More Awesome Than You!

I'm not trying to stir anything up, I'm just curious. This question is meant for everyone but it's especially aimed at the people who wont buy the holiday party pack for whatever reason. Maybe someone with the company will see this thread and make a few suggestions to marketing and the designers...but probably not.

So the question is:

What would have to be included in the next party pack (if another one was released and it wasn't another holiday pack) for you to consider buying it? It can be clothes, interactions, objects, themes, anything...

Bonus question: Would you NOT buy a party pack if it was only available through the EA online store, versus being able to buy them at Walmart (I dont know what the discount retail chains are outside the US sorry), or gaming retailers such as Gamestop or EBgames?

I'd prefer to just go to Walmart or order from EBgames.

I'd like to see some themes with a cultural flavor for houses like South African, Indian (Hindu?), French (Louis XIV type stuff), Egyptian and Japanese (I know they have the asian theme but it seems predominantly Korean), plus everyday - and possibly formal - clothing to match each theme for all ages and genders. Kimonos would be wonderful (especially for men) the asian clothing in the game also seems to favor the Korean style. Nothing wrong with that, but I love Japan, the architecture, art and the traditional clothing, so that would be a must buy for me.

Other kinds of themes I'd buy would be gothic, science fiction/UFO, south western, victorian (include clothes and a fancy chandelier with that!), Fantasy (for a more fitting neighborhood/house for the Elves) + appropriate clothing; Seafarer since they've got those pirate looking clothes in the game I think they aught to have a pirate theme to match; Medieval - I know they have that collection in the game but I'd like to see more added to it, especially a medieval type ceiling light which is NOT in the game despite their having added medieval style floor, wall, and table lamps with University.

Heck I'd probably be tempted to buy a party pack of just utilities (lights, appliances, bathroom fixtures) so long as it contained a variety of ceiling lamps and new styles of kitchen/bathroom fixtures because I dont like most of the Maxis ceiling fixtures and there's so few as it is (I dont think they added any new ceiling fixtures in NL or Uni) and the kitchen/bathroom pieces dont suit some of the themes they have included in the game. If I have a medieval neighborhood I dont want modern toilets and tubs!

I might even buy a pack that contained nothing but wall items (just no more posters!) and "clutter" type items as I'd like a wider variety for paintings and tapestries when decorating my houses so they dont all have the same artwork; and I'd like the clutter for adding that homey touch so the place looks a little more personal (desktop pictures, etc...) as though someone actually lives there... (if some of that could be placed on the fireplace mantels that would be nice...). Half the paintings I download from Sims2 sites dont work regardless of the fact that I have all the files or the most recent CEP; most of the ones that do work are paintings that require me to download a new mesh, it's the recolors of maxis paintings that seem to be the most trouble.

I like the idea of using cultural themes a lot.  Those are the kind of things I'm always trying to download anyways.  I'm still having a hard time finding a lot of things I want object and clothes wise.

One that contained new building things...I would perhaps be likely to purchase.  And no!  Not walls and floors.  Those are a dime a dozen.  Everything but walls and floors and terrain paints and things like that heh

New interactions would intrigue me..again it would depend on what they were.  But if they created new family type interactions and objects that children and toddlers could interact with..things like that..it would spark my attention....TS2 is seriously lacking in the family interaction department.

New interactions would be the biggest draw for me, as well.
Maybe de-fog those damn car windows...

If they made a pack with hair, they'd be guaranteed to get my money. No matter how much hair I download I never seem to be satisfied.

I would be most interested in a pack of objects/interractions for young sims (baby-child), and even for teens depending on what they are.

I would also probably go for new kitchen appliances and foods, but the appliances would have to do something special, not just do what the others do already. For example it could be a waffle maker that would be the only thing that could make waffles. Or something like that.

I would also go for a pack of objects for either filthy rich or horribly poor sims. I can never have too many of those, either.

New build mode objects would be okay by me. And ever since NL I have been longing for new neighborhood objects... but I see these are being made by players already, so I might get satisfaction without giving Maxis money. Still, if they looked good I would buy.

I don't really like the idea of the holiday pack, but that is my own prejudice against it. I hate holidays in real life and I never do them in the game. Still, considering that practically my whole family plays the game, I will end up with the pack whether I want it or not. And that goes for anything else Maxis puts out. So I guess I'm a bad person to ask these questions in the first place. :)

I think my major complaint about the idea of a holiday pack is that, come Dec.26th, it'll be put away with the rest of the Christmas stuff that I'd be so tired of looking at.

I am with SaraMK: Gimme more hair!!!! ;D

New interactions and building mode items are good too.
I only discovered the fabulous half-walls in NL yesterday. Now I got to redo "the Badenoch" (my Victorian house based on a turn-of-the century floorplan).

NEW LTW's and turnon/turnoffs would also be muchly appreciated.

I'd be most likely to go for a new pack that included new careers and new food. 

(I doubt that Maxis could do half the job on clothes that the community does, although if they could cough up some good MEN'S clothing, I'd be happy.)

A general Entertaining pack would be excellent.  I am so bored of serving guests the same Plate O' Turkey, I could puke.

How about a buffet table that let you choose your menu, with different prices depending on the fare?  Serve 'em Sushi and Lamb Chops if you have the cash.   Imagine a bar that let you choose to serve cosmopolitans or Jack Daniels?  (Product placement money, too! :) )

Tablecloths with candles.

Tools to serve an elegant party would be great...and then if you put in the Maxis sense of humour, your trashier Sims could put out funny cheap food.

Let us put the potato chips in a BOWL.  Why are guests going to the fridge to get potato chips out for themselves? 

Hire a frickin' waiter for the party so the Sims don't have to clean up that night to keep roaches from coming.

I've got more.... :)

I want things that it's difficult for the community to create and things that make it easier for community to make new different things. New animations (how about slides and jungle gyms and other park toys for kids, strollers for little ones, etc.) If they do clothes, I want interesting meshes, same with furniture - good stuff for fun recolors. Things that have a long life because the community can build from them. New interactions would be good. New LTWs, turn-ons, aspirations, careers, degrees and all the stuff I'm really sick of already would be awesome of course :)

Maxis needs to start taking notes!


Careers..oh yes how badly the game needs new careers...turn ons/off would be  nice just for variety but they seem to be somewhat pointless in the whole scheme of the attraction meter...they can sometimes push two sims that have everything else in common up to three bolts of chemistry though...new lifetime wants....party pack or next EP..I don't care...I'm sick of these lifetime wants already..even the LTW Variety mod  isn't doing much in easing the boredom these days.

The whole concept of expansion and booster packs makes me angry because I'm paying for things that could've or should've been in the base game, and more often than not, the additional content doesn't justify the price. I don't like the way the Sims, in particular, has a new expansion every 6 months, whether the previous ones are riddled with bugs or not, and now they're throwing together some Christmas rubbish and trying to sell it to me for $20? No, I'm not buying it, and there's no way I'd ever buy a booster pack because, goddamnit, it should be packaged into the next expansion. I'd still be angry, but at least I'll buy their bloody expansions.

the whole idea of booster packs makes me extremely irate, too...  particularly when you hear just how much they are planning on charging for it here in Australia...  I made a snippy little post about it on the official board, and well...  nobody there seemed to care at all...

although - if they were to put some stuff in that I would be interested in, then I probably would hand over the cash...

