What does that have to do with the topic?

I keep my game interesting by putting cc on it and making stuff for my Sims stories and films.

Suggestions
 

I made an "Excavation Lot", a community lot where sims can dig for treasure, and families who earn their living by selling things they dug Also made an apartment where the only thing in their block is a bed, and everything else is for public use.. haha, just like Uni dorms.

Also after having a family who earns hundreds of thousands through investments (hard-earned money through real estate and car dealership business+4 sims w/ Investing Aspiration reward) I thought it was fun to play lottery. Then I started sending money to random families through checks every 4pm. (Is there actually a lottery mod out there?) Then 3 days after the 'president' became an elder he was 'kidnapped' and put in an survival challenge together with 4 random person. He's the one who I control, and I was planning to give a huge sum of money to the survivors but he died early

It's actually fun to create your story than randomly playing families. If you avoid sticking into one family and spending lots of aspiration rewards for elixir of life and try to play other families, you'll eventually see that their stories can fit into a larger plot.

I also became fond of taking pictures (not the screenies but the "Take a picture" and the photobooth) and puttung their frames on the wall, stacked/arranged by family relations.

Maybe I'm just not that good at the Sims 2, but I never have to worry about perfect families, tons 'o skills or super high aspiration meters- in fact, I spend most of my time trying to force failing teenagers to do their homework to prevent them from getting fired from the jobs they need to have so that the oversized single parent household they live in doesn't starve/end up losing half the kids to the social worker. That keeps me busy. Then there's the families where I'm slowly having one teenager turn to a life of crime, while another has crushes on two different girls, and wants to date them both. Totally accidental by the way- none of this was pre-planned! I keep free-will on unless it's a social worker situation (then I force the little buggers to do their homework come hell or high water. Doesn't always work funny enough.) so that lets them basically do what they want, and I play by queueing up actions so that *hopefully* some of what needs to get done gets done.

I've not yet had a death, a wedding, or a proposal, so hopefully that'll be in the works soon, and I'm trying to keep building families that are unusual: single mum with a romance aspiration and too many kids, single dad with a popularity aspiration and slacker job, a male and female roommate pair who have crushes on each other but are not yet married, interracial couples with no kids (so that I can enjoy how awesomely cute their in-game babies are) And, I've only just gotten the expansion packs, of which three are now installed, and one is on the way. There's never enough CC, businesses, or fun little gameplay mods in my Simverse, so I don't get bored. It's also the only computer game I play, as I'm *not* actually big on gaming in general. And if all that fails, I'll start making crap. The end.

Oh, last thing: I don't cheat. Ever. I love items, especially items that are playable, but I don't use any cheat codes, money fixes or anything like that. My sims earn every simoleon, skill point, and aspiration through pixellated blood, sweat and tears. It's awesome - I'm telling you. I don't honestly know why anyone would cheat, the game's so much harder and more rewarding (especially with a big family!) if you don't cheat... I don't pick genders of offspring, or remove typical Sim behaviours, and when stuff happens out of the blue (like my whole household coming down with the flu at once- hella annoying that was, but hey.) it just adds to the fun of adapting to different situations.

You will find, when you've been on here for awhile, that a lot of people cheat to make their games harder. You sound like an excellent candidate for "no $20K handout," "higher bills," "harder homework," and so on, once you've gotten really good at the basic functions.

Also, some cheat codes and hacked objects are necessary for good game health. When your sims can't go to bed and you can't delete it because it's gotten a stuck "in use" flag, move_objects is the only recourse. Make sure you patch your games as you go and get mods like "nounlinkondelete," "creature fixes," and the almighty ffslotdebugger (aka batbox) to prevent and clean up problems that arise as a result of the complexity of the code and the corporate culture that never quite cleaned up all the messes in it. With the aid of such things, you can get years of enjoyment out of neighborhoods that, without them, would have crashed and burned in a matter of months.

In defense of "cheating":
First of all, I don't believe in the notion. The only time I consider anything someone would/could do with their game as "cheating" would be if they're doing a challenge they're sharing with others and say they're following the rules, but in fact are not. THAT is cheating, in the sense that they're lying/misleading people following their experience.

Otherwise, there's absolutely no basis for thinking anyone's play style is better or worse than anyone else's. As Peni says, a lot of us use cheats (and mods) to make things even harder. However, there are plenty of reasons some might want to make things easier. For instance, people new to the game may find maxmotives invaluable, while learning how to keep sims' needs up. I remember using aging off a lot, in the beginning, because the fact of sim aging terrified me. I was sure those first families would age and die before I learned how to take care of them!


Then there are the practical reasons for using cheats. If one makes a family in CAS that's supposed to be rich, doesn't it make sense to start them off that way? What about skill points for CAS adults/elders, or even teens? To some, it makes no sense to make them start at the bottom for all their skills, and feels more realistic to imagine they'd already have at least a few by that age, yes?

Cheats are also extremely useful (critical, actually!) for storytellers. A refusal, on principle, to use maxmotives or simply make motives static during filming or picture staging would be just plain silly. Storytellers may also use cheats as a matter of course so they can focus less on needs (or finances, or friendship-building, or whatever), and more on the storytelling. Who's to say that's wrong, even for non-storytellers?

tl;dr: I don't believe there IS such a thing as "cheating" in games like Sims 2.

ETA: And another thing... There are a ton of ways to make things easier with in-game objects and exploitation of game mechanics that don't involve the use of cheats or mods at all. Some of the career and aspiration reward objects are ridiculously powerful. Is it cheating to use them? Making money is insanely easy as well. You can take a sim to a community lot and have him/her sell coffee, bartend, play DJ, catch fish to sell, dig for treasure, etc. indefinitely. I, personally, prefer not to do that in normal play, but it's a great strategy for prepping a sim for an Apocalypse Challenge. Or just because.

I didn't mean it in a negative sense - I thought cheats were called cheats? (Like from cheatcodes?) Not actually 'cheating' - you can't cheat in a game you don't actually win! I just meant that I actually find the game plenty hard/interesting enough with the scales that were set by EA- I know that having to earn skillpoints as an adult/teen seems odd, but it works really well for my stories, because it's about trying to fit those things in and balance the social/needs of the characters. I like having things happen without so much planning because it creates stories that are more organic to me- I didn't mean to criticise anyone's style of playing (apologies if I did!) I just meant that I didn't personally see the point of using those codes to generate stuff that way. I've got one family that I plan to have eventually get wealthy. If they don't it's no big deal, but they're on their way already so I enjoy getting to see them 'move up' so to speak without starting them at the top right away. Another family is meant to be poor, and as they've got an unusual living situation at the moment (and a lot of members) they're staying that way all by themselves, but it's really fun watching their fortunes change without having control over it. I do enjoy the storytelling aspect, but I like to have the game do what it wants as well, so I only plan my characters and then see what new twists their interactions will bring.

What is insem?
 

Hey just wated to know what insem is?

Its Insim, not Insem, and its the short from Insimenator, a mod for sims 2 and that allows you to alter a lot of things during gameplay.

The term "cheat code" in gaming typically involves a video game player using non-standard methods for creating an advantage beyond normal gameplay, usually to make the game easier. Cheats sometimes may take the form of "secrets" placed by game developers themselves. Cheats may be activated from within the game itself (a cheat code implemented by the original game developers); or created by third-party software (a game trainer) or hardware (a cheat cartridge). They can also be realised by exploiting software bugs.

By that definition, "cheating" in single-player Sims gaming is less about taking an advantage of others and more about unlocking more desirable things of the software through alternative routes that would not be discovered during normal gameplay. The boundaries of "cheating" can be quite loose to define; and sometimes it's not easy to pinpoint what constitutes or does not constitute "cheating". I play The Simpsons Road Rage, and I discovered a couple of "hidden" routes that I could exploit as shortcuts and deliver patrons faster. This would put me as an advantage to my opponents. Would this be considered cheating? Well, my opponents, provided that they practice the game well enough, can also figure out these "hidden" routes and beat me at my own game. This is why I said cheating in gaming can be hard to define in strict terms.

