Share game tips/secrets that make your Sims 2 better.

[LaurellKH]

Try to share only one tip a day but no reprimand if you can't help but write novel. Here is my tip of the day that improved my game:


:here: I put the Aion1 (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=286864) maid in my parks to clean up.

[DigitalSympathies]

On windowed mode, I use the scroll wheel and hold it down, alongside the arrow keys, to swing around my lots about as fast (or faster!) as edge scrolling.

[labellavienna]

For those who have to delete their cache files (accessories/groups etc) every time they start up their game...I have a solution!

Open the files with notepad, delete the text within the file...save, and set both files to "READ ONLY". Voila! You will never have to manually delete the files ever again! Plus, the game will never overwrite those files.

[Psychosim]

You can double-click on neighbourhoods and lots instead of waiting for the blue box to pop up.

[Liv Lukas]

Laurel, question: are the parks you put the aio on owned lots? If not, how would you get the mod to work on an unowned lot?

My tip: Putting boolProp dontMergeNHFlora false in your userstartup.cheat file allows you to see all the trees in your hood from lot view. Without this, many of the trees (like some pine trees from BV) do not show up.

[M.M.A.A.]

Laurel, question: are the parks you put the aio on owned lots? If not, how would you get the mod to work on an unowned lot?

My tip: Putting boolProp dontMergeNHFlora false in your userstartup.cheat file allows you to see all the trees in your hood from lot view. Without this, many of the trees (like some pine trees from BV) do not show up.

Are you sure its false?

[Peni Griffin]

Um - but then they're not doing their job, Ms. Vienna. Not having a cache file to reference should make your game run slower.

[labellavienna]

But having cache files in my Sims folder prevents my game from starting up

[sushigal007]

Download and install Cat's Tooltip Adder (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=321239) to change tooltips to filenames. It's a HUGE help when finding badly made or broken Bodyshop files.

Um - but then they're not doing their job, Ms. Vienna. Not having a cache file to reference should make your game run slower.

I did actually try downloading an empty, read-only cache file once as I always have to delete them when I install new CC, but after a few play sessions, it somehow got altered and next time I installed new CC, the game wouldn't load and I had to delete it. The game just makes new ones anyway. I've never noticed it run slower because I'm too busy being relieved that it's running at all.

[Peni Griffin]

I delete caches after every single game. Since it's routine, it's not a big deal and certain problems have never recurred since I began the practice.

[Liv Lukas]

Are you sure its false?

Yes, as I copied that straight from my userstartup file.

[Babahara]

Why would you want to delete cache files, is there something wrong with them?

[Saturnfly]

Some games won't start-up unless you delete the cache files. There's probably other reasons that I don't know about.

Also, great thread!

[Josepina]

This is if you are in windowed mode and want the window to fit your screen. Go to your program files/The Sims 2/TS Data/Res/Config and make a copy of graphicsrules.srg. Right click the original file and select open with notepad. In the edit menu select "find" and type screenmoderesolution. In this section you will see a line called "settings$High". Change maxreswidth and maxresheight to your screen resolution. Save the file to desktop and copy it back to the original folder. Now ingame your screen resolution will be available to select under display options.

Best if you have the windows toolbar set to autohide.

[Peni Griffin]

A cache file is a scratch pad where the computer jots down the bits of code it's called on to access a lot during a session. Just like the scratch pad next on your desk, it quickly gets erased, scratched out, and overwritten to the point that it's difficult to read and causes random glitches (misreading). Deleting the cache file is tearing the top sheet off your scratch pad and starting a fresh one.

The single most important thing that makes my game better is, knowing when to stop thinking of them as people and start thinking of them as code. If the sim goes all around Robin Hood's barn to go from one room to the next, that's coded, and it's on the player to change the layout to something that the code can follow more efficiently. The sim has no choice about it. There's no point swearing at them for behaving in the only way the program lets them behave.

