Instant Refreshment
Got a tired or cranky Sim? Give him a quick pick-me-up, literally! Use the "move_objects on" cheat listed above. Then save your game, go into Buy mode, click on the Sim who needs help, and delete him! Don't worry, he's only taking a quick breather. Go back into Live mode, and you'll see a crosshair symbol over the Sim's icon. Just click on the icon, and the Sim will reappear with all his motives maxed out!
Be sure to save your game before deleting the Sim, otherwise you'll lose any skill points you've gained since the last save!
Creating a Perfect 10
First, create a character with no personality points. Then buy the Concatenation Station chemistry set. Have your Sim work on it until he produces a Yellow potion. Have him drink it, and all his personality traits will go to 10! Blue, Brown, Red, and White potions are safe to drink, Chartreuse, Green, and Pink are not. If the Sim complains he's too tired to keep working, see "Instant Refreshment" above. See "Better Living Though Chemistry" below for explanations of exactly what the different potions do.
Then have your Sim begin working to increase his skills. Reading and canning food can increase a Sim's Cooking skill, reading and using the woodworking table will increase a Sim's Mechanical skill, swimming or using the exercise machine will add Body points, practicing speech in front of a mirror will increase Charisma, painting or practicing the piano or guitar will increase Creativity, and chess, the chemistry lab, or the telescope will increase Logic. Make your Sim keep working at it until they tire, then save your game and follow the instructions under "Instant Refreshment" above. Then put them to work again! Keep doing this, and in no time you'll have a Sim with perfect personality and perfect skills.
All you need now are friends to shoot up the career ladder! Using the "Instant Refreshment" cheat above, you can throw all night parties and still be in a good mood the next morning! The maximum career level requires between 8 and 17 friends! Better get partying!
Better Living Through Chemistry
The Concatenation Station can be used to produce a variety of different colored potions. Here's a list of the potions and what they do:
BLUE: Motive Enhancer. This potion maxes out all motives. The odds are 40% that a blue potion will be created. There is a 1 in 3 chance that a Sim drinking a blue potion during the day will be visited by the Police and fined $500. Take that, druggie!
CHARTREUSE: Motive Subtractor. This potion causes all motives to drop to near zero, making the Sim feel terrible!
BROWN: Invisibility. The Sim becomes invisible for one hour, and can spy on other Sims taking baths or showers. The invisible Sim will be able to interact with other Sims, but other Sims will not initiate interactions (because they can't see him/her!)
RED: Love. The Sim and his worst enemy of the opposite gender immediately fall in love, and the new lover is teleported to the Sim's side.
GREEN: Evil Clone. It's a parthenogenesis party! An evil clone is created with an opposite personality. The clone hangs around for 6 hours, during which time he will insult, annoy, and even attack the Sim and his guests. The guests will assume the Sim is responsible, and his relationships will suffer accordingly.
YELLOW: Personality Inversion. The Sim's personality points are completely inverted. A neat Sim will become a slob, an outgoing Sim will become a hermit, a lazy Sim will become active. The inversion is permanent (unless you create another yellow potion).
PINK: Monster. The Sim becomes a Frankenstein's monster for 2 hours. During this time, you will be unable to control the Sim, and it will break everything in it's path.
WHITE: Cure. This potion can only be made by a Sim who is sick with the Guinea Pig Disease. Drinking it will completely cure the illness. The odds of producing a white potion are 1 in 11.
Can't Sleep, Clown Will Eat Me!
The easiest way to keep the Tragic Clown away, is don't buy the Tragic Clown painting. If you buy the painting, and the average Mood score in your household drops too low, the clown will pay you a visit.
Think you're clever and will just trap the clown in a room with no doors? Forget it, he'll drop a portable hole on the ground, and reappear outside the trap. You also can't drown him in the pool; he'll swim around for a while, then reappear on dry land. The clown has no motives, so he won't tire, become hungry, or need to use the toilet.
There are two ways to get rid of the clown. One is to raise everyone's Mood score. Not an easy thing to do with the clown bothering them all the time (The "Instant Refreshment" trick above can do the trick, as can drinking blue potions). The alternative is to hang the Tragic Clown painting over a fireplace, and keep lighting a fire. Be sure to remove any smoke detectors from the room. Once the fireplace catches fire, the painting will burn, and with it, the clown. Once the clown is gone, call the Fire Department to extinguish the blaze.
