More Awesome Than You!

If I could tell EA to get to work on an expansion tailored to me, here's what I'd make:

Sims 3: The Horror

This would add vampires and werewolves back into the game, and give playable ghost sims the ability to do all the annoying stuff that ghosts did in Sims 2 (I don't know if they still do annoying stuff in Sims 3 when they're not playable, as the ghosts on my lots just seem to watch TV or sleep), as well as fixing ghosts so that they don't age independently (but can still be forced to age with the birthday cake).  Death by flies would also come back.  In addition, it'd add in a few new things:

* Zombies!  Not boring Sims 2 Zombies, which were just ugly, slow, immortal sims with bad personalities.  More like Frankenstein's monster, down to how they're created.  Sims have to go dig up bodies (new interaction) at the graveyard to get enough pieces to put together a body (pieces can also be sold or used to fertilize plants), then use a laboratory (buyable by anyone) to bring back the dead.  Reanimated Sims would have green skin, get a boost to energy from being electrocuted, and if they saw a fire would go berserk and start breaking items in the vicinity.  They don't age.

* The Murder Room!  I've never had Sims die from random events, and in Sims 3 it can be hard to intentionally kill them off.  In Sims 2, EAxis gave us the Cow-Plant, which was a great way to kill off unwanted Sims and turn them into immortality.  We don't have anything like that in Sims 3, so here's the answer.  You build a room and put a special "Murder Door" on it.  Sims that are directed inside are (probably) killed in a random way with an amusing animation.  There's a chance they'll escape, though, and become your enemy (based on the higher of Logic or Athletics).  Burglars are strangely drawn to it.

* The Cabin In The Woods!  It's a community lot of a cabin the woods, or maybe an abandoned summer camp.  Point being, it's kind of spooky, but there are beds on site and romantic interactions get a big boost here.  However, there's also a very small chance that an NPC Slasher (I picture him having a hockey mask, but there might be legal issues; making him a clown would be pretty easy) shows up and attacks a random Sim engaged in a romantic action.  The fight is decided as normal, except that a Sim who has never woo-hoo'd will never lose (this would necessitate adding one tiny piece of info to each Sim, recording whether they've ever woo-hoo'd).  Losing the fight, however, means death for a Sim, although the Slasher can be defeated but not killed.  (Dead sims can be brought back as normal).  Social actions can't be performed on the Slasher.

Won't ever happen. Game is rated Teen, remember?

Plus, Humble is a supe hater.

I wouldn't be surprised if they kill off all supernatural stuff in TS3, period. At least the TS2 base game had aliens.

There are supernatural entities in the game; they're called ghosts.

Yeah, but they kinda suck. For me, I'd do anything to get alien abduction back at least. I would also love something like Makin' Magic, but I know it'll never happen.

I'd like "The Sims 3 EP1: Now It Actually Works!"

I'll wait for the patched version of it.

Lots of stuff is acceptable for teens.  I figure if it could be in a PG-13 movie, it can be in a T video game.

But I don't anticipate them ever doing this.  It's just something I'd like.

I don't know if horror is what I want in such a cheery game.

I'm hoping to see a mash-up of OFB, Nightlife, and AL, to flesh out the "living city" component of the game. However, I'm sure EA will nickel and dime this into multiple EPs.

  I want my sims to be able to get a job as a street walker. There could even be different levels - Whorin' for Burgers, Lindsey Lohan,  Sidewalk Strutter, Two Dollar Whore, High Class Hooker, Escort, et c.   I think this would be a great way to meet new friends and such.

Not to mention that it would help you earn moar charisma skill points.

The only thing they did in TS2 was make sims pee their pants. Are you seriously saying you want the peeing BACK? I thought we wanted to get away from the peeing.

I think they should eat brains. We could have Zombie Survival Horror, Sims edition, where in addition to going about their daily lives, they also have to protect themselves and their families from having their BRAINS EATEN BY ZOMBIES.

If only EAxis treated the engine running The Sims the same way Source is treated.

I mean the haunting, the water ghosts leaving puddles, and so forth.  (I know there's a mod to allow for haunting random objects.)  


I chose it because a) forum title and b) I think it'd be kind of neat if they did expansion based on genres: horror, romance, sci-fi . . . I'm kinda morbidly curious how they'd do comedy.

The haunting still exists. At least the peeing is gone.

But you know what else would be a great expansion in your head?
A WATERMELON expansion.

I hope the next expansion has a child-sized, garbage disposal for our front yards to stop paper deliveries from getting out of hand.

Pescado wins the internets for the rest of forevah.

Watermelon avatars all round to celebrate! Hurrah!

(Well apart from me. I'm stuck with stupid Dead Goopy who is a victim of the apocalypse.)

I want my university, pets and apartments back.

WIN!

*roffles*

Yeah, those things would be great, too. 

I really, really want pets. I had it for TS1, but not TS2. I want my loner sim to have four cats. :D

But I will be so, so sad if pets is only dogs, cats, birds, fish, whatever. I want sheeps! And rideable horses! Et cetera!

Modders did it! They even made flying horses and elephants. Why can't EA be as awesome as modders?

A new interaction allows you to forcibly put watermelons in other Sim's heads, turning them into <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melon_heads">Melon-heads</a>?

Actually, an entire expansion just doing stuff with MATY memes would be kinda neat, too.

Heh.  Pets was the only EP I didn't have installed in my TS2, and that was only because I UNINSTALLED IT.  Because I hated it.

I didn't like the Unleashed EP for TS1, either.  The Sims themselves are pets.  They shouldn't have their own pets.  It's unnatural.  Like Goofy and Pluto.  You know there's probably a TMZ story there.

You forgot the 'Your mom' feature.  >:(

I would like to be able to mortgage to buy a decent house for my Sims  >:( 

I'm so tired about the fact that if I want to play without cheating, I have to buy a small and ridiculous ugly house and stupid furnitures and I have to live in this little pitty house for about three generations before THINKING leaving the house for a bigger one...

If I would have the chance to mortgage to buy a beautiful house and decent furniture when I start the game exactly as human do... they go to the bank and make a mortgage and then, buy their house... and... pay after  ;D 

I'm sure someone can do a little program or hack here and realize my wish  ;D ;D ;D

I don't know why on earth it would take you 3 generations to build a decently sized house. My legacy family was able to rebuild from hut to shack to 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1 garage monstrosity before the second generation was a teenager. Making money in this game -- as in TS2 -- is ridiculously easy.

