Parties, Outings, and Dates

[BeckyBoo8]

What do you do to have sucessful parties, outings and dates?

Parties:
Parties are usually wants for Popularity Sims, Birthday Party wants for Family Sims, and fears for toddlers. I hardly ever throw parties, unless it's for the LTW Golden Anniversary or weddings. For sucessful parties, all I do is make sure I have games, music, and a bar. I usually ask Sims to join in, or make them selectable to play/dance.

Outings:
I hate outings, they are so hard. I have to use cheats to make people become lovers/best friends on outings, and then it gets a good grade. Please let me know how to do this! Dancing, dining, and playing games did nothing!

Dates:
I love dates! I like it cause their wants only involve their lover, they're so easy to accomplish, it helps get a lot of Aspiration Rewards Points, and it also gets them to fall in love faster.

[Peni Griffin]

Ms. Boo8, you really need to learn to open threads in the Sims2 General Discussion. This subforum is for threads that have been around a long time that people keep coming back, to make it easy to find several years worth of conversation about Bella Goth or what's going on in your game right now or what we did with the Strangetown characters. You haven't been here long, but you've been here long enough to figure out where to open a new general thread.

The secret to scored outings is to fulfill wants. If you know that sims who show up at the outing well, you can probably guess some of their wants; otherwise, fulfill those of your active sim and hope for the best. When you're originating an outing, you can reduce your stress by making it "just for fun." I've had considerable success expanding circles of friends and cementing friendships by use of outings and social groups "just for fun," and your pregnant ladies can get their social groups to hang around helping with the twin toddlers and fixing the exploding sinks for a good long time with the "just for fun" outing that never leaves home.

[AlexandraSpears]

One thing you can do is have your Sim ask the other Sims "What do you want?" Fulfilling Wants helps.

Also, building relationships helps, like if a couple of the Sims in the outing reach friend or best friend.

[MuletotheFoxxes]

I've never had fulfilling wants for outings really do much of anything really. I just have to keep building relationships. Don't use the long interaction such as dance unless you're willing to cancle them fast. Just talk, joke, apreciate, and when the relationship is high enough, other things as well. You do need to keep their motives up. So make sure you go somewhere with toilets, and it's a good idea to eat at some point so that they won't be hungry and unhappy. I find it helpful to go someplace with hot tubs or games so they're more likely to interact (them bringing up each others relationship brings up the outing bar as well) while I have my controllable sim focus on just one sim.

[sushigal007]

I take my sims out to dinner, then make them all hang out. Seems to be working so far.

[victory101]

What works for me, with parties and outings, is to focus on relationship building. Fulfilling wants never did much to influence the scores in my games, but having my sims interact and mingle a lot works wonders. It works especially well if you've got some items on the lot that build social for multiple sims at a time, like a hot tub, pool table, or card table. (The bubble blower too, although I think you need a mod to have that one build social...)

But really, you can make do with a lot of jokes, chatting, and other good interactions. You just have to make your sims work for it and generally be good hosts ;)

(Also, if your party is for something specific, make sure the sims actually do things related to it. Like, a birthday party should include the birthday sim aging up at the cake, and a wedding party should involve sims getting married, cutting a wedding cake, and making toasts. These can have a big impact on the overall score!)

[lorinsv60]

The trick to a good Outing is to get a lot of + or preferably ++ interactions, and that ++ interactions must have two different ones in between to keep their ++ effect (repeat at least 3 interactions in the same order). For Sims with a low relationship score, it starts a bit slowly with Talk, Joke, Play, Admire, which are usually just +, but you want to avoid - interactions so you don't want to push it. By the time you can Gossip, play Red Hands, and Friendly Hug (almost always ++), the meter will fill faster. Fulfilling Wants will give it an extra boost, and romantic interactions will also raise the score fast. The more Sims in the Outing, the more of a challenge it can be, so I start out small and ask more Sims into the group after the score is already pretty high. The other thing Outings are great for is kids: have the parents invite them on the Outing, send the kids to bed, have the parents rotate a bunch of romantic interactions, and the whole family gets the motive benefit!

[BeckyBoo8]

Thanks everyone for your help :)

[Darby]

Listen to Lorin! She's the Outings Queen, having used them to great effect in helping her Apocalypse Challenge family survive! :) (Old rules - not the final, full game rules or Phaenoh's re-working.)

I'm good at getting dream dates, but still haven't gotten around to mastering Outings.

[zumppe]

Don't use the long interaction such as dance unless you're willing to cancle them fast.

