The Battle of the Aspirations

[windy_moon]

sounds like a plan there!

crazy - most recolours end up being priced ridiculously low - and here we are asking for the exact opposite!

*nods*

It must be a habit leftover from Sims 1, when money was so hard to come by.  Of course, how much an object cost didn't really matter as I just money cheated my ass off in that game.  Still, I appreciated creators who made reasonably inexpensive nice objects so I didn't have to keep typing the cheats in to buy them.

Now that my Sims work for a living, I'd like to be able to spend that money on nice, compact objects that may or may not appreciate in value. The Maxis objects are too big.  And they are pretty ugly, the stupid sculptures at least.  Imagine a Fortune Sim with a lovely little Ming Vase collection....coins, how about coin collectors!  (Okay, coins are dumb as they are too small, but my point is that RL fortune type folks certainly collect expensive small items, not just lot hoggers.)

a nice little super-expensive vase, chess board and painting and fortune sims could be kept happily quite easily!

Oooh, you know there are some wonderful RL collector's chess boards.  I don't even play chess and I've often thought that when my Ship Comes In, I'd love to have a gorgeous chess board for my home. 

Gus wrote:

I really don't like all the "buy object" wants because they're usually completely impractical due to space considerations.  Some like "buy a more expensive countertop" are annoying because if you fulfill them, you're either stuck with one mismatched counter or you have to shell out a lot of cash to upgrade the other items.

FWIW, I'd die before I had mismatched countertops in the kitchen.  I generally use the expensive countertop wants to put counters in elsewhere.  (I'm a big fan of built ins in real life, so it's fun for me.)

I like countertops or islands in:

bathrooms
nursery (must for easy smart milk access)
dining room (use them for a sideboard)
living room/library (espresso station)
outdoor entertaining area

I do the same with the dining chair wants.  I'll either upgrade a single chair by a desk or add a little chair in a previously unoccupied spot. 

It's really only the expensive sculpture or electronic toy wants that I find cumbersome to play.  (Landscaping can be fun, I insist, but would be much better if I took the time to find more variety.  I think I only have Maxis landscaping.  I'm going to have to go download hunting.)

[Vesca]

I just think Family sims are fun to play - maybe cause I'm family-oriented myself.   I love a house-full of kids running around playing cops and robbers or the teens who invite all their friends over after school to watch that crazy crap on T.V.  Mom and dad have very simple wants, the kids want to get A+'s on their report cards, the teens are a bit different of course; they always seem to want that first kiss, which is normal in real life.  I also love having a pregnant mom on the house.  There's so much anticipation.  Babies are easy to care for.  Toddlers are a little more demanding (except I've got Igne's toddlers sleep through the night hack and TJ's toddlers don't play in toilet hack, which help a whole lot).

My next choice would be the Knowledge sims - they're easy to play but not as exciting.  I usually end up getting their LTW met and turning them into Family sims  .

Fortune sims are okay, except they always want, want, want.  Just when you get them that new couch they wanted, they want another one!

Rarely do I have a Romance sim - too much chaos for me  unless you get their LTW met.

Popularity sims are fun but they remind me of the Romancers, wanting all those dates (haven't tried the Cheese yet)

Lastly are the Popularlity Sims, which are just a pain to me for some reason.  I never pick that aspiration.

[veilchen]

Windy - for new garden stuff try this link:

http://www.aussietopenders-sims2.com/

You have to use IE though for the downloads to show up properly, Modzilla Firefox doesn't seem to work properly.

Also MTS2 has some landscaping articles, but I haven't had the time to browse through them yet. I like landscaping, nothing beats a nice garden. That's one of the reasons I don't mind the fortune sims too much (after I get them out of the starter homes ).

http://forums.modthesims2.com/download.php?f=410&page=1&filter=

I do use Inge's no maintenance shrub mod though. I can't deal with shrubbery that overgrows so erratically. She has a mod for no maintenance flowerbeds, but it keeps the flowerbeds at one stage, and no butterflies. I love butterflies, so I had to pass on that one, darn it. Did I mention that I love the no maintenance shrubs? (Thanks bunches Inge )

Have fun.

[radiophonic]

Knowledge all the way.
No expensive needs, no need for children, no need for companionship. Pure hermit aspiration.

Knowledge sims will live on a concrete slab with the bare necessities and never complain.

