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Test Subject
#476 Old 6th Mar 2010 at 2:52 AM
I would just like to point out, about the disease part, since it's apparently still on-going, that everyone who's taken part in the conversation so far has assumed that if there were diseases in TS3, that they would be contagious. There are plenty of diseases, like cancer and infection-type ones like appendicitis, that aren't at all contagious. The best way for EA to implement diseases if they wanted to, imo, would be to set up a randomizer for it. In reality, you don't necessarily have to be around sick people to get sick, and you don't have to get sick if you're around sick people. Of course, if there were diseases, it would be nice to have, as Pescado suggested, a hypochondriac trait, as well as possibly hardy and sickly traits, but that's just water under the bridge.
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Theorist
#477 Old 6th Mar 2010 at 3:36 AM
Quote:
I was a staunch TS3 supporter for a while, but with the announcement of the latest EP idea I just can't defend it anymore.

I do not understand this statement. What was there ever to defend with EA? EA and I have a nice understanding. They use me to line the pockets of the fat cats. I use them for entertainment purposes. If they release an expansion pack I like, I buy it when it gets to a price that I think is worth paying for the content. If I don't like it, I don't buy. I don't owe EA anything, least of all defending them. (Having said that, though, I really like what I'm hearing about the upcoming Expansion, "Ambitions" and am actually considering buying it shortly after it comes out for nearly full price, maybe.)

Quote:
I'm REALLY enjoying the fresh-approach that EA is taking with the Sims 3. If we had a clone of the Sims 2 I'd be highly disappointed and feel that EA was just trying to soak us for more money! This way it's all new territory to explore.

I feel the franchise is definitely moving forward.

Well, they are trying to just soak us for more money, after all, that's one reason to create brand new concepts for expansion packs. Overall, though, I have the same feelings in that they are going at this with a fresh approach. I thought I would hate TS3's open town, for example. Then I found out I love it, it's one of my favorite features. Then today I found out that "Ambitions" will include a trampoline. My word, I've wanted a trampoline for my Sims since the original game! To me, this is better than the hot tub and pool table combined. :D
Test Subject
#478 Old 6th Mar 2010 at 4:26 AM
@Misty_2004: Great thoughts there Misty. Thanks for sharing, and yes, well any game is a money soak. I'll agree with you on that.



PS: Forgot about the trampoline. That's going to be so cool!
Mad Poster
#479 Old 6th Mar 2010 at 10:41 AM
Preface: the following is my personal wants in a possible EP. Warning: for those who cannot bear morbiditiy, please jump by!

As I glimpsed and read through some posts from page 4 to page 5 (100posts/page), I realised the topic has switched to hospital, diseases and illness.

The kind of diseases and illness in TS2 is completely light-hearted mostly that coughing, vomitting, and the "fatigue" are the symptoms. Only without sufficient amount of "rests" like lying on bed or sofa would a sims be made to death.

IF EAxis comes up with an EP about "diseases", I'll save my budget for it!

There should be various types of medical professionals in cardiologists, dermatologists, physiologists, general family doctors, radiologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, surgeons, nurses, medical researchers, neurologists, endocrinologists, immunologists, virologists, paedagogists, etc....Lol, I don't mean all highly specified professionsals but at least the general types have to be in such EP...

As for disease scale , I wish for epidemic, pandemic, etc...

With regards to the disease types:
1. systematic like systematic arthritis,
2. highly localised like dyshidrosis, breast cancers, necrosis
3. disasterous like metastatic cancerous spread, HIV-like retroviral infection,aggresive drug-resistant E. coli, etc...
4. Slowly progressive like cervical tumours, prion progression, etc.
5. genetic dieases like Angelman's syndrome, XXX syndrome, etc
6. acute disasterous epidemic like ebola-like viral infection (surely, similar symptoms will be great! ), S.A.R. (year 2003), mutated highly contagious avian-swine-human flu.
7. etc ... anyone wanna add?

