Bowling Has anyone managed to get two sims to play anything resembling a complete game? I am not asking for help or a how do I? I am just curious cos from where I sit after several failed attempts to use the bowling lanes I conclude they are too buggy to work properly. If someone claims to have succeeded I'll keep at it but right now I wanna just leave them alone.
I can't even get my sims to concentrate on playing a game for more than one set of throws apiece. I wonder if turning off free will would help. But what fun is that? Anyone have any tips?
Oh bless ya, SBW. I've tried free will off ... actually my sims aren't allowed free will in my universe ... give them free will and they're guaranteed to choose the most stupid thing possible as their carefully considered choice of actions. For example, only today I didn't need free will to be engaged to know that (a) it was Juan the cleaner (and father of little baby Ajax) who was coming by every afternoon and kicking over the trash can and (b) that man of the house Jack would need instructions to abandon whatever he was doing to run outside and beat the crap out of his wife's seducer. But anyway folks ... any tips are welcome but please don't spoil it by assuming we're asking for a step by step guide Personally I still think the darn things are as bugged as a Mashuno machine (or what about that charades game from TS1 ... that never worked either except to act as flypaper for any visiting sims )
On another forum someone mentioned how their sims autonomously set up bowling leagues! I had no idea that was possible. Mine bowl a few minutes and then quit. If on a date, one of them wanders off to do something else. Until I saw the bowling league thing I assumed mine were behaving normally. Maybe you have to take a group to the lane. I haven't tried that.
I took a group to a Maxis made bowling place and sent one to bowl and then clicked thru to get the others to join him. They set out to join him but one got side-tracked by another visitor who wanted to flirt with him, a second seemed to get either bored waiting for his turn or else couldn't make up his mind where to stand or sit while waiting ... whatever ... he also got out of the groove and into some dreary interaction with someone he actually hated. Meanwhile, first bowler has bowled and the second takes his turn and #1 ... well #1 has been found utterly fascinating to some NPC or other.
I was going to make bowling my primary thing yesterday but my sims kept rolling "take a sim to dinner". I got sidetracked. The Prima Guide only says that one person will "practice" until his fun meter fills. If others "join" they will bowl ten frames. I'm going to put Merola's Painting in the bowling alley and see if depleting their fun meter will make them play a whole game. The last time I tried to bowl with a group they all stopped to watch a big fight. My downtown bowling spot seems to be a rough dive. Even the women are picking fights. Some townie that I dubbed Big Mama was cleaning everyone's clocks. She started and won 4 or 5 big bruhahas. Perhaps a boxing ring would have been better than bowling lanes. Everyone stops to watch a good fight. (And speaking of fights...anyone catch the train wreck on Varioussimers last night? It was world class! LOL! It included Carrigon, Rentched, Delphy, Quaxi, Numenor, etc.)
Aw now I just feel like a cheapskate. Wot? Moi purrrrrr-chiss an extra manuel? That would be like cheating!!!! Can't stop ... Strictly Come Dancing is on the telly and the utterly drop-dead gorgeous chef James Martin is gonna show us how to make spun sugar while waltzing around the dance floor with some professional eye-candy called Camilla Summat ... no! not that Camilla.
I'm afraid I can't imagine that Camilla ever being considered eye-candy...even on her best day ever. Apparently Charles thinks so though. Well, I assured hubby that it was necessary to have an instruction manual to go with the game. They don't seem to include them with games now. Actually Pescado assured me repeatedly that one didn't need the guides. Perhaps he doesn't but I've discovered that I like having reference tools. I'm one of those instruction reader types. I sent one of my sims bowling tonight with free will on. He got out of his car with only one thing on his mind...bowling. He bee-lined to a lane and 3 other sims immediately joined in. It took about 4 sim hours to bowl those 10 frames. My sim clapped and cheered like a doofus all evening. I now wish I had a bug that prevented 10 frame games. The animations were pretty good though. No one seems to use the body english that I do. I physically will my ball down the lane by twisting and turning. I've noticed many people do this in real life. We all look like dorks. It is somewhat embarrassing to find that sims are much better bowlers than I am...even those very pregnant or quite elderly.
LOL. I like the animation where the sim falls flat on his face as he follows through. Though after seeing it in an episode of Malcolm In The Middle the other week it would also be neat to have an animation of a sim marching down to the end of the lane and lobbing a ball at the pins from 6" away ... and still missing!
You know...I haven't tried letting a pregnant sim go to downtown. I just assumed they couldn't. Pregnant sims have always been able to go on their own when you aren't playing their household though. All my pregnant sims seem compelled to walk everywhere when out from under my thumb. Some that I can barely keep alive are always walking by someone's house or roaming around community lots. Nina Caliente, with her third day waddle, was hanging out at the bowling alley with Coral Oldie it seems. They joined my sim's game. Two unknown townies played with us. I was a little confused because I thought teams only had four players. Maybe those two made up a second team that we were playing against? No timer or score pops up. I have no idea who won. They show Malcolm In The Middle in England? I like that show. They must have lazy bowling alley managers in Malcolm's town because they'd tackle you if you attempted to walk on the lanes here. I've taken tons of scout troops, school groups, and even coached a Special Olympic bowling team. The two times I attempted to sneak down a lane to retrieve a stalled ball they hollered at me over the loudspeaker.
Ooh. I tried to take a pregnant sim on date but being lazy her date chose to go to Dad's Throat Emporium (LOL ... its a tiny 2x2 community lot that serves as a general store, saloon bar with pool and poker and hubble bubble plus a wee twee bistro and coffee bar. 3 lady sims have conceived in that lot's photo booth!) Anyway she would leave home. Maybe I'll try to take the next one downtown ... or see if she'll go on her own. Malcolm in the Middle is pretty good and sometimes it's so funny I end up with a pain in my side.
Um, guys? This is a thread about bowling. I copied this to the Sims 2 Community Discussion forum so you can continue to gossip if you like. If I wanted to be really anal about it I would have deleted the earlier messages but I don't have time. If someone else does, feel free. Just trying to keep us all on topic. Thanks!
I'm sorry. I'll be good. Took my Sim Teenagers Bowling on a date last night. They were bored, just like I was when Hubby took me bowling when we were teens. LOL I couldn't get them to do it.
I find it's fun to play it for a while just to watch them fall on their faces. I suspect if you had a sim that bowled a lot they'd get better, much like sims with high body scores do perfect swan dives instead of belly flops.
Yeah. In similar fashion I forced a student to work until he got to 10 body just so he could kick the crap outa the llama mascot (he lost his first fight and nearly missed his fresher term final cos he was crying his eyes out ... the wuss. He's a really mean son of lady canine now!
I think it works exactly that way. The bowling alley is actually a bodybuilding toy with the same rules as the swimming pool. Sims gain fun quickly and body skill slowly and that sim's current body score determines whether the sim will fall on his face or bowl a strike (and all the interactions in between).
I thought I'd post an update on this. I had my sim go bowling just a couple of times, plus he works out, though not a lot (5 body so far), and now he's pretty good. He bowled nothing but strikes and spares his last time out. So it doesn't take long. Just have them practice a bit.
