So, I've been setting up a new 'hood, and I've been thinking about ways I can make it feel more like a connected whole, instead of like a bunch of individuals and families who happen to be living in physical proximity. The 'hood that I am setting up is Peni Griffin's Widespot, with a couple of extra households and Sadie Wilkie living with her CAS-created family, so it's already pretty connected (:-D), but I want to keep it that way.

So I've been thinking about parties. And outings, but let's start with parties. The game offers a few different types of party - a generic party, parties for birthday and weddings, sports parties and New Year's Eve parties. The latter four have a structure to them, in that there are certain things that have to happen during the party in order for it to be a success. But for generic parties, how do you make them feel "realistic"?

I find that, when I play, if a sim rolls a want to throw a party and there is no household member with a birthday coming up within the next day or two, I generally have them throw a generic party. So, what I do, is they invite the first 4/6/8/10/whatever sims in their relationships list, i.e. those with whom they have the highest relationship. Then when the guests arrive everyone just kind of does whatever. Sometimes there's cooked food available, sometimes guests just eat snacks, everyone crowds into the bathroom to try to use the toilet, people may watch TV or dance, maybe play chess if there's a chess table handy, and just generally socialise with the host household and other guests. Generally these parties end up as roof raisers, especially if there are couples on the lot and they decide to raise the party score by making out and canoodling the whole time.... :-D

But in real life parties generally have more structure and thought than that, no? I don't really throw RL parties (because people, ugh!) but when I used to get groups of friends together to socialise there would generally be a) a reason for us to get together (a pot-luck dinner, a normal dinner party, a LAN gaming night, an evening of playing board games and eating junk food) and b) a defined "group" of people (i.e. my course-mates, friends who'd met through my friend Sam, people I'd lived with in my second year of university). So I want to try to mimic that in my game as well. And not just for parties, also for outings (which I usually play as Just For Fun rather than as scored/timed events).

So, for example, instead of Penny Weiss inviting over the top 8 people from her friends list to a party where everyone just does whatever, perhaps she could invite her close friend Mary Land over, along with Mary's family, for a joint family dinner. Or instead of inviting a randomly mixed group of children, teens and adults whom she knows, perhaps Goldie Hart could invite her classmates over after their first day at Widespot's new school, to chat and watch TV and eat pizza together?

So, folks, how do you use parties and outings in your game? Do your sims always do the same things during generic parties/outings, or do they have a particular aim/theme/purpose/favoured activity? And do you invite particular social groups that make sense for a sim, or just the sims who they get on with the best?

For genetic parties I might have guests dress up and hang a pinata, play music and have some kind of food table, either a buffet or a simwardrobe one or buyable food from the catalog. If they have room and can afford it I might place down fun items like a bubble blower or water sprinkler. I tend to ban TV and chess. If they are the sort I'll use the strip poker table or if not that sims bingo game. Then I use the bat box to extend the party to whatever I need.

First, think of reasons why this sim might wish to throw a party at this time. This will determine the guest list.

For example, Virginia Beech is a freshman at LGU and gets engaged to Andy Bellum. Being a Popularity sim, she naturally throws a party to celebrate and introduce Andy to her family; her family, in turn, throws a party to introduce their friends to Andy. So one engagement generates two parties; but the guest lists and circumstances will be slightly different, and the results of each may have repercussions further down the line.

Obviously Virginia throws her party first. Assuming that she lives at the sorority and not with Andy, the essential guests will be Andy, his sister Sara (for moral support!), her teen brother Rocky (and any other younger siblings there may be, her parents, and her grandmother. Her sorority sisters - Helen, Ida Juana, and Dixie - are there by default. If her parents have split and remarried, the first big crunch decision is whether or not to invite the stepparents (or whether, perhaps, she should throw two parties!), which will be dictated by the state of hostilities. The drama potential here is huge, given the tensions in her own family, Andy's natural tendency to noseflick people, possible tensions among the college students, and the ever-hovering threat of the cow mascot. So, anxious for everything to go well, Virginia cleans the sorority from top to bottom, selects a time that will conflict with no one's work or class schedules, and calls the party while her helpful sorority sisters prepare the best dinner they are capable of (and then turn the fridge around so people don't fill up on chips). As soon as everybody arrives she introduces Andy to everybody, starting with her grandmother, and once that's done, Calls to Meal. Instead of free-ranging, you as player actively make Virginia and any of her sisters you think would be feeling helpful run interference between potential warring factions, influence Andy to make nice with his potential in-laws, etc. At the same time, if anyone in the sorority has a reason to disrupt the engagement (say, a rival for Andy's affections), this is the perfect time to influence him to behave badly.

