More Awesome Than You!

Here is a visual reference from the Prima Guide for foods that are available in Downtown restaurants.  You can score extra date points or outing points when you order the other sims' favorite foods for them.  When they first sit down and pick up the menu, they will have a thought bubble over their head showing a picture of a food item.  By identifying the food with the use of the pictures below, you can order that food for them and score extra points.  It only works if you order it for them, not if they order it themselves or you select Chef's Choice.  This item is handy for automatically ordering everyone their favorite foods, but does not score any points.  A sim's favorite food is always the same.  I would like to know, however, where this information is stored and if we can change it in SimPE?

(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2650/nlfoodsresize8fx.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

This isn't quite Peasantry material, given that it doesn't contain anything.

Thanks for the tip rainbow :)

It really bugs me that some games don't come with decent manuals anymore.  It's not like they couldn't fit a pdf on the discs somewhere.

What do you mean, it doesn't contain anything?

Thanks, I'm glad someone appreciated it.  I don't know why they don't include this information with the game either instead of making you buy a separate guide.  It may not always be accurate because they make last minute changes, but I have found quite a bit of useful information.

I've never even looked at the Prima Guide, but I already knew about this anyway, so it's not like it's exclusively in the guide.

All in all, however, this feature is negligible. Dining is such an immense time-sucker that you won't be able to accomplish this anyway until your date is already on a roll, and by then it's too late for this to help. The impact is really pretty negligible.

As for what a sim's "favorite food" will be, that's hard to tell. I suspect this has a greater impact on townies than your own sims, given that most likely your own sims have a very limited menu. Can a sim like to eat something that he's never had before?

Yes. Unfortunately.

I'd like to be able to change this, too... I have one teen who, every day without fail, rolls 'Eat Chili Con Carne' when she gets home from school. Her favourite food is apparently pancakes, which she never eats or even wants to eat at home.

It's a minor annoyance, but I'd love to change it to Chili Con Carne... it'd make more sense.

What I think is kind of a retarded bug... but something I nonetheless will shamelessly take advantage of, is the fact that satisfying the "Dine With" want merely requires you to sit down with them. You don't even have to eat the actual meal. :P Which is great if you're really need to boost the date meter, but kind of retarded since you didn't actually eat the meal together. :P

And what's unfortunate, is when your date rolls up wants that are almost impossible when they are not under your control, such as the wants for them to initiate some social interaction with your playable sim. You're lucky if it's something that they might actually autonomously select to do, but once all those slots are set in that manner, you're kind of screwed. ::) I suppose you could try taking them to another lot, hoping their wants will re-roll, but then sometimes you run into that bug where they will suddenly decide the date is over.  :(

Anyways, it would be neat to have a hack force it so that the want to eat a type of food rolls up based on their favorite food. I think, as Pescado has mentioned, if there is no way to read wants in the game, you probably can't set the favorite food based on the wants they roll up. :P

I'm still trying to figure out how to read a sims Turn Ons and Turn Offs. There are fields for them in Person Data, but when I tried to figure out a pattern for how the values are set for these, it just didn't make any sense to me. It's not even as if say "Cologne" has the Same setting all the time. For different sims, the value might be different, and the slot might be different. I think I even noticed that for the Same sim, the value might be different (if you set it to something else, and then set it back).  ??? It would be great if someone could figure that out, as I can't seem to wrap my head around it.

Ste

Actually dining out works very well as long as you've done something to set the meter up a few minutes before you start. It just doesn't work as the first thing you do. If you both have the want to dine out, you can toast, order the right thing, take a bite from their plate, feed them a bite from yours, caress their hand, blow them a kiss - all of which ups the score. And if you're sitting in a booth, rather than at a table, there's a couple of extra interactions on the 2nd screen that come up before you order - I think cuddle and some others.

I think some of the wants roll over even if they're done from want seems like the wrong direction too - flirt, I think.

The booths have 'lovers talk' and a kind of kiss. I've only used them on residental lots, though.

I nearly always have my Sims dine out on dates.   ???  I find it very useful --- and pretty much always have dream dates.

Once you are dining out, you can use the "chair" interactions to flirt and kiss and entertain, so you aren't just spending your time eating.   I'm usually near dream status by the time they get up.

