say you can't. I can tell you from the bottom of my soul that not
only is it possible, it's very likely if you play your cards right. In my
strategy section, I deal with that very issue. Even if you're a veteran of The
Sims, do not try old strategies. Maxis has slightly changed the way sims get
their relationship meters up; it's nothing weird, but it's slightly harder.
More details in the strategy section. (By the way, I'm talking about getting
the DAILY meter up to 100. There's no way you can get the lifetime meter up to
triple digits in one day.)
At least, I don't think there's a way. However, SweetE8907
(cassidy@wilyums.com) insists that it's possible...
***
You stated in it that it is impossible to raise your lifetime meter 100 in a
single day but it is not because I did it. I just had the two get to know each
other, hugg and kiss alot, and it happened in a few hours.
***
Once your sim has a strong daily and lifetime relationship with one person, you
can ask the target to move in with you if they aren't already. If this is
accepted, they do so immediately, and if they're the last one of their family,
their money and friends are added to yours! It can be a quick boost to your
bank account as well as a ticket to eternal happiness.
If a sim is up to 100, in love, and of the opposite gender, the option of
marriage can come up on the list. If accepted, a very short ceremony commences,
with a chunk of your cash being subtracted to cover the expenses. After that,
they move in as they would with the move-in command I just described. For tips
on how to accomplish either, head to my strategy section.
The last thing I want to touch on is the art of giving gifts. Before this
expansion, "Give Gift" was a basic action that subtracted §20 from your account
in order to give a green package to your target. The target would generally
gain 5 points, and this action could never be rejected. In a very real sense,
you could buy your target's love.
Now, it's not so simple. In order to give a gift, you have to possess it first.
Not everything can be gifts, and most of them must be bought when you're
downtown (next section). Only the homemade preserves can be added to your
inventory, which can be accessed by clicking the button with a little
gift-wrapped package.
Once you have a gift, there's no cost to give it, but it will disappear
afterwards. Therefore, Pyro can't give Stephanie a necklace and have her give
it back, for example. I think the boost is now around 3 points for gift giving,
making it terribly unprofitable.
+--------------------------------+
|8a. HAVING AND GREETING VISITORS|
+--------------------------------+
Sims in the same neighborhood will show up on your family's doorstep on the day
you move in, but they only do that until you've met them. After that, you have
to invite them over.
To do so, click a phone, then the last name of the sim you want to invite, then
the first name of the sim. A little pop-up box will appear; click Invite. This
can be declined, but they're far more willing to come over if the relationship
meter is high. Calling while your target is at work won't do anything, and
calling in the middle of the night will tick him or her off.
The sim may ask if another sim can come over too. This is up to you, and if you
accept, you may have up to four others come over. All visitors expect you to
feed them, so you may not want to do this until you've got a meal ready. If you
decline, you're not penalized in any way.
If the sim is an exceptionally good friend, he or she may bring a box of
chocolates or a vase of flowers. The flowers are worthless, and the chocolates
aren't that great at helping the Hunger meter, but the gesture is nice I
suppose.
By the way, speaking of things that are worthless... you may have noticed a
"Talk" option in the pop-up box after you call a sim. Never choose it; it
wastes time and doesn't boost the relationship meter by more than a few points.
However, Roel Kroesen (kroesen@home.nl) tells me that the Talk option isn't so
bad after all...
***
If have noticed that talking on the phone to a friend is a good way to boost
the social meter. From 100% red to about 60-65% green takes just 3 phonecalls.
Ofcourse if the friend that you call hangs up, the effect is less.
***
I tested that, and indeed the Social meter gets a nice kick when two sims just
talk. The Relationship meter doesn't move more than 5 points, but the Social
boost can save a sim that's depressed. But anyway, let's get back on topic.
If the sim does not bring a gift, it's up to you to decide how you will greet
them. Shaking hands is generally the considerable thing to do, but you could be
more forward if you think you can get away with it. Just be careful; being too
forward can lead to any number of things going wrong.
When you want a sim to vacate your house, you should do so politely. Click the
target, choose "Say Goodbye...," then something appropiate to the situation.
Only enemies will want to leave with a wave. Most prefer handshaking, although
you can try a kiss if you're daring. The "Hug" option means a friendly hug, so
no one is going to get jealous as a result of it.
Remember, you can never control a visitor. Just make sure you have a healthy
balance of stuff so the sim won't go away angry, and you'll be okay.
+-------------+
|+-----------+|
||9. DOWNTOWN||
|+-----------+|
+-------------+
Before the Hot Date expansion, your sims could not leave the lot. Now, they
have the option to call a cab to head to the big city. To initiate it, click a
phone in your house, then Call Cab. For §50, one adult sim can get a ride
downtown. Be aware that the game will save when you do so, so make sure you
WANT it saved first.
You're taken to a screen like the Neighborhood Screen, but it shows the
downtown lots. If you hover the taxi cursor over a building, you can get a
short description of it. To pick one, simply click it.
Once downtown, you cannot enter Buy Mode or Build Mode, but more on that later.
You can only use that one sim, and you can't save. I know the technical reason,
but let's not deal with it. If you want to know, toss me an e-mail.
Anyway, as soon as you're downtown, you can do whatever you wish. There are
shops, places to eat, recreational places, and other things. The moment you
arrive to any place, a hoard of other sims show up, including any others that
you moved into houses already, although they won't cross neighborhoods. That
is, if you're visiting downtown with a sim from neighborhood 1, you won't find
one from neighborhood 2 running around.
There are several actions that were added specifically for the downtown area.
The initial two, "Let's Hang Out?" and "Let's Date?," are explained in a
moment. Like all other actions, they can be accepted or declined based on any
number of factors.
Again, because I don't want to ruin the game for anyone, I won't go into
details about every little thing in Downtown. It's all pretty self-explanatory
anyway.
What I will do, however, is have a word about saving and leaving downtown. In
every downtown lot, there will be a big yellow phone. You can use that to call
a cab to go home for free, or to go somewhere else for another §50.
In order to save the game, you'll need to get back home. If your game crashes
or you quit while you're downtown, the game will load you back at your house.
The budget you had while you were downtown WILL save, but your relationships
WILL NOT.