Try turning the Greenmans into anti=garden freaks! Build them a new house, cure Rose and Daisy's plantsimism, and make them all tech-nerds! Backup the Greenman's files before doing so.

4 years later, The Sims 2 still works better than TS3 even if I can't use patterns.

I still love my sims and their stories. I keep on creating my own neighborhoods and there are many lots to build.

This has been a great thread! Very inspiring. I needed to find a new way to play. For some time, I've been doing 'Build A City Challenge' hoods. That makes the game different by severely restricting jobs. But I've won a few times and it is getting old. Then I read, on this thread I think, about someone restricting skilling by only letting sims with neat+active-play >8. I liked the concept and tweaked it. In my new hood (Elderberry Ridge), mousegod only tells sims to do something that will raise a skill if they have a keen interest in it (sims with a related personality of 8,9,10 such as an active sim wgoing to swim or sims with a related predestined hobby such as a sports sim playing basketball), the sims roll a want for it (skilling wants get locked!), or there is a natural game reason to do so (like cooking so you can eat or painting a picture because the household makes its money by selling off the easel). This has been a great way to open up gameplay.

I have one household where mousegod never tells a sim to adore an art object--which is one of my key ways of keeping sad sims happy. I lost one daughter to a fire when her brother couldn't repair Mr. Humbles computer (they had no spare money for a repair man). I usually don't let sims get near death, so I had never previously gamed with death. Sigh, I lost. It has been a struggle to keep the brother from flunking our of highschool and the mother from starving to death. I discovered that Mr. Humble will bring your household a second computer if everyone is really depressed for long enough!

A second Humble computer? Never heard of that. And I actually have a "cheat" to stop him, since I like a bit more reality to the game.

Actually, I find this method of just having sims build skills they roll a want for or have a natural talent for (as in 8,9,10 in a personality trait or a predestined hobby) makes the game seem much more diverse and 'realistic' than any other way I've played. It has made the game new again. I find I am enjoying the chance cards (something I would have bet money I would never say) and other random occurences. Take Brandon Hanby--the sim who hovered on flunking out of highschool, but did get up to a C+ and so get to go the trade school (college expecting to flunk out early as he had few skills). Once there, he somehow managed to survive just going to classes, chatting up profs and making the best of the skilling chances he had. He kept rolling wants to be an art major, though he had a creativity of 2, cooking 1, mechanical 0 and charisma 0 (not easy skills to learn in a dorm setting). He spent a lot of time chatting up girls to woohoo (being a romance sim who wants to woohoo 20 sims) and ended up with a very cool looking jacket as many of them were in the secret society. He wore it all the time as he thought it might help him pick up girls. Somehow, each semester, he squeaked by, sometimes getting a want to learn a random skill just as the semester was about to end so the finals could get him a passing grade. Then he rolled a want for a pottery wheel and kept rolling wants to make pottery. He graduated with a gold pottery badge, a sizeable inventory of beautifully made pottery and a way to make a living while he chases his dream dates.

I often make up some challenges for myself while playing.
My sister and i share a computer, and so we decided to share a neighbourhood and put some rules into it. Once we had the rule that we used the boolProp cheat to set relationships based on how the first encounter ended up. For example when two Sims met and they didn't like each other, we pulled the relationship down to -100, so that they became enemys. That was kinda interesting, in a short time there was much more live in the whole neighbourhood because of that.

I usually play with Sims based on characters from other series or make my own original Sims. So when I get a little burned out I pick one of the pre-made Sims and play as them.

I haven't played my game in so long lol. I just thought about it today. I was so used to filming/making videos with the sims that I always just cheated. I always typed in all the cheat codes to turn the aging off, max their skills, make them like someone, etc etc etc. I just took the fun out of it. I'm still on the fence about The Sims 3 because they look kind of crazy and similar to each other. I like The Sims 2 more because of each sims uniqueness but The Sims 3 does have other functions that I want to try out and experience. These were all good suggestions. First I have to locate my latest disc that I installed and try to get back into the game.

Right now, I'm playing Pleasantview to its entirety. I usually play one family for generations, without even touching another family. Now, I'm trying to create a sim that can be linked to all of Pleasantview's original families. It's going to take a while, but I've remained determined.

If you didn't customize your townies/dormies you can always have a bit of fun taking a sim to a community lot and gussying them up with the 'gussy up' hack. It makes for more varying looks among townies instead of the same maxis hair and face templates.

If you're bored by your game, then try watching live streams and see what others do, you might pick up a few things that you can do in your game.

This tumblr blog: http://livesimming.tumblr.com/ keeps updated with all the upcoming livestreams, in fact, there's going to be one after a few mins.

Make sure you keep on checking with the blog in the link, it gets update from time to time.

One thing I've started doing is minimizing, even eliminating promotions. Let's be honest: most people in the real world don't start at the bottom and keep getting promoted all the time. What usually happens to my sims now is that I'll purposely keep them on a level for years, even their whole life (I suppose this could be done with mods, etc., but I do it the old-fashioned way by simply denying them the a skill point or two). Not only is it a bit more realistic, but it keeps money in check too, since there aren't all the promotion bonuses, etc.

I'll also have realistic job switches - so military, intelligence, business often gateway into politics (but I have career politicians too); science/medicine/nat. science often overlay, as do entertainment/showbiz/dance/art/sport, etc., etc.

Of course, variety is key and it's good to have some competitive sims who are always pushing for that next promotion too. I often play those sims as kind of douchy. A good example from my hood is brittany upsnott. She made a power marriage to a scion of a politically well-connected family and serves as the "power behind the throne" to her Mayor husband. One of her sons is being pressured by her to follow in the family footsteps, but he's not really interested.

I started playing ts2 (with just Bon Voyage) again, after long period of time. I didn't knew how it can be fun without all those expansions. The problem was then that I had so many options, I couldn't choose how to play. Now I admit The Sims 2 is more fun than The Sims 3.

I created a sim called by my name and started off at one of the houses in Pleasantview. I furnished the house and found him a job in a culinary track career. Then he met Dina, Brandi and Darren. He kept arguing with Dina constantly. They went home and after few hours of everyday life and skill increasment Brandi called on phone. My sim was in a low social mood so that was good for him. But then she kept on calling every single day. He would get back home from work with a raise every single day and she would wait for him on the other side of the phone line.

So eventually (after 4 sim days) he climbed up to a restaurant mannager, career level 4, and became friends with brandi. One day he missed work so he invited Brandi over. They just greeted and then she kissed him :lovestruc ! Ok, this is unusual I thought. Eventually, he met all of the neighboors. I planned the engagement but I didn't expected it would happen so soon. He got out in the park and there was Brandi (a stalker or just a desperate mother). So they got engaged in the park and then went his home for a WooHoo. I filmed both momets XD. Brandi went home and my sim planed a honeymoon as a surprise for their wedding day. So after a promotion to waiter (career level 5) he took few days of for his wedding day.

So they got married, Brandi got pregnant (Skip's baby) and the party was a roof raiser... or not! The party ended, the guests left and then another wedding party started counting down from roof raiser to disaster! During the "other party" My Sim and Brandi would constantly toast for themselves (they probably wanted to get drunk in attempt to crash the party ). So Beau, Dustin, Brandi and a newborn baby moved in and I had to make a second floor of my house for them. My sim and Brandi are now on honeymoon at Twikkii island having a great time. I wonder what are Beau and Dustin doing?

helpful!!!! thank you

After i read this,I understood how boring i am on sims 2! I always do those types of 'perfect family'.I havent even had a fight on sims 2 hahah

-Mob family
Have a sim work through the criminal career track until they reach the top and then have them compile their 'family' of other sims/criminal associates. Pretty soon imagine them as pretty influencial and powerful in your neighborhood and related subhoods. Have this sim become the patriarch or matriarch of a very powerful family that can grant their allies some under-the-table kachings. Their enemies are found in the pools without ladders.

