The Sims The Complete Guide Version 1.0 (2-12-00) by Dan Simpson (manymoose@hotmail.com, ICQ: 185116) Email Policy: If you are going to email me about this game, please put The Sims as the subject. Or Sims. Also please realize that I am not hiding cheats or any other information, i.e. everything I know about The Sims is in this guide. _______________ __________________ What's New in 1.0: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ - Added the new section Babies and Children - Finished all the sections - Added a Trainer - Other Small Changes For a complete Version History, check out the Final Words Section at the end of the FAQ. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i. What is The Sims? 1. Getting Acquainted 2. Creating a Family a. Creating a Sim 3. Building a House 4. Furnishing a House a. Lighting and Lamps b. Decorations 5. Of Friends and Lovers a. Socializing b. Marriage and Moving In 6. Working (and Not) a. Quitting b. Job Events 7. Running an Efficient Household 8. Expanding the House 9. Babies and Children 10. Everything Else in the Neighborhood 11. Cheats Final Words... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i. What is The Sims? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Sims, simply put, is the People Simulator from the creator of SimCity. So, what is a People Simulator? Well, you get to run the lives of everyone in a neighborhood (not all at once, of course). Taking on one "family" at a time, you try to guide them to success in life, in love, and in job. Left to their own devices, the Sims tend to not thrive very well, and that is where you come in. I like to think of the player as the Sims' ambition, their drive, if you will. You are what tells them to study Mechanics, or to shower, so that they can get that promotion. Without you, their ambition, the Sims will tend to lounge around, fulfilling only their most immediate desire, without any eye on the future. Sim (noun) : A simulated person in a Maxis game. Ex: The Sim went to SimCity to buy a bagel. Updates to The Sims: There are several new downloads available at the Official Site (www.thesims.com of course!). These aren't any great Patches, but are some neat new objects and skins. Maxis promises that every Thursday that they will have some cool new thing on the site, and therefore every Thursday is called SimDay. Mini-Review: This is the first time a review of mine will be found in my FAQ. I just felt that I needed to express my opinions on the game in a more editorial fashion than the normal FAQ sections allow. I have been looking forward to The Sims since I heard about it back in November. I couldn't quite put my finger on why this game sounded good to me, but I was certainly intrigued. Controlling people's lives? Sounded like fun. After having played it non-stop since I bought the game, I can sum up my experience in one sentence: One of the most strangely addicting and compelling games I have ever played. I haven't played a game this much since Rollercoaster Tycoon, and that was back in April '99. That's almost a year. In The Sims you take control of a family of Sims and try to guide them through life. Along the way you develop friendships, work your way up the promotion ladder at work, and try to keep yourself fed and happy. You can sit back and watch the Sims interact with each other, or you can take a more active hand and FORCE them to do your bidding. You can even shut off their Free Will. Personal interactions between the Sims is often the most amusing part of the game. Watch as someone will shoo another Sim out of the bathroom so he can take a leak. Or as a Sim attempts to give another Sim a back rub, but it pushed away. Then there are always the Sims who like each other... a lot, and start getting passionate. I also really enjoy the differences between the Sims. One may be very neat, and like to clean up messes, and another may be extremely mean, and prone to get into fights. Very interesting variety. All in all I liked this game, and give it a 9.5. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Getting Acquainted -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to the crazy world of The Sims. I'm assuming that you have gone through the first Tutorial, if not, you probably should. It teaches you all of the basics of Sims and their needs. Once you're done with that little tutorial, save it and go back to the Neighborhood. The first thing you should know, is that you control the entire neighborhood. Not at the same time, but one house at a time. When you aren't directly controlling a house, NOTHING HAPPENS THERE. It's like they are in stasis. They can be called over to your current house (assuming you've met them), but they won't actually do anything. They'll be exactly as you left them when you go back to them. Another thing to know at the Neighborhood level is that the people you put in the neighborhood are the only ones you can be friends with. That is, there are no "random Sims" wandering about. Since your Sims require the friendships of lots of other Sims that means that you will have to work on the Neighborhood as a whole, rather than singlemindedly working one house. (more on this in section 5. Of Friends and Lovers) Well on we go! Click on the Create a Family button to get things going. (You could, of course, play the Goths, or the Newbies, but you need to create a new family to start filling in the Neighborhood) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Creating a Family -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ah, your first family (besides the Newbies). Unless of course this isn't your first, you created one earlier, and are now reading this to find out what went wrong. Either way, we're going to create a Sim Family! Nothing fancy, mind you, just something to get started with. We're going to create two Sims for this family. Two is, in my opinion, the best number to start with. It isn't so hard to control as, say, eight, and the extra person gives you a great advantage over having just one. What we're essentially going to do is to divide the tasks that our two family members are going to have. One person is going to get a job, and the other is going to take care of the house, cook, clean, and be the primary socialite. You really don't need to employ both people at this stage of the game. This really helps in the mornings when one person