THE HORROR: The REAL TS3 Scoop As It Unfolds

[inthecorner]

hey does anyone know when the gender is determined for a baby?..is it at birth?..or when the mother starts showing?

cause i had twins girls, but the game crashed before i can save, so had to play it again, and saved it before she had the babies, but now i keep getting twin boys instead. =(

Did you have to get her pregnant again, or had you saved afterward? I know that in TS2, gender was determined at birth.

no it was the same pregnancy,  it's saved in the morning, and that same night she goes in to labor. i've loaded it 3 times and all times they have been boys, so idk if am getting really bad odds or the gender has  already been determined. 

Bad odds, methinks, if it's the same pregnancy and you've gotten two different genders.

thanks for your reply, i hope you're right and it's just odds.

but idk, i have a sneaky suspicion that gender is determined when the mother first starts showing and it plays that music lol. i hope i'm wrong.

[cyperangel]

Sims can read the harry potterish books with the toddlers, It helps them get skills as a kid, along with the rest of the toddler books.

[mandababy]

And if I can actually get this posted this time:

I have some books that cannot be read by either adult or children (not toddlers). Questions:

1) Can toddlers read some books?

2) Is there any way adults can read to toddlers or children?

3) Can anyone try to have their child (not toddler) try to read either the Seussian titles or the Harry Potteresque series and let me know if it works?

Basically I can't get my sim kid to read anything but the logic books.

All of the books under "Children" are for toddlers to read, which if they read enough of them, gives them a nice bonus to skills when they age! My twin girls read every book as  toddlers, and they started out with level 3 in skills, and a pop up said "Because simmy child read so much as a toddler they now have a bonus and head start on life" or something to that affect. Also maxing out peg, music and block skills gave them bouns's to other traits when aged! It was nice.

You can click the bookshelf with the books in them and have a parent read to the toddler, which btw is super cute, cause they get all snuggly and the toddler will turn pages. Or you can simply click the books from the parents inventory and say "Read to:" which is what I did so I could keep track of what they had and had not read.

Then halfway through the twins toddler years, mom left a book on the floor and the toddler had a que to "Read" so I followed her and she went up and actually read the book herself! So I dragged out all the childrens books from mom's inventory and the bookshelf and had the twins read every book on their own then mom didn't have to waste so much of her own time doing it lol. It did look like a library threw up on my floor but it was worth it to get those bonus's to skills!

As far as what actual child sims can read, I'm not sure. They should have options to read all the skill books, given they have high enough skills for them. Maybe some of those books they have are like PG-13 and children can't read them, lol I dunno!

[timelycorruption]

thanks for your reply, i hope you're right and it's just odds.

but idk, i have a sneaky suspicion that gender is determined when the mother first starts showing and it plays that music lol. i hope i'm wrong.

Hmm. I wouldn't know. Personally, I think EA's too lazy to change that. Perhaps someone could test it.

[jaccirocker]

All three births I've heard in three different games were boys. But I do like that if you adopt you can pick age and gender. I don't remember if you got that with TS2 but I like it.

Also IDK if this was planned but I like that the adopted baby was dark skinned so she fit in with my family.

[griz]

hey does anyone know when the gender is determined for a baby?..is it at birth?..or when the mother starts showing?

cause i had twins girls, but the game crashed before i can save, so had to play it again, and saved it before she had the babies, but now i keep getting twin boys instead. =(

Did you have to get her pregnant again, or had you saved afterward? I know that in TS2, gender was determined at birth.

no it was the same pregnancy,  it's saved in the morning, and that same night she goes in to labor. i've loaded it 3 times and all times they have been boys, so idk if am getting really bad odds or the gender has  already been determined. 

Bad odds, methinks, if it's the same pregnancy and you've gotten two different genders.

thanks for your reply, i hope you're right and it's just odds.

but idk, i have a sneaky suspicion that gender is determined when the mother first starts showing and it plays that music lol. i hope i'm wrong.

I saved on the morning the baby was due, reloaded 5 or 6 times, and got a boy every time so it's either determined at conception or the odds are really terrible

[EdenNintyNine]

I find TS3 quite enjoyable. Aside from the obvious lack of content (comes with time) mods (again, they come with time.. assuming people are willing) and a few bugs, the game itself is quite interesting.. though most of what I've noticed has been said...

