New Open for Busioness Video 1/05/05

[angelyne]

I don't get what you don't like Mutant.  The business will be home based, as on a home lot, but I'm assuming your customers will be just townies or whatever the equivalent is.  Obviously they won't be your family or pc's you control.  So you will have a steady flow of customers going through your premises.  How is that different from "a community lot that I can live on and run a business".  There are residential homes downtown, so I've always assumed you could live there if you choose.  Never tried it though.  So many you could have a business/home there too.  All speculation at this point.  But I don't see this expansion being vastly different from what you envisioned

Nah, that ep is not for me.  I am gonna pass on that one never sounded excited and even by seeing the video it did not made me change my mind.  I only see tons of possible bugs in that one.

No way I could pass up on an expansion.  I'd be too frustrated by all the new and custom content I'd be missing out on. 

[Kristalrose]

I can envision building a little store with an apartment upstairs that the sim family could live in.  That would be nice.  It would give it an old-timey, urban feel to it, like 1920's New York or something. 

[Assmitten]

So you will have a steady flow of customers going through your premises.

Oh no, this makes me think of the sticky-fingered mime from Sims 1!  I hope they make it so people will stay out of your living areas.

[nectere]

The difference between strictly home based business and community business is one you can visit and the other you can not. You cant take Joe Sim and go visit Sally Sim's (home) business and see her hard at work...you can only play Sally Sim as the owner of the business and can never see her in action from the customer's point of view (Joe Sim's - another playable character)

[simmiecal]

The difference between strictly home based business and community business is one you can visit and the other you can not. You cant take Joe Sim and go visit Sally Sim's (home) business and see her hard at work...you can only play Sally Sim as the owner of the business and can never see her in action from the customer's point of view (Joe Sim's - another playable character)

It depends on how creative you want to be about it. Using Inge's stuff, I have her customer generator shrub and her teleporter shrub. If I want to be the "customer", I save the customer on their home lot and go to the home business lot. Using the teleporter shrub, I bring the specific "customer" I want to play to the business. I let the business owners act autonomously and just control the customer. I then save, exit and return to the "customer" lot when they are done shopping.

[Pegasys]

Hmmm, I think it's better having the businesses as a home-based lot because it means much less loading. Also, it appears most of the goodies to be sold will already be available through Buy mode, so I'd have little incentive to take my Sim there unless it's the owner of the business.

[skandelouslala]

I really hope they are home based....b/c as far as loading times and all that...can't stand it.  A lot of my sim 'hood don't even have a downtown cause I can't stand all the loading.  Load 'hood...load house...load sub-hood, load location sim wants to visit..ahhhhh

[MutantBunny]

angelyne: Read nectere post above.

Thank you nectere, for making that clearer. I thought I made the difference clear in my post, I guess I was, Oh NO, wrong!

[simmiecal]

angelyne: Read nectere post above.

Thank you nectere, for making that clearer. I thought I made the difference clear in my post, I guess I was, Oh NO, wrong!

Just because it's residential based doesn't necessarily mean you won't be able to visit as a customer. I can think of two ways to accomplish it:

1. Use Inge's shrub (which is what I currently do)
2. They make changes to the lot so that you can "visit" other residential lots like you can community lots. The "residents" at the business who just be uncontrollable sims that don't leave the lot (just like townies on community lots). I think this is quite do-able, the questions only becomes how time is handled for the people on the "home" lot.

Edited because apparently I didn't type what I meant to type.

[Savage]

I'm slightly skeptical of the viability of businesses like the salon....who, exactly, is your customer base? Not your sims, I hope! They probably look exactly like you want them to look!

I also notice that this newest promotional shot features a lack of sims being mean and nasty, unlike the first one. I do not approve.