DO NOT install the Clown Catcher add-on available on the Sims website, especially if you have the Sims Unleashed. It can cause the game to crash!
The Boob Tube
Sims with different personalities will prefer different TV programs. Here's a quick list of preferences:
Playful Cartoon
Grouchy Horror
Active Action
Outgoing Romance
Now You're Cooking!
The satisfaction a Sim gets from a meal is based on the number of Hunger Motive Points that meal provides. Below is a series of charts that indicate the number of points that different meals have and how different appliances can modify these numbers.
The general formula is Type of Meal + Type of Fridge + Type of Prep Surface + Type of Cooking Method + (Cooking Skill x Modifier) = Hunger Motive Points
The candy box, fruitcake, pizza, and Robo-food have no modifiers, snacks have only the fridge modifiers, and quick meals have only the fridge, cooking method and cooking skill modifiers. A group meal is the same as a full meal, but with 6 servings. A pizza also offers six servings.
Base Hunger Motive Points
Candy Box 3
Fruitcake 7
Snack 9
Quick Meal 16
Full Meal 16
Group Meal 16
Pizza (per slice) 33
Robo-Food 33
Fridge modifiers
Fridge (Llamark) 9
Fridge (Porcina) 12
Fridge (Freeze Secret) 16
Fridge (Old Thyme) 18
Prep surface modifiers
Dishwasher top 5
Trash compactor top 5
Countertop 16
Food Processor 32
Cooking method modifiers
Toaster Oven 9
Microwave 16
Stove (Dialectric) 32
Stove (Pyrotorre) 40
Stove (CiaoTime) 48
Stove (Old Thyme) 55
Cooking skill modifiers
Toaster Oven 1.0 x Cooking points
Microwave 1.0 x Cooking points
Stove (any) 1.5 x Cooking points
Thus, a Sim with 3 Cooking points (3 x 1.5), preparing a full meal (16) using a Porcina fridge (12), countertop (16), and a Pyrotorre Stove (40) results in a meal having a Hunger Motive value of 88.5 points. A fairly filling meal
A Sim with 10 Cooking points (10 x 1.5), preparing a group meal (16) using an Old Thyme fridge (18), a food processor (32) and an Old Thyme stove (55) will produce 6 servings with a Hunger Motive value of 136 points each!
A Sim with 0 Cooking points (0), preparing a quick meal (16), using a Llamark Fridge (9) and a Toaster Oven (9) results in a meal with a Hunger Motive Value of only 34 points. Might as well call out for pizza.
Time Savers & Other Tips
In the Sims, the more expensive an object is, the more effective it is in raising motives. Also, Sims will come to expect a certain lifestyle, if they are used to a big screen TV, they won't be satisfied if you replace it with a small B&W TV. In addition, more expensive items generally provide more motive points, which means the Sims need to use them less often or for less time. In general, you should try to buy the most expensive items possible.
Your Sims spend a huge chunk of time asleep, so you should buy the bed with the highest Energy rating possible (The Modern Mission Bed is the best choice, it offers a 10). This will allow your Sim to get by on less sleep.
Keep the toys out of the bedroom! Try to keep things like radios, TV's, computers, games, phones, etc. out of the bedroom, they will wake up anyone trying to sleep.
One of the first things you should do is have your Sims study cooking. A Sim with no skill points has a 15% chance of starting a fire when cooking. Having just one point reduces that to 5%, and two points drops it to 1%. 3 or more points reduces the risk of fire to zero. More points also a make for more satisfying meals, which means less money and time are spent cooking and eating. And finally, more cooking points means faster cooking.
Better appliances also produce better and faster meals. And be sure to buy a food processor, they add a LOT to the food satisfaction and greatly speed food prep.
Studying mechanical may also be worthwhile. With 0 Mechanical points, a Sim has a 100% chance of being electrocuted when trying to repair an broken appliance. With a single point, that risk drops to 25%. With 2 points, it's down to 10%, and with 3 points or more, it's 1%. More Mechanical points also means faster repairs. You could always call the repairman, but that's $50 per hour!
Don't buy a shower. Buy a bathtub. Sure, they take up more room, but they also help reduce Comfort motives, not just Hygiene.
If you have the money, buy Servo the robot. He's worth every penny!