If the engagement survives this party, then it's the elder Beeches' turn to throw a party to introduce him to his future friends and neighbors, which has a completely new set of logistics. The first issue here is, Who should throw the party? Sandy isn't employed outside the house, so may feel that she is the logical one to be hostess; but Daytona, as family matriarch, might feel that it's her prerogative. Or Hamilton might be really tired of never having a chance to throw parties in his own house. Each of these potential hosts will have a slightly different roster of friends and acquaintances, and different relationships with shared friends and obvious contacts that Andy needs to make. Since Andy wants to be a policeman, the local cop Homer is an obviously desirable guest, and inviting Homer means inviting his wife, but where Sandy might feel that meeting future neighbors is the most important thing, Hamilton or Daytona may prefer to invite political cronies and make the party do double-duty. If Andy is a known sports fan, inviting local legend Valentine Hart would be a great way to impress him (and the political cronies), but will he show up?

For that matter, will Andy himself show up? If he's only just met his future in-laws, he might well have such a low relationship that leads the game to decide he blows the party off. You can teleport him in (and say Virginia dragged him there against his will) if you like, but the desire to stay away should affect the choices you make for Andy in the future, as this would be a clear signal that he's disinclined to get sucked into the Beech Political Circle, which might affect decisions like where he and Virginia live. Meanwhile, the party is conducted along either formal or informal lines, depending on the host, with care taken to introduce Andy around and put the family's best foot forward.

You see how the choice of guest list in both these cases has the potential to make playing the party and getting a good score much harder than you're used to, and may tank it entirely. But that's not the point at this juncture - failure or success, the party will have consequences. Maybe Andy completely alienates Hamilton and makes friends with Sandy. Maybe his introduction is upstaged when Rhett Hart crashes the party and makes out with Sandy by the swingset. Maybe Andy has an attack of nerves and alienates everybody by relentless pranking. Maybe Virginia jilts him in front of everyone when Woody Weiss makes a determined play for her and she realizes he's who she really wanted all along! Depending on how people behave and how well the conflicting agendas of the active sims in the household are carried forward, these two parties could launch three or four new storylines.

First, there are other parties, like the Golden Anniversary and the Family Reunion.

Parties are thrown very often in my game. Most Sims get to throw 2 a week. The party and structure often depends on the Sim. However, a smaller group of guests (3 to 5) and a good meal around a table never fails. Some fun after dinner could range from playing pool to having a water balloon fight, although lazier ones may prefer to watch a film (which is fine if they are all into film and literature). Very special occasions get big parties. Sounds boring, perhaps, but Sims are, of course, full or surprises

I find that parties go well if everyone knows and likes each other already. Then, there's no need for structured activity.

I quite often like to have Simslice's beer available at parties, that makes things interesting, especially when sims don't know each other well, but also when they do. Unfortunately it's difficult to keep it staggered. If you just let them use it as it's coded, everyone grabs a beer at the same time, all finish drinking at the same time, and then try to perform actions on each other at the same time, all of which fail because the sim is busy. It works better if I let one sim drink a beer, wait for the reaction, and then let a second sim drink, etc. Maybe the keg works better.

I like the idea of structuring the party around some activity, especially with dinner involved. I find they always want to raid the fridge which is annoying.

I also often use influence at parties to simulate sims interacting in ways they normally wouldn't.

Genetic parties being parties with relatives?

I vary how I set up the guest list. Sometimes it's just the closest friends. Sometimes it's friends far down on the list, or almost-friends, because the sim throwing the party wants to build up those relationships more. This might be because they have a 20 BF LTW, or need more family friends for a promotion, or just because there are friends they haven't spent time with in a while, or may have had some rough times with and want to fix things. Sometimes it's a group of people who all have something in common - the ones who went to college together, all the teens in the 'hood, siblings and their spouses... Sometimes a sim wants to play matchmaker, and invite single sims who they think would make a good couple. When that's the case, the host sim will pull these single sims together in a shared activity, whether it's playing poker or just hanging out together, and then find an excuse to leave them alone. And sometimes I just pick more or less at random from the friend list.

I don't really organize things for them to do, though. I might make sure there's a meal on the table, or turn the TV on and have one sim ask others to join, but generally I leave them to it and sit back and watch what they come up with. If too many of them start doing solitary things, like fixating on the ballet bar or something like that, I may send someone to distract them and maybe influence them to go talk to someone else, but that's about it.

I did it again Although yes they usually are. The often end up being family reunions!

Oh boy, I do things very differently. I use parties a lot, some households throw a party every night. What they do and who is invited depends on who is throwing it, and what the idea is behind it.