I think most of them have been listed, but careers, lifetime wants, turn on/offs, in particular...  But the one thing I feel is really missing is stuff for kids - it would be great to see the child and toddler stage of the game fleshed out - as it is my toddlers concentrate on building charisma as fast as possible and my kids - they paint, play chess and hopefully stop whining at me long enough for me to make them do their homework!  Just like in sims 1 - the kids are pretty much a waste of space (although, once I had vacation I would use the kids to make family friends for the promotions), but at least they now grow up!

I guess the other end of things would also be good - to fill in that gap between adult and elder - let sims age gracefully as well! 

I'd love to see gardening stuff come back - but the one thing that I most definitely do NOT want is pets!  *shudder*

Ness

EDIT:  I just noticed the bonus question - if the booster pack was ONLY available in online stores, then there isn't a snowball's chance in a very hot place of me ever buying it!

Don't forget, you can throw a New Year's party too.  ::)

But yes, I don't like the idea of paying for very limited and seasonal items.

I feel like they really need to provide things that the community can't at this point, which means new animations and interactions and such. New careers would be nice too but they really need to get off their ass and do the chance cards for every level this time. :p I don't really trust them to make decent clothes or hair textures, but I suppose if the meshes are there then people can always redo the textures.  :P

I know a lot of people have talked about a middle aged age group and I'd really like to see this too, but I don't see them doing it, it's just not as flashy and appealing to them. If they made an expansion pack that expanded on elders and added more and better looking clothes for them, things for them to do and advantages to being one and just made them generally look not so damned old and frumpy I'd be there, but again I don't see that happening. It's just not flashy enough for them.

As far as where to buy it from, I really feel like they should give us the option to buy and download these packs online and pass the savings of not having to pay for a CD, box and shipping along to us. Prima does this with their guides already and these packs are nowhere near as large as a full expansion plus many of us have broadband so I think this is reasonable. I'm much more likely to buy and download such a pack for $10 than to go to the store and buy it for $15.

I would like to see more  animations and interaction s among the age groups .I would buy it if the  house hold animations were more realistic ie certain food like chips and cookies go in a pantry and and then are put into bowls  who refrigerates cookies and chips in RL. and whoever designs maxis default anything has no taste whatso ever Elders are always stooped over and frumpy there is no middle age I would buy an add on if it contained realism and better animation.I did buy the holiday pack but only because I have a new neighborhood planned that centers on a never ending holiday and what it would be like if it was always christmas or new years etc

I agree with everyone that's saying booster packs need things the community can't make.  I refuse to pay ten dollars just for objects and a body shop iteam or two.  If I won't give Sim creator with more talent and taste that money, why should I give it to Maxis?

I think Maxis could have made the holiday booster into a full fledged EP if they put some thought and effort in to it.  I'd like my sims to do it big on Halloween.  I'd love it if they made up special holidays just for the sims.  More types of parties would be great too.  Like baby showers, dinner parties and such.

I wouldn't buy anything from Maxis if it was only sold in the EA store.  I don't have credit card or Paypal. 

Themed holiday packs - no.  Like others, I'd be tired of that content in short notice and it wouldn't get used for a year until the holiday rolled around again.  Besides look at all the great stuff people have created for holidays on their own.

Now if the theme pack included a ton of new stuff for kids, that would be another matter entirely.  Playpens (how could they miss that?), sandboxes, teeter-totters, new toys, ones that build skills, and in the interactions to go with them, etc.  I think an object-interaction pack that centered around stuff like that would make me willing to shell out for it.  Although, like Motoki suggested, I think it should also be sold as a discounted download version.  I think that would be a very smart move on EA's part.

But man, it seems like every possible style for women has been made by modders.   I'd love it if they just did a "Men Only pack" including *at least* a dozen new hairstyles, better facial hair, and new clothing designs/meshes for all ages.  Men still suffer terribly in this game compared to women.

I have about -0 degrees of interest in getting the holiday pack, it just doesn't appeal to me.
I agree with that. I would love to have more things for babies/toddlers/children to do and more interactions for them with adults. Having an adult be able to sit down and rock the baby/toddler would be a good begining, I recall doing that quite a bit when my kids were small. In TS1 they had that cool jungle gym with a slide for kids, I would like to have that for TS2. Not to mention, why can't children fix their own darned cereal or sandwiches?
I would also like to see something geared for men as well. I spend a lot of time trying to find hair and clothing for the men and teenage boys, there doesn't seem to be a lot out there.
As far as ordering it goes, I prefer walking into walmart then paying s&h charges for what I consider to be overpriced items in the first place. I think the best idea is what Motoki said, sell it as a download. Of course for those that don't have internet access for whatever reason, that obviously wouldn't work.

I'd like to see things that the modding community can't do, at least not currently, and probably not for a while, like new animations, interactions, ltw, turn-on/offs, etc.

Custom content I can get anywhere, and it's stuff that Maxis always gets wrong anyways. So that I'm not too kneen on that. I definitely think Maxis should capitalize on things that aren't available elsewhere, in better forms, but rather things that as of now only Maxis can provide.

Well I won't be buying the Holiday Party Pack just on principle, I refuse to pay for something that other people are getting free (The Holiday Edition sells for the same price as The Sims 2 CD so tell me how the christmas stuff isn't a FREE BONUS!), I dont do holidays in the Sims since it's not as if they have seasons or anything to set the scene - christmas decorations on green grass looks stupid to me. But if they provided booster/party packs with interesting, year round things like I had mentioned or things you all have mentioned - I thought you all had great ideas - then I'd buy them. And I agree, men and boys seriously get the short end of the stick.

As a gamer, albiet a casual one, paying for stuff like this is just something I accept as being part of the gaming industry, I dont really mind paying for booster packs because I dont have to buy them if I dont want what it's offering and it's not an expansion so the game isn't reliant on my having the booster packs in order to have certain features enabled. But I do think they're asking a little much for the pack, especially since if they dropped the price they'd probably sell even more of the packs and hence make more money than they would have.

No kidding. They are selling TS2 w/holiday content to people who didn't buy the original game when it first came out for around $40.00 USD but I am penalized because I already bought it and to get the holiday stuff I have to shell out another $15-20? So I'm paying $55-60 for something that other people will get for $40. Does that smell like bullshit to anyone but me?
Of course companies do that all the time. I was looking at Amazon.com the other day and saw that the HBO Sex & the City series is now coming out with a complete boxed set for less then what it cost me to buy each season individually. There were some very unhappy posts being made about that little event. >:(

I'm mad about the Holiday Pack and I won't buy it...

Unless... it has in it an animation of children sitting on Santa's lap, and then I will end up buying it because modders will soon fix that to be not Christmas-oriented and use it in other situations, and I'll want...

And I'll still be mad, more mad, furious even at the whole thing...

