THE HORROR: The REAL TS3 Scoop As It Unfolds

[Zazazu]

Newspaper headlines:


A good way to check who is spawning whom. Births are listed first, then deaths, then (I guess) moves, then random drivel.

[Insanity Prelude]

but dammit I want some evil-take-over-the-city-sims.

Well, one Sim mine met was all excited to tell her about his "plot"... which apparently involved nukes, from the speech bubbles.


Also, is it just me or do skills build more slowly now?

[Netich]

In general im enjoying the game. i also use to play just one house, so no problem with that. One thing i find strange: all the watches, rings, etc, are just for one hand??

When you click on the watch/ring/whatever, does an arrow appear at the bottom-left of the thumbnail?  Try clicking that.

Mmm, i tried this without luck. clicking in the thumbnail just delete it. Was it an idea or does it work for you?

[SpaceDoll]

That little arrow is the undo button.  No idea how you might switch hands.

I am enjoying the game muchly right now, but will probably get bored as the fun and interesting bits start repeating.  One thing I do like is the little drag-able bar on queued actions that lets you make them more worthwhile, like changing "clean up dishes in room" to "clean up dishes on lot".

[LauraW]

getting traits from friends (I talked to a guy and gained 'friendliness' or something like that.

That's not you "gaining" the trait, that's figuring out the traits of the person you're talking to. When you meet people, you have no idea what their traits are at first. And gradually you learn more and more of them the more you talk to someone.

That happens in Kudos too. You see instead of traits until you get to know the person.

[Acid_fairy]

Moving a sim out of a house and trying to merge them with another household does not bloody work. They get placed in the 'clipboard' area; after attempting to merge this sim into another household numerous times, I gave up and clicked 'Return To Game'. The sim I was trying to move in has effectively been deleted from the game now; none of my sims have any relationships with him any more and he is nowhere to be found. Yippee.

[Jaclyn]

Does anyone know where I can see more Screenshots from players?
Perhaps a photobucket album or a livejournal?
I'd really like to see more.

Loving all the information! Thanks guys!

[Sigmund]

Does anyone know where I can see more Screenshots from players?
Perhaps a photobucket album or a livejournal?

Another album, about 27 pics.

Not sure if you've already checked this one out, Zazazu posted it a few pages back.

[Zarifeke]

This post is going to be about the tiered method of socialization with other sims and how the interactions show up accordingly. If you know about this already, feel free to skip the post.

If however you have been wondering why you can't propose steady relationship/woohoo/ask someone to move in at certain times, this MAY help. Or if you already know how this works and still can't find the stuff, then something is probably bugged/implemented crappily. Go EA!

Basically, each method of chatting seems to have different tiers, with more interactions available with each successive tier. In the upper left it says what the person is currently thinking of the conversation. Friendly chatting starts with them "thinking [sim name] is okay." Next after that is thinking you are sociable and thinking you are friendly (can't remember which comes first).

Flirting starts with "[sim name] is flirty", then followed by "is very alluring", and finally, "is extremely irresistible". From what I've seen, going steady only shows up with that very last stage, and I'm assuming marriage is the same. And you get to the next stage by doing the interactions in that grouping till it gets up there. Yes this means you usually can't just walk up to someone and do the woohoo interaction for example (unless you have specific traits blah blah blah).

Hopefully this helps some people, and if stuff still isn't appearing when you think it should be, then I have no clue yet. I still haven't tried to get people married yet, so I don't exactly know where that is. I know I've seen "ask to move in" in the friendly section, and it is probably at one of the higher tiers of friendly chat.

Edit: The interactions not appearing till higher tiers seems to apply at ALL times. Even if you have a sim as a romantic interest and with a very high relationship, it doesn't look like you can walk right up to them and make out/woohoo out of the blue. You have to go through each tier yada yada until you get to the right one and the interactions show up.

[Roux]

Moving a sim out of a house and trying to merge them with another household does not bloody work. They get placed in the 'clipboard' area; after attempting to merge this sim into another household numerous times, I gave up and clicked 'Return To Game'. The sim I was trying to move in has effectively been deleted from the game now; none of my sims have any relationships with him any more and he is nowhere to be found. Yippee.

I remember something from one of the lessons that any sim/household that is still on the clipboard will be discarded if you don't put them into a house. Which is kind of sucky, IMO. It sounds like that happened with your sim.

