More Awesome Than You!

I just have a quick and simple question. Has anyone ever had any real trouble with keeping sims in shape? Most of mine either work out for a few hours once they hit teen, or stay in the middle forever. It doesn't seem like a challenge.

Only people who actually like food, since food is the only thing to decrease fitness. I hate food, so I refuse to feed sims until it's impossible to get them to do anything else.

It can be a challenge with some sims, if you let them run wild.  I let mine cook and eat whatever they want.  One sims always makes lobster or pancakes.  I just let him stay fat, since he was in the culinary career track.  He ended up as a fat celebrity chef, which worked for me.

One reason a typical sim doesn't get fat is because their career track requires body points.  Even if you let them run pretty wild, you'll direct them to work out so they get a promotion.

I don't really see how you can sit there and do nothing, then complain that it was hard. Besides, food costs money, and food-eating is a filthy and barbaric practice anyway.

Yes, dear. Did someone forget his medication today? Oh, right. They crush your pills and feed them to you with a spoonful of JAM.

Eating is an especially barbaric practice with my sloppy sims, who fling food everywhere when they eat.  I described one of them once as a "syrup fountain" when he was eating pancakes.

You'd think they would need to mop constantly.  Now there would be a drawback to sloppy sims, having food puddles on the floor.  Or course, that brings up the old issue of why sloppy sims care.

Many of mine get fat (usually after one too many parties or too many cookie-snacks) but they tend to want to work out even if they don't have to and will either spawn the desire to use an exercise machine or just go over and use it autonomously, so they don't stay fat for long. The exception are my mommy-sims who usually get fat after about the third baby and don't have time to work out until the toddlers transition to children (this usually takes a while, since I play an extended life-span game--my moms usually have at least two or three toddlers and/or babies at any given time).

I've never had my sims be fat unless I made them fat to begin with. It's so retardedly easy to make sure they don't eat too much, plus pescado, and DJS's hacks make it impossible even for the slobbiest of sims to eat too much.

I think Crammyboy has a hack that stops sims from eating when they are full, not sure if it depends on personality though.

[edit] Yes he has, and it does (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,1301.0.html) ;)

Without hacks: if the sim reaches 10 body skills, he gets full fitness. After that, check all the time the sim's fitness, and when it goes down, give him to work out about a hour or two.

With hacks: DMA, and Simslice,  have an object with the option "make all fit".

Yoga is good too for sims who have filled all their body points. It doesn't make them too stinky or tired like using a workout machine would. Most of my sims do yoga to gain body points once they have filled 3. Unless I have a career reward that gives them body points ;)

I am just annoyed that the "Workout on exercise machine" want does not seem to be fulfilled by the new treadmill object.  :P

The concept of exercise machines in general baffles me. I am just utterly confused by strange people who get in their cars, drive to a gym, and then run on a treadmill. I mean, WHY? It only really makes any sense at all if you are a sim, and can only derive exercise from specific interactions. Otherwise, I simply cannot see why you would truly need an exercise machine. I mean, I have all manner of heavy bulky objects I can heft, lift, shove, push, and pull. I don't need a special exercise machine to push heavy objects around. I don't need a treadmill to run about. Hell, my sims always run anyway. Who needs a treadmill?

My Simmies always overeat...especially since I love stuffing them with cakes  ::)

So what do you do for exercise, Pes?  When do you have time to exercise, when you're always online??

Cakes don't seem to produce inherent fitness loss just for eating them, so it's perfectly acceptable to feed a sim only cakes. Just don't blame me when they guillotine you for it.

I'm not always online. You and Venusy are here even more than I am. But remember, I have more hours per day than you do, since I DON'T SLEEP, unlike fat, lazy, Rainbow-type people. And the constant twitching is actually quite a workout. Other tricks you can try include arm-wrestling with yourself. It's twice as much the workout as arm-wrestling with someone else.

You're always in chat, or at least you respond fairly quickly when someone yells at you.  :P

My Sims who get fat tend to be in the culinary track, or sometimes Science, because all those extra cooking points makes their food so rich.  Their kids tend to pile the weight on, too.  I've never had a Sim autonomously use an exercise machine though, unless it's a modified one, then the entire neighbourhood wants to use it.