[xptl297]

Well I always think on them as code and have changed enough to be almost satisfied with the layout, except what I don't know where it is.
As to delete the cache files I do this after every session even if nothing went wrong with the last session. I though to be a good idea if the cache files could delete itself after you exit the game. Isn't it possible to create a sort of macro to do this? I mean I have to exit and start again if I'm testing a mod or correcting a mesh that is not fitting correctly. If you do not delete the cache files, mainly in modding, the last modification will be still valid. Sometimes it is necessary to shut down the computer and start again so that the memory is cleaned and the last failures are wiped out.
Anyway it was a good suggestion, Labella. Have you never had any problems doing this? I mean avoiding the caches to be overwritten?
I never notice if the caches make the game run slower or faster anyway.

[Mootilda]

Yes, you could create a BAT file which deletes the caches then runs the game.

[maxon]

Looks at Mootilda <hopefully>

[Darby]

Something niggles at me that this has already been done, but alas, I cannot remember by whom. :(

[Mootilda]

Ah... You'd like something that would read your save game location from the registry and then delete your caches, then read your installation location from the registry and start your game.

And, let me guess, you'd like it to work with the AnyGameStarter.

Have I got that right? ;)

I was just thinking of a simple BAT file (RemoveCachesAndStartGame.bat). A batch (BAT) file is just a series of commands that you want to run in sequence. You create a new text file and then rename it to have the .BAT file extension. Then, use Notepad to type in the commands that you want, something like this:
erase "C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Accessory.cache"
erase "C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Groups.cache"
"C:\Program Files\The Sims 2 Mansion\TSBin\Sims2EP9.exe" -wBe sure to type in full paths, and to enclose the paths with quotes. Note that this one runs my M&G game in windowed mode; you would want to use your own parameters and your own paths. You can find out what parameters you're using by looking at the shortcut that you use to run the game. Once you've got your own personal BAT file, you just double click on it in Windows Explorer to run it (or you can create a shortcut to run the BAT file).

To do something like this with the AnyGameStarter, your best bet is to create a batch file (RemoveCachesAndStartAnyGame1.bat) in your AnyGameStarter\AppFiles folder, which calls the Start_AnyGame1.bat file (or AnyGame2, or AnyGame3), something like this:
erase "C:\My Documents\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame1\EA Games\The Sims 2\Accessory.cache"
erase "C:\My Documents\AnyGameStarter\AnyGame1\EA Games\The Sims 2\Groups.cache"
"C:\My Documents\AnyGameStarter\AppFiles\Start_AnyGame1.bat" -wAgain, look at your AnyGame shortcut to find out the appropriate parameters.

Does that make any sense?

[Babahara]

A cache file is a scratch pad where the computer jots down the bits of code it's called on to access a lot during a session. Just like the scratch pad next on your desk, it quickly gets erased, scratched out, and overwritten to the point that it's difficult to read and causes random glitches (misreading). Deleting the cache file is tearing the top sheet off your scratch pad and starting a fresh one.
Do these files make access to some game information faster?

The reason why I feel uneasy about deleting them is, for example, could my game start loading pictures in make-up\clothes catalogues slower? I thought that the game writes something down when you access them the first time, so that at other times you can access it faster. My PC isn't new, so when I see a cache file, I feel like it's saving my day, rather than damaging my game. But I'd love to know if that's true in this case or not. After all, if they're called cache, that must mean that they speed something up, otherwise why call them that way.

[sushigal007]

Thanks, Mootilda! I've made a BAT file on my desktop to delete Groups.cache (I only have problems with that one, not the Accessories one) and run the game. It works perfectly.

[Peni Griffin]

Yes, cache files make routine operations run faster. How much faster and whether you notice it no doubt varies a lot. It's only after things get overwritten in the same cache file a lot that it starts screwing up.

The rest of your computer has cache files, too, but they may not be in a handy place where you can see them to dump them regularly.