is getting ready for work (shower, toilet, etc.) the other cooks breakfast. When the woker goes off to work, the other one stays home, cleans up, and meets the neighbors who will all drop by (not all at once). Then later in the game, this Sim will call up those neighbors and try to make them into Family Friends. a. Creating a Sim So now we need to create some Sims! Two, in fact. The stats that you can give them effect what the Sims want to do, not what you will make them do. So a low Neatness isn't all that bad if you are going to be forcing them to clean up anyway. Try to keep your Sims distinctive and different. The stay at home Sim needs to be outgoing, nice, and playful, while the worker Sim needs to be active and outgoing. Beyond that keep the stats somewhat average. Note: If you keep a stat blank (that is, empty), then that person will be the opposite of that stat. So if he or she has no Nice, then that person will be mean, and prone to piss others off. That makes getting friends difficult! Another thing that stats effect is what type of recreation they most enjoy. Inactive people love the TV, while more active would like Dancing or other more interactive entertainment. Note: You don't need to use up all of the Stats points while creating a Sim, in fact, you could use NO stats points at all and make a surly, messy, lazy Sim! For now we don't want anymore than these two adult Sims. Now let's build them a house. (or if you'd rather not build your own house, there are several already on the street) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Building a House -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our objective with building the house is to create a livable area and have enough money left over to actually put THINGS in the house. Here's our objectives: We need a good sized house (not large), with three rooms (living room/kitchen/dining room, bathroom, and one bedroom). The Sims don't need their own private bedrooms, so don't bother. We're going to start the house 2 or 3 squares away from the nearby path. Now we create the Living Room/Kitchen. A good size for this is a smallish rectangle, about 11 x 6 squares. Build the entrance door near the mailbox and trashcan. Now off to the side of the house build a 4 x 4 room to be your bathroom. You don't need any larger at the moment. ------------ | | Key: | | | Bedroom | e - Door -- - wall | | Tr - Trash == - sidewalk | | ----------------e------------- Note: Two horizontal characters | | | is one "square" of SimLand. | e Bath | So -- is one 1 x 1. | Kitchen | room | | | | Note: To build a "square", hold down | Living |-------- the shift while building a | Room | wall outwards. -----------e---------- ======================= Tr As you can see, this is a very small type of house, but is perfectly suited for two people. This is a "basic" house, and as your family grows you will need to add to it. Notice that there isn't a wall between the kitchen and the living room. This is quite intentional to aid in the parties that you will be throwing here! Once the basic floorplan is done, we need to apply wallpaper to the outside of the house, and to each room individually. The last few wallpapers are specifically for the outside, aluminum siding is cheap (§7). Note: To apply a wallpaper to every available surface, hold down the SHIFT key, then click. If you're doing this to the outside, it won't effect the inside, and if you are doing a room, it will only do that room. For the kitchen I would use the Deep Jade or the Tuscany Tin (§6). The living room you can do separate from the Kitchen if you want, although you can't use the SHIFT function if you do, as they aren't really separate rooms. In the bathroom I would go with a "Too Turquoise" (§6). Now we need to add flooring (can't go around on bare grass indoors!). Both the kitchen and the bathroom have matching floorsets (if you chose Tuscany, the best flooring would be the Il Perrinni Italliante tile (§20)). In the bedroom I would go with the simply Blue Carpet, it's cheap, and effective. Windows: Each room needs quite a number of windows to keep the room bright and happy. This effects one of the Sims' needs, that of Room. So place windows around each room until it is as bright as it can be. Don't forget this! Also, when you start furnishing a house, you need to place Lamps for when it gets dark. Note: Don't bother with a second story yet, you don't need it, and you can't afford it! See Section 8. Expanding the House for more information on Second Stories. Tip: A backdoor is a useful thing to have, as it allows your Sims another way in or out (if the main entrance is blocked), and can provide for a nice patio outside as well. Try putting in a flamingo in the backyard, just for fun. Alternate Floorplan 1: ------------ | | Key: | | | Bedroom | e - Door -- - wall | |-------- Tr - Trash == - sidewalk | e | ----------------e----- Bath | Note: Two horizontal characters | | room | is one "square" of SimLand. | e | So -- is one 1 x 1. | Kitchen | | | |-------- This alternate version moves the | Living | bathroom up 2 squares and builds a | Room | door into the bedroom. -----------e---------- ======================= Tr Now that we have a house, we need to get things in the house! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Furnishing a House -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We're going to build things based on Needs, the most pressing needs first. We'll start with Hunger (the only Need that you can Die of) and furnish the Kitchen. Kitchen Objects you Need: Refridgerator (§600 for the Llamark) Cooking Appliance (§400 for the Dialectic Free Standing Range, stove) Empty Counter Dish Cleaning Apparatus (either a Sink or the Fuzzy Logic Dishwasher, §650) Fire Alarm (§50) Trashcan Here's what I did. At the left end of the Kitchen is a 6x long wall. At the top I put a Dialectic Range, then a Fridge, then a Counter (if you did the Jade walls and floors, then do the Jade counter top, otherwise just keep it cheap!), then a counter with a Sink, and another blank counter. This leaves one square left in the bottom corner, but we'll use that later when we have more money. (By moving the Counter with the Sink to the corner, and filling that hole with a Dishwasher) Now 2 squares away from that stuff place a Card Table (§95). Around it place 4 Chairs (the cheapest chair works fine, §80). Make