Coded blue.

Tuesday 28 September 2004

Screenshot Sims2

Pic of the day: Teen Sims can sleep over and kiss and stuff, but they won't go as far as premarital hanky-panky. This is a decent neighborhood. A barely decent neighborhood, but still.

Sim teens

I guess this mostly says something about the target group for Sims2, but the Sims are now teens longer than they are school kids. The life phases are clearly not meant to be realistic -- I have already mentioned the 3 years pregnancy and 3 years as immobile babies before you can start potty training. Childhood is just 8-9 days (years), but then you are a teen for 14 days (years).

Teenagers who get along with their parents have the time of their life. They go to school at 8 and come home at 13 (1PM). There is still homework to do, but the career-oriented Sim can still squeeze in a part- time job, which gives various rewards to their aspirations.

And speaking of squeeze: All young Sims should lock the "fall in love" wish when it shows up, and find a neighborhood friend to caress. The reward is pretty high, and you can move on to "go steady" and "first kiss", all of which will put you in the platinum mood instantly and add a hefty sum to your AP score. (You can use this to buy money trees after you move out, and life elixir when you don't want to grow old too fast later.)

There are plenty of roaming teens, like the Townies from Hot Date except they come out in the suburbs to hang out. This is paradise for the teen with Romance aspiration, but take care: Once you fall in love, you will likely have a near constant fear of falling out of love, and it's really gonna hurt if you do. So ideally your big love should be someone from the neighborhood who you can marry later if needed. A bright side to the fear thing is that you can only have 3 fears, so a Sim in love is unlikely to have the generic "relative dies" fear. So once you're in love, grandma can be promoted to Heaven and you won't feel a thing. Parents, or at least your favorite parent, may remain a worry until you get your own family.

Speaking of which ... Sim teens have a lot of romantic options (you can even have them practice with a mirror!) and can sleep over and "make out", but they can't Woohoo or Try for baby. (So much for realism.) They can go out at night (or sneak out, which is more rewarding but you'll probably get caught). But they can't start their own family till they level up to Adult. But by then you can have a lot of things ready: A job where you have already advanced to level 2, skills that will let you advance like mad and fix a broken shower, a lover that's counting the hours till you can Woohoo, and a circle of friends. A solid foundation to build an adult life on!

***

Random facts: Sim teens have a naturally athletic body. You won't see fat teens ... At least I have seen none, although I suppose you could order them to eat when not really hungry and see what happens. That's usually not a problem since they grow hungry pretty quickly, perhaps less fast than children but seemingly faster than adults.

Teens have the same needs as adults but the need bars move at different speed. The fun bar empties really fast. You need someone who can play Red Hands with you. Red Hands is like a cheat only it's in the game. It will increase fun at an exceptional speed, and also give a good boost to friendship. Both children and adults can play, but it may fail with sims from a non-compatible zodiac sign. Tip of the day: Never flirt with a sim that won't play Red Hands.

If the parents have very different personalities, their child could end up in a third star sign and be incompatible with at least one parent. (Possibly both, though I've never seen it yet.) This makes it much harder to keep fun and social ratings high. In that case a sibling or friend may be better companionship.

It is worth mention, although this is not limited to teens: Guests will not carry with them their need bars when you invite them (these seem to be reset to average, judging from behavior) but they do carry with them their wishes! So if you play the neighborhood boy and he has the need to fall in love, and then you save the game and the neighborhood girl also develops the need to fall in love, you can invite him over and flirt. If they are compatible, both will fall in love and get the wish fulfillment bonus. When you later return to the boy's home, he will be in platinum mood and do homework at increased speed with no regard to the fun or hygiene bars (you still need a minimum of food and sleep). Of course, he will come down from his high eventually, but it is still a nice detail.

But while some actions carry over between households, time still basically stands still for the rest of the neighborhood (not to mention all the other neighborhoods, and all roaming townies). So if you play one household more than the other, your teen Sim will grow up but his true love will remain a teen. So you should try to divide your attention between them till they both come of age. And for the same reason, don't fall in love with townies. It will only cause heartbreak. When your Sim's great-grandson becomes a teen, he too will meet the mysterious cheery girl with the pigtails and fall for her ...


Yesterday <-- This month --> Tomorrow?
One year ago: Servant to the lender
Two years ago: Haploid, diploid, triploid
Three years ago: More E-book reviews
Four years ago: Futures that never were
Five years ago: Cars of the future (if any)

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