mirjampenning, the main reason we keep it under the foundation is when its most needed buy and build may be greyed out and you wont be able to access it without either a cheat or a mod.

My poorest sim moved out with $50. I placed him on a blank lot and had him busk until he had over $61 and could afford my smallest room at my cheap hostel. Those with more often afford a $200 room at my slightly nicer apartment row.

Yes, I realise it has a good reason to keep it there.
My habit can at one point become a foolishly stupid one. (Luckily I do have regular backups in case anything goes wrong later on)

I'm running a disk-based game on Windows 7 Professional so my program files are located in C > Program Files (x86) > EA GAMES. If you're running the Ultimate Collection, using a different operating system, or installed to a custom location, this may vary. (For example, I installed my game to drive K)

I ran a search in my EA GAMES folder for all the EA logo movies (all movies containing *ealogo*), selected them all, and batch renamed all of them. There are A LOT of logo movies.

The base game movies are in the program files folder under: EA Games > The Sims 2 > TSData > Res > Movies (ealogo_audio.movie and intro_eng_audio.movie). This is the only copy of the intro movie showing the sims that I found in my game.

Each of the Expansion Packs and Stuff Packs will also have an EA logo movie (ealogo_audio.movie). These will be in EA Games > [name of expansion/stuff pack] > TSData > Res > Movies

There are a lot more of the EA logo ones including for the other language versions in TSData > Res > Locale > [language] > movies under various locations/languages. If you only use the English version, you may not have to bother with the rest of these.

Another one for me: I have a popularity sim who's a party-crasher. I summon him to the lot at every party my Sims throw, whether or not he knows them. It's fun.

RoxEllen1965, I am also on Windows 7 Professional but my game is on an added D drive. All separate disks. Thanks for the info.

My poorest sim moved out with $50. I placed him on a blank lot and had him busk until he had over $61 and could afford my smallest room at my cheap hostel. Those with more often afford a $200 room at my slightly nicer apartment row.[/QUOTE]

I have to tell you I just love your Down on your luck hostel. It has everything, and yet it makes life quite a challenge for my poorer, and sometimes not so poor, simmies. :D

I always have a dive bar named Skiffos in every neighborhood I build. It's a quirk from when I lived in a certain town when we were first married and passed the place all the time. The name just appealed to me and the place looked (from outside, never went in) like a real dive bar. I usually have a family with the last name Tobias, my first "legacy family" from way back. I imagine they are "related" in some weird time line and it's always multi-ethnic (Black guy, White woman) as the founders. I also hardly ever play Sims too long who are not artistic in some way. Rarely do I get beyond a few levels in many careers. I'm really trying to change my play style this time around and get lots of new experiences and make sims with varied careers, interests, lives...just shake it up and do a lot of things differently.

You guys have inspired me in the threads and given me great ideas. Thank you.

There are a few families I tend to recreate in each new hood. There is Unity Griffin, usually a fiery red haired popularity sim (but not always). Sometimes she appears with her sister, Liberty, but I don't enjoy the sibling that much. Then there's the Fugly family. Poor John and Cusette. I make them as ugly as possible (sometimes frightening so) and then have fun trying to see how long it takes for their descendants to get decent looking. The Nightshades, Dark and Banshee with daughters Jade and Romance. Usually Dark has some pedestrian job while Banshee roams the neighborhood trying to mate with as many males as possible. There is Nuke HuMan and his son, Arafat. Nuke is just a hardworking guy and Arafat is the perfect kid. There is also Jubilee Dodge and the Panda family, but I haven't been moving them around as long, so they aren't as well defined.

I command my sims to feed parrots and hamsters when they are in pet shops.
I HATE baths that don't have "shower" option. Never use them.
Pascal Curious and Nervous Subject always end up together, no matter how many times I play Strangetown. And I never get bored of them. It's like an OTP.
Same goes to Don Lothario and Nina Caliente, although, given their aspirations, it's usually complicated.

I put mine in a "Culls" folder and burn the folder to a CD. 98% of the time, I never look at it again. But there are a few times I have commented, "Hmm ... that lot I made years ago wasn't too bad. Maybe I'll pull it up again."

I also save almost EVERY lot I've made. Many did not make the final cut. But there were two times I was stumped on a technique, or thought a particular lot I discarded might actually look nice in a hood (sometimes, I had no place for it in the hood, but now I do). Two exceptions are corrupted lots or extremely specialized lots that have such awkward and unusual terrain issues that i sincerely doubt I'd use them again. And I've been right 100% on the latter.

