My sister, who has never played The Sims in any incarnation, wants me to install Sims 2 for her when we both have the time.

In addition to critical mods, plus the cleaned up neighborhoods, what should I install for someone who has never played the sims? I don't want to overwhelm her with a ton of optional mods, CC or recolors, but I don't want to miss anything that would be nice to have from the start, like abortbedmaking (seriously, the default non-cancellable bedmaking made we want to drown child sims.)

Discussion of pros and cons very welcome here.

Edit: I should have clarified when I first posted but I was just about to get ready for work.

The sister doesn't know a lot about computers, she has never had a computer game except casual games, and she does not have internet access at home. I figure if she plays for a couple weeks and likes the game, then we can move on to downloading CC lessons (which she will not be able to do at her house.)

The game is pretty fascinating without CC, but I was wondering what people might add for someone who's never played before and who won't be downloading at all for awhile. Right now, I'm seriously thinking about a set of non-default MM eyes, just so she has a few more options.

And I will be printing out for her the list of VBTs you don't do if you want your game to keep working.

the help section has articles about pack installation. http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...lp:Installation
also for content installation. http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...acking_Geniuses http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title...Fracking_Idiots

there is a sticky in this forum section for content/programs needed for safe gameplay. I think titled "Essential Mods". http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=532696

Let her decide for herself what annoys her. I don't have "abort bedmaking" and am not bothered by it. Just install the disks, essential mods, and cleaned neighborhoods, make sure she has the URL for this place and a couple of important modders (Leefish and Cyjon should cover most of it) when she does decide that she wants to squash or adjust something, give her the rundown on Very Bad Things she should avoid doing, and leave her to it. She'll do fine.

Make sure to point out those large red blow up buttons I mean sneakily placed move family to bin, move family between hoods, move occupied lot to the bin, delete sim in family bin buttons. Make sure she knows NEVER to use those. Also never to use the delete all character cheat. Never to make any special characters like Grim or social bunny selectable.

make sure she has essential mods and bat box. But knows not to put on testing cheats and randomly click at them. especially not testing cheats + random batbox clicking.

I also agree with peni not to mod out annoyances since those are personal. I do have abort bed making and nuke weather while sleeping, coffee cup hack and a host of others. But I do not have baby harassment or never empty potty mod, both of which many people find essential. Tell her to jot down her annoyances and that there is probably a mod fix that you can find.

Once she has seen what CAS offers let her know that there are tons of pretty clothes, hair, eyes etc but again have her make her own list. Do the eyes really bug her? See if she would like a default. Make sure she doesn't download too much at once and to make sure she keeps her Download folder tidy. Maybe she likes maxis clothes but just wishes the tops were longer, there is a default for that. If she would like some stand alone CC clothes show her Rented space, DeeDee sims, SevenSkeligton and here. Good reputable creators. Personally I would avoid TSR headache. Make sure if she does want CC clothes that she understand that she needs a mesh + recolours.

Lovely clothes right here on MTS too - ( CatofEvilGenius )

Yet I would even leave clothing at first out too and just play the vanilla game (with the essential mods in) - that way one gets to know the game; because one should know what one wants to change. The vanilla game has plenty of charm, that is why we fell in love with it in the first place - it is only over time that some things start to annoy some players and then it is time to mod it out (or in .

I did say and 'here' I know for me I would quickly want CC eyes and clothes and hair.

Got to also remember base came out many years ago and now that we have better graphic cards and better graphical games that base game textures can look pretty crummy.

True, Jo, but there are some decent clothing with the later packs, and I am talking from the point of view of somebody who played the vanilla game for 6 or 7 years

Sometimes I feel as if I spend a less lot time on my actual game these days - back then I just played and played and played, and I had so much fun!

Now I download a bunch of CC, play, decide I don't really like the CC and stop playing to remove it (and search for something else .

moved-in household not to be moved to family bin? I have not seen anything bad happen after I did that.
moving occupied lots to lot bin; can be safe if all connections (memory, memory markers, relationships, family ties) with other households are removed and if all owned lots (Open For Business, Bon Voyage) are sold.

The household can be moved to the family bin, but the capacity to then move that family to a different neighborhood should not be used.

It is extremely difficult to erase all connections between families, and special tools are needed, so this is NOT something a beginner should try. For now, the rule: "No putting occupied lots in the bin" is enough.

mdsb is talking about the family bin, not the lot bin in her first instance. It's fine to move a family out to the family bin and move them on to another lot within the same neighbourhood. The second instance I wouldn't bother with myself.

After installing each disk that is for single game/EP/Stuff pack then you need to install the patch before going on to the next disk for EP/SP.

Now if its the 4 tri pack then there already patched and if its the UC edition from Origin you need to after installing the game to right click on the UC icon in Origin and check for updates, yes there are updates for the UC edition. (You need to do this until it tells you UC is up to date.)

Remember if it just a single item being install then you need to patch before installing the next item. http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?tit...elp:TS2_Patches
Only 1 SP has a patch but all the EP have patches.

It is also best to install in the order of release. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims_2

Is there a complete list of the Untouchable NPCs (Crumplebottom and ilk) anywhere?

This lists a lot http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Game_gui...e_to_play_as%3F Basically any sim who is lacking pie menu items. Now the mail career and paper boy/girl lacks them if they are working, but call them over and you will see all menu options.