I rarely do your approach of just taking the 8 sims they are closest to. Most of my Sims have more than 8 friends, and many of them also has family that they are best friends with. I wouldn't necessarily want my parents around when I hang out with my peers. I guess you could say I have particular aims when I throw parties, and select guests to match. I'll use my popularity Sims couple as an example to explain, Elna and Max. Max Flexor is the pre-made from Academie Le Tour, Elna is third generation core family.

Since Elna is core family, she has her grandmother and her new partner, her parents, and her two siblings. Both her siblings are married, and Elna is good friends with the spouses. She was always very social, so as a child she got to know her parents friends very well as well as their kids. As a teen she had a group of townies she'd hang out with, as well as a couple of stray townie friends outside of the group. At college she quickly befriended the sorority girls, the frat boys, Max and Mitch, and a bunch of dormies. Her townie group of friends went to college as well, at the same time as her. Some of them ended up hanging out with Max and his friends, others with Mitch due to shared classes and hobbies. After graduating, Elna moved to a big fancy apartment building. Naturally she'd hang out during the building parties thrown by the landlord, so she got to know many of her neighbours. Some of the townie gang friends moved in there too (all random by game mechanism, I used mods to move them along with Elna but they were never played actively, always townies in the background) so there was a very friendly neighbourly air in that building, with people hanging out in the hallways at all times.

Now Max lived with Mitch all through college. He also became friends with sorority girls and frat boys, and gathered his own group of sports-loving dormies and townies, as well as some people that just liked a good party. After he graduated, he moved into an apartment and got three roomies, all of which were romance or popularity. The roomies had friends of their own, and since I play with control pets on, I sometimes directed them to throw parties and invite their own friends over. The romance one was an actor, high up in his career path, and had lots of friends when he moved in, so I had him throw socialite parties with fancy people who'd stroke his narcissistic side, as well as females to impress and seduce. Naturally Max became friends with some of these people. He also extended his group of sports loving and party happy people with people he met through his career and just when out and about. Additionally, I gave Max a sister that I created in CAS. He doesn't have any other family, but he does have his sister. She's a street-performer, with pleasure ambition.

Now, as you can see/read and probably guess, there's a lot of mixing between these groups. Mitch married Elna's twin sister. He became friends with some of Elnas townie friends during college, and since he lived with Max all through college he knows a lot of Max's friends. Elna's parents friends had a son named Andreas, who dated Elnas sister as a teen. He later on became friends with Max, because both of them are sports nerds, and is a part of Max's sports loving group of dudes. He doesn't get along with Mitch, or necessarily Elnas sister, so they shouldn't be invited to the same party. Max's roomies had romances or became friends with some of Elna's many townie friends, so there are groups within the large group of townie friends they both have.

Nowadays Elna and Max live together. So what kind of parties might they throw?

Elna throws family gatherings with her family, sometimes the entire family to celebrate Christmas or New Years. Sometimes just a brunch with her siblings, to catch up and talk. In these parties there's usually a cooked meal, so they can sit down together and talk. After that I'll direct them to a tv or a sofa, to hang out and talk. Sometimes a few of them will gather around the bar instead, get a drink and stand there chatting. I don't tend to structure it more than making a meal and making them sit, they naturally gravitate towards hanging out and talking.

Elna might throw a party for her old college gang, with the core group of townies she was friends with as a teen. Max and Mitch are usually part of these as well, since they are good friends with parts of the group. Sometimes Elna's sister that's married to Mitch is included as well, since she's friends with the ones that are friends with Mitch. Elna could also throw a party for her old apartment friends, the ones she got to know in the first building she moved to. So that'll include some of the core townie group, and the other townies that lived there. Max might throw a party for his college gang, which then also includes some of Elna's core townie group, but a bunch of other people as well. And of course he'll throw parties inviting his old roomies and some of the people that used to attend their parties. And occasionally Elna and Max revive their collage days and throw wild parties, with all the party-crazy popularity Sims they know (and a romance Sim or two that knows how to set the mood). And lately, Max has been throwing some very dude-heavy parties where he invites his sister, to introduce her to people since she's pleasure and likes to go on a date or two. He knows lots of people, might as well put it to good use and find his sister some friends! Also helps with her street performing, making her more known in the community. Then there's sports parties, where Max might just invite his OTH-sports friends to watch a game on TV, or toss some ball. And not to forget, Max and Elna are both very popularity-inspired, very social. They like having people around simply because they like having people around. They like getting to know new people, and they like making other people form friendships. So almost every night when they get home from work, they invite some group of people, and sometimes they'll do a random party where they don't stick to any specific group, but instead throw together people they think might like eachother, or that they want to get to know better. A hodge-podge of the numerous friends-but-not-BFs they have.

