More Awesome Than You!

The Store and The Exchange is now open, if you can register your game with serial you can download Riverview and objects etc..
Just thought I would let you know.

The quality of a lot of the items seems better than what I've seen in screenshots of the game. This is very cruel of EAxis. :'(

Look at how much of this stuff is identical (or near so) to TS2 objects:

Tiki idol
http://store.thesims3.com/productDetail.html?productId=OFB-SIM3:17114&categoryId=11509&scategoryId=11531&pcategoryId=11525&ppcategoryId=&gender=female&startAt=0

Island bar
http://store.thesims3.com/productDetail.html?productId=OFB-SIM3:17010&categoryId=11509&scategoryId=11524&pcategoryId=11517&ppcategoryId=&gender=female&startAt=0

Many of the in-game objects are also almost identical.

Look at this bed. 5 energy points, WTF? Why even bother as who would want to use the stupid thing? Sleep takes them long enough in the most expensive bed already!
http://store.thesims3.com/productDetail.html?productId=OFB-SIM3:17015&categoryId=11509&scategoryId=11515&pcategoryId=11510&ppcategoryId=&gender=female&startAt=0

I disagree, take a look at the toilets:
http://store.thesims3.com/productList.html?categoryId=11509&scategoryId=11533&pcategoryId=11532&index=0

The lines on those are just as jagged as the bras close up in the game.

Hmm.. I had the clothes and hair closer in mind when I posted that, I should have specified. However, a lot of the objects seem a little less plain than the ones I've seen from in-game pictures.

That is one fugly toilet:

(http://na.llnet.sims3store.cdn.ea.com/u/f/sims/sims3/sims3store/objects/toiletModernSea/Thumbnail_300x300.png)

Why do we need toilets. WHY. Oh wait, Pee.

Lousy EA mongrels! Liars!
 Quote:"The aaar'd version is missing half the world and another town and more content":end quote
Then they also have the hide to sell TSR style, with sims2 objects!
Deliberately omitted from the game.

LOL! How do you roll something which has hexagonal wheels?

(http://na.llnet.sims3store.cdn.ea.com/u/f/sims/sims3/sims3store/objects/tableEndTrollyCraftsmen/Thumbnail_300x300.png)

Giant potty chair!! LOL

Dear Gawd some of that stuff is hideous.  Male hair styles that are just a variation on the bowl cut.  The hats look way out of place.  There's not much there that makes me want the game.  What's worse, they expect you to pay extra for it.

I forgot how ugly their demo Sims were.  I blame that on people here who have made some very good looking Sims. <sigh>

Hook

Well.. I think their choice of patterns [crappy wood pattern especially] is making some of the objects uglier than they actually are. Certain other objects have no such excuse though.

Who comes up with this crap? I mean, really. Most of that stuff is just awful looking. The community has always made better stuff than EAxis. Most of that stuff could have shipped with the game, but EA just wants to squeeze as much money out of the sheep as possible. I'm not going to spend a dime on any of that shit. The only thing I want from that site, is the new town.

I think its hilarious that the best thing on that store is something you don't have to pay for... They've got a very backward way of thinking...

There are a few things I would probably get (the closed waistcoat for guys - why is the one in-game open and untidy? - and the women's quilted leather jacket come to mind) but a bunch of it is pointless.  I don't see a need, for example, for different designs of microwave.  I'd rather be able to recolor my stairs than offer my sims another design to stare at while they heat up their hot dogs.

Does anyone else have free points? I logged in just now and noticed I have 850 points to use!

Nope.. I have zero points.

I just looked and thought , I wonder what i could buy for 1000 free points . The answer quite clearly is ,next to nothing . If you bought the bed then no you cannot afford the bedside tables . Why am I in all honesty , not the slightest bit suprised

Well, from the looks of the textures that were applied on some of the objects, I would hope to God the rest of us can do better.  EAxis has never been known to do much with their in-game objects, and has always left it up to the CC artists to fix the fugliness. Did  anyone here really believe that was going to change with The Sims 3?  With better textures and a bit of imagination, those objects could look pretty good. IMHO Of course, the hair styles lack... style.

I will use up my free points as I really like the Hewnsman Set. And I will await the arrival of better hair styles with much eagerness.  Not from EAxis, of course.  ::)

Oh, does anyone know for a fact that SecuROM is not associated with the EADM?  I heard/read that a new EADM is in place. I wondered if that was because the old one contained SecuROM. I hate that piece of crap with a passion and do not want it on my system again.

