The Sims 3 Megathread - Too many expansion packs

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The Sims 3 Megathread - Too many expansion packs

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Well to be fair, I do it so I can record the description of the lifetime wishes description.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2013 06:45

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 23:30

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Ardeem posted:

You can hire one, but he goes home at the end of the day. Live in options are Bonehilda in Supernatural or just have one of you sims with the formal trait stay home and see to the grounds.

Showtime also gives you a butler but they hog a bedroom

# ¿ Jan 17, 2013 08:09

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Omnicarus posted:

Well it better drat well be after the Taylor Swift Music and Heartbreak pack.

They learned quite painfully from their lesson with Sweet Treats.

# ¿ Jan 26, 2013 19:01

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Hell they even tossed in a Midweek madness to placate the crowds. They have gotten over the Sims and Crysis issues but from now on, Origin Exclusives are Origin Exclusives.

Trust me, Sims 4 will have multiplayer...

# ¿ Jan 31, 2013 17:36

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Rirse posted:

Is there a new version of the Skip Intro mod? The newest update added a bouncing Maxis ball that can't be skipped before the usual loading screen.

And just had the game hard lock the second time now. Guess I need to use porter and move my sims to a new town, as this one is corrupted.

The No Intro only blocks the EA/Sims 3, no one has made a no intro for the Maxis one yet...

HYAH!

# ¿ Feb 22, 2013 11:22

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Mr Luxury Yacht posted:

So my sim chanced upon some Tiberium. I just thought it was a neat little cosmetic C&C reference and would otherwise just be a valuable green mineral.

Until it started giving my sim Tiberium sickness. Not wanting to risk the chance of them actually coding visceroid death into the game, I shoved that poo poo in the garden.

It grew...

Visceroid mutation is unlikely to happen with Sims, given how they are commanded by a green plumbob which for all we know is a Tiberium crystal commanding their feeble minds...

Crap, the Tiberium is giving sims intelligence!

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 11:06

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

I managed to get one question anwswered with the university expansion and the new quick meals are apparently Yogurht and Green Salad (you know the bitter mixed greens you see at super markets). So now even the poor can afford a full course meal. No cup of Ramen though.

# ¿ Mar 1, 2013 22:57

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Got a chance to play University Life and I have to say I am loving the new quick meals, no more eating soup and bread non stop. Simnation's grocery stores have expanded their menu so now you don't have to subsist on microwave meals and have some variety and not raise the dreaded cooking skill.

Here are the following new quick meals

Cold Foods:

-Yogurt and Granola
-Garden Salad (the cheap store brought variety)

Microwave Foods

-Currywurst
-Ramen (weird since most instant ramen says no microwaving) with egg and green onion
-Microwave variety Pizza
-Breakfast Burito
-Popcorn

Also, Maxis let an alcohol usage reference slip with Amaretto coffee.

gyrobot fucked around with this message at 10:49 on Mar 5, 2013

# ¿ Mar 5, 2013 10:44

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Got around to my rebellious turf tagger and I am ashamed of EA not making the Rebellious trait get the "FIGHT THE POWER" moodlet from tagging turf.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2013 07:55

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Rirse posted:

Wonder if there is a way to uncap the number of roommates since you are not controlling them, they shouldn't count toward the household total. I do miss the larger dorms, but do like they are a lot more open.

Trust me, you will learn to love the Rabbit Hole rooms of the apartment kind.

Let's see...

-Due to lack of cafeteria you get several sims trying to make multiple serving meals...sadly they are all lacking in culinary skills so it ends up looking burnt. Burgers at sim burger anyone?

-They suffer from the typical household guest problem of not taking a shower when their hygiene is low and not heading to bad when they are tired. Even with bed assignments they have trouble heading to their own bed.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2013 05:19

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

So where exactly can I find a mod that allows me to easily burn a sim alive? The moment a sim dies in the fire and all of the fires mysteriously extinguished by Death. So I need a more reliable way to cook my sims alive.

# ¿ Apr 6, 2013 08:03

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Eggplant Wizard posted:

Mine sure don't. I play it too normally Everyone is ridiculously successful. I might try playing by just fulfilling sim wants as they come up, instead. Is that more or less how yours goes?