I'd definitely go for any sort of men's pack. I also agree that males are very neglected when it comes to custom content. I'm VERY picky about what women's stuff I download because there is so much of it, but I am far less so about men's stuff just because there really isn't much out there to begin with.

so would I the men are horribly neglected by maxis

This is my thought also. Maxis will make an ugly shirt and recolor it three times and call it four shirts.  ::) My sims almost never wear Maxis made hair, clothes or make-up - there's far better choices available in the community. If Maxis actually spent time creating say 20 new items (as opposed to creating five new items and recoloring each one four times) and they were items that were substantially different from existing items (giving the community new meshes to work from) that would really get my interest.

I also like the idea of themed items - like gothic, 50's, victorian, etc. Not everyone wants these different settings, but each setting would still have broad appeal.

I don't mind paying for a booster pack but I do mind that the holiday booster pack is being given away free to some people while I have to pay for it since I've already purchased the product. Please tell me how I'm not getting screwed?

The clothes they make has got to be the most bland stuff I have ever seen in my life. I've gotten to the point where I even can't stand to have townies dressed in Maxis clothes. Usually, I'll only use their clothing if I want to make a sim who's extra frumpy. Some of the University and NL stuff is a little less dull, but then a lot of that they took to the other extreme and made totally tacky.

That is my personal pet peeve about the community: men stuff, especially clothing, seem to be far and few in between. Sure, women get 30 wedding dresses with only a change of color in the small belt around her waist, but I rarely find anything for men that doesn't have some "cool" company logo slapped onto it.

Like I said in another thread, I like objects, especially usable objects. Kitchen appliances, bathroom fixtures, and all that stuff would make me consider buying a booster pack. What would win me over, however, is if Sims could store food in the fridge or some object, where it wouldn't go bad. It sucks when I have four sims hungry at the same time, but the game makes six meals, so two end up setting out and going bad. It'd be excellent for Sims in a hurry.

For me to purchase a booster pack it would have to be at least 125 objects for around $10.  If they released an objects only pack within that frame, I would be happy to purchase it.  I love the items that the community makes and I do have a slight downloading addiction because of that, but I find that my downloads folder fills up too quickly and it slows down my game.  I also love building and uploading lots which means that I avoid putting community made objects in it, which again limits me on what I can include.  That means the more Maxis made objects I have available the better.

I would be super excited to see various themed furniture.  I'm not a fan of contemporary furniture for the most part; I love mission and craftsmen style.  I love the idea of more medieval furniture as well as Victorian.  They could even do a series of themed object boosters and folks could pick and choose the themes they find appealing.

I would love to see more gardening features as well.  Both indoor and outdoor.  As far as more interactions etc., I would be content if they left those to be included only in full expansion packs but I wouldn't be against their inclusion in a booster.

As for clothing, I probably wouldn't purchase a booster pack just for that.  But I do look forward to seeing new meshes in the eps.  And I agree, they really need to step up to the plate in terms of men's items and hair.

I will not buy anything that is available exclusively online at EA. 

As for the Holiday pack specifically, I have no interest in holidays in my game.  I don't keep a calendar in game, I don't have my game reflect what is happening in "real life", I didn't bother with the free holiday Maxis.  I'm just not interested.  In fact, I'm disappointed that Maxis would come this close to religion in the game (and yes, I know the items are not specifically religious in nature).  I would prefer they leave that to the modding community and stay on the non-exclusionary, all inclusive line they have been walking up to this point.

Definitely need more interactions and  things for kids......also need more expensive stuff, some of my sims are SO rich they wouold have to buy tons of crap to even make a dent. I want them to have it all but also not have as much cash...maybe i should let a few generations not workl....now theres an idea.

I kept hearing how there would be great new clothing options in NL, especially attractive jeans for women. I buy NL and finally see these supposedly attractive jeans--the waistline is practically up to the sim's neck, they're at least 2 sizes too big and look vaguely like bellbottoms. I was hoping for low-rise, fitted jeans, not something my mum probably wore when she was 18. :-\

This is a huge annoyance to me, as well. I don't know why all the men and boys have to wear sandals and cowboy boots. I personally hate them in the game. If I find any custom outfits for guys that do not have sandals or cowboy boots, I download them.  I'm on an anti-ugly-footwear kick right now. None of my male sims wear boots or sandals. Not a one.

Gotta love those fluorescent ski-jacket things, too. Way cool  :P.

I'd probably buy it if they added the body modification options they have in bodyshop in CAS.  And maybe a caterer, and maybe some expensive maid or that stays home with the famiy. Some more objects that go beyond wallpaper and floortiles would be nice. 

And as so many others, more turn ons and turn offs.

re: classical vs modern furniture

Though in some houses I occasionally go for modern, I tend to prefer classical furniture by find nearly all of the custom furniture out there to be modern.

re: low rise vs high rise jeans

I'm sorry, but I am sick to death of 99.99999999% of custom pants hanging all the way down off a sims ass (and thereby not lining up with a good portion of shirts available). And this do this for mean as well as women. I'm not 15, I know what a belt is and I know how to use it.  :P Sorry, all those low riders is just a pet peeve of mine.

Which brings me to the point that the community it just horrible about variation. We have 100 variations of the same modern chair, 400 variations of the same low rider pants and 8 versions of every dress Paris Hilton ever wore.  ::) Maybe booster packs around a theme aren't such a bad idea after all as long as it's not a hollywood and young hip female clothes or modern furniture theme, we've got enough of that already.  :P

I second all of the above!! ;D

There are a couple of things that might spark my interest and one could possibly be a pack with hair and clothing.  HOWEVER, not the trendy crap they're always releasing!

I noticed this way back in TS1.  They made all of these trendy clothes.  Now my first problem with that is that I can't stand trendy clothes.  Most are just ridiculous designs made to grab people's attention for the short-term to keep them buying new clothes.  If it is a style I like it doesn't matter whether it's in or out, my sims will wear it.  About 90% of the in-game clothing in TS1 just wasted space on my hard-drive and the same holds true for TS2.  Sometimes there are meshes with great potential so I always try to look beyond the skins and do something tasteful with those but I'd much rather have classic designs that look nice, no matter what.  At any rate, in order for me to feel it would be worth the money (say $20 US), the pack would need to include at least a couple of CLASSIC clothing meshes for each age group and at least 5 hairstyles per gender.

Honestly, I'm still wondering what good those little 'suits' for the toddlers that came in NL are.  The only thing they've done in my game is encouraged me to quickly buy something ELSE for a toddler that age transitions in one.  (Pink suit on little boy toddler?  Give me a break already!)

At any rate, another thing that I would consider is a pack that includes landscaping objects, not only trees, but things like rocks, climbing vines and what not.  I'd only buy it, though, if it included at least 100 of said objects and that doesn't include the re-colors. ;)

Overall (Christmas pack aside that'll also be included in upcoming versions of stand-alone TS2), I don't think the Bonus Packs are a bad idea.  I do, however, think Maxis is offering too little for the price.  When you consider what an expansion pack contains (a couple hundred objects AND completely new features and neighborhoods) and that it costs roughly $30 US, $20 for 80 or so objects is a rip-off.

