Different Dancing

[MaxisManiac]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but how do you get your Sims to do the dancing animation that was introduced in Nightlife? Not the Smustle, but the other one that is used with the "Dance" command on stereos (they point their fingers in the air and fall down sometimes...). I've seen my Sims do it randomly sometimes, but I was wondering if it had to do with Dancing skill or whatever. Any help?

[C.S.]

You mean when they dance solo to the stereo and fall down sometimes? It's got to do with poor dancing skill. Other sims will laugh, or do that 'you are crazy' thing with their hands, or point and laugh etc when they see the poor dancing skill. Just select the sim you want to do the dancing, direct them to turn on the stereo then choose 'dance solo'.

[MaxisManiac]

Oh. Low dancing?

All right. Thank you.

[C.S.]

I forgot to mention personality might be a factor. If you have a very shy sim (less than 3 in Outgoing), then maybe you won't see them lose their balance and fall down, since they don't shake their body much while dancing solo. But I could be wrong .

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think you're right, there.  But why oh why can kids dance perfectly well, then transition to teen and suddenly keep falling over?  And why can teens no longer dance with Mum or Dad?  (Or even a YA sibling?)

[Ness]

if you want your teens to dance with mum and dad again, check out syberspunk's hack in peasantry - works well!

apparently the change was due to the slow dance thing in nightlife - all dancing, instead of just slow dance became a romantic interaction.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Thanks, ness, I found it already, and I'm going to test it next time I quit and load.

[Oddysey]

Don Lothario does this. And in my game, since I have Crammyboy's nudist hack, he does it naked. It's . . . um . . . interesting. But he's a good test sim, if you haven't messed with Pleasantview.

Kids "dance perfectly well"? They flail about like loons. I think the only reason they don't fall down is because they're short. Center of gravity is lower.

Deep wackiness going on in the dancing changes introduced by Nightlife. It's cool that there's more interesting stuff going on, but then there's things like how Smustle raises your social even when done alone, and teens not being able to dance with adults. Not cool.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Oh, well, some kids flail about like loons, granted, but I've had some (usually ones who've rocked in time to the stereo as toddlers) who dance well, and they don't look at all likely to fall over!

I tried the hack in my game tonight, and it's great, I had a teen who was failing miserably with dancing - a very serious knowledge sim, but very outgoing, so I was surprised, but then, they never had a stereo at all when she was a kid.  With the hack installed, She was able to dance with her dad, who's Aquarius and pretty high on fun, and then she phoned up and got the scholarship.

Just very annoying that teens who already got the scholarship but haven't yet gone to uni had no problems with dancing, yet the parents who taught them are suddenly falling down all the time!

[MissDoh]

apparently the change was due to the slow dance thing in nightlife - all dancing, instead of just slow dance became a romantic interaction.

Are you even surprise of the shortcut Maxis took in regards of this?   

I am definitely not....

[RainbowTigress]

Surprised?  No.  Disappointed?  Yes.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think the problem, as always, is Maxis has never really accepted that the target audience for Sims2 is not 13 and a half!  And people play the game far more seriously than they allow for, so obviously, all their little shortcuts and "features" are discovered!

[Ness]

I've met very few people playing sims who are teenagers...  but many who are older than myself, and it's not like I'm extremely young!

[JeanMaas]

In the Dutch community the av. age is from 11 to 15, some are even youger. Here the age for the game is set at 12+. There the people around my age can be counted on one or two hands. It is quiet a releaf to discover sites like this.

Jean

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think a lot of teenagers get the game because they think it's "cool", but they don't have the patience to play for long, it's not as if it's a fast action game, but on the other hand, a lot of older people do play and take their game very seriously indeed!  But some won't admit it!

[JeanMaas]

Yes indeed, quiet often they ask for ideas. They also used to play games to the last level and then it's done. The boyfriend of my dougther played out all the carreers, that where his levels. Lol, i do take my game way too seriously.

[veilchen]

So they still get the dance scholarship then? None of my teenies have gotten it ever since I installed NL. I just thought that it was a maxis initiated thing. I guess I have a glitch then, darn it. And yes, they all have the fully developed dancing skill, but they still don't get the scholarship, none of them did and/or does.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Have you tried taking out the Groups cache file from your TheSims2 folder and letting the game generate a new one?  I've had no real problems with teens getting the dance scholarship, even the one I mentioned who was very serious got it eventually.

[veilchen]

No, I haven't done that, I should've thought of that. That would be the one in the Program folder right? I haven't done this before, ever, so I just want to make sure. Thanks for the heads up ZZ.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Not the one in programs, the one in My Documents.  This one regenerates if you remove it, I shouldn't think the one in Programs does, although I may be wrong.


Basically, it stores a lot of info and it could well be storing some incorrect data which is causing your sims to be unable to get the scholarship, but regenerating it means the data store is started from scratch.  You only need to see the difference in the size of the old file and the new one to realise there's quite a lot stored in there.

[veilchen]

Okay, doing it right now. Stay tuned, because if I mess up with that, I'll have a lot of crying to do

Just kidding, but it would be nice if that fixed it. I like my YA-simmies to have as much money as possible, because I move them into the rental houses. They have to furnish it, and then the rental-price goes down nicely for the next batch. The first ones, unfortunately have to move in with the folks if they don't manage to save up enough money, but thanks to Reg, Witch, and Emma, I have some great starter homes that are just perfect for Uni-rentals. They are really nice, cheap, and most of the time even my first batch of YA's don't have to move in with the folks after Uni.

[MissDoh]

Veilchen getting the dancing scholarship takes way longer with Nightlife than before, I think they readjust it in the game to be more close to the time it takes to get the pool scholarship.

I notice that even if you see in the entertain menu the "bust a move" option it does not mean anymore they have the scholarship.  But once you see them dancing and put one hand on the floor and bend their back you should get the scholarship, until you see any do that you won't.  I think my sims needed to dance for something like 12 hours before they could get the scholarship.

EDIT:  I made teens dance together with other teens, don't have syberpunk hack yet in my game.  (Also corrected some words and grammar)

[veilchen]

Thank you MissDoh. I did have them dance for a while longer than the 'bust-a-move' appearance, but I'm not sure it was long enough. I'll be on the look-out for the bend move then. That, together with the group.cache replacement hopefully takes care of the missing scholarship.

I never went for the pool scholarship either. They have to play for up to 12 sim hours? They are ready when they can perform the trick-shots, I imagine. (I seem to do that a lot lately, answering my own questions, I mean )

[MissDoh]

For some reason I keep forgetting about the pool scholarship.  It is probably because I don't have many families that have big houses or 2nd or 3rd generation families or more so they don't have a lot of money and of course, they don't have a pool table.  I find it hard making them play from a long time.  However, they can dance for a few hours in a row without problems. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

I only ever had one teen who was a good pool-player - as you say, need a big house and loadsamoney!  (This was Cassandra's daughter in an old Pleasantview I haven't played recently)  She could perform both trick shots and win hustles, but I don't remember her getting a scholarship for it.