[LaurellKH]

Tip of the day:

:here: Resurrect ALL the Tricou family from Downtown to stop getting incomplete memories which will lead to great game glitch if left unchecked over very long time.

[M.M.A.A.]

My tip: If you have a large number of teens that you want to send to college, like me, I have like 30, don't place lovers in one house, that is don't place every two sims who are in love) in a house on their own. Build soros and frats, build a single large house with lots of bedrooms for those who you don't know where you can fit them instead of having each one of them live on their own or have them live in a dorm. I have like 13 sims in one house.

[xptl297]

Thanks Moothilda. It is very good to have someone who knows more than sim around. :)
I opened both caches in Simpe. Accessory.cache is probably only listing game accessories and should not cause any problem. Simpe cannot read what is in it, so I suppose that it contains all the accessories used by the game. It is not custom.
Groups.cache looks like a printout from a DOS environment. It states the actions taken by the game when loading. It lists all the object groups from custom objects, including the zCEP-Extra stuff created by Numenor.
How slow or fast your game loads, depends pure and simple on your computer. It is the speed and the qualification of your processor that counts. My new computer loads in 30 seconds no matter what I stuff it with. My other computers cry and stamp with the "feet" for time enough to irritate me.

[LaurellKH]

Tip of the day:

:here: Create your own cache files (for those with much custom content in downloads).


Information about cache is here: http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Delete_Cache_Files.

I make my own cache.

Choose what is most important. For me it is hair. When Sim goes to mirror to change appearance I hate slow forever loading each page.

Erase all cache before enter game. Load game. Have girl Sim click mirror, view all colors hair every page. Have boy click mirror. View all hair every page. I did glasses for boy and girl also. Exit game. Do not visit Build or Buy Catalog in game. Avoid it or that is to much cache (in my case).

Make a folder on Desktop says Sims2cache (something like that). Go Owner > Documents > EA Games > The Sims 2. Copy one folder Thumbnails and two files: Groups.cache + Accessory.cache. Put copy of thoese 3 in desktop folder Sims2cache.

Now, every time before entering game erase all cache in Owner > Documents > EA Games > The Sims 2. Copy those three from Sims2cache folder on desktop and paste in Owner > Documents > EA Games > The Sims 2 to replace what you erased. Now when Sim changes appearance for hair or glasses the pages load fast every time.

This is not needed to run game. This is way to make something was hard easier. :up:

[xptl297]

Oops, by your explanation it is the same as launch BodyShop. It creates the same cache crap. So, I'm with Moothilda, BAT your way out.
This also depends on the speed of your computer. If you have a fast computer, hairs and clothes take also very little time to load. If you have a crap computer you'll need all the help middle you can find. Thanks for the explanation.

Editing: Tried the BAT file after correcting it for the settings of my computer. It doesn't work. I use Windows 7 and the route is very complex. My version is Norwegian.
The route for the cache files is:
Biblioteker\Dokumenter\Mine Dokumenter\EA Games\The Sims 2\Accessory.cache (or) groups.cache

The route to Mansions is:
"C:\Programfiler (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Hjem og Hage - Stæsj\Sims2EP9.exe" -w

Tried to read the shortcut for the game and it is much more complicated
It says:
%ProgramFiles%\EA Games\The Sims 2 Hjem og Hage - Stæsj\Sims2EP9.ico

It seems that Windows 7 has other routine to access DOS commands.

Anyone know the solution? I really want to destroy the files with simple click. Moothilda, any clue? Thanks.

[mirjamsim2love]

Do these files make access to some game information faster?

