OK, so why would I want this mess?

[Lurker]

This is the house layout I published on the BBS:
http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e375/lhookins/SimsPics/Kitchenlayout.jpg
[snip]
Nice of them to fix the beds in TS3.  Will they still relax on the closest bed, or do they use their own?

Wow, saw that years ago and already tried doing it but only ended with a headache and sims eating at the wrong place. I got fed up being forced to redo the kitchen and dining area like 5 times. Do you have a working layout picture with counter islands for breakfast + dining table? Really curious to see if that one is doable wituout a controller. But the problem is there in sims 3, and it's there since sims 2; i.e. if you don't watchout for the layout or don't use a controller, you'll have sims eating almost anywhere. A example: i had a huge home shop lot where the distance layout scheme didn't work at all: a huge room with 3 or 4 tables and yet the sims grabs his plate, turn around to cross the big room, walk toward the lower floor to eat on a tiny table that i've put down for the coffee & smoke break. And that only due to the first table nearest him when he grabbed the plate was filled with sims. GAH! Whan i saw that i went to Simlogical and grabbed the controller.

Yes beds are totally fixed, even when they just relax/read they'll always take their own bed. And it works after they've only slept once in it.

[Tigerlilley]

I cannot take this shit any more.

It took me 15 minutes to put a roof on a house today.  Apparently my walls were "uneven".  How the fuck is that even possible on a flattened lot.  Auto roof INSISTED on putting a roof over the balcony, despite a fence being there.  Non-auto roof insisted on sucking balls and not covering the rooms properly.

Selling a bookcase = All your books now go into your inventory!  Where you have to manually put them back in the bookcase, one by one.  The big bookcase with the glass?  I don't think you can even put books in that, it wasn't likeing my trying.

Growing fruit = All your fruit goes into your inventory!  Where you have to manually put it in the fridge, one by one.

Why have a driveway?  Your bike and car has to be in your inventory for you to drive to work!

Big open plan living, EA?  No loading screens?  That's because instead of actual community lots there are now huge black holes where nothing happens!  Now there's what I call fucking creative effort.

I've given up.  This game blows goats.

[Zazazu]

It took me 15 minutes to put a roof on a house today.  Apparently my walls were "uneven".  How the fuck is that even possible on a flattened lot.  Auto roof INSISTED on putting a roof over the balcony, despite a fence being there.  Non-auto roof insisted on sucking balls and not covering the rooms properly.

Placing flooring first helps to eliminate that, but yeah. I hate the roofing anyway. We have less directional roofs if you look at the options, and again are missing individually adjustable roof heights.

Selling a bookcase = All your books now go into your inventory!  Where you have to manually put them back in the bookcase, one by one.  The big bookcase with the glass?  I don't think you can even put books in that, it wasn't likeing my trying.

I just got done with a house using that one. It works, it just works better if you approach it from the front.

Growing fruit = All your fruit goes into your inventory!  Where you have to manually put it in the fridge, one by one.

There's a tab on the upper left corner of inventory items with more than one in the slot. Grab and drag that to the fridge and it should move all of the type at once.

I don't really mind the rabbit holes, except for the bookstore and grocery store. Or the spa...it would be nice to see that one. The career sites, though...why do I want to watch a sim work for six hours? I do really, really miss being able to build meaningful community lots of my own.

[Hook]

Do you have a working layout picture with counter islands for breakfast + dining table? Really curious to see if that one is doable wituout a controller.

I never messed much with the counter islands.  I doubt it would work without a controller.  I was never happy with the way they worked.

One problem with going to another floor to eat... I seem to remember that distances were counted as if everything was on the same floor.  If you wanted to put a table on another floor, it had to be far away from the others or it could get chosen in preference to a table on the same floor with the Sim.

Hook

[GloamingMerle]

Some people will think I'm crazy, but I actually prefer that third picture sanmonroe gave. At least it has some personality! Granted, it's amazing that the first artist is able to make a digital painting that looks exactly like a photograph, but making a painting that looks exactly like a photograph is pointless. You may as well just take an actual picture, and call it a day. Not to mention, in order for such artists to make those pieces they need a photograph of it first, which makes the whole situation redundant. I'd rather have imperfect creativity than robot-like perfection any day.

Aside from that rant, I would actually prefer to see diverse filter effects for sim paintings. I think it'd be pretty spiffy to see a sim using pointillism, a charcoal effect, ect.

Thats not a digitally made photo. That was done by hand by three guys.

