THE HORROR: The REAL TS3 Scoop As It Unfolds

[tedw]

Perhaps lending some weight to the idea of business/jobs in an upcoming EP, the "hidden" Sims 3 site links to some items in the store, including a male child's hair at the following address (although I don't think you will be able to follow the link):

http://store.thesims3.com/productDetail.html?productId=OFB-SIM3:15885&categoryId=11348&gender=female

The product ID is listed as "OFB-SIM3".  The current TS2 store offers some hair, clothes, etc. from the EPs; could it be that this hairstyle will be in an upcoming business-related EP for TS3?  It might be called "OFB" as a placeholder name until they have a finalized title.

That, or it's completely random and has no relation to an upcoming EP...

[raptureswild]

Shame on me for quoting myself, but something just popped into my head: wouldn't they have to download the pirated version to know for sure it's a pre-final? Of course they probably didn't because they know it's the real thing, but that statement implies a confession: "Yeah we did the naughty and arrred our own game"?

I suspect that they went ahead and did it (can't steal from yourself) and put out that statement purely as damage control.  The community here has been very loud and vocal, enough so that other sites are aware of how shitastic this game is.  I bet they are scrambling to rescue sales before they tank in the first week.  Certainly turned myself off of buying the game, although if the game is actually a beta and has at least some bug fixes (fixing the routing/pathing, lack of genetics, and putting male features on female babies/vice versa MUST GO) I will /consider/ buying it.  But I also suspect that the statement is a total lie and if so I will be EVEN MORE ANGRY at EA (if possible, although generally lowered expectations remove some of the rage/desire to throw things and replace it with slow-moving, long-lasting, soul-consuming hatred and a deep desire to undermine any way possible)

[Trickster]

(can't steal from yourself)

If they used a torrent version they helped distributing it (no download w/o upload), and that would have to be considered illegal, even if they own the rights.

Well, they probably won't sue themselves, but if they tried to sue the ones who put it up as a torrent (theoretically speaking), they might have a wee bit of a problem...

[Jack Rudd]

This is reminding me of the Beachcomber story in which the twelve red-bearded dwarfs sued themselves.

[raptureswild]

I don't know a whole lot about legal intellectual property issues, especially being that there are probably multiple jurisdictional problems, but I would imagine that if it came into court that they used the very service to download that program that they are later suing, there's a good chance that they could convince a jury that they were just doing that for PR purposes, etc.  But I seriously doubt they are going to sue anyone over this; cf. Spore, haven't heard any lawsuits over that.  Suing people over the internets is really difficult; it's easier just to whine to internet providers and get internet service suspended/shut down.

ETA: Also, I think that if they were to upload it themselves, it would only be a violation of contract to their detriment, and that would be like a store suing you for voluntarily giving you a discount.  Nothing illegal in and of itself in distributing uncopyrighted content through torrents, is there?  I'm not really familiar with IP law, like I said.

[Trickster]

This is reminding me of the Beachcomber story in which the twelve red-bearded dwarfs sued themselves.

Did they win?

SCNR

I don't know a whole lot about legal intellectual property issues, especially being that there are probably multiple jurisdictional problems, but I would imagine that if it came into court that they used the very service to download that program that they are later suing, there's a good chance that they could convince a jury that they were just doing that for PR purposes, etc.  But I seriously doubt they are going to sue anyone over this; cf. Spore, haven't heard any lawsuits over that.  Suing people over the internets is really difficult; it's easier just to whine to internet providers and get internet service suspended/shut down.

You are right of course, but the whole thing just screams ridiculous.

[coltraz]

  Anyone know why there is no ceiling in my house? I put flooring above it to make a ceiling below and the roof disappears, I put the roof back and if the tiles are there it won't get on the house. Then, if I remove the flooring and put the roof back on there is no ceiling!

Surely someone knows the answer.

[Anarius]

Well, my sim achieved that age-old Sims rite of passage by setting her kitchen on fire with Mac N Cheese.

New learnings:
- TS3 sims are much smarter about fires than TS2 sims.  There was no firedance, and no motive hit either, which probably means that it'll be hard to kill them with fire too.  She managed to extinguish it long before the fireman actually got there.
- When you burn down the stove, you get a clickable option to "Replace for $400," so you don't actually have to go into buy mode and figure out where it came from originally.

Did the sim have the "Brave" trait or something like that? One of my first playthroughs, a sim started a fire right off, and the family rushed into the kitchen, did the fire dance at it and blocked the door so the fireman couldn't get in to put it out, I would've tried to do something about it, but seeing the fire get even closer to all four of the family and tons of sims outside was too entertaining.

