The Sims 3 Hands-On Event - Video now added

[Clelclan]

This is really whetting my appetite for Sims 3 now - I'm so jealous!! You all appear to have a 'simplay' excellent day.

Thank you for all the info. How did you manage to keep part of your brain concentrating on the questions to be answered when you were getting sucked deeper and deeper into the game?

I'm a little worried about what happens when you change families/sims when you say they lose their wishes/wants.
Does this mean that it's better to only have one active sim/family or will we be able to reset their wishes/wants when we select them again?

[mandythesim]

Thanks Guys and Gals for answering our questions! I love the thought of changing th length of eyelashes but also dissaponted about not bieng able to change the sims heigh, but all seems to be good!

[Talia05]

Wow, thank you so much for anwering these questions!! The game still sounds awesome lol! Hope everyojne had as much fun as it sounds like you did

[jonneymendoza]

Originally Posted by The Star Hermit

Thanks for taking the trouble to answer these questions for us all, it's much appreciated.

I was interested to read this:



Basically then we'll have to stick with a sim/family throughout their life if we want to fulfil their wishes and opportunities, since we'll lose them if we change to a different family, even briefly. Perhaps we can use the save slot system to save a neighbourhood before we change families in case we want to return to that family untouched.

damm that is not good if all goals and wishes get erased

[Writin_Reg]

It was my impression from what Ben Bell said we could save up to 5 households in save slots, so if we left that family and went to another we could go back to them later on and take up where we left off. Did I misinterpret what Ben Bell said then, if the Sims you leave lose the help you've given them, then does that mean we no longer have the five household save slots?

If that is true, I don't see how I will ever want to play the Sims 3 as I play thousands of Sims in my Sims 2 game, over 600 families in 25 hoods, and I was upset enough just having 5 families, but not even getting five sounds a bit boring and tedious after we get used to the game. I like numerous households because I play all kinds of different styles of play with each household, including entire themed neighborhoods. This is very disappointing for players like me.

[Lycan]

Ah, Damn.. I wanted to ask what Grimmy looked like..

Good answers..

[EAUK_Aurora]

Originally Posted by jonneymendoza

damm that is not good if all goals and wishes get erased

I do think that this would only relate to those that are currently sitting for your Sim to accomplish at the time that you change and there are times when your Sim may have none of either anyway.

Originally Posted by Writin_Reg

It was my impression from what Ben Bell said we could save up to 5 households in save slots, so if we left that family and went to another we could go back to them later on and take up where we left off. Did I misinterpret what Ben Bell said then, if the Sims you leave lose the help you've given them, then does that mean we no longer have the five household save slots?

If that is true, I don't see how I will ever want to play the Sims 3 as I play thousands of Sims in my Sims 2 game, over 600 families in 25 hoods, and I was upset enough just having 5 families, but not even getting five sounds a bit boring and tedious after we get used to the game. I like numerous households because I play all kinds of different styles of play with each household, including entire themed neighborhoods. This is very disappointing for players like me.

I didn't see the save slots myself as we were pushed for time and trying to find out a lot about the gameplay in general. I did see that there is a clipboard to place Sims in if you remove them during a session and they will retain relationships etc. but you must place them back in the neighbourhood before exiting the game.

[Clelclan]

Okay, we'll give EA the benefit of the doubt that they have thought this one out.
Maybe this time we will just have to have fewer playable families - until the first expansion pack/second neighbourhood!

[The Star Hermit]

Originally Posted by EAUK_Aurora

I did see that there is a clipboard to place Sims in if you remove them during a session and they will retain relationships etc. but you must place them back in the neighbourhood before exiting the game.

That sounds quite handy, it should allow us to save sims from evolving while we play another family.

[BlackGarden87]

I've written a brief bit about the game in my TSR blog, with all my first impressions and all the things that made me go "oooh" even though I'd read all about the game. I think I'll write a second entry, the only reason I stopped writing last night was because I was so tired!

