More Awesome Than You!

Forgive my fangirl-like excitment, but this expansion pack looks like it's going to be a blast! Really looking forward for more info. on this. Like where exactly will our Sim's businesses be located?

Link: http://thesims2.ea.com/about/ep3_videos.php (http://thesims2.ea.com/about/ep3_videos.php)

It seems to be very good expansion. I think I'll take the risk and order it...:).

I see at least five new hairstyles in that video, not to mention all the other goodies.

Definitely getting. My main neighbourhood is on hold because of it, actually - I have two Teens who aren't going to Uni until OFB is installed.

And the bugs... well, something has to keep me entertained ;)

Well, as usual, I will not get it until it has been awesome-ised. However, there are 2 reasons to get it, that I can see from the video: the gnoming bench seems to be back (in some form), and it might make fortune sims more interesting.

I'm slightly skeptical of the viability of businesses like the salon....who, exactly, is your customer base? Not your sims, I hope! They probably look exactly like you want them to look!

I also notice that this newest promotional shot features a lack of sims being mean and nasty, unlike the first one. I do not approve.

Looks like Sims, Townies, Dormies, Downtownies and probably two new pools of Workers and Shoppers, bumping the average fresh-start neighbourhood to 500 sims before any playables are made. Yay.

Still, the salon should be useful for the latter five.

Does anyone know how exactly the shops are meant to work? Are they residential, or community, or some new lot type?

aah! looks like the robot maid is back, so excellent, i really missed it!  :D
as for who will be the customers of the salon, perhaps there will be new haircuts available only for the salon business so we'll have to send our sims to get them. just a thought.  ;D

I'm hoping for a possible residential/community combo, as well as just plain community, so it can really become a family business. Plus, no travel/lot change lag!

And those elevators looked positively swish.  :)

Is it me or does the tag line of "Your Sims Get Down To Business" sound dirty?

Oh dear. I know better than to get all excited about anything EA produces but... I'm excited! Robots! :D

I think I may need a better computer for it, though. My poor laptop is having more and more trouble with each expansion.

Tis not just you Mythie ;)

And did I just spot a lift? (elevator, whatever) Awesome.

Oh man..I hate to admit it but I'm excited for this EP
My hopes and dreams may be dashed upon installing it but right now it looks great.

I'm most excited about the kites the kids were playing with hehehe

I hope there will be estate agencies and immigration centres so we can choose which Townies we want in which town, and which ones to simply deport never to be seen again :D

Wow, that looks awesome. OFB looks good. I wonder how much it will change though. If it adds another area like Uni and NL...gah, I hate switching between areas.

It's the first EP I'm actually going to buy - assuming the specs aren't too high for my PC.  Any info on that yet?

If OFB adds another area I will scream... but only if it is somehow required for the businesses to work. If not, I simply won't add it! I refuse to bugger up my nice custom areas with a few hundred townies I don't want when I can make better ones myself.

LOL Inge! You always have the best ideas! I still wonder about which "magical creature" we could get wit this EP? I'm giggling like a school girl about this too! It seems so much fun. And I'm glad that the kids are more involved in this EP too...

12th of January Tim leTourneau will have a presentation at Brussels and the lucky ones who get chosen to go will be able to play the game themselves! I didn't even apply yet and I'm already making up excuses to no go to work!!! ;D

Given that the first two EP's brought us Zombies and Vampires, respectively, the next logical creature would be a Tax Collector.

I'm going to get it ;D Woo!

Haha Hairfish!

I want to see the system requirements first, which Maxis seems to have conveniently forgotten to post anywhere on the BSB (oops, I meant BBS).

Snooty has indicated that he/she(?) has received an invitation and is going, so you could check that site to see what info is given out.

Inge -
I know you're not taking requests, but maybe after the school and prison, you could do an immigration office.  ;)  ;)  :)

Isn't that what the cow plant is for ?  ;D

I feel like an excited N00b.... REALLY looking forward to this expansion pack! Unlike everyone else who wants PETS PETS PETS PETS (and I really don't, taking care of our golden retriever puppy IRL is enough work for me) this EP is something that really appeals to me.

But I now I HAVE to get it anyway ;D I'll need to update the Sims2DB database!

 

I WAS looking forward to it, now I am not:

From what the latest news says it seems that the businesses will all be home based, nothing more.

I like that option, it's is nice to have, but I want a community lot that I can live on and run a business in my downtown area--like in RL, live upstairs, work downstairs. I want to be able to play a sim and take them down to the bakry (for example) and their they will see the Breads Family hard at work, or play the Breads hard at work.

And if I can't have a 'run your own business' downtown, then I don't want the damn EP. It'd just make me have to update all my hacks, etc. I say: Fooey on it! Fooey on Maxis! :) At least until they give us some indication that businesses will run just like community lots.

Nah, that ep is not for me.  I am gonna pass on that one never sounded excited and even by seeing the video it did not made me change my mind.  I only see tons of possible bugs in that one.

I don't get what you don't like Mutant.  The business will be home based, as on a home lot, but I'm assuming your customers will be just townies or whatever the equivalent is.  Obviously they won't be your family or pc's you control.  So you will have a steady flow of customers going through your premises.  How is that different from "a community lot that I can live on and run a business".  There are residential homes downtown, so I've always assumed you could live there if you choose.  Never tried it though.  So many you could have a business/home there too.  All speculation at this point.  But I don't see this expansion being vastly different from what you envisioned


No way I could pass up on an expansion.  I'd be too frustrated by all the new and custom content I'd be missing out on. 

I can envision building a little store with an apartment upstairs that the sim family could live in.  That would be nice.  It would give it an old-timey, urban feel to it, like 1920's New York or something.  :)

Oh no, this makes me think of the sticky-fingered mime from Sims 1!  :P I hope they make it so people will stay out of your living areas.

The difference between strictly home based business and community business is one you can visit and the other you can not. You cant take Joe Sim and go visit Sally Sim's (home) business and see her hard at work...you can only play Sally Sim as the owner of the business and can never see her in action from the customer's point of view (Joe Sim's - another playable character)

It depends on how creative you want to be about it. Using Inge's stuff, I have her customer generator shrub and her teleporter shrub. If I want to be the "customer", I save the customer on their home lot and go to the home business lot. Using the teleporter shrub, I bring the specific "customer" I want to play to the business. I let the business owners act autonomously and just control the customer. I then save, exit and return to the "customer" lot when they are done shopping.

Hmmm, I think it's better having the businesses as a home-based lot because it means much less loading. Also, it appears most of the goodies to be sold will already be available through Buy mode, so I'd have little incentive to take my Sim there unless it's the owner of the business.

I really hope they are home based....b/c as far as loading times and all that...can't stand it.  A lot of my sim 'hood don't even have a downtown cause I can't stand all the loading.  Load 'hood...load house...load sub-hood, load location sim wants to visit..ahhhhh

angelyne: Read nectere post above.

Thank you nectere, for making that clearer. I thought I made the difference clear in my post, I guess I was, Oh NO, wrong! :)

Just because it's residential based doesn't necessarily mean you won't be able to visit as a customer. I can think of two ways to accomplish it:

1. Use Inge's shrub (which is what I currently do)
2. They make changes to the lot so that you can "visit" other residential lots like you can community lots. The "residents" at the business who just be uncontrollable sims that don't leave the lot (just like townies on community lots). I think this is quite do-able, the questions only becomes how time is handled for the people on the "home" lot.

Edited because apparently I didn't type what I meant to type.

I agree they seem to have loads of little expansion packs instead of a few big ones, unlike the Sims 1 (towards the end of the expansion packs" they don't enhance your game alot at all they just get them money and give you more computer slowdown time :D

I think you would almost need to be able to visit these businesses as a playable character. I mean if they are going to have burgulars in your home then it would stand to reason that they would include the ability to and for sims to pilfer as they can attempt to do at NL eateries. It would add a whole new element and way to make someone furious with you and get busted/fined whatever. I really hope its not limited to business owner side only. It doesnt make sense, and if that is what they did then, well...it wasnt very well thought out to get the most bang for your buck, at least not at the customer level. There has to be more of a reward and consequence concept to the gameplay other than just being able to sell some stuff. Not that I am advocating stealing or anything, its just one element of business ownership that is a realistic consequence. Of course if it is a two way street and you can play both as owner and customer then I can imagine it would be even more of a nightmare to mod...

Meh, I'll end up getting it.  Possibly the day it comes out if I have anything to say about it.  Because in the end creators will be building stuff around it.  You don't see people making stuff to be specifically used for the base game anymore.  That and the game itself will come with new content.  I tend to favor Maxis created stuff over anything else, especially hair.  Their clothes I could do without though.

Besides, it'll give the kids ways to contribute to the family other than painting crappy pictures all day long.

I'm trying my best not to get so excited over a two minute promo-video, but it's really hard. It was so flashy and colorful and "whee".

A few things that I noticed that I am anticipating:

The servo. I swear I saw a Sim make or stand next to or do something with a servo robot, trademark'd "one eye" and everything.
The elevator.
The kids toys.
The bugs and glitches and guaranteed "Maxis mayhem" included with every expansion.

Edit: I forgot downsizing. Gotta love downsizing. And I can't wait to make everything overpriced and have a "low prices" motto.

the kids sprinkler, the lemonade stand, the kite, the Big Wheel bike, the new toys...

the bad 'mullet' hairdo in the barbers

servo

new craft bench


yeah, I'm gunna get it   ;D

I shall probably end up getting it, even if I'm not at all interested in the business part of it, just for the new content like the items (yay kids' stuff!) and hair. I seriously don't want any more townies, though - I just got rid of all the downtownies, finally, and editing all those memories sucked! I've had one neighborhood only since the game came out, and it's large enough as it is without even MORE random townies I won't allow them to waste time with anyway when there's hundreds of neighbors that I've watched grow up and actually have an attachment to.

I've got $20 that says you can stop the elevator in between floors and woohoo in it.  And all of the other people in the store will run up to the doors to hear all of the giggling echoing up through the shaft.  Because all sims are perverts after all.

