I sort of do a storyline, or I think I do a loose one anyway. I take pictures and post them to my Simblr (link in siggy) and the pictures themselves often tell the story, with me adding some text at times. I know certain things I want to do but I don't plan everything out, if I did that the Sims would be all "No!" and do what they want anyway. But I do plan events, or babies, and drama at times to spice things up, and sometimes the Sims do it themselves, I just post it all to my Simblr

It's almost 2AM here and I should go to bed.
Broomhilda61 your post made me laugh but I understand that things sound confusing.
I'll answer my part and let the others speak if they want to.
I'm playing a semi integrated hood so you may do a search with "integrated hood" as key words. This post may help: http://modthesims.info/showthread.p...5#startcomments


I have a playable police station funded by the town that why my sims pay taxes.
One of my rules is if the NPC-burglar gets arrested by the NPC-policeman. He has to go to jail. He becomes a playable. Since I also have a courtroom in my City hall I played a trial there using mods. I roll a 6-faced dice to know how long the ex-burglar will spend to jail. I roll a 5 so the sentence is five years (5 simdays).
Be aware that once he become playable a burglar can't be a NPC-burglar again. I still haven't figure out what my former-burglar will do after his release.
Since my police station only has one cell, nosim can be sentenced to jail. I'll have to built a bigger police station or a prison.
I mostly post random pictures of my sims (http://modthesims.info/forumdisplay.php?f=688) and seldom post in this thread: http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=574021

Wow Essa..I am intrigued on how you are describing your game play..and would love to learn more about it.. bookmarking those links you gave me as well..going back later to check them out..

Right now I finally learned that when you download a Sim..and you can't find them in CAS or the sim bin..look at the very top of item one where you choose a male or female and skintones and all that and at the very, very top click on the 6 or 8 tiny icons and wallah there they are omgosh..

Thank you Essa and wickedjr89 for your help in explaining a lot to me..on how you play

I have one family that is Networking ONLY. No jobs are allowed to be held, so they spend time striking up conversations with townies, hoping one of them will offer a free product to "test" (which means they keep it and can either then use it, or sell it for Simoleons). They are kind of a moocher family, so they like to schmooze the townfolk. They are living in an apartment now and saving for a house from all of their collected (and sold) goodies.



My "moocher/networking" family loves to get the free TVs and computers, since they sell for BIG bucks. The TV is an 8000 Simoleon item! I do have a rule that anyone who gives them a free item has to eventually be made a best friend, so I don't discard a townie after they have given me such a nice FREE item. :D

Wow..Goldenbtrfly I didn't know any of this lol..

The lady that taught me how to play never played with cheats, mods, cc or anything..she had been playing since Sims1 first came out and still had all the disks..so I had learned from her..so all this stuff even though I have been playing with all of these since 2010 everything is still new to me..and I am so excited to find new ways of playing but I have been playing the same way for so long I'm not sure I can play any other way..afraid I will mess up my game again..since the last mess up..I haven't been able to play much and my four families still haven't had any kids yet..and they are still poor..

I have to go read more stories lol..

Thank you Goldenbtrfly for all this information..I really appreciate it

@broomhilda61 A good number of us here play a more integrated hood style, but it isn't something you probably want to go from 0 to 100 on. I started by really loving OFB so I already spent a lot of time on all the vanilla types but then I got to thinking about other types of services and business that the game doesn't come with and started looking around to see if there were mods or cc that could achieve those. I saw the Simlogical school system and tried that out, saw something else and tried that. I would suggest just thinking about one thing you would like to see in your game that the game can't provide and try it out. Lot's of us here can point you to cc or ways and means of achieving what you might be interested in.

Hi joandsarah..thank you..it's going to take me a while to get used to new things..when I was younger it was easier to change but as you get older you tend to stay in your own security blanket..it's time to throw away that blanket lol..

What is OFB?? lol

And sorry again Essa for taking over again..I promise I won't do it again..just trying to learn.. :D

I don't mind @broomhilda61 ;-) Numerous threads are derailing.

