Random Sim mysteries I have always wondered about

[buddha pest]

1. You know how sim parents will either grunt in disgust or make the "uh huhhhh" approval noise when their offspring engage in a romantic action with their partner?

What determines their approval or lack thereof? I believe they stop their grunting or nodding either way if the couple become married.

2. (And this one probably has a tangible explanation that I'm just too dumb to figure out on my own.) What determines whether a sim will tolerate a "Talk to about Grilled Cheese" from someone? So far I've eliminated high relationships/family ties, so I don't know what else it could be? High interest points in food?

I have more random questions like this, but I can't think of them at the moment. I'll probably be back with more.

[Jelenedra]

1) My guess? Level of outgoing/niceness.

2) According to the guide, playful sims tolerate this a little better.

[kutto]

IIRC, the guide is wrong, and only nice sims and other grilled cheese sims will accept it.

[Jelenedra]

Ah. I had wondered, I never played a Grilled Cheese sim.

[Zazazu]

I'm siding with kutto on that. I have a lot of grilled cheese sims, mostly secondaries, due to non-EAxis sadorandomness. Most of them get along fine as most of them either have another GC sim in the house or someone in the family who will talk with them about it. My one sim who could find no one to talk to (and due to asp depression from that as well as family deaths ended his life by burning himself and half the housedown) had a wife and two kids who were mid-to-low on the nice points. I had all levels of fun represented, and two were high on culinary interest. All had 100/100 relationships.

My favorite GC-related pic (excepting "I greet you in the love of cheese", which I accidentally deleted)....."I'd rather eat my own chin than join your stupid cheesy cult!":

[DrNerd]

1) Probably an outgoing issue more than a nice issue.  Mine tend to be really outgoing and piss-mean, but I've never seen them get annoyed by anyone else's PDAs.  Most of the time they just wander by and finger-gun.

2) Nine and ten nice point Sims will definitely allow someone to Talk About Grilled Cheese.  Fewer than that, I don't know.  I'm sending a Grilled Cheese Sim to college with her eight-nice-point brother; I'll have to see if he lets her Talk About Grilled Cheese or not.

[professorbutters]

1) "Approve" and "disapprove" is an Outgoing/Shy issue.  My shyest sim was my alien, Judy Jetson:  I think she had zero outgoing points and she really didn't like PDAs.   She had ten nice points, so that wasn't involved at all.  Sims also sometimes get upset and embarrassed at displays of affection when they think a relative is being "cheated on."  Usually it makes sense, but I've seen it where it didn't make sense at all.

2) Seven nice points is enough for a sim to allow a conversation about Grilled Cheese.  Five is not.  Six, I don't know:  but eight nice point sims should definitely be willing to Talk About Grilled Cheese (and then they will spontaneously bring it up to others.  Which is scary.)

PB

[buddha pest]

Okay, now...wtf does the Intelligence career reward do?

"Uh oh, the neighbors don't like you spying!" summons the town slapper to come and slap.

"That sounds like someone going to the bathroom" decreases bladder.

The other ones I've seen so far, I didn't see anything come of.

What's up with the FT career rewards being shit? I guess the sidewalk star is "neat" or something, but the fish pond is pretty blah. The ballet bar allows two people to use it at once, and that's great I guess. But skilling and mood boosts or anything at least would've been nice. Does the ballet reward build body skill quicker than the regular buyable ballet bar?

[SnootCB]

Does the ballet reward build body skill quicker than the regular buyable ballet bar?

No, but I think it does allow a new dance animation- some kind of pirouette I think.

Edit: The "ballet exercises" interaction on the dance career reward barre allows sims to do highly skilled moves.  It decreases Energy at the same rate as the "warmup" interaction but decreases Hygiene at a faster rate.  All standard ballet barres gain the new interaction once the career reward barre is placed.  It also increases Music & Dance hobby enthusiasm. According the Prima guide, anyway.

