More Awesome Than You!

I am playing a new lot, and there is a door in the kitchen. The kitchen is three-tiles wide, with a counter on the outer two tiles, the middle tile is where the door to the patio  is. Every door I've put in there (all maxis doors) have remained stuck open. Is it because I didn't allow enough room on either side of the door? This lot is a couple of townhouse I built, and both doors in both kitchens do it. I got sloppy and put in one door opening into the house, and in the other townhouse, the door opens out to the patio. Both got stuck and I had to delete them and buy new doors. Three times. I finally just stuck an archway in there, so this house is open to the outside, now.

I just put new doors in, had my sims go outside and they're stuck open again. Here are pics of the layout (ignore the sparking trash compactor in the red kitchen):
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/Brynne14/redkitchen.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/Brynne14/greenkitchen.jpg)

Am I not allowing enough room? And like I said, the first time I had one door facing in and it got stuck as well.

First - the kitchen is built bad - not enough space to move; I would suffocate in this kitchen...:).
Instead of the terrace at right - extend the kitche to the end, to get some space.

Second - you always have to put double doors - not single doors. This, to prevent jam (one sim wants to get out, other sim wants to get in). Even then, you will find open doors, if any object is too close to the door, or you didn't replace them a long time.

Third - you bought CHEAP doors, and the simulator doesn't "like" it. You have to buy the pre-last double door.

"Give these people air" (Swartzeniger, in "total recall")...:).

Try moving the fridge. The fridge opening into the door may be causing problems.

Normally I make spacious rooms, but I was going for more of a galley kitchen look. Come to think of it, I didn't even design that kitchen. I had a small house (don't remember if it's maxis original or not) that had a layout similar to a townhome, so I just made a mirror image of it to make it into two townhomes. I used the cheap doors for that pic which was taken when I was trying to recreate the door thing, but the original doors were on the higher end. Still, I had a hunch it was due to the size. I wouldn't be able to handle something that small. Yes, size does matter.

Thanks, Gali!

edit to add:
Thanks, JM. I thought the fridge may have been in the way; I'd been meaning to move it. Actually, scratch that. It's Demo Day!

Windkeeper has single sliding doors on TSR.  You could try those.

Thanks, ZZ! I've been looking for something like that!

They're really nice doors, and work on diagonals as well, and since they're only one-tile, I use them for bathrooms and then put another straight door into a different room.

I'm in trouble. I just looked at Windkeepers stuff and have downloaded almost every door and window she had! She has some really nice things. My downloads folder is getting so big!

Oh Lord - time to prune?  I need to do that, there are some things that were very early creations and don't work well, so they'll have to go.  I'm also on the look out now for things that interfere with gameplay - you know, when you can't click on something because the downloaded object gets in the way!

I really cleaned out my downloads folder when I switched to this laptop; I lost about half of them! Then I meticulously went through one by one in simpe, looking at poly counts, conflicts, etc. Everything was so neat and tidy! But bald women kept walking by my houses since I lost most of the custom hair...

Seems I'm back to my old ways again. I'm a sucker for good build objects.

May I suggest some nice rugs? Mod the Sims 2 has some nice ones, mesh by echo/windkeeper included, the last time I looked. They also have links there to people who make nice themed rugs. They tend to get in the way really nicely.

ZZ, Val, that's one time I'm grateful I don't join pay-sites. Reading about the TSR stuff could be tempting otherwise. :D

Veilchen, thereare some downloads which actually get in the way of your counters or your coffeemaker etc. and sometimes they are from really good object creators, too.  Some chairs won't allow you to click on dirty plates on the table, or tell your sim to eat.  Sometimes it's hard to part with them, but I'm going to have to slim my folders down a bit!

Brynne, this has happened to me when I had a ceiling light over a tile next to the door. That will make the door stick in the open position.

Windkeeper is very difficult to resist. She does very nice work. :) I need to prune my downloads folder again.

