A series of questions

[vladerag]

Much as I love and adore carl's guide, the answers I need simply aren't there.  In fact, looking for details about certain questions often seems to lead me nowhere and so while I am sure that someone must have asked, and answered, these questions before...  well im stuck repeating them.

1) what is the actual best item in each "motive" category? (i.e. best bed, best fridge, etc)  see, im interested in some of the stuff packs, and am not completely averse to downloading a purchased item...  but what is the point when I will gravitate towards the one that gives me the highest numbers?  If the sleep slave and Doran are the best beds in terms of energy, and the tub noveau the best tub...  well I simply have no need of downloading something.  but the problem is, I cant tell, the packs don't really have full explanations of what they have compared to what is available to me now.

2) are there any residential "beautiful lots" in isla paradise?  im having a heck of a time finding one.

3) how does the game regulate the motives of sims not part of my household?  i.e. if a sim is moved into a house without certain amenities, will they still act as if they had them?  (i.e. a sim without a bed or a plumbot without a charging station)

4) does the "fear of humans" trait chip have any purpose whatsoever?

5) do masterful time machines and masterful miners have additional affects?  I know that masterful floor hygenators don't ever backfire, is there something similar for other master inventions?

6) does writing count as "working" for a workaholic?

7) with the introduction of comic books in writing, is there any point to writing anything else?  furthermore, since they appear to raise three skills (writing, painting, and street art) does the actual royalties you receive relate to these three skills?

for some reason the oryx stereo from into the future, even one without the "wire house with speakers" upgrade, can be heard by a sleeping sim on the 4th floor (who is not a light sleeper) from its location on the basements second floor.  is this a bug, or is it just naturally able to fill a house with music?

9) how are the value of vip rooms in a resort calculated?  is just the amount of beds (and for that matter does a double bed count as 2 beds?) or do the amount of amenties matter?

10) after quite a long time, my "world reknowned surgeon" sim read through all of the medical journals, near as I can tell rereading them has no affect on job performance.  is this accurate or a bug?

11) I noticed that the sim I raised in the science career can still perform experiments on things, what other careers give bonuses that carry on after you leave a career?

12) the sims has a lot of moodlets.  and a lot of moodlets it took me forever to discover.  is there anything like the bubble bath mix and the rubber ducky for other items?  or are they unique?

and I think that about covers it, sorry for the huge stream of questions >.<

[MrsFlynn]

These questions may be hard to answer as there isn't a whole lot of detailed information on them.

As for possibly wanting to purchase the stuff packs. The decision is ultimately up to you. -- Sims 3 owners can choose from multiple packs that bring a variety of different features to the game. Some players own them all, but many will buy only those with the features that interest them most. Questions like this come up often but there is no right answer. Only you can decide. If you're still not sure, it may be best to wait for a sale and decide then.

[Deklitch]

1) By 'best' I take it you mean the highest number that meets each individual need of your sims. Do you take into account things like cost as well? For example the most expensive beds go for something like 4000, and they have high values for energy recovery (ie 10). There is a bed for around 700 from the expansion pack that gave us Starlight Shores. That has a value of energy recovery of something like 7.

There is a stove (triforge stove, I think) that let's you earn the cooking skill faster, it doesn't have the highest score regarding hunger recovery (it is 7, I think), but it also isn't the most expensive stove. A stove that has hunger recovery of 10 can be much more expensive, but doesn't provide the faster cooking skill.

I prefer the less expensive bed and the triforge stove, myself, but that is a personal decision, and as Mrs Flynn says, there is no right or wrong answer.


2) A quick search using the 'Google Custom Search' tool in the upper right corner of Carl's guide forwarded me to this link. Apparently the Alto's lot and two of their neighbours have a beautiful lot vista.

<Not sure about 3 - 6, sorry>

7) I want only one of my sims to master writing. I want another one of my sims to be the only master of painting, and a third to be my only master street artist. In that case, I would not write comic books, I'd write sport books. In general terms, Sports Books are my favourite books to write based on time spent vs money earned.

8 ) I remember that same thing happening to me with Into the Future and one of its speakers. I no longer play with ITF installed, so I no longer have that problem. Given that ITF was the last expansion pack released for Into the Future and the other bugs (eg lack of skill opportunities from pre ITF expansions being accepted by sims) that haven't been fixed by EA as yet, I would think it is probably a bug.

9) - 12) No idea really.

Have you been by the Sims Wiki? I have been there in the past to look up moodlet information and the like.

[vladerag]

Thanks for answering what you could answer, that bit does help me quite a lot actually.

I tend to gravitate towards a "core family" that ends up with perfect skills, immortality, lvl 10 careers etc.  and then I use them to just have fun making other strange sims and observing the sims around town, or building since I enjoy making strange houses.

I clarify because I was indeed searching for the items that fulfill the motives fastest, though from what you have said it sounds like I probably have them.

I have been to the sim wiki, however I always experience strange lag on the site.  (not unlike playing the sims with a full inventory >.<)

and it is sad about ITF. I gave up expecting EA to fix bugs when they still haven't dealt with the basic issues that errortrap fixes in the base game.

[Lisa46]

3) They would fill their motives. Story progression and motive decreasing for sims outside of the household only seems to work when they are on your lot. When they leave a lot that your sim is on, their motives go back to normal.

No idea on 4 + 5, you should ask on the ITF ask board. I don't have that EP.

6) No.

9) Just the amenities, I think.

10) Accurate

No idea on 11

12) There's a moodlet list on Carl's guide, I would search moodlet list to try and find it.