The reason why I feel uneasy about deleting them is, for example, could my game start loading pictures in make-up\clothes catalogues slower? I thought that the game writes something down when you access them the first time, so that at other times you can access it faster. My PC isn't new, so when I see a cache file, I feel like it's saving my day, rather than damaging my game. But I'd love to know if that's true in this case or not. After all, if they're called cache, that must mean that they speed something up, otherwise why call them that way.
I had to delete them lately.
Never thought about doing that before. By chance I read about it here and promptly it gets introduced in my Sims life because my game would not start anymore.
After I deleted them my game started again as normal and I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary that could be related to me deleting those. My game also didn't take longer to load than before but okay, I didn't count the minutes. :)
So to me it sounds it is more helpful to delete them in some cases as it is a pest.
I think it is the same as deleting caches from your internet use.
You do that when you notice a problem that could be caused by the cache. If everything works fine, just leave the cache as it is if you prefer that.

[Mootilda]

Tried the BAT file after correcting it for the settings of my computer. It doesn't work. I use Windows 7 and the route is very complex. My version is Norwegian.
The route for the cache files is:
Biblioteker\Dokumenter\Mine Dokumenter\EA Games\The Sims 2\Accessory.cache (or) groups.cacheThat's not a full path. Full paths begin with the drive letter. Try finding out where your Biblioteker folder is actually stored on the drive and it should work.

The route to Mansions is:
"C:\Programfiler (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Hjem og Hage - Stæsj\Sims2EP9.exe" -wThat path looks fine to me. Is it supposed to contain non-alphanumeric characters? I wonder whether you need to use another program (other than notepad) to allow you to use unicode characters? Have you tried using Wordpad or another text editor?

Tried to read the shortcut for the game and it is much more complicated
It says:
%ProgramFiles%\EA Games\The Sims 2 Hjem og Hage - Stæsj\Sims2EP9.icoAgain, that isn't a full path. The string "%Program Files%" is an environment variable on your computer. I can find the value of that string on my Windows XP machine by bringing up my Control Panel, choosing System and then choosing the Advanced tab. One of the buttons on that page is Environment Variables. There should be similar functionality on your computer, although I don't know the exact steps to find it. My guess is that this will work if you replace %Program Files% with "C:\Programfiler (x86)"

[sushigal007]

I found it easier to find the paths for my program by right-clicking the shortcut on my desktop, selecting 'Properties' and copying the target.
Quick question though. I tried to get it to run FRAPs before running the game, and although it ran it, the command prompt just hung after that and wouldn't go on to the next command. Is that normal?


Oh, and a tip!
If you're extracting lots of textures from packages, such as a set of clothes for age conversions, or wallpaper textures for Buggybooz new nooks and niches set, have SimPE open on one half of your screen and the folder your packages are in on the other half. Select a bunch of packages (but not too many or you'll lose track of what you've done - twenty is a good number) and drag them into the SimPE window. They will all open at once. Then you can just scroll down the list of textures, exporting as you go. Much quicker than opening package after package after package.

[hweldon81]

Very small tip. To reduce baby care, wait until they need a diaper change then follow this sequence:

change diaper, feed bottle, bathe, cuddle, put back to bed

You should be able to leave them completely until the next diaper change. The cuddle will usually burp them and will build the relationship up.

[labellavienna]

If you packaged a home from a corrupted neighborhood and place it into the house bin...and place it on to a new neighborhood- would the "corruption" carry over?

[M.M.A.A.]

If you packaged a home from a corrupted neighborhood and place it into the house bin...and place it on to a new neighborhood- would the "corruption" carry over?

The hood will only be corrupted if there was a family in that house in the lot bin. I may be wrong so wait for others to respond too.

Also, if the house was inhibited by sims, make sure you use the bat box:

DO NOT...

Bin empty lots that have been lived in without getting rid of the off-world loiterers. [Pescado's Lot Debugger has an option to do this but it will only appear when off-world loiterers are present]

from http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Avoiding_Hood_Corruption .

[Mootilda]

I found it easier to find the paths for my program by right-clicking the shortcut on my desktop, selecting 'Properties' and copying the target.
Quick question though. I tried to get it to run FRAPs before running the game, and although it ran it, the command prompt just hung after that and wouldn't go on to the next command. Is that normal?The commands are executed in sequence. If you want to run both FRAPS and the game, then you need special commands that tell the batch file to continue, even though the last command hasn't finished. I believe that you want the "start" command; I'd have to look into that.