Pretty much leaving them to their devices and only directing sims to do things when they got wishes to fufill is an interesting idea. Bonus points is if they don't fufill a wish in 24 hours you have them do something detirimental to their lives. Use a D4 to decide

An idea is this

1: Money related disaster (Your sim gets a random shopping bug, making him spend on something he really doesn't need)
2: Environmentally related Disaster (Your sim decides to break something on purpose)
3: Relationship Related Disaster (If your sim is friends with something have them have a spat or if he is committed, have him start having romantic affairs)
4: Workplace Disaster (Skip or quit work or complete a random opportunity no matter how insanely hard it is)

# ¿ May 26, 2013 21:08

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Spaceman Future! posted:

The Sims doesn't phone home about content you are running, at least not in a "He shouldn't have this" sense.

I've been playing with Island Paradise for a bit now and I have to say, Resorts rock. Well not resorts specifically but an actual working implementation of a non-retail lot ownership. Its too bad it didn't happen in a much earlier EP, its fun to play with but definitely lacks some depth. The framework is there for something much cooler though but with 4 coming out next year and the last EP rolling out in a month and a half there's no real chance that it can reach its potential.

Speaking of the last EP, Maxis you bastards why did it take you so long to bring robots back! I know there's one from ambitions but I really missed the little craftable robots from Sims 2 that would buzz around cleaning and watering plants and whatnot. I don't think I've ever bought an EP on day one before but Into the Future might change that.

Reinventing the plumbob. Get rid of one annoying feature. Add two new ones.

# ¿ Sep 16, 2013 00:12

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

epitasis posted:

I dunno what Open For Business did but you there is some sort of retail thing in the new expansion pack with display pedestals. Also yeah there are functioning restaurants with waiters and poo poo.

As well as the Business as usual and ticket booths for theaters. But I really wonder why did we need Rabbit Holes when we developed fully interactive job objects.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2013 20:27

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Tiny Brontosaurus posted:

Haha I had that problem too. The game does not handle past relationships well at all. It's basically impossible to play a promiscuous sim because the game assumes every <3 is a monogamous long-term relationship even if you haven't done the "go steady" interaction or whatever it is. The No Jealousy lifetime reward helps a lot.

I had a sim divorce her husband and remarry, and at the wedding ceremony her kid from the first marriage burst into tears and got the wish to see the ghost of his stepdad.

I also wish the game handled out of wedlock kids better. I had to move my current sim's son to his household through edit town so I could comlete a wish to send the kid to private school. There should be some kind of shared custody/visitation mechanism.

Does anybody know if you can have kids with foreign townies who are still living in the WA worlds? My guy seems like the type to leave a lot of foreign devils in the local genepools.

I thought the No Jealousy stopped working after Generation's shoddy rep system

# ¿ Feb 10, 2014 20:46

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

FirstPersonShitter posted:

No officer, I don't know of any shady, underground grow-ops going on around here

And I'm not sure how you stomp grapes with no legs.

HUMAN OIL 1.0, as their first batch of nectar was called, was a dismal failure, I'm guessing cause nobody wants to drink wine entirely made from limes.

Your plumbot is applying graviton beams to the limes. Like wise atheletics is constant calibration of the motors.

# ¿ Mar 11, 2014 05:48

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Cantorsdust posted:

Holy gently caress

Yeah, the Sims modding community has always been burdened with Drama. If it ain't paysites you are most likely dealing with creeps.

# ¿ Apr 23, 2014 20:02

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Captain Mog posted:

Actually I remember hearing about this YEARS ago- like, 2004. I was a teenager myself (13-14 ish) then so didn't realize just how serious this was and thought little of it, but I recall posters defending him and saying poo poo like "Guys leave Delphy alone! He's done his time and now he's founded this amazing site for us!", ect.

Pretty hosed up. MTS is a cool site and I do still use it from time to time, but I wasn't aware of this particular incident happening (perhaps because I haven't really been playing TS3 as much as I used to). For some reason I was under the impression that Delphy had quit/retired during the Sims 2 era or some such. I also recall a creepy offshoot of MTS2 that was dedicated completely to adult-related mods?

For what it's worth about JM Pescado: I was also a member of "Paysites Must Be Destroyed" (the site he founded which was dedicated to stopping the practice of for-profit mod sites) and remember they had some sort of crusade thing going where they exposed users who made inappropriate mods about minors and tried to get those mods removed from the internet whenever possible. There's that going for him, at least. And he did have a good point with his whole "PMBD" thing: it does represent an infringement of EA's EULA to charge users for mods, as is the truth with most games. I'm still to this day shocked EA didn't shut The Sims Resource and its ilk down.