-Vampire Clan
Kind of like the mob family but with Vampires - they recruit the most talented sims in their younger years and live forever. The befriend the rich and elderly so they inherit money when the elders die to support their elegant night life style. Don't have them reproduce. If they fall in love with a mortal then they can either recruit their partner or get 'cured' and become old and die.

-Farmers/Breeders business.
Live off the land and run a market business as well as raise and sell animals (pets) or switch out the animal part and have them raise a big family that works on the farm.

-Brothel business
Recruit your romance sims and have them make money by creating a home business that uses the bandatron. Sims being paid for hanging out and flirting (and more) with customers.

-Retirement Home
All the kid's gone? House too big and lonely? Lone Sims and older sims can be a burden so why not move a handful into a retirement home where they can garden, paint, hobby, and play majong, and socialize to their hearts content? Get a communal pet to give your elders comfort, have the widower meet up with the widow and find a second love in the golden years. Have an adult caretaker to arrange the remains when your sim passes or hire a butler instead.

There's some really helpful ideas here, thanks. Some more ideas:

Tragedy Familes
Make every family have a tragedy or drama of some kind, even if it seems insignificant. You could make lots of little tragedies that will eventually affect your game and make it really interesting.

More Interesting Sims
Use all of the CAS content that you don't really use and put it all into one Sim and see how they turn out. Creating themed Sims can make the game a lot more interesting and introduce more drama to the game, for example making your Sim purposely nerdy in CAS and then continuing it in the game if you made them not get along with Sims that are 'jocks'.

Plan Your Game
It sounds really weird, but I found planning a game so it had all the drama I needed was really useful. I made a story outline and all the characters grow up around it, each affecting each others lives. If you prefer playing it as you go along like I do, you can draw a really rough outline of the main dramatic events and have your characters do whatever you want to do in between them. Trust me, it's fun.

Life Story
If anyone's like me there will be loads of Sims that have never actually met each other in the neighbourhood even though they live next door to each other. You can try and have several families but constantly jump between them so that the kids in them stay the same age as in the other families so that they can eventually grow up and go to college with each other. You might have more fun then if you already have enemies and friends to play around with.

Create Sims Like People You Know
I haven't really done this myself, but it might be interesting to try.

Mygame is pretty interesting anyway - I really don't do anything out of the ordinary! Chester Gieke (knowledge) became a witch and went on holiday. When he came back, he had alien twins (not from the telescope, apparently from being on holiday). I send him on holiday again and he had another set of alien twins! (All this without any cheats or mods whatsoever). Chester is suddenly the hottest thing in town!
I also plan the game, keeping kids from different families the same age, if possible, and I rotate between families, but once in a while I discover that I haven't played with a certain Sim for a while. I have 67 families in my hood, so I guess that's not weird. If I get bored with one family, I leave them for now and go and play with another one.
I really like to send the townie teens to university - I pack them into dorms (6 each) and that is always fun because one does not really know what their aspirations/ skills are. I've even sent the paper boys and girls.
The Goodies have adopted 4 kids and are still alive and kicking, they should have been dead by now, but they're not, perhaps because they both were abducted by aliens five times. All four kids are at uni and they now have a new roomie.
I am also waiting for some Sims to finally meet some other Sims. Sanjay Ramaswami likes throwing parties and is friends with almost everyone, so I let him throw parties and that's where most of my Sims meet - at Sanjay' house. Because when he throws a party, everyone invited turns up and there are some others passing by that join in.

Running bussinesses at home is a very addictive thing; last one I made was a painting gallery with original paintings and I sell them very expensively. I'm actually trying to get to the highest level of bussiness and to collect as many stars as I can.

Talking more personal, I think I'll never get bored with this game, since I tend to write stuff about my characters and watch the generations grow... and mine is a very large neighbourhood, so I have years to spend there yet, and I huge lot to write about their lives... not to mention I usually quit playing for about four months a year.

While my game is a variation on the"perfect family" it can still be done if played right.

1. Don't use cheats. Don't use Kaching and motherlode at all. It is fun to see your house improve over time thanks to your sims hard work. Limit maxmotives and only use it when you are having a lot of fun somewhere (such as at a community lot).
2. Don't constantly skill your sims I know a lot of people have the urge to constantly skill your sims, but it becomes boring if that is all you do. Especially if you have a family of skills all simming.
3. Interact interact interact The best part about creating "perfect families" is seeing your sims enjoying life and hanging out with each other. Make your sims constantly interact to create an element of "realism" into your sims. If you have two parents who love each other deeply, have your parents do a lot of romantic interactions together when the kids are asleep or busy, take them on dates. Have your parents play with your kids (water balloon fights are fun for the whole family). Have your sims be there for each other and interact with each other and you will have more fun.
4. Send your sims to community lots. Community lots seem like a hassle. There are loading screens, and it is so easy to just have your sims stay at home. Don't! It can be a lot of fun sending your sims to community lots. Have a couple go on a date to a restaurant, or park. Have family outings at parks, pools, restaurants, or even clubs (you'd be surprised how much your sim kids can do there depending on the intractable objects).
5. Download or create community lots with things sims can do. There are a lot of lovely community lots to download. Beautiful parks, city squares, plaza, clubs. Once you add them to your game, go in and check if there is enough things for sims to do. Did you download a beautiful park with not much to do? Add some chess tables or a don't wake the llama table.
6. Create a custom clean neighborhood. Download the clean neighborhood templates from MATY and then create your very own neighborhood. If you are not good at building from scratch, then populate the hood with maxis and user made houses, community lots, ect. Create a few townies yourself and use the create townie cheat on the mailbox to speed up the process. Over time you will have a custom neighborhood with beautiful lots and sims. Tip: Download default face replacements, custom hair, and possibly custom eyes or skin to make your townie sims look better. Also you can use the wardrobe wrangler to townify custom clothing.
7.Take lots of pics You don't have to, but it can be fun taking pics of your sims and then looking back at them later and remembering the fun times you had. I use fraps so I can get higher quality pics.
So for all you control freaks out there you can still enjoy the game having your sims live fun and exciting lives without too much random drama.

I've been spending the last forever-and-a-half remaking Bridgeport from The Sims 3: Late Night as a Sims 2 'hood. So far the lots I have done are the Landgraab Sell 'n Swap, The Grind dance club, Marina Park and I just finished The True Modern Art Gallery, by far the most complex thing I've ever built.

Here's a comparison for the art gallery:



I love building stuff

EDIT: Here's the description :P

"Do you describe yourself as "Avant-Garde"? Do you often critique soap dispensers? Do you just love glass cubes? Then Bridgeport's True Modern Art Gallery is the place for you!"

Just discovered someone was already making Bridgeport. Now I'm slightly depressed.

Think I'll just play the game and ignore that I just wasted like a week.

You did not waste that time. You learned things while doing it. Learning is never a waste.

If I were "in your shoes" I would not give up on or toss out a project like this simply because someone else just so happens to be doing something similair. Your Sims2 Bridgeport replicas will be different from any one elses. What you are doing is unique.

A few years back I downloaded Broomhilda's Old Town Sc4 terrain map and set about painstakingly recreating the homes and the little central park. Others have before and since done similair. Similiar is not the same and can indeed be very different.

Someone made a good point and so I decided to continue a day or so ago! Thank you though.

Update!:

Civil Suites, with Mike's Cornerstore in the background. How does it look?

Sims 1 has posted an excellent list of ideas of things to do, all without needing any CC, in a separate thread. Personally I think it would have been better if he'd posted in this thread, so I'm adding this link so that people looking here will find his ideas.

I reckon there's always something new you can do in The Sims 2!

If you have SimPE, go into it and while using the "sim browser', change all of the primary and secondary aspirations for adults and teens. (FT needed). You can also change the hobbies while you're in there.
That will sometimes change the entire set of dynamics for a neighborhood!

