Hi. Like the thread title says, I'm a newbie to Sims 3 and I have several questions. One of them needs a little backstory: at my house we have two computers. Mine has Windows 7 and can play and run Sims 1 and 2 (which my mom and I both love), but my mom's has Windows 8 and she's had a lot of trouble trying to run and play them. She bought Sims 3- it was a nice deal; it came bundled with Late Night (which I haven't installed yet) and High-End Loft Stuff (which I probably never will install; it's not to either of our tastes). I installed the base game for her, but since I'm her Sims IT person she'd rather I get a good handle on the game and have the needed hacks installed before she starts playing it.

(And yes, I've read the stickied "I just bought the game, what mods do I absolutely need?" thread and have installed Nraas' Overwatch, ErrorTrap, and MasterController, although I don't really know what I'm doing with them yet. I can do a few things with MasterController, like loading up the CAS screen to edit sims, which is very helpful- I don't like what EAxis did with Gunther and Cornelia Goth, for example! I haven't installed StoryProgression; it just seems like a big headache that I don't want to mess with yet, so I turned aging off and Maxis story progression off.)

I'm really enjoying it, especially after installing that coffee hack! But one of the problems is my mom is overwhelmed with the whole idea of the game, so, question one:

1. How would you ease someone into playing Sims 3 and how would you make it as simple as possible?

2. I've noticed that some sims enjoy the movies I send them to while others don't. I'm guessing this has to do with the genre of the movie? (Lisa Bunch seems to like thrillers, LOL!) If so, what sims like which genres of movie?

3. More on that- what sims get their fun boost from doing which things? I know that, for example, sims with the Green Thumb trait enjoy (to a too-small extent- c'mon, EAxis!) gardening and Bookworm sims enjoy reading, but what about sims have traits that aren't as obvious as to what they like?

4. Is there a way to keep my happily married sims from flirting with people who aren't their spouses? After I fixed Simis and Jocasta's marriage, I was at their house with another sim and he tried to flirt with her- Family-Oriented trait and all!

5. Finally, is there a list of VBTs to avoid so that I don't wreck the game/the worlds?

Any help would be much appreciated!

1. I can offer up a suggestion for easing someone in to the game would be to have the in game tutorial on and have Mom practice navigating in one of the worlds for awhile until she gets comfortable with Buy/Build and basic game play.

2. There really is no set answer for what sims like for movies. I don't ever recall seeing any fun factors being higher than other fun factors while at the movies.

3. Fun boosts vary depending upon a sims traits and their mood at the moment. Again, really no set answer for this as each players games have sims with different wishes and traits (and mods). The longer you play the more familiar you become with the likes and dislikes. There are also many mods available that will enhance game play so a simmer can play their game the way they like it and not the way EA thinks we should play.

4. Keeping a sim from flirting might be managed to some degree by trait assignment but for the most part a mod is needed.
NRaas Retuner has settings for that as does Story Progression. Shimrod over at the Asylum has a No Attraction Calls Dates Etc. mod that offers more options.

I see you mentioned Story Progression in your OP. You might want to consider just starting with the base mod and let it run in your game with its default settings. SP has settings for flirting etc. SP can be overwhelming and starting with the base mod will help ease into playing with it.

The Getting Started With NRaas Mods might help you ease into some of the mods available. There are also many mods right here at MTS that enhance game play.

The Game Play Tips Page is a good resource having suggestions for playing, troubleshooting game problems and links to mods at other sites, such as MTS, for other options.

Hope this helps you out somewhat. Sorry, do not have an answer to your number 5. What is VBT?

The Other Mods Page has links to mods in the simming community that might come in handy going forward.

Hi, and welcome to the TS3 forum!

1. I guess I would suggest that they pick a single sim in a household who is already employed - there are quite a few single sim households in Sunset Valley - and have them just play that sim. To learn new things in the game, they could try to pay attention to the wishes that are generated and try to fulfill those wishes. I think she will naturally branch out from there after playing a few days.

2. I have no idea. I only rarely send sims to the movies because the times are locked in and I usually miss the window of opportunity!

3. Your sims can show you what's fun, but let's see (I have to think base game/late night only since I have all EPs), their fun bar goes up listening to live music. Like a band, or a piano at a club, or just using 'watch' on a sim that is jamming on an instrument. They also get fun from TVs, the more expensive, the more fun. Explore the Entertainment category in Buy mode to find more fun objects.

4. I feel like this problem is worse than it used to be for some reason. Maybe I am imagining that! But no, not really. Not that I know of. But as long as they don't do anything more than flirting, there won't be any consequences in my experience (but this could be affected by mods, I'm not sure).

5. Don't delete sims except with the NRAAS mods. Instructions are on their site.

Edit: @brappl - I think VBT stands for Very Bad Things.

Hello! I also recently got into the game (December of last year), and while I don't have answers to all the questions, here's a few tips for 1.

I'd suggest turning off interactive loading screens, if you haven't already. It gives tips and sometimes funny little blurbs about the game and expansion packs. This is how I learned about the ALT key and a few other ones.

Second, you might want to take off edge scrolling, if you don't like it. And change your settings to match your computer. I personally raised tree detail to medium as my computer could handle that, but all other settings are the same.

