I like trying different strategies.  I seem to remember some restrictions on the Seasons rules, at least as they appear on Boolprop.com:

Oh, yes, here it is:

"-Fishing is allowed

-Your chosen sim maybe a graduate from college however if your sim graduates "cum laude" or higher take away 10, 20 or 30 points from your score

-Garden Plots and/or fruit trees are allowed but you can't use the juicer."

So there's no point in growing veggies for skill points if you can't use the juicer, though fish might be a helpful addition to the food supply. 

My original plan was to open a home business in the front part of the asylum.  My playable truly is that mean--"roll up and see the crazy people!  Five cents, one nickel, the twentieth part of a dollah!"  I figured if he had an LTW like 20 WooHoos or Twenty Lovers, he'd have to meet them all some way.    It just never became necessary.

PB

I played a Romance Sim who conveniently rolled Celebrity Chef.  Now that was pretty easy, because most of the skills you need for that are fun (which was helpful for my very Playful Sim.)  It was also easy to keep him pretty tanked up and happy with dating.  The only skill that was a bit tricky to earn, ironically, was Cooking, because the Yummy Channel just wasn't Fun enough for him and he kept turning it off.  It was better to make him skill with the bookcase and switch to the DJ Booth when he needed Fun.  (Curiously, DJ Booths are specifically allowed.  I'm surprised more people don't use them.  Patients love 'em.)

PB

No doubt I'm biased, but I read it and it didn't seem boring to me.  I didn't even get to see any Aspiration failures in mine.  Two deaths by fire, it's true:  Repo Man seems to have decided that he couldn't live without a Bar Worth 1,000 Simoleans and took Mrs. Crumplebottom with him, and after that we had some cranky ghosts.  But other than that, nothing too bad except for the Social Worker beating up the Social Bunny, day after day, and the Grim Reaper freaking out because the shower was busted. Dr. Nerd had, what?  Fourteen Professor Von Ball episodes with the same sim in a short space of time?

Anyway, I loved playing an Asylum Challenge.  Maybe I'll do another someday, or I'll round up all the female Sims my prissy asexual Fortune Sim Romanced when he was out of his mind and put them all in a Bachelor Challenge with him in the same house.  Slapfests ahoy! Tuck in a few more beds and hot tubs, kick Grim and the Headmaster out, and Bob's your Uncle, you have an insto-BC with two angry ghosts.

PB

I have the worst flippin' luck this way.  I rarely do Outings, but sometimes I'll do them as an icebreaker for my college houses--"Let's all go out and buy cell phones!  Whee!"  This time the Outing was already running, so it was going to be successful, and when they ran into another Sim they knew slightly (a playable), my group invited him along.  Successful Outing!  Yes I can!  Then the invited Sim asked the first Sim along for a return Outing and brought. . . his mother, his father, his grandmother, his grandfather, his fiance, and his drama professor.  Yow, we could have had more fun scrubbing toilets (which my mean, neat Sims probably could.)  No more Outings for us.  Then later that evening the return invitee, Furious and much (unjustly) slapped, stopped by to leave an Outing Gift from the first Outing.

Gee, thanks for the, uh. . . .35 Simolean bud vase.  And the sad bit is that it is the ONLY Outing Gift I've ever gotten.

There isn't anywhere a sim could buy stoves and stuff, but most of my sims have now got flowers, snapdragons (helpful!)  several wedding cakes and birthday cakes, water wigglers, ice cream, and adorable stuffed bears in their inventories.  The Tiki crap is bound to start showing up soon.

PB

I married in a simself who had, among other things, not one but two cheap stoves in her inventory.  A few have had hot tubs; none have had a Dance Sphere.

PB

Well. . .I don't think it can be the date flowers, because I rarely sell those.  At the Greek House, I did have an invisible date gift once that got stuck.  Trying to figure out where it was so I could nuke it was fun.  Eventually I noticed my sims stepping over something near the front door, dropped the stuck objects remover on it, and when it was burninated I found out what it was.

It was a bottle of champagne.

Cheapskates.

I've heard the theory (from Ephemeral Toast) that it's got something to do with how much the relationship score goes up during the course of the dates.  I'm wondering if it has something to do with how many of your *date's* wants are fulfilled.  I often stop at the point when I hit Dream Date, and if the date is rolling up dumb wants I can't fulfill, I don't sweat it. 

I have a lot of married couples dating at home and of course they never receive gifts, but I sure would like to see more at the Greek House.

I do have one playable who is maxed Nice, and he is a super generous date.  He dated a girl in high school and left a hot tub; dated a guy in college whom he eventually married and left a Bust of Tylopoda.  Now THAT'S a keeper.

PB

Oh, poop.  I was afraid that was the case.  Well, it's still much better than always getting the same kid, over and over. 

PB

I did a search on this.

Is there some sort of logic as to which sims leave date gifts, and which don't?  My sims don't get date gifts very often.  I assumed it was because my sims mostly don't 'hoo anyone they're not married to, and even then it's usually to procreate. 

