Okay, seems like information pertaining to The Sims 3 from UK attendees are pouring out from all sorts of places. I suppose it would be easier for both you and myself to gather it into one post instead of creating multiple ones.
Next UK Fanday Event is set for March 25, so this post will be brought back up after that event!
Updates:
- 3/24/09 – Added 2 video interviews with MJ Chun from Sims-3.net (thanks InfiniteSims!)
- 3/23/09 – Added link to Sims 3 Cri writeup (it’s not from the UK event, but the Italian event)
- 3/22/09 – Added link to SimFans.de’s writeup
- 3/22/09 – Added link to SimPlaza’s writeup
- 3/22/09 – Added link to Sims -3.net writeup (and interview video!)
- 3/22/09 – Added link to official Sims 2 German website
- 3/22/09 – Added link to EdenStyle’s writeup (it’s not from the UK event, but the Italian event)
- 3/21/09 – Added link to SimTime’s writeup
- 3/21/09 – Added Picture and link to SimsExchange writeup
- 3/20/09 – Added link to DobbyDude’s Information from Sims 3 UK Forum
- 3/19/09 – Added link to BlackGarden’s TSR Blogpost “TS3 – What’s new anyways?” blogpost
- 3/19/09 – Added link to Pollyncut’s Information from Sims 3 UK Forum
- 3/19/09 – Added link to Sparkleuk’s Information from Sims 3 UK Forum
- 3/19/09 – Added link to BlackGarden’s Information from Sims 3 UK Forum
- 3/19/09 – Added link to Limabifrost’s Information from Sims 3 UK Forum
- 3/19/09 – Added link to Mr. A’s Information from Sims 3 UK Forum
- 3/19/09 – Added link to EAUK_Aurora’s Information from Sims 3 UK Forum
- 3/19/09 – Post Created
Video Interview from Sims-3.net – Thanks InfiniteSims!
Let’s get back to The Sims 2. Can you remember what we had to do to export a Sim? We had to launch the BodyShop, and if the Sim was made in the game we had to use SimPE and then the BodyShop to extract it. In The Sims 3 things will be similar to Sims 2 Pets. When creating a Pet we can export it both on the Exchange and in a single file directly from the game, or again save the breed. That’s how things work in Sims 3. There is no more BodyShop, everything can be done in the CAS and we can export the full Sim as well as each single element. For example we can save hair color combinations, pattern combinations and so on, and export the single item or the whole.
MJ kept claiming how easy is to share files on the Exchange, and that’s why we asked her if we can still save files in our local directories, then take them and upload them on our websites. Thank God she said we can! The same thing works for furniture, lots, etc.
What about the buildings, although my Sims can enter, but I as a player can not directly see what it is exactly doing? How does this for example with the school?
What initially sounds somewhat strange, and often described as a rabbit hole, is not so “dead” as one might think, though. At night this building seems to emerge from the light and you can at least look through the windows. Zooms to the school to close, for example, it is possible to school benches, blackboards, etc. recognize. Are your Sims in such buildings, the players are still many options available. The player can determine what they should do. Is your child at school, you can determine whether or not he cheat on homework, or sleep in the school should be, what then of course, has consequences. While increasing your energy display, if your Sim is asleep in school, but his poor grades. And it may come that your Sim needs After sitting. There is also the option for longer in school in order to stay there directly after school homework to do. Children must be between 9 clock to 15 clock in the school. Teenagers may be an hour earlier to go home and then one side may, inter alia, as a book sorter or waiter accept
Much more can be found at SimFans.de’s (German) epic writeup!
A few days ago was in the city center a big press event where we, after a short presentation by the present developer MJ Chun had the opportunity, The Sims 3 for the first time even supposed to be. Subsequently, the developer present all Fansites available for questions, which they almost invariably, and very congenial manner replied. Our impressions of this day we have on the next pages.
On 18 and 19 March, we received, as part of the EA in Munich, organized press events, the first time the chance to “The Sims 3” and supposed to be us as a first overall impression of the game to give. Addition, we attended the presentations of the Sims 3 Producer Mary-Jane (MJ) for Chun to us later in an exclusive video interview question and answer stand. What impression the game made on us, what lessons we could win, what questions were answered and which remained open, and more so you can learn in this special.
Click here to visit Sims-3.net (German site) and watch the video (in English)
The official Sims 2 German website updated with new CAS pictures as well as links to the writeups from the sites that attended the event. Check them out here!
“Create a Style” is the new tool for customization. It’s very simple, you just have to choose the base object or outfit and then choose a pattern for every part of the item you are working on.
At the moment, we cannot import external patterns, By the way, the game offers us a big library and we can change the colors of every pattern, as we like.
Modders would like an official tool for the meshes. MJ said that EA wants to guarantee the players that all the things you create with official tools is 100% compatible with the game. Custom meshes could not work good with certain animations. She didn’t talk about patterns but, if they are not made in the correct way, they could look bad in the game when applied to an object or to an outfit. This doesn’t mean that we won’t be able to customize the Sims 3 like we did with The Sims 2. Expert modders (EA knows that they are great!) will find a way to import meshes and so on. The users will be able to choose if download them or not, knowing that they might be not 100% compatible with the game.
