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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 13th Oct 2017 at 1:40 PM
Default Scenario's/Minigames - Do you simmers love doing them?
Right now playing with sims in college, which I'd say it's one of the least aspects out of all expansion packs I tend to play from time, so now I enjoy playing it. Right I had my just join a greek house first is my first time ever trying to attempt. Took me two times to do it to succesfully join, though nontheless it was pretty darn easy (the same greek member didn't have to leave when I ask to join a greek house from them when the scenario ended and the minigame started immediately again.

My question/dicussion of this thread is, do you like doing these minigames? The Things that you're required to complete a list of tasks before the given duration of a timer runs out? Are they easy to do or hard? How many times you had success convincing a headmaster to give better education for children? What's the most level you had reach out of others from doing dates/outings? I'm out of questions, so I'll just leave the rest what-to-think-to-talk idea to you peeps

BTW, sorry for my english.
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Inventor
#2 Old 13th Oct 2017 at 2:45 PM
I'm a bit on the fence about this one. I don't mind it too much, but when I played timed mini-games from other titles (going to work and achieving objectives to progress), they were somewhat restrictive in my opinion - I wanted more freedom in how I achieved certain objectives and I wanted my choices to mean something.

My favorite scenario is the date scenario because it makes sense to me that a date would be successful if both parties had a good time in each other's company. Even though none of the wants are fulfilled, they can still boost their scores with positive interactions. Maybe it's just me but I get more satisfaction out of dream dates because they make both parties happier by boosting their aspiration scores, which in turn, affects some other behaviors and events and keeps them from aspiration failure just in case any disasters happen. On the negative side, if bad dates happen, it's either an incentive for me to work it story-wise or, if the sims truly like each other, do better by both of them next time. Still, most of my dates reach dream date level.

I also enjoy seeing what wants sims pop on dates - like how Dustin Broke went on dates with 4 different women and on every single one of them he rolled the want to get married to Jan Tellerman, his first love. Sometimes the sims don't have any wants at all for their date, which is interesting in its own way.

I've had horrible experiences with the headmaster, however. Sometimes he'd deny the sims after one look at their pristine front yard just as he got out of the car! It also has to do with personal experience - most of the private schools where I live only checked if you had the money or lineage to attend them. I have different criteria for allowing students to get into private school so impressing the headmaster isn't enough. Only when the sim has passed all of the requirements are they magically enrolled in private school using Twojeff's college adjuster - the sims gain the aspiration points and I don't lose aspiration points for failing the headmaster again!

I don't usually go for the scored outings and prefer outings for fun because I like to take my time with them and sometimes go community-lot hopping, but I don't find it difficult to have rockin' outings either.

I haven't played university subhoods in years (all of my students attend university in the main hood) but I didn't have much difficulty getting into the Greek houses, especially since they often become friends before asking to join anyway or it was the Greek members who wanted to invite my sims instead. In fact, it was so easy for me that I had one neighborhood wherein all of the students were members of a Greek house!

Asides from dates, another scenario I enjoy is trying to skip out on the bill.

I can't remember any other scenarios (do the BV scenarios count?) off the top of my head, but I generally prefer more open-ended scenarios, not particularly rigid ones. For example, at least the headmaster can be served almost any sort of edible food instead of having to use the One True Meal to pass. So far, I'm all right with the scenarios that we have now, barring my ineptitude with the headmaster.
Lab Assistant
#3 Old 13th Oct 2017 at 2:50 PM
They are a means to an end, really. My sims never seem very interested in Greek houses, though I recall doing it a long time ago. Dates are good - they cheer my sims up, and improve relationships, and if I want it to happen, they can generally get to Dream Date, do the wants they roll, make sure they ask the date what they want. Group outings I don't do too often, they are ok.

I have only ever failed with the headmaster once, it was the first time I tried, and he didn't even come in, drove off saying it didn't think the house could have the sort of sims he wanted in his school! It became easy when they could cook the turkey or lobster ahead of time to make sure it didn't burn, and then serve it from the fridge.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#4 Old 13th Oct 2017 at 2:52 PM
I think dates and parties are about the only timed things I do these days. I haven't had sims in a Greek house for years and last time I did I had them start one not join one. I have joined both the pre-made ones some years ago though. If they are friends first it's easy, or darn near impossible if they hardly know them.