sure the chairs face the table. Tip: One good way to place the chairs is to put all the chairs in the corners, like this: Ch (not to scale) Ch ..... ..... ..... Ch Ch What this does, is keeps the other corners not touched by the chairs completely free for people to put things on, and for YOU to put things like Lava Lamps (§80) on. The Sims will be eating closer together, but they don't seem to mind. Onto the Bathroom. Bathroom Objects you Need: Toilet (§300 for the Hygeia-O-Matic) Major Hygiene Item (§640 for the SpaceMiser Shower) Bathroom Sink (§400 for the Andersonville sink) The placement of these objects isn't so tough, just put them in the corners, making sure that they face the right direction. If you have the money, I would suggest also putting a Medicine Cabinet in above the Sink. Pressing onward to the Bedroom. Bedroom Objects you will Need: 1 Bed for each Person (in this case 2, Spartan Bed, §300 each) You won't spend too much time in the Bedroom, so you don't need too much more than that. Don't worry about the Room rating much either. One thing that you might want in the bedroom is an End Table with an Alarm Clock on it. And finally the Living Room. Living Room Objects you will Need: 1 Couch (Contempto is §150) Television (Monochrome is §85, Trottco 27" is §500) Bookcase (§250 for the Cheap Pine) Desk/Table (Mesquite Desk/Table is §80) Radio (Down Wid Dat Boom Box is §100) Phone Security Alarm Have the Television placed by one of the walls, and have the couch face the Television about 2 squares away, and put the Bookcase next to the TV by the wall, so that your Sims can read and sit on the couch. Now on another wall place the table and place the Radio on it. Place the Phone on the wall behind the radio, and the Security Alarm anywhere on the wall. Note: All appliances, computers, etc., can break down and need to be repaired. You can either repair them yourself (and maybe get electrocuted and killed) or call the Repairman who charges you §50 per hour. Until you get your Mechanical skills up (via reading) you should probably just call the experts. a. Lighting and Lamps Now that we've adequately furnished the house (I say adequate, because once you get money, you'll want to replace your shoddy items with better ones, like your TV for a Plasma TV), you will want to start filling your house with Lamps. I would place 1 lamp in the bathroom, and 1 in the Bedroom, and a lot in the Living Room/Kitchen. Keep the lamps spaced out to keep the lighting in the room even. (Say, 3 to 4 squares apart) Check out the Sims website (http://www.thesims.com) to download the new Wall Lamps, which are placed on the walls rather than on the floor. b. Decorations The other way to pump up the Room value is to put decorations into a room. And the easiest of the decorations to place, are the Paintings. Since these go on the wall, they don't take up any space, and unlike plants, they don't require water. Most decorations also have a Fun value, which happens whenever someone looks at it. For example, you can have your Sim check out a painting. Use Decorations to get the Room rating up, not only for your Sims, but to help the Mood of visiting Sims. That helps you make friends! You know the old saying, a happy Sim is a friendly Sim. And speaking of friends... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Of Friends and Lovers -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are going to need friends in The Sims. Not only to keep your Sims from going insane (Social being one of their 8 Needs), but to advance in certain job fields, you need a certain number of friends. (for example, on the political career track, to become a Senator you need 14 friends) Note: Your Sim does not personally need to be a friend with someone, as long as SOMEONE in your family is friends with them, that is enough. In other words you only need family friends, not personal friends. When you first move into your house, various people from the neighborhood will come by and chat with you. Make sure to greet them! They might not come back if you don't. Once that new Sim is greeted then that person is "known" and at any time, you can call them to get them to come over. (unless they are working at that exact moment, but you can call them before or after work) Once greeted, this neighbor Sim will start working to fulfill his or her needs. If there is food out, and they're hungry they'll eat it (but they can't fix themselves any food, not even a snack). If they have to go to the bathroom, they'll go (but they can't shower, or take a bath). Mostly, however, what they want to do, is to socialize! a. Socializing When you first start socializing with someone, keep it simple. Just talk. As your relationship gets better (10+ or so... depends on the Sim), start complimenting them, and telling jokes. Avoid doing anything else for awhile. Also, if they try to do something too intimate to you, and your "rating" (click on the Relationship button to see the number rating of how much you like them. By the way, they also have a number for you, and they may not be the same number... You might love them, and they might not care for you!) is not very high, you may want to cancel their action. So if you see "Be Hugged" by someone you just met, you may want to click it to get rid of it. As you get to know someone (40+) you want to start dancing, and hugging. Dancing is not considered sexual, and doing it is not coming on to them. And as you get even higher (70+) you may want to start flirting, and maybe even kissing! This all depends on where you want this relationship to go. Although you can be in love with EVERYONE in the neighborhood (except children), you probably won't want to. It makes parties awkward if you are in love with everyone there. Someone might want to kiss you, and if you are in love with everyone in the room... Tip: If you hear the "bad" music (meaning usually that something is going wrong, it sounds like a bad trumpet) and you just flirted with someone (or kissed, hugged, or danced with them), then you probably just flirted with someone's significant other! Check your "queue" to see if someone is going to slap you, and if so, click it to stop them. (Pause the game, if that helps) So how do you come onto someone else's significant other? Go into an empty room (if none are available, go outside), and Call Over that Sim that you