More Awesome Than You!

You know how with the advent of NL we got the option to call the entire household to dinner by clicking on the serving plate and choosing "Call to Meal" right?  Well, today I found out that even though it does call the Headmaster to dinner, you DON'T get any Food Points for doing it that way.

Imagine my panic after the Headmaster sat down to eat the turkey (which took two tries because Stella burned the first one), finished eating, got up, and still had zero Food Points.

There was still a plate on the table when he got up though, so I clicked on him and did the Entertain - Call to Dinner thing.  But he went and started eating what was left in Stella's plate rather than going for the full plate.  Doing that managed to get him ONE whole food point...

Luckily, Stella proved to be the world's best schmoozer. (http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/chipmc/closecall.jpg)  And saved the day in the nick of time.  Just check out the score and time left for yourself.

Moral of the story, call the Headmaster to dinner the old fashioned way rather than the new lazy way.

Lol, do you still invite the old goats? I forgot already what is "invite Headmaster", since I have the SimPe and the InSimenator...:). The minute the toddler becomes a kid, I spawn the Educational mode, choose "private school", and give the kid C+.

I couldn't stand this scenario - I always paniced, saved the game zillion times, and shouted to all my family that I have a Headmaster, so be quiet and don't bother me...:). Oh yes, and I replaced all the furniture in the house before his visit. Terrible scenario...:).

So that's why I didn't get any food points even though my sim had made Lobster Thermidor...

Thanks, I'll have to remember that for the next try.

This is good to know for the next headmaster visit. :)
I always move the pictures and book cases around to the next room to show him saves money that way.

Indeed, I'll have to start doing it that way.  Those Headmasters seem to think that just because I schmooze with them a little that they can call me at all hours of the night to chat.  Does doing it with the InSimenator still satisfy their want to get into Private School and give them the memory?

No, it doesn't appear in their memory, but what the heck - better to do it, instead of being hysterical each time the HM had to be invited...:).
The C+ stays at the first day at school, and on the next day the kid receives the B+.

I sometimes use Merola's Multi painting to get them into private school and use the debug tool so that I can click on the "want" to go to private school, thus preserving it in the memories and getting the aspiration points as well. :)

Good then Im not the only one to have that call to dinner scenario. I panic when it is time to give a room tour.  One time the old goat didnt even give me a chance to show the room he picked up the guitar and started jamming and there was nothing I could do.

I hate it when he does that; the dart game is another thing he gets stuck on. And when he gets out of the car and immediately starts reading the paper so you can't greet him - how rude!

I must be weird.  I actually enjoy the headmaster scenario, now that I know what tricks to use, and it's not really much of a trick.  Although I have had a lot of glitches and I breathe a little easier when he is safely gone and the kids are in private school.  I always save right before calling him at 4:30 or so.  Then if anything goes wrong, I just quit and try again.

LOL.....I just had the funniest visual in my head of that scenario Gali....your family must have looked at you like you were nuts the first time you did that!  :D

Headmaster scenerio makes me too nervous, so I don't put my kids through private school anymore.

First time I called the Headmaster I'd only had the game a few days and hadn't looked at a Prima guide or any user advice online.  Went smooth as silk.  I thought it was charming, even though the old fogey Headmaster calling my teenage girl Sim frequently was a little ooooooky.   ;)

The next times I did it, though, were a pain in the patoot.  I'd spend all of this time getting ready and then he'd just disappear.  (Didn't know the "don't save while the headmaster is there" tip.)  So, I stopped.  Did it again recently and we got rejected.  :-\   The house was clean and big, but I think the furnishings were too old or something.

I was so crushed that we were rejected that I think I believe in the value of a public school education.  Hasn't stopped any of my Siims from getting into the very prestigious Acadmie Le Tour!   :P

Thanks for the warning..I've been tempted to using the call all to dinner but decided against it at the last moment when the headmaster was there..good thing I did.

The first time I did that I was soooo mad. I had it timed perfectly. 430 start turkey dinner....show old goat all the crappola downstairs watch him hoot over the bubble machine..heck I took him outside to see the dj booth...hoot hoot... and I freaked and hit that -0pts. Didnt occur to me until I did it at least one more time.

I was laughing at that too.  Poor Gali, so sweet and protective of her simmies.  I think Gali's avatar is just so perfect.  She's just a sweet, adorable, precious little kitten.  Even JM can't be mean.  He calls her "Silly Gali" instead of stupid, fat or lazy like everyone else.

C

It was worse than that: my brother and wife came from abroad (Poland) to visit us, and I made the stupid mistake (as usual, lol), and let them talking with the family, while I set in front of the computer, and began to play the game.

