More Awesome Than You!

I've been curious about a strategy for getting the rewards from a date that I want. I know that the game keeps track of your score above and beyond the top of the date meter bar. From observation, it seems that dates with super high scores get contacts and free dinner coupons as a reward. Like, if the meter hits the top, but my dates are still wanting woohoos in the car, I give it to them. I've had a couple of college students fufilll this want three or four times in a row (normal for students, eh?) and after five or six dates that ended this way, I always got a contact and a coupon. Sucky rewards, since dinner for two is cheap and I don't need anymore friends in my hood, they all know each other mostly.
I also noticed that if I go for a couple of makeouts after the meter is full (with the wants scoring) that seems to bee the ticket to get an item left on my doorstep. So I have the theroy that for a couple of thousand date points above the very top of the bar to an undetermined amount of points is the zone in which you get an item. Above that point is a contact, gift certificate, and chance of a skillpoint.
Does the guide have any info on this? Anyone noticed anything similar, or anyone want to tell me how way off I am and it is just a coincidence?
Is there any info in the guide on how skillpoints are won? Seems like once I earned a cleaning point off of two sloppy sims, is it always a cleaning point?

It's supposed to be random, but you know random in TS2.

I've never quite been able to figure it all out.  Some of my sims get wonderful gifts, sometimes end up with dinner coupons and a couple the other night gained cleaning skills!

I had one Romance sim who dated something like 5 different sims and in the end wound up getting 5 expensive gifts.  He never woohooed with but only one of them, the one who was finally his demise.

I dunno it's weird. I usually never get items. My latest game my simmie got a dance sphere from her fiance. Only thing different about that date is that they got engaged and then she took him to a photobooth to "celebrate" (which of course, got her knocked up. EVERYTIME I use one of those my sims get knocked up) Oh well, the price you pay for risky whoohoo. =)

I had a romance sim a loooong time ago that got a karaoke machine from her date, and again it was a date that had a whoohoo in a photobooth that got her pregnant. (I really need to stop doing that)

I do have the guide, when I get home I can try to look it up. It SAYS that the prizes are random, but the only thing my sims seem to get are coupons and the such. ONE time I got a skill point (cooking I believe) and ONE time I got a contact. I think I've gotten a total of three items off a date.

Just a quick question: If two sims are married and are going on a date, do they still buy each other gifts? I know they still deliver flowers...

Married sims still pop outside and drop off flowers.  I can vouch for that, but so far I've not seen them give each other gifts.  Perhaps others have.

There is something wrong when the married (or co-habiting) sims give flowers-mine keep on dropping the flowers umpeen times before they actually do drop them >:( Bloody annoying.

I think married sims should give each other gifts.  It would seem more realistic if the husband dropped off a diswasher or a microwave for his wife, for example.  ::)

The guide does not answer your questions, but that's not to say you aren't on to something.  The words 'may receive' or 'there's a chance' exclude any conclusiveness!

I don't "date" that much with my Sims so I haven't experienced what you describe.

I think the gifts are always of an entertainment or electronic type department. Stuff that your sim may or may not already have. Microwaves and dishwashers aren't fun and every sim should have one anyways. =)

One of my dates special gifts back when I played NL originally was... a napkin holder.

I was like  ???  >:(  ???

Then Daniel Pleasant gave my Sim a DJ Booth.   :D

My sims have received the Dance Sphere, DJ Booth, and the Karaoke machine. You must not have been very fun if you just got a napkin holder! Either that or your date was a klepto.  ;)

Some of this is almost verbatim from the guide:

According to the guide you have a random chance to gain a skill point EVERYTIME the date goes up a level (not counting times when you LOSE a level and then gain it back) during an outing with a group of sims you get one chance PER MEMBER OF THE GROUP when you gain a level. So, outtings are better chances for gaining skill points than dates. I don't know the percentage of the chance, but I've been dating like a mad woman since the EP came out and I have gained skill points ONCE. The guide also says you can gain more than one skill point on a date, and they are all added on at the end. You can gain skill points from people in the same household as you.

If you are dating someone who is in the same career path as you AND they are above career level 3 there is a chance your sim could get a promotion the next time they go to work. This does not apply to sims living in the same household.

Surprise gifts are randomly chosen from the list of of gifts from each score level. The higher the score, the more valuable the object. A dream date can deliever a piano or an expensive stereo while a good date will bring a garden gnome or a remote control car.

Yeah I know.  I was being facetious because that's the kind of stuff my dad liked to buy my mom for her birthday or their anniversary, until someone explained to him that women don't like to get work-related items for gifts.  :D

Yeah I've had this too.  I've found that they usually quit though if you give them something to do like send them to the bathroom.

I'm inherently suspicious of gifts, myself. Mostly because gifts have this annoying habit of being filled with angry Greek warriors that sneak out of it in the middle of the night.

"These corn-chips are no place for a mighty warrior!"