What can I say about "The Sims". It's a worldwide phenomenon, a game where the player controls the lives of little computer generated people, which means that you basically get to play God, who wouldn't want to play? I'm personally a huge fan of The Sims and all of it's expansion packs and it's sequel "The Sims 2" and it's expansion packs. One thing almost all gamers love is cheat codes, and "Simmers" are no different. Here's a list of some popular cheats for The Sims, not the expansions or the sequel just the original. I'll be getting cheats for those games later.
To open the cheat code window, press the Ctrl+Shift+C buttons on your keyboard and a screen will appear at the top of the screen. For those who don't know, Simoleons are the currency the Sims use.
1000 Simoleons (unpatched game version): klapaucius
1000 Simoleons (patched game version): rosebud
Add new family history stat to the current family: hist_add
Appends the route destination list to AllRoutes.txt every time a route is found: write_destlist
Architecture tools automatically set the level as needed: auto_level
Automatically import and load indicated FAM file: import [FAM file]
Automatically load indicated house, no questions asked: house [house number]
Check and fix required lot objects: prepare_lot
Crash "The Sims" : crash
Create moat or streams: water_tool
Create shrunk_text_#.bmp files: shrink_text
Create-a-character mode: edit_char
Display personality and interests: interests
Draw all animation frames disabled: draw_all_frames off
Draw all animation frames enabled: draw_all_frames on
Draw colored dots at each person's origin: draw_origins
Dump entire memory to core: _dump_.txt core_dump
Dump selected person's most recent list of scored interactions to a file: dump_happy
Dump selected person's motive contribution curve to a file: dump_mc
Enable debug flag to show outcome choice dialogs for social interactions: debug_social
End sim logging: sim_log end
Execute "file.cht" file as a list of cheats: cht
Floorable grid disabled: draw_floorable off
Floorable grid enabled: draw_floorable on
Force an assert for testing: assert
Log animations in the event log window: log_animations
Map editor disabled: map_edit off
Map editor enabled: map_edit on
Move any object: move_objects on
No tutorial object generation when tutorial house is loaded: tutorial off
Prevent web browser crashes: browser_failsafe
Preview animations disabled: preview_anims off
Preview animations enabled: preview_anims on
Programmer stats: tile_info
Quit The Sims: quit
Read in behavior tuning constants from Tuning.txt: #import
Rebuilds entire control panel/UCP from scratch: rebuild_cp
Refresh the BMP_ resources for all people whose IFF files are writable: refresh_faces
Rematch dependent textures and regenerate bitmaps for all user characters: refresh_textures
Restore tutorial: restore_tut
Rotate camera: rotation
Routing debug balloons disabled: route_balloons off
Routing debug balloons enabled: route_balloons on
Run series of random operations on unhoused families: fam_test
Save currently loaded house: save
Save family history file: history
Say "plugh": plugh
Say "xyzzy": xyzzy
Selected person's path displayed: draw_routes on
Selected person's path hidden: draw_routes off
Set event logging mask: log_mask
Set free thinking level: autonomy
Set game speed: sim_speed
Set grass change value: edit_grass
Set grass growth: grow_grass
Set lot size: lot_size
Set maximum milliseconds to allow simulator: sim_limit
Set sim speed: sim_speed [-1000 - 1000]
Set time of day (unpatched game version): set_hour
Set z offset for thought bubbles: bubble_tweak [z offset value]
Sets the neighborhood directory to the path: [directory path]
Sets up the borders of the lot with non-editable flag: lot_border [ ]
Sets whether menu items appear for in use: objectsallow_inuse
Show memory view window in debug builds of The Sims: memview
Start sim logging: sim_log begin
Swap the two house files and updates families: swap_houses [house number] [house number]
Ticks disabled: sweep off
Ticks enabled: sweep on
Tile information displayed: tile_info on
Tile information hidden: tile_info off
Toggle allowing visitors to be controlled using the keyboard: visitor_control
Toggle assets report: report_assets
Toggle automatic object reset feature: auto_reset
Toggle calls to PeekMessage within sim loop: sim_peek
Toggle camera mode: cam_mode
Toggle display of unavailable interactions in person control menus: all_menus
Toggle music: music
Toggle object compression in save file: obj_comp
Toggle quaternion transformations: quats
Toggle sound log window: sound_log
Toggle sounds: sound
Total reload of people skeletons, animations, suits and skins: reload_people
Trigger sound event: soundevent
Write out an RTE file every time a route is found: write_routes
Write out behavior tuning constants to Tuning.txt: #export Though I suggest playing the game normally if you can, no one can deny the fun of using these cheat codes. They certainly make the game much more interesting. No matter how you play The Sims, I hope you enjoy playing God to all of your little people, but remember, the Sims have feelings to, and they certainly let you know.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Tips to Make Cities More Believable in Your Writing
Creating a world for your story to take place in can be a lot of fun. At come points, a story will take the reader into a city where an adventure or series of adventures will take place. Make sure that your city is realistic before taking your readers there for a visit.