+-----------------------------------------------+
|9a. HAVING A DATE OR A FRIEND WITH YOU DOWNTOWN|
+-----------------------------------------------+
You can have up to one other adult sim accompany your sim downtown. This is a
standard interaction, and can also be initated over the phone with no extra
clicks. I've never known it to be rejected, but you never know.
Once you're downtown, your date or friend will have a tiny blue crystal over
their head. This indicates their mood (just like your green crystal): the bluer
it is, the happier the sim is. If the crystal turns purple, you have a problem.
The crystal is the ONLY way you'll know their mood. Why's that, you ask?
Simple, and make sure you memorize this: YOU CAN'T CONTROL DATES WHILE
DOWNTOWN, EVEN IF THEY LIVE WITH YOU.
Yeah, it sucks, but I didn't program the game. A command that you need to get
real intimate with is "Ask..." then "How are you?." The target will tell you
what mood meter is the lowest. Fix that as soon as possible.
The date will follow you around like a sheep and will do whatever you're doing
if it's a social activity. If you order food, you'll order for the both of you
(and pay for both). If you dance on a dance floor, your date will join you. I
don't need to go on with examples, I hope.
All the standard interactions are still there, including the romantic ones.
Now, here's where the game can get funny. There is typically a sim running
around downtown. She wears gray and is an old crotchity woman. She can do
whatever standard sims do, but you cannot interact with her. Her name is Miss
Crumplebottom, although that could vary. On many sites and message boards,
she's referred to as the Old Prude.
Now, there's been bickering about whether she was in the game. Some said that
she was there all the time. Some said that she was there only 1/40 times
(2.5%). Some said that she was never there. Some said she'd only be there if
you downloaded a particular patch from a particular site.
Here's my take: I don't recall ever seeing her when I initially installed Hot
Date, but after I downloaded the v2.0 patch from http://thesims.ea.com/us/ in
February 2002, I saw her all the time. Will she appear when you play? I have no
idea. Try it and see.
Anyway, what Miss Crumplebottom does is yell at your sims if they do a PDA
(Public Display of Affection). Please note that this has absolutely no bearing
on anything; a message box will pop up with her repremanding you, but that's
it. For such a small (albeit funny) thing, people made a big deal about it.
Okay, enough of that. Once your sim gets real friendly with the other, and the
other's mood is high (its crystal is deep blue), you can attempt to invite the
sim back to your house. Well, you can make the attempt anytime, but it's likely
to fail. The mood and relationship meters of the target must be relatively high
before it will be accepted.
Be careful with that command. The two quickest ways to end a date are to run
out of money and get too personal. If you ask someone you just met to come home
with you, you'll probably not only be rejected and lose a LARGE chunk off the
relationship meter, but that sim will walk away, leaving you the only one
downtown.
Of course, if the sim already lives with you, there's no option and you can't
be walked away from.
While downtown, you can click another sim and try the Let's Date? or Let's Hang
Out? options. If accepted, the other sim gets the blue crystal and follows you.
You don't have to have a friend or date to talk to strangers, but you can't
dance or order food for strangers.
By the way, make sure you say goodbye to the sim when you're ready to call it a
night. If you just leave without saying goodbye, your date may take offense and
send the relationship back a few steps. Just as if you wanted them to vacate
your house, try to pick something that's appropiate to the situation; in other
words, don't kiss a stranger.
+--------------------------+
|9b. CONSTRUCTING BUILDINGS|
+--------------------------+
Like everything else in The Sims, you can completely overhaul the downtown area
and make your own lots. On the neighborhood screen, there's a button that looks
like a small group of buildings, just to the right of the bulldozer. That will
switch you over to the downtown screen, and you can click any lot to edit. Of
course, you can also click the bulldozer and flatten a lot first.
Veterans of The Sims used to set aside one lot or two as party houses before
this expansion pack. They'd use the money code to get millions of simoleons and
build a customized party place.
Now, you can do the same thing without wasting a lot. When you click a lot from
the downtown screen, you can edit and build WITHOUT REGARDS TO MONEY. You have
infinite cash to buy or build whatever you want. Play around!
The Build and Buy modes work exactly the same as they do when you're messing
with families. The only exception is that certain items available to families
won't be available downtown, and vice versa.
Once you decide to save your lot, you'll be asked to enter a name and a short
description.
In order to build shops, there are three essential ingredients: a cash
register, a desk for the cash register, and something to sell. When in Buy
Mode, click the Shop sort to get all these items.
The cash register will make a shopkeeper appear once you visit the lot with a
sim, so don't worry about that. The game knows what people will be needed to
staff your shops, so you can concentrate on building.
The fancy, antique cash register makes a person in a suit appear, while the
modern register spawns someone who looks like they came from K-Mart (in other
words, unemployed). This is meaningless in practice, but it helps give your
store a certain look. After all, do you want that moron from your high school
gym class handling that diamond necklace for your spouse?
The desks that the registers go on don't matter in the slightest, except again
to enhance the look of the store.
Under the miscellaneous items subsort of the shops sort are the items your sims
will buy from. They include candy racks, magazine racks, jewelry displays, and
clothing closets. Simply place one, and your sims can interact with it.
I suggest that you make a throwaway family for testing. I keep a one-person
family in my barracks named "Ester the Tester." I move her in whenever I make a
new lot, then send her to that lot to test that everything works right. It's
very easy to forget a door or cash register if you're making a bunch of shops
on the same lot. Of course, with 10 lots, you may not have to pack everything
in the same area, but I have one lot set for a mall.
Anyway, you can also make parks and restaurants. Simply click the dining or
outside subsorts, and you'll get items for those.
While I don't have much experience making parks, I know quite a bit about
restaurants. The essential thing you'll need is the podium. That is where your
sim will order food. You'll also need a few tables and chairs. Since no more
than two sims will sit at any one table, you can arrange the place accordingly.
When you make the dining area, make sure that it's technically in the same room
as the podium, or the maîte d' will tell you that their tables are full. This
is annoying, but not too bad. If you want a door, you can make an artificial
one. Check out this ASCII art...