Looking at all that junk, I don't want free points. :) They can keep 'em.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at. I think several of those items have a lot of potential, and only look fugly because of the poor pattern choices.

With the community being that much better than the Eaxis artists, why should they bother build good content in the first place. I rather see them build a nice and customizable engine than waste effort on something they fail at anyway.
And apart from that.. maybe it makes amateur content creators feel better about their stuff if the default objects sucks equally ;)

Every single item at The Store could glow with the light of the heavens and I still wouldn't buy it.  Now if they could get it to wash my car, do the dishes, or mow the lawn I may change my mind.

I tend to use the toilet that they had in Sims 2.

Oh look, it is all the items that would/shouls have shipped with the game - but instead they are charging money for them...Why am I not surprised? Oh, yes, because they are EA, and they hate us.

The Store is how I expected it to be: overpriced and filled with craptastic items that will most likely need to be tweeked and fixed by modders.

On another note, it looks like they have really made the story making process easier.  It appears as if you upload images and then arrange the story online.  I am cringing at the fact that audio is now included - something about BBS stories and audio just doesn't settle well with me.

At least you're supposed to be able to turn off the sound.  Let's hope that isn't a big fat liecake.

Now we'll have pregger teen stories, complete with pop music in the background! Joy!

The creators camp?

Not very creative, are they?

Some of the lots looked pretty nice... Granted, it's hard to tell with the pictures being taken from outer space and all.

Edit: BTW, you can turn off the music in the stories on the exchange. I just did so on one of the stories already up.

Could we expect anything more when tons of those invited were from T$R?

The lots seem to have the same picture quality as the buildings in Spore. You can't see the back or floor plans - though I can't be absolutely sure on that because the site will barely load for me on Firefox and IE. Half the images refuse to load as well, but from what I have seen there really isn't anything I must have. And for the life of me I cannot understand what is with the toilets EA makes that look like adult-sized training potties.

I had the same problem and had to turn off my pop-up blocker. That helped a great deal.

If you click on the lot to get further details and then click on the "images" tab, you can see the floor plan for each level.  Well, sort of.  The pictures I've seen so far are all taken from a distance so it's hard to see any detail.

One thing that bothers me is they all say "Occupied" but there is no information about a family that may or may not be stuck into the lot. *See below.

ETA:  I see now that when you click on them to get details, even the ones that say yes to being occupied list residents as 0.

Why even list it as being occupied if it's empty? Oh right. Because not doing so makes sense. EA seems to be against common sense.
   
  The thing that I see kind of lulling about the Store is that some of the items seem reasonably priced - say 25 cents for a lamp. If I didn't know better I'd say that was a great deal - unless I happened to know what addition is and could add up the sum of those "cheap" items. And they have claimed they will release new sets and items each month. So a person could spend about $100 (or more) a month for their "exclusive" items.

I am enjoying the Sims 3 BBS. The empty pasture is just waiting for grazers.

Someone posted this on the official website. I'm beginning to think that they're taking the mick.
Read this.
http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?threadID=0fafc8b5db5ba78298f50342b93c4a7d&directoryID=225&startRow=1&openItemID=item.225,item.43,item.61,item.104,item.41,item.127,item.23

Why anyone would pay that much for a bunch of crap is beyond me. I mean I do like a few hair styles on there but I would never think to PAY for it.

$275 TOTAL!  :o.......... :o

i applaud EAs business sense. you just know theres SOME people out there whos gonna fork over that much.

i like some of the clothes.

someone figure out how to steal me them!

Arrr it all   :D

If we can, I would like to. I have read that EA wants each of their Store downloads to phone home before they will install if we install them without the launcher. Not that we haven't bypassed EA's "security measures" before.

Bingo!

How many days from release do you think it will take? I bet most of the stuff is up within 48 hours.

Sigh. They should've kept those monstrosities they call hairstyles to themselves.

I also find it funny that you have to register your game just to use the forum, or maybe it's just not public yet.

That's always been the case even in TS2.

Did you notice that one of the YA outfits has new textures included?

http://store.thesims3.com/productDetail.html?productId=OFB-SIM3:17154&categoryId=11584&scategoryId=11870&pcategoryId=11867&ppcategoryId=11866&gender=female&startAt=0

It shows four textures included with the dress.

I guess that is one way to get new textures into the game.

Added: It is the "Bohemian" outfit that has a different pattern on the top of the dress and a long sleeved shirt underneath it. When you click on the dress, you get to see the additional textures to the right with mouse-over views. The images are small (28x28), but the mouse-over views give a good image of the textures.

