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Post by raquelaroden on Sept 15, 2010 15:58:20 GMT -5
So, since several of us have voiced an interest in prosperity-style 'hood play for TS3, I thought I would start a thread where we could discuss strategies for this type of play. I've been reading a lot of TS2 prosperity 'hood stories (specifically Lakeside Heights, Heredon Cove, and Sullivan Sims), and there's just no way we have the level of control in the TS3 'hoods that was available with all the hacks and stuff in TS2. On a forum somewhere someone pointed out that if you want to start off with a small neighborhood and slowly build it up in TS3, you still need a number of NPC families around because the game wants to stuff Sims from those families into the boss positions for particular careers. Your town also can't be too small without it causing problems for work opportunities--you need all the buildings that would trigger a job type. I think LunarFox built a town in which she used different buildings for things--like you can set a particular lot to be the school, etc.. But I don't know, because things like that are rabbitholes, rather than actual buildings. I know you can add lots in a town you already have a file on, but the lot addition is so....lacking. I'd rather bulldoze items on already-placed lots, because new lots almost never line up the way they should. Maybe I can play with the World Builder a bit more and figure out a way around that. Any thoughts? I should shut up now.
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Post by raquelaroden on Sept 15, 2010 19:11:16 GMT -5
Another issue is the passage of time. I'm thinking the best way to solve this problem would be to put the lifespan on Epic. You kinda get a neat effect in that things would transpire while you weren't playing them (and with certain mods, you can keep their wishes and stuff so they'll maybe pursue them without you), so you'd come back and have to get oriented back into their life and see what they did without you around. But with an epic life span, it would still seem more like you were playing a round, because you'd still get a few posts in each age span even with a large hood of playables.
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Post by thelunarfox on Sept 15, 2010 20:22:10 GMT -5
Re: Time, Laura gave me this link here which helped a lot. Now I am sort of experimenting, but I've never been a player that's all about control, so I won't be much help with this project. I pretty much just watch my sims go and make up stories in my head, lol. But I can offer whatever I've discovered of hacks. That link is really helpful with time. Basically, on epic, each day is one month, which is pretty handy. I made a post here when I was experimenting with it showing how I used Flashnote to set up my organic notes. Another idea was actually Laura's. You could turn off aging and play through the neighborhood, then age them up a day after a round to simulate a year. I'm sure the aging hacks can help you, and if they aren't set up right, it's possible to fix them, I'm sure so they will be correct. If worse came to worse, you could try playing TS2 style. I think story progression has this feature, and I know Awesome mod has this feature. Now if you're playing prosperity style, you could forgo the whole rabbit hole thing if you want. Those aren't even needed. It would present other issues though. There are hacks for home schooling sims, but no hacks for schools yet. What I've used are the rabbit hole rugs. I place them inside the buildings so the buildings are usable, and they have rabbit holes they can report to work to. The school is out of the library, the park has a game stadium, one of the abandoned lots outside of town is the criminal hangout. ALSO, regarding jobs in town, it is possible to own buildings now. So with this mod here you can have sims running businesses. Ani has made it so that sims will get money for their items made. I've been experimenting, but haven't actually set anything up yet. Buying lots gets complicated as there are some they can't buy. If a sim is a farmer, you're going to want them to own their shop because they can't label their produce. But with anything else, you can have a sim put their goods in someone else's box, and they'll get a portion, and the sims selling the item will get a portion. So this is a possible alternative to the rabbit holes.
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Post by laura on Sept 16, 2010 9:54:14 GMT -5
Oooh, good! I'll be watching this thread for ideas!
I'll actually be getting the game long before I'm finished with LH, so I can pick at it ahead of time, get the feel for it, before I'm ready to actually start writing with it. So pretty soon - after my novel is finished, January-ish? - I should be able to contribute some more valid ideas. I can't have any more distractions before that though.
Ditto what Lunar said about the aging off - that's actually how most of us play them in these TS2 hoods as well. That's what I was planning to do with my own TS3 hood, when it gets started, so I hope it works, lol!
Oooh, and I'm very excited about the ownable lots thing! Can they also hire employees for their businesses?
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Post by raquelaroden on Sept 16, 2010 13:03:14 GMT -5
I wouldn't mind so much (about the rabbitholes) if they didn't look so very established. If there were smaller versions of them, etc.. Maybe I'll just hide them and make my hood a suburb of a larger city where things like the corporate towers are, etc..
Bleh. I'm going to have to become friends with the world builder. Part of me wants to be lazy and just use a town that is already established but kick out most of the inhabitants and delete a lot of houses....
