Exploiting those Nightlife features!

[RainbowTigress]

I just had a thought and I don't remember if I thought to post it here or not and don't want to read all my ramblingness (like as if anyone else does!) to find out!

I've noticed that when a couple of sims are on dates they might come to sort of an impasse in their wants, like there'll be nothing you can fulfill to get the date moving again (say a knowledge sim that suddenly thinks he's got to go back home and study, study, study!).  If you click on the other sim and choose flirt>check out sim their wants will re-roll.  It also works for their date by clicking and asking if they like what they see.  Nine times out of 10 you'll get a fresh set of wants, which is really helpful to get the date back on the right track.

I read in the Prima Guide that you should have your sim Ask the other sim if they like what they see to reroll stale wants.  This seems to work for the other sim but not my sim.  I will try what you said about checking out the other sim.  I hate when they are on a date and spin a want to be best friends or talk or play with with some other sim!  I tell them that is rude and they should pay attention to their date!

[reggikko]

Even if your wants don't reroll, if you continue to do things that raise the daily or lifetime relationship score, the date meter will go up.

[striker]

This has nothing to do with romance or lovers, but personally I love the ecological guru career. A pregant female can make 70K a week with perfectly timed pregancies. She still racks up a load of vacation and makes a fortune.

How do you do that?

[RainbowTigress]

Even if your wants don't reroll, if you continue to do things that raise the daily or lifetime relationship score, the date meter will go up.

Hmm, I thought that might be the case, but it is harder once you reach 100 STR and you've done all the LTR building stuff you can do (such as flirts and kisses, which boost LTR only the first time you do them.)  That's why best friendships are harder to build than romances because you don't have as many options available.

[Hook]

I've noticed that when a couple of sims are on dates they might come to sort of an impasse in their wants, like there'll be nothing you can fulfill to get the date moving again (say a knowledge sim that suddenly thinks he's got to go back home and study, study, study!).  If you click on the other sim and choose flirt>check out sim their wants will re-roll.

Great info Misty!  Thanks.  Been there a few times and it's frustrating.

...and you've done all the LTR building stuff you can do (such as flirts and kisses, which boost LTR only the first time you do them.

All the LTR building stuff will boost LTR if you do an action, then two other actions before trying the first action again.  I usually boost LTR by doing Admire/Backrub/Bust a Move over and over getting 5 points for each cycle.  The trick is to do two other actions before repeating the first.

Hook

[Sagana]

At the bottom left of the date meter you'll see an aspiration icon

I guess I just never "read" the icon <blush> - I'm very word-oriented.

LTRs continue to go up for the heavier "date-related" options even after the first time. I think it's less, but still some. Make-out still gives quite a lot, 7 pts maybe? (and woohoo for the adults of course) I try and have them do the more friend stuff early on - lots of play and talk stuff and then move up to the kisses as you get a real time/meter boost when they hit best friends (or any relationship change). I have trouble when they're up to 100/100 and love, or 100/74 (evil place and I don't want them to woohoo but want more time on the clock. Makeout won't always do it then. Oh anything you haven't done before will give an extra boost and/or extra relationship score too - so go back and do "kiss up arm" or serenade or even blow kisses and caress hands at the table, if you haven't done those. (throwing food does too, but it kinda... grates on my nerves.)

Actually I believe your wants will roll spontaneously sometimes too, if you're doing the dating type things. And of course they reroll if you change lots also, so if you're really stuck you can just meander across the street

[nectere]

How do you do that?

You have a female sim in the natural scientist career, when she reaches the top, she makes 10k for one day of work. When she gets pregnant the game pays her even though she isnt scheduled to work, so as long as she is pregnant on Wednesday, she will continue to rack up 10k a day for each day she does not work that she is pregnant. And since she is only scheduled one day a week to work, she still racks up three additional days vacation when the child is born.  So if you are planning on having a family of three children she can make a pretty tidy sum and a bunch of vacation if you time it right.