It may not be high art, but it shows that when you want to hand paint something realistic, even burn out hippies with an airgun can do so.

I see now that it is in traditional media, so that was my mistake. However, I don't think that you understand what I meant by a digital painting. "Digitally made photo" implies something rather different, so I feel the need to explain. Painting on a canvas, and using a stylus to paint inside an art program both take equal amounts of skill. The weaknesses and strengths of the mediums are different, though. Thanks for the correction, but it doesn't actually change anything about my argument. A boring ass painting, is a boring ass painting, no matter which medium was used. Your last example in a separate post was a much better example of your point, but guess what? It's still not perfect realism.. The artist is still using a lot of impressionistic elements to influence the feel of the painting. This can mostly be seen in the background, and in the exaggerated light and darkness to draw your eye to certain details. I totally agree that the painting filters in the Sims 3 leave much to be desired, but I respect what they were trying to achieve. If the sim paintings were merely screenshots slapped onto a canvas, then you may as well have taken a screenshot and called it a day.

[Scotty]

It's not that bad. That's what I thought at first but it's starting to grow on me, slowly but surely. On a positive note does anyone have any idea how to move in a sim from another household? Im getting irritated now because I CAN'T DO IT. They've woohooed, they can try for a baby yet there is no option for move in. How? Enlighten me please.

I get that option under "friendly" as soon as I become friends with a sim. I'm not sure why you wouldn't have it.

I can't find the option to, 'ask to move in' either. WTF! It's just not there.

My self Sim had a visitor at his house, and they were becoming good friends. I was just about to look for the move in interaction, when the other Sim asked mine to move in with HIM. I got the popup for it, saying something like how good they were getting along. So I clicked yes, and my Sim moved in with the other guy. That's new.

[sanmonroe]

Some people will think I'm crazy, but I actually prefer that third picture sanmonroe gave. At least it has some personality! Granted, it's amazing that the first artist is able to make a digital painting that looks exactly like a photograph, but making a painting that looks exactly like a photograph is pointless. You may as well just take an actual picture, and call it a day. Not to mention, in order for such artists to make those pieces they need a photograph of it first, which makes the whole situation redundant. I'd rather have imperfect creativity than robot-like perfection any day.

Aside from that rant, I would actually prefer to see diverse filter effects for sim paintings. I think it'd be pretty spiffy to see a sim using pointillism, a charcoal effect, ect.

Thats not a digitally made photo. That was done by hand by three guys.

It may not be high art, but it shows that when you want to hand paint something realistic, even burn out hippies with an airgun can do so.

I see now that it is in traditional media, so that was my mistake. However, I don't think that you understand what I meant by a digital painting. "Digitally made photo" implies something rather different, so I feel the need to explain. Painting on a canvas, and using a stylus to paint inside an art program both take equal amounts of skill. The weaknesses and strengths of the mediums are different, though. Thanks for the correction, but it doesn't actually change anything about my argument. A boring ass painting, is a boring ass painting, no matter which medium was used. Your last example in a separate post was a much better example of your point, but guess what? It's still not perfect realism.. The artist is still using a lot of impressionistic elements to influence the feel of the painting. This can mostly be seen in the background, and in the exaggerated light and darkness to draw your eye to certain details. I totally agree that the painting filters in the Sims 3 leave much to be desired, but I respect what they were trying to achieve. If the sim paintings were merely screenshots slapped onto a canvas, then you may as well have taken a screenshot and called it a day.

Arguing about the quality of paintings I posted is pointless. The point is that every custom painting in the game looks bad. It doesn't matter what they were "trying to achieve", Bob Dole can try to achieve an erection without viagra, but if in the process he shits the bed and vomits on Elizabeth then it doesn't matter if he got to half mast! Unless the Doles are into that sort of thing, then it is a big success! A simple screenshot slapped on the canvas would have been better than what we got.

[GloamingMerle]

Arguing about the quality of paintings I posted is pointless.

Well... You kinda made it the point when you used them for your argument that the Sims 3 paintings were crap, but apparently I digress. Sims 2 paintings merely being screenshots always defeated the purpose of having sim "paintings" for me.

[coltraz]

It's not that bad. That's what I thought at first but it's starting to grow on me, slowly but surely. On a positive note does anyone have any idea how to move in a sim from another household? Im getting irritated now because I CAN'T DO IT. They've woohooed, they can try for a baby yet there is no option for move in. How? Enlighten me please.