ZZ, I hate it when I download a new mesh and it takes up invisible space in the game. What causes that? Is it that the object was cloned from something larger so the game 'thinks' that the object is bigger than what is visible?

That happens to me with some of my objects. One is a box of tissues I got from MTS2. I'll be damned if I can click on anything else in that bathroom. How can something so small demand such a large clickable area? A lot of my downloaded custom lights do that, too. Takes a lot of maneuvering to get around them. I'm with you, reggikko. I want to know, too.

I think I did have a ceiling light there, now that you mention it. I use Inge's ceiling light hider, so I guess I forgot about it. Moot point, now, anyway, since I rebuilt both kitchens. Oh, well...I know for next time.

I think the objects must be cloned from something larger.  I know with short bookcases sims will still get books from the (non-existent) top! Sometimes if you let the creator know of the problem, they will take the trouble to fix it, but if there are a lot of objects like that in your game, it takes so long to keep going back and posting about the problem!

My suggestion is not to use crappy, badly-done objects.

I agree, but how do you know until you put the object in your game?  I'm not talking objects from fly-by-night or well known for crappy objects web-sites, but some objects by highly respected creators which just happen to have a fault they didn't realise.  Normally those people are only too pleased to be told and will correct the problem, it's just finding the time to let them know.....

I can't see the picture but I can tell that I to get a stuck open door. Stuck open as in Sims can walk in and out though but it wont close. And it is both outside doors and doors inside (for bedrooms and baths). It started when I first got the game and Uni didn't fix it. I have to put the move_objects on cheat to delete the door and put a new one in (open front doors annoy me). And its not downloads. This was happeneing when I didn't have any downloads at all.

Oh and tiny and crammy kitchen is heaven for poor Sims. More room for the rest of the rooms :D All of my starter houses and even some of my medium houses have very small kitchens, usually no bigger than 3x1 walking space and counters on all sides except the entrance, (can't place a dining table in there even) and my Sims either eat by the counters on bar stools or I place a small dining table in the livingroom, just outside the kitchen. Although most of my medium houses have 2x3 walking space. But only the larger homes and mansions have room for a dining table in the kitchen.

Kestran.

I tend to just have a cooking area in a large family room.  Bigger houses have kitchens, but I usually only put a small breakfast bar in there since sims won't use it anyway except for sitting at to drink coffee or eat a snack!  If there's a posh dining table, that's where they'll serve the food, even if you put it at the bottom of the garden!

Yeah I know. I wish there was a hack that let the Sims only eat at the fancy dining table at dinner or when they have guests over. I mean if there are other eating areas awailable. Of course if there werent the fancy dining table would of course have to be used all the time :)

Just annoys me if you have only four chairs at the fancy table because there's only two sims and a kid in the household.  Two visitors after work, and the sim who prepares the meal ends up isolated in the kitchen, or out on the garden furniture!

And why can't the meals have an 8-meal option?  if you have a full-sized family, it means two of them have to get their own dinner!  And you can't make your family up to 8 with a cat and a dog like you could in Unleashed!

Have you tried TwoJeffs new hack, Serve Everyone, or dizzy2's new Smart Serve hack?  I have tried them both, and they work well together and with JM's mods.  Dizzy has done a lot of updates to his lately, and it is working really well now, even lets kids cook, too. :)

If it lets them cook for the number of sims there, I'll try it!  But I use Carrigon's pizza oven when I want kids to cook - no risk of fires and serves more than six.

Children can't autonomously cook, but you can have them fix cereal or make a sandwich for themselves or the whole family.  Dizzy2's hack adjusts for the number of sims awake and present on the lot and how hungry they are, while TwoJeffs' hack makes "Serve meal" stretch the number of servings to however many are on the lot at the time.  Dizzy2's hack will also adjust downward so if you have less than 4 sims, serve will only produce two or three meals instead of six so that the extra meals aren't wasted but cost less than if they were prepared individually.

Dizzy's hack is here http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimforum/showthread.php?t=2002 and here http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=70736.  (There's a pic at the last one.)