OFB stands for Open for Business. It's also one of my fave EP along with Seasons.

IMO finding a playing style is a matter of taste, trials and errors and also being inspired by other simmers (here and elsewhere). For example, I love playing schools. Jade Elliott of the now defunct Isle of Thyme, inspired me to do so. She used to say BUTTIAS (back up, then try it and see) or something along these lines.
I started to play the Legacy challenge then I found the Prosperity challenge which led me to the BACC challenge and integrated hoods.
I'd rather start from scratch than have a hood ready to play but I dislike starting a hood with one sim only. I also dislike small hoods because I play generational.
Since I'm a rather hand-off player I don't have a bunch of rules or make it so they're easy for me to remember.

My banking system is not elaborated. I dislike using Monique's mods for the reason Gummilutt said in post #43. I love her computer though. I do loans through Cyjon's loan jar.
Thanks to this thread I think I'm going to use these following rates:
1% if the sim buys a house
2% if the sim buys a business
3% if the money is used other purposes (consumer credit).

This post you started has had me thinking a lot lol..and if you knew me like they do over at Cherry Blossom Sims you would know that thinking isn't a good thing for me haha..and it is overwhelming..

I think I am going to start small with one thing like joandsarah said and go from there..I don't know about the interest thing yet..but did get the loan jar..

Right now I am learning how to create a story..usually I get the first Chapter then don't know what to do next lol..

I like to create 4 married couples and play them and just build the Neighborhood with them..that is what I am doing right now..the farthest I have ever gotten was I think 6 generation and since then I haven't been able to play more than 2 generations..it's been depressing..I keep messing up my game..and having to start over..

You know I read all the time about backing up your game..how do you do that..

Thank you so much Essa and everyone for your help and feedback..you all have been awesome to talk to.. :D

@broomhilda61 *whispers* most of us here are over 40.

Like Essa I love the school. School is a large thing and I wanted more than to see my kids catch a bus I wanted to play a school, and since I homeschool I wanted some kids in game to be homeschooled as well so I jumped around for joy at finding the Simlogical school system. I did not like the whole headmaster scenario either, smacks of snobbery so I got rid of that.

With an integrated hood, each family connects the way a real town might. So if i was starting a place with just four families, one family would have to own a farm because people have to eat. I would have the other three families buy food from that family. Not to say they might not have a small garden plot themselves but they would have other things to do. The second family might be the school teacher for when the children start to arrive and perhaps a police officer. Town needs education and safety. The third family might run a general store or a pub with meals. The forth one might be the repair guy and perhaps a doctor or something more fun like a hair dresser and clothing store owner. The main thing for me is all the families interact not only socially but with their businesses. So they would all go buy things from the general store so that when I open their inventory I can see they bought a crib from the neighbours store.

Most times I just go to my hood in Documents, copy it and paste it into a folder I have on my desktop. A very simple quick back up. For a long and large one I copy and paste my whole sims 2 folder onto a portable hard drive.

OFB- Open For Business. That was the EP that allowed sims to own their own business.

lol joandsarah I'm 55

I have seen that Simlogical School System..but I didn't know how to use it so never even considered it..so with that you would do a school at your home and kids from around the area would come there or a lot and build a school there..and you and the kids would have to go there..but if you have a baby or a toddler can you still do the school system..or wait till the kids are in school..so many questions sorry..

I have had the home business and was doing ok until a cotton pick'en tree caught on fire from lightening and took my whole place down..I'm talking 15 guests that were outside my family of 6 (baby and toddlers as well) I just bawled didn't save..I just couldn't bare to see that family in ashes, the house, fence, all the trees, everything went up in smoke lol..I didn't know how to get one of the family members get to a phone to call the fire department..called for help myself with the lady that was teaching me..by the time the fire department got there even that sim died when she went running out to the fire..sims can be so stupid sometimes omgosh lol..never did a home business since then..tried the own business on another lot but that was to stressful..it didn't work out..I'm a bit more experienced now..but still not sure about it..