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somuchsong
Full Member
...certainement disaster
Posts: 197
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Post by somuchsong on Sept 16, 2010 19:06:11 GMT -5
Don't they have, like, rabbithole rugs or something? Where you can just put a little object on the lot to count as the rabbithole but build anything you want around it so you can have the lots in your hood fit your own style? I thought I might have read that at Sims in Testing. Lunar? Am I making that up, lol?
Of course, that would mean you'd have to build many lots, which you may not want to do.
I was just about to ask how you'd age everyone up one day without having to go into every house but it'd probably be even easier in TS3. Just play one family for one day with aging on and everyone's aged up!
I don't think I'll ever switch Sullivan to TS3 but I'm really interested to see if this kind of play is possible in TS3.
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Post by thelunarfox on Sept 16, 2010 20:01:43 GMT -5
Actually, I mentioned the rugs in my post and linked to them even as an alternative around the large rabbit hole buildings. I assumed that Rachel had seen them but not wanted more hacks? I know the whole adding mods is new. The building part is sort of fun. I should show the pics I got from the science center.
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somuchsong
Full Member
...certainement disaster
Posts: 197
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Post by somuchsong on Sept 16, 2010 20:12:25 GMT -5
I didn't think I made that up! Thanks for confirming.
What about pregnancy? Would that complicate things? Pregnancy is only three days in TS3 (as in TS2 but we have the ability to suspend it with hacks), which means if you used the 1 day=1 year thing, your Sims would only be pregnant for 3 months. Is there a way around that?
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Post by thelunarfox on Sept 16, 2010 20:26:45 GMT -5
Pregnancy is modifiable too. I have a mod in to make pregnancy last nine days to simulate nine months, and I had it in when Mary was pregnant. It's actually really fun to play a pregnant sim that long. At least one living on an island.
She didn't have a job of course because of the island and no rabbit holes, but I'd imagine that the game just checks every day to see if the sim is pregnant and give her another paid day off. I'm in the middle of testing that out with my village.
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Post by celebkiriedhel on Sept 16, 2010 23:07:22 GMT -5
I was thinking from a story point of view, have one save where we play out the game, and then having a separate save where we do the picture posing. Is that what you do already Lunar?
The other thought I've had is given that careers are linked to rabbitholes, rather than a universal offering, for a smaller town - not all careers are going to be available. After all not every real life town has a criminal warehouse or space center or a military base for that matter. I don't think we 'have' to have all the careers, do we?
I dunno though - I prefer to have only my own sims in a neighbourhood, even in TS2 and TS1. (Yes I'm anal like that).
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Post by thelunarfox on Sept 16, 2010 23:23:42 GMT -5
Kiri, yeah, I have a couple of game saves, and a whole bunch of story telling saves. I actually posted about it here. Boy does it get messy! With TS3, you don't need any rabbit holes at all. I bold that because even though I say it a lot, people still seem unsure about it. In my story hoods, I've taken all the schools out so that none of the teens or kids worry about school or homework and it's fine. So you really don't need all the rabbit holes if you don't want all the rabbit holes. You're right that not all towns are the same. It's realistic. Not every town needs a military, right? I play in one town that's an island and has no rabbit holes at all. I went through and added registers from WA for cafes and books and a consignment shop so sims can still buy stuff like books, used goods, and food which they can eat around town. So that's another important thing people miss. The registers from World Adventures can be placed in your main hood. For those who like to make self sufficient neighborhoods, or at least give the illusion of self sufficiency, these are helpful! Then with Twallan's register mod, you can select who runs the register. (And with Twallan's story progression mod, you can set up regular transfers, so you can pay employees.) So Laura, I think in a way you can hire people from town. I really need to play a bit more often and stuff with the shops. Right now, my village is in the middle of an overhaul, and I'm trying to take out some of the rabbit holes and build some new ones. Also edit: Am I talking too much? I feel like I am, so feel free to tell me I am, lol. But there are lots of neat hacks out there that people with more initiative can use better than I can, so I'd like to share what I've got so far.
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Post by Stacy on Sept 17, 2010 0:04:32 GMT -5
I don't play the game much if at all anymore, so I can't comment on all that. But NO, you are not talking too much! Post MOAR!
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Post by celebkiriedhel on Sept 17, 2010 2:44:39 GMT -5
You are not talking too much, you can post some more - it would make me happy Lunar - I read that post! I think that's where I got the idea from. :lol Yup - I really like the idea behind the consignment store. I want to have home-schooling when I can. But I Inge hasn't done the schooling thing for TS3 yet.
