My review of TS3. What I liked, don't like.

[J. M. Pescado]

i really didnt expect to still see route-fail-splosions resulting in all the sims nearby stopping to tap their foot and bob their heads like my awkward older brother at a club.   It takes them over fifteen sim minutes to get back on track.  and its not even when they run into each others squares, it seems like even one sim walking behind another will without even bumping into the back of them stop and do the foot tap, as wil the one in front, until finally they find alternate directions to their target both abandoning the straight route.

I think this is because rather than trying to figure out a good algorithm, or even a good implementation, they used a bad implementation of Ethernet's CSMA/CD as their navigational algorithm. In Ethernet, a device doesn't transmit when it sees the line is in use. However, if two devices see the line is not in use and try to transmit simultaneously, a collision results. When this happens, the devices in question stop transmitting, and each wait a random period of time before attempting to retransmit. And this is exactly what sims do in TS3: When they collide, they both stop and stare into space for a random, indeterminate period of time. Due to the poor tuning of the retransmit delay, it will commonly occur that both will then attempt to retransmit in close succession, resulting in another collision, so just like in Ethernet, they wait to retransmit again, waiting even LONGER this time...

on the time issue, i really wish the 1x speed would be slower.  it takes them half a sim hour to get from bed to the kitchen in a 2 story house, and im not talking about a mansion here.

Are you manually navigating, or are you relying on them to limp there using their impulse thrusters? That takes forever just like in TS2. You must always plot their course and engage their main engines, otherwise they will never arrive in a timely manner.

I dont even want to talk about the way they eat (or dont eat) group meals/birthday cake.  Sit down damnit, enjoy a family meal!  I feel like my freaking mom herding insolent kids to the dinner table.

Ugh, no! STFU, eat, and GTFO. Family meals are gross. You want to EAT in the presence of OTHER PEOPLE? I want to haul my kill back to my lair and eat in peace. At least now they eat in a timely manner. It could be faster, though. I can finish an entire steak before a sim can even manage to put down its plate. Sims are SOOOO SLOW.

[witch]

Sims are SOOOO SLOW.

So if you speed up eating - please make it optional. 

[Blech]

Also, families just aren't worth the trouble anymore. I prefer to micromanage, so I'm not going to waste valuable skilling time raising boring larvae who don't even have the decency to be cute to make up for being a drain on resources. And I cannot believe that EA has forced the 1950's on me by making my sim mothers stay home until their spawn goes to school.

It's okay. AwesomeMod has a command for that. No more mandatory time off.

Yay! But how do you do that? I can't find it in the RTFM.

3. The ability to learn how to do things by actually doing them. My sims hardly ever read skill books. If they wanna be good at cooking, they cook. Makes sense.

That's not NEW. TS2 had that.

Yes, but it wasn't possible to max the cooking the skill by cooking alone, unless your sim did nothing else, such as a baker with OFB. Now sims can learn more from doing than by reading, which I infinitely prefer IRL.

4. The fact that if I stop paying attention to a sim in the controllable family in favor of a more interesting sim, they won't starve themselves and scream, "Look at me, NAO!!!"

Oh, they still do that. You need Less Whiny to make it stop. They're not quite as inclined to starve themselves, but the screaming continues.

I forgot about that! I only played the game for 2 sim days without Awesomemod, so I forgot that in a vanilla game they still whine about every little thing. -1 for EA, +2 for Pes.

[Zazazu]

I still say that story progression is only acceptable if we can toggle it on/off per family. I was under the impression that we could do that in the pre-release interviews. Of course, EA continues to disappoint. As it is, my chosen sims cannot be doing anything unsanctioned. That's the price they pay for being chosen. I haven't yet gotten to the point where they can do what they like, but face the consequences when they break my rules for the 'hood. Currently, it's iron fist all the way. Ella Marvin has just learned that she can no longer associate with her childhood best friend as he is now Evil. I'm fighting a freaking battle here against the evil De la Torres' influence.