There are certain things that you should know about your city before you decide to write it into your story. By simply following a few guidelines about city-story creation, you will introduce your reader to a location that they can truly relate to.
Population:
How populated is your city? Is it a small town where everyone knows each other? Is it a sprawling city where everyone is insignificant and a number? Is it a midsized town that is used to bridge two major cities?
Population of a city can play a major role in some aspects of storytelling. A busy city is going to have a lot of traffic, and may impeded the character's ability to travel from one area to another. I once read a story where a character was able to travel from one side of Chicago to the other in the span of about ten minutes. Unless you are in a plane, this is impossible.
In the first example, I mentioned a small town were everyone knows everyone else. There should be attention drawn to the main character if she is entering this town for the first time. Most small towns are uncomfortable with strangers unless the town is open to travelers.
Higher populated towns will have a wider variety of items to buy. Have a scene where the main character purchases the latest iPod in the middle of a small hick-town is unrealistic.
Slang:
Many cities will have slang that is not used anywhere else. Take Louisiana for instance. Some people in the northern part of the state have no clue what people are saying in the Bayou. In New Jersey, someone from the city will not be able to have an understandable conversation with someone who grew up in the Pine Barrens.
Lore and Urban Legends:
In big cities you will find urban legends. In small towns, you will find local lore. It might be the house that people will stay away from because it may be haunted. The lore might come in the shape of a giant fish that the locals have been trying to catch for years.
Everyone grew up with some kind of tall tale in their neighborhood. Most of us will still remember these tales years later, and will be able to recite them word for word. Put them in a tale, even if they have nothing to do with your story. It will help the reliability of your story.
Buildings:
Do not put a skyscraper in the middle of a small town in rural America. D not expect your reader to believe that there is a thatch hut in the middle of Manhattan. While being extremes, they point out the same point. Make sure that a building fits an area before attempting to describe it to your reader.
These are just a few tips to keep in mind when creating your next city for your main characters. Many people forget that locations in your story are sometimes as important to the story as the main characters that are visiting them. You spend a lot of time creating the characters. Try to spend a little more on the locations they go to.
There are certain things that you should know about your city before you decide to write it into your story. By simply following a few guidelines about city-story creation, you will introduce your reader to a location that they can truly relate to.
Population:
How populated is your city? Is it a small town where everyone knows each other? Is it a sprawling city where everyone is insignificant and a number? Is it a midsized town that is used to bridge two major cities?
Population of a city can play a major role in some aspects of storytelling. A busy city is going to have a lot of traffic, and may impeded the character's ability to travel from one area to another. I once read a story where a character was able to travel from one side of Chicago to the other in the span of about ten minutes. Unless you are in a plane, this is impossible.
In the first example, I mentioned a small town were everyone knows everyone else. There should be attention drawn to the main character if she is entering this town for the first time. Most small towns are uncomfortable with strangers unless the town is open to travelers.
Higher populated towns will have a wider variety of items to buy. Have a scene where the main character purchases the latest iPod in the middle of a small hick-town is unrealistic.
Slang:
Many cities will have slang that is not used anywhere else. Take Louisiana for instance. Some people in the northern part of the state have no clue what people are saying in the Bayou. In New Jersey, someone from the city will not be able to have an understandable conversation with someone who grew up in the Pine Barrens.
