The field neighborhood decorations? I've been wishing one of those was water (or several of them, riverbed continuations, lakes, sea) for awhile now :) <hoping you'll make some  ;D>

What're you confused about? <not good at short and sweet, but gives it a shot>

If you want a live-in-maid, there's two "hacks" set-up for that (that I'm aware of).

Christiuanlov's all-in-ine NPC:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=62777

This one is also a nanny and may do some other stuff.

Danny's DMA worker's set:
http://valdea.com/

This one has several NPCs in one group (maids, babysitter, janitor) and you call the one you want.

For both, you actually download a created sim and their hacked code makes them behave as intended (live-in, be maids). At times various people have problems with them or don't like the way they work. They're hacks, that's to be expected. <shrug> Read the instructions, try one of them if you like. If it doesn't work for you, take it out again. Maybe try the other.

The third way to get a live-in maid is to create one yourself in CAS. Give him/her a bunch of neat and nice points so she'll clean automatically. Put her in the house where you want a live-in maid (personally I'd direct her to sleep in the bed once, so she knows it's hers) and then use the in-game cheat "Tombstone of L&D" to make her unselectable so all her behavior is autonomous.

So you've got 3 choices. For recommendations, I like the DMA NPCs (Danny and Pescado got some sort of rivalry going here? They seem to be sniping at each other) and haven't tried the other two options but, as always, Your Mileage May Vary. Do what works for you.

Can you get slope roofs to give different angles for different pieces? Or are you stuck with the same angle for the whole roof?

Wonderful!

Your test is certainly conclusive enough for me, especially as it's as expected at that point (I did understand the faces were all there in simPE :) and although I think it's a shame (more fun the other way) am very glad for a pretty much definitive answer. I'll probably still waste my time growing them up well (and reading to them) but at least I'll know I'm doing it because I'm just that way :)

I'm glad you'll get some more use from them (that sounds like a fun challenge) and hope they distracted a bit from the couch and accompanying production ;)

From: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ico1.htm

The inverted form I could care less was coined in the US and is found only there. ...

The intent is obviously sarcastic—the speaker is really saying, "As if there was something in the world that I care less about". ...

There's a close link between the stress pattern of I could care less and the kind that appears in certain sarcastic or self-deprecatory phrases that are associated with the Yiddish heritage and (especially) New York Jewish speech. Perhaps the best known is I should be so lucky!, in which the real sense is often "I have no hope of being so lucky", a closely similar stress pattern with the same sarcastic inversion of meaning. ...

And because it is hard to be sarcastic in writing, it loses its force when put on paper and just ends up looking stupid. In such cases, the older form, while still rather colloquial, at least will communicate your meaning—at least to those who really could care less.

I actually like the sarcastic version. Of course, it's a colloquialism we use a lot in Kentucky and I hear the inflection when I read the words. The rest of the (short) article is interesting as well.

<has nothing on-topic to say>

Edit: dumb typo

My husband got me Mediterranean Home Plans and Japanese Modern - fun hm? :) Husbands can be cool when they want to. I only build for me, so I don't really have anything productive to add. I like the plans and don't bother to worry about scale - just try to make it look right compared to the other rooms and if it's rectangular not end up with a square or something :) And make it the size the sims need it to be. I love split levels - I think they're easy to play as both levels show up well from a 3/4s view and most of the connecting walls are hallways and the like where I don't mind a plain wallpaper (especially with the California/Med. type homes - plain stucco colors work great :) So, just really saying Merry Christmas :)

um, I meant the less awesome thing as a joke... I have no sense of humor, sorry.

I'm using the hack and liking it - all of them. I don't want to take some out, I just wish there was a seperate menu option as it does spam my phone list :)

I haven't had any conflict problems and use both Danny's and Pescado's stuff (namely the thing that lets me turn the blamed ringer off - couldn't live without that). And I'm pleased they aren't global hacks (anymore? I think maybe they used to be). Tho I could do without the long list of choices under "service" when I just want a regular one - I kinda wish there was a seperate menu. Yeah, it's bloated. Seems to me like a lot of people combine a whole bunch of stuff into one thing and you end up with lots of extras just to get one small change you really want. Even a few things of yours like that ;) It's easier to keep up with less when you hafta update everything, I guess - makes sense to me. And less awesome :) but definately handy for some things.

Oh, I'm sorry about your ankle. I hope it heals quickly. I'm looking forward to seeing the tests though Should be interesting.

Interesting. That doesn't strike me as the way, if I were able to code such things, that I would choose to do it. Generating information before it's needed both increases the load on the machine (unnecessarily in the midst of the tons of other things that have to be done at birth and/or toddlerhood) and locks you in. So that later when you want, for example, to add a plastic surgery machine the machine has to (unnecessarily) regenerate all information from that point forward, unless you want your sim to revert to a big-nosed freak on their next birthday.

Do the changes from the plastic surgery machine pass on genetically?

It doesn't btw totally eliminate the possibility of later modifications (as shown by the machine) for bad growing up or whatever else, but does mean it'd be such a PITA to do it's rather unlikely. Still seems rather redundant to me, but then again this IS the sims we're talking about. It's not really known for what my geek friend calls sexy code (i.e., well-put-together, streamlined, does the job with the least trouble) anyway, is it?