I get that option under "friendly" as soon as I become friends with a sim. I'm not sure why you wouldn't have it.

I can't find the option to, 'ask to move in' either. WTF! It's just not there.

My self Sim had a visitor at his house, and they were becoming good friends. I was just about to look for the move in interaction, when the other Sim asked mine to move in with HIM. I got the popup for it, saying something like how good they were getting along. So I clicked yes, and my Sim moved in with the other guy. That's new.

Interesting.

After my post, by the way, I found that to "ask to move in", you must entertain the potential room-mate with selections from the "Friendly" interaction, then, finally, the option appears. Apparently moving in has nothing to do with romance anymore, as I've never seen the option pop up under Romantic interactions.

[Peel]

My self Sim had a visitor at his house, and they were becoming good friends. I was just about to look for the move in interaction, when the other Sim asked mine to move in with HIM. I got the popup for it, saying something like how good they were getting along. So I clicked yes, and my Sim moved in with the other guy. That's new.

It does fall in line with this game being about "community" and the interaction of said community. There are some really good ideas in the game but for some reason I am just not excited by this game. Too linear, too easy (all you need to do is show up two days at work to get promoted - skills not required), or too many EA created characters running about for me perhaps.  I have never played any of the in-game families as they hit the pail as soon as I started the game and townies and other assorted were avoided like the plague or killed never to regenerate again. I just can't put my finger on it but I have an over all feeling of "blah" about the whole thing. It just doesn't feel like my Sims living in my Sims' neighbourhood it feels like EA's Sims living in EA's neighbourhood and thus I don't give a shite about them.      

[VaVe]

I'm still unsure about the game.

While I do enjoy some of the new features (traits, laptops, better inventories etc) the whole game is starting to feel like a chore. Do I like my sims achieving their lifetime wishes? Yes. Is it worth the hours of gameplay to get them there? No.
Also I don't like the way that the lots work, it feels like a step back ( I know that's been said before).

There have been a few good points though; killing the Goth family was prticularly satisfying. I also like that charisma can be built though interacting with other sims it seems more natural than talking to a mirror.

[Pico]

I could say that, in a way, this game was built for me. I did not like rotating in TS2 so from the very beginning I was looking forward to "one family only" play. I hated loading screens and there are none now. There are many new elements that do enrich gameplay; there are also some bugs and some stupid - though mostly understandable - design flaws (like the "immaculate conception" problem) but on the whole, I can't say anything really bad about TS3. I don't even miss hacks - cheats that came with the game are quite enough for me ATM.

So why do I prefer lurking on forums (which I have been doing for a long time here)
instead of just catching the most important news and hurrying back to the game? Like some other people in this thread I don't know for sure. I'll just say that it does not feel sexy like TS2 did, and I am not talking about skins or interactions from adult sites. I guess it's a lot of small signals that one "reads" mostly on subconscious level and that all add up in the end, making the game unattractive for some of us.

[Lurker]

One problem with going to another floor to eat... I seem to remember that distances were counted as if everything was on the same floor.  If you wanted to put a table on another floor, it had to be far away from the others or it could get chosen in preference to a table on the same floor with the Sim.

That's why I said the distance part didn't always work: kitchen/eating cantina was on the far left side of the building, but the tiny table downstairs was on the right side (serving platters on the left of the cantina tables). Logically, even considering everything on the same floor, he never should have done that. And my two cleaning sims don't have time to go get that plate, too much to do already. Annoying. Well I generally don't mind for that but on communities and home shops there's no time for such things and the fail must be stomped quickly.

[Mire Krisma]

I'll just say that it does not feel sexy like TS2 did, and I am not talking about skins or interactions from adult sites. I guess it's a lot of small signals that one "reads" mostly on subconscious level and that all add up in the end, making the game unattractive for some of us.

It could be the fact that nearly all the sims have pudding faces. Or the unusual amount of obese sims. I don't know, do you?

[Mimisims]

Growing fruit = All your fruit goes into your inventory!  Where you have to manually put it in the fridge, one by one.

There's a tab on the upper left corner of inventory items with more than one in the slot. Grab and drag that to the fridge and it should move all of the type at once.
[/quote]

OMG!  Thank you so so much for that info!  I thought there had to be a way, just hadn't figured it out!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[sanmonroe]

Arguing about the quality of paintings I posted is pointless.

Well... You kinda made it the point when you used them for your argument that the Sims 3 paintings were crap, but apparently I digress. Sims 2 paintings merely being screenshots always defeated the purpose of having sim "paintings" for me.

