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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 22nd Aug 2014 at 4:24 AM
Default Sims 1 is Hard!
Just a random post about my random sim day:

Today I played around in the Sims 1 world. OMG it is so hard compared to Sims 2! I can barely keep my single sim alive and well, let alone make friends and get promotions. Plus, there are no weekends. I feel like I can't catch my breath! LOL. How did I ever succeed in that game? Makes me appreciate the world of Sims 2 all the more.
On a side note, thanks to creative people here, I can recreate the Sims 1 in our Sims 2 world. Might just do that for fun this weekend. Now, to find an outfit for Frankie Mashuga... :D

No chemicals or GMOs in my sims' food.
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retired moderator
#2 Old 22nd Aug 2014 at 4:58 AM
Yes it is! I've been watching a let's play and I had forgotten just how hard it was to socialize and keep needs up was. You do know you can skip work every second day though, right?

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#3 Old 22nd Aug 2014 at 5:21 AM
I hear you. I lost my Sims 2 saves (got them back, but I didn't know I would back then) and was too depressed to play it, so I tried my old Sims 1 games. Shits tough. No idea how I managed. My Sim was constantly low in social, because it dropped faster than it went up even when talking to other Sims. I started modding things out, but in the end I didn't find it fun any more. I'm too used to Sims 2 and it's level of difficulty, so I'm glad I got my saves and my will to play back
Mad Poster
#4 Old 22nd Aug 2014 at 5:42 AM Last edited by VerDeTerre : 22nd Aug 2014 at 3:32 PM.
The Sims 1 called for some seriously strategy, more so than the Sims games that came after. So, yes, it is a bit of a challenge. There is a Sims 1 section on this site now, if you feel like discussing Sim survival further.


*Edit* I see this thread has been moved to the Sims 1 section - awesome! Now we can get more Sims 1 Simmers in on it. Let's talk strategies, then!

I'll start: Loneliness is difficult to combat if you're focused on skilling and your Sim lives alone. It's something that requires attention in a game that has many things that already need attending. Additionally, certain types of personalities feel the bite of loneliness sooner than others, but I've forgotten what attributes contribute to it. Is it how outgoing your Sim is?

The old Prima Guide made a point of suggesting that if you were giving your Sim something to do, it made good sense to try to fulfill more than one need at a time. For example, if your Sim is going to eat anyway, have him eat with a friend or family member at the same time to increase his social. Give him comfortable chairs to increase his comfort.

Addicted to The Sims since 2000.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 22nd Aug 2014 at 8:13 PM
Yeh, whoever moved this only looked at the title and never bothered to read the content.

I do know to skip work every now and then. That was the only way I could make friends. Just avoid the musician in the park or he will trap you in a corner, forcing you to listen to his stupid song. All the while your sims just wants to call for a ride home before they collapse from exhaustion.

One big annoyance with S1 is that you can't leave the house while kids are at school. Thus, I return to Sims 2! My adult sim can go out on their day off, yay for days off, and shop and mingle all while the kids are at school. Sims 2 may be easier, but only because it's truer to real life than S1 was. But magic town was fun, for the rollercoaster. I don't like magic/witch stuff.

No chemicals or GMOs in my sims' food.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 22nd Aug 2014 at 11:04 PM
Quote: Originally posted by OrganicSim
Just a random post about my random sim day:

Today I played around in the Sims 1 world. OMG it is so hard compared to Sims 2! I can barely keep my single sim alive and well, let alone make friends and get promotions. Plus, there are no weekends. I feel like I can't catch my breath! LOL. How did I ever succeed in that game? Makes me appreciate the world of Sims 2 all the more.
On a side note, thanks to creative people here, I can recreate the Sims 1 in our Sims 2 world. Might just do that for fun this weekend. Now, to find an outfit for Frankie Mashuga... :D


I can save you a lot of work and show you this. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=522506

All my Beginning Hoods here at MTS. http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=7749491
All my Beginning Hoods as Shopping Districts plus Old Town. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=523417
MooVille, a tribute to Mootilda and her fabulous lots http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534158
Scholar
#7 Old 23rd Aug 2014 at 12:27 PM
It's been a bit less than ten years, and I've still never:

-Made it to star level five
-Mastered all the spells book
-Mastered all the cooking book

((starts up TS1))

Did you know you can use "moveobjects_on" to delete the sim and then select their portrait in Live Mode to have a "maxmotives" replica?
I do that when my sims are on the brink and won't skill anymore

The drop off has been made. You've been warned.
Mad Poster
#8 Old 23rd Aug 2014 at 1:02 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Kankritty
Did you know you can use "moveobjects_on" to delete the sim and then select their portrait in Live Mode to have a "maxmotives" replica?
This cheat is especially helpful when you are training a dog to pee outside because when the dogs come back, their bladder is low.

