The Sims 2: Nightlife/Dates

Dating is a new way in The Sims 2 Nightlife to improve a relationship between two sims. With the attraction and chemistry system introduced in this expansion pack, improving your romance should be a breeze. In this article, we reveiw date mechanics to help you utilise this new system to your advantage.

Who to Date
Firstly, you have to choose who you want to date. Since dating is a romantic action, you can only date sims that you can have a romantic relationship with(e.g. Teens can only date teens. Adults can't date children). You can't date blood relatives either. Other than these restrictions, you can date whoever you want.

Starting the Date
There are four ways to get a date. Asking for a blind date gives you a random sim. This sim will not be in a commited relationship with any other sim.
 * Ask...On Date. Asking in person.
 * Call...Ask Out On Date. Asking over the phone.
 * Being asked by another sim over the phone.
 * Ask for Blind Date. Interaction on the Gypsy Matchmaker.

Choosing a location
Your sims can date anywhere except the secret society lot included with The Sims 2 University. If you date at a residential lot, the other sim will come to you. If you date at a community lot, you must drive there. If you don't get going within the hour, then the other sim will decide that he or she has been stood up. Standing up has negative effects on a relationship.

Dating
You can keep track of the date with the date metre. From a glance it tells you: The date score is divided into seven sections, each which represent how well the date is going. When the date starts the score starts in the middle. If it reaches the exact bottom, the date ends. During a date points are added or subtracted for almost every event involving your sim. The date score also exists as an invisible number plane ranging from 0 to 1000. With 0 at the bottom of the Horrible rating and 1000 at the top of the Dream Date rating. The main type of event that can happen is a social interaction between two sims. Every social interaction has a base score that is multiplied with the relationship score gained or lost to produce a number of points that are added to the date score. This score is then altered by personality and aspiration. When an event happens, personality will adjust the score. A sim with personality on one extreme (e.g. Outgoing/Shy 10) will provide maximum points while a sim on the other extreme (e.g. Outgoing/Shy 0) will subtract maximum points. How much points are added or lost depends on the personality score. This is accessible through the simology panel
 * The current date score.
 * How much time you have.
 * The dates identity.
 * The dates aspiration.
 * The dates wants and fears.

Date Events
The following table is a list of social interactions and their effect on the date score. There are too many social interactions in The Sims 2 to list here so instead, only social interaction types will be listed. Effect 1 means that the relationship change for both sims will be added to the date score. Effect 2 means that the relationship change is also added but is doubled as well for the date score. If the interaction decreases relationship, the date score will also be decreased. These interactions also affect the date score but include personality and aspiration boosts. Unlike the previous table there is no effect 1, effect 2, etc. Each interaction has a base score which personality and aspiration add to. The score for personality shows the maximum available. To acheive this, personality must have a score of 10. The penalty means that the score will be the value shown if the personality is 0. This base score also assumes that the interaction is between the two dating sims(with the exception of the Bite Neck interaction).