The Internet is such a strange, scary place.

They were quietly observing them to learn how to monetize stuff, there is a reason why Sims is such an expensive hobby compared to others if not for guys like Pescado.

# ¿ May 7, 2014 17:56

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Lizard Wizard posted:

Sims 4 boxart!

Hopefully the sims on the cover are available in the bin.

Also, Ande and Brolaf got them beards.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2014 00:26

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Warmachine posted:

Bitter jadedness intensifies. Toddler was far more important than infant, really, since guess what? That was when you started to build their future!

Pools on the other hand, were kinda underwhelming. You could dive, splash, and have breath contests. That was pretty much it. No 'swim laps autonomously' for exercise. No pool floaties or toys. No talking. Just my simbot endlessly diving into the pool because there was nothing better for it to do.

I guess what I'm saying is I can do without pools if they make pools more interesting later.

Still this is the era where you take away features instead of going "WE ARE ADDING X!"

# ¿ Jun 26, 2014 08:41

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Captain Mog posted:

This is what I've been saying. I thought E3 would be good on that front since they promised game play videos... and then we get a meaningless scripted video that is so obviously staged it's ridiculous.

I have a very strong suspicion that this game was originally created to be a 100% online game where you create your own family/household(s) and join a "neighborhood" (server) of other players online and interact with them. And then after the Simcity debacle they were ordered to backtrack really fast and are now in a big hurry to change everything to single player. It explains why there was such a focus on CAS & Build mode and so little on Live mode. It also explains the loading system and lack of story progression.

I ventured over to other Sims sites and the negative response to this game is almost universal. Don't they pay attention to their fans, like, at all?

They dont need to. They got corporate shills to defend them.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2014 18:31

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

OneDeadman posted:

I guess the reasoning behind this is that they want people to actively create their own stories rather than let an EA algorithm decide stories. Which I suppose is understandable but also way dumb.

And given how without mods the thing was a mess, they figured they don't want to pull a Bestheda and go "we need the modders to fix our fuckups, except we make even more fuckups in the progress"

# ¿ Jul 3, 2014 19:01

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Elliotw2 posted:

Not the paysite modders (do they still exist?)

Yes they do and they also steal from others.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2014 22:21

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

epitasis posted:

Pescado's freako cult of personality is considerably more, like, hostile and sociopathic then Arthmoor's, though, I think. Arthmoor's is like ROBERTS RULES OF ORDER WITH ARTHMOOR AS LIFELONG PRESIDENT and Pescado's is like some weird fascist swamp shitpile.

It isnt as bad as the TSR who helped teach EA in sucking money and fun outta gaming

# ¿ Aug 6, 2014 03:37

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

A. Beaverhausen posted:

The gently caress? Modding has been synonimous with the Sims itself since pretty much it's release. What's the reasoning for that?

The Sims modding scene has avery troubled history from day 1 and laid a lot of groundwork for awful scams.

During a time when we still used 56k modems sites had actual bandwith limits so they had paysites. TSR was the ultimate example of the dlc precursor. Charging you to use photoshoppped content. As time went on you had more and more paysites popping up selling everything from sex mods to "donation" sets. Of course there are going to be people who decides these guys need to be sunk and pmbd was formed by Pescado and "stole" their paysite goodies. He also had fought the man who decided they want a piece of the pie the paysites baked and pescado added them to the list. EA germany actually had hired a couple of tsr as staff.

The worst part about paysites is it is photoshopped and probably has a trojan.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2014 05:44

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

ElTacoGato posted:

People who are that anti-mod / anti-custom content have always made me laugh. I haven't been around the official Sims forums since the late Sims 2 / very early Sims 3 days, but I remember there being people who would freak out at even the suggestion of using anything that Maxis/EA hadn't made for the game because it would destroy the game and erase your saves and kick your puppy! To the point that I know there was at least one poster who would look at ANY pictures of ANY custom content stuff (like hair) and go on and on about how ugly it was and how Maxis' stuff was clearly superior and had a certain "quality look" to it. So, when one of the new expansions was about the come out, someone uploaded screenshots they claimed were from copy of the game that broke street date, and this person went on and on about "look at these hairs, they are so wonderful, Maxis is so great and the best etc etc etc". Turns out the screenshots were fake and completely custom content, and this person who had sworn up and down they could always tell the difference between official stuff and custom stuff just about tripped over themselves to start criticizing the same content they had just been praising.