I never play the headmaster scenario, I simply set the school on the school changer, that mini game became annoying fairly quickly. Plus I know how to get in pretty easily. It's more that he is annoying and I don't care for the whole thing with the family being 'good enough and waiting on the old coot to come view rooms. The headmaster is very easy if you know the right thing to do, quite hard if you don't.

I might do the garden club again at some point. Add a flock of flamingo's as I had in one challenge and it's very hard to get a wishing well. Needs lots of tasty vegetables to damage control the loss of points from the flamingo 'trash'.

Parties are mostly easy although I have bad ones now and then, did a couple of days ago-I think because the toddler aged up just as I was trying to get her to the cake. I often extend parties on the bat box.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#5 Old 13th Oct 2017 at 2:58 PM
I don't play Greek houses - all my students in all of my dorms are playables. That's my scenario

Dates - Yes, my Sims date often. Married couples looking a bit depressed also go on dates - it is good for their pixel souls, I think

Outings - I do tons and tons of outings, really - scored outings and just for fun. All Sims go on outings - with their colleagues, with friends, with families.

Parties - also once or twice a week.

Headmaster - sometimes I bother, sometimes I am just not in the mood. The headmaster in my game seems to like spaghetti, though.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#6 Old 13th Oct 2017 at 3:14 PM
@joandsarah77 oh really? Funny that you say that, I found the greek-joining scenario easy. While I had fail the first one, I have made friends with the two members quite quickly as it only took to "talk" and to unlock" hang out" in that sequence for both of them. For second time, from these same people I manage to talk up to 20 from that last remaining member and I got accepted.
Link Ninja
#7 Old 13th Oct 2017 at 3:52 PM
I partake in many of the mini games, especially if a sim rolls for a date, throw a party, to join a greek house, or get into private school.

I've learned how to ace them all though I really need to get that mod so my sims homes aren't overflowing with date roses. I cheat a bit at Greek Houses by going into them and having the members call up their prospective member to pad the daily points. Then I go play the sim who wants in and they either automatically get it or maybe like two jokes in with the remaining member they need to get schmoozy with.

I admit, I usually deny calls from randos wanting to go downtown, mostly because my sims is tired or something and who knows what other rando NPCs that sim will bring along and then everyone complains if my sim does a bad job at entertaining them all, for just having met a lot of them. They expect too much! I usually only throw house parties, birthday ones, or wedding ones. Not really into Toga or Sports parties.

Uh oh! My social bar is low - that's why I posted today.

Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#8 Old 13th Oct 2017 at 11:29 PM
My experience was with the Greek houses was the members would run off and disappear into dormies dorm rooms while the timer went down and I never had enough time to track the 3 down. That is the hard way by just calling and not knowing them.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Alchemist
#9 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 12:39 AM
I guess "mini game" means a timed scenario.
AnyGameStarter has a "Mini Game" option in its installer. have done a bunch of playing in it.

headmaster scenario, party; done those at least once in past times playing. and a few headmaster scenarios this time playing.
date/outing, did one date this time playing; in AGS's Mini Game.
Greek House membership, done a few this time playing; temporary neighborhoods and AGS.
Scholar
#10 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 12:56 AM
I think I've tried everything except the Greek house, and I've possibly played 2 or 3 dates and a handful of weddings in however many years I've been playing, but I really don't enjoy them. I remember the headmaster one: I had the house set up with a desk and chair in each child's room for homework, and plenty of bookcases and skilling objects as well as some quite expensive statuary...and the headmaster said he expected his students to have a suitable study environment and this clearly wasn't it! From what I read at the time, "a suitable study environment" actually means "a hot tub and a slutty mother." That's not the kind of man I want in charge of my Simchildren's education!
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#11 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 1:23 AM
I've never kept score of the number of dates that I've done but hundreds, it's standard fair to make my couples happy.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Forum Resident
#12 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 2:14 AM
I have mixed feelings about those timed challenges. l sometimes enjoy sending a Sim on a date or have them throw a party. Both are good relationship builders and it's a bonus if the Sim has rolled a want for either. However, I don't like the headmaster challenge. I didn't like it when I didn't know how to win his approval and I like it even less now that I know how to get it. There is something terribly shallow and impersonal about that experience.