like. Then flirt away! By the way, it doesn't matter if you hug them (or kiss them...) or if they hug you, their significant other will still get mad. Although maybe not at you... b. Marriage and Moving In When you get someone higher up on the Relationship-O-Meter, you will get the option to ask them to marry (propose) or move in with you. Whether they say yes is based on their mood, and their opinion of you. Getting someone to marry/move in with you is simply a two stepped process. First you must get them to love you. This is built up gradually. Start out with a friendship, then gradually work up to love. (Getting them in love with you is not necessary for Move Ins) Once you believe that they love you enough, now you have to work on their Mood. Sims will only marry you if all their needs are being met, and are therefore happy enough to marry. As such, you will want to feed him or her, entertain them, and generally keep them comfortable and happy. Propose, and they're in! Note: Moving In is only between Same Sex couples, whether they are lovers, or just roommates. Whenever someone is brought into the family through marriage or moving in, they not only bring any children they have with them, but if they are the only member of their family, they will sell their old house, and bring that money plus the cash they had on hand to their new family. Warning: When someone joins the family, they can no longer be considered a family friend! Although they remain a close personal friend (and possibly a lover) they are no longer counted in the Family Friend count. (Although they ARE counted as such in the Neighborhood, if you hold the mouse over their house) Note: So, you had someone marry you, and they were the last in their family, and so sold the house. Well the house is still in the neighborhood, and furthermore, it is in EXACTLY the same condition as it was when the person left it! So if someone new moves into it, they might find dirty dishes! All relationships wither over time, and as such, you need to constantly keep on socializing with your family friends to make sure that they STAY family friends! Tip: When working to maintain a relationship, you needn't work as hard at it as when you were building the relationship. So call the Sim over, talk a bit, maybe give a hug or two, then once the Rating is back up, tell them to go home. Then move onto the next Sim... Social Activities: Talking -- usually the most successful for simply improving the rating. This one also happens, to a lesser degree, when two Sims are doing the same thing, such as both watching TV or eating dinner. Compliment -- depending on how much they like you, and what type of person they are, the Sim you compliment will likely be impressed by this. They might, however, take it the wrong way. (best if done over 10) Joke -- depending on how playful the Sim is, and how much they like you, this will help your relationship. Best if used over 10. Also increases both of your Fun ratings Hug -- a better social activity, best between good friends, and lovers. Can make the other Sim's lover(s) jealous, though. Back Rub -- increases the Sim's comfort level, and helps socialization. Also will increase jealousy. Dance -- increases Fun rating, and makes others jealous. Best if used only between good friends (40+ or so). Note: There are two ways of dancing with someone. One is to click on the Sim and select Dance, and the other is to wait for someone to dance by the Radio, and then click on the radio and click Join. The second one will help Fun, but won't help Social (but they're less likely to turn it down!). Flirt -- for when you want the relationship to go further. Use this on friends to make them lovers. Best if used over 80. And you guessed it, makes other Sims jealous! Kiss -- the ultimate sign of affection! Also the most likely to get someone slapped, if either of the kissing Sims is already attached. Others: Brag, Tease, and Fight Note: So, can Sims get into homosexual relations? Yes, but only if you make them. They won't seek it out on their own. But it's just as easy to get 2 same sex people together as two of the opposite sex together. One final thing here. What do you do when you want someone to Move OUT? Well you could kill them (there ARE ways...), but if you're less bloodthirsty than that, here's what you can try. Load up another household somewhere, with another family that you aren't too likely to play often, and who has room for one more. Call up the person that you are trying to get rid of (or if they just moved into the neighborhood, wait for him or her to come around). Then socialize the Sim until you can get them to move in with you. Now they've left your first Sim family and joined a new one. Note: Sims will also pack up and leave if they get into a fight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Working (and Not) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One Sim per household should definately stay home. Any others should then try to find a job. To keep things interesting, I try to get each Sim on a different career track. So one Sim may be on the Law Enforcement track, while another takes the business track. I have already discussed the importance of why you leave someone home (to socialize with the neighbors, of course!), another good reason is that when you first start out, you really don't need the money that badly. As long as all your needs are met, your expenses will be low. You have a §40 per day bill on food (assuming you do a "serve breakfast" and "serve dinner") and likely around §200 to §300 in bills every 3 days. Most jobs start out around §200 a day, and you should be able to get quickly promoted to around §300 or so before the bills come. So money won't be crucial. Depending on the job you take, you'll need to increase your "stats". Things such as Creativity, Body, Logic, etc. are needed to advance past the most entrylevel jobs. And some jobs don't require some stats, researchers don't need to develop their body, and so forth. To find out how much stat increases you need to get the next promotion, click on the Jobs button. Note: When the Carpool arrives, your Sim will automatically add the "Go to Work" item to his or her queue of things to do. However, in many cases, this Sim will not cancel what they are currently doing (at least until they "finish" doing it), so you may need to cancel that thing