When it comes to infectopathologies or causes....:
1. body-contact-based: like STIs herpes and HPV for acts like woo-hoo, hannd-shakes and kisses. Simply implementable in sims-action profiles!
2. air-borne-based: like S.A.R. and avian flu. This should be determined by closeness like 2 grdis away from the sufferers. Please don't tell me TS2 or TS3 systems can't have this features easily coz the lighting system in TS2 relies on this. Also, it'd be nice to have masks for sims to wear to reduce infecto-efficacy (the grades of masks that work in RL).
3. genetic-based: only randomly assigned or customly asigned sims get them. Simply implementable in sims profiles!
4. accidental diseases: newly emerged diseases by a randomiser-based disease generator. At its best, also a randomiser for a disease obsoleter that remove a disease triggered by a new effective cure emerged from the medical researching.
5. highly contagious like ebola diseases: This requires a sophisticated system to make sims aware of such instance right after spawning probably based on how far they're from the victims. Since diseases like ebola are visible, sims can avoid by quitting the playing lot with the following equation:
[the likelihood of sims quiting the playing lot] = [a very hgih tuning probability] X ( [sim personalities gradings esp. clumpsiness] X [sims "intelligence and skills" (logics, simplified medical knowledges, cleaning)]
No, I don't mean a RL simulated equation but just this highly simplified equation.
6. food poisoning: sources from spoiled food, contaminated food and food with preservatives, colorants (both "natural" or "artificial"), additives, and so forth. Note that the so-called "natural ingredients" can mean "artificially-made naturally-occured ingredients". Also note that we just don't know the durant effects of the preservatives, additives, colourants, etc... upon such ingestion, but apparently "certifiedly safe" in the short-termed like a few years to several years. We don't know if they may be terogens or even mutagens in human complex biochemical environments rather than in some small bacteria strains. It's just that many of us prefer the tastes and the convenience to the facts and the health. The end result is undoubtedly a waste of resources, energies, probably unsuspected diseases to both the present generations and probably the next (some people suspect that as a cause of ASCs [Autistic Spectrum Conditions], allergies or some diseases), and etc, but reasonably, given the present state of reward system.
7. etc ... anyone wanna add?


Besides diseases, if that be a medical or hospital theme EP,
patient types:

1. emergency: sims got hit by some driver-less vehicles in town; sims fallen off from a non-secured balcony; sims got stabbed accidental by another sims of low cooking skills while doing a meal with any shape cooking accessories; sims including peace-keepers got attacked by the stupid criminals with weapons (cool, various kinda wound and severities can go); sims got massacred in a sims war; etc... anyone anymore?
2. out-patient type: sims with LTR to degnerative/problematic/reoccurrent/etc. diseases
like diabetes, non-emergent-stated cancer patients
3. generals: cold, flu, ulcer, psoriasis, colonorectal imflammations, etc
4. plastic surgeries
5. misc... anyone wanna add?

Imaginary diseases are also OK like those seen in hospital tycoon.

I'm open to further additions to the lists I've made above. :D
Fat Obstreperous Jerk
#480 Old 7th Mar 2010 at 7:35 AM
Food poisoning sort of already exists in TS3. If you feed a sim bad food, they get a nasty moodlet and ralph.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill because they pissed me off.
Instructor
#481 Old 7th Mar 2010 at 3:34 PM
Quote: Originally posted by CharmingFirewaller
And, Ranissa, I'd have to disagree with sims having more to do together. I'll admit that they seem to have more to do by themselves (exploring the town, options at work, collecting, fishing, etc.) but with other sims they just talk. They talk, they joke, they flirt and I see couples kissing every once in a while but that's about it.


See, I don't get that. In 2, unless I made my Sims actually engage each other, they rarely chose, on their own, to do so. I had many many many wife/husband combos who would sit and stare blankly at the tv screen for hours rather than go out of their way to have a conversation with each other. Ask them to chat with each other, turn away for a second and when you come back...staring at the tv again (unless they were watching tv together, then they'd chat endlessly while watching tv). In 3, though, my Sims who aren't any more committed to each other than romantic interest will autonomously choose to chat it up, kiss, hug, etc, without me needing to do a blessed thing; they are, in essence, *aware* that they are interested in each other. Heck, one set of grandparents who live with their daughter, son-in-law and triplet granddaughters are all of the time choosing to go in and actually interact with the babies even when the babies are without a need! For me, it's the implementation of the borked Sims 2 memories: rather than having a memory that they woo-hooed someone yesterday, my Sims set out to flirt with that person.