That being said, you don't even need a hack or a mod. Just motherlode your way to a beautiful new house, then use familyfunds to fake a mortgage payment every time they can afford it. Or download the bigger-bills mod from MTS.

True, but the ghosts in TS3 are essentially just transparent sims. Heck, they can even have babies that age. If Stephanie Meyer wrote a book about ghosts, these are the ones you would get.

Hee hee, yet no sparkles. I are sad  :(

Maybe in future Awesomemod.. if Christmas comes early this year.

(http://cats.moreawesomethanyou.com/die12.jpg)

I'd love this expansion pack.

I really miss my vampires... Only thing I'd change about them is they'd be unable to eat food and would be forced to bite a sim's neck for nourishment.  The bitten sim would lose as much hunger as the biting sim would gain.... If the bitten sim dies... then he becomes a vampire as well.

I also want my brain eating zombies back.  Although with everyone always being out and about I imagine the zombie population would explode... unlike in the sims 2 where they only showed up every once in a while when your sim was out. If we had brain eating zombies cops should have the option to fight them... if they win then the zombie would be killed.

I didn't really use supernaturals much, but it was nice having them as an option. I did have the occasional neighborhood that included aliens and I miss my little greenies. Really, what's more believable: ghosts that act like normal people and can reproduce and die again, or probe-happy aliens?

Seasons and aliens. Those are my two biggest repeat wants. After that, it'd be OFB functions, then pets.

All I really miss is the alien spawn. Mind you, I had replacement pollination techs and a hack that allowed both genders to achieve pregnancy from abduction, but I miss them all the same. My previous game was prosperity type, and I had many a family with a few green skinned sims running around, sigh.

Same here with the aliens. I never really fooled around with the other supernaturals, mostly because I felt the perks outweighed the new negatives of their form. That, and I'm a lazy ass mofo and always felt the getting them part was too boring/hard without cheats. But aliens? All my favorite male Sims had at least one alien progeny. And my gay male couples were practically a breeding ground for them.

What would be awesome is if aliens would come back in the next expansion, but actually have something else, y'know, cool about them... Instead of just being green (or whatever color) skins, they would learn skills faster, or they would have an option to hitch a ride on the mothership or something and get all their motives fulfilled overnight.

zazasu's right.  OFB functions.

OFB NEVER MADE ANY SENSE.  You go to work and no time passes at home or anywhere else in the universe?  You leave at 8am for your business, work yourself to collapse, leave at midnight, and it's still 8:05 when you get home?  And the breakfast is still warm, and the kids are still getting on the school bus?

Now that there is universal time, OFB would make perfect sense. 

It would take more than that to make perfect sense.  There are not enough consumable items or wear-and-tear on fixtures to warrant actual businesses in the game.  You are really just making the sims waste money on inventory clutter, which you have to manually delete in the end.

Let's be realistic: OFB out of the box was crap. The employees were utterly retarded to the point of unusability, and the amount of senseless micromanagement was staggering. There was absolutely no facility for aiming lots for any purpose or clientele. What was REALLY worthwhile in it was the potential to own and control other lots...which was only available through AwesomeWare. That's what you really want.

All I want from OFB is lockable doors. If only I could have them, my life would be complete.

I did actually like running a shop, i.e. selling things as well as owning and controlling other lots -- which admittedly was unbearable without AwesomeWare. Combining that without the crazy time-warp would actually make me really happy with TS3.

Like your ideas.  And who cares if the base game in only teen, they can make expansion packs rated mature - of course it will piss off all the teen customers.  too bad.

Yeah, except the franchise is marketed to teens. EA aren't interested in making something their main customers' parents won't buy for them.

(http://cats.moreawesomethanyou.com/die12.jpg)

hmm First expansion due Nov 2009: The Sims 3: Destination Adventure. Source (http://www.simprograms.com/the-sims-3-destination-adventure-first-expansion-pack)
Well, I'm not really excited about it...

Fucking Holiday/Vacation/BV again? It loses it's appeal after two vacations. It'd better have some other points to it.

Pfft. We don't need no vacations. More undead! Make the mausoleum actually explorable! Bring in the swords, bikini armors and liches!

Maybe if it adds weather. :/ I really miss weather.

I think some kind of Superstar expansion might be fun with the open neighborhood. It was kind of dumb before because you could only build stuff in the mini games blah blah, but now (in someone else's hands, not EA) it could be really fun!

Vacation? *Le Sigh!* I was really hoping that the first Ep would be something that replaced the rabbit holes with real buildings, something like a NL remake. We need the restaurants, night clubs and bowling alleys back. Being able to hit the town  is much less fun when you can't really do anything except fish or sit on a bench and read. We need vampires prowling around, giving an extra thrill to the outing ("Will I make it back without being bitten?"), Mrs Crumplebottom with her purse of Doom and hopefully some new character or creature to encounter. Bring back that "night on the town" feeling!

That's actually a clever move; they spit out the less liked expansion first, so we both have an expansion and drool MOAR on the others to come.

Okay, so according to http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,13970.msg412370.html#msg412370 (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,13970.msg412370.html#msg412370), there's vampires in the game. And now I read this, and no vampires. So which is it? Or are they just probably coming or something?

Oh, there is a vampire. It lives in that lot by that house with the tree. You know the one where the girl with the red hair and brown t-shirt lives, who dates that bald guy that works at that place?

Wow, don't be vague or anything.

You mean you haven't seen the vampire yet? Wow, sucks to be you.

Anyone have a reply that actually explains this and isn't just another attempt to be an asshole and get a rise out of people?

Uh, hellooooo...the title of the thread you linked to is 'TS3 L&P'. It was all rumours and guesswork then. There are no vampires. But if you are very good, Santa Humble might include vampires in a later EP. If he doesn't, then it will be ALL YOUR FAULT for being a bad fiddlesticks!

Thank you. That wasn't so hard was it?

Oooh, I wonder if we'd get those Castaway primitive furniture again?  It is calling for an Awesome Cannibal Mod.

Dammit, I let that girl die. Now what am I going to do?

