Post by Jon on Jun 29, 2003 18:07:00 GMT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. Working (and Not)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One Sim per household should definately stay home. Any others should then
try to find a job. To keep things interesting, I try to get each Sim on a
different career track. So one Sim may be on the Law Enforcement track, while
another takes the business track.
I have already discussed the importance of why you leave someone home (to
socialize with the neighbors, of course!), another good reason is that when
you first start out, you really don't need the money that badly. As long as
all your needs are met, your expenses will be low. You have a §40 per day
bill on food (assuming you do a "serve breakfast" and "serve dinner") and
likely around §200 to §300 in bills every 3 days. Most jobs start out around
§200 a day, and you should be able to get quickly promoted to around §300 or
so before the bills come. So money won't be crucial.
Depending on the job you take, you'll need to increase your "stats". Things
such as Creativity, Body, Logic, etc. are needed to advance past the most
entrylevel jobs. And some jobs don't require some stats, researchers don't
need to develop their body, and so forth. To find out how much stat increases
you need to get the next promotion, click on the Jobs button.
There are 3 things need to get a promotion at work. One, is to make sure you
have all the right stats at the right levels; two, is to make sure that you
have enough family friends; and lastly you have to be in a good Mood to get
a promotion. Happy Sims are productive Sims. Again, everything you'll need
to know about this can be found in the Jobs button. It also has a description
of how well you are working (bad, average, good, excellent) which is based
on your Sims' mood. Below that will be how many Family Friends you need
(if it isn't there, then you have already met that requirement!), and to the
right are all the stats.
Note: You can sometimes miss one day of work, but missing two is a
guaranteed firing. Also, the night shift tends to be more strict
about missing shifts, and may fire you on the first missed shift.
a. Quitting
So, that new career as a Scientist just isn't working out. Or maybe, you
just want to try out something else. Well there are several ways to quit
your job. As we saw in the above note, you can just stop showing up to
work. They'll get the hint. Or you can just check the paper and take
the job from there (it will warn you that doing so will get rid of your
first job).
Warning: If two Sims are sharing a carpool, and one of them gets a
new job at a different time, then that carpool won't show up
for EITHER person!
I would also assume that if you did your job very poorly, or got caught
doing something really bad at work (see "Job Events" below), you may also
get fired.
How you quit depends on your goal from it. If you just want to stay at
home and be lazy, then by all means, just skip work. If you really are
tired of your career path (maybe you'd rather be an actor), then just
take that waiter job.
Note: Whenever taking a different job, you always start out at the
lowest rung on the ladder. So don't just quit to see what the
other jobs are like. That's very inefficient.
b. Job Events
Every once in awhile, a major event will happen to your Sim at his or her
job. These events are quite random as to when they happen, and they only
happen once. These are usually just little things like, "Taking a Bribe"
or "Scandal". They will often give you a choice, which amounts to doing
the right or wrong thing, and if you do the wrong thing you can get
caught.
Some other job events are less good vs. evil, such as the actor in the
remake.
In any event, these Events have 2 outcomes, a good one (whatever it
was succeeded perfectly) and the bad one (it failed miserably), and
depending on the severity of the choice, you get rewarded or punished.
Some punishments are rather severe (your family leaves you) or just
annoying (a fine, or loss of stats). But the rewards may be worth the
risks...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Running an Efficient Household
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be completed later....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Expanding the House
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be completed later....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. Everything Else in the Neighborhood
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your house can be burglarized. During the night, the game will slow down to
the slow game speed, and a PIP will show the burglar coming your way. If you
have alarms, the second he enters the house, the police will be called. But
if he's clever, he'll just grab one thing and run, and may get away with it.
So if you see a burglar, here's something to try:
- Wake up your Sim.
- If possible, call the police BEFORE the burglar enters the house to get
the police here sooner.
- Now here's the fun part, since the burglar runs on the same pathfinding
algorithim as the rest of the Sims, you can "bump into" him, and he'll
stop cold. So if he's trying to go out the door, and you are in the
doorway, he'll have to stop and wait for you to move!
Note: Anything stolen by the thief can't be returned to you, but you do
get partial reimbursment from the Insurance Company.
Death can come to the Sims in a couple ways. One, they can starve to death.
This one is fairly easy to avoid, as when the Hunger bar gets low, it doesn't
deplete as fast, and even when it gets to completely red, your Sim won't die.
Give it a few days, and they will, however, so get them some food. The other
way for them to die is in a fire that they are either trying to extinguish, or
merely got caught in. When they die, they leave a Tombstone (you can readily
see these by playing the Goth household), and furthermore, they will HAUNT the
living! So don't let the Sims die.
Note: Where the Sim dies determines their "marker". If they die outside,
they leave a Tombstone, inside an Urn. The living members of your
household then have to "mourn" the marker for 24 hours. That is, of
course, after they have finished what they were already doing (so
they will watch TV until satisfied, then go mourn). After that you
can mourn at your leisure.
The character § can be typed by pressing and holding ALT, then on the number
pad pressing 0167. This is the character for "Simoleon" the monetary unit of
the Sims. If you want to see something bizarre, check out the Money bag on
the CD case, and on the instruction manual. You will see the symbol § on
both, but on the CD case, for some reason, it is backward!
Changing the Radio Station Music: (from www.thesims.com/)
In case you were wondering, you CAN have the Sims listen to YOUR music,
rather than the default music. Go to:
C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\Music\Stations
And you will see 4 folders: Rock, Country, Latin, and Classica. Now place
any MP3 or shortcut to an MP3 in these folders and that song will play
when they play the radio! And, no you can't add new stations.
