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Original Poster
#1 Old 15th May 2009 at 3:04 AM
Default I have to admit I'm getting excited... some concerns and questions though
I was initially quite skeptical of this game. Not only was the game not made by Maxis, but all the characters look like wobbly cartoons. This has since been explained with the uncanny valley phenomenon, but I still think their faces are far too rounded and that they could have done a better job with it.

I'm sort of an obsessive person, or at least, that's what Sims 2 made me into. To age people properly it was necessary to keep a text file with the locations and names of all my sims, and expire them in order by looking at the family tree and then going that household... big pain in the butt. The new 1000 days lifespan sounds like it's right up my alley. It gives me plenty of time to fool around with my sims, but also eliminates the need for naming of plots and streets, and obsessive record keeping on my part. There's no stress what so ever to rush off and play another family when X number of days have passed... assuming you rotate at least ocassionally, at least to check up on your sims. I may even come to embrace simultaneous aging. But I also wish there was an option to turn it off completely, should the need ever arise for a particular household. Anyone know the status of this?

Also, only one neighbourhood? And you can't design any new ones yourself? Any clue when they're releasing the neighbourhood builder tool? If ever? And are we really bound to preplaced neighbourhood lots, like in Sims 1?

Are community lots in? Are doors lockable to individuals etc. still? Will they go sleep in their own rooms and beds?
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Field Researcher
#2 Old 15th May 2009 at 4:28 AM
In case of a particular household, I'm pretty sure there's some kind of "story mode" feature that you can turn off and play the game like in Sims 2.

There will be two neighborhoods--one in the game, and one that can be downloaded off the Maxis site (I do believe that's where they're putting it, in the Sims3 Store somewhere) once the game is registered. To make new neighborhoods would crash lots of computers, so I doubt that they'd make it an option--imagine having multiple seamless universes to half-load when you first start the game. For my PC, THAT would be a nightmare!

Community lots seem to be two different kinds of places: Regular, and rabbit-holes. In the latter, you can't see what your sims are doing inside, and can't customize anything, but in the regular ones, well... I'm thinking they operate like the ones in Sims 2.

The doors and individual rooms/beds? Nothing I've heard on either of those.
Mad Poster
#3 Old 15th May 2009 at 5:00 AM
I will really miss Veronaville. This is why i will keep Sims 2 for it. I will eventually recreate Tybalt though obviously xD

I don't get the idea of rabbit holes... I am confused...
Field Researcher
#4 Old 15th May 2009 at 5:24 AM
Well, for rabbit-holes, you know how your sims go off to school, work, jogging, hiking, or teens sneak out? Well, for the ones that happen in buildings, instead of your sim just disappearing off the lot (which they can't, because everything's seamless and you follow them everywhere) they disappear into their respective buildings.

While you still won't technically be able to see them, you can influence how they behave at work or school, I guess by clicking on the building or something and picking an available option like any other action. The only difference it is from any other place is that you can't go inside with your sim, and I don't believe you can customize it.

EDIT: Although, I have to wonder something. The neighborhood is already full of sims, like an S2 'hood, so is there any word on whether or not we'll be able to use a deleteallcharacters cheat, or something, and repopulate with our own people? Hmmm...
Forum Resident
#5 Old 15th May 2009 at 11:43 AM
Also, say you have more than one family. You switch off and play with one for a while. Meanwhile, the other is left to grow and do as they please. If a Sim in the latter family progresses to the next life stage without you, are his/her traits also determined without you? I'm not so sure if I like that idea...
Field Researcher
#6 Old 15th May 2009 at 12:33 PM
You know, that's a good question.... I dunno. I imagine that the sim would have traits like genes from their parents, or in the case of no parents (a pre-made teen, or something) the game may just generate them randomly. In a way, I like it, because it makes things random and I wouldn't care too much if I'm not checking on them enough to catch it, but for people who micro-manage, I can see how this will be annoying.

Then again, I guess as long as Story-mode or whatever is turned off, there won't be this problem. Kinda blows that there doesn't seem to be any kind of middle ground, though: the ability for the 'hood to grow all at once, AND be able to keep everything exactly like we want it. Then again... that's just a silly though anyway.
Original Poster
#7 Old 15th May 2009 at 1:06 PM
Quote:
To make new neighborhoods would crash lots of computers


How do you figure?

Quote:
imagine having multiple seamless universes to half-load when you first start the game


Even in Sims 2 it only loaded one at a time. I don't think number of neighbourhoods drastically affected the loading time?

Quote:
EDIT: Although, I have to wonder something. The neighborhood is already full of sims, like an S2 'hood, so is there any word on whether or not we'll be able to use a deleteallcharacters cheat, or something, and repopulate with our own people? Hmmm...


Didn't they say that nearly all of the cheats from Sims 2 would be in Sims 3? I hope that includes debug mode as well... It's hard to play a complex game like the sims without that, and get things to your liking.

Quote:
Also, say you have more than one family. You switch off and play with one for a while. Meanwhile, the other is left to grow and do as they please. If a Sim in the latter family progresses to the next life stage without you, are his/her traits also determined without you? I'm not so sure if I like that idea...


Well there's genetics, I think I read that it's also supposed to play a role in trait selection for children...

I really find it odd that they haven't elaborated more on the game mechanics.
Field Researcher
#8 Old 15th May 2009 at 1:20 PM
Well, what I meant about multiple neighborhoods is that if they give the option for us to make our own new ones, then things could turn out badly for people with multiple users for one computer. I dont think it'll be the same as having smaller packages like the Sims2 has. All the hoods will have to be seamless, which I guess would mean much bigger files--so if there's the option to just start over and have multiple custom hoods it may cause some manner of computer meltdown.