Actually it doesn't make any sense at all that the faces are created beforehand. If the "6 others" that she "can pass on" were created at her birth, she would only be able to have a child with one face... well 2, one for each gender and I guess her mate would have 2 so if you had more than 2 boys (for example) they'd *have* to be clones... but they don't - the genetics can combine in a variety of ways. My current couple has 4 boys and they're all different - from toddler up (all the babies look the same to me). So - what I'm poorly saying is that all 12 faces wouldn't reasonably be created at birth. Maybe all her personal "looks" would be generated at birth but surely those of her children wouldn't be?

This is the sims we're discussing - where toddlers can't be mistreated unless you count never being allowed out of the house and having nannies pee on them ;)


I kinda think of growing up badly as the closest the sims gets to neglect... not having your needs met, that kind of thing. Not quite starving, but maybe not well-fed, no attention. In that case, a thin, pinched-looking face would make sense. (and the game wouldn't know if it was attractive or not - my skinny, funny-faced kid is actually my favorite. No clones for testing tho. I'm using JMs random rolls - thanks JM! I hate clones :)

So too bad if it doesn't have any affect. More variables is almost always better. I still think it'd be worth a full-fledged test, but I'm too lazy to do it ;) It doesn't matter much though as role-play is a wonderful thing.

but isn't near as much fun.

Creating an evil twin skippy? <giggle>


They do roll more wants for things that you actually fulfill, yes? So if they roll wants to prank and you fill those, they'd be more likely to roll more and thus a tad bit grouchier seeming?


Yep. Or vandalism... spray-painting walls, throwing rocks at passing cars, stealing candy from babies, kicking sand in people's faces... definately need more.

Danny's DMA worker's set has maids:

http://valdea.com/

Also I think the all-in-one nanny will perform as a maid as well.

sim clones would have the same genetics. they're actually the same sim born at different times.

it's possible they weren't clones, just had a strong family resemblance and exactly the same stats <shrug> it wouldn't be that hard to check if someone has a clean neighborhood. have a sim, make a backup, grow sim up well 3 times, restore the backup, grow the same sim up badly 3 times. if he/she looks the same no matter, it doesn't have an affect.

Ok, I buy entirely that it doesn't change their personality or interests a whit, but will it make their faces thinner/sunken? That, imo, is a rather more interesting question, and the primary discussion in that blog which iirc (and I probably don't) makes only one parenthetical statement regarding the points you're raising.

hey, I found it :) here:

http://home.cogeco.ca/~williamsjl3/index.html

scroll down to the Dec. 11th entry.

I hope other people who would like still do some experiments - I don't think that's definitive, just interesting and persuasive.

It would be a whole lot easier to give you a link if I could remember where I read the blamed thing I know I must have got there from one of the stories I've been reading lately so either from here, from SimPosieum (I dunno if Trubble reads this, but just in case, you write *the best* sims stories - I'm loving reading them and appreciate the link to SimPosieum from RL for that top of the list) or from the Yahoo Classic Legacy group - one of the links to one of the blogs there. Unfortunately I also hit "next blog" in there a few times here and there, so it could be from inside somewhere... and my history has all this stuff about the leper king (got off on a kick) mixed into it, so I can't just history back and find it)

I can see the article...two females in one family, victims of the stuck random roll thing so exactly the same sim, one raised well and the other poorly with this skinny face, and an older male that shared their genetics and two other females... but I just can't find it. Isn't that annoying? <keeps looking> I'll post it when/if it turns up.

I recently read a rather convincing argument (using clones) that children growing up badly turn out less attractive - sunken faces, more prominant features and the like. </offtopic>

Ontopic:

As for bad kids, what kind of bad do you want? The closest sims get is pranks, pushing and shoving and arguing and stealing newspapers and dumping over trashcans... grouchy messy kids will do stuff like that if you direct them to or let them in the right circumstances.

Encouraging (enough of it) changes their points in those areas. If you have an ingame born sim with 10 neat and you'd rather not have a neatnik (altho it's quite handy really), you can encourage sloppiness and eventually bring them down. Takes awhile tho.

9??? You're managing 9 pregnancies in a normal lifespan with no elixir? The best I can do is 6, but I admit to being less awesome and I know I'm losing one at the beginning while they find a mate and usually another in the middle as they sometimes just don't get pregnant, but that'd still just be 8. Are you sure you didn't count the 3 days at the end when they're too close to elder transition as another one?

I was thinking about this the other day as well. What I'd like is locks for the action bar like the ones for the wants, so if they queue up something I want them to do, I can lock it and add more actions behind it rather than adding that one again (or losing it altogether in some cases) and then adding more.

Adds it to my Maxis wishlist - too bad they don't pay any attention to what people want.

doh,  you can do that?

hmmmm... getting pregnant a lot will keep you employed without going to work, but then how do you get promoted?

I dunno how, but yeah, let's do something like this one - sounds like fun

Yeah, the gypsy can bring YA students from Uni. In my experience, there's plenty of people in the college directory, but then I haven't deleted the dormies and such so maybe some people have a smaller pool.

I'd say the greek houses are more like private houses that hold a fair number of people than dorms. They got separate or shared (2 people I think) bedrooms and then communal areas for cooking and playing and all. The pre-built ones have swimming pools and/or hot tubs or some other fairly nice types of things. Being in one has quite a few advantages.

There's nothing actually stopping you from making them co-male and female if you like... they're just traditionally divided by gender.

To make dormies, you can use the testing cheat and make them a dormie (you have to choose the right category... I've only really seen this once and would suck at explaining it, but I'm sure someone knows.) I don't know if there's a hack to do it, which would be a whole lot easier, like there is for townies. If you find one, I want it too