Simysteries - anyone know why.......?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Or maybe they just didn't finish it!  Still, a useful place to hide the lot debugger!

[C.S.]

Another 2 questions, not exactly mysteries but I'd love a definitive answer so I can stop wondering:

1) Why do kids get the option to 'work out' on the stereo but the action dropped off the queue almost as soon as you put it there? Somebody at Maxis forgot to disable it or I'm just too stupid to get it right?

2) Does the 'Practice' option on the myshuno do anything other than provide fun? Is there some hidden skill or benefits, like, the more they practice, the better they get at winning in a game of bingo?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Question 1 - do they need to pee?  If so, it will drop from their queue until they've been to the bathroom.

[J. M. Pescado]

2) Does the 'Practice' option on the myshuno do anything other than provide fun? Is there some hidden skill or benefits, like, the more they practice, the better they get at winning in a game of bingo?

I'm pretty sure there aren't any hidden benefits. Besides, since when was playing Bingo a skill?

[ZephyrZodiac]

And it's not as if there were a jackpot to win!

[C.S.]

Question 1 - do they need to pee?  If so, it will drop from their queue until they've been to the bathroom.

They aren't in any danger of peeing themselves, the bladder bar is usually half to 3/4 filled (don't want them to stop midway to pee), and there is room for them to do a work out . I'll try again later.

I'm pretty sure there aren't any hidden benefits. Besides, since when was playing Bingo a skill?

Well, it's all because of the word 'Practice'. At least now I know for sure it's really a game of chance .

[ZephyrZodiac]

They may not be in danger of peeing themselves, but unless the bladder bar is totally green, then very often the Work Out option does drop from their queue.  You could try either the assault course or the punchbag - the option doesn't drop from their queue then.

[C.S.]

I was too stupid afterall. I've been using the punchbag mostly (my video card seems to have issues with the assault course), and I just wanted to see sim children work out to the stereo as I've never seen it, until last night when I did as you directed .

[ZephyrZodiac]

I just wish they got some fun from it!  I mean, most human kids love doing things like that!

[Ancient Sim]

Interesting point about Don cleaning up, he does in my game as well.  In fact, if there are dirty pots downstairs cleaning them up is the first thing he does when he gets up.  His eldest daughter, who also has just 1 Neatness point, also autonomously cleans up any dirty pots she comes across and both his daughters automatically clean-up the mess they make after showering.  His sons aren't so fussy, though.  What always puzzles me is why sloppy Sims get all agitated when they encounter messy rooms (especially as it's usually them who've made the mess).  Why would they care?  You'd think they'd jump up and down in glee. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

You'd think so, wouldn't you, but I guess the programmers just couldn't handle it!  On one occasion, Mary-Sue walked by Don's lot and kicked his trashcan.  He was furious!  After all, trashcans are for salvaging, not kicking!

[C.S.]

Figured this is my chance to ask about things I've always wanted to know but were too trivial to start a new thread about, so, here's another question : What does the 'contact' thing do? You know, a sim calls up your sim with an invitation to go downtown, a game tip pops up telling you your sim has gained a contact and there are benefits to be had or something like that. I've only been on 2 of those, and I didn't like it too much. First time I got a call like that, I thought it'll only be one sim my sim had to entertain, I was not pleasantly surprised when half the town showed up. Ok, that was an exaggeration but you get the idea. So, does having a contact bring any advantages and whatnot?

[Renatus]

When you sim has a contact, they get a temporary relationship boost with that person. It may be good for going on a scored outing with that person in hopes to squeeze an item or a job promotion out of them, or as you've seen, for meeting other sims (haha, ugh). You can tell how long the relationship boost will last by looking at their portrait; they get this bluish overlay that disappears in the same manner as the red furious overlay does.

[C.S.]

Erm, "temporary relationship boost", it's a one time thing, like, say their STR was 60/30 and because of the 'contact' status, it went up to 70/35 (or something like that), or does it lasts as long as the bluish-clock-timer thingy and relationship building is faster than normal? I was too busy and stressed out with the group outing to take note, after that I just want to forget about it . I was concentrating on my sims' skills building at the time, so they didn't have much time for socialising, and the contact came and went. Both times, they never got anything out of it (they did get a promotion the next day, but I thought it was because they were due for it anyway, all necessary skills requirement met and they had gone to work punctually in platinum mood) even when I cheated my way to a highly successful outing the second time round .

[Kyna]

Contact outings are easier than other scored outings because you start with a relationship of 30/30 with the contact (assuming you were 0/0 before).

First thing I do on getting out of the taxi is make friends with the contact.   As making friends appears to be one of the things that boost the outing score/timer, 9 times out of 10 making that friendship boosts the outing into the next level.  This easy to achieve early time boost give contact outings a head start compared to other scored outings.