[Jorganza]

The product ID is listed as "OFB-SIM3".  The current TS2 store offers some hair, clothes, etc. from the EPs; could it be that this hairstyle will be in an upcoming business-related EP for TS3?  It might be called "OFB" as a placeholder name until they have a finalized title

It might mean that EA, continuing it's lazy streak, just took out the hairs from OFB and put them in the Store. The Storybook
theme that was shown also came from OFB, so it's probable that EA just used a placeholder name to mark where they took the hairs
from.

[Jack Rudd]

This is reminding me of the Beachcomber story in which the twelve red-bearded dwarfs sued themselves.

Did they win?

I think the court ordered them, in their capacity as one organization, to apologise to themselves in their capacity as the other.

[rufio]

Well, my sim achieved that age-old Sims rite of passage by setting her kitchen on fire with Mac N Cheese.

New learnings:
- TS3 sims are much smarter about fires than TS2 sims.  There was no firedance, and no motive hit either, which probably means that it'll be hard to kill them with fire too.  She managed to extinguish it long before the fireman actually got there.
- When you burn down the stove, you get a clickable option to "Replace for $400," so you don't actually have to go into buy mode and figure out where it came from originally.

Hmmm... maybe this varies by traits or something else. When playing with the Bachelor family they all did the firedance, even Mortimer who was visiting at the time. It was just as hard to distract them as in TS2. Only one of the adults got the "Extinguish fire" option, which kept dropping from the queue. When playing with my CAS-made sim, she calmly tried to put it out. but was trumped by a fireman.

She did not have the Brave trait, but she was also a CAS sim.  Maybe it's a bug with sims created in CAS?  If anything, I would have expected her to overreact, since she's neurotic.

In other news, this neurotic artistic sim finished her first novel - she gets $142 or so every week on Sunday for 6 weeks.  So, in order to get to $500 a week, she'll have to write a few more of those sometime during the next six weeks.  Fortunately, this is all tracked for you in the skills diary (or whatever it's called) which you can get to by clicking the little icons next to where it shows how many skill points you have.

Unfortunately, my sim's novel broke the Library's computer.  Will some NPC/townie come around to fix it, or do I have to risk my sim's life repairing it?  She doesn't have enough money for her own computer, and there's no option for her to call a repairman to fix the library's computer.

In still other news:

Corner counters: no longer a complete waste of space!

Interestingly, even with all the blocking problems evidenced so far, the man making the food was able to easily navigate between and around the two women talking in the middle of his kitchen, both to prepare the food and to take the plate out of the kitchen and into the dining room.  I confess I do not understand.

[lindaetterlee]

Ok a few questions......

Sims CHILD: What musical instrument can they play? I can only find the gruitar and it doesn't have options for the children to use it, only teen and above. I swear I had seen screenies that children were playing the guitar.

Clothes:  I haven't found what store you are supose to be able to BUY additional clothing? Can you buy clothes in this game??

Cheats:  Can we set up a cheat starting thinger like we did in TS2? Or do we have to type testingcheatsenabled every time.  Are there any other cheats than that is listed in the help menu?

[Zarifeke]

Clothes are no longer bought. You simply go to a dresser/wardrobe/whatever, go to plan outfit, and you can choose whatever clothing you want. You can also make 3 separate outfits for each clothes category.

[kazebird]

Clothes are no longer bought. You simply go to a dresser/wardrobe/whatever, go to plan outfit, and you can choose whatever clothing you want. You can also make 3 separate outfits for each clothes category.

That's a stupid backtrack to TS1.

[rufio]

Clothes are no longer bought. You simply go to a dresser/wardrobe/whatever, go to plan outfit, and you can choose whatever clothing you want. You can also make 3 separate outfits for each clothes category.

That's a stupid backtrack to TS1.

Well, the only difference from TS2 really is that you don't have to pay $200 a piece anymore, and money has really been tight, at least for me.  $200 never made much sense for a piece of clothing anyway, except in the context of TS2, where money grows on trees.

[Zarifeke]

Yeah I guess they really listened to the complaints where money was too easy to come by. Now I'm sure there's plenty of ways to get rich quick, but if you just go the normal jobbing route, you don't start making a lot of money until very high in the career. It's a lot different. But also most of my playtime has been with single sims; I'm sure with more than that money is a little less scarce.

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Does anyone else find themselves having some sort of seizure when watching the stereo work?  KagomeSim and InuyashaSim don't seem to mind the vertigo, but I can't wait for a mod to rid myself of this effect. 



At least leaving it on most of the time seems to have a positive outcome, especially if they are really into music. 