This. I just keep bombarding one or two of the others with fast, positive interactions. I use the different "gestures" (chest pound, bow, high five, etc), because they are fast and no relationship is needed for them to be accepted, unlike hug and often admire. "Entertain - joke" is good but takes too long, "chat" takes waaay too long and can result in a minus score as well, if the sims disagree. If the sims are already friends, "tickle" is a fast and positive one.

Outings are a lot harder than dates or parties.

My sims throw a lot of parties, but they become roof raisers without me doing anything, because I invite and teleport (I have a mod which allows to invite more people) a huge amount of sims to the lot, and all the interacting raises the score by itself. I just have to sit back and watch. :beer:

Dates are easy, I've never had anything else than Dream Dates... but I'd be interested in seeing the love letters etc. (the bag of poo would be fun :lol: ), instead of the bouquet of roses my sims always get after the date. Not something I want to spoil my sim's date for though.

[MattShizzle]

For some reason "dirty joke" is a lot faster than regular joke. I only have base game so only parties is available for me and I almost never have them because they're a pain and I find them boring. Plus too many visitors going around screwing stuff up.

[gazania]

Parties. I do lots of parties. Not so great on the outings, but this is what I do for parties. I'm presuming you're playing cheat-free. I use cheats many times, so bear with me. My memory might not be as good as it used to be.

1. Music is good. A cheap radio will work fine if your Sim is broke.
2. If your Sim has a bit of money, the bartender tends to help move things along. The fruit juice keg can work if your Sim is on a tight budget.
3. Have plenty of bathrooms. Nothing will kill a party more than to have a bunch of potty-dancing Sims. I've been known to build some "temporary" facilities, then take them down later. And there is actually a porta-potty you can download for Sims 2, if you want to be more authentic. Grungy atmosphere after a bunch of drinking Sims have been using it not included. (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=10993.0)
4. If you see a couple of Sims getting nasty with each other, ask one to leave. Immedately. It will NOT get better.
5. If your Sim can afford it, hot tubs. Those attract Sims like flies to honey. Oh, and bubble blowers. Beware of either, though. Sims have been known to stick around long after the festivities are over if you have one or both of these items on your lot.
6. I find that feeding my Sims is not terribly effective. Your mileage may vary. They like to drink, though! But putting out a bit of jello and calling them to eat it mightn't hurt, I guess.
7. Don't get too ambitious. You need to watch your Sims to make sure that someone doesn't try anything that will kill a party. I don't like inviting more than a few at a time without using a cheat. And there is no shame in inviting only two.
8. I agree that "Chatting" with Sims takes way too long. Keep interactions short, and make sure your Sim mingles with as many Sims as he or she can.
9. Have your parties early-ish. If you start them past a certain time (7:00 PM is my cutoff), you might have the cop break it up before things get moving.

Personally, I like to use a jealousy off cheat, as a minimum. I find the hissy fits annoying. But it's up to the player, of course.

[M.M.A.A.]

Outings:
I hate outings, they are so hard. I have to use cheats to make people become lovers/best friends on outings, and then it gets a good grade. Please let me know how to do this! Dancing, dining, and playing games did nothing!


Well if dancing wouldn't work, then get to the actual real work!

Put yourself in the place of your sims. Would you expcet yourslef to only dance when you are in an outing with others? Of course not. Socialize. Entertain. Tickle. Play with them. Appreciate the people you are going out with. If you have a lover and a bunch of friends, take them out for dinner and do some table interactions like blowing a kiss or caressing their hands (only for lovers and married sims, unless you want some cheating here and there). A more friendly, and by friend I mean something you can do with friends while dinning is toasting. Give a back rub to your lover. Ask the others what they want and accomplish that for them. Throw food at each other!

[MuletotheFoxxes]

1. Music is good. A cheap radio will work fine if your Sim is broke.

9. Have your parties early-ish. If you start them past a certain time (7:00 PM is my cutoff), you might have the cop break it up before things get moving.


Having the radio on after a certain hour with a party is what get's the cops coming. If you can turn off the radio and store it in an inventory (or sell it) before ten I think. Then you can safely have a late night party.

[MattShizzle]

I always do the shift-ctrl-click with boolprop on the want "have a party." I don't want to. That's the only thing I HATE about popularity sims. I call the want "leave a fart" and the have a great one "leave a really BIG fart!" And yes I am indeed pushing 40. I just hate the in game parties.

[Babahara]

For successful outings just keep asking sims "What do you want?" and doing what they want. Alternatively, make a few friends in one single outing and pick a lot with avenues where they can have group fun. This way they build relationships between themselves, too.