I think the thing that really struck me is that even though we all knew a lot about the game, the room was full of giggles and gasps as we discovered the weird and wonderful ways of the Sims 3.
After just a few minutes of playing, I had my first fire (shouldn't have let a clumsy Sim use the cooker...) and a few things have changed there. First, my excitable teen fainted as soon as the fire broke out. Second, after the fireman came and went, a popup appeared informing me I'd been paid some amount from insurance to replace the items damaged in the fire. Then, rather than going into buy mode to change the burnt cooker (which isn't a pile of ash, just a burnt looking cooker) you just click on it, and it says "replace for" some amount of Simoleans, depending on how expensive the cooker was. It's more than the insurance money you get, but overall it's much cheaper than having to buy a new cooker without that money.

Now, onto those questions... I'll try not to repeat any of the ones that have been answered already: (I've highlighted some key words/phrases in bold red so if you're not looking for answers to your own questions but you are looking at some specific aspects of the game you can scan for those)

Sibi4
I didn't see any churches in the neighbourhood, after looking around quite thoroughly. There are lots of beautiful locations for weddings, though, and there's a creepy graveyard.
There's a fixed limit on the area of the town, but there is still loads of space in it. I don't think you'll have trouble with running out of room.
No car accidents... the cars will quite happily pass straight through pedestrians.

Hannahdisiac
As some others have said, all the families will always age at the same rate. However, you can save a "copy" of a family. So, you could save a "copy" of the Smiths with their toddler, and then play the Johnsons. The Smiths would still age, have more kids, whatever (depending on their personalities of course) alongside your Sims. Now the Smiths might have a teenager, but you want to play with them with the toddler again. So you can evict them, and move in the copy you made when the kid was a toddler.
I'm unsure whether doing this makes them break any current relationships with others in the neighbourhood, however. It may well do.

CornishFairy2
I instructed my teen to go to the spa to get a job as a receptionist and because she was family-oriented she picked up her toddler sister and took her to the lot with her. Of course she wouldn't take her when she was actually going to work, just to sign up for the job.
If a toddler is left on a lot alone they seem to magically warp back home, and the game will prompt you that they are unattended and ask you to call a babysitter or send someone to stay home with them.
I'm not sure about babies, but I would assume that it's the same, seeing as my new mother returned home from the hospital carrying a baby in a taxi

Skypeia
The lots are fixed, you can't change their size or location. However, you can take a smaller house and place it on a bigger lot if you want more space to build around it.

Jonnymendoza
You'll see lots of vehicles driving around, as well as cyclists, and Sims just running and walking.
No weather effects, sorry

The Star Hermit
The school bus works just the same as before, except you can follow it stopping at the houses of other families who have children before it finally drives to the school to drop them all off. It just seems to disappear after that.

Talia05
You can turn off "story progression" for the houses you're not playing. They'll carry on with their day-to-day lives and age but won't get married or have children (I'm not sure exactly which "events" they are limited to not have, but I assume these are the main ones).
You still control more than one Sim at the same time, and you can click on them to go to their current location.
Kids and teens still get homework every day.

R0b3rt0o
There were no in game movies in the game as we played it, but remember the game we played isn't final by a long way, so I don't know if that would be the sort of thing they'd add later in the game's development.

Lara4484
Pregnancy lasts 3 days no matter what the life span. For the first day they don't show at all. At the start of the second day, they will "realise" they're pregnant, and change into maternity wear, but if you look at them they don't really have much of a belly yet. The belly then expands gradually over the next 48 hours. More details on pregnancy & birth in my blog, link at the top of this post.
There didn't seem to be a private school, there was no option to call the headmaster or anything.
I'm pretty sure there are no secret supernaturals, but you can create Sims in CAS which are lovely shades of red, green, and blue.
The careers are: athletic, culinary, criminal, military, politics, medical, law enforcement, science, music, journalism & education. There are also 5 part-time jobs, which any Sims aged teen upwards can have, including adults and young adults: bookstore clerk, grocery store clerk, spa receptionist, spa specialist, grave digger.
There is a sports stadium, for the athletics career. No "special" events occurred while I was playing.

