Even more than having a bunch of unwanted NPC sims around, the whole idea of branding people with stereotypes rather puts me off.

I know...I didn't phrase that quite right!:p

I was referring to the way Maxis saw fit to hand out the ReNuYu Portachug doohickey to the existing Sims so they could change their funky turn ons. This was nice & showed some forethought.

One would have thought that they could have done a similar thing regarding Social Groups...but no, we get a whole new batch of Sims.

The really silly thing is that apartment roommates are drawn from the new pool & the game favors the new pool when deciding who shows up on what Community Lot.

So what's the "use" of the original Townies in AL?

It gets even better.

Lots are now classed (in AL) as being Low, Middle or High class depending on the quality/price/type of objects on the lot in question & the surrounding lots.

Ready for even more? How about this:

You can tell what "class" a lot is by the Social Group that shows up there (community) or walks by (residential) because dear Maxis has "assigned" a class level to each Social Group.

Gear Heads = Low
Bohemians = Low or Middle
Jocks = Middle
Techs = Middle or High
Socialites = High

So much for designing a real community lot!

*sigh*

(I still want the adjustable height thing though...)

-ZW

Oh dear. Social elitists reign supreme at the old game factory!

I'm quickly becoming unsold on Apartment Life, ceilings or no ceilings.

EEK! What happens if you do the ol' Zip and Delete on the members of the Social Groups? I told a woman to do that on Insim, because she wanted to get rid of them as completely as possible. So far, she's had one "random potential tenant" show up, who promptly died of "death by flies."

I need to add another bit on how to make Townies/Downtownies so you can improve your "Social Groups" too.

BTW, where do these wonders of Maxis non-pulchritude hide inside Program Files?

(I haven't yet installed AL as InTeen has yet to be updated, so I don't yet know where all the AL characters are lurking)

I just discovered something about "scorching" the Free Time F002 folder.

You will not be able to go to any of the hidden Hobby Lots, as those files are contained in the F002\Lots folder.

Looks like I'm in for another reset...

-ZW

Can't you just unzip the files you need?

I'll add that to the Free Time part...

I've had mixed results with trying to un-zip stuff like that in the past (like when I tried to re-introduce the Katt & Kim families once) but thankfully this time it worked!

Yippie!

-ZW

(It's strange that the game will auto-regenerate the Hobby Club Leaders, but not the Lots!)

I take it that a Hobby Club is a Free Time thing, yes? :thinking:

Yes, it's a Free Time thing.

Free Time adds a feature wherein Sims earn enthusiasm in 10 different hobbies (Arts/Crafts, Cuisine, Film/Literature, Fitness, Games, Music/Dance, Nature, Science, Sports & Tinkering) by doing things related to the hobby. Earn enough "enthusiasm points" & you will be granted membership in that hobby's Secret Club & get a little card that lets you go to the associated Secret Clubhouse...unless of course you do what I did & annihilate those lots accidentally! My Sims could get the membership cards but couldn't go to the Lots.

Fortunately it was a simple fix; just unpack the 10 lots & bingo, things are good to go!

-ZW

It sounds pretty neat. The Secret Club is reminiscent of the Secret Society of the college campuses. I do hope they handled the initiation better. In my game, the college Secret Society initiation resulted in the annhilation of dozens of game-generated sims.

Ack! Really?! I haven't had any college students turn into Secret Society members yet, so I hope this isn't a universal problem!

As for the Free Time clubs, as soon as your Sim earns enough enthusiasm points (5) the Hobby Club Leader for that hobby simply walks onto the lot, goes up to your Sim & a pop-up window tells you that you have been granted access to "xyz" lot...you don't even need to officially greet or even talk to the Hobby Leader!

It is a little creepy when they walk right into the bathroom at 2 AM (they come whenever your Sim reaches the 5-level mark, day or night) but it's still fairly painless...if a bit unnerving the first time it happens!

-ZW

Its not a game bug. Greg executed the secret society members when they kidnapped a girl and left her standing in the street without any clothes and laughed at her standing there.

Free time sounds alot like OFB except you go for ethusiasm points instead of skill points to earn badges. I wish Maxis would get over having people just walk into houses. I hate it when they do that. If they did that in real life in my house they would probably get shot.

I can understand his motivation. What the heck was Maxis thinking?

I never knew the Secret Society initiations were like that! I think I might just get a hack I saw a while back that eliminates the abduction & just gives you a pop-up message. Sounds much nicer.

Amen!

Seriously, wouldn't it make more sense to get an invitation in the mail...or maybe an e-mail so that the whole e-mail thing actually has a purpose in the game!

-ZW

What a good idea! Sims have computers, so why can't they use them for something besides writing novels and playing games?

Yup, I got so irritated with the whole abduction thing that I engaged in the wholesale slaughter of secret society members. I ended up building a graveyard on the SS lot. Then, amazingly enough, the same graveyard ended up in every neighborhood! It appears that all of my neighborhoods were sharing the same SS lot!

Yes, that's so stupid. The one thing they did right was that in a custom Uni 'hood, they let you place the special Secret Society lots. But they couldn't be bothered to make the BV special lot or the Hobby Club lots "placeable"...

So a teen can earn 10 levels in Dance, and they'll get both the Secret Clubhouse card and the dance scholarship? Very cool!

Did you use the same University 'hood with all your neighborhoods?

BTW, if I want my Sims to join the Secret Society, I don't let them sleep in their undies (or less) until after their initiation!

I seen that too where if you make changes to the secret society lot you see the changes in more than one neighborhood. I think its not the university you chose but the secret society lot. I like the one best thats like an old Victorian mansion.

Now that we're on the subject: Is there any advatage to being a member of the secret society?

You can meet people and join study groups and play with the career objects. If you never saw the career objects before which I didn't the first time I saw the secret society house its neat because you can see how they work. After that its pretty boring unless you want to meet friends there but most of the Maxis secret society members are creeps.

At least I can say that in my game, they are no longer creeps. They're corpses! :rofl:

Corpses are easier to deal with anyway. :p

This is gonna sound totally morbid, but when you decided to exterminate the Secret Society, did you do it via SimPE/a "tidy" back door method....or did you opt for in-game slaughter?

Just curious....

-ZW