[skandelouslala]

Knowledge need some training and they're okay.  If you don't give into their constant skill building wants they will focus on other things...such as their spouse and family.  I had a knowledge sim where I ignored his skill building wants and he became completely obsessed with his wife..which was  nice for a change.


Fortune are nice now with NL and the inventory thing.  They seem to have wants that concern their spouse...in between the buying things and building appropriate skills for job advancement.  They also get a lot of wants for their  kids once they have them..want to see them do good things with their lives!

Family is probably still my favorite.  Once they stop having babies for good..they start focusing on the children they already have lol

Popularity is sourta boring but they're pretty easy to keep happy, especially if you let them throw their parties.

Romance is fun to play and they're pretty easy to train as well if you ignore thier outlandish wants...but sometimes those are fun to give into.

Pleasure is ehh..it's okay..but I hate their LTWs. 

Grilled Cheese..proper punishment for some sims I suppose ha...
 

[windy_moon]

Windy - for new garden stuff try this link:

http://www.aussietopenders-sims2.com/

You have to use IE though for the downloads to show up properly, Modzilla Firefox doesn't seem to work properly.

Also MTS2 has some landscaping articles, but I haven't had the time to browse through them yet. I like landscaping, nothing beats a nice garden. That's one of the reasons I don't mind the fortune sims too much (after I get them out of the starter homes ).

http://forums.modthesims2.com/download.php?f=410&page=1&filter=

I do use Inge's no maintenance shrub mod though. I can't deal with shrubbery that overgrows so erratically. She has a mod for no maintenance flowerbeds, but it keeps the flowerbeds at one stage, and no butterflies. I love butterflies, so I had to pass on that one, darn it. Did I mention that I love the no maintenance shrubs? (Thanks bunches Inge )

Have fun.

Oh, thank you!

I was quite addicted to Persimmon Grove, back in Sims 1.  Landscaping is fun.  I just finished installling NL early this AM and now that I can see the neighbor's yards, it's bugging me that so many of them are plug ugly.  

[Bangelnuts]

Windy - for new garden stuff try this link:

http://www.aussietopenders-sims2.com/

You have to use IE though for the downloads to show up properly, Modzilla Firefox doesn't seem to work properly.

Also MTS2 has some landscaping articles, but I haven't had the time to browse through them yet. I like landscaping, nothing beats a nice garden. That's one of the reasons I don't mind the fortune sims too much (after I get them out of the starter homes ).

http://forums.modthesims2.com/download.php?f=410&page=1&filter=

I do use Inge's no maintenance shrub mod though. I can't deal with shrubbery that overgrows so erratically. She has a mod for no maintenance flowerbeds, but it keeps the flowerbeds at one stage, and no butterflies. I love butterflies, so I had to pass on that one, darn it. Did I mention that I love the no maintenance shrubs? (Thanks bunches Inge )

Have fun.

thanks for the links

[Oddysey]

I probably like knowledge best. Skill building is fun, and getting abducted by aliens is even better. Mwahahah.

Family and popularity are about even. I use them as glue for neighborhood cohesion. Most of my couples have one or the other.

I don't dislike Fortune, but I don't particularly like them, either. Same thing with Romance. When I want to play old school sims 1 style, I go with fortune. When I want to play something challenging, or a change of pace, I play romance.

Pleasure sims are okay, but kind of irritating sometimes. Probably end up around Romance and Fortune. Grilled Cheese are good for a change of pace, or for punishing sims, but not something I'd want a whole lot of. Except for Grilled Cheese Alien Zombie Vampires.

[dusty]

The only one I don't really like so far is pleasure - mine just don't seem to get enough power wants to keep them happy.  It's all these little 500pt ones, so they're just running from jumping on the couch to blowing bubbles to diving in the pool to playing on the computer to "looking at" the neighbours and endlessly juggling cups at the espresso machine... I'm exhausted and they're still not happy!

[Bangelnuts]

The only one I don't really like so far is pleasure - mine just don't seem to get enough power wants to keep them happy.  It's all these little 500pt ones, so they're just running from jumping on the couch to blowing bubbles to diving in the pool to playing on the computer to "looking at" the neighbours and endlessly juggling cups at the espresso machine... I'm exhausted and they're still not happy!