When my toddler transitioned into that thing, I really really thought "uh oh, I thought it was a baby boy, but it's really a baby girl" - LOL. Yep, cannot figure out why they thought a pink tux would be good as everyday clothes for a toddler.

And yes, I agree about the custom pants meshes that don't work with any top (I can't even find the tops they're supposed to go with, if there were any). I've got some rather nice male flares I picked up somewhere, but they're too low and I cannot find a single shirt of any kind that looks decent with them - pooh, I don't have that much good male stuff either.

Agree with everybody else about the men's pack and themed packs as well. And also the money issue - I think the EPs are pretty high (some games don't cost that much) but I get a lot of play value out of the sims so I don't mind too much, but I'm not paying another $20 for bonus packs unless they're really something I want and a good deal of it. (and I'm not paying another $15 for the base game, period :p)

same!

If I want to see bottoms hanging out of pants - well, I'll just go to school and look at the way the boys dress...  if I want to see bare midriffs I just need to step into a shopping centre...  Maybe this is just showing my age, but I'm so sick of today's teens all wearing the same styles without a thought to what style/colour suits them - gah!

Ever seen a bunch of teenage girls out - they will all wear the same clothes!  same styles, same colour - and even the fat ones will put on the ultra low-rise hipsters and the cute little midriff top...  and then the whole world has to look at the massive expanse of pale belly wobbling and jiggling with every step - ack!  And yet, they whinge and grumble about having to wear a school uniform when they all go out looking the same anyway!  (Note:  I'm a teacher in Australia - uniforms are compulsory everywhere)

I know that the vast majority of computer game consumers out there are much younger, but even at 30 I'm relatively young in the sims community - I was really pleased with the new nightlife jeans, and the 50s clothes for women, but I am still really bummed about the state of the men's and kids clothing - it's got to the stage that I will only start downloading skins from a site if they have decent mens clothing - that's the first thing I check!  If they are just another ultra-trendy-female-only site then I'm really not interested, not at all!

although, I'm really starting to think that all the things we are mentioning belong in a full-blown expansion pack - and when they are pumping them out every 6 months it starts to get silly...  if the expansion packs were slowed down, done properly and released without killer bugs, then the booster packs would become a lot more appealing...  as it is, who wants to bet that the holiday items will eventually be included in a coming expansion pack?

I agree with the hair and clothing.  Need more classical styles, ones that stand the test of time.  Would like to see things like plain shirts, skirts and pants, things that can be recolored without a lot of changing to the base.  Since we have Body Shop and Homecrafter, it seems like they should offer more "plain" stuff that we can add whatever colors or patterns we want to without a lot of extra work getting rid of whatever pattern or decoration they decided to put on.

I'd also like to see more variety in landscaping items.  I'm tired of the same flowers, trees and bushes.  And fences.

How about different stairs? Or doors and windows?  I have houses I'd like to recreate that use doors and windows that aren't available in the game.

I'd really like to do an ancient Egyptian theme or a moon base theme.  One end of the spectrum to another, I guess!  My poor astronauts ought to be able to set up a moon colony or a space station and live there!

And I don't buy games online.  I want to look at the box and get a good idea of whether the game has enough that appeals to me.  And if I buy it, decide I don't like it, and want to return it, it's a lot easier to just run it back to the store than to hassle with sending it back.  I'm not a big internet freak.  In fact, I've spent more time on this board in the last few months than I've spent doing anything on the internet in the last five years!

I agree with you Misty about the modern stuff. I don't mind a few modern things if they aren't too over the top, but they really do take it too far. That post-modern anime ninja tramp outfit has got to be one of the least versatile clothing meshes I have ever seen. It looks like something you'd see at some ridiculous avant garde fashion show whose goal is the display the least practical clothing as possible.

I've been to a number of clubs in cities in the US, Europe and Japan and I've never seen anyone where anything even close to that.

No no no, that's not what I meant. I mean a waistline only slightly below the navel--providing complete arse coverage. :P

LOL okay. As long as they keep it covered up because crack is whack.  8)

it would definitely spark my interest to have a pack with classic clothing and hair.somehow though I doubt EA Games even listens to us :Premember before nightlife alot of us were asking for realistic visits with other sims ie take your children/toddlers/babies with you ,walk to the neighbors house etc... the only thing we got was cars  and dates  I also remeber people asking for more interactions with children,toddlers and babies  ie mom sits down to feed the baby. and more items for children and toddlers  to do or play with we got new out fits for toddlers instead. we asked for realistic parties like baby showers no response from Maxis we asked for weather  . its still sunny and warm in all my neighborhoods.I recall on the BBS  there were numerous posts asking for more realism in the game . we got the gypsy whom you have to pay for a blind date UMMM hello in real life blind dates are usually a friend of a friend that your friend set up for you but all this is just my opinion and 2 cents any way

As far as the female clothes are concerned, I don't want my female family sims walking around in baby tees and daisy dukes with stilettos. But it's not easy finding much else. Of course Maxis offers its brown and orange frumpy sweaters, to wear with a gray knee-length wool skirt, but I'd like something a little less dorky and a tad more fashionable than that.
And with my teen boys, the jeans are too low, the shirts are too short. Nearly impossible to put a decent outfit together with that combo.
And did I mention I hate the cowboy boots and sandals???
And why can the guys not wear a pair of normal shorts, with normal socks (not ankle-length socks or knee-length) with a decent looking shirt. Like real guys wear. Not everything has to be plaid!
I'm also not crazy about the new female hairstyle that looks like a big braided bow on the back of the head. I don't think I've ever seen anything even remotely resembling that in real life.

Never mind the fact that in real life blind dates are not set up by a neighborhood gypsy...
Hmmmm...paying for a blind date sounds a lot like an escort service if you ask me.

Yes that would be the accompanying and equally impractical hairstyle for the post-modern anime ninja tramp outfit I mentioned above lol.

I agree that there's way too high of a percentage of custom content that's hoochie stuff too. There are a few rare times where I may want a particular sim to look all hooched up, but I don't want a town of Barbie sluts thank you.

Maxis has no taste when it comes to clothes or decor. its no wonder my Download file is 746 MB just trying to have better clothes and decor . not to mention hairstyles and make up

Like most people, I want more turn on/offs, but on its own that wouldn't be enough.  If they can't add it to an expansion, I'd like to see them release a "Middle-Age Bonus Pack" so those of us who want it can have our middle-age lifespan and all the things that go with it (such as the chance to go to Uni if it was missed, or just to go back and get a higher degree, something extra to be gained by starting a new career, risking all by giving up a secure job to go it alone ... come to think of it, this could easily be incorporated into the next planned expansion).  I'd also like to see a "Uni bonus pack" whereby LTW's for the Uni careers would come up (that really bugs me) and turn on/offs would add "zombie" (which probably isn't there because it goes with Uni) and that sort of thing.

As for a holiday pack, I can't think of anything I'd want less.  I never go on holiday and have no desire to.  I'd need a holiday to recover from the holiday if I had one.  And what on earth is the point of paying all that for a holiday pack that covers just one day in the year?  Can't see the point.  It would have to have some amazing new interactions or something before I'd even consider it.

