Future Sim Improvement and New Items Ideas

[17irish11]

Ok, I don't now about anyone else, but I really miss the old paints, wallpapers, bricks and stone work to decorate with.  Not real pleased with the selection they are giving us in Sims 3.  I was hoping with the new release of HEL that we would see more in the way of wall and floor decorations.  

I also would like a way to go back to one color pattern on an item (such as a rug) easier.  Unless I am missing something (which is always possible) I end up clicking the buttons to try to find the pattern that I selected.  I forget sometimes to hold down the shift button to get more than one.  

[Simbacat]

I agree Irish, I really liked the variety of exterior colors I had in TS2. I really like being able to customize furniture though, since the selections are a bit thin.
I miss the games that they used to play in TS2 (except the pillow fights...pillow fights in the street? seriously?) I remember they used to have this rock, scissors, paper thing game in TS2 that was kind of funny.

EA seems to be keeping to the forumulas that were successful with previous expansions.... we had Vacation (which turned into Bon Voyage and then WA.....Unleashed and Pets and so forth) I think this means that we will eventually have pets in TS3...at least I hope we do. It would be cool if the pets had their own set of traits as well.

One thing they really need to do is improve the AI. My sims certainly look better, but man, they are as dumb as bags of hair sometimes. TS2 at least had somewhat more competent sims. The borked routing is awful. I also hope they improve the carpool situation as well. Why does the carpool still come when my sim has a car? And why can't each of my sims use their own car? It's pretty unrealistic that my legacy family allows their teenage son to drive a police car to school (although it probably gets him a lot of respect in the parking lot).

I imagine they will eventually address these issues in future expansion packs......the TS2 base game was hardly perfect and did improve with each expansion (at least it did for me).
Thinking about all this, I really have to wonder if EA pays any attention at all to what we as players would like to see in our game.

[Edit: Please put spaces after punctuation. It's difficult to read without them.  Thanks! -Pam]

[kat]

I know the baby subject is one that is slightly done to death, but I've been thinking that it would be neat if EA actually brought out a "Parenting Pack", with more baby/toddler interactions, clothes and objects. Also more maternity wear as we don't seem to have any option with that. Also a couple more items that toddlers could self-learn from, like the xylophone and peg box. And more child friendly wallpaper etc. I mean, I know we can customise it but it would be nice not to have to bother.

[Pam]

I agree Irish, I really liked the variety of exterior colors I had in TS2.

The exterior wall coverings can be customized to any color you like, just like almost everything else.

And why can't each of my sims use their own car?

There's a feature now that lets you select a car as your Sim's preferred vehicle.  Once that is done, that Sim will always use that particular vehicle.  Just click on the car with the active Sim and make the selection.  Although, I don't think you can forbid a Sim from using a particular vehicle.

[TheLostGirls]

I REALLY hate the tantrums. On my legacy, family (check the stories section look for the word Degrassi) Hank refused to sleep because he had a tad less then one full square of clearence between the wall and his side of the bed. It was kind of funny to watch, but extremely irritating.

[Simbacat]

I agree Irish, I really liked the variety of exterior colors I had in TS2.

The exterior wall coverings can be customized to any color you like, just like almost everything else.

And why can't each of my sims use their own car?

There's a feature now that lets you select a car as your Sim's preferred vehicle.  Once that is done, that Sim will always use that particular vehicle.  Just click on the car with the active Sim and make the selection.  Although, I don't think you can forbid a Sim from using a particular vehicle.

Right...but if I have 2 sims in one house with 2 cars,they only ever use one of them.It's really irritating.I'm sorry my punctuation isn't perfect.

[Pam]

Right...but if I have 2 sims in one house with 2 cars,they only ever use one of them.It's really irritating.I'm sorry my punctuation isn't perfect.

I'm not sure what you mean.  They can only use one at a time, but each Sim can use his or her own car.  If nothing else, you can put a car into each one's inventory and they'll drive them.

As for your punctuation, it's good.  You just need to put a space after commas, periods, parentheses, etc.  Without those spaces, the search engines read it as one long word that doesn't really exist.  I'll continue to put spaces in for you because we need posts to be easily readable and searchable.  It would just be helpful to me if you'd do it yourself when you post a message like the others do.  I mean, you put spaces after your words, so just put spaces after punctuation marks, too. 