I can't say that I'm uber excited. I'm hesitant to say that I'm excited by this particular EP, but in general I always enjoy a new one. I wasn't particularly interested in many of the features, but the videos are kind of cute and appealing. My sister is looking forward to it more than I am. But meh, like a few people have mentioned, I'll probably get it just for the sake of being complete, because everyone else will most likely get it, and it's difficult to maintain hack compatibility without remaining "up to date" on EPs.

Since most modders will probably get EPs, it only just makes sense to do so as well. Think of all the potential shiny, new mods that you might miss out on? I think I'm more looking forward to that rather than actual Maxis content. ::) Modders always seem to take what Maxis makes broken in the first place and significantly improve upon it in a lot more realistic and creative ways. The only thing that I am Not looking forward to is the interim of waiting for certain people ::) to get the latest EP and update their hacks. I held off on installing the NL EP for whiles before a signficant chunk of my hacks were updated or confirmed as compatible. :P It really is painful to play without them. Hehe. I'm sure it will be even more frustrating for me now that I have to update my own mods as well.

As for speculation on the new EP... I imagine that it probably, most likely will add a new area to visit. If we look back at all the previous EPs for the original Sims 1, that seems to be the model that they followed since Hot Date (Vacation, Superstar, Makin' Magic). I don't remember if Unleashed had a separate new area... but meh, I never played Unleashed anyways. Which just goes to show that I will get EPs simply for the sake of getting them. ;)

Edit: In afterthought... it would be very cool if residential lots turn out to be visitable as a consequence of this EP in lieu of creating a separate area. That would be a great way to add functionality and save space. It would awesome if you could visit not only businesses on Residential And Community lots, but if you could simply visit family or friends and neighbors! I would love that idea! :)

Anyways, I did end up pre-ordering two EPs (for me and my sister) since I had EA Store coupons with 15$ off. I'm a sucker for those pre-order incentives, so we'll both get the mascot, and the EP for 25$ with Free S&H! I typically always pre-order because of the pre-order incentive and the fact that I want the EP ASAP.

Ste

I am really looking forward to this one. Training your Sim to be a master craftman (craftsim?) and creating new stuff. I assume that a Sim can create better things when they get the skill. Can't imagine someone just picking up a workbench and making a robot. I think it'll be fun to train them.

I've always loved the idea of home businesses, but running a store sound like fun too. Managing your empoyees and creating a great sales staff and managing them sounds fun. I hope that we'll be able to build our business on any community lot.

My only worry is the additional characters this expansion will create. 100 additional Sims? 200? *shudders* Looking forward to more info., but I will get this. I've been buying Sim games simce Living It Up and would not continue to do so if I didn't think they were worth it.

This is my favorite part of every expansion...It has been far too long since I have had a reason to properly rant at Maxis..... ;D

I'm not that excited for OFB to come out, but I do think it looks like more fun than NL (which turned out to be loads of fun when I finally got it). I am concerned about the potential eighty million new townies (we don't really NEED any more of them, couldn't they change it so that townies/downtownies were the people you could hire, etc? [however, I'm willing to bet that they coded it in a way which makes this nearly impossible, which is sad, and shows lack of foresight as well as bad programming skillz]). I also have to admit that I would like it much more if your business could be on your home lot, since I don't really like taking my sims other places. I think the elevator looks pretty cool, as do the kites, lemonade stand, and ROBOT. Also, I always really like new hairstyles, so, yeah, I might get it just for those.

Well, I really hope the folks at Maxis are still lurking on these boards, as they'll most definitely find way more intelligent posts and observations/ideas for future EP's than they would ever find on the official BBS.  Supposedly, they do read the Suggest an Idea board there, so if that's the case, you'd think they'd also read the boards where a minimum of coherence is required.

I watched the video and I only saw one new hairstyle (the short, choppy one), so I guess I'll have to look again, this time for those.  I like getting new hairstyles too.

I think this EP looks like fun, probably as much or more than Nightlife.

No matter how cool it looks, you're still waiting 6-8 weeks for it to be awesomeized. I liked it better when it consisted of proper asshattery on the part of the sims, anyway. But it'll still 6-8 weeks even if I put the order in right when it comes out. So nyah. If you want it to arrive faster, we're gonna need a lot more subscription revenues.

Like I said in another thread, the boys at Game Stop twist my arm and tell me that if I don't pre-order from them, it won't come to town.  (I know they are probably lying, but I give in anyway).  Of course I'm going to get it, because I'm an addict and when a pusher says, "Hey, I've got this new kind of drug you have to try," the addict buys.   ::)

I bought every single one of the EP's for TS1.  I liked them all, with the exception of Vacation.  I had complaints about them al, like each and every new bug and the added load times and the "Maxis Mayhem" and all the new townies that I happilly deleted with the little dogs, too.  ;)  But, every EP added new content and new interactions for my Sims.  It made them more fun.  So, that's why I buy.  And will probably buy every single one, even when I'm spending my pension check to buy the 20th EP for Sims 2000.  

I'll make sure to send in mine early next month.   ;)

I think they are hanging out Inge's site.  :D  :D

I really disliked Vacation. It was pretty pointless. I did build quite a few really lovely beach resorts ... but my sims never used them. I wasn't even all that fond of Hot Date. By the time they got around to Makin' Magic, I had pretty much stopped playing the sims. I bought it, but I only played it once or twice. My favorites were Livin' Large, House Party, and Unleashed. I liked the first two for the new clothes/hair/furniture/etc they added to the game, and I liked Unleashed for the pets and the food-growing and stuff. I didn't like any of the ones that made me go to some whole other place where I pretty much had to leave my house to get the proper effect, and so I hope that we'll start getting expansion packs that move away from that (or, damn, even a party pack with really good furniture and hair!).

Pescado's mail is delivered on the back of a donkey, a very old one me think

Well, Blue, since you are JM's sister, or thunder receiver or whatever, can't you get it to him sooner?   ;) ;)

C

Every part of that statement has problems with it; on one hand, I've heard some horror stories about "Pescado" family reunions, but on the other, "thunder receiver" scares the bejesus outta me too.  :o

LOL   ;D  You know I'm pulling your chain.

C

ROBOTS! YAY!

I've wanted robots for ages. Robots are one of my favorite things. Ever. Robot stories, pictures of robots, reports on robots, games with robots, whatever. Happy now.

If it's not bugtastic, I'll be getting it. Little robots that go crazy and evil, big robots that do yet-to-be-revealed stuff . . . Whee! If the robots are controllable sim type things, I'll be even happier.

Everyone should put money in a pool so JM can pre-order the expansion. It will no doubt require awesome-izing, judging by Maxis's history with University and Nightlife...

Hey! I made a word, and now people are using it. Cool. Now I've done that in TWO languages.

You have all been awesome-ised.

The one thing I really, really miss from the old game was the ability to grow your own food and have a farming family. That was the best thing about Unleashed, screw the crappy pets! I am still holding my breath, however, because I didn't see anything about growing vegetables in the video... I would pay thirty bucks just for that, If I can't make a self-sufficient family with this new EP I will be really disappointed.

Okay, I liked the Jazz musician too.

So sad.  I have been excited about this EP since I first heard about it.  I keep checking the official site and this week saw the new video.  What am I focused on? What about this video has me completely smitten?  The soundtrack.  Anyone else here a former PS2 player?  The audio for this vid is the music used for either build or buy mode in the original Sims for PS2.  Warm and Fuzzy from Sims?  So sad.  I feel like a sick puppy every time I click the link on my desktop I created just so I could hear the music. 

Do you think that music will come with the EP?  Please say yes, please say yes.

TS2 = aliens
Uni = zombies
NL = vampires


so what are we getting in OFB? anyone have any ideas? I haven't seen any real discussions on it *is shocked*

I never watch the videos (take forever on my connection) so I've been enjoying reading this thread and getting everyone elses impressions on it.

Me too! I liked having a 'garden'.

Hopefully, OFB will be cool. I'm sure we will all find something good about it and lots of bad things about it.

I would so love some more plants. The ones we have are so boring, I hardly ever bother making gardens anymore. Plus, growing your own food be great - even Ethiopian challenge sims could finally eat.

I really wish I could say I was getting breathless over this x-pack but so far I'm not.  I do think I'll buy it, though, mainly because there reaches a point in my sims' lives where they just don't have enough to do and too stinkin' much money to do nothing with!  Maybe this way some of them could make a few bad investments!  ;D

One thing that really turns me off is the 'mascot' outfits.  Oh yeah--my sims need more stupid clothes in my game they'll never wear.

Now elevators--UBER cool!

I would love werewolves, but we're unlikely to get those until at least a 'pets' expansion... if at all.

Hmm... with the robots theme, bionic Sims possibly?

Is this  Brussels, Belgium - like where I live?  How do I get an invite - who's going?  Do you need a chaufeuse etc etc?

I dunno, that mascot outfit business has promise. I heard mention of ninjas. At last, the circle will be complete, and we'll be able to reenact the epic conflict of Ninja against Pirate in TS2. Stay tuned for community lots swarmed by ninjas duking it out with pirates.

Ninja! Wooh!

If it does turn out that "robot" or some variation thereof is the new species . . .

Robot Ninjas versus Alien Zombie Vampire Pirates!

Or, if they're combinable:

Vampire Robot Ninjas versus Alien Zombie Pirates!

Or even:

Robot Zombie Alien Vampire Ninjas versus Zombie Alien Vampire Robot Pirates!

I should stop now. But truly, the sheer awesomeness of Ninjas would most definitely warrant the purchase of this expansion pack.

Ah Ratchet and Clank 3...Robotic Ghost Pirate Ninjas... ;D

I wouldn't mind the ninjas.  The business prospect I'm still trying to figure into my neighborhood...

There are Robotic Ghost Pirate Ninjas in R&C3? I ended up getting Need For Speed Most Wanted instead. I played the demo for R&C3 when it came out and I didnt really like it all that much, not enough breaking stuff and too much running for your life. I quickly got broed with it. I wish I would have gotten the demo to Jax & Daxter Combat Racer, it looked fun.