D=Door
P=Podium
+----------------------------------+
| |
| |
| |
| +------------------+
| | |
| D |
| DINING AREA | LOBBY P D
| D |
| | |
| +------------------+
| |
+----------------------------------+
Let's say this is how you want your restaurant. Since the lobby is in a
separate room, the person behind the podium will insist that their tables are
full, regardless whether there's a door. You can do two things about this. The
easiest is to knock out the divider wall:
+----------------------------------+
| |
| |
| |
| +------------------+
| |
| |
| DINING AREA LOBBY P D
| |
| |
| +------------------+
| |
+----------------------------------+
I do this, then color the walls and floors differently in both sections
(although if you do so, you can't use the SHIFT-click shortcut since the lobby
becomes the same room as the dining area). The other solution is to make a
"fake door"...
+----------------------------------+
| |
| |
| |
| +------------------+
| | |
| |
| DINING AREA | LOBBY P D
| |
| | |
| +------------------+
| |
+----------------------------------+
In this one, there is no door, but there's no wall either. Technically, they're
the same room, but it has the same effect as if you used the open frame door.
This way, like the way above, removes the SHIFT-click shortcut, but if you
wanted everything to be the same, it wouldn't matter anyway.
Of course, you can combine everything in the first place to save yourself the
trouble...
+----------------------------------+
| |
| |
| |
| |
| LOBBY |
| & P D
| DINING AREA |
| |
| |
| |
| |
+----------------------------------+
Your design, as always, is up to you.
Be sure to get bathrooms and decorations somewhere, too. Remember, no sim likes
wetting itself (although seeing a dozen sims parcipate in Syncronized Peeing
would make a nifty snapshot).
+----------------------------------------------+
|+--------------------------------------------+|
||10. VACATION ISLAND: THE NEW AREA OF SIMCITY||
|+--------------------------------------------+|
+----------------------------------------------+
As nice as the Downtown area is, you couldn't bring more than one sim. With the
newest expansion pack, that rule is shot to heck. Be aware that the engine for
Downtown hasn't changed: you STILL can't bring another sim to Downtown.
However, you CAN take the whole family to Vacation Island, a little place where
your sims can get the heck away from the hustle and bustle of the big city.
In practice, Vacation Island works like Downtown. Some similarities include NPC
sims (ones you didn't make yourself) that will flock there as well to interact
with. Some weird annoying characters that you can't interact with will be there
too. Time will not pass at your house while you're on Vacation Island since it
would be more or less impossible to sim two lots at once (not to mention that
you'd be fired).
One major difference however is that you can save during the vacation,
presumably since the whole family automatically comes along. But I think I'm
getting ahead of myself, so let's start at the beginning.
Whenever you decide that your sims need a break, simply have one call a cab
using any phone from their house. A second option (in addition to the Downtown
option) will appear, letting you go on vacation. The shuttle will cost you
§500, automatically making the initial cost a little nasty. It's worth it
though, you get some nifty things to do.
After the call is made, a shuttle will appear to take the whole family to the
island. This is NOT optional, unfortunately. Either the WHOLE family goes, or
none do. My primary family, as you may know, has three members, and I want my
primary two to have a romantic getaway. Then again, there's always Downtown for
that...
Well anyway, you'll be taken on a cruise ship to the island where you can
choose one of nine lots to explore. Now, one of the nice things about Vacation
Island is that changing locations on the island won't cost you a dime, whereas
Downtown ran you for §50 anytime you wanted to change lots. This way, you can
explore like a madman and not lose any money. Well, until you start needing to
buy things, anyway.
Now, with Vacation Island comes the introduction of weather. The north three
lots of Vacation Island are in snow, the middle three in forest, and the
southern three on the beach. If you don't wear appropiate clothing, your
comfort level is going to shoot down. Basically, don't wear sweaters on the
beach nor bikinis on the slopes.
Poke around, and you'll see a few lots that have hotels. To check in, have any
one member of the family click the main desk and choose "Check-in." You'll
shell out some money and get the Hotel Key added to your inventory. As long as
you have this key, you can enter any hotel room you wish. You can even have
every member take separate rooms, although that would be a little mean to the
other guests.
Now that you're all checked in and the formalities are finished, it's time to
have a little fun! All the lots have many activities, from volleyball, to
fishing, to archery, to chucking water balloons. Most are social events too,
allowing you to make or enhance relationships with others.
Some lots have arcade games. I don't nessecerily mean video arcade games, but
things like throwing darts to pop balloons, and other things you would
typically find at amusement parks. When you find those, things get a little
like Chuck E. Cheese, allowing you to Choose Your Cool and win tokens by doing
well (which, by my findings so far, is completely random). You can cash in your
game tokens for prizes at counters which are strategically located near the
games. Being a Pittsburgh Penguins fan, I have my eye on that Stuffed Penguin,
but I'm about 150 token short. Blast it!
Ahem. Anyway, there are other ways to get things aside from cashing in tokens.
You can rent a metal detector from rental shacks if you wish, and you can hunt
for buried treasure. Or, you can grab a fishing pole and try your luck in a
pond. You'll never what you'll find, and I certainly won't spoil things for
you.
As nice as all that is, though, you can't play all day since that only covers
one of the eight mood meters. Make sure you rest your sims when they need it,
and let them eat when they need that too. Most of the things like that can be
found around the hotel lots.
If you manage to survive several game-days on Vacation, and you keep all your
sims' mood bars high, you'll qualify to win Golden Souvineers. I haven't quite
gotten that far yet, but I'll get a full report on that soon. (Probably
tomorrow; the only reason I'm not playing now is to type this update. ^_^)
If you have kids with your family on vacation, WATCH THEM. If they decide to
start flipping out and causing trouble, your adult sims can get fined. Scold
your kids when nessecery, but don't chain 'em down, you meanie.
While you're chillin' in the warm (or cold) weather, don't forget your poor
saps... er, friends... back home! You can rub your vacation in the faces of the
working stiffs by sending them a postcard, available in most hotels by the
desk. Once you buy a cheap postcard, simply mail it using any of the convienent
mailboxes. You even get to select the specific person you're sending it to, and
the target will get a small boost to his or her relationship meter.
Once you're ready to head home, you'll have to check out of your hotel. Simply
click a phone and choose to go home BEFORE NOON. If you wait until after noon,
the clerk will assume you're staying another night, and will charge you for it.
Of course, if you plan to stay longer than one day, by all means do so. After
all, you don't get the Golden Sovineers by staying for a few hours. And don't
worry about work or school, they understand.