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They rarely engage in group activities because there aren't that many things they could do together. How can they hang out in a hot tub when there isn't one? Or play the "Myshuno" game instead of the foosball table? How about the pool table? A bubble blower maybe? And they can't even shop together anymore or hang out properly because even when you invite someone out, they wander off unlike in Hot Date and Nightlife when you could create groups and go on dates.


I hated group outings. Hated. The fact that getting everyone to be happy was a feat of mind-boggling rarity made it never happen in my game. I'm also not one to find it particularly fun that the dates weren't any more advantageous than inviting the Sim over and using the exact same romantic interactions; in fact, you'd get a lot less mood loss if you invited the Sim over. The only time my Sims went on a date was their first date for pictures and often, to propose.

While I do miss some of the fun things that were available downtown like bowling and I *really* miss how weddings worked in Sims 2, for I love throwing big beautiful outdoor weddings, the lack of group activities is not missed by me. I mean, have Myshuno in your house and people would want to do that, over and over again, rather than actually interacting!

Quote:
And having more tabs like "Ask About Day" and "Brighten Day" don't really do much from what I've seen so far. They're just like "Chat" since they may improve one's sim relationship with another, but do nothing else. Their facial expressions can mostly be seen on the UI and not on the actual sim that you're playing. Moodlets inform the player what the sim is feeling, but if you looked at the sim in action, you wouldn't be able to tell if they had just had sex or lost a loved one.


Hmmm, my Sims seem to have the same expressions in-game as on the UI. As for having more tabs, it's just that variety that I enjoy as it gives flavor to the interactions that I don't have to provide in my imagination. Certainly my imagination is good but I don't miss red-hands, rock-paper-scissors and all of the idiotic, stupid ways Sims 2 sims would choose to interact (edit: and how often did they choose, anyway? Yeah, mostly never but that's what they'd WANT to do, the stupid interactions.) Give me real-life things like "How did you sleep?" and "Brighten Day" rather than "Pillow Fight" any day.

At the end of the day, it's all about style and preference. I spent most of my Sims 2 time building these incredibly complex, beautiful and often buggy houses. They would be filled with exquisite furniture, a family would be lovingly and painstakingly created and moved in ... and I'd abandon them within days to do the same thing again, over and over, because the gameplay was exactly the same. Each Sim was exactly the same, over and over again. Want to fall in love? Do these same interactions, over and over, until within Sim-hours he loves you. Want to grow a business? Do these same interactions, over and over, until the people in your shop are content. In Sims 3, the Sims themselves have my attention and capture my imagination, the houses and CAS are just extra bonuses.
Scholar
#482 Old 7th Mar 2010 at 5:42 PM
I’m jealous. I would like to see some vivacious Sims. Perhaps someone could make us a little video of their engaging Sims. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not negating anyone’s claim but I am curious to see how different people’s ideas of engaging and interesting sims is. Could be a radical difference. I don't find the menus whether their options, moodlets or traits interesting. (Hey, if it is something you're reading rather than watching--its a menu no matter what it is called). I guess some people don't get that. But just to keep the record straight, I didn't give a rat's ass about memories either.

My sims are quite social--but right now in TS3 socializing (non-romance) consists of standing around talking which for the player means watching sims standing with thought bubbles popping in and out (gets boring after a while)or playing fooz ball (not bad) when there's a table available. Play ball is extremely dull viewing and TS3 sims often have to be directed to dance. A tad limited, don't you think?

From the TS2 stupid idles the thing I really do not miss is Punch you-Punch me. I thought that was ridiculous, especially when female Sims did it. I can honestly say I've never sat around with my girlfriends and we said "I'm bored" "What do you want to do" "I don't know." "Hey, let's hit each other in the arm" "Great idea". Never happened. I liked Rock Paper Scissors - it didn't seem weird when played by Sims of different ages (whereas some of the other things did). But back then the mighty Squinge had mods for any of the things a player did not like their Sims doing. Would it even be possible for someone to create a mod to make the TS3 Sims more interesting? How? Seems too vague and vast a task to me.

Probably the reason TS3 Sims don't do all the annoying sort of things they did in TS2 is because they are very busy flipping wrenches, tapping toes, clapping hands and screeching, laughing aloud to themselves, tapping their chin in deep thought, wringing their hands, nearly hyperventilating because they "almost" burnt the pancakes, running around picking things up off the ground…etc. One thing that remains the same from TS2 to TS3 is that when a Sims has an idle animation --they will do it ad nauseum whether is it red hands or hand wringing.