But with a marriage-related move, I was quite surprised at how well it worked. I wanted my test sim to move into her husband's house, which was larger and better furnished. After they did the little private ceremony, there was a dialog box. I moved both sims to his side of the panel, then renamed the household to her name. I also got to decide if I wanted to pack her belongings, or sell them. There was no loss of wishes or opportunities - the sims walked together over to his house, and she had a little negative 'moving day' moodlet for a few hours.

[Soggy Fox]

I do find three more fun to play - with sims 1, I didn't -play- until Makin' Magic.  Sims 2, I played for brief spurts when I tried challenges, but mostly I just made things [well, make, since I'm not giving it up yet], and I've played the console stuff.  I'm working up an unbiased review for a friend's new unbiased game review blog.

I like most of the play aspects - gardening ticks me off, and I'll never do another gardening task, unless I'm missing something.  Gathering rocks, you know what you have [unlike the real world] but you can't tell what a seed will grow?  Big freaking difference between lime and watermelon seeds iRL.  I like the gathering and the like, but not being able to buy basic seeds like tomato, onion, garlic, and the like is...maddening.

I think this is actually closer to what Simsville might have been.  The graphics are not innovative, but the play stuff is.  I just think the devs ignored the 2 thirds who like sandbox/modding for the movie and story makers.  I personally like only needing to control one household, but others don't want to lose that control.  And as a mesher who can see the potential with the new system, the possibility that I won't be able to make new meshes annoys me something fierce - that and potentially not have my game-fix hacks.

But it is more fun, for now, to play.

[Zarifeke]

I like the gathering and the like, but not being able to buy basic seeds like tomato, onion, garlic, and the like is...maddening.

You can actually just go to the supermarket and plant the fruits/vegetables that you can buy there, they don't need to be in seed form. You can also plant whatever you manage to harvest, this is pretty much how you get higher and higher quality harvests.

[ciane]

So, one thing that would be nice is the opportunity to see all "opportunities" being offered to either select families, such as ones you have already played, or all families. For example, if you are playing the Bakers, a pop-up could ask, "Should Charlie Chesterfield bring work home with him?" or "Should Clara Klepo swip a statue from the musuem?" With the option to turn off messages, or better yet, filter which messages are received, one could feel more in control without being overwhelmed with messages all the time.

I think EA should have at least left us the ability to lock in one wish though. It is after all what we have been led to expect.

On a positive note, I shall be learning how to give up some control and go with the flow a bit more. I shall have to learn to be happy controlling just one family rather than a whole town, at least until someone figures out how to play it the TS2 way.

Some wanted more realistic game play, and in that aspect, controlling only one family at a time is more realistic.

[Gelina]

Has anyone figured out a way to get a lot of groceries into the fridge quickly?

[Genlisae]

I am in the middle of looking closer at a few things that have been driving me nuts and took a few video's that I thought I would share.

Video 1 http://www.box.net/shared/f5bk2u52d2

A test family with the woman in labour for an at home birth. The father/husband is helpfully providing scene setting music for her! (Immediately after freaking out that she was in labour, he pulled out his guitar)

Video 2 http://www.box.net/shared/d4uixavmma

Directly across the street is the second test family currently being ignored to see what they do. As you will see the woman from the first test family went over to chat and ended up being present for the birth of the neighbours baby (her own only 3 hours old across the street) this time in hospital.

Video 3 http://www.box.net/shared/x9yoa6grod

The trip to the hospital and a rabbit hole building in action. What you see is what you get.

Video 4 http://www.box.net/shared/i89s71kuvf

Out of the rabbit hole and back home. The random male sim leaving the hospital behind the two women in this video is the father of the newborn who was supposed to be at work not at the hospital to witness the birth.

[J. M. Pescado]

I think this is actually closer to what Simsville might have been.  The graphics are not innovative, but the play stuff is.  I just think the devs ignored the 2 thirds who like sandbox/modding for the movie and story makers.  I personally like only needing to control one household, but others don't want to lose that control.  And as a mesher who can see the potential with the new system, the possibility that I won't be able to make new meshes annoys me something fierce - that and potentially not have my game-fix hacks.

The "only one household" thing is pretty much the main nuisance. Turning off story progression does not appear to actually do what it says on the box and halt the crapflood of random sims infesting the neighborhood or prevent the other sims from endlessly spawning.