I know that my current game has about 6 well-worn hoods, all maxed out with all EPs and their respective sub-hoods installed (since we bought the base game, there's been no uninstalling or deleting on any of them... egad!), and loading the game for me is a real pain, just to get to picking one of them to play with. Of course, it could just be my pc and have nothing to do with the size or number of the neighborhoods in my game, but if it DOES, then that's annoying.

Besides... the Sims 2 came with 3 different neighborhoods, so maybe there's a good reason this game only comes with 1 with an optional 2nd that nobody seems to really care about. This is pretty much the only reason I could think of. Even if they didn't want to make more of them to give with the game, EA could've still enabled the option for us to do it ourselves if it wouldn't cause trouble for anyone or their machinery.
Test Subject
#9 Old 15th May 2009 at 1:41 PM
One of my concerns was only one neighborhood, Sunset Valley. The original came with 3 neighborhoods I believe, and one of them was a desert town.

I'm also curious about several traffic issues, first issue regarding transport. Can you still walk to work, or take a taxi? Is a carpool still available? Can you choose which mode you prefer to get to work, and the game remembers this? In Sims 2 a carpool would just show up at your house and the characters would automatically start heading for the carpool, and you had to cancel that interaction and click on the helicopter, or the character in order for him to walk to work...and so on.

Another traffic question I have deals with the amount of traffic that can be seen on the roads. Is this an option that can be set (low / medium / high), is it even possible to see traffic on the roads? It would be weird if the only traffic in town dealt with your character such as the repairman coming and going, etc. I'd like to see other characters controlled by the computers drive cars around to their workplace or restaurant , etc, not just me.
Original Poster
#10 Old 15th May 2009 at 2:25 PM
Quote:
Well, what I meant about multiple neighborhoods is that if they give the option for us to make our own new ones, then things could turn out badly for people with multiple users for one computer.


Quote:
All the hoods will have to be seamless, which I guess would mean much bigger files


Well, from what I know about the technical aspects of game and environment design I don't think they're packing all the neighbourhood resources into a single file. It would be several gigabytes, and then you would have to load that file up every single time you made any miniscule change to the environment, like put a tree, or enter a lot. That would require a dozen gigs of memory alone

The resources are probably distributed like before, and they use some sort of mapping code to lay it all out. I'm still a bit puzzled by how lot loading works. If it loads them on the fly, or preloads. In some ways I find the graphics in the Sims 3 engine curiously reminiscent of Sims 2. I think they're using the same simultaneous low and high poly count model technique that they used in Sims 2, but better obviously. In Sims 2 the low poly neighbourhood models that came with Nightlife (that you could see the neighbourhood around you finally) were kind of shabby and poorly done, but that's probably because the neighbourhood was never meant to be visible, and it's something they decided to add in later. It's a feature central to the game code, probably.

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so maybe there's a good reason this game only comes with 1 with an optional 2nd that nobody seems to really care about.


I don't know about everyone else, but I really prefer to make my own neighbourhood, my own sims, and my own "stories". I don't like playing the premade ones, never have. I think a lot of people feel the same way, and I'm really sad that there's no option to create your own neighbourhoods, or at least say, 10 different ones to choose from. I don't really care if they're not completely premade and finished with buildings etc. like the one that they have included in Sims 3. The premade open landscapes of Sims 2 where you chose a map and then placed stuff, was fine with me. I really think it's a shame we only get this one neighbourhood. It seems to me like they're trying to create more serious ambiance, by having each neighbourhood have it's own buildings (you know, the rabbit holes as you call them, the ones you just go into, but can't see inside [town hall, library, shops, workplaces etc.]). I think the game will rock, but until we get a neighbourhood tool, the game won't feel "complete" to me.

Quote:
I'm also curious about several traffic issues, first issue regarding transport. Can you still walk to work, or take a taxi? Is a carpool still available? Can you choose which mode you prefer to get to work, and the game remembers this? In Sims 2 a carpool would just show up at your house and the characters would automatically start heading for the carpool, and you had to cancel that interaction and click on the helicopter, or the character in order for him to walk to work...and so on.


As I understand it, you can walk/run/bicycle/taxi/drive/carpool to work.

Dunno about choice, it will be interesting to see. I don't want to have to direct my Sim every day.

Sims are supposed to be smarter though, so I doubt they'll skip it all together. If you buy them a car and designate it theirs, they will definately use that though, saw that on a video.

Quote:
Another traffic question I have deals with the amount of traffic that can be seen on the roads. Is this an option that can be set (low / medium / high), is it even possible to see traffic on the roads? It would be weird if the only traffic in town dealt with your character such as the repairman coming and going, etc. I'd like to see other characters controlled by the computers drive cars around to their workplace or restaurant , etc, not just me.


From a technical best guess standpoint I would guess that yes, you can choose traffic amount. I was dismayed with Sims 2 where certain things were automatically chosen by the game (and which led to many bugs), such as how much foliage and decorations could be displayed. I assume that because the NH is now seamless, we will get a lot more graphics options, especially for things like that. If they decide to autoscale it to memory size or video memory or something, I will, once again... be dismayed. Since those things are not strictly linear in resource use of computers which vary so much.

I do think it's a shame that all the cars dissappear though. A town without cars parked, only driving around, and appearing and dissappearing, kinda weird...
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