Ah, thank you. My googlefu, it is weak. :p

Honestly, I installed it on my son's computer, and I didn't even install any of the anti-corruption mods. I figured that we all made those big mistakes in the early days of playing the game and we didn't stop enjoying it. Plus, I think new players tend to start several hoods, I know I never settled on one long term hood until I was much more experienced and wanted to play longer term. Why not let her make the mistakes? The game doesn't allow you to interact with dangerous NPCs easily without mods, anyway, so she's very unlikely to mess up the game by accident. Don't mention the testingcheat to her, and she won't be able to do it. Too many instructions can make a game seem scary, and she might be frightened of ever interacting with Mrs. Crumplebottom (etc) when acutally there are many cute and funny NPC interactions which are perfectly safe and allowed by the game. In fact, I wouldn't even mention any cheats, apart from the money cheats and maxmotives, since unlimited money can be fun for beginners, and maxmotives is a useful emergency measure if she's struggling to manage multi sim households, or if she just wants to try something out without worrying about motive decay.

Cleaned templates break some of the scenarios. I would leave everything as Maxis intended it, at least for her first playthrough. Obviously don't forget to download the patches and take those on a USB stick along with the disc versions (if you're installing from discs). But aside from that, leave it.

After she's been playing a couple of weeks ask her if there's anything she would change, anything she finds annoying, is finding difficult, or would like more options in (e.g. curtains, eye colour, hairstyles, etc). Then you can seek out interesting mods or CC that you think she might like, adding a little at a time to avoid conflicts building up or too much to deal with. At this point if she says "I wish my Pleasantview and Strangetown sims could meet each other!" then I'd probably look into getting a cleaned up PV to add to the subhood ST or vice versa, but hands off would absolutely be my approach.

The only mod I'd maybe install is nounlinkondelete, since the game allows you to sell tombstones and they can get smashed or go missing anyway, the mod isn't intrusive and doesn't change any gameplay. And the only instructions to be not to delete sims, and not to place inhabited houses into the sim bin, but again, the world won't end if she makes a mistake, and I think she'll get much more out of the game if you just install it and go "Have fun!" or spend some time showing her some tips but explaining she can really do it her own way, than if you give her various instructions on what not to do. IMO, that just makes things seem scary, especially to someone who isn't very confident with computers. She won't seriously break anything in a catastrophic way. She might get glitches in a hood, but even that can be part of the fun of the game, and you can always start a new hood. Let her do what she wants

I kind of disagree there. When I recently reinstalled, I thought I wouldn't worry about the clean templates for awhile because when I first played, I got away with a lot of stupid for a long time before any neighborhood went belly up.

But this time, Pleasantview lasted about a week and a half (real time) before I had baby-skin carpet; a born-in-game toddler with a LTW to reach the top of the politics career, who just for added annoyance, couldn't play with the toy box or any of the skilling toys no matter what I did to try to fix it; and Brandi Broke's lot started taking fifteen minutes to load and my computer is not that bad. And that was with me, an experienced player, not doing any of the VBTs and only using building cheats. How long a Maxis hood will last without corruption seems to be a crap shoot, so I'd rather prevent it from the start, especially for someone who is totally not computer savvy.

Huh! I didn't know that could happen. 0.o Well, fair enough on clean templates. In that case, I'd install clean templates and nounlinkondelete, and I stand by everything else If you MUST give instructions, I'd keep it just to no deleting sims and no moving occupied houses to the sim bin.

Just simply have your sister play and then ask the questions "what do you find annoying/irriating about the game?". From her response, you should then start downloading hacks/mods/fixes or ask us here If you can't find something or have a question that's even comming from yourself.

Like from your contradiction and like somebody said it, you don't want to overwelm and scare your sister by adding too much options, otherwise she might miss out something important Most Newbs start with no cc/mods/hacks, which I'll tell you that. Just tell her not to sell gravestones, and take away occupy houses to the bin with sims in it. And since she isn't that computer savy and its her first sim game, I don't think you'll have worry about her misusing boolprop testingcheatsenabled true If she doesn't know how to use it.

Also, think of her maturity level. Would having her sims die (for instance, of starvation) seriously ruin the game for her, but she's not skilled enough to always prevent that? Put in a failsafe into the lots she plays, like BO's need flamingo, download other mods that negate death-by-cloudwatching and death-by-fire.
Alternatively, is she/herfamily comfortable with a lack of censorship (so that the blocks don't drown the toddler or baby whose face you want to see in pictures)? Just remove them.

I don't think the cleaned templates break scenarios; just the subhood versions.

The vanilla game does actually prevent any interaction (trust me, I have tried, not knowing back then that she was dangerous) with characters such as Crumplebottom - you need to turn on testing cheats to do that, so don't. Half of the game breaking things will not happen if you just play.

Yep - the only game breaking things you can do accidentally, without testingcheats or mods/hacks are delete graves/let a sim smash an urn (which they can do autonomously), move occupied housing into the sim bin or delete sims from the sim bin.

Or, apparently, playing vanilla, precorrupted hoods But even so 99% of sim players seem to manage just fine with the default ones.

How old is your sister? I tend to forget that kids play sims.

Yeah, I was really surprised, I've never seen a neighborhood go bad so fast.



She's the kind of person, the first time I started the game in front of her, she looked at Brandi Broke's trailer, then turned to me and said, "Can you burn down the house?" I don't currently have pets installed, but she'll want it for the werewolves.

After she'd played for awhile, I'm going to have fun introducing her to zombie apocalypse.

Opinions: How long should I wait before I tell a sister like this how to drown sims?



She's in her 50s.

Lives, dies, is reincarnated. Still changing discs.