New Open for Busioness Video 1/05/05

[Sandilou]

J M, cars are available for sale also.  Originally, it was said that they wouldn't be, now its been confirmed that they will be.  The icon for them is pictured in the OFB screenshots over at Snooty. 

I'll be amazed if my current neighbourhood survives the addition of OFB.  I keep looking at how much memory the current EPs take up.  I launch the game from 2 different users, one for Matyville (thin on custom content and downloads) and one for my custom neighbourhood (crammed full of downloads).  I've noticed that my pc adds all the gigs being used from all the users to show how much memory space I have left. Is the amount of memory space left the greatest indicator of how long my game will last? 

Each time I play, I'm using more and more memory.  Other than reducing downloads, or using SIMPE, is there any other non-purchasable way to increase the amount of memory available? 

[flowerchile]

Hey BlueSoup, how does having an Awesomised game differ from your general run of the mill Maxis?.  I seem to learn something new everytime I visit.

[J. M. Pescado]

J M, cars are available for sale also.  Originally, it was said that they wouldn't be, now its been confirmed that they will be.  The icon for them is pictured in the OFB screenshots over at Snooty.

That isn't what I was saying. Cars are already for sale, just go to Buy -> Misc -> Cars.

You raise a good point, though: Why should one bother going to a special business to buy everything when it's just as easy to go to buy mode to buy it? Maybe it'll be cheaper to actually go, but how is this going to help given that the inventory has a high probability of mangling any multitile items to buy and that you'll have to sit through two loading screens minimum for it? It would have to be something unique, something you built, something custom.

I don't see it happening.

[Inge]

That's why Pescado is away at the moment on business, he's doing his customary 6-8 week assessment of the product to see if it's worth releasing.

[J. M. Pescado]

That's why Pescado is away at the moment on business, he's doing his customary 6-8 week assessment of the product to see if it's worth releasing.

Uh, no, actually, I've been back for several days now. What on Earth are you prattling about? Silly Inge.

[Inge]

No, you're not back.  You went for 6-8 weeks remember

[BlueSoup]

Hey BlueSoup, how does having an Awesomised game differ from your general run of the mill Maxis?.  I seem to learn something new everytime I visit.

Try playing the game for about 6 months with no hacks.  Then install the entire More Awesome Than You Director's Cut.  That's being Awesomized.

[simmiecal]

J M, cars are available for sale also.  Originally, it was said that they wouldn't be, now its been confirmed that they will be.  The icon for them is pictured in the OFB screenshots over at Snooty.

That isn't what I was saying. Cars are already for sale, just go to Buy -> Misc -> Cars.

You raise a good point, though: Why should one bother going to a special business to buy everything when it's just as easy to go to buy mode to buy it? Maybe it'll be cheaper to actually go, but how is this going to help given that the inventory has a high probability of mangling any multitile items to buy and that you'll have to sit through two loading screens minimum for it? It would have to be something unique, something you built, something custom.

I don't see it happening.

There are a whole bunch of different ways to play the game. Not everyone wants it to be the most efficient.  These kinds of lots are especially good for storytellers or for those that want to add a little more realism to the game. When was the last time you bought a car? You didn't look at a little screen and pick your car and then poof there it was. You probably went down to a dealership, spent way too much time haggling over the price, financing and warranties before you could drive that shiny baby back home. Shopping -in real life- is a monumental time waster. Sometimes people shop for necessity (groceries) and sometimes for socialising or for entertainment.

[Oddysey]

Yeah . . . as nifty as this looks, what with robots and ninjas and all, I'm not entirely sure why one would actually want to use the main function of it, the business thing. I can kind of see how one would use those new "crafting" objects, and crafting type objects are always good, but the "selling anything you can buy in the catalogue" . . . Maybe it's a response to a user desire for actually purchasing stuff? I mean, that's been brought up a lot on BBS, but it was always one of those things where I thought, "Kiddo, do you have any idea how mind numbing that would actually be?" The catalogue may not be very realistic, but it is the easiest way to get it done.

So far, my theory on EP content is holding. The spring release is the one where they do something weird, that wasn't done in the original game, and that makes people go "huh?" when they first hear about it. The fall release -- the holiday season release -- is when they do something that they know people are going to like, because it's a remake of sorts. Based off something they did, and that worked, in the original game. Nightlife is basically a nifty-ized Sim 2 version of Hot Date. Not entirely the same, but close enough that it's still a valid comparison. Since House Party and Livin' Large were essentially packaged in the base game, this suggests that the next fall release will be Vacation themed.