Once you get home, be sure to buy a souvineer cabinet from Buy Mode >
Miscellaneous. There are several, and they're all pretty cheap. They serve to
proudly (or not) display your booty from Vacation Island. Just be ready to go
back to work, since you'll need to recoup your losses after getting back from
the Black Hole Of Money.
After one play (or less) in Vacation Island, many of you will say "This place
sucks! I can make better lots with one leg super-glued to my face!" If you are
one of these people, you'll be happy to know that you can easily edit any and
all the lots in Vacation Island. Simply click the Vacation Island button on any
neighborhood screen, and you'll be taken to the island to mess with any lot you
wish.
The system works exactly like the downtown area: things that require employees
spawn those employees, so you don't have to worry about that. Infinite money to
build what you wish is available to you. You get special items in Buy Mode to
make shops, arcades, and everything else. The possibilities are only limited by
your imagination, and whatnot, and so forth, et cetera, and everything.
+----------------------+
|+--------------------+|
||11. THROWING PARTIES||
|+--------------------+|
+----------------------+
Once you have a bunch of families in your neighborhood, plenty of room, and
tons of money, you can initate All Hell And Chaos Mode, also called a "party."
Parties are, in practice, like going to a downtown lot. However, parties are
far more variable, and far more fun. A bunch of sims will show up to your door,
eat your food, clog your toilets, and play with your toys, all while doing
little to help you. Basically, all the visitors become like Fat Uncle Charlie,
that one relative you just don't want to see.
Your guests will need food, entertainment, and bathrooms. You could make food,
you could have a TV, you could have your one or two bathrooms, but don't expect
anyone to enjoy themselves.
There are two major, MAJOR buys I recommend; without either, don't even bother
trying to hold a party. The first is the buffet table, somewhere under the
appliance sort. It's a refillable table that instantly fills with food with a
simple command. Filling the table costs you §100, but if you're expecting a
large crowd, that just may not be enough. In that case, it would be best to
hire caterer. To do so, click a phone, then sevices, then caterer. He'll charge
§350, but he'll be there all day and everytime he fills the table, it's free.
That means he pays for himself in four fills, not to mention the fact that
you'll actually have time to socialize. He's automated too, so you won't have
to do a thing as long as he's provided a table. The caterer also fills punch
bowls, but the buffet table is far more important.
The second major item you need is the bathroom stall. Generally, if a sim is
going to the bathroom, he or she doesn't want anyone to come into the same room
(although once they love each other, that limitation is removed). However, if
you're sporting stalls, then as many sims as there are stalls can be in the
same room and they won't care. This also applies to port-a-potties, but who
wants to go in one of those?
I suggest you make a special party room that's a little bit away from the rest
of your house. Make a large bathroom adjacent to it, and fill the bathroom with
stalls and sinks (no mirrors or showers). Obviously you want to throw your
buffet tables and punch bowls in the party room, too. You'll need at least two
or three tables and plenty of chairs too.
Entertainment is a little easier. While no one just wants to watch TV, having
one is certainly a good idea. The best things to have are those that allow a
bunch of people to join in. The campside fireplace, which can only be placed
outside, holds a whopping EIGHT sims. Indoors, stick with pinball machines,
dance floors, stereos, pool tables, and the big train set. All of those ensure
that every single sim will have something to do whenever it gets bored.
Another fun item is the cake. Once you buy the big cake (under the
miscellaneous items sort), you can click it to hire a male or female dancer.
Everyone loves those kinds of dancers, don't they?
Once you're ready, click a phone, then click "Throw Party." In effect, you're
calling one person, who then calls everyone else that you know. Soon enough,
everyone in the world will show up on your doorstep. You won't have to greet
them, luckily. They'll ring the doorbell, but then let themselves in.
There are several ways you can tell how successful your party is. None of these
work until a few game hours pass, so don't expect instant ratings.
BAD PARTIES get the mime. You'll know that he's going to appear via a pop-up
box that, well, pops up. If he appears, it's a sign that something's wrong. You
may want to double check your food, entertainment, and bathroom locations and
fix it for the next party.
NEUTRAL PARTIES don't get any visual indication. If a party goes smoothly and
people leave with smiles, then you did well. While there is room for
improvement, you can pat yourself on the back with pride.
GOOD PARTIES get party crashers, although that's not entirely a good thing.
These are just random people who look like they lost a fight with a can of
paint, and they come into your house just like Fat Uncle Charlie does... at
least your guests talk to you. The only interaction you have with a party
crasher is to ask them to leave. If you do so, a box will pop up with their
protest, but they'll exit the house. Beware though... once they exit the house,
they'll hang outside for a few minutes, then come right back in. As long as
you're not cooking, you shouldn't worry about it. The caterer doesn't care one
iota, so neither should you.
GREAT PARTIES will be interrupted by a special guest in addition to the party
crasher. None other than the famous Drew Carey, star of the self-titled sitcom
and guest competitor of the 2001 WWF Royal Rumble, will appear. You can't do
anything to him, but he'll go around and talk to everyone. He'll leave
eventually, but if he appears at all, you can celebrate hosting a fantastic
party.
Parties are a great way to expand or enhance your network of friends. There's
just one major problems in general, but it's actually the main reason I hold
parties in the first place.
See, all visitors will be out of your control, as normal. However, they don't
understand who they love and who they don't.
Due to my strategy, I typically have every male in love with every girl, and
vice versa (yes, it's weird). This becomes REAL entertaining when one sim
decides to make a move. It causes a domino effect that makes about a half-dozen
sims get angry and jealous. Indirectly, this situation once caused a casualty
at one of my parties. I'll go into details of that little incident in my
Disasters section.
You cannot throw parties until you have enough people. I think the limit is 10
people or 5 families, whichever is lesser, but I haven't tested it. Before you
hit that point, the Throw Party option won't appear on the phone.
+----------+
|+--------+|
||12. KIDS||
|+--------+|
+----------+
Kids. They're so cute and innocent at that age. AWWWWWWWWWWW!!!
Kids are an optional part of The Sims. You can create kids when you create
families, but I tend not to due to cost. You see, in my humble opinion, sim
kids are wastes of money, time, and air. They do make the game more
challenging, but kids are pretty much worthless otherwise. They can't get jobs
and any money they earn is from Grandpa for good grades, which happens too
infrequently since you only get 100 bucks.
However, if you wish to have a kid, there's plenty of ways to get one.
