More Awesome Than You!

The more I get into Nightlife the bigger laugh I'm getting.  There are some features in it that can be exploited absolutely to death with wonderful results!  There are a couple of aspirations I always had a hard time keeping happy and gaining enough aspiration points to buy them the good rewards.  One of those was Knowledge.  It seemed no matter how hard they worked, they eventually reached a point where they'd get near aspiration failure and they'd have to work on a skill to get their aspiration back up and without their thinking cap to boot.

I have found that with Nightlife sims can basically live on love.  The best sure-fire way to get them in a good mood is to send them on a date.  Of course, the better the chemistry between the two sims the easier this is, but it's also easy if they have a good relationship already.  Shoot, the date doesn't even have to last real long, just long enough to get their aspiration meter up, get the date meter up fairly well, get them some points for reward objects they might need, and if the date goes really well they get a huge motive boost.

Another thing I've noticed is that if you have a Romance sim who wants to date almost everyone in the neighborhood, with very special care they can date up the wazoo on public lots and never get caught cheating.  Have the Romance sim choose his dates from the service worker pool or from the Downtownie pool.  Build a nice place in your regular neighborhood, then have them invite one of those sims on a date, but instead of going Downtown just go to that nice lot you built.  Their Downtownie or service worker boyfriend/girlfriend are never going to show up on those lots, except for possibly in passing (some service workers) or in a working capacity.  As near as I can tell one that's on the job is completely oblivious to what's going on.  This also keeps Miss Crumplebottom from doing her best to waylay your sims while they're making out in the quiet little spot behind the restaurant.

Oh, one thing I might add here is that while I've read on the BBS about Miss Crumplebottom 'ruining my date!' I've never seen it actually happen.  One pair of my sims had gone to the Botanical Garden restaurant and were necking out in the back corner.  They'd hit Dream Date and Mrs. Crumplebottom strolled on out and started whacking the guy with her purse.  It didn't affect the date meter score.  I'm not saying it's impossible, but it sure didn't in this case.

Gotta love how easy it is to send a Sim on a date to get their aspiration meter up.  It's almost like a cheat.

I had Mrs. Crumplebottom purse-whacking one of my dating Sims, and the meter fell a little.  Not enough to really hurt, but it did fall.  The date wasn't to dream date status yet.

I suspect once the date meter is full you still accumulate date points.  If you get a lot of extra points, your date will bring you more expensive gifts later.  If this is how it works, then being purse-whacked won't lower the score enough to register on the meter.

Hook

Oh yeah!  Those extra points are great!  I hadn't taken tons of opportunity to play with racking up extras, but my Legacy sim invited one of his friends, who just happens to be a Romance sim, to move in.  My plan for him is to turn him into a vampire, then have him melt in the sun for the ghost bonus.  Anyway, him being the love-lorn fellow he is, he's so far dating the Diva, a vampire and a waitress.  So far he's been delivered a DJ machine and two pianos!

I was telling my daughter last night the dating thing tends to put a game within the game--you have to learn how to 'play' it. ;)

I agree--it does seem almost like cheating!  ;D

I've been lucky with keeping my sims from being assaulted by Mrs. Crumplebottom. On my "date" lots I'll have bowling, a bar or a poker table to keep her interested. Most of the time Mrs. Crumplebottom's too busy with her drink to even notice my sims making out. If she does, I cancel out of the "be hit with purse" interaction before she can do it (the same way I cancel out of the "work out" interaction when the coach comes in and harasses my college students). The most Mrs. Crumplebottom does once I cancel the interaction is to shake her purse and yell at my sims, then she goes back to her drink (or poker or bowling). I've tried it a few times and as long as my dating sims are about half a room from her they have an excellent chance of not being pummeled by her purse. :)

As many times as I've been downtown, Mrs. Crumplebottom still hasn't appeared on any of my downtown lots. I want to see this purse whacking thing!

The waitresses definitely notice what's going on while they're working.  I had a romance sim who was working his way through every downtownie he met in pursuit of the 20 loves at once goal, and made the mistake of taking his latest date out for dinner.  I discovered very quickly that not only do the same waitresses work in every downtown restaurant, but also that they seriously object to their lover walking in the door with his new date - slaps flying everywhere!