Once we are done with the creation of a custom item, we can choose to save it for ourself or to export and share it with other people.
At this point we should click on “Share” button in order to send the file to the launcher. There, we can choose to publish it on the Exchange or to take the file and use it for our website, for example.
The launcher, which is quite different from the one we had in The Sims 2, lets us to manage the files installed or created.
19. March 2008: EA released the first official pictures and info on The Sims 3rd Almost exactly a year later we had the opportunity, the third part of the life simulation exclusively supposed to Sims MJ Chun-developer with questions about regelrecht holes to which they willingly answered.
Our report and our impressions refer to an early developer version. It is likely that some (negative) observations, while playing in the final version, which took place on 4 June in the stores are to be resolved. We are optimistic that the carver to us during the two matches noticed until then been eliminated.
In The Sims 3 should be much improved and that is already before the game even starts. The new “Sims 3 Launcher” summarizes all the information together, you usually bring together labor and had to search. These include among others the “Custom Content” administration, ie the management of all downloads and uploads you’ve made so far, and a direct connection to the Exchange and the simultaneous display of the news from the official Sims 3 website. But that’s not enough. The new “launcher” always keep your game up to date, because it installs all the latest updates (patches) of the game. Thus a similar function has already Steam or EA Download Manager and we find that in any case a good idea to have it here with a cause. The new video platform on the official site by a link in the “Launcher” is available, what you do best videos with other users “share” it.
I created a Sim Character who I named Jay Cuzzen, didn’t spend too much time on his actual appearance but did explore some of the more interesting Traits, He was EVIL, INSANE, KLEPTOMANIAC and OVER EXCITABLE you can pick five but those were the four I was most interested in exploring and just used those.
I got him a part-time job in the graveyard as I was quite interested in seeing if he did anything outside in the graveyard itself while at work, I had to wait till the next day though so decided to investigate moving around the neighbourhood a bit. Moving around the neighbourhood is easy simply roll the mouse wheel and you zoom out a bit, a transparent icon of a magnifying glass pops up in the middle of the screen view and clicking on it zooms you out further to the map view, from here you can click anywhere on the map and zoom to that spot and select “go here” I clicked on the park.
Continue reading!
DobbyDude’s Post #1 from The Sims 3 UK Forum & DobbyDude’s Post #2
Getting a job has been made much easier. You simply move out to the map view by clicking the map view button (or using the shortcut which I think was either ctrl+M or just M), and locate the building you want to work in. They’re shown on the map view with the symbol for the career, so they’re easy to locate. The career tracks are:
Criminal, military, political, medical, athletic, culinary, science, law enforcement, music
And there are also part-time jobs, which you can have from teen through to elder, even as adults or young adults (a great choice for busy parents!):
Bookstore clerk, grocery store clerk, spa receptionist, spa specialist, grave digger
Socialising has also been updated. As you talk to another Sim, some information about them and what they think of you appears in the upper left. If they have any relationship to you (husband, brother-in-law, ex-husband), it’ll show this in the top left corner too. As you perform interactions with them it’ll give you an idea of what they thought of that interaction. If your Sim, Sim B, flirts with someone who has no interest in them, Sim A, a message might appear like “Sim A thinks Sim B is being weird”. If you tell them a joke, you might be “being amusing”… if you flirt and they are interested you might be “being flirty”, or even “being irresistible”, depending on their relationship level and level of attraction to you.
There are loads of great new interactions which convey more subtle ranges of emotion than the interactions in The Sims 2. For example, if your Sim has been flirting with another Sim for a while, they can “confess attraction” to tell them how they feel about them. Then if that goes well, maybe you’d want to ask if they’d like to “go steady”. This is no longer an option just for teens, adults can go steady too now.
I couldnt have played the game without visiting the Goths and the Bachelors. At the Goths, there are 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 SPLINESMore after clicking the link!
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 unsurprisingly 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 humor, 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 talent 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 referred 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 benefit from it. You also have to be careful which wishes you save as you only get four slots to save them in.
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.
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. 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.
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.
How much can you tweak the facial features in CAS? How large can you make the chins and noses?
You cannot tweak them as much as before; the scale on the sliders is much more subtle. However, you can shrink an area such as an eye or nose pretty small, so you can still have crazy looking sims!
Facial features rendering is meant to be much more detailed and precise. How will the new ”dot” system work? Will this system help polish features so Sims really are unique?
When you click on an area to edit, such as the cheek, there are general sliders to edit features with. However, on the diagram above in the CAS screen, there is a picture of the cheek with three dots on. If you click on each of these dots, it will open up a few sliders for that area of the cheek. This allows much more customisation to the face and helps to really define a Sim’s look!
Can you save face presets?
You can save the individual facial editing that you do (ie if you like a chin you can save it to use on more sims). You can also save the entire sim. However I’m not aware of the ability to save the entire face.
Are there freckles?
Yes- and beauty spots too. There are two types of freckles (different places) and beauty spots. Your sim can wear both at the same time for a really freckly look.
