I'm one of the people that posted that both of my sim witches were maxed out good and evil the moment they were turned.  Not only did they have the special skins and the sparkles, but when I looked in their spellbook the bar was filled up all the way black for the evil one and all the way white for the good one.  Now you all have me wondering if it might be a bug.  At first I thought that was just how it was supposed to work.  I'll have to try it out some more on a few different sims later and see if I get any different results. 

As for turning another sim into a witch with a playable witch, I do believe that it is the Magical Transformation spell.  I haven't used it myself yet though to see if that is indeed the one.

Dream

That music plays in the game sometimes when he shows up...sometimes it doesn't.  I don't know why it isn't a constant thing...

Likes:

Personally I really love the witches.  I do think they may replace the vampires as my favorite non-human sim.  I also like how they sparkle and I like both the evil green skin and the sparkly good skin. I made two sims with the intention of making one a perfectly good warlock and the other perfectly evil so I made one extremely grouchy and the other extremely nice.  When both of them were turned into witches they both became instantly maxed out in their alignment.  Neither one had to study to get maxed out.  I don't know if it is personality based or based on something else...

I LOVE the playground and vending machines.  Both have been something I have been wanting since I first started playing the game two years ago...especially the playground since none of the custom playground objects had any interactions with them.  Parks are my favorite things to build and I was always frustrated that I could only put swings in the playground area.

Neutral:

...the apartments themselves.  I like them and they are very handy for a poor sim to move into, but then they are left with all of this money that they can then furnish their apartment very nicely and STILL have money left over to pay the rent for a few weeks.  It kind of makes the trashy apartments pointless unless you have money mods or just pretend that the sims don't have all that extra cash. 

Dislikes:

I don't like my sims setting the tables out in the community areas when they serve food.  I suppose in the future before I move any more sims into apartments, I'll put flowers or something on the outside tables to prevent this.

Dream

In my experience adopting a stray also won't satisfy the "get a pet" want.  Adopting a pet by phone or buying one at a pet store are the only ways I have seen that want satisfied in my game (I haven't tried fufilling it by having my pets have puppies or kittens yet).  I'm really disappointed that the adopting a stray interaction isn't counted because it takes more work than just buying a pet and sometimes my sims don't have enough money for a pet, but still get the want.

I have all of them and I would say that I have found IKEA to be the most useful.  The furniture is really cheap in the game and yet actually looks good and matches unlike the base game cheap furniture.  It's really great for sims that are just starting out. 

As for K&B I really liked the male hair and clothes and the medieval-looking kitchen set.  Though I would have to say that out of the three it is the one that seems to be the most lacking even though there are two sets for each the kitchen and bathroom. 

I personally liked TSS because I really like to play with teens in the game and was happy to have stuff made just for them.  I especially love the skater clothes for the guys.  There is a million custom goth clothes to download, but I haven't come across any skater ones like the ones in TSS.

Dream

I really like the career rewards that come with the University careers...especially the cowplant. 

It doesn't say anything about fixing the music stations on vacation community lots, the primp interaction, or the getting rid of the "lick plate" option for sims that can't use it.  Thank God there is MATY...well or Pescado...same difference I suppose. XD

Do people really have this many sims peeing themselves? Or are you all being facetious? XD I haven't had a sim pee themselves for like a year and a half now and I've been playing the game for two years.  And even back in my early days, I only had a very tiny handful pee themselves...and they had added circumstances...such as being pregnant (and it was only one pregnant sim...it was eat or pee and I chose eat. XD) and being a vamp stuck in the sunlight.  And I play without the BUY mod too.  I'm just surprised that players have this much trouble keeping normal sims dry-panted.

~Sid

Supposedly, the higher your sim's gardening badge the longer it is in between tending times...meaning weeds don't sprout near as often if a gold badge sim tends them instead of a no badge sim.  I say supposedly because though this is what is said in the Prima guide I haven't tested it out fully in the game.  From what I have done in the game though, it does seem to hold true. 