Lore and Urban Legends:
In big cities you will find urban legends. In small towns, you will find local lore. It might be the house that people will stay away from because it may be haunted. The lore might come in the shape of a giant fish that the locals have been trying to catch for years.
Everyone grew up with some kind of tall tale in their neighborhood. Most of us will still remember these tales years later, and will be able to recite them word for word. Put them in a tale, even if they have nothing to do with your story. It will help the reliability of your story.
Buildings:
Do not put a skyscraper in the middle of a small town in rural America. D not expect your reader to believe that there is a thatch hut in the middle of Manhattan. While being extremes, they point out the same point. Make sure that a building fits an area before attempting to describe it to your reader.
These are just a few tips to keep in mind when creating your next city for your main characters. Many people forget that locations in your story are sometimes as important to the story as the main characters that are visiting them. You spend a lot of time creating the characters. Try to spend a little more on the locations they go to.
Property Developer Incentives for Landlords Looking to Invest in New Build Property
Property market gloom throws up incentives for landlords
The gloom surrounding the housing market has caused many potential purchasers to hold back from buying, resulting in sales volumes contracting significantly. This is all hitting house builders hard depressing sales volumes and future profits. We only have to look at the way the share price of the large house builders such as Barratt Developments & Taylor Wimpey have fallen off a cliff to see how bad the market expects things to get.
Despite this property gloom, most builders resist selling at 'silly' prices far below the asking price. Instead they disguise any price reductions by providing incentives to property purchasers and investors.
I decided to have a look at the new housing market and see what types of incentives are available to property investors and where the best deals are in the market. We also ask the question should these incentives be enough to tempt adventurous property investors back into the buy to let market?
The incentives
In recent weeks, there have been reports of discounts on new homes of 30%-plus - particularly in urban centres supposedly crammed with high-rise apartments.
But actually finding bargains on this scale might be difficult. This analysis suggests most builders - at this stage - are simply allowing a bigger margin for haggling over price, and most will look seriously at offers within 5%-10% of the asking price.
However, most are reluctant to entertain price reductions instead preferring to entice purchasers and investor with a range of incentives.
Steven Lees of website Smart New Homes comments that: "there are a lot of incentives out there". The type of incentive will depend on the type of property being sold.
Examples of the incentives developers use are:
* Solicitors fees paid
* Deposit paid on exchange
* Stamp duty paid
* Furnishing packages
* Cash backs
* Discount sales
* Part exchange
* Rent guarantee
How to drive a hard bargain
Many developers will provide a package of these incentives. The other thing landlords need to appreciate is that the type and extent of the incentives being offered even by large national developers will depend on the locality & the specific development. This means in developments where the builders are struggling to sell or only have a few units remaining the incentives are particularly attractive and you as a property investor should be able to drive a hard bargain.
Property investors shouldn't be afraid of negotiating. It's a buyers market out there and developers are in some cases pretty desperate to shift units. The advantage an investor has over a home owner is that because they are not buying a home, they can play developers off against each other for their business. Landlords looking at buying in Reading for instance can express an interest with a number of builders and see which one is prepared to offer the landlord the most attractive incentive to complete.
David Bexon, managing director of Smart New Homes, says:
"House builders are being ever more creative with their incentives, and some of these offers can be a great benefit to buyers, such as 100 per cent part exchange, paying contributions to costs, and the inclusion of all sorts of extras."
The headline news is the return of part exchange, which had been out of favour for several years. The concept here is simple. The developer buys your old home, freeing you to move quickly and secure your new home and cutting out the need for an estate agent. This is obviously attractive in a slow market, particularly for those having trouble selling.
But to use part exchange you must be "upwardly mobile" - your new home must be considerably, usually at least 25 or 30 per cent, more valuable than your present one. The developer will want to sell your house quickly, and so the price on offer may be up to 10 per cent less than the full market value. On the other hand, there are no estate agents' fees, and many people are willing to sacrifice the chance of a few thousand pounds' extra profit to gain a fast, chain-free sale.