[samoht04]

I know that this is just a game but with Story Proggression there are so many possibilities. e.g Hair Grows (Hairdressers) Grass and Plants Grow (Lawn Mower and Gardener) Sims grow taller gradually (Not just for a birthday, they have already done it with outwards)

I'd quite like to see some expantion packs for pets, magic, seasons, Businesses, University, Nightlife (I know thats basicly all from ts2 but How many more catagories are worth putting in?) In Pets well not just Hamsters, Dogs, Cats, Birds. I think more pets like Reptiles, Rabbits, Guinea Pigs, Turtles, Fish... and also wild animals like wolves, foxes, badgers, rabbits, deer, ducks, birds...

[Simbacat]

I didn't know you could put cars into their inventory...that is good to know. I know that they will sometimes keep the car in their inventory after they use it, but I didn't know that you could just put it in yourself.
What I meant by my original post was that say I have 2 sims that live together. Sim 1 has a truck and Sim 2 has a car. The only car they ever use is the one I assign a preference to. There isn't a way to assign an owner to a car like there was in TS2. Not a big deal, but kind of unrealistic.

[17irish11]

I agree Irish, I really liked the variety of exterior colors I had in TS2.

The exterior wall coverings can be customized to any color you like, just like almost everything else.


Thanks Pam, I will have to investigate it to see if I can figure out how to do that. 

[Pam]

What I meant by my original post was that say I have 2 sims that live together. Sim 1 has a truck and Sim 2 has a car. The only car they ever use is the one I assign a preference to. There isn't a way to assign an owner to a car like there was in TS2. Not a big deal, but kind of unrealistic.

Ok, you take Sim 1 and click the truck and select "Make Preferred Vehicle."  Then take Sim 2 and click on the car, again selecting "Make Preferred Vehicle."  Now Sim 1 will always drive his truck and Sim 2 will always drive her car.  So, you have assigned an owner to each vehicle.  Is that not what you want to do?

[Simbacat]

What I meant by my original post was that say I have 2 sims that live together. Sim 1 has a truck and Sim 2 has a car. The only car they ever use is the one I assign a preference to. There isn't a way to assign an owner to a car like there was in TS2. Not a big deal, but kind of unrealistic.

Ok, you take Sim 1 and click the truck and select "Make Preferred Vehicle."  Then take Sim 2 and click on the car, again selecting "Make Preferred Vehicle."  Now Sim 1 will always drive his truck and Sim 2 will always drive her car.  So, you have assigned an owner to each vehicle.  Is that not what you want to do?

Yes, that is what I am attempting to do. I'll give it a shot next time I play. I didn't know you could do it twice in a row.

[Grandpa Muleskinner]

I've always wanted farming, with a full compliment of livestock, especially Llamas and Alpacas. Of course the sims would have to care for them... Feeding, cleaning up after them, training, etc. 

[Pam]

What I meant by my original post was that say I have 2 sims that live together. Sim 1 has a truck and Sim 2 has a car. The only car they ever use is the one I assign a preference to. There isn't a way to assign an owner to a car like there was in TS2. Not a big deal, but kind of unrealistic.

Ok, you take Sim 1 and click the truck and select "Make Preferred Vehicle."  Then take Sim 2 and click on the car, again selecting "Make Preferred Vehicle."  Now Sim 1 will always drive his truck and Sim 2 will always drive her car.  So, you have assigned an owner to each vehicle.  Is that not what you want to do?

Yes, that is what I am attempting to do. I'll give it a shot next time I play. I didn't know you could do it twice in a row.

Yes, you can do it as many times as you have Sims.  I often have a large household and I'll have an individual car assigned to each parent and all the teenagers.

[Sarah]

Yes, you can do it as many times as you have Sims.  I often have a large household and I'll have an individual car assigned to each parent and all the teenagers.

Your Sims must have a huge carbon footprint lol!

Anyway, things I'd like to see...

- I'd like more baby/toddler/child interactions. I love Sim children, but I wish they had more to do because sometimes I find it boring to repeat the same routine, especially with the babies-I wish I could fulfil their social need with more than just snuggle; maybe it would be nice if an adult or teen sim could sing them a lullaby, play a game with them or something

- echoing what someone further upthread has said: It would be nice if teen Sims could flirt with young adult Sims; alternatively if two teen Sims are seeing one another when one ages up to YA it'd be nife if the relationship could carry on

- a hot tub; also public woohoos. I loved it when Sims could woohoo in a photo booth or in the dressing rooms out shopping

-  pets: cats, dogs, horses, birds (not just parrots - canaries, budgies, doves, pigeons [you could have Jack Duckworth from Coronation Street in the Sims!] etc), reptiles, rabbits and rodents. It would be nice if you could give them traits rather than the old friendly/unfriendly, intelligent/dopey and brave/cowardly markers. I always ended in Create A Pet making friendly, brave, intelligent pets. I didn't have the patience to train dopey ones...

