I was wondering about this the other day, and saw someone posted on the internet that their sim children had a snow day. Today it just happened to my teen Sim! He’s in public school, and I’m guessing that private school children (and teens) don’t get snow days, only public school children. The message is, “Snow Day! It has been snowing so much that the school will be closed today. Catch up on that homework and enjoy the day off.” The ground is completely covered in snow, and it’s still snowing. The message came at 7:00 am, the same time it usually announces that the school bus will arrive in an hour. He already did his homework, but I wonder if he can call some friends to come over. I’m not sure which of his friends go to public or private school though.

I get tired and frustrated with my guests immediately going to the piano, guitar, or drums as soon as they arrive (unless I start talking to them or distract them with something else first). Even when these items are on the 2nd story or far away from the front door. They don’t seem to ever stop until their needs are very low, even if it’s past time to go home (around 2am for adults). I have thought about removing these items, but why prevent the homeowners from enjoying them? The first option to get them to stop is to initiate an interaction (talking, playing, etc) with them or the “shoo” option if you want them out of the room. My trick is to use the “Call Over” option every now and then to stop them from playing. That way your sim won’t have to walk all the way over there if it’s far away, and you can make your guest come to you while you can continue what you were doing. I know playing instruments can be fun, and increases creativity, but once your fun bar is full it’s probably time to work on another need bar. If your playable sim is on an instrument when it’s time to go to work or school, do they stop automatically?

I always forget the keys used for rotating floor tiles and other objects. For some objects, such as flowerbeds, you can click and hold down the mouse button, and then move your mouse around in a circle to rotate the object. Once you release the mouse the object will be placed. But for floor tiles this doesn’t work because clicking once will place the object. For any object you want to rotate before placing, use the angle brackets (< and >) to rotate the object and view before clicking to place the object. The < key is the same as the comma key, and the > key is the same as the period key. This keyboard shortcut may require a certain expansion pack, does anyone know? Does anyone have other good keyboard shortcuts?

Has anyone else become frustrated by not being able to delete the kids’ oven once the kids have grown up? This is the Rip Co. Little Baker Oven that gives children fun and increases their cooking skill. If they were in the process of baking something, you can see a small pan of food on top of the stove. You will not be able to delete the object when this pan is visible. “Can’t delete object with something on it or in it”. But if the kids are all grown up, there’s no one who can finish baking so you can delete the object! The only way I know of is to use the “move_objects on” cheat to delete it. I immediately use the “move_objects off” to restore the normal gameplay, so nothing gets messed up in the game. To enter a cheat, press Ctrl-Shift-C at the same time, type in the cheat, and press enter. Or press Esc to get rid of the cheat window.

I got pretty frustrated with the new Bon Voyage expansion pack the other day. The first couple I sent to Twikkii island did all right, but there were some major performance issues with the next couple. Suddenly the gameplay became very choppy and jerky -all actions would go step-by-step instead of a nice fluid motion. Now, this couple had a lot of memories and friends, I have all 6 expansion packs, and I believe there was the maximum of 8 sims on the lot, so maybe that put a toll on the rendering. I have a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, 1.5 GB RAM, NVidia GForce 6800 GS/XT with 256 MB memory. I updated the video card driver, and it seems much better now. Unfortunately I’m afraid to try to increase the graphic settings in the game to a higher level; they are currently at the lowest setting.

I got the Sims 2 Bon Voyage Expansion pack Friday (EP6). I never really liked Vacation for The Sims 1, so I wasn’t sure if this expansion would be worth the money. But it is! Your Sims can learn new “gestures”, dig for treasure and find bonus items, explore hidden lots, collect souvenirs, and collect 45 different ‘mementos’ from their travels. There’s plenty of things to explore in the 3 different cultures or themes (the game starts out with one neighborhood per culture, but I assume you can create your own mix when you create your own vacation spots). I’ve found a few issues so far, but overall, it is a great new expansion pack!

Recently one of my Sims achieved the top of the Perception Business Perks: Manipulation. This can be activated by the Sales … Manipulate action. The sim has a gold sales badge too; I’m not sure if that affects the outcome of the action. I tried it a few times, and it was successful in making the customer buy the product, but they would immediately lose a star. It seems like they get very angry for being manipulated. So I don’t think I’ll be using the manipulation much, even though the same customers have gained the star back later. Do you think the Sales – manipulate is worth losing a star?

Unfortunately, I do not think adopted children count towards the “Marry Off 6 Children” lifetime want. I get this Lifetime Want frequently, since I frequently choose the Family Aspiration. The first time I tried to complete it, my couple had 5 children and adopted one. All are married now, but the want was not fulfilled. I’m currently trying again and making sure none of the children are adopted. Has anyone else confirmed that adopted children do not count? It doesn’t seem very fair.

What are the requirements for receiving the wishing well? How big does your garden have to be, and what needs to be in it? I had my vegetable garden reviewed by the Garden Club today, and did well enough to receive the Wishing Well! The first few times I was reviewed, they liked the conditions of my plants but said to make the garden bigger. I didn’t know how big the garden had to be before I would get the Wishing Well. See the picture below to get an idea of how big my garden was. I also had 2 fruit trees, and the front of the house was lined with flowers and bushes, with an edging in front. I had several decorations, but only 2 were in the greenhouse with the garden. I tried the Wish for Friends option, and 3 Sims appeared. As soon as my Sim talked to them, they became best friends! My Sim had platinum status at the time of wishing. Does less than gold aspiration status make a difference?

Information about the Wishing Well:
Options: Drink; Wish for… Friends, Romance, or Money
Can NOT be set for sale in a business
CAN be given as a gift to someone else

When I visited one of my households of servos, I noticed one was smoking when she went outside. I thought she was malfunctioning or getting too hot in the sun, but it was winter. Then I saw her do a vampire move where they cower in the sun, and realized she had become a vampire. I never thought about it before, but servos can become vampires! She would stop smoking when she went in the house, even though they have windows. It only looked like her Fun need was going down, but robots only have a few needs anyway. Is the Fun need the only one affected in Robot Vampirism? I will check it out for a few more days, but then I’ll have her drink the Vamprocillin-D to get rid of the affliction. I think any advantages of Vampires over normal Sims are lost on a servo.