The Greek house stuff is a tad better than the Headmaster challenge, but not by much. By design, the Greeks are obnoxious and don't want to make friends or have a conversation -- at least not during the membership inquiry. I usually have my Sims request membership twice. The first time is just a quick meet & greet to put them in the phone book. Then, after they become phone friends, I'll have the Sim do the real membership request.

I am so glad that I can pick & choose what challenges to take part and when to do it. If the game was designed in such a way that I MUST to complete this or that challenge in order to move the game forward, I'd probably not play.

Quick question on this subject . . .
I don't do a lot of group outings. Is there a way to know ahead of time which type of group outing is just a get together and which one will be timed and judged, like a date? My Sims are never very good at impressing people in their group, so they tend not to score very well -- which is probably why I don't do them that often.

So many things to learn; so few brain cells to process the info needed to learn things!
Shipwreck Island
Turquoise Dragon
retired moderator
#13 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 2:39 AM
the "just for fun" outing doesn't have any penalties or rewards
Forum Resident
#14 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 3:19 AM
With the outings... I find one of the fastest boosters to your time and success is quite simply picking one sim, making friends with them, and then repeatedly ask them what they want. 4 asks should gain you a level, unless someone's nearing aspiration failure. Kind of weak, but nonetheless true.

To be honest, i play a lot of the scenarios. Parties are not my best. I'm happy to get them one notch above boring, which gives them a good memory. I'm not very successful with them. I think i had one rockin' party, and a few really good ones. But usually, it's marginally better than terrible, and that's good enough!! Haven't been able to win a wishing well yet, despite hours of trying! And my frustration with the headmaster is, the last couple times I had him over, i scored so high, he left before I served dinner! All that cooking for NOTHING! BLARGH!!

I'd actually like to see several other timed scenarios added into the game. One that I'd fleshed out in another thread, i think would be a load of fun to play. Rather than repost, i'll just link to it here. Tell me what you think! Would you find a scenario like that fun to play?


-grinEvilly
>=)
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#15 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 3:49 AM
Quote: Originally posted by gdayars
the "just for fun" outing doesn't have any penalties or rewards


I only ever use 'Just for fun'. Who wants outings to be timed? I wish the date and party timer could be optional as well.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Inventor
#16 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 7:29 AM
D'oh! I completely forgot about parties, but that's because I usually teleport most of the sims I want over beforehand and just call for the few others, then put out food and music and leave them to it. It usually ends up a roof raiser without my input, which is amazing considering my tiny, route-failure-prone bathrooms and lack of real-life party-throwing skills.

The only reason I let my sims join the Saturday apartment party is the free food. Sometimes the scenario glitches and I get unlimited pizza.
Mad Poster
#17 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 12:46 PM
The only mini-games that I really love are the dates. I love them because my Sims love them. Mostly I play them between Sims who already have a well-developed relationship, so nearly all of them end up as dream dates. (Not giving the other Sim time to go to the toilet is the main reason when they don't.) They're great for cheering up Pleasure Sims, and also for hard-to-please Knowledge teens like Andrew.

Quote: Originally posted by Charmful
I really need to get that mod so my sims homes aren't overflowing with date roses.
What mod is that? I have a few Sims with a "Have 50 Dream Dates" as their LTW. I find it's a good LTW for Romance Sims as well as Pleasure ones. But the date roses can soon get out of hand. Jack Gill and Ravi Bertino both have that LTW. They live together in a little house in Mendoza Lane and they have an open relationship so they have dates both with each other and with other boys. You can hardly walk round their house without falling over roses -- there are more flowers in their house than in Florence Delarosa's shop!