For me at least, the best part about OFB was the building and decorating of venues that were run by unplayable sims and which I visited often with my playable sims. I had everything, from an art gallery, comedy club, karaoke bar, bookstore, cakeshop, nightclub, cemetary, golf club, gym and cityhall. Running or controlling the lots as a business manager wasn't a priority, in fact I found it to be very monotonous and tiresome.

Type 'vampzrKEWL' in the console. You'll get another vampire, but he won't be in that house anymore. He'll be living as homeless in the park by the place that everyone meets at 8pm.

The easiest answer is that the post you are referring to is Lies and Propaganda posted back in February...well, more precisely, it is a response based on Lies and Propaganda posted back in February, long before the game was actually released. There were a lot of people talking out of their asses at that point, and a lot of rumours of features and themes that did not come to pass, because someone either innocently got it wrong, or felt like spreading false rumours to get attention.

Why you felt the need to latch onto that particular Lie with all the other Propaganda being spouted at the time, is a mystery only you can answer.

For one thing, I just saw the post itself, didn't know L&P stood for lies and propaganda, but thanks for belated heads up on that.

Secondly, I didn't latch onto the lie per say, I only saw conflicting information that I was hoping could be clarified, and thought maybe someone had heard something about it being included in an expansion. That's really it.

I'm just glad people continue to be asses instead of just answering an honest question and moving on. I don't agree that ignorance is bliss, but at the same time the uninformed are not universally stupid and in need of public flogging.

That's why in times like this people will yell "LURK MOAR!"

It's not an insult.  In fact it is the best advice.  There is a reason why some people get poked and others do not.

I feel like saying 'Hello? This is MATY?' All rumours about MATY are true. We don't help stupid and/or lazy, in fact we spork the stupid and/or lazy. This is where we get our jollies.

On the other hand, when people have taken the time to read and comprehend something then we will go all out to help then. Yes, we can tell if you are faking it.

Oh, and I am the nice one. God help you if you get anyone else 'helping' you, you whiny, spoonfed brats.

INORITE?

I was even pleasant when I wrote my response, and the idjit still got its butt all hurt.

So...they will be able to vacation in rabbit holes. How exciting.

So, because I posted something and responded to something someone wrote concerning my post I'm suddenly a lurker? Even though you guys obviously have claimed this place as your own due to lack of actual life outside the interwebz, dogging stuff other people write in an attempt to become more knowledgeable about this game within minutes of their posts don't make you much better either. Maybe ya'll should get over yourselves. I get the stigma of this place, everyone's an ass, but truly, you're only making yourselves look ridiculous at this point with your little club. Anyone outside 'the circle' that asks something is a pariah and automatically stupid. I get it.

No one's hurt, I'm just annoyed that no one here can ask a question without the Grand Council pouncing on it like a cat does nip and then shredding it without actually being helpful in any way.

Understand that there is a difference, perhaps not large but indeed marked, between someone asking a stupid question and simply being uninformed and needing clarification, despite having tried to find the answer themselves. That doesn't make the person a retard by any means, especially considering the fact that they took the time to try to understand it on their own. The people that don't even make an effort are the ones you really need to be pissed at. But instead you just immediately stereotype anyone new.

Good job. You've managed to define everything that's wrong with society as a whole. Hope you're proud of yourselves.

HI FIDDLESTICKS WELCOME TO MATY.

On topic: I liked BV. *fingers crossed for more Japanesey stuff*

Ooh, but remember?  BV was when we got SHELVES.

I think you've misunderstood what was being said. At MATY, you want to be a lurker for as long as possible before you actually post anything. This way you get a feel for the environment and people. If you were a lurker, you would be more aware of, say, what "L&P" stands for. The more you lurk, the less likely you are to do or say something that will get you poked.

Yes. Yes we are. I've said it before and I'll say it again. THIS IS MATY. Don't like it? Don't post.

This is how we weed out the dumbasses. You cope with it without getting all butthurt or trolly, then eventually you might be accepted as a member. We still won't like you though.

As a non-impartial observer, I would like to point out that you asked the question in a rather presumptuous manner. Also, the first response to that was actually humourous sarcasm, not being torn to shreds. In addition, your response to that wasn't exactly opening up for pleasant discourse.

Of course, all this is irrelevant when you realize... well, what did you expect? Ask a tardly question, get a sporkly answer. Lurk more and lern2MATY.

I don't think this phrase means what you think it means.

I would like to see them get rid of the stupid rabbit holes...  Talk about irritating... and getting rid of the larvae... bring back the baby and the diaper... oh, and bathing the baby and toddler... the whole tornado baby - it's clean! Sucks!  And I don't like not being able to make visitors selectable... It screws my stories to pieces and I have to play several times to get what I need.

I don't want any expansion at all. Just put back the things from TS2 without bothering on game play at all. All the game play or game playable was done by modders anyway.
I take a look on the TV channels and all over there are TS3 animations on TS2 characters, what should have been done from start.
It will take ages so that Sims look really humain, learn how to go around without bumping each other inside incredible big houses.
Wait for available technology and USE it.
I wish the possibility to skip the stupid opportunity gaming. What is the point to require that my super snob millionaire fry some burgers to delivery to the cops living xKm far from her house?

I wonder if in the next expansion pack, on the gaming console they will include more crappy EA games that nobody buys?

I am tired of seeing sim children run over by buses and miraculously survive, so I dream of a Law and Order expansion pack.

When a car or school bus literally runs over a kid on a bicycle, the kid dies and the driver of said car or bus goes to JAIL for a suitable period of days, depending on the lifespan you are playing, and comes back with a "Guilty" moodlet. TS3 already has jail, so this is not too much to ask.

Sims can get caught stealing stuff, and likewise go to jail. Teens caught by the police for misbehaving may get sent to a juvenile detention centre if caught a certain number of times.

The Legal career must be included so that sims have the option of retaining someone to represent them and might be found not guilty or obtain a reduced sentence/community service (eg where they have to go and clean toilets on community lots or read stories to children at the library). Sims higher up on the Legal track charge higher fees and there is a higher chance of a favourable result.

If the Repo Man comes to a house, sims have the option of paying the full amount due plus an additional charge for his fees (at least 500 simoleons, irrespective of the actual amount due).

