Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
So I'm gonna be playing TS2 (with all the expansion packs for it) for the first time...
Marycool33
Posts: 151 Member
in The Sims 2
I'm actually quite excited! The first sims game I ever played was The Sims 3 (I had some good times on there), which I kind of abandoned once The Sims 4 came out (now that I have all expansion packs and stuff packs for TS4, I'm even more addicted) however, I had never really played The Sims 2. So now I'm downloading The Sims 2 AND all the expansion packs for it.
Is there anything I should know about The Sims 2? Any different things from TS3 and TS4 that I should watch out for? Thanks!
Is there anything I should know about The Sims 2? Any different things from TS3 and TS4 that I should watch out for? Thanks!
3
Comments
It's more fun if you actually go out and use community lots.
Read the Wiki's for information - Mod the sims has a active community that will answer any questions
There is a help guide within the game
Try to play on free will, there's a ton of interactions that only happen when they are acting autonomously
Watch for their fears as well as wants (aspirations) and needs - If these are low the AI makes them stupid and hard to command
Have a look at the pre-made families, they are set up in a way to allow you to experience several scenario's and see sims 2 version of rotations and basic story progression. This is where Don, Dina and Nina first get introduced.
Use your imagination and have tons of fun
For instance, a Sims 2 sim might be aware of his or her lover cheating at the other end of the house, and some Sims 2 sims might be aware of other sims watching them through telescopes even from another sub-neighborhood. Be aware of cow mascots and drama professors at Sims 2 college.
As far as I recall, Mortimer Goth and Loki Beaker are known as the slappers of Pleasantview and Strangetown. When other sims look through telescopes at daytime even at campus, downtown or Bluewater Village, they might suddenly get a visit from the "slapper" of the base neighborhood. When Mortimer Goth die, John Burb becomes the new slapper.
Edit: You might also put a garden gnome or a Chickenfeed Charlie statue at the front yard to watch the game of stealing and stealing back gnomes. Playful sims are the best for that game as some sims might not steal back gnomes.
I am a fairly new to Sims 2 as well and am having so much fun with the series noticing many differences between 2&3.
It took me a while to get my head around some of the differences because I have played Sims 3 extensively since it came out and tried to play 2 in a similar style but now I mainly play 3 for the open world, story progression, adding buildings etc and play 2 for the actual game-play and how sims relate to each other in lots of different scenarios.
I agree with @123w4 about updating UC on Origin most days as I often try to load 2 and it wont until I have done an update on Origin first. No idea why it does this but it took me a while to work out that I needed to do that.
I have also spent a lot of time testing out various mods and adding CC to make my sims and the neighborhoods look more modern because after playing 3 for so long I need to have modern
@PHOEBESMOM601
I think I am beginning to agree with your statement about it being in depth as there's a kind of natural intuitive style sims exhibit around differing game-play styles which is hard to fully put into words but its just so enjoyable to watch and work with, I also agree with @Miamine that a lot of fun is around the interactions sims exhibit on free will autonomously so I am having lots of fun rotating families now with their different stories which is something I hardly ever do in 3 because by the time I get back to my original family too many things had changed too much.
@TadOlson
Although I have not experienced too much fighting on community lots as yet I have the visitor mod because I just could not get my head around not being able to visit other families in their homes and it is useful for that and adds further game-play however I tried adding the toddler mod that allows them to travel with their families to community lots but the hack detection utility showed a conflict with the visitor mod so I took the toddler mod out for now just in case it caused a problem in game.
Looking back I wish I had spent less time in the beginning trying to modernize everything and more time playing and learning but at least now most everything is to my liking and I can spend my time playing instead.
I also had a few problems with house downloads before I knew about how easily they can be corrupted especially if builders have play tested lots and sims have died on them prior to downloading them so I am very careful about that now and have only downloaded lots that Rflong7 has made and several from mod the sims.