As for group activities--I'm not too concerned with my sims happiness. I play TS3 for me not for them so I am not hindered in having group activities by concern over some pixels on the screen. Being I'm viewing the sims as I play, the more involved and animated a gathering or activity the better I like it. I love having big gatherings for the sims I create--weddings, parties--but in TS3 that sort of sucks doesn't it? As I don't play game created sims (and I resent my sims being harrassed by "opportunitites" that involve fraternizing with townies) I too would like more group activities for the home and community. I would have to agree that Myshuno monopolized any gathering (high object advertising?). At home I would like to see charades or pin the tail on the donkey, or twister--group activities with interactions and animations. For community lots maybe an arcade with games (pinball, water ballooon race, skeeball, bumper cars) or a bowling alley or a handball court. Maybe something for seniors as well--like a Bingo hall or Boci ball court.

For me it really isn't TS2 versus TS3. It's not a competition between the two versions but it is about disappointment in the current version. I don't hate TS3 but I really wish I liked it a lot more than I do.
#483 Old 7th Mar 2010 at 6:16 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Ranissa
Hmmm, my Sims seem to have the same expressions in-game as on the UI. As for having more tabs, it's just that variety that I enjoy as it gives flavor to the interactions that I don't have to provide in my imagination. Certainly my imagination is good but I don't miss red-hands, rock-paper-scissors and all of the idiotic, stupid ways Sims 2 sims would choose to interact (edit: and how often did they choose, anyway? Yeah, mostly never but that's what they'd WANT to do, the stupid interactions.) Give me real-life things like "How did you sleep?" and "Brighten Day" rather than "Pillow Fight" any day.


They usually have the same expressions when they're feeling fine, but when a sim isn't doing so great, this is evident on their UI counterpart's face but not on his/her own. If I directed that sim to hang out with a bunch of other sims (while they're miserable), the face on the UI would look miserable, but their friends won't notice and they won't show it either.

Interactions like "Brighten Day" would work better if I could see a neighbor walking by with that look on their face so I could direct my sim to make them feel better or find out if something is wrong.
Theorist
#484 Old 7th Mar 2010 at 8:01 PM
For me the whole dating thing in TS2 turned into a wash, rinse, repeat syndrome. I was all about giving my Sims the best date possible, and in order to do that they couldn't do anything fun like bowling or playing darts or chess or whatever. If they even tried the date counter would never expand, so in those cases they ended up with pretty lousy dates. In order to get a dream date, the process involved fulfilling a lot of wants, and they always rolled the same wants. If they didn't know the Sim really well they would want to flirt or play a game with them. Now comes in the game of Red Hands (and that is something I really do miss--it had such a fun-filling effect it was great. I occasionally play it with my son and before long we are both laughing so hard we can't see straight) and a flirt. Ooh! Now they've rolled the want to kiss the other Sim. Oh, wait, they can't because their relationship isn't high enough, and if they try it will all go badly resulting in a bad date. So, on and on it went until they finally got the date meter pushed high. Then they could actually have enough time to eat dinner. I don't know how many dates my Sims had that ended as soon as they finished eating because I had forgot to get the time meter expanded far enough before I sat them down to eat. (And goodness knows how much trouble it was to track down a date that had wandered off to play while I sent my Sim to the restroom--I ultimately ended up using mods to make the Sim they were on the date with controllable just so I could keep them together.) Then as their relationship progressed, if I took them on a date they might start out wanting to flirt a little, but then it was all about rolling wants to woohoo. Woohoo with so-and-so, have very first woohoo with so-and-so, woohoo with so-and-so for the first time, woohoo in the car, and on and on it went. That isn't a date, it's downright stupidity in programming!

I actually did enjoy taking Sims on group outings occasionally. I had a family with something like five kids and when they were teens they would go on group outings to one of the hot spots in town and perform together on the band instruments. Of course they did other fun stuff too. They had fun and I had fun.

I have also taken TS3 Sims out with their friends to community lots and they had a fairly decent time of it. They still have some of the wandering off issues, so I don't let them go to large lots.