Suddenly my brother wanted to ask me about something, and I was just in the middle of the HM scenario - showing him the rooms...:). Wow! - I shouted: "leave me now, I have a Head Master!". Poor brother looked at me as if I am going out of my mind...:).

Well, after I passed the scenario, I explained to him why I was so rude. He sang to me during all their 4-days visit - "they coming to take me away, ho ho, ha ha"...:). I really deserved it...:).

I never really bother with the private school thing!  I don't think they learn skills any faster because they go, and it doesn't stop Alexander Goth being a little tyke!

I suppose I could buy them all the uniform though......

I only bother with it if My Sim Rolls a high aspiration points want to get their kid into private school.and since my sims arent all that good at schmoozing my sims rack up points with the tour and food.I have gotten my sims into private school with 0 schmooze points. Lobster thermidor seems to score exceptionally well with the headmasters.

I've done it, but oh, the upset if they fail!  Darren failed once with Dirk, and they were both in the red for ages!

LOL! Seriously, am laughing out loud - and I just read your posts out to my partner, who is only too familiar with the terrors of the Headmaster Scenario. We went on holiday in June, when I had only had TS2 for 6 weeks, so I was at the height of my addiction and absolutely <b>had</b> to take the laptop away with us. I was still unfamiliar enough with the game that I didn't realise that the only way to stop sims doing something stupid while the Headmaster is there is to turn off Free Will. So, I spent about 1.5 hours doing the Scenario (couldn't put the game in fast-forward because bad things kept happening), and the kids didn't get accepted (I think they had 87/90 points!). So I wanted to play it again. Poor Richard was standing there saying "um, dear, it's 8.30pm and the pubs stop serving food at 9..." :D

LOL, glad to know I am not alone...:). Oh, these sims will "take us away - ha ha, ho ho"!...:).

Actually... this is a 'feature' put in with NL. The headmaster gets no or minimal points for food until after you get the 'Headmaster is hungry and would like to eat' popup. If you Entertain > Call to Dinner after that point he gets full points for the food. I think the message only crops up fairly late, maybe 8-9pm.

I recently started playing a no-restart-after-disaster neighbourhood, as I was getting bored with my overly cautious previous one. It took me three attempts to get my family accepted by the headmaster post-NL. And with a Wealth father and six kids, that's a lot of wailing and falling about.  :-\

No..no no!!! I finally master the headmaster shenanagins and they pull the rug out from under me! :P

Umm, actually, I've been through a lot of Headmaster scenarios since NL and they've all gotten their food points like they used too.  Nothing has changed about it as far as I can tell.  Except that calling to meal doesn't work.

your'e right calling the headmaster to dinner doesnt work if you want food points in NL. and since my sims are lousy at schmoozin I need the food points a lobster thermidor dinner followed by a fancy dessert has gotten my sims 60  food points .

You could also try improving their Charisma, which should improve their schmoozing!  Also, have you tried freestyling?  Worked wonders when I used it.

Serious! I never taught of the "freestyle" option, I thought it would made the headmaster run away because it would think that family is completely crazy lol.

I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it, but it's a while ago now!  He also likes Myshuno (unfortunately for him, I don't!)

I will have to try that which headmaster was it?

I think it was the little fat one, but I can't remember his name.  As I said, I don't often bother so I'm not very well up in headmasters!  It might have been the BJ one.

Did any of the headmaster actually join the fun and started to freestyle too?  that would be a must see  :P

I always end up with Vince Waters or Korey Jimitaskul sp?

Well, before I had the InSimenator and SimPe, I found a way to overcome the HM obstacle.

With the Merola's Mind Control Mirror, I checked his moods: they always come with 50% moods - always.

Now I used the Multi-Painting, and maxed all his moods, except hunger, because I did want him to eat with the family.

When he finished the dinner - sometimes he approved my kid immediately to the private school, and sometimes - after showing him only one room.

I always got 120/100 points...:). Off with his head!...:).

I think he did - but it was a while ago.  I'm trying to picture the house in my mind to help me recall events, I know there was a Myshuno game going on and he joined in that, but I do remember the kid got in.  I think the father was a romance sim and was good at schmoozing too, and after that he kept getting phone calls!

I know it was before I had any hacks in my game!  I think that at least shows it can be done!

I dont use hacks for the headmaster But Imake sure he sees every room including the bathroom and the backyard meanwhile someone else is cooking up a fine feast in the kitchen

Without the hacks - I would going nuts for sure...:).