This might prove fruitful yet again. I've been missing an old lot I made; one of my very first lots where I put days of effort into it. I didn't resurrect it because I wasn't sure if I played it before packaging it. It was a residence. But now that I've been reading that you can at least use Sim PE to look at the files, and moreover, you might be able to yank Sim references out of the lot files, put the lot in a test hood and repackage it without the references. I'd have to verify that again, though, before trying it. Maybe I misread something. But the point is that if I didn't have it packaged somewhere, I wouldn't even be able to consider doing this. Sometimes you find out more or you learn more skills.

I rarely ever just select "hold" for toddlers. It's always Snuggle -> Kiss -> Talk To, so the relationship can increase. Playing interactions are always Tickle -> Snuggle -> Toss In Air -> Kiss -> Talk To. It's kind of like to calm the little one down, I guess?

A few times my Sims have grown up with weird eye-sockets; I usually give them glasses.

Personal quirks and habits in gameplay

I think I'll have to admit that my playstyle is decidedly personalised and quirky. And where I put the batbox is the least of it. (For the record I put it under the foundation if there is one, and in the roof-space if there isn't. If the building has a flat roof and no foundation, I build a little enclosure on and outside wall for it with half-height walls -- the sort of thing you might see in Real Life for a central heating oil tank or similar. And I usually put the Sim Manipulator on a bedside table unless the Sim has an art studio, in which case I put it there.)

My playstyle is aging-off, and very protective of my Sims. I hardly ever start new neighbourhoods -- I just keep playing the same Sims, year after year -- I don't even let them age up -- well, hardly ever -- in the 4 years since I started, 4 Sims have celebrated birthdays. Babies are as rare as hen's teeth -- 3 born since I started -- and one of them was Pascal's baby in Strangetown. Weddings are infrequent, deaths are unknown. I think I really believe I have a duty of care to my Sims. I love my Sims so I do everything in my power to keep them safe and happy. I play with my finger over the Pause button, and frequently pause the game while I check round the lot that everyone is ok. All the Sims I've ever played are still alive. And I don't mean that I've quit without saving to keep them alive -- I mean that I've never seen the Grim Reaper in my game at all. My game is all about the day to day story of my Sims' lives. I'm sure some people would find this way of playing boring, but I love it.

I'm an eccentric idiosyncratic Simmer and I love my game, because that's where I meet up with all my eccentric idiosyncratic Sims!

I just put the batbox down. Somewhere. A Sim's house with no batbox in sight - well, it just looks weird To me..

I hide it, in the foundation if there is one but also under a rock or inside a built in wardrobe. Inside the wardrobe is a great place in a tiny flat.

If there's no foundation, you can always put it in the space under the roof. My sims have huge collections of weird stuff in their "attics".

Well, I have slowly begun to put my batboxes in proper spots either under the foundation, under the roof, or occasionally in some out of the way spot where I can still click on it. I figured it was silly of me not to, since one of the first things I do on a new lot is turn moveobjects on to move the mailbox and trash can from their default locations. It would still be kind of nice if it had the option to change model like the SimBlender or ACR controller, so it could left in the open as a decorative piece.

I once seen a hack that turns the batbox into a vase, but I haven't been able to find it again.

That's one of Lord Darcy's. Honestly if I used this, I'd never be able to find the thing.

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...ic,10943.0.html

That and another object I use (a hack that lets you change the number of servings in a group meal) uses the same object.

I try to hide the batbox and the other stuff too. For a while I just placed all of them in the far left corner of the lot, I'm still somewhat confused when I can't find them there.

All sim graves go to the cemetery. It's creepy to burry your dead grandma in the backyard and ghosts are annoying. Sometimes I let them stay until a ghost spawns, because I read somewhere they won't spawn in the cemetery otherwise. PEt graves usually stay on the lot unless the ghost becomes too much to deal with

For me, it's getting my young adult sims to go for high grades and stuff while still managing to have a social life. I often go for Big Man/Woman on Campus, and of course, I love making witches. Might make some kind of heredity thing, like in the Harry Potter series (which I adore). Also, I do play with a hacked want trees where all non-knowledge aspirations are indifferent towards all occults except for zombies. I did this because I don't want a buncha racist sims with cure wants clogging up their slots. Kinda take after my maternal grandma, I guess - she loved everyone.

Note that if you want to hack the want trees, back up the wants package file in case something bad happens. It's kinda risky business, but it is working for me.

I also am trying to break the habit of making all buildings either bricks or white stucco.