[Soggy Fox]

I like the gathering and the like, but not being able to buy basic seeds like tomato, onion, garlic, and the like is...maddening.

You can actually just go to the supermarket and plant the fruits/vegetables that you can buy there, they don't need to be in seed form. You can also plant whatever you manage to harvest, this is pretty much how you get higher and higher quality harvests.

Ooooh!  Okay - right now I'm trying a somewhat asian looking girl with jade green eyes, I'll see what happens with her, though she's going for rock star.

[Aner-Dyfan]

YO NOOBS! This is MATY read the fucking manual, and stop posting completely pointless THANKS THIS IS GREAT! replies. You are not adding anything you are making it harder for others to get to the information they want.

@ Gelina
I don't think there is a way. But you don't need to buy any, if you don't have the correct food stuffs for a meal you just pay the cost of them when you make the meal instead of buying them in bulk then using at a later date. The cost is the same unless you have supermarket offers.

[daydreamer]

Am I blind or is there no gardening section? I can't find it for some odd reason.

[daisylee]

Pes, Inge, everyone - now that you have had a chance to look at the game a bit, what is your take on our being able to get a SimPe equivalent for this game eventually?

[Zazazu]

Or if you already know how this works and still can't find the stuff, then something is probably bugged/implemented crappily. Go EA!

Basically, each method of chatting seems to have different tiers, with more interactions available with each successive tier. In the upper left it says what the person is currently thinking of the conversation. Friendly chatting starts with them "thinking [sim name] is okay." Next after that is thinking you are sociable and thinking you are friendly (can't remember which comes first).

Oh yay! Follow this exact line of actions, every time. Exactly what we, the players, don't want. My problem is still getting the relationship status to change from best friend to romantic interest. If they aren't best friends first, I get it right away after a couple of complements, a flirt, and a hand hold. If they are best friends, it takes several repeats.

I like the gathering and the like, but not being able to buy basic seeds like tomato, onion, garlic, and the like is...maddening.

You can actually just go to the supermarket and plant the fruits/vegetables that you can buy there, they don't need to be in seed form. You can also plant whatever you manage to harvest, this is pretty much how you get higher and higher quality harvests.

One opportunity reward also lets you know that you can plant eggs for eggplants and cheese for cheeseplants. Because you can totally do that and cheeseplants exist. I find the unknown seeds to be annoying...once a sim has planted and unknown seed and seen it grow, they should be able to identify that seed. That way they don't end up with 50 million lime trees blocking view.


This is a remodel of the little trailer-like home with the "Indian burial ground" in the back (my poor ancestors). My family is finally solvent. Annoyingly, that nasty colored edge that you get on a flat roof or foundation is still present. Also, fences can't be recolored. Columns can. Driveways don't have a default paving, so those can be customized as you want.

Am I the only one wondering why, if we got such fine-tuned texture controls for objects, hair, and clothing, we didn't get the same for Build mode?

[Genlisae]

Am I the only one wondering why, if we got such fine-tuned texture controls for objects, hair, and clothing, we didn't get the same for Build mode?

That and why all driveways, even in the garage have a speedbump at the end of them ... a speedbump was the best they could come up with?

Also amoung my wondering is why others seem to get the lifespan slider to work globally yet it wasn't for me. So I went back in and tested a couple of the mentioned scenarios where the slider is/is not global.

After several test families and much abuse of the Goth family I have changed my thinking on the lifespan slider from "it is household specific" to "It's just broken"

Scenario 1:

Brand new hood with lifespan slider set to "normal" and story progression on. Loaded the Bachelor family to check on Bella's age. Loaded the Goth family checked that Mortimer and Bella did appear to be exactly the same age in all levels of the lifespan slider. Set lifespan slider to "epic" and the speed to fast forward and left them to their own devices for a week (Bella was 7 days from teen on "normal" life span).

I have to say I was impressed with how well they will look after themselves. You almost can ignore them and they won't die ... almost. Not so happy with the ghosts. The ghost are like annoying uninvited guests that take naps in your bed, strike up conversations (and sometimes dances) with your sims and pull a very real, completely not ghost like at all, laptop out of no where and take up your kitchen table in the middle of dinner. I would have preferred they be more .. ghosty?

