How do I acquire and maintain friends?

Question

(1) Some people are just mean. It's hard to start to build a good relationship with them. It seems the only thing that I can do is keep using the safe Talk option with them and hope it slowly edges our relationship status up until I can unlock some more powerful socialization options. How do you think that should I start?

(2) Promotions can require having a certain number of friends. I feel like I can't fit enough socialization into my Sim's day, let alone maintain the formidable 8 friends to get promoted to Business Tycoon at the top of the Business career track. What should I do?

I think it's rather important to denote that this is The Sims 2 (TS2) for consoles (in particular, the Nintendo GameCube), because I think The Sims 2 is rather different between console and PC.

Answer 1

• Use aphrodisiac meals to put the target in a good mood. Giving the meal to the target raises the relationship and they will want to eat it.

• Couches can become social machines. Trap a Sim on a couch. Block their one-tile exit. Now, any Sims seated with them will talk with them, at NO loss, raising their relationship, albeit slowly, AND filling the Social meter.

• Marry to obtain control of another Sim. Divorcées can still be controlled afterward. This is useful when the target is in a good enough relationship to get married to another Sim that you control, but you want to befriend them with another Sim.

• Although socialization with ghost interactions have 0 base consequences (by themselves, they'll never improve or worsen a relationship), socialization with ghosts can still benefit from relationship meter bonuses (i.e., +1 for being on good terms in the past) which results in 100% win for easy relationship building.

• Another way of avoiding the post-four-wins-streak loss of social interactions is to perform the social interactions outside of Direct Control mode.

• Cultivate a graveyard garden of friendship. Mourning a Sim raises your relationship with them (as long as they're not on your lot). You can mourn them for as long as your Fun is not low enough. Is it possible to mourn urns, as well as memorials? Yes.

How to kill:

• Main method: starvation: Get target on couch or bed. Trap the target by blocking their exit (such as with a cheap waste-basket). Wait until they are sure to die from starvation once they awake, then release them to die to get a tombstone of them. The visiting Sims in my games have nightmares about garbage cans until they die from hunger.
• If you're looking to kill a Sim that you control, trap them in sleep in a bed because this allows you to fast-fast-forward when all controllable Sims sleep, speeding up the starvation process.