To be fair even pescado had recommended against pay site mods. Given the creepy doll incident I kept custom content to gameplay mods to at least keep the bloat to a minimum. Better the devil you know.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2014 07:47

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

On the whole issue of EA hate, there is a bunch of EA shills out there as well. I burned them alive once and even killing them in a fire is a loving bitch because the way the fire system works is it if one sim dies from the fire, the rest are extinguished.

But I am done with Sims 4, ain't getting fleeced outta it since this is going to be an epic disaster as we see more features removed than added.

gyrobot fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Aug 16, 2014

# ¿ Aug 16, 2014 16:13

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Captain Mog posted:

The game definitely isn't terrible, it's just, well, a bit boring. It runs smoothly, that's for sure, and the graphics are the best yet. The build mode is close to flawless and the multitasking system is well-implemented. The neighborhoods being connected is such a great thing; I wish this had been in previous renditions of the Sims.

Outside of that? Eh... if it were a direct sequel to TS2 back in 2008, I'd think it was great, but it's not. EA's method of expansion pack milking has taken its toll on the franchise and thus the base game is like a ghost town. There's nothing to it. It's the base foundation of a skyscraper with like five rooms, and all the rooms are filled with the most basic, bare bones pieces of furniture there is.

I still noticed some pathway problems- one of my Sims did the old "sit at another table in another room" trick when it was time for dinner, which really annoyed me so much that I had to stop playing for a while (in an "I just paid $60 for this?" way). I also really do notice all the small things that are missing, like cars and CAST and pools and normal jobs and toddlers. I notice them SO much and it really is almost a drain on things. Oh and there was one bizarre glitch with a townie vanishing into thin air, which I heard was fairly common, so look out for that.

It'll be best to wait for the first collection to come out. I can see it being fun with maybe a functional city neighborhood, an option to open businesses, supernatural creatures, seasons, ect. but as of right now it's just a C-/ 5-out-of-10 game.

e: apparently the game is getting roasted on Metacritic. A sign of things to come?

If the game had kept way more features it won't face the Metacritic bomb. Cutting bloat is fine but in this age where we have DLC ripping people off left and right since lets be honest, the way EA handles premium content is pretty bad at 5 bucks an item and the sheer amount of cut content at nearly 90 features removed pissed people off.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2014 06:42

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Lady Naga posted:

Do the people bellyaching about the expansion packs not realize that if they were to port over everything from the previous game into this new base game the development cycle would take like, ten years?

We live in an age where we are seeing more things being cut than being added in. Makes sense for gamers to get up in arms over it.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2014 07:28

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Soral posted:

oh, good, gamesguy is here to shill for yet another ea simulator

He isnt Zelino. You though Gamesguy was bad. You havent met Zelinko who is true EA apologist.

But that said the only redeeming feature it runs better. Not worth the sheer amount of content cut

# ¿ Sep 3, 2014 18:17

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Jake Snake posted:

Is hate sex a new feature in TS4?

Its more along the lines of Amanda and Michael's relationship in GTA. They still occasionally gently caress but they can't stand one another.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2014 19:38

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/137296-Sims-5-Wont-be-Made-if-Sims-4-Isnt-Successful-Says-EA

The brave Escapist Revolutionaries to the Rescue to free us from the corporate mindsuckers of the EA corporate Machine!

# ¿ Sep 9, 2014 07:16

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/9738-The-Sims-4-Review

The escapist revolutionary front strikes again!

# ¿ Sep 17, 2014 19:18

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

The Mighty Biscuit posted:

While I'm sure you are proud of your heroic stand against the Escapist and their anti-sim propaganda, thats just Yatzee. He trashes video games for a living. This could have been the video game equivalent of Mona Lisa and he would have sounded like he hated it.

Referring to the escapist forum posts. They are pretty much anti EA

# ¿ Sep 17, 2014 20:43

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 23:30

gyrobot: Nov 16, 2011

Captain Mog posted:

The way they've acknowledged the game's shortcomings and have been working hard to make up for it has won me a lot of faith in the dev team so I am confident they'll make some cool EPs out of this. I think people will look back on vanilla TS4 in a few years and think of it as being mediocre on its own but as having built a foundation for a good overall Sims experience.

Still, the whole "unfinished state only to patch in updates and removed features at the leisure of devs" pisses a lot of people off.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2014 08:45

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