oooh, thanks!! I'll give that a shot tonight when I get to play again.

I use a custom neighborhood (and I believe, tho it's been a long time and I don't remember for sure) I deleted all the characters and have let the game remake them as needed. I left my visiting sims set at 2 (personally, I have enough trouble keeping 2 extra sims happy - I don't need 8 if I really want another one, I invite them before the event starts). I've got a reasonable number on downtown lots - when I get there it might be empty or just 2 and if I stay for a long time build up to about 6ish. It works really well for me. I have gradually seen more appearing (especially as I'm now playing a Uni neighborhood for the first time since installing NL) and ran into the other countess and the counts for the first time. The only issue I've had is not enough teens - too many of the NPCs are adults or young adults and I want more people for my teens to interact with (first dates and all).

LOL I doubt that seriously - most of my ideas come from books or stories or something and then the sims run with them (I agree they have ideas of their own That's why I usually try to do secondary characters or start them as children or something. They can end up whatever way they want without me getting annoyed they aren't staying "in character" or frustrated by something that can't be done in the sims (I can't imagine trying to do Buffy when you can't stake vampires. That would annoy me.)

And yeah, distraction comes anytime (tho pregnant sims are a mighty strong pull). I don't mind the generational stuff so much tho - I really don't mind with the townies, tho I know it bothers others to have the same sim friends with 3 generations of those. I just set up justifications for it in my mind - well that's not *really* the same girl, that girl died tragically and the parents had another and gave her the same name and she's kind of unhappy trying to live in her sister's shadow... or that boy is really the nephew of the one my older sim knew and the parents loved their brother soooo much they named their firstborn after him but when he dropped out and moved to Alaska to find himself, they got kind of annoyed so he has a new different nickname. Or something


Yes! Exactly! I'm playing along and my sim transitions to child and I suddenly realize I don't have any "country-style" (or whatever I'm doing) clothes for a male child, and next though I know I've spent a week downloading. And I'm also looking up and downloading designs or patterns or clothes that aren't made yet and thinking, "well I'll just make this one and that one" as I can't find them anywhere. And then I never do, so I have folders full of examples all over my harddrive Half of them will be named "can't resist" as I got distracted by some neat furniture that fit the idea and they don't have anything at all to do with little boy's clothes and most of them would require new meshes and I don't even have a 3d program of any kind, let alone know how to use it

I think the journey is actually the fun part anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter if I never really "arrive".


Yup, yup - this too. I keep telling myself (and my husband) I'm not going to be tired at work tomorrow, I'm going to bed. In just half an hour, 15 more min. just a bit. And then it's waaaaay toooo late

Wow, I play the game totally differently than it seems like a lot of you do. I'm very obsessive and very easily distracted - totally incapable of keeping databases or keeping the aging right on different houses or anything like that.

I get an idea, make a sim (or 2 or many), put them in their houses and get obsessed with them and don't stop playing them until I get distracted by something else (building, downloading or making things) or another idea or something (work, food, sleep, other fun and obligation breaks don't count). I can't imagine only doing 6 sim hours - she wouldn't have found a perfect match, he wouldn't have gotten a job and a bunch of promotions, the baby wouldn't be born (I almost never stop the game for anything in between the lullabye and the birth), the toddler wouldn't have learned to talk - I just can't leave them *now*

When I get distracted, I just stop playing them and get obsessed with the new sim or thing. I've had a good number of sims in different neighborhoods, and I do get attached to them - some of them I remember fondly. For awhile I played a single mother who looked vaguely 20sish and her son, Random. She was my first sim to die and every time I see another one wearing that hat, I think it's her. I got distracted making 20-30ish clothes for them (and a paperboy if I remember correctly) and  I dunno what happened to Random. I know he was a teen and I *think* I lost the house in the mess installing Uni was for me - but might have lost track of him before that.

