Sims2 It Came from the Chimera Thread!

(28-09-2018 09:21 AM)BoilingOil Wrote:  First of all, as a user I'd like to scream out: REALLY? FOUR posts in a row on the same thread? On most fora, they hang you to dry for what is called double-posting, and I can't even call it THAT anymore.

So..."quadruple," then?

(28-09-2018 09:21 AM)BoilingOil Wrote:  Maybe, as a global moderator I should contain my emotions a little, and be saying something about how multi-posting is not much appreciated... As I hope I've done now. I'm sorry for my outburst, earlier. I'll often let two posts slide, because we're all human. But this *did* push the limits a bit too much.

Pick your reply/insufficient justification/weak excuse/feeble apology here:

1) "My brain droppings contain too much excellence for one post alone!"
2) "I'm terrified of hitting the 10,000-character limit, that's all."
3) "I hate seeing those 'Pizzatron-9000 edited this post at this time and date and yadda yadda' notes, so I'm just skirting around them."
4) "As I change subjects, I sometimes change posts, kind of like hitting the Enter key when typing a new paragraph."
5) "Sorry, my bad."

Choose wisely!

(28-09-2018 09:21 AM)BoilingOil Wrote:  The blonde hair under the hat gave away that she was at least not an elder, for me.

It's the hat. The witch hat adds 20 years to her appearance.

(28-09-2018 09:21 AM)BoilingOil Wrote:  Sad, because I *do* like puffs... But I know there are mods out there to kill that kind of stuff, you know? Just so she could stay at the top of the game and still not puff... Twould kill the Good puffs as well, though...

I wouldn't mind the puffs so much if there were fewer of them, that's all. When I have trouble seeing the witch's face on account of all the puffs, that's too many puffs.

But as a witch's Alignment changes, so do her available spells. The shift from Atrociously Evil to Evil removes her ability to make thrones, but she gets to cast another spell or two in its stead...Good spells, I believe. I'll have to check my witches' spellbooks and pay more attention when they're making such Alignment shifts in the future.

(Not that casting Good spells is necessarily a good thing, because too many Good spells will rob a witch of her evilness. But even those spells can be useful under the right circumstances. As one example, Benemoodus Simae is invaluable for rescuing Sims — including the witch herself — from a nasty Deep Red mood.

Is Benemoodus Simae more powerful and more effective than a PlantSim's Spores of Happiness? Further research is required. But hey, I like research!

(28-09-2018 09:21 AM)BoilingOil Wrote:  And when you say it like that, suddenly I'm beginning to understand why people wouldn't want witches in their families: too easy. I still like them, but I'm just saying I understand.

...only if you take the time to get a witch up to Magic Skill 10 and either Alignment extreme; anything less than that means no witchy thrones. But as I just demonstrated back there with Kileighney, it's not really that hard to attain those requisites; spending a while in the Magical World is really all it takes.

Too bad it takes half of forever to make a single throne, even when running the game at triple speed. That's why Mordra Covenheart doesn't sell Claws of Darkness Thrones at her little witchy shop. Which is too bad. Witchy thrones can sell for a ton of Simoleons.

(28-09-2018 09:21 AM)BoilingOil Wrote:  Sure... many of my sims are bisexual as well... So expect that you like the ladies around her more than the men. Or you're perverse and want to push her towards lesbianism.

Hey, I'm secure enough in my own masculinity to admit when I find another man attractive. Like Chris Evans. I'd go gay for him and not think twice about it!

But yeah, as far as pure aesthetics — smoothness of skin, lack of body hair, shapely figures and so on — women tend to beat men by yards. All hail the curvy sex!

(28-09-2018 09:21 AM)BoilingOil Wrote:  I didn't really stop, actually... It's just that I got other games to play that got badly in the way of my sim-time! And in no way would a bad experience on ANY website EVER get me to stop playing a game. I don't allow strangers to gain THAT much power over me.

Not strangers. Ideas. It turns out that 90% to 100% of the Clique over yonder is Third Wave Feminists (you know, the ones who say "We want equality" through their words but mean "We want supremacy" through their deeds, and there's no equality in that) who supported the harpies who were allowed to bully a leading scientist into submission and pleas for mercy during the whole Shirtgate/Shirtstorm brouhaha. And my liver can only handle so much of that kind of toxicity.