I never have a boring moment with my sims 2...(oddly with sims 3 but never sims 2).
-I usually start out in one neighborhood with 2 "homemade" families and a "homemade" mayor then build on from there.
- I have a main hood, a downtown, a farming hood and the suburbs to start.
- then I have several different countries and other states to travel to (and eventually some sims created to play in each of those hoods too)
-when I use university each of the internatiional and "state" hoods have their own U to go to
-The homemade families start relationships with the Maxis townies and downtownies on their own and if I find that the townie is active enough with the household....he or she can become a "Citizen" (playable character)...lol thats where the Mayor comes in.
-The townie moves in with the mayor to become playable then moves out after a week into his or her own lot.
-The mayor in my hood always has lots of money (to help the citizens) and is in charge of taking in foreign visitors etc.
-He or she is also in charge of owning the banks and decorations/landmarks in the main hood.
-The other thing I do is all my sims start out living on a completely empty lot....they have to build with what the have for funds and use of cheats to keep them alive meanwhile....families with babies especially.
- And also almost all of my sims own their own businesses either home businesses or community lots and each sim is expected to have 5-10 different careers/businesses.
-Same with the businesses empty lots...to be built over time. I do this so that I can "play" right away instead of spending so much time building right away.
-music is also important in my game - lots of custom made stations etc...lots of foreign music to set the mood for all my international hoods
-and my downtown hood is where all my lovely freaks live (witches, zombies, vampires, plantsims, aliens, werewolves etc)
-They even have their own mayor and their own realm (humans are only allowed access to certain downtown lots)
-Most of the human owned businesses are located in the main hood
-Most of my schools are also sim owned and playable including some home- made "city universities"
-The private schools are on home lots and the public schools are on community lots

Right now I have 5 different sim "state" hoods, 4 subhoods and 18 different international hoods all of which have playable sims living in them
Since I switch between families often (never a boring moment) Simtracker is a must

I recently started playing Riverblossom Hills for the first time EVER and when I started playing the Greenmans, I immediately cured Rose of plantisimisimsimsm. Color me surprised when she had a positive memory of being cured and then rolled a FEAR of becoming a plantsim again. Um, ok? On the other hand, her husband kept rolling wants for her to become a plantsim again. After reading their family description where Rose was described as her husband's "green goddess", I realized he probably has a plantsim fetish and maybe she stayed a plantsim to please him? Oh well, I set her free and he will have to deal with it.

In regards to Daisy, I can't speak of what happened to her. We just don't speak of her anymore

p.s. I'm actually having alot of fun playing Riverblossom Hills, I'm really surprised. I realize I love the big lots (even with the hideous country-style deco) and how it easy it is to garden and grow plants. It's made me appreciate Seasons that much more.

I love The Sims so much, but we are missing someone

lmao Judge Judy would be great in my divorce court :lovestruc

Holy crap that is a great idea! I have to try this!!!

Has anyone suggested a call girl service? Basically, you have a few girls with the romance aspiration who lonely sims can call to hang out with, or umm, more. You might need the phone book mod to make the right sims know them, but this might be a fun idea.

I have this but expanded it to a brothel business so the ladies can have fun with any male customers who come by AND earn money. The other day one Sims called over an escort for fun and uses the money mail order mod to send to her the next day.

Sometime I need to create a male escort service too. Very handy for romance Sims.

Got accessoires for making fantasy creatures downloaded, but don´t want to start a new neighborhood?
Then you may want to introduce your sims to the UGE, the "Unexplained Genetic Expression".

The concept is taken from the pen & paper RPG Shadowrun.
A little background: There are times of waxing and of waning magic in the world. When the magic level is low, fantasy creatures like Trolls, Orks, Elves and Dwarves (in our sims game more like Plantsims, Vampires and so on) appear as humans and magicians cannot access their powers.
But the heritage sleeps in their genes and is passed down through the generations until the magic level rises again.
When a sufficient level is reached, children born to human couples may be supernaturals. Also, teenagers and adults may transform into supernaturals.
(In Shadowrun Elves and Dwarves can only be born, whereas Trolls and Orks transform, but that´s your call depending on what kind of supernaturals you want in your game.)

Roughly 10-15% of the population are changed by the UGE.
You can A) use percentile dice or random.org to check for each sim individually or B) handpick a number of sims of up to 15% of your character files in the given neighborhood. Method A is more random and can procuce anything from 0 through 100% of your sims to be transformed.
Additionally with apartment Life installed there is a 10% Chance for magical aptitude. Sims thus blessed gain the ability to learn magic, but needs to seek out a teacher as per normal game rules.

After the initial surge sims no longer transform spontanously. From now on the children are of the parent´s race (50:50 chance for either parent´s species in a mixed couple).
Magical aptitude is not inherited and must still be checked for for every sim individually.

Anyone who has The Sims 2 Homecrafter should post it on here and don't say we can download from other sights or we already have a link those are scams (Virus detected) anyone who downloaded on the OFFICIAL SITE years ago. I think that would make the game interesting for new comers and so on

You Know what I thought of something to make the game more realistic why not have sims pay taxes every year and make welfare for poor sims. What do you guys think about that?

Many people already do that-by having a few hacks (Monique's bill payer hack) that deducts funds from a household automatically a certain set amount..it can be reversed and used as 'funds for the poor' as well.

I, myself, have a very old (and rare hack) that is called a 'welfare table that lets sims collect a certain amount everyday in welfare according to their skills and family size.

Thanks for the help

I'll second (or third, or fourth...) the notion that running your own business makes the game plenty interesting, especially with all the Perks that your Sims can rack up. Plus there's all the business about hiring the right employees, firing the wrong employees, putting the right employees on the right jobs, making friends out of employees and customers, and so on. Some of the businesses that my Sims have run so far:

• A robot shop, selling everything from Toy Robots to Servos. That business has done so well that, having recently discovered the SetHighestAllowedLevel cheat, I've built an eight-story MegaloTech Corporate Headquarters building to which my roboteers and their Servo workforce may be relocating their business soon....

• A toy shop (for those Sims who can't be bothered to build up their own Toy Making badges just so their house can have a Water Wiggler). I have DJ Verse and Sarah Love of the Tri-Fruhm Sorority owning and running this one.

• Two car sales lots; one is a used car lot (which sells nothing but restored Junk Cars), the other sells restored Junk Cars and regular cars (and may even be selling helicopters soon, since I had the foresight to add a helipad beforehand). The Show My Ride display (or several of them) is a must-have for selling cars, but you can also use the ChangeLotZoning cheat if you want to have a community lot with driveways and helipads on it.

• Two produce shops; one is a roadside produce stand, the other is run right out of a Sim family's farm (complete with a big red barn).

• A casino, complete with two bars, a restaurant, an Electrono-Ticket Machine, a small video game arcade and as many poker tables and mahjong tables as I can afford. It's in a Downtown subneighborhood, so Mrs. Crumplebottom and the Unsavory Charlatan are frequent guests at our poker tables here.

• A potion and magical goods shop, run by a family of seven witches (of course).

• A clothing shop which also sells handmade clothing, quilts, curtains and teddy bears.

• A gym, which includes a sauna, two massage tables, a small swimming pool, several exercise machines and a refrigerator (so the owner, a Fitness hobbyist, can get protein shakes out of the fridge and leave them sitting around for her customers). An Electrono-Ticket Machine is a must, of course. (Yes, I know, there's a similar gym in Bluewater Village, but I built my own because mine's better). :P

• A masseuse. The proprietor, Kiki Tsang, is a Far-East-styled Sim who has travelled to all three main vacation locales and thus knows every massage style known to man...eh, Sim.

• A combination art gallery/painting shop and flower shop. The owner's a vampire with max Creativity, max Arts & Crafts enthusiasm and, at present, a Silver Flower Arranging badge, and the shop looks like a mausoleum with biers, coffins and flower arrangements galore. Too bad I can't just buy tombstones. Unfortunately, due to the owner's nature, the shop is only open at night.