I agree they seem to have loads of little expansion packs instead of a few big ones, unlike the Sims 1 (towards the end of the expansion packs" they don't enhance your game alot at all they just get them money and give you more computer slowdown time

[nectere]

I think you would almost need to be able to visit these businesses as a playable character. I mean if they are going to have burgulars in your home then it would stand to reason that they would include the ability to and for sims to pilfer as they can attempt to do at NL eateries. It would add a whole new element and way to make someone furious with you and get busted/fined whatever. I really hope its not limited to business owner side only. It doesnt make sense, and if that is what they did then, well...it wasnt very well thought out to get the most bang for your buck, at least not at the customer level. There has to be more of a reward and consequence concept to the gameplay other than just being able to sell some stuff. Not that I am advocating stealing or anything, its just one element of business ownership that is a realistic consequence. Of course if it is a two way street and you can play both as owner and customer then I can imagine it would be even more of a nightmare to mod...

[Dark Trepie]

Meh, I'll end up getting it.  Possibly the day it comes out if I have anything to say about it.  Because in the end creators will be building stuff around it.  You don't see people making stuff to be specifically used for the base game anymore.  That and the game itself will come with new content.  I tend to favor Maxis created stuff over anything else, especially hair.  Their clothes I could do without though.

Besides, it'll give the kids ways to contribute to the family other than painting crappy pictures all day long.

[Baa]

I'm trying my best not to get so excited over a two minute promo-video, but it's really hard. It was so flashy and colorful and "whee".

A few things that I noticed that I am anticipating:

The servo. I swear I saw a Sim make or stand next to or do something with a servo robot, trademark'd "one eye" and everything.
The elevator.
The kids toys.
The bugs and glitches and guaranteed "Maxis mayhem" included with every expansion.

Edit: I forgot downsizing. Gotta love downsizing. And I can't wait to make everything overpriced and have a "low prices" motto.

[Zoltan]

the kids sprinkler, the lemonade stand, the kite, the Big Wheel bike, the new toys...

the bad 'mullet' hairdo in the barbers

servo

new craft bench


yeah, I'm gunna get it   

[Swiftgold]

I shall probably end up getting it, even if I'm not at all interested in the business part of it, just for the new content like the items (yay kids' stuff!) and hair. I seriously don't want any more townies, though - I just got rid of all the downtownies, finally, and editing all those memories sucked! I've had one neighborhood only since the game came out, and it's large enough as it is without even MORE random townies I won't allow them to waste time with anyway when there's hundreds of neighbors that I've watched grow up and actually have an attachment to.

[Dark Trepie]

I've got $20 that says you can stop the elevator in between floors and woohoo in it.  And all of the other people in the store will run up to the doors to hear all of the giggling echoing up through the shaft.  Because all sims are perverts after all.

[syberspunk]

I can't say that I'm uber excited. I'm hesitant to say that I'm excited by this particular EP, but in general I always enjoy a new one. I wasn't particularly interested in many of the features, but the videos are kind of cute and appealing. My sister is looking forward to it more than I am. But meh, like a few people have mentioned, I'll probably get it just for the sake of being complete, because everyone else will most likely get it, and it's difficult to maintain hack compatibility without remaining "up to date" on EPs.

Since most modders will probably get EPs, it only just makes sense to do so as well. Think of all the potential shiny, new mods that you might miss out on? I think I'm more looking forward to that rather than actual Maxis content. Modders always seem to take what Maxis makes broken in the first place and significantly improve upon it in a lot more realistic and creative ways. The only thing that I am Not looking forward to is the interim of waiting for certain people to get the latest EP and update their hacks. I held off on installing the NL EP for whiles before a signficant chunk of my hacks were updated or confirmed as compatible. It really is painful to play without them. Hehe. I'm sure it will be even more frustrating for me now that I have to update my own mods as well.

As for speculation on the new EP... I imagine that it probably, most likely will add a new area to visit. If we look back at all the previous EPs for the original Sims 1, that seems to be the model that they followed since Hot Date (Vacation, Superstar, Makin' Magic). I don't remember if Unleashed had a separate new area... but meh, I never played Unleashed anyways. Which just goes to show that I will get EPs simply for the sake of getting them.