But anyway, on to nicer things.

(28-09-2018 09:21 AM)BoilingOil Wrote:  Something close to that... The thing is, as you should know, that the lifetime meter is updated every six sim hours. The higher the current mood meter sits, the more points are added to the lifetime meter. At the same time, the high mood meter keeps boosting your sim's skilling speed. So, even though the PermaPlat may not be in a sim's foreseeable future, if you keep pumping points in that meter, at least she keeps at platinum for now, can skill faster, and can keep platinum for a very long time that way... all this time keeping the boosts for the lifetime meter at max too! THAT is what I call "OVERLOADING".
Keep making high-aspiration wants -- Skilling wants included! Keep that mood meter maxed out!

What about the idea of wasting Aspiration Points, though? If your Aspiration meter's already at maximum, then does fulfilling Wants and adding points to an already full meter do any good?

(28-09-2018 09:21 AM)BoilingOil Wrote:  And this is why you need my "Rewards Catalogue" mod as well. This method tends to max out the Sim's personal aspiration points meter to a point where if you don't spend the points, new points are falling into oblivion. With my catalogue... those points will simply be stored somewhere safe, where you can later retrieve them, when you REALLY need them.

This has something to do with that last question, I imagine. Maybe I should at least give your Catalogue the college try some time.

Also, those top-of-career-track Wants we were talking about? You Imbecile! Malevolence has one of them:


Bruharia Pitt (one of Viviana La Morde's "pets") has another:


And Viviana herself has a third:


So if the phrasing can be taken literally, then I don't see why that wouldn't include third-tier jobs for Teens and Elders. I'll have to try it whenever one of my teens or elders rolls such a Want..assuming that the computers and the newspapers will give him or her such a career opportunity in a timely manner, that is.

And that "Honey, I'm home!" gesturing that Family Sims do? Servos do it too.


That'll do, Ganymede. That'll do.

(28-09-2018 11:25 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  So..."quadruple," then?

<...snip...>

Choose wisely!

When you're told by those in power that something is unacceptable, please do not try to make it into a joke. Just say sorry and stop it.
For now, I'll assume that that is what you meant to do. But next time, I might be less forgiving. Can we accept that, please?

(28-09-2018 11:25 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  Is Benemoodus Simae more powerful and more effective than a PlantSim's Spores of Happiness? Further research is required. But hey, I like research!

Benemoodus Simae... isn't that the one-target version? In that case, the plantsim clearly wins, because her spores works on all in the same room!
But if it's the lot-wide version, that's clearly stronger. But it comes at ingredient costs, and it doesn't fix ALL motives, I believe. In which case, I still prefer a pair of Plantsims.

Anyway, the changing set of spells when a Witch's alignment changes, is why I suggested a mod to take the puffs out, in the first place. That way you would have no puffs, but still all spells.

(28-09-2018 11:25 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  

(28-09-2018 09:21 AM)BoilingOil Wrote:  And when you say it like that, suddenly I'm beginning to understand why people wouldn't want witches in their families: too easy. I still like them, but I'm just saying I understand.

...only if you take the time to get a witch up to Magic Skill 10 and either Alignment extreme; anything less than that means no witchy thrones. But as I just demonstrated back there with Kileighney, it's not really that hard to attain those requisites; spending a while in the Magical World is really all it takes.

Too bad it takes half of forever to make a single throne, even when running the game at triple speed. That's why Mordra Covenheart doesn't sell Claws of Darkness Thrones at her little witchy shop. Which is too bad. Witchy thrones can sell for a ton of Simoleons.

But isn't that the point? You let your sim become a witch, BECAUSE you want her to excell and get that chair. And that chair is why other players object to witches. Besides, you can have them get to maximum alignment, make one or two chairs, and then lower their alignment, but that will ONLY prevent them from making more chairs... NOT from using the ones they already have. So still too easy for some people...

(28-09-2018 11:25 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  But yeah, as far as pure aesthetics — smoothness of skin, lack of body hair, shapely figures and so on — women tend to beat men by yards. All hail the curvy sex!