And as many people have speculated before, I'm guessing the only worthwhile new interaction will be of children and toddlers sitting on the adults laps.
I'll bet there'll be a mistleloe kiss, too.
Now, if there were some new animations, like getting drunk at the office Christmas party, I'd be all for it! Spike the eggnog, Maxis! Spike the eggnog!

Yup.  Another untucked striped long-sleeve shirt. Another T-shirt with some video game, athletic company, etc..... SNORE!!!

I've really gotta ding wall-and-floor custom designers for helping that along.  It's a bit distressing when they turn out, say, a beautiful solid wood floor design and price it at $1 per tile when typical bland Maxis carpeting is $3-5 dollars and their nice wood flooring is in the $10-$16 per tile range.

Geez, there's an idea for a community challenge.  Come up with a "Valley of the Barbie/Ninja/Anime Tramps" town were every woman wears the gaudiest fashion outfits people can find along with heavy makeup and high fashion hair.  For constrast, every male in town must be forced to wear t-shirts, shorts and sandals.

Then again... maybe that really isn't a challenge per se.

I don't understand why any of the creators do that, but it's especially bad with floors and walls. The environment scores go up with more expensive stuff, so if my sims have enough money, I never buy cheap walls and floors - which means a lot of really good stuff rarely gets used.

I have similar problems with beds, couches, counters and tables/chairs, etc. that give too much and are too cheap... they're ok if the sims aren't very well off (tho kind of cheating...) but nearly useless if you actually have enough money.

I'll stick with just buying the expansions myself.  I don't see any point in buying a booster pack who's entire contents will be spamed all over the exchange and other sites within a week.  Like the SUPER UBER EXCLUSIVE HOT ROD for example.

I think part of the problem has to do with the environment score not being all that useful in the game.  Sure it plunges if you have dirty dishes laying around or an alarm clock going off, but in an otherwise clean home using cheap decor, environment doesn't suffer THAT badly.  So people don't notice much of a difference between using a cheap wall/floor or an expensive one.

It is worse when they do this with objects.  Like I recently discovered that one of the iron-post double beds I've downloaded is priced slightly less than the low-end economy wood frame double bed, but it gives 10 comfort and 10 energy.  C'mon!!!

I'm much younger than a lot of the people on this site, and I'm constantly annoyed by the fact that very little of what's in either the teen sections or the adult sections is stuff that I'd actually wear. I haven't worn a shirt that exposed my belly button since, oh, seventh grade. Years ago. And that was for about two months, too, the period when I wore makeup. Since then, it's been t-shirts, jackets, and jeans. Boot cut gap jeans, levis--real jeans, not that "ah hah! we'll cut random holes in it and charge $200!" crap. There really aren't any decent t-shirts for women, the kind that have actually sleeves and aren't all clingy. T-shirts should be loose, damnit! "Baby doll" t-shirts are an abomination.

And the guy stuff . . . sigh. Some of it I like. Some of it . . . eh. That's actually what convinced me to make the handful of outfits that I've done myself. Lack of decent t-shirts. If Maxis published a "t-shirt" booster pack, I might even consider buying it. What I'd really like is a "geek" pack. Probably has a better chance of being a booster pack than a full blown expansion. Actual jeans, cargo pants, t-shirts, decent glasses (ugh! double ugh! all my sims wear the same two pairs . . .) more computers, more stuff to do with computers, science fiction themed clothes and objects. I'd pay money for that. Not "Holiday" though. I repeat: My sims are being godless communists! Nyet on the Holidaying!

 I can't respond to everything I want to in this thread..but  I am reading  along nodding.

REally nodding at the fact that men need more variety in their clothing.  And hair.

I don't know if I could put my trust in Maxis for fixing that problem though.  So far they haven't shown much potential for creating things for men .  Some of the outfits that came with the base game are somewhat decent...I still prefer the decent clothing I've downloaded for men though.

 Please don't get me started on the hairstyles lol

All my male sims pratically have the same hairstyles b/c any new ones are just seriously lacking.

The ones that came with NL make me want to gag.  A big mass of hair stuck across a sims face?  No thanks.  The womens aren't much better either but at least I can always download (and do) loads of womens hair styles. 

LOL Nice way of describing it. Most of my male sims wear baseball caps. Avoids the hair issue, pretty much. But it's ridiculous how many caps are in my game!

You wouldn't happen to be talking about this "little" outfit would you?   ;D



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the elder stuff is the worst in the game. blah and shapeless as for female clothes good one are easily found male clothing is a bit harder to find .I search around various sites and download  all the clothes my sims wear and the slimmest pickings are pajamas for all ages .undies for seniors and any other clothing for elders. I have yet to figure out why maxis makes all of the pajamas's high waters. I would buy a pack that had decent clothing  for elders

My feelings exactly.  I am still pissed because we're supposed to pay for this booster.  I feel that with all of the bugs, and the very long wait for a patch, this holiday pack should be downloadable for free to those of us who already have the base game.  Don't know if I'll ever get over being pissed off at EA for this.  Someone please say, "Laura, let it go!"


I agree.  I would go for more interactions with toddlers/children, more objects for those age groups, and is it to much to ask for children to interact with toddlers?  I would pay for a pack/expansion that added those things.  I will not purchase this holiday pack.

I suppose I'm a little power-gameish. The higher the score is to start with, the longer it takes to go down when they go to work/school, and the easier time (yeah, outside is more important, but if it starts all the way up, it helps). Also I'm sometimes replacing Maxis or custom walls/floors and I don't like to go cheaper than what was there already. I have some in my download files that don't cost anything... they're handy for building, but... Oh and I can't stand bugs in RL so it's very unlikely there's going to be a house with greenstuff and buzzing noises anywhere in my game. Any yes, I have that exact bed, and it irritates me too - and there's not even a way more expensive one as good :)


ROFLMAO

Woah!  I was thinking I might be in the minority when it comes to hating those clothing styles.  I guess not!

And I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who doesn't like all my walls and floors costing $1.  I like my sims to have something they can look forward to as they earn more money.  In TS1 I was always re-pricing the walls and floors I downloaded using WallCat.  I'd do the same thing with my TS2 walls and floors I've downloaded if only HomeCrafter would work with TS2/NL without Uni.  Of course never mind the fact that HomeCrafter is so stupid that 'edit' doesn't edit the file but actually deletes it and creates a completely new one.

I think the in-game styles is what spurns a lot of people who maybe otherwise wouldn't into making their own clothes.  I know it did me.  If the game included styles I like I'd never take the time to do it.  I've been lucky to find a few websites with awesome elder clothing and make some of my own.  I don't generally visit sites that stick to women's fashions.  There's already too many of those available.  My game uses every life stage, not just adults.

I wonder if maybe part of the reason they go for the slut look in so many of those clothes is because that in reality sex sells.

Oh, I noticed someone else said something about the hip-hugging jeans and short tops.  It's always amazed me in the past how many young women I've seen in town wearing styles like this that are constantly trying to pull down their shirts as they walk down the store aisles.  I keep thinking, 'you know, if you don't really feel comfortable in those clothes then get some gumption and say phooey to the fashion industry and wear what does feel comfortable!'

