3 or 4 lightening bolts

[Brynne]

I've read a few times on this forum that people are getting 4 lightening bolts in their relationship panels. The most I've ever gotten is 3. Everything I've read has said the system is 1-3 lightening bolts. Are 4 possible? If so, what does it take to get there?

[reggikko]

Same here, Brynne. I've only seen three.

[knitro]

Yeah only three, the guide says 3 also, but it is sometimes wrong. there are 5 options (3,2,1,none, x) maybe that confuses people? Or maybe they can't count.

[Regina]

I am relatively sure I've had four.  I'll have to take a very close look again, though, because my eyes aren't quite as good as they used to be.  It's possible that what I thought was four were actually three.

[KatEnigma]

By carefully using the debug cheat to perfectly match up two Sims on aspiration and sign, as well as turn ons/offs, I've had 3 lightning bolts, so I don't think there is 4.

[Motoki]

I've also only seen 3 and only heard claims of 4 with no personal direct evidence so I'm skeptical.

[Brynne]

I've matched up sims astrological signs, etc so they are perfect fits for each other, and I've gotten 3 lightening bolts. I can't see how I could make those sims any more perfect for each other. I was disappointed when I read a couple of people mention 4 lightening bolts. I thought maybe they weren't so perfect after all.

I used the word "perfect" too many times in this post for comfort. I need a thesauraus. 

[gali]

My all male sims have 4 bolts with the female sims. That's because I arrange the compatibility according the Zodiac signs, and choose for them the same turn-ons and offs.

Sometimes, when I acquaint between a male and a female, I see in the pie menu (i.e. entertain, talk, etc) 6 or 7 bolts, and when they are friends - I see 4 bolts.

The best matches are: Scorpio vs Picses, Aquarius vs Capricorn, and Scorpio vs Leo. The turn-ons I choose are always fitness and blond/red hair; but even without the turn-ons, the Zodiac signs are very important.

The one match which sometimes succeed, and sometimes doesn't, is Aries vs Taurus. Brandi Broke is Aries and married to a Taurus - and the match is perfect.
Dustin is Taurus, and I matched him an Aries girl - and his wishes were all the times about other females, except his mate. I got mad, and killed him, kept him 3 days dead, then resurrected him; from then on, after he got engaged and married again - he doesn't dare to wish flirts with other femals, he knows that it's his only chance to survive....

[knitro]

Gali are you talking about the number of new pie menu options that are bolted? I was refering to the number of bolts on teh sims picture.

[gali]

No, in the sim picture I see 4 bolts - but when I interact for the first time between a male and a female, and open the interaction menu, I see 6 or 7 bolts on interactions like Admire, Hug,  Kiss, etc. After that the bolts dissapear, but according to this, I know that the couple fits. When they are friends - in the picture I see 4 bolts.

[Brynne]

My all male sims have 4 bolts with the female sims. That's because I arrange the compatibility according the Zodiac signs, and choose for them the same turn-ons and offs.

See, I'm doing all that, too. Not getting more than 3 bolts, though.

[Motoki]

Those bolts in the interaction menus just mean that because your sim has chemistry with the one you are interacting with (I don't think it matters how many bolts they have on their picture as long as they have at least one and have some chemistry) you can perform certain interactions at a lower relationship score than is normally required.

So if for example (and I am just making these numbers up) hug takes 10 lifetime and you at 8 with that sim, if you have chemistry it may let you do it and show the bolt to signify this. But then if you do the hug and it takes their lifetime up to 10, then you are at the normal required level and the bolt disappears.

[gali]

Try to make them with close characteristics. My sims are (no matter of the Zodiac sign):

neat - 8
outgoing - 3/4
nice - 8
active - 7
playful - 5/6
etc

Do it with a cheat or an external program. Now you will see for sure the 4 bolts.

[Brynne]

I've noticed that sims with 3 bolts for each other can do all the romantic interactions a lot earlier than I would have dared to try before! Most of the time all I have to do is the initial flirt. From then on, they're all over each other. I also had a teen couple autonomously fall in love. I created the girl as the perfect match for the guy. He was just getting to know the girl, and I was working on getting his brother acquainted with his perfect match when I heard the harps play for the first couple. I don't know what happened, but they did it all on their own. I thought that was pretty cool.

