So that would be

Utopia, Euphoric

?

(sorry, somebody had to say it, might as well be me) 

I'm touched!


Agree that the name is completely illogical.

Fits me.

@ Renatus:

I hear what you are saying about ethnicity in the game, didn't mean to ignore it.  I'm afraid I'm not that good at making Sims, so I accept what I'm given. 

Spent a lot of time once trying to make an Asian Sim and gave up.  She looked ridiculous.

Sounds like the business plan of every RL Bed & Breakfast I know.   

Grin.  I'd expect nothing less!

You wouldn't like my Sims, for sure.  Everybody is happy and friendly (if not outrageously attractive) in windy_moon's world.

 

Even my CAS Sims are far from "perfect", by choice.  I like Wanda's face, I think it has a lot of character.  

I don't mind an occasional "beautiful" Sim in my neighborhood, but I don't make them...and I very rarely do plastic surgery on any existing Sims. The only thing that drives me to the machine is the jaw configurations that you couldn't possibly see real world.

(I'll leave paper thin and oh-so-perfect to Hollywood, gag.  Saw Sara Gilbert on something recently and I swear she had a nose job.  What a great face, and now she is trying to look like the rest of everybody else?)

Mind you, I get the part where this is a fantasy game and plenty of people would want to populate their neighborhoods with only Very Pretty Sims.  I just forget that sometimes.  (And my Sims think they are fabulous, every one of them!)

Oh geeze, I refuse to "sell" every customer who comes into a store....and rarely use "dazzle".   Too much work and I'm too busy having fun. (I love this expansion pack!)

I don't have a problem with lots of customers and products making their own match without intervention.  Some stores are priced "average" and some (like Ramierez' Fine Furniture) are "expensive". 

I suspect that my play style is influenced by the day job.  I was in straight commission sales for many years and am currently in marketing.  No need to work every customer...and plenty of people don't want to be "worked". 

The most fun I have with OFB is setting up the stores and deciding on the merchandise.  Selling isn't that interesting....although I like showing customers around.

Gasp!

Wanda Tinker is one of my new favorite Sims.  She's intelligent and hard working...not only a good wife and mother, but a sharp businesswoman.

As far as looks, all she needs is a new hairdo and a little makeup.



Now, I have JM's hack so my playable Sims don't go shopping...so I've never had them spend me into the ground....but the Tinker house is set up to easily sell off $50K in Stupid Stuff, enough to stake a community lot business.

All I'm saying is, give Wanda a chance to live!

Honestly, if you play for the stories, it doesn't have to work out like that.  My Sims are running around working their little butts off, building little businesses, nobody is raking it in. I don't let them buy and sell a community lot in one day to a townie who just fell of the turnip truck (at an absurd profit.)

Not disagreeing that the challenge model is broken, now go fix it. 

OH LORD, how great is that. Yard sale!  I love it!

I love it!

Now all I need is for them each to have a room where they save the crap they want to sell until they getaroundtuit. 

Nothing like duplicating real life, for me.  See my spare bedroom full of stuff I'm really going to put on eBay eventually.

Wasn't ever interested in the "no spoil" hack, once again proving that TS2 is all about different strokes.  If my kids or my Sims leave plates of food around, they are going to get icky.    (had a fruit fly invasion RL last summer which made me afraid of "death by flies" )

@ Regina - I tried the display case method last night.  Unless I'm using it wrong, it was too cumbersome for me to enjoy playing with.  I couldn't get my Sims to put the food in or take the food out (on a home lot, I've never played with it on a business lot).  I sold the case.

Inventory, OTOH, was fun.  My high cooking point Sim made and stockpiled serving platters full of great food.  (I take my Sims food seriously, I've got some nice downloads.)  In the middle of the business day, he pulled out a platter of Broiled Beef Au Jus.  The family and Ricky Cornier, the cashier, took turns having a good meal in the backroom.

Yay!

Cooking in advance is huge!

*happy dance*

(I wonder how long this would have taken me to figure out on my own, despite how the lack of cooking in advance was making me batty.  )

Crappy buffet food makes me nuts.  Same old sliced turkey, gag.  Sims can entertain properly now, and just replenish with interesting food when the serving platter get empty.

Yay!

Not to mention packing a healthy, hearty meal for a trip to the business!  I had my stores outfitted with mini-kitchens...but all of those TV dinners and Cups o Ramen were disgusting.

Yay!

At the risk of being lipless, ThankYouThisisGreat.

Right up there with the Coffee Cup hack for pounding logic into poor design.



 

Most of my rules for anything are an attempt at "realism".  I don't use objects or characters that feel completely unreal to me (for the most part).

Never played vampires, ressurections, aliens...probably won't play robots.  Other than the thinking cap (which I use religiously), I don't use aspiration or career rewards that look or feel unreal. 

So, for OFB, I'm in the same pattern.  Right now, my Sims who have buisnesses are the Type A folks, so working in overdrive feels real.  Checo Ramierz works his ass off...and the store is open 7 days a week, but that's Checo. After the store closes for the day and he sends the employees home, he eats some food from the mini-fridge, chugs a lot of espresso, maybe takes a shower, and then spends hours cleaning, gardening and restocking.

The clock being out of sync doesn't bother me nearly as much as I thought it would.  By the time he gets home and crashes into bed, he's only got a few hours with his family before he starts all over again.