for them so they get to work on time. You have until an hour after the Carpool shows up to get inside the car to get to work on time. There are 3 things need to get a promotion at work. One, is to make sure you have all the right stats at the right levels; two, is to make sure that you have enough family friends; and lastly you have to be in a good Mood to get a promotion. Happy Sims are productive Sims. Again, everything you'll need to know about this can be found in the Jobs button. It also has a description of how well you are working (bad, average, good, excellent) which is based on your Sims' mood. Below that will be how many Family Friends you need (if it isn't there, then you have already met that requirement!), and to the right are all the stats. Note: You can sometimes miss one day of work, but missing two is a guaranteed firing. Also, the night shift tends to be more strict about missing shifts, and may fire you on the first missed shift. Tip: If you need a lot of friends for a promotion (the politics career track especially), then create an 8 person family, and wait for your Stay at home Sim to come over to socialize. Get each of the 8 to talk to this Sim at least once, then go back to your original Sims. Now you have a lot of people that you can call up! a. Quitting So, that new career as a Scientist just isn't working out. Or maybe, you just want to try out something else. Well there are several ways to quit your job. As we saw in the above note, you can just stop showing up to work. They'll get the hint. Or you can just check the paper and take the job from there (it will warn you that doing so will get rid of your first job). Warning: If two Sims are sharing a carpool, and one of them gets a new job at a different time, then that carpool won't show up for EITHER person! I would also assume that if you did your job very poorly, or got caught doing something really bad at work (see "Job Events" below), you may also get fired. How you quit depends on your goal from it. If you just want to stay at home and be lazy, then by all means, just skip work. If you really are tired of your career path (maybe you'd rather be an actor), then just take that waiter job. Note: Whenever taking a different job, you always start out at the lowest rung on the ladder. So don't just quit to see what the other jobs are like. That's very inefficient. b. Job Events Every once in awhile, a major event will happen to your Sim at his or her job. These events are quite random as to when they happen, and they only happen once. These are usually just little things like, "Taking a Bribe" or "Scandal". They will often give you a choice, which amounts to doing the right or wrong thing, and if you do the wrong thing you can get caught. Some other job events are less good vs. evil, such as the actor in the remake. In any event, these Events have 2 outcomes, a good one (whatever it was succeeded perfectly) and the bad one (it failed miserably), and depending on the severity of the choice, you get rewarded or punished. Some punishments are rather severe (your family leaves you) or just annoying (a fine, or loss of stats). But the rewards may be worth the risks... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Running an Efficient Household -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The most difficult aspect of the Sims is managing all your Sims time. Since each Sim has only 24 hours in the day, 8 major needs, promotions, socializing, and whatnot, you have to be fairly efficient in how you do things. It should be noted that the Sims themselves are not especially efficient in how they decide to do things. A Sim who has a nearly Red bladder Need, may sit down to read a book, when his Fun need is still mostly Green. Generally you want to fulfill your Sims' needs on a Need basis. Whichever they need most, you have them do first. There are, of course, many exceptions. For example, you should use the toilet after eating, not before. You should shower after using the toilet. Anyway, since I advised you to create two Sims, I'll do a rundown of how their first few mornings should go: I'll call the two Sims, Worker, and Homer. When you first appear at your house, you'll already have a Newspaper, and another one will be coming along at 9:00 AM. Have Worker look for a job, and if you want to, take it. If it is still before 8:00 AM, the car pool will be picking Worker up at that time (assuming you didn't take a night job). Send Worker off to work. Now Homer will be home alone. Have him Study up on Cooking so that he can fix a feast when Worker comes home. One or two points here is all you need (although you should keep at this until you have all the points!). Now your neighbors are going to start dropping by. Cancel the Cooking Lessons, and go out to greet them. Once greeted, the neighbor becomes a Guest in your house, and will eat food if you have already prepared it, watch your TV (if it's already on), etc. This neighbor should be very chatty, so just let your Sims talk for a bit. At this point, it is more important to greet new Sims, than to work up relationships with Sims already there, so if someone new comes to the door, go greet them. Note: If you have two or more Sims around when other Sims come to the door, make sure that ALL of your Sims have talked to the new Sim at least once. This is most important if you ever take control of the other Sims' house, and need to get him some friends. In the early days of your neighborhood, there won't be that many people for you to socialize with, so you will have to start new families soon. Worker comes home, and watches TV to get his fun rating up. While he is doing that, Homer Serves Dinner (always do Serve Dinner! It costs only 2x as much as "Have Dinner" and feeds 6!), and then the two sit around the table eating and chatting. Also any guests in the house will eat with you, and Socialize as well. Note: Although they are talking here, their relationships only improve by a mere point or two. After dinner, Worker goes to improve some Stat to help get promoted, while Homer talks to the Guest Sims. Before going to sleep, both Sims go to the bathroom. The next morning, Homer gets up at 5:00 AM to Serve Breakfast. Worker stays in bed until his Energy rating is all the way back up, and as soon as it is he jumps out of bed, and goes to take a shower, eat breakfast, and