[Torkle]

No, in the sim picture I see 4 bolts

Gali - Can you post a screen shot for us?  The best I've seen in any pairing is three bolts.

[gali]

Lol, I don't know how to do it. I capture with the camera and the video only the lot, but not the characters.

Will appreciate any help....

[knitro]

do a ctrl-alt-printscreen.... then get out and go into word or something and paste it. then its in a regualer file.

[AllenABQ]

Try to make them with close characteristics. My sims are (no matter of the Zodiac sign):

neat - 8
outgoing - 3/4
nice - 8
active - 7
playful - 5/6
etc

Do it with a cheat or an external program. Now you will see for sure the 4 bolts.

Y'know a screen capture of the picture with 4 bolts would put this questions to rest.

The Prima Guide can be wrong, but it says only 3 bolts is the highest possible.

Also, the strongest Zodiac sign combos are the reciprocal ones -- meaning the signs are mutually attracted to each other.  This is because the attraction of each sim toward the other is calculated based on sign compatibility and then averaged between the two when figuring out chemistry.  So reciprocal attractive signs yield the highest aveage.

Thus the best combos according to Prima are:

Pisces - Scorpio
Pisces - Gemini
Aquarius - Capricorn
Aries - Taurus

Conversely the reciprocal repellent signs are:

Aries - Cancer
Taurus - Virgo
Gemini - Capricorn
Leo - Capricorn
Libra - Scorpio
Scorpio - Aquarius

Every other combination is either one-sided attraction, neutral, or one-sided repellant.

[gali]

No, in the sim picture I see 4 bolts

Gali - Can you post a screen shot for us?  The best I've seen in any pairing is three bolts.

I did, but the file is too big. I'll send you a zipped file if you want. Just e-mail me, through the members' list...

Anyway, I have a female - Andrea (Scorpio) - who has 4 bolts with Alexander Goth (Cancer, engaged to her), Beau Broke (Scorpio), Dustin Broke (Taurus), and the 3rd son of Brandi - Skipi (Picses).
 

[Motoki]

gali if you hit the C button in the game it takes a snapshot. Then you can find them in My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N00X\Storytelling (where the X in N00X is the # of your neighborhood, so Pleasantview would be N001, Strangetown N002, Veronaville N003, your first custom neighborhood N004, etc)

Those screenshots, unlike pressing the print screen button, are already in jpg format and are compressed at a decent file size. You can also go into the options panel and make the quality and size of the pictures bigger as it defaults to medium.

[gynarchy]

But the in-game screenshots don't include the UCP do they?

[Motoki]

Oh yeah, duh, they don't. I forgot about that. :p Never mind then. 

[Brynne]

I use the printscreen method, paste it into irfanview, then upload it to my account at photobucket.com. I've never had a problem with file sizes on this site, and I have posted a lot of pictures and screenshots. Too many, I'm sure. How are you doing it, Gali?

[gynarchy]

I use the TS1 program SimCamera so I don't have to flip between the game and Photoshop or PSP. You can save either jpegs or bitmaps and choose which button you want to use to capture the images. You can download it from here, it's 8th on the list.

[AllenABQ]

I use the printscreen method, paste it into irfanview, then upload it to my account at photobucket.com. I've never had a problem with file sizes on this site, and I have posted a lot of pictures and screenshots. Too many, I'm sure. How are you doing it, Gali?

You know IrfanView has a screen capture utility built unto it.  I think you can hit the key "C" to activate, otherwise its in the pulldown menu.

When its active, you can get screen capture while focus is in any other application (including The Sims 2!) by pressing Ctrl-F11.  That's the F11 function key.  It'll capture the current screen including the game's control panel and pop you back to IrfanView's focus.  That's how I capture really large screens for the Sims 2.

You can start IrfanView after the Sims 2 is up and running by pressing Alt-Tab to get back to Windows.

By the way, does anyone know how to totally hide the control panel on the game's screen?  So that you have a completely unobstructed full-screen view?