Absolutely!

(28-09-2018 11:25 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  What about the idea of wasting Aspiration Points, though? If your Aspiration meter's already at maximum, then does fulfilling Wants and adding points to an already full meter do any good?

There's a subtle difference between Aspiration Level, and Aspiration Points. The points are what you buy rewards with. The default reward page has a max capacity of 327.670 points tpo store. Everything you score that doesn't fit, is lost. That is why you keep buying stuff. And that's why I made my reward catalogue as alternative storage for those points!
The Aspiration Level (the meter) is closely related, and counted in the same points. But it is NOT the same thing. That meter decays over time, and keeping it topped up is a way of delaying the decay. Which in turn results in larger amounts added to the LTA meter every six sim hours, thus getting you to the PermaPlat level faster!

Sure, there is some loss... but Yoranda still made it to PermaPlat three days before going to college. And once PP is achieved, mood is never an issue anymore. To me, that spells: TOTALLY WORTH IT!

(28-09-2018 11:25 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  

(28-09-2018 09:21 AM)BoilingOil Wrote:  And this is why you need my "Rewards Catalogue" mod as well. This method tends to max out the Sim's personal aspiration points meter to a point where if you don't spend the points, new points are falling into oblivion. With my catalogue... those points will simply be stored somewhere safe, where you can later retrieve them, when you REALLY need them.

This has something to do with that last question, I imagine. Maybe I should at least give your Catalogue the college try some time.

There is one thing to look out for with that mod. The booklet has a setting to automatically collect points from all household members. If that's ON, all members share their points in a single book. But you can circumvent it if you must. If you want each person to have their own collection, you get each of them a booklet, and on ALL the booklets you need to turn auto-collection OFF. But then you also need for each sim to occasionally store their points on their own booklet manually.

(28-09-2018 11:25 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  Also, those top-of-career-track Wants we were talking about? You Imbecile!

Please don't do that... because you didn't specify, for quite a while, I thought you called ME an imbecile! I would've had to reciprocate!

(28-09-2018 11:25 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  Malevolence has one of them:
<...snip...>

Bruharia Pitt (one of Viviana La Morde's "pets") has another:
<...snip...>

And Viviana herself has a third:
<...snip...>

So if the phrasing can be taken literally, then I don't see why that wouldn't include third-tier jobs for Teens and Elders. I'll have to try it whenever one of my teens or elders rolls such a Want..assuming that the computers and the newspapers will give him or her such a career opportunity in a timely manner, that is.

Yup, those should do it, when they occur on a teen! I actually remember having seen it happen. That makes life WAY too easy, by the way. But since we didn't cheat to make it happen, I'm totally fine with that!

(28-09-2018 11:25 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  And that "Honey, I'm home!" gesturing that Family Sims do? Servos do it too.


That'll do, Ganymede. That'll do.

And THIS servo wasn't even a Family sim (unless it's her secundary), because I see the Knowledge symbol in the UI.

Okay, so my storm-out-and-quit-the-site turned out to be a take-a-break-from-Leefish-in-a-huff-and-cool-my-head-for-a-few-days. So I guess you're not rid of me just yet.

But really, I can get a bit overenthusiastic with my posting sometimes, and I did. But I also don't believe in making empty posts; every one of my posts has to be helpful, feedback-providing, levity-providing or momentary-amusement-providing in some way, lest I stain my own honor by being a lowly troll, a nitwit or a "Me Too". And yet the next thing I knew, I'm being talked down to like I'm the redheaded stepchild of some random guy who created a forum account just so his pet spambot could fill four forum pages with horribly phrased advertisements for Chinese Viagra knock-offs. So try to understand why I got a bit huffy.

But if it helps, I'll try to curb my enthusiasm, perhaps dialing my activity back to checking the site every three days to a week. Whatever works.

(28-09-2018 03:38 PM)BoilingOil Wrote:  

(28-09-2018 11:25 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  Also, those top-of-career-track Wants we were talking about? You Imbecile!

Please don't do that... because you didn't specify, for quite a while, I thought you called ME an imbecile! I would've had to reciprocate!

