The following information was collected from The SimWatch list-serve. See http://www.egroups.com/group/SimWatch for full details. No credit is given as to the contributor. No attempt is made to validate the accuracy of the information. The following is a collection of people's observations that were sent to the SimWatch list-serve. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It just occurred to me, and I was wondering if anyone else had noticed, that a same sex relationship (ie. inviting a same-sex lover to move in with your sim) is cheaper than mixed sex marriage. The marriage ceremony involves a mandatory outlay of 1000 simoleans, which doesn't go to either family, whereas a same sex move-in merges the finances of both (assuming no other family members) without the extraneous expense. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question: Man I was playing and he just died for no reason! he just got all mad and died. As this ever happend to you? Answer: The one that died of fire may have spontaneously combusted. If you don't have the patch, there was a bug that didn't show the flames. The patch was suppose to fix that. This is supposed to be really rare. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How the women get upset when the toilet seat is left up....how after awhile a couple starts to rub each others butts when they kiss.... It's great -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I made a man, woman, and a girl. I figured that they would already know each other since they were living in the house. But this is not the case, and the man and woman refuse to sleep in the same bed because they both snore! LOL -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Its the running to the bathroom that cracks me up, and the realistic way the insurance company only give you the current value of goods stolen from you, not the cost to replace! Just like real life! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- More needs to be said about the attention to detail in the game. For example when one of my Sims was got kissing another, his mate become very depressed, and every time she saw the her husband or his new friend she would show a balloon with them kissing in it and become depressed allover again. This went on for some time. Amazing. I also the balloons while they are sleeping, showing you their dreams. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- They game assumes that when you make a family and it starts with two people(a man and a women) in the house they are allready married. I don't know why, because you have to make them fall in love with each other none the less, but hey I didn't make the game ;-). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Someone figured out that the repairman will just stand around and not go away if you have wall light fixtures and one of the bulbs needs to be replaced. If something is in the way so that the repairman can't fix it, he will linger on endlessly and make a nuisance of himself. Try moving anything that might be in the way of a light fixture, and see if the repairman doesn't change the bulb and then leave. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can joke hug and tickle all you want but that will get you nowhere fast. To get married, you have to kiss the mate. Then you should see PROPOSE on the pie menu. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you try to view the sims.exe file by using a hex editor or even a MSDOS edit and search for the word 'cheat', you will find MANY codes that aren't listed in many FAQS. But I still can't figures the use of some of those codes. Maybe I own a different version of The Sims since I couldn't get the edit_char cheat to work, and many of the codes I've found didn't work, neither. But I tried to enter every codes, and suddenly I CAN DELETE ANY OBJECTS (even the mailbox and the trashcan! ) in buy mode !!. I guess it has something to do with the allow_inuse code... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I downloaded the guinea pig yesterday, I was so excited about having a pet that we could download. Well, all of a sudden, the people in that house are getting sick. They cough, they sneeze, wheeze, everything! I've read on the newsgroups for Sims that some people's Sims have died because of this 'guinea pig allergy'. Has anyone else had this problem? And if so have your Sims recovered, and not died? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I stand corrected on the Guinea Pig Disease. Two of my Sims who were roommates succumbed to the dreaded illness. One of the roommates, Chip was responsible for feeding, playing with, and cleaning up the cage of it, and did it faithfully every day. It would bite Chip approximately every 2nd or 3rd day. His roommate, Chewbacca, never came in contact with the rodent from Hell. Chip started sniffling and coughing on about the 10th day. Chewbacca started getting sick on about the 12th or 13th day. On abouth the 15th day, Chewbacca woke up in the middle of the night, moaned, grabbed his stomach, fell to his knees, curled up in a fetal position, and died!!! Chip is still a little sick. Perhaps the reason Chewy died is because he was the working roommate, being a Police Captain, while Chip stayed home. Chip always had enough to eat, and plenty of espresso, and plenty of rest, while Chewy did not. I wish Maxis had warned us about this, as it took a lot of time and effort to develop Chewy's skills so he could climb up the career ladder, only to die mysteriously. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The key to surviving the guinea pig desease is to get plenty of sleep and to eat. It's also a good idea to lock them in their room with a fridge until they get better. If they come in contact with another person in the house, it's a good bet that other sim will get sick as well. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i never thought it would be possible but 2 women fell in love with each other while i was playing it yesterday and all I wanted to do is to become friends so I had an option to ask her to move in.. and she her husband with her too.. so I just wanted to see what happens so I asked her to move in boy what a mistake! All the husband and the other woman do is fight! he attack her and she attack him on the pie bar both has -100 and every chance they have is argue with each other and they go to work unhappy except for the other woman she goes to work happy and has a good career in the Military she gets $580 a day.... The husband got demoted and it suggests he should take a day off.... what a mess! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was under the impression that once a child was the only member of a house hold, the game forced an adoption into another family. I have a child whose only parent died (by guinea pig illness) and she has been alone living on pizza for 5 days. Do I need to get one of the other families to ask her to move in? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One interesting thing I've noticed is that if your job is a night job, you can't miss any days or you get fired. I guess this is becuase you technially missed work on two consecutive calendar days? I really enjoy playing The Sims, but I feel a little cheated about the dumb way the game handles the relatively simple process of sitting down to eat. Just like in real life, dinnertime can be rife with distractions, including neighbors knocking at your door, crank phone calls, and trips to the bathroom. When the Sim stops eating and gets up, the plate stays on the table, also just like in real life. The problem, however, occurs when the Sim goes back to finish the meal. One would think that a simple click on the plate and the "Eat" command would get the Sim back to eating, but instead, the Sim feels the inexplicable urge to pick up the plate, just to put it back down before eating. When there are lots of chairs at a table, the Sim will sit down in the chair, pick up the plate, get up, and then sit back down to eat. There is no way to avoid this silly delay. I've even tried to order the Sim to sit in the chair first before issing the Eat command, but the Sim still wants to do that annoying little up-and-down instead of just picking up a fork and eating. In a game where ridiculously trivial activities take up several minutes, and a mere "you first -- no, you first" exchange can eat up an entire hour of Sim time, I'd appreciate it if the game was a little more intelligent at handling relatively simple tasks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't get me wrong, I'm all for gay/lesbian couples, but the relationships in this game are just freaky. Come on! It kind of disturbs me that I can't get people to move in with me without officially adopting them. And what's with the polygamy? This doesn't strike anyone else as strange? I'm in the process of trying to marry off the other woman in my house because it freaks me out that my original guy now, basically, has two wives -- even though his original wife only asked the other woman to 'move in.' I'll feel better as soon as I have another man in the house. Right now I'm living a bad episode of 'Three's Company' (as though they weren't all bad). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can't send the kids out to work but if they're A+ students for long enough they start bringing home $100 a day "from grandpa for good grades" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you try to trap people like police, fireman, the maid, the maintenance guy, the gardner and the pizza guy, it won't work. You can go into build mode and build a wall around them, but after a few hours, they just vanish. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is impossible to stop the repossession lady from repossessing your furniture. I tried to wall in my house when I knew she was coming, but she merely repossessed a piece of furniture from outside the house! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Did You Know?" pop-up windows with info about team that made The SIMs start appearing on Day 109 and continue until Day 127. 19 Pop-Up windows in all. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you evict a family, they get to keep whatever money they have. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Paper Girl comes every morning at 9 am -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Test to see if the free-will is truly random. Re-run the same situation over and over to see if it turns out the same each time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The SIMs behave differently depending on the speed. I noticed that my SIM was very messy in normal speed but when turned up to the highest speed, he suddenly became neat and cleaned up his mess. This is probably because the highest speeds require a different code-path and thus different logic, in order to run at those higher speeds. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've just found a 'feature' of the Sims that you can use to your advantage to get around this clothes-changing issue: Get your Sim in front of the dresser and save the game. Now change clothes as many times as is necessary for you to find the skin you like. It doesn'y matter if this takes many game hours because if you now quit to the neighbourhood without saving but then jump back into the same family, your Sim is still supporting the last skin you changed him into! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lets say you have two families. Family A are an outgoing bunch and amongst them are Politicians and Entertainers who need lots of friends to advance. Family B are less outgoing and are mainly in the Military and Law Enforcement tracks. You play Family A for a while madly ammassing loads of friends. Then you switch to playing Family B who don't need many friends so you choose to neglect your friends for a while.... The problem now is that when you go back to Family A you've lost several of their friends. So the solution to this little problem is to either choose your friends wisely (ie don't have Politicians be friends with Military folk) or always try to maintain all friendships in any family. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twins: When my baby became a child, I got two people and they were identical. The parents get the same talking options with each of them but I can't control one of them. It's not a neighbor because I can't ask them to leave. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Swimming does increase the body points, not as fast as the weight machine, but with less draw backs. It seems to help me to get body points if I make my Sims dive in. If I use go here, it doesn't seem to work. If you have an active Sim, sometimes they do it on their own. Some sims like swimming more then others, so for some sims the fun value is nil, while for others it's pretty good. Swimming also takes the comfort score down more quickly .. I expect cause they're working out while swimming, rather then just having fun :) Although you don't see the rising bar while swimming, after a while you will get the message that the Sim has earned a body point. The amount of fun associated with swimming, as with the basketball court, depends upon the Sim's personality. A more active Sim will have fun with those, while a less active Sim would have more fun reading a book, watching TV or playing chess, for example. The most "fun" value is gained at the point of jumping off the diving board, I've noticed while watching the fun meter. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are potentially two stay-at-home careers in The Sims: Artist and Art Dealer. Artist: When a Sim finishes a painting on the easel, it's sold for money. This is only a couple of bucks at low Creativity levels, but according to the strategy guide, it reaches $500 at Creativity 10. Art Dealer: Unlike other objects, paintings and sculptures can appreciate instead of depreciate, and can be sold for a profit. So, the Artist/Art Dealer Sim: Personality - Playful and Shy (low Outgoing). Lives alone in a small modestly-furnished house; spare cash is invested in paintings and sculptures. Has no job, days are spent painting at the easel, occasionally talks to a neighbor if Social score gets too low. Money goes down at first, sells artwork that's appreciated when needs money. When Creativity gets high enough, should be able to support himself/herself by selling own paintings. Artist is also a potential career for a stay-at-home spouse. In between cooking, cleaning, repairing, making friends, taking care of a baby, etc. a Sim can paint at the easel, and try to get Creativity high enough to sell paintings for good prices. To sell a painting, click on the painting once it complete and select Sell. At first the price is somewhere between $1 to $8 for each painting (not exactly putting food on the table). However, if you persevere with painting, you will notice that the value of the paintings go up with creativity points. One of my Sims has a creativity level of 6 and her paintings are going for over $100 a piece which will probably go up the more she paints. So now all she does for income is work in her studio with the canvases. She is painting 2 -3 paintings a day. The great thing about it is she gets to stay home, she never gets fired, and her fun level goes up while she is working. The money takes awhle to roll so expect to be a starving artist "literally". Remember, they won't paint if they don't have their needs being met. They'll be too depressed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Sim can get an adoption call even if they CAN have their own children. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Another way to make a quick 10 simoleans is to get a bag of chips out of the fridge, don't eat it all and drop it on the floor. Go into Buy mode and "sell it back". You'll get 15 simoleans for it, even though it only cost 5. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You need 11 friends for the top Medical position (Chief of Staff); and you need 12 friends for the top Law Enforcement position (Captain Hero). This is according to the Prima Strategy Guide. I always get an extra friend or two; because you're bound to lose them just when you need them. Another tip - I try to build all friends up to 100, they seem to last longer that way. Just give them lots of gifts; it's quick and it works. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are only 10 steps in each career path. Entertainment pays the highest at the 10th step (Superstar) - 1400 simoleans/day, and you only have to work from 10am-3pm. You do have to maintain 14 family friends, though, which is not an easy task. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have two females living in a house, in love, how come one of them still leaves the toilet seat up? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ever notice how, even though couples in love can share the bathroom, whenever they do so their Room scores plummet? I suspect it has something to do with the smell... clever of them to program that in, I think it's very realistic... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What makes Sims not get along with each other? Most of my Sims can get along with almost anybody. I mean now and then there's an awkward moment, but in general almost anyone can become friends. Except for one Sim.>> You know, I have a similar problem with a Sim named Susan. She hates everyone she meets almost instantly. She walks up and picks a fight the moment after she is greeted. She even picks on her son. She loves ONE count them ONE person, her baby's father. He however loves someone else, whom he is married to. I don't understand her at all. And here is the clencher..she's an actress..and a damned good one! She gets promoted, evertime I bring her stats up to par. But her other roomates (one of which is the guy she's in love with) have to make all the friends, she hate everyone. I don't get it either -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For those of you who don't know, you can click on your Sim's personality button, then on their astrological sign. That will tell you who they are most "compatible" with. Also, when you go into your Sim's freind/realtionship section, and click on each person's picture, their astrlogical sign pops up in (parentheses) next to their name. To start the Sims off, I find you have to talk between 4-8 times. Then mix in a compliment, joke, or entertainment. If they react positivly, keep throwing them in more and more until they become friends. Then you can do stuff like hug, dance, and give backrub. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Depending on your Sims sign, they are attraced to, or repelled by other Sims depending on their sign. Here is a list. Virgo- attracted to Aquarius/Sagittarius repelled by Leo/Taurus Libra- att to Virgo/Cancer rep by Pisces/Scorpio Scorpio- att to Pisces/Leo rep by Libra/Aquar. Sag.- att to Pisces/Capricorn rep by Libra/Scorpio Leo- att to Sag./Cancer rep by Cap./Gemini Cap.- att to Aquar./Taurus rep by Leo/Gemini Aquar.-att to Cap./Sag. rep by Scorpio/Virgo Pisces- att to Scorpio/Gemini rep by Leo/Aries Aries- att to Gemini/Taurus rep by Cancer/Libra Taurus- att to Aries/Libra rep by Virgo/Cancer Gemini- att to Pisces/Virgo rep by Cap./Aries Cancer- att to Taurus/Scorpio rep by Gemini/Aries -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've found that the reasons given for not getting married are things like "we don't do enough fun things" or "we don't talk enough." One way I've found to take care of both at the same time is the hot tub. My Sims seem to be more willing to get married after a good soak in the hot tub. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If I wan't to get two of my sims married I invite them over in the morning and work on getting their relationship up to 100 and then in the afternoon (after my sim has had a shower and a nap) I invite the potential husband/wife over again and get them something to eat, then get them and my sim to watch a bit of T.V. When the sim that I wan't to marry into my family gets up I make my sim get up and kiss them, if it is a good kiss where the relationship points go up heaps I then propose and usually they accept!!! phew. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Whether or not they leave the toilet seat up is based on their 'neat' points of their personality. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can look how many days your family has been alive, as well as see some other really neat stuff if you click on the box in the lower left hand corner that tells you how many simoleans you have. It brings up a whole budget sheet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I had a cool thing happen..I had two children living alone and they both got sick and died (curse that ginuea pig) and I was able to make changes to the house, structure furniture and all using the money they had left behind. When I moved my new family in the furniture was still there. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you want to switch to playing that family, don't click on the family button at the top of the neighborhood screen -- just click on the inhabited house. If you want to move your favorite family into that house, you'll have to click the bulldozer button and evict both families -- the one you're moving and the one living in the house they want -- (be sure not to bulldoze the houses!), then click the family button, choose the family you want to move in, and put them in their new house. One thing I noted that's interesting... If a house is vacated by eviction, they take all their furniture with them. If a house is vacated because its only occupant marries into another family, though, they leave their stuff behind... making for a nice "furnished" starter home that a new tenant probably couldn't afford on his own. (Used stuff is cheaper than new after all.) I keep one 1-bedroom house that I never evict anyone from, only marry them out... that way I can bring in new residents and boost them up the career track quickly, since they don't have to wait so long to buy things like chessboards and weight benches. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can move a tomstone and an urn just like furniture. If you move a tombstone inside, bit becomes an urn and vice-versa. A child tombstone is like a monument while an adults tombstone is merely a headstone. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- my gardener will not leave until she is finished ... she once stayed for two entire days - it was insane!! And then she will only charge for the amount of time that she has spent there on the day she leaves - for example ... she came on day 1 at 9am ... she stayed all day and all night for day 1 and day 2 ... on day 3 she left at about 12 noon and only charged me for the time she spent at my house on day 3 from 9am - 12 noon. I don't know how she does it, she must be a robot to be able to garden for 3 days, since my sims get completely exhausted after 3 hours or so. This just started happening recently, after the patch, and is obviously some type of bug ... but I think its pretty cool and my flowers are always blooming. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- hedges, trees, shrubs and topiaries, don't need watering but increase your room score just the same -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mourning for the dead reduces your chances of seeing a ghost. Ghosts take on the personalities of the living Sim they used to be. The ghost of a playful Sim is more apt to "spook" living Sims. Active ghosts will move around a lot. The ghosts also like activities that they used to like when they were alive. If a Sim swims a lot, when he dies, his ghost will probably swim (even through the lawn). I once had a very neat ghost wash dishes, but never saw it happen again. Before the patch, the repairman got electrocuted while repairing a torch lamp. He died & I deleted his urn (it was my version of mailing it back to his family). the next day I called for another repairman and lo & behold! it was the ghost of the repairman who showed up! he walked through the walls, did his job, then left! he still charged me though! (I guess even a ghost repairman still needs make money in the afterlife!) the ghost repairman still comes when I call even after I installed the update patch. the nice thing about him is that I never have to move my counters in order to have him change the lights. he just goes through them! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I noticed that a few of u are interested in killing a sim or 2 (ssoooo cruel!) well, a 10 year old told me a quick and easy way to do it... 10 year old boys seem to know these things! O.K.. make a smallish room with a fire place at either end and line the walls with those green plants. Let a sim enter then wall over the doorway. Then suggest lighting a fire (how innocent!), the fire will ignite all the plants and the room will become a blazing furnace! hahaha! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your sims can move in and marry as many different people as they like, and yes, there is the very possible and probable chance of jealousy. Particularly if you let your sims choose their own interactions. Dancing, kissing, hugging and backrups, are automatic jealousy triggers for other love interests in the same room. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If the two Sims are already living together, its assumed that when they fell in love they were already married (if of opposite sex) or already moved in together (if the same sex). In "The Sims", same-sex marriages don't happen. You can have the person move in with you if they're the same sex and don't live in your house. Basically, marriage is just a way to get two sims to move in together anyways, you just get a little "wedding" performance for your troubles (which always seem to happen in the bathroom for my Sims :~). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When a Sim dies and the funeral urn appears, I turn it into a tombstone in the garden, allow the Sims to mourn it for a few days and then just delete it like anything else. I think you have to allow them to mourn the "dearly departed" for a suitable amount of time though, or else you find the living Sims starting acting a little weird after a time....like too depressed to even get out of bed and refusing to take any notice of you when you ask them to do something. How tiresome....how human!!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- it seems as if the sims are only switching on the light when it is dark outside, they never do that when the sun is shining. Maybe Maxis forgot to check if a room has windows. In my game the lights in no-window-rooms are only turned on automatically at night. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I put up one wall section on the corners of each lot and put an alarm on each wall. The burglar never even get close to my stuff before the cops show up. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can replace the music with your own. Simply take your favorite MP3 files and copy them to: Maxis\The Sims\Music\Modes\Build - music while in build mode Maxis\The Sims\Music\Modes\Buy - music while in buy mode Maxis\The Sims\Music\Modes\NHood - music while looking at your neighborhood (non-United States) Maxis\The Sims\Music\Modes\NHoodUS - music while looking at your neighborhood You can listen to your MP3's for any music object like a radio or stereo. Just copy the MP3's into these directories. Maxis\The Sims\Music\Stations\Classica Maxis\The Sims\Music\Stations\Country Maxis\The Sims\Music\Stations\Latin Maxis\The Sims\Music\Stations\Rock Then use any music object like a radio or stereo and change the channel to Classic, Country, Latin or Rock to listen to the MP3's in those same directories. Note: If you are running The SIMs when you copy the MP3 files, the change won't take effect until you restart The SIMs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------