As far as the other career rewards:

Intelligence spy thingie- sims may gain or lose money, satisfy or deplete need(s), miss a day of work, get slapped by an angry neighbor, or see a ghost (if there is an urn/tombstone on the lot)

Oceanography pond- increases Nature enthusiasm, boosts Fun & Comfort

Architecture draftin table- builds Creativity, increases Arts & Crafts enthusiasm, boosts Fun, has all kinds of drafting interactions

Entertainment star- boosts Social within limited radius

[buddha pest]

I can't believe I've yet to use the arcky-tecky table. I've got arts & crafts sims comin' out my ying yang.

But, oh right, I don't have many actual architects. I should probably get on that.

I always just put my arts & crafts sims in the art career...because I'm so creative. 

Okay, what do the various juices from the juice bar do?

This has turned from the Buddha's Random Mysteries Thread into the "PLS EXPLAIN THE FACTS & LEARNINGS OF FREE TIME TO ME" Thread. Sorry 'bout that.

And might I add, I'm not satisfied with that thread in The War Room. The whole spiel about what triggers aspiration benefits is dead wrong by my calculations. My sims pass those milestones many times without getting the flashy-flashy Pick a Benefit option. It seems more related to aspiration points accumulated = the unlocking of benefits. But I digress.

We could just go into, yet again, the questions of why sims get a red X thought bubble when someone takes a crap, and why some in-laws get family-only interactions while others get romantic ones, but we've been through all of that oh so many times over the years, and I was probably the one constantly bringing it up, so....

[SnootCB]

apple juice (3 apples)= faster homework
beauty cocktail (2 oranges, 2 cucumbers)= love potion
eggplant juice (2 eggplants)= random skill points
lemonade (6 lemons)= cools sim down
orange juice (6 oranges)= cures colds
orangeade (4 oranges, 2 lemons)= random badge points
pepper punch (2 peppers, 1 pole bean, 1 apple)= energy boost
puréed boot (1 boot)= random animations
strawberry juice (3 strawberries)= clears furious state
strawberry lemonade (2 lemons, 2 strawberries)= platinum mood
tomato juice (6 tomatoes)= warms sim up
vegetable cocktail (1 tomato, 1 cucumber, 1 pepper, 1 pole bean)= build skills faster

[professorbutters]

The only two of those juices I regularly use are strawberry lemonade and orangeade.  Orangeade is really helpful if you truly need talent badges:  it helped me get the Fortune Master point (all seven gold badges and all twenty-five business perks.)  And strawberry lemonade is a godsend.  I like using it for Pleasure Sims when I can't send them on multiple dates and for Family Sims, who can take a looooong time to get permaplat.  Once a sim is in plat mood, you don't really need stuff like pepper punch.  You can just send them to the energizer.

I've only had one or two strawberry juice type situations, and wouldn't you know it, those sims didn't have access to strawberry juice.

PB

[Roux]

I think buddha pest was asking about the new nectar bar object that came with FreeTime. It serves a few different types of nectar, like peach-grape, but I haven't played with it enough to figure out if it has any benefit besides a boost to the hunger motive and Food & Dining hobby enthusiasm.

[Zazazu]

Ah, I don't think I've even seen that thing.

[buddha pest]

I think buddha pest was asking about the new nectar bar object that came with FreeTime. It serves a few different types of nectar, like peach-grape, but I haven't played with it enough to figure out if it has any benefit besides a boost to the hunger motive and Food & Dining hobby enthusiasm.

Yes, I am.

So, do they do nothing but sit around looking cute?

I've only seen it because I play Desiderata Valley these days, and it's in the Jocque house.

[SnootCB]

OH! Sorry.  The nectar bar is basically the same thing as a regular bar.

[Roux]

So, do they do nothing but sit around looking cute?

Pretty much. Maybe it gives a higher boost to enthusiasm than other food activities, but darned if I care enough to figure it out.    Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be as attractive as a regular bar, though. Oh, I forgot to mention before that it probably decreases the bladder motive as well. This is TS2, after all.