Recommend Cheats? How does everyone feel about using the cheat codes? I use them all of the time with the Sims2 and have had no problems. I only use the aging on & off & the motherlode. Please let me know your thoughts on this. Thanks in advance!
Cheats schmeats I don't mind 'em. For some of the neighborhood choices i made they were essential. I do not use the aging one because I fear the jump bug (PATCH MAXIS, PATCH!).
I don't like cheats, i only use them occasionly. I feel cheats especially money ones take the fun OUT of the game
There is no way to win this game. And there is no way to compete. Thus, it is by definition impossible to really cheat. The so called "cheats" are not cheating in any reasoanble sense of the word, they are just alternate play modes. Me, I played my first families without cheats. Wanted to master the gameplay. But once I have handeled everything without cheats, what's the point? I don't use cheats to have cash, it's more fun to have a budget to manage. I wish there was a easy way to increase expenses, like giving money to charity. Sims high in their career ladders earn money way to fast. And aging off is pointless. More fun to use elexir of life. However, I do use motherlode and kaching to design houses. Use it for almost every household I create these days.
I agree with Xenu. I have a trailer park zone in one corner of my custom neighborhood where all the families have only the cash they started with; it's great fun -- for me -- to drag them through all their various troubles and strifes. The rest of the families I have started with a money cheat, either multiple motherlodes to create a rich family or else multiple kachings to add around 10K per sim to the starting pot cos 20K for more than 2 sims is darn difficult to cope with. My latest family, which I started to provide some new (male) blood for all the pining female teens around, was given an extra 50K at start-up ... so Mom, Pop, 3 teen boys and teen daughter (6 total) began with 70K minus the purchase price of their 3x4 lot (forgot what that is ... $6800??). Their home was nice rather than luxurious, they still have no pool or second storey All 3 teen boys share a bedroom. Mom is expecting baby #2, the first, now a toddler, was another bo. The teen girl girl has snagged Jared, the unlovely son of the Fischer famille who I thought was never gonna find a mate ... she's head over heels for him and that's a bonus. One of my favorite pastimes is redesigning the house while they're all asleep. Of course I need the Moveobjects cheat (both on and off back and forth between the two) ... and yes I have crashed the game doing this ... dunno why, it just happens. I always save before a big event tho, so I don't worry too much.
The nice thing about this game is that it can be used differently by different people. Not everyone wants to play it "competitively" and avoid all cheats. There are people who *only* want to build with the game. (Frankly, I know of much better architecture programs, even old ones. In fact, I have some. The advantage I find is that with TS2 you can actually build something and then "test it out" to see how your Sims like it.) To do that, you *have* to use the money cheats. There are people who aren't really all that interested in the life cycle parts. They like to play it the same way they played TS1, so for them the aging on/off is very important. Other people like to do albums, so the move_object cheat is important to them. (However, it doesn't work the way that the TS1 did, so you have to be *much* more careful how you use it.) And if you don't use the movie making cheats, it's sort of hard to make movies (which is already proving to be a very popular part of the game.) I'm sure that there are other reasons why people like to use the cheats. And frankly, it certainly doesn't matter if you do or don't. The only time it isn't a good idea is when there is some sort of contest to see how well people can do without using cheats, in which case it is truly cheating if you do use the cheats. This game is meant to be *enjoyed*. If you enjoy the game more by using the cheats, then go for it. If you don't enjoy the game as much if you use the cheats, then by all means don't use them. But it is up to you to decide which you prefer. Personally, I'm very fond of the money cheat. I don't care for having to start with a substandard house and furnishings. I also like to play "TS1 style" a lot (although I do like the life cycle things so I turn it back on when I want to do those specific things.)
I agree that with diffrent families, I may or may not use the money cheat. I too, have my little trailer court that I either did not use any cheats or used the "kaching" cheat just enough to get the house built and furnished, and then the poor shlubs had to work for a living. Then I have mansions built with "motherlode" cheats and the families live a kind of "Desperate Housewives" lifestyle. (I am sooo addicted to that show! LOL) On another board I am playing the "Legacy" game. You have to start with 1 sim on the biggest lot and maintain the family 10 generations. You can only marry NPC or Townie sims, and you cannot use any cheats, mods, ect. I have had the most fun playing with that family than with almost any other family! It was a challenge at first because after you buy the biggest lot most of the $20,000 is gone and the poor dear didn't even have a bed or stove at 1st. She finally married the mailman and with his income, life has gotten much better for her. Now I'm trying to raise their son, now a teenager, and get him ready to start the next generation. Oh, and I'm waiting for the 1st sim to die so I can count the points for her tombstone. (You get points for every gold sim's tombstone and for every color of ghost on the lot).
