TS3 L&P

[J. M. Pescado]

Yes, I like the sound of TS3.  The traits sound much better than the current personality system and I prefer the seamless neighbourhood.  I'm not really a micromanager and I would prefer that families, that I'm not playing, age themselves.  Obviously it does depend on exactly how they've implemented these elements and they may have fucked that up.

The problem isn't so much that the families you're NOT playing age themselves, the problem is that the families you *ARE* playing age themselves so that you cannot play any OTHER families as well. Nobody would mind if it was just the families you DIDN'T play aging themselves, the problem is that you can thus only play one family.

[LFox]

Yes, I like the sound of TS3.  The traits sound much better than the current personality system and I prefer the seamless neighbourhood.  I'm not really a micromanager and I would prefer that families, that I'm not playing, age themselves.  Obviously it does depend on exactly how they've implemented these elements and they may have fucked that up.

The problem isn't so much that the families you're NOT playing age themselves, the problem is that the families you *ARE* playing age themselves so that you cannot play any OTHER families as well. Nobody would mind if it was just the families you DIDN'T play aging themselves, the problem is that you can thus only play one family.

I believe they said you can turn off aging for households.  Which means you can more or less play several families without them aging themselves.  Although with how the game is built one does wonder even if aging is off will townies marry or impregnate your sims screwing up their lives?

[jolrei]

Although with how the game is built one does wonder even if aging is off will townies marry or impregnate your sims screwing up their lives?

And this is why punctuation is so important, kids.  Look at how this sentence might mean several different things depending on the simple comma:

1) Although with how the game is built, one does wonder even if aging is off, will townies marry or impregnate your sims, screwing up their lives?

In this example, one only wonders if aging is on, and even if it is off.  One wonders: will townies marry, or would they rather impregnate your sims, thus screwing up your sims' lives.

2) Although, with how the game is built, one does wonder, even if aging is off will townies marry or impregnate your sims, screwing up their lives?

In this example, which is likely what is intended by the sentence, we see that the sentence now means that, given the manner in which the game is built, one wonders whether townies will marry or impregnate one's sims, even if aging is off, thus screwing up their lives.

...and finally (and my personal favourite):

3) Although, with how the game is built, one does wonder even if aging is off, will townies marry, or impregnate your sims screwing up their lives?

This sentence now means: Given the way the game is built, one wonders even if aging is off (presumeably if one ages, one does not wonder?) whether townies will marry (each other?), or will they simply impregnate your sims who are screwing up their lives anyway.

The simple comma.  Learn it.  Love it.  Use it.

[LFox]

Grammar makes my brain explode.  If I understand what you've written i believe it's #2 that i intended.

Why are you people so obsessed with grammar anyway?  Is it a technique for killing trolls?

[Milhouse Trixibelle Saltfucker III]

Trolls, tards, anyone with less than two neurons, et hoc genus omne. Including, apparently, you.

[kaitco]

Why are you people so obsessed with grammar anyway?  Is it a technique for killing trolls?

I doubt it is an obsession with grammar. It is simply a matter of being able to communicate properly. If you write coherently, no one will have the need to spork you.

[LFox]

Trolls, tards, anyone with less than two neurons, et hoc genus omne. Including, apparently, you.

Ahh i see.

Why are you people so obsessed with grammar anyway?  Is it a technique for killing trolls?

I doubt it is an obsession with grammar. It is simply a matter of being able to communicate properly. If you write coherently, no one will have the need to spork you.

Seems like an obsession, anyway as long as i can manage to give the gist of what i intend it's fine.  Besides plenty of people seem to enjoy correcting crappy grammar like mine.

You have got to be kidding me. You have a fairly high post count and you're fucking retarded? If you honestly can't answer that question or use grammar LURK MOAR.

I haven't been active on this forum for years.  I don't even remember making all those posts.

[Zazazu]

you people

Them's fightin' words.

Oh you gotta be kidding me just saw this on snootysims.

To 'celebrate' this news, EA released 3 new screenshots, a new movie and the boxshot. Check the movie here: Gametrailers.com

So they're celebrating their delay by putting out a movie and a bunch of screenshots?  Does anyone else find this completely retarded?  Also i think the boxart looks like ass.  The stand in ones they had until now were much better.

Yes! Did you not read the press release? EA is excited about this new release date because it will give them more time to promote the game:

"The June launch combined with the break-through game the team is building gives us the perfect runway to create awareness for The Sims 3," said Russell Arons, Vice President of Marketing for EA. "The Sims 3 will be the original IP summer blockbuster of 2009 as we build off the success of the best-selling PC franchise of all time to create awareness with both loyal Sims fans and new players."

[somnambulist]

(Also, it's ever so slightly disturbing to think of people on the internet being born in the 90s, especially the latter half of them. It makes me feel old, though I'm only a 24 myself.)

Sigh. I was already downloading Mosaic betas before these youngins were born -- and I'm only 28.

[kaitco]

Sigh. I was already downloading Mosaic betas before these youngins were born -- and I'm only 28.