TwoJeffs' hack is here http://www.variousimmers.net/vsimforum/showthread.php?t=670.

Thanks for the links!  I'll certainly try them out.

I have TJ's hack and it "serves" its purpose well.

 ::)

 ;D

 8)

Hehe. Its amazing how quickly a thread can derail  ;D

But about Dissy's hacks...I like that one better than Jeff's, shocking I know :D --what did it for me is that the served meal will only be for those already on lot; as in no more leftovers if you only have 2 or 3 Sims living on lot and no visitors.

So, does anyone know if this hack conflicts with any of Pescado or Jeff's hacks? I know it would conflict with Jeff's Serve Everyone Hack but what about the rest of his food hacks?

The only hacks in my game are by those 2, except I do have a longer burning fire (in the fireplaces) installed that was by someone else (I don't remember who made it though).

I have nearly all of Jeff's and Pescado's hacks and Dizzy's hack doesn't seem to conflict with anything. The rest of Jeff's food hacks seem unaffected.

Kestran, TJ's 'server everyone' mod does not conflict with dizzy2's 'smart serve', at least not in my game. They work nicely with one another. I also have most of JM's mods and many of TJ's, and I have had no problems with them.

Same here.  I didn't use Dizzy's hack at first, but he's really made some improvements with it, and I am quite happy.  Also check out his Homework in bedroom hack.  They put it in their bedroom on a desk if it's available or on the floor.  No more doing homework on the lawn!

Well, I tried the two food hacks mentioned, and now my sims can't eat snacks!  Also, if another sim appears, wakes up or gets hungry while a sim is cooking, then the cook ends up without any food!  I think I'll probably go back to how it was!

I've only used Dizzy's.
It counts # of hungry Sims,  including sleeping Sims if they are at least 50% energy, or so it said in the explanation and I haven't seen anything to the contrary.
Dizzy's doesn't touch snacks, Sims can snack while another prepares the meal. Haven't tried TJ's.

Well, since installing them both, my sims will cook but not for themselves, and they can't get snacks - only kids can get snacks.    I'm afraid I shall have to remove them - or at least one of them to see if the other one works ok on it's own.  I think what I really want is something like the C&C fridges we had for Sims1!

Back to the original message, I rebuilt my kitchens and they are nice and roomy, now. Stupid door still got stuck open. I haven't installed the windkeeper doors, yet, but I'm just mystified as to why my doors will not stay closed. I have moved the fridge, light fixtures, everything all away from the entrance. The kitchen has the same layout as the pics above, but add two tiles to each side, and move the fridge to the opposite side of the door. >:( Dammit.

Kestran, are you talking about Carrigon's fireplace mod?

Someone reported to dizzy that snacks didn't work in the last version, and he says he will look at it.

That's good! 

Brynne, I don't know what else to suggest! 

Sorry, I didn't see pictures (Firefox) and switching over to that blasted IE, I can tell they're there, but still can't see them.

I've noticed that some doors don't close until the Sim using them has arrived at his/her destination and frequently -for me anyway, if that is changed before they stop walking, the door will be stuck until next time.

I've also noticed that doors placed while using moveobjects on will often stay open for all eternity -or until you delete and replace them.

That's all I can offer.

Perhaps that's the problem, then?  the doors are like the sofa no-one can sit on!

At least the sofas and chairs that are stuck in use can be fixed by resetting them in debug mode.  Doors can't be interacted with so the only way to get rid of them is with moveobjects.  But that still doesn't solve the issue of getting stuck like that all the time anyway.  I wish we could figure out why these objects keep getting stuck in use.  Maybe that would solve the problem with the doors too.  Think they'll fix this in Nightlife?  Speaking of Nightlife, I went to buy groceries today at Walmart, and one of the first things I saw when I walked in was a big poster announcing the arrival of The Sims 2 Nightlife on September 15.  It was in the doorway as you come in where they announce all the new arrivals.  Why haven't I seen advertisements on TV though?

Maybe you don't have TV on at the right time?