I'm a sweats and t-shirt kinda person myself.  In fact, I spent some time a few days ago re-vamping that 'slob' jammie set that came with NL so I can make a half-dozen or so re-colors for those days when my sims just don't feel like dressing up.  Of course they're all getting categorized for everyday wear, sleepwear and activewear, so it tends to look like they're sleeping in the same clothes they wore all day! LOL

Yesterday I made re-colors of the one male adult shirt that does come down over pants.  My problem with the originals is that stripe across the chest, just not my taste, so I made something like four or five of those.  I call them 'my hubby's favorite shirts' because that's what he always wears.  Then I took and re-colored the plain light-green guy sweater a few times, too.  When it's chilly you'd never catch hubby without a sweater. ;)

Oh!  And is it just me or does something look very wrong when a shirttail hangs down below a coat or jacket?  Maybe it's just my old-fashioned thinking, but guys dressed like this look like they didn't finish dressing! 

The $1 floors and walls annoys the hell out of me. As do ballgowns in the swimwear category and swimsuits in formal.  ::) I really don't care for it when custom furniture is dirt cheap and more effecient than the most expensive Maxis stuff either. Like some bed that costs 100 simoleans and does 8 energy, 8 comfort and 8 environment.  :P

If I want to cheat, there's motherlode and the multipainting and a slew of other things I can do to cheat, I really don't need to cheat with my buy or build mode stuff and no I don't think it's an advantage to have custom outfits available in all categories.  >:(

I agree about the elders being neglected and their pajamas being non-existant. Recently I just went through all my custom clothes with the SimPE file scanner and set all my adult stuff to be available for elders too. It does give them the adult body when they are wearing them but I can't stand that elder body anyway so that's a good thing in my book and now they have a whole lot more choices.

How do you do this? Or if you don't want to explain it in this thread can you point to a link that explains the process?

I was wondering the same thing

Open SimPE, go to Tools, then Scan Folders. It should bring up the folder scanner window. In the bottom left, uncheck all the boxes except the clothing scanner. Then go to the top and either hit scan if all your clothes are in your downloads folder, or grab the drop down and browse to whichever directory you have your clothes in. If you have a lot files, it helps to move all your clothes in a subdirectory and just scan that otherwise SimPE will have to sift through ALL your files to find the clothes.

Depending upon how many files you have, it could take a while to scan. When it's done, the clothes should appear in a list. You can hit the button near the top that says "Ages" to sort by age and then find clothes with "Adult", "YoungAdult or Adult", "YoungAdult". You can make the clothes from teens or kids for elders too but it won't fit so just stick with adults and young adults.

Now again down in the lower left there will be several tabs above a box. Switch to the Operations tab. Now highlight the outfit you want to change in the large box with the list of clothing above and then go the small box down below and scroll down until you get to the "Clothing Scanner" section. Check off Elder in addition to Adult. You can also check off YoungAdult too if it isn't already checked off. Then hit set. The check you just did in the elder box will dissappear, but it did actually take effect and if you rescan again you should now see the Elder category listed for that outfit and the Elder box checked.

The thing is, this scanner just shows you a thumbnail of the outfits texture and the internal name of the outfit. In many cases you may not be able to easily tell which outfit is which. I just made everything I had that was Adult or Young Adult into Adult, Elder and Young Adult combined. This can be very tedious and time consuming though as you have to set each outfit one at a time and if you have tons of clothes you could be clicking hundreds of times.

Sorry if this sounds confusing, :( It's really not so bad once you get used to it, but SimPE has never really been known for its user friendliness.  :-\ I don't know of any really indepth tutorials showing how to do this with pictures but if I find any I'll post them.

*Edit: I remembered an old tutorial that had more manual way of doing this

http://www5.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=52437

In addition to the outfit codes she gives, outfits for both Adults and Elders is 0x00000018 while the code for making an oufit available for Adults, Elders and Young Adults is 0x00000058

This method will work but is even more manually intensive than the method I posted above when working with a lot of files because it requires opening each clothing article's package file individually.

Oh and just read the first post in that thread. You can skip the other 5 pages of brain dead chatter unless you feel like some retardo land style amusment.

*edit again: If this is all too much (and it sounds far worse than it is) you can be on the lookout for Elder outfits made by DGandy at TSR. She's got a number of them that were made this way with the Maxis Adult body clothes but set in SimPE for Elders and there's usually at least a couple of them in rotation at any given time.

High waists are back, you know. So what w/ Maxis' fascination w/ trends (bad in a game, which isn't as temporal as fashion - just look at the Uggs! they went out of fashion ages ago, but they're still stuck in the darn game), maybe you'll get your high waists after all.

Agree with everyone here. I would pay for:
New:

animations and interactions, particularly for kids, toddlers and babies as they seem pretty useless now
things to do, for all age groups
wants, aspirations,
aspiration rewards... my born in game Sims end up as Elders with upwards of 2-300 thousand aspiration points, but there's nothing special to do with them. There should be some hugely expensive items in there to make such a life worth it.
careers,
Anything for men, or should I say everything? And for males of all age groups. Preferably tasteful.

Reactions.
So parents can approve or disapprove when their child plays in the toilet, jumps on the bed, belches into the podium, or is caught making out with the town romeo... How about a lecture, ground, punish (go scrub the toilets or something) or something.
And why is it that when my sim caught his wife making out with another, the other just waved at him innocently while he slapped his wife senseless?
He should have either defended her, or slinked out (like the teen sneaking in at 4am) and known the guy thought less of him.
Instead, the cheated on gave his wife the boot and then spun a bunch of wants to be with her...

Also, in a home of 3 married couples, two of the wives 'got together'. Why did SimA'a husband get so offended when he caught his wife's 'fun friend' hugging her husband? "How dare you cheat on my wife with your husband?" this just shouldn't happen.

(again, your teen sweetie, or decades old conquest should not object to your affection with the spouse)

I had to have Justin break up with his teen-aged girlfriend just the other day. He gave her the old "It's not you, it's me" speech. "I've grown up and had 5 kids and you...haven't. I've been married and divorced and you...haven't. I can have sex without a special mod and you...can't. It's over. But my son would love to meet you!"

Not particularly on topic, but can some of the professed hair collectors recommend a few good sites?  A fair percentage of the custom jobs I've seen have been more repulsive than the Maxis 'dos (and that says a lot, as I'm convinced many of the Maxis hairstyles were taken from bad French runway models).  Any suggestions are appreciated.

check the where do you get your custom content thread, most of the best 'hair' sites I know of are listed there

One I can think of off the top of my head (no pun intended) is anything by Neptune Suzy at TSR. She has the most beautiful hair recolors. And Dr. Pixel.

Ooooh.  There's an idea.  Perhaps if a child makes his parent/elder furious, the parent would then have the option to punish/ground the child and they're unable to go to any community lot for a certain amount of time and the parent gets certain influences for free (cleaning, serving meals, gardening and the like) similar to how it works with greek house pledges.

Taking this thread in another direction - what I'd like to see is a utility that will grab my Sims family trees and print them.  Perhaps an add-on like bodyshop or homecrafter.

