i wanted to have a party but all my invited sims went upstairs and smuslted their brains out. needless to say the party was a flop

http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?t...me_Help:Parties

A lot of good suggestions there.

I find that having whoever threw the party mingle and talk to the guests really helps, that's just my experience.

I take that into account if I plan a birthday party. The birthday boy/girl can go to bed if they need to--whoever threw the party can stay up.

One time I had a birthday party for twins...it kinda flopped when the cops showed up and broke it up.... ROFL

I just had an outdoor wedding party for the Summerdreams of Veronaville. It was a "Roof Raiser" and I didn't do anything special. Really.

I set it up with the expensive stereo, buffet table and a dart game. No one turned on the stereo, only one sim played a game of darts and three guests soaked in the in ground hot tub they have in their front yard. No one really mingled. The Summerdream family just talked to each other most of the time.

Maybe it was because the guests watched them get married...?

I think I read somewhere that hot-tubs are the ultimate weapon...all your guest are getting social, hygiene fun and comfort. I do well with smaller numbers myself usually about three or four best friends when I do have that rare party.

I have a couple of hacks...

One makes it so guests (any guests) turn up with their bladder want at full, or close to. So they don't need the loo as soon as they turn up at your lot, and if its a party, they can get straight into socialising. Not cheat, but a reasonable fix, IMO!

Another hack, actually just editing that userStartup file, adding the line 'intProp maxNumOfVisitingSims 64', now means you can have 64 people over for a party! Of course, even 30 people causes lag on my quad 2ghz, 4 gig ram machine. I think 64 would crash my PC. But having more than the default 8 limit is also pretty reasonable, IMO. With an average of around 16 people talking to each other and playing around, you're guaranteed a reasonable party score, unless you go out of your way to make things unsociable.

A lot of my neighbourhood's relationship maintenance happens when they are called to these parties as non-playables. It means they also tend to get relationships with people they naturally/randomly want to talk to, not just whoever I decide they should talk to, I like that aspect!

Yeah, wedding parties switch to roof raiser status after the ceremony.

Yes, it's Pescado's mod. I use it, too. I could never understand why guests had to come to my Sim's home to pee.

I think that once this "Maxis feature" is out of the way, parties will, more often than not, reach Great or Roof raiser status.

My Sims usually invite friends or couples. There is always music, food, buffet or dessert, and a lot of socialising.

Hot tubes are not a Must if the guests know each other already.

I`ve read elsewhere on MTS that inviting your guests to form a Social Group Just For Fun will help the party on two fronts: One, it will help keep most of your guests at the party itself, instead of just wandering around the lot as they bleep well please, and two, it will help boost the party score AND short-term relationship between the host[ess] and the guests.

I always hire a bartender, and usually have a sim play DJ, and also have games out like that Bingo thing that the sims seem to be obsessed with. That seems to work for me. And have my other sims sometimes dance with the guest.

I used to have that problem--even though I would decorate beautifully, buy the buffet, DJ booth, etc. Now all I do is (for a house party) turn on the stereo, and when the guests arrive, I send one sim to smustle (and the guests like to join in), and another to go to each guest telling jokes.

I never buy a buffet or serve food anymore--the guests seem to just head to the fridge to help themselves.

For birthdays or weddings, I do the same thing except I have the wedding or candle blowing right away, then I spend the rest of the time telling jokes. And for weddings, toasting. Guest seem to like to drink. (But I don't buy the champagne until the ceremony is over--because the guests will head right for it)

But with experimentation, I think it is just telling a joke to each guest that does it--I get "roof raiser" all the time now.

Weddings are the easiest to make a roof raiser and toga/college parties are the hardest. It doesn't seem to be a great party unless someone gets some woo hoo action. Birthdays are mildly easy you just should have food and a form of entertainment ready. I find by having them get married, or grow up at those certain parties will up the status. House parties I don't throw that often.

Toga parties are easy. Turn the tv on, turn the stereo on, turn your computer speakers off so you don't have to listen to the conflicting noise, pull out a couple of the pizzas they brought home when they visited campus (you can only do a toga party in a Greek house), and then hang out with the guests in the middle of the room with the stereo and the tv. When anybody arrives, invite them to hang out. If they get up, let them grab a pizza slice or use the toilet. Then bring them back to the group when they are finished.

There is usually at least one action that must be fulfilled for the party to be a success, blowing out the candles for birthday, getting married for wedding, ect. I used to have a heck of a time with the birthdays cause I wouldn't time it correctly with the 6pm automatic aging process. Now I make sure the party starts around 3pm and they blow out the candles first. On the wedding I no longer use the toasting set up as once you put that out it's all the sims will do. Makes me crazy. I do have them get married straight off as that is the main requirement for the party.

The no pee hack from Pescado is a must as far as I'm concerned. I don't consider it a cheat because who shows up to a party just to use the bathroom? Just stupid on EA's part to make that the main objective of the party.

I think sports party's are stupid so I never throw those, but the main requirement on that is watching the sports channel. Easier if you have plenty of seats and a big TV to get those points up and order a pizza or chinese for the group.

As for a house party I'm not a hundred percent sure what the main requirement is but it seems to me that you must interact with everyone that you invite. A little gossip, a quick joke or a nice game of red hands seems to do the trick. If you invite people that don't know each other using the "introduce" option is a boost and then influencing them to interact is also key.

Lot's of dancing at my Sims parties, actually most of my Sims are big into dancing in general. I find it very funny.

I have Season's but I don't throw the New Year's party as I find it kind of stupid.

As for the Toga party well that's my favorite. Get some pizza's, get everyone dancing, major plus if you do have couples that can get a bit frisky, the juice keg is also a popular item. One thing I've never really figured out is the bonfire. Doesn't seem to be much interaction with that item.

I'm in total agreement on the hot tub, if you can afford one it is a great party item for any of the party scenarios. As for the cops it seems to me they will break up any house party that goes beyond 11pm. As long as you have the meter up to at least "good time" all this does is end your party, it does not make you have a bad one. They don't break up graduation or wedding parties or at least they never have in my game.

All in all positive interacting is the big key to all of the parties, other than the ones that will automatically fail if you miss the main objective (birthday, wedding). So as long as you keep everyone getting those green plus marks you should be able to always have a great party.