I was actually happy to see the TS2 memory system removed from TS3. Now if I want to pick up a Sim and move them to another town I can do it without borking the entire family, and trying to fix them with SimPE. I nearly lost one of my best families this way. I had started them out in a cleaned out version of Strangetown and decided to move them someplace greener. I spent hours painstakingly removing memories with SimPE before the move, and I still didn't get all of them, because once they were transplanted, a few of them couldn't even interact with objects like the toilet. I also lost my sixth-generation Legacy family because of TS2's memory system. It was early on after the release of TS2 and I decided to plop a couple of families I had downloaded into their neighborhood. The memories of those other Sims added over a hundred character files to that neighborhood, and there was no way I could safely remove them because by the time I figured out what was going on, those Sims were tied to Sims in that neighborhood with even more memories.

I have noticed with TS3, even though the Sims don't have a bit of programming that allows us to see their memories, they actually seem to have better memories than TS2 Sims did. I've seen multiple times where something they have done ends up affecting something else they do. When it comes to spontaneous interactions with another Sim, I can leave a Sim talking with another Sim, go off and do something else and unless the target Sim has a need that needs met, like they're hungry or some such, come back and find they've spent the entire time I was away socializing and by now are pretty close to friends without me sitting there queuing up interaction after interaction. Oh, sure, sometimes if they have a ball in their inventory they might start playing catch or some such, but not always. With TS2 all I had to do was turn my back on them for 15 seconds and they were off having a pillow fight, even if their fun meters were maxxed. Once I installed University, every social function I ever tried to have in TS2 turned into a huge pillow fight (until I got a mod to stop them). It was ridiculous.
Scholar
#485 Old 9th Mar 2010 at 6:09 AM
Default And another TS3 Step Backwards - Compatability!
Just discovered another annoying drawback in TS3. In TS1 and TS2 it was generally a given that things were compatible with whatever preceeded it--like an earlier EP or stuff pack. In TS3 not only is incompatibilty a frustrating issue between base game, EP and SP but there is also an incompatibility issue from patch to patch. @#$%^&*! Could they make this game any less user friendly?!!

For creating unneccessary difficulty for the player - TS3 take a BIG step backwards
Forum Resident
#486 Old 9th Mar 2010 at 3:35 PM
Huh, I can honestly say I've never had an incompatibility problem with 3. Then again, I just have the base game and WA, so I don't know if HEL would give me a problem. Still, I've been pretty fortunate, having never encountered the debilitating issues people have mentioned. I'm also playing a vanilla game, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. What kind of mods do you have, if any, and are they updated?
The responsibility isn't solely EA's. They don't know what you're running on your game. If someone mods the game, it's then their responsibility to make sure the mod runs with every update.
Field Researcher
#487 Old 9th Mar 2010 at 5:28 PM
Quote: Originally posted by suzetter
I don't find the menus whether their options, moodlets or traits interesting. (Hey, if it is something you're reading rather than watching--its a menu no matter what it is called). I guess some people don't get that. But just to keep the record straight, I didn't give a rat's ass about memories either.

I'm not really sure how that is a step back from TS2 though. Traits are just a more fully evolved version of TS1 and TS2 personalities (which were, after all, a trait system with only 10 traits to choose from). Moodlets allow for Sims to be modified in more complex and nuanced ways than the TS1 and TS2 systems that relied solely on the needs bars.

And neither system relies more on reading rather than watching than the previous games did. TS3 Sims are just as visually and vocally expressive as they have always been:




Group socializing in TS3 is still screaming for an EP (not unlike pre-NightLife group socializing in TS2), but Sims are just as social with one another at parties as they have always been and in TS3 they at least now have a much lower threshold for being willing to dance with one another (though, as tuned by default, parties in TS3 are definitely much too short).

So I'm like, "Cool! What should I get? Brain in a jar... monkey's paw... ooh, pie!"
Scholar
#488 Old 9th Mar 2010 at 8:14 PM
Quote: Originally posted by LethalLaurie
Huh, I can honestly say I've never had an incompatibility problem with 3. Then again, I just have the base game and WA, so I don't know if HEL would give me a problem. Still, I've been pretty fortunate, having never encountered the debilitating issues people have mentioned. I'm also playing a vanilla game, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it. What kind of mods do you have, if any, and are they updated?...