Part exchanges are aimed at owner occupiers. However, landlords with an investment property that they are finding difficult to let either because it is in the wrong location, requires updating or are having problems selling may want to consider this as an alternative to trying to sell up completely into a stagnant market. Landlords can potentially use a house builder's keenness to sell their new property on certain developments to unload their investment 'dog'.
The advantage to a property investor is that they get rid of a poor performing property investment relatively easily and replace it with a property that should be highly lettable. In some cases it may even be possible just to transfer a landlords existing buy-to-let mortgage from one property to another without incurring any financial penalties from the btl mortgage lender. A landlord should inquire about the specific details of the buy-to-let mortgage before committing to a property investment.
I would caution against buying an apartment in a city centre. Landlords should instead look at buying small houses in areas of high rental demand.
Guaranteeing a landlord's rent
The other sales incentive that is particularly appealing to a landlord is the rent guarantee. This scheme being run by a number of property developers will guarantee a landlords rental income for a fixed period of time. Taylor Wimpey which owns the Wimpey, Bryant Homes and Laing Home brands to name but a few is offering investors that purchase one of their properties a guaranteed gross rental income of 6% until 2012. This offer is only available on certain development and providing that the landlord uses the nominated letting agent and financial advisor. However, it does insulate a landlord against any void period and 6% gross yield is above the current average. However, a landlord will be hooked into using a nominated letting agent with their management charges likely to be in the order of 12-15% of the gross rent, the resulting net yield is likely to be significantly below this. A landlord purchasing a new property outside a city centre would generally expect it to let well and for their voids to be correspondingly low anyway.
An example of one of the properties being offered with large incentives is a scheme of micro apartments called 'ipads' built by Barratts. The development near Cardiff Bay is being offered with some hefty incentives implying that Barratts are struggling to sell them.
The evidence is that according to a recent report builders may even be succeeding in keeping property investors in the market place by offering these incentives. For the first time in five months, says the journal House Market Report (HMR), demand for new homes from home owners and first time buyers is lower than demand from property investors - though it was widely assumed property investors would quit the market for new homes as soon as prices began to weaken so there is some evidence of property investors being seduced by these deals.
My verdict
Property investors need to be very wary about diving in thinking they have secured a bargain. One thing that property developers won't tell prospective landlords is that new houses tend to be 10-15% more expensive than equivalent 2nd hand properties to start with. This means that any discount will need to be significant to make the figures stack up initially. There are advantages of buying new properties for a landlord, namely the property can be instantly let and should be attractive to professional tenants. However any landlord needs to make sure that they stay focused on the figures and make sure that they have done their investment calculations before committing to anything.
The gloom surrounding the housing market has caused many potential purchasers to hold back from buying, resulting in sales volumes contracting significantly. This is all hitting house builders hard depressing sales volumes and future profits. We only have to look at the way the share price of the large house builders such as Barratt Developments & Taylor Wimpey have fallen off a cliff to see how bad the market expects things to get.
Despite this property gloom, most builders resist selling at 'silly' prices far below the asking price. Instead they disguise any price reductions by providing incentives to property purchasers and investors.
I decided to have a look at the new housing market and see what types of incentives are available to property investors and where the best deals are in the market. We also ask the question should these incentives be enough to tempt adventurous property investors back into the buy to let market?
The incentives
In recent weeks, there have been reports of discounts on new homes of 30%-plus - particularly in urban centres supposedly crammed with high-rise apartments.
But actually finding bargains on this scale might be difficult. This analysis suggests most builders - at this stage - are simply allowing a bigger margin for haggling over price, and most will look seriously at offers within 5%-10% of the asking price.
However, most are reluctant to entertain price reductions instead preferring to entice purchasers and investor with a range of incentives.
Steven Lees of website Smart New Homes comments that: "there are a lot of incentives out there". The type of incentive will depend on the type of property being sold.
Examples of the incentives developers use are:
* Solicitors fees paid
* Deposit paid on exchange
* Stamp duty paid
* Furnishing packages
* Cash backs
* Discount sales
* Part exchange
* Rent guarantee
How to drive a hard bargain
Many developers will provide a package of these incentives. The other thing landlords need to appreciate is that the type and extent of the incentives being offered even by large national developers will depend on the locality & the specific development. This means in developments where the builders are struggling to sell or only have a few units remaining the incentives are particularly attractive and you as a property investor should be able to drive a hard bargain.
