The Sims 3 Tips & Tricks

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[City Builder]

Feel free to use this thread for a tips & tricks thread. 

I'll get it kicked off...

Maybe some of you know this already, but for those that don't...  You can make coloring multiple items much simpler by recoloring the first one, and then grab and drag the color palette onto the next object you want to have those same colors.  Very useful for things such as chairs that you want to all be the same color.

What is the color palette?  See screenshot attached.
In the screen shot below you'll notice that my cursor is holding onto the color palette that I pulled away from the main recoloring tool, and the chair at the end of the table there is highlighted, it is because I've placed the color palette pull away tool ontop of that chair, when I release the mouse button then that chair will have the new recolored properties.

I also use this at times if I want to keep a certain color scheme in a room, then I might recolor my countertops a certain color, then use this method to recolor things like the dining table or maybe a rug on the floor etc since it will have inherited the color palette that I was using and then only needs some fine tuning.

[crowebird]

Probably a really basic tip, but if you hit tab you get a free roam camera view, pretty interesting for getting really close and personal and see more from your sims perspective.

[City Builder]

Thanks Crowebird, I had no idea, I'm gonna have to try that out.

I think the game actually becomes more enjoyable with the user of cheats to unlock certain features that for one reason or another have to be unlocked through cheat codes:

During gameplay press [ctrl]+[shift]+C to open the cheat console and type the following to turn cheats on:

testingcheatsenabled - testing cheats on objects

[If you have Vista and you can not get the bar to show you need to press Ctrl Alt Windows (should be next to ALT button) and C all at once. Then you may enter any cheat you want]
After enabling the test cheats, you can use any of these cheats:

Cheat Code - Result

help - Display most cheats
Kaching - 1,000 more Simoleons
Motherlode - 50,000 more Simoleons
shazaam - +2,500 lifetime happiness points to active Sim  (reported as non working by many people)
freerealestate - Ignore the cost when buying a lot   Very useful if you want to move a new sim into an expensive house that they can't afford
modify traits - Set or clear traits
add to household - Add active Sim to current household
set age [number] - Set age of the Sim
edit in cas - Take the Sim back to Create-a-Sim
set career [career/level] - Give selected Sim a career
force opportunity - Click career building you work at to force an opportunity
force event - Click career building you work at to force an event
force all events - Click career building to display all events for the career consecutively
force service sim [name] - Force a specific service Sim to appear
force visitor - Forces a neighbor to show up
make me know everyone - Selected Sim knows every other Sim
make friends for me - Make several random friends for selected Sim
make happy - Sets all mood/moodlets for everyone in the house to perfect; removes negative moodlets
make motives [static or dynamic] - Set motives static or dynamic for entire household
unlockOutfits [on or off] - View career outfits and service uniforms [Note 1]
moveObjects [on or off] - No limitations for placing/moving objects Probably the most useful cheat code to use when building a house, it's only with this code that you can really achieve custom built homes in my opinion.
resetSim [first name] [last name] - Return Sims to safe and neutral state at home
constrainFloorElevation [true or false] - Force terrain adjustments regardless of objects, Sims, and other structures The 2nd most useful cheat code to use if you really want to customize your house and landscape.  This has allowed people to build beautiful arched bridges that couldn't otherwise be built
disableSnappingToSlotsOnAlt [on or off] - Objects will not snap to slots while holding [Alt]
fadeObjects [on or off] - Objects fade when camera gets close to them
snapObjectsToAngle [true or false] - Toggle 45 degree angle object snap
snapObjectsToGrid [true or false] - Toggle snap to grid for placed objects
hideHeadlineEffects [on or off] - Show talk/thought balloons above Sim's head
jokePlease - Print random joke to console
enablellamas [on or off] - Llamas enabled message
slowMotionViz: [0-8] - Slow motion visuals; 0 is normal, 8 is slowest
testingCheatsenabled [true or false] - Enable testing cheats [Note 2]
fps [on or off] - Toggle framerate display at top right
fullscreen [on or off] - Full screen
quit - Quit the game