[Update:]

Yes, it looks like the start command would work. Something like this:erase "C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Accessory.cache"
erase "C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Groups.cache"
start "C:\WINDOWS\notepad.exe"
"C:\Program Files\The Sims 2 Mansion\TSBin\Sims2EP9.exe" -wThis will start notepad without waiting for it to exit, then run the game.

[sushigal007]

Ahhh, thank you very much!

ETA: Hmm, it's not working. I've made a test file, which says:

start "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe"

It'll open VLC fine, but instead of opening Firefox (or SimTracker, which is what I originally tried) it opens another command prompt window that's titled 'Administrator: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe. And on that screen, it says C:\Users\Sushi\Desktop>

[McChoclatey]

Make your family rich using cheats (ex.motherlode, kaching) and buy them whatever they want. Then, once you've got your dream house all set, take away all their cash. Leave them with 0 family funds, then make them get a job to pay off all those pricey bills. :) At least, that's how I always play it. It's frustrating not being able to buy the things you want/need your sims to have sometimes, so I play "in reverse." Hope this helps. :0

[Liv Lukas]

So the thing about this thread is that I keep thinking of tips, but then concluding that "of course, everyone knows that already" because I've been simming for such a long time. But someone posted a tip on tumblr today that I thought was pretty basic but another really experienced Simmer that I admire did not know it! Here it is:

“If you want to place multiple identical items on a lot (f.i. ivy) hold shift when you place it and you won’t need to select it over and over again”

From here: http://keoni-chan.tumblr.com/post/28200062636/if-you-want-to-place-multiple-identical-items-on-a-lot

So hope that helps someone!

[Mootilda]

Hmm, it's not working. I've made a test file, which says:

start "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

"C:\Program Files\VideoLAN\VLC\vlc.exe"

It'll open VLC fine, but instead of opening Firefox (or SimTracker, which is what I originally tried) it opens another command prompt window that's titled 'Administrator: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe. And on that screen, it says C:\Users\Sushi\Desktop>The fact that it's opening in the wrong current folder (Desktop, rather than Mozilla Firefox) makes me wonder whether you need to specify the current folder for the start command. Here's the help for the start command:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Starts a separate window to run a specified program or command.

START ["title"] [/Dpath] [/I] [/MIN] [/MAX] [/SEPARATE | /SHARED]
[/LOW | /NORMAL | /HIGH | /REALTIME | /ABOVENORMAL | /BELOWNORMAL]
[/WAIT] [/B] [command/program]
[parameters]

"title" Title to display in window title bar.
path Starting directory
B Start application without creating a new window. The
application has ^C handling ignored. Unless the application
enables ^C processing, ^Break is the only way to interrupt
the application
I The new environment will be the original environment passed
to the cmd.exe and not the current environment.
MIN Start window minimized
MAX Start window maximized
SEPARATE Start 16-bit Windows program in separate memory space
SHARED Start 16-bit Windows program in shared memory space
LOW Start application in the IDLE priority class
NORMAL Start application in the NORMAL priority class
HIGH Start application in the HIGH priority class
REALTIME Start application in the REALTIME priority class
ABOVENORMAL Start application in the ABOVENORMAL priority class
BELOWNORMAL Start application in the BELOWNORMAL priority class
WAIT Start application and wait for it to terminate
command/program
If it is an internal cmd command or a batch file then
the command processor is run with the /K switch to cmd.exe.
This means that the window will remain after the command
has been run.

If it is not an internal cmd command or batch file then
it is a program and will run as either a windowed application
or a console application.

parameters These are the parameters passed to the command/program


If Command Extensions are enabled, external command invocation
through the command line or the START command changes as follows:

non-executable files may be invoked through their file association just
by typing the name of the file as a command. (e.g. WORD.DOC would
launch the application associated with the .DOC file extension).
See the ASSOC and FTYPE commands for how to create these
associations from within a command script.