Edit: In afterthought... it would be very cool if residential lots turn out to be visitable as a consequence of this EP in lieu of creating a separate area. That would be a great way to add functionality and save space. It would awesome if you could visit not only businesses on Residential And Community lots, but if you could simply visit family or friends and neighbors! I would love that idea!

Anyways, I did end up pre-ordering two EPs (for me and my sister) since I had EA Store coupons with 15$ off. I'm a sucker for those pre-order incentives, so we'll both get the mascot, and the EP for 25$ with Free S&H! I typically always pre-order because of the pre-order incentive and the fact that I want the EP ASAP.

Ste

[rma]

I am really looking forward to this one. Training your Sim to be a master craftman (craftsim?) and creating new stuff. I assume that a Sim can create better things when they get the skill. Can't imagine someone just picking up a workbench and making a robot. I think it'll be fun to train them.

I've always loved the idea of home businesses, but running a store sound like fun too. Managing your empoyees and creating a great sales staff and managing them sounds fun. I hope that we'll be able to build our business on any community lot.

My only worry is the additional characters this expansion will create. 100 additional Sims? 200? *shudders* Looking forward to more info., but I will get this. I've been buying Sim games simce Living It Up and would not continue to do so if I didn't think they were worth it.

[Twain]

The bugs and glitches and guaranteed "Maxis mayhem" included with every expansion.

 

This is my favorite part of every expansion...It has been far too long since I have had a reason to properly rant at Maxis.....

[eaglezero]

I'm not that excited for OFB to come out, but I do think it looks like more fun than NL (which turned out to be loads of fun when I finally got it). I am concerned about the potential eighty million new townies (we don't really NEED any more of them, couldn't they change it so that townies/downtownies were the people you could hire, etc? [however, I'm willing to bet that they coded it in a way which makes this nearly impossible, which is sad, and shows lack of foresight as well as bad programming skillz]). I also have to admit that I would like it much more if your business could be on your home lot, since I don't really like taking my sims other places. I think the elevator looks pretty cool, as do the kites, lemonade stand, and ROBOT. Also, I always really like new hairstyles, so, yeah, I might get it just for those.

[BlueSoup]

Well, I really hope the folks at Maxis are still lurking on these boards, as they'll most definitely find way more intelligent posts and observations/ideas for future EP's than they would ever find on the official BBS.  Supposedly, they do read the Suggest an Idea board there, so if that's the case, you'd think they'd also read the boards where a minimum of coherence is required.

I watched the video and I only saw one new hairstyle (the short, choppy one), so I guess I'll have to look again, this time for those.  I like getting new hairstyles too.

I think this EP looks like fun, probably as much or more than Nightlife.

[J. M. Pescado]

No matter how cool it looks, you're still waiting 6-8 weeks for it to be awesomeized. I liked it better when it consisted of proper asshattery on the part of the sims, anyway. But it'll still 6-8 weeks even if I put the order in right when it comes out. So nyah. If you want it to arrive faster, we're gonna need a lot more subscription revenues.

[Kristalrose]

Like I said in another thread, the boys at Game Stop twist my arm and tell me that if I don't pre-order from them, it won't come to town.  (I know they are probably lying, but I give in anyway).  Of course I'm going to get it, because I'm an addict and when a pusher says, "Hey, I've got this new kind of drug you have to try," the addict buys.  

I bought every single one of the EP's for TS1.  I liked them all, with the exception of Vacation.  I had complaints about them al, like each and every new bug and the added load times and the "Maxis Mayhem" and all the new townies that I happilly deleted with the little dogs, too.    But, every EP added new content and new interactions for my Sims.  It made them more fun.  So, that's why I buy.  And will probably buy every single one, even when I'm spending my pension check to buy the 20th EP for Sims 2000.  

[BlueSoup]

If you want it to arrive faster, we're gonna need a lot more subscription revenues.

I'll make sure to send in mine early next month.  

[simmiecal]

Well, I really hope the folks at Maxis are still lurking on these boards, as they'll most definitely find way more intelligent posts and observations/ideas for future EP's than they would ever find on the official BBS. 

I think they are hanging out Inge's site.