As to fixing these bugged objects?  They never fixed them right through Sims1 and all the EPs, so why should they bother with Sims2?

Yeah, you're right, wishful thinking.  Although I do remember the couch bug from Hot Date where sims would get stuck cuddling and would require move_objects to break them up.  I think they did release a patch that fixed that.

Yes, but I don't think they ever released a patch to cure the ruined staircases because a cat or dog had thought about going upstairs, then changed their minds!  They may, I'm not sure, have fixed it with SS or MM, but that wouldn't have helped people who didn't have them, and it certainly wasn't fixed with the Unleashed patch!  I was forever having to use Move_objects on just to sell the stairs!

I wasn't really impressed with SS and I never really played MM.  That was about the time I lost interest in the sims (and other more important real life issues came up.  Imagine that!)  I remember that I played wtih move_objects on all the time in Sims1 and it didn't cause any problems like it does in Sims2.  I was always selling the roaches and deleting dirty dishes and water puddles to help my sims out because they led such busy lives.  You could make money off the roaches!  The good ol' days...  :P

The flies were worth money too!  The main trouble I find with having move_objects on all the time is if you want to place any door or window, curtain etc., adn especially anything diagonal, it becomes almost impossible to get the round the way you want them!  And you end up with curtains on the outside of houses!!!!

how shall i describe this particular door..Remember Specter's house? the room near the front gate, with a single bed, has 2 doors right? a single door and a large door for decoration only. useless door. it looks nice but one of the family ghosts went through it and now it stays stuck open forever. at least one side stays shut while the other stays opened. never could get another ghost to walk through it again to see if it'll fix it haha. which reminds me, why haven't i tried getting anyone alive to walk there?

Can you control ghosts with Merola's mirror?

If you just want to grab reward objects, shouldn't be a problem, but if you want them to interact with sims, there are no options available, the sims aren't selectable on both ends. Not sure if you can direct them to 'float' to a specific spot though, haven't played my latest version long enough to have ghosts.

No, if you take control of them, they have a urn icon in their queue that you can't cancel that says Death by/flies, no matter how they died.  After a few minutes, an Age transition icon comes up at the end of their queue, but it never does anything.  So you can't direct them because they never drop their current action.  You can however spend their aspiration awards while you have them selected.  I haven't figured out anything else useful to do with this other than finding where the ghost is so I can send my knowledge sims there, hehe.  I have twojeffs' and Carrigon's ghost mods, and the other night, Mortimer's youngest grandson was practicing at the piano late at night.  He got scared three times in a row by Mortimer because he went into the piano and jumped out at him.  Every time I put him back to playing and he got scared, and I think the reason it wasn't more was because it turned daylight.  Luckily he had a want to see a ghost and rerolled the same want each time, so he racked up some points!

You can move ghosts with Move_objects on, so perhaps if you moved the ghost into the room with the problem door, the ghost would use it.  Might have to try a few times, though.  Personally, I can't understand why ghosts use doors at all!  Normal tales of ghosts have them simply passing through walls!

I once picked up a ghost with moveObjects on, the ghost became opaque and wouldn't go back to see-through, got frightened and never tried it again. Plus, it was disconcerting to see a now normal-looking sim floating around the lot  :P.

Well, you could always delete them then next time you load the game, they'd just be normal ghosts again.

Good to know!  :)

Mind you, they may turn up at the mailbox! ;D

If you use boolprop testing cheats, there is an option to make your sim walk like a ghost.  I tried it once for fun and couldn't figure out how to turn it off, so I exited without saving.  And I don't know why ghosts would use doors either, because I have seen them float through walls many times.

I think they use them just so they can bang them shut and wake everyone up!  Like they turn on tvs and stereos just for the fun of it!  Never have one in a bedroom if you have a ghost on a lot!!!!!

I don't put them in bedrooms anyway because the sims are always trying to go to bed leaving them on, then they can't sleep.  When they get up, instead of turning off the TV/radio, they look for someone else's bed to sleep in or go play on the computer.

