1001 Things You Wish You'd Known in The Sims

[experience]

Hey guys,

I thought I would start a fun little game where we post things that we wished we had known when we first started playing any of the sims games. Can be funny but also can be informative. Easter eggs welcome too!

I will start!

1. Making pets roommates using Master Controller in the Sims 3

When I got Pets how long ago I was a little disappointed that we had to play as the pets we adopted mainly because when my sims went to bed and the pets were still awake time wouldn't fast forward. This caused me not to adopt. By using Master Controller we can add them as roommates which makes them how they would be in the sims 4. Also, they bring $20000 with them so there's that lol!

[Agathon]

Cool trick. Maybe I'll have to have a second go at having a dog some time...

2. Dragging dirty dishes to the dishwasher

Was it in Sims or Sims 2 where your sim could get killed by a swarm of flies? I don't remember, but I do remember that happening, and as a result, being very diligent about my sims cleaning up their dishes when I began playing Sims 3. Only after playing several generations did I discover that you can simply drag dirty dishes into the dishwasher...

[Deklitch]

3. Agnes is not a hagness but rather a god(n)ess.

Due to the bad press she got, I always used to avoid Aggie C, now she's my go to sim. All those years of sending sims to get Emma Hatch, when Aggie was available, so much time wasted!

[kattiq]

4. Always learn painting or writing skill for extra money.

When I first started- which was probably back when Sims 1 came out originally- I would of never guessed that those skills were a great supplement to work income.  I probably always typed in Rosebud too- I think that was the cheat back then?

[karlissa]

5. Reading books will improve the quality of a sim's books.

[experience]

Oh some of these are gold!

6. Taking home made food to a friend's house/party. Sure, we can slip food into our inventory in the sims 3, but there isn't a Serve option once we get to our destination and if we drag it out, we aren't allowed to drop it anywhere. There might be a correct way to serve, but I click on it in my inventory and choose clean up. Once my sim has the plate in their hand, I cancel the action, making them put the plate down on the nearest surface.

[Deklitch]

7 Playing with kids toys can help with latter skill development ... not just the toy oven (cooking), peg blocks (logic - toddlers), xylophone (all instruments - toddlers), building blocks table (handiness), but also building castles in the sandpit has helped my future sculptors get a head start on sculpting skill.

As an addendum to the above ... the walker and play pen for toddlers with the Aurora Skies premium content as well - between them, you can teach your toddler to talk and walk independent of a teen or older sim, then they can play with the abacus (logic) and mirror (charisma) and if you put two toddlers in there at once they can play with each other (a very cute peek a boo interaction) which improves their relationship with each other. As an added bonus ... provided you have them doing something in the play pen, their needs don't seem to decay. They can also play in the walker and increase ... handiness, I think it is. So you just have to teach them to go potty and don't have to stop your other sims from being productive to feed/change/snuggle the toddlers. (just as well I'm not a parent in real life lol)

[Agathon]

8. Turbo-charged skilling

A sim's mood affect how quickly they skill up. Who knew? I didn't, at least for a long time. Spoil your sims with some big mood-boosting moodlets before they sit down (or lay in a hoverbed, in a beautifully decorated room...) with that book. The effect is very noticeable... Or... use a tutor (needs level 10 logic). A tutor is a quite a bit more effective at skilling up a sim than if that sim is reading at the library, and tutors get even better when they become experienced tutors (more than 20 hours of tutoring). Sims with a good mood learn faster from tutors too, and then there's all the other stuff you can do to boost skilling (like upping logic first). I wonder how fast an experienced fairy tutor running an appropriate aura can tutor a mood-boosted vampire sim at night, if the vampire has been blessed by a unicorn, has hive mind, meditative focus, and there's an Jun Pao incense burner in the room...? Hm. Maybe I wish I didn't know about this...

[Brian_Z]

Surprised this isn't more popular...

9.  Age up whenever with a cake. 
Shortly after I got TS4, I wanted a sim with the advantages they get from starting from a child.  So, I made a child and his grandfather, an elder.  The elder stage is shorter than the child stage, and Grandpa croaked 2 days before the child's birthday.  A child can't live alone, so Game Over.