MattShizzle, I had no idea you could delete a particular want. Thanks :)

[Saturnfly]

Dates: Woohoo. Seriously, woohoo in the clothing booth, woohoo in the photo booth, woohoo in the hot tub, woohoo in the car, woohoo in the closet, woohoo on the couch, woohoo in bed, also make-out a lot, that seems to create a big boost.

Parties: I've often had great parties when my sims did nothing spectacular. Just buy a stereo, invite everyone to do the smustle, serve up some chips, order pizza/ chinese, crack lots of jokes.

Outings: Beach parties. I lurve me some beach parties.

[Peni Griffin]

Well, yeah, Mr. Shizzle, but you hate everything your sims do on their own. I'm surprised you ever have freewill on.

Dates: Open the date's wants panel, fulfill as many wants as you can/want to, platinum. The trouble with dates is to make them harder, in which case, don't open the date's wants panel. Woohoo doesn't raise the score unless it's a want. My male sims can't woohoo without a want (not up to it, so to speak) and won't if their partner doesn't have one because they're not cads.

Parties: The key to a good, big party is to invite people who already like each other or are very close to being friends. They'll interact spontaneously and raise your score. And work everybody in the household, not just the host. The host can greet people with gestures and hugs and kisses as appropriate while the housemates can load the buffet or fix the party food (if you don't like guests raiding the fridge, block it with the buffet table/punch bowl or turn it around), mix the drinks, and start dancing and asking people to join, which gets them away from the door and distracts them from smustling. Be alert for smustle epidemics and break them up. Caught cheating events actually seem to be good for parties. Bubble blowers don't raise social without a hack, and it's social interactions you want so hot tubs, yes, smustle and bubble blowers, no. Hula and slapdance seem to be social - at any rate those epidemics don't kill parties. Introduce sims who don't know each other. Influence people to do things according to the wants the hosts roll, but be careful about it - the sims tend to go for the highest versions allowed and this often ends badly, so influence two folks who are quarreling to talk rather than to appreciate each other. I remember one memorable sorority party at which two lovers with a cow mascot incident hanging over their heads were influenced to talk to each other as soon as they showed up, and they stood out there in snow that eventually covered their knees, talking and talking and talking...

Outings: I've only had one outing go to full and my sim barely did anything! It was a post dream-date outing, a teen invited out by his date's father. The Goreys are a highly artistic family, so I sent them to the sculpture park and the art museum. My active sim couldn't roll appropriate wants to save his life, but just as I was about to change the venue to reroll them again I noticed that the score was rising, rising, rising while I sat there trying to think of useful actions. So I let the teen free range, mostly, and just observed. What appeared to have happened is, that the friends Martin Gorey had brought along were all sims with high art interest that he'd met at the hobby lot. So they were running around viewing the art together spontaneously and the popularity and romance sims kept throwing up 1,000 point rewards as they met new people. Also, my teen kept doing things I would never have thought of - play catch with Jane Stacks? Really? That worked? The meter topped out and the only thing I had him do was fix hot dogs when he got hungry.

My conclusion is to tailor the venue to the group. It's hard to predict a post-date outing's makeup till you get the clown car scene, but if the caller is a playable, you should know what he's into, and you can always change venues (unless there's a lot of teens and children and it's late) after the clown car scene if you guess wrong.

If, however, the caller is a townie serial dater - Just Say No. There'll probably be a Caught Cheating event as soon as you get out of the car, the outing will end, and everyone will unfairly blame your active sim and not the guy who brought all your mutual girlfriends on the same outing.

[MattShizzle]

I never do have free will on. Unfortunately, you can't turn it off for visitors.

[JennP88]

You haven't been here long, but you've been here long enough to figure out where to open a new general thread

Honestly that is really rude. I thought you were being polite and trying to help her until I read that sentence. Im surprised BeckyBoo didnt say anything and just ignored it.

[BeckyBoo8]

Honestly that is really rude. I thought you were being polite and trying to help her until I read that sentence. Im surprised BeckyBoo didnt say anything and just ignored it.

Well actually I thought that was rude too, I just decided I'd keep my mouth shut. Anyways, thanks JennP because I appreciate it.

[julmoo]

Honestly that is really rude. I thought you were being polite and trying to help her until I read that sentence. Im surprised BeckyBoo didnt say anything and just ignored it.

She's not being rude. She just stated a fact.
Before posting you have to get familiar with the rules of the forum as to where/when/how you post a new topic.

[JennP88]

Ms. Boo8, you really need to learn to open threads in the Sims2 General Discussion. This subforum is for threads that have been around a long time that people keep coming back, to make it easy to find several years worth of conversation about Bella Goth or what's going on in your game right now or what we did with the Strangetown characters.