If you want to take a look at some community lots Rflong7 has made along with the download links take a look at the following thread
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/14603680#Comment_14603680
I am a terrible builder and have still not managed to find a 6-7 bed modern house yet as I love lots of room and large families. Everything residential I have downloaded so far to try I have experienced problems with so I have had to make do with my version of modernization from a house in the bin which I am not too pleased with-) lol
I would also suggest making sure you have CEP because if you want to download recolors of game objects you will need that, again it took me a while to understand because I am so used to the color wheel in 3 and although I have downloaded the bodyshop program I have not had time to look at it in depth yet.
http://modthesims.info/d/92541
I also use the hack utility to make sure there are no conflicts between the mods I want to use before I install them into the game sadly though there appears to be nothing that can check CC for corrupt content so I have added a little at a time and play tested as I have gone along. One thing I have noticed to me anyway is that some 3t2 hair and clothes conversions don't always seem to look that good on sims 2 sims so I ended up finding older CC and using that which I liked the look of more but again its down to personal choice.
http://www.simwardrobe.com/
The most used mod in my game is the Sim blender which comes in the form of a plant object and I have placed it on home and community lots so I can control sim motives when I need to but it does a host of other things like controlling ageing etc so its really useful. In Sims 3 I always play with cheats on and it does not appear to effect my game-play too much but with 2 using the cheat all the time appeared to crash my game so using the blender mod is like having cheats on.
I also use the aspiration preserver ( is a vase object) which does not allow sims aspirations levels to fall below gold I think and I use it because I was running myself ragged trying to keep aspirations up and not doing much of anything else-)
http://www.simwardrobe.com/
I also like to be able to control the seasons and the length of the season so I use season weather controller (also as a vase object)
http://www.simwardrobe.com/
I also downloaded something called simmometer which is an object that controls temperature because I read so much about sims/toddlers/children dying from temperatures and I did not want my sims to die but I have not had to use it yet.
http://www.simwardrobe.com/
Also because I love my sim families and want to play them forever I never hardly allow them to die in Sims 3 but its easy because I just place death flowers in all my sims inventories but with 2 there is no object that is similar and there appears to be many more easy ways for sims to die which worries me so I unlocked all the career rewards because there is a grim reaper phone that can be used to telephone the Grim reaper and offer tons of money for the life of a sim. I have one on the home lot but have not had to use it yet but am really hoping if the worst ever happens it actually works
Lastly the interactions I adore:
The easy dining out experience in groups, the way sims chat and interact at the dining table, the way they can flirt with sims they are married to or dating etc. The way when a meal is served at home all members of the family/guests get a plate of food and they walk towards the dining table to eat in a natural way.
I love the way sims just naturally appear to enjoy each others company wherever they are, I send them to nightclubs just to watch them all join in the smustle dance-) I don't mind sims in the home because they automatically engage in each others company in a variety of ways/activities. Even when slow dancing I think it is there are other sub animations that compliment the dancing like lower hands/ head on shoulders etc, I find these extra animations really cute and relevant to the situation.
Sims call up family members to just chat or invite them out somewhere
Toddlers are so cute and there seems to be many more activities/animations for them.
The way children dance on the feet of teens and adults
sims actually open the doors of cars to get in them and they can be seen inside the car-)
The fact sims have to shop and I can even see the ice frosting on the refrigerated doors when they open and close them, they carry a shopping basket and put the groceries away at home. I love the clothes shopping interactions and the fact I can see them pay for stuff with money or a card in a machine..
These are the only ones that come to mind immediately but I see something new almost every time I play at the moment
And as mentioned, read some wikis, there's so many things you can keel track of and stuff. But what ever you decide to do, remember two things: 1. It's 12 years old, (I can't believe!) so you might encounter some problems with newer systems. (The Black boxes under the sims, for instance.) 2. Have fun! The Sims 2 has tons of content, cheats and CC, together you can create almost what ever!
And I'd love to hear what you think about The Sims 2. How well it really has aged etc.
The thread you mention as follows:
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/870937/sims-2-discoveries/p1
Sims 2 you have aspirations which makes the game more challenging. Fulfilling not only normal wants but lifetime wants is more of a challenge so your Sim doesn't go into Aspirational failure. Even though sometimes it's fun when they do if you fulfill their fears which is something 3 and 4 lack.