So with the teaching one person has to go to college to be a teacher right..and the others law enforcement, doctor all those have to go to college first right..or at least the teacher..I don't remember seeing a job for repair??

So really I would have to use the loan jar or that Computer to get all of these things started right..

And when you say the whole sims 2 folder where would that be..I have the Ultimate Collection??

And the hoods I can also put them on a Portable Hard Drive like a USB port or whatever they are called..

Now I sort of play Medieval, Rustic, Country type..I love the clothes and the rustic furniture and have the dirt roads, and the horse and buggy, school bus and all those from Hexameter..and I also love playing Alien and Fairies..love the genetics..lol

Thank you joandsarah for your help..starting to know what I want to do first is try that home schooling out..after my sims have their kids first lol.. but should get all these other things started first right..

I'm 50, but we even have a couple of players in there 70's on here.

My hood has a school built on a residential lot and two of my teachers live there. With the school system you enroll the children and their picture shows up on a wall token. Then there another wall token that you use to start and end school (all kids appear on the lot and are controllable) any sims you assigned to be teachers will show up with the kids as well. How you run the school is up to you, it's very flexible. What I do is use the Simlogical homework book and teach the new kids how to study, once that is done my kids do no more bookwork, I have them use all kinds of skilling items. I have golf putters (buisness career reward) exercise mats that I downloaded, a garden area, easels, a music room with violins and a piano, one of the culinary career rewards chocolate maker and little easy bake ovens. Books to read, chess-I think that's it. Other people prefer a more traditional school.

Tip for fires. Apart from having an outside fire alarm, if you really want to save everyone just open the cheat window and turn on buy and build mode (sorry I forget the long name of the cheat I use a short cut as I have a cheat file) I just type in 'dorm on'. If you don't have a cheat file I can give you mine. Then once buy and build is open turn on moveobjects. Then you can grab the fire with the hand tool and delete it just like an object. I also use a mod for less tree fires because how many tree fires do you see in real life? Not many.

I started my hood with adults and just set them in their job levels on the simblender. I do that because I don't like seeing 'unemplyed' on the career panel.

My repair man has an NPC career, there are two packs you can download on here. I like them because they start at only $50 a day and again it means the sims employment panel says what their job is. If you don't want the sim going off in the car pool to that job you just put out the simlogical school sign and that stops the car pool. You need to download the patch for the sign that you want. One patch allows your sim to walk to work another stops it altogether, there is also a patch for the school bus. I often use the sign if a sim is sick, just put out the sign and they can stay home from work or school.

For homeschooling you set the children to flexi school on the school changer token and you can use the homework book (easy to use) or the school book (hard to use so I never use it)

I think a lot of this may sound hard, but it isn't really. I can't even program the TV to record but I can do this.

I have been using that happily unemployed and there is another one for business..

As for the fires I didn't know about cheats and all that..remember I was taught by someone that never used them or didn't know about them at the time..I put a invisible fire alarm and a sprinkler on each tree now lol..and keep an eye on my sims when a fire does break out lol..

So you don't actually send them to work like as a teacher or repair man or any of those jobs?? confused on that..when you say you set their job level with the sim blender..love that thing.

I would love to have the cheat file..and anything else you are willing to share links and things..

I don't know how to program a tv or a cell phone..lol..have never tried on either one

Thank you joandsarah for your help and advice and tips.. also want to thank everyone else who has offered advice and tips..love you guys..

I don't think I have ever seen any of the things you have mentioned

Now I don't have the UC, I have all the original disk, is the UC under Documents? My game goes Documents> EA Games>The Sims 2. So when you open up the sims 2 folder you should see a folder called Config. You drop the cheat file in there. Open Notepad and copy and paste the cheat file onto a new notepad file. and name it userStartup.cheat



Sorry it's a bit messy. A nice simmer made it for me years ago. See where each alias is? That's all you have to type to make the cheat work. So 'mon' is move objects on. The cheat to turn furniture on an angle is always on just grab the item and use the < > keys to turn it on an angle.