[RainbowTigress]

All the LTR building stuff will boost LTR if you do an action, then two other actions before trying the first action again.  I usually boost LTR by doing Admire/Backrub/Bust a Move over and over getting 5 points for each cycle.  The trick is to do two other actions before repeating the first.

Thanks, Hook, I'll try that.  I guess I was looking for the double ++ over their heads that happens when they do an action for the first time that day.  Have you been able to achieve best friends doing this on a first meeting or even the next day?

[Sagana]

I have... I've taken sims that have never met before through best friends, crush (maybe reverse order, crush is easier to get and love, ending with 100/100 score, in one date - I won't get them engaged usually, even if they both have the want, as I like to set that up romantically.

It does matter that they start with good attraction - I think that'd be really hard with only 1 bolt and probably impossible with none (tho if they're a little bit friends, dream dates aren't hard).

<scuffle> I always switch types of interactions at least twice before repeating one. I just didn't think about that mattering - I've done it since whenever it started to be important (was that sims1?) and just got into it as a routine and never changed.

Also, I'm sure the ones you've not done before add more - so I like to make sure I'm doing everything. Telling a dirty joke can add a lot all of the sudden. Oh and the sims kind of tell you when they need to do something you're not thinking of - pillow fight or backrub will keep showing up in wants - if you've done enough of those, you'll get a whole round of hug, kiss, makeout stuff.

[Andygal]

I had one sim couple that had 2 or 3 bolt attraction for each other when they met(through the matchmaker, I think they might have had 2 bolts when they first met but it became 3 later on). And they fell in love after only a single date. It was a dream date of course . And he brought her the expensive stereo afterwards. I've never had that happen so quickly, used to always take me 3 or so days to get them in love.

Chemistry is fun. Both kinds of chemistry. Yes I am a nerd.

[Regina]

Chemistry helps not only in their romantic relationships but in their friendly relationships, too.  Say you have a sim with a pretty heavy gender preference.  Even though they have a gender preference already and you won't see the actual chemistry for the sim they're trying to befriend, the interactions still open up much more quickly.  Two sims working on friendship with good chemistry can and will respond good to friendly hugs and will do things like playing Red Hands at a much earlier stage of the relationship.

I had one sim making friends with another--in this case it was a female making friends with a male and they had negative chemistry.  Even when their friendship level was 65/40, he still wouldn't let her give him a friendly hug or let her gossip.  The only reason I pursued the friendship was because I was trying to go for her 30 best friends want and the neighborhood had a very limited population.  Otherwise I would've moved on.

[RainbowTigress]

I was really referring to making best friends with another sim without being romantically involved.  The sim already has someone I've paired them with, and I'm just trying to satisfy a want to be best friends with another sim or maybe I just want them to be best friends.  It's usually slower when you don't want to use the romantic options, so I was wondering how quickly you could get up to best friend status without the romance.

[Sagana]

oh... sorry I don't know. I haven't used dates for just friends, and I've only done outtings a bit... they're ok for fun activities, but if I want a friend (not including some roleplay/story reason that requires certain actions) I usually just have 'em come over a bit and play with them, then call them on the phone every spare minute... guess I've never been in that big a hurry as that takes 3-4 days.

[RainbowTigress]

oh... sorry I don't know. I haven't used dates for just friends, and I've only done outtings a bit... they're ok for fun activities, but if I want a friend (not including some roleplay/story reason that requires certain actions) I usually just have 'em come over a bit and play with them, then call them on the phone every spare minute... guess I've never been in that big a hurry as that takes 3-4 days.

No, I don't use dates for friends either, but sometimes you get like 2-3 wants to be best friends with different sims, and unless you cheat (which we would never do, right? ) you can't lock but two wants at the same time.  Sometimes I just feel compelled to give my sims everything they want.

[Hook]

I don't think I've ever had 2 Sims first meet and become best friends the same day, at least without any romantic interactions or some help from the game as noted below.

Chemistry helps, because it unlocks interactions at lower levels. 