When executing an application that is a 32-bit GUI application, CMD.EXE
does not wait for the application to terminate before returning to
the command prompt. This new behavior does NOT occur if executing
within a command script.

When executing a command line whose first token is the string "CMD "
without an extension or path qualifier, then "CMD" is replaced with
the value of the COMSPEC variable. This prevents picking up CMD.EXE
from the current directory.

When executing a command line whose first token does NOT contain an
extension, then CMD.EXE uses the value of the PATHEXT
environment variable to determine which extensions to look for
and in what order. The default value for the PATHEXT variable
is:

.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD

Notice the syntax is the same as the PATH variable, with
semicolons separating the different elements.

When searching for an executable, if there is no match on any extension,
then looks to see if the name matches a directory name. If it does, the
START command launches the Explorer on that path. If done from the
command line, it is the equivalent to doing a CD /D to that path.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It also looks like it might be taking your first quoted string as a title. So, my suggestion is to try:
start "Firefox" /D"C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox" "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe"

That command seems to work on my machine. I would have checked with FRAPS, but I don't have it installed.

[xptl297]

Thanks Moothilda, I'll keep on trying until I get it to work. I really want the bat file.
Edit: YES, it works. The procedure is to copy the path in the address line as Text. You know, my installation is norwegian but the path text is half in English and half in norwegian. Man, looks like the way I speak! :) Who could guess it? :rofl:
Thanks everybody.

a tip: if you use to furniture big houses (hotels for example) where you have to repeat the same layout several times, choose the furniture you want to use and place the items out in the garden. Then you can use the game picker to clone the items and place them in the different rooms. After that you can use the design mode tool to change colors, patterns, beddings, lamps or whatever you chose and make every room the same but different at the same time.

[sushigal007]

That did the trick, thanks, Mootilda!

[LaurellKH]

Yes, I think people will say this thread is stupid because all tips are already out there somewhere been discussed. So I try to think of rarest tip I can and think I will run out of things to say and everyone will say, "This is dumb thread." But you all are very smart and come up with things yourselves. :p

Tip of the day:

:here: You can buy ep's cheap around $5 (plus $4 shipping) off Amazon for cash (no paypal no credit card) if you use a Coin Star.

[xptl297]

Why dumb? We have been playing this game for so long that most of us have developed own tips.

tip: do you like to build start houses? Enter the empty lot and go to the buy catalog and select items from the cheap furniture available. Place them in the two dead rows that you will not be able to build anything. Then start to build your start house. You will have your perfect budget and will know exactly what you will be using to decorate it. If you run over 20k, you can check if you can dispose some furniture items without having to change your whole design.

[mirjamsim2love]

If you run over 20k, you can check if you can dispose some furniture items without having to change your whole design.
Adding to that tip.
Don´t make the house too big and it is fast too big. It takes a lot of your 20k budget and then you get in trouble with the furniture.
Although it does help if you have cc that doesn´t cost so much.
And only buy stuff in the beginning that they for sure need directly.
Rugs, clutter, paintings are not among them.

[margonaute]

I didn't know this tip for the longest time: If you want to see what a lot will look like with lights on while you're building and you don't have any sims moved in who can turn the lights on for you, set the lot to Night before you buy your lights. While in Night mode, every light you place will be turned on and you will be able to see exactly how every space is getting lit. I was so excited when I stumbled upon this one!

[LaurellKH]

Tip of the day:

:here: Sleepy toddlers will put themselves to bed if you use Beck's Toddler Bed (http://www.affinitysims.com/forum/index.php/topic,42.0.html?PHPSESSID=492778beb986031731a67e02d5899727).