Addicted to The Sims since 2000.
Instructor
#9 Old 24th Aug 2014 at 12:00 AM
I don't even remember how all my sims didn't die immediately. The last time I played the original must've been years ago, and even then I was about 11 years old. I started playing when I was about 6 or 7, so Lord knows I was probably clueless about the whole concept of the game anyways. (Heck, that game even taught me how babies were made!)

I must've cheated in some way to keep them all around for so long. Of course the only one I really remember is Rosebud !;!;!;!;!...
Scholar
#10 Old 24th Aug 2014 at 11:23 AM
Yes there was rosebud ;!;!;!;!;!;... and if you did a colon : instead of a semi colon ; and smashed enter, you get more and more instead of having to type the thing in each time

There were other cheats that worked until the patches came out

The drop off has been made. You've been warned.
Mad Poster
#11 Old 24th Aug 2014 at 11:52 AM
I didn't learn how to play without cheats for the first couple of years. I relied on things like Rosebud and using Move_objects on to refresh my Sims. It actually is possible to play the game using strategies that are built into it. The example I gave of satisfying more than one need at a time is a big part of success. I remember the Prima Guide pointing out that your Sim has to use the toilet anyway, so he might as well gain a little comfort at the same time. For that reason, buying the most expensive toilet made sense. No, your Sim did not get a ton of comfort, but if your house was filled with many comfortable seating items (bed, dining chair, sofa), the comfort level of your Sim would be satisfied.

It took me a long time to realize the quickest way to make lots of money without cheating. Well, actually, there are two:

The first way is to have your Sim change jobs frequently, even if it means starting over in the same job. The beginning levels of jobs do not have high friend requirements, so your Sim can focus on building skills and keep getting those promotion bonuses.

The second way is to buy several genie lamps and keep making wishes. There are some bad wishes, but typically, if you keep wishing, they will be balanced out by good wishes. The one you want to really watch out for is fire, so make sure there's a smoke alarm in every room and outdoors near the hot tub. I've made Sims quite rich by frequent wishing with the lamp.

*If there's a flood, wipe it up.
*If there are bills, that could be a problem, although I've typically just deleted them.
* If the plants die, wait until they bloom with another genie wish. If you don't have plants, the genie will give your Sim plants and if he gives your Sim dead plants, you can sell them with the move_objects on cheat and make money.
* If "someone" is mad at your Sim, depending on the time of day, it's your chance to have your Sim get to know them. If your Sim already knows them and he loses a friend, it's really not a big deal because you might make a friend later with another wish.
*Sometimes you gain a skill or a friend
***** And this is the money making part ***** If your Sim gets something nice, like a TV, model train town, hot tub, or pool table, you can sell it for $$$$

Addicted to The Sims since 2000.
Test Subject
#12 Old 24th Aug 2014 at 1:10 PM
there are mods for the sims 1 still around....i still use them sometimes...
Mad Poster
#13 Old 24th Aug 2014 at 1:34 PM
For the most part, I didn't use cheats or hacks to manage sims, but developed strategies - that was a lot of the appeal of the game. By the time I got my strategies down pat, I was almost done with the game because it got boring.

However, I had two hacked objects that made the game more fun for me. Because low active sims with jobs ran out of energy so fast, I was constantly running up against their inability to keep going during the time they needed to be active in order to see sims outside their family. So I relied heavily on the hacked espresso machine from Mermaid's Cove (it was bright green and gave quite a lot of energy) and a hacked shower that energized as it cleaned. I don't remember the name of the site that had it originally, but I remember Bunny Wuffles had a recolor of it. Those things were both game savers - Capricorn comes home from work exhausted, hops in shower, emerges ready for a night on the town!

As far as money goes, the key thing is not to get too ambitious on the house at first, but to buy the best thing you can afford as soon as you can afford it, but not to be too ambitious to start. I never bought a chair that gave less than 3 comfort - that was the minimum necessary to gain comfort faster than they lost it. Beds with less than 5 energy weren't worth using. The cheap stoves were less flammable than the expensive ones, but the expensive ones had higher food values; while the cheap refrigerator had the same food value as most of the expensive ones, so you could buy the cheaper appliances and stay safer, then as you improved your cooking score gradually improve your stove, as well, until your cook and stove were so good, you only had to serve one meal a day.

I built/furnished every three days immediately after paying bills, as bills are calculated based on what you have on the lot, so every time you bought new stuff, your bills went up.