I actually like the rabbit hole thing. That means I can be lazy about 'a night on the town' without having to actually cater to my sims and their fun and hunger and social all at the same time. Plus the shopping is nice and simple; Go in, select what you need from the little popup menu, and you're done. No need to go over to this thing to grab cologne, and that thing to get a magazine, and that rack for video games or whatever the case may be.

Granted, it would be nice to have the option of micromanaging and such, but I really like that you can invite a few friends over and send them off to the diner or bistro together and they will all automatically go and eat, fill their hunger, raise their fun, and get a decent relationship boost without any micromanaging from me; and that's a few hours I have to tend to other sims' needs/wants. It would be nice, however, to have a few more options of places to go and meet new sims. Something like a night club or a shopping mall, or even  a seedy dive bar (though I suppose there is something like that in Riverview).

Rabbit holes happen to be a necessary evil for this game, it always was like that for The Sims series. Without them, some of the aspects of the game (mainly school and work) would take much much longer since you have to micromanage every small detail at those places. Imagine having to watch your sims attend each and every lecture in Uni in TS2. That would be exciting at first, but the novelty of it would wear off quickly, given that it's something as boring as a door jam in real-life as well.

I don't mind the school and work rabbit-holes and while I am a micro-managing fiend *to some degree*... I would like to explore the catacombs, see the movie/show, have the baby and a shop for groceries/books.  And visit the spa... I realize that every place accessible would be hard, but some of the places that are inaccessible don't make sense.   And they need a make-over EP with decent hair and facial templates and more body sliders.  *You know when the females complain about the boobs... there is something fundamentally wrong with the game.*

Some of the things you listed Zolabee would not work very well, we build cinemas in TS1 and TS2 with the end result was ... a mess.

Similar what would be the point of entering the hospital to just watch the baby delivery? there would be not much of player control over it.

Yes, and since there's not much difference between home delivery and hospital delivery, it makes you wonder why they went to so much trouble to add in the extra option. Why add it if I can't see it anyway? Same with the diner and the bistro. They are the same only for the bistro the sims change into formal wear and can eat outside. They are nice neighbourhood decorations but if my sims need to eat while in town they can munch on the things they have in their backpack, or they can grill, or have a picnic.

Insofar as I couldn't truthfully say I was impartial.


The diners can be useful if you want to throw some Sims away for a while to focus on others. Also, it can be a good option for poor Sims if you can Dine For Free™.

Throwing away Sims for a while to focus on others would be fine... if you didn't have to edit town, change houses and go back in to play them. 

Well I guess they want to fine tune things.

Take Unleashed and the sax player door blocking ... also take TS2 and the issues that comes with the slow cashier, the waiter and also Sims decide to start a conversation at most inappropriate locations (front of the cashier, front of a door that would create route failures).

Even in TS3 they still create route failures but since community lots lock the bladder bar we dont really get much a chance to notice itsince Sims have no need to pee as they did before and so the conditions that usually created the "lets talk in front of the door so NOBODY ENTERS, NOBODY LEAVES" problem are unlikely to happen.

Horror movie for the Sims' TVs?

After playing the game for a month, the only rabbt holes that I really want to open up are the restaurants and the spa (and maybe the theater).  I've actually come to like the grocery and bookstore rabbit holes.  They are very convient and if they opened up, you would only be performing the same action on an object inside.  The thing is though, these places (the spa, bistro and diner) are work places as well.  Which means if they did open up, there would have to be changes made to the way they are run.  I see this most likely happening in an OFB-like EP where rabbit holes such as restaurants are then owned by NPCs by default, but can be owned, operated and worked in by playable sims.  

That's how it was in Sims2 and that at least gave me the possibility to design the look of my grocery store. As it is, it's either the yellow building or none at all. If you think about it it shouldn't have been too hard to code the vegetable stand outside to sell vegetables, and then they could have added separate stands for fish, one for meat, eggs and cheeze and one for the bathroom supplies. It would have made a lot of difference, especially for people who like to decorate their own lots. The yellow building looks nice but it doesn't fit well in a sims games. What's next? Rabbit hole homes?

I would just like to see expansions turning this game into a toy again.  The basic framework is there, but there's really no reason to do most of what my sims are currently doing.  I'd like answers to all the "Why?" questions I encounter when I play.  Why, for instance, would anyone want to become a World-Renowned Surgeon?  So they can play golf and read medical journals?  Sims are dying all around them!  We have ambulance riders (with pagers) and hospital births, fires and electrocutions.  Where are the "Perform CPR" and "Deliver Baby" interactions?  Surely, someone who saves another sim from death or brings forth new life deserves some public recognition for it - the "world renown".  Why is it more important to kick ass at chess than to, say, work closely with farmers, cooks, and scientists to develop cures and techniques to help simkind?  A housewife with a deathflower in her backpack and ambrosia in the fridge is more valuable than a surgeon at this point in the game.

Don't even get me started on the possibilities inherent in the Creature Cross-Breeder career.  I want to see more than a "Nicely Decorated" moodlet after enduring that particular grind.  Dude, where's my robofish crafting station?!

What I Do. Not. Want. is a tropical island filled with "rare" onion seeds, luminorious gems, and Play-Doh locals in hula skirts... unless tourists can return with mysterious diseases that can only be cured by a World-Renowned Surgeon.  Or shrunken heads that require an appointment with a Mad Scientist to restore - for the equivalent of a king's ransom.  A witch doctor career for those sims who'd like to max 3 skills?  Field maneuvers for military personnel to repel the zombie hordes - at the risk of being turned themselves, of course.  No 'hood is complete without a wrench-swinging, undead Junior Officer in it.

The Sims 3 expansion in my head can be summed up in four words: 'Just finish the game'.

Also rabbitholes simplify things quite a bit. You can't forget to put a cash register in the store if you don't have the option to build the inside of the store yourself. Granted, it would be nice to be able to, say, have a rabbithole object that you can place inside of a building you build yourself and there you go, custom rabbithole.

Plus now you don't have extraneous amounts of NPC bartenders, servers, chef, cashiers, etc. running around your hood.

Instead you've got all these weird NPCs that I have no idea what function they serve.. like lab technicians and magicians?

Actually, there's no need for NPC bartenders, servers, chefs, cashiers because now everyone's busy reading outside. I swear, at times, I feel like the whole neighbourhood has been taken over by a sect of family friendly knowledge sims.