Can't even get the link to load all the way. Is their server already hammered? This should prove interesting if they are indeed expecting people to use the Store or Exchange for ALL their custom content, period.

I'm glad they put all their time into making the crap for the store instead of fixing the bugs in the game.

Well all of Snooty Sims and TSR are there it would seem. I have about 40 friend requests a minute it seems (who are you people?!) and all I wanted to do was have a look at these "new textures" and objects. But the pictures stay blank and all the angels farting at once can't make them appear it seems. I wanted to get some shots of those textures and ask people who have the game if they are indeed new. Because the scalping is beginning to make me wonder if there is a huge gas leak in Redwood Shores.

Let's hope it doesnt try to phone home then.  Still reminds me of ET phone home!

I wonder what effect adding items (and even expansions) will have on the game speed.
We could be looking at longer load times (switch family or CAS etc.) or it could impact game frame rate.

It borderline crippled TS2. I wonder how TS3 will handle large amount of downloads, which could hypothetically be several gigabytes..

What?  You mean, sims will just completely stop moving altogether?

"Making it worse?  How could it be worse?  Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah!!"

Poked around the new exchange and community site a bit. Two less-than-exciting observations:

--You can register without a CD-key (for those like me who tend to skip the fine print). It's the first field in registration, but can still register, just not post.

--It looks like they finally decided their 1995-style BBS may be a little bit unwieldy, and dragged themselves kicking and screaming into 2001.

They're new to me (running the razor version).  Unless the retail version includes them, I think they will only be available if you purchase that dress.  It'd be a bit pointless for the store to say they are included if they were already in the game.

They're continuing to charge separately for hairs in different age groups. That's considered extremely bad form, even in the paysite community. Look at the last two to the right on the slider here (http://store.thesims3.com/category.html?categoryId=11959&index=0). 25 points for toddler, 75 points for adult, and 50 points for child way below...for the same frakking cut.

But are we sure they are different objects?. It could be differents ways to access the object. I mean, if you have to pay for a shirt for adults, and also for young adults, then i hope EA Hq get struck by a lightning!

I'm usually pretty neutral on whether or not EA is evil, mostly because I can't be arsed to think about it in depth, but the $275 Sims 3 Store price tag is almost sparking a little righteous consumer indignation in me. I'm fine with paying for add-on content and I've probably spent that much on Rock Band songs, but the Sims 3 Store price points seem pretty absurd ($19 for a set? can you imagine if a third-party paysite tried that pricing structure?). I think they lost sight of what micropayments are about.

Apparently, according to the EULA custom content of any kind is strictly forbidden. This could very well turn into a take it or leave it attitude towards additional game content, and they will sell it at whatever price John Riccitielo fancies. As long as there are rich sheep willing to buy the store items they will sell them, even if it means overpricing them to make up for the low demand.

Okay i'm usually one of the people that says developers don't intentially leave stuff out but this is BULLSHIT.  There's so many items on that store and so few in the game that they HAD to have purposely left them out.  Not to mention their prices are absurd buying it all will cost more than an expansion pack.  I assume there'll be a nice pirate section going for their crappy store pretty fast right?

I've seen this mentioned several times, but no one seems to know exactly what, if anything, the implications are. Is this supposed to spell an end to third-party freesites?

Im confused. If it's strictly forbidden then what will happen to sites such as TSR, MTS and all the other ones? Not that I'll miss TSR but just curious.

My optimism over this part is kicking and screaming and having a proper tantrum. I had thought at first that if you bought say the adult High Ponytail, that you got that particular style - not just for that age group. I would love to call Bullshit, but I know with EA I will end up holding a pair of sixes as defense against EA's steel money-grabbing fist.

  Here is a portion of the EULA:

    Quote from: ELECTRONIC ARTS END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR THE SIMS 3 GAME
2. Intellectual Property Rights and Ownership.

A. Reservation of Rights. You have purchased a limited license to the Software and your rights are limited to the license grant above and subject to this License. You may not otherwise copy, display, distribute, perform, publish, modify, or use the Software or any component of it. You are prohibited from making a copy of the Software available on a network where it could be used or downloaded by multiple users. Except as expressly licensed to you herein, EA and its licensors, as applicable, owns and reserves all right, title and interest in the Software, and all related data, characters, themes, objects, storyline, images, photographs, graphics, animations, video, music, text, and the associated copyrights, trademarks, moral rights and other intellectual property rights therein. This License is limited to the intellectual property rights of EA and its licensors in the Software and does not include any rights to other patents or intellectual property. Except to the extent permitted under applicable law, you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer or created derivative works of the Software by any means whatsoever. You may not remove, alter, or obscure any product identification, copyright, or other intellectual property notices in the Software. All rights not expressly granted herein are reserved to EA.