Iuse hacks for other things just not the headmaster.I enjoy the headmaster challenge when I have a sim insistent that their kids go to private school

And he always seems to like the bathroom the most for some odd reason...   :-\

yep he stood there and clapped his hands and  cheered when he saw the bathroom and tour points shot up in a hurry :P

Same here he loves the bathroom for some odd reasons. I had kids going to private school with a dinner of spaghetti.  I made sure the house was nice and clean before I call it though.

I can imagine him walking in and saying "Hmm, a toilet, shower, and a sink...  Hey!  You even have a mirror and a light in here!  And OH MY GOD is that a window?!?  This is the best room EVER!!!"

Why does everyone consider the Headmaster scenario hard? As long as you avoid saving after calling, it's like napalming fish in a barrel. What's so terrible about it? It's easy. Then again, you're the same losers who can't manage to beat the E-Mail Challenge. Several have even expressed disbelief that I have beaten it.

I've never seen what is supposed to be so horrible about it either. The only problem I had was when the damn headmster went AWOL. Other then that everytime I've called him my sims got in. Mind I haven't done it very often. I don't see the point most of the time. I've started doing it more often now because I'm getting sick of teens having their wants panel clogged with it for their whole teenhood.

I fully believe you have beaten it because of all the vaunted dispassionate management of Sims. The narrative impulse was partly what did me in.

I have my doubts.  However, like he said, why would he lie?  :-\

the headmaster scenario is fun for me! it's always the sim with the most cooking skills who's cooking, and the most charisma points taking the headmaster on tour. don't even need to deliberately smooze him. if there is time, go into the hot tub and ask him to join, extra 10 points! you'll master it after many times as i did..

Why does he like the bathroom best?  ALL sims like the bathroom best!  (Even the grotty ones.)

So, make a nice big bathroom stick a hot-tub in it for good measure, and you've cracked it!  (Oh, and put the piano in there and have the musical teenager in your family play to him!)

 ;D  I guess IM a big weenie then. I still manage to fail it sometimes. My headmaster is a butt head. Esp. the younger one. The food is usually not a problem....schmoozing is usually where I get the negatives. I saw that challenge.... basically you have to let your sims pee their pants. Interesting. No privacy.   

I never have problems with the scenario. Well I did have him dissappear a long time ago with just the base game, but haven't had that for ages.

If you're having problem schmoozing with him, check which sims have school, work and money as fairly high interests and have them schmooze with him. That seems to work well for me. Kids tend to have school as an interest so if they aren't dead tired you could have them talk to him.

Yeah...Dad tends schmooze really poorly..the kids are way better.

I've run that headmaster scenario at least 50-75 times just testing things.  Save the game about 4 PM, then call the headmaster and run the scenario.  Exit without saving.  Reload the game, call the headmaster.  Repeat as necessary.

At the time, I was trying to figure out why a headmaster would turn your family down the moment he arrived.  Weeds in the yard?  The headmaster will pull them.  Broken stuff, dirty stuff, homework laying around, nothing mattered.  In the end I concluded the only way a headmaster will turn you down immediately upon arrival is if you call him the day before.

I did learn a lot about headmasters. 

It seems that the headmaster's personality stats are randomized with each visit.  The same headmaster who is a slob one visit might be a total neatnik the next.  Slob headmasters don't care at all about dirty stuff.  Neat headmasters prefer clean.  Slob headmasters give a bonus for meals:  they eat faster so their hunger goes up more, giving you more meal points.  This is pre-Nightlife, and I haven't tested what all this chatting during meals does to your meal score.  It's possible that a neatnik headmaster will turn you down during the scenario with a message about how the environment isn't suitable for kids.  My best guess is having broken stuff around, or even the dirty dishes from the meal he just finished.

Serious headmasters will play chess.  Make sure you have someone playing with him to get a lot of schmooze points.  More playful ones will prefer the TV.  Make sure he's not watching alone.  When my Sims do the headmaster scenario, the only fun objects on the lot tend to be the chess board and TV, so there's not a lot of choice. :)

I usually check the headmaster's stats *after* the scnenario has ended by making him selectable with Meroloa's Mind Control Mirror.  Making him selectable earlier tends to end the headmaster scenario, at least with the Mirror.

My highest score was 164 with 52 for the meal, 52 for the tour and 60 schmooze.  Max schmooze is 60, max tour is 54 (39 points then show the bathroom for another 15 points).  Not sure what max is for the meal.

If the headmaster scenario is such a nightmare, run a few practice sessions like I did.  Play to play, not for score.  Knowing you're not intending to save the game takes away the pressure.

