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Post by MissyHissy on May 17, 2015 14:01:13 GMT
One thing I love about the Sims franchise is the variety of gameplay styles. So I'd love to hear: What's your favourite generation of The Sims? (Sims 1, Sims 2, Sims 3 or Sims 4) Why?What's your favourite Expansion Pack in each generation? Why?What's your favourite Store Set/Venue/World? Why? What do you feel is missing from your favourite generation?So I'll answer them myself (because it'd be rude if I didn't answer myself :wacko: ). 1. My favourite generation would have to be Sims 3. Although I have played all of them to some extent, it's Sims 3 I find myself coming back to time and time again. I think it's the open world that attracts me, and the ability to customise almost anything within the game (with the use of mods, but even so). 2. Sims 1: Never played any of the expansions, only the base game. Sims 2: Probably Freetime. I think that added so much to general, every day gameplay with the inclusion of sports and hobbies. Fabulous EP Sims 3: Island Paradise/Seasons. I can't choose between the two because in my eyes, they add the most to the game between them. Sims 4: Since only one expansion has been released at this time, I must say that Get to Work is a wonderful EP and does add a LOT to the game. 3. My favourite store set would probably be the Bohemian Garden set because I love having new harvestables in the game and this set gives you just that. My favourite venue would probably have to be the Deliciously Indulgent Bakery simply because it gives you the Bakers Station and includes more recipes (with inclusion of the harvestables from the Bohemian Garden). A close second would be the Boardwalk because I LOVE the rollercoaster And my favourite world would be a tie between Dragon Valley, Monte Vista and Sunlit Tides. I love the Celtic feel in Dragon Valley, but the Mediterranean touch in Monte Vista is something I adore (I love building Mediterranean houses), and the tropical atmosphere in Sunlit Tides is great for the watersports in Island Paradise. 4. I think we could really have done with a Sports and Pastimes expansion for Sims 3. It could have added a lot more to the game and more family interactions. Things like volleyball, skiing, sledding, sewing, knitting, pottery etc. Basically, a Freetime, but for Sims 3. What about you?
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Post by seafordsimmer on Jun 11, 2015 10:37:31 GMT
Sims 3 wins for me every time, even with its quirks and oddities - sometimes because of those quirks and oddities.
The open World is great and with the addition of a few mods, which I've only just recently discovered for myself, I can build impressive legacies or have a fun hour or two playing with Insane, Dramatic, Neurotic, Snobs with Star Quality and see how that ends up. There's something oddly satisfying about having my Sim faint for dramatic effect or feel the need to check the stove and brush their teeth three times.
In Sims 1, I just remember playing for the first time. I was so engrossed that when I looked up and realised that it was dawn, I knew that I should probably go to bed! House Party was my favourite EP for that. The increased social interactions and objects, and I think possibly the introduction of the Slacker career (?), were neat.
Then Sims 2 came along and blew me away. Sims could age up and children were no longer an abstract baby in a bassinet that turned into a child that could never grow up. University was a favourite for quite a while but my overall favourite was Open For Business. Selling stuff that my Sims had made was deeply satisfying. I also loved Seasons because of gardening. Thanks to the support stopping from EA, all of Sims 2 was available for free from Origin so I occasionally go back and dabble.
Sims 3 - I don't have all the packs. Seasons is proving to be a lot of fun. The neighbourhoods are so pretty in Autumn/Fall with the red leaves, and in Winter when everything is covered in snow. I've heard good things about University Life so that will be my next purchase when I can justify the expense.
As for Sims 4 - too expensive and the little I have played of it (a friend has a copy so I played it on his PC) left me feeling cold. Building seems to have been dumbed down, customisation is dumbed down and everything feels too much like a web-browser game instead of an engrossing life simulation. About the only thing I did like was the action layering (the often quoted 'playing on the phone whilst sitting on the toilet' springs to mind).
I don't tend to use the Store if I'm honest. I have a few items from purely having purchased expansion packs. And Worlds are too expensive for my taste. I did try my hand at World creation but it's a full-time job in its own right and life is far too short!
So overall Sims 3 could have done with an Open For Business-style mechanism. The Professions have always been too buggy to be really enjoyable for me and just dragging inventory to the Sell box isn't the same. I wanted Restocking, Sales and Register badges/skills. They were fun. I *might* have a look at custom skill mods and rabbithole rugs if/when I get the time.