- more careers such as education or maybe one of the more offbeat ones such as Slacker or Psychic. The idea for a branching education career posted above sounds brilliant

- more furniture and toys for babies, toddlers, children and teens. A single bed for teens or children that can compete with the highest double bed comfort rating would be nice - just because they sleep alone doesn't mean they don't deserve the best sleep money can buy! The poster aping The Breakfast Club tickles me and it always goes up on the walls of my teen sims rooms. A changing table and more places for babies/toddlers to sleep would be nice; I'd like to have a proper nursery furniture set(s)

[Pam]

- I'd like more baby/toddler/child interactions. I love Sim children, but I wish they had more to do because sometimes I find it boring to repeat the same routine, especially with the babies-I wish I could fulfil their social need with more than just snuggle; maybe it would be nice if an adult or teen sim could sing them a lullaby, play a game with them or something.

World Adventures brought some new interactions between children and toddlers.  Children can now give a bottle, play peek-a-boo, and hug toddlers.  It's really cute.

- more furniture and toys for babies, toddlers, children and teens. A single bed for teens or children that can compete with the highest double bed comfort rating would be nice - just because they sleep alone doesn't mean they don't deserve the best sleep money can buy! The poster aping The Breakfast Club tickles me and it always goes up on the walls of my teen sims rooms. A changing table and more places for babies/toddlers to sleep would be nice; I'd like to have a proper nursery furniture set(s)

Some of this is already available in the Sims 3 Store.  There's a great nursery set called Animals Abound.  I've got that one and love it.  They've also got some sets of children's and teen's furniture:  Mischief Makers' Bedroom and Ultra Lounge Youth Set.  I don't know if these give the absolute best night's sleep, but they are all really nice to make their rooms fun.

[Simbacat]

I thought of some more:
1. Make all the beds have the same energy value. I get tired of using the same beds in every house I build. What's the point of that, anyway? (all the beds having different energy values)
2. I've said it before and I am saying it again: FIX THE BORKED ROUTING. The foot tapping is driving me looney tunes.
3. More careers would be nice. I would love to see something different, though, than the standard law enforcement, scientist, business etc. Careers like construction, garbage men and other city type employment would be kind of cool and make the game more realistic. I'm hoping that future expansions will add more careers.
4. Bring back the hot tub. I am sure EA must be aware that many of its fans really want this. I wish I knew why they didn't put it in the base game. There are some fabulous creators out there, but my guess is that a hot tub would be extremely difficult to make and program.
5. More shoes and clothes. I want cowboy boots and western style clothing. I can't seem to find any CC like this either. Some western style furniture would be really cool too.
I am not complaining, I really love TS3. In fact, I like it better than TS2. I just think it needs some tweks to make it completely fabulous. I just wish EA would listen to what we want instead of making stuff that they think we want.

[Saltypaws]

I agree on the weather expansion, out of all of them, I do believe the weather was my favorite.  I can see it now, the house on the hill, looking out of the town with it white with snow, that would be really cool.  Pets was ok, but, how about not having to add their picture, but maybe just play with them and be able to pet them, it was kinda much to have them actually added to your family.  I thought it was neat when they slept by the fireplace.  Kinda homey looking.  I just dont want that much control, too much to do already.  I agree with the rest of the stuff, like pianos, drums and more options on the music.  I miss my bands, that was amazing when you had all of the instuments going at the same time.  Oh well, maybe sometime in the future.

[Metropolis Man]

2. I've said it before and I am saying it again:FIX THE BORKED ROUTING. The foot tapping is driving me looney tunes.

Pathfinding issues are annoying. When it happens in challenges I scream because I'm losing precious time. But, that's why I try and stagger cues as much as possible between 2+ Sims. For example, if husband and wife are sleeping and are just about to wake up, I pause the game. I issue a shower, eat leftovers sequence to the wife, and a eat leftovers, and then shower for the husband. But, I don't issue the husband's cues until the wife is out of bed and at least walking towards the bedroom door. Otherwise, they'll get hung up.

[jestina]

Ohh...foot tapping, that and the sprinklers are my biggest peeves probably, right under all the borked patches they give us.