10.  What exactly happens when twins are born.
So at this point I'm starting to really get the hang of the game.  Starting.  Time for this household to have kids.  My first baby born playing this, and Mom has twin girls- except, I didn't know that.  Congratulations, it's a girl, choose a name!  Ok, I'd put some thought into this already, and I had decided if it was a girl I would call her Melody and she would grow up totally into music.  I entered Melody, yes keep the last name, click the check.  Congratulations, it's a girl, choose a name!  WHAT?  Come on, not a good time for the game to bug!  Melody, keep the last name, CHECK!!!! 
It wasn't a bug.  It was twins.  And now they're both named Melody.  And now they're both crying, and I'm trying to figure out what's wrong, and my idiot new mother wants to go admire the artwork on the walls instead of look after her newborns.  And I hadn't discovered MCCC yet, so time is flying.  And the warning that Melody was very hungry wasn't very helpful, since they were both named Melody.  So one of the Melodies gets taken away, and I quit.  Recovered the previous save, 2 sim days before.  She had twin girls again, but now I knew what was happening and things went a bit better this time.

[Brian_Z]

11.  Cold leftovers are delicious, and sims never enjoy anything out of a microwave.

So pizza is pretty good cold the next day, but taco casserole?
And even fully upgraded, they always get the "Cold in the Middle" moodlet from microwaved food. 

[Brian_Z]

3. Agnes is not a hagness but rather a god(n)ess.

Due to the bad press she got, I always used to avoid Aggie K, now she's my go to sim. All those years of sending sims to get Emma Hatch, when Aggie was available, so much time wasted!

I have seen other comments like this, but I never played TS3.  What did you need her for?  TS4 has some elders that are famous for being pretty much pointless- Geeta Rasoya, Dennis Kim.  They're old when the game starts, and die within a few weeks.  And that about sums those sims up.

[Trip]

@Brian_Z Agnes is young in TS3, rich, and has useful skills for some challenges. To the point where it's been memed on this forum for nearly a decade now.

[Metropolis Man]

Agnes is young in TS3, rich, and has useful skills for some challenges. To the point where it's been memed on this forum for nearly a decade now.

Agnes the Hagness!

[Deklitch]

I actually do know an Agnes (Kemenes) in real life who kinds of looks like Aggie Crumplebottom from Sims 3 AND she has a really expensive car (I wonder what she'd do if someone calls her a Hagness ... hmmm @Metropolis Man care to try it out?

[DrWho42]

i wish i had known how to take the steps for a successful audition in get famous beforehand >_<

[Brian_Z]

@Brian_Z Agnes is young in TS3, rich, and has useful skills for some challenges. To the point where it's been memed on this forum for nearly a decade now.

Ohhh!  See, I saw "Aggie K" mentioned in very much the same way Deklitch said.  Who?  I only started in TS4, never played the previous games.  So, I googled her, and the results talked about, apparently, her TS2 incarnation, old and bitter and assaulting young people when they flirt where she can see them.  So yeah, rather confusing when people said what a great idea it is to seek her out...

And no wonder she's such an old crank as an elder.  All those sims using her for her wealth and useful skills!

[Magz from Oz]

12. That special seeds with a value of $0 (sell from inventory) are either money trees or deathflower seeds. I had planted hundreds of special seeds before I figured that one out. Doh!

Also with the  SwiftGrow Gardening Station from the Stones Throw Greenhouse (Store), you can see which $0 special seeds are which.  Some money tree special seeds are better than simply Normal or Nice. I've had several Excellent and once I got a Perfect seed.

[vrobx1]

13. If you want to have twins or even better triplets, do not go to the hospital. Have the babies at home and have kids music playing while the mom is in labor. Note: This is a Sims 3 thing. I don't play the others.

[ILoveTheSims2Death]

 To not rely on a website to save your content, especially if it's not a "first come, first serve" spot. Although, I never learn from these mistakes. 🙄 So many beautiful sims and countless hours of building lots WASTED on poopy algorithms. It's not an in-game issue, I guess, but it's something nice to know.

[Simsanna]

Okay these actually made my day. Will definitely try some of them

[LydiaGhostlyDeetz]

I actually miss being able to play as both pets and newborns. But that aside, the first time I played Sims, I kind of wish I'd known beforehand that the "Woohoo" interaction was really kind of SFW instead of NSFW. I mean, it's really just babbling, giggling, rose petals, moving bed covers and a snippet of music or two. That's it. Knowing that beforehand would have saved me a lot of embarrassment.