My son wanted to play with a bunch of animal skins that he dl'd and created a neighborhood called Animatown. So I made Jeremy Danvers and his foster son Clayton and Elena Michaels and her foster family (2 households) to be werewolves. These are characters from the book _Bitten_ by Kelly Armstrong and I managed to keep them more or less on track agewise (Clay is somewhat older than Elena - she was in college and he was a visiting prof) tho I played with aging off a lot. Werewolves don't age, do they? Elena ended up with a sister (the foster family's real child) and they killed off her nasty fosterdad and she moved in with Clay and Jeremy. Jeremy got abducted and had a were-alien baby and Elena had quads - a litter of puppies. This was pre-Uni, so they didn't meet at college, and I know this one got lost in the reinstall. My son recreated it, but I didn't make the families again.

For Uni, I created a neighborhood Ethni City, with a bunch of multicultural sims and got obsessed with India - created my beautiful Indian coworker and friend and her husband, and a 2nd couple that were also some friends. Added some other downloaded cultures and my son added Chinese, Japanese and French. I believe we have a Thai section as well. I meant to do Italy but got distracted and haven't got back to it yet. I got way distracted building their houses and making clothes and looking for objects and didn't really play them that much. My friend sim and her husband had twin daughters and her friend and husband had a son.

I managed to get them sent off to Uni - "Watsamata U" with all the buildings and the like based on Rocky and Bullwinkle names (tho they're actually mostly stolen from the 3 Universities that came with - renamed and redecorated some.) I also didn't delete the other three when I'd finished stealing the buildings so my neighborhood (which I'm currently playing) is probably in danger of being eaten by too many iterations bugs - it has 4 attached Universities (tho only 1 has ever been played and the others don't have dorms or buildings in them, so maybe it's ok.)

Anyway, shortly after they got to campus, I got distracted again and created all the sims to live in "A Doll's House" (the graphic novel) by Neil Gaiman. I played them for awhile and got tired of Uni and quit playing... mostly because I was obsessed with the characters and wanted to play just them (not switch back to the neighborhood or even other sims) but was bored with the Uni stuff.

In an interlude - before NL came out, I got interested in building again and made a new neighborhood where I built houses and created some sims to live in them and was enjoying playing them. I never bothered to attach a Uni and it hasn't been touched since NL came out and I got distracted with that.

NL appeared and I was major distracted by that. I decided the Gaiman sims were perfect for vampirization (especially the Spider Ladies), so I picked up Ethni City, dropped them all out of college and dumped them all (after playing around a bit) into the House of the Fallen Trees. There's Hal (who owns the house technically), the Spider Ladies (2 of them), Gilbert, Barbie and Ken (who immediately got pregnant and had twins - my first NL birth) so 8 in the house. They explored DT, became vampires, got over being vampires and I just generally had a good time playing that many at once. After awhile Gilbert moved out, as it was appropriate and made room for the Spider Ladies (they have names - Zelda and Chantal) to adopt a child, so they did.... she's still a toddler...

And... I went and saw the movie Serenity and got distracted. So I spent a long time creating all the Firefly characters (not very well, I'm not good at making sims, but I did the best I could) and turned them into their parents so they could be born in game. Most of them, I just made the created sim male and female and set their personalities to what I thought was fun. I made Zoe's mom a single parent, Simon and River's father is a criminal money sim and their mother's a society b*tch, and Inara's mother is a dumpy housewife who ignores the kids and her father leaves them for a beautiful romance sim. A few of them aren't in game yet (Wash, Sepherd Book) - Mal was just born.

But I got distracted with Kaylee's family. Her father should have been a farmer, but I couldn't really do that and support them, nor could he teach her mechanics that way - so I made him a country dr. and her mother stayed at home and had 6 kids (I *barely* got them in without elixer or turning aging off - I dunno how people have so many in a normal adult sim lifespan, 'cept twins and we didn't get any). Kaylee has 1 sister and 4 brothers - Stella, Delbert, Eldad, Kaylee, Derbie and Rufus. Rufus just turned toddler and Stella went to college (with 1 day left before she aged).