Occasionally, you may be asked via a phone call if you want to adopt one. If
you accept, then there's no muss, no fuss.
If you want two sims to procreate (and yes, they have to be opposite genders),
then just keep doing extremely romantic actions back and forth, and you may get
a dialouge box that says "Should we have a baby?"
However you get one, the gender will be given to you and you can name it.
Again, I won't list what I call my kids, since CJayC would probably ban me for
life from GameFAQs. We'll go with Pyro Jr. if I need him in an example.
Now, kids are retarded versions of adults. They can do most of what adults can
do, but not everything. They can't cook (although they can grab snacks), and
they can't go into hot tubs for obvious reasons. If an object can only be
manipulated by a child or adult, it will say so in the item description of Buy
Mode. If there is no line like that, either age can use it.
Kids' eight meters and personalities work the same way as adults. Kids can have
relationships with either age, but can't fall in love with anyone. Their
interests are slightly different than adults, but nothing too weird.
Kids do have a "job" of sorts. They have to go to school every day at 7 AM, and
their grade will appear if you click their job button. They can study for
school using a computer or bookcase, but their grade will automatically rise as
long as they're going to school.
I don't think kids can be taken downtown, but Derek (deathstar36@hotmail.com)
insists that they can be...
***
great news! I have some guys that told me that kids can go to downtown in the
sims: hot date. all you need is a pay phone and boom you are there so it cost
one dollar more but who cares.
***
I haven't tested it myself. I know it would only take two seconds, but I've
been busy. ^_^
Despite my feelings on how worthless kids are, RHunterLand
(RHunterLand@netscape.net) found a rather convincing use for them...
***
The Children of a Sim household, besides being very entertaining, are EXTREMELY
beneficial, have often kept a household a float while mom and dad were
struggling with lack of sleep/depression, another lost job, starting at the
bottom again.
A. The household has a discount in daily cost for each child. In other words
with the same items, size etc...your household bills are less AFTER the child
than before...ie income tax deduction.
B. A child who loves to paint sells their masterpieces for $111 (they'll
paint a minimum of one a day, and consider it great fun.) The money starts
after they have completed a few paintings, but MUCH, MUCH, MUCH sooner than the
adults larger payments. Granted NOT ALL of them are artistically inclined, but
for those that are...)
C. An A+ student can study on the computer and be rewarded $100 from the Sim
Excellence in Education Foundation. This occurs on a regular basis, is much
more often than grandma/grandpa.
D. A child's friend is the household's friend, be it another child, or an
adult.
E. when you are having a party, they will SOCIALIZE/minglewith BEFRIEND the
guests. E. A musically inclined child will entertain your guests, something
that all of the guests seem to LOVE.
F. A child will CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN.
***
Since I have a very distinct way I play the sims (i.e., "greedy bastard"), I
decided to test out the bill worth. I ran two families with identical,
extremely large houses for six days apiece. The first family had one adult. The
second family had one adult and four children. Here's the whopping difference:
FAMILY A FAMILY B
DAY 3 (1st Bill) §1753 §1047
DAY 6 (2nd Bill) §1687 §1015
TOTAL 6 DAYS §3440 §2062
DIFFERENCE: §1378
Now, §1378 will buy a frickin' load of stuff, and considering that that's the
total for only SIX days, you can only guess what your savings will be if you
have a kid from the beginning. The difference is around 40%, so I'm guessing
that each kid you have shaves 10% off your bill. In the early days, that won't
be much, but if you think ahead, that will add up to stupid-large amounts.
Maybe having kids isn't so bad after all.
+-----------+
|12a. BABIES|
+-----------+
Of course, kids have to come from somewhere. Babies are the first step to
raising a child if you didn't create one in the Create Sim screen.
Babies take three sim days to become a kid. Babies are also a pain.
First of all, it takes two working people or one unemployed person to care for
a baby, and it's a full-time job. Randomly, the baby will cry, and then it must
be interacted with. Your options are Feed, Play, and Sing. When you sing to a
baby, if's it's satisfied with its mood, it will go to sleep for several hours.
If it's not satisfied with its mood, it will keep crying. Once asleep, babies
cannot be woken up for any reason. They will wake up and scream when they darn
well feel like it.
A baby takes three sim days to turn into a kid. Its face and clothes are
random, as is its personality and interests (its personality points can
actually exceed the usual limit of 25). Its skin tone will match one of its
parent's, although you never know what you get when you adopt.
Taking care of babies is easy, but tedious and will shoot your sims' moods to
hell. I'll tell you what I do, but let's remove Pete from the equation for a
moment.
Whenever a baby comes into play, I offset a temporary special room (usually the
living room, if it has a couch) and put the baby bascinet in there (moveable
through Buy Mode, although you can't sell it). While Stephanie goes to work,
Pyro stays home to care for the baby. Once she's home, they trade places; Pyro
goes to work, and Stephanie stays home to care for the kid. Then, Pyro will get
home and care for the kid again, while Stephanie goes to work. That's the three
days, and then they can both relax. This way, no one gets fired.
With Pete in the mix, though, I have another method, shown in the strategy
section. I also detail how precisely to take care of a baby there.
+---------------+
|+-------------+|
||13. DISASTERS||
|+-------------+|
+---------------+
One of the best parts of the SimCity series was the fact you could activate
fires, earthquakes, tornados, and alien invasions on a whim. While there's no
insta-disaster in The Sims, you can still wreck havoc the same way with a bit
of ingenuity.
I'll list all the disasters, how to intentionally do it, and how to prevent it.
-FIRE-
HISTORIAN: Man discovered fire in prehistoric times. It has always been a tool,
but a double-edged one at that. It can cook food well, but it can also cook--
PYROFALKON: *sets the historian on fire*
HISTORIAN: It can also cook humans, as my friend here just demonstrated. Wait,
that's not a fake fire. Wait, come back! It burns!
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *dies*
PYROFALKON: *laughs*
If there is any one disaster you can do off the bat, it's fires. Ovens of all
flavors, including microwaves and toaster ovens, can catch flames and pass them
off to your sims or other pieces of furniture. Fires can come from more than
the oven, though. It can result from a flying spark in the fireplace, or a
mishap with the toy rocket.
Fires spread rather quickly, so if one starts, you need to take steps.
