My sim is a Scorpio and he ALWAYS has a fun bar that's super low. I'm wondering what to do without using any mods or modded items. Is this normal? He has a TV that's a "4" for fun. You would think that would help? I want to get him a telescope , When he has $2000 simoleons. But even that only gives a 4 fun score. What gives? He can't get a promotion because his mood score is always borderline at best. I adopted him a cat which Did help a bit with social score.

Edit: I managed to get his mood to TWO green mood bars AS he got into the carpool and Still no job promotion . He's a dishwasher, his performance is "Average". He likes to paint, that helped get his fun up. And calling neighbors and playing with the cat got his social bar up. Maybe his job performance will somehow improve? I thought 2 Mood bars would do it?

Items don't just have a score for fun; they also have a level at which they stop. Some items will only fill your fun bar to 65%, no matter how long you use them for. I have a ton of modded items, because I think playing the piano or painting should be majorly fun, but I understand not wanting to use such things.

You can take a sim downtown (if you have Hot Date) or to a community lot in Old Town (if you have Unleashed) and fill up their fun there. You can build a movie theater with the most expensive TV, for example, and fill their fun up off the home lot.

Thank you Corylea. I notice the items that give a high fun score are Very expensive! I'm not opposed to using "rosebud" cheat. But lately I do make a point of playing with No cheats. I like that it is challenging. He seems to enjoy painting and that did get his fun bar up. As I said he had 2 green mood bars when he got in the carpool. I don't know why no promotion. I don't recall the exact criteria for getting a promotion?

I love to send sims downtown, old town etc BUT they always seem to come home super drained!

Promotions aren't guaranteed, even if your sim is in a great mood. The game has a random element in it, so that promotions aren't 100% automatic, even if you have all the requirements and are fully green in everything. I'm not sure 2 green mood bars is enough, though; you might want to try for 3...

1) Study your Sims' personality. The artificial intelligence from the Original Sims' characters are not essentially known for being the most intricate one among the other titles from the franchise and, perceived from the surface, it almost feels as though 12 Sims born in totally different months seem to operate exactly in the same fashion, but their personality information are the main key to comprehend why certain characters don't ever seem to keep their diamonds glittering as emerald even though they were supposed to be enjoying their pinnacle of vaporwavy capitalism. For instance: the grumpier your Sim is, the less likely they will keep their eyes glued to a screen. Even as a child, they'll instead enjoy a couple of hours reading the latest edition of SimCity Times! Obviously, for the sake of the inevitable narrative our minds engineer when we set households into action, the least thing we'd ever think of asking our brats to do is reading newspapers when there are so much colorful and (allegedly) entertaining stuffs they can enjoy themselves with but, maybe, that's precisely the only thing they need.

Oh! Remember that even the most "boring" objects have a purpose:

2) Emergency call 1: Experiment buying various decorative objects and take note of which one your Sims approve/hate. Their favorite arts have the power of improving their Room/Fun a little at a time. Be careful, though! On the other hand, exposing them to objects they hate causes their mood to get worse (but not too much).

3) Emergency call 2: Ask them to kick flamingos!... if they're the kind of people who potentially enjoy doing so. The positive result of it is an unexplainable +1 green strip at the UI's mood-o-meter that comes as quickly as it goes, but I believe it can be of some good effect depending of who the active character is. It is remarkly useful if the cab's honking and they need that SINGLE dopamine drop to increase their chance of being promoted, or accepted by people...

4) Buy an Aquarium. Yup, the base game one. Whose fish can be fed and viewed, etc. There's no mistake here: their Fun increases significantly once their View interaction ends. Almost feel like a cheat. Works regardless of who you Sim is!

Take care

One of my favorite go-to options for filling the fun bar is the VR headset. I would buy that before a telescope only because a telescope risks an alien abduction. If your Sim has a personality with high playful points, it will be hard to fill that bar! Also check the rest of the personality for which items will give the most fun. Active Sims like activities where they can move around. (I think Scorpios fall into this category). They might lose patience with reading a book, staring at a painting, or watching tv. The VR glasses should do the trick for any Sim.

Oh man, yes, that's a good solution too