For Elna's college gang, there's usually pizza or chinese food, and they sit around having discussions. Many in the group studied arts, or literature, and have either arts or film/lit OTH, so they enjoy a nice debate about the latest book or artwork. Low key, maybe one or two dance a bit. If it's Max's college gang, there'll be beer (juice keg) and sports on the TV, probably music for dancing, and hanging out standing up, talking or dancing. If it's a wild college style party, there's juice kegs everywhere and bars with drinks. Loud music, dim lighting, and primarily dancing. Maybe darts, and most likely making out and flirting going on. If Max is throwing a party to introduce his sister, there's less music, but still juice kegs and darts, probably pizza. Might be a barbecue. Something that invites Sims to hang out and talk, without getting too distracted by tv or music. If it's a sports-OTH party, there's no bars or juice kegs, just tv with sports and hanging out around the sofa. If it's a random party, I don't tend to structure it more than making sure there's some kind of food to eat. Usually pizza or chinese food, since neither Max nor Elna care much for cooking. But then they just go about their evening, letting things play out naturally, since the idea is to just have noise and people around, letting friendships form naturally.

Aside from these, they also do outings quite frequently. They might take the college gang and go bowling downtown. Might go to Moo Pizza and have a pizza party. Sometimes they'll get together with Elna's siblings and have a couples dinner party at some fancy restaurant. Very frequently some townie friend will call and ask if they want to tag along to an outing downtown, depending on the time they might go have dinner somewhere, or go bowling, or go out dancing. Sometimes they'll throw together a group of people that enjoy pool, and go to the local billiard palace.

Elna and Max are the extreme, perhaps, both of them have over 30 BFFs and a whole heap of friends to top that off. For them the groups vary enormously, since they are part of so many groups, both as individuals and as a pair. With my less social Sims, it's sometimes the same group of friends that gets invited. Maybe one group that's family, and one that's friends. If it's a couple, they may have their own small group of friends, and then one joint group with people that's friends with both. If it's a family with younger kids, they probably do more family-themed things, like take the kids and their friends to the local swimming pool, or the playground, or to a skating rink of some sort. Rather than a sit-down dinner, families are more inclined to do something like a barbecue so the kids can run around and have fun, and everyone eats at will.

I'll stop rambling now. Hopefully that might give some ideas to someone

I often throw a genetic Family Reunion party if I need to introduce older siblings that have moved out to younger siblings born recently. Or cousins to each other, or a dad to his own baby Very useful.

As for any other party...darn, I keep forgetting to throw them...

The Hadi-Stanimirs tend to do that... "Wait... Mom... Why are there three little boys and two twin toddlers in your living room? Oh god not again Mom you already have ten children calm the hell down jesus christ" - Nadav Hadi, probably.

I hardly ever bother with actual parties. If my sims want to socialise, they'll just invite friends over. I make the friends selectable with testingcheats, so they can invite over friends of their own (who the hosts might not know), and daisy-chaining a guest list in this way I can widen everyone's social circle.

Only today, I was playing Sensemilia Grabbit. She's a Pleasure sim who's finally had her 50 Dream Dates and gone permaplat, so I'm now looking for someone to pair her off with. A good contender would be Wally-Jack Goodbody - she double-bolts with him, and he doesn't have an obvious partner lined up. But even though they've met (woohooed, indeed) in the past, their mutual STRs and LTRs are zero. Sensemilia can't just invite him over for dinner.

But she's best friends with Julia Brueder, who does know Wally-Jack very well. So what I did was invite over Julia and her partner, made them selectable, had Julia invite Wally-Jack over, sat them all down for dinner, then had Sensemilia say goodbye to Julia and partner before having a game of chess with Wally-Jack. He ended up sleeping over in the spare bedroom and by the time he left around midday he and Sensemilia were friends. At some point she'll invite him in to move in.

If you use this method, I suggest that:

1) As soon as you've made a guest selectable, check their work schedule to make sure they're not due to go do some Criminal Masterminding or whatever. If they are scheduled to go to work, either make them unselectable and have someone say goodbye to them, or let them take a vacation day (if they have one), or toggle their selectability to make sure the car pool doesn't turn up and they don't get a Missed Work notification. That, however, means watching the clock, something I'm Not Very Good At.

2) Don't invite pregnant sims. Once you've made them selectable, their pregnancy will advance, and if they're well into third trimester they are liable to pop in mid-party.

3) Once you've got all the guests you want, use the Maxmotives cheat to stop the party turning into a game of musical chairs with the bathrooms. I'd recommend doing that with any party, to be honest, especially if there are elders on the guest list.

