Super secrect Survey on BBS

[knitro]

Did anyone get to take the new survey that they are all hush hush about, and what was on it?

[gali]

This is an old survey, and as I remember, only USA residents could finish it. I tried, and could finish only 60% of it.

This is what I get now:

"Thank you for trying to participate in our survey. However, the survey has achieved its desired number of completions.

Thanks again for participating! "

Why they issued it on 30th August - weird....

[knitro]

hmmm.. then maybe thats one I took, or maybe not, not sure now.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I remember answering one a while back, seemed to have no probs with it here in the UK.

[wishy-washy]

I did the survey. At least, I think I'm talking about the same one as you. I live in Canada so maybe only North Americans could finish it. It was about "Booster Packs."  Asking whether or not you would buy one for $19.99. (US Dollars I assume) It would be a set of about 80-100 objects, lots, clothing, and hair. It also asked what kind of pack you'd want. Eg. family, asian inspired... There's info about it at snootysims.com

[rhodaloo]

I filled out the survey yesterday.  I kept telling them I would not buy any sims products until the stand alone patch for university comes out.   Nothing they asked about appealed to me.

[wishy-washy]

A family style booster pack would appeal to me, but I wouldn't even pay $19.99 Canadian for it. I don't think that it would be worth it. It never occured to me to petition for a stand alone nightlife patch in the survey. I guess that's what surveys are for, though. Oh, well next time I will.

[rhodaloo]

Since I've been on the band wagon about the stand alone patch for university, I thow that in any chance I get.  I figure the squeakly wheel gets the oil, or the lower the 4th quarter sales, the faster the patch comes out.

[Ivy]

I also filled in all the "other" options with "I will not buy anything else until Uni is fixed" or something to that effect.

Maybe they'll get the hint, eh?

Ivy

[Zeljka]

I did one a month or so ago asking about what sort of expansions I would be interested in. None of them appealed to me at the time and I can't even remember what they were.
Then again, I thought the University Idea sucked (still don't have it, though I suppose I will get it as I like the new hacks and mods) and though the idea of Vampires and driving your own lazy butt to work is cool, nightclubs and more opportunities for dancing weren't top on my list either.

Guess I'm hard to please. I would like to see new (interesting) aspirations, new Wants and new anything for toddlers and children... just more options.
Not a particularly violent person, but some Sims are terribly annoying and make me wish for violent things to do to them.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I must admit, I do think of going back to my base game on the other pc, just as soon as I've finished with, or got bored with, or turned into a BFBVFOS. the Pleasantview I'm playing at present.

I agree, I'd like to see more aspirations, for instance, what about a Health and Fitness one?  And to go with it, a Health Club Community Lot, a bit like the College Gym but a little more upmarket!  And maybe a golf course......After all, they made mini-golf for MM!

[Oddysey]

I did the little survey thing. Booster packs? Ugh. I supose they'd at least have less bugs, though . . . but perhaps this is why University was rather light on content? The space stuff sounded vaguely interesting, I must admit.

I once worked out a whole design for a "Religion" based expansion pack. A sim could choose a religion, which would be sort of a cross between a career and an aspiration. You would get religion points for doing certain things, and lose them for doing others, depending on the religion, and you would increase the total reserve of points you could have by making friends with high-religion point members of your religion and gaining skills, including a possibly hidden "Religion Skill." You would then get rewards based on your total religion point reserve. When you got enough religion points, you would get some sort of religious being who would follow you around and do stuff for you. (Each religion's would have different appearance and abilities. Angels, saints, prophets, ghosts, demons, devils, minor gods, etc.) High enough skills (religion and logic, most likely) would allow you to see other people's "religious beings," and other skills (Religion, charisma, possible other skills depending on what the specific religion valued) would allow you to give commands to your and other people's religious beings. (Think exorcism.) Of course, the game wouldn't ship with any recognizable human religions, but it would be possible for the end user to implement.

Basically, the whole point of this was to have an excuse to get sims a little guy who followed them around and lit people on fire. Oh, and to make them glow: once you get enough religion points, the sim becomes a "religious being" themself, and any children they have while they have this many points get nifty abilities and glowyness, fulfilling the required "new species" for the EP.

[clem]

I agree, I'd like to see more aspirations, for instance, what about a Health and Fitness one?  And to go with it, a Health Club Community Lot, a bit like the College Gym but a little more upmarket!  And maybe a golf course......After all, they made mini-golf for MM!

That's a really neat idea. I've been trying to think of what aspiration I'd like to see and have just been coming up with stuff that's related to what already exists. You could have wants relating to yoga and meditation, body points, wanting to be a personal trainer, wanting to see other Sims get fit, a fear of eating anything too fattening,--ooh, wants to learn how to make new, healthy foods-- a mortal fear of getting fat, an LTW of being a hall-of-famer... And then there could be a new health and fitness career track, the top level of which would be Fitness Guru, and you run to work...

As I said, cool idea.

...new anything for toddlers and children...

Amen. I'm tired of the same three objects (I don't use the teddy bear b/c it annoys the daylights out of me).