However, I also discovered a useful trick - if your sim gets caught cheating, as long as you can keep them from being slapped then it's only the cheatee who falls out of love, not the cheater (as soon as they get slapped though, they lose the hearts).  So you can acheive the 20 loves at once want even if half those loves now detest your sim...

This has nothing to do with romance or lovers, but personally I love the ecological guru career. A pregant female can make 70K a week with perfectly timed pregancies. She still racks up a load of vacation and makes a fortune.

Today I had a sim who got really stinky autonomously go into the mens room and give himself a sponge bath. Well Mrs. Crumplebottom was having none of that! She marched right into the mens room, through the male-only door no less, and beat him with her purse!

That's just stupid.  Why should she care (or even know) that he is in the privacy of the MEN's room washing up?  Why doesn't she beat them up for using the urinal?  Oddly, she doesn't seem to mind them bumping and grinding on the dance floor.

Yep, it's definately like cheating. You can also lock a good desire (for each of them) towards the end of a date, not fulfill it, and (especially if the couple lives together or in a dorm together) use it for a quick pickmeup for them later. One good make-out and they're both platinum again.

I think the presents for dates depend partially on how much money the sim in question has - if they're not very well off, they don't give good ones... 'least I think cuz my sims get lots more flowers than stuff even though they're almost always at the "can we do it again pleeeese, i can't wait to tell my friends" level - which seems to be the highest ('least that I've seen).

I've just been ignoring Mrs. Crumblebottom. She hasn't caused me any trouble. But the jealousy thing sure has. I can just here him saying, "But honey, that was before I even *met* you..."

And 'sides she rolled up a fear of engagement - obviously romance - and he wants to get married. What's she care anyways?

You don't have the latest version of TwoJeffs NPC & Visitor Zapper do you? That auto-bans Mrs. Crumplebottom from Downtown lots. If you do have it, just click on your active sim, then click Adjust.../NPC & Visitors.../Allow Mrs. Crumplebottom (or something like that).

Uh-huh!  I just discovered this tonight! LOL  My little Romance sim just broke his Romance girlfriend's heart!  I canceled out the slap, though.  The fate I have prepared for him is worse than any slap could be so I let him thoroughly enjoy his night out with the other gal.  She even brought him a statue.

If you're talking about Mrs. Crumplebottom, she's a family sim.  You'd think with that aspiration she'd be all for love and romance!  I think she's jealous, though.  ;D

lol - no, no, I was talking about my sims first girlfriend. They had a pile of dream dates, fell in love, he rolled up the get engaged want and she had a fear of engagement and wanted 3 lovers at once. Obviously she was romance (he's popularity) and even tho they liked each other really well, he was gonna get hurt - so he dumped her. But she got jealous when he went out with his new girlfriend. Silly sim.

Unfortunately, the new girl seemed liked a better match, but they only had 2 bolts, so I moved her in with him and changed their turn ons and offs all around. I knew they didn't match - he likes makeup and she wasn't wearing any, and she liked black hair and his is brown - turned out she also liked cologne and he never wore any. But no matter how perfectly I set them, they could only get 2. He likes his brother's girlfriend (Stella - she's actually the ingame born sim. He and his brother were Uni students) better :p and Stella's crazy about his brother (and vice versa) - not going to happen, leave her alone guy. Sooo, he moved the 2nd gf back out also. I was afraid she was gonna be hurt and unhappy, but they just waved when she left and she was thinking about money. I guess he wasn't well off enough for her. (she turned out to be money.)

He's having a hard time finding the perfect mate.

Like Gali, I hate it when my perfect matches are fooling around or something. When Stella goes dt she's always running into her father and he's thinking little hearts about some unknown townie or other - and Stella's father and his wife are perfect matches, sweet as anything, and she gave him everything - what's he doing thinking loving thoughts about some other woman, especially when his daughter is right there. bleh. (tho I don't think he's cheating... he'd be doing it autonomously if he was.)