maybe watch some TV before the Carpool arrives. Note: The 5:00 AM breakfast gives your stay at home Sim plenty of time to prepare the breakfast so that it is ready for the other Sim(s) when they get up. Since the first Sim isn't going to work, he doesn't need to worry about lack of energy. What I did usually is let the game run on fast mode (speed level 3) until 5 AM, then I paused it (press either 'p' or the key left of the 1 button), clicked on the Sleep icon to cancel it (top left corner), and click on the Fridge and Serve Breakfast. I wake up most Sims like this. Pause, then order them to do something, then unpause for them to do it. Once Worker is at work, Homer takes a shower, goes to the bathroom, and fulfills his needs. Once that's done he picks up that Cooking book and works on that for awhile, hoping that some new neighbors might drop by. If they don't, he picks up the phone and calls the Sim who is close to becoming a Family Friend. That Sim comes over (or blows you off with an excuse), the two chat for a bit, and the Guest Sim smelling food, goes over and eats some breakfast. Homer joins him. Note: Since Homer got up early, he might need a nap. Usually I would wait for my working Sims to get home before sending my Stay At Home to sleep, then I would get that Sim up in time to fix dinner and Socialize some more with the neighbors. They continue socializing until you get a new Family Friend. At this point, keep going until the relationship is at 100. At some point here, Homer is going to need to clean up the table, and get rid of what remains of the breakfast (it has undoubtedly spoiled by now). Worker comes home and studies some more for a promotion. Homer takes a small nap, and gets up to make dinner. The two Sims (three if you still have a guest) eat and talk. After dinner everyone watches TV and talks. Finally everyone goes to sleep. That was just a sample of how to run things efficiently. It featured a staggered approach to getting ready in the mornings, one Sim got up at 5, the other a little later. The first Sim made breakfast, while the other did some things in the bathroom. This is also how you do things when you get more Sims (although you will probably need to build a second bathroom). Remember, you aren't just fulfilling Needs, you're also advancing these Sims in their lives. Work on Stats for promotion, have them practice speeches in front of the bathroom mirror, or play chess to work on their logic. (chess is also Fun) Bear in mind that Sims will work on their Stats forever if you let them, so keep an eye on their Needs, and cut short their Statbuilding if they need to go to the bathroom or something. Also keep in mind that you CAN hire Maids, Gardeners, and even call for a Pizza if you want to. These services cost you a little (Maids are §10 an hour), but they can help out if you are getting overwhelmed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Expanding the House -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well your Sims are doing quite well, you have gotten some promotions, you have a bit of money now, and you want to spruce up your house. Who can blame you? The first thing you should probably do is to replace your Not-Top-Of-The-Line kitchen appliances with better ones. Get rid of the cheap Fridge and Range for more expensive versions. These help satisfy your Sims hunger better. Generally you will want to replace your cheap crap with expensive stuff. Don't go overboard and spend all your money at once (you might have to pay bills, or something). If you succeed in getting someone to Move In or Marry you, then you have to find a place for them to sleep, which may mean expanding the entire house (or could just mean replacing a Spartan Bed with a Two Person Bed). But as the game goes on, you definately need to expand the house. Here's the house as I designed it earlier: ------------ | | Key: | | | Bedroom | e - Door -- - wall | | Tr - Trash == - sidewalk | | ----------------e------------- Note: Two horizontal characters | | | is one "square" of SimLand. | e Bath | So -- is one 1 x 1. | Kitchen | room | | | | Note: To build a "square", hold down | Living |-------- the shift while building a | Room | wall outwards. -----------e---------- ======================= Tr And here are a couple improvement Ideas: Idea 1: Mega Bedroom ---------------------- | | Key: | | | Bedroom | e - Door -- - wall | | Tr - Trash == - sidewalk | | ----------------e------------- Note: Two horizontal characters | | | is one "square" of SimLand. | e Bath | So -- is one 1 x 1. | Kitchen | room | | | | Note: To build a "square", hold down | Living |-------- the shift while building a | Room | wall outwards. -----------e---------- ======================= Tr Idea 2: Mega Bedroom, Move Bathroom, Add Den ---------------------- | Bedroom | Key: | --------- | | | Bath | | e - Door -- - wall | e room e | Tr - Trash == - sidewalk | | | | ---e------e-----e------------- Note: Two horizontal characters | | | is one "square" of SimLand. | e Den | So -- is one 1 x 1. | Kitchen | | | | | Note: The Den would have a Desk for | Living |-------- a computer, as well as | Room | a Piano, etc. -----------e---------- ======================= Tr And, of course, you could always build some stairs and add a second level. Remember on the second level that people can't go up there until there is a floor. And you can only build walls out one square past the walls on the first story. Whatever else you stick on the second story, I would definately place a bathroom. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Babies and Children -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can start any family with children, but you can't start them with a baby. There are only two ways to get a baby, lots of kissing of the passionate sort, or Adoption. I'll deal with adoption first. The way adoption works is that they will call you and ask if you want a baby. This can happen to either gay couples or singles (as they can't produce children on their own). You are given the choice of taking or rejecting it. As for the natural method, simply have a guy kiss a girl a lot (or visa versa, it doesn't matter who kisses whom) and the option will come up "Would you like to have a baby?" No, you don't get to see them have sex. The baby just appears, magically. The sex and personality are set at birth, you have no control over that. You do get to name the baby, though. Now that you have the baby, you have to take care of her for 3 days. 72 hours exactly from the moment you got her. Tip: The best time to get a baby would probably be in the morning, as when the baby becomes a Child, they have perfect Energy, and you don't want perfect energy late at night. Not with school the next morning! A baby is a huge responsibility. But you didn't need me to tell you that. You have only 3 things you can do with the baby, Feed, Play and Sing (to sleep). The baby will be resting quite comfortably when suddenly "WAH!" The baby will cry out. Anyone sleeping in the area will be awakened (I'd recommend sleeping ONE and only ONE person with the baby, and rotating who gets to do it, so no one Sim loses too much Energy). Then you have to figure out what the baby wants (impossible). Usually I would just do each option once from Feed to Play to Sing. If that didn't put the baby to sleep, I'd feed again and Sing again. That almost always works. If it does, the baby will go back to sleep... only to wake up in a few hours bawling. Note: If you fail to take proper care of the baby, she will be taken away by the Social Workers. Shame on you! As you can see, having someone home at all times is CRUCIAL here, not just recommended. This is another place where it really helps to have left someone home all along. But if you didn't, just have different people miss work different days to care for the child. Sorry, there is no "day care" or "baby sitter" for you to call. What I did, is I used my stay at home Sim to care for the child until the first person got off work, then Sim 1 would go to sleep and Sim 2 would take over tending over the baby. Make sure you have something constructive to do while the child sleeps, so maybe you should move the Chess set to the room that has the baby (or something like that). After 3 full days, the baby goes *poof* and becomes a Child. Children can sleep with any adult in the household, if you can't afford to buy her her own bed. Children have only one responsiblity, and that is School. They have to go everyday at 9 AM and come back everyday at 3 PM. Furthermore they have to study to keep their grades up (you can study at any bookcase or computer). Note: One side effect of good grades is that Grandparents can give money for good grades. At the A+ level, I got §100. At this point you probably should buy a Toybox for the child so she can play with the toys. And as you can guess, they like to watch Cartoons on TV as well. Finally children can also Play with other children, where they will just start running amok. And no, children never grow up. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Everything Else in the Neighborhood -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your house can be burglarized. During the night, the game will slow down to the slow game speed, and a PIP will show the burglar coming your way. If you have alarms, the second he enters the house, the police will be called. But if he's clever, he'll just grab one thing and run, and may get away with it. So if you see a burglar, here's something to try: - Wake up your Sim. - If possible, call the police BEFORE the burglar enters the house to get the police here sooner. - Now here's the fun part, since the burglar runs on the same pathfinding algorithim as the rest of the Sims, you can "bump into" him, and he'll stop cold. So if he's trying to go out the door, and you are in the doorway, he'll have to stop and wait for you to move! Note: Anything stolen by the thief can't be returned to you, but you do get partial reimbursment from the Insurance Company. Sims who don't know their way around the kitchen, not only cut themselves or burn themselves a lot while making it, may also cause a Fire to break out. Once the fire has started, your alarm (if you have one) will go off. If you don't have an alarm, call the Fire Dept. You can try to extinguish the fire yourself, but ... you can die from the flames! Death can come to the Sims in a couple ways. One, they can starve to death. This one is fairly easy to avoid, as when the Hunger bar gets low, it doesn't deplete as fast, and even when it gets to completely red, your Sim won't die. Give it a few days, and they will, however, so get them some food. The other way for them to die is in a fire that they are either trying to extinguish, or merely got caught in. When they die, they leave a Tombstone (you can readily see these by playing the Goth household), and furthermore, they will HAUNT the living! So don't let the Sims die. Note: Where the Sim dies determines their "marker". If they die outside, they leave a Tombstone, inside an Urn. The living members of your household then have to "mourn" the marker for 24 hours. That is, of course, after they have finished what they were already doing (so they will watch TV until satisfied, then go mourn). After that you can mourn at your leisure. The character § can be typed by pressing and holding ALT, then on the number pad pressing 0167. This is the character for "Simoleon" the monetary unit of the Sims. If you want to see something bizarre, check out the Money bag on the CD case, and on the instruction manual. You will see the symbol § on both, but on the CD case, for some reason, it is backward! Changing the Radio Station Music: (from http://www.thesims.com/) In case you were wondering, you CAN have the Sims listen to YOUR music, rather than the default music. Go to: C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\Music\Stations And you will see 4 folders: Rock, Country, Latin, and Classica. Now place any MP3 or shortcut to an MP3 in these folders and that song will play when they play the radio! And, no you can't add new stations. You can, however, add as many songs as you want to each station. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 11. Cheats -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All of the following In-Game cheats come from GameSages: (each cheat has noted who came up with it) Command Prompt: Press [Ctrl] + [Shift] + C during game to display the command prompt. 