If I were in a real hurry to get to best friend status, I'd use the Cool Shades aspiration reward.  While a Backrub will only give 2 lifetime relationship points normally, with Cool Shades it will give 10.  Same with Bust a Move.  The hard part is getting the Sims to where they can do the Backrub or Bust A Move. 

Once gossip is unlocked around 30 daily points, and you know it will be accepted, do two other interactions so you can get full credit for the next gossip and then do gossip with cool shades.  This is worth 40 daily relationship points.

The relationship scores "normalize" 3 times a day, from what I've seen.  Around 9 AM, 4 PM (always) and 11 PM.  This will give you a few LTR points which might unlock Admire if you don't already have it.  The daily and lifetime scores will move toward each other.  This always happens at 4 PM (if your Sim is at "home"), but I've seen it the other two times recently.

I'm sure there's more, but I feel like I'm rambling already. 

"Reply hazy, ask again later." 

Hook

[RainbowTigress]

Thanks for the info, Hook.  I'll definitely look into the stuff you've mentioned.

[Marvin Kosh]

While I'm not sure it can be exploited (only had it happen once so far) there is a chance for your Sim to get a promotion if a work friend is on an outing which has a favourable outcome.  They will, according to the dialogue, pull some strings to land you a better job, even if you don't have the skills for a promotion.

[Regina]

While I'm not sure it can be exploited (only had it happen once so far) there is a chance for your Sim to get a promotion if a work friend is on an outing which has a favourable outcome.  They will, according to the dialogue, pull some strings to land you a better job, even if you don't have the skills for a promotion.

That's an interesting little ditty!  I'll have to give it a try sometime.

[Sagana]

I decided to try out outings as a friendship only thing and had very little luck with it.

I started out having the patriarch (Henry) attempt an outing to get to know his son-in-law-to-be (Almeric). They hadn't previously met (the YAs met at college and her mother had visited but not her father.) So her mother invited him over and Henry set to work getting to be friends with him. A joke and a chat didn't get us very far (not far enough to set up an outing) and they had no chemistry, so Henry used manage groups to take Almeric out bowling. With no extra points from work or anything and no chemistry, they started the outing with something like 8/0 relationship scores.

Dates seem to be set-up to succeed - wants are rerolled when you hit DT and again when the date meter comes up (with an opportunity to lock any of those) and you get the panel that says what the date wants. The same isn't true of outings - it rolls once, but not twice and no extra help keeping them happy. Henry and Almeric had very little in the way of possible activities and none of it moved their scores very far and I couldn't even manage to get to extra time on the timer so it ended without being very much fun for either of them. Almeric went home.

There happened to be a female there that had good chemistry with Henry (dunno how much as he didn't flirt with her), so he asked her on an outing. They also started at 0/0 but with the extra options from the lightning bolts, they had more fun. Still, they got to be friends and the daily score was well up there, but best friends was a distant dream. The outing would have lasted a bit longer, but as this was Henry's second without a break, and the energy boost doesn't come until the timer goes off, he ran out of energy (it's possible to let the timer run out, get the boost, and ask them out again - but he was falling asleep on his feet, so I gave it up).

Still without the flirt interactions, I just couldn't find enough that would up LTR scores quickly. I wish outings would at least reroll wants to match (Henry's a family sim, his wants were nonsense in a bowling alley) and if it's one-on-one give you the option of seeing the other sims wants, like dates do. It probably works better with a pleasure sim, as they're set-up to like downtown, and roll those wants a lot.

I *did* find that none of the "play" interactions when dining out (throw food, steal food), nor the general ask ones ("what do you do" etc.) caused any sort of romantic thing (post-patch), so that's good

[smcnic]

This has nothing to do with romance or lovers, but personally I love the ecological guru career. A pregant female can make 70K a week with perfectly timed pregancies. She still racks up a load of vacation and makes a fortune.

I too am curious as to how this works.  I'm not normally into the Uni careers and don't think I've even had an ecological guru.

ETA:  Never mind, I'm dense and didn't notice Nectere already answered the question.  Disregard!