Controlling and fulfilling your date's wants isn't hard.  You can get them to re-roll with "do you like what you see".   (You can't do that while you are sitting at the table...need to do it before or after.)

What!?~  I think this is the real tip here...  "Do You Like What You See" rerolls a date's wants?  Awesome.

Oh geeze, I haven't played the game in over a week.   I'm sure that's right, but I sure as heck better double check before I start a firestorm.

I thought "everybody" knew that.

Better check!

 :o


_______

EDIT - booted up the game to double check my memory.  (Sometimes my brain plays tricks!)

Yep, if you ask a date "Do you like what you see?"  the date's wants re-roll.  Same as the controllable Sims wants will re-roll after scoping the room.   

Yup, that rerolls the date wants :)

I use it often when dates get stuck in the same roll of interactions over and over or a date suddenly rolls up a "get a job" want in the middle of a date.

As far as the whole food thing...I rarely have my sims dine out on dates for reasons already mentioned...takes too long.  I've noticed though that the majority of my sims have an obsession with the lobster and rarely anything else.

When I have chosen everyone's favourite foods, I have never seen the date/outing meter rise enough to make it worthwhile! So I just don't bother anymore.

And the crepes picture looks nothing like the one the sim thinks of while looking at the menu!

Yes, the guide also mentions that having your sim "Check out" the other sim will cause your sim's wants to re-roll, while asking the other sim if they like what they see will cause theirs to re-roll.  It always works for me, although occasionally, the new ones aren't much different. :(

I also don't have my sim "dine out" until they've done a few other interactions to boost the date meter so they have more time to enjoy it, usually when it's near Dream status.  Usually one of the first wants is to "talk" no matter how well they already know each other, so I'll have them gossip cuz it's quick.  Then do a "tickle" to satisfy "play."  Usually from there it starts towards the more romantic wants like flirting, back rubbing, and kissing, but if they don't know each other well enough, it talks longer to get to these and really boost the meter. 

I had one date that it seemed like I couldn't get any wants that I could satisfy, and I'd been avoiding the bowling want, but when I finally let them bowl (which they only have to do for one second for it to satisfy it), it made all the wants roll over to some better ones.  So it seems like sometimes there is one want that will trigger another string of wants once you fulfill it, but it's hard to know which one it is sometimes.

This just goes to show how much I don't play the actual game, especially recently, and how much I don't know about it, and how much I love to talk out my arse :P

Anyways, thanks for the tips, I'll keep this in mind whenever I actually get around to playing the game.  :D

Ste

I thought that was what was going on, but not having read the Prima Guide either, I wasn't sure.

Why pay good money on the guilde?  That's what I have y'all for. ;)

I get gift certificates for Amazon.com, so I use them.  I like having the charts and information all in one place for handy reference.

ooooo how do you get gift certificates? hehe...does someone give them to you, or is it something on the net you have to do?

It's part of my Amazon Visa card rewards, for every $2500 I spend, I get a $25 gift certificate.  I use it for everything, so it accumulates rather quickly, although not as quickly now that my mom isn't paying for her medicines with it now (she has Medicare now). Medicines are expensive.  :P  But that is another rant for another time.

I've been trying with the foods they think of, but oftentimes I miss them and the timer ticks away as you wait for them to come back up, and anyway, Sim, what's the point of ordering the same mac and cheese you've been making at home since you were a teenager?

I do get amused when they want to order just cake for dinner though.

I know what you mean, Swiftgold.  That's one reason I love the pause button.  And maybe it doesn't really matter that much, but I'm just picky about some things in my game. :D  It seems to me if they aren't very hungry, they won't pick up a menu and think of a food.  And if they are really hungry, I'll order them something more filling in spite of what they like, because I know it's not going to do them much good.

Heh, yeah. I used to have some custom food but I took it out for some reason after NL... so I'm pretty sick of their options and like to give them the new stuff in restauraunts, even if they don't 'want' it.

I've had dream dates without really filling more than one or two of the date's wants anyway. Most actions, especially kissing, etc. will give you points anyway- it all depends on how "intense" the interaction is