Now we have JM's ghost buster sign, so maybe that will help.  He suggests putting them in the bedrooms.

Well, the only ghosts in my game now are Michael Bachelor and the Goth Ghosts, and presumably Skip Broke, but I've never seen him.  In one of my custom neighbourhoods, though, Melissa Fancy died on a lot and she was a truly evil ghost!  She broke the stereo and tv almost every night!

Skip Broke doesn't have a tombstone, in spite of his having all his data intact.  I resurrected him, deleted his duplicate, and redirected all of Brandi and Dustin's memories to the "correct" Skip Broke.  And I changed his aspiration from Romance to Family!

What is strange is that Keanu, who was little more than the twinkle in Skip's eye at the time he presumable drowned, has quite a high relationship with him in my game!  Presumably brandi was so broke whe couldn't afford even the cheapest urn!

She could have if she sold that expensive pinball machine.  I always sell it first because it costs like $1700.

Oh, I get rid of that too.  This time, though, I played it differently - I simply Motherloded and moved the whole family to a new house.  Dustin's went up into platinum by the time I'd got all the basics that I waited for him to ask for, and the same for Brandi!  I never even bothered to use SimPE to make Angela unknown to him, somehow moving to a new house got the little wretch fooled and she didn't come home with him after school, and he was always too busy to  talk to her on the phone, looking after Beau and Keanu and learning to cook and clean and paint.  And since they had some cash left over, he was able to give up that awful job and concentrate on getting good grades so he could win loads of scholarships - only got the basic two plus creativity, but he was able to afford to go to college and move in together with his new girlfriend who is now his wife and the mother of this son.

Other times when I've played, I've either moved Brandi out with Beau and her belly, or after she's dropped the sprog and is so miserable she just runs away and leaves Dustin to pick up the pieces - Neither of his brothers were ever in any danger of being taken by the social worker!  (John Burb lost Lucy once (twice actually, as I didn't save and tried again, but the same thing happened) after Jennifer moved out and went back to the Pleasant house!)

I never lost any kids to the social worker.  It's pretty hard in the Sims 2 to lose a child that way, unlike in Sims 1.  I mean, you get about 50 warnings to feed the poor kid before they actually come.  I tried a couple of times on purpose, and it took forever for the social worker to come.  Poor kid, I felt so sorry for it.  I had to fight the other sims off with a stick to keep them from feeding the child!  And it was just heartbreaking how the poor mother cried when they took her children away.  Then I quit without saving.  So I've never actually let that happen. 

Well, it didn't happen to Lucy Burb, but this is what happened.  Jennifer was invited over by Daniel, who was alone in the big house after throwing Mary Sue out.  He asked his sister to move in, which she did, but she didn't bring Lucy with her.  Unfortunately, she did this whiole John was out earning a crust selling burgers, so when he got home from work, Lucy runs to greet him, but the social worker just appeared and took her.  (No warnings but the one that evening)!  Well, I exited, and the same thing happened again, so I exited again and went back to the Pleasant house and got Jennifer to invite John over and get him to move in with Lucy.

In the end they were such pains at bringing her up (no hacks back then) that I moved them out and let Daniel get on with the job of bringing her up.  He actually took the time to listen when she wanted homework help, he took the time to help her build body skills, he took the time to TALK to her!  Amazing, since he had been so hopeless with Lilith!

But leave a kid alone after dark, and the social worker comes!

I see now, I understand what happened with the social worker.  Daniel and Lilitlh are so hard to work with because of how Maxis set them up.  Lilith hates her whole family, so you have to really work at getting her and her parents to like each other enough so they will help with her homework.  I believe Mary-Sue and Angela have a good enough relationship for her to help her.  And it helps if they are both in good moods.  That's what the game is all about, relationship scores and personality points and mood scores.  You just have to know how to work them. ;)

If you move_objects a ghost, it will opaqueify (harmless), but if you save/reload the lot, it will go transparent again. It will also go transparent again if you simply ignore it and play on, and it remanifests later.

