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Mad Poster
#26 Old 25th May 2017 at 5:30 AM
It's not only possible but actually really easy to make loads of money simply off nothing but outings:

1. Ask random sim on an outing
2. Do random fun/social stuff until outing meter is maxed
3. End outing
4. Repeat steps 1-3 any number of times as your sim is constantly getting needs maxed
5. Wait for the inundation of outing rewards and sell them

If your sims are poor and you're not sure why, it's probably because you're not doing the above.
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Mad Poster
#27 Old 25th May 2017 at 11:41 AM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
They live on a residential lot-you have to, to be able to place them in a hood. It's decked out to look like an old abandoned park with an old grotty toilet block and weeds. They have a tent and a cooler fridge around the back so not to draw attention to themselves. No bills or paper since you wouldn't. But because they don't officially have an address they can't get a job. I just send them to community lots to busk, they are doing okay at it. If they can make $1000 I will let them move to my down on your luck hostel. I added in the mod that lets me direct them to sponge bath although they do autonomously even on a community lot. I only allow them to buy things they could reasonably take 'home' on a bus.


Thank you! Those are great ideas for my Handmaid's Tale hood where people are going to have to live in hiding. Some will be in abandoned buildings for sure, and, of course, in the hostel which is just going to be a big abandoned building where several families are living. But, I never thought of making a park!

"Fear not little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom". Luke 12:32 Chris Hatch's family friendly files archived on SFS: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=603534 . Bulbizarre's website: https://archiveofourown.org/users/C...CoveredPortals/
Field Researcher
#28 Old 26th May 2017 at 5:27 AM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
They live on a residential lot-you have to, to be able to place them in a hood. It's decked out to look like an old abandoned park with an old grotty toilet block and weeds. They have a tent and a cooler fridge around the back so not to draw attention to themselves. No bills or paper since you wouldn't. But because they don't officially have an address they can't get a job. I just send them to community lots to busk, they are doing okay at it. If they can make $1000 I will let them move to my down on your luck hostel. I added in the mod that lets me direct them to sponge bath although they do autonomously even on a community lot. I only allow them to buy things they could reasonably take 'home' on a bus.

Man I have to try that in Grimmire.

Anyway, I don't really give my sims lower wages or more bills, but most take out mortgages they definitely can't afford with the mortgage shrub then have to dig their way out of the negatives lmao.

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Mad Poster
#29 Old 26th May 2017 at 2:24 PM
The relative poverty of my Sims is probably an unintended by-product of my playstyle. Like I say, I don't really prioritise making money in my life, and my Sims don't either. Most of them really only prioritise money-making when times are hard. I'm afraid that for most of my Sims, unless they really need that promotion, given the choice of sitting at home studying mechanics in a book (or talking to yourself in the bathroom mirror), or going clubbing downtown with their friends, the bright lights are going to win! With aging nearly always off, my Sims don't feel the pressure to achieve quickly -- as long as they have enough to meet their day to day needs, and afford a few little luxuries, they can step back, relax, and enjoy life. Most of my Sims have very busy social lives, and the single Sim, with eight visitors still in the house at midnight Is a familiar feature of my game. On the whole I think most of my Sims have a very good work/life, or school/life balance.

There are a few well-off Sims in my 'hoods, but none of them got there through normal gameplay. They are all either pre-mades, well endowed by Maxis, or Sims whom, for story purposes, I have enriched through money cheats. And there are some really poor Sims. But most of my Sims come into the JAM category -- "Just About Managing". I am very unlikely to download §200,000 mansions. Most of my Sims aspire to live in a §40,000 house -- when they grow rich.

My poorest Sims: I used to think my poorest Sim was runaway Romance teen Chandler Jackson. When I created him in CAS, I used FamilyFunds to reduce his starting funds from §20,000 to §8,000. With that he bought a very basic 1-room hut on a 1x2 lot in New Desconia. It is very basic but all the essentials are there, with the toilet and shower in a corner of the hut -- no dividing wall! He started to earn money as a free-lance "exotic" dancer. Charging §80 for each private dance, he was soon able to replace his original scratchy single bed with a comfortable double one. Chandler met a townie called Grant, and invited him to move in. Now they live together in an open relationship. They earn their living by working the clubs together. On a good night they can earn a thousand Simoleons. Recently Chandler has begun to prettify the inside of the hut, putting tiles on the wall of the kitchen area, and even putting curtains in the window. Chandler may still be the poorest Sim on New Desconia, but he's happy and popular, and certainly doesn't want to leave.