[sushigal007]

Tip of the day - declutter your buy mode catalogue using collections. Jot down what collections you think you might need, from sofas and chairs, to decorative food and kitchen clutter. Stick ALL your custom content in collections. You may want to use the Collection Creator to make a collection of all your custom content first, so you don't accidentally miss stuff among the ordinary game content. You may want to go to a community lot to do this too, in case you have community-lot-only objects that won't show up on residential lots.
Then open each mesh in SimPE (use Delphy's Download Organiser to easily find them) and remove the function flags from the object data. NOT THE ROOM FLAGS. Your custom content will be available in collections, but hidden from your catalogue.

[Katya Stevens]

If you have dogs and live somewhere where it's impossible for them to pee outside (an apartment with no yard), take them for a walk when their bladder motive gets low. They'll come back with a full bladder motive: doesn't help in training a dog to be housetrained, but does prevent you needing to continually mop up puddles of pee because they can't go outside.

[Peni Griffin]

Also, kids can get fun from walking the dog. And toddlers can put themselves to bed in pet beds as well as specialized toddler beds, though they aren't as comfortable.

[LaurellKH]

Tip of the day:

:here: You can shut down the opening cutscene. How to - http://www.modthesims.info/article.php?t=92314

[margonaute]

I'm hoping this thread will come back to life because I am sure there are still tips out there that I don't know and that could make my game-playing better! This is a simple one, but it came up recently in the livestream of a very experienced simmer who was unaware of it, so who knows how many tiny things like this I've been missing: you know when you select something with the design tool and the box pops up, and sometimes it blocks the thing you're trying to design? You can just grab the box with your cursor and move it out of the way, anywhere you like.

[supersimoholic]

If you have Open For Business, and get a Gold Talent Badge in Flower Arranging, you can make the "Snapdragon Bouquet" which every now and then emits a pink cloud and raises up all your motives accept sleep. Open a business so that everyone can buy them - You don't even have to play it, just have someone but it, set up the shop, make sure before you go home you make your sim "be cashier" otherwise when you visit with another sim, they'll just stand around and you can't buy anything. Then put one either side of your bed on a bedside table, and they will make up every day with full motives. Just make sure it has a pink cloud coming from it, because sometimes you get a bad one and it emits a green cloud that lowers motives.

I only just found out about Snapdragons a little while ago, so I thought I'd share for other people who might not know. - One thing I will say though, is try not to place them all throughout the house! It's tempting but it's also boring after a while to have them with full motives all the time! If you don't want it to feel like cheating even more, just place one next to your bed, then the motives don't fill up as much.

[joandsarah77]

I recently learned that sims can learn charisma by talking to a pet bird, so lots of my families now have a bird as practicing the speech in the mirror has to be the most boring thing ever apart from skilling from a book.

[NewSimgirl2011]

Tip of the Day -

Enjoy your game! :D

:luff:

[M-hzer]

Tip of the day:

:here: Resurrect ALL the Tricou family from Downtown to stop getting incomplete memories which will lead to great game glitch if left unchecked over very long time.
Wait, is there an somesim that knows all of Tricou family? Or there is some Sims that knows at least one of Tricou family?

[Peni Griffin]

Six of the downtownie teens are Tricou bastards. They have randomized names but are easily recognizable. Making them playable by moving them in or sending them to University makes it possible for one to get the Resurrectinomitron, and they have a sufficient relationship to their father that they can bring him back; then he can resurrect the rest.

I'm not sure that leaving the incomplete memories will inevitably corrupt the hood, though.

[ohgreatone22]

But how does resurrecting the Tricou family stop incomplete memories?

[Tleilaxu3]

I forgot if this was a lot/house from Brighten (?) or wcheryl (?) ; not sure if those are the right creator's titles, either ; but I discovered I can still use their lots if I open them with the simPack file, place them in the My documents, sims2 downloads and open up the game.
Then I'll close the game, go into the downloads folder in my doc. sims2..... and delete all the CC files which appear. (make sure you don't have CC that was from a different lot/sim, only the CC from the specific lot)
Then, go back into your game and the lot will run faster. This way I could still play the wonderful large mansions without it going so slowly...just had to add vanilla walls,floors,etc.