I used to absolutely detest food, I can remember as a child wishing someone would invent a pill I could take every morning so I'd not have to eat.  I was particularly bad with meat and used to try to flush it down the toilet.  Even now I can't say that eating is at the top of my "Things I Like to Do" list, but I do enjoy Italian food.  I never realised that lack of interest in food was a Scorpio thing, but clearly it is.  As for sleeping, I put off going to bed until the very last minute, but then when I'm finally there it's almost impossible to get me out.  Luckily, I am one of those people who never put on weight, otherwise I would probably be fat as I never exercise (unless you count walking to the corner shop).

One thing I have seen mentioned here is the sim's activity level -- low activity sims seem to lose fitness faster, and they usually don't roll wants to get fit or to exercise. Besides, there's fat people in the world -- why shouldn't there be fat sims, too? :)

Because, Jsalemi, with low fitness, they get less day-lives (63-65), since they become elders, and with high fitness they can reach 78-80 day-lives. Observe General Grunt left days. I think he reaches 78 since he becomes elder.

Well, that's pretty 'real-to-life' too, isn't it? :) Less fit folks generally don't live as long.

 Besides, I play with TJ's life span adjuster hack, so that affects the elder stage so it isn't as long as originally programmed (it's affected more by asp level at the time of transition than anything else, I believe), so I don't think General Grant is going to make 78 (he's about to transition in my game, so we'll see) The way TS2 has it setup, the elder stage for the most part is too long, and pretty boring and stupid, unless the kids move back home to use grandpa or grandma as a free 'nanny'.  TJ's hack makes the adult stage longer (though not for pre-existing sims), which is more in line with RL where we don't become elders when we turn 55 or so. :)

I've only had one Sim in my game get fat, ever. That was only because I had forced all the family members to eat breakfast together in the morning, whether they were hungry or not. Of course, I had just begun playing the game and ended up making him become fit anyway. Now with all the Snapdragons I have laying around my Sims only have to eat once a day, if that. With the hack that prevents Sims from overeating, I can definitely say that it's not much of a problem.


Even my Sims who are in the culinary track or have unbelievably high cooking skills remain terribly skinny. That and, as far as I know, Scorpio is seemingly the only sign that will willingly deprive themselves of something others seem to enjoy. Of course, there are many other aspects to astrology than just sun signs. Anyway, I best not derail this thread with all the crap I know about astrology.

The only thing that affects how many days a sim has to live is their aspiration level at transition.  Nothing else matters.  I thought you'd been hanging around Pescado long enough to know that.  :)

Rainbow, observe Mortimer, and Olive Specter, compared to General Grunt: Olive dies at 63 years old, Mortimer - at 65; both of them with low fitness. But Grunt reaches 72-78 years, with full fitness. It has nothing to do with aspiration. All my created sims, with 10 body skills, live until 72-75 years.

Gali, that's nonsense. The reason some sims live longer, while others drop dead at 6X, is because CAS elders don't benefit from the aspirational boost at aging, and thus receive a random, unadjusted duration. A sim that ages platinum gets +10 days. Fitness has zero effect on a sim's maximum age.

Pay no attention to the dumb Gali-type person.

Olive and Mort are not valid benchmarks, because they're designed by Maxis to die shortly after you start playing them -- especially Olive, who's scripted for it in the scenario. It's a simple matter to change the 'days left' of a sim using editing tools like SimPE or insimenator.

The real benchmark would be to have two b-i-g twins, one fat and one fit, and see how long they live with all other things being equal (esp. their asp level at transition to elder).  Then do the same with another set of b-i-g twins, both fit, but one gold and one platinum at transition.

It would probably take a while to get results, but it would be a more valid test than relying on how Maxis has programmed the pre-mades.

Oh, please, people, are you being serious? You actually believe in horoscopes? Can you please explain to me how the movement of star constellations has any effect on our lives? Especially since the horoscope system nowadays is based on incorrect movement of stars, anyway.

For the record, I'm a "Scorpio", too, and I love eating.