Well, to quote Eaxis, the in-game recolour possibilities are endless. MTS could share free recolours while TSR could continue to charge members for the privilege to download recolours. And then there's stories to be told and movies to be filmed, some chatting and picture threads. And I saw on the official forums a thread about latest fashion or something. Beats me what they intend to do. But if you read the EULA it says very clearly that we cannot modify, reverse engineer or create derivative work from the game or its contents. I think we'll need to wait and see.

Well, seeing as they completely failed to prosecute TS2 paysites despite the fact that they were violating the TS2 EULA, I think it's probably unlikely that they'll go after TS3 freesites even if they wind up violating the TS3 EULA.

What happens if you have to take your computer offline, and you just installed some files from the Exchange directly into your game? Will they even show up in your game?

So far, the only things that you can download as a file are the housing lots (though I only saw one). I don't like the fact that everything else has to be installed from the website directly into the game, and that if you want to delete it from your game, you have to uninstall it from the website. That sucks.

Well that just sucks. I hope it's not going to be as uptight as emphasised, I really do. Those hairstyles are hideous, man.

This does not say no CC. It says no copying the game, no changing some code of the game and redistributing it (presumably for sale). Derivative works is along the line of EP, not CC.

It's pretty similar to the TS2 EULA:

I thought that Skadi had already created a new texture and added it to the game and it worked.  Plus we have the mods here that are in testing and we know that they have been successful so we know that custom content is possible outside of EA and I really don't see how they could get something in place that could somehow prevent us from being able to mod the game.  Pescado and others will have us playing an enjoyable and functional game soon enough.

HA!

Skadi's texture was an in-game recolor of an already existing texture.

But she was able to recolor it and add it to the game and get it to work without using the EADM or any other EA program so that should show that it will be possible to add CC without using their system.  People who think that EA is somehow going to be able to be the only ones you can get content from or that they will be able to control the creation or distribution of content seems unlikely.  I keep hearing people say that they are afraid that they will have to get their CC from EA or that somehow only content that goes into the game via the Download Manager will work in game.  That simply doesn't seem to be the case.

Yes, because she is smart enough to be able to figure out where the game exports shit to and what to do with that stuff afterwards. Hint: The folder is named EXPORTS.

My concern is if I install the EADM to get the free items, what will happen if I uninstall it? Will I lose everything cause the installer phones in to check what I downloaded? Big brother for sure, guess I will not get my free stuffeths.  :P

I'm quite sure that modders will find a way to mod the game; there's always a way. The problem, here, is how this way will turn out for us users in the end.
If the only way to modify the game will require high-end programming skills and knowledge, disassemblers and actual crack of the code, I don't know how many of us will be able to enjoy modding.
If I'm not mistaken, apparently the packages are both encrypted and digitally signed; this is not a good sign.

well, I just can't wait to get my copy of the game so I can register and be able to download all the gorgeous stuff already on the exchange. How any of us are going to be able to play our games without that amazing cow car and matching cow statue I just do not know  :o

I have just exhausted my supply of eyebleach, does anyone know of anywhere I can get it in bulk?!

Don't make a ewe out of me!
Use that bleach on the wool!
How any of you sheeple wil buy items is beyond me?
Use some shears to get it out of your eyes!

The straw hat for adult men is scarey.   :o

And I thought hats were supposed to be separate accessories? ???

oops, grammar phail for me  :-[

Thankyou for pointing out my error, I have corrected my post!

A group of us have been trading library files back and forth, rather than the export files. Haven't noticed anything unusual so far. Also, it's been noticed you can add content as the game is playing and use it immediately.

So I was pretty infuriated by the idea of buying the same hair over and over for different age groups. But when I bought one of the YA hairs, I noticed that it was checked as purchased for teens and adults as well. I didn't check elder, but seeing as the hair isn't applicable for children and infants, I suppose that the rumors were wrong. They do seem to apply for all appropriate age groups.

Hy guys
Seems like I missed sth and this thread is not for sharing anymore?

Ailias, you will find the TS3 Store sharing thread here http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,15100.0.html :)