Thank you very much for this.  I figured this was broken because it makes way more sense for the stereos to be playing one of the three new stations on the vacations lots.  Plus listening to salsa music while raking a Zen garden in Takemizu kinda of ruins the mood a bit. XD

I would have to say that Twikki Island and the beaches are my favorite.  The beaches just look and sound really great.  I use to live on the beach and the noises in the game bring back good memories. XD  The beach with the pirate ship on it is really top rate...like something you would see in real life.  The Dragon Legend is really beautiful as well.  Oh and the Unsavory Charlaton is my favorite NPC to date.  I like his regular outfit the best and all the interactions he does and the way he sounds. XD I just cancel out the "Greet" interaction when I see it on my sim and then sit back and enjoy watching him con other sims. XD Overall I think Maxis did really well with this EP.  The only things I would have liked to have seen would be surfing and skiing, but everything they did give us is really great.  I am actually surpirsed at how much I like the EP and how much I enjoy taking my sims on vacation, since I didn't really think I would enjoy it all that much.

Dream

I haven't had any problems with the hotels yet, though they do lag because of all the sims on them.  Now granted I haven't taken a big family to a hotel yet, but this is what happened when I ordered roomservice.  The bellhop placed the tray on the edge of the table and both sims could eat at the table next to the tray.  I haven't had any problems with the hotel maids either. 

Things I have noticed running a hack-free game.  Not only is the "Primp" option gone, but the "Lick Clean" option now shows up for all my sims regardless of how neat they are.  Neater sims that wouldn't have the option before can't lick their plates clean though.  Also when putting jewelry on a sim in CAS, when I wanted to remove earrings the sim wouldn't get updated so I had to finish the sim and then bring her back into CAS to see if the jewelry had actually been removed or not. 

Dream

I had a jewelry stand in Amelia's Closet in Bluewater.  My sim rolled the want when he entered the lot (I figured because there was a jewelry stand there...but who knows ) and buying a watch fulfilled the want.  By the way it is CEP that makes the new toilet stall recolors not show up.  I took it out (after reading some posts in this thread and realizing I had only green toilet stalls) and all the recolors where there.  Also running a hack-free game I have had no problems with walking to any community lot and returning back home.  Just some random observations from my game. XD 

Dream

Thank you so much for this thread.  I have been trying to find default replacement skins that were still Maxisy, but with some tweaks and improvements.  I have had Enayla's skins as my defaults in the past and while I do like them...she didn't have all of the matching alternate lifeform skins and I play those a lot.  Lately I have just been playing with mostly Maxis stuff with just a select few downloads thrown in (mostly hair and HolySimoly furniture), so it was nice to find Lyran's site that had skins to match.  I had never heard of her site before.  The skins are really great...they don't look out of place next to my alternate lifeforms, but they have some nice improvements.  The default eye replacements are really nice too.  I also really liked her three extra skins...the really light one, the dark one, and my most favorite of all the freckled one. 

Dream

No I don't have that one.  That must be the difference then.  Thanks for clearing that up.

Dream

HeeHee! It's like Murphy's Law for sims!

See I just don't understand this.  Another person in another thread was talking about the same problem.  I've never had that problem before.  The second the sun rises I click the "sleep in pajamas" option on the coffin and the vampires go to sleep and do not wake up until dark unless they have a job.  And all of their needs including energy are totally green when I do this.  That is the way it is suppose to work in the game.  I think maybe there is a hack conflict of some kind in your game to make where they can't go to sleep until their energy is down.  Maybe not, but I can't imagine why there would be such a difference in our games.

As for whether vampires should have to use the bathroom (a fascinating subject), personally I take miros point of view on the subject.  What goes in must come out even if you are supernatural.  I understand the other side too...the whole absolutely undead and supernatural being (like in Anne Rice's novels) that has no bodily fluids left nor do they make anymore after they die and then become the undead.  Thus they don't cry those oh so cute bloody tears that emo kids love so much either.  If I remember correctly in Anne Rice's novels the blood goes to feed the supernatural entity that resides in each vampire.  And then if we go back to the very earliest myths about vampires, I doubt such things were even considered by their tellers.  To them vampires were living corpes that sucked the life blood of the living and beyond techniques to ward them off, I doubt much else of the vampires life (or unlife as it were) concerned them.

Dream

HeeHee, Maxon! You are probably a better builder than I am.  In my custom neighborhood I have eight residential lots and eight community lots.  Most of the buildings are rectangles! LOL! Although I did experiment this time with adding porches and hallways which I had never done before. 

Dream

I also send my vamps to bed as soon as the sun rises, but if they have a daytime job their motives will decay anyway.  So when they wake up at night they do have to eat and go to the bathroom and stuff.

Shaklin's hack is pretty cool, but I would like something a little more natural and integrated.  By that I mean that the dialog box that pops up everytime is annoying to me.  I suppose I'd like the options to be on the social menu when the victim is clicked instead of a pop-up dialog box.  I'd also like a hack that wouldn't have the sim look like they are transforming when they are in fact not transforming.  I'd don't know if it would be possible to change those animations though.