I've gotten gifts from townies and playables.  Teens seem especially generous--we've had several hot tubs left at the legacy house over the generations.  The Diva also left us a Dance Sphere once, but heavy duty lesbian photobooth WooHoo was involved. On the other hand, Remington Harris left a wide screen TV that he couldn't possibly afford way back when, and he didn't get *anywhere* significant with my heiress (until, of course, he married her and they had ten kids, with no WooHoo in between.) Most of the time, though, we just get those bouquets.  At one of my college houses, they totally block the road.

I'd like to know if there are any theories on this or if anyone has made a study of it, because I sure would like to exploit this if I could.

PB

Hmm.  I've been using the Batbox scrupulously before every birth in my hood, and it's really taken care of the "neighborhood full of Scorpios" problem, where all the kids had the same personality.  Nice variety in genetics, too.  That's why I can't figure this out:  in my main household, before the first child was born this generation, I saved, hit the batbox, and then made sure I played up to the first birth.  Second birth:  I saved, hit the batbox, and then played up to the second birth.  I just aged up the second kid to toddler, and they appear to be clones:  same face, same hair color (brown) same eye color (light blue) and the same personality--Scorpio, 7/3/8/6/2.  This has never happened before when I used the batbox.  Am I doing something wrong?

I have up through BV, no patch (not available for Mac), most of the hacks are Awesomeware, Lot Debugger and all Awesomeware are most recent releases.

PB

It's good that BRY makes it possible for visitors to change settings.  I actually did that a bit.  This is a bit unusual, as the lot is owned by a legacy household, and so of course other families can't shop there.  It's a giant beach lot with a pirate ship and a lot of other free stuff.  The business part is  what amounts to a fairly small hut with overpriced souvenirs and a bar.  I figure it's kosher as long as the playable visitors just enjoy the beach and don't buy anything, but I'd like for the business to be running reasonably efficiently in the background. Anyway, I hired a few simselves as peons.

Is there something specific that makes visitors to a closed home business Complain?  Are the business characteristics of the lot primary even when closed?  I have noticed that walkbys tend to come up and browse the art work even when the business is closed.  Through the wall, which is freaky.

PB

That's very helpful.  Off to hire some more feckless staff, or ruin sensible Sims' lives by Hiring them.

PB

Two unrelated issues:

1) I have a sim who has a home business:  an art gallery in the front part of his home.  The front part contains saleable stuff and bathrooms.  There is only one door to the rest of the house and it is locked to all but members of the household.  When guests come over, the business is closed and the door is unlocked.

The problem is that visitors tend to come up and Complain, even though the business isn't running right then.  It's annoying. Especially at a wedding.

2) I have read all the documentation, and I'm still not sure what "Assign/. . .Unmanned Owner" does.  Sometimes I visit an owned community lot business, and I've noticed that only the owner is there--not other members of the household, even if they were assigned to do various jobs before they left.  This means I suddenly don't have anybody manning the register--or restocking items, or what have you.  I don't understand this, as when I'm playing as the owner with BRY, I can bring members of the household with me, and the employees do sensible stuff (nobody at the register?  Restock for a while!)  Must I hire more employees so there is one for every job?

I'm sure it's something in the way I have it configured and/or set up:  I'd just like to know what the correct setup is, so I can change it.  My only business-related hacks are the Awesomeware ones:  I have the most recent for my game (BV, Mac, no official patch yet.)

PB

The only two of those juices I regularly use are strawberry lemonade and orangeade.  Orangeade is really helpful if you truly need talent badges:  it helped me get the Fortune Master point (all seven gold badges and all twenty-five business perks.)  And strawberry lemonade is a godsend.  I like using it for Pleasure Sims when I can't send them on multiple dates and for Family Sims, who can take a looooong time to get permaplat.  Once a sim is in plat mood, you don't really need stuff like pepper punch.  You can just send them to the energizer.

I've only had one or two strawberry juice type situations, and wouldn't you know it, those sims didn't have access to strawberry juice.

PB

1) "Approve" and "disapprove" is an Outgoing/Shy issue.  My shyest sim was my alien, Judy Jetson:  I think she had zero outgoing points and she really didn't like PDAs.   She had ten nice points, so that wasn't involved at all.  Sims also sometimes get upset and embarrassed at displays of affection when they think a relative is being "cheated on."  Usually it makes sense, but I've seen it where it didn't make sense at all.

2) Seven nice points is enough for a sim to allow a conversation about Grilled Cheese.  Five is not.  Six, I don't know:  but eight nice point sims should definitely be willing to Talk About Grilled Cheese (and then they will spontaneously bring it up to others.  Which is scary.)

PB

I am running the latest edition of the Lot Debugger and the DEST version of InSim, though I have the earlier 2.7 edition. ( I have a Mac, so I have only up through BV installed.)  I think I had some difficulties with 2.8.  In any case, I *did* find that Pregnancy Wear Any Outfit was causing trouble.  I would try removing that instead, and perhaps the swinger bed and hottub.

