We got a Wii! And when I heard that Sims 2 Castaway was available for the Wii, I just had to check it out. I’ve heard of it before, but since it wasn’t available on the PC, I wasn’t able to buy it until now. I read the reviews, which said it can be monotonous and boring since you need to gather so many resources. But I found it for only $20 at Best Buy, so the decision wasn’t very hard for me as a Sims fan! I just ‘finished’ it last Monday (and bought it on the 11th)– I got off the island by building a seaworthy boat, and got off the island by sending an SOS. Both times I opted to go back to the island, where I searched for and found the hidden treasure from the treasure map. Later I went to the Sims 2 Castway website and watched some funny clips and got some cheat codes. I only had to look for help online a few times — to see where the clay and fine sand is on the Volcano island (I don’t think there is any), and to see how to fish a shark. I may make those into separate posts. Unlike the Sims 2 on PC, building a house is a pain! The camera angles and options to hide walls and roof did not help much in object placement and navigating through the house. That’s the only reason to keep playing now, to improve the house and create better furniture and clothing. I’m not that interested in that though; I’d rather start over from the beginning with new Sims. Overall, pretty good fun for only $20.
In the Apartment Life expansion pack is a new NPC character, the Butler. He does many domestic chores, much like the Servo or Robot does for a family. So the question is: Which is best? Hiring a butler for a base fee of $20 and $25 per hour, or getting a Servo (Open for Business) to join the family? First of all, it is more difficult to get a Servo. You can build up the Robotics badge and build one yourself, you can become friends with an existing one and invite him/her to move in, or you can go to another Sims’ store to buy one that they have built (and pay the specified price). The butler can just be hired over the phone. One disadvantage to the Butler is that he seems to arrive around 10 am and leave sometime in the late afternoon or early evening, while the Servo is a part of the family and is there all the time. The Servo is controllable, so you can tell him which chores to do, and he doesn’t need to sleep much. He also has fun and social needs, so he will not do chores all the time. But he may play with the kids or pets. The Butler will cook and serve food, while Servo will make food but not serve it. This means children won’t be able to eat until another family member serves it. The Butler can also order groceries or hire repairmen/exterminators when needed, which is very useful. I read that he will also greet guests that arrive. I believe both will clean and do the gardening. What are your thoughts as to which is better in which circumstances?
I just realized that the Pass Along… rewards option is only available to other members of the household, and will only work successfully if the relationship score is high enough. The business rewards are originally acquired by achieving each rank of your business. There are several categories to choose from. They include Connecions, Wholesale, and Perception rewards. I have two elder sims, Karen and Marion, who have several rewards, and I wanted them to pass their rewards on to someone before they die. Marion invited her friend Stacy to move in, and I had Karen start to Pass Along a reward to her. At first it looked like Stacy was hesitant to learn, and then Karen did some sort of manipulation with swirly colors going towards Stacy. Since they don’t have a high enough relationship score, the pass along rewards didn’t work. It actually decreased their relationship score a little. When Marion tries to teach Stacy some business rewards, a skill meter appears above her head and it takes a while, but still works.
Here’s my current list of magic spells, whether good/bad/neutral, and the reagents needed to cast.
Neutral:
Aqua Deletus (clean up puddles) – 1 mystic dust, 1 moonbeams
Cleanius Corpus (increase hygiene?) – 2 mystic dust
Folium Deletus (clean up fallen leaves) – 1 eye of newt, 1 mystic dust
Corpus Athleticus (get thin) – 1 dragon scales, 2 mystic dust
Corpus Fleshicus (get fat) – 2 dragon scales, 1 mystic dust
Magivestigium (transport to spot on same lot) – none
Creatum Nutrimens (summon food) – 2 dragon scales, 1 mystic dust
Expello Simae (Make sim disappear) – 1 dragon scales, 1 eye of newt, 1 mystic dust
Appello Cattus Amicus (summon cat) – 1 dragon scales, 3 mystic dust
Purgomagus (remove curses/spells) – 2 dragon scales, 2 mystic dust
Appello Simae (summon sim) – 2 dragon scales, 2 mystic dust, 1 moonbeams
Magus Mutatio (teach magic) – 1 dragon scales, 2 eye of newt, 1 mystic dust, 2 moonbeams
Tempus Interruptus (stops time) – 2 dragon scales, 1 eye of newt, 2 mystic dust, 1 moonbeamsGOOD
Benemoodus Simae (good mood) – 1 Dragon scales, 1 mystic dust
Creatum Insecto Volucris (butterflies and fireflies) – 1 essence of light, 2 moonbeams
Exflammo – (put out fire) – 1 dragon scales, 1 mystic dust
Remedis Simae (heal sickness) – 1 essence of light, 1 mystic dust, 1 moonbeams
Beautificus Locus (beautify lot) – 1 dragon scales, 1 essence of light, 1 mystic dust, 2 moonbeams
Compello Acceptus (compel to accept socials) – 1 dragon scales, 1 mystic dust, 2 moonbeams
The next five socials directed at the target sim will count as having maximum mood and relationship scores
Appello Servantus (summon servant) – 1 dragon scales, 2 essence of light, 1 mystic dust, 1 moonbeams
Benemoodus Populus (make lot nice) – 2 essence of light, 1 mystic dust, 2 moonbeams
Mactoamicus (easier to become friends) – 1 dragon scales, 2 essence of light, 1 mystic dust, 2 moonbeams
Expello Mortis (save from death) – 2 dragon scales, 2 essence of light, 2 moonbeamsBAD
Spiritus Poultria (act like chicken) – 1 eye of newt, 2 mystic dust
Mellifera Attackum (bees) – 2 eye of newt, 1 Viper’s essence
Inflammo – (start a fire) — 2 eye of newt, 1 mystic dust
Heavus Ho – (make sick) – 1 eye of newt, 1 mystic dust, 1 vipers essence
Corruptus Locus (Storm, cockroaches) – 1 dragon scales, 2 eye of newt, 1 mystic dust, 1 viper’s essence
Compello Discrepo (Compel to reject socials) – 1 dragon scales, 2 eye of newt, 1 mystic dust
Next five socials directed at target will act as though has minimum mood and relationship scores.