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Post by spuffy on Sept 21, 2019 15:39:22 GMT
What's your favourite generation of The Sims? (Sims 1, Sims 2, Sims 3 or Sims 4) Why?Well, I loved S1 when it came out, but once S2 launched, I never looked back. It was so much more and it was a joy to place any lot wherever I pleased. But now my favorite is S3. The open world, CAS, CAW, and all the amazing things our sims can do have pulled me straight in. And I'm so grateful to all the modders who have made the game even more enjoyable. I bought S4 when it came out, but hated it -- it was a massive step backward, imo.
What's your favourite Expansion Pack in each generation? Why? S1 - Vacation. Loved the volleyball game. S2 - Seasons and Pets. The seasons are so real ... and as an animal lover, I adore having pets in the game. S3 - Seasons and Pets, for the same reasons as above. And the pets in S3 are wonderful - the horses! the wildlife! So awesome.
What's your favourite Store Set/Venue/World? Why? Store set ... ummm, a toughie. I'd have to say the Mid-Century sets. I'm very into the Retro stuff just now.
For venue, I guess the Boardwalk. Most of the EA venues, like their worlds, are larger than I like.
Favorite EA worlds have been Twinbrook and Monte Vista, though I'm now working on Starlight Shores, which is "right-sized" for my style of play. I mostly play with custom worlds, though.
What do you feel is missing from your favourite generation? Your idea of a Sports/Pastimes EP is a great idea. I enjoyed Freetime a lot. What I'd really like to have seen, though, is another age stage between Adult and Elder -- Middle Age. Along that idea, more traits to flesh out our sims' personalities as they age.
I do have all EPs and nearly all SPs for S3 (missing the decades, Movies and KP). And I think I have all the store stuff, or nearly all.
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Post by T1gerCat on Sept 21, 2019 16:14:02 GMT
What's your favourite generation of The Sims? (Sims 1, Sims 2, Sims 3 or Sims 4) Why?
I discovered The Sims just after TS2 was finished coming out with new things so I got to experience it as a whole. I loved it! To this day, my biggest complaint, no scratch that. The only complaint about it would be that the creators made dog show/obedient items for Freeplay yet they never included them in the main game. Why??? (yeah, I know, just because I discovered it all together as a whole, doesn't mean it came together yada, yada, yada. Doesn't make me want those items in the main TS2 any less). I love it because it makes me feel like I'm a child again playing in my favorite dollhouse.
With TS3, I bought the base game full of hope and hated it on sight. Put it away until the game was once again finished and then bought the rest in a deluxe edition. I love the open world concept (throwing a party in a sub-hood and then having to go back to the main hood where it was hours earlier could get on my nerves sometimes) but I hate how laggy, incomplete and heavy it is on a gaming computer. I played TS2 without a single mod and with TS3 I *need* mods to make it work as it should. That's a very big no-no in my book, yet, on the whole, it makes me want to play for hours on end despite all its problems.
I tried TS4 on a friend's computer and while I love that it took a step back in terms of the open world (so much better for my pc!), it doesn't feel like it's the same game! It's like some competitor game and it makes me feel like I need a manual to play it, so I have no intention of buying it until it's once again completed.
What's your favourite Expansion Pack in each generation? Why?
I don't have favorites on TS2. TS3, it's a tossup between Supernatural, Showtime, Into the future and Island Paradise. I love the new worlds and the new species of sims in each generation. I love how I can incorporate all of them in a single world and it doesn't look insane (with the use of CC like the rabbithole doors/rugs so a lot dedicated to future items can look as innocent as a bookstore)
What's your favourite Store Set/Venue/World? Why?
Roaring Heights, hands down. I love how simple and realistic it is and, a few issues aside, well made. Generally I like the sets/venues/worlds that add to the game, so basically all of them except Venue of Amore because it's incredibly laggy. What I love most about the Store is that I can play with those items or not. If I don't like/don't wanna play with fantasy items like dragons, I can uninstall their store world. If I want airbaloon rides, I can just incorporate those in my main world etc.
What do you feel is missing from your favourite generation?
Small bits like realism. In TS2, I like how I could send my pets to work in coordinated careers to their humans' so I could pretend my fireman sim takes their dog to work but that's hardly realistic. Like I said above, dog training items are missing from the main game for no good reason. Same for TS3 really.
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Post by spuffy on Sept 22, 2019 14:48:08 GMT
TigerCat - You make valid points, especially about the bits of realism that could have been included, but weren't. My big beef with S4 was that it seemed much more cartoonish than S2 or S3. Like you, I got the base game, vastly preferred S2, and didn't return to S3 until my S2 game blew up (pink flashing killed my game... sob!). But I have grown to love S3 and all the ways in which I can make it truly "my" game.