Simrealtor
There doesn't seem to be any specific advantage to having a baby in the hospital as opposed to at home. I guess that's a debate they didn't want to wade into...

Evionthecool
The building tools are much better than before. They've added lots of new building features, like you can drag a wall to make a room larger (rather than deleting the old walls and placing the new ones). Also, things we had to cheat to do before (like place objects off the grid) are now possible to do without cheats.

Gallifreyanwitch
With the game as it is there's only one neighbourhood "template" but there has been mention of a tool to create new neighbourhoods possibly being released shortly after the game. However, you can save multiple copies of the default neighbourhood.

Igorplayer755
The game does not slow down as your Sim moves around the neighbourhood.

Twightlightvampires
There's definitely stars. I didn't see the moon but maybe it was just hiding from me.

Hannahmom
Toddlers need to be carried to go to another lot.
Kids can ride bikes - you must buy them kid-sized bikes. Teens ride the adult-sized bikes.
Toddlers still use the high chair to eat rather than booster seats.
The adults can get on with quite a lot of stuff while they're still holding a baby or toddler.
Laptops can be carried in your inventory, and you can get them out on any table even at community lots or other people's houses.
No swimming or bike lessons, but there are lots of other classes to take.

Ninstroyer
Sims know which bed belongs to them. I'm not sure about other items. If you click on somebody else's bed and try to send your Sim to sleep there it will say "sleep in ____'s bed". Only inappropriate Sims would go and sleep in another Sim's bed without being directed to. You don't really "assign" this, but the first bed you tell them to sleep in will be "their bed".

Tidus
I didn't have the occasion to have a funeral... but you can plan house parties and birthday parties with the phone. An input box to plan the party comes up, and you choose the start time for the party, and the dress code (casual, formal, or swimwear), as well as who to invite.
To learn to cook new recipes, your Sim has to buy recipe books from the book store. Each recipe book has a cooking skill level that will be required for your Sim to learn the new recipe from reading the book. Each recipe has set ingredients and if you don't have those in your fridge you can just pay some amount from your funds rather than having to go to the store to fetch them. Like in Seasons from TS2, you can grow crops to use or sell.

Loveslucky2
Sims know who their friends and family are and will recognise on the street. When you go to socialise with someone, it will tell you their relationship to you in the top left corner of the screen, eg. "brother-in-law", "boyfriend", "ex-husband", "son".
Adults find it harder to get pregnant than young adults, aside from that I didn't notice much difference. However, as an adult, you can buy a mid-life crisis and redo all your Sim's personality

Spectrum44
The first time you load the game the neighbourhood is static until you choose what to do. On subsequent loads, it will take you straight into the family you were playing with before.

Pamela01
Switching between Sims who are part of the same household is seamless.
You can woohoo in the test chamber while you're on the science lab tour with another Sim. You can get caught doing this, and it may affect your career if you do!
Sims in relationships don't autonomously cheat on their spouses, unless their traits mean that they would (eg. commitment issues). If your Sim is having a relationship with someone who is seeing somebody else, they could ask them to break up with their boyfriend/girlfriend. When your Sim starts to flirt with someone who's in a relationship, you'll get a pop-up telling you so, so you can choose to proceed or not now that you know that!

Lt_Kirby
You can still make your Sims pick up rubbish if you want. However, you also have the option to click and drag it to the bin in Live Mode. This just means that if your Sims make a huge mess and you don't want to wait for them to clean it, you don't have to pause the game and go into Buy Mode, and put a cheat on, to clean it up.
Sims can have affairs.
Young adults can get pregnant and married, and to adults or elders too if they wish.

jonny442159
Family life is still a big part in the Sims 3. Just because your Sims can wander the neighbourhood alone, it doesn't mean they aren't still connected to their family. They recognise their family members, and socialising with family members who don't live in your household is much easier than it was in TS2.