I'm sure I'll think of more shops to put together soon; I'm actually thinking of working on some Cosmetology badges so one of my families can open a hair salon/jewelry shop. I have a lot of fun with OfB.


I'm also a big fan of the weird stuff in TS2: alien hybrids, vampires, werewolves, witches, Servos, Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) and more. I have a Bigfoot working for the roadside produce stand, and that guy is a cash-making beast! If it wasn't for the sheer volume of customers, he could run the stand all by himself. Plus, the creatures in themselves are fun. My Charlatan-trouncing werewolf girl has since gone to college, joined the Tri-Fruhm sorority, Savaged Stella Terrano (along with Monica Bratford and a few of her childhood friends who also went to college), and at present, that werewolf pack's camping on Hoar Mountain (my own homemade Mountain vacation spot) with DJ Verse, Jessie Pilferson and Sarah Love. Unfortunately, DJ, Jessie and Sarah don't have the Knowledge aspiration, so they're having an awful vacation and they keep getting visits from the Therapist thanks to all the werewolf howling at night. And they're only halfway through a six-day vacation, too. I guess I didn't really think things through.

Plus, there's the sheer love of Simmy architecture and the things you can do with it. My farm with the red barn's cool, my skyscraper's cool (and would be even cooler if my camera would let me go above the eighth floor, because there's no way to build a thirty-story skyscraper otherwise)...I've built lots of cool buildings in TS2, if I say so myself. Two of my favorite Sims are vampires. One of them is a mad scientist vampire who lives in a creepy castle way up on a tall, black-earthed hill (with a crooked path and lots of connecting stairs leading up to it). The other lives in the crypt underneath a church, complete with a belltower and a choir loft. You know how you can use foundations to make basements for your Simmy houses? That's what my artist/flower arranger vampire's crypt is. It has plenty of coffins, of course, and I'm thinking of getting her to coax a few more vampires into moving in. Or maybe a living Sim who can run the shop during the daytime. Yeah, she could use her own Renfield. Why not?

So I too am convinced that there's no end of entertainment value in The Sims 2. People just have to be willing to try unusual things and find it.

You can watch a Sims 4 video - that should get you hurrying back to Sims 2 like nothing else However, re businesses, I also like them. Flower businesses always work very well in my game, and it's quite fun to have just a house as a home business with a pool, a hot tub, a few billiard tables, etc. and people pay at the gate to enter and use your stuff. No sales, lots of visitors and if there are a couple of social Sims in the household, the money flows in.

If nothing else, it's refreshing to know I'm not alone being a control freak w. my Sims!
..Biggest problem I have - I conjure a lot with Sims living in poverty and having to work their way up, or on the land.. Next morning I create a family or Sim, but I just hate poverty, esp. with all the beautiful downloads and scrumptious furniture the community has created that's priced at $10.00 or free, and so many $1.00 items that roll to hundreds of dollars when the clock strikes 12.00!

One leap I have made lately- I have 2 Sim males (and one Sim female) that are as perfect as anyone could ask for, with great jobs, looks, attitudes, etc. So I am ' loaning them out' (via Sim Blender) and when a Sim has their offspring I name the offspring 'Robert' 1, 2, etc. So far it's been interesting!

In retaliation to Maxis creating the usual problems, this time concerning Sims using the pool (they get cold quickly, it starts raining, thundering, etc.,) I began building all my lots with indoor pools. Now my Sims enjoy swimming even when there's 10 ft of snow on the ground. Plus steam from the pool looks lovely indoors! Also, a quick way to raise your Sims' fun is by having him use the slide. So to all the builders out there, build some houses with indoor pools! Start with the next smallest lot available and work your way up from there. Plus, it pizzes Maxis off.

It really does bug me how some creators tend to make their stuff uber cheap so that people can create wonderlands for their Sim on a dime because I am a realistic player. In reality the only places to get high end stuff for cheap is by scouring the internet and second-hand stores, and occasionally if you find a sale for something that is being discontinued for a reason other than that the product is not quality. I especially hate how nice flooring is often the cheapest on here, but I believe there is a way to alter the cost of things from outside the game. I just can't remember how.

I definitely tend to do the 'two Sims, romance, babies...aw crap now it's boring' thing, so lately I've been trying to make single Sims that are workaholics, struggling with bills, and tend to go a day or two without eating because they literally can't afford food. So good tips!

It's really easy to do it in SimPE. I keep meaning to do it because that annoys me a lot too.

I've started to play the game as a soap opera edition-every single family has a history, and they all have issues. Usually I play it as "this family is going to do this in the next 24 hours, what next?"
Call it the "Days of our Sims" and approach it like that-the game becomes more engaging. Instead of skilling them up and grinding their gears, let them play out their little problems-sit back and watch the fireworks. Observe the others on the lot besides the family, and how they interact with one another. There's usually a hidden motive behind those random pixels dropping by the house-and why would they do that? Is there something they have to do with the owners? Have they met? Are they enemies, crushes, loves? Are they out for revenge, a fight or a love affair? Oh-and befriend the mail person. Sometimes you can even get a new playable character from them, and eventually use them in the neighborhood.

One thing I always find handy is remembering not to fast forward through everything too much! I got into a really bad habit of having the game on the fastest mode just to get my sims to the next promotion, the next birthday, the next baby, etc.. and it got very boring very quickly which probably is no surprise! There are so many things you end up missing that way..now I try to only fast forward if all the sims are sleeping or out at work/school. I quite like the more relaxed pace of my game now, and find I am spotting lots of little details that really make the game interesting and enjoyable.

The thing that helped me the most was seeing my Sims as sort of real people. It used to get boring all of the time because my Sims lacked character and originality. I wouldn't throw birthday parties because that's just too much of a hassle, I would barely go on dates because what's the point, I even barely went to community lots because that just takes up too much loading time and I could go on and on about things I really didn't care for because I had done them so many times and it simply got repetitive. All my Sims were the same.
When I - inspired by MTS2, I must say! - started to see my Sims as characters with real wishes and feelings, I started to appreciate the little things more. Now, my Sims don't get engaged on their first date (which I used to do a lot because I'm impatient), they go on multiple dates and hang out and have a general good time before they even start thinking about that. I throw a lot more birthday parties and parties in general for Sims that I think would enjoy it. I've gotten so much more excited about my Sims socializing and all those things. It all gets so much more fun if you start to view everything from a perspective of "what would my Sim like or hate?"
Now it barely gets repetitive anymore because I'm always viewing it from the eyes of a different character.

I think this is really good advice..I can definitely relate to the engaged on the first date thing! I enjoy the game so much more when I don't rush through my sims lives

Playing rotation!
This is something I've never done before. I would play a family until I just get bored of them. Not anymore.

There is the Sims 2 Categorizer over at simwardrobe. I use it all the time to alter the cost of objects. It's super easy to use and really helpful as well. I don't think it works with walls and floors, though.

One thing to do with Servos is to create a bunch of them, give them human appearances, and make them as armies to fight each other. You could simply have an arena where servos fight and the loser is killed with Rodney's Death Creator (or something of the sort). It may not be feasible as an owned business, but would be nice in a test hood just for relieving boredom.

In my neighborhood, I plan on using them as soldiers for opposing factions. In my megahood (as you've seen on my other threads), Buzz Grunt has taken over Simerica as an evil dictator, but a rebel society is forming. My plan is to max out the robotics skill of Loki Beaker (the Minister of Technology who pretends to be loyal when it benefits him and will likely betray Buzz later) with Sim Blender and have him "invent" the Servo. Then, the Beakers could open a sweatshop as an owned business for the production of military servos (I would just max out employees' robotics skills with Sim Blender and call it "military training". While the rebels have less money (and for challenge's sake would have to work for their gold robotics badges due to the lack of funds for military training), they could have a factory to make Servos too. When the rebels either win or are destroyed and the war is over, I could keep the servos turned off and locked in a warehouse, or "reprogram" them by giving them more friendly personalities and make them servants to richer families. I like this plan because it allows battles while reducing the casualties of sims I actually care about.