Third is watching builders/decorators. This is how I learned about moving presets to another object, as one of my favorite decorators does it frequently.

Fourth is just experiment! Find out what works for you, and just play around. People have different playing styles too, from massive families (first and current load), to single as a pringle sims, to Supernaturals to Berries. Just play around and look at what other people do too! I personally play big families and banilla (colorful hair, normal skin) sims, with Berry pets.

And for four, I'd suggest an attraction retuning mod. In my first game, the husband of one of the siblings tried to flirt with his sister-in-law, who was also married. It didn't go so well for him, at the least.
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My first sims game was the Sims 2 Pets for the Gamecube. There's no aging, no family relationships past marriages, and only pets make babies. You can go to the houses or the town square and that was it. It was a kinda rough transition, but I've always been a console gamer so that made it even harder. Eventually you get the hang of it. But the tips in the loading screens really helped once I turned them on. Just give it time and work slowly.

Welcome to the Sims 3 then!

You might be interested in Carl's Sims 3 Guide. There's also a lot of tips and information on the game and what you can do with it on this site, that might be more detailed than the in-game tutorial, which could help with the basics, as barbarat said.

Question 2:
The chance of seeing a terrible movie is at 10% for all sims, with an increase of 10% for Technophobes, Hot Headed, Loner, Neurotic, Snob and Unlucky sims.
I don't see anything in the Gameplaydata concerning the genre of the movie, so yes, it's going to be pretty random.

Question 3:
Sometimes in the description of the trait you'll see when you're in CAS will give you tips on what kind of activities this type of sim will prefer.
Once again, Carl's guide is a good place to look. There's also a list of traits and their advantages/disadvantages at SnootySims.

Question 4:
I second barbarat, here.
If you want to entirely stop sims from flirting with anyone, except their partnered sim, Nraas StoryProgression (and Relationships module) does have that option (Flirt: Affair Adultery Chance and Flirt: Affair Liaison Chance). And if you feel up to it, you could create a Caste especially for Family-Oriented sims, if you don't want to affect all type of sims.
But I understand how Nraas SP can be a bit overwhelming at first and you may not want to get right into it at first, though it's really handy to customise most of your inactive sims' behaviours.

One of the ways to screw up the neigborhood is to use the ingame world editor to add new lots. It's still broken and adding a completely new lot with it breaks the neigborhood routing permanently and can only be fixed with CAW. Some players are lucky and can get away with adding a few - or more - new lots with minimal damage but the broken routing will still happen in some extend no matter what. I've ruined more than one neighborhood so far by adding new lots (4-6 lots), latest town just last month. The gameplay just becomes incredibly laggy and simmies + animals start to get stuck in random places. Playing becomes a nightmare.

Some more specific info: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/dis...-powers-that-be
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/dis...o-fix-sims-3/p5
http://modthesims.info/m/showthread.php?t=521160


To be clear, this means adding a new lot to a place where there have never been a lot before at all. Adding a new lot from the lot/houses bin is completely different thing.

Don't forget to run FPS Limiter when playing TS3, otherwise the game will damage and kill your graphic device, go here and go to FPS Limiter section if you haven't done so.

Hi, and welcome to MTS Hope your mom enjoys the game!

1. I'd actually suggest doing what I did back when TS3 came out: start a game with a single Sim (premade or made by yourself, doesn't matter) and just explore around to see how things work. You can play on an Epic lifespan or turn off aging altogether to not feel like you have to rush through the game. I don't think you'll need mods right off the bat, since you don't have enough EPs for the game to really start acting up; if you want to start "light", Master Controller, Overwatch and ErrorTrap are the way to go: MC adds various options that may come in handy, Overwatch cleans up stuff like stuck cars and Sims, and ErrorTrap prevents game corruption (you won't interact with this one at all, actually).

Then, after your mom is used to the game and how these mods work, you can start adding things like Story Progression, other mods, and custom content. Some people add tons of CC right off the bat when getting TS3, which is a shame because, in my opinion, you should "get to know" the game before you decide it needs fixing/adding on to.

3. If you want your Sim to get the most out of the activities you want them to do, give them traits that are related to those activities. For example, a Sim with the Hopeless Romantic or Flirty traits will roll more wishes to interact romantically with other Sims. A Sim with the Green Thumb trait will get more wishes related to gardening and increase their Gardening skill at a higher rate than a Sim who doesn't have this trait.
It's up to you to decide what type of Sim you want to play, but rarely are interactions/activities restricted by trait.

5. Don't run the game for too long, or you may run into Error 12 if you have too little RAM available (which means you won't be able to save your game at all). Keep an eye on yourself especially when building, decorating and creating Sims, it's easy to get carried away
I usually save once every Sim day, but you can get away with more if it's a new save.

Otherwise...when you do end up adding CC, add it little by little and be careful about mod conflicts (which happen when you have two mods affecting the same game resource). And ALWAYS make sure the mods are right for your patch level, though some can work with earlier/later patches as well (this is something the creator will state, or you will have to test for yourself).

Game-breaking CC is not really a concern from the technical POV anymore, but you may watch out for CC with huge file sizes; some hairs, for example, look very pretty and smooth but are very high poly and your computer may have trouble rendering them if you use too many.