I'm not having a problem with my game or any cc though I can see how you would have made that assumption. The compatibility problem I'm referring to is sharing neighborhood files between different set ups. I'm working on a riverview neighborhood with someone and have WA and am patched to date. My friend has TS3 (no WA) and is on a different patch. Our save files are configured differently. My saves has folders with 4 or 5 five files in them for each neighborhood whereas they have a single sims3 file in their saves folders for the neighborhood. The neighborhood is base game compatible build and deco. I find our different saves folder systems confusing and annoying. I could be wrong, but I don't recall TS1 or TS2 having different saves folders dependent on what EP or Patch you were running--so yes, I consider this a step backwards. (And I think the saves folder thing changed with patch 1.7)

Quote: Originally posted by Fernweather
I'm not really sure how that is a step back from TS2 though. Traits are just a more fully evolved version of TS1 and TS2 personalities (which were, after all, a trait system with only 10 traits to choose from). Moodlets allow for Sims to be modified in more complex and nuanced ways than the TS1 and TS2 systems that relied solely on the needs bars.

I get what you're saying but visually I don't see any particular complexity in TS3 sims. In the first picture she's mad, in the 2nd pic she's talking and in the 3rd pic she's listening. Nothing different than TS2. In video rather than stills the difference between TS2 and TS3 is evident because TS2 sims had a greater array of individual body language (a shoulder forward, a cock of the head, an arched brow, etc). I like your sim a lot though and she does looks more expressive than most others I've seen. Her freckles are particularly adorable. Nice work. Thanks for sharing the pix.
Forum Resident
#489 Old 9th Mar 2010 at 9:10 PM
Quote: Originally posted by suzetter
I'm not having a problem with my game or any cc though I can see how you would have made that assumption. The compatibility problem I'm referring to is sharing neighborhood files between different set ups. I'm working on a riverview neighborhood with someone and have WA and am patched to date. My friend has TS3 (no WA) and is on a different patch. Our save files are configured differently. My saves has folders with 4 or 5 five files in them for each neighborhood whereas they have a single sims3 file in their saves folders for the neighborhood. The neighborhood is base game compatible build and deco. I find our different saves folder systems confusing and annoying. I could be wrong, but I don't recall TS1 or TS2 having different saves folders dependent on what EP or Patch you were running--so yes, I consider this a step backwards. (And I think the saves folder thing changed with patch 1.7)


I get what you are say. The save format did change between the Base Game and WA/Patch 1.5/1.6 . And you are right that we didn't see something happen like this in The Sims 2 (other than once you saved a game with a new EP it was incompatible with your game if you ever uninstalled that EP). But, you also have to remember that the set up for save files on Sims 2 was the same all the way through, you had a folder for the neighborhood, then you had folders for screenshots, sims, lots, and what ever else files the neighborhood needed, and as we got new sub neighborhoods, their files were added into that. With the Sims 3, one could say how they originally saved files was a step backwards. With adding WA we got subhoods, so they probably could no longer have all the information for a neighborhood dumped into one bloated file. The Sims 2 never saved neighborhoods in just one file, and if I remember right The Sims 1 didn't either. So that patch/WA actually brought the save format back up to something similar we had seen through the life of The Sims.
Theorist
#490 Old 9th Mar 2010 at 9:16 PM
Quote:
I'm working on a riverview neighborhood with someone and have WA and am patched to date. My friend has TS3 (no WA) and is on a different patch. Our save files are configured differently. My saves has folders with 4 or 5 five files in them for each neighborhood whereas they have a single sims3 file in their saves folders for the neighborhood. The neighborhood is base game compatible build and deco. I find our different saves folder systems confusing and annoying.

This was changed to this format with the installation of WA and the update for base game that introduced the basement tool. It looks confusing from the outset, but it actually is what gives backward compatibility with save states. When I had only the base game I downloaded a custom world that had a save file in addition to the Sims3Pack file. I installed the custom world and dropped all of the save stuff that came with it into my Saves directory, went straight to the game and loaded up that save file without a single problem. Those extra directories hold the vacation information for that town. If I had tried to do something like this with TS2 it would have failed completely, because every time a new expansion pack was released for TS2, the updated saves weren't backward compatible at all. Backward compatibility, in my opinion, is another thing in TS3's favor.