For me, the best way to keep a game interesting is to play a Megahood, and try to play it through several generations and mix different families. I don't make any of my own Sims, as they tend to be too 'perfect' and I easily get bored of them; instead, I like to play premades and their kids, and I only let them marry/reproduce with other premades or townies. I don't mind if their personalities are a bit annoying or if they're a bit ugly, as it only makes it more realistic (except Gunnar Roque; i just hate this guy, looks- and personality-wise). I do give them makeovers to make the best ouf of them (as also in real life, people usually wear makeup and hair the way it looks good on them) but no plastic surgery, and I try to make all my Sims to have a distinct style/personality/lifestyle or something that distinguishes them from each other.

Another thing I've been doing lately is try to do stuff I didn't really do before - for example, have romance Sims who woohoo with a bunch of others (though it's really the hack that reduces jealousy to engaged/married Sims that makes this fun, otherwise, there's too much drama in my game), play businesses, vacations, pets, supernaturals (others than aliens, which I always adored)... I had all EPs since they initially came out but for some reason, neglected many features, so I'm trying to incorporate these more in my game. And I try to make every Sim as succesful in life as possible, but unlike my old play style, this doesn't neccesarily mean reaching top of their career - it really depends on their specific aspiration and I always make my Sims at least work toward that aspiration, even if it doesn't work out. I also play without cheats (except for fixing bugs and such) as it makes the game more fun and realistic - I just don't want all my Sims to be really rich or have a load of friends or something without having to work for it, hard.

I also found out a really fun thing was to, unlike before when my Sims usually married their first girlfriend/boyfriend and lived really boring family lives, to make my Sims have more ex's, more drama, more like real life.

Here's a fun one if you are the more safe-style/control freak player like me..

Make a blank, new neighborhood. Fill it with whatever deco and lots you like. Make as many Sims as you feel like, and looks + personality is all up to you BUT all of the Sims MUST have the Romance aspiration as their main aspiration (second aspiration can be whatever but fortune is my personal favorite for this mini-challenge!). Move all of the Sims into whatever types of houses you feel like. And free will MUST be on at all times. ACR is totally recommended. There must be at least one not married/single Sim at all times.

There will be love, romance, affairs, woohoo and nooboos. Tons of nooboos with all of that woohoo.

Points:
+1 for each affair
+1 for 5 loves at once (this point may only be earned once or else you'd be having points coming out of your ears)
+1 for each 10 loves at once (this one may be earned as many times as you like since this is a little harder!)
+5 for each 20 loves at once
+1 for each baby born
+5 baby born out of wedlock
+5 for breaking up 3 marriages

-1 enemy and or getting caught cheating (try and see how long you can hide your Sims' affairs!)
-1 for each family Sim as second aspiration
-3 for death by old age (get some fun in there, die some crazy death!)

I think one of the keys to keeping the game interesting lies in not having caricature sims. Sometimes it's too easy to get carried away with the basic aspirations and consider all family sims to want marriage and lots of children and not much else, or romance sims to just want woohoo with as many sims as possible without having any hobbies or interests in the supernatural. I think hobbies, interests, and complex wants and fears (e.g. having a want for a baby at the same time as having a fear of having a baby) really add depth to the character of sims. And if you have complex characters the game is naturally more appealing and less likely to be dull.

I am going to put this out their i know many has already build the USA The White House but have anyone every thought of creating a neighborhood similar to of Washington D.C
That would be a tough job, but a;so a challenge for many. So many ideas can go into building a capitol City plus who is to say other world capitol city's can't be build. What are your thoughts?????

Interesting. So one aspect would be something like having sim elections? Also it would only be between sims in the highest political track? so only two mayor-level sims could run and whoever wins lives in the white house, and after 8 seasons another election takes place?, the old family moves out and the winning sim and their family moves in?

This is a very interesting idea, I may try this someday.

Create a color world. Open businesses that only sell items that are a certain color, like green- and create houses that only use a certain color! Make the Sims that live in the houses be that color and make family feuds and loves (ex. red hates green but red loves blue)! Have the children go by the color wheel and start their own family color (like a red and a blue have 2 kids, one's pink and the other is purple)!

I have two ideas. I'm playing both right now.

1. Make one sim. You are not allowed to make any other sims. Your sim must marry an existing sim. You can play existing sims if you wish and use any cheats you want to make it interesting. For example, I sent my one sim, Caleb Knight, off to college, where he met and eventually married a dormie named Ashlee Courderic. He joined a frat in the meantime so I ended up playing the three guys who lived there, too. They all graduated, got married, and started their own families. Matthew Hart married his college sweetheart, Sarah Love, and I used a cheat so they could have 20 kids. Mickey married, then divorced, Jan Tellerman and ended up raising their son on his own. And Guy married Francis Worthington III. They adopted three children. I'm now working on my third generation, though a couple of the Hart kids are still in college (one of their nephews is older than the youngest kid). For each offshoot family I've set a different challenge. For example, Annemarie married Aldric Davis and is doing my own farm challenge. Another daughter is trying to run a successful bakery. And so forth. I've also started using the Insiminator to send the townies off to college so I can get new ones (bye bye, Marsha). One of my sims just married Amy Jones, the paper girl. This town has managed to keep my interest for several months now.

2. Create a dorm complex. Set the dorm up carefully so your sims won't die. Once you've moved them in you may cheat to give them each a cell phone (Insiminator, or just send one sim to buy 26 phones). You may intervene to have one of them pay the bills. Or just get a no bills cheat. After that you may not interfere in any way. Your goal: have them all graduate (or get kicked out). Record what worked and what didn't. Build a new complex. Repeat. For added scientific interest, have an equal number of each aspiration plus two grilled cheese sims. Repeat the zodiac twice (grilled cheese sims may have random signs). I have two teams at a time competing for the fewest number of ghosts. Sims are stupid, as will quickly be illustrated by their frustrating choices. Think of ways to keep them alive as you watch them burn, starve, or otherwise die in pointless ways. You are the clockmaker god. Once they leave college, you may if you choose move the survivors into a new home, give them jobs, and start the experiment over. If they make it to old age their reward is a nice quiet home somewhere, where you may or may not visit. This could be a challenge: I just can't be bothered to come up with a point system. Feel free if you wish. Extra points for each sim that actually graduates (rather than gets kicked out). I have not managed that yet.

When I start a new neighborhood I always have it set in a previous era. Typically the 1930's or 40's. And each generation lives in accordance with that era's technology and lifestyle. And as each generation passes I add the technology that would be available during that time. It is rather fun to live through the evolution of modern society within your game and see how much things change. You have to use your imagination to some extent as sims will sometimes try to do things that are naturally programmed into the game from the modern era, but it is relatively effortless. It is neat when youre playing and youve forgotten all about the previous years and you stumble across a photo of your sims from lets say the 70's. haha

I'm actually planning on making a custom neighborhood of the town I live in in real life. The layout map is in SC4 already but only big enough for the downtown part of town which will consist of the main neighborhood since I live there. I plan on putting real people that i know, past and present into the game as sims to simulate my virtual hometown. So the town is real and so are the people. I just hope I can replicate it all accurately. It's going to take a long time to build and populate so I look forward to see how it all turns out in the end.

I prefer to be rather.. sadistic to my sims. Find new ways to make their lives miserable, make a king and put the rest in a dungeon, etc.
... Its not unhealthy... right?

