Which cheats and why?

I do Legacies. Cheating is only allowed under 2 conditions.

1. You can cheat down money if you move in a spouse who is "too rich."
2. You can use a cheat to fix a bug, like ResetSims.

When moving a family into a new house, shift+ctrl+c should bring up the cheat window as usual and just type in freerealestate on. Testing cheats in Live mode is activated through shift+ctrl+c and typing testingcheats on.

To answer your question, I occasionally use skill cheats for my toddlers with the UI Cheats Extension mod, and also use it to cheat down motives if sims are too happy or boost friendships quickly. I don't use 'motherlode' as often as I used to, which is good :D

I don't use cheats at all other than the bb.moveobjects on, which I don't count because it's not part of gameplay. I just personally love earning everything in my game and having to work for simoleons to buy that house my sims always wanted as well as working hard to keep the needs up help me stay interested in the game.

If I absolutely must, in order to get things rolling, I’ll use freerealestate. Usually it’s to enhance an established game and is for a side family or something.
Or in the recent case of one YA move, it was to move the family back into their original house (I moved them all out in order to take some of the furniture with me, does that make sense?)
I used the money cheat to take away most of the unexpected financial windfall my YA received from this process.

I use moveobjects all-the-time. Love it!

I don't use them for personal advantage, but I use them to set up the world around my sims. I don't like for everyone to be a completely blank slate from the start. If I want a certain family in the neighborhood to be rich, or have someone be at the top of their career or maxed out in a certain skill, I'll cheat it for them as long as I won't be playing them.

I also use cheats to counter bugs when necessary.

I do what I want :D
I have never liked the term “cheating” in the Sims. How do you cheat in a game you can’t “win”? Anyway.. I just come up with how I want my stories to play out in my head, and “cheat” when needed.

I have the UI extensions cheat and use it for adjusting motives. Sometimes I'll decrease the energy for my toddler and send her to bed when I want to concentrate on another sim. Or I'll increase motives on a sim if I want them to complete a task.

"Cupid;c-16681671" wrote:
I don't use them for personal advantage, but I use them to set up the world around my sims. I don't like for everyone to be a completely blank slate from the start. If I want a certain family in the neighborhood to be rich, or have someone be at the top of their career or maxed out in a certain skill, I'll cheat it for them as long as I won't be playing them.

I also use cheats to counter bugs when necessary.

That’s exactly the reasons I use cheats. I like a variety of Sims in my neighborhoods.

I use moveobjects and showhiddenobjects all the time when building. I also will use the money cheat and the cheat to fill needs and disable their decay when moving in a tester Sim for builds. I also use headlineeffects off when taking screenshots. I have used cas.fulleditmode to fix disasterous looking townies and sometimes when one of my Sims ages up in an unfortunate way. I have used the cheat to change Sims' career outfits too if they come home in some outlandish get-up. Lastly, I've used the enablefreebuild cheat on hidden lots to build on them.

When the Never Needs Sleep reward trait was borked a long time ago and before they updated reward traits, I would use the fillmotive cheat on a Sim who had bought that reward whenever their sleep need went down. I didn't see it as cheating though, just allowing my Sim the perks of that reward as originally intended. I don't use that one now though.

Sometimes when necessary, I'll use the resetsims cheat when they are glitching/bugged. That happens rarely in my game though.

So yeah, I use cheats, but not excessively in gameplay, mostly build mode. Plus, they're all in-game available from testingcheats. I don't have any gameplay enhancing Mods and never have had any.

Happy Simming! <3

"Kita5399;c-16681687" wrote:
I have never liked the term “cheating” in the Sims. How do you cheat in a game you can’t “win”?

Very well said. :)

As for my gameplay, I use some cheats regularly.

• move objects for decorating purposes
  
• full edit in CAS for townies, but only for their appearance and bodyshape.
  
• I like to create neighbours and friends for my sims. I use free realestate or money cheats for those unplayed households.
  

For played households I never use cheats that help my sims to advance in skills, jobs, money or anything gameplay related.