Well my teachers can't leave for a rabbit hole job they have to stay at the school and teach for real. A child can ask a teacher for lessons on the putter, punching bag, chocolate maker or finger print scanner. But even if they are not doing that a school has to have teachers supervising. For my headmaster/mistress really since she is female. I simply clicked on the simblender under adult career>education. Then I set her level to headmaster. I have my mayor pay the school 7K each Friday as wages. I use Christionlov's wallet token controller to do that. I use that to pay my repair man as well. But you don't want to try too much at once, just one thing at a time.

Have you seen my business thread? I have pictures of my school and other business on there. https://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=561271

OMGosh I need some of the smiley's that CBS and tilly has..for on here lol..

Wow.. I know about some of them and use them alot..but there are others I have never heard of and I know I will be trying them out..thank you so much joandsarah..

I think I will be doing one thing at a time lol..

No never seen your business thread but will be reading that here in a bit for sure..thank you..

You drop the cheat file in there. Open Notepad and copy and paste the cheat file onto a new notepad file. and name it userStartup.cheat why can't I just copy and paste it to open office and print it out

Thank you joandsarah

It goes into your game files so that the shortcut cheats work. Even if you do it wrong it wont hurt your game, you will just fine the cheats don't work. If you have any issues post back. I find notepad by typing it into my start area.

Thank you so much joandsarah..will be doing this tomorrow when I am more awake..if I do it now I know I will be brain farting something

*looks at Vixente, the Sim in the original post, and the $100,000 Simoleon debt accumulated through a generation*

I've heard of "beware compound interest" but that's ridiculous...

None of my Sims has ever been granted a credit line of over $10,000, and most Sims don't even use that much (they're allowed to use the $20,000 they get when moving house to buy their first plot of land, and Sims who haven't started their Adult (not Young Adult) phase aren't allowed loans). A few Sims have gone over their credit line over the years. One of two things happens then: either they sell things to cover the debt or the Sim who owes the money becomes a servant of another family. If it was taxes that sent the Sim over the line (taxes are based on social class, not income), they become servants at the Royal Palace, otherwise any family who would like a servant and has accommodation for them may be allocated the servant. The Sim's debt is wiped in exchange for the servitude, and there are rules about how the servitude is done to ensure servants aren't abused and the conditions cannot be confused with a prison - for example, if a servant spends a Sim day at the chosen place and doesn't like it, they're free to serve somewhere else - or, if the debt was small or no other eligible households exist at that time, to walk free with the debt cleared. Failing to keep a debt isn't considered a crime so much as a social failure in SimHampton, unless the debtor was deliberately withholding money they had in hand from whoever they owed the money to (that would be deemed theft or tax refusal). I suspect it would be difficult to convincingly use such a system to clear $100,000.

Hey joandsarah..I'm not really understanding the instructions on #65..for those cheats..can you explain them a bit better for me please..maybe a few step by step with pictures lol..

Thank you

Copy and paste the cheat file into notepad. Save as 'userStartup.cheat'. Find and open the file again and drag it into your Config folder inside your Sims 2 folder.
If that doesn't work ask on the silly question thread in case I forgot something, it's been years since I set it up.

Ok, sorry..

Thank you joandsarah

No need to be sorry. I have a terrible memory so I might easily have forgotten something. Never mind the title of that thread, it's just what it's called, we all use it.

PS, Also I am sick with some nasty vomiting bug, so my instructions could be very suspect.

Hope you're okay. I found that saltine crackers tend to help with vomiting.

Hope you get to feeling better and agree with ihatemandatoryregister..chicken noodle soup, saltine crackers, and 7up all work..

I'm going on strike tomorrow..told the kids unless you are dying or dead don't bother me in my room until 2pm then I have to watch grandkids for a couple of hours then going back on strike until tomorrow morning at 7 am then take my son's dog out..lol

I'm just tired..but you bet I will be on here being real quiet so my kids think I'm asleep haha..

Ok I did it but not sure if I did it right or not..