A big want/dislike, as it was mentioned before (once I thinl, but I did skip a few pages) that I would like to reiterate is the set-in-stone style neighborhood. While you can change lots from residential to commercial, and move lots around (assuming the new lot is the same size.. which assumes a lot) you are unable to create new lots. I hope that someone who is far more skilled than I with hacky-type-stuff is thinking of ways to make a new neighborhood with that option turned on. The freedom to move around the zone is awesome, and to be able to make the zone itself would be amazing- even if it was a painstaking process. (IE: AI to use sidewalks/crosswalks etc.)

I have also noticed a bug when interacting with items like a bed or a swing set: if you are using it and cancel the 'main' action, while still having a 'do on/with object' queued up, you can get stuck being unable to complete or cancel the task at hand. You'll just stand there till you safe reset your sim. Watch out.

Edit: Awesome! As I was typing this a thread popped up regarding new, custom neighborhoods. You guys rock. <3

[jolrei]

The way I am looking at it, the "open neighbourhood" is more like real life - you have no control over what the "townies" do.  You have control only in your family.  This increases the amount of random stuff your sims will have to deal with (neighbours having spawn, dying, marrying your sim's boyfriend, etc.).  This either adds challenge or total annoyance.  For now, I am choosing to see TS3 as a different game, not a progression from TS2.

[Zazazu]

I honestly don't care what the townies do. I care what my made sims do. Without the ability to either toggle it off for the whole 'hood, or toggle it off for certain families (which, at one point, is what it was rumored we would have), this feature completely restricts us from playing more than one household effectively.

The group razor released a more current version of Sims 3. This one I believe is the final version that was sent to stores and was the same version that went gold. Maybe.

If anyone has the Razor one, please give game version. The final apparently is 1.0.631.00107. It appears to be gone from NewTorrent.

[snowluv]

I honestly don't care what the townies do. I care what my made sims do. Without the ability to either toggle it off for the whole 'hood, or toggle it off for certain families (which, at one point, is what it was rumored we would have), this feature completely restricts us from playing more than one household effectively.

The group razor released a more current version of Sims 3. This one I believe is the final version that was sent to stores and was the same version that went gold. Maybe.

If anyone has the Razor one, please give game version. The final apparently is 1.0.631.00107. It appears to be gone from NewTorrent.

I'm glad I am not the only one who thought we were going to be able to turn aging off for the entire neighborhood.  Or at least for the families we want to spend more time with. Perhaps the reason why it can't be done is that this is a beta release you are playing? IDK  If the leaked version is really 17 builds away from the finished version, could some of what we are missing be in the final version? Oh, well, it's a moot point until we see the released game, anyway.  Hate to say it, but that is the one thing that has me thinking IDNW this game.  What's the point in using all the cool new stuff on Sims we have spent days and days playing, go to another lot to visit another family we've created and have family no. 1 suddenly move?  Or go back to family no.1 and find them knee deep in toddlers and babies and we have no idea where, or whom, they came from?  EA silliness runs rampant, I guess.

[VeilSethekk]

For those who were asking about the Ambrosia food recipe, it actually resets the sim's age of whoever eats it back to the beginning. One of my elder sims who's age bar was almost full had her age reset back to the beginning of the Elder stage after eating this.

And it can't be stored in the Food Replicator, which does make sense. So much for THAT plan!

[Crazetex]

I honestly don't care what the townies do. I care what my made sims do. Without the ability to either toggle it off for the whole 'hood, or toggle it off for certain families (which, at one point, is what it was rumored we would have), this feature completely restricts us from playing more than one household effectively.

I play several different families as they evolve. I don't use a time schedule or anything; if a sim gets boring/annoying (OH MY WIFE DIED ON MY WEDDING DAY BOO HOO) I'll move to one of my other families. I'm on the fourth generation of my original CAS families now (with a few forced partners thrown in in Edit Town mode).

Also, is it just me or does the game remember names and custom content that you use for your sims? It's kind of bizzare seeing sims with the same hair as a "founder" or a kid being born with the CAS'd sim's name, Jenna (which is common, yes, so I guess we'll have to see if something more exotic pops up).

[Marhis]

I still have very mixed feelings about this game; so far it's about 50 like/50 dislike. I join the jolrei faction*: it's a different game, not a further developement of TS2.

