Important Things To Know About The Sims 2!

The Sims 2 Gameplay Differences

The Sims 2 released almost 20 years ago, and things were very different back then. Many things you might take for granted in newer games don’t exist there. For example, there are a lot of functions you’re used to having in TS4 that had to be done via cheats in TS2. If I can offer you one piece of advice though, make sure your lots have smoke detectors and burglar alarms!

You can find an in-depth comparison between all 4 of The Sims mainline games here.

The Sims 2 Cheats

Like any Sims game this one has cheats, but a lot of abilities you’re used to from newer releases have to be done via cheat codes in TS2. The keyboard command CTRL + Shift + C is still the same when it comes to opening the cheat console on PC.

Here are some of the most useful cheats for The Sims 2:

• boolProp testingCheatsEnabled [true/false] enables/disables cheats.
• moveObjects on/off is the same familiar cheat you know and love that allows you to place items outside of the game’s restrictions.
• boolProp snapObjectsToGrid true/false will free objects from the grid, like the ALT key does for TS4.
• boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true/false enables you to turn items on a diagonal with the < and > keys in Buy Mode. Unlike modern Sims games, originally items in TS2 could only be placed facing the four cardinal directions.
• setQuarterTilePlacement [on/off] lets you place items on quarter tiles, like how the F5 key works in TS4.
• roofSlopeAngle [15-75] changes the angle of the roofing on the lot, from 15 to 75 degrees.
  • IndividualRoofSlopeAngle [15-75] allows you to adjust the angle of individual roof pieces by entering the cheat and then holding CTRL + ALT while clicking on the roof section to be adjusted.
• kaching gives the household §1,000.
• motherlode gives the household §50,000.
• familyFunds [family last name] [#] gives the household whatever amount of simoleons you’ve entered in the # spot.
• intProp maxNumOfVisitingSims [#] changes the number of sims able to visit the current lot. Change the # to a number of your choice, but bear in mind that the more sims on the lot the more the game may lag.
• boolProp carsOnRight true/false if you’re from a country where cars drive on the left, using “false” with this cheat will change what side of the road cars will travel on in Neighborhood view.
• changeLotZoning [residential | community | greek | dorm | secretsociety| apartmentbase] will change lot types when in Build/Buy mode. Unlike newer games, The Sims 2 didn’t have a way to change the lot type via menu so you’d need to enter this cheat if you wanted the lot to be recognized as a different type.
• maxMotives works like the “Make Happy” mailbox cheat in TS4.
• boolProp controlPets [true/false] toggles the ability to control Pets.
• help lists some, but not all cheats.

You can find more information, along with lots of other cheats for The Sims 2 on the the Sims Wiki!

Make Things Easier With A UserStartup.Cheat File

Certain cheats you may find you want active at all times, such as boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true or setQuarterTilePlacement [on]. Or, you may find that cheats like these are too long to remember and you want to make a shortened version of them, called an “alias.”

By creating a UserStartup.cheat file, you can tell the game to automatically run certain cheats whenever you start up the game, and recognize your shortcut aliases as full-fledged cheat codes. So for example, in my UserStartup.cheat file I shortened moveObjects on to “move+” and moveObjects off to “move-” which are much less tedious to enter.

In order to keep this post from getting too long we’re not going to get into the details of how to make a UserStartup.cheat file here, but the Sims Wiki has an informative guide on how to do it.

The Sims 2 CC & Mods

Believe it or not, there is still an active modding community for The Sims 2! Here are just a few places to look for TS2 mods.

• Fia’s Finds has nearly 500 pages of CC finds
• linacheries Sims 2 CC Finds has been collecting Sims 2 CC since 2016
• beansts2CC shares all the CC he uses in his own game
• PleasantSims Sims 2 Recommended Mods List has a huge variety of mods to make the gameplay experience better, and it’s broken up into categories so you can find just what you need
• Andreva Sims TS2 Quality Of Life Mods is full of mods that are borderline necessary to make The Sims 2 perform as well as it should
• Antka’s Defaults has Default Replacements for lots of vanilla and CC meshes
• PlatinumAspiration has, among other things, a whole collection of replacement hairs based on TS4 styles
• Sims 2 Sliders adds more options to the in-game slider menus

Many websites you know and love today have existed for a long time, with older content spanning all The Sims main titles. These include TSR, ModTheSims, and AroundTheSims. I personally have a collection of modded CAS screens I created for the game still available on ModTheSims!

Final Thoughts

This is just a fraction of what you’ll want to know/learn for a successful experience playing The Sims 2. Luckily there’s still a thriving community of TS2 players out there so there are plenty of resources for you, not to mention the in-game tutorials.

Old school simmers, did we miss anything important? Is there a resource you swear by that you want us to share? If so, please let us know in the comments!

We hope that you have a blast playing The Sims 2 and that this post gave you some useful information on how to enjoy it even further. Stay tuned for a post about The Sims 1 soon.

Happy simming!

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