As far as I remember, they were only Robotic Pirate Ghosts. But here's a completely relevant cheat for R&C3:

On the "select a Vid-comic" screen, press square. Then enter the password "_MEGHAN_" to unlock Pirate vs. Ninja.

Just a warning Angelynne, my cow plant ATE MY SIM!!!  And a tip for those of you in South Australia; Big W quite often has the new releases of The Sims 2 EP's out A DAY EARLIER than the official release date. 

Jak X is fun. No Pirate Ninjas or anything, but lots of explosions and general mayhem. And a generically foreign dude. Probably not the best Jak and Daxter game, but it's the only one with a two player mode. And they basically scrapped everything that happened in the second half of Jak 3, plotwise. Except Daxter's pants. A most wise decision.

One thing, though. Tan pants and chaps, not a good look. No . . . You keep thinking "Wait -- why isn't Jak wearing pants?" This is bad.

I've really got to look into Ratchet and Clank. Heard good things about it.

I forgot to say...I'M EXCITED!!!!

Past experience tells me that if the music is in an official pre-release video, it makes its way to the actual expansion, as well.

I may be the only person on the planet who liked the original Sims music enough to copy the mp3's before uninstalling. I now have most of the music from Vacation, Unleashed, and Superstar, on the stereos in TS2. The Makin' Magic music is my Build Mode music. ;D

Odyssey, Ratchet and Clank is a lot of fun; the first two are all about breaking and blowing stuff up. It's a blast and there are so many other little things to do it never gets boring. I loved the first Jax but wasn't thrilled with the second; it was too dark which made it confusing. I think I got rid of it about three weeks after getting it. I have recently discovered a new game thanks to my daughter - her friend had a psp with ape escape on it, I have seen it out for ps2 so it's next on my get list for ps2 diversion games. I wish they would make another WRC, that is a blast but I have played it so many times it's almost lost its luster, which is why it's vitally important to keep enough games in rotation! I really miss donkey kong too, I wish I didn't have to buy a new system to play it - cause that is not going to happen. Currently NFSMW has me firmly in its grips, but I will probably be finished with it by this weekend. I do love my games.

Ooh. R&C does sound fun. Break stuff!

Jak I rocked. Most truly. Jak 2 was . . . er . . . a different game. Very different. At it's best, a humorous and engaging play on the cliches of angsty heroes and post apocalyptic rebellion. At it's worst . . . it's a demonically hard, stupidly cartoony GTA knock off. Jak 3 has much better gameplay, but you must ignore the cut scenes at all costs. The plot is nothing short of aneurysm inducing. Of course, the "plot," such as it is, in the other games probably isn't much better, but I like Jak and Daxter.

I don't play a lot of games, other than Sims 2. Love Jak and Daxter. Play SSX, Tekken Tag, and Lego Star Wars (a most excellent game in two player mode, good for playing with someone who doesn't normally do platformers) when bored. And Jazz Jackrabbit.

Thanks Oddysey I will have to go ahead and check out Jak 3, maybe I can rent it first to see if its worth shelling out the forty for. I will have to check out the other games on your list sans Lego Star Wars. I dont have a second player, as my daughter hates to play with me because I play to win. I am such a mean mom...

I need to find some new platform games, I dont like anything too cinematic though. I remember when Myst first came out and I got it, I think it was on ps1 if I am not mistaken, anyway it sucked. badly. It was about five minutes or so of watching stuff happen like a movie and about 30 seconds of game play and then back to watching stuff happen again. I couldnt for the life of me figured out why anyone would like this game - but to each his/her own. Thankfully I got a new ps2 that year and started play all the fun platform stuff I play now, although again I will greatly miss donkey kong and mario. But I think my all time favorite game was Road Rash on Sega. Man that game rocked.

Another fun game on ps2 is ATV Offroad Fury...I could go on but this is a sims2 site so...check out R&C from the beginning, if you loved Jak you will likely love Ratchet (and clank).

Huh?

Am I the only one who missed the Ninjas in OFB?

Open for Business Details from Chat


http://www.thesimszone.co.uk/news/archive.php?ID=2508

Oooh, that's some interesting info. I don't think I'd have more than a couple of Sims run a business, though, unless it was in their personality as I've figured it, but I like the other perks a lot. Making robots, and new clothes and hair. And a sprinkler to play in! *laugh*

Hopefully I won't get so excited about "new stuff new stuff new stuff!" like with the others, though, and can wait until the inevitable bugs are squashed most awesomely. The hack upset after NL has shown me that it's better to wait on all the new recolors and features that'll come up instead of suffering the bugs that new EPs always bring for a month or more...

What pre-order incentives are being offered and where??

C

Does anyone have any idea what "Menu's can be customised for restaurants" is gonna mean? Does this mean that we'll be able to make a burger joint, a pizza joint, and whare is the Chinese food...etc and not have things like lobster on the menu?

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/260314.asp

Pre-order The Sims 2 Open For Business and you will receive an exclusive mascot and life-sized sculpture to promote your Sims' shop as the best in the neighborhood!



it sounds like it to me *shrugs* guess we will have to wait and see

Ah Robotic Pirate Ghosts...it was something along those lines...I wasn't too big of a fan of R&C3 but the mini-game sidescroller shooter levels were fun.  I think R&C1 and 2 are the best ones....I'll probably rent Deadlocked.  As for the Jak series, I really do like Jak 3, and I'd like to try Jak X since I was a big fan of Crash Team Racing...but anyway... ;D  I'm still thinking over Open for Business... not quite sure what to think of it...maybe when it gets closer to release I'll be more interested... :-\

Thanks for the link, Sleepycat! I'm a little more excited than I was, having read that.

It's not that OFB doesn't sound like fun ~ it does! ~ it's just that I'm still enjoying Nightlife enough that a new EP doesn't send me into spasms of anticipation like it normally does.

I'm sure you won't get much of a choice. Like every new expansion pack, it'll introduce a new set of wants which will probably make it all but compulsory to do for everyone, since otherwise they will endlessly roll wants for it, jamming out everything else. And why would you want to play in a sprinkler anyway? That sounds stupid.

I wouldn't get too excited. There are currently some serious development issues in SimPE. For starters, the new version of SimPE is so dogawful that it's basically unusable. This isn't a major issue at present since the old classic one still works fine, but every expansion pack invariably breaks the system. And support of the Classic mode has been effectively discontinued. At present, it is no longer functional at all. Since the old one probably won't work, and the new one isn't usable, I have no plans at present to order it once it exists. You can expect it to take longer, if it happens at all. If the SimPE editor issues aren't entirely resolved by the time this happens, and no viable alternative exists, I'm going to retire from TS2.

The Maxoids would be wise to help in any way they can to make sure SimPE remains the invaluable tool that it is. They need to realize that without SimPE (and mods), TS2 will be so frustrating that we'll stop playing it. And I say that as a five-year addict who owns every Sims-related thing that Maxis has cranked out. But I'd never have bought even a second Sims1 EP without the assurance that programs and mods were available to make it playable.

This really has nothing to do with Maxis, it's an internal SimPE thing. Basically, they've discontinued support for the interface mode that has existed since the beginning. The new interface is not a very good substitute. In fact, it's just downright unusably bad, to the point where attempting to use it tends to result in a great deal of frustration and not a lot of actual work being done. The recolor-monkeys, which apparently form the majority of the userbase now, obviously haven't noticed the problem since most of their work is done in external paint programs anyway. The important thing is that I find it unusable for any actual codework, and without any other alternatives, no further work will be done once the old versions no longer function.

Well EB Games just lost a customer... although... I can get to an EB before I get to the Wobble-You... is it cheaper at Big Dub?

Gee, thanks.

Just wait another 6-8 weeks.

Not sure what relevance this has to the fact that SimPE is evolving to an unusable form...

Well EB Games just lost a customer... although... I can get to an EB before I get to the Wobble-You... is it cheaper at Big Dub?
[/quote]

Yeh, the Nightlife EP was about $38 and I know it was more at EB; I like to shop.

I can't believe you registered just to respond to a propaganda post. Seriously, the obvious reason you have to wait until March is because the product DOES NOT EXIST and they're just waiting to see how hyped up you can get on a few easily faked screenshots before they go and do anything about it. Then if enough people seem interested, they might actually go and make the product.

Actually, I thought the reason that they had to wait until March was because they had to ship a copy out to you for approval.   Apparently, they're tired of issuing broken games and want OFB to work properly the first time around.  You are expecting it - aren't you? 

Seriously, have you seen what they expect this game to do?  There are so many things that can and will go wrong, it doesn't bear thinking about...but once you get your hands on it, it will work start to work properly.  Why don't they just pay you and be done with it?

Lies and propaganda. I demand real proof, not a bunch of PR announcements and faked screenshots. Hell, they're not even consistent. One source claims toddlers will not be able to visit these businesses, and yet here we are with pictures of toddlers at the businesses! Obviously, these are FAKE!

I know, no matter how cool it looks, I won't be buying it if Pescado isn't.  I adore having an Awesomized game, and I won't settle for Maxis crap now.

 
Over at Snooty Sims they've got loads of links to OFB info.  From what I can gather, toddlers still can't go to community lots (without Inge's teleporter).  The pics with the toddler are set in the home.   Inge type doors can control who can and can't enter that section of the house.  I think that this was done so that people with slower pcs that can't handle the downtown loading times would still be encouraged to buy the game.

Loading times for the base game + 3 EPs will take even longer,, especially if people keep all their old downloads/custom content.
OFB comes with yet another community downtown section.  So more townies, more character files, more junk.  There's something very lame about selling on items that are already available in the 'buy' section of the game.

Having said all that, I'm really looking forward to it because it does add another dimension to the game, and it provides another way to spend the millions of simoleans that 2nd and 3rd generation families have aaccumulated in my game.

Considering that businesses are supposed to be profitable, I'm not sure this will truly be a way to spend money as it is a way to get more money you can't realistically use. CARS could have been that outlet, but cars are hellacheap in TS2.

