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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 20th Aug 2017 at 3:36 PM
The group feature went FAIL on me :/
I never liked the group and outing/party/date features so much, but I decided to make a group on University. I was playing as Stella Terrano and she lived in a dorm with other NPCs. I didn't save before forming the group and I visited a community lot with the sims from the group. However, I was stupid to not end the group before making Stella go home and it turns out the sims followed her and I already knew this could happen and I figured I could just kick them out if I wanted. However, the game interpreted this as if I was moving them to the dormitory and now the NPC roomates are gone. It sucks because my game is pretty much ruined considering I actually liked my roommates. One of the roomies was in the group so she didn't leave, but Stella's fiancée is now gone unless I move Stella out and make her move in, and I didn't want to do that just yet, only when Stella graduated. (I don't even know if this would work actually).

I don't think I'm going to play with this save anymore since it's ruined and there's no way to go back. Sucks because Stella was close to her Junior year and in secret society. It's the second time I play with her and the second time she doesn't graduate.
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 20th Aug 2017 at 3:59 PM
Moving students inside colledge hood is okay. You can cheat a bit more money for Stella and move her out and let her rent a little house. Then she can call her fiancee and ask to move in. It will be more romantic for them to live together alone.
Mad Poster
#3 Old 20th Aug 2017 at 4:18 PM
Just say good-by to the visitors. The same dormies will return. You get that "moved out" notice any time anybody visits for any reason; nothing to do with groups.

Personally this is one of my favorite features, so of course I think you just haven't experimented with groups enough to uncover their full awesomeness. It's worthwhile to have a neighborhood you're not officially playing, that you aren't invested in, where you can experiment with features and mods without risk to the sims you care about.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
#4 Old 20th Aug 2017 at 10:10 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
It's worthwhile to have a neighborhood you're not officially playing, that you aren't invested in, where you can experiment with features and mods without risk to the sims you care about.
True Peni! Except that after playing the new Sims for about 10 minutes, I find that I do care about them too!

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 20th Aug 2017 at 10:38 PM
I just can't help that part either, AndrewGloria That is why I don't even test with test sims in test hoods any longer, I ended up with new hoods that way
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#6 Old 20th Aug 2017 at 10:55 PM
Just find on the pie menu 'leave group' then they will leave and the dormies will come back, although it may not be the same ones. or move Stella to a house and ask those you want to move in. It's really not so bad, they haven't really gone.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Scholar
#7 Old 20th Aug 2017 at 11:32 PM
Quote: Originally posted by AndrewGloria
True Peni! Except that after playing the new Sims for about 10 minutes, I find that I do care about them too!


I also have this dilemma. 10ville has grown on me dispite my attempts to cause all sorts of madness and hood corruption when mod testing. Probably would help if I sent a Patented Vu Flu through town, the cemetery is a little too empty at the moment.
Mad Poster
#8 Old 20th Aug 2017 at 11:57 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Sims2Christain
Probably would help if I sent a Patented Vu Flu through town, the cemetery is a little too empty at the moment.
No! No! Then I'd be crying myself to sleep at night, weeping for my lost little friends. When my Sims are ill, I pamper and coddle them more than ever!

Don't you know that TS2 Sims have souls, and, when you play them, their souls are in your care?

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Mad Poster
#9 Old 21st Aug 2017 at 3:43 AM
It's gotten to the point that whenever I try a new mod or technique in a test hood, I make a copy of the test hood (or in many cases, the entire game) just in case something goes wrong. While my test hoods are more vulnerable to being zapped than the other hoods, I try to ensure my test Sims survive as long as possible. My contest hood is still backed up somewhere, just in case I want to clone one of the Sims. (I had cloned my hippie Rhodes couple and I THOUGHT I did it right after carefully following instructions, but now I'm not so sure. I might put them in a good hood one day.)

My throwaway vanilla hoods ... not much I can do there. But I've tried to save at least 95% of my Sims. Now granted, with my track record of finding weird and unusual ways to mess up hoods, they are still vulnerable to being obliterated, but at least I try! I don't even like aging and killing them that way.

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
Field Researcher
#10 Old 21st Aug 2017 at 4:01 AM
Quote: Originally posted by AndrewGloria
No! No! Then I'd be crying myself to sleep at night, weeping for my lost little friends. When my Sims are ill, I pamper and coddle them more than ever!

Don't you know that TS2 Sims have souls, and, when you play them, their souls are in your care?


Welp I've occasionally been a monster it seems.










WowoW it's a badly hidden owo UwU Yeet skeet Idk what I'm doing
Scholar
#11 Old 21st Aug 2017 at 8:07 AM
To clarify this is only in 10ville, where there are plenty of ways to resurrect the deceased because it is my experimental testing hood.
I had to give Dr Vu that otherwise he'd target my other hoods. I still care about 10ville but they're the zombie bait to save the larger population.