Can you put lip-gloss over lipstick and also can you use them without lipstick? How shiny are they?
There is a glossy lipstick so you can have the effect of lip-gloss over lipstick. As with everything else, you can customise the colour of the lipstick so you can have whatever lip-gloss colour you want. The lip-gloss isn’t that shiny, not like some of the wet look lip-glosses available in real life. It’s still shinier than the lipstick in-game.
More Questions and Answers by clicking the link!
Is there more flexibility in the types of roofs? Can we adjust the angle of them?
There is definately a lot more that we can do with roofs now. Both usual and diagonal roofs are available to you, aswell as round and hexagonal roofs for turrets and towers.
Also there is a slider for roof angle which should be great since there won’t be any cheats involved now. One thing I also noticed is that roofs are automatically added to storeys that don’t have many floor-tiles above them. Atleast that way those of us who are prone to forgetting to place roofs on after building won’t end up with a house full of rain or snow if we get weather later on.
How many cars are there in the base game?
There at 10 cars available in the base game.
How does CAST apply to the game? How many different textures/fabrics etc. are included in the base game?
CAST is applied in the way that you can create a custom style for almost every object in the game. When you want to re-style an object, you use the CAST tool and click that object. Then the CAST interface appears and you are able to experiment with different swatches of textures, and colour them using the colour wheel. You the drag and drop that style onto other objects around the one you just re-styles to apply the same colours. I also found that once you style an object and you place a similar object near it or next to it, it uses the same colours. I.e, when I placed a counter and re-styled it. I then placed an over-head cabinet near it and it automatically used the styling from the counter below.
Is it possible to fully customise our Sim’s cellphones using CAST?
It isn’t possible to restyle a Sim’s mobile phone. It isn’t something you can now remove from your Sim’s inventory so I didn’t identify a way of re-styling it.
Related to cellphones in the game, you are able to assign a specific ringtone to your Sim’s phone. Cellphones also give your Sim the option to take photos using it.
How customisable is the neighboudhood itself? Can we change things like the foliage? Move Lots? Change road layouts? Rotate houses? Modify community lots?
This may be one of the things I was most confused about myself.
I saw no way of modifying the physical neighbourhood. I couldn’t find any option to put neighbourhood decorations down or place new lots myself. I found that it’s only possible to build on blank lots already placed around the neighbourhood. I think this might have been because the road layouts are much more realistic, rather than all being straight, therefore harder to place things like lots.
If we are given an external programme that allows us to make our own neighbourhoods or modify existing ones, I’d imagine you’d be able to place your own lots and decorations using that.
One thing I did spot is that it’s now possible to change the lot type without having to use cheats. It’s simply a button on the panel that appears when you click on a community or empty lot.
Can you build community lots, if so what types?
From what I found, in the base game you are able to build lots such as parks, gyms, library’s, swimming-pools, cemetaries and fishing lakes/ponds.
I’m fairly sure at this point it isn’t possible to build lots such as restaurants/cafés, clothes shops, grocerie shops etc.
This is because they are actually ploppable community objects which act as rabbit-holes. Your Sim will go into the building and emerge after carrying out the interaction you wanted them to do. With the restaurant, you’re able to make your Sim sit outside while eating, but they simply emerge with food and sit at one of the tables outside instead.
One thing I did like is that Sims are able to take on part-time jobs at some of these lots and take classes relevant to that lot. For example, my Sim took a cooking class at the restaurant, and then a charisma class at the town hall. They cost $400 simoleons each and your Sim gains a skill point for every class completed. I think the advantage of this is that it doesn’t take aslong as it would than if a Sim studied at home.
More Questions and Answers by clicking the link!
Are the community lots rabbitholes?
It would appear that some are and some aren’t. The Sims I played today could be seen inside the gym and the library but not in the diner for example, or at least this is what appeared to be the case.
Will hair sway in the wind?
Longer hair did seem to move whilst walking.
Will there be an option to turn aging off for individual families?
I did not explore what cheats were available but I did see that you can choose to adjust the life expectancy of your Sims or turn aging off altogether in the game options.
How do you switch between families?
You can change the family that you are playing by using the Active Household button. In the information screens it does say that if you elect to change the playable family then your current ones will have their wishes and opportunities removed. Then those Sims will continue to age and live as normal while you are playing the new family.
Do we visit clothes shops now?
It appears that you can use an option on a set of drawers to select outfits which will take your Sim into CAS and you can choose clothing from there.
Can we turn free will off?
In the game options you can change the amount of free will that you wish your Sims to have.
More Questions and Answers by clicking the link!
And as usual, I made two epic posts listing all the new info at S2C. Probably my longest info list yet, with over 100 listed things. 🙂
There are just so many small things in The Sims 3 that it’s hard to keep up, they really put a lot of detail into the game!
Howdy fantastic blog! Does running a blog such as this require a massive
amount work? I have no knowledge of coding however I had been hoping
to start my own blog soon. Anyway, if you have any suggestions or techniques for new blog owners please share.
I understand this is off subject but I just had to ask.
Kudos!