J M, cars are available for sale also.  Originally, it was said that they wouldn't be, now its been confirmed that they will be.  The icon for them is pictured in the OFB screenshots over at Snooty. 

I'll be amazed if my current neighbourhood survives the addition of OFB.  I keep looking at how much memory the current EPs take up.  I launch the game from 2 different users, one for Matyville (thin on custom content and downloads) and one for my custom neighbourhood (crammed full of downloads).  I've noticed that my pc adds all the gigs being used from all the users to show how much memory space I have left. Is the amount of memory space left the greatest indicator of how long my game will last? 

Each time I play, I'm using more and more memory.  Other than reducing downloads, or using SIMPE, is there any other non-purchasable way to increase the amount of memory available? 

Hey BlueSoup, how does having an Awesomised game differ from your general run of the mill Maxis?.  I seem to learn something new everytime I visit.

That isn't what I was saying. Cars are already for sale, just go to Buy -> Misc -> Cars.

You raise a good point, though: Why should one bother going to a special business to buy everything when it's just as easy to go to buy mode to buy it? Maybe it'll be cheaper to actually go, but how is this going to help given that the inventory has a high probability of mangling any multitile items to buy and that you'll have to sit through two loading screens minimum for it? It would have to be something unique, something you built, something custom.

I don't see it happening.

That's why Pescado is away at the moment on business, he's doing his customary 6-8 week assessment of the product to see if it's worth releasing.

Uh, no, actually, I've been back for several days now. What on Earth are you prattling about? Silly Inge.

No, you're not back.  You went for 6-8 weeks remember

Try playing the game for about 6 months with no hacks.  Then install the entire More Awesome Than You Director's Cut.  That's being Awesomized.

There are a whole bunch of different ways to play the game. Not everyone wants it to be the most efficient.  :P These kinds of lots are especially good for storytellers or for those that want to add a little more realism to the game. When was the last time you bought a car? You didn't look at a little screen and pick your car and then poof there it was. You probably went down to a dealership, spent way too much time haggling over the price, financing and warranties before you could drive that shiny baby back home. Shopping -in real life- is a monumental time waster. Sometimes people shop for necessity (groceries) and sometimes for socialising or for entertainment.

Yeah . . . as nifty as this looks, what with robots and ninjas and all, I'm not entirely sure why one would actually want to use the main function of it, the business thing. I can kind of see how one would use those new "crafting" objects, and crafting type objects are always good, but the "selling anything you can buy in the catalogue" . . . Maybe it's a response to a user desire for actually purchasing stuff? I mean, that's been brought up a lot on BBS, but it was always one of those things where I thought, "Kiddo, do you have any idea how mind numbing that would actually be?" The catalogue may not be very realistic, but it is the easiest way to get it done.

So far, my theory on EP content is holding. The spring release is the one where they do something weird, that wasn't done in the original game, and that makes people go "huh?" when they first hear about it. The fall release -- the holiday season release -- is when they do something that they know people are going to like, because it's a remake of sorts. Based off something they did, and that worked, in the original game. Nightlife is basically a nifty-ized Sim 2 version of Hot Date. Not entirely the same, but close enough that it's still a valid comparison. Since House Party and Livin' Large were essentially packaged in the base game, this suggests that the next fall release will be Vacation themed.

Conclusion: The primary reason to purchase OFB, at this point in time, is malfunctioning robots and NINJA HORDES!

I thought the only difference with the new version of SimPE was with the look. Doesn't it still have all the same functions?

And JM, you never played in a sprinkler?
I can only conclude that either A)JM does not live in the US at all, he lives in Antarctica
or B) he never had a childhood

I can see why people would want to use the business thing to sell crafty items that you will be able to make in the game, and from the look of things, there will be new items that are not available in the catalogue. I'm still crazily holding my breath for a vegetable garden, of course, and pottery wheels, but from the look of the most recent chat that isn't going to happen.

I think the idea is that, in addition to the new items (I hope there are enough to make it worth buying), you will be able to sell other items as well that are otherwise only available through the catalogue.

Heh heh heh...yes you are so right Oddysey....I will be buying OFB for no other reason but the fact that I can create my own Sim Army of......Shirt Ninjas!!!!!

RAIN!

Well, you *can* buy cars online and I believe some people do things like that. Wasn't it VW Bugs where you could only get certain colors if you got them from a screen instead of a dealership? ;)

I suspect the primary market for your home businesses will be townies and NPCs and why would anyone care if they're wasting time walking to a business rather than buying from a catalogue? Playable sims will probably only buy stuff when it works for them, same as using Monique's computer or Pescado's clothing hack to buy clothes or cell phones rather than going shopping as honestly shopping is too much trouble. But home businesses will still be great - townie shoppers (mostly) are fine with me and actually what I want.

I guess I'm really looking forward to the expansion as I've had a lot of fun using Inge's hacks for home businesses. I think Maxis should give Inge some kind of royalty payment for using her ideas - or at least send her a free copy of the expansion pack.  ;)

if I do that I might end up being more awesome than you!!!I crack me up!! HA HA HA HA

 ??? ???

You're weird.

Why thank you! :D

I was a little disappointed to see that OFB will add a whole new area. I don't plan on using that much, if at all. My car- and taxi-times aren't all that bad (about a minute), but the waiting is tedious and I can do without it. I predict my only businesses will be home-based. Florists, especially...I'm a sucker for flowers.

Does that make me a butterfly?

More like a humming bird. :P I think I will use this to have more space for them to live, my current hood is starting to get cramped and I don't want them living downtown.

I really don't understand Maxis' obsession with 'adding on another area'! What IS the deal? It isn't expanding the capacity of our hoods to hold more people, not really since all character files and lots etc are going into the main hood folders with all the rest. Of course, if we start a separate hood with satellites off of that --well that adds space--but who wants to do that with each EP?? Not me!

I thought the whole idea of an 'expansion pack' was to EXPAND the base game. With the eps of TS1 they DID expand the game. How is it expanding the game if the EP is  adding basically a mini game area to the game? Is that 'expanding the game'?? Not to me it isn't. Is this the way ALL of the EPs for TS2 are going to be?? I don't want another satellite off my hood! :( I want ALL the features IN my hood.

I can see leaving your 'home town' (read Hood) to go to Uni. I can see leaving your home town to go on vacation (where's that EP??) But you don't leave your home town to run a business. Most of us don't leave our home towns to go Downtown either.

:(  Color me yet more disillusioned with Maxis and their ideas.

There is a sort of practical reason for some of these "new hoods".

Being in a seperate hood is a detectable condition that new controllers can check for. It's a simpler matter to program a controller to check "Am I downtown?", and thus manifest specific behaviors for downtown areas, that do not apply themselves to non-downtown areas.

This is much less unwieldy than introducing new lot types which, which then means you have alter functions that check lot types, so that the 30 different varieties of community lot that exist then each have their own controller variant code, etc., etc., and then if you miss a check in an obscure object, later on we find that it causes a BFBVFS.

So thus, the constant new neighborhoods, such as the new Downtown neighborhood. The downtown-related features, such as the lack of a curfew, thus only apply themselves to downtown, and not to your original neighborhood, by checking for this. Similarly, the downtown NPCs do not stalk your community lots in your old neighborhood, for better or worse.

The fact that spawning an actual downtown is OPTIONAL and you don't need to do this to use the new objects or interactions, is also helpful if you want to avoid, say, vampires.

Well, the first Sims also had "new areas" to visit, practically with every EP. Hot Date had the Downtown area, Vacation had the vacation area, Superstar had the hollywoodish type area (I forget what it was called exactly) and Makin' Magic had the magic area (I also forget what that was called). House Party barely had many expansive features, aside from throwing parties at homes, which turned out to be not that much fun, and more of a nuisance, to me at least. And I hardly ever/practically never played the Unleashed EP, so I have no idea/don't remember if those had an expanded area as well. So... how is this different from TS2? Er... I don't think it is. :P

I kind of like being able to go to different areas, and as Pescado points out, it does seem to make sense, at least from the viewpoint of a lazy coder. :P In the long run, it is better this way because it lends to keeping the code somewhat compatible for many hacks, especially when it comes to area specific interactions and objects. If they didn't do this, and they always made changes to every previous existing code, then hacks will always have to be adjusted. Which would be a pain in the ass, especially if certain hacks were made to address a certain issue with a specific EP.

Anyways, Pescado made a good point and I probably don't have much more to add to that. Regardless, I personally like having other areas to visit or live in. I think it feels a bit too confining and claustrophobic, and somewhat boring, to keep our sims cooped up all day indoors, only leaving to maybe shop, or mostly to go to school or work. :P That's why I like Uni a lot, and Downtown. I think these two EPs were really great compared to the ones for TS1, in that I really feel like I have an incentive to actually leave the damned house and go do other interesting stuff. Not only do these areas add a bit more realism for me, they also help alleviate the boredom after playing in a specific area for so long. But don't get me wrong, I kind of wish that Maxis would put more work and time into building (and Testing) the EPs and packing it with a great amount of quality content that was as bug free as possible. I'd hate to think that Maxis actually, seriously relies on modders to find and fix bugs for them. As naive as it might be for me to say so, I just don't want to believe that they'd actually be more concerned about turning a profit at the expense of their loyal customers and significantly sizeable fan base. ::) But I guess that's just silly wishful sheepish thinking on my part. :P

One more comment in regards to file count and what not, it would be nice if Maxis could do something more than just merely increasing iteration and file size/number limits to prevent games from developing into BFBVFSes. I don't know exactly what this would entail, but it would be great if they would take the time to sit down with some of the community's well known and experienced modders and maybe brainstorm and develop an idea. Something that would alleviate or prevent whatever the issue is exactly that causes a BFBVFS. If there was someway to optimize the code as far as search loops go, to either reduce the # of iterations required, or whatever is necessary to fix problems that arise due to neighborhood population overflow.

Ste

Unleashed didnt add a new hood but they did make the base hood bigger

It's different because Sims 1 had a fixed amount of lots per area - the base neighbourhood had 10 lots (50 with Unleashed), Downtown had six or eight, Vacation Island had eight, etc. In Sims 1, it was probably easier to add a new type of neighbourhood than to add new lots to the base one for reasons besides coding.