[Zeljka]

Amen. I'm tired of the same three objects (I don't use the teddy bear b/c it annoys the daylights out of me).

I changed mine in PE so the 'big kids' can't talk through it, but only use it when I have a toddler or child very low on fun. (then delete it)

I rarely used anything besides the skill building toys until I made an amazing discovery very recently.
Perhaps old news to everyone else but it was a shock to me that 2 toddlers who had learned to speak were chatting with each other as they played with toys from the toy box. It's the first toddler toddler interaction (besides steal bottle) I'd ever seen.

[RainbowTigress]

TwoJeffs has a fix for the teddy bear (and the bunny).

Zeljka:  Did the toddlers get any relationship points or social satisfaction from talking to each other?

[Bane~Child]

I must admit, I do think of going back to my base game on the other pc, just as soon as I've finished with, or got bored with, or turned into a BFBVFOS. the Pleasantview I'm playing at present.

That's exactly what I just did.  I have the EP on my PC and I just installed the base game on our family one with a new video card too.  I realized that all I really wanted was some new objects and since then I found so many nice things out in the community.  I have some loose ends to tie up in Pleasantview and in Strangetown, but I have already been collecting objects and using Body Shop in readiness.

The only survey that I saw was last night and it had already been closed because the response goal had been met.  I wonder if they were getting too much negative response and decided to end it.

 

[Bane~Child]

That's a really neat idea. I've been trying to think of what aspiration I'd like to see and have just been coming up with stuff that's related to what already exists. As I said, cool idea.

I was talking to someone today about this very thing.  I said it would be nice if the Sims could have a combination of two aspirations.  To me this makes a whole lot more sense than being saddled with one choice over another and changing or rerolling aspirations doesn't always fit the bill.  This would open up new possibilities for satisfying wants, even for new careers, and widen the choice of prospective relationships. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think I saw something about that as well, and I agree it would be far more interesting, especially if a sim could have two conflicting aspirations, as we humans often do.  So you could, perhaps, have a Power aspiration, but also Popularity - not easy to be the boss and be friends with all your employees!  And a Romance Aspiration coupled with family, so one day they wake up and want a baby, the next day, they definitely don't!  One day they want to woohoo with three different sims, the next they have a fear of getting caught.

[Diala]

I would remotely consider buying this "booster pack," IF it had enough items in it, and if any these items were of any use. I am a sucker for new things, I must admit.

Then again, wouldn't all those items be leaked out on the internet, anyway?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Trouble would be, of course, if you didn't buy it, and loads of new stuff based on it started to appear, you'd have to be so careful what you downloaded!  And each time you saw some new recolour of the new stove or whatever, you'd probably want it!

[HRH Posie]

TwoJeffs has a fix for the teddy bear (and the bunny).

Zeljka:  Did the toddlers get any relationship points or social satisfaction from talking to each other?

They do indeed   When I was playing with just TS2 installed, I used to stop toddlers learning after a while so that they didn't gain too many skill points.  Therefore they would spend the rest of the time playing together.  In case you were wondering why, I wanted them to get all 10 career rewards as adults in the shortest amount of time possible.  Obviously it doesn't matter if you have Uni installed.  I've had toddlers play with toys and when they get on well, the relationship can increase in 5 point increments.  Toddlers can also increase relationships by playing with the dolls house.

[syberspunk]

I did the little survey thing. Booster packs? Ugh. I supose they'd at least have less bugs, though . . . but perhaps this is why University was rather light on content? The space stuff sounded vaguely interesting, I must admit.

I think I did a survey once or so, but I forget. Probably the one about what kinds of EPs you'd like to see later. I vaguely recall the suggestions being rehashes of the original Sims 1 EPs. But meh, I don't really remember.

Booster packs might not be too bad of an idea, but for 20 bucks? Hell no. Why pay that much when you can just download some cool shit online for free? And it seems that what the community comes up with is way better than any of the crappy clothes and hair styles that Maxis packs into their EPs. I mean ok, there was a few things that were sort of better in the EP, but Not much really. Most, if not all of the Maxis clothes are FUGLY! And the hairstyles too! And what's with all the damned hats with the SAME hairstyles! Geez! And it's like 5 gajillion recolours of the SAME hat with the SAME hairstyle underneath! I think the way hats are done is stupid. Hats and other accessories should be done as SEPARATE modelled objects, and not just part of the face or skin. I would love to see like earrings and necklaces and hats and other stuff where you didn't have to have a specific skin or hairstyle chosen for it. 

I've said this before, but someone seriously needs to Queer Eye that shit up. I mean, with a game that seems to be so uber gay friendly, I would have thought that they must have some gays working for them. :p So wouldn't they have at least some sense of Taste or fashion sense?!?!?! I mean really, I know that's like super cliche and whatever, and I am not the most fashionable gay in the world myself, but I know the difference between gaudy, ostentatious, and Down right hideously FUGLY! I mean, what were they THINKING? I can understand being lazy or pressed for time and not including a lot of content to choose from, but why, Why, WHY does the stuff that they DO add have to be so damned crappy looking? I mean seriously, a lot of that stuff is just, to put it plainly, the best definition of what an Eyesore can be. I mean, it would be so much better if they just added more options with Simpler, understated choices. Or at least colors that coordinated with other objects so that things would match rather than severely clash with the choices you are limited to. Anyhew, I'm whining and rambling now... 

