Sims 3 - Gameplay Tips

[Swirl-Girl]

Did you know that asking a parent for permission to marry came with Generations?
Did you know about the "discomaptags" cheat?

[Pam]

Huh, why haven’t I seen this before? I ended up starting another topic with essentially the same concept: post interesting things you’ve discovered in the game that others may not know. I may need to contact a mod and see if they can merge the threads.

If you'll post the link to your thread, I'll be happy to merge them.

[Lytaren]

Did you know that if you have your female sim have her baby at home and not the hospital she gets a huge relationship boost with the baby. I never let my sims have the baby at the hospital anymore, I find it so unrealistic that the parents have no or really low relationship with their new baby!

[Gameactive]

If you'll post the link to your thread, I'll be happy to merge them.

I actually had looked forward after posting, and it was already there. Oh well, it’s not such a big deal.

[YZJay]

Right clicking on a sim makes that sim the active sim, assuming that sim is a part of your household. Also clicking sims icons (the icons on the left) using the middle mouse button will highlight them, you can highlight all eight of them if you want, but I don't know what it really does.

[SingleMomSim]

Did you know that if you have your female sim have her baby at home and not the hospital she gets a huge relationship boost with the baby. I never let my sims have the baby at the hospital anymore, I find it so unrealistic that the parents have no or really low relationship with their new baby!

I did NOT know this!!!!  Sometimes I send them to the hospital, sometimes have them at home.  In my current legacy I'm sending them to the hospital simply for the dramatic effect but maybe I'll have them at home from now on!

[Gulliver the cat!]

I just noticed that if you take your bills out of the mail box they turn colors each day.
Day 1: White
Day 2: Yellow/Orange
Day 3: Red
On the fourth day they disappear and the repoman comes. I usually pay my bills from the mailbox and never noticed this!

[SingleMomSim]

What I do is give one person in the household the "no bills ever" lifetime reward and just make sure there's always someone in the household with that LTR!  That way it's never a worry.  In fact, I often forget they even have a mailbox.  And I'll see that the little flag is up, send a sim to check it, and since the last time it was checked they got all this stuff!

[Chuckles_82]

There is a sign in decor, called "library signpost", which you can recolour with any pattern that you like to make your own sign. The frame and the middle part are the two recolourable channels. With custom patterns, you could make virtually any sign that you want for your sims! If you make a pattern, the image in the middle of your 256x256 should be no more than 200x200 (otherwise it repeats a little on the edges and will look like my trial run here), and you should offset the final product by roughly 128 vertical and 64 horizontal so that it sits right on the sign.

[Frey]

This may have been posted before and it may be pretty obvious, but still...

My sim just made the easiest 110.000 simoleans ever! Sent her to Uni, moved her into the female sorority and sold both cars. From broke to millionaire in a few secs 

[ladyaya]

This may have been posted before and it may be pretty obvious, but still...

My sim just made the easiest 110.000 simoleans ever! Sent her to Uni, moved her into the female sorority and sold both cars. From broke to millionaire in a few secs 

That's not quite a millionaire yet....

[Frey]

Well, I guess that's true, but for my sims it kind of is... I'm kind of lazy when it comes to making money for them  .

[Lytaren]

I just noticed a week or so ago that the traits in your sims trait panel light up/become highlighted when they are being used. Eg. When an athletic sim goes jogging, artistic sim paints, etc.

[Schipperke]

There is a sign in decor, called "library signpost", which you can recolour with any pattern that you like to make your own sign. The frame and the middle part are the two recolourable channels. With custom patterns, you could make virtually any sign that you want for your sims! If you make a pattern, the image in the middle of your 256x256 should be no more than 200x200 (otherwise it repeats a little on the edges and will look like my trial run here), and you should offset the final product by roughly 128 vertical and 64 horizontal so that it sits right on the sign.

Chuckles, that is really interesting!  I didn't know we could create our own signs, and I love the idea!  I wish I knew how to use Create-a-Pattern now. 

[Dellena]

Ever wanted to do certain screenshots of your sims and they get in just the right position but then a big ugly thought bubble messes it all up?  Here's the fix.

Before you start setting up the screenshot(s), use this cheat:

HideHeadlineEffects On

This will hide thought bubbles and the blue plus signs.