So I followed Stella to Uni. She met a guy she's crazy about, and I played him and his brother a bit so they'd be older than her (they're all 1st semester sophs right now, but the brothers are just slightly ahead in the semester), and they all moved into a house together - 'ready set up for Stella's brothers and sisters to follow her to school. 'cept I haven't touched the family since, so I keep telling myself I'll quit when she gets through her sophomore year and go back and play Delbert until he goes to college, so they'll stay the right distance apart. And then when Kaylee is ready for college (she just transitioned to teen), I'll have to go back and actually bring up the rest of the Firefly crew so they're older than she is.

So, I currently have - 2 families in the neighborhood (Ethni City) with 4 sims, 2 houses with 9 sims (and an abandoned countess who moved in and got deserted if she counts) in Downtown Ethni City based on the Gaiman and 5 Firefly-based houses with 18 total sims, some have been played a lot and some just put in houses, 3 Ethni City kids that went to college and got abandoned and I don't even remember who they all are, and one house from the Firefly crew at Uni with 3 sims in it that I'm playing (and hoping to have a 4th when the other brother finds a gf). I count 37 in the neighborhood I actually play - but I'm only really *playing* 3 of them

It seems I can manage 2 households and keep them together-ish in ages, and I love having lots of sims in the same house. I don't have any problem with grandma and granddad, parents and lots of kids in the same house either (I've done this and left them out up above somewhere) nor playing the same house until ingame born sims die and new ones are born and grow old (or move them to a bigger house, just the same sims). But I don't switch around well.

I love the toddler mirror (or whatever other ones) and will allow money cheats to buy one as I can't stand not being able to fix up the toddlers. Same with shop at home options. I *really* want my sims to wear the clothes I make or download for them.

You can? eeeep. Obviously I haven't looked at all the right buttons - I've been guessing based on what wants they roll up. <feels very stupid> I'm gonna end up in that News Box sometime soon, hm? <isn't quite sure how all this ripped lips thing works, but I have the feeling if I keep posting I'm gonna find out>

lol - no, no, I was talking about my sims first girlfriend. They had a pile of dream dates, fell in love, he rolled up the get engaged want and she had a fear of engagement and wanted 3 lovers at once. Obviously she was romance (he's popularity) and even tho they liked each other really well, he was gonna get hurt - so he dumped her. But she got jealous when he went out with his new girlfriend. Silly sim.

Unfortunately, the new girl seemed liked a better match, but they only had 2 bolts, so I moved her in with him and changed their turn ons and offs all around. I knew they didn't match - he likes makeup and she wasn't wearing any, and she liked black hair and his is brown - turned out she also liked cologne and he never wore any. But no matter how perfectly I set them, they could only get 2. He likes his brother's girlfriend (Stella - she's actually the ingame born sim. He and his brother were Uni students) better :p and Stella's crazy about his brother (and vice versa) - not going to happen, leave her alone guy. Sooo, he moved the 2nd gf back out also. I was afraid she was gonna be hurt and unhappy, but they just waved when she left and she was thinking about money. I guess he wasn't well off enough for her. (she turned out to be money.)

He's having a hard time finding the perfect mate.

Like Gali, I hate it when my perfect matches are fooling around or something. When Stella goes dt she's always running into her father and he's thinking little hearts about some unknown townie or other - and Stella's father and his wife are perfect matches, sweet as anything, and she gave him everything - what's he doing thinking loving thoughts about some other woman, especially when his daughter is right there. bleh. (tho I don't think he's cheating... he'd be doing it autonomously if he was.)

Yep, it's definately like cheating. You can also lock a good desire (for each of them) towards the end of a date, not fulfill it, and (especially if the couple lives together or in a dorm together) use it for a quick pickmeup for them later. One good make-out and they're both platinum again.

I think the presents for dates depend partially on how much money the sim in question has - if they're not very well off, they don't give good ones... 'least I think cuz my sims get lots more flowers than stuff even though they're almost always at the "can we do it again pleeeese, i can't wait to tell my friends" level - which seems to be the highest ('least that I've seen).

I've just been ignoring Mrs. Crumblebottom. She hasn't caused me any trouble. But the jealousy thing sure has. I can just here him saying, "But honey, that was before I even *met* you..."