An easier way, or easier for me, is to place down the Simlogical institution sign, that way you don't have to worry about missing work or school.

The only thing I find with the beer is that Sims sometimes propose to each other, even it they're married, and the result shows in the memory panel. I suppose you can remove it via Sim PE, but it's annoying. I would have much preferred if there were simply more romantic interactions instead, or "spend the night" proposals.

I consider situations when throwing parties as well. Sometimes, I'll grab the first eight people, but if it's a business-related party, I'll focus more on co-workers or people the Sim wants to impress, for instance. Or my more rowdy teens will throw parties when the parents are out of the house and invite other teens.

And if you don't want to Maxmotive, you could either go with the the peeable bush on MATY, the all-in-one from Veranka, or porta-potties (different places. I'm not able to use my main gaming computer, but I've seen variations on different sites). Each definitely has a use in a party situation, depending on the party (the All-in-One for your more genteel guests; the bush for someone who just has to take a leak after too much fruit juice and can't wait on the bathroom line).

Parties and Simslice's beer? *Thinks back on the most outrageous wedding party in Blue Point history* It's always an interesting time. I'll say that much.

Usually, it depends on what my sims want. If they roll wants for a non-specific party, I may let them have a sports party. They'll grill burgers, hit the phone to invite friends, and shout at the television. I've had a couple of Christmas parties that usually get the police called. Lots of food, games, chatting, and Santa popping up.

Otherwise, if my sims want to socialize, I'll either let them go out on a group outing, or just invite friends over to hang out.

Yes, I'll never forget that random townie proposing to my queen in my tavern. I thought my game had exploded or something then figured it was the ale!

I have parties when Sims want them and have the energy and time for them, and also if I feel they would throw them. I alternate between Regular and House parties unless there's a particular reason to be different (e.g. there's going to be a wedding at the party).

My sims are so anti-social (like me), the only time they have parties is when it's someone's birthday. If the birthday sim has relatives, I will invite them to the party. I even extend the timer, so they can spend more time with each other. Sim parties are pretty boring. All that sims ever do is smustle to death. Unless, Simslice's beer is involved. :D

If you don't have the stereo on when they arrive, they won't get caught in the smustle loop. The host can interrupt the smustle loop, too. I do a lot of hugging and kissing to break up smustles at family parties, and then they can do influencing interactions and introductions to improve circulation.

Sim parties are loads of fun if you let them be.

If the Sims you're inviting to the party don't know each other well and you have lots of influence points, you can put them to good use and influence them to talk to each other. Just don't try to hook up those two townies that would be cute together because 9/10 times, influencing a Sim to flirt will make them burst into serenading. It doesn't go well...

On another note, I like having parties, especially to break the monotony. Inviting Sims who are enemies is fun. For some reason fights raise the score.

Because watching fights is a group activity, I believe. But enemies who never get past the nose-flicking/poking/shoving stage are bad for the score because they're negative social interactions.

I played for so long on computers that couldn't handle parties that I keep forgetting to have them now. Maybe I should tape a big sign to my monitor: "THROW PARTIES!!!"

What is a party to mature adults without the appropriate beverages? I mean, they're not gonna drink kool-aid to relax with, for sure! So if I do hold a party, the beer is out and free. I love the repercussions of those kinds of parties. It's fun seeing the random assorted fights and proposals running amok.

Or else the homegrown smokable vegetable that makes the bubble blower look stupid.

As one of my pixels would say: "We're here to party, not sleep!"

Parties are generally "formal" occasions in my eyes. To me, I can have a good party by simply inviting over a bunch of guests and doing all the things you do at a party, minus the party timer. Even better, I can stretch it on for as long as I want, because screw the neighbours and their beauty sleep! And I don't have to care about what the guests think of it... well, except their motives, since they'll leave if they have to go pee and can't find my bathroom.

I generally only throw the party scenario parties in households that can afford it, and typically I invite a number of friends from around the hood (The household that throws parties in my neighbourhood is very outgoing, so they have tons of friends. Parties are no problem for them. That particular household throws a party every Saturday.). I set up a buffet table, put on some music, socialize with the guests, and if the guests aren't sampling the lovely food on the table, I use cheats to make them selectable and drag their hunger motives down. Yes, eat that turkey!

My main goal during those parties, though, is not to fatten my Sims like swine but to make sure every guests knows every other guest. It's a good way to fill in the gaps and bring the neighbourhood together. It's a good way for other Sims to meet new arrivals to the hood, or Sims that aren't as commonly seen, like children and townies of all sorts.