Downtownies get off the phone!

[ZephyrZodiac]

I seem to remember a while back that the annoying telephone call from random downtownies stopped happening in my game, presumably due to something I'd installed to prevent it.  Now, I have only got rid of about one hack since installing the patch, and overwritten several others, but nothing has radically altered in my hacks folder, and there are no unaccounted-for conflicts.

But every time I move in a new family, one of them gets this annoying phonecall!

[Emma]

I like the phonecall! I get my sims to scope out potential partners on that first outing

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, when you have a new sim straight out of CAS with a wife and two kids, and he gets the phone-call from some rampant elder, I think it's going a bit far!

[nectere]

While I dont mind the first phone call, I am getting sometimes two phone calls a day, every day. stalkers...sheesh.

[nocomment]

I'd love a hack to let us control this both ways.  Some households wouldn't get calls to go downtown, some would.

I have a new household of two singles.  One got invited downtown, the other didn't.  I'd like the other to at least have a chance!

Of course, the whole outing thing works weirdly anyway.  My teen was invited downtown by his friend.  The outing consisted of two teens and a lot of adults.  Are they attracted to him?  Will they be attracted to him when he grows up?  If so, is that a little creepy, or really creepy?

Anyway, I'd love an object we could plop on each lot to ban/generate the calls, as wished.

[BlueSoup]

Maybe the phone hack got reset somehow?  I use that to get no phone calls, period.

[gypsylady]

My sims are getting the calls too and I have the new phone hack in.

[J. M. Pescado]

The Phone Hack won't stop the calls unless you actually turn off the phone.

[ZiggyDoodle]

I just turn down my speakers, ignore the ringing phone, and pretend they have a Maxis answering machine: no response.   

[ZephyrZodiac]

But they do miss out on normal phone calls too.  At least, though, turning off the phone doesn't result in them missing out on a winning lottery ticket or whatever, like it would have done in sims1 - but then, they didn't get phone calls from total strangers in Sims1!

[dusty]

But they do miss out on normal phone calls too.  At least, though, turning off the phone doesn't result in them missing out on a winning lottery ticket or whatever, like it would have done in sims1 - but then, they didn't get phone calls from total strangers in Sims1!

unless you count those stupid ones about decorating in particular colour schemes and "do you canoe?"  drove me insane they did.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I never let my sims answer the phone at 2 am, so they didn't get too many of those!  And if they were all having to eat, sleep etc. in one room, the phone went in the bathroom or outside.  (And they didn't get the desire to know the wierd caller better - they would generally get rather annoyed.)

[Diala]

You know what would be wonderful? A hack that, whenever the phone rings, shows who is calling, and to whom. What would also be nice is the ability to ban certain people from calling. Sometimes my Sims bring home a townie from work, and after I shoo them off, they don't. stop. calling. Argh! It doesn't stop until I kill off the stupid townie.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Sickening, isn't it!  And if you ban townies from your lot, then they answer the phone and you can't see who is calling them.  Yes, Caller ID would be more than welcome for our sims!

I'd also like it if the computer had an option to chat with family so students who get the want to chat online could use it to keep in touch with home instead of getting a load of unmet dormies!  And not only that, if there are three sims with the same first name, you can never tell which one it is!

[jsalemi]

You know what would be wonderful? A hack that, whenever the phone rings, shows who is calling, and to whom. What would also be nice is the ability to ban certain people from calling. Sometimes my Sims bring home a townie from work, and after I shoo them off, they don't. stop. calling. Argh! It doesn't stop until I kill off the stupid townie.

Ask and you shall receive, at least partially -- check out the DMA Sims worker set:  http://valdea.com/?page=1.  The DMA Teleport device that comes with the base set also functions as a burglar alarm that alerts when the burglar enters the lot, not just when he/she is in the room where the alarm is, and has a caller ID function.  It costs the same as the regular burglar alarm.


Oh, and don't forget that Pescado's phone hack does give you the option to change the number of rings before the phone shuts up.  Combined with the Teleport device, you can set it to 10 or even 5 rings, since you'll know right away whether you want the sim to answer or not, and not be annoyed by the constant ringing.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Trouble is, you don't know if you don't know who's calling!  If you could just mouse-over the phone and see who's on the other end...........

[jsalemi]

Trouble is, you don't know if you don't know who's calling!  If you could just mouse-over the phone and see who's on the other end...........

Well, the caller ID in the DMA Teleport box lets you see who's calling, and you can check him/her out in the sims relationship panel. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Oh, I must have misunderstood what it does - thanks, I'll give it a try and see if I can get rid of these phone pests!

Well, I had a look and it looks interesting, but I couldn't find any way to download it!

[jsalemi]

The DMA Sims stuff is really nice -- I liked it so much I willingly paid for a VIP membership to get the full sets.  The live-in maids and babysitters are handy, and a bordello or two in town is keeping all the Romance sims happy.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I wouldn't mind a bordello or two - quite in keeping in Veronaville which is Victorian in my game! 

Although up to now I;ve managed pretty well without using NPCs, 10 romance sims in your game are just about enough to satisfy any LTW!

[jsalemi]

The bordellos are fun to watch to see who shows up -- I've been surprised by some of the playable sims who have wandered in.  Angela Pleasant (now a family  sim with 3 kids) and Dustin Broke (now an elder, still fortune) are frequent visitors.  And if you want a sim or sim family to get rich fast, that 500 simoleans a pop per woohoo adds up really quickly.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I'll bet it does!  (As long as they don't keep spending the profits!)

[Diala]

As and you shall receive, at least partially -- check out the DMA Sims worker set:  http://valdea.com/?page=1.  The DMA Teleport device that comes with the base set also functions as a burglar alarm that alerts when the burglar enters the lot, not just when he/she is in the room where the alarm is, and has a caller ID function.  It costs the same as the regular burglar alarm.

Thanks for showing me that. I will certainly give it a try.

*hits the Thanks button*

[J. M. Pescado]

But they do miss out on normal phone calls too.  At least, though, turning off the phone doesn't result in them missing out on a winning lottery ticket or whatever, like it would have done in sims1 - but then, they didn't get phone calls from total strangers in Sims1!

No, all the actual important phone calls are allowed through. You won't miss your novel calls or your new contact bonus this way. Just the random pointless calls.

unless you count those stupid ones about decorating in particular colour schemes and "do you canoe?"  drove me insane they did.

Ah, but you knew when those were, they tended to come at strange hours, and were obviously the receiving end of prank calls. And your sims tended not to like them either.

[jsalemi]

I'll bet it does!  (As long as they don't keep spending the profits!)

Well, if the bordello money gets too out of hand, there's an option to enable a random police raid (also DMA NPC cops).  The fine is 50k, which will trim the profits a bit.

However, since the game cops are frequent visitors to my bordellos, there may be no one left to protect p-view if a raid happens and they get arrested too.