Ok, guys you can wake up now! I hope I haven't repeated too much information here Sorry for such a long post. Safe to say, the Sims 3 is great, and it kept me so involved I could really write for hours about it!

[TickleOnTheTum]

There is some great new things in The Sims 3... BUT... I won't be getting it when it first comes out for a few reasons:

1) Too much 'back to basics' because it is just the Base Game again.
2) Unable to create custom neighbourhoods (I never play Maxis Hoods).
3) No custom content yet (meshes) obviously and won't be a fair while.

So there you have it, why I won't be getting it until at least a couple of Expansion Packs are out!

[Writin_Reg]

And is more than enough to make me decide not to pre-order for sure unless I see otherwise. I simply cannot justify spending the money for a new base game that will surely entail more costs as EPS are introduced, if I know beforehand I will quickly tire of the game. I also absolutely hate repeats, so I do not like losing accomplishments in one family when I move to another family only to have to repeat the process when I go back to the first family.

Everything else about the Sims 3 sounds marvelous, but I know myself too well to know that once the newness wears off, I will not be satisfied with this game if it is indeed a one household only game. I just know the tediousness of playing the same faces over and over again, day after day after I've spent the last nearly 10 years rotating from house to house a sims week at a time, would nearly drive me nuts, and I would surely be back playing my Sims 2 and angry I wasted money on the Sims 3. To make matters worse I will be angry my Sims 2 game doesn't have the parts of Sims 3 I liked. So in my case I guess I will just have to wait and see. If we do have at least 5 households, I can see myself playing this game as long as I can pick up where I left off with them. But just one at a time - no way. This makes me extremely sad. Anyway, thank you for your answers. It's much appreciated.

Edit to add: Ahhhh, Black Garden I think you may have made a big difference in my veiwpoint - then families can be saved at one point and be played later if I so choose? That, I'm liking a whole lot better.
Thank you so much in adding your post. Now I can get back to being excited after all, if this is indeed a fact.

[BlackGarden87]

It's not a one household only game though, Writin_Reg, you can exit to neighbourhood view to switch the playable family at any time to another family. Actually, changing families is much quicker than in TS2. You could do this every few days if you like to play in rotation, and lengthen the life span setting so you don't miss so much of their lives

You won't lose the "achievements" your Sim has. Their lifetime score that they earned from gaining these won't disappear. The only thing you'll lose are the wishes and promises they had at the time.

[The Star Hermit]

Thanks BlackGarden, much appreciated.

[Writin_Reg]

Thank you so much for that info Black Garden. I'm loving it now. You've eased my mind completely, and I believe I could handle that then.

[Jan_831]

Thanks for all of the great information BlackGarden, I'm going to read your blog now.

I just finished reading your blog. It was great, thanks again for all of the information.

[Sparkleuk]

Well it seems I'm a bit late to the party... sorry. I've literally just got back from work but I'm now here to write up the answers to my questions :-)

Will there be different looks for the graves if long term/life goals are met?
There are at least 3 different types of grave in the grave yard that comes with the game, a flat plaque like one, a tall obelisk type and another the same as those in the sims2. Unfortunately I didn't get as far as having a sim fullfill a LTW and die so I don't know if those are related to goals. The graves do however have picture representations of how the sim died on them (an egg timer for old age, a crossed knife and fork for hunger and a hand being held above a wave for drowning - I didn't see any others but there may be more.)

How do relationships act if they are not tended to?
Friendships are slightly different in the sims 3 since there is only one friendship bar not two (short and long term) and your friendship status changes as you move up the bar (from stranger to acquaintence, to friend, to good friend, to best friend - and into romance if you wish). Friendships do still decay but it seems to be slower, it is difficult to tell since there is no longer a number out of 100 to look at just a bar that fill up. However if you have a friend and the relationship decays below friendship they now become a "distant friend" so you don't loose them as a friend. I don't know however if the friendship can decay below that level or what it becomes if it does.