Oh, that's just one of Doctor Hal Malevolence's Servos. When he married Doctor Zenon Roboto, each of them brought three Servos into the household. Any Servos created by Hal tend to be named whatever an angry, belittling mad scientist would yell at his creations while addressing them, while any Servos created by Zenon tend to be named after tragic figures from Greek mythology. So that's why three of the Malevolence household's Servos are named You Idiot!, You Imbecile! and You Pail of Bolts!, while the other three Servos are named Icarus, Daedalus and Ganymede. 8)

(Unfortunately, I momentarily lost my head and forgot that Ganymede from Greek myth was a boy (though I remembered the part about Ganymede being abducted by the gods for being too sexy) and gave the name to a female Servo. Nobody's perfect. )

(28-09-2018 03:38 PM)BoilingOil Wrote:  Yup, those should do it, when they occur on a teen! I actually remember having seen it happen. That makes life WAY too easy, by the way. But since we didn't cheat to make it happen, I'm totally fine with that!

I have a similar code of honor: Cheat codes like MaxMotives and Kaching/Motherlode/FamilyFunds are verboten because they artificially make Sims' lives too easy; exceptions might be made for glitches or other extreme circumstances (like when I had a bug where hotels would charge my Simmy tourists the lodging fee three or four times each day, so I used Kaching to compensate for the glitchy extra charges), but that's it. Cheat codes like SetHighestAllowedLevel, MaxTotalSims and Allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation are acceptable because they allow me greater freedom in transcending the factory limitations of TS2 to create richer, more diverse and more colorful buildings and families. And anything allowed by the game engine itself is right as rain (though I may feel a tad guilty for using obvious exploits like spamming "Give Makeover..." on a barber's chair placed on my Sims' own business lot just to drive up a Sim's Sales badges, or to accomplish the same thing by selling $0 items — like toys taken out of a toybox — for Extremely Cheap).

(28-09-2018 03:38 PM)BoilingOil Wrote:  And THIS servo wasn't even a Family sim (unless it's her secundary), because I see the Knowledge symbol in the UI.

Ganymede's Knowledge/Family, yes (so chosen because I figured that it would let her cook Grandma's Comfort Soup and otherwise be a good robo-nanny to Hal and Zenon's flesh-and-blood children, from Benne onward). But Servos can't get pregnant and bear children of her own. So why does she do the Welcome Home thing? Why do you do that, Ganymede?!? :O

Welcome back @Pizzatron-9000

PS we don't actually have a no double posting rule here on leefish, because I just thought people wouldn't

@leefish: I was not aware of that. But still, I found the four-posts-in-a-row a bit trying. And not being aware that there is no specific rule about it HERE, I assumed that the general forum-rules would apply, and spoke up. Apparently *my* bad, then?

(07-10-2018 02:26 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  Okay, so my storm-out-and-quit-the-site turned out to be a take-a-break-from-Leefish-in-a-huff-and-cool-my-head-for-a-few-days. So I guess you're not rid of me just yet.

Don't storm out and quit, just because one moderator makes a remark about whatever behavior. Just slightly adjust your behavior to not do it again. That moderator is usually just doing his/her (unpaid) job, trying to hold everyone to the same standards, whether they are personal friends or not. Just so everyone enjoys the forum equally. Try quad-posting on any other site, and you're likely to be banned for a week or longer, WITHOUT any chance to defend yourself. I merely told you how it usually upsets people, and that it's usually not appreciated to do that. I was even polite about it, saying PLEASE and all... So I really don't think I was "telling you off". On Simbology, we wouldn't even have had this discussion; I *personally* would've banned you for at least a week, no discussion accepted! Talking back usually results in a permanent ban, there. This is just to show you how different it can be!

In the mean-time, I will try to moderate my moderation, and use it in moderation. Because it seems that, politeness aside, I wrongly assumed a generally accepted rule to apply where it does not. My apologies! (See? Even I, as a moderator, can say those words!)
Anyway, there is nothing preventing us from editing or updating a post, adding new stuff to it. So if you already have the last post in a thread, you shouldn't really need to add three more posts. Just edit/modify the one that's there to add more. Unless you run into the character limit, of course. Was I wrong in assuming that you might be a smart person who *knows* that?

