THE HORROR: The REAL TS3 Scoop As It Unfolds

[J. M. Pescado]

Yes. I've been hacking into the system to discover that the Story Progression Off option does not appear to do anything, as the StoryProgression controller remains "Enabled" no matter what.

[mandababy]

been following the goings on for a couple days now, so I thought I'd finally post some of my experiences, likes/dislikes.

First is a big issue that we had in TS2 seems to be back, and now since they've made the testingcheats alot less useful and non helpful, aside from raising motives and relationships, I could not fix the issue, and chose to just stop playing that family/neighborhood. My sims had a baby boy, and since it seems strangers, and visitors can just do as they please with your children (quite disturbing), that baby boy was KIDNAPPED! lol, they were throwing a party for their daughter's birthday, somewhere between the standing around waiting for people to move away from the cake so mom could take the kid to the cake, and the ending of the party, one of the guests had wondered upstairs and picked up the baby to do God knows what with him.

Right after the cake, the party ended, and the guy had a popup that said "Thanks for the great time! I have to be going now" then proceeded to leave, with the baby in his arms! After a few minutes, the baby's picture disappeared from the family panel and was never seen again.. He was still in the relationships, and family tree and even the loading screen picture, but in reality he didn't exist anymore. I invited the kidnapper over several times, visited his house, made him selectable, and the baby was nowhere to be found. It was strange though, that when the dad was out patrolling for his job, the baby's picture would move up to the front of the relationship tab, as if he were near him, but I never found him.

I kept thinking I would stumble across the poor thing on the road or sidewalk somewhere eventually lol. Since thats what the parents did with him when they were in town.. But I never found him, so I gave up.

Also, the testingcheats thing is annoying, it helps with motives and relationships, but its nowhere near as helpful as the TS2 version. I had a kid come home with my daughter, and she asked her to sleep over. Well they had been playing tag for like hours, and the friend stopped in her tracks and started panting and I thought she was about to pass out from exhaustion lol, so I made her selectable, in order to fix her needs. After that, there is no option anywhere to remove her from the family! So my sims, had now become kidnappers themselves, lol. Silly me, had not saved in quite some time, so in order to get rid of this kidnapped child I had to exit without saving. Another reason I gave up on that family.

So those are the bugs/annoyances I have found so far, aside from the gittery-ness my sims get sometimes, like out of nowhere they will start moving at super speeds, for no reason, lol. I have to restart my computer in order to fix the issue, since simply exiting and reloading the game does not help. But that is probably a computer problem I guess.

[Mr. Snooley]

Yes. I've been hacking into the system to discover that the Story Progression Off option does not appear to do anything, as the StoryProgression controller remains "Enabled" no matter what.

Ah, that makes sense.
Well actually it doesn't, because I can't understand how something of such Importance can be broken in this game, but that's EA so it makes sense again.

That may also explain why the heck Inventories get lost when you switch Households, who knows what kind of stuff those Sims do with Guitarrs, Books etc. when you turn your back on them ...

[kislio]

I seem to be experiencing a bug - when a sim transitions to teen, they don't get their fourth trait. It says on the pop-up that they do, but it doesn't display the trait on their simology panel and they don't seem to show any signs of it. 

[coltraz]

MORE BUGS...

This is some fucked up shit, right here...

First look who he's talking to on the phone: (Upper left corner)

Now let's look at their relationship status...



I had them "go steady" and "Sam" was a teen. Now he's appearing to be a toddler, and before in Sam's house there was a young adult (or an adult), Sam, and a toddler. Now there's just the adult and a toddler. Very interested to know where Sam went or if he's for some reason now a baby again. Time warp.

In other news, I realized my Sims stereo only works when playing CUSTOM music! All other stations and Sims 3 music is not working.

sigh.

[VeilSethekk]

For the people that were asking about same-sex marriages, it appears that the game does declare those as "Marriage", so supporters of same-sex marriages rejoice!

Does anyone know if the "Have 1st child" want is fulfilled by adoption for same-sex couples, since woolProp doesn't have a feature to get pregnant with someone of the same gender.

And as for the Fishing in Swimming Pools, it's confirmed that the Insane trait allows this. I don't see why EAxis made it so you would catch actual fish, though. Wouldn't it make more sense that they can catch things such as leaves, coins, or lost swimsuit pieces?

And Sponge Bath appears as an option for Inappropriate sims, and surprisingly fulfills as much hygiene as an actual shower/bath.

[Insanity Prelude]

Why do books cost so damn much? A normal book, one that doesn't even teach your Sim anything, should NOT cost more than, say, a birthday cake, let alone a bike.

[coltraz]

When slob Sims lick plates their hunger need is 100% fulfilled.   

[DaSpecialone]

And as for the Fishing in Swimming Pools, it's confirmed that the Insane trait allows this. I don't see why EAxis made it so you would catch actual fish, though. Wouldn't it make more sense that they can catch things such as leaves, coins, or lost swimsuit pieces?

Seems like they should be able to since my skilled fisherman keeps getting ducks, candles, etc., out of the park pond & the ocean.  I think it would have made more sense to have a sim comb the beach with a metal detector.