I do play the other scenarios as well but much less often and with much less enthusiasm. I haven't played the headmaster since Andrew tried to get in in his very first day. Well aware that neither he nor his mother had a clue about cooking, they tried feeding the headmaster with pizza. Sadly it didn't work!

The most famous party in my game wasn't really a party at all. To celebrate maximising his logic skill, Andrew just phoned up all his friends and invited them round. It turned into a typical teenage party -- the sort that most parents dread: there were teens kissing and making out all over the house. But it didn't faze Gloria: after making food for them all, she took her boyfriend Garry over to the love tub, chucked the teens out of it, and had woohoo with him there. That party is still talked about years later.

Having only installed University earlier this year, I am just about to try playing a Greek House for the first time. I suppose I'll find out how much I enjoy them. I strongly suspect that toga parties are the main reason why my Andrew wants to go to university at all! So I hope he enjoys it when he eventually gets to one. I think Peni's to blame: she told him about them.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#18 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 1:57 PM
My sim didn't really had luck with toga party. Not sure If there was something I had to do to with the theme of it? Two times. The Last I just in invited only the host's fiance, she and him dance a little bit, ate pizza, had them kicky bag, but despite that I only manage to end it with "Real Dud" before the time ran out. Recently, I had failed a few sports parties.

TBH, for me parties just turn out and end up becoming either "win or lose" one's. It's really hard to pull them off sometimes.
Turquoise Dragon
retired moderator
#19 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 2:02 PM
I just turn on a stereo and have everyone dance and offer food and have my sims talk and dance with everyone
Mad Poster
#20 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 3:15 PM
I have lines of roses around some sim houses
Parties - it really does not have to be a roof raiser. But it often is - as long as all the sims are friends! Almost nothing beats a normal dinner with a pixel's best friends - they almost always turn out to be roof raisers anyway.
Forum Resident
#21 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 3:25 PM
I like all the mini-games. I use the group system a lot, and timers are a welcome addition. For me each date or outing plays different, so I don't get bored of them. Dates for a romance sim who just wants to woohoo quickly is very different from tired new parents trying to get a break and just needing a positive reinforcement (achievements). I can take them anywhere, they can date at the spa, library or book a motel room. I often use timed-group outings for bachelor/ette parties, (that way my sim may get presents), or during political campaigning (now them gifts become bribes). Some sims are better at it than others. Mean, shy, serious sims aren't the best host, and if they got a ton of mean friends then then the outing may not go well. But a sim like Hawk, heck, I wanna group with him myself, the timer keeps extending as he takes his friends from bar to bar, ending up many hours later, with the whole nightclub smustling on the dance floor.

I started to love timers (instead of just grouping up) when I ended up taking the whole extended family on honeymoon. "NOPE, eat your cake, clap during the kissing, now get lost, I aint paying for your holiday (and come back next week to do wedding photo's)." Parties, yep, some are boring if your sim isn't into parties. My shy sim always has the best parties because she is kind, everyone shows up for the free food. The best party I ever had was at Uni whilst the host was upstairs romancing. The party people got on downstairs and enjoyed themselves, they even brought pizza. I didn't have to tell them to go, when time is up, parties over and back to studying. Headmaster scenario is easy enough, clean, weed, talk, feed them, then show. He likes company, so invite the neighbours. My best time was when he had the coffee, some bar drinks and then got out of the pool stating "you're in", he didn't even try the Alaska cake (I bought it from the expensive bakery because nobody can cook). Just watch that he doesn't talk to your husband who is rude or your kids who are boring.

What I love most is that there isn't a lot of them and most of the time I get to choose.
Mad Poster
#22 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 3:41 PM
I hate them. I never have successfully done the headmaster so I just gave up and just use Twojeff's college adjuster to get them into private school. To this day I have no clue what he wants. I hate parties. I don't know what I need to have good ones, so I rarely throw them unless I have to (related to the Family Sim LTW. One of the reasons why I hate popularity Sims. They always want a damn party.)

I massively failed the Greek membership, so I only did it once. All my college Sims either live in a dorm or a private residence if they can get enough scholarship money. I have Cyjon's mod to stop stupid outing calls.

