Tag: ask

any tips on how to make the sims 2 interesting? <3

Hi hi! ❤

Well, for me, cc makes it infinitely more interesting. 😛 I like being able to go on download sprees and find new cc that inspires me in my building, decorating, Sim-making, etc. (It’s a shopping spree I don’t have to pay for!)

As for the gameplay itself, everyone has a different idea of what they find interesting. 🙂 Some people really love legacy challenges – I’ve attempted one in the past, but I didn’t make it past the first generation. I’d like to give it another try in the future, though. I think it’d be cool to see how Sims’ genetics pass on through the generations. 🙂 

My current play style resembles a BaCC, but is not nearly as strict. (I don’t follow any rules or anything.) If I could start a new neighborhood, I’d like to play following an actual BaCC ruleset (à la @deedee-sims or @taylors-simblr :D). This kind of challenge/gameplay really appeals to me because I like being able to build a neighborhood from scratch and play with multiple families, rotation-style.

There are plenty of other challenges too, like the asylum challenge, poverty challenge, midnight sun challenge, etc. I’ve never tried any of those and I’m not too familiar with the rules, but if you google “sims 2 challenges” I’m sure you’ll get a bunch of results. 🙂 

Or, if you’ve never played with the premades before, give that a try! Indulge their fears, stray from their Maxis “storyline,” try something different to shake things up a bit. 🙂 Create an uberhood so premades from different neighborhoods can interact with each other!

Oh, and regardless of challenges or neighborhoods you play, I would definitely recommend installing ACR. I don’t know how I played without it – it’s always stirring up new and exciting drama in my game. 😉 

I hope this helps! 🙂

Hey Christine. I’m trying to download your skin set up, but it’s not letting me, I think your box is used up? Is there anyway you could upload it somewhere else? Also I see it says I’d need to download the four defaults if I want to use it. I use another default, so which skin tones would I need? Thank you in advance!

Whoops! I’ve uploaded it to SFS here. Sorry about that! ^^;

Ideally, you would need to switch out your default for the same one I’m using. That’s because I arranged my skintones on a spectrum, so if your default skin tones are slightly lighter or slightly darker than my defaults, the geneticized skintone of any offspring might not be correct. (I’m really poor at explaining this. :<)

Basically, if my S1 and S4 Sims have a baby, I have it set up so that their offspring can have any of the skintones in between S1 and S4 on the spectrum. (Look at Nate and Tabitha’s quadruplets – they all have different skin tones!) Now, if your S4 skintone is lighter than mine, for example, it’s possible that your Sims will have babies with a skintone darker than their own, because of the way I’ve arranged my genetic spectrum. 

I hope this makes a little bit of sense. You’re more than welcome to check your defaults against the ones I’m using to see if they’re close enough (if you really don’t want to swap them out.) 

Or, and this takes a little more work but it’s not difficult, just a bit time-consuming, you can look at the notepad file I included with my own values, and you can tweak whichever ones you need to in SimPE to fit with your own defaults. I used this tutorial to geneticize the skintones I had in my game. It’s very easy to follow – the hardest part was deciding where to put each skintone on the spectrum (because some of them are very similar to others)! The SimPE part is easy. 🙂 

S1, S2, S3, and S4 (the defaults) are given specific values – 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9, respectively. All your skintones lighter than S1 should have values less than 0.1, your skintones between S1 and S2 should be greater than 0.1 but less than 0.3, etc. So feel free to look at your defaults, and look at the skins included in my genetic setup, and if you need to move any of them up or down on the spectrum, go for it. 🙂 

Apologies if this was way more information than you wanted, or if you already know everything I’m telling you. ^^; (You never know who’s on the other side of an anon ask, so I try to be thorough!) If you have any more questions, just ask.

TL;DR – My geneticized skin setup is meant to be used with these defaults – if you don’t want to switch your defaults, you either run the risk of having genetically incorrect offspring (not game-breaking, but a little unrealistic – if this doesn’t bother you, then go right ahead!), or you will have to rearrange the setup yourself in SimPE to accommodate your particular defaults. 

I see other anons asking you questions about the ts2, so… is there a store for ts2 like there is for ts3?

Hey anon! There was a store, but it was a bit different than the TS3 store. There were no in-game purchases or anything like that, and no worlds or neighborhoods. But there were some objects and clothes available – I’m not sure exactly how the store worked, since I never bought anything from it (and it’s no longer open), but the store items can be found in places like GoS or MATY or somewhere these days. 🙂 

why do you play the sims 2? like what makes you prefer that over any other of the games?

This is a good question, anon!