[kiki]

Okay, my HORROR finally finished and I got to make my self sim...pudding faces aside, as a maxian lover in TS2 I actually quite like the new sims in TS3. I admit the basic options made for pudding face, but when you opened up the advanced tab, I found it had moar options than TS2 did. I think my TS3 self sim is much moar accurate than my TS2 self sim was able to be. *points @ avatar*

[Zazazu]

When slob Sims lick plates their hunger need is 100% fulfilled.   

When sims eat anything, even a bowl of cereal or burnt waffles made on the cheapest oven by someone with no cooking points, hunger is completely filled.

More toddlers poking through fat sims, though this teen isn't that overweight. I was panning up and down on this 2-story house and realized that fat sims appear thin for a split second, so I'm wondering if some of the animations are just based off the thin bodyshape and not on what seems to be an overlay body shape mesh. Also, see siamese twins.





I'm off for a day as I'm in a wedding. Enjoy the horror without me.

[Papercut]

Is anyone else ticked off about what EA has done with the ghosts? In TS2 ghosts were probably too limited, but they've gone in the extreme opposite direction in TS3. They are just like regular sims, only with effects. I mean, ghost babies? Come the fuck on ... it beats the whole purpose of ghosts being mysterious non corporeal entities.

EA can never find the happy medium, it seems.

I finding romance a bit irritating too. On one hand I like that it seems less arbitrary, but the way the romantic interactions work is so fiddly. Again, EA misses the happy medium. In TS2 sims fall in love at the drop of a hat, in TS3 trying to make it happen is more trouble than it's worth.

[raptureswild]

Also apparently ghosts die if you resurrect your sim and play it as one.  So exactly - ghosts are now see-through glowy regular sims.  Argh.

On another note, apparently my first child to make it to toddler will eventually become the godfather.  Cf:

He will grant you one favor on this, the day of his daughter's wedding.

ETA: Also, anyone notice the convenient color of toddler mush, considering the place sims pull it out of?  OK, immature, but still, it crossed my mind and grossed me out.

[J. M. Pescado]

Why do books cost so damn much? A normal book, one that doesn't even teach your Sim anything, should NOT cost more than, say, a birthday cake, let alone a bike.

Because they have to pay for the cost of the draconian DRM measures used to make sure your sim cannot copy the book to his friends.

[farmersimmer]

Gawd I am finding it a grind,managed to kill a sim by trapping in a room,cannot find how to transfer her to the cemetary?
Looks like her grave stone disappears after the reaper comes.
could we possibly have a sticky with tips people have found to enable/do stuff?
would love to try windowed mode, but also cannot find that in" öptions"

[DaSpecialone]

Uncheck fullscreen.

[farmersimmer]

Uncheck fullscreen.

thankyou that worked!

[Elruwen]

Whoa. Apparently, if a sim has the creepy flower thing (that grows in the cemetery) in their inventory and they die they will get instantly resurrected.

[Fat D]

(can't steal from yourself)

If they used a torrent version they helped distributing it (no download w/o upload), and that would have to be considered illegal, even if they own the rights.

Well, they probably won't sue themselves, but if they tried to sue the ones who put it up as a torrent (theoretically speaking), they might have a wee bit of a problem...

Actually, they own the copyright, so they can distribute in whatever way they see fit. Of course, torrenting would most certainly not be in their interest.
And it is, in fact, a buggy pre-final, because the official release will be just that.

[mandababy]

Something else I noticed while playing lastnight having to do with multiples, I gave both mom and dad sim the fertility treatment, because I wanted to see some triplets, lol. My chic got pregnant, when it was time for the baby to come, it popped up and said "The baby is coming" so I was like, aw guess we will have to try again, sent her to the hospital, it popped up, "Congratulations its a girl!"

I named her, and went back to the house to check on the other children, in fear of more kidnappings. Then a minute later I got another pop up that said "Congratulations its a girl!" I was like wtf? I thought it was broken and repeating itself. But then after naming it again, nothing else popped up and there were 2 baby icons in the family panel now.

Not really something too important, but I wish it had said "The babies are coming" or "Its twins, please name them" then have like "Baby Girl" for their names until I renamed them like TS2 did.

[BlueSoup]

Well, I found out you can change the lot zoning, but it's a matter of just pushing buttons, it doesn't give you a choice.  My sim family bought Old Pier Point (or whatever it's called) after I turned it into a residential lot in Edit Town.

[J. M. Pescado]

Why would it need to give you a choice? There are only two choices, Residential or Community, so obviously, there is no need to present a formal choice, pushing the button will simply toggle.

[BlueSoup]

Yes, I am aware.  But it's not a matter of entering a cheat is what I meant.  Leave me alone.

[Salomon]

Does anyone know if the "Have 1st child" want is fulfilled by adoption for same-sex couples, since woolProp doesn't have a feature to get pregnant with someone of the same gender.

 A bug was reported in where that happens by itself, i.e. same gender couples can try for a baby, and have success (at least males).

[Acid_fairy]

In other news, I realized my Sims stereo only works when playing CUSTOM music! All other stations and Sims 3 music is not working.

sigh.

Mine does the same. At the gym, the 'Electronica' station worked for a short while, and also the buy mode has also worked, but it's very intermittent. I have just updated my audio drivers so I will see if that makes a difference but somehow I doubt it will.