No, the point I made was that any reasonably talented artist can make photorealistic art IF THEY WANT TO DO THAT. Sims can only make sloppy smudgy crap with poor color balance.

If I wanted my sim to make an ugly abstract painting, I would choose that option, and not the regular one.

The pictures I posted illustrate that point. Even hillbillies with a paint gun can make photorealistic art.

[simsdesperado]

Arguing about the quality of paintings I posted is pointless.

Well... You kinda made it the point when you used them for your argument that the Sims 3 paintings were crap, but apparently I digress. Sims 2 paintings merely being screenshots always defeated the purpose of having sim "paintings" for me.

No, the point I made was that any reasonably talented artist can make photorealistic art IF THEY WANT TO DO THAT. Sims can only make sloppy smudgy crap with poor color balance.

If I wanted my sim to make an ugly abstract painting, I would choose that option, and not the regular one.

The pictures I posted illustrate that point. Even hillbillies with a paint gun can make photorealistic art.

I agree with you, some of the filters they used are ugly, but sometimes I think that they did not want the sims to always paint photorealistic paintings. There's a filter that looks like oil paint brushstrokes on canvas, and one where they make blobs of colour that I think they were aiming for watercolours. But then there is the filter where the poor sim paints with neon contours on all details and then I start thinking what the hell was going through their heads at the time they programmed that option into the game. At least the default paintings are nice when they paint them without any filters.

[Budgie]

I agree with you, some of the filters they used are ugly, but sometimes I think that they did not want the sims to always paint photorealistic paintings. There's a filter that looks like oil paint brushstrokes on canvas, and one where they make blobs of colour that I think they were aiming for watercolours. But then there is the filter where the poor sim paints with neon contours on all details and then I start thinking what the hell was going through their heads at the time they programmed that option into the game. At least the default paintings are nice when they paint them without any filters.

Yeah, but since when has "what EAxis was aiming for" translated into something that people actually wanted. Having sims paint in different "styles" is an interesting concept, but in the hands of EAxis, it turns into a massive pile of fail.

[Soggy Fox]

I disagree that all the sims 3 paintings -by sims- are crap.  I've gotten some really pretty impressionistic paintings of the waterfall area. It does seem to be somewhat random, but I do prefer it to the sims 2 method.  And if I don't like a still-life, I just sell it.

[JacquiES]

Well in regards to the sims having the creepiest eyes ever, I will say that about a week ago, I had a pretty scary dream in which the "bad guy" in it had eyes just like in TS3.  I haven't been that enthused to play the game since then.

[GnatGoSplat]

I've been having fun with the game for the most part, but it's getting annoying.  For one thing, nearly every-other sim day, a family moves out for no reason, never to be seen again.  Not that I was particularly attached to them, but so far I've lost about 6 households.  The game keeps moving in uglier and uglier townies to replace them, so what was the point of them moving out in the first place?  Apparently it wasn't for population control.  I also find myself spending too much time watching them sleep.  They should have greatly reduced or speeded up sleep time like they did with eating.  It seems sleep takes much longer in Sims 3, though I haven't timed it.

I've been having Gage Briody knock up chicks all over town.  Funny thing is the game seems to favor its own adopted spawn as Gage has lost 3/15 kids to various accidents (fire, starvation).  I haven't yet seen an adopted kid croak yet.

[bartleby]

I hate the roofing anyway. We have less directional roofs if you look at the options, and again are missing individually adjustable roof heights.

Hi! I've been searching for this. So it's not just me missing some check box under roof tools... the roof-height slider in TS3 is really worst than it was in TS2's Mansion & Garden! I can't believe it... are EA people crazy? One of the most useful tools and they had to mess it up. Why?

[blackcat]

You can try this method: Tutorial - How to create a basic roof with different slope angles.

[bartleby]

You can try this method: Tutorial - How to create a basic roof with different slope angles.

Are you telling me the undo button understands <add roof> as an action but not <set roof height>? That's what the tutorial says, right? That's wonderful and absolutely brightens my lot-builder-addicted-day. Thank you.

[NephilimNexus]

A note on Sims 3 painting and the belief that blurry paintings are realistic while smudgy painting are not...







These are not photographs.  These are paintings. 

So yes, I'd like to think that a Sim with level 10 painting and perhaps the Perfectionist train could realistically do away with the gamey Photoshop filters that are arbitrarily shoved down the player's throats by the game.