One dodge for sims who were living close to the edge - big starting households, for example - was to "rent" expensive equipment. Need a body point? Buy an exercise machine, work with it till the point is gained, sell it back for the same price you got it. The resale value didn't start going down till the machine had been in the house for 24 hours, so as long as you only bought it right before you used it, and sold it as soon as the sim stopped, you didn't lose any money.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Test Subject
#14 Old 25th Aug 2014 at 8:58 PM
Yesss that's really, really hard I agreed with you. I can't remember how can I played it when I was a kid haha.
Inventor
#15 Old 25th Aug 2014 at 10:38 PM
I used the old motives plant from simlogical :P
Forum Resident
#16 Old 31st Aug 2014 at 4:47 PM
It definitely is a challenge.
I usually play with cheats and mods, but one time not too long ago I made a sim in the game and told myself "OK, I'm gonna make this bitch a 5-star celebrity and rich as fuck without using cheats or hacked objects!"

....I gave up after the first 7 sim days or so.
It's extremely difficult to keep the social meter up when your sim lives alone, and my sim was outgoing, so that made it even more challenging. I tried talking to people on the phone and inviting them places, but sims only want to talk for so long, and even once I finally got the meter up, it immediately went down again in the blink of an eye. So I just said "Well, I tried. The hell with this," and continued cheating the way I had done for nearly 10 years.

The simmer formerly known as Averex
My Claim to Fame
Mad Poster
#17 Old 31st Aug 2014 at 7:47 PM
When you have a superstar Sim, you have to spend some time chatting up fans and other celebs during each Studio Town visit.

Addicted to The Sims since 2000.
Mad Poster
#18 Old 1st Sep 2014 at 2:55 PM
Since it's important to be friends with other celebrities, the easiest thing to do is have multiple playables in the hood going after celebrity status. That way they can all befriend each other and rise in stars (and have affairs and create celebrity drama) together. Also that way you get to rise in the different celebrity tracks and won't feel you're repeating yourself so much.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Forum Resident
#19 Old 2nd Sep 2014 at 2:18 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Kankritty
Yes there was rosebud ;!;!;!;!;!;... and if you did a colon : instead of a semi colon ; and smashed enter, you get more and more instead of having to type the thing in each time

There were other cheats that worked until the patches came out


I always used rosebud;!9 and held down the enter key...

Has a nice ring to it when spoken aloud too...
Field Researcher
#20 Old 19th Sep 2014 at 3:19 AM
Speaking of rosebud they brought that back for sims 4.
Test Subject
#21 Old 23rd Sep 2014 at 12:31 AM
I had forgotten how much I loved the music in the Sims 1. I don't even care that my sims keep dying every time I get up to go to the bathroom (PAUSE, why do I never remember to PAUSE???). It's funny because I hadn't even loaded the game in years, and then I re-installed it recently along with Sims 2 as a sort of nostalgia kick. Glad to see I'm not the only one.
Field Researcher
#22 Old 2nd Oct 2014 at 4:49 AM
Quote: Originally posted by talene
I had forgotten how much I loved the music in the Sims 1. I don't even care that my sims keep dying every time I get up to go to the bathroom (PAUSE, why do I never remember to PAUSE???). It's funny because I hadn't even loaded the game in years, and then I re-installed it recently along with Sims 2 as a sort of nostalgia kick. Glad to see I'm not the only one.


The TS1 music was and always will be the best of the entire franchise. The only way I could keep up with relationships in TS1 was to buy 1,000 diamond rings and give them as gifts CONSTANTLY. Especially to Bella Goth, damn she was hard to please. lol

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. -Aristotle
Mad Poster
#23 Old 2nd Oct 2014 at 3:43 PM
Hot tubs. Invite three friends over and sit with them in the hot tub. Cheaper than diamond rings and more fun, too.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Theorist
#24 Old 3rd Oct 2014 at 2:37 AM Last edited by Duine : 5th Oct 2014 at 11:56 PM.
I remember the first baby and trying to keep the parents from insanity and the social worker away. I would force a sim to nap in a recliner and fill their queue so they wouldn't get up before gaining enough energy. While one parent tended to the baby, the other would build up enough energy to take over so the 1st parent could rest.

When you forgive, you heal. When you let go, you grow.
Theorist
#25 Old 12th Oct 2014 at 4:28 AM
Must admit, after reinstalling all the games the other day, I've been having a blast playing, but since it's been 10 yrs since I last played TS1, it's been even more challenging than I remembered.

Motives...oh boy. The strays that wander onto the lot (finally remembered the no stray sign) and leave puddles all over the place dragging down the environment score outside. Also, I'd forgotten just how expensive anything with any significant comfort or hunger fulfillment was.

Another thing, I could have sworn the Goth's started out with more money than they actually do. Was genuinely surprised to see how little they had. And the layout of their house...horrible.

I don't plan on using any mods or cheats, as that would take the challenge away, but just wanted to share...complain.


“Seize the time... Live now! Make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again.” ― Jean-Luc Picard
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