6. Working (and Not)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One Sim per household should definately stay home. Any others should then
try to find a job. To keep things interesting, I try to get each Sim on a
different career track. So one Sim may be on the Law Enforcement track, while
another takes the business track.
I have already discussed the importance of why you leave someone home (to
socialize with the neighbors, of course!), another good reason is that when
you first start out, you really don't need the money that badly. As long as
all your needs are met, your expenses will be low. You have a §40 per day
bill on food (assuming you do a "serve breakfast" and "serve dinner") and
likely around §200 to §300 in bills every 3 days. Most jobs start out around
§200 a day, and you should be able to get quickly promoted to around §300 or
so before the bills come. So money won't be crucial.
Depending on the job you take, you'll need to increase your "stats". Things
such as Creativity, Body, Logic, etc. are needed to advance past the most
entrylevel jobs. And some jobs don't require some stats, researchers don't
need to develop their body, and so forth. To find out how much stat increases
you need to get the next promotion, click on the Jobs button.
There are 3 things need to get a promotion at work. One, is to make sure you
have all the right stats at the right levels; two, is to make sure that you
have enough family friends; and lastly you have to be in a good Mood to get
a promotion. Happy Sims are productive Sims. Again, everything you'll need
to know about this can be found in the Jobs button. It also has a description
of how well you are working (bad, average, good, excellent) which is based
on your Sims' mood. Below that will be how many Family Friends you need
(if it isn't there, then you have already met that requirement!), and to the
right are all the stats.
Note: You can sometimes miss one day of work, but missing two is a
guaranteed firing. Also, the night shift tends to be more strict
about missing shifts, and may fire you on the first missed shift.
a. Quitting
So, that new career as a Scientist just isn't working out. Or maybe, you
just want to try out something else. Well there are several ways to quit
your job. As we saw in the above note, you can just stop showing up to
work. They'll get the hint. Or you can just check the paper and take
the job from there (it will warn you that doing so will get rid of your
first job).
Warning: If two Sims are sharing a carpool, and one of them gets a
new job at a different time, then that carpool won't show up
for EITHER person!
I would also assume that if you did your job very poorly, or got caught
doing something really bad at work (see "Job Events" below), you may also
get fired.
How you quit depends on your goal from it. If you just want to stay at
home and be lazy, then by all means, just skip work. If you really are
tired of your career path (maybe you'd rather be an actor), then just
take that waiter job.
Note: Whenever taking a different job, you always start out at the
lowest rung on the ladder. So don't just quit to see what the
other jobs are like. That's very inefficient.
b. Job Events
Every once in awhile, a major event will happen to your Sim at his or her
job. These events are quite random as to when they happen, and they only
happen once. These are usually just little things like, "Taking a Bribe"
or "Scandal". They will often give you a choice, which amounts to doing
the right or wrong thing, and if you do the wrong thing you can get
caught.
Some other job events are less good vs. evil, such as the actor in the
remake.
In any event, these Events have 2 outcomes, a good one (whatever it
was succeeded perfectly) and the bad one (it failed miserably), and
depending on the severity of the choice, you get rewarded or punished.
Some punishments are rather severe (your family leaves you) or just
annoying (a fine, or loss of stats). But the rewards may be worth the
risks...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Running an Efficient Household
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be completed later....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. Expanding the House
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be completed later....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9. Everything Else in the Neighborhood
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your house can be burglarized. During the night, the game will slow down to
the slow game speed, and a PIP will show the burglar coming your way. If you
have alarms, the second he enters the house, the police will be called. But
if he's clever, he'll just grab one thing and run, and may get away with it.
So if you see a burglar, here's something to try:
- Wake up your Sim.
- If possible, call the police BEFORE the burglar enters the house to get
the police here sooner.
- Now here's the fun part, since the burglar runs on the same pathfinding
algorithim as the rest of the Sims, you can "bump into" him, and he'll
stop cold. So if he's trying to go out the door, and you are in the
doorway, he'll have to stop and wait for you to move!
Note: Anything stolen by the thief can't be returned to you, but you do
get partial reimbursment from the Insurance Company.
Death can come to the Sims in a couple ways. One, they can starve to death.
This one is fairly easy to avoid, as when the Hunger bar gets low, it doesn't
deplete as fast, and even when it gets to completely red, your Sim won't die.
Give it a few days, and they will, however, so get them some food. The other
way for them to die is in a fire that they are either trying to extinguish, or
merely got caught in. When they die, they leave a Tombstone (you can readily
see these by playing the Goth household), and furthermore, they will HAUNT the
living! So don't let the Sims die.
Note: Where the Sim dies determines their "marker". If they die outside,
they leave a Tombstone, inside an Urn. The living members of your
household then have to "mourn" the marker for 24 hours. That is, of
course, after they have finished what they were already doing (so
they will watch TV until satisfied, then go mourn). After that you
can mourn at your leisure.
The character § can be typed by pressing and holding ALT, then on the number
pad pressing 0167. This is the character for "Simoleon" the monetary unit of
the Sims. If you want to see something bizarre, check out the Money bag on
the CD case, and on the instruction manual. You will see the symbol § on
both, but on the CD case, for some reason, it is backward!
Changing the Radio Station Music: (from www.thesims.com/)
In case you were wondering, you CAN have the Sims listen to YOUR music,
rather than the default music. Go to:
C:\Program Files\Maxis\The Sims\Music\Stations
And you will see 4 folders: Rock, Country, Latin, and Classica. Now place
any MP3 or shortcut to an MP3 in these folders and that song will play
when they play the radio! And, no you can't add new stations.