Darlin', there is no 28. You are 24.

[Giggy]

Sigh. I was already downloading Mosaic betas before these youngins were born -- and I'm only 28.

Darlin', there is no 28. You are 24.

FAQ describes it quite well.

[rosess]

Why are you people so obsessed with grammar anyway?

Not everyone can be born a lolcat.   

[DrNerd]

When I read Parsimonious Kate's review about the "neighborhood aging" thing, the impression I got was that if you toggled the aging so that unplayed families didn't age, NO ONE aged, including the family you WERE playing.  My understanding was that it would be more like TS1, where babies grew up, but then aging was frozen for them.  Adults didn't become Elders, Teens didn't become Adults.  For me, at least, the ideal situation would be one in which aging could be turned off on a house-by-house basis, so that the irritating premades could die alone and unloved, but Sims I cared about could just hang out as they were until I got around to them.  Has anyone else gotten the all-or-none impression about aging?

Of all the things they could have given us, why'd they choose neighborhood aging and doughy Sims over something almost any player would get use out of--namely, a way to clone born-in-game Sims in CAS and package them to the website or to a file, so that we didn't require a third-party program like SimPE to share our pixel people.

Granted, my desire for TS3 was already low, but if this is the best people can do with respect to making their own SimSelves, I think I might actually have negative desire for the game now.  My TS2 SimSelf might not be a carbon copy, but at least she's recognizable as me!  Those two TS3 SimSelves would be hard to identify as being avatars of actual people.  My first instinct was "albino rhesus macaque" and "Bodie from Locke & Key."

[somnambulist]

FAQ describes it quite well.

Yes yes I wandered off into the wilderness of reality for a moment.

[Alex]

I agree with the comment that this is looking to be the "SimCity Societies" of The Sims series. There's the same thought process behind it "Let's take everything everybody loves about the previous games and get rid of it, and then we can replace it with new half-assed crap! Everyone will buy it, because we're EA!"

Definitely. I just don't like this message of, "Out with the old, in with the new!" We are bombarded with this message constantly that we need to be forever trading up. I hate hearing all the fanboys/girls raving about how they've already deleted the Sims 2 off their hard drives because who needs it anymore, right? We can haz new toyz, throw outs the old onez!!eleventyone!!! Advertising like that just kind of irks me.

I guess it's a punishment for being so foolish. When they get the game they will realise it doesn't work/is slow/is crap/not as fun as The Sims 2, but when they go back to play they will have realised that they destroyed countless hours of work on the game. When The Sims 2 came out, many people couldn't get it to work very well on their computers and some, like me, kept playing the original game in the mean time. Kind of indicates the level of enjoyment one receives from a game when they erase all trace of it seconds after hearing of a sequel. Especially when they've done it for a clearly inferior sequel...

[J. M. Pescado]

Those two TS3 SimSelves would be hard to identify as being avatars of actual people.  My first instinct was "albino rhesus macaque" and "Bodie from Locke & Key."

To be fair, we're talking about the avatars of some simmers whose actual appearances are unknown to us. It's quite possible that they really are that ugly, and most likely really are that fat.

[mildlydisguised]

Yes, I like the sound of TS3.  The traits sound much better than the current personality system and I prefer the seamless neighbourhood.  I'm not really a micromanager and I would prefer that families, that I'm not playing, age themselves.  Obviously it does depend on exactly how they've implemented these elements and they may have fucked that up.

The problem isn't so much that the families you're NOT playing age themselves, the problem is that the families you *ARE* playing age themselves so that you cannot play any OTHER families as well. Nobody would mind if it was just the families you DIDN'T play aging themselves, the problem is that you can thus only play one family.

I think it would be a refreshing change to switch from family to family, knowing that life would be carrying on without my intervention.  Even going back to a previously played family after a generation has passed doesn't disturb me.  I'm sure there will be things that piss me off about the reality of this but I think I would be more annoyed if TS3 was just TS2 with better graphics.

[spaceface]

I played most of the Sims 2 premade families for a bit, if only to sort their lives out and get them jobs that corresponded with their LTWs etc. None of them caught my fancy enough to want to play them further than that. I would be delighted if they could then carry on by themselves without my intervention, preferably age up and die. The problem is that in Sims 3 they would probably move out to their own houses and continue to reproduce, and you would find your town filling up exponentially with millions of unwanted playables.

Are we taking bets on this type of thing yet?

[nekonoai]

I am hoping there will be the ability (of course through a hack or something) it create clowncar... because I would create a nice sized clowncar and then let them age, etc on their own while I play someone moar important, like maybe myself, or someone more interesting. It would be interesting to see what really happens to the clowncars when they're left alone. Now, it's kind of tedius to take care of all those sims, because i actually have to go see them if I want them to progress in life.

But I would like the ability to turn off aging by lot, so that if I was looking at someone less important for awhile, the important sims wouldn't do anything foolish.

I'm not shocked that the date was pushed back. Sims 2 was pushed back, wasn't it?