I also very much appreciate that before I could buy WA, I was able to download an update that gave me the extra build features like recolorable stairs and fences as well as the new pagoda roofs, plus the extra info on garden plants, the additional options for fertilizing, the Take All button on the fridge, AND the extra interactions between children and toddlers. Back in TS2 days we all had to buy every stinkin' expansion pack even if all we wanted was a very small feature that expansion pack added.
Field Researcher
#491 Old 9th Mar 2010 at 9:52 PM
Quote: Originally posted by suzetter
In video rather than stills the difference between TS2 and TS3 is evident because TS2 sims had a greater array of individual body language (a shoulder forward, a cock of the head, an arched brow, etc).

They had a different array of body language in TS2, but I don't think they had a greater array. And TS3 Sims will display expressions based on their current social commodity and not just during animated responses (if you look at her eyes in the third shot, for example, that's an expression you'll only see on a Sim who is currently in a romantic mood - angry, annoyed, or bored Sims will have different expressions). Sims that have a disgusted moodlet will occasionally make a disgusted face - they won't walk around with it all the time, but they will visually express their displeasure. Similarly, they'll bob their heads to any music playing when they're just sitting around not doing anything. They'll respond visually to other things as well - so it is certainly possible to get an idea as to how they feel about their environment and situation without always just having to look at the UI, and it seems to me that it's no less difficult to do this in TS3 than it was in TS2.


Quote:
I like your sim a lot though and she does looks more expressive than most others I've seen. Her freckles are particularly adorable. Nice work. Thanks for sharing the pix.
Thanks!

So I'm like, "Cool! What should I get? Brain in a jar... monkey's paw... ooh, pie!"
#492 Old 9th Mar 2010 at 11:38 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Misty_2004
This was changed to this format with the installation of WA and the update for base game that introduced the basement tool. It looks confusing from the outset, but it actually is what gives backward compatibility with save states. When I had only the base game I downloaded a custom world that had a save file in addition to the Sims3Pack file. I installed the custom world and dropped all of the save stuff that came with it into my Saves directory, went straight to the game and loaded up that save file without a single problem. Those extra directories hold the vacation information for that town. If I had tried to do something like this with TS2 it would have failed completely, because every time a new expansion pack was released for TS2, the updated saves weren't backward compatible at all. Backward compatibility, in my opinion, is another thing in TS3's favor.


But the problem here is that sharing neighborhoods becomes very difficult because one would have to be on the exact same patch level as another player for things to function properly or for the neighborhood to show up at all.

In TS2, even though certain objects or clothing may not appear if one is missing an EP, the neighborhood itself still shows up and the player can still share it with others (since the maps work with all EPs and patches).

In TS3, one would either have to have the latest patch to play worlds made by someone with the latest patch, or get the EP to get a Save file to appear. It's even more complicated now than it was back then. It's almost as if EA's trying to make sure every single player purchases every single expansion pack to "catch up" with everyone else.
Theorist
#493 Old 10th Mar 2010 at 12:37 AM
Quote:
In TS3, one would either have to have the latest patch to play worlds made by someone with the latest patch, or get the EP to get a Save file to appear.

No, you don't. That's what I was saying above. I put a world AND save file CREATED with WA into my game WITHOUT WA and it worked just fine! I put two additional worlds created in games with WA into my NON-WA game and they worked with absolutely no problems at all. One of those worlds even used WA objects that disappeared as soon as I loaded the map, except for the WA trees they used changed into oak trees.

I can't guarantee that different patches wouldn't cause problems but I'm pretty sure I installed a world into my game made with a later patch than I have. The world installed, it loaded, it saved, it re-loaded, basically did everything it should do. Sometimes I think it's luck but other times I think it's because I'm stubborn and stick with a very similar configuration of components on my computer, but I never have trouble installing Sims games, expansions, or patches. With TS3 everything has worked as it should have from day one. *shrugs*
Fat Obstreperous Jerk
#494 Old 10th Mar 2010 at 12:53 AM
Sim-reactions in TS3 are less exaggerated than in TS2, which makes them slightly less noticeable, and less overacted. As for the memories thing? It's possible to put them back, sort of, but they would add nothing except complication and permanently tie you to the hack that implements them.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill because they pissed me off.
Scholar
#495 Old 10th Mar 2010 at 1:10 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Misty_2004
No, you don't. That's what I was saying above. I put a world AND save file CREATED with WA into my game WITHOUT WA and it worked just fine! I put two additional worlds created in games with WA into my NON-WA game and they worked with absolutely no problems at all. One of those worlds even used WA objects that disappeared as soon as I loaded the map, except for the WA trees they used changed into oak trees.