(07-10-2018 02:26 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  

(28-09-2018 03:38 PM)BoilingOil Wrote:  Please don't do that... because you didn't specify, for quite a while, I thought you called ME an imbecile! I would've had to reciprocate!

Oh, that's just one of Doctor Hal Malevolence's Servos. ...<snip>... So that's why three of the Malevolence household's Servos are named You Idiot!, You Imbecile! and You Pail of Bolts!, while the other three Servos are named Icarus, Daedalus and Ganymede. 8)

Well, maybe it would've been prudent to mention that right before or after quoting that remark directed at "You Idiot". People on forums aren't supposed to know my real name!

(07-10-2018 02:26 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  

(28-09-2018 03:38 PM)BoilingOil Wrote:  Yup, those should do it, when they occur on a teen! I actually remember having seen it happen. That makes life WAY too easy, by the way. But since we didn't cheat to make it happen, I'm totally fine with that!

I have a similar code of honor. ...<snip>...

I'm a bit looser when it comes to Motives. When you send a sim to a comm lot - regardless how long that sim stays there - when they get back home, usually no more than 20 sim minutes will have passed. There are lots where they can bring their Energy up by making and drinking Espresso for free; there are lots where they can take a shower; there are also plenty of places where they can grill hotdogs and hamburgers, and so on, and so forth. So travelling across all those lots, you can keep a sim's motives up indefinitely. With the exception of their MOOD (the Aspiration level), of course, which requires actually fulfilling some WANTS, in order to be kept up... And if a sim has already achieved PermaPlat, the mood is of no importance anymore, either. With Witches it is even simpler: just send them to the appropriate castle in the Magical World, and they can easily restore ALL their motives by sitting down.

So with PermaPlat witches I usually play fast-and-loose with the maxmotives thing because it doesn't matter...
All other witches are really sent to the appropriate castle, and thus lose their 20 minutes.
PermaPlat non-witches are simply sent to ANY comm-lot, where I do something max-motives-like before sending them back home, pretending that they've been moving around the neighborhoods for hours or even days.
Anyone in a household with multiple plantsims doesn't need any cheating; just the Spores of Happiness.
Finally with all other sims, I usually really make them go around the lots, but I don't mind faking it occasionally. Because I know that I could keep them going forever and ever, even without cheating.

Everything that has NOT to do with the motives, though, is unacceptable unless it's to compensate for the game screwing me over... Just like you said with the hotels charging a sim four times a day.

(07-10-2018 02:26 AM)Pizzatron-9000 Wrote:  

(28-09-2018 03:38 PM)BoilingOil Wrote:  And THIS servo wasn't even a Family sim (unless it's her secundary), because I see the Knowledge symbol in the UI.

Ganymede's Knowledge/Family, yes (so chosen because I figured that it would let her cook Grandma's Comfort Soup and otherwise be a good robo-nanny to Hal and Zenon's flesh-and-blood children, from Benne onward). But Servos can't get pregnant and bear children of her own. So why does she do the Welcome Home thing? Why do you do that, Ganymede?!? :O

Maybe because she could've adopted some children? Because the game doesn't differentiate between them...
I like the Knowledge/Family combo as well. Unless the sim becomes a witch or plantsim before choosing a secondary aspiration, in which case I like to make them Knowledge/Romance.

@BoilingOil - the rules, such as they are, are here, in the site information

Its not a question of "bad", though I do think that the moderation can maybe be a bit less like being slapped round the head with a wet fish

Anyhoo, back to servos and other unusual things. Fun fact, I have my first ever servo in game now, but it's just a testing game.

(07-10-2018 09:16 AM)leefish Wrote:  Anyhoo, back to servos and other unusual things. Fun fact, I have my first ever servo in game now, but it's just a testing game.

You might be quite pleasantly surprised by what Servos can bring to your game! For starters, instead of just going idle, Servos will autonomously start cleaning up the place, cooking meals for your flesh-and-blood Sims (since every Servo begins its "life" with Cooking 10 and Cleaning 10, regardless of its creator's Skills) and handling other chores, making them perfect roommates for Sloppy Sims. They might still get a bit cranky if they repeatedly have to clean up after Sloppy Sims (even if the Servo happens to be Sloppy itself, as the Servo's Personality is modeled after its creator's Personality), but who wouldn't?