Oh and yeah - a middle-aged lifespan would be great.  If they ever did a demographic poll of their users -  i.e. if they asked how long have you been simming & combined that with asking age of player, I think they'd find that the majority of their long-term, loyal customers are older than the average BBS user.  This is a significant section of their market they could be catering to.

Also more stuff for men.  And elders.  And a pack that enabled LTW for the Uni careers (as well as some new careers).  In my larger neighbourhoods I restrict my sims to 1 child, or 2 in rare circumstances - so many of the family LTWs are just not achievable.  More career LTW for Family sims would be nice, my neighbourhoods tend to be overrun with Captain Heroes.

I use TJ's college adjuster to randomly select aspirations for my sims.  It adds interest to the game if I don't select aspirations suited to the sim's personality.  An in-game ability to select a 'random' aspiration at teen trans and at the end of sophomore year at uni would be neat - then again, given how the in-game randomiser works for personalities, maybe I'll stick with the college adjuster.

I got bored of choosing perfect aspirations a while back, so I just roll dice for all my Sims. The only time I'll re-roll is if they get Popularity - blech. I imagine I'll have a lot of grill cheese sims once I install Nightlife. Anything for variety.

That actually sounds interesting. By TJ I assume you mean twojeffs?

But I think there just aint enough aspirations out there. There are only 5 distinct aspirations, w/ pleasure being just a mish-mash of 2 of the 5, and 5 asps spread out among 100s of sims, even if it were an even distribution, means dozens of sims w/ the same exact asp. So its kind of hard to have variety w/ that.

I've taken to rolling for my sim's aspirations as well. I got into the habit with my un-scored legacy challenge family and I just kept it up. I have a graphing calculator, I use the die roll simulator on that. Cause I can never keep from losing anything as small as a die.

I dont think anyone's answered with this yet, so I shall.

Releasing a lot of the object/mesh/animation/whatever creation tools would certainly be helpful, and would probably solve a lot of the issues such as the men's clothing.

Apart from that, more animations - particularly between the tolders and any other member of the family!

Yes I mean Twojeffs.  His college adjuster, which looks like a stack of phonebooks, has the options to randomise aspiration, personality and skills.  Also deletes stuck kicky bags, stuck phones, gives electronic items (and satisfies the want to purchase electronic items) and does some college related stuff around GPA, semester, etc.  I won't have NL until later this week, so I don't know if the college adjuster is NL compatible.

Motoki, you totally rock.

there is a NL compatible version of the college adjustor - it's basically the same thing with the vampirism options attached

The regular version seems to work fine with NL too. I've been using it for a while now and just never bothered to download the update because all it seemed to add was the ability to give or cure vampirism.

Agree with what others have been saying here. Some of these requests are probably available in the mod community, I just need to go look for them because so far I have been playing my game pretty vanilla:

- more toys and objects for toddlers and kids, and things like baby swings/bassinets for babies. I never stuck my babies on the floor and I always end up getting two cribs, one for upstairs, one for downstairs 'cause I don't like seeing the Sims' babies on the floor.
-  more hair, especially men's, ethnic, authentic curly, and salt & pepper for middle-age/elders. A lot of elders I know are not 100% gray! I know some of these are available in the community, I just need to look for them.
- A grand piano, available in at least black, white, and wood-color.
- More upscale items for wealthy Sims. What about a tennis court with interactions / animations? Basketball hoop for the kids/teens/adults.
- Autonomously performing WITHOUT that "checking for tips" interaction!
- More interactions. And this may be a nit, but I would love the whole jealousy/affair interactions to be a bit more complex. I don't think one "flirt" interaction should constitute "had an affair with."
- More landscaping! New bushes and trees.
- How about in addition to the novel writing/painting, an option to become a music composer and "sell" the music?

I'm not sure these all constitute a "pack" but they are things I'd want to see in upcoming EPs.

Add me to the list of people who are pissed about new Sims2 buyers getting the holiday pack free, while those of us responsible for the game's success are expected to shell out $20 for it. [need a kick-in-the-butt emoticon]

Personally, I'd be delighted by a pack offering new clothing meshes. I LOVE what meshers in the Community have made, but a lot of new meshes don't behave quite right ~ they break oddly at the knees, skirts flip wildly when Sims walk, etc. Maxis meshes at least seem to conform, with a few exceptions. And YES, YES, YES, we need more men's clothing meshes! I love making men's clothing skins, but there's little to work with right now.  :(

Pre-Uni Adult Men's Clothing (http://www.hairfish.com/mermaidcove/html/2clothing_maleadult.html) (you can make it Adult-YA with DatGen's Skin-Fixer; I just haven't done it to these older skins.)
Men's Adult-YA (http://www.hairfish.com/mermaidcove/html/2clothing_ma-mya.html) skins (Uni not required)

I hope no one minds that blatant self-promotion, but those pages will provide some of what's been asked for above.  :) Psssssssst...I also cover belly-buttons on the Women's pages.

in sims 1 I seem to remember there was basketball hoop  that sims could play basketball on as a group and a volley ball net. I wish they would have included those options in sims2

I wish most custom hair creators would do something with the elder version of their hair. Like salt and pepper or even a solid color. Most just leave it the Maxis grey. :P


Yes, if you just want to convert YA only or adult only stuff to be able to be used by both, definitely do it in Datgen as it automates the process and is much faster. Unfortunately, you can't set adult stuff elder that way and have to do it manually in SimPE. :(

And btw Hairfish, I love your site. ;) Nearly all of my male sims get one of your eyelids and I've used the wrinkles and other stuff to fake a middle age.

Heh heh. Dice. I've got so many dice . . . at least 40 six siders, four or five twenty siders and ten siders, and two or three each of four, eight, and twelve siders. Too many dice. And they're all shiny! So many colors . . .

Er. Anyway. I'd actually like to see something where one actually got a "book" when one wrote a novel in the game. An actual object, maybe that allowed you to name it, and that could be stacked with others of its type. If it was a "masterpiece," having the object on the lot would cause it to continue to earn the lot money. That would be nifty. That's the kind of thing I'd consider paying for in a "booster pack." A bunch of nifty features, maybe targeted towards a more specific demographic than the regular expansion packs, without the extra neighborhood and entire new minigames requirement of a full EP.

I would like to see more body types besides just slightly chunky, thin and skinny. I would like more interactions with babies, toddlers such as rocking them in a chair or singing to them, or reading them a bedtime story (while they are in bed). I would like them to be able to hold their babies/tots and sit down, and to be able to hand them to their grandparents or other relatives even if they don't live there. I would like more clothes that you can actually pick from for pregnant sims. I would like more realistic cars and some classic cars. I would like more plants to choose from. I would like more architectural items, truly square windows and most of all diagonal roofs. I would really love to have different sized true walls that can be used to build with. I would like them to make Numenor's old unlevel wall standard fare (it could be used to connect foundations or uneven surfaces etc) I would like some control on the number of townies created so that I could control my population growth without having to simply kill off townies and use a hack so that no more spawn. I would like everyone in the game to have a home so that there were no truly non playable characters, with careers as service workers so that you could conceivably meet your neighbors. I would like all characters to age so that in time you would get fresh characters to replace the ones that die off (townies workers etc) I think it would be interesting if the repair guy killed over on your lot and new one came to take his place, cleaning up the poor sods ashes in the process and then proceeding to finish the job. I would like there to be more chaos and destruction such as tornadoes, earthquakes and other things like they had in sim city.