And 'sides she rolled up a fear of engagement - obviously romance - and he wants to get married. What's she care anyways?

Oh me too, and I usually try to avoid hacks that make game play easier (and that one does in several ways), but I have to say I love this one as it also adds lots of gameplay options. I got it for work at home, but now found I can have my teen sims save up money in accounts to buy the things they want instead of taking it out of family finances, and let them keep the money they make on jobs - even save it up to take to uni with them - can give children allowances too and if I've a group that saved for something (namely a house) and are living seperately, but I want one specially to get it, I can combine their money without using familyfunds or something, and... well the banking stuff is just cool.

Also I prefer shopping at home from the computer to buying the clothes rack - something I've always done as what's the point of downloading all those clothes if it's too hard for the sims to use them? (I make them have the money to buy 'em, but I don't want to send them shopping that often) and not having to deal with the delivery guy for groceries too (same thing, they still have to buy them and put them away).

Work at home and banking does make it easier (you can earn money and up skills at the same time) but it's still what I wanted for the mother created in CAS who has 6 kids - sorry she doesn't have time for a job, but still needs to earn a bit extra. Her country dr. husband just can't quite support them all fast enough on his own.

And I loved the at home stuff from sims1 (preserves - my guy made preserves until his hands fell off, I think and I don't want to take a cooking job until I get the candy thing (and for some reason that isn't the same anyway - by the time they get it, they just don't need it or something.)

*Anyway* way to long, but I do love the computer - thanks again!!!!

and am looking forward to business and hoping it adds more like that. The pets from unleased - I could do without. I had trouble with Hot Date and basically couldn't play sims1 after unleashed. Eventually I gave up.

When mine was on a date with booths, the lady sat down first and he sat on the other side, looked around innocently, scooted a ways around, looked around sneakily and scooted some more around until he was next to her (on the inside). It was very cute - once. Took a bit, so probably would be annoying if I was in a hurry to get the date meter up.

I can't make the sectionals work either - not with any table whatsoever - on any residential lot. I tried hard, as I wanted booths on one residential uni lot (ok was probably a silly idea, but I wanted them). The sims all whined even if they're sitting down with a plate of food taken from the serving table. A specific kind of "no whining" hack would help, as they can eat there if they'll just do it, but it doesn't fix the clean up thing...

I tried to reset a bed, and that didn't work for me either. I had to buy a new one - and then found out it was a very odd custom bed as it only cost 300 and gave me 1200 when I sold it... so not like I minded toooo much. Was yours custom? I'm suspecting it only works right with maxis stuff or at least doesn't work with custom meshes. otoh, everything else did reset and placed properly... 'cept I'm pretty sure it didn't affect the sims - the were still platinum. I did get an error message on the computer, but it's a serious hack and still worked fine, so I ignored it.

You were right! I finally got my first in-game born sim to Uni, and between NL and the computer Motoki recommended that lets you work at home and do banking and all, I'm having a blast.

That computer is wonderful btw. I usually try to avoid things that make the game easier, but this allows so much to gameplay. One of my teens rolled up the buy a car want (over and over) so I let him earn the money himself and bank it in his account. Was very fun to save for it and talk about an over-achiever, that kid has a regular teen job maxed also and is putting it in family finances to help out the family (who have 6 kids.)

But Uni is *much* better with NL


Edit: Mispelled Motoki's user name <blush> (and made it more or less unrecognizeable) I'm sorry - typing in too big a hurry. <blush> no offense intended.

Why not just use the boolprop testing cheat to make the sim-husband pregnant with sim-you's child, and skip the abduction (unless you really wanted that part)? I do it that way for homosexual couples and whenever (for some reason, usually because I've decided the male sim isn't really respecting all the female is going through to give him all these kids) I want a male to have a child, rather than a female (unless I need the abduction want). That fills the "have a child" want (but not adopt a child without the hack which is silly of Maxis - should be acquiring a child to raise, no matter how it's acquired) and keeps both sims as biological parents.