Overall shaklin's hack is pretty good and sounds like what you are looking for notveryawesome.  The vampire does get their fun and hunger filled up when they bite and sometimes the other sim faints if they are uncontrollable and if the other sim is being played by you then they faint everytime they get bitten.

Dream

ElfPuddle, I looked and that is who I thought she was.  But no I never played the first Sims nor do I ever play the Goths.  I almost didn't get obsessed with the Sims2.  My daughter got it as a gift for her birthday last year and I fiddled around with it a couple of times, but it didn't really catch my interest at first.  Then one day last winter I made a sim and played around with him and that was all she wrote! I got quite addicted to the game, but I don't know why it happened at that point instead of when I first played it.

Dream

HeeHee, Witch! I plan on playing the sims tonight too.  I just finished building a completely custom hood where I built every single lot from scratch (this is the first time I ever did that) and I'm so excited about playing it.  I'm also going to build completely a completely custom downtown and college town to go with it (those will also be a first).  Does that make me sad or introverted? I'm going with the latter since if I didn't have the sims I would just stay home and read a book or draw a picture instead.

*goes to check out this awesome sounding carnival set*

Dream

Who's Cornelia?


Yep, I noticed that too, though I didn't take any pictures of the townies.  I was surprised that Ben turned out so pretty, but then I 've always heard people say he makes pretty daughters. 

Now I'm going to look for Sandy Bruty to see how hideous she is as a man!

Dream

This was AWESOME, Marhis! I just downloaded it and went in to give everyone a makeover and reset their icons.  Here is everyone!



Darren Dreamer turned out quite nicely, but then he was a pretty good-looking guy too.



Derrik Dreamer is very pretty and was very cute as a boy too.



Mary-Sue Pleasant doesn't look too different in my opinion.



Daniel Pleasant is very pretty as a woman, probably the prettiest of the bunch.  He was pretty good looking as a man too though.



Here is Angela Pleasant.  Eh, she's OK I suppose but boy do those Pleasant twins have HUGE noses! They really show up when they are boys!



Lilith Pleasant.  I thought it was funny that she came with facial hair!



Here is Don Lothario.  Pretty good-looking and he was as a man too.



Mortimer Goth.  He is one that I personally think looks better as a man...not too attractive here as a woman.



Cassandra Goth.  I don't think she is very attractive as either a man or a woman.



This is Alexander Goth.  Not too bad, but who knows what he'll look like when he grows up!



Dina Caliente.  I think she is the cuter of the two Caliente siblings as either a guy or a girl.



Here is Nina Caliente.  Eh, I'm not digging this one either.  She was prettier as a woman.



Dustin Broke.  Eh, he is OK but isn't too good-looking either way.



Brandi Broke and Beau.  I knew Brandi would make a cute guy since she is pretty as a woman.  Beau is just OK either way.

Dream

I like my grouchy sims to train their dogs to be aggressive.  I think the "chase sim" command that is then opened up is great! All of my nice normal families discourage this behavior in their dogs though.  I have had quite a few burgulars in all of my hoods and always have, I don't have many sentry bots though, so maybe that does have an effect.  I'd love to see a werewolf take down a burgular though.  I heard that when they do they get all of the items in the burgulars inventory.  I haven't had a chance to try it out to see if it is true.

Dream

I have a question.  Do these vampires often get up during the day after you have put them in the coffin? I ask that because I've played tons of vampires and once they are in the coffin (I do have to direct them to do that) they NEVER get out again unless I don't have the quiet doorbell hack installed (then they wake up like all other sleeping sims when the doorbell is pressed).  So it's just weird to hear all of these people talking about the vamps gettting up on their own accord at all hours of the day. 

Dream

Yep, some sims get really obsessive pet wants and some don't.  It doesn't depend too much on aspiration, though in my game I noticed that family sims tend to be the most obsessive about pets.  I had one family sim that almost always rolled all six want panels full of pet wants and nothing but pet wants.  It was pretty annoying.  Thank God he was the worst and most of my sims are a lot more balanced in their wants.  I don't know if I would get a hack specific to this behavior, though I would probably do so if all of my sims were that obsessive about their pets.  Personally I'm really looking forward to Pescado's tweaking of the want tree to be more realistic and less obsessive about stupid things.  I'm definitely trying that out when he gets it finished.

Dream