Seriously, Dr Vu's spraying the graveyard again! Please send help! (SimCity 4 reference)

I've never used the group function properly, although I'm curious about it now.
Mad Poster
#12 Old 21st Aug 2017 at 8:12 AM
I use it all the time - I have group outings for co-workers, for families and for friends.
The main thing is that the group has to be ended on the menu - if the Sim is part of the group - leave group; if the Sim has invited the rest to go out - end outing.
I have never had the above scenario, though - I don't have dormies, just playable students in my dorms - but it seems to me that the group outing was not ended.
Field Researcher
#13 Old 21st Aug 2017 at 7:04 PM
@Peni Griffin I've never even thought about exploring the group function! What are your favourite ways to use it?
Mad Poster
#14 Old 21st Aug 2017 at 9:20 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Teckno
It sucks because my game is pretty much ruined considering I actually liked my roommates. One of the roomies was in the group so she didn't leave, but Stella's fiancée is now gone unless I move Stella out and make her move in, and I didn't want to do that just yet, only when Stella graduated. (I don't even know if this would work actually).


When assigning dormies, the game will always choose the lowest ID Sim that is available, which means if you move out your Sim, and move her back in without having changed anything at any other dorm in your game, the old roomies should move back in. There is a mod that makes selection more random, I forget which, but as long as you don't have it the old dormies should return.

Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
Mad Poster
#15 Old 21st Aug 2017 at 9:34 PM
Well, let's see.

Pregnant lady with toddler invites group of friends/family over, serves a meal while they let themselves in, eats, influences one friend to clean, one to repair, one to play with toddler, one to garden, goes to bed. Ladies hang around all day while their friend gets much-needed rest. Those not influenced to do other things are maintaining their friendships with each other. The one influenced to play with the toddler is giving her a friend and role model. They will eventually go home on their own if their needs get low enough, but if today's Birth Day there's a good chance at least some of them will be there when the birth happens. The outing code will call the group members in to the bedroom fairly often, but they'll get on with their outing eventually.

Teen creates group consisting of self, best friend, little sibling, best friend's little sibling, next-door neighbor kid, etc. As soon as little sibling gets home (if energy level is high enough) invites group to go to the park. Since few teens will have cultivated relationships with their friends' little siblings, they may not all show up; but any who do will run around playing with the active little sibling, making friends and getting fun up. Since kids and teens are in the group, other kids and teens are more likely to show up at the park, creating plenty of chances for new relationships for everybody. Teen grills food so hunger motive can be dealt with. When energy levels get low, take the whole lot home, where it's still 3:30. Teen and sibling get a nap and wake up ready to do their homework. Release the group as soon as you get home and the other teens and siblings will hang around as long as they feel like it, improving their relationships with each other and possibly with the parents. When playing the households of the other members of the group, they can do the same, and also add/delete members to expand the circle of friends. When a teen goes to college, he can use the group to give his friends a college tour. The little sibling, now a teen, can delete big sibling from group and add a new member. There's no reason for a group like this to ever die out.

Work friends/business associations. A sim in a particular career makes a group of sims also in that career; or a business owner can make a group of other business owners. They go out to eat, go bowling, have poker night, or just hang out and talk shop. This is particularly useful if you have an influential older sim in the group, with a lot of friends who don't know each other well; they get to know each other during the nights out/association meetings. You can do this with any group that's got something in common: Mommies, Working Parents, Book Club, Alien Abductees, Future Farmers of America, Espresso Addicts, whatever.

Family groups. Mom puts her sister, her daughter, her future daughter-in-law, and her future daughter-in-law's mother into a group. They go shopping, have lunch, take a day at the spa, bonding and exchanging useful information. Parents and grandparents coordinate with each other to maintain their own relationships and give cousins relationships with each other.

The Band. They lived together in college, but now they live in three different households. The Band lives on, playing gigs together. One member calls the group, they go to a venue with instruments, the active member grabs one and Asks to Join on the others, everybody boogies.

BFFs. Inseparable in high school and college, now Amanda is running a business, Ruby is pregnant and has a high-powered job, Petra is doing graduate work in robotics, intent on creating a robotics shop run by servos! But they still make time for each other, meeting for dinner, bowling, cards, or just kaffee klatsching at each other's houses.

Little League! Hall of Famer granddad takes his kids and their friends to the sports park to shoot hoops, swim, play catch, toss a football, use the soccer pitch...then brings them all home for pizza and ice cream! You could also set up a childless athlete to do "Midnight Basketball" for disadvantaged teens, but it'll take a bit of work without a family member as a connection to introduce her to qualifying teens. But perhaps there's someone in the same apartment complex...You could do mentorship programs in all kinds of activities this way.

And so on. The basic thing groups are good for is establishing and maintaining circles of friends. Since you seldom control more than one or two members of a group, the others have a chance to mill around autonomously, developing their own relationships and characters. These circles of friends can double as support groups during trying times, as in the first example with the pregnant lady.