Hook

Thanks, Hook, I'm sure that will be helpful for a lot of people.  :)  When I have run the headmaster scenario since NL, I didn't notice a dramatic increase in the meal score (I tend to always serve pork chops), but I did notice it in the schmooze score when they're chatting at dinner.  I always hate schmoozing (must be a rub-off from real life  ;)), so that was nice to see.

also dont call the headmaster til 5pm any earlier than that and forget private school even post nightlife earlier than 5pm results in an instant turn down no matter how fancy the house is

You have to call him a little earlier, considering he arrives at 5 pm.

or you could just not SAVE after calling him and before the end of the Scenario, as this seems to cause the problem.

I call him at 5pm on the dot and he arrives instantly

I have to agree with Pescado.. I don't get why people have so much trouble with the headmaster visit! It's easy. The only time I've failed is due to the no food points glitch (and I can usually pull through even then), oh and once before I realized they'll get stuck in the hottub if you have one (I hadn't saved in a while so I didn't want to reload, stupid me. But I was new to the game, ok?). As a test, I had Brandi Broke call the headmaster for Beau the day after he turned into a kid... I think she was on her second day of pregnancy, but I don't precisely remember the timing when you start that household for the first time. Anyway, I had her shmooze with him on the lawn a tiny bit, go serve mac & cheese, then sent her off to bed because she was about to pass out. Beau took care of the rest and got right in. I didn't change anything in their house. I didn't even buy Beau a bed, he slept with his mom (that sounds so wrong). I didn't bother to clean, I think there was homework on the lawn, the works. Now surely, if it can be done under those circumstances, it's insanely easy.

Same here, never really had any problem making a Sim go to private school, I was so nervous the 1st time since I read a few add a lot of problem with that but it went like a charm, he played with the dartboard a lot, shmooze him a lot and make the tour and he ate spaghetti for dinner.  Maybe some are trying to get the perfect score I don't know.  For me as long as they pass I am happy   :D

Me too, never tried the headmaster thing for a while because I read about people having trouble with it.  But I decided to try it after reading some tips, and it was surprisingly easy.  I love the challenge, except for the AWOL headmaster bugs as someone mentioned, but that was solved wtih JM's lot debugger and not saving the game after inviting the headmaster until he was done.  I usually go for the food and tour points and have more points than I need.  I don't usually do the schmooze thing because I ended up loosing points, but I might try it next time after reading some suggestions here.  I did discover my sims could just chat with him to get schmooze points without having to specifically click on "schmooze."  All my sim children go to private school.  It helps with their careers when they go for the Young Entrepreneur scholarship, they only have to go a day or so and they are usually promoted to the top and become an Overachiever.  I've been saving this right before I send them to college so they have plenty of time to work on their skills and have all the scholarships I can manage.

Although some people say there is no real advantage having a Sim go to private school I always make the teens I intend to have job join it since they start at level 2 job instead of 1.

Also, their moods decrease a lot slower so they are in a better mood to go to work.  And last but not least they receive skill points instead of money.

Yup yup yup. :)

Rainbow an off topic question for you... Did the girl say yes in your picture?  For some reason I always wonder....

Of course!  It was the stuff dreams are made of...thanks for asking! :)  (I love Sim romances...)

that's great. She looks so pretty. I bet she had really pretty children right?

To be honest, I haven't played her lately.  She was part of an experiment I did with 7 toddlers and 1 adult.  I cheated, LOL.  I liked her the best.  I need to play her again and see what kind of kids they have.  Her name is Jasimine, and her fiance is Robert.  They are both Knowledge.  Here are some pics:
(http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/rainbow2k/snapshot_4ff6daa2_2ff97864.jpg)
(http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/rainbow2k/snapshot_4ff6daa2_2ff97866.jpg)
(http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/rainbow2k/snapshot_4ff6daa2_8ff9787d.jpg)
(http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/rainbow2k/snapshot_4ff6daa2_9003042f.jpg)
(http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d152/rainbow2k/snapshot_4ff6daa2_f00303df.jpg)

Awwwww!
 ;D

Yep same here.

Awwwwwwwwwww really cute and romantic  ;D

Thanks. :)  It was a pain keeping the dormies out of the way though.  All they want to do is get in the hot tub, and when they are making out or woohooing, they want to stamp their feet and complain that they can't get in!  So I got some of my other sims to keep them occupied playing chess and stuff.

Rainbow, those are lovely pictures! i wanna take proposal and wedding pictures too..but the cut scenes ruin everything (but I ain't complaining much)

I don't get cutscenes.  I believe you can turn those off though.

yes i can. but i still can't decide between taking pictures and watching cutscenes..:p

Thank you so much for figuring that out, Trepie! I had all but given up on getting my Sim kids into private school post-NL. So simple, yet so ingenious. I posted a thread about this a couple of weeks ago and got no real help because I was using "call to meal."