We all know that Servo in TS1 is very useful, you don't have to buy a bed or cook food for him. He does everything you want him to. But what about SimBot in TS3? I haven't had one and I heard they have almost the same needs as human sims do which is a huge disappointment.. so I wonder what is so great about them? Why are they useful?

They aren't meant to be the same things, really. The S1 Servo was more or less an object -- something you bought and had its usefulness, and then could be tucked away in its little "pod." The S3 Simbot (and the S2 Servo, too, really) is meant to be a playable sim right from the start. They aren't meant to be "useful" as in being mindless servants to regular sims, they are meant to be sims of their own right, just supernatural, like ghosts, plantsims, or vampires.

If you want an experience more like the original S1 Servo, there's mods that could help. Awesomemod's Supreme Commander function applied to a simbot would basically automate it. And another mod found at MATY changes Simbot needs so that eating scrap refills the energy and bladder needs as well as hunger, negating the need to sleep or use the toilet. Maybe someday someone will make a simbot specific mod that would turn them back into servant automatons, since I think more folks than just you miss the old style servant bots.

They have rocket feet and they can fly!

Do you? No.. I didn't think so.

Simbots are also servo prototypes, hence, they have less features. They're just a living machine. Sims 3 is 25 years before Sims 1, and the Simbots reflect that- they look weird, they have all sorts of pipes and wires on them, they look very poorly built and are inefficient.

I never thought of it that way but wow what an excuse for EA XD "We made the simsbots especially crappy because TS3 is set 25 years before TS1 and so they would naturally not have as many features"

But okay, it doesn't sound useful at all, so I won't bother getting one.. Thanks guys for the replies

... so they also removed their free will, autonomy, and, well, LIFE too, for TS1? Harsh, EA. Harsh!

Sims 3 also has gay marriage, while Sims 1 has nothing and Sims 2 has joined unions. If you take it at face value it means that gay marriage was banned by Sims 1, and by the time Sims 2 came around they hadn't gotten it back.

How about we all just face the fact that EA doesn't care very much about continuity, and that Simbots aren't Servo prototypes.

Look. They don't have to shower, and you can get them massive amounts of scrap to eat very easily and store it in their inventories. They are also fireproof. If they're invented they have a longer life than other Sims. There are plenty of advantages to having one. Disadvantages: They can't breed, so invention and adoption become the only options for continuing a family tree if they're all that you have.

i say don't bother making them, they're just like regular sims, but uglier/creepier

and the quest for making one is long and arduous

It took my Inventor sim like four days tops to do that quest, I'm not sure what you're talking about. ;P
Though I guess if you're especially unlucky in picking up gems/seeds, or don't know where to look for them properly in the first place... *shrug*
minor!edit: and I guess my Inventor had the life fruits growing already, too. But really, life fruits are so nice, why DON'T you have some growing?

EDIT: And as far as "simbots are uglier" goes -- get a mod that lets you shove sims back into CAS. (Twallan's mastercontroller does the trick nicely, and is handy for many other situations anyway.) Toss offending simbot into CAS. Replace ugly simbot head with motorcycle helmet, or floating hairstyle of your choice.
Tah-dah! Instant super-cool, non-ugly simbot!

@Chronicle - But added on top of the gem finding, you also have to grow your own damn lifefruit (if you don't have it buyable in your store.) Running around and doing all that isn't worth it, when all you get out of it is another mouth to feed, that won't stop fiddling with your electronics.

It's like the iphone: Each generation gets better looking but not a whole lot of the hardware changes other then some gimmicks, in fact sometimes it takes a step back technologically (signal problems)

I actually think the Simbot quest is about the most interesting gameplay objective the game has had I wish there were more like it.

Mainly because it requires doing various different things (inventing, gardening, collecting) and not just one thing over and over.

I would have preferred the simbot remain a sell-able object until activated, like in TS2. All that effort to just be able to build one, then all the time it takes to actually build it, they ought to be able to get cold hard cash for all that effort!

As for the Simbot itself, it's just another sim in tin-can clothing with rocket feet and a different voice. It has all the same motives, including needing to eat and using the bathroom. I don't think so much that it's a predecessor or successor to the Servo so much as I think the great minds at EA are just lazy.

It's the idea that Servo evolved - like robots most likely will get better.

Just like apes.

Why do people keep saying this?

Simbots:
-Can eat 100% free food
-ALWAYS 100% fills their hunger
-ALWAYS gives them the "Great Meal" moodlet
-Don't need to shower so they can just pee all over the place (fantastic for tomb raiding)
-Live for a really long time
-Can talk to some electronics to gain social instead of needing to leave the house or invite someone over or have a roommate
-Born with handiness and inventing skill
-Automatically able to destroy things for scrap
-Traits can be re-rolled if you don't like the ones they spawn with
-Cannot be set on fire
-Cannot be harmed by electrocution
-Are CHARGED by electrocution,
-Have a very high success rate against mummies.

Now, which regular sims have all those features? I am pretty sure that none do, so how can simbots be "sims in tin can clothing"? People who say there are no benefits to simbots are crazy.

Apes haven't got a whole lot better with each generation, somewhat like the iphone.

I always use the Moodlet Manager on my sims so I guess I never noticed or cared about those things. My simbot certainly didn't seem any less whiny and the metallic robot voice made the whining even more irritating. A neurotic simbot = not cool!

I got the simbot with the lifetime aspiration points rewards. Thought it was going to help my gardening sim, but instead it wanted to pee and eat and sleep, and become a firefighter. Really annoying wishes that got cured with a mod. Anyway, like the Sims2 version better. At least that one was rechargeable, and didn't need to keep a scrap pile in the backyard so the tin-can won't starve to death or blow up the house for food.

What is so bad about not being rechargable?

Either then thing spends hours standing in the sun or it spends hours asleep, what is the difference? And they don't HAVE to eat scrap, so they don't HAVE to blow things up or forage for scrap, not to mention scrap can be purchased.

The thing is, it's a robot. It's meant to be a machine that helps the sim around the house. Having needs like peeing or eating or sleeping makes the robot resemble a sim too much. And yes, they have to eat, because they have the hunger need. And sleeping what's it for? It's a machine, it shouldn't need a bed and mattress for that, an on/off button should suffice. I personally preferred the standing in the sun version or recharging station mod in Sims2.

They don't have to eat SCRAP. Did you miss that part? They can eat normal food. They do not have to eat *scrap*. I did not say they don't have to eat. And the complaint about sleeping is completely ridiculous if it's seriously 100% cosmetic. Pretend he's turned off if it's that big of a deal that he doesn't stand around in the middle of the room doing nothing instead of sleeping.

Relax, guys. Go have a cup of tea or something. This really isn't worth getting upset over.

Ok, they don't have to eat scrap, but they still have to eat. One unnecessary need that you have to attend to and that you need to provide for that particular sim. And the sleeping, I can't just ignore it, the bed takes up space in my sim's house and it costs simoleons also. Standing would have been a much better idea. Just my 2 cents.