They have a weird fiscal cycle. Don't most places go from July-June? I know we do here, and other places I have worked have been the same. But then, this is EA... so of course they would have a screwy schedule.

[Zazazu]

Yes, I like the sound of TS3.  The traits sound much better than the current personality system and I prefer the seamless neighbourhood.  I'm not really a micromanager and I would prefer that families, that I'm not playing, age themselves.  Obviously it does depend on exactly how they've implemented these elements and they may have fucked that up.

The problem isn't so much that the families you're NOT playing age themselves, the problem is that the families you *ARE* playing age themselves so that you cannot play any OTHER families as well. Nobody would mind if it was just the families you DIDN'T play aging themselves, the problem is that you can thus only play one family.

I think it would be a refreshing change to switch from family to family, knowing that life would be carrying on without my intervention.  Even going back to a previously played family after a generation has passed doesn't disturb me.  I'm sure there will be things that piss me off about the reality of this but I think I would be more annoyed if TS3 was just TS2 with better graphics.

The Oversoul does not approve of this lack of control. Sims must believe they can make their own choices, but must be kept within bounds. If they are not being closely watched, who will smite Romance sims who can't keep it in their pants after marriage? Who will grilled cheese zombify them when they persist in pursuing everything with a skirt? How will sims know they are not to have more than the perfect number of four children if those who violate the sacred number are not punished immediately, to awake at dawn with all of their children taken away and a plate of roasted babyfat at the door?

This is unacceptable.

Don't most places go from July-June?

We do January - December. Weird, I know. It doesn't seem like many places have their fiscal year on the traditional year marks.

[Insanity Prelude]

Like I said, I'm going to wait and see how the finished product turns out before I decide whether to acquire it. I feel bad about being interested in it at all, knowing what bullshit EA's likely to pull.

And yes, I got the impression that turning off neighborhood aging was an all-or-nothing deal too. That is unacceptable, and if it does turn out that way, it's a dealbreaker for me.

Edit: Those minimum specs could be a problem too. My computer doesn't quite meet the ones it puts up for Vista, although it runs Sims 2 + all EPs excellently so who knows...
(Sigh. The constantly climbing requirements for gaming PCs are why I'm mainly a console gamer.)

[jolrei]

And yes, I got the impression that turning off neighborhood aging was an all-or-nothing deal too. That is unacceptable, and if it does turn out that way, it's a dealbreaker for me.

It would make playing a MATY hood that had more than one playable household almost impossible, I would think.  All of MATY could conceivably age and die within one rotation.

On the other hand, it would increase the lulz of random events occurrences (i.e. after playing the Lorelei house for 5 sim days, and then moving on to the Jelenedra house, one discovers that Jelenedra has had 3 kids, Khan (her husband) has left her to move in with Tigerlilley, and the Charlatan has moved in, potentially causing a BFBVFS).

[nekonoai]

lmfao Jolrei XD

[MrMugg]

I like the idea of universal aging also and seamless neighborhood.  It's a new way to play, and a new way of thinking.  I don't like many other things about Sims 3, though, which as been beaten enough to death.

Multiple families would be great ** IF ** we could create multiple neighborhoods that were different from each other.  For multiple families within the same neighborhood, it would be fun to create families that you don't have much intention to play much or at all -- just to see what they do.

I'm thinking that I'll probably play a main famiily, turn aging off to check out another family and make choices, then go back to my main family and turn aging back on.

[talysman]

And yes, I got the impression that turning off neighborhood aging was an all-or-nothing deal too. That is unacceptable, and if it does turn out that way, it's a dealbreaker for me.

It would make playing a MATY hood that had more than one playable household almost impossible, I would think.  All of MATY could conceivably age and die within one rotation.

If you're playing multiple households in a rotation, I would imagine the best method would be to turn aging off, play all families but one for a specific length of time each, then turn aging on and play the final family for the same period. This doesn't prevent sims from doing things you don't want when not being played, but it does keep aging in sync without provoking rapid deaths.

You should probably set the maximum sim age on the low setting (25?) to compensate for the bonus days.

The Oversoul does not approve of this lack of control. Sims must believe they can make their own choices, but must be kept within bounds. If they are not being closely watched, who will smite Romance sims who can't keep it in their pants after marriage? Who will grilled cheese zombify them when they persist in pursuing everything with a skirt? How will sims know they are not to have more than the perfect number of four children if those who violate the sacred number are not punished immediately, to awake at dawn with all of their children taken away and a plate of roasted babyfat at the door?

This is unacceptable.

Then it's a good thing my modding skills are rank beginner, then, because all the ideas I have for mods would infuriate you. They're all about introducing spontaneous actions and events into sims lives to cause CHAOS. Because that would make playing the game more of a challenge.

That's why the Sims 3 doesn't look too bad to me, at least in terms of sims' lives progressing when not watched. The trait system seems OK, too. It's the locking down of moddability and the promise of ultraslow gameplay on my ancient machine that bothers me. Oh, and the new, improved SecuROM.