And what's this about space? Now that sounds intriguing... hrm... I wonder if they could pull something off like that. Traveling to and/or moving to other planets? Having starships for vehicles? What else could they possibly do without turning the sims into a totally fantasy/sci-fi fighting game? I guess it's no different than Makin' Magic, which I thought was kind of cute and neat, but really didn't play much with. I guess I"m not that imaginative enough, so maybe that could be promising. Still, I would love to see a Superstar update with endorsed celebs again. I really wanted to be friends with Christina Aguilera  but I hadn't gotten that far yet in my game with enough celeb status. I actually liked that EP and I really liked going to the hollywoodish comm lots to do the acting, singing, and commercial mini-games.

And as for new Aspirations, yeah, I'd like to see that as well. I'm not sure if I could come up with any new ones either, but I think they should Definately fix up the careers they added and complete the chance cards. They should add More careers AND they should add more/varied wants and LTWs. If they are going to bother adding new careers, they should add new LTWs to go with them, because otherwise, what's the point?

I once worked out a whole design for a "Religion" based expansion pack.

I'm surprised no one commented on your idea. I guess no one wanted to touch that with a 10 foot pole.  I actually thought it sounded really interesting and imaginative, BUT of course, for obviously reasons, the subject matter would be wayyyy too supsceptible to contention and would most likely be way too controversial. Still, the idea of spiritual guardians and what not sounds amusing. But in a way, I'm kind of glad that they did not include religion in the game and prefer that they leave it that way. It would get far too political and that's really unnecessary for a game, especially one such as this. But maybe... as a mod, especially with new things in development like actually being able to add/create new animations, who knows? It would be great to see community/user made/inspired EPs sometime further down the line.

Ste

[ZephyrZodiac]

I quite agree with what you say about the clothes, syberspunk!  I'm not gay myself (I'm also female) but I have a lot of male gay sim couples, usually at least one romance, and they generally are much more fun to play than the heteros!  And they seem to anticipate each other's autonomous actions far better, too.  But I'm very short of nice, attractive clothes for them.  I have two sleeveless tank tops from TSR and some nice sexy undies from SF2, but apart from that, very little exciting or different clothes, and as for the evening wear! I honestly don't think a pink dinner jacket fits the bill at all!

[syberspunk]

Haha, seriously, these clothes are just totally awful. Well, if you haven't already been, I found some great links to other sites at the Gay Sims Club 2 over here. The links are to other sites with some great clothes, most of them are free, and they aren't necessarily gay-oriented, just really fabulous and fashionable. 

I'm still looking for some nice free women's jeans and outfits as well. I've found some really cool trendy men's jeans and what not, but even the female's choices aren't so great either. I also wish that shoes would be a SEPARATE option from jeans. I think it was in Sims Bustin' Out, so why can't they do that for the Sims 2? I think it's retarded that we can't choose what kind of shoes we want our sims to wear with their outfits. I mean, a woman isn't always gonna wear flats/sandals ALL the time with jeans, or runners/sneaks ONLY with shorts. I mean come on! We should be able to mix and match things, sometimes a lady feels like heels you know? 

And the same thing with men, sometimes you feel like sneaks, sometimes casual shoes, sometimes sandals. We should have a CHOICE! 

I wonder if it is like far too late to like FIX that and make shoes and accessories a SEPARATE option, or if that is just way too hard coded into the game engine. Cause maybe it would be too hard to make that backwards compatible with the current way that clothes are handled. They should have thought about that dammit! *sigh*

Ste

[Zeljka]

http://www.serasims.de/ has some nice free jeans for women, as does http://www.helaene.com/   http://www.simplyelau.it has some nice stuff too though I think many of my great clothes came from the free sections of http://www.xmsims.com/ or http://www.peggysims2.net/ (sorry, I seem to be whoring links but Maxis clothes make me gag so if I can help, I will)

And they seem to anticipate each other's autonomous actions far better, too...

I couldn't agree more. One of my gay couples is Knowledge and Fortune yet I've never seen a more devoted (or randier) couple. They are both pretty much skill maxed, but spin matching wants for dancing, flirting and woohoo at least twice a day. I want them to have children but they're so cute together I hate to distract them from each other.

The single focus Aspiration has irked me from day 1. I still think they should either have more than one, or evolve based on experience.
ie. Start off as Knowledge, the kiddies want to learn skills anyway, as teens, all are pretty much Romance. Once they've learned much of what they need to know, they start moving up through the ranks and as they acquire some money they start to want more expensive things.
If they fall in love with someone and marry them, (and not all Sims should want this) they start to lean towards Family wants (or not, kids aren't for everybody). If they find themselves married to a Sim who is not attentive enough, they may start to have Romance fantasies... just one scenario, I'd welcome any variety. How many kids in real life are obsessed with a parent who's only focus is work? Give it up, they should start wanting attention from someone else instead.