I can understand the lab technicians (somewhat).  There must be someone to deliver babies and screw up resurrections, after all.  The Magician is confounding, though.  S/he's not even available for birthday parties!  A lot of the service sims are missing traits, as well.

That shit pisses me off. One of my sims was getting fairly rich and he rolled up a want to buy a tv costing at least X amount of dollars. So I bought him said TV and what did he do? He sat down in front of the TV, whipped out a book, and started reading. Why in Hell are books so damn appealing to every single sim, regardless of their traits? Bookworms I can see preferring to read over watching TV or whatever, and maybe Athletic sims, but everybody? Even Couch Potatoes and Computer Whizzes? Ridiculous.

Yeah, I have a Computer Whiz (my simself actually) who has a laptop in his inventory at all times. He still seems to prefer whipping out a book and reading.

My idea of an expansion pack that would make the game uendly for all ages:

What about the concept of "Buyable Portal"?
Very simple - Objects needed : the plumb-bob that is the symbol for TS made like a buyable crystal in different colors where each EP would include one; a special personal inventory named EP inventory or something more creative, user commanded where you should place the plumb-bobs that you want your Sim to use. You don't have an EP, you don't have the respective Plumb-bob; You have an EP, your Sim can only have moodlets, wishes or anything related to this EP if you put the Plumb-bob in his/her inventory.
Example: it is created a Horror EP, full with vampires, werewolves and a lot of terrible interactions. you have bought this EP but want only that your Dark sided Sim would have access to it, so you place the Plumb-bob in the personal EP inventory for only this Sim in particular.

The portal: each plumb-bob would open a different world available to the Sim that have it in its inventory. Clickable by the user at anytime it would open the way to lead your Sim to adventures related to this portal - a travel to the dark, or to the heaven, or to unendless space.
Each portal would give the Sim the option to bring 8 Sims with him on the trip to the adventure. Those Sims have to have a strong bind to the leading Sim: the best friend, the lover, beloved family members or ... the worst enemy - no weak bindings.

Consequences: babies made on such adventures cannot be brought back home - to avoid mixing uncompatible worlds. They will be given for care to a local family on those hidden worlds and Sim could only contact them again by visiting them where they belong to. And will make a dynamic world caused by the user.

Visits: each visit would be hosted in any kind of Hotel or to a chosen Host Family that would be at the time of the visit, non-playable. During the time you are on visit you have to follow the rules and mood of the Hostess, that will behave at its own - and this is a challenge. You control your visitors but cannot control the household you are in.
When not being visited those hostess families can be chosen and playable as any normal one.

Anything else is still cooking in my mind.

Get AWESOMEMOD. I rather enjoy being able to play the entire town at once from Supreme Commander.

THIS. Exactly. This is why I just friggin went back to TS2. TS3 is just too effin... stressful! Jesus, it's like real life. Only more pointless, and somehow, they managed to make it even more depressing.

Wanna have a baby?

Why? Does it really matter? The babies are just gonna be fug anyway.

Wanna get to the top of your career?

Why? What are you gonna do with that money? There's no object that is much more beneficial than another one - all your needs can be rock bottom and you'll be fine, and you can just raise them back up on a community lot anyway. (It takes a friggin' Sim week to die for chrissake!)

Wanna skill and grind your entire life?

Why? You're just gonna DIE anyway.

Every single Sim is so effin' replaceable and interchangeable. There's just no reason to play the game anymore, and I hate it. /emo

Euphemism hit the nail on the head.

These sims have no memories, no aspiration meters and earning money to lavishly furnish your home is pointless when a friggin' plate of cookies and a trip to the day spa has moodlets that can completely erase any mood failure.

A new expansion should add some of the random excitement sims 2 had. Bring back spontaneous combustion, falling satellites, alien abduction, genies, turns ons and offs, matchmakers and all the other fun stuff!

I actually find myself missing the sims 1. Makin' Magic and Superstar gave me some good times.

I don't have sims3 and don't plan to get it until there is an EP that appeals to me.

The rumored Bon Vacation 3 (re-re-hashing of the blandest EP from both of the previous sims games) will not do it.  Nor will a Hot Night Life 3 (aka "open up the rabbit hole") EP.

What would pry cash from my penny pinching fist?

Farms.

It would draw from some of the better sims2 EPs (seasons/OFB, and a bit, pets) to make a full fledged farm career.  Farms would be zoned "agricultural" (versus "community" and "residential") and sims living on an agricultural lot will be the only ones allowed to raise farm animals.  As you advance in the career, you get to maintain more difficult animals (perhaps start with chickens, then move to larger animals).  More difficult animals cost more to maintain but earn you more when you sell them. 

Barns woud be rabbit holes (so if your sim goes to clean the barn, they just disappear for a bit) but paddocks would be viewable.  A few animals would mill about in the paddock and make little messes or have basic needs (like food/cleanliness/happiness).  Kind of like a hybrid of sims and Zoo Tycoon (so simple interactions with the animals).  Your sim would have to maintain a certain level of happiness amongst all animals or the farm could be shut down (there would be an inspector who comes, kind of like a farm animal social worker).

You would buy different paddocks for different types of animals.  Only a set amount of each animal could be held on a farm (but they would not be considered family members--kind of like caged pets in sims2 Pets), either all of one kind or a mix (as long as you don't exceed the total animal allotment).  Animals would breed until they reached that point.  Selling the animals (either live or as meat) would reduce the population allowing for more breeding.  Animals would also produce sellable/edible products (eggs, wool, milk, even manure--though isn't there already a "cheese plant"?  if so, that's crazy and should never have been). 

Farms could either sell the farm products via buy mode or start an OFB style business.  ONLY sims in the farm career would have access to this option (running a farm based business--other types could be available for non-farm folk).  Farms would be passed down through the generations.  If a farm goes under, it is just absorbed into the community (becomes an NPC rabbit hole or some such).  For a teen to take over a family farm, they have to enter the teen version of the job which would be akin to joining a Future Farmers of America or 4H program (meaning they'd have to have certain skills and do certain farm based activities before they can take over the farm).