If she only said that, it would be considered polite and helpful. But the last sentence ticked me off. I mean she didn't say it to me, but if she did I'd be mad. "You've been here long enough to figure out where to post a new general thread."
Seriously? Basically calling her stupid for not realizing that. BeckyBoo does not know me, but I stick up for her because I recognize her from other Sims websites. Her creations are amazing, she is very friendly, and always answers my messages and takes requests.

[BeckyBoo8]

Guys, just stop.
I appreciate what JennP said.
But this thread is about parties, dates, and outings.
So please, I'd appreciate it if this stuff just stopped.
It's not a big deal.
Thanks.

[BeckyBoo8]

Dates: Woohoo. Seriously, woohoo in the clothing booth, woohoo in the photo booth, woohoo in the hot tub, woohoo in the car, woohoo in the closet, woohoo on the couch, woohoo in bed, also make-out a lot, that seems to create a big boost.

They can WooHoo on the couch?
WooHoo on the hammock is odd. I mean the thing just spins. Haha

[Peni Griffin]

Only with a mod, alas. I understand it looks like the makeout animation in underwear and they can woohoo on single beds with it, too. Very handy in college.

I am sorry I hurt your feelings. I was trying to be polite and helpful, but I think we all know how hard it is to pull off when the only interface is cold print on a hot screen. Everyone's a jerk on the internet once in awhile; therefore, let us be gentle with one another.

You know what's fun, for a certain value of fun? Running a date and a party that overlap. Woohoo sends the party score through the roof, and you're having to cycle through all your active sims rapid-fire to keep everything going at once. I have one Romance sim who's getting repetitive to play, so I had her run a scored outing; then just before that timer ran down had her ask someone on a date; then when she got the date back to her place, threw a party. Most fun I've had playing Leslie Gay since graduation. If you get a post-date callback during a party, accept the date and have it meet on the home lot, and there'll be no interruption.

The teleporter cat is a godsend for big families that you want to get together for parties and weddings, but you'll want to experiment and see how many extra people you can bring onto the lot before it lags your game past your capacity to tolerate it. I resisted loading it for a long time, but now I'd rather not do without it. All the extras will leave when the party breaks up, except for strays stuck in the hot tub.

When you bring an outing that included two family members home, don't forget to end the outing! Visitors will go home if their motives sink low enough, but the family member will continue to tag around after the person who called the outing till you remember to do that.

[victory101]

Woohoo doesn't raise the score unless it's a want.

I'm pretty sure it does, actually! It's always been my experience that any interaction that raises the relationship of the participants raises the date score; it just does it significantly slower than fulfilling wants does. I know because I've had many sims push through to Great or even Dream Dates like this, long after they lost interest in interacting with each other and started rolling skill and "buy me this!" wants instead :P

[MOOKIEBLAYLOCK]

^ That. All necking, groping, procreating actions (if accepted) kick up the meter on dates and outings, I rarely throw parties , but would guess it's the same. So you think you want to bowl and earn a cleaning skill point? Guess what? Just kiss and fondle each other for awhile , you'll end up happy, I promise.

[AlexandraSpears]

I just sent a group of 4 college students on an outing together...two couples. Their relationships went up, it was almost a Super outing...and one of the guys wound up gaining a Creativity skill point as a bonus.

[Firelira78]

I've had many sims push through to Great or even Dream Dates like this, long after they lost interest in interacting with each other and started rolling skill and "buy me this!" wants instead :P

This is exactly the reason why I avoid dates now. After a couple of 'talk', 'play' or 'entertain' wants are fulfilled, the ridiculous non-date related wants are back. They want to become a werewolf or cure the NPC witch of Witchery or buy useless things. Even though the 'buy' wants are fulfillable immediately, but they are never replaced by date related wants. It is like they forget they have a date going on. I just have to resort to spamming 'smooch-makeout-flirt-makeout' on them!

Although Romance sims (I've only had a couple or so) are generally interested in their date throughout. Family sims sometimes are. But Fortune, Knowledge and even Popularity sims start getting non-date wants half-way through the date.

The 'Dating' thing was so much easier and fun after just Nightlife and the beginning EPs. Now with all the EPs. It seems the EA-xis code pushes wants from all EPs all the times, even during dates or other important events like a baby becoming a toddler. Sims don't always get wants they should be getting.

I mostly send my sims on a date only the first time after they've become teens as the "falling in love" and "first kiss" shoots up the date meter from 'Ok' to 'Dream Date' immediately.

[Darby]

Dates that are losing steam can be revived by Flirt:Check Out for the controlled sim, and Ask:Do You Like What You See? for the non-controlled sim. These actions cause the wants to reroll to the type that put the focus back on each other.

