kaie's journal

So I've been playing Sims 2 for something more than a year now, and I've only just noticed that sims will, if at all possible, avoid doors/doorways that are set in diagonal walls.

I thought one of the great architectural selling points of the game was the use of diagonal walls for things like doors and windows? So why do the doors not work (sims will exit the house, walk all the way around, and enter the room from an outside door) and certain windows disappear? (They are treated as buy mode objects, not build mode, so if a family needs to move out and move back in again, suddenly half the windows are gone.)

Things I've learned part eleventy-billion and two:

1. If you create a toddler or child with parent, then move them into another household, then kill off the parent to orphan the child, the child will not be related to any of the other sims on the lot. This means that you cannot use the Encourage reaction to modify personality. Sims subsequently added to the family were not be able to teach the toddler any skills.


2. You will need at least three controllable sims to start a restaurant business: a chef, a server, and a host(ess). In the early stages, the server can act as a greeter.


3. Seating that works one day may stop working the next day. Starting with two counters and barstools caused a jam when the third customer appeared. Therefore, I added a table with two chairs. The next day, the only possible seat was one of the chairs at the table; the barstools and counters no longer counted as usable seating. Note that customers do not want to share tables.


4. Elders are not recommended for operating a business; they are forever running to the bathroom and complaining that they are uncomfortable. You will need to use adults who have maxed out their aspiration benefits so that their needs don't drop as quickly.


5. As a side note, having at least one witch stocked with the ingredients for the mood-raising spell helps keep the business open long enough to make money each day.

Anyway, this was supposed to be a post about simmy stuff, except I went to all the trouble of building a house on stilts only to realize AFTERWARD that sims aren't able to walk underneath second-story deck foundations, even though you can place objects there.

RAR.

Things I doubt anyone will ever tell you about Sims 2: ( Read more... )

I have discovered how to build basements in Sims 2. ( Read more... ) Next on the agenda: attempting to build a "tree" house. I have elevators now, so perhaps it will be feasible after all.

(No, the mood setting is not a mistake. I started playing Sims to distract myself from how pissed off I am.)

I do so love FTP. Figuring out how to use the new client I downloaded, not so much, but at least it was simple enough and the tutorial was quite clear.

I still have to perform basic housekeeping on the site - two of the lops listed are deaf, which I was not aware of, the "News - February 2008" should really read "March", I have a couple more links I meant to add. And I was supposed to add Make Mine Chocolate to the front index page.

However, it is 1 am. I still have to find one used checkbook for its records (although I may not need it, strictly speaking) and fill out a stupid form that is probably overdue (and then write a letter asking them to please change my address, spell my middle name correctly, and forgive me for being sick so I didn't pick up the form on time). This whole thing frustrates me. Although my father seems to be paying the fees for the OTHER form I had to fill out.

When I go into denial mode, I play Sims. It's not as satisfying to kill sims off as I thought it would be, so I'm back to building up an ubersim. And of course, building a neighborhood from scratch. I keep changing my mind on what theme I want; I think I've finally settled on Harvest Moon, but rather than recreating Mineral Town in all of its detailed glory, I'm just going to build off of the idea of a rural village. I built a community library and made a small college (I'll have to make some more lots for the college later). I'll need a community restaurant and bar, and a grocery store (which might contain clothing so I won't have to build a separate boutique; to be brutally efficient, video games were already included in the library). At the moment, I'm not planning on including an actual downtown area, or a shopping one; neither one seems to have any advantages over a community lot containing the same items.

It has occurred to me that your farmer is typically the grandson of a former farmer, but with no living relatives. So I think what I will do is create a three generation family (elder, adult, and toddler) and simply be sure to let the elder die and somehow kill off the adult before the toddler reaches teen and goes to college (there's an additional scholarship you can win if you're orphaned). I believe fire will be a suitable method; starvation took far too long.

Well, on the plus side, I don't complain about lousy fics anymore. On the minus side, Sims 2 is eating my soul. It makes crunchy chewing noises.( Read more... )