With Sims 2, you can stuff as many lots of any description into your base 'hood as the map size will allow. As a result, to a non-coder it seems like there should be no reason to add more neighbourhoods, when the one we have could have new lot types added instead.

What Pescado's saying makes sense, though, and I'd never thought of that angle before.

I am excited to see diagonal roofs. So far that is about it though and hardly worth 50 bucks at this point.

Diagonal roofs?  I haven't even got regular roofs down yet.  :-[

OK. But what JM says here is not the same as the consensus over in the hood v. dt thread. So I'm confused. And I WANT to get rid of my Dt (and if I ever get the next EP then I will not want the business district it adds) but I DO want all the game has to offer--which means I don't want to get rid of the dt IF I'm going to lose specific options (however, to lose the vampires would not break my heart as they are piss poorly done vampires as are the aliens as are the zombies.)

And I fear that OFB will add the community lot that can be owned and controlled to ONLY the new business disctrict which will totally suck if that's the case cuz it will  mean we can't own comm lots in the hood or DT. Fear based on past disappoionmnet in Maxis....

Can or can not the vampires appear in the base hood?

And if the dt "manifest specific behaviors for downtown areas, that do not apply themselves to non-downtown areas." Well, can I have an example? The other thread consensus argues with this. But IF it is true, maybe theose things lost are livable.

No surprise that Maxis has lazy coders lol :) 

As far as this satellite type EP system requiring 'less hack update': I don't recall there being the need for object and hack updates with TS1 at all as there is now with each EP. But I didn't like Makin' Majic and I stopped playing the game shortly thereafter. So maybe I'm wrong?

I'm no modder either, but from what I remember of TS1, they didn't really introduce a whole lot of completely different behaviours in every EP like TS2 does.  Sure, they added new interactions, mostly based on objects and specific circumstances, but they didn't add major game-changing features.

Er... I'm still not quite sure how this is "different" in the sense that the previous method was better. At least that is what was implied (or maybe what I am inferring :P) from what MutantBunny posted... it was as if they were saying the way the original sims handled it was different? As if the original sims did not add new areas?


This seems to imply that the original sims did not do this, but on the contrary, it did exactly the same thing. You went on dates Downtown in Hot Date, and while it wasn't as elaborate at NL (which I think is a HUGE improvement with the Date/Outing meter), it was in essence a kind of mini-game to get your sims to have a good time downtown. I actually didn't play Hot Date that much, or go downtown that much really. I didn't play Vacation much either, but definately Superstar and Makin' Magic had "mini-games" of sorts when you went to the Hollywood lots (to make demos, do open-mic, act in commercials and soaps, etc.) and the magic 'hood to gain win those magic coins or whatever they were, in order to buy more ingredients to make better spells (or whatever that was, I vaguely recall MM as I hardly played that too :P).

TS2 EPs have added these new areas with "mini-games" of sorts, but they are a lot more elaborate, imho, and actually I find them more entertaining, enjoyable, and somewhat challenging. I definately feel like I have a greater incentive to go to these new areas rather than in the original sims. In the original one, I didn't have to go really, except for Superstar since that was your job, but for the others, since I didn't have to go, I didn't bother. And even though it gets boring, the long loading times were a PITA to go through just to visit those areas. At least now, I have a real reason to visit those lots that sort of makes the loading time worth waiting through, especially when my sims have wants to visit those areas.



Hrm... not really... in the base 'hood, can't you only have residential and comm lots? In Uni, you had more types of lots, but those are restricted to Uni really (Dorms, SSs, and Greek Houses). And in NL, are there new types of lots? They just expanded Comm lots, and now you can have restaurants and what not, but this is probably not limited to DT itself. But still, they are just comm lots, no? I don't think it's a different kind of lot. So where are you getting this idea that we can add all types of lots into a single 'hood?

I can see why you would want to have this, to supposedly reduce the # of areas and prevent loading time, but again, as Pescado points out, it sort of makes sense coding wise. In a way, it is kind of object-oriented, in that each EP is almost contained within a specific 'hood.

Anyways, people bitch and gripe and moan about a lot of the crap and the bugs and what not. Hell, I do it too, all the time! ;D But there is also a lot that I love about the game and the EPs. But then again, we all wouldn't be here if we really didn't love the game, now would we? It would be foolish and sheepish of me to ignore the problems, which I certainly am not doing, but it's fun to play devil's advocate as well. :D

As for the contradictions? Well... I can only go by what I've read, what I remember, my limited game experience ;), and what I've nagged Pescado about. ;D So I couldn't say for sure whether vamps visit non DT 'hoods. Who knows if the reason they do is because someone's game has turned into (or on their way turning into) a BFBVFS and they don't even know it. :P

And it's not just Maxis who has lazy coders. Pretty much the whole point of coding in the first place is mostly Due to laziness :P in that you usually want to write/create something which simplifies much more complex and/or dull and repetitive tasks. So... instead of say typing in something a thousand or a hundred times, you do it once, and then the "code" does it for you. ::) Programmers are an interesting oxymoronic bunch in that they are probably the hardest "working" laziest people I've ever known. lol.

As for the original sims... well I never knew much about the online community, if at all, and I never knew anything about mods before TS2. So I have no idea what that was like. But... if mods didn't get updated for new EPs... well maybe that's why games got fubar'd in the first place? I dunno. *shrugs* I have no idea what simantics was like in the original sims, but as it stands, the way things are with these EPs, updating mods is almost unavoidable. But having separate areas would probably help reduce that need. It would mean that certain mods may not need updating at all. But, if a major change is added, that affects all types of 'hoods or the game in general on a global scale, then you most likely will have to update any mods that are related to that change. For instance, with NL, there was a lot of code added to many interactions, which affect Dates and Outings. If any mods from the previous game or Uni EP were not updated to include these changes, then your game might be silently broken. As in, things wouldn't work correctly, but you might not even notice it. Just because a mod appears to work in the game doesn't mean that it shouldn't be updated.

Ste

Ste

I suspect (probably stupidly, I know nothing about coding) that they way they put most of the new stuff in satellites in the EPs makes it possible or at least easier for the game to be backwards compatible - that is, it's to avoid requiring us to start over completely every time they come out with a new EP, but all the stuff (neighborhoods and houses and sims) we've done so far still works fine. Rather than to make it easier for modders, as I think they don't care at all about the modding community and assume hackers will do whatever it takes to get something to work (which actually I think the group as a whole (but not individually) will do).


I played hot date and although I loved the idea of it, it was almost unplayable for me. I was playing on my mac at the time (not a bad one or anything, almost top of the line) and the combination of the load times and lot slowdown with too many sims on it killed my interest. After unleashed, the slowdown at community lots and the irritation of the pets was too much and I quit playing. Before NL, the base game community lots and Uni lots felt the same way to me - even after I switched to a PC version. Not just too long a load time, but too much drag after I got there. I could stand the game, if I didn't visit a community lot. Something they did in NL fixed this for me and tho load times are annoying, as I can actually play the game if I wait a little patiently, I don't mind. It's not too much. I'm sure there's a happy medium - too long a load and I wouldn't wait for it, too much drag and why bother? and a combination, but as long as it doesn't get worse with OFB, I'm happy :)

Just my, probably wrong, 2cents.

I agree that it must be partially to accomodate users as best as possible without totally screwing up their existing game. I also don't mean to imply that Maxis is at all going out of their way for the modding community. What I am saying is that, in general, for their own coders, it would be easier (i.e. much less work) for them if they didn't have to go back and overhaul the existing game code. Anytime they add any features that require global changes (such as the chemistry in NL), their programmers would have to go through practically all of the existing game and change almost everything on a global level. It's just happens to be serendipitous to modders if they do it this way.


Did your computer meet the minimum requirements? I think that, even as they've mentioned now, the suggested minimum requirements is way too low for the game. You actually need more memory and CPU power to even have the game running. Back in the day, my old computer would only run up to Vacation at best. When I got a new computer, only then did I try to install Unleashed, and later Superstar and Makin' Magic. The loading time was tolerable and didn't seem to increase significant between those EPs with my better computer.

In general, load times suck. :P But I agree, as long as the load time isn't signifincantly lengthened, and the "payoff" of waiting for it is actually worth it, then I'll be happy too. At first, I wasn't too eager about OFB, and I'm still kind of lukewarm about certain things, but in general, new content, new interactions, and new locations to visit are always something I look forward to.

Ste

Yeah, it did. I was running a brand-new G4, very close to a top of the line mac at the time. Actually I'm still running that G4 but now it's old and barely runs System X. It wouldn't run Sims2 I'm sure, but I got the PC so I didn't have to mess with waiting for games to come out (and be poorly ported) on the mac anyways. But my macs were work machines and generally in much better shape as I can justify spending money on them. (I just don't do as much work at home anymore, so don't need to upgrade.)

I think it is because they listen to all of the morons on the BBS. Lots of people want new neighborhood areas, even though if you ask me, it is redundant and just makes your game require more of your computers resources. I like the downtown sub-neighborhood areas, but why would I want to add a uni area and a new business area? If I want a new sub-neighborhood, I will add another downtown. The making magic area infuriated me because you had to have your sims keep playing those stupid games if they wanted to live there or buy anything- it added a new kind of currency!

I was hoping they would just add a new kind of lot, or change the existing community lots.

Open for Business:

For those of you who haven't tried it in Real Life, running a business can be FUN!  I'm just hoping the business model has enough depth to be interesting.  I'm looking forward to it in any case.

Makin' Magic:

I only had one Sim family who used magic.  I had a good time with them, and explored most of what Makin' Magic had to offer.  You could earn MagiCoins by performing magic in Magic Town or by dueling in the arena.  Some magic ingredients were only available through "quests" given by various NPC's.  And I bought  couple of dragon eggs, which was interesting because I didn't have the pets expansion.