I can't guarantee that different patches wouldn't cause problems but I'm pretty sure I installed a world into my game made with a later patch than I have. The world installed, it loaded, it saved, it re-loaded, basically did everything it should do. Sometimes I think it's luck but other times I think it's because I'm stubborn and stick with a very similar configuration of components on my computer, but I never have trouble installing Sims games, expansions, or patches. With TS3 everything has worked as it should have from day one. *shrugs*


So what you're saying is that someone without WA can load a saves file folder from a WA game (with the 5 files inside) and their game should be able to read the map and just disregard the superfluous WA info in the folder like the traveldb etc? If that is true that would be a step forward comparable to the step forward in TS2 when we no longer had to download EPs in a specific order as we did in TS1. Am I understanding you correctly?
Instructor
#496 Old 10th Mar 2010 at 6:53 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Fernweather
Sims that have a disgusted moodlet will occasionally make a disgusted face - they won't walk around with it all the time, but they will visually express their displeasure. Similarly, they'll bob their heads to any music playing when they're just sitting around not doing anything. They'll respond visually to other things as well - so it is certainly possible to get an idea as to how they feel about their environment and situation without always just having to look at the UI, and it seems to me that it's no less difficult to do this in TS3 than it was in TS2.


VERY lovely Sim.

Also, today one of my Sim's romantic interest died in front of her eyes. She immediately received the "Heartbroken" moodlet which lasts two days. As she was pregnant, it didn't effect her mood as much as I might have wanted *except* she would occasionally stop what she was doing, get the moodlet/his face in a thought bubble over her head and start to sob uncontrollably. Her daughter paused during one of these moments to watch and then autonomously rolled the want to hug her mother.
Forum Resident
#497 Old 10th Mar 2010 at 7:05 AM
Sims 3 needs a hot tub and more places to "Woohoo". That's for DARN sure!

Please come check out my SIms 2 Story "Love Child" Caution: Must be 18+
#498 Old 10th Mar 2010 at 3:07 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SparkleSim
Sims 3 needs a hot tub and more places to "Woohoo". That's for DARN sure!


I second that. The bed's great but rabbit holes are no fun. I wish they could woohoo on top of a table or something...lol
Instructor
#499 Old 10th Mar 2010 at 3:40 PM
Well, I really like TS3, there's a lot of new features I'm really happy about, but also a lot of stuff I'm unhappy about that was left out. Namely memories, and more social interactions.

I was also hoping there'd be more to do like "missions" and goals and stuff, besides just wants and basic recreation activities...
Scholar
#500 Old 10th Mar 2010 at 6:07 PM Last edited by suzetter : 10th Mar 2010 at 10:26 PM. Reason: typo
Quote: Originally posted by gobot101
I get what you are say. The save format did change between the Base Game and WA/Patch 1.5/1.6 . And you are right that we didn't see something happen like this in The Sims 2 (other than once you saved a game with a new EP it was incompatible with your game if you ever uninstalled that EP). But, you also have to remember that the set up for save files on Sims 2 was the same all the way through, you had a folder for the neighborhood, then you had folders for screenshots, sims, lots, and what ever else files the neighborhood needed, and as we got new sub neighborhoods, their files were added into that. With the Sims 3, one could say how they originally saved files was a step backwards. With adding WA we got subhoods, so they probably could no longer have all the information for a neighborhood dumped into one bloated file. The Sims 2 never saved neighborhoods in just one file, and if I remember right The Sims 1 didn't either. So that patch/WA actually brought the save format back up to something similar we had seen through the life of The Sims.


Wasn't Downtown or University or Vacation Destinations subhoods in TS2? I'm not doubting what you're saying but I don't understand what the difference is. The files still retained the sims info from these other places. Were they treated more as lots than as neighborhoods?
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