Unfortunately, though, sims are stupid. If they're in a room with a fire,
they'll immediately drop whatever they're doing and panic. You have to manually
cancel the panic action (by clicking its icon in the queue), then do something
else.
Sims can extinguish the flames themselves, but it's not always guarenteed to
work. You can call the SimCity Fire Department, but it takes a bit of time for
him to appear. What you can do is have one sim try to extinguish the flame
while another calls for help. Your sim should be able to keep the flame
relatively contained until The Man In Yellow arrives. If there is a smoke alarm
in the room, the SCFD will be summoned automatically.
If a fire is taken care of fast enough, whatever burned will not take damage.
If the fire is allowed to continue, not only can it spread, it could turn
whatever item burned into a pile of ashes. You won't be reimbursed for the lost
item, and you're stuck with a mess that has to be cleaned up.
Death Trav (deathtrav2000@yahoo.com) shares some information on reducing fire
damage...
***
I have found out a way to minimize fire damage when you have low cooking skill
and you start an oven fire. You should put the oven at least one square away
from the other kitchen equiptment. This seems to help stop the damage made by
cooking fires.
***
If a sim is caught in a fire, its hygiene, comfort, and energy will be sliced.
If the flame around him or her continues, the sim could die. I cover death in a
moment.
To prevent a fire from starting, always make sure that whoever cooks food has
at least 1 in the cooking skill. I've made fires happen even then, though; the
safe zone is 3. If you have a fireplace, make sure to put NO object within two
tiles in all directions. As far as the rocket goes, well, there's not too much
you can do about that. If the rocket is far away from other objects, the chance
of something wrong is reduced.
If you want to start a fire, there is one sure way to do so: launch a rocket
inside the house. SOMETHING will catch flames. To ensure that your sim will
burn, simply order them to stand right beside the fire. They will catch shortly
after, and you'll have one sim, extra crispy.
Kain15840 (Kain15840@aol.com) gave a short, and rather insane, addition about
rockets...
***
There's something i noticed when dealing with rockets. It is entirely possible
for something to catch fire even if there are no objects nearby. Yes, the
rocket can hit the sim playing with the rockets and catch him/her on fire.
Rather funny, actually.
blitz: WHEEE! ROCKETS! ROCKETS! ROCKE-GAH! IT BURNS! HOT! HOT! HOT!
AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*dies*
***
That's happened to me too. Gotta love fire!
-ELECTROCTUTION-
I have never actually seen this one, but from what I know, it's relatively
simple. Just have your sim change a lightbulb while standing in a puddle water.
Its Mechanical skill is weighed, I think, and a sim with 10 will never be
killed.
This will cause death to the sim, but nothing else gets damaged.
To prevent it, simply don't change lightbulbs while there's water on the floor.
Mop up puddles before changing lightbulbs, and you'll be fine.
I think you more or less HAVE to set this up before you see it. Robert Lanciani
(duffmary@gis.net) sent me a way to see it...
***
I have another way to electroute a Sim. First get a sim with a bunch of big
screen TV's (must be a new sim with crappy sills). Next, make a monster potion
(purple) (may take a while). He should smash a few of them. When you are normal
again, try to fix one of them (this is where the crappy skills come in). He
shold die instantly.
***
-DROWNING-
This one is popular. Simply get a sim in the pool, then leave them there. When
their energy hits 0, they die. Prevention and intentionally causing should be
obvious.
Remember in section 11, I talked about a party that had a casualty? This was
it. I had a pool party, and a few sims jumped in for a swim. After that, Pete
tried to get fresh with Stephanie. Pyro and Sixam, both of whom were in love
with her, ran up and slapped him. Arguments started, and Stephanie went away to
get a piece of cake. (She chose cake over three men? That's sound thinking, but
if it was three chicks fighting in front of one guy, something tells me that
cake would not be as interesting.)
Anyway, this fighting just happened to be occuring in front of the ladder to
the pool. The victim (I can't remember his name now) was the last one in the
water. He swam during the whole fight, then decided he had seen enough.
However, with the three fighters all blocking the ladder for the pool, he had
no means of escape. He panicked and yelled, but the fight was still going on.
Eventually, the victim drowned, and three men made up, probably all the while
laughing at the dead guy.
Ah, memories...
-STARVATION-
I think this is self-explanatory. If I need to go into detail about how to make
sims eat or not eat, you have larger problems than this FAQ can fix.
-DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY-
The overall mood meter has five levels in both directions, but from what I can
tell it also has a SIXTH level in the positives. If you sim hits that, it can
die of happiness. First it will look like the sim is having a seziure, then it
will collapse and concede to death.
Good luck trying to intentionally cause this, I've only been able to do it
once. It seems slightly random more than anything else. There's no real way to
prevent it since it's VERY hard to get that happy. If you're paranoid, just
make sure at least one meter is partially low, say 90% or less.
-THE REPO MAN-
If for some reason you can't pay your bills, the repo man will come and take
away an item that has a value around the cost of your bills.
To cause it, don't pay your bills. To prevent it, pay your bills. Yawn.
-BURGLARY-
It doesn't matter how safe you think the neighborhood is, there's always a
moron who steals things from innocent people. The burglar will randomly appear,
and he'll walk into your house, taking whatever he desires.
Once he's on your lot, you're locked out of Buy Mode and Build Mode (to prevent
you from cheating by removing doors or selling items before he gets to them).
You can get one of your sims to call the police department, but since he only
appears at night, your sim will probably be cranky about waking up, and he'll
waste a half hour complaining while the burglar is shopping. Also, once it
knows that a sim is awake, it'll haul ass after getting a few items.
If the burglar is caught, you'll get a §1000 reward, plus the insurance company
will pay you some money to replace your stolen items if in fact he did manage
to steal anything. Sometimes, the insurance company seems to give me money
anyway... I wonder if that's a bug?
You can't intentionally cause this, and I don't really see why you would want
to. To prevent it, put a burglar alarm by your doors. When the burglar steps
close enough, it'll make the most annoying sound in the history of gaming, and
the police will automatically be summoned.
Just make sure you put alarms around EVERY exterior door. I thought that they
only used the front door like house guests, so that's the only one I protected.
When the thief appeared, he apparently SAW the alarm, so he walked out of its
range to the backdoor. It sucked, he took all my nifty electronics. Grr...