I prefer the appearance of the Sims in TS2 over all the other games. I like their cartoony, expressive faces. With the in-game tools, you can easily create unique-looking sims without needing to download extra sliders or anything. I tried TS3 for awhile, and I just felt that it was so difficult to get Sims to look unique or expressive (not to use the term “pudding,” but….yeah). The Sims in TS4 are an improvement to me in this aspect – I actually really like the way they look. 🙂 And of course, nothing beats the genetics system in TS2. I love playing families and seeing how genes and traits are passed down through generations, and TS2 basically mastered this. (You can probably infer that I’m one of those people who is deeply disappointed about the missing toddler stage in TS4. :|) Plus, I don’t think any subsequent Sims game has managed to make babies/toddlers as cute as they are in TS2. 🙂 

Then there’s the issue of the gameplay itself. I have a pretty good computer setup and a good graphics card (it loads TS2 and my 14-15 GB of cc in about 20 minutes, and runs smoothly for the most part). When I tried TS3, I installed the base game, World Adventures, and maybe two other expansions (Seasons? Generations?). I had hardly any cc installed, either. It would take forever to load, and even when it was loaded, the open world would take ages to render. I found it to be unplayable. TS2 crashes on me sometimes, sure – usually when I have too many Sims on a lot or fast-forward and try to pan over the lot too quickly or something. But for the most part I’m able to play my TS2 hood the way I want to, with the cc I want, without having to make too many sacrifices.

TS4, from what I’ve played, runs smoothly as well. I honestly haven’t played it enough to give it a fair judgement. I did enjoy what little gameplay I’ve experienced, though. I’m sure once more expansion packs are released and it feels a bit more “complete,” I’ll give it another go.

The major things I wish TS2 had from later games are the scenery from TS3 (*_*) and the ability for unplayed households (like townies) to age on their own. (I haven’t yet decided how to tackle the idea of perpetually young townies in my hood, while my own sim households pass through the generations…) But for me, nothing really compares to TS2. I’m sure a huge part of it is nostalgia, as well – I’ve been playing this game for ten years! – but hopefully this gives you some insight into why TS2 remains my Sims game of choice. 😀

Okay, now this is very general, but how do you usually find new custom content? There’s so much CC out there and most of it is pretty amazing, too, but Simblrs aside, I can never quite figure where to get really nice things. I hope you can at least help me out a little here. ^^;

Hey! This is actually a really good question. Ever since Trapping stopped updating @trappingcrushes, I don’t really have a go-to place for updates. D: A lot of forums and places like MTS are less active than they once were, at least for TS2 updates. Most people nowadays seem to share content via tumblr, so that’s where I get most of my new cc from. I follow a couple of cc finds blogs (like @freezerbunny-cc-finds) and I pop into GoS from time to time, but other than that I just wait for some new content to pop up on my dash. ^^; 

I’m also in the process of trying to curb/cull my downloads folder, so I don’t actively seek out cc the way I used to (unless I have something specific in mind I need to find). So I more or less just wait for cc to come to me. XD I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help! 

wow, what do you do to get your water to look like that? is it the pond water mod by niol listed in your resources or something else (because it looks kind of different on MTS)?

It is indeed the pond water mod! In the original post, the creator says they don’t have reflective water turned on in their game because they have a lower-end video card. I have that option turned on, which allows the water in my game to reflect the surroundings. Vimpse made a nice tutorial explaining how to use the mod!

Semi realistic or maxis match? Which do you prefer and why?

Maxis-match here! Especially for the Sims themselves. 🙂 A huge part of the attraction to TS2 for me is the gameplay itself, and I feel like the Sims’ expressions and animations translate better with Maxis-match cc as opposed to realistic. However, I love seeing people use realistic cc in photoshoots – sometimes I have trouble telling if it’s a Sim or a real person! 

As for buy/build stuff, I’ve been trying to keep to mostly Maxis-match content, but I make some exceptions. :3 Some of my lots have a lot of cc to make them look more realistic or lived-in, but I’m trying to keep to cleaner/simpler textures to make my game more cohesive and Maxis-matchy overall. 🙂

I feel like there’s a lot of work that goes into making a realistic neighborhood. The vanilla game is pretty cartoony, and it can be a bit jarring to have realistic Sims walking around in a bright or cartoony neighborhood. (That’s how I used to play. :P) If you have the dedication to download the right build/buy content or install terrain/road replacements and mods, etc., to make a realistic hood, I’m sure the payoff is tremendous. For me, it’s all about creating a completely immersive experience, and I definitely don’t have the dedication or discipline to create a realistic/themed hood. (One of the many reasons why my medieval hood remains a pipe dream… *heavy sigh*)

Those are just some of the (more technical) reasons. There’s also the fact that the Maxis-match style just really appeals to me. 😛 I love bright colors and clean lines. And since I went Maxis-match, my downloads folder has been more under control (if you can believe that 14+GB is under control…you should’ve seen it when I had every hairstyle in all of Pooklet’s colors D:). 

I hope that sheds some light on it! :3