Basically I want more control, yet I want more randomness, Concordia discors!

The story of my life ;)

yes, yes, Yes, YES! I forgot about this. I would like to have more authentically overweight Sims. IMHO, their "fat" is just slightly pudgy to me ;) And thick, beefy Sims. I'd like to be able to alter body type like we can faces - sliders on different sections such as hips, chest, legs, etc.

There's not even a skinny. All they've got is chunky and thin. I definitely agree on the more body types thing. 2 types is just way too few. But I hope they can execute it properly. The current system doesn't work too well. When sims change body shapes, their faces remain the same. So chubby sims turned thin end up looking like lollipops. And thin sims that gain weight also end up looking really weird. Next time they do bodyshapes, they should take the face into consideration too. So that they gain weight along w/ the rest of their body. Otherwise it just doesn't look right.

Well there's Mrs. Crumplebottom lol

But yes, I do rather miss the skinny from TS1.  :(

I certainly understand the desire for more body types.  But if Maxis ends up taking such a radical step (and they've given no hints they will) then it'll be included in an expansion pack, not a themed release pack, because they've explictly stated that expansion packs will the vehicle of changes to gameplay.  So that would also include interactions/animations between sims that don't center around use of a new object.

the problem is these are base things weve asked maxis for forever and they dont seem to pay any attention to the requests for new body types and animations/interactions. I think if they ever truly surveyed actual game owners they would be surprised  at the overwhelming request for new body types and animations/interactions in the Sims2

I had completely forgotten that even TS1 had better body types lol

The skinny was actually....SKINNY!...Fit was fit..and fat..well it wasn't really fat..but still..its sad when TS1 had more options lol

I would seriously like to know the explanation of why they didn't allow us to customize body types.  It's not like its this unfeasible thing.  I've played plenty of video games where you customize the characters and the animations and all work out just fine and I know that they can do the same.  It's not like they have to give us an infinite amount of customization...there can be two extremes..just like facial features.

I want body customizing so bad...I would buy an EP with it in it even if that was the only thing in it lol

so would I

Maxis interviewees stated when they first released the game that differing body types DID present enormous challenges in making sure that animations worked properly.  I'm sure that some of their body types were also influenced by the decision to have any clothing item work on any sim. Since clothing skins stretch to wrap around any of the game body meshes, you'd be confronted with distortion problems if you stray too far outside of the normal/fit mesh dimensions.  This would lead to the ugly prospect of having to do different clothing files for skinny, or large muscular/fat sims.

Now there are talented mesh creators that are proving that new body types can be done and work reasonably well with the current animations.  I particularly like the bodybuilder sim that Marvine and company have developed.  But I seriously doubt many of the existing clothing skins would look right on them if something like that model made it into the official game.  I'm not an expert on that stuff, but that's my gut instinct.

I'm not trying to argue AGAINST having new body types. I would LOVE to have them.  I'm just wondering if Maxis is viewing the amount of work it would have to do to make them work well in the game isn't larger in comparison to expanding the game in other ways.  hmmmm....  ???

that could well be the case . however that being said what irritates me about Maxis is they dont seem to hear us on any of he key thing we would like to have ie new animations /interactions with babies/toddler etc...... more things for toddlers and children to play with. more realism in visiting other sims. i fMrs Smith wants to visit her daughter Valerie two houses away she cant just walk out the door and down the street toher daughters house no she a) first needs an invite from Valerie  and b) either has to use a taxi or her own car if you have nightlife two go two houses away

Now that is something I would expect them to change, and the sooner the better.  Uni had students walking through the edge portals to attend class.  I see no reason why a portal can't be constructed that will give you a choice of at least community lots to walk to.  Why does one need a car to go down or across the street to a shop or park?

I want some of the hairstyles that they had in screenshots but didnt include in the game, like Brandi Brokes hair when she was a kid, or some of the hairstyles in that little game they had up for download before TS2 came out were you had to guess who the parents of the kids were...I would like some basic objects that we had in TS1 like picnic tables, and some things they had in eps.  And more themes


I would rather buy it in a store than online...

Brandi Brokes Kiddie hairstyle is in the game its maxis made and is included in the game or at least it is in my game

I would actualy like a stand-alone Body Shop.. one that comes with meshes that can be changed with a click of a button.  Want a scoop neck? Click.  Prefer a ballgown? Click. What material do you want? Click.  What color for the part you are touching? Click.. opens a color graph.

Save the final product and you get a clickable auto-install package.  Completely Sims 2 compatible and shareable.

The other thing I want is more body shapes.. I'm really surprised that I haven't run across any pregnant skins modified to be used as "fat" skins.  At least you could have beer bellies and "baby fat" for adult males and females.

Pets and real gardening like in Sims 1.

Actually going to school with your kid sims.. classwork for learning points, fights on the playground, peeing your pants cos you couldn't get to the bathroom on time..and then other sims pointing and laughing  ;D

Autonomous woohoo.. at least for couples that are 90/90 or better.  With a slight chance of getting pg!

I suppose I could go on and on.. but I won't.

~mistymage

I too would buy a stand alone body shop pack

Well I'm gonna be backward here and go for the bonus question first.

Since I can't buy things from the EA Store because I'm not on the North American continent I'm pretty much stuck out in the cold as far as being able to get those things unless I have my family over there order them then do battle with the shipping folks who would insist on having proof that the game isn't available here or be charged like 12 bucks to get it to me. 

Now on to Party Packs.
If you mean Party packs and not just booster/ add on packs in general there are alot o things they would need to get my hard earned cash like loads of hair meshes and clothing meshes for party out fits and special party make up and special things like more dances and party games like spin the bottle, pin the tail on the llama, multi player games, group sports and such. themes like a pool party or costume parties, teen only and adult only parties on community lots, the ability to have parties on community lots at all would be nice.... party foods like bowls of nuts and chips/ crisps, veggie platters, punch bowls, hiring a catering service, party entertainers of various sorts, sleep over parties for kids and teens, the return of the Dropinskies instead of the stupid party score thing.... and spaeking of that I wanna have all nighter parties for my sims ( god knows my party guests never leave till 3 AM nore do I leave a party before midnight even if it started at noon), and I wanna click on the icon of party guests in the relationship panel and be zoomed in on them too...

* please forgive dyslexic spelling errors... I can't find my glasses today*

Oh, you mean a Sims2 version of Sim-Creator that came with Deluxe? I found that quite useful, once I learned to make my own templates so I could use it with more meshes. It came with relatively few, and failed to provide templates for any of the meshes that came with the base game or any expansions.

It was probably as simple as possible, but not nearly as simple as they'd advertised (largely, IMO, due to the lack of basic templates), so it wasn't a success. For that reason, I don't expect EA to shell out the R&D for a repeat. I'd definitely buy it if they did, however.