This is not big enough a sample to prove the theory about fitness points affecting life span, though. There is always randomness in how many days of life elders get, but a large part of it is based on their aspiration level at the age of transitioning.

Indulgence costs money, and hardship builds character.

I hate sleep, too. This is why I snort pure caffeine and never sleep.

Well, sure, horoscopes are bunkus, but you're a strange and weird IgnorantBliss.

It's entirely based on aspiration-level at transition: 10-20 days random, +aspirational. Some freakish resets have been known to cause the duration to be recomputed, but this is how it's supposed to work according to code. Fitness has no effect.

Yeah, that's what I meant, that there is a random amount of days added on top of the aspirational bonus. So, you can't really say that it's entirely based on aspiration, right?

The random 10-20 is a base. The aspiration is the modifier.

Hmm, I was under the impression that there is the starting point of 10 days, then days get added or removed based on aspiration level. And then, on top of that, 1-10 days are added randomly. And that the random days added have nothing to do with aspiration.

I think you're both saying pretty much the same thing.

Yeah, I realized that, too   ::) I guess I was confused by his word choice when he said it's entirely based on aspiration.

It is. The only variable that is aspiration. No other sim-variables affect it, and all other factors are constants and invariant from sim to sim.

It seems by "variable" you mean a factor that we can have an effect on. Random doesn't count as a variable?

Not from the programmatical viewpoint, no. Those are all determined entirely by constants.

Hmm, ok. You win.

I tend to get the occasional fat sim because I like having my sims eat together whenever possible. It's a good group interaction to get social and relationships up for everyone in the family/house. It's also something I consider an important family thing. Families should eat together.

The one thing I wish that I could do wiht meals, though, is declare how many are getting served, rather than the default '6' servings. Sometimes the family has more than 6 people, sometimes they have guests, sometimes there's only 2 or 3 sims and the other servings are going to go to waste. I don't think I've seen a hack that addresses this.

Dizzy had a hack for this, but I've forgotten where. Prob'ly MTS2. It isn't officially upgraded for OFB, but results may vary whether it works or not.

I keep forgetting that I can put food in inventory now.  Sometimes I tell a not-very-hungry sim to eat just because a meal has been prepared that will go bad before he needs it.  Letting prepared food go to waste annoys me.  But the time inefficiency of each sim preparing one serving annoys me, too.

Yeah, I tend to use the inventory more now and have them Make Many and store several platters away.  I don't use Dizzy's hack because I've been told that since it hasn't been updated for OFB, you don't get the options to Make/Make Many.

If only real life fitness were so easy to achieve.

My stomach is the bane of my fitness efforts. I'd be a size 2 if it weren't for my tummy. An entire month of (admittedly casual) exercising and it's still as flabby as ever.

Lucky sims... A few hours on the treadmill and poof!, washboard abs... >:(

The game itself tells you that the aspiration is the defining aspect of life span:

So-and-so became a teenager while being a child protege (or something close to that). Then it says, and this is verbatim:

Life for [sim] couldn't get any better, or longer.

I tell them to make many, and stash them as well. Great for the kids and teenies when they come home from school. It's far quicker and they can get more done when they don't have to take half the day to cook lunch for themselves.

My sims eat pork chops, salmon, turkey, anything when their hunger bar goes down a tiny bit. I could be busy with another sim and catch a sim raiding the fridge. I guess very active sims need food alot but every minute? >:(

I've found that my sims do the same thing.

I put it down to them being bored  ;)

It has to do with the way sims see all motives as continuous, rather than discrete, which is a bad way to handle energy/hunger: While the motive bar itself is continuous, the actual way it should be HANDLED is a discrete, binary process: Hungry/not hungry, tired/not tired.

Yes, but, if one Sim day was equivalent to one year, imagine how many weeks they must have been exercising for. That and they're entirely committed throughout the entire interaction.

Try running everywhere. Check that "always run" box and give up on walking anywhere further than 5 feet. If it works for video game people, it can work for you. I mean, when have you ever seen a video game character WALKING? In any online game, if you WALK instead of run, people look at you funny, stare, point, and go, "Look at that guy. He's WALKING. What a newb!". You should probably learn something from thus. Only freaks walk. Who says video games don't teach you anything?