Anyway, there's a way you can guarentee that the thief cannot even reach your
front door, and it's not a cheat. It's in the general strategy section, so take
a peek.
-MILITARY SCHOOL-
If a kid constantly skips school, he'll be sent to a military school. In
practice, this removes him from the family PERMANENTLY. There is absolutely no
way to get him back, unless you want to reload your game.
You can easily prevent this by sending the kid to school daily. You can easily
cause it by keeping the kid home.
-SOCIAL SERVICES-
If a baby is cared for correctly, you'll never have any problems. If the baby
is neglected however, a worker from social services may appear and take the
baby away. This could be good or bad, depending on your feelings of kids.
-MOVE OUTS-
If two sims who are under the same roof absolutely hate each other, the "Fight"
interaction may appear. After enough fights, the loser will say that he or she
won't stand for anymore. He or she will then pack his or her bags and leave the
house.
In practice, this is the adult version of military school. The sim who leaves
is gone permanently with no possible way to get it back. You can cause it by
simply doing as many negative actions as possible, and you can prevent by doing
as many positive actions as possible.
+----------+
|13a. DEATH|
+----------+
Whenever a sim dies, its corpse will be on the ground for all to see (except in
the case of drowning). Also, the grim reaper will appear on your front lawn and
head to the deceased.
If another family member wants to, it can plead with Death to spare the dead's
life. Several things can happen here...
If Death is in a bad mood, it'll just blow you off and take the corpse.
If Death is in a good mood, your sim plays a game of rock, paper, scissors with
Death. On a win, the dead sim is rezzed for a second chance at life.
If the sim loses the game, Death will either take the corpse, or he'll be nice
and rez the body, but turn it into a zombie. The zombie thing is a mixed
blessing. The sim may be alive, but it has a nasty green skin tone and loses
ALL personality points. It's normal otherwise, though, so maybe it's not so
bad.
There's no way to save someone who drowned. He should've gotten out of the pool
before Pyro started the fight!
Once the corpse is taken, the body changes to an urn or a tombstone (depending
on whether it's inside or outside the house). You can move this around in Buy
Mode, and can put it in the house or make a little graveyard. Either way, sims
can interact with the object, though the only option, "Mourn," only cuts down
the Social meter. Ah well, it's realistic.
If there is an urn or gravestone on the property, the ghost of the dead may
wander around the house scaring everybody at night. This really sucks since
ghosts can wake up sims that are asleep, and there's no way to get rid of the
ghosts.
Well, there IS a way, but it's awfully cruel. You can actually sell the urn or
tombstone through Buy Mode for §5. I guess you really can put a price tag on
life.
+----------------+
|+--------------+|
||14. STRATEGIES||
|+--------------+|
+----------------+
Woo hoo! The fun stuff!
Off the bat, a disclaimer: I make absolutely no guarentees that any of these
strategies will work. They're simply built by the experiences and opinions of
the strategies' authors. If you just plainly suck at The Sims, strategies may
not help you at all. You are perfectly free to alter the strategies in any way
you need to compliment your playing style, and you can even resubmit them here.
Just remember that all the strategies worked for SOMEONE, so don't slam an
author simply because it didn't work exactly the way you wanted it to.
Okay, enough of that...
+--------------------------------+
|14a. PyroFalkon's Alpha Strategy|
+--------------------------------+
This is PyroFalkon's Official Super-Duper Happy Fantastic Strategy For The Sims
(note: that's copyrighted). This is the exact way I play my primary family, the
Falkons. I'll make notes here and there about variables, but other than that
this is a very solid strategy.
This is by no means the only way to play, and it's by no means perfect, but
it's very solid. If you're new to the series, you may want to try it out (it's
compatible with all The Sims games, not just Hot Date). Pieces of it will be in
other sections here, so don't have to read every word of my alpha strategy.
Firstly, I did not choose to create exactly three sims by rolling dice or
throwing darts. I carefully studied strategies, did a bit of trial and error,
and came up with the number.
Remember that every sim has a maintenance cost, in simoleons, time, and other
sims' time. For example, if you have two bathrooms and three people, SOMEONE is
out of luck if their bladder gets full. On the other hand, more sims equal more
money... but can they make enough in the early days to compensate their cost?
That's the big factor that you must decide.
I calculated using my play style and found that three sims (MAYBE four if I buy
lot 6 or 9, the cheap lots) strikes the perfect balance. Read the rest of the
strategy, then decide for yourself whether three is a good choice.
I also did not choose their personaity randomly, nor who they're "related" to.
Basically, I need one couple and one extra. The couple is required so they can
share a bed. However, getting a third bed is not too hard, so it's easily
possible to have three unrelated sims.
When I make sims, the number one rule is "No kids." At the game's start, you
need money, and kids simply don't make it. I make three adults, with the names
Pyro, Stephanie (sometimes if I'm lazy I'll call her Steph), and Pete. Pyro and
Stephanie are the couple (married), and Pete is the extra (Pyro's brother).
Again, you can call them whatever you want since relationships are not "set" in
the game.
Anyway, one sim must have 10 Active and at least 6 Outgoing. I chose Pete for
that one. The other two sims are variable, but for them I balanced the 25
points between Active, Playful, and Nice.
I now must buy a lot. Lot 2 is out of my price range because I won't be able to
afford the nessecities of life. However, I want a big house and I'm not willing
to move my family out of one lot into another (I'm stubborn like that), so I
need a plot of land that gives room for later expansion. I choose lot 1,
costing me §10,500 (§1000 less than lot 2) and leaves me with §9500.
With that money, I immediately go into Buy Mode and buy the cheapest computer,
desk, and chair I can. Then I have each of the three sims accept whichever job
has the highest salary. After that, I go back into Buy Mode and sell the items,
getting all my money back because less than a day passed since I bought them.
I go into Build Mode and make the walls for two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a
small living room, and a kitchen-dining room combo. The living room and
bedrooms are 5x5; the bathrooms are 4x4 and attached to the bedrooms; and the
kitchen is 6x4. I put the open-frame door connecting all the rooms, except that
the bathroom has the basic walnut door. I put a nicer door on an exterior wall
for the front door, confirm my roof, then get into Buy Mode.
I funish the master bedroom (the one Pyro and Steph sleep in) with the cheapest
double bed, cheapest end table, and an alarm clock. I furnish the other bedroom
the exact same way, except I use the cheapest single bed.