To spice up my game I have created a business oriented custom town where I have created a community business or home business lot for most of the homeless premade Sims (such as the Goodies and so on.) For example, the Travellerr's own and manage a camping supply shop called Travellerr's where they also offer a selection of rustic cabin furnishings and décor. A family was created (Pepe, Pettina and young daughter Petula) to own Pepe's Pet shop and Pettina's Pet Park. Nerissa's Own Clothing belongs to the romantic fashionista Miss Nerissa Bee. The Goodies own a shop offering garden décor, gardening supplies and potted plants. Scotty McThrifty was created to open a thrift store offering furniture, décor items, appliances and clothing all at half price (this shop is the most popular so far!!). These are not all of the shops I've dreamed up! Not all of the town folk are shop owners although a few are employed at local businesses.

Thanks for helpful suggestions (I recently was able to install the Sims 2 and playing nonstop since but this shall keep me preoccupied ! )

I'm going to completely redo Veronaville in medieval style. Also the vacation 'hoods attached to it. I have a lot of work ahead of me. I never play Veronaville but in medieval style I have so many ideas! I'm excited!

That's what i always do! go and plug the old gaming machine and play.

I've found that creating a 'playbook' for a neighborhood really helps a lot.
I use this utility: KeepNote, which is a sort of notebook with the ability to break down pages. (Open source, free)

I will have pages with the
General theme of the neighborhood
Special rules of the neighborhood
Business and community lot information
List of all the families, and under each listing, specific family members and their particular personality, etc.
A sort of "newspaper" to record special events or the town gossip

It's very useful, and you can use it while playing the game in windowed mode-switching back and forth while the game is paused to take notes.

Otherwise, everything can become complicated very quickly-especially if you have a lot of families in your hood.

I like to combine families from the pre-made bin, or sims I have made on my own, with the existing families. This is especially fun with Olive Specter.

My Sims work very hard and play very hard. We will spend one day building skills and businesses and then we spend the next day having fun. I have made a lot of fun community lots for them to enjoy and we take lots of vacations. I upgraded all the vacation lots to make them more fun. I do take breaks so I don't get tired of the game. But I get to where I miss my little friends and have to pop in every few days. I have been playing for about 10 years so I do get tired at times.

Like others have said before me, cutting down on the cheats and generally slowing down makes it way funnier. A bunch of my old households consists of sims scooting through their lives on motherlode and motive_decay off, and I really can see why I eventually tired of it like that. Not to mention all the rushing with getting kids, because new sims always puts some spice in a dull household, marrying, growing sims up etc. Now I try to take it easy, focus on being in the moment and spending time with my sims.
I've also approached a more individual- and wishing-based style of playing, and I feel like I'm getting more out of the game that way. I try to take time to see all my sims and get to know them, and since the wish- and fearpanels are the closest things the player has to look into their sims minds, I try to fulfill as many of their wishes as I can (and want to), simply because that shows what the sims themselves want in their lives at that point, whether it's having a baby or simply playing in the sofa, and it gives me a good hunch of who they are. Like, when one sim's wife cheats on him and he breaks up with ther and then his entire two panels are full of wishes and fears concerning her, it might be a sign he wants her back, or at least get some closure... Another couple had a baby and I was only planning for them to have one child, but then one of them wished for a new one, so there we are. Every time I switch sim in a household, I try to go through their wishes and see what I can do about them, molding my playing after the sims rather than the other way around.
Another thing is their personality points. I used to complain about them not having enough of an influence on the sim, but now I've started making them matter myself, by playing my sims around them. For example, playing games and telling jokes are surefire ways to boost up relations, and if a serious sim have a harder time making friends because they're not willing to use these interactions, then so be it. Likewise, a very shy sim might not be the one to take the first step in various relations. I find taking stuff like that into consideration makes it a little more fun and challenging, and the sims themselves become more dynamic. Paying attention to personality points in general makes it a little more interesting too - for example, I have a sim with, I think, only one nice point and as many neat points. Still, he's a really sweet guy as shown in his interactions, and despite his lack of neat points he'll constantly take out trash, pick his toddler cousins bottles off the floor and so on if I leave him to his own will. Comparing what his personality points say and what he himself chooses to do makes him a pretty multifaceted character to me.
Also, since a few years back I've played with just one family - that is, several households but they're all related. I started a family from one CAS-made sim who married and had kids who had grandkids, and seeing this family grow and knowing my sims since they were just babies makes me way more invested than when I made a bunch of families and played them a little until I got bored and started a new one. Just seeing the genes getting passed on and being able to distinguish the "look" of that family makes it awesome.

Yeah, I know you mean playing on the sofa, but it doesn't half conjure up some wonderful visions.

"Get the hell out of that thing right now!"
"Kid, I'm your grandfather, I can do what I want."

Damnit with prepositions being used differently in different languages xD But after a long day, resorting into the sofa to play a little seems reasonable enough.

A romance sim, prior to starting a relationship, with a secondary knowledge aspiration is like a knowledge sim on fast speed. My most recent has 5-6 wants filled with skill points and the 6th is most often to see a ghost. The busiest fun community lots for my sims seems to be the cemetery or a night club. The cemetery offers a more varied choice of options to do. They can make friends, play darts, dig for treasure to build up some cash, gain aspiration points from those 3k see ghost wants. Although the ghosts don't fill their aspiration points as fast if they have a fear of ghosts too. It's still profitable as the fear is minus $1500 while the want is plus $3000. My sim was digging for treasure while the occasional ghost showed their disapproval. Not sure why the selected sim seems to be the most often scare victim. Don't forget those dance skills, getting a smustle group going is great fun and the dance skills build faster, saving your poor sim the embarrassment of doing the funky-just-learning-how to dance. This particular sim finally met a female at the cemetery, she was very much alive and also a romance-knowledge. They hit it off right away and since she was the controlled sim, I wasn't sure what would happen to his wants after. I played his house a bit later, after they had run into each other at several more community lots and got a shock that he had rolled a want to get engaged along with a flirt and his skill wants.

Another romance-knowledge sim had twins by abduction and filled his wants right after with teaching toddler skills. They each got all 3 skills and the nursery rhyme done with no problem. Unlocking any wants prior to birth gives space for these wants to roll. Secondary, versus just main aspirations, give sims a wider variety to their their personalities. They are much more fun and entertainment.

When I was playing a family in the House of Fallen Trees, I built a night club called Danse Macabre and moved the HoFT graves there. So now it's a cemetery as well as a night club. Only one ghost sighting there so far, though, but I tend not to send my sims there very often.

Thanks! Definitely intrigued in Living off the Land.

What I sometimes like to do is randomly combine families. Y'know, make them tenants living in the same house?
Or I take couples from college and put them in separate households of other people. Like there was a mixup.

So this was something I thought of today talking to Yaolicious but it might spruce up the life of a sim you just aren't that excited to play, maybe they don't really have a personality or they live by themselves but one thing is for sure, they need some love! I call it the 'Eat, Pray, Love' self-discovery challenge (though not really a scored type challenge)

1. Your sims learns cooking skills, the goal is to max it out. Secondary goal to cook all existing recipes in your game and feed their friends. If they don't have any they can just dine by their lonesome. Also they try every food avaialble at the restaurant. Of course not all at once, maybe over the course of 4 seasons.

2. Your sim finds religion. It could be some in-game religion you have already established or maybe they call the fortune teller once a week to get spiritual advice. Extreme mode - your sim joins a cult or meditates for a few hours everyday in a community lot that you have built meant for worship.

3. Dates to find their true love. Let's say 10 partners of one or both genders. They are really looking for a connection.

4. Hit up every vacation spot and get all the mementos. Go to each place once with the sim by themselves and then each place again with a lover. This takes care of that travelling the world to 'find themselves' portion.

Once all three of the 'Eat, pray, love' steps are complete your sim hopefully will have been played sufficiently and will come out with more of unique personality.

Here's an idea (probably aired before, but whatever): Make a neighborhood of all pixels having the same career, and see how it shakes out. This could be a bunch of slackers, or wanna-be tycoons, or even a military base setting. See how far they all progress and make rules for their lives.
Not so much a challenge as a real-world imitation. I have a 'military installation' hood in my game, with 20 pixels and their roomies. For the sake of simplicity, I've written a short set of rules that I think would go along with such a neighborhood.