No, the poorest Sims in my game now are the ones trying to bring up children on limited incomes. A couple of days ago the Lamberts in Elswyn, the 'hood I made for Jo's current contest, were down to §26! But they live in a §50,000 house so they're not really poor. They are having to maximise the family income though. Pat, the younger of their two teenage daughters isn't going to school. She's staying at home to look after Thomas and Martin, her two toddler brothers, so that both her parents can work full time. She knows they can earn more money than she can, and, with a Romance aspiration she's less interested in education than her older sister Chris. Officially she's being home-schooled, but all she's really learning about is childcare and housekeeping. Maybe changing nappies is a form of education? The Lamberts' existence is a bit hand to mouth at the moment, but everyone knows that, if they were really up against it, they'd only have to sell something to survive.

The Kraemers, an extra family I added to the contest 'hood, are poorer. They are a married couple, with a teenage son and three younger school-age children. They came out of CAS with only the regulation §20,000 and their house cost less than §18,000, so it's rather basic. But, with all children past the toddler stage, both parents can work full-time, provided the teen stays home to keep an eye on his younger siblings. So, provided they don't have any more children, they should be able to improve their finances relatively quickly.

So, to find the poorest Sims in my whole game, I think we have to go back to Veronaville and visit the Newsons. I don't have AL (except in a registered but never used copy of the UC on Origin), so I only have the Newsons because marka93 kindly extracted and cloned them for me. Of all the pre-made families I think they're the most interesting. Not having AL, I brought hem into the game through CAS, and they got the standard CAS starting funds of §20,000. Which was enough to buy and basically furnish a long-abandoned little Tudor house [that I built for them] in the shadow of Veronaville's iconic aqueduct. Now Ginger and Gavin spent their money very carefully, and have left intact a "buffer" of about §2,000, but they are trying to keep this to meet any unanticipated expenditure. Their problem is of course that neither if them can get an adult job. Gavin works for a pittance on a teenage medical job, while Ginger generally stays at home to look after the toddlers. Gabriella and Gallagher go to school every day well-fed and tidy, a real compliment to the teens' "parenting" skills. But Ginger and Gavin cannot go regularly. Ginger has had one day at school since the family arrived in Veronaville; I don't think Gavin has been at all. He does at least get out of the house regularly to go to work; Ginger hardly ever gets out. I worry about Ginger. She often seems close to breaking point and I wonder how much more she can take. Other Sims think well of Ginger, regarding her almost as a living saint, but they're wary of her temper. Ginger would rather not be a saint. She'd love to be a normal teenager, thinking about school, boyfriends, clothes and dancing. But her family always comes first for her; she can't just go out and enjoy herself when she knows that they need her. I have a now quite old picture of her which I have posted here. She has got up at 5 a.m. to change a nappy, and there is no point in going back to bed again. She is starting to wash dishes left from the night before. With the unpainted wall of her poor (if outwardly picturesque) dwelling behind her, she stares blankly at the camera, another day of unremitting drudgery ahead of her. I find the image haunting; she seems to encapsulate the plight of child carers everywhere. It's quite the most moving image of my whole experience of The Sims. Poverty -- especially child poverty -- is really unacceptable. I promise Ginger that things will get better, but she just bites her lip and says, "When?"

Another group of quite impoverished Sims has emerged in my game quite recently -- my students! I only installed University earlier this year. I was fortunate enough myself to enjoy university education in thec1980s under the old British system, with all tuition paid for us, and "maintenance grants" to live on, which, though we complained about them at the time, were really very generous in comparison to what goes in now. Well, I want university to be as good an experience for my Sim students as it was for me -- intellectually stimulating, and socially fun! Instead students in dorms have been hit by quite unaffordable bills, well beyond what could reasonably be paid out of a §500 a Semester grant. This is annoying me so much that, when the current Community Sprit contest is over, I intend to learn enough about Simantics to write my own "No Bills in Dorms" mod. gummilutt has kindly offered to help me.