I believe the number of the people in the group is the same number of people you can invite to a party.  I have a line in my userstartup.cheat (intProp MaxNumOfVisitingSims) that sets that to 6, and I always have 7 people on a contact outing (my sim plus 6 sims).  So if you've fiddled with this for bigger parties, that might be why half the town was in your outing group.

Successful contact outings have the same rewards as other scored outings - a random possibility of a skill point, a gift, or a promotion (if someone in the group is higher up in the same career path as your sim).  Or maybe nothing.  You'll know the promotion is from the outing because when your sim returns from work with the promotion you get a message that says something about the other sim pulling some strings for your sim at work.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I had a pleasure sim in the medical career.  She met Don Lothario, and simply invited him over, he fell for her and the next day she got promoted "due to Don Lothario pulling a few strings" - but she had the necessary skill points anyway!

[C.S.]

I believe the number of the people in the group is the same number of people you can invite to a party.  I have a line in my userstartup.cheat (intProp MaxNumOfVisitingSims) that sets that to 6, and I always have 7 people on a contact outing (my sim plus 6 sims).  So if you've fiddled with this for bigger parties, that might be why half the town was in your outing group.

I have indeed, and it was set to a much higher number than yours, at 20. Used to be 8, then 10 (which somehow didn't change anything), then finally 20 because oftentimes my sim was about to throw a party, some sim would happen to walk by and cut the number of sims down by 1. If it was a sim I had planned on including in the invite list, fine, I'd go ahead and make the call then greet the walkby, but more often than not, it wasn't. Of course I could make the call anyway, but I much appreciate that the guests for parties like birthdays and weddings usually show up with close to full needs . "Half the town" was an exaggeration like I said, thank goodness it was about 6-8 (haven't gone on many group outings so I can't recall), but still a rude shock the first time .

Thanks all, for taking the time to tell me about 'contacts'.

I had a pleasure sim in the medical career.  She met Don Lothario, and simply invited him over, he fell for her and the next day she got promoted "due to Don Lothario pulling a few strings" - but she had the necessary skill points anyway!

Yeah, I much prefer gifts. I'm always excited to find out what goodies the sims that snuck up to the house have brought in their bag.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Even if you have the option for 20 in your parties, you can make your groups smaller, it's entirely up to you how many "Bowling League" or "Keep-Fit Club" members you have.

[C.S.]

"Keep-Fit Club" , somehow, I thought that sounded very amusing.

Isn't 8 the maximum number of sims one can have in the Manage Groups list, no matter how high MaxNumOfVisitingSims is set to be? I would actually prefer if that number could be manipulated like MaxNumOfVisitingSims, for the kind of outing that doesn't keep score of course.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think it is 8, although sometimes you get the option for a lower amount (I think if you have other sims on your lot at the time) but I meant you can choose within that limit how many you have in your group.  If you want, you can have a group of 1 (+ the sim who's group it is).

I think a Keep Fit Club would be a great group for some rather sedentary elders!  And just think how much they can earn by being personal trainers!

[ZephyrZodiac]

I have a few more little puzzlers!

1.  Why is the Skip Broke that remembers his relationships with his family not the same Skip Broke that Brandi has memories of in Neighbourhood Memories?

2. Why does Beau Broke, a toddler when the game begins, have the Knowledge aspiration?

3. Why does Alexander Goth have the Fortune aspiration.

4. Why does Alexander Goth have a Furious token when he's never been furious with anyone?

5. And  why isn't Dina Caliente Dina Bachelor, or Michael Bachelor Michael Caliente?

[Lythdan]

I think the answer to all five questions is Maxis was sloppy with the way they set Pleasantview up. Memories are all over the place. Alexander doesn't even have a memory of Bella's abduction, but has a memory of peeing himself instead. Dina has no memory of falling in love with Mortimer. Alexander reckons he was taught to talk by Bella, but Mortimer reckons he dunnit.

And the list could go on and on...

[ZephyrZodiac]

I know Maxis was sloppy, but it's fun tracking down all their little mistakes (or "feature"s!)

[flowerchile]

I got a tad bored last night what withn Cassandra Goth preggers (again), so I decided to spice things up a it and used the age sims cheat to see if she looked similar to the Cassandra from Sims1.  Well; I think it may be becuase she was preggers, but she ended up being just a HEAD.  No body.  Any ideas to this mystery?  By the way, she turned back to normal when I adultized her again.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I tried aging Nina Caliente down to a child, she froze, and about half a dozen social workers turned up, one oafter the other, to take her away.  It just turned into a never-ending loop, so I had to get back to windows and exit the game!  I think there are issues with the AgeSimsCheat!