Property investors shouldn't be afraid of negotiating. It's a buyers market out there and developers are in some cases pretty desperate to shift units. The advantage an investor has over a home owner is that because they are not buying a home, they can play developers off against each other for their business. Landlords looking at buying in Reading for instance can express an interest with a number of builders and see which one is prepared to offer the landlord the most attractive incentive to complete.
David Bexon, managing director of Smart New Homes, says:
"House builders are being ever more creative with their incentives, and some of these offers can be a great benefit to buyers, such as 100 per cent part exchange, paying contributions to costs, and the inclusion of all sorts of extras."
The headline news is the return of part exchange, which had been out of favour for several years. The concept here is simple. The developer buys your old home, freeing you to move quickly and secure your new home and cutting out the need for an estate agent. This is obviously attractive in a slow market, particularly for those having trouble selling.
But to use part exchange you must be "upwardly mobile" - your new home must be considerably, usually at least 25 or 30 per cent, more valuable than your present one. The developer will want to sell your house quickly, and so the price on offer may be up to 10 per cent less than the full market value. On the other hand, there are no estate agents' fees, and many people are willing to sacrifice the chance of a few thousand pounds' extra profit to gain a fast, chain-free sale.
Part exchanges are aimed at owner occupiers. However, landlords with an investment property that they are finding difficult to let either because it is in the wrong location, requires updating or are having problems selling may want to consider this as an alternative to trying to sell up completely into a stagnant market. Landlords can potentially use a house builder's keenness to sell their new property on certain developments to unload their investment 'dog'.
The advantage to a property investor is that they get rid of a poor performing property investment relatively easily and replace it with a property that should be highly lettable. In some cases it may even be possible just to transfer a landlords existing buy-to-let mortgage from one property to another without incurring any financial penalties from the btl mortgage lender. A landlord should inquire about the specific details of the buy-to-let mortgage before committing to a property investment.
I would caution against buying an apartment in a city centre. Landlords should instead look at buying small houses in areas of high rental demand.
Guaranteeing a landlord's rent
The other sales incentive that is particularly appealing to a landlord is the rent guarantee. This scheme being run by a number of property developers will guarantee a landlords rental income for a fixed period of time. Taylor Wimpey which owns the Wimpey, Bryant Homes and Laing Home brands to name but a few is offering investors that purchase one of their properties a guaranteed gross rental income of 6% until 2012. This offer is only available on certain development and providing that the landlord uses the nominated letting agent and financial advisor. However, it does insulate a landlord against any void period and 6% gross yield is above the current average. However, a landlord will be hooked into using a nominated letting agent with their management charges likely to be in the order of 12-15% of the gross rent, the resulting net yield is likely to be significantly below this. A landlord purchasing a new property outside a city centre would generally expect it to let well and for their voids to be correspondingly low anyway.
An example of one of the properties being offered with large incentives is a scheme of micro apartments called 'ipads' built by Barratts. The development near Cardiff Bay is being offered with some hefty incentives implying that Barratts are struggling to sell them.
The evidence is that according to a recent report builders may even be succeeding in keeping property investors in the market place by offering these incentives. For the first time in five months, says the journal House Market Report (HMR), demand for new homes from home owners and first time buyers is lower than demand from property investors - though it was widely assumed property investors would quit the market for new homes as soon as prices began to weaken so there is some evidence of property investors being seduced by these deals.
My verdict
Property investors need to be very wary about diving in thinking they have secured a bargain. One thing that property developers won't tell prospective landlords is that new houses tend to be 10-15% more expensive than equivalent 2nd hand properties to start with. This means that any discount will need to be significant to make the figures stack up initially. There are advantages of buying new properties for a landlord, namely the property can be instantly let and should be attractive to professional tenants. However any landlord needs to make sure that they stay focused on the figures and make sure that they have done their investment calculations before committing to anything.
Property Developer Incentives for Landlords Looking to Invest in New Build Property
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