Well, I intended this to be a short post when I started it. Instead it's taken me about 4 days to write. Possibly writing it has helped me to understand why I've never experienced this "all Sims grow rich too quickly" phenomenon. I just don't play them to maximise their finances. (Much the same as I don't play my own life that way!) Maybe I ought to get into a close relationship with a Fortune Sim, who might teach me that money sometimes is important.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Mad Poster
#30 Old 26th May 2017 at 4:57 PM
Quote: Originally posted by AndrewGloria
unless they really need that promotion, given the choice of sitting at home studying mechanics in a book (or talking to yourself in the bathroom mirror), or going clubbing downtown with their friends, the bright lights are going to win!

But that's exactly how my sims end up accidentally rich! They go clubbing with their friends, and their friends swing by later to drop off big-screen TVs and DJ booths!

It's such an over the top exploit, I'm starting to think I need to place some sort of restriction on outings like I've done with dates (my sims are only allowed to go on dates if the one doing the asking wants to).
Top Secret Researcher
#31 Old 26th May 2017 at 5:11 PM
It's actually really easy to make money in The Sims. I played a couple in The Sims 1 without money cheats once, having one Sim go to work and one Sim stay home to paint. I kept the house small and had just enough furnishings to replenish their needs. They made plenty of money within a week. Same with The Sims 2; I actually have to use cheats to remove money and to lower their skills so they couldn't be promoted. Gosh, I think money grows on trees in SimNation (Oh wait, they do...)
Mad Poster
#32 Old 26th May 2017 at 9:12 PM
Yeah, in most games it's ridiculously easy to make money. Unlike real life, where I'm perpetually broke.
Mad Poster
#33 Old 26th May 2017 at 10:51 PM
Mostly my Sims go on un-scored "just for fun" outings. It's probably a matter of playstyle again. With scored ones you're constantly under pressure to do things to push the score up. Un-scored ones are much more laid back. My Sims and I just do as we please. Sometimes we follow my ideas -- sometimes we follow theirs. Quite often the outing has a practical purpose like buying food, but, since we're out of the house, why not go on to that nightclub. And then, "They've got a good restaurant up the stairs. Let's eat there." My Sims generally do enjoy these "fun" outings, but of course they don't get any rewards for them.

Even when they do get rewards for scored outings, there 's a bit of a feeling that it's churlish to sell something that someone gave you as a present. Ravi Bertino still has the Sing Dynasty vase that Gordon Cornton gave him years ago for an outing to The Hub in Downtown Veronaville. Shy, good-natured Ravi, a Tricou orphan, really felt quite touched that Gordon thought so highly of him.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Mad Poster
#34 Old 27th May 2017 at 2:35 AM
I actually feel a lot more pressure when doing the un-scored outings (all the ones I'm forced to play through on the first day, 'cause zomg there's downtown!), because I don't get the mood boosts there, so my sim's mood is constantly getting tanked. I guess if I played with a mod like community time, I'd feel a lot differently about the mood thing, but having my sim come home dead tired at 3pm or 6pm or whatever just feels weird and very inconvenient. I also don't really do much to intentionally push the outing score up; it just goes up without my having to put in much thought. But then, I also tend to form outings with those my sim is currently attempting to friend/bf, and getting to a milestone like that always seems to shove the outing score up quite a bit.

I don't always sell outing rewards, but how many big-screen TVs does one household need? I do wish the rewards were more personal. I never sell date rewards, because those are personal.
Top Secret Researcher
#35 Old 27th May 2017 at 7:44 AM Last edited by wickedjr89 : 27th May 2017 at 9:08 AM.
When it comes to getting big screen TVS and the like from outings and such I sell them then use InSim's cash register to take the money away. Seriously, who just gives people expensive stuff like that just because they had fun on an outing?

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