Didn't I say something like that?

Lilith and Angela never stay in the same house long enough in my game as Daniel always manages to get caught in bed with Kaylynn!  Either Mary-Sue throws him out, or he throws her out, and the one that's leaving takes a twin with her.  In one version, Kaylynn got fed up with Daniel after he'd moved her in, because he couldn't, of course, marry her, so she left and took Angela with her as by that time they were best friends.

Val,

I have noticed that even though the doors require a 1-tile space for clearance on each side, in Sim reality they actually require a 2-tile space clearance for the Sims to navigate properly (sensibly to them).  It's the same with the armoires and dressers.  If you notice in game the Sim steps back a tile to 'fling' open the door/drawer of the dresser.  The clearance area cannot share space with any action or object.  If you have an appliance, especially a stove, that shares this necessary, although unofficial extra, 1-tile space, this just won't work for those little Sim brains.

Also, Inge mentioned that a light fixture on the ceiling within the clearance area in front of the door will prevent this, even with the sliding doors.

I never put a door on small kitchen, instead I cut out a section of wall.  If I want a back door, I put it somewhere else than the kitchen, often at the back of the hall, where you tend to get a little space behind the stairs.

I did this too and it was very creepy, but they did go back to being ghostly sooner or later and before morning.  I have used this technique to impregnate someone with a ghost using the TofL&D, very amusing, but useful if you want to continue a particular bloodline.  Like I did with Mortimer and Bella, before I knew about SimPE and resurrected her.  It was Mortimer that was impregnated by Bella - he deserved it anyway.

It's a good thing the pets didn't go upstairs, but I think I would rather have that then having them turn around just to go on the stairs and having those ruined instead.  If we ever do get pets in Sims2, will the maid clean up their puddles, too?

Well, it usually takes the maid long enough to mop up the bathroom after a flood, not to mention standing at the top of the stairs moaning because a family member has just started down!  I dread to think how long she/he would take if they had animal puddles to clean up too!

And in Sims 1, if you got mice upstairs, you'd want the cat to hunt them!

haha, i could get one of the 17 ( i lost a few tombstones, sadly, when my game crashed while saving) ghosts on the Specter house with moveobjects and bring it there. just feels creepy seeing an opaque ghost floating around the house. :)

Just kill a few Townies!

tried killing the gardener and the maid once. just thought that it would be nice to have the Specter house as a cursed sort of house. penned the maid and the gardener in, but i got soft cause they were crying so miserably..seeing them crying softly into their hands is worse than seeing someone wailing their heads off. strange twist of fate, Olive died that day, and i just couldn't stand them crying, i let them out..thinking that the curse has been broken when Olive died.

but i was so damn happy when Vicki Horowitz died of fright at the same house :D

I killed Melissa Fancey by walling her up, and she was a horrible ghost, kept blowing up the TV and the Stereo!  But it was her own fault - she should have been nicer to my sim's family when she came home with him from work!  some sims have no concept of good manners!!!!!

I have one ghost that makes me feel guilty I killed her. She's a drowning ghost, and mops up her own puddles. She also brings out the trash, makes the beds, etc...Of course I have pictures!
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/Brynne14/garbageghost.jpg)(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/Brynne14/recyclingghost2.jpg)
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/Brynne14/puddleghost2.jpg)(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/Brynne14/bedmakingghost2.jpg)


Come to think of it, she saves my sims money. They fired the maid.

I also have an evil ghost who does nothing but break lamps. I wonder if I put them on the same lot if the neat one would clean up after the destructive one? 

Probably, but she'd probably hate her and be miserable.  She must have had 9 or 10 for neatness, I've a couple of sims like that who get fun points from cleaning up!

It's a pity, though, you can't package her and sell her - you'd make a small fortune!

She was maxed on neatness and niceness. I wish I could get her ghost cloned. Every lot should have one!

Must be a way of doing it!

I guess I could clone the character several times and kill them all. When I'm in a serial killer kinda mood.