Maybe it's because I'm less awesome than everybody else, but I haven't found OFB businesses to be super easy.  Maybe it's my "realism" rules.  My Sims are required to carry a variety of merchandise, like a real store, and not just the big ticket items.  (None of them have enough capital for keeping gobs of high ticket items in stock, anyway.)

And *no* ticket machines unless it's something I would buy a ticket to in real life.  My son is running a home business where Sims will pay a lot of money to watch somebody's TV.  More power to him, enjoy, but that's not for me.


P.S.  None of my rules are about an aversion to "cheating" or trying to make the game harder, per se, it's just about my stories.

thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!

I lost mine when I lost all my Sims content a month or so ago.

This IS great! 

A woman after my own heart.  The husband answers the phone "Bauer." when I call from work, just to give me a little pitter patter.

I'd love to have Jack, but I'm honestly so emeshed (hey, there's a pun) in struggling with OFB set up, I might not get to use him for eons....if you come across him, let me know.

He'd deserve a serious plot line, and selling furniture or crafting toys wouldn't be part of it!

Ditto.  Crossed out lightening bolt for me!    

Now, give me a Jack Bauer Sim that looks that realistic, I'll be happy with the face paint. 

(three lightening bolts for Jack Bauer, has to be Jack though, Keifer is only so-so.  )

I am running into this same annoying problem.    I am working so much I've barely been able to play since I installed OFB and can't join in the conversation!

If anyone has a fix for that annoying bug, I'd appreciate it.

 

First of all, no, you are not allowed to stay off the damned boards.  We just got you back.
 

Cheats, shrug.  I'm not the most self disciplined person (ha, there's a laugh), but I stopped playing with most cheats and aspiration rewards a long time ago.  It wasn't hard when I set down my own rules for the game.

I banned all aspiration rewards except the thinking cap and smart milk.  Trying to keep fortune Sims platinum without the money tree or counterfitting machine (for instance), meant encouraging and cultivating the non materialistic wants that come their way.  Happier Sims result!

If my Romance Sims want a hot tub, they better get off their butts and earn $6500 somehow, because I'm not cheating for money and they aren't getting one out of the aspiration rewards.  This generally results in them trolling for dream dates who will drop off an outrageously expensive gift....and out of that come good stories.

Haven't played OFB enough to say, but I'm already wary of snap dragons.  I doubt I will be placing them much.  I have TJ's static energy sculpture, but I've never once used it.

I stopped using the Energizer aspiration reward months ago in favor of macrotastics caffenate and no one has ever fallen asleep in a plate.  It's much more fun for me, watching their little bodies quiver with the coffee buzz.

(Oh, I cheat outrageously with aging.  They are my stories and Merola's painting lets me set their ages up however I, the Sim Goddess, dictate.)

So, I'll download the linked collection, thankyouverymuch, and most likely always make my Sims work for the objects anyway....unless I have a story that needs one in a pinch.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!

That explains a lot.  (Lot? No pun intended.)

I tried to play a bit this morning and I couldn't have my Sim visit P.U.R.E (which Cassandra Goth owns).  Greyed out, this was upsetting because it's my favorite Sim destination...

Well, yeah, I had saved yesterday with Cassandra on her business lot.

Damn.  You really can't play this pack without the guide or a lot of friends to hold your hand.

When I play again, tonight I think, I guess I'll see if I can undo the potential mess.  Hopefully I can go back to P.U.R.E and get Cassandra out of there and everything will be okay.

LOL, well I've managed to challenge myself so far.

Nearly no time to play this weekend with RL family obligations, but I couldn't resist biting off more than I could chew.

For my first business, Cassandra Goth bought P.U.R.E (in which I'd previously added a restaurant, total $148,000.)  I have no Prima Guide, no clue how to really play this game....in a nearly brand new neighborhood.

How fast do you think I can lose Mortie's fortune?  I need a chef, waitstaff, a host/hostess, DJ, bartender.....and have mostly losers to choose from in hiring.

So far I've managed to hire three and get them set up and uniformed.  We didn't even open for business before Kennedy Cox, the new host,  caught fire! (from the roast marshmallow thingie).

And I had no sprinkler system on the roof....

Cassandra paid the staff, called it a day and will try again tomorrow.

 

 

*laughs loudly and scares the poodle*

Missed you, Motoki, big hugs your way!

Have it in my hot little hands (thank you Amazon)...no clue when I will install.  (Really busy weekend with the youngest kid in a play...)

Unlike the EP's before, I'm dying to start playing this one. 

Common sense says that I should wait until the dust settles....I just don't know if I can wait.

*taps foot, twiddles fingers *

Nope.  I don't think I can wait!

(not tonight tho, just got a call from the kid that he forgot to tell me he needs black shoes for the play and I have to find them and deliver post haste!)

Priorities?

 

I aspire to your awesomeness, but alas and alack....I'm weak.

Don't hate me   I know you hate weakness, but hate the sin and love the sinner?

Well, Dr, it all starts with low self esteem....

 

Sigh. 

Well, it broke me.  I read the link earlier when it was working (thanks Ziggy).

I wasn't going to buy the EP for another month...but the colors on the Prima Guide pages were so pretty  , I lost my head and skipped over to Amazon.

OFB and the Prima Guide will be here on Friday.

I'm so easy.......