I have never called a timed outing, though I almost always accept them when a sim is called up by another playable (related to a recent date or whatever), as it's interesting to see who shows up. And sometimes you know it's going to be hilarious, as when the Romance sim calls up someone who dated one of his girlfriends last night...Just for Fun outings are not timed and are under no pressure. They can go on all night long. Hi Thyme of Drama Acres, who got alien pregnant after his three surviving daughters went to college, put together a group called "Hi's Girls," consisting of his daughters and Amanda Ruben, a neighbor teen who used to come home from work with him almost every day even though she didn't have a job. His non-surviving daughter was a very mean ghost, so he had a rough, rough pregnancy, but Hi's Girls came over to help him every day, and though the ghost would eventually drive all her sisters away, Amanda would stay, checking up on him periodically, until the sun came up and he woke and ended the group.

All my social groups consist of playables only, because of the way I play, so the same one can be by up to eight households in a single rotation if I feel like it, with some adjustment of membership from house to house to serve different needs.

Bear in mind that, if a sim who lives in an apartment or dorm calls a group outing, inactive members of outings and dates (dormies and other apartment residences) from the same lot may get stuck in their motive-increasing locations when it's time to go. The taxi can sit there for hours waiting! And you can't count on them not to vanish into their apartment or dorm room in the middle of something. So it's best to get a cell phone, go to a community lot, and invite the group to get together from there. If you do that, you can also walk (or drive, if the active sim drove) to other venues and home instead of waiting for the taxi.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Scholar
#16 Old 22nd Aug 2017 at 1:24 AM
I never use groups. They don't seem to work for me

"Oh look, my grandchild is now an elder. They grow up so fast. Gee, I wonder when I'll finally graduate college." Sims 2
Mad Poster
#17 Old 22nd Aug 2017 at 1:43 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
I have never called a timed outing, though I almost always accept them when a sim is called up by another playable (related to a recent date or whatever), as it's interesting to see who shows up. And sometimes you know it's going to be hilarious, as when the Romance sim calls up someone who dated one of his girlfriends last night...


Gilbert Jacquet once invited one of my Sims on an outing, and brought along all his girlfriends. It went exactly as you'd expect. I worked it into the story as him having a bit too much to drink beforehand.

I'm secretly a Bulbasaur. | Formerly known as ihatemandatoryregister

Looking for SimWardrobe's mods? | Or Dizzy's? | Faiuwle/rufio's too! | smorbie1's Chris Hatch archives
Theorist
#18 Old 22nd Aug 2017 at 1:50 AM
Peni, I love your ideas on groups created by the phone menu. I never understood what they were for and now I think I'll use it to have kids join up on a community lot for some kid stuff. The timed ones were annoying when a sim would call mine, invite them in out, then my sim would arrive in a taxi, everyone got out and immediately walked off the lot. I had no idea it was up to my sims to make it work. (:

When you forgive, you heal. When you let go, you grow.
Field Researcher
#19 Old 22nd Aug 2017 at 6:34 PM
@Peni Griffin Thank you ever so much for writing that all out! I have so many ideas now. I love your creativity and interesting ways to play with the game's features.
I was also umming and ahhing over sending some sims to Uni, but after reading some of your posts about it, it convinced me to send them! We'll see how it goes...
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#20 Old 22nd Aug 2017 at 11:07 PM
I use groups quite often, especially for community lot weddings. I only ever do 'just for fun' since I dislike timed events.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Test Subject
Original Poster
#21 Old 24th Aug 2017 at 2:22 AM
Thanks everyone

I also hate timed events! I wish I could do a party but I feel a lot of pressure with a timer and the Sims get bored easily.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#22 Old 24th Aug 2017 at 2:27 AM
@Teckno I extend parties on the batbox.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#23 Old 24th Aug 2017 at 2:59 AM
The key element to a good party is to invite people who are already friends. Provide some refreshments, doesn't matter what kind, and let them do their thing. The party score starts going up all by itself soon enough. I once had a roof raiser in which the host - who lived alone - got called away to work in the middle of it because I was distracted by observing interactions and didn't notice that the carpool had arrived, but they carried on without him and had a wonderful time.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
#24 Old 24th Aug 2017 at 3:04 AM
Inviting couples helps too, especially if you have ACR. Though some of them take it too far and end up woohooing on the sofa.

I'm secretly a Bulbasaur. | Formerly known as ihatemandatoryregister

Looking for SimWardrobe's mods? | Or Dizzy's? | Faiuwle/rufio's too! | smorbie1's Chris Hatch archives
Turquoise Dragon
retired moderator
#25 Old 24th Aug 2017 at 4:18 AM
I used to use the group thing on the phone to maintain family relationships after the kids moved out, and also to have my sims meet at church. I also used it for my kids' scouting troops
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