I think the weirdo types are kinda cute really - mostly because I don't find it difficult to ignore anything I don't want (I played with aliens a tiny bit but not much and totally ignored zombies). I guess vampires are harder to try and then make go away, 'least other people seem to be getting vampires everywhere, but I haven't had that in my game. I only ever saw the countess (dunno why), turned some sims into vampires, changed 'em back and see the countess out now and then, but nobody is trying to bite my sims at least. Course I'm very controlling... <control-freak here>

Werewolves should come with pets, and personally I don't want that anytime soon. Unleashed was so bad for me, I quit playing sims1. If they do a pet expansion, it needs to be much better'n that. I love NL tho and I was scared, as I had trouble with Hot Date too. IMO, the *best* thing about NL is they managed to make it fun to go downtown without lagging the game so bad it wasn't worth playing. I hafta give 'em kudos for that. I'm rather looking forward to business - at home business stuff is my favorite idea and I always want more (off to look up that computer, I don't have it yet Thanks!)

I was nicer than I would have been if they'd given me a space for general comments at the end, as I was expecting. I'm still very mad about the holiday thing - $15 for next to nothing and if the "sitting on the lap" animation is in there and I end up buying it just for that (so toddlers can sit on people's laps - even if anyone but Santa is from the modders) I'm going to be even more mad.

But there wasn't anywhere to say that.

On one page of the very NL based survey, it said something like, "how satisfied are you with the new majors and careers"

*Are* there new majors and careers in NL? I haven't played the Uni area since I got NL... but I'd really like it if there were.

Really? Mine always have the same number, I think - so far. When my "hat sim" isn't wearing her hat and her husband's score drops to 2, so does hers. But when she's wearing it, they both have 3. Maybe turn ons and turn offs change for both sims, but the other compatability traits only for the sim in question or something (like if the signs were only partially compatable)?


I'm pretty sure lightning bolts don't show up until you've done some sort of flirt interaction (checking the other sim out or something). Just scoping the room or talking to a sim will give the ones on the possible socials but not the ones on the portraits (so you can tell they're attracted but not  how much chemistry there is).

I've only *just* realized if you mouse over the relationship bars, there's a pop-up that lists the options and tells you what they mean (married, etc.) and the lightning bolts are on it. It lists one as mild chemistry, two as medium and three as ...something good, I've forgotten the word It only goes up to three. And tells you the crossed out one is negative chemistry. Long as I've had this game, anyone would think I would have known that was there, but...

I want more, I want lots, I want them allllllll!!!!!


Please


If I don't like something or it seems too specific, I just won't use that one, but I sure am bored with the limited list now. I'd love to see personality options, and just any options would be an improvement

*laugh*

If they're going to spend forever sitting there chatting while they eat, I want to at least get to play and let them have fun go up too. ...come to think of it, I dunno if children even have the food fight option - need to check. But they should... shouldn't they? Or I'm back to just making sure they eat in shifts - less fun, but more practical.

*sigh* looks like the changes to the "ask" interactions, so they don't cause crushes etc. didn't make it - so I'm now hoping for a mod for this? And so playing "food fight" at the table doesn't make them fall in love?

Ah - well maybe I was worrying unnecessarily - I'll have to try with the running. How much time do you leave them before the car pool? Or meditation and teleport would actually probably be better - I always forget that

No water in the basement in my game. Better call BeeDry At the very bottom of the very "haunted atmosphere" stairs are 2 coffins and 2 brazier lights (I think, at least). It's rather cool to pretend you're walking the stairs and turn and turn and turn until you find the coffins... very Indiana Jones-ish or something.