A farm EP could also include pets stuff (to calm the OMGPETS folks).  Dogs, cats, and ridable horses.  Companion animals would work a lot like they do in sims2 (having their own allotment in the family and all that) and could be bred, sold, and be employable.  Dogs and cats could be put to work on the farm (as protection/vermin control) or farmed (see my pun!) out to neighbors for the same activities.  Horses could be used on the farm or just for recreation (or you could sell pony rides or something).  Companion animals would have basic personalities (a la sims 2) so you could have bitchy cats and mean dogs or untamed horses (a sim being thrown from a horse would be a very amusing animation).

IF they wanted to have a paranormal sim it could be a scarecrow.  Only sims in the farm career would have access to everything to make a scarecrow sim.  It would be vulnerable to fire or perhaps not too smart.  It would be akin to servos so it could be male or female (though with more variety in the looks department than a servo) and fall in love but not breed.

Ok, I think I've dorked out over this enough.

(oh and sims3 needs aliens, too.  or at least a way to make passable ones.  fully black eyes, please)

Farming would be brilliant. I loved the farm mod I downloaded for the sims 2. Could possibly be a style of business for an OFB EP. Farm, shop, leisure lots?

I agree with this.  I want more chance for random wackiness, more supers, etc.  Then again, random wackiness never afflicted my games before, either.  My sims always either died of old age, or I moved them to another lot and stopped playing them.  Freetime was a godsend for getting alien abductions because, outside of my first Sims 2 neighborhood where one sim got abducted every couple of nights, the only way I ever got to play greenies was to play Strangetown.  


This I don't necessarily agree with.  Some things about gameplay need to be touched up, but in Sims 2, the game didn't really do anything to make Sims any more unique than Sims 3.  Childhood was spent skilling.  Teenage years skilling and maybe getting a romantic interest.  College, skilling and romance (and using a mod to jump through as quickly as possible, because it was boring).  Adulthood, fulfilling a LTW/hitting permaplat, unless you'd already managed that earlier.  

There needs to be more of everything, pretty much, and autonomous actions need to be tweaked (so that Sims don't default to reading a book, playing guitar, or running in the sprinkler whenever they've got some spare time), but I don't think Sims 3 is a gameplay disaster.  Heck, Sims 2 was as good as it was mostly because of Awesomeware.

Too right! The game is starting to get as boring as watching fresh dog turd drying in the sun! But I still play...why? Because I'm friggen bored and the dog shit on the lawn hasn't turned white just yet..get a good giggle watching the hubby mow the dog bombs...white powder...wee...it's snowing.

 On topic though, I really don't give a crap what EP they bring out..I'm still gonna buy it.

My actual game is lurking in the awesomemod thread and testing the stuff. Following various modders, too, is fun; playing the game in itself, not so much.
I've found all the rocks, all the metals and all the gems, and had every gem cutted in every shape. That sim's house looks like a Geological Museum - that part is finished: no way I'll have another sim doing the same, ever; there's no purpose.
Fish: finished.
Garden: finished.
Cuisine: finished.
Object upgrades: finished.
Music: finished, both Rockstar and Symphonic (I don't even remember what's its name)
Athletic: finished.
Criminal: finished (Master Thief)
Once I finish the other careers and hobbies, there's not much more to do with them.

The traits should give them a higher differentiation - instead, they all behave the same. Look at them socializing autonomously: they look like robots, programmed to run a specific (pointless) task every x ticks, nothing more. In TS2 they had personality: I remember all my sims, each one had its own unique behavior; I could gave them a facial surgery and still recognize them. I guess the personality points system allowed more combinations and more subtle variety. A better variety, to me. All these traits sum the shticks, don't merge them in some unique combination.
I'm at the 4th generation and still don't give a damn of any of those fuckers. They have no depth.

Baa, sheeples!

Baa...mooo...hell why not.

Aww bless. You don't understand.

Visit BBS much, huh?

This is complete bullshit.

In TS2 there was no difference with the zodiac system since that system only worked to some degree on the extreme, neat Sims were only neat when having 8/10 or more neat points as sloppy sims were only sloppy when having 3/10 or less neat points.

In TS3 traits dictate some behavior without the "point allocation dance" on TS1/TS2 Zodiac system.

At worst there no difference of the Zodiac and Trait system, outside one being straightforward (Trait).
 

I've also found that it's easier to attach myself to my sims in HORROR. They haven't helped much in that you can choose all positive traits, but I've found that choosing a couple negative traits, plus not giving them perfect appearances (Screw up faces, make fatties, etc.) can give them some actual differentiation. It's amusing, especially when they're left to their own devices while you control other sims.

That's why I was specifically referring to socialization (not clear enough, probably, in my previous post). The way they approach each other, the frequency of their autonomous choice of socials, the romancing style - there were many, and different each other, depending on the personality combination. I had a sim which acted like a stalker, when in the same lot with her crush; another one apparently didn't give a damn about his girlfriend and was always busy around his friends - different combinations of outgoing/slob/nice and other points together lead to different overall behavior.
Just in romantic actions, some sims tend to always smooch at first sight, others will never do it autonomously for their whole life, others will grab asses and never give peck kisses. I loved to watch them.

In TS3 the differences are sharper: flirty sims will always flirt, inappropriate sims will act inappropriately, fine, got it. My point is that all flirty sims seems to do the same, there are no other traits that modify the flirty trait. The same is for inappropriate, and such.

TS3 is safer on autonomy, unlike TS2 were Sims were absolute social morons.

Also traits do affect on how they socialize, Sims with Good Sense of Humor will tell jokes autonomous as Snob Sims will gloat also autonomous.

And yes flirty Sims do flirt but at least they do it because they are flirty, unlike the social retards of TS2 that would do it because its a possible interaction without any regard if that was acceptable or not.

Quite probably we have different game habits and different things we like/dislike; apparently they're quite the opposite. I want max autonomy and unpredictability, even if it results in stupid social actions; "safe" social autonomy is only boring, to me.
And again, I'm not saying that traits don't affect their way to socialize, I'm saying that - at least so far - they affect the socialization in a fixed way, not compound. Hyperbolically, I would roughly define it like the difference between binary and analogical.
In TS2 I had sims who flirted a lot and sims who almost never did because of their different personality ensemble, not because they had the flirty or unflirty trait, and the rest doesn't matter.

The purpose of autonomy is allowing Sims to take care of themselves without need micromanagement.

