TUTORIAL - FREE TIME Free Time is the 7th expansion pack of Sims 2. With Free Time your Sims can practice ten different hobbies with a lot of different activities. Your Sims now can spend their free time on the things they would love to do the most. When you let them do art, dancing, eating nice food or practice science, they will always find a hobby to get wild about. Try some hobbies or let your Sim specialize in the one thing he/she has a natural thing for, and benefit from the fruits of a well spent free time!   Hobby enthusiasm Your sims can now develop enthusiasm for hobbies. By interacting with objects that are associated with certain hobbies, your Sims can increase their enthusiasm for a particular hobby and unlock new interactions. The more your Sims are interested, the harder they will have to work to keep the level high. So make sure they have time practise their passion. Every Sim has one hobby that they are destined for and they will gain interest in it faster than they will in any other hobby.   Natural Some activities are more natural to your Sim than others. If your Sims discover a hobby that really suits them, they will let you know that they like the hobby very much. In the panel ‘Hobby enthusiasm’ you can see how enthusiastic your Sim is about the hobby. If one of the hobbies has a silver glowing border, it means that your Sim has a natural thing for it. It may be possible that you have to try some different hobbies before you will discover what your Sim really likes.   The Zone Sims that are really enthusiastic about a particular hobby can get ‘in the zone’. When their enthusiasm for a hobby has reached the maximum level and they are performing an interaction related to that hobby, they will forget about anything around them. You will be able to tell that your Sim is in the Zone by the glow that surrounds the Sim. The needs of your Sims also decrease less fast if your Sims have a buzz, resulting in more time to practice the hobby without interruptions.   Sharing interests Your Sims can share their new interests with the other Sims. By sharing your favorite hobbies, you can reinforce the relationships with the other Sims, make new friends and even teach others about your new hobby.   Secret lots (clubs) If your Sims reach a certain amount of enthusiasm for a hobby (earn points for enthusiasm), your Sim will be visited by a representative of the secret club of that hobby. He/she will invite your Sim to the club via a special membership card, which will appear in the ‘Hobby-enthusiasm’ panel. Your Sim now can visit the secret lot that goes along with the hobby. On a secret lot your Sims can find objects which will increase the enthusiasm even more. Your Sim can also meet helpful hobbyists who can help you with the hobby. If your Sim would like to, he/she can ask a friend to join him/her to the secret lot, even if that Sim is not a member. This is also the only way to let Sim kids visit the secret lots.   Hobbies and interests Here are a few hobbies with what your Sim should do to increase the enthusiasm for that hobby.     Hobbies Activities for increasing enthusiasm Music & Dance Ballet dancing, play the violin, synthesizer, learning toddlers songs.   Arts & Crafts Making pottery, sewing, making lists, playing at the activity table (toddlers) Sports Shooting penalties, basketbal etc. Fitness Running, hometrainer Science Ant farm, telescope Nature Observing birds, collect bugs etc. Games Playing videogames, boardgames Cuisine Cooking competitions, nectarbar, food plateaus Tinkering Tinkering, radiographic controllable vehicles, model train etc. Films and  literature Reading, bookclub, writing a novel, watching movies etc.     New careers There are five new careers added:   Entertainer  - Charismatic Sims who love the spot light will shine in this career. Beginning as a standup comedian, your Sim strives to amuse the masses. If they work their way up the entire entertainment ladder, they reach the magical status of Prestidigitator.   Dancer  - Your Sim starts off trimming their neighbors’ tummies as an aerobics instructor but with the right skill set, they can dance their way to World Class Ballet Dancer.    Architect  - Starting out as a cement mixer lays the foundation for this career. With dedication your Sims can improve their Mechanical and Logic skills to build up to become a celebrated City Planner.   Intelligence  - Your Sims get their start as a Gumshoe. If they can improve their information gathering techniques enough, maybe they will become the Head of the SCIA. Not that we could tell you if they did.   Oceanographer  - From a humble beginning as a fish chummer all the way to becoming The Hand of Poseidon, this is a career for Sims who love the sea.      Other new items   Lifetime Aspiration Your Sim now also has a lifetime aspiration meter. The higher you keep your Aspiration *by fulfilling wants on a daily basis,), the quicker your Lifetime Aspiration will increase. You can also receive Lifetime Aspiration points for certain important milestones, such as learning to walk, getting married or having a child. As the Lifetime Aspiration meter fills up, you will receive more points to spend on Lifetime Aspiration Benefits.     Aspiration Benefits and Secondary Aspiration After reaching certain levels of the long-term aspiration meter, your Sim will receive apsriation benefit points that can be used to obtain aspiration benefits. There are many different benefits that can help your Sim manage needs, work, and other things! These benefits can be purchased with aspiration benefit points by opening the aspiration rewards panel and clicking on the Aspiration Benefits button. Among these benefits is a special benefit: Secondary Aspiration. This benefit will allow your Sim to pick a secondary aspiration that will compliment your Sim’s primary aspiration with additional requirements.     Listen to your baby Sim parents can now even take better care of their baby’s by clicking on the option ‘Study../Parenting’ at the bookcase. If your Sims totally understand the babies, they can use ‘check on ..’ to check the baby (if it needs food or a diaper change). At that moment a ‘thinking balloon’ will appear above the baby’s head, showing the most urgent needs of the baby at that moment. Now you no longer have to guess at what your baby needs.   More new options -          Your Sims can now max. take three friends (NPC’s) with them when they enter a new life phase. -          New clothes (that suit your Sims’ hobby) -          Going easier to other lots (linking other neighbourhoods) -          Make your own radiostations with your own music. Put your MP3 files in the folder EA GAMES/De sims2/Music under a category. Start the game and go to the audio options. Choose custom radio stations and make your own playlist.     Magical genie lamp Your Sims can now be visited by a mysterious gypsy who has a genie lamp. The more sims present at your lot, talking about their hobby, the bigger the chance that she will drop by. With the right help, your Sim will get three wishes, but be careful what you wish for!     Cheats -          Building : Open the cheat window (ctr shift c) Type modifyNeighborhoodTerrain on In the window and go to the area that you’d like to make higher or lower. Mark the part (click and drag the mouse, like you do when you put a carpet in the room) and push  [  or ]  to raise or lower the terrain. Push on \  to egalize the terrain and push P to flatten the terrain. Finished? Deactivate the cheat (off instead of on).   -          Genie lamp:   Type boolprop testingcheatsenabled true in the neigborhood. Go to the lot of your Sim. Hold shift whilst clicking on your Sim. Search for spawn and then Genie lamp. Click on it, now you have the lamp to fulfill wishes, but be careful at the wish you are going to choose, each one has it’s own disadvantages.