Doesn't it take your sims forever to go up and down all the stairs? For a vampire, they can at least fly and it seems faster (not sure if it is really, but it seems it and for awhile I thought maybe they'd be protected from the daylight way down there, even not in a coffin, but they aren't) but for a sim I need to leave for work or whatever, that's waaayy too deep - I like to keep them doing something until the very last second possible and then run

I noticed something else about the new chemistry stuff yesterday. My best-mated sims (3 lightning bolts) have mostly been baby machines (I hope their next set is twins or they're going to get old too fast). She's the one that wears a hat, and he likes hats - so they've sometimes had 3 and sometimes 2 bolts (no 4s in my game). Well as she's always pregnant, she's always in maternity clothes, and doesn't have her hat. She and her husband were kissing and talking a bit before she had to run back to bed (she's had a rather rough pregnancy this time with 3 children already) and when she left he started thinking about her in her hat with the little hearts and everything (he's a sweetie) and his relationship score with her went back up to 3 lightning bolts

I thought that was pretty interesting - gained a lightning bolt just by thinking about it.

Nothing constructive, but I'm glad to hear you got it working. I love that house It's well laid out for a Maxis house and fun to decorate, although all my sims always want to sleep in the coffins and I'm not trekking anyone all the way down those stairs. The ghosts are interesting, there when a knowledge sim needs them and they've never come in the house at all - they stay out in the yard and make noise, which I also like. Nobody gets scared by accident. I dropped in 8 adult sims (some of them couples), played awhile, moved a few out and a few have had kids so there's still 8 (one made permaplat elder) and so far <knock wood> it's run beautifully, even on my poor machine with the bad graphics card. I would think the ghost's memories would be a problem, just as for living sims, when moving neighborhoods but I dunno.

I'm just *not* paying $60 for a game other people can buy for $40. Heck, maybe I'll start waiting 2 years to buy the games until they finish putting all the stuff in it :p by then it might work right too :p

(sorry, I'm still being annoyed by the whole concept - I shouldn't be penalized for spending my money sooner than someone else and keeping the company in business for the last however long it's been.)

For me personally, Mod the Sims2 is over-modded. I don't care much for heavy-handed moderation and I noticed one day that more than half/3/4s of the first page of the sims2 chat section consisted of locked threads of one sort or another (complete with little "you can't say that here" messages, and who cares if someone says "yeah I'm first to say thanks" before they say "thanks I love this dl?" All the content of a post like that is fluff anyways (good fluff, but still noise, not signal)). I think it would actually be better to deal with the "issues" privately - probably that many PMs isn't feasible, I guess, but... even just deleting some stuff without saying anything would be better in many cases (imo, of course - not that my opinion is of any import) than making it so obvious.

I still don't like the "chat" division anyway - I suspect if one wanted discussion on that site, it would be more interesting discussion if it wasn't so divided all up. Go here for this one, and there for that one. Then, I'm not sure the site wants to be a discussion site at all, and in that case, might be better off not even bothering to try to cater to that aspect, but leaving that for other chat sites.

As for the new format, I like some aspects of it quite well. It is, imo, overly and unnecessarily graphics heavy which makes it slow to load and clunky (and clunky-looking, not as streamlined professional as it could be - the opening screen pics look like tarot cards to me) and it "requires" things of its users (a certain large browser window size, and when someone said they didn't like that Delphy said something like "bigger screens are the wave of the future, catch up" which doesn't much take into account those of it who prefer not to give away our entire valuable screen space to one window, even if our monitors are plenty large enough (I tend to do many things on my computer at once). It still doesn't work well with my mac (netscape and/or firefox depending on which computer I'm on, IE doesn't get along with my mac either), actually (or didn't, I haven't been over there in a bit) but I didn't see any reason to mention it as the earlier posts said it was or was going to be worked on and I didn't see anything saying it was supposed to be fixed. When I mentioned an aspect of the old system I'd like to see included in the new, I was told to just use the old one... well, uh, I was saying I'd like to use the new and it just had something missing for me. Using the old one wouldn't provide the options of the new I liked - I mean... I dunno, that's a kind of strange response.

It's a strange board, really... I'm still sorry about the decision that seemed to dump a large number of the best builders and think the building area suffered for it. It seems to be coming back some now... and it's still the best place to go to find out new stuff or how to do something, or for some good downloads. but I've only been on this one a few weeks and have no idea what moderation and information and other such things are like over here or anything like that, so dunno about comparisons.