Conclusion: The primary reason to purchase OFB, at this point in time, is malfunctioning robots and NINJA HORDES!

[Ellatrue]

I thought the only difference with the new version of SimPE was with the look. Doesn't it still have all the same functions?

And JM, you never played in a sprinkler?
I can only conclude that either A)JM does not live in the US at all, he lives in Antarctica
or B) he never had a childhood

I can see why people would want to use the business thing to sell crafty items that you will be able to make in the game, and from the look of things, there will be new items that are not available in the catalogue. I'm still crazily holding my breath for a vegetable garden, of course, and pottery wheels, but from the look of the most recent chat that isn't going to happen.

I think the idea is that, in addition to the new items (I hope there are enough to make it worth buying), you will be able to sell other items as well that are otherwise only available through the catalogue.

[Twain]

Conclusion: The primary reason to purchase OFB, at this point in time, is malfunctioning robots and NINJA HORDES!

Heh heh heh...yes you are so right Oddysey....I will be buying OFB for no other reason but the fact that I can create my own Sim Army of......Shirt Ninjas!!!!!

[Simsbaby]

RAIN!

[Sagana]

Well, you *can* buy cars online and I believe some people do things like that. Wasn't it VW Bugs where you could only get certain colors if you got them from a screen instead of a dealership?

I suspect the primary market for your home businesses will be townies and NPCs and why would anyone care if they're wasting time walking to a business rather than buying from a catalogue? Playable sims will probably only buy stuff when it works for them, same as using Monique's computer or Pescado's clothing hack to buy clothes or cell phones rather than going shopping as honestly shopping is too much trouble. But home businesses will still be great - townie shoppers (mostly) are fine with me and actually what I want.

[simmiecal]

I guess I'm really looking forward to the expansion as I've had a lot of fun using Inge's hacks for home businesses. I think Maxis should give Inge some kind of royalty payment for using her ideas - or at least send her a free copy of the expansion pack. 

[flowerchile]

Hey BlueSoup, how does having an Awesomised game differ from your general run of the mill Maxis?.  I seem to learn something new everytime I visit.

Try playing the game for about 6 months with no hacks.  Then install the entire More Awesome Than You Director's Cut.  That's being Awesomized.

if I do that I might end up being more awesome than you!!!I crack me up!! HA HA HA HA

[BlueSoup]

 

You're weird.

[flowerchile]

Why thank you!

[Hairfish]

I was a little disappointed to see that OFB will add a whole new area. I don't plan on using that much, if at all. My car- and taxi-times aren't all that bad (about a minute), but the waiting is tedious and I can do without it. I predict my only businesses will be home-based. Florists, especially...I'm a sucker for flowers.

Does that make me a butterfly?

[Simsbaby]

More like a humming bird. I think I will use this to have more space for them to live, my current hood is starting to get cramped and I don't want them living downtown.

[MutantBunny]

I really don't understand Maxis' obsession with 'adding on another area'! What IS the deal? It isn't expanding the capacity of our hoods to hold more people, not really since all character files and lots etc are going into the main hood folders with all the rest. Of course, if we start a separate hood with satellites off of that --well that adds space--but who wants to do that with each EP?? Not me!

I thought the whole idea of an 'expansion pack' was to EXPAND the base game. With the eps of TS1 they DID expand the game. How is it expanding the game if the EP is  adding basically a mini game area to the game? Is that 'expanding the game'?? Not to me it isn't. Is this the way ALL of the EPs for TS2 are going to be?? I don't want another satellite off my hood! I want ALL the features IN my hood.

I can see leaving your 'home town' (read Hood) to go to Uni. I can see leaving your home town to go on vacation (where's that EP??) But you don't leave your home town to run a business. Most of us don't leave our home towns to go Downtown either.

  Color me yet more disillusioned with Maxis and their ideas.

[J. M. Pescado]

There is a sort of practical reason for some of these "new hoods".

Being in a seperate hood is a detectable condition that new controllers can check for. It's a simpler matter to program a controller to check "Am I downtown?", and thus manifest specific behaviors for downtown areas, that do not apply themselves to non-downtown areas.

This is much less unwieldy than introducing new lot types which, which then means you have alter functions that check lot types, so that the 30 different varieties of community lot that exist then each have their own controller variant code, etc., etc., and then if you miss a check in an obscure object, later on we find that it causes a BFBVFS.