Will there be career rewards?
I could find no evidence of them but careers now work very differently to the sims 2, you don't just get skill points and move up the ladder, you have to have the right skills, get on with your colleagues and boss and in some instances do certain other things (for example my sim was in journalism so she also needed to go to the theatre and right reviews on shows and interview sims and publish them).

If you do not fulfil your goal or work towards it will your sim have breakdowns all the time like in TS2?
Simple answer appears to be no. Even when my sims mood was deep red all that changed was her portrait picture to portray that she was in a bad mood and that she got a red jagged thought bubble about the problem but she didn't foot stomp or get upset and she definitely didn't require a sim shrink. You don't even get penalised for deleting a saved wish as far as I could see.

At what life stage do you pick your (lifetime) wish?
Teenager (or in CAS of course if your a young/adult/elder)

What are some very difficult goals and what do you get for fulfilling one?
I didn't come across any very hard goals though the prize for fulfilling it would be the same for any other saved wish, a certain amount of happiness points to spend on lifetime benifits and a mood boost from any related moodlets.

Regarding careers and lifetime wishes, for what career is the hit movie composer? The DNA Genetist? The Robot Cross Breeder? And are these related to careers and if they are what are they?
Hit movie composer is the top level of the symphonic branch of the music career, DNA Genetist is in the science career and Robot Cross Breeder is also in the science career.

What will sims do if a big wish isn't met? Will they act without your consent and not listen to you?
Not as far as I saw in my game, I even experimented with deleting saved wishes and my sims did not react. They certainly didn't stop listening to me but that may be trait related so a more negative type of trait may stop listening and do their own thing.

Are there "talent badge" equivients. Like you need to have fished for x hours in your life before you can catch certain fish?
Strangely this is now how skills work. There aren't talent badges and I didn't try with fishing but I did try with guitar, writing, logic and charisma and at least with writing and guitar as you gain skill points you unlock certain other things, so for example my Journalism sim unsurpisingly wanted to gain some writing skill. She also wanted to write a novel. With no skill she could only write Fiction, Non-fiction and Science Fiction, once she gained a skill point she could also right humour, and with more skill points she open up additional genres each of which in turn could earn higher royalty payments (you now get money over a period of time for each book) with the guitar, as you gain skill points you learn to perform new songs and compositions and you can also read books to learn even more songs to play. There are also additional extras you can do in each skill for example writing 5 novels in one genre will make you a "specialist" and mean you get more hit and bestselling books in that genre. Skills have basically been completely overhauled and are now a bit more like really advanced tallent badges.


Additionally to all your questions, something I found interesting and which is something to keep an eye on with wishes, you can only satisfy a saved wish (I believe they've been refered to as "promises" in some previous interviews). To save a wish you have to left click on it (not right click as in the sims 2... that deletes the wish). Only once a wish has been saved can you actually satisfy it and gain happiness points and moodlets for it. I tried satisfying wishes before I saved them and got NO benifit from it. You also have to be careful which wishes you save as you only get four slots to save them in.

[Jan_831]

Thanks for the information Sparkleuk. I can't believe how good information we are getting here.

[jonneymendoza]

Originally Posted by BlackGarden87

It's not a one household only game though, Writin_Reg, you can exit to neighbourhood view to switch the playable family at any time to another family. Actually, changing families is much quicker than in TS2. You could do this every few days if you like to play in rotation, and lengthen the life span setting so you don't miss so much of their lives

You won't lose the "achievements" your Sim has. Their lifetime score that they earned from gaining these won't disappear. The only thing you'll lose are the wishes and promises they had at the time.

those wishes and promises should still be there imo

[EAUK_Aurora]

Thanks for posting up your reports guys....much appreciated

[ConnorJackT]

I hate it! It's really not fair. These are the same people. I run a fansite, but do I get invited, EA would never dream of it.

[Tom]

Thanks guys for posting this.