1000 Simoleans and More: Press Control+Shift+C during gameplay. A small window will come up. Type in "klapaucius" for 1000 simoleans, or, to set the time of day, "SET_HOUR X" where X is 0-23. Handy if you're in the shower and your carpool is 2 minutes away. Submitted by Shot2Hell 1000 Simoleons: Type “klapaucius” at the command prompt. Submitted by the Simoleons 7000 Simoleons: Enter the "1000 Simoleons" cheat, then type "!;!;!;!;!;!;!" at the command prompt. Submitted by the Simoleons Display Personality and Interests: Select a Sim, then type "interests" at the command prompt. Submitted by the Simoleons Draw all frames: Type “draw_all_frames on” at the command prompt. To turn it off, type "draw_all_frames off" at the command prompt. Submitted by the Simoleons Island home: Type “water_tool” at the command prompt. Submitted by the Simoleons Map Editor: To enable the map editor, type "map_edit on" at the command prompt. To turn it off again, type "map_edit off" at the command prompt. Submitted by the Simoleons Route Balloons: Type “route_balloons on” at the command prompt. This displays little balloons explaining why a character is delayed or not doing what you asked. To turn it off, type "route_balloons off" at the command prompt. Submitted by the Simoleons Set event logging mask: Type “log_mask” at the command prompt. Submitted by the Simoleons Set free thinking level: Type “autonomy #” at the command prompt, where # is an IQ between 1 and 100. Submitted by the Simoleons Set grass growth: Type “grow_grass #” at the command prompt, where # is a rate of growth between 1 and 150. Submitted by the Simoleons Set time of day: Type “set hour #” at the command prompt, where # is an hour in military time (1-24). Submitted by the Simoleons Tile Information: Type “tile_info on” at the command prompt, then move your cursor over any object for detailed information. To turn it off again, type "tile_info off" at the command prompt. Submitted by the Simoleons Toggle "Ticks": Type "sweep on" or "sweep off" at the command prompt. Submitted by The Simoleons Trainers: There is currently only one trainer that I know about, a Money trainer, which can be found here: http://thesims.xtremesimz.com/cheat-description.shtml ================================================================================ Final Words... ================================================================================ _________________ Online Resources: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ http://www.ea.com/ -- the publisher's site http://www.thesims.com/ -- the Official Sims Site This one is probably the one you will want to go to the most often. They have downloads to add to your game (new items such as the Slot Machine), etc. http://simz.gamenation.com/ -- One of the best Fan Sites http://thesims.xtremesimz.com/ -- Another of the best Fan Sites This has a very large resource center for finding skins, wallpapers, etc. http://www.gamefaqs.com/ -- the best FAQs site on the net! http://www.cheatcc.com/ -- a great place for all your cheating needs http://www.ebworld.com/ebx/ads/PROMOS/download/sims/default.asp EBWorld made some neat skins that can be found at the above site. ASCII Art created using the ASCII Art Maker by LTS (freeware) You can probably find it at http://www.download.com/ This FAQ was writen entirely using the GWD Text Editor: (shareware) http://www.gwdsoft.com/ _________________________ Shameless Self Promotion: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ I have also written FAQs for: NES: Disney Adventures in the Magic Kingdom The Legend of Zelda SNES: Aerobiz Supersonic Utopia: Creation of a Nation PSX: Thousand Arms PC: Baldur's Gate & Tales of the Sword Coast -- Walkthrough -- NPC List Colonization -- the Single Colony Strategy Guide -- the Cheat Guide Drakan: Order of the Flame Dungeon Hack Master of Magic (revision) Pharaoh Rollercoaster Tycoon Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Ultima 4: Quest of the Avatar Ultima 7: The Black Gate Ultima 7 Part 2: Serpent Isle Ultima Underworld -- Keyboard Commands Ultima Underworld II -- Keyboard Commands -- Spell List All of my FAQs can be found at: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ Questions? Comments? Mistakes? Wondering where all the Spam is? Email me about it! Email: manymoose@hotmail.com ICQ: 185116 Email Policy: If you are going to email me about this game, please put The Sims as the subject. Or Sims. Also please realize that I am not hiding cheats or any other information, i.e. everything I know about The Sims is in this guide. ________________ Version History: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Preliminary Version 0.9 (2-11-00, 47k) Original Version 1.0 (2-12-00, 63k) Added the section Babies and Children Finished all the other sections Added a Trainer Other Small Changes __________________________ Misc Facts about this FAQ: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ This FAQ was started on February 10, 2000; and released on February 11, 2000 The Original size of the FAQ was 47.1k The size of the FAQ now is 63.1k, which is an increase of 33.9% There are 33506 characters, 6863 words, and 953 lines in the Original Preliminary Version. There are now 44788 characters, 9460 words, and 1225 lines in this current version. If you were to print it out, it would take, 23 pages (average). ________ Stinger: ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ Reticulating Splines: According to Webster's, to reticulate is: to divide, mark, or construct so as to form a network. And a spline is: a function that is defined on an interval, is used to approximate a given function, and is composed of pieces of simple functions defined on subintervals and joined at their endpoints with a suitable degree of smoothness. Therefore, reticulating splines would be: Constructing network based functions that are defined by divisible intervals while approximating said network and composing it of pieces of simple functions defined on subintervals and joined at their endpoints with a suitable degree of smoothness. -- Will Wright (from http://simz.gamenation.com/) ________________________________________________________________________________ ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ This Document is Copyright 2000 by Dan Simpson The Sims is Copyright 2000 by Electronic Arts I am not affiliated with Maxis, Electronic Arts, or anyone who had anything to do with the creation of this game. This FAQ may be posted on any site so long as NOTHING IS CHANGED and you EMAIL ME telling me that you are posting it. You may not charge for, or in any way profit from this FAQ.