I just had a pleasure sim get married in my game and He got 8000 aspiration points for getting the want fulfilled

[radiophonic]

The only one I don't really like so far is pleasure - mine just don't seem to get enough power wants to keep them happy.  It's all these little 500pt ones, so they're just running from jumping on the couch to blowing bubbles to diving in the pool to playing on the computer to "looking at" the neighbours and endlessly juggling cups at the espresso machine... I'm exhausted and they're still not happy!

Agreed. It's a really, really lame aspiration. It's like they took romance and merged it with fortune then added a bunch of crap wants.

[Bangelnuts]

The only one I don't really like so far is pleasure - mine just don't seem to get enough power wants to keep them happy.  It's all these little 500pt ones, so they're just running from jumping on the couch to blowing bubbles to diving in the pool to playing on the computer to "looking at" the neighbours and endlessly juggling cups at the espresso machine... I'm exhausted and they're still not happy!

Agreed. It's a really, really lame aspiration. It's like they took romance and merged it with fortune then added a bunch of crap wants.

Idunno about that wait til see a popularity sims wants after they are Perma Plat. they resemble a fortune sims

[Brynne]

My permaplat popularity still just wants to talk to everybody. Not that it matters, anymore...

[yetyak]

At Aussie Top Enders, with Firefox, if you right click and "save target as" or "save link as" it downloads the rar files just fine.  Anything to help avoid IE!!

[Bangelnuts]

My permaplat popularity still just wants to talk to everybody. Not that it matters, anymore...

mine wats to buy a bed costing at least 2500  etc...

[eaglezero]

Like when the Knowledge and Family sims have romantic wants for each other.  The Knowledge sim will spin Talk to, Flirt with, Kiss, Make Out, and Whoohoo in that order.  But the Family sim will more likely then not spin Talk to, Flirt with, Kiss, then throw a big monkey wrench into the works and have every want spin up with Tell Dirty Joke, Play with, Appreciate, and so on, totally killing the mood for the poor Knowledge sim.

I've found that when Family sims spin those Entertain/Play With/Appreciate/Flirt wants, you can move it to Kiss/Make-Out/Woohoo by choosing "Hold Hands" for your flirt action. I haven't ever conducted an actual test to see if this works 100% of the time (you know, the disclaimer, so no one thinks I'm claiming something along the eating-cookies-causes-twins line) but it's what I always do, and it works for me, so you might want to try it out.

[Hook]

Thanks, eaglezero.  I'll try that out. Good info.

Hook

[veilchen]

You're quite welcome Windy and Bangle... how's that for a lightning speed reply? I'm sorry, I wish I had more time for myself. I just have to hang in there, soon, very soon...

And thank you for the info Yetyak, I try to avoid IE as much as possible too :D

[Bangelnuts]

Like when the Knowledge and Family sims have romantic wants for each other.  The Knowledge sim will spin Talk to, Flirt with, Kiss, Make Out, and Whoohoo in that order.  But the Family sim will more likely then not spin Talk to, Flirt with, Kiss, then throw a big monkey wrench into the works and have every want spin up with Tell Dirty Joke, Play with, Appreciate, and so on, totally killing the mood for the poor Knowledge sim.

I've found that when Family sims spin those Entertain/Play With/Appreciate/Flirt wants, you can move it to Kiss/Make-Out/Woohoo by choosing "Hold Hands" for your flirt action. I haven't ever conducted an actual test to see if this works 100% of the time (you know, the disclaimer, so no one thinks I'm claiming something along the eating-cookies-causes-twins line) but it's what I always do, and it works for me, so you might want to try it out.

some of the family sim wants are totally moronic

[radiophonic]

Has anyone been brave enough to play with the (presumably unfinished) 'power' aspiration?

[veilchen]

Power aspiration? What is that? My only excuse for asking that, is that I just got the ep, sorry if its a dumb question.

[radiophonic]

That's available from the 'sim modder' using the 'testingCheatsEnabled' directive when using the Nightlife EP.

[Motoki]

I thought that was just an internal name for the fortune aspiration.

[veilchen]

Oh my stars, now I feel really stupid. I have absolutely no clue who or what a 'sims modder' is. I do know what testingcheatsenabled is though, at least there is that. On the other hand power = fortune, sounds corporate enough to me :D

[Motoki]

It's a new debug cheat tool you can spawn when you hold shift and click on the sim. It was added with Nightlife to the list of other spawned tools such as the tombstone of life and death etc. The actual object itself is a baby standing up. lol