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The Sims: Legacy Edition comes loaded with all the original expansion packs, like Livin’ Large, Hot Date, and House Party. As the name suggests, House Party introduced the party mechanic to The Sims franchise, allowing your Sims to host ragers (of varying levels of success).
As with many things in The Sims, hosting a good party is tougher than you might expect. Notably, The Sims: House Party doesn’t offer any clear goals to help you host the best party you can, so you need to be ready to do a lot of guesswork. Or, you can just keep an eye out for party crashers.
How To Throw A Party
Your Sim needs to own a phone to throw a party. If your household doesn’t already have one, head to Buy Mode and get one from the electronics section. Select the phone and choose Throw Party.
When you throw a party, guests will start to head over straight away. You can’t plan them in advance, so only use this interaction when you’re ready to go. You also don’t get to choose the guestlist.
If there’s a specific Sim that you want as a party guest, don’t just put the green light on and hope they show up – invite them over with the Call Neighbour interaction on the phone.
Throwing parties can be a great way of getting to know your neighbours and some local Townies when your Sim doesn’t have many friends yet. It’s also a useful way of filling their social need when your neighbours don’t want to chat on the phone.
Make sure you greet your guests when they arrive, otherwise they might turn around and go straight home. If you miss your chance, just throw another party. Thankfully, they’re free to host, so it’s not too big of a deal.
Hiring Services For Your Party
Since you’re on the phone anyway, now’s a good time to hire any services you might want. You could call for pizza or hire a caterer to take care of any buffet tables and punchbowls you might have to keep your guests well-fed and watered.
Select the phone again, but this time, use the Services interaction. This will open a sub-menu where you can hire a caterer for 350 Simoleons, or get pizza for 40 Simoleons. The caterer needs a buffet table and/or punchbowl to work, but feeds more Sims than the pizza.
The caterer charges a flat fee and will refill the buffet table and punchbowl as many times as needed without any extra charges. If you fill them yourself, it will cost 100 and 25 Simoleons respectively each time.
How To Throw Themed Parties
Sims can host themed or costume parties if they own the Porta-Parody Costume Trunk. Purchase the costume trunk from Buy Mode, place it in world, and get a Sim to use the Open Trunk interaction. Once the trunk is open, click on it again and select Dress In.
This will open up a sub-menu with all the available themes:
- Beachwear
- Clubwear
- Costumes
- Disco
- Formalwear
- Swimsuits
- Togas
- Westernwear
After a costume theme has been chosen, your household and guests will go and change into the relevant outfits. Make sure you don’t do this until your guests have arrived and made it into the house, otherwise half your guests might be underdressed.
Tips For Throwing A Good Party
The best ways of throwing a good party is by making sure your guests’ needs are met, and nailing your timing so guests have a chance to enjoy themselves before heading home to hit the hay.
Sims can only autonomously fill their needs if the right items are available, so make sure your house is well-equipped when you throw a party. Thankfully, if you find that you’re missing anything, you can open Buy Mode at any time.
At a minimum, parties should have food, entertainment, and bathroom facilities. This helps to satisfy your guests’ hunger, fun, bladder, and hygiene needs. Parties will also run better if the area is appropriately decorated and Sims have somewhere to sit, filling their room and comfort needs respectively.
Food Items For Parties
The best way of feeding a lot of Sims at once is by using a buffet table. You can find a few in Buy Mode under Misc Appliances. The Punchucopia Extraordinaria drinks fountain can also be found here and is great for parties. Sims can fill the tables themselves or hire a caterer.
Caterers also help to clean up any food-related messes, so you don’t need to worry about overflowing bins or messy Sims when they’re around. It’s expensive, but worthwhile if you really want to throw a good party.
Fun Items For Parties
The whole point of a party is to have fun, so turn the stereo on. Better yet, make sure your stereo is high-quality, or buy a DJ booth. Higher quality items fill needs much quicker, so a good sound system is a great way of keeping party guests happy and occupied.
If you want your music to go even further, buy some speaker stacks and place them around the room. Once your Sim has switched their stereo on, they’ll be able to turn the speakers on too. They’ll play whichever station the stereo is playing.
Dancefloors and cages also help to increase fun. Sims will often use them autonomously, so it’s a good idea to dedicate a lot of space to your Sim’s dancefloor if possible. You can find them in Buy Mode under the Entertainment section of Electronics.
Other items that can help make parties better include hot tubs, which increase comfort, fun, and hygiene, and group activities like darts, pool tables, or foosball. House Party introduces a lot of new group activities with the express purpose of entertaining guests in mind.
Try to buy the WhirlWizard Hot Tub or Jewel in the Crown Spa Tub since they can seat up to four guests at a time, while the others can only fit two.
Bathrooms At Parties
Bathrooms become a regular issue at parties, so if your household can afford them, it’s worth investing in a few portapotties and extra sinks.
The B.A. Drain Outhouse 3000 and ResiStall Parti-Potti are both useful items for parties and other crowded lots. They give your Sims some privacy, and you don’t need to worry about space since they can just be put in the garden.
If your Sim’s house already has a bunch of bathrooms, it could be okay, but if you only have one or two then you’ll find they get crowded really fast. One of the easiest ways of accidentally ruining a party is by failing to have enough toilets.
How To Decorate For Parties
Try to make sure the area is nicely decorated to keep the room motive high. If you’re partying in the garden, then a few flamingos are a cost-efficient way of keeping the score up.
Balloon sculptures are a cheap alternative to flamingos that can be placed indoors. You can always sell any decorations you buy after the party if you want to make some money back, or you could cheat for extra bucks.
If the room score stays low, make sure there’s no pet urine at the corners of the lot and open up your Magic Box. The box is programmed to decrease the room need as a way of encouraging players to open it.
What Time Should I Throw A Party?
Make sure you throw your party early enough in the evening (or day) because Sims will start leaving after a certain time because it’s too late. This starts happening around 12am to 1am.
If you’ve hired a caterer, he’ll clock off around 12am too, so don’t hire him too late in the night or you’ll waste your money.
To make the most of your party, consider starting in the afternoon or early evening. That way guests have the chance to hang around before they get too tired.
How To Tell If You Have Thrown A Good Party
You’ll know you’re having a good party when Whose Line alumnus Drew Carey shows up in his limo. All your guests will freak out and run outside to see his limo, and a pop-up will appear mentioning that Drew’s agent said he had to come down.
Drew Carey’s Sim was given different names in different localisations, so depending on your version of the game, he might be called something else. He also only appears as Drew Carey in the pop-up. When you hover over his Sim, it just says Drew The Celebrity.
Your Sims won’t be able to talk to Drew, but they can listen when he talks to them. You’ll also sometimes get pop-ups with different lines of dialogue from him for the entire time he’s a guest. He’ll interact with other guests and NPCs sometimes, too.
On the other hand, you’ll know your party sucks if a mime shows up and starts annoying your guests. You can ask them to leave, but they won’t go until everyone is having fun again. Socialise with your guests and try doing group activities until the mime leaves.
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