PB

While I know it isn't possible, I wish there were something to make it possible to interact with the Unsavory Charlatan.  He amuses me, and it's sad that you have to wait until he chooses to interact with your sim.  I've only really ever seen "Be Greeted," "Have Pocket Picked," and "Fisticuffs!"  (though I think Fisticuffs! is sort of funny.) 

I don't understand the want to have magically changed colors of sheets and underwear.  Most people I know do not own dozens of sets of bedding in fiesta colors, or even underwear, if it comes to that.  I always figured the sim was putting on a clean set of whatever underwear they were wearing.  If they aren't clean in general, they start to green-fume. 

PB

Thank you, TashaFaun.  I can't speak for all Mac users, but I know I most want the wedding cakes and the chairs. The birthday cakes would be great, too.  I like the looks of the arch, but I can live without it, especially since there are decent recolors of the original Maxis arch, but I haven't found any recolors of the wedding cake that worked at all.

PB

Want to trade?  Trust me, if you knew you couldn't have it. . .especially when it fits with the theme of the stuff you do (cutesy barfaciousness.)  And besides, you can do some amazing shit with a community wedding lot.

Some bridal and wedding lot experiments

And seriously, if anyone feels like arr-ing any of the SP things, we Mac users would be deeply appreciative. 

PB

I'm beginning to be resigned to the fact that they aren't, in fact, going to release Celebration Stuff for Mac at all, maybe, and words cannot express my annoyance.  I would buy the darned thing legally if it were available.

But, Celebration Stuff isn't available in any form, arr-able or not, and as I said, I would reallllly like the cakes and the arches.  You know how many weddings I just threw?  SIX.  All with the same lame-ass cake. And I have several more to go.

PB

Thank you very much, Bast Dawn.  I'm assuming that since these are simple .package files, they will work correctly in a Mac game?

Now if only someone would arrr the party and wedding stuff, especially the cakes, I'd be a happy woman.  I've never seen a single CC cake that worked correctly.

PB

My Sims Influence other sims to clean the litter boxes at parties.

PB

The not-cleaning-litter boxes by pregnant sims probably has to do with toxoplasmosis, a parasite that many cats have had and that gets shed in their poop.  It builds antibodies in the blood, so *if* a pregnant woman cleans the litter boxes and *if* she gets it for the first time while pregnant, it can cause birth defects.  Doctors recommend that pregnant women not clean litter boxes for this reason. 

Actually, it's pretty stupid, because many (most?) people with cats have already got the antibodies in their blood anyway.  I'm about 99% sure I do, because I had a cat who had a bad case of it when he was a kitten (it can be dangerous to kittens and elderly cats, but most healthy adult cats--and humans--don't have any symptoms at all.

PB

I want times 1,000 that there was a SimPE for Mac.  There are so many things I can't do--extract Sims, fix DNA, fix relationships--the list goes on and on.  I can do a little relationship editing with InSim, but in order to make three Sims first cousins, I had to create five sims and kill them off.  And don't get me started on genetics.  I have several Sims who were uploaded without CC, but who really ought to have things like genetic red eyes.  Of course, if there was a way to do any of this in game, this wouldn't be a problem.

I also want a Pet version of ACR.  Heat.  No need for relationships (seriously, what is up with that?  Did you ever know a cat who needed a relationship to mate?) Spay or neuter, or be up to your butt in kittens. 

I don't understand why there is a hack that makes your Sims behave like animals, but nothing to make your animals behave like animals.

PB

PB

I thought the drama professors were usually Popularity, not Romance.  They do have special coding that makes them instantly best friends and in love with absolutely everybody.  Simple way to deal with them:  don't answer the door.

Cow mascots are easily dealt with by having a sentrybot.  I don't especially like them strolling onto a lot and screwing up relationships, especially engaged couples during a graduation party.  Sentrybots keep them away.

Llama mascots and cheerleaders--well, the cheering can be annoying, yes, but they exist to be Influenced to write papers, to be targets for my Romance Sims, and to have the skills and aspirational levels sucked right out of them.  They will keep their special cheering coding and appear in their mascot clothes if you marry them in.  They make entertaining werewolves.

A lot of people like the TwoJeffs Visitor Controller.  I find it squelches a few too many things for my taste.


PB

I had been waiting for the UC actually to do something.  I rather like him, in fact--he looks a bit like Cecil, my Legacy villain--but he just stood around twirling his non-existent mustache.  I've seen him in every kind of subhood--Downtown, Bluewater, the three vacation 'hoods, and Uni. 

Finally I saw "Be Greeted" in one of my Sims' queues, so I waited to see what would happen.  The UC picked his pocket, and then there was finally an interactive option--"Fisticuffs!" 

The only problem is that now the UC keeps stalking my residential Uni lot.  It's not a dorm or a Greek House, just a shared house.  Every few hours, the UC stops around, evidently hoping that he will get something off of Dante Gabriel again.

DG has kicked his butt twice and has had his butt kicked once.  Beating him up is the only option--he can't "say goodbye" or "dismiss." 

I like the UC, but this is getting a little old.  Is there any way to discourage him from stopping by all the time?

PB