In Sims 2 you are almost forced to visit community lots...because not all clothing is just available in the dresser you actually get to go shopping for clothing. You also have to shop for groceries because you can't just click the fridge and pay a small fee. Gardening is (in my opinion) more rewarding in Sims 2. When you garden and stock your fresh fruits and vegetables in the fridge not only will you not have to constantly buy groceries but you can make sparkling food which will fill your Sims up quicker and keep them full longer.
There is a ton more things that Sims 2 has that neither 3 or 4 has. In my opinion I feel it's a more challenging game. It's not just sitting back and watching them live it's about actually controlling ever aspect of their life.
I have one question though. So there's this sim and we have mild chemistry, love, we're best friends and he's my crush (I think I'm his crush because of some hearts that popped up above his head once). Anyway, I was wondering: How do I go steady with him? Do I HAVE to get engaged or can I get the Going Steady symbol somehow?
Yes, Motives matter. Your Sim can die if they are too low on these three at the same time: Energy, hunger, and hygiene. Pregnant Sims can also die easily if you don't keep them fed. Food points matter in this game unlike TS3 or TS4. The better foods can keep your Sim full faster and longer. Spagt. as someone mentioned, (better than a sandwich etc.) Turkey, and Salmon.
If you put fresh fruits and veggies in your fridge your food will sparkle and this makes Sims full faster and it also last much longer.
Sims emotions will sometimes make it difficult for them to do what you say. Unlike TS3 or TS4 where they will go ahead and do your commands anyway.
With the installment of M&G there now exists a problem with placing stairs next to a wall and you will get a message can't place there...this is strictly a M&G bug they never fixed, so, there is a mod to set this straight on MTS somewhere.
Sims will be taken if they didn't do their homework, (not just low social like in TS3) and or if they miss school or you fail to keep their motives up. In TS3 I allowed my kids to starve, go filthy etc. they were never taken until their social was way too low...lol..I guess they thought Social Worker meant low social...
I hope you have a ton of fun there is so much to test, click on everything! And save often because death is a real thing for Sims in this game.
-The equivalent to testingcheats true is boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true
-Make sure you don't leave the above cheat on for long- just do whatever it is that you need it for then turn it off.
-You have to type exit to close the cheats bar
-Sims' needs decay a lot faster but they don't need to be full 100% of the time
-Maternity leave is forced upon female sims as soon as they find out that they are pregnant but their needs decay so fast that it would be pretty much worthless to go to work anyways
-There's no pregnancy tests unless you download a mod that gives you a working pregnancy test object
-The screenshots that you take using the "c" key are really bad
-You can see queued up actions when in Tab mode
-There's blue fog at the edges of the neighborhood similar to what you see if you have graphics in 4 set to low
-You only get rewards from careers when you reach the highest level
-No active careers (unless you count running your own business)
-You can get abducted by simply looking through a telescope
-Once you've hit the accept button on a household in CAS you can't go back in there with them
-Pets, cars, toddlers, babies that can be carried around, etc.
-Clothes that you buy for a young adult won't carry over to when they become an adult
-Can't gain skills on community lots unless you're in uni (and possibly the hobby lots)
- Only seven skills
- To me the sims look very 2D
- Marriage between 2 females or 2 males is called a joined union
- A lot of the styles are very 2004-ish
- Sims can get scholarships through the computer when they are teens
- Teens have to be sent to college before they age-up to adults
If it works okay for you I don't see why it wont for me so I am going to try, it was strange as there is another mod called don't leave me behind by the same mod maker as the toddler visit community lots and my hack utility doesn't like that one either for some reason
Oh thanks for that info I never thought of that..
wow, I only have all the expansion packs for TS2 and TS4. As for TS3, I only have the base game and I haven't gotten TS1 yet, might try it.
Guys, I've been playing for quite a bit and my sim got engaged and she's currently pregnant and I literally just got off the game when she got maternity leave.
I just can't wait to see what having kids in TS2 is like because I heard there's some pretty cool interactions AND I have a dog so I'm quite excited to see the kids play with him, haha, it will be adorable! I am also excited for them to one day go to college and see what that's like.
Question: What happens when the sims in the town I'm living in (Belladonna Cove or whatever it is) are old and end up dying? Do random sims get put into the world or is there story progression in any of the expansion packs or something?