Just look at this bedding edge; does it seems an improvement, to you? Did they planned an uber-censoring or did they hired feEssen for the mesh?






* Congrats! You have a faction, now. Please make up a logo/motto/social statute etc. before your followers turn grumpy and overthrow your regime.

[Acid_fairy]

That bedcover hurts my eyes.

[seanachai]

Wow ... that is ... fug.

I wonder if maybe stuff like that has to do with the weight slider? Maybe they had to make it that big so that there wouldn't be issues with really fat Sims and the covers. At the same time, even the really fat Sims don't get that big, I think. 

[BeautyWitch]

The way I am looking at it, the "open neighbourhood" is more like real life - you have no control over what the "townies" do.  You have control only in your family.  This increases the amount of random stuff your sims will have to deal with (neighbours having spawn, dying, marrying your sim's boyfriend, etc.).  This either adds challenge or total annoyance.  For now, I am choosing to see TS3 as a different game, not a progression from TS2.

Agreed. I decided to start this game with an open mind to the new style of playing (I refuse to let mini games dictates my Sims lives though, lol). But my game wont do any of that stuff!! No spawning, deaths, etc. Arrgh, so frustrating to here others complain about not wanting, when that was exactly what I was looking for and my game refuses to co-operate.  

[TashaYarrr]

So I have a klepto sim in the criminal career track. I clicked on the mailbox and I had an option to 'return stolen items'. Found the stolen items in family inventory. It said she had stolen them from...her employers. This seems like a bad idea if you're a career criminal. Now I'm wondering if I really should return them.

[BlueSoup]

I haven't had too much experience with stolen items, but I know that the Sim will usually get a good karma moodlet from returning stolen items.

[msalwaysright]

I had an inappropriate sim have someone over to woohoo and he spent the night.
Now, the morning after, she has the option to 'complain about soreness'. hur.
This game is growing on me.

[JonaBullets]

I had an inappropriate sim have someone over to woohoo and he spent the night.
Now, the morning after, she has the option to 'complain about soreness'. hur.
This game is growing on me.

Must have been one wild night of WooHooing, I miss those days.. I need to eat some Furit Of Life.

[msalwaysright]

Or, I may be giving EAxis too much credit. I just realized that I sent her to the gym the same day.

[diskoh]

So.... I've been lurking, just had to register to rant on this shit.

I created a couple sims and moved them into the Alto house (which was empty because they died off.)

Built their relationship, married them, maxed them out in 4 skills each (took freaking hours), planted a garden, made them a bunch of friends, got them jobs, knocked up the chick to start their family.

Then I switched families to get Mortimer Goth to lose some weight because everyone is a fatass.

A few hours later, i go to switch back. Surprise! They're gone. Nobody lives in the Alto house. None of their friends remember they existed.

[JonaBullets]

So.... I've been lurking, just had to register to rant on this shit.

I created a couple sims and moved them into the Alto house (which was empty because they died off.)

Built their relationship, married them, maxed them out in 4 skills each (took freaking hours), planted a garden, made them a bunch of friends, got them jobs, knocked up the chick to start their family.

Then I switched families to get Mortimer Goth to lose some weight because everyone is a fatass.

A few hours later, i go to switch back. Surprise! They're gone. Nobody lives in the Alto house. None of their friends remember they existed.

Gotta love that "Feature" did you have Story BS turned off or on? not that it seems to make a shit of diff anyways.

[diskoh]

So.... I've been lurking, just had to register to rant on this shit.

I created a couple sims and moved them into the Alto house (which was empty because they died off.)

Built their relationship, married them, maxed them out in 4 skills each (took freaking hours), planted a garden, made them a bunch of friends, got them jobs, knocked up the chick to start their family.

Then I switched families to get Mortimer Goth to lose some weight because everyone is a fatass.

A few hours later, i go to switch back. Surprise! They're gone. Nobody lives in the Alto house. None of their friends remember they existed.

Gotta love that "Feature" did you have Story BS turned off or on? not that it seems to make a shit of diff anyways.

It's turned on. But what story item could just delete people entirely? I have Roberta Ursine's fat decrepit ass hanging on for 200+ days, but I can't leave a couple of young adults with 100 grand alone for an hour or they off themselves?

[Solowren]

They probably "moved."