In TS2 that was broken in many levels, social autonomy was one were the Sim would never check social interactions beyond if they could be autonomous initiated (some were locked to "player initiated" only) so Sims could screw up relationships fast if they were left to their own devices but since relationships were easy to mend the problem was simply a irritation for most part.

But TS3 altered the relationship system so its not as easy in TS2 to gain friends, that means autonomous initiated socials are less and more restrict in order for Sims to NOT screw up relationships by AI stupidity.

Unless you MAKE THEN that way, Snob Sims can "brag about" and that social is not going to make then many friends as Flirty Sims are likely to screw up things by using a flirt interaction, autonomy in TS3 also make Sims to stay in character, even when that is negative.

Also gaming habits be damned, its never good design or work when things are unpredictable ... its good ethics to make things as plain and clear in order for the player to be informed and in control over possible decisions, I would not buy a car if sometimes when I turned the wheel left the car would turn right and it would never told me how much gas was in the tank.

Marhis is right. Predictability is very boring. Half of the fun of TS2 was getting sims into, and out of ridiculous situations.

Besides, I have never 'played the car' before.

The differences in sim autonomy and personality are the least important differences, to me, between TS2 and TS3.  Why?  Because it is the easiest part of the game for them to radically change in future expansions.  Or even in awesomemods.

The big problem for TS3 are all the bridges they permanently burned.  Like the skins and the vector graphic patterns and the miserably few choices we have, especially over faces.

With TS2, I could go through the body shop section on MTS2 from week to week and constantly see new things that I hadn't seen before, sometimes things that I hadn't thought possible.  With TS3, there are no such possibilities.  The game was deliberately crippled, in some of these respects, in order to keep it simple and save ram, and the result is that there will never be a face that surprises us.  There are only so many things you can do with those sliders and all faces and eyes and makeup and hair are based on two to four color swatches.  That's permanent.  There will be no change in that until TS4.  No hack will ever change that.  This game will never be like the seven-year orgy of creativity that TS2 was.  It's a dead-end, and the mind-boggling thing is, they made it that way on purpose.

Patterns aren't stored in vector format, they're plain old raster images.

The completely backwards progression being made with customization infuriates me, no doubt about it. Not being able to do neat eye textures or have skins that aren't just some pre-set tone is sad, I could even do that in TS1 if I took the time to make all the images for them.

Depends on how you look at things.

You have no custom skins (at least, yet) but you get control over how light and dark they are.

And I cannot understand why people complain about not having TS2 clothing textures ... in TS2 if you wanted a brown vest over a blue shirt with green jeans with black shoes ... well better load up Bodyshop and learn to use a graphic editor program (something many clearly never did) if that happened to be the colors of the texture.

Also considering the incredible LOW standards the community accepted ... are we missing much by NOT having obvious photopainted textures that seem to be the only thing Koreans were capable of making?

And all the drama that is now lost now that Drama Queens cannot complain about how their textures were stolen or how someone copied then ... heck even paysites taken a severe hit since the majority of their content was nothing but recolors.

TS2 clothing method is superior, skins can be annoying to a point but hey! we got BODY TEXTURE OVERLAYS ... maybe THIS TIME people will use it instead of "tattoos genetics" of TS2.

TS3 skins look very bad in game, especially during strong outside light. In my game sometimes they look like zombies but with pink skin instead of green. And clothes and textures on all objects become blurry if you don't have the camera zoomed in on them. So meh about coustomability if you can't see it effects properly in the game.

How many colors can you have in the overlays?

Well ... socks for example are overlays and allow more that one color.

I totally agree with this! I miss my custom eyes and make-up, and custom hair. And it's not just the cartoonish puddings, I'm afraid. One of the things that bothers me about TS3 is the very limited/lack of animations, which has been discussed before, but I think this is why the puddings seem to lack personality. And this, to me, in addition to their looks, is why they are so boring; the same half-assed animations are repeated over and over. The lack of social interactions of all kinds (I have found that sims can't even initiate conversation with another sim that is sitting down, but maybe that's just me), and I'm tired of listening to them fret at the stove over food that isn't even burned, or cough every frigging time they eat (and yes, I know if I would have them make the same meal x number of times they would probably stop that but I LIKE variety even if they don't care), and my toddlers are constantly facinated by boogers (and isn't it amazing how that one simlish word is the same as the English one) and repeat that animation about every 20 sim minutes. And the half-assed animations like the dish clearing and the "tornado" baby changing have been discussed many times, but UGH! There are dozens of examples that you all are well aware of so I'll stop now.

And story agression! Don't get me started on that. They essentially made the neigborhood one family's giant (comparatively speaking) lot, and saved computing power by not rendering things when unviewed, and then threw in random stupid events to supposedly make it look like it was an actual neigborhood. Like THAT was ever going to satisfy anyone! AwsomeMod proves that it COULD have been executed in a much better way if EA only had a clue.

I do realize that additional animations will be added with expansions (at least I sure hope so), but right now this game is quickly becoming boring and lifeless to me, and I wonder about some animations, like cars for instance. In TS2, driveways took up an out-of-proportion space due to the animations. Now driveways are sleeker and take up less space, and you can even build garages at right angles to the road. Good for creative building, maybe, but the reason this works now is precisely because they took out the car animations. Vehicles just magically appear and disappear, so no need to "drive into" your garage. I am afraid they won't be coming back, either. Maybe I'll be proved wrong, but it seems as if they have made transportation completely irrelevant in this game, and I miss the cars. This feels like a step back in many respects.

OK, enough; end of rant. I realize that people play differently and like different things, but I just had to say I agree with some of the observations made about the hollowness of this game.


Oh, goodie! Tons of boring elderly, single, childless Pudding Sims on phantom bikes or in pass-through cars, searching for rocks and seeds, all wearing a virtual rainbow of socks.  :P

I frankly don't give two shits what it is. All I want is more than the what, 6 skills in the game? Some more jobs and objects would be an obvious good addition as well.

I would love to see another Free Time or Apartment Life. The fact that Free Time added 10 hobbies, which were essentially skills, and a shit ton of jobs was great. Apartment Life is exactly how I want to make my Sims, start out in some hovel and move their way up.

This 'Destination Adventure' is going to be a flop just like Vacation and Bon Voyage. I'm not going to spend a cent to get it, and will wait a week for a good torrent of it. The only thing I liked from Vacation was the ability to make Hotels, and Sharkey Shark. Bon Voyage was if I wanted to spend 3 weeks out of the space time continuum getting Big Foot to rape the hell out of the Celebrity Career and rake in the money.