At the end of the week, I confirmed that Mortimer had aged 7 days on "epic" life span and was now 60 days from teen.

I switched back over to the Bachelor family to see if Bella had aged to teen as I had expected her to. She hadn't, she was still a child, however, she had only aged 3 days according to all of the life span settings on the slider. 7 days for Mort, was only 3 for Bella. Very odd.

Scenario 2:

Two couples, both married, one the Test family the other the Subject family (not very original I know). Move the Tests in, immediately try for baby successfully. Switch to Subject family, move in, try for baby, also successful on the first try.

Switch back the the Test family (who acquired a guitar in the short time I was gone!), set the lifespan slider to epic and play through birth of child (see video in my previous post) 3 sim hours later a Test is present for the birth of the Subject baby (also in videos). From this point on the Subjects were ignored for the next three sim days. I checked back in on the Subject family after 3 days and their child, 3 sim hours younger than the Test child is already a toddler.

Obviously the lifespan slider does not work intuitively as you would expect. If it is working I can't even begin to guess as there doesn't seem to be any logic behind what happens.

I will continue ignoring the Subject family and letting the Tests fend for themselves to see what happens as far as the children ageing goes.

[DigiGekko]

Possible very annoying glitch ahoy.

Bought the tabs book for level 5 guitar, teenager practiced it, then ated the guitar. Okay, messed up enough. So I buy him a new one and tell him to perform the song. Well, he performs it, but the animation is seriously borked. Started playing an invisible guitar with the real one spinning a thousand miles per hour in his hand. Would really like someone else to confirm this one. If it just afflicts one performable song, okay, no big deal. If you can't perform a single song without this WTFage going on, then  

[jaccirocker]

Just a few more things before I start playing again. I realized that sims actually have tongues now. Yay because the lack of a tongue used to really creep me out. IDK why but it did. Another thing I could even get my married couple to make out after the first day. Lastly I have Vista 32-bit and it has been working fine ( knock on wood) even though I have an "unsupportable" video card according to EA and the game specs. It tends to use over 1 GB of memory but I have been playing all day going through the neighhood, CAS and the like several times.

[mrowcat]

Basically, each method of chatting seems to have different tiers, with more interactions available with each successive tier. In the upper left it says what the person is currently thinking of the conversation. Friendly chatting starts with them "thinking [sim name] is okay." Next after that is thinking you are sociable and thinking you are friendly (can't remember which comes first).

Flirting starts with "[sim name] is flirty", then followed by "is very alluring", and finally, "is extremely irresistible". From what I've seen, going steady only shows up with that very last stage, and I'm assuming marriage is the same. And you get to the next stage by doing the interactions in that grouping till it gets up there. Yes this means you usually can't just walk up to someone and do the woohoo interaction for example (unless you have specific traits blah blah blah).

I can confirm part of this after struggling with the Goths. You can't just hop the married couple in bed and expect to try for baby even though the actions are in the menu. Woe betide you if you try. I knocked quite a bit off their relationship and had to work them back up to simply kissing. If we have to go through this rigamarole every time we want kids, it's a big do not want for me.

I've not played extensively, but I can say that there is something about the game's graphics that make me think of Fisher Price. Spore gave me the same feeling - kids would probably like it.

I really love how the landscaping looks. The scenery is pretty and I love that the sims' eyes have a wet look to them along with a reflective shine (for lack of a better word) that keeps its position when your sim moves his/her eyes around. I'll admit that the open neighborhood is niftier than I thought, but I don't know if 3 will last for me beyond the new game novelty.

I'm already wanting more patterned swatches for CaST because a lot of what's included aren't to my taste and I want hair that doesn't look like it's either vinyl or matted animal fur. Creating a truly unique sim is somewhat challenging and getting away from pudgy faces is proving damn near impossible. I thought I had one until I got my sim in game and looked at her from a distance. Overall I suppose I'm enjoying it, but as I said before it has the novelty factor going for it.

Oh, and has anyone noticed that choosing what to paint for a 'still life' is counterintuitive? Whichever direction I move my mouse, the 'frame' goes the opposite way. Combine it with hypersensitive scrolling and I got a good five minutes of frustration fun. I had Agnes Crumplebottom go to start a still life at 7am, and couldn't get the picture I wanted by the time her carpool arrived an hour later.