This works best with sims whose turn-ons are compatible with their dates, though. Not nearly as effective if nothing about the other is a turn-on.

[Peni Griffin]

Are you dating people with low relationships or boltage, Firelira? Because I date my sims a lot, and they only ever start rolling non-date wants under those conditions, or when they've been out for a long time and are getting tired. Most of my dates, um, climax with mutual woohoo wants, often three or four (I want to woohoo my date, woohoo in the car, woohoo in the hot tub...). The higher the relationship and chemistry the more satisfactory the date. As it should be!

[Firelira78]

Darby: Though the "Flirt: Check Out" option rerolls the wants, when my stubborn sims have decided to get only non-date related wants, that option rolls a useless want as well. I also use the batbox to reroll wants in addition to that but to no avail.

Peni Griffin: I make sure the intended sims at least have 2 bolts of chemistry between them. Also their relationships are high as in at least 90/90.

I don't get woohoo wants because my dating couples are mostly teens. The adults are almost always married to their love interest, except when the sim is a Romance and has multiple lovers.

Come to think of it, all the sims who have given me trouble by getting non-date wants have been teens. The few times I've had my adults on dates they have not been that much trouble especially after I keep the 'hobby wants' in check my making sure their enthusiasm is zero in everything.

[lorinsv60]

I could get my low-bolt dates to roll more appropriate date-related wants if they went to a different lot.

[BeckyBoo8]

Sims don't always get wants they should be getting.

On dates, this happens in the beginning of the date for me. They both want to play, so I select "tickle." Then 2 or 3 of the wants change to "Have a Baby" or something like that. But since some of the other wants for me are still related to their date I fufill those wants. Then the other wants change back to wants related to my Sim.

Another expirence I have with wrong wants is after a vacation. They get back and their wants change to non-related vacation stuff. But say the next day or day after they'll get the want to "Go On a Tour." But then 3-4 days later the random vacation wants stop. Random: Speaking of vacation, I hate Three Lakes. I had to add stuff from other packs (Such as the ice skating rink) to make it worth it.

[Peni Griffin]

I like Three Lakes fine but you're right, it needs an ice-skating rink!

Changing venues won't work for Firelira's teen dates, because if you change venues after curfew the date just walks off on arriving at the new place. I don't know what we're doing different; I sometimes get annoyed that my teens get to the bowling alley and never actually bowl. It is true that sometimes if I fill lot-specific wants, especially "play cards," the date will get stuck and be hard to pry off. Teen sims spend a lot of time dancing, flirting, and making out.

For my sims, the "dine out" want is the catalyst. Once that's fulfilled, the intimate wants start pouring in, swamping everything else, regardless of what age the dates are. And even sims who are stuck in a card game can be pried off to dine out. The trouble with that is, a lot of lots don't have restaurants and you can't call to meal on the grill; so I'm using the same lots over and over, and can't get, for example, a skating date. I use the skating venues, bowling alleys, and parks mostly for outings.

Timing is the important thing. I like to pre-load the date with enough short want-filling interactions - gossip, tickle, inside joke - to get the date timer up above five hours; then there'll be time for everything I want them to do.

[BeckyBoo8]

Crypt-O Nightclub seems like it literally attracts vampires. So I made my own night club for dates. It has a small dining area, but mainly has a dance floor, photo booth, bar, and the Electro Sphere- something like that, forget what it's called. I like when I take mine out to eat, because the interactions "Throw Food" and "Caress Hands" are so sweet! I love when they "Propose -> Surprise Engagement" at the table. Also, this one park is really nice cause there's a small island in the middle of the lake, which no townies go to, so mine slow dance and everything there.

[victory101]

Crypt-O Nightclub seems like it literally attracts vampires.

No moreso than any other community lot Downtown ;D

That's a very strange issue. I almost never have my teens go on dates, so usually I'd assume that would be your problem... except I just had one in my game, and it behaved like a normal date, simply without the usual endgame want for a Woohoo. Do you have the same problem when the teens go on a date at a residential lot?

[MuletotheFoxxes]

I've found that when sims are being stubborn about wants on dates, that if I throw in a few romantic actions before fulfilling their non date wants than they're more likely to roll romantic wants which usually snowball into more romantic wants.

I did have one couple though, a pleasure/family couple. They had three bolts as teens and then two as young adults/adults. Where after awhile it got almost impossible to get him to roll non-generic pleasure wants during the date. She always rolled date related wants though so we were able to get him his ltw of 50 dream dates because his family sim girlfriend liked dates.