There's a little CC wallpaper/floors/paintings I use -- mostly from Adele.
My poor pc starts to complain if I use too many different buy/build CC items.

[joandsarah77]

Tleilaxu3, you can delete the cc right out of the file with Clean Installer before you install the lot. No need to dump in the cc and then remove it.

I was coming to say playing an integrated hood where sims all have a role to play in the hoods running, where they have more opportunities to interact with each other has made my sims 2 game better. Also certain hacks which have made this possible such as simlogical school mods has added much more realism to this. I've just set up an orphanage and a retirement home. Getting a working bank is next on my list.

[Peni Griffin]

The trouble with the Tricous is, that when you run Mootilda's Hood Checker, you get error notices for each of those Tricous, warning you that memories are attached to sims who do not exist. I'm not sure exactly why this is - the character files are there - but presumably it's an artifact of the way the family was connected up when Downtown was built. Since stray memories attaching themselves to inappropriate sims is one of the ways hood corruption happens, seeing those incomplete memories is very nervous-making. To the best of my knowledge (and someone here may know better) these anomalous memories aren't loose enough to attach to anyone; but you can't prove a negative and since resurrecting the Tricous is known to be safe, it's arguably the best course to do so.

[joandsarah77]

Won't the memories still be stray if resurrected? Or does that fix it somehow? I don't know a whole lot about memories. I think I have a Trico at uni, he was Julien Cookes’s daughters teenage boyfriend so I sent him along with her. He has brown hair to one side, sk3 I think and glasses. I guess I can't rez them while he is at uni though. Must remember to do that once he graduates.

[Mootilda]

The trouble with the Tricous is, that when you run Mootilda's Hood Checker, you get error notices for each of those Tricous, warning you that memories are attached to sims who do not exist.Is this the shipped version, or Tarlia's clean and fixed version?

Won't the memories still be stray if resurrected? Or does that fix it somehow?Resurrecting a sim doesn't make any difference to the memories. If memories refer to a real sim, living or dead, then they will still refer to a real sim if you change that sim's state. If memories were referring to a non-existent sim, then they will still refer to a non-existent sim, even if you resurrect someone.

[Peni Griffin]

The shipped version. I attached my downtown before I even knew about clean versions.

[Mootilda]

OK, that makes more sense. The Tricous are safe to resurrect because the corruption caused by their bad memories will be in the game, regardless of whether they are resurrected or not. As with many of the shipped neighborhoods, Downtown comes from EA pre-corrupted. ;)

I believe that Tarlia fixed those memories in her cleaned and fixed version, so if you haven't yet attached your Downtown, you should consider downloading the fixed version instead.

I suppose that should be my tip: download and install fixed versions of the shipped neighborhoods to avoid hood corruption. There are two types of fixed neighborhoods: clean or empty. Empty hoods have no sims, clean hoods have the playable sims and a small number of townies.

[joandsarah77]

I attached a downtown before I knew about the problems as well. So it won't make any difference if I rez the kids family or not then. The hood is corrupted anyway, what with those NPC animals removed and the downtown. I have a sim who I can't open his inventory or the game crashes. I am planning to kill him off-I hope that is the best solution anyway.

[lipe2k]

Here's a tip: making the game harder is really worthy, it gets more rewarding and I'm really enjoying playing it like that. Here are the mods I use to achieve this:

Higher Bills and Slower Job Performance Gain - http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=284809
Daily Gardener - http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/al/hacks/
Expensive NPCs - http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7.0.html (It's part of the MATY directory)
Slower Skills - http://www.omniloth.net/sims/ts2_hacks.htm
10 New Gypsy Potions - http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=188471 (This complements the slower skill gain, if the sim wants a little speed boost, s/he needs to buy a Smart Potion por $300 :D )