I do like that it is so easy to move families about in Edit Town mode, and I don't have to dump them, load the lot, save the lot, then go back to the neighborhood view. I just consolidated my 20 townie homes into 15 (all the spinsters/widows/widowers now have an old folks' home) and moved everyone into close quarters to make rounds easier. It took just a couple minutes.

Yay! But how do you do that? I can't find it in the RTFM.

Cheat console "backtowork". Do it right after they pop and right after they deliver for absolutely no enforced maternity leave.

[jolrei]

I do like that it is so easy to move families about in Edit Town mode, and I don't have to dump them, load the lot, save the lot, then go back to the neighborhood view.

Word!  I have just moved Jesus Christ into the Roomies household, getting rid of StupidSw0rd in the process.  MATY sims have similarly supplanted various other horrible townies.

I am also liking story mode so far.  I am experimenting to see if various townies will actually get jobs, get married, spawn, etc. on their own.  With parthenogenesis turned off, I am hoping so.  Perhaps Jesus will marry a MATY sim.

I find that I can quite happily ignore the "beat the game" aspect and just play a legacy style story.

[Doc Doofus]

My view is that the CONCEPT of story progression is good. The implementation, however, is terrible: It has no respect for the rules of common sense, logic, or the player's wishes. A version that FIXES these issues would be perfect. But a version that doesn't is worse than nothing at all!

Oh, it is a terrible implementation.  In fact, it's so terrible, I'm not my usual pessimistic self about EA being able to improve on this.  Why? 

THE STORY BUS HAS TO BE THE SIMPLEST, CHEAPEST, LEAST RESOURCE CONSUMING PART OF THE WHOLE GAME.  It requires no graphics.  It can't possibly have the resource-locking issues of the socials, the objects and all the QA headaches that must arise from that.  That means it should be cost efficient for EA to put a little more effort into this.

[Sagana]

They still have to pay someone to think. That's been too heavy a price for them all along.

[justerin]

Are you manually navigating, or are you relying on them to limp there using their impulse thrusters? That takes forever just like in TS2. You must always plot their course and engage their main engines, otherwise they will never arrive in a timely manner.

Yes, I have been plotting their courses by hand to avoid collisions, but it's more that every activity takes an unreasonably long time for them to complete.  They walk so slowly compared to the 1x speed that combined with the slow activities it just feels unnatural.  It takes half an hour for them to get out of bed, then they wait next to the bed for no apparent reason before responding to my poking, turning the whole thing into 45 minutes instead.  Not a huge deal, takes longer than that for me to wake up sometimes, but its with every friggin' activity!  Why is it that they have to stand around considering every activity before and after completing it?  Its only a few sim minutes but since they are already doing everything so slowly the lag or whatever it is becomes painfully noticable.  "Hurry up theres only an hour left for you to scarf down your bowl of mush!" 

PS.  TYVM for all the apostophe's.  I had misplaced mine was unable to make it to the apostrophe store because I had a piano tied to my leg.  ''''''''''!!!

[Blech]

Here's another thing I hate that has already been mentioned: The maniacal laughing of idle toddlers. I greatly preferred their old method of screaming their little fucking heads off, if left in the crib or highchair for too long. As a part-time babysitter, I can attest to the realism of the old way. It was actually kinda cute the way as soon as they woke up, they would immediately throw a tantrum at the audacity of the adults to not be standing there waiting to release them. Less whiny toddlers is a big fat DNW.

[SimDebster]

Cheat console "backtowork". Do it right after they pop and right after they deliver for absolutely no enforced maternity leave.

How did you find that cheat?  I have not seen it anywhere.  Also, since I have used it, all of my pregnant sims are being forced back to work instead of just the one that I used it on.  After having the baby, my sim did not get any leave and is due to return to work tomorrow.  How do I turn the cheat off?

ETA:  I see where you found it at.  I am currently looking for a way to turn if off.  Does anyone know of a way?  Or am I stuck with it on in this game now?