So thus, the constant new neighborhoods, such as the new Downtown neighborhood. The downtown-related features, such as the lack of a curfew, thus only apply themselves to downtown, and not to your original neighborhood, by checking for this. Similarly, the downtown NPCs do not stalk your community lots in your old neighborhood, for better or worse.

The fact that spawning an actual downtown is OPTIONAL and you don't need to do this to use the new objects or interactions, is also helpful if you want to avoid, say, vampires.

[syberspunk]

I thought the whole idea of an 'expansion pack' was to EXPAND the base game. With the eps of TS1 they DID expand the game. How is it expanding the game if the EP is  adding basically a mini game area to the game? Is that 'expanding the game'?? Not to me it isn't. Is this the way ALL of the EPs for TS2 are going to be?? I don't want another satellite off my hood! I want ALL the features IN my hood.

I can see leaving your 'home town' (read Hood) to go to Uni. I can see leaving your home town to go on vacation (where's that EP??) But you don't leave your home town to run a business. Most of us don't leave our home towns to go Downtown either.

  Color me yet more disillusioned with Maxis and their ideas.

Well, the first Sims also had "new areas" to visit, practically with every EP. Hot Date had the Downtown area, Vacation had the vacation area, Superstar had the hollywoodish type area (I forget what it was called exactly) and Makin' Magic had the magic area (I also forget what that was called). House Party barely had many expansive features, aside from throwing parties at homes, which turned out to be not that much fun, and more of a nuisance, to me at least. And I hardly ever/practically never played the Unleashed EP, so I have no idea/don't remember if those had an expanded area as well. So... how is this different from TS2? Er... I don't think it is.

I kind of like being able to go to different areas, and as Pescado points out, it does seem to make sense, at least from the viewpoint of a lazy coder. In the long run, it is better this way because it lends to keeping the code somewhat compatible for many hacks, especially when it comes to area specific interactions and objects. If they didn't do this, and they always made changes to every previous existing code, then hacks will always have to be adjusted. Which would be a pain in the ass, especially if certain hacks were made to address a certain issue with a specific EP.

Anyways, Pescado made a good point and I probably don't have much more to add to that. Regardless, I personally like having other areas to visit or live in. I think it feels a bit too confining and claustrophobic, and somewhat boring, to keep our sims cooped up all day indoors, only leaving to maybe shop, or mostly to go to school or work. That's why I like Uni a lot, and Downtown. I think these two EPs were really great compared to the ones for TS1, in that I really feel like I have an incentive to actually leave the damned house and go do other interesting stuff. Not only do these areas add a bit more realism for me, they also help alleviate the boredom after playing in a specific area for so long. But don't get me wrong, I kind of wish that Maxis would put more work and time into building (and Testing) the EPs and packing it with a great amount of quality content that was as bug free as possible. I'd hate to think that Maxis actually, seriously relies on modders to find and fix bugs for them. As naive as it might be for me to say so, I just don't want to believe that they'd actually be more concerned about turning a profit at the expense of their loyal customers and significantly sizeable fan base. But I guess that's just silly wishful sheepish thinking on my part.

One more comment in regards to file count and what not, it would be nice if Maxis could do something more than just merely increasing iteration and file size/number limits to prevent games from developing into BFBVFSes. I don't know exactly what this would entail, but it would be great if they would take the time to sit down with some of the community's well known and experienced modders and maybe brainstorm and develop an idea. Something that would alleviate or prevent whatever the issue is exactly that causes a BFBVFS. If there was someway to optimize the code as far as search loops go, to either reduce the # of iterations required, or whatever is necessary to fix problems that arise due to neighborhood population overflow.

Ste

[Dea]

Unleashed didnt add a new hood but they did make the base hood bigger

[Charamei]

Well, the first Sims also had "new areas" to visit, practically with every EP. [...] So... how is this different from TS2? Er... I don't think it is.

It's different because Sims 1 had a fixed amount of lots per area - the base neighbourhood had 10 lots (50 with Unleashed), Downtown had six or eight, Vacation Island had eight, etc. In Sims 1, it was probably easier to add a new type of neighbourhood than to add new lots to the base one for reasons besides coding.

With Sims 2, you can stuff as many lots of any description into your base 'hood as the map size will allow. As a result, to a non-coder it seems like there should be no reason to add more neighbourhoods, when the one we have could have new lot types added instead.

What Pescado's saying makes sense, though, and I'd never thought of that angle before.

[nectere]

I am excited to see diagonal roofs. So far that is about it though and hardly worth 50 bucks at this point.