I've been trying to figure out now on earth my sims even KNOW to have those thoughts about some sims they do!  My sim invited their burglar friend over.  He was chatting with their little girl and she was talking about a sim she has never met who is one of her mom's best friends.  The burglar was standing there with hearts around the thought bubbles of this sim of which they were speaking.  Now keep in mind NEITHER of these sims have ever met him.  Then that night I noticed the little girl dreaming about the sim of their conversation and SHE had hearts around the thought bubble.

One thing I like about the dating feature is that you actually get to see what aspiration the sim being dated is which comes in really handy.  That way you can decide whether or not you want your sim to pursue that sim and if not end the date before things get too hot and heavy.  It helps eliminate too many hurt feelings.  I'd rather most of my sims not have a Dream Date than things getting completely out of hand.

She's also a lush who loves to bowl.  Safest place to makeout downtown in a bowling alley with a bar!

Those are attraction markers and they get passed through conversation like memory markers, I've had Sims do the floaty hearts thought bubble about family members and even themselves. You can remove them through SimPE, they show up as invisible memories with the "reaching the top of the art career" icon. It is definitely weird to see Sims show attraction to someone that they themselves aren't even attracted to or have even met before.

You can? eeeep. Obviously I haven't looked at all the right buttons - I've been guessing based on what wants they roll up. <feels very stupid> I'm gonna end up in that News Box sometime soon, hm? <isn't quite sure how all this ripped lips thing works, but I have the feeling if I keep posting I'm gonna find out> :)

Dates make popularity sims playable for me..its much easier to keep them happy but of course it is also a curse too b/c then they want to be friends...be best friends..ect with all these people they dated.  But of course even one so-so date often leads to friendship so its great to build up friends and you can end the date before any lovey dovey interactions take place.

It doesn't actually say anywhere, but the icon for their aspiration is under the date meter - It's the icon used to show/hide the date's wants.

Ooooh, yes, I sure do have that. That explains it, then. Thanks for letting me know!

Don't feel bad!  If you go to the News Box, so can I!  My daughter's the one who told me about the date panel having the expandable want box.  It sure has made my sim's dating lives much easier!

At the bottom left of the date meter you'll see an aspiration icon and just left of it an arrow.  For whatever reason my brain never clicked as to why the arrow would be there.  :P

I've always enjoyed populartiy sims.  Often I don't worry about them making 30 best friends.  They usually end up in a fit of wants that have to do with a particular sim so I've found them pretty easy to keep happy.  Once in a while they'll go through a few interactions with one sim then want to move on to another but hey, they're Sims after all.

The only thing though is when they and family sims get stuck on a certain sim they are just friends with, and they get stuck in a cycle of Appreciate, Tell joke/Tell dirty joke/Entertain, Play with, and then rinse and repeat ad nauseam.  Sure it's easy to get them into Platinum at that point, but then it gets boring.

I agree it gets boring if they do that. LOL  Sims have one-track minds.

I just had a thought and I don't remember if I thought to post it here or not and don't want to read all my ramblingness (like as if anyone else does!) to find out!

I've noticed that when a couple of sims are on dates they might come to sort of an impasse in their wants, like there'll be nothing you can fulfill to get the date moving again (say a knowledge sim that suddenly thinks he's got to go back home and study, study, study!).  If you click on the other sim and choose flirt>check out sim their wants will re-roll.  It also works for their date by clicking and asking if they like what they see.  Nine times out of 10 you'll get a fresh set of wants, which is really helpful to get the date back on the right track.

I read in the Prima Guide that you should have your sim Ask the other sim if they like what they see to reroll stale wants.  This seems to work for the other sim but not my sim.  I will try what you said about checking out the other sim.  I hate when they are on a date and spin a want to be best friends or talk or play with with some other sim!  I tell them that is rude and they should pay attention to their date!

Even if your wants don't reroll, if you continue to do things that raise the daily or lifetime relationship score, the date meter will go up.

How do you do that????

Hmm, I thought that might be the case, but it is harder once you reach 100 STR and you've done all the LTR building stuff you can do (such as flirts and kisses, which boost LTR only the first time you do them.)  That's why best friendships are harder to build than romances because you don't have as many options available.

Great info Misty!  Thanks.  Been there a few times and it's frustrating.


All the LTR building stuff will boost LTR if you do an action, then two other actions before trying the first action again.  I usually boost LTR by doing Admire/Backrub/Bust a Move over and over getting 5 points for each cycle.  The trick is to do two other actions before repeating the first.