One thing my husband and I did in our game (was actually intended as a rule for our medieval hood that we have yet to actually start), was to give each female adult sim a "fertile" day each season. We roll a 6-sided die (and re-roll on 6), noting in the sim's bio which of the 5 days she's fertile. As I said, this was intended to add challenge/realism to a medieval setting where birth control options would be quite limited, so on a sim's fertile day she'd have to "try for baby" rather than regular "woohoo" (or avoid woohoo all together). We've been using this system to test it out in a regular modern hood, and so far it's worked great. It ends up being a lot less about when a sim has to try for baby and more about when they actually can. The babies aren't all being born on the same day of the rotation, but instead are being staggered out a bit in what I think looks more natural and realistic manner. It's also adding a bit more challenge to fulfilling "have x# kids" wants by preventing anyone from getting pregnant again immediately after giving birth (we might actually end up with situations where that "super fertility" perk might actually end up being useful now!). Anyway, I know this wouldn't suit everyone's play style (and obviously would be redundant for anyone using mods like ACR or whatever), but it's something that's adding a bit of extra enjoyment to the game for us.

What I've started to do is rather time consuming, but rewarding-while the game is running, write up a 'diary' entry for the household you're playing. Make it as detailed as possible, and include things that ordinary diaries would have. Concentrate on that house only for the whole day. I've got a notepad (on the computer, makes it easier to write it down quickly) with the day noted and each household written up in detail. Then I save it and repeat the process for the next day. I will admit that if one has a lot of lots to play, it can be overwhelming-but it does have the consequence of becoming immersed in the game to a degree that just playing the lot at hand would not.
It can give a running commentary on the neighborhood and even put things in context where there seemingly isn't any.

I do something very like that too, Fran; having a household journal of just about *everything* that happened in a day can deepen gameplay so much. Actually, to the point that it takes much longer to get through a rotation because there becomes so much that I want to do in each household, often in response to things that have happened in other households! I especially like to make sure I get down what happened during community-lot visits, not just for members of the household but also what happens in the background---and then I add those background bits to the appropriate household's journal.

Like, "Spotted on a community lot: Pascal serenading that pretty dark-skinned townie with the side-bun hair!" or "Spotted at the library: Vincent playing chess for hours with the Grand Vampiress." Although I always used to think that I'd remember those extra glimpses of other households, the truth was that something interesting usually slipped through the cracks (although granted, in my megahood, there are around 45 households, so perhaps it's not surprising I couldn't remember everything before journaling!).

Here's my contribution to this thread: consider making each household's experience different by differentiating/limiting hobby proficiencies and even using the Visitor Controller to limit whom they are likely to know. Also, in playing a megahood, consider making each subhood mostly self-contained except for some major services that might only be found in the main hood---this can boost realism and also allows for creation of more realistic subhood identities.

Let me explain further. I know playing integrated hoods is a thing, as far as creating economies. I do that, but I also partition some hobbies by the actual interests (in the Interests section of their UI) that the sim has; so even though in my game, with the mods that I have, all Arts and Crafts sims have at least significant interest in Fashion, I make sure that I find the Arts and Crafts sims who have special interest in Nature/Environment (pottery but also basketweaving; for the latter I use a station from PlumbBob Keep that involves growing and harvesting reeds to use in weaving) or in Culture (painting). In those cases, those A&C sims focus on those hobbies instead and only occasionally get to sew (if they can additionally afford a sewing table at all).

Why is this useful? Because then not all sims with the same hobbies are doing all the possible crafts for that hobby. And it means that despite the size of my hood, there are only a handful of sims that can (or that I encourage to) make custom clothing or weave furniture or paint a portrait. And if they don't own a business,* that means that other households can only get those things by happening to be friends with those specific sims. So Household X doesn't know any sewing sims, so they don't have custom outfits or have anyone to gift them new outfits---they buy their clothes. But they have a nice set of family portraits on the wall, because they do have a friend who paints portraits, for example. And maybe they have a few nice baskets, because the teen son of one of mom's coworkers is working up to weaving furniture someday.

I also have enjoyed making it much harder for all sims to know each other, to bring more realism to the hood, since it's spread across four subhoods plus the main one. Sims will typically want to be friends with whom they know, but each household is more likely to end up having a unique set of friends, which I feel adds to their distinctiveness. To get this done, I set TwoJeffs' Visitor Controller to "Ban Nonlocals" on almost all community lots (there are a few exceptions, only in the main hood, like the main library and the largest park there, as well as the seaside shopping promenade that has a little beach---for that last, I edited some interiors of this amazing lot ). Otherwise, each subhood has their own shopping and entertainment/dining and graveyard lots---each decorated to emphasize the feel and socioeconomic class of that subhood---so sims mostly stay local when they shop or dine or play or visit their late loved ones.

*Most of my sims don't; again, there are only a few owned businesses, such as two clothing shops, each meant to serve only a couple of the subhoods, and one restaurant for the swankiest subhood plus one takeaway place for a lower-middle-class subhood---so again, sims stay mostly local to shop, and depending on the nature of the subhood they live in, not everyone has access to all the types of facilities available in the hood, like they may not have libraries or public pools but might have a couple of local fishing holes. This also helps me give a different feel to each subhood and thus to the lives of the sims living in it.

Haha... What i do is a make two romance sims in CAS who are married and see how many affairs each can have without getting caught. I can't get past 5.

Nope... I had a basement and i had the bookshelf/door thingy and they couldn't get out and i kept their hunger just high enough so they wouldn't die. But there was nothing in there, no toilet, no shower, no entertainment... They don't like me much.

I just play slowly. My game is always more interesting when I slow down and take my time playing. Instead of speeding things along (a brand new sim, two sim days in has a boyfriend and is now pregnant) I try to play one day at a time: a family where neither of the sons is dating, just watching them work and interact with friends, fulfilling the most pertinent of their wants, helping their father open his business etc. etc. instead of rushing them to marriage and children. I love babies, both in Sims and real life, but I find that when I let them run wild and have babies everywhere (I use ACR and Inteen) sometimes I don't get to really enjoy the sims themselves. So I've got a brand new hood where I'm just letting them take their time. There's only one pregnancy but it's because that particular sim is 'fast' and is the type to fall in love and get pregnant in a few months (and even so, she and her baby's father hung around together for like, 6 months before they got a baby.) It's literally magical seeing them build these relationships slowly and emerge into what I wanted them to be.

I've found a great way to burn through excess money!

First-get Squinge's college hack suite: http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/topic,96190.0.html
and Monique's computer (updated for AL, & MG) http://www.insimenator.org/index.php/topic,93501.0.html

With the first hack, all teens will grow up to be YAs automatically without using the cake actively.
Second, using the feature of 'donate money' from the computer, have the parents send an appropriate amount of money out (presumably to the college registrar)-I use $20,000 for 4 years of college-you can do any amount, per year.

It burns through any excess money a pixel has, especially if they're a working stiff, with mods to limit skill gain and career advancement.

Who says life is easy?

On the other hand-there is a way to get money beyond the usual in-game methods: create a 'town dump' (make it look like one, too.) and stuff all the 'junk' you can find in the deco area of the catalog there-make it outrageously expensive to own. If you have the 'enable build and buy' mod in installed in your game, you can take a broke pixel (who has no other option to make money) and delete everything on the lot while they're visiting. I just had the judge in Bellefleur 'dump surf' there to get the required amount of funds necessary to send his daughters to college.

Quite a profitable venture that was-$35,0000 worth. Now he won't have nightmares about going broke...

@FranH so you don't have to use the cake anymore at all or...? I'm just wondering because I have been using the cake but it looks like you can just install the teen to young adult no college EP8file. Is that right?

PM'd you, but the same answer-it appears to be that way-I've got the entire set and all the kids grow up autonomously without any cake shenanigans.