Oh, Brynne, resurrect her! If I would see that in my game, I'd probably would cry, and revive her with any cheat available...:).
Besides, she will become a member of your family, and do the same chores.

You brought me a heart-acke...:).

i never knew a ghost would clean the house! my ghosts are just bend on creating hell for the families

Well, I definitely think you should package her!  There must be a way, then you could share her with everyone!  Perhaps if you moved the family out and just left her, her tombstone and the house, you could package her with the lot?  Probably not a good idea, though.  Pity!

A Sim with high neatness and niceness will clean when it's their time to 'haunt'.

I tried it during the Prosperity Challenge, made 2 max neat, max nice Placeholder Sims.
I look forward to their hauntings as they spend the entire night cleaning. It was such a bonus the one time they scared the pee out of someone and then cleaned the puddle while the live Sim was showering.

They've been so useful that I've wondered if they would repair items if they had any mechanical skills.

Well, in my very first installation of Sims1, when I was still playing the Newbies, they called the repair man to mend the shower.  He also replaced a light bulb (as they did back then) and was electrocuted because he did it while he was still damp from the shower.  After that, he came back to work as a ghost, and every time the repairman was called in that installation, it was the ghost who came - straight through the wall!

I had that same thing happen in sims 1 with the maid. She was killed, but still came to clean every day as a ghost.
Gali, I didn't mean to upset you :P. I kind of like the idea of a cleaning ghost, so I don't think I'll revive her unless I want to create a clone of her. To kill, of course. Hey, if you want a neat-freak ghost, you gotta kill a neat-freak sim, right?
I've actually gotten attached to her as a ghost. She's much more interesting. Super-neat, super-nice sims are pretty dull. Always admiring, apologizing, and cleaning windows. Blah.
What's really amusing is that the male sims all say "malinka" when they see her ghost. She was a romance sim.

Agree, the Email challenge really opened my eyes to how useful sloppiness is in Sims! They shovel their food in so fast (love the chipmunk cheeks) and peeing in the shower? Why that's the greatest form of multi-tasking I've ever seen from a Sim.

I find it weird that they recognize Romance and Popularity Sims (ghosts)  It seems they should be less scared of them as they seem to know when they're there. Seems there's potential for improved haunting.

I've seen sims swoon, growl, or wolf whistle at Romance sim ghosts (weirdest thing to see!), but how do they recognize Popularity ghosts?

The same way as when they're alive.

I did the Legacy Challenge and my founder married the mailman who was Popularity.
By Generation 6 he was a pretty frequent visitor and even though nobody there knew him alive, they all get his face in their thought bubble and will actually stop what they're doing to turn, 'look' and smile at him as he drifts by.
 
I never create Popularity Sims, (they're so boring) so he's the only ghost I have but it happens every time he haunts and I could swear they talk about him later.

I never knew there was anything special about Popularity sims.  I'll have to pay attention.  But I agree, they do seem rather boring, always wanting parties and to be best friends with everyone, so I haven't made any lately.  I am bored with most of the aspirations in the game though.  Mine are mostly Knowledge and Family.  I wonder what the new Pleasure Seeker aspiration will be like.  I wish we could mix aspirations.

Mine are almost all Knowledge and Romance (Romance make the best spouses and parents in my game) You can marry them to a Family Sim, ignore their whore wants and keep them faithful if you prefer, they're easy to please. I don't mind Finance terribly, but I'm actually quite bored with them all too.

I've always thought Aspirations should evolve with experience, though even adding new Wants would be great. They're all so predictable now that you can play them all by formula.

I tend to agree about Romance and Knowledge being the most interesting, and when you partner them, the romance sim had better watch out - knowledge sims I find are incredibly jealous!

Not only that, knowledge sims seem to be incredibly randy. My Romance Sim usually want one romantic interaction (after work) per day, and can be coaxed to want one or two more. My knowledge Sim(s) can spin loops, backrub, talk, flirt, makeout, woohoo, do so, then immediately re-spin the same... seems a great pairing to me ;)