I had another single Sim who earned enought MagiCoins to be able to buy a house in Magic Town.  But she didn't live there long. The ambient sounds creeped me out, and I don't creep out easily.  They'd apparently done some kind of audio processing on the ambient sounds, and once I heard a dog bark in the game and though it was outside my actual house.  I ended up running both the TV and stereo in the game constantly in an attempt to drown out the noise.

Hook

Yes! THAT'S what I want. And if the 'new lots' that are coming in OFB work the same in the general hood as they do in the Business district then it will be fine--but then that leaves me thinking: if everything works the same in the hood as in the saellite areas--why obther with the satellite Maxis? The only answer I can come up with is: the satellite areas most likely add SOMETHING. But what then?

ALl in all: I just don't like the idea of constant additional satellite areas. Period. One or two ok, maore than that bad.

I think one reason why they added a new sub-'hood rather than just changing existing lots is so that it can be integrated with existing neighborhoods more easily. Some people have been playing Pleasantview for an entire year, have customized the community lots to their liking,  and the neighborhood is full. How would they add new lots? I certainly wouldn't want them *replacing* the existing lots. Sure they could put them in the lot bin but that wouldn't showcase the new lots as well and people might be too lazy to place them. I would gather that just like Downtown you don't HAVE to create a new sub 'hood.

Yes, they can. I've even had them stalk in and take up residence in my outdoor hot tubs without being invited. They can also live in the base hood ~ Contessa what's-her-name, the orignal female Grand Vampire, now lives in one of my custom neighborhoods. The Sim who married her in died of old age, but she's still there, dispatching unwanted Sims with Shaklin's killer-mod whenever I need her services. She's much faster than drowning.

As for whether home-businesses will be allowed in regular neighborhoods, I don't know, but I hope so. I've already added new space to one house I hope to set up shop in.

I'm considering it purely out of boredom for some of my Uni grad Sims.  I.e., Max Flexor and Erik Swain work one day a week. They happened to marry born-in-game sisters who also graduated from Uni.  Swain's wife also works one day a week (but not the same day he does, so they don't have to hire a nanny).

A home business might be something to occupy them during the days they aren't working. 

Sims 2 Open For Business Chat transcripts

http://thesims2.ea.com/community/chat_01_19_06.php


MaxisDon (Jan 19, 2006 6:14:23 PM)
Robots can only be made, not purchased from the catalog. The robots are Hydrobot, Cleanboy, Sentrybot, and Servo.


MaxisHunter! (Jan 19, 2006 6:49:05 PM)
Pregnant women can now go to community lots for almost their entire pregnancy. Yay!

and we get a pet

MaxisHunter! (Jan 19, 2006 6:23:38 PM)
It's a pet brick, and you can teach it a trick!

Hey, I got one of those! It can do several tricks.  It can sit up.  It can lay down.  It can play dead.  It can roll over (with help).  And it's even good for defense:  I can throw it at someone.  It's easy to care for, sleeps anywhere, and hardly eats anything. 

Yup, finally get a decent pet for the game!  Hehe

Hook

Any buffy fans out there? How soon do you think someone might be able to hack a sexbot? ;) I think it'd be a funny alternative to danny's Woohoo npcs. Lol.


Hrm... their Entire pregnancy? What would be the purpose of that? Unless... they actually might build/enable hospitals... interesting... didn't someone (cathair?) make a mod that enabled this already? Was it at all useful? How easy do you think it will be for our pregger sims to die on community lots now. :P


Hrm... sims are just about as smart as a brick... so what's the difference? :P It'd be funny if sims could shit bricks. If anyone is clever enough to do it, I'd love to see a mod for that. If no one's sick enough to do it, maybe I'll take a stab at it myself. Lol. ;D

Ste

I dont know that you would be able to tell the difference in the game. I mean, didnt the sexbot just look like a normal human. (and i didnt think she was all that odd- ive met girls like that)

In the new area are some preplayed sims on lots so you can still learn what you can make with your Addon. There is one Big Boss whith many Shops, one Family ready to make a Toyshop and so one. You can find things out with your own sims or stay lazy and get the premade neighbourhood.

Sure Havelock, new families, new lots. But those things can be placed in a hood as well, we don't need a new satellite for those.

Thanks Hairfish, first hand experience always knows best. But what about the maxnumberofsims on a hood comm lot v. a DT comm lot? Anyone know that answer first hand? I have been trying to compare exactly--same sim, same shop, same decor, same time of day and take a count once in a dt once in a hood, but i haven't managed it yet. I'm old and slow...

The robots can be bought in a shop owned by a sim, if the sim has someone that can make robots. A robot shop. A robot can not be bought from the catalogue.

The maxiod said that preggers can spend ALMOST the entire pregnancy on a comm lot--not the entire pregnancy. No hospitals.

There were more Maxiods then sim fans.

That transcript mentioned a new wall type. It sounded to me like a 'glass wall' that will be used for business fronts.

seemed like a typical chat,

some questions were repeated,
some questions were really stupid
very few good questions and answers

always makes me wonder what questions were asked that got nixed...

apparently woohooing in the elevators will be a bit risky (death wise) and knowing we will be able to hire our other sims is cool and I think I understood it right that we will be able to shop at home businesses.


Some of it sounds really good so I don't regret pre-ordering it from amazon.com

I also noticed they said it would be on store shelves on March 3rd.  Hummm.  I had thought the initial release had been sometime toward the end of February.  Wasn't March 3rd the release date for UNI, too?  Can't remember.

Dangerous Woo Hoo in elevators is funny.  I just hope that doesn't happen to one of my favorite sims.  LMAO

pre-orders get shipped on Feb 28, I believe

FYI: So I had a sim visit Red's Dt at 10 am. Upon arrival thee were 12 sims (counting my sim). An hour later there were 15 sims. I closed out, went home. Called the taxi back and got to Red's in the hood at 11am the same day. 11 sims total, coiunting my sim. An hour later there were 12 sims, but I waited a bit and before the next hour was out I had 14 sims counting my sim.

Only 1 sim difference between hood and dt. I'd have to go with there isn't any difference between max number of visitng sims in hood v. dt.

But this is only one test.

How're they going to figure out where to place the lots and new families such that no user has already placed a custom lot in that same spot? They would either need some really complicated code that does something like "if this space is taken, use this one, and then this one, and then this one" and what to do if there wasn't any spaces left big enough, or they'd hafta leave all the new stuff in the bins - not placed at all, or every EP would require a complete reinstall at least of the base neighborhoods and your custom ones (where they don't even know where the spaces for lots are) wouldn't be able to have new stuff except in bins. And like that.

I'm curious - what about testing it at night? I've had some Sims spend all day at the neighborhood rec center, after I'd outfitted it with espresso and showers of course, and at night there are no Sims around at all. My controllable Sim was way in the orange in social and I resorted to having her chat it up with the clerk just to keep from social bunnying. Anyway, yeah, downtown, however, there always seem to be more Sims hanging out late at night. Is that the difference?

Ah--I don't see what is wrong with placing new lots and families in the bin....?

Swiftgold:

Well the right way to compare hood numbers to DT numbers is to do it like I did: the same sim to the exact same lot (all the same decor, items etc--exactly the same) at the same time in each the hood then the DT.

I packaged up Red's and placed it in a hood and in the DT of the same hood. Then I sent Posie Retriever, a brand new sim made for this test (I took this precaution because I am not a coder and I while I doubt that it really matters I canceled it out any way) since maybe who a sim knows ect MIGHT have some kind of effect.

Only things I saw different between the DT and the hood: one sim, not all the same visiitors showed up, but most of them were the same, DT a fight broke out almost immediately where as in the hood there was no fight--but one of the sims that had fought DT was not on the lot, but there was a sim that was thinking very angry thoughts.

Yes, a nighttime comparison needs to be done. And I'll get to it too.

Interesting... I don't often send my Sims to community lots anymore anyway, since I never had more than some stolen Pleasantview lots (never was very interested in making them), and just send them downtown instead, but it's good to know that they're generally the same, heh. I wonder, do comm lots get the gypsy walkby, too? I'll have to check that out also...

Well if they put lots with families in them in the lot bin, they run a big risk of BOFVFS-ing a bunch of people's games. They'd be very limited to what new family storyline stuff they could add (the house of fallen leaves and associated graves would be difficult if not impossible, for example), community lots couldn't have people and npc's on them before your pcs got there, and they like to show players how to use new (or new to them, in the case of players new with an EP) how things work with already set-up examples (lowest common denominator, even) - so people can see how the shiny cookstove works with a working NPC or whatever - and they'd then have to move all the test characters or kill them off creating even more extra character files (none of them could be left for players to use) when they couldn't or didn't delete them properly :p.

Sagana: Don't want to argue You could be right--I could be right. But I will say: I disagree with all of your objects. And that for me is EOD.

Swiftgold: Yes the gypsy will come on down to a comm lot--she was at one of mine during my 'test'.

<blink> who's arguing? The true EOD is Maxis does it the way they feel is appropriate for whatever reason and we either buy the game or we don't. I was simply trying to provide some reasons why they might do it that way, but if you believe they're doing it because they're stupid and annoying or whatever other reason, could be so. So, Okie Dokie Smokey.

EOD? What does EOD mean? Too many acronyms!

EOD means End of Discussion. It's the net equivalent of putting one's fingers in tears and going la, la, la, la when someone is tired of the topic. Usually preceded with "here's what I have to say" End Of Discussion ;)

Yeah, i'll say it sometimes

/me hugs sagana for getting it exactly right.

Hook

oooh <beaming smile> I was right and got a hug both at once. <hugs back> <avoids temptation to hold on a bit too long and ruin a good score>

I have stated, I want to know if there is a difference and if so what it is. And I think it's perfectly OK to question IF maxis nmade the DT v. hood lots different and WHY maxis made them different and how they made it different. Be them idiots or not. Some maxiods ARE idiots, some are not.

I never said anyone WAS arguing. I said I did not WANT to argue. Said simply because the 'back and forth' could go on forever and I wasn't interested in it.

Some people need to learn to read. Old saying: if the shoe fits wear it.