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Post by raquelaroden on Sept 17, 2010 5:35:20 GMT -5
Lunar, of course you aren't talking too much! We need your valuable information (because I'm really lazy and scared of hacks, lol). I think I'd keep the school, but hide it somewhere. I guess it isn't such a big school for something that has to hold every grade.....I keep trying to remember that this isn't going to be perfect, and that it's more important to play and write than it is to get it perfect. I would never say we had to have all the careers, but I don't want to eliminate something from a town that I would want later and find that it causes a lot of headaches (and crashes) to put back in. I'd like to know what I'm risking, first, I guess. I agree that it would make more sense to have fewer careers in a town that was up-and-coming, and then add things later in a way that would make sense. One thing that is different from TS2 is that while the foreign locations are located in separate areas that your Sims can travel to, if I understand what I've read correctly (and that is...well, not guaranteed) the Late Night EP isn't going to have a downtown that your Sims travel to--you have to rebuild your towns to have a "downtown" area if you want similar community lots accessible to your current hoods. So I'm thinking I might want to create a large world, and have several different areas--I could put the larger, established rabbitholes in a "financial district" area of a city that is further away, and if my Sims wanted jobs in those areas, they'd have to move closer to the city. But the main area up for development in a prosperity-style way would be a tiny suburb I'd start out with that is far away from the city, and that maybe includes a school, a grocery store, and a shop or two. *edit* OH! And then once the suburb reached an appropriate level of development (enough tax dollars to fund larger-scale projects), I could say that they were building a high-speed rail system that would make commutes to the city, which would open up those jobs to people in town (until then, they'd just have to turn them down or move). *end edit* What if you have more than one rabbithole for a world? Does that cause a conflict? Like a small clinic that serves as the "hospital" for the suburb and a hospital in the city? Now I'm worried that I'm talking too much.
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Post by laura on Sept 17, 2010 7:18:10 GMT -5
Lunar, you're not talking too much at all! Talk more! lol! Rachel, that's a good tip to keep in mind when I get started, to make the hood big enough for everything I want on there. I could see that causing problems if you started too small and the only way to make it bigger was to start over! Ack! Even in TS2, I always kind of wanted to have all of my different areas on one map anyway. Random questions: has anyone been making pose boxes yet? How about something like the freezer clock? I just don't know how I'd survive without my freezer clock!!! lol!
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Post by celebkiriedhel on Sept 17, 2010 8:11:42 GMT -5
I believe that you can have multiple rabbitholes and it doesn't bother things. Nobody is talking too much!!! no pose boxes yet that I know of, and no freezer clock yet. But there is a slow down time mod which is kind of similiar. I have a big hood in mind for mine - Galaad ( Sims Design Avenue - Galaad Island) It is quite a large island - completely unpopulated, built with rabbit holes, and has 5 areas. My thought is to de-build the island, and start in one corner and then slowly populate and build as I go. (Although the houses are so nicely done I have thought about keeping them!)
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Post by raquelaroden on Sept 17, 2010 8:21:25 GMT -5
For some reason, a post I made was lost--shortly after I posted about the way the Late Night EP is rumored to work (namely, there will be no downtown area your Sim will travel to), I found this preview article. It looks like we'll be getting subways! That would definitely fit in with my use of the more established rabbit holes. I read the thread for the rabbit hole rugs, and someone there said that there were no conflicts for having more than one rabbit hole of the same type...but not much was said about it. Hm...
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Post by laura on Sept 17, 2010 8:46:52 GMT -5
Oh, Kiri, that neighborhood is beautiful!!! Agreed, I'd also hate to deconstruct all that hard work, but the map itself is amazing.
And Rachel, thanks for the link! That looks awesome! I see there are new sliders for things people were already making mods for, lol! I wonder if those will conflict with existing Sims?
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Post by laura on Sept 17, 2010 8:57:38 GMT -5
OMG, I am *officially* getting TS3 in January! And I have to have Late Night! HAVE TO! OMG, I'm in love! Nightlife was my favorite EP for TS2 though, so it makes sense that I would love this. I'm so dorkily excited, lol! I think there's a deluxe pack with the base game and Ambitions, right? So I'll probably get that, and Late Night. What about World Adventures? Is that worth it?
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Post by celebkiriedhel on Sept 17, 2010 9:33:51 GMT -5
I like World Adventures and it's worth getting. But if I was making a choice between WA and Ambitions - I'd take ambitions every time. Ambitions opens up gameplay. I'm going to get Late Night too - I want a piano. If it had nothing else, I get it for that!
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