does anyone else notice that the time goes by really slow on the game..even when you have it on the highest time speed..it still goes pretty slow. I am not sure how much i like this so far. I guess i will get used to it as time goes...but i feel like there isn't as much stuff as there was on the first sims 2.

Yes, and I've started making sure I have a book nearby when I play.

Oh yes, it really does. Another problem the leaked version had that also wasn't corrected before the game went gold. Joy joy.

They have actually been complaining about this over at the official forums. At least they aren't all full of praise, which warms the cockles of my heart :-)

The game goes by so slow even in the fast mode...i'm very upset with this i hate just watching my sims sleep, I prefer how fast the sims 2 went at its highest speed i hope a patch fixes this

I don't understand the point of the fourth speed (not counting pause as a speed). It's the same as the third as far as I can tell.

It is basically the same as the third, except i think what it does is it continuously goes the third speed until a sim is done with an action then it goes directly to the 2nd speed..i may be wrong though, but thats what i've gathered about it so far

Ah I see, thanks for the explanation. That's actually a really neat addition. I just hope the speed is upped in the future, it's not fast enough ;P

My understanding is that it goes slow because the neighborhood is open and there'd be too many people and actions to speed up at once... but I could be wrong. Eaxis? Fix this!

I've noticed a few time related issues:

My sims take longer to start an action I initiate than an autonomous action.
The game clock keeps advancing while the computer is trying to figure out how to do what it has been told to do.
The result is the game clock often advances faster compared to real time on Speed 1 than Speed 3, especially if multiple actions are queued.

My sims generally pause at least 5 game minutes before tackling stairs.
It took my sim over 90 game minutes to get out of bed, have a bowl of cereal (forget cooking), use the toilet, and shower. The bulk of that time was taken up by the sim standing still before performing an action. At Speed 1 the game clock jumps 2, 3, 4, 5 or more minutes at a go.

Time is most definitely broken.

I can understand the programmers whining that I dare play their game on anything less than the latest, most powerful hardware (although my machine is within minimum specs) but when the player is paralysed because the computer is looking up resources, the game clock should stop.

It doesn't seem to be going by too slow for me when I change the speeds, but the third and fourth speed are the same. I am having an issue with a green streak when I move things around in buy mode. That's the only problem I have had after a few hours of play. It's running smoothly, and it's running fast so I don't understand what the problem is with my buy mode. If I rotate the object the streak will go away, but if I don't it stays there until I have placed the object. Once I click off the object the streak goes away. Hrm.

Yeah, I noticed some of those things, too. By contrast, the time speed is more noticible if the sim is walking or running to a different destination--on high speed, they get there much faster. I also noticed that when they shower, they speed through it... but the actual clock doesn't go any faster.

I agree, time is definitely borked. hah--maybe they were thinking we wouldn't really notice?

Edit: 3 and 4 are NOT the same. 3 is general "superspeed" -- or allegedly. The 4th one is superspeed through the current action only. Then it jumps back to the previous speed you selected: 1 or 2, once that action is over.

My speed goes fast...I am guessing that different computers specs will cause the speed to run slower/faster...I have everything on High settings and the speed is really fast and perfect.

It runs very smoothly on my machine, too. I'm impressed that it "fails gracefully" and takes its time to load textures or animations rather than go into a fit and crash. It's that darn clock that's beginning to aggravate me. As Shikonah has noted, some actions seem to take longer in game time at Speed 1 than at Speed 3. Significantly longer in some cases.

One of my sims is living up by the elder Wainwright household in a custom house with a foundation. From a standing start in the living room, at Speed 1 it takes my sim 40-60 game minutes to walk out the door, down the porch steps, get on the bike, cycle to the library, get off the bike, walk up the library steps and into the library. (All this can be accomplished by one action "Go To Library".) At Speed 3, the same action generally takes less than 20 game minutes. The wide range of time for Speed 1 depends on how long the sim dallies at doors, at stairs, and getting on and off the bike.

I wasn't aware of the speed being slow until I started reading complaints about it. I don't know if the speed is particularly slow, or if it just takes so damn LONG for a Sim's energy bar to fill up, and it takes so damn LONG for them to prepare a simple meal.

My Sims are often starving because they either end up trying to eat spoiled food, or have to spend an hour making a meal. I like to keep little edible odds and ends in their inventory and have them eat it when they are on the verge of dying, but I shouldn't have to.

It kind of annoys me that food stored in the fridge rots. I mean, it's more realistic. But it's annoying.



I enjoyed this post. The third paragraph had me giggling, because I could picture it so well. I've taken to getting my Sim up a few HOURS early (3am 4am) just so he or she can get through all the need chasing we were told would be absent from the game.

EA really "forgot" to improve a lot of the little annoyances that made The Sims 2, at times, not enjoyable. They also made many of them (path finding for example) worse.

It also depends on if another sim is in the way. I love how they don't scream and wave at me when someone is blocking their next action and they cancel it, but I HATE that they loiter for 10 sim-mins when they're waiting for the way to clear. >< Especially if they both need to go through a door way, BOTH of them will pause, and then the fastest one will make it, then the other will wait some more, and then they continue with life.

My gripe with this and the time is that EA made the mechanics move too slow by comparison to the clock. In theory, I guess the speed setting only applies to actions, not the actual time that passes... Which is terrible because they can't be forced to "rush through work" or "sleep harder"

My reporter sim was nearly 30 minutes late for work despite being at the door of the building 5 minutes early because there was a queue.

EDIT: On the plus side, you can be late for work. It just lowers your job performance, it doesn't get you fired. They no longer lock the doors at exactly work start time.

lol if the door closes they'll NEVER get through. Oh, the poor sims... Can't you just understand the rules and gains of a single-file line?

Edit: You can also leave early! (But kids can't ditch school... bummer.)

Hmm, it's all pretty fast for me.

I'd just like to be clear, I'm not complaining about the speed, I'm complaining that the game clock does not slow down when the game slows down. This is making it difficult to play the game, much more so than the actual speed of the game.

Sooo, slooow. Fix thissss. D:

totally agree; what i found best in sims 3 was mostly the building, buying and CAS, but i think they're still fixing up some bugs - maybe the time is one of them. hopefully there will be a patch where it's better soon, but other than that, it really gets on my nerves when i try to speed up time.

See, that's what I don't understand. I have a very fast, new computer...and the highest speed goes at snail pace. It takes more than fifteen minutes of real time for them to sleep, thus I've made all needs static while I'm exploring the game (bad, I know, but I refused to be frustrated by pretend time).

So, I'm gonna try upping the settings on high (I'm not sure they're set to that on default) and see if that helps -- hopefully it does. I wouldn't have thought to do it if I hadn't read your post.

15 real minutes for one nights sleep?!?!? Its not the game, its your pc if thats the case.

I think i could cruise thru a few days activities easily in any given 15 minutes period.

I tested that out with the most expensive bed and it still takes 6 real life minutes with the 3rd speed. I don't want to wait 6 real life minutes every time my sim goes to sleep,jeeze. :/

And no it is not the damn pc. At least not mine.

i cant stand how slow it is!!. Yesterday I sent my sim to bed and went to the store and got my kids something to eat while i waited. lol.