Then I buy the cheapest couch and the §500 TV for the living room. Then I buy
the cheapest fridge, two of the cheapest counters, the food processor, and the
cheapest oven for the kitchen. I arrange them like this (this was up in the FAQ
earlier, but I'm repeating it for emphasis)...
+--------+ +-----------+ +------+ +---------+
| | | COUNTER | | | | EMPTY |
| FRIDGE | | WITH | | OVEN | | COUNTER |
| | | PROCESSOR | | | | |
+--------+ +-----------+ +------+ +---------+
Then I buy the cheapest table that takes up one tile, and three of the cheapest
dining chairs. I put the table on the side of empty counter opposite the oven,
and put the three chairs around it.
I then buy the wall phone and put it in the living room somewhere, and the
cheapest bookcase right next to the couch. Then I buy a burglar alarm on an
exterior wall beside the front door.
The bathrooms both get the cheapest toilet and the cheapest shower. I put in
sinks only if I can also afford a dishwasher (which I normally can).
Because I need to save money for food, the house will have to be without
carpet, windows, wallpaper, and lights. Thems the breaks, as they say. Due to
this, the sims will have terrible room ratings, but it's for their own good.
All money I get from the job goes to windows, then carpet, then interior
wallpaper, then exterior wallpaper, always in that order. See, windows will
greatly boost the room ratings due to the light, although it only makes a
difference during the night. Carpets and interior wallpaper finish getting
those room scores up. Exterior wallpaper makes the house presentable. I
definitely can't afford it all in one day, I'm just planning.
I then have all the sims check the paper to see if the job they can get pays
higher than what they currently have. I'm aiming for the military, since it has
the highest starting pay and no friend requirements until level 6.
While Pyro and Stephanie bond (I need them to sleep together that night, after
all), Pete studies cooking. Make absolute sure that the sim you set to be
outgoing is the one doing the studying. This will have major impact soon.
Once Pete gets one point of cooking, I save the game then tell him to serve a
meal while the other two go to the bathroom and take showers. If Pete starts a
fire, I reload the game.
Once the meal is served, all three eat. Pyro and Steph bond as much as I let
them dare before I consider them staying up too late (8 hours before the alarm
clock rings, or 10 hours before the carpool arrives), then I send them to bed.
Pete calls and hires a maid, then goes to the bathroom, takes a shower, and
goes to bed.
Every day, I check the paper if my sims aren't in the military career track. If
they are, I don't worry about anything.
When a sim gets promoted, all money goes into getting an object that improves
the skills needed to get promoted again. The beauty of all the sims having the
same job is that I don't have to buy multiple items to pull it off. I want all
three to work on their skills, but Pyro's relationship to Stephanie is the
priority.
Once the house has all of its carpet, windows, and wallpaper, I switch Pyro's
and Stephanie's jobs to what they were intended to be. I always send Pyro to
the Hacker career track and usually Stephanie to the Pro Athlete track, but
that doesn't matter. What DOES matter is Pete remains in the military career
track.
This move will cut your income, but that little problem won't last long.
If I have the money to spend, I put a second toilet and second shower (both the
cheapest variety) in the bathroom attached to the master bedroom. It's at this
moment I get serious.
Everyone works in their jobs until Pyro OR Stephanie require friends to be
promoted. At that moment, I make Pete quit his job by keeping him home. This is
where the plot thickens.
If the Falkons are the first family in the neighborhood, here I save and stop
playing with them. I make a few more families, move them in, give them phones,
then switch back to the Falkons.
Pete stays home all day and studies cooking. He may refuse to study if his
Social meter is shot to hell (which it probably is), and if that's the case, he
just watches TV and relaxes. Once Pyro and Steph get home, I start the main
strategy...
Pyro and Steph get to sleep on time, but bond first. While they do so, Pete
goes to the bathroom, takes a shower, and then goes to bed.
Let me interject here with a quick lesson on how sims sleep. Once they're
asleep, they will sleep until their energy tops out. Now, if it's nighttime and
you haven't given them any commands, they will STAY ASLEEP, and they'll wake up
at 6 AM (when the sun rises). If you give them a command, then they'll wake the
moment their energy hits 100. Of course, you can always manually wake them up.
Okay, here I let Pete sleep until 6 AM, when his body wakes him up. That's
PROBABLY when the other two wake up also, but depending on their job, maybe
not. However, as long as they wake up AFTER Pete, the strategy holds.
Pete immediately serves a meal while Pyro and Stephanie BOTH go to the same
bathroom to relieve themselves and take showers. They should finish JUST AS
Pete gets done cooking (maybe not if one is very active or very inactive). All
three eat, and I monitor their table talk so no one starts hating the topic.
After breakfast, Pete goes to the bathroom, takes a shower, and watches TV. If
the others do not take the same carpool, whoever goes last spends a bit of time
improving their lowest meter, which is usually the Fun meter. If the others DO
take the same carpool, then they go to work together.
By the time Pete's done watching TV, his Energy, Hunger, Bladder, Hygiene, Fun,
Comfort, and Room meters are all quite high. The only bad one is the Social
meter, but that will be fixed.
If Pete is in a good enough mood to study, he studies cooking until another sim
knocks on the door. He greets the stranger with a handshake, then I order him
to grab another plate of food no matter what his hunger rating is.
I'm going to interject again to give some advice. House guests always perform
the same actions in the same order: eat, bathroom, TV. They may delay a bit
before any of those, but they will get there. Remember that.
The house guest (we'll call him Sixam, another one that I make a lot) goes for
the food since flies haven't been attracted to it yet. At the same time, Pete
is doing the same. As they eat, they talk, boosting Pete's Social meter as well
as improving their relationship. Sixam will head to a bathroom, and I delay
long enough to figure out which one he's going to. I send Pete into the other
one. Then, both will go watch TV, further boosting the meters.
Now, Pete may get bored and get up from the couch. If that happens, I tell him
to study cooking until Sixam gets up from TV too. Once they're both done with
the idiot box, I tell Pete to talk and give friendly hugs to Sixam. With any
luck, this boosts the Relationship meter over 50, making Sixam a family friend.
I keep talking and hugging; eventually, Sixam will get bored or hungry and
leave since I don't allow him to watch TV or eat.
Pyro and Stephanie return home with th
