I should be getting Sims 3 for Christmas (at least my husband will hear about it if I don't!
). I'm a long-time player of the franchise, having gone through all expansion packs of the two previous games, and my style of playing tends to be guiding a story, trying to balance my directions with the Sim's free-will.
The thing that excites me most about Sims 3 is the story-progression allowing the non-active households to grow up on freewill alongside the Sims you're playing. In Sims 2, I got into a habit of making characters that I had no intention of playing and dropping them into the neighbourhood with my legacy family, just for the fun of seeing them around and how they would interact with each other and my played family. I'm really excited by the prospect of being able to do the same thing in Sims 3, only this time I'll be able to watch them progressing on their own free-will.
My question here is how well that actually pans out in game. As I understand it, you choose an active household to play, which effectively signs all other household over to the game's story progression. Free-will also works on a slider in this game.... does that apply to all households or just the active one?
What about careers? If I create a Sim, could it get a job (or not) according to its traits, or do I have to set it on the career path first? Can it be promoted without my assistance?
Then there are marriages and babies. I've heard about towns 'dying' out as you work through the generations of a legacy family. Is this because Sims left to Story Progression are not very good at forging relationships? Will Sims get married or try for a baby independently?
Finally, I've heard that non-active households generally do a rubbish job of fulfilling their own needs and wishes, so tend to get lumbered with negative traits as they get older, which spirals into an overall lack of success at life. I don't mind having some neighbours run themselves into ground, but it will be a bit depressing if they all do.
Also, any other comments on how it works would be good. I expect I'll have to play the game and see it in action to really understand, but it would be good to be forewarned first, especially if it means I don't have unrealistic hopes. I did look through the forum first, but couldn't see anything answering my questions--apologies if I've missed a previous discussion on this very topic. Thanks!