Money woes and wants I made acustom neighborhood, one that has a rich neighborhood. I play these families when I want to experience the game without a budget, where the hardest decision is whether to go to community lot or sit ant home and work on skills. Then i have the downhill crowd, honest (or not so honest), hardworking folks striving to make ends meet. I play thewse guys for challenge and the reward of watching my hard work pay off. One of these exoperiences isn't "better" than the other, or more "pure". They are both fun. Isn't that what we bought the Sims2 to be?
Exactly!!! I've seen threads (mostly on the TS2 bbs) where people are complaining that the game is too much like a console game. I guess I just don't see it, because from my point of view it can be played so many different ways depending on what the player chooses to have as the goals. Sure, the aspiration thing encourages you to do certain types of things more than others, but I've found that *I* control the wants more than one might think. For example, if you just try to give them what they want, they always want the same things over and over again. (A friend of mine was saying that her fortune Sim was driving her nuts because she'd filled the yard with garden stuff and he kept wanting more and more.) But, while you do want to give them their wants enough to get to at least the gold but preferably the platinum level, I always make sure that the Sim does something that will make *that* show up on the next go around of wants. That way I get them to do a variety of things. But the real point is that the player is the one with the control, so if they enjoy playing without cheats, let them do so. If they want to use cheats sometimes, but not others, more power to them. And if they want to play with cheats, that's no biggie either. The real goal is to have *fun* not to play the game a specific way.
Good points, Kat. I just started experimenting with the aging off. I've been feeling that the 30 day adult period is a tad too short ... or rather the protracted teen period is too long with no major benefits (other than to stack up some ASP's and get up to rung 3 on a career path). So I am seeing if giving them a 10 day aging off period immediately after growing up will give me some more scenarios. (I use ASPs like crazy during that 10 days to buy thinking caps and energizers) I concentrate on maxing out as many skills as poss and build a core of 8 friends plus get as close to top of career ladder. Then it's time to pick a mate, turn aging back on and get married and start a family .... Needless to say I regard the sims that receive this special treatment as "especially blessed": the sim equivalent of Ivy Leaguers.
I used to think that the 30 day adult period was too short, but really, that's only true of gen-0. Once you're into your first actual generation of sims, it's not really so short anymore. Actually, the teen stage *DOES* have some major benefits: Firstly, you have a general lack of pressure involved: As you mentioned yourself, there are no major benefits. You can spend the entire time stacking up ASPs, and skilling. I've had Knowledge teens that maxed out all of their skills prior to becoming an adult. Yes, there's school and stuff, but you don't really have to go. Every other day is enough to sustain an A+ on return, especially if on that particular day, you are not being rewarded ASP for actually attending! And you can also buy and use all of the adult items, like TCs and Energizers. It may also be my imagination, but teens appear to be more energetic than adults are and seem to sleep less. They're often still awake after the adults have gone to sleep. Funny, I do most of this during the teen stage, which, incidentally, happens to be more or less than 10 day period, only without needing aging off. While it's true that you only get 3 career levels in the teen phase, the moment you graduate, you'll be instantly promoted as if you had taken the job via computer, to the job level 2 ranks below that which you are qualified for, maximum of L6. In practice, this means you'll nearly always be promoted to L6 on the spot, and you won't need the "core of 8 friends" to reach this point, as you'll piggyback off your parents' friends. This is especially noticeable if you run an equal-time treatment alongside gen-0 Sims. If you play day-for-day between a gen-1 sim newly into adulthood, and a gen-0 sim made from scratch, Gen-1 will be grandparents of Gen-3 before your new CAS Gen-0ers have finished raising their gen-1! Well, on an average "pedal to the metal" case, where I take a solo gen-0 CASer and haul him up by his bootstraps to a career, it takes anywhere from 12-15 days to claw my way to the top from ground zero. A gen-1+ sim, on the other hand, enters adulthood with a nearly full set of all skills and an level 6 career. He can reach the top in about 4-6 days, depending on when your "useless days" are. He won't need to spend much time skilling for many careers, as logic and creativity are often things you assign children so they'll stay out of your hair and quit whining about their lack of fun. Obviously, your mileage may vary depending on how successful of a parent you are, but the fact remains that a sim which grows from childhood already has a VERY significant advantage over any CAS sim. That in itself is already a special blessing. The real use of elixirs/aging off is for trying to get a female family sim to fulfil the insane "have 10 children" want. Males don't really have a problem with this, as this is quite doable for a male sim, who can continue to spawn sprogs until the day he dies.
Heh, yeah I forgot to say that this was some gen-0 teen sims created to balance out my established neighborhood. They just looked so poorly equipped compared to similar ones who had been born and raised under much more ideal conditions.