Hook

I guess I just never "read" the icon <blush> - I'm very word-oriented.

LTRs continue to go up for the heavier "date-related" options even after the first time. I think it's less, but still some. Make-out still gives quite a lot, 7 pts maybe? (and woohoo for the adults of course) :) I try and have them do the more friend stuff early on - lots of play and talk stuff and then move up to the kisses as you get a real time/meter boost when they hit best friends (or any relationship change). I have trouble when they're up to 100/100 and love, or 100/74 (evil place ;) and I don't want them to woohoo but want more time on the clock. Makeout won't always do it then. Oh anything you haven't done before will give an extra boost and/or extra relationship score too - so go back and do "kiss up arm" or serenade or even blow kisses and caress hands at the table, if you haven't done those. (throwing food does too, but it kinda... grates on my nerves.)

Actually I believe your wants will roll spontaneously sometimes too, if you're doing the dating type things. And of course they reroll if you change lots also, so if you're really stuck you can just meander across the street :)

You have a female sim in the natural scientist career, when she reaches the top, she makes 10k for one day of work. When she gets pregnant the game pays her even though she isnt scheduled to work, so as long as she is pregnant on Wednesday, she will continue to rack up 10k a day for each day she does not work that she is pregnant. And since she is only scheduled one day a week to work, she still racks up three additional days vacation when the child is born.  So if you are planning on having a family of three children she can make a pretty tidy sum and a bunch of vacation if you time it right.

Thanks, Hook, I'll try that.  I guess I was looking for the double ++ over their heads that happens when they do an action for the first time that day.  Have you been able to achieve best friends doing this on a first meeting or even the next day?

I have... I've taken sims that have never met before through best friends, crush (maybe reverse order, crush is easier to get :) and love, ending with 100/100 score, in one date - I won't get them engaged usually, even if they both have the want, as I like to set that up romantically.

It does matter that they start with good attraction - I think that'd be really hard with only 1 bolt and probably impossible with none (tho if they're a little bit friends, dream dates aren't hard).

<scuffle> I always switch types of interactions at least twice before repeating one. I just didn't think about that mattering - I've done it since whenever it started to be important (was that sims1?) and just got into it as a routine and never changed.

Also, I'm sure the ones you've not done before add more - so I like to make sure I'm doing everything. Telling a dirty joke can add a lot all of the sudden. Oh and the sims kind of tell you when they need to do something you're not thinking of - pillow fight or backrub will keep showing up in wants - if you've done enough of those, you'll get a whole round of hug, kiss, makeout stuff.

I had one sim couple that had 2 or 3 bolt attraction for each other when they met(through the matchmaker, I think they might have had 2 bolts when they first met but it became 3 later on). And they fell in love after only a single date. It was a dream date of course :D. And he brought her the expensive stereo afterwards. I've never had that happen so quickly, used to always take me 3 or so days to get them in love.

Chemistry is fun. Both kinds of chemistry. Yes I am a nerd.

Chemistry helps not only in their romantic relationships but in their friendly relationships, too.  Say you have a sim with a pretty heavy gender preference.  Even though they have a gender preference already and you won't see the actual chemistry for the sim they're trying to befriend, the interactions still open up much more quickly.  Two sims working on friendship with good chemistry can and will respond good to friendly hugs and will do things like playing Red Hands at a much earlier stage of the relationship.

I had one sim making friends with another--in this case it was a female making friends with a male and they had negative chemistry.  Even when their friendship level was 65/40, he still wouldn't let her give him a friendly hug or let her gossip.  The only reason I pursued the friendship was because I was trying to go for her 30 best friends want and the neighborhood had a very limited population.  Otherwise I would've moved on.

I was really referring to making best friends with another sim without being romantically involved.  The sim already has someone I've paired them with, and I'm just trying to satisfy a want to be best friends with another sim or maybe I just want them to be best friends.  It's usually slower when you don't want to use the romantic options, so I was wondering how quickly you could get up to best friend status without the romance.

oh... sorry I don't know. I haven't used dates for just friends, and I've only done outtings a bit... they're ok for fun activities, but if I want a friend (not including some roleplay/story reason that requires certain actions) I usually just have 'em come over a bit and play with them, then call them on the phone every spare minute... guess I've never been in that big a hurry as that takes 3-4 days.