[pollyncuts]

My report from the Sims 3 day:

Some of the questions i had to look into have already been answered, but i'll give you my view .

Hairstyles
22 hairstyles for female sims
17 hairstyles for male sims
As mentioned there is no curly hair, however there is some nice wavy hair one with a flower one with out.
There's a variety of hats and hair accessories that you have an option to use, but they all come with set hairstyles. But each of the hats and accessories can have their colours and textures altered.
I really liked the hairstyles in the Sims 3.

Skin
The slider that is used to change the colour of the skin tone is great. Lots of selection of tones.
The Blues and Green can be altered from light to dark, and also light pink to dark red. I only played with these colours in CAS. But i now wonder what would happen if a green sim and a blue sim had a baby.

Facial CAS
Everything has so much detail, you can change just about everything. If you just want to change the nose you can, but you can use the 'dot' system to go into more dept,
ie: change nostril definition
nose tip scale
bridge height

Clothes
All clothes can be customised.
You can not choose layers, but if the clothes already have layers then you can alter the colours and texture of both parts.

Sim Sizes
As we know height can not be changed.
But being able to change the sims weight it great. You make them skinny and fat, along side puny and muscley.
I have to admit I created a extra large, but muscular teen boy, and I loved him.
Even in neighbourhood view you get to see different sims who are all different sizes, which makes a nice change to just one or two sizes you see in Sims 2.


Other things I found
During gameplay, if a sim is sleeping you can hover over the bed icon (which the sim is currently doing) and it will tell you the time that the sim will be fully rested. And if you allowed them to sleep until they were fully rested, they would receive a positive moodlet.

My teen sim I made with a trait as 'workoholic' now I'm assuming that because of this trait as soon as he finished school he sat down straight away to do his homework. Townies sims also did this, but I never got to try it with another teen I'd created.
When a teen sim finishes school there's a chance they may bring a friend home, there's also a chance your teen sim may get invited over to a friends house. You have the option to decline. You can then follow your teen sim to their friends house.
Depending on how good of friends they are, your sim can 'request to stay over' If the friend accepts, they'll say 'sure make yourself at home'.


I couldnt have played the game without visiting the Goths and the Bachelors
At the Goths
There is 4 graves in their back garden.
I only really concentrated on Mortimer, his traits were Grumpy and Artisic. Looking at his relationships, he was best friends with Bella, so I would hope if we didnt intervene then they would grow up to marry. Mortimer was one day older than Bella.
At the Bachelors
Didnt stay there long, Bella was wearing a red dress, her favorite colour was also red.
Her traits were, Good, Brave, Lucky... as she had three traits it would suggest she would have had a better upbringing than Mortimer.

I briefly visited the Langerak's just to see what Kaylynn looked like, as there has been a lot of debate about pictures posted on the forum to whether they were of Bella or Kaylynn. Well Kaylynn was wearing her hair in a pony tail.
Kaylynn's family blog stated Kaylynn liked to clean.
While playing with my own teen sim, he ran into a teen Kaylynn Langerak, and it was great to see the aging process.
Kaylynn is slightly older than Mortimer and Bella.

Looking at the neighbourhood view there seemed to be at least 21 playable households. Each household has a difficulty rating.

Last thing I'll mention I had to watch the Sims 3 load up, and the scrolling words were still there, with one of the favourite phrases returning........
RETICULATING 4D SPLINES

[The Star Hermit]

Thank you both, again it's much appreciated.

I just got around to reading BlackGarden's TSR blog, I liked this addition to the game:

That's right, I think my absolute favourite new interaction is "announce pregnancy". You can go to friends, family, and... don't forget your partner... and announce that you're pregnant to them. Just hope they react well... I didn't test this but I wonder how someone who "dislikes children" would react!

What a lovely little interaction. Sometimes it's these small little details that make such a big difference.

[DeepSaphire]

Oh wow. Im actually hyped up about the game now! Thank you so much all of you, for taking the time to write up your finds for us

These have answered so many of my questions and now I just want the game!