Servantus Attackum (Summon Spectral Attacker) -1 Dragon Scales, 1 Mystic Dust, 1 Eye of Newt, 1 Viper’s Essence
Tabula Rasa (Clear all memories and relationship scores) (Permanent)) – 1 Mystic Dust, 2 Eye of Newt, 2 Viper’s essence
Extractum amorus (Remove love)- 1 Dragon Scales, 1 Mystic Dust, 2 Eye of Newt, 2 Viper Essence
Vivificus Zombiae (Raise zombie of a Sim) – 2 Dragon Scales, 2 Eye of Newt, 2 Viper Venom
Some of these I got from this great reference/guide: http://www.gamershell.com/faqs/thesims2apartmentlifewitchguide/1.1/
Certain colors of spice are more rare than others, but they mean different things to different empires and colonies (GamingSteve.com). I haven’t really figured this out yet, there seems to be a lot of different colors. The Spore Guide indicates that the star colors of different galaxies have a meaning: Blue stars have planets rich in spices; Yellow stars have planets with a good amount of spices, and Red stars have planets low on spice.
Now, what do the different ‘Wild’ icons mean when a planet is inhabited by wild animals?
In the Tribal level, your allies will periodically send you gift baskets of food. It says, ‘Click on the gift basket to accept’. But when I went to the food store, I could see no basket. Clicking on the message icon just takes you to the ally’s village. Well, the allies will probably take a few seconds to arrive at your food store, so the basket won’t appear right away. And as long as there’s a creature nearby that’s not busy, it will automatically accept the basket, so you don’t really have to do anything. I always make sure there’s at least one creature guarding the food from raiding wild animals, so it will also accept any incoming gift baskets too!
Can you send gift baskets to your allies? I’ve tried but was unsuccessful, the cursor doesn’t change to a green gift box. You really just need to give them to tribes who are less than neutral towards you.
I installed Sims 2 Apartment Life today! Some features sound really neat, like witches and magic. Others like the actual apartment living and roommates sound very similar to the dorm rooms in University. The first bug I’ve found that is starting to get annoying is that the sims will serve food on tables in the common area of their apartment, in addition to the tables that may be in their own apartment. The common area is usually far away, down some stairs! I think the first thing I’ll try to do is make sure I have enough open table places so that all the dishes are served inside the apartment. I think there’s only about 6 servings per meal.
I downloaded the SimCity Societies demo the other day to see what it was all about. I read reviews that said it’s not anything like SimCity and SimCity fans would be disappointed. One review also said it was too easy, but I disagree! It was too hard to make a profit and keep the budget balanced, because the building upkeep was so much more than the profit you made from workers. Maybe the demo was made harder than the game, or maybe I just need to learn more about the gameplay. I heard there are some patches available, so maybe they make it easier! If so, I think it would be fun to play to create a city that looks the way you want, whether it has fun, creative buildings or dirty industrial and manufacturing buildings. Even so it probably won’t be as addictive as SimCity 4 because it’s so simplified and has less to manage. I think I may wait until the price drops before I buy it.
I have just one employee in my hair salon business (Open For Business expansion), and she won’t come in to work because she’s underpaid. She says something about not coming in if she’s not paid enough. I have a feeling she’ll stay in the list of employees until I either increase her pay or fire her. But I think the only way to do that would be to increase the relationship with her and invite her over, then maybe the options to fire or manage wage will be available. I went back to the business a few times and I think it happened each time. But suddenly one of the times I went back to the business and called her in, she came in to work! So I immediately changed her wage and I think we’re good now.
I installed Google Lively today and gave it a try: http://www.lively.com/ I selected a popular room and choose an avatar, then hid the avatar pane when it wouldn’t go away. But then I didn’t see any other tool bar buttons (to change wardrobe or create room) and I didn’t see myself or other people! The help center wasn’t very helpful, I tried both Firefox and IE 7. (I have Windows Vista). Javascript was enabled, but I decided to try enabling other options as well. In IE Security Tab, Custom Level, under Miscellaneous, I enabled the ’scripting of IE Web browser control’ and ‘allow websites to open windows without address or status bars’. I think that was it. I closed the dialogs, refreshed the page, and suddenly I could see the toolbar and black shapes for people start to load up! Although it’s a little slow loading up, it may be fun.