[BlueSoup]

Has anyone bought the Ambrosa recipe and successfully made it yet? I'm interested to know what's so special about a $12,000 dish.

Yep.  If your Sim has a good meal like that, they get a 7-day long moodlet worth quite a lot (+50?) or so.  I only got it to fulfill my Sim's wish to learn every recipe though.

Hmmm... maybe this varies by traits or something else. When playing with the Bachelor family they all did the firedance, even Mortimer who was visiting at the time. It was just as hard to distract them as in TS2. Only one of the adults got the "Extinguish fire" option, which kept dropping from the queue. When playing with my CAS-made sim, she calmly tried to put it out. but was trumped by a fireman.

I had a CAS sim freak out, then try to extinguish it when I directed her to, but the fireman arrived and he put it out, but not before it burnt her stove and the counter next to it.  Was awesome.  She, of course, died in a freak accident a day later when she tried to repair the compactor at 4 handiness points.

Ok a few questions......

Sims CHILD: What musical instrument can they play? I can only find the gruitar and it doesn't have options for the children to use it, only teen and above. I swear I had seen screenies that children were playing the guitar.

None.  No music for kids, bastard EA.

Cheats:  Can we set up a cheat starting thinger like we did in TS2? Or do we have to type testingcheatsenabled every time.  Are there any other cheats than that is listed in the help menu?

I'm going to try this because I've been curious too.  Seems it doesn't work for me. :\

Oh, and in the cheats, they list a way to reset Sims other than moveobjects on, and they specifically mention if something get stuck to them: resetSim

Code:

resetSim Mortimer Goth

[crunk]

This may not be the place for this and I'm not sure that anyone has been talking about it, but are there plans to share stuff from the TS3 store if it proves to be possible? Especially if they're giving points out to people who buy the game, maybe those who buy it can all brainstorm/play around and figure out how to share and who is planning on buying what so that no-one wastes their money?

[Caraleede]

-Picture-

Is anyone else incredibly disturbed by EAxis taking TS2 Meshes and shoving them into this with higher resolution? Especially as they've been so stingy on new meshes, focusing on "PATTERN IT MOAR! MATCH PL0X!".

[TashaYarrr]

This may not be the place for this and I'm not sure that anyone has been talking about it, but are there plans to share stuff from the TS3 store if it proves to be possible? Especially if they're giving points out to people who buy the game, maybe those who buy it can all brainstorm/play around and figure out how to share and who is planning on buying what so that no-one wastes their money?

If I understand the great paysite debate correctly so far, EA add-on content will *not* be shared (at least not via PMBD?) because they are the only one with the legal right to sell it.

Someone correct me if I've got it wrong.

[rufio]

Well, people here have been sharing EA store stuff for a long time, hosting it all on mediafire so that the cheeseserver is not actually involved anywhere.

[coltraz]

BUG!

Music isn't working in my game. Nothing is muted, but build/buy are silent. For a while, if I went from Live to Buy or Build, the TV in live mode would remain on complete with video and sound. Now it's back to doing its regular pause but all is quiet.

The radio doesn't produce any sound either.

[TashaYarrr]

Upgrade your audio hardware drivers, fiddle around with your audio control panel settings? Don't think I've seen any audio problems reported yet. I used to have bizarre audio problems with TS2 (and nothing else), was mystified because I couldn't find any other reports of the problems I was having, assumed it was some obscure bug...until my onboard audio finally died the rest of the way.

[DaSpecialone]

I guess EA hit their target audience perfectly--gradeschoolers (fresh off of playing my Sims kingdom) think the game is great.

I have to take that one back .  After waiting about 8 minutes for the sim to finish sleeping(on highspeed...ultra i.e., 4X, apparently doesnt work for sleeping) and 7min for the sim to get off from work, even an 8 yr old decided it was boring.  So max motives doesn't work in this one eh?  I noticed that not all the working cheats pull up on the help menu.

Corner counters: no longer a complete waste of space!

Interestingly, even with all the blocking problems evidenced so far, the man making the food was able to easily navigate between and around the two women talking in the middle of his kitchen, both to prepare the food and to take the plate out of the kitchen and into the dining room.  I confess I do not understand.

That's good to know.  Although a hack had already solved the corner issue in TS2.

If I understand the great paysite debate correctly so far, EA add-on content will *not* be shared (at least not via PMBD?) because they are the only one with the legal right to sell it.

Someone correct me if I've got it wrong.

Well they said CC would only be available  on the exchange (or through their dealers).  I'd like to know too...can they ban modding/sharing content if it's not for profit?