More Awesome Than You!

Okay, I'll admit that at first, the opportunities were great.  Easy money, skills and relationships.  Now, I find that the opportunities get in the way of my current goals.  What's more, it is if the game gets pissed when I cancel them out over and over, so it throws multiple opportunities for all household sims in succession.  Currently, every few sim days, I'm forced to cancel out as many as nine opportunites in a row.  And why does a previously played sim, who cooks nothing but perfect meals and even made and consumed ambrosia while I was away with another household, need frekkin' grilled hamburgers delivered to her?  Or, why does a master mechanic, who has upgraded everything ten times over, suddenly need his stereo repaired by some nOOb who has level one or two mechanical skill?  Where are the checks and balances?  HUH?

I'm really not enjoying such imposing gameplay.  There should be a switch to turn that crap off, with the exception of real skill reward opportunities like for gardening.  As it is, I must continually babysit the game when all I want to do is let it run highspeed to pass specific time, like time off, as I do other real stuff like housekeeping, cooking or running a quick errand, to name a few.  Perhaps if a certain someone(s) could get this mess under control, then another certain someones would follow suite. 

I have the opposite sensation of desiring more quests, but I will look into it. I mean, YAY, A QUEST! Now if only the GOOD ones would show up more.

I am also a slave-driving puppetmaster, and rarely get any opportunities...possibly because my Sims skill up faster than opportunities generate. I have been gardener lvl 10 for several Simweeks and have yet to get the Omni Plant Challenge from the stupid cafe. Anyway, I'd like MOAR opportunities.

My vote is for more as well.  Though I have yet to play a big household, because I just don't have the patience for that kind of micromanaging.

I think you need to first plant using the omni plant from the science center. My sim did that and right afterwards got the challenge for the seeds.
Anyway, in my game the opportunities have been few and can't say that they bother me much. Except when this old fella got an opportunity from the stadium that he's got talent and that he should skill up. Or when my loner sim got an opportunity to befirend some rich old guy to improve charisma. They are weird and I agree with the OP that I could easily do without them.

Coincidence.  Not true.

I don't like the way the opportunities show up at random and with to apparent reason; they're more often in the way instead of an interesting variation to the boring routine.
I would prefer that you may actively search for them, do something to trigger them, like when you explore the catacombs (oh, surprise, a dungeon!) and have the opportunity to find something interesting and useful.
As for now, it seems to me they're more an annoyance that interrupts your gameplay.

Example: If I want to "resurrect" a ghost, I could first go to the Science Lab and ask, then they tell me they need <this and that> to perform the experiment. E.g. you might have to find a specific rock/metal/bug + persuade a specific sim you haven't met yet (so you also have to search for him) to give you something else + whatever, and then - when you have everything they asked for - return to the Lab and finish the quest.
Now, THAT would be an interesting and entertaining quest; those we have now are lame :/.

I have stupidly been playing an eight person household as I rolled to let one of the parents get their lifetime wish of 5 kids. The repetitive nature of the quests gets tiresome quite quickly. As there are 5 kids, a new opportunity e.g. to deliver a fish to the science facility, deliver permission notes, attend a free game, work for a day and fix the school boiler pops up every 2-3 days per child. In itself that wouldn't be so bad but the quests overlap so if you choose to accept all of them, it is difficult to maintain grades and up-skill. Quests for adults & elders are not so bad as there is much more variety.

It would be nice if there could be some kind of cap per family e.g. no more than 3 opportunities offered/in the stages of being met at any given time.

Do kids get skill-related opportunities? Mine only get "clean the bugcage" type opportunities, so I would like maybe less frequency amongst kids opportunities, but more variety. The ability to create your own opportunities (much like creating chance-cards for careers in TS2) would be good, although it will probably be a while until that is available to us.

I would like opportunities to come up more often. Or at least some of them. Like the "make a playable ghost" one? It would be great not to wait a whole sim's lifetime to get that one.

Actually, the ability to create your own quests already exists now. The PROBLEM is that in addition to being a writer, you have to be a Real Programmer to implement it, and a passable Game Designer to make sure it is balanced. Getting the combined intersection of these skillsets is Not Easy.

Okay, can I rephrase? The ability for us simple gamers to make our own opportunities, which I realise is likely to take a while. :P

Will never happen.

Mr. Presidente, I gratefully thank you for any time that you spend on this issue.  And all of the other issues you crush with that programmer's bat of yours, many thanks.  THA BAT!

More quality and proper opportunities sounds good to me as well.  I understand the "enrichment" qualities they're trying to provide.  What gets me is that there are no real checks and balances with who needs what done. 

Maybe that's too much to ask presently, but damn, why does an honor role student consistently get offers to up their grade when it's useless?  Let's see, a rich sim, maxed at job and max skills in everything; why does that sim need an opportunity to do mediocre tasks for chump change, unless the SimGod(ess) desires such by turning the option on?  And other such nonsense I'm sure people have noticed. 

If I were playing with aging on at normal lifespan, perhaps this wouldn't even be an issue.  I haven't gotten the neighborhood setup to let it freely roll though, spending sim weeks in each household.  And even when I get to that point, babysitting will be an aggravating requirement when what I'll want to do is let the game run for hours or days, just to see what happens.  At least this time around, the sims seem mostly able to keep themselves alive.  WooHoo!

Well, they're better at keeping themselves alive and not peeing on themselves because the motive-moodlets automatically push a "solve" action, akin to the way Macrotastics functioned, only not as good. Essentially, the default autonomy AI is now backgrounded to the semi-heuristic that kicks in....which is really what I already did in TS2. :P

Right.  And it seems that a certain someones followed suite on that one too!  HAHA.  They should pay you for keeping the franchise alive.  :-*

More quests! I love them. This was one of the major features advertised for TS3, and one I always wanted. My families tend to get them in multiples at the same time. I'll go from no opportunities to having six over four sims in one day. That, coupled with the opportunistic lifetime reward resulted in my making $210k in two days on my artist sim.