The "stuff annoying me in Late Night" thread

[Glic2000]

Well, after playing the new EP since release day, I feel I must get a few things off my chest.  I just wanted to have a place to vent; if you don't feel like reading or contributing, I understand. 

But I invite anyone else to share their own gripes here! 

Here's mine:

1.  Empty nightclubs.   It doesn't seem to matter if it's a hotspot, or what time of night or day of the week it is or what, most of the time the clubs are pretty deserted.  It's just...depressing, really.  I tried removing all of the barrier ropes to see if that would allow more people in, but I'm not sure it's making a difference.  I'm not sure if it's the elevators or bouncers or what that's keeping people away, but most of the time I'm lucky to see more than 2 or 3 people.  One of my Sims got the celebrity map LTR and it appears most of the celebs simply spend their evenings at home.

2.  The band career.  It's not much of a career if you have no work to do.  I figured it would be like Ambitions where you get jobs on a regular basis, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  I thought as my band increased in their music skills, or their Celebrity levels, more jobs would come in, but that's not really working either.  Also, if you DO have a gig, and you stop playing for a moment, the gig is an automatic failure!  I mean, come on, the band should be able to take a break in the middle of a 2 or 3 hour gig.   I discovered that if the band doesn't have an official gig, you can still go to a venue and start jammin' to make a few simoleons.  But the amount of money earned is pretty low (usually due to the lack of audience).

3.  Celebrities.   At first it was kind of fun to try to "earn" my celebrity status.  But after I gained one or two levels, suddenly I was fast-tracked to level 4 and then 5.  And now tons of free gifts are pouring in.  Seems like I barely did anything to earn all of this free stuff.  It's like the opposite problem that bands have:  being in a band offers little reward no matter how much effort I put in, while being a celebrity offers tons of rewards with very little effort!

4.  Grouping.  Too inconsistent.  Sometimes it's automatic, and sometimes not.  And it seems like I can't depend on the grouped sims all sticking together.  The game just needs to provide a little feedback when a group is formed or disbanded, etc. 

Late Night is SO close to being a brilliant expansion.   With a few adjustments, most of this stuff could be easily fixed.  I can't wait to see what the next update brings.

[Pam]

I haven't had the problem of deserted night clubs, except only a couple of times.  Most of the time, they are quite busy.  I always check the paper to see which are the best clubs for the night.  My Sim is almost always there until the club closes and they run her out.

As for celebrity, she has the Star Quality trait and it still took her about 4 Sim weeks to reach 5 star celebrity status.  I feel like she earned it.

I haven't done much with bands, so I can't comment about that yet.  Same with grouping.

[Naga]

My only problem is the constant crashing. If I go in live mode, I get up to 5 minutes of play time. That's all. I could let the game roll on for ages on CAS, Build and Buy, but...

[Metropolis Man]

Well, after playing the new EP since release day, I feel I must get a few things off my chest.  I just wanted to have a place to vent; if you don't feel like reading or contributing, I understand.  


2.  The band career.  It's not much of a career if you have no work to do.  I figured it would be like Ambitions where you get jobs on a regular basis, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I offer a few tips in the article I just penned for the Guide. The big tip I can offer you in getting more gigs is having more band members under your control. That makes a huge difference because then everyone can accept phone calls. If you just have one band member under your control with 3 townies, then yeah, forget it. You won't get many calls at all.

I thought as my band increased in their music skills, or their Celebrity levels, more jobs would come in, but that's not really working either.

Agreed. What makes even less sense after some pretty extensive testing is that skill level has 0 impact on gig pay.

Also, if you DO have a gig, and you stop playing for a moment, the gig is an automatic failure!  I mean, come on, the band should be able to take a break in the middle of a 2 or 3 hour gig.

Yeah, that would be a bummer if a band member had to celebrate their birthday or something. But, that's another reason to get as many band members under your control as possible. That way, you can at least control the needs aspect and you won't have a member stop to go pee or something like that.

I discovered that if the band doesn't have an official gig, you can still go to a venue and start jammin' to make a few simoleons.  But the amount of money earned is pretty low (usually due to the lack of audience).

Oh, yeah. As I mention in the article, Jam Sessions are the way to go and if all band members have around 100 compositions performed in their skill journal, then the money is pretty decent. Individual tips will be over $300 at that point. Oh, and one more thing...the number of patrons has no impact on gig pay. I had a hunch when I began my testing that it would, but reloaded several save files and was always paid the same amount for a certain gig no matter how many Sims were in the place.

[LlamaMama]

Mtglady shared some good info here:

According to the Prima Guide there are certain days and times when the places are 'rocking'.  I had my Sim go at these times and there were more than the 1 or 2 'customers' that normally showed up.

   * Dive Bars are busiest at 2pm for the lunch crowd on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  Maximun guests are 8.

   * Dance Clubs are busiest on Saturdays at midnight.  Maximun guests are 14.

   * Lounges are busiest at 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays.  Maximun guests are 10.

I tried this at both Bridgeport and Twinbrook.  I didn't try SV or RV as I haven't played those towns in awhile.  Hope this helps. 

[limaCAT]

My only problem is the constant crashing. If I go in live mode, I get up to 5 minutes of play time. That's all. I could let the game roll on for ages on CAS, Build and Buy, but...

If you have a 64-bit windows operating system probably you are bitten by the same problem that came out after Ambitions. On a  machine with 32-bit windows I don't have any problem at all.

I would also like to add my list of annoyances too: ... so far I dislike:

1. The public shame moodlet interferes with the quests billboard in base camps in World Adventures. If your character is shamed he can't get quests. I also had problems after cancelling a quest that I accepted.

2. Walking around the map is approximative: sometimes sims walk more by going to a metro station then going to the target location instead of going directly to the target.

3. I lost one character because I saved when she was on a taxi or on the metro coming back home after a vacation. Looks like an old bug from WA resurfaced.

[Pam]

I've decided to lock this thread.  The purpose of this Forum is to have healthy and intelligent discussions about the Sims 3 and to get help with various problems.  This thread is really just a gripe thread that serves no useful purpose.