So I made two night tests:

The first the hood had a total of 12, then after ten dropped to 6 while at the same time of night the DT had a total of 13 and jumped to 17 after ten!  The second test the hood had a total of 11, the DT 15.

So it appears that their is something in the coding that is making the DT number of visitng sims greater. But what? And can it be applied to the hoods?

Possibilities: Community lots let visitors stay indefinitely. Home lots, visitors leave by ... what, 2 a.m.? Less turnover = more Sims on-lot. My computer's maximum on both Comm and Home lots is 14, so far.

IMO, I think Maxis makes satellite hoods so we can add them to our custom hoods. For example, it wouldn't do for me to get additions to Pleasantview or Veronaville, as I've deleted them both from my game.

Notes on chat:

That may finally explain why the EP's are so buggy.

So maybe the hood comm lota are under a home by ten curfew as are the home lots. But the DT lots are not. I haven't played sims lots in my DT enought to notice how late visitors stay....I'm gonna have to compare DT to hood home lot visitors....

I'm wondering: where can I check max number of sims programmed for my home lots....

I don't know that you can. As far as I know (which is far less than some others here), the limit is set during installation according to your processor's capabilities.

I have a line in my userStartup.cheat file setting the limit at 8, but the game obviously ignores it.
intProp maxNumOfVisitingSims 8
I could probably delete that.

[edit] Wait! DOH! Never mind. That sets the limit on the number of Sims that can be invited to a party or gathering. It has nothing to do with the number of visitors that show up on their own.

Actually I find that unless I set the start-up cheat for more sims, even my comunity lots aren't that populated.  So I don't think I want to erase that particuar cheat from my start-up thingy.

The startup cheat affects the "maximum" number of visitors. Other factors such as the time and how much your community lot sucks also influences how many people will actually show up, but that number is bounded by your max visitor count. More than that number may briefly be present, but there is strong pressure for sims to start randomly leaving if that number is met. This generally results in the people you invited over with you immediately leaving the moment they get out of the taxi. :P

I remember before I put the cheat in my userstartup.cheats, group outings would leave me with two people left. So I think you should leave it.

I have to say that I agree with BlueSoup. If JM is out, then so am I. I've been thinking about spending my money on the Mac versions of TS2, Uni, and NL instead. That way I'd be supporting Aspyr - a company that deserves my money - as well as making a serious upgrade in graphics and video power. Also, I'd stop hogging my wife's PC.

'Course it helps that I'm just not that interested in this EP in the first place. The discussion here reminds me a little of when Uni came out and lots of people couldn't understand why on earth anyone would want to simulate school! I didn't understand that attitude then, but I do now: why would I want to spend a lot of leisure time pretending to go to work? For others, maybe, but not for me.

The extra bits are tempting, but if they're not to be awesomeized, then bleh...and not in a good way.

I have hope that TorklePE will be ready and satisfactory before OFB comes out, and JM will continue on with awesome-izing my game.  Other than that, I'll have to find a new hobby to take all my time and attention.  ::)

"Other than that, I'll have to find a new hobby to take all my time and attention." [BlueSoup]

How about Online Bridge?...:)
 

TorklePE is progressing, and I have great confidence that it will be functional before OFB.  Whether or not JM finds it satisfactory is another question.


Well, I can't have that on my conscience.   ;D

Go Torkle Go!
Go Torkle Go!

*** sending good vibes Torkle's way ***

Is there a way to override the maximum set by the game? 'Cause no matter how high I set maxnumofvisitingsims, no matter what and how much I put on the comm-lot, I always get around 8 to 12 uncontrollable visitors there. That's a ridiculous count for a nightclub, I want at least around 30. I know I still need a new CPU for that (my 2500+ Athlon suffers already from those comm-lots), but could I be sure to reach my desired number then? (the last question goes to simmers who have an up-to-date CPU)

I know what you mean .... I'm finding it hard finding things to pass the time until it comes out! Is there an exact release date in the U.K. yet or are we stuck on "Spring 2006" still?

According to Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000E52P8Q/qid=1138730315/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/202-5345641-2425414) the release date is the 3rd of March over here.

How cool, as we're a day ahead in Oz, I spose we'll get the EP a day earlier than you.  And our local store usually has it the day before release!!!

How AWESOME. ;D

Now, now Flowerchile....gloating like that is just not cricket!! :D

But it puts such a BIG smile on my face, but honestly, I'm not gloating!!   (HE HE)

It also put us at a big disadvantage, coz right now it's around 10 oçlock here but dinner time at MATY.  So when I log on at night, it's like 5 oçlock in the morning and most people are asleep.  That sux.

Yeah I know what you mean...I'm usually cruising the boards at work and I notice a marked drop off in posts around 1.00pm our time and then it comes alive again around 4.00pm or so.

Chat's not so bad though...at least there's usually someone there at all hours of the day and night  :)

Probably this is posted somewhere else (I looked briefly and didn't see it) but I think it's a pretty interesting article:

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/news/story.php?sid=6142959

I'm way excited about OFB still. I'm one of the people that hated the idea of Uni and still don't like the EP much (bought it tho, didn't I) but think OFB is totally different. Uni takes me away from the game for an extended period of time - to a subgame with limited options. OBF is integral to the regular gamebase, just adds more. And from the sound of it, a LOT more.

Much as I love JMs mods, and hope he continues to make them, I was playing Sims before I'd ever heard of him and am not giving up my favorite addiction just because he kicks the habit and goes on some 12-step program ;)

(Please update for OFB JM - I've been waiting ages for this one)

I'm in the states so boringly not around at night, never go to chat ('least not yet) and haven't pre-ordered. So here I am, gloating fodder! :)

If Pescado doesn't get this expansion, then I won't get it.  It's that simple, I can't play the game without the hacks that make the game run smoother like notownieregen, and others that make it harder like no20khandout.  They're gonna add about 100 more sims in this new expansion, and I believe there's already 380 sims in a neighborhood with just making new areas.  Not to mention that most of these sims that are spawned have similar personalities, and some even look exactly the same.  Besides, I'm not crazy about the idea.

You already get a lot of money by just doing jobs right now, OFB will make this even easier.  The object that you were supposed to save up for would be the car, but they're incredibly cheap.  Sure, there's new features like calling people in other's phonebooks but you actually have to use the damned business function for that.  That's one of the reasons people hate University, because you're forced to do meaningless tasks over and over to get some poor benefits.

What I don't get is that not many people liked Superstar, yet they're going nuts over Open For Business.  It's practically the same exact thing except one makes your sim famous and the other has you running your own business.  Heck, I'm wondering if they'll put that Mastermind like game to try to make the thing a challenge like they did in Superstar.

He's been lurking longer than you have. Open mouth, insert foot. :P

As I said, I prefer firing squad; my feet stink.  My apojollees

It's still cutting off one's nose to spite one's face. :p

If you'll just upgrade for OFB there'll be more things to do with those annoying kids when they stay home from school and get bad grades. They can run lemonade stands. Smack them and have them do something useful for the family rather than wastin' all that time on that useless learnin'

from the gamespot article:

You'll be able to speculate by purchasing barren, fixer-upper lots, adding some furnishings, and selling at a higher price, though the development team at Maxis is taking several steps to prevent horrible abuse of the sales system.

^^What..so your sims can't get ridiculously rich in a short amount of time...sourta like....now?  :P

I'm still excited about some aspects of this EP...but not the biggest part..sending your sims to work. I'm hoping any objects & interactions added will be worth it, although those alone certainly don't justify the price.  I just still find it ironic that Maxis once talked about never making you follow your sims to work or school b/c it would be boring but enough people bitched and moaned enough that they seemed to say..errr why not?   Just like pets...you know the pets are going to come back b/c people can't whine enough about not having the annoying animated furry pixels that pee in your little pixelated yard. 

There's just some aspects of life that I don't want to stimulate in a game.  School for one.  If it wasn't for the hacks to speed sims through Uni, mine would never go.  I know you're not actually sitting there in sim college courses with them and it's supposed to be about the social aspects, but still beh...so boring.  It's just going to have to be an impressive system that doesn't easily get boring and repetative if the own your own business thing is going to work for me.

There's sort of a fine difference between "school" and "work", though. Plenty of fine games have been made covering "work". The ongoing popularity of "tycoon" games is testimony to the fact that work is an interesting subject. The number of games that has actually made school itself an entertaining subject, however, is ZERO. I have never, ever, encountered a game that has made the simulation of being in school interesting! In fact, games about school are more boring than school itself could ever be!

Why? Because school is fundamentally about learning. For some of us, this is actually fascinating. A GAME about school, however, would consist of watching SOMEONE ELSE learn. This is why the game is a fundamental failure: There is nothing INTERESTING about watching this! And you learn absolutely nothing from it, because the actual class is abstracted out. Your sim goes off the lot to his class, presumably absorbs information by osmosis, and that's it. That's the limit of your participation in it. When consider there's nothing else at school except, well, SCHOOL....no wonder it's boring.

Business, on the other hand, has been proven to be a subject of interest. Many popular games cast you in the a similar role, and they do fine and are quite entertaining to play.

I think the point of Uni was not learning, but about college life, parties, making friends etc. Sims gone wild and all that, certainly not anything "useful" Pescado.

Yeah, but Jms right too. Uni may have been aimed at the party side of college life, but they missed and if you want to get thru school with any money, then you have to work or make the grades--which cancels out the party.

With OFB coding, IF maxis went a step further we could follow the sims to class: set up a pay lot of classrooms, the sim would sit and listen, there was an NPC to teach at the podium, and then after x amount of time the class was finished and the sim got a grade. Difrfernt classes you'd get different querstion types (ask about dead frogs) or this could work like the chance cards do depending on what type of classromm one makes it.

All seems possible and not that big of a reach, and could be interesting (ask question--get banished for stupid question, etc) or at least more interesting than it is now. A sim could scan room and sit next to the hotties....lots of possiblities. Maxis just didn't do it.