I wish they had left in all the carpets and stuff from TS2. And what happened to the half walls and spiral stairs?

[Saltypaws]

Yes, foot tapping has to be right up there, especially for a large family.  I have tried doing what my sister does when building a house and make it more open, especially in the dining area.  I kinda miss the prolonged eating and in sims2 you could have six people eat at the same time and they would sit there for a long time and talk.  Sometimes, just to get a large family's social up, I would tell them all to sit at the table and they would sit there until you told them to do something else.  I do that now and they won't sit there but for a second or two, very hard to get more than two people to eat at the same time because of the toe tapping thing, LOL, but, that is a minor detail and workable, I would rather have to deal with something like that, rather than dealing with all of the major problems some are having, so not really a complaint, just annoying.  I really feel bad for the people that cannot play at all or are dealing with so many other issues.  I have lost two big families at the beginning, but no major issues at this time, love the game.

[Simbacat]

I forgot about the half walls.......I loved those. I also loved the spiral stairs,they would look really nice in some of the houses I have made. I would love to see some of the objects from TS2 make their way into TS3.
TS3 has some really great potential for expansions and I am looking forward to what EA comes up with, but I have to wonder...do they really pay attention to what we, as players, want in our games? Because I think if they did, we wouldn't be begging for hot tubs and musical instruments.

[LivvieLove]

I terribly miss my Piano much like others. I've played the piano for 10 years of my life (and still counting) it's such a big part of my life that I simply can't make a sim me without the piano.
I miss the hottubs.
I really miss the teenage "sneak out" function. I know you can be out past curfew, I just thought it was awesome that you can call someone to join you.
I miss all the toddler and Child interactions too, much like everyone. Like children could do cartwheels and "show off" to parents to gain attention. I miss being able to consol a child when they were sad. I remember a family of mine had parents that got into a divorce, the dad moved off the lot, and the child started crying, the mom came over and did a very cute comforting thing called "consoling." This never involved any screaming if I recall like the sims 3 makes it out to be.
I'm family oriented pretty much. I really want sims who are in love to be able to walk places holding hands. I couldn't stand how "hold hands" option meant they grab hands for 2 seconds and smile and wave them around. That's not holding hands. That's some form of dancing.
I MISS MY SLOWDANCING! Everything that came with it too (from goosing to the cute little kisses )
I also miss being able to give "gifts" from a sim to another on parties and birthdays.
Haha. I'm glad that they fixed the relationship thing though, I dont know about you, but I could be playing the sims 2 and building up a friendship between a guy and a girl and they woud automatically kiss goodbye... even if one of them was married! It was awful. I loved apartment life, and I think we should be able to build apartments again. I miss colleges too. But these will most likely be fixed with expansions. Sorry for the very long list, I just really miss some of these things from Sims 2 and stuff.

[Pam]

TS3 has some really great potential for expansions and I am looking forward to what EA comes up with, but I have to wonder...do they really pay attention to what we, as players, want in our games? Because I think if they did, we wouldn't be begging for hot tubs and musical instruments.

I'm not associated with EA, so this is just my opinion. I think they are well aware of what players want to see in the game and I think they will eventually give it to us.  They aren't just game creators, they are also businesspeople.  If they put everything we want into the base game, they would have played all their cards up front.  I'm sure they are thinking down the line and how to keep sales moving.  They gave us the much desired electric guitar in the High End Loft stuff pack.  And the vibrating bed.  But seriously, don't expect them to give you everything in one pack.  They will dole it out a little at a time over the next few years so you can gradually build your game up to be so much more than what it started with.  The old saying, "always leave them wanting more" applies here.  It's a viable business tactic for them.

[LivvieLove]

I know this topic hasn't been posted in for a while but I just wanted to put out there something I just remembered about the Sims 2 that you would probably like Pam.
Whenever you had two parents, and (in my case it was always the dad Sim) who would work later than the children would be at school, anyways, as soon as the father would get home the child Sim would stop whatever they were doing and run (I'm very serious, they stopped and took off for the door at full speed, the first time I saw this, my Sim had been doing homework and I was confused to where she was going!) to hug her father! It was adorable how she did this everyday. I didn't want to just start up a new topic so I found this one again to post in it. I would love to see that happen again in future Sim patches etc. Plus I just found out about the Peek-a-boo interaction and have never said "aww" more at anything in that game other than to that action. It's adorable.