I must admit that, since OFB, hardly any of my Sims have eaten at all. As soon as I can get a Sim up to Gold in Flower Arranging then it's Snapdragon Bouquets all the way.

I have an end table with a Snapdragon on each side of every bed. I have a Snapdragon on the desk beside every computer. The workbenches are in cubicles that hold two bouquets and two benches each. There is a bouquet beside each Career Reward object and beside each telescope. The only thing my Sims have to do is raise their energy - and that's what coffee is for.

I don't think my last ten or twelve Sims have eaten anything between becoming children and going to Uni. I make sure they take some Snapdragons there, too. The actually come out out of writing term-papers refreshed if you place them right.

I've just started using Snapdragons, and I'm trying to figure out the best placement for them.  How close to the sim do they have to be?  Does it refresh all motives except energy equally?  Does having more boost the effect, or does more than one have no effect?  I tried putting a snapdragon by the computer my sim doing her term paper at, and she finished all in one sitting.  This was even when she was on College Rampage, and it didn't send her to eat, pee, or kick gnomes.  But I am interested in learning more about how to maximize their effectiveness.  :) 

Are there any threads that someone could point me to where this may have already been discussed?  I skipped a lot of threads when OFB first came out because I didn't have it installed and the stuff people were talking about didn't make much sense to me then.

Well, the way I see it is that the effects of the bouquet are intermittent. When the Sim is within the are of effect of two bouquets that are firing off alternately they are receiving twice as much boost per hour. I always place them as close as possible without them getting in the way. For bedside bouquets I always use an end-table, if you just plonk a bouquet on the floor beside the bed the Sims are unable to use the bed. Th workbench cubicles I use are 4x3. Two workbenches against the back wall, a double door in the centre of the front wall and a Snapdragon in each corner.

That would be that entire "eating is barbaric" thing, yes.

Snapdragons have an approximate operating radius of about 3 or 4 tiles.

The 3 effects stack. 2 or 3 in radius of a sim will more or less mean the only thing he has to do is macrocaffeinate and pee from macrocaffeination.

Snapdragons periodically emit a puff per snapdragon that raises the motives of everyone around. Enough of them will prevent motives from dropping to the point where action has to be taken to raise them.

Nawp, this more or less summarizes it.

Cool.  *runs off to make more snapdragons*  ;D

Careful of the yellow snow...ah, I mean smoke :D

Some snapdragons don't work as they should and emit a yellow puff instead of a pinkish/purple one. Be careful, that one actually lowers the motives. Akin to the evil toys, I guess.

Snapdragons should only be made by platinum sims. Non-platinum sims make defective ones.

That's good to know.  I haven't tried having any non-platinum sims make them.  Most of mine are permaplat anyway.

Does that rule apply to robots as well?

And while I'm at it, is there any use at all for the other craftable flowers? Other than training, of course.

I would think so.
I don't think so.  I haven't heard anyone mention any benefits other than selling them.

I was aware of the evil toys, but you mean there are snapdragons that constantly lowers all motives?!

Then I might create a flower shop after all... ;)  *devises new ways to torture sims*

That they do, like the pink/purplish cloud in reverse.

Whatcha gonna do Theo? Make an evil shop with evil toys and evil flowers? Run by whom? A special "Little Shop of Horrors" eh?

/me is glad none of her simmies live in the vicinity

Don't forget poo bags.

OK, I was hesitating over whether to buy OFB or not, but that just made the decision for me. I'm buying it tomorrow.

It's kind of hard to sell evilflowers since they kill anyone who comes near when you put them in store-like quantities.

Unless they're either trained or bred to attack only under certain conditions.

I think it's more that you have to be sure you leave a large amount of space between the individual plants.  If you have too many too close together, your customers might die before they can decide whether or not they want to buy one, or simply leave due to low motives.  Then again, that might heighten the appeal for some people.

Evil snapdragons are much more powerful, in the bad way, than good ones are, and OFB seems to enjoy sending customers in crappy motive states already, so they will drop fast if exposed even to just one.

Why not just surround the one evil flower with a few nice ones?