I still contest that Uni can be an enjoyable aspect of the game. At least for me. Yeah, some parts of it can be tedious and repetitious... but isn't the entire game like that. As you play through several households... everything tends to blur and everything becomes essentially the same. Once you've played all the possible careers and aspirations... there really isn't that much variety overall, long term wise. In the old, original Sims, it was very easy to go through all the careers, especially what with how the game itself auto cycled you through them once you reached the top. At least now, you have generations and chance cards.

But anyways, I personally still find Uni enjoyable. It really isn't that hard to power through the studying part so you can get to some of the partying part. As for following sims to class, I think it would be possible to have it as a mini game of sorts. Maybe something similar or along the lines as MB points out here. I'm not sure it's something I'd want if I had to follow my sims to class everyday... now that could be tedious and boring.

I don't know how we could realistically handle this. Maybe if the user was provided a choice. Or maybe it was like a Private/Boarding school mini EP. Where teen and/or possibly children get sent away to a private/boarding school. Sims could attend class in several subjects, and do scenarios such as a asking/answering questions, listening to a lecture and/or taking notes, take exams. Then maybe there could be school teams, such as debate, sports, band, etc. Each of these class scenarios and/or school teams could be focus on different types of skill building too. And there could be social events like attending games, school dances, etc.

But I doubt that this would be implemented. It would probably be too similar to Uni, and apparently many people don't like Uni. :P

Ste

I think chance cards for the Uni finals or throughout the Uni career would have been cool, for strictly grades and skill though, maybe a few low payouts for a "project" chance card or something but nothing earth shattering.

Oh I still send sims to Uni. I like getting the extra locks and wants. I like the better choice in careers but it IS tedious and boring. I power thru it mostly (love that Power expresso!) I would like it to be more fun, but the fun levle just isn't there.

And I guess debating what maxis could have done is useless. Their history says they aren't going to fix it. They never do. But now and then a modder comes along and does it for them. I can only hope.

I always thought that was mythical, and that none of this actually HAPPENED in real life. Not to mention that doesn't last all that long, it's kinda trivially easy to actually make friends.

I just want to know what this mysterious busioness is.

Like the people from Harvard Lampoon said, when asked why people should attend college, "There aren't many other places where you can build beer can pyramids."  And then there's the whole "Animal House" thing. 

Uni was a whole new game, based on the Sims.  Partiers could party, geeks could study, Sims could get an education to get tons of money and meet potential mates.

I finally got tired of Uni, but by then I was already tired of raising Sim kids and climbing career ladders.  Nightlife gave us a few interesting new things to do, and jobs and such became secondary.  With OFB we'll probably never get our Sims jobs again, sort of like how after I got Makin' Magic my Sims made money with the nectar press, and quit working.

Any game gets boring after a while, but at least Sims has given us new things to do every 6 months.

Hook

Well I personally dont really know, I skipped all the pretentious Uni life and did all my time through community colleges, it wasnt like I could afford Uni anyway. But in the sims, my sims are already maxed out on everything so the only real point to Uni is to get those want slots, open careers and meet their mate, then they have all the time in the world to rack up aspiration points etc.

Ditto

There's a new clip on the offical site.

Interesting video. Well... at least now the business thing is a bit more interesting to me now. I find it kind of intriguing, having to earn badges and star points and whatever. And being able to choose upgrades. It's almost RPGish in a way. I like being able to set prices for the objects. I wonder if this means that you can use the existing Maxis objects. Will all of those objects be buildable? People have said that you could theoretically sell cars. Would you have to build them first? Or do you buy them in build mode, reprice them and sell them? Can you, as a playable sim, visit one of these new shops?

I also like that there are more objects for children. However... are they just gonna "fun" objects for distraction that will eventually become annoying, like all the other toys? :P It'd be nice if maybe these objects were also practically useful like maybe for skill building as well.

Finally... I wonder if all those shoppers/buyers/workers is a new set/pool of townies separate from the already existing townies/downtownies/etc.

I guess I might not hate it after all. We'll just have to see. :P

Ste

All objects for children are annoying, because children are annoying.

A random aside; I like how the page 2 of the official site's flash intro are 'International Sims' made by people on the exchange, but when I went to download the Thai sim I found it had been purged. Uuuuh, EA...

I found this article (http://pc.ign.com/articles/683/683433p1.html):


So... it seems like we don't have to worry too much about adding a new area. Maybe it's optional, just like DT. You wouldn't necessarily have to add a new area. You can just use regular ole Comm Lots in your exisiting 'hood or even just build businesses on your own home lot.

Ste

Is the title of this thread bothering anyone else but me?  :-\

I think Open for Business sounds like it'll be awesome.  Definitely looking forward to running all sorts of successful (and failed   :P) business ventures, and I'm thinking the home lots will probably be the host for these, at least for the most part.  I generally have too much space at home as it is.

I'm not even tired of Nightlife yet, so I think I'm going to be happy with the game for a long time.  That is, unless Pescado doesn't get it.  Then I won't.

I have to admit for the last week or two, I have been obsessively searching out everything I could find on Open for Business.  I was origianally planning to wait a month or two after its release to get it, but now I can't wait.  Though I am going to have to give serious thought to whether I want to install it right away or wait until some of the essential mods from this sight have been approved OFB compatible.

Syberspunk, from what I've read, I do believe that the shopping district is going to be optional, just like the DT sub neighborhood, because they have stated that your Sims can purchase any existing community lot whether it is in the main neighborhood, DT, or the new shopping district.

The DT comm lots have more visiting sims after 10 then the hood comm lots--so there IS a difference.

But I think, from what I've read so far, that OFB's new lots will function the same anyplace they're plopped down--unless fo course, that DT number of visiting sims after ten affected the new lots too.... ?

Okay, after watching that video I am excited all out of proportion. I HATED working in sales yet I am frothing to make my sims do so. Hee!

Also, Hunter Howe sounds like a complete dork but he gets +1000 cool points for referencing my favourite card game. I WILL have Ninja Burger!

Yeah, I'm kind of irritated by the title of the thread as well, because we've moved from talking about the video to talking about the expansion pack in general.

lol.

I think she meant she was annoyed at how it says "busioness" instead of "business"

But not that it says 05?

I didn't even notice that!

Now I'm wondering if we should just move this whole discussion to a new thread so the title can stop annoying people, hah.

Which card game relates to "Ninja Burger?" Or is it a game called Ninja Burger?

The game is indeed called Ninja Burger. It's for three or more players, combines chance with strategy, and is a lot of silly fun. It's published by Steve Jackson Games.

I forsee making my own Ninja Burger skins! However, I don't think I'll be able to incorporate the wasabi sauce...  :-\

I like wasabi sauce.

UNI and NL were about social aspects, which I'm interested in. OfB is about financial aspects, which I'm not interested in. Besides, the sims already get more than enough money. And there seems to be less craziness in the new EP.
Sorry, I'm still not attracted from what I see and read.

From what I can see, it looks like the 'set price' of things is going to be pretty limited. The scale thing has what, six slots on it? So six different prices? I really don't like that. Very limiting.

I was thinking it'd be nice to set stuff really cheap--like for a yard sale. But if we can't control the pricing better we can't do that.

I hope I'm wrong on this: So I'm asking: is this what every else thinks too?

And it's pretty cheesy of Maxis to put out the news in Australia about the new 'packs' but not a word here. Maybe I'm wrong: Has anyone seen any news on the new packs released here in the states?

I seriously doubt it's six different prices - it's more likely six different price ranges, from cheap to expensive. This would mean that if you set everything cheap a flower vase and a stereo wouldn't be the same price, but they'd be cheap for the type of item they were. He also demonstrated setting a price on an individual object, so it looks like we'll have two levels of control.

From what I remember reading - it sounded like you could make all the items for sale in a store a particular range - cheap to expensive but you could also go and set the sale price for each item individually. I got the impression that if you didn't want to be mucking around with things at such a detail level, then the pricing "ranges" would be what you would use - it was also give you a sense of what sims would think was "cheap" versus "expensive".

Go to the store, look around at prices, what do you see?  $29.95, $39.95, $49.95, $59.95, $69.95.  Are you beginning to see a pattern?

In marketing terms, this is called "cents off" pricing.  I've always preferred to call it SenseLess pricing.

Just because you can't set a price manually like $32.55 doesn't mean the game will suck. But I hope that's obvious by now.

Hook

Did y'all read the "Hunter's H-mail" today?  Split Levels!!!  Awnings!!!  Rounded Roofs!!!!! 

I get really, really, really, excited with all the new items and clothes, and hair and everything.  Sit for hours just browsing the new stuff; gasps of oooh, aaaah, escaping my lips with every breath.  Then I think about the actual game.  Uni for me died in the arse really quickly, a bit of an anticlimax, NL was better; but I am pinning all my hopes on OFB.  Come on March!! ;D

I think I've probably mentioned that I'm really really excited about OFB. Although I very much enjoy both Uni and NL, I have several Sims who I just don't know what to do with otherwise (now permaplats, or they've got tons of money, or are Elders). It's either the new OFB or it's time to crack open The Movies game that I got for Christmas...

That is a game that is definitely on my shopping list, but it's quite expensive so I'd like to know what The Movies is like before I outlay that sort of money.

Flowerchile: click here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=1318.0)

Already been well and truly discussed  ;)

Hook: go to a yard sale or a junk store and look around at the prices... lol.

Pig Slop and his wife Lotta Slop, (kids are Chunka, Used, and One, Two.) are going to open a yard sale next to their trashed trailer house and I need to be able to price trashed items really cheap. That's what I was asking about.

I didn't see that second level of pricing control. Can anyone remember exactly where they saw that?

Yeah, just after he set a sim to make a toy, he placed it on a shelf and set the price. It was a range, not an exact price, but he set it on the individual item.

I hadn't even thought of that.  Thank you.

The Movies is great fun. Not really like the sims, much more "game" oriented like other tycoon games (I think the designers took a lot of hints from the Sims tho). My husband played also. We still haven't beaten it. Getting a star to 5 stars (basically the last requirement) is really hard and requires doing a lot of things all at once really fast. Anyone actually beat this thing?

My husband can't even turn the computer on!  Lucky me.  LOL