It better be fucking good, or hope to God they release one before Christmas.

I mostly concur with Drakron. In TS2, the personality bars were mostly meaningless except for when they hit critical behavioral "breakpoints", like an Active Sim being able to run when Active exceeded 500, Slobby sims peeing on the floor in the shower, etc. As for sims and their "unique behavior"? Horse puckey. I'd know. I had to *WRITE* unique behavior to get it to happen. TS3 doesn't really have unique behavior either, but at least some of the non-bland behavioral traits provide a limited form of the "Schtick" system, which was essentially the same thing in Awesomeland 2.

Of course, the sheer number of "bland" personality traits that have no really visible effects tends to swamp this feature, especially given the trait system. There's just too much that is invisible. Sure, we can see that Excitable sims get the Excited moodlet, but they don't really BEHAVE any different.

It's all moodlets, never personality. All Sims talk the same, every action is the same. If two different Sims have the same traits, and pick the same trait specific social action it won't be any different than the Average Joe doing it. Like you said, Excitable Sims don't act excited, they just get a moodlet.

That's a false generalization.  Some traits do have specific interactions, and they also autonomously use them from time to time.  You need to pay more attention.

Oh, gee. Insane Sims wear their panties to the bookstore. LOL THIS IS GUD GAMEPLAY!!!!!111

That wasn't what I was getting at. I meant that traits that have social interactions are never different between Sims, and I'm pretty sure that's what I said, I guess you just didn't catch that.

And for instance, the Evil trait, they laugh sometimes. Yes, it's autonomous, but it's not an interaction. They just do it for the hell of it.

Hopeless Romantic: Gaze Into Eyes
Childish: Goof Around
Daredevil: Watch This!
Technophobe: Sabotage Electronics

List goes on.

There, you're spoon fed.

Those behaviours will always be linked to just those traits, like the idle animations were linked to TS2 personality points, and this makes all traits very predictable in behaviour. Maybe they should have enabled all interractions for all sims, but randomize the chances of sims performing them based on their traits. Like childish sims have a 50% chance to do the goof around animation and all other traits have it on varying smaller degrees based on the trait description, so this would give even a grumpy sim the chance to goof around occasionaly.

Goof Around is a social interaction.  Fuck with its xml.

And so my point remains, at worst there is no difference of TS2/1 and TS3 in that regard.


That is the insane trait.

Also that idea would make every Sim to be the same as behavior would not longer be connected to traits but it would be a "everything goes" by random chance.

Also as pointed above, you can mod it and have every Sim to have the Insane trait basic function.

Anyway ... It seems the reason people liked the Zodiac system was not how it worked but because they had no idea on how it worked and the Trait system is relative straightforward on what things will do.

Yes, but as I pointed above, the traits carry a specific set of interractions that sims will always perform so we can safely say the randomness level is 0 in their case for the interactions associated with their traits. However, it would be nice if grumpy sims will get a maybe 5% random chance that they will act nice, or childish or goof around. Or maybe a slob sim will get a 5% chance that he'll like to do the dishes one day and then he'll return to his usual self the next day. People don't behave the same all the time and it would be nice if sims would break the habits every now and then. 

No shit. Nobody seems to understand what I'm saying, even though this is the third time I've simplified it. So here:

Sim A has the Childish trait. Sim B also has the Childish trait. None of their other four traits are the same. The Goof Around interaction will be EXACTLY the same, no matter what OTHER COMBINATION OF TRAITS THEY HAVE.

So, what I mean is that traits don't give personality. They give little interactions or moodlets, which will always be the same from Sim to Sim, no matter what other traits they have. Traits are independent features.

And just how many variations should there be? At what point is it too much? The base game is already over 5 gigs, comparable to a gig and a half for TS2 basegame. Add animations to the level that you seem to want, and you're talking about a game almost double the size.

In the end, you'll still whine that they are too predictable and that the differences are too small. Newsflash: sims are code bits and pixels. You will not get the level of complexity you seem to crave from code bits and pixels anytime this century.

Yep.  There are some problematic "same" animations.  For instance, the animation for looking through the telescope is always the same, and it always looks like you're worried someone will see you peering in the neighbors' window, even if you're scanning the heavens for new stars and planets.  Sims choke a little on their food altogether too often.

But it's hardly surprising that the same interaction always looks the same when different Sims do it.  That was the case in Sims 2 as well.

Shut the hell up, pumpkin. We're having a mature conversation here. Now, what I don't like is the fact that all Sims eat the same way. I know plenty of people who were born in the same location, but some use the American style of keeping the fork in one hand, and others, the European style of setting the knife down and putting the fork in the dominant hand. It's ridiculous, and their eating styles are being given no personalization whatsoever. I also dislike the fact that all of my Sims use the exact same aging-up animations. Dammit, a daredevil Sim should leap while age-transitioning, not just do that spinning around crap. And why don't my Pyros knock down their birthday candles and set the tables on fire? Lastly, I think we should be able to actually follow our Astronaut Sims to work. They could have set us up a moon base, created a couple of planets, randomly generated atmospheres, different flora and fauna... Damn those lazy developers.

You people all eat funny. This is why it takes you so long to finish.

Are you sure you don't want to simply play Splotch?

Splotch?

Actually, I aphotosynthesize. I generate food through not being exposed to sunlight.


Precisely! They should have programmed in Splotch on top of the existing game. And this time, they should do it RIGHT, dammit. And you know why this didn't happen? Those lazy developers not programming in the obvious missing details.

Excuse the hell out of me. What about my statement wasn't mature? What about it wasn't appropriate to the discussion at hand? Quit getting uppity, it doesn't look good on you.

I may be the only one, but I read Faafy's post as more than just a little tongue-in-cheek. Your sarcasm meter is broken.

(http://i31.tinypic.com/21jq1cz.jpg)

If that's the case, my apologies. It's just that "Shut the hell up" has always been a serious insult. "Shut up", not so much.

Yes, apparently I went a bit over the top with that one. My apologies. I was going for the whole "discontented sheep is discontented" feel. I was in accordance with your point that the game does have a lot of complexity as is.

*begins mopping up the puddles around the pumpkin's meter*