Servos also never age, they're immune to heatstroke and to frostbite (and to temperate itself, really), they don't seem to be subject to disease (as far as I can tell) and they have fewer Needs to worry about; no Hunger gauge means never having to worry about Servos starving to death, and without a Hygiene gauge, you can put a Servo to work restoring junk cars all day and they'll never have a complaint about it. They may even be immortal; instead of dying or going into Need desperation, they'll short-circuit and start running amock (which is pretty much their own form of Need desperation, now that I think about it). They can also run amock if you expose them to water, so making a Servo go swimming or take a shower for any reason is a Very Bad Idea (and for that reason, since Servos will autonomously repair broken objects in the home, in the event of a broken shower or bathtub, it's best to divert the Servo's attention elsewhere while you have a flesh-and-blood Sim handle the plumbing repairs).

My only complaint about Servos is the very limited variety in their appearances. Male Servos can dress in a tuxedo with tattered sleeves (because sleeves tailored for human arms don't fit Servo arms very well), female Servos each get pink lipstick and a little pink bow tied around her antenna and may also be able to wear tattered pink dresses, and Servo/Vampires get little vampire fangs. That's about it. So an option to pick a color for a Servo's "skin" or exoskeleton would have been nice, or perhaps even the choice of different robot heads, robot arms, robot legs, robot torsos and such...kind of like all the combinations that you could cook up for your robotic hero in that old Sega Genesis game, Cyborg Justice.

(Customizing your Servos by making them rip parts off of other Servos and plunk them onto their own bodies might have been fun too, albeit a tad too vicious for family-friendly Servos. )

I thought this suit looked quite nice : http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=573616

Yea, I saw my servo doing chores, which was fun, but she also obsessively serves food . My household of two unemployed sims don't want (can't afford) roast turkey every day.

(09-10-2018 04:53 AM)leefish Wrote:  I thought this suit looked quite nice : http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=573616

Minethankyouverymuch!

*grabs it*

(09-10-2018 04:53 AM)leefish Wrote:  Yea, I saw my servo doing chores, which was fun, but she also obsessively serves food . My household of two unemployed sims don't want (can't afford) roast turkey every day.

Well, I'm not 100% sure of it, but Servos only seem to cook meals when a Sim in the house has a low Hunger gauge. Keep everyone's Hunger gauges high (which a ton of Servo-cooked, leftover roast turkey in the fridge can help you with) and the Servos will occupy themselves with other tasks.

Aside from that, it also helps to occupy the Servo's time with other tasks, like the aforementioned junk car (which can easily occupy a Servo's time for the better part of a day, as long as you don't let its Social need run low), or getting the Servo a job. Or is there a particular reason why your Servo-building Sims are unemployed, such as an Apocalypse scenario or somesuch?

(And if I may ask, what Badges did your Servo start with, if any? Ganymede Roboto started with a Gold Badge in Flower Arranging, the second such badge that any of my Sims — after Amar Bigfoot — has ever had; even Zenon herself doesn't have any Flower Arranging badges! So Ganymede has done a handsome job at filling the Malevolence family's corporate tower with snapdragon bouquets as well as Delete-selling them for a tidy profit...or Gifting them to Doctor Hal so he can sell the snapdragons in his robot stores for even tidier profits. )

(09-10-2018 04:53 AM)leefish Wrote:  I thought this suit looked quite nice : http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=573616

Yea, I saw my servo doing chores, which was fun, but she also obsessively serves food . My household of two unemployed sims don't want (can't afford) roast turkey every day.

The cooking thing really freaked me out. Butlers, Nannies and Servos all do that way too frequently... Only one sim needs to be slightly hungry, and there goes the 'servant', autonomously wasting a ton of food-points to cook one of the expensive group meals, most of which ultimately spoils and is thrown away! So that's why I made BO - BNS - No Cooking. It works totally independant from the other mods on the same page, preventing all these servants from cooking your sims into the poor house!