I do have relatively good luck with dates, so those are the only timed events I do. Most of the time enough wants get filled to make it a dream date.
Inventor
#23 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 5:08 PM
I admit to playing fast and loose with outing and party timers via mods. Parties are never long enough. I'll usually boost them to last until around 8pm, so things can wind down before cops show up and my sims have a little time to get ready for bed. Though more often, I'll have 'unofficial' parties where family and/or friends are invited or teleported in, food and entertainment is provided, and things just roll. The timed ones I do have are usually weddings, which I want to last for a while, with the occasional other party thrown in if a sim has time and the want for it. I don't do too many Outings because I've had bad luck with something glitching or going wrong and I kind of hate that my sim is invited along but treated as if they're the host. That makes sense if they're the ones organizing it, not if they're invited along as a guest!

The headmaster scenario is one I've pretty much gotten down. You don't have to feed him the best of the best food, or even have the best house. Pork chops or salmon are good enough for dinner and more easily learned than lobster (though I think I did once win it with spaghetti as a long shot). I'll send a sim around to clean up the house before he shows up and I'll check which spots give the best environment scores. I don't bother too much with schmoozing unless I get a positive reaction the first time it's tried. But even then I don't do it much. If I feel other family members might cause an issue, I'll direct them to sit quietly at some activity to keep them out of the way. I start out with a schmooze (two if there's a positive reaction), then head right into the house tour and drag him directly to the best spots. He won't care if the walls are bare or there are no curtains, as long as the spot he's in is green enough. After that, it's immediately into dinner and I always make at least one family member sit to eat with him to gain a few more relationship points. By the time the headmaster is done eating, I almost always have passed the required minimum score. If I haven't, there's usually enough time for some more schmoozing. It's a little more iffy at that point. Sometimes it's necessary to tag out to another family member if the current one just isn't tickling the headmaster's fancy. At this point, if a family manages to pass the headmaster scenario, I don't bother having them do it again for any future children that might not be school-aged (or even born yet), I just use the sim manipulator to switch school types. (Unfortunately for my sims, there's a daily cost for attending private school, so even if a less well off family might be able to pass the test they likely won't have the funds needed anyway.)

Dates are probably the only things I play straight with little fiddling. The only time I add more time is if something happened that was out of the ordinary, like a glitch where someone gets stuck or something. Although I've had 'OK' dates and one or two where the person said don't bother again, I've yet to have one horrible enough to get a flaming poo bag
Inventor
#24 Old 14th Oct 2017 at 7:11 PM
I'm not sure if I should be saying this, but dates are also important to me because it's how some of my sims work in the world's oldest profession. The gifts are stand-ins for their fees.
Mad Poster
#25 Old 15th Oct 2017 at 12:35 AM
Date rewards are a pretty useful way to simulate prostitution in a vanilla game, for sure, or at least a gold-digger like character.

I do try to have my sims go on a couple of dates before I'll even entertain any wants for engagement. Then at least another date or two before the wedding. See if they really want it or not. I like to run little scenarios for myself too like "wedding dress shopping" and such. I've just thought, I've never done a stag/hen party but I should try that out. Once my sim's fiancé brought him a dance sphere as a date reward before their wedding and I decided that she must have hired it for the ceremony. That was pretty fun. They kept it afterwards, though.

I usually have rules for myself for scenarios so that I get into a kind of "beat the game" mindset - university studying is done by a ruleset (wants/autonomy), so is skilling/friends for promotion, dates are done with a formula based on wants, the last digit of the (real life) time and whether the sim I'm controlling is Nice. Parties I tend to freewill, possibly with some Simslice beer for the sheer fun of it, they normally go well if everyone already knows each other, and badly if they don't, unless I make my host influence like mad.

Some things I simulate extra too, like if a sim is very lazy I won't MAKE them get out of bed, and they might miss work. Their problem. They're lazy. And very active sims I'm not allowed to direct to go to bed so they will generally stay up until forever and then pass out - but then I wake them up at 5am This is only for really extreme personalities, though.

I like the combination of randomness with decision making and parameters In-built game parameters are the easiest of course but I like making up my own too!

I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
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