No, I don't use dates for friends either, but sometimes you get like 2-3 wants to be best friends with different sims, and unless you cheat (which we would never do, right? ;D) you can't lock but two wants at the same time.  Sometimes I just feel compelled to give my sims everything they want. :o

I don't think I've ever had 2 Sims first meet and become best friends the same day, at least without any romantic interactions or some help from the game as noted below.

Chemistry helps, because it unlocks interactions at lower levels. 

If I were in a real hurry to get to best friend status, I'd use the Cool Shades aspiration reward.  While a Backrub will only give 2 lifetime relationship points normally, with Cool Shades it will give 10.  Same with Bust a Move.  The hard part is getting the Sims to where they can do the Backrub or Bust A Move. 

Once gossip is unlocked around 30 daily points, and you know it will be accepted, do two other interactions so you can get full credit for the next gossip and then do gossip with cool shades.  This is worth 40 daily relationship points.

The relationship scores "normalize" 3 times a day, from what I've seen.  Around 9 AM, 4 PM (always) and 11 PM.  This will give you a few LTR points which might unlock Admire if you don't already have it.  The daily and lifetime scores will move toward each other.  This always happens at 4 PM (if your Sim is at "home"), but I've seen it the other two times recently.

I'm sure there's more, but I feel like I'm rambling already. 

"Reply hazy, ask again later."  :D

Hook

Thanks for the info, Hook.  I'll definitely look into the stuff you've mentioned.

While I'm not sure it can be exploited (only had it happen once so far) there is a chance for your Sim to get a promotion if a work friend is on an outing which has a favourable outcome.  They will, according to the dialogue, pull some strings to land you a better job, even if you don't have the skills for a promotion.

That's an interesting little ditty!  I'll have to give it a try sometime. :)

I decided to try out outings as a friendship only thing and had very little luck with it.

I started out having the patriarch (Henry) attempt an outing to get to know his son-in-law-to-be (Almeric). They hadn't previously met (the YAs met at college and her mother had visited but not her father.) So her mother invited him over and Henry set to work getting to be friends with him. A joke and a chat didn't get us very far (not far enough to set up an outing) and they had no chemistry, so Henry used manage groups to take Almeric out bowling. With no extra points from work or anything and no chemistry, they started the outing with something like 8/0 relationship scores.

Dates seem to be set-up to succeed - wants are rerolled when you hit DT and again when the date meter comes up (with an opportunity to lock any of those) and you get the panel that says what the date wants. The same isn't true of outings - it rolls once, but not twice and no extra help keeping them happy. Henry and Almeric had very little in the way of possible activities and none of it moved their scores very far and I couldn't even manage to get to extra time on the timer so it ended without being very much fun for either of them. Almeric went home.

There happened to be a female there that had good chemistry with Henry (dunno how much as he didn't flirt with her), so he asked her on an outing. They also started at 0/0 but with the extra options from the lightning bolts, they had more fun. Still, they got to be friends and the daily score was well up there, but best friends was a distant dream. The outing would have lasted a bit longer, but as this was Henry's second without a break, and the energy boost doesn't come until the timer goes off, he ran out of energy (it's possible to let the timer run out, get the boost, and ask them out again - but he was falling asleep on his feet, so I gave it up).

Still without the flirt interactions, I just couldn't find enough that would up LTR scores quickly. I wish outings would at least reroll wants to match (Henry's a family sim, his wants were nonsense in a bowling alley) and if it's one-on-one give you the option of seeing the other sims wants, like dates do. It probably works better with a pleasure sim, as they're set-up to like downtown, and roll those wants a lot.

I *did* find that none of the "play" interactions when dining out (throw food, steal food), nor the general ask ones ("what do you do" etc.) caused any sort of romantic thing (post-patch), so that's good :)

I too am curious as to how this works.  I'm not normally into the Uni careers and don't think I've even had an ecological guru.

ETA:  Never mind, I'm dense and didn't notice Nectere already answered the question.  Disregard!