If EA releases another party pack what would it have to have for you to buy it?

[Andygal]

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

[Hobbsee]

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

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

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

[Kyna]

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

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

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

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

[vector]

Open SimPE, go to Tools, then Scan Folders.

*snip*

Motoki, you totally rock.

[Ness]

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

[Motoki]

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

[Pegasys]

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

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

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

[Hairfish]

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

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

Pre-Uni Adult Men's Clothing (you can make it Adult-YA with DatGen's Skin-Fixer; I just haven't done it to these older skins.)
Men's Adult-YA skins (Uni not required)

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

[Bangelnuts]

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

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

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

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

[Motoki]

more hair, especially men's, ethnic, authentic curly, and salt & pepper for middle-age/elders. A lot of elders I know are not 100% gray!

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

Pre-Uni Adult Men's Clothing (you can make it Adult-YA with DatGen's Skin-Fixer; I just haven't done it to these older skins.)
Men's Adult-YA skins (Uni not required)

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

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

[Oddysey]

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

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

[nectere]

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

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

[KellyQ]

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

The story of my life

[Pegasys]

I would like to see more body types besides just slightly chunky, thin and skinny.

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

[idtaminger]

I would like to see more body types besides just slightly chunky, thin and skinny.

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

[Motoki]

Well there's Mrs. Crumplebottom lol

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

[AllenABQ]

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

[Bangelnuts]

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

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

[skandelouslala]

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

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

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

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

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

[Bangelnuts]

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

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

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

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

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

so would I

[AllenABQ]

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

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

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

[Bangelnuts]

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

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

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

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

[AllenABQ]

b) either has to use a taxi or her own car if you have nightlife two go two houses away

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

[Dea]

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


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

[Bangelnuts]

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


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

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