I dabbled with Roaring Heights, but didn't really play it. Now, I'm tempted to give it another go!
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Post by T1gerCat on Sept 22, 2019 15:22:35 GMT
Hey Spuffy! TS4 is way more cartoonish than TS2 or TS3. TS2 sims resembled animated store mannequins while TS3 has the most realistic (if generic) looking pre-made sims. I don't use sliders because I find they mess up my game sometimes so I got used to the pre-made faces, lol. If a computer can truly support TS3 (and the needed mods to make it work well), I can see why you love it so much, I do too. Would you believe that I've been playing for years yet I still find new things to send my sims to do?
What I like about Roaring Heights is how down to earth it is. No fantasy items, no pre-made weird looking/acting sims, just set in the 20's. As a world, it's mostly flat (which I love because it makes lot placement so much easier) but one thing you need to remember is that if you plan on demolishing a lot, first go into it, build a wall and then rake down the building. Otherwise the land becomes unroutable and no new lot can be placed. A few lots have issues (front doors are set inside the houses or in the back of the lot, bathtubs put in the wrong way around and can't be used, the diner is too close to the fence so it has a routing issue etc).
Since most worlds came out like this, I always use a fixed world (Ella Charmed on MTS has most of them) and then go in, fix all the extra problems I can find and then save the world unplayed. Whenever I want to play, I just load up my fixed save game, rename it so I don't lose the original and go from there.
That's what I mean by 'TS3 feels unfinished/in need of mods to work".
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Post by spuffy on Sept 23, 2019 13:43:06 GMT
Gosh, I never knew that about demolishing a lot! I've made a note to try to remember to add that wall first. I also prefer flat worlds, as well as medium-sized ones, rather than those overly large worlds. And, like you, I've used the fixed worlds.
ALL the Sims games have had glitches and issues that required our fabulous modders to make them work as they should. It's seemed to me that EA got lazier and lazier with each iteration, as well.
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Post by T1gerCat on Sept 23, 2019 14:35:27 GMT
LOL, no worries. I only found out myself when I read the rant of a player on MTS. They demolished the Alto house and lot in Sunset Valley and the empty beach lot by the private beach behind the expensive houses and the land became unroutable. Another player told them the secret and now I always remember to do it too. Just thought I'd share the knowledge!
Oh I know! I don't know if it's laziness of their part or EA programmers realized that their fanbase is so obsessed (and I put myself in that category too) they will laboriously fix all their mistakes and half-done work so why should they bother to do it themselves? Someone on the EA forums said the game comes out as a beta edition at this point and, you know what? They ain't wrong!
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Post by spuffy on Sept 23, 2019 22:00:20 GMT
Another couple things we have in common -- I don't play the fantasy/creature features and I don't use sliders. Happily, my pc handles the game really well, so I'm able to use a ton of other mods and custom objects.
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Post by T1gerCat on Sept 24, 2019 6:57:59 GMT
With TS2, I used to play with supernatural sims (Pleasantview would end up resembling 'The Gates' in terms of fantasy/supernatural sims) but with TS3 it's too much of a bother to have such a sim in my active household so I'll either turn them off at the settings or just let them exist in the background.
I like custom hair/clothes/objects but yeah, my game does get laggy easily so I try to keep them to a minimum. Can I ask you something? You mentioned in another thread you've dabbled in CAW. How do you get it work?? I download it from the EA site, install it and then it'll pop up a "the application has reached an error and it will now close" no matter where I install it. I've often wished for a flatter Sunset Valley (not fully flat, just a bit less hilly so lot placement will be easier) or a smoother coastline for Moonlight Falls (that beach lot is unplayable because there's scarcely a flat bit in it so my sims complain the whole time they're there) but I can't get CAW to even start so I can fix it.
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Post by MissyHissy on Sept 24, 2019 7:15:19 GMT
T1gerCat have you installed the right version for your patch? The website's got two version up, one for 1.67 and one for 1.69. If so, have you also tried SuperCaw? It's a modified version of CAW to include a lot of features EA missed in the main version. You need to main version installed but SuperCaw might work where's EA's doesn't. A few people have the same issue but SuperCaw should work just fine.
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Post by spuffy on Sept 24, 2019 11:56:39 GMT
TigerCat - I had the same problem until a friend sent me her version, which works for me. I'd be happy to share that version with you. BTW, I'm still running my games on Win7, so that might make a difference...
Missy - I know I had the right version (for me, 1.67), but it still didn't work. Nor did the SuperCaw, but my friend's version did work. So go figure! I have them all in separate folders in case some future pc decides it prefers a different one.
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