Ambitions: First Impressions

[Leto85]

Had my first ever error 12 with the Sims since I installed it, lost about an hour of play - the options offered in technical help on this forum whilst helpful, sadly didn't work for me on this occasion. No point crying over spilt milk.

I don't want to pull this off topic, so just a quick note to you, Sarah. Unfortunately, there's really no solution for the error code 12 and the others. EA's responses haven't been very helpful either. They seem to come more often on older files. Best thing is to save often and be prepared to lose some gameplay when the error code crashes come along.

(Since most of my Sims tattoos are blue  to match their skin colour)

You should make a movie with your blue sims. It would be funny though, with the right music. 'I'm blue, dabadedabadaa...'

[Saltypaws]

Something else since Ambitions, my sim that is top of science career gets picked up in morning by sloppy jalopy and comes home in different car.

[LlamaMama]

I found a Troglodyte at the shop. It's a caveman that looks like it might be another type of gnome.

[Leto85]

I found a Troglodyte at the shop. It's a caveman that looks like it might be another type of gnome.

It is. There are a few new gnomes that you can buy, find, encounter. Or they will find you. There is another topic here which you may find interesting about the gnome you can find in the laundry system.

[omega2alpha]

I made a female sim, moved her into Twinville, and got her married a week or two later Goodwin (he had a child son with his girlfriend). My sim had already maxed inventing, so they tried for baby in the past. 12 hours later, Star, a young adult, came out of the time machine saying "Mom, dad, this is much better than the cave you left me in!". I couldn't pick her traits and lifetime wish, buy she did come with some cool clothes from the past. In the family tree, Star was listed correctly. Then the mom and dad had a baby in the present ( something cool- the mom went travelling to the future, and now has future clothing) and then the parents tried for baby in the past again and got a teen boy named Monty (in past clothing). Monty was listed as being younger than the baby in the family tree. Then, they tried for baby in the future and had twin elder girls in future clothing (they came out of the time machine one right after another.) I kicked the past an future people out (one got a job as a fireman and two got boyfriends) and had more children. In the end, I had three future sims (all elders, 2 female, 1 male), 3 past sims (2 YA, 1 teen, 2 female, 1 male) and 4 regular kids.

As for genetics, all the kids got hair and/or eyes from their parents and the skin blending is working much better. 

[AriaGirl77]

I made a female sim, moved her into Twinville, and got her married a week or two later Goodwin (he had a child son with his girlfriend). My sim had already maxed inventing, so they tried for baby in the past. 12 hours later, Star, a young adult, came out of the time machine saying "Mom, dad, this is much better than the cave you left me in!". I couldn't pick her traits and lifetime wish, buy she did come with some cool clothes from the past. In the family tree, Star was listed correctly. Then the mom and dad had a baby in the present ( something cool- the mom went travelling to the future, and now has future clothing) and then the parents tried for baby in the past again and got a teen boy named Monty (in past clothing). Monty was listed as being younger than the baby in the family tree. Then, they tried for baby in the future and had twin elder girls in future clothing (they came out of the time machine one right after another.) I kicked the past an future people out (one got a job as a fireman and two got boyfriends) and had more children. In the end, I had three future sims (all elders, 2 female, 1 male), 3 past sims (2 YA, 1 teen, 2 female, 1 male) and 4 regular kids.

As for genetics, all the kids got hair and/or eyes from their parents and the skin blending is working much better. 

lol, that is so cool!  Love this game!

[Pam]

I'm a little confused at how trying for a baby in the future would produce elders.

[Leto85]

I'm a little confused at how trying for a baby in the future would produce elders.

I was wondering that myself. Haven't tried it out yet, but I believe that the child is just growing up in a world alike the science fiction novel 1984 by George Owell, and after growing up to adulthood becoming sick about being watched all the time. At a older age some people are telling younger kids or young adults that things where better back in his time, when he was your age, so having the ability to actually getting back to that age could be the ultimate solution.

So, he just grows up in the future, and travels back in time at older age.

[Delgar]

I've had ambitions installed for a week, but I haven't tried anything new yet as I'm testing the collectors challenge.

On the plus side you guys will have found out all the bugs and tricks before I dive in.

[ik]

I have to admit i am not too impressed with Ambitions so far. I have only played a short time so far. I have tried a pre-built stylist/hobby inventor in Twinbrook until he set himself on fire sculpting a metal statue and crumpled into a pile of ashes before I knew how to help him. I was surprised to see that the fire alarm did not go off when his burning backside was hopping around directly under it, and i found that you can not put out the fire by jumping in the bathtub (needless to say that he did not have a shower).

After that i have started a new copy of my former WA test sim in Sunset Valley and set her on the firefighter career. That one was ok but started to get kind of repetitive after a while. It was a bit disappointing to see the job requirements stay the same through all the 10 job levels. I would have expected requirements to shift like they do for old-style jobs, fires put out for one level, people rescued for the next and so on. I also ran into a bit of illogical game behaviour due to the fact that I placed two separate fire stations in the same town. One thing I enjoyed very much was the gnome invasion emergency I encountered one day, the animations are hillarious. I have yet to see an earthquake and will probably keep on playing the firefighter until then (she reached joblevel 10 just a few days after turning into an adult).

The one thing I really enjoy about Ambitions so far is the feature I least expected to care about: Doing laundry . I am also looking forward to the time when my sim finally comes up with the miner and time machine inventions. So far she has only made one big invention, but she will turn into a fulltime inventor as soon as she has handled an earthquake emergency.

So overall Ambitions is a nice expansion but not one that i absolutely have to have. I enjoyed WA a lot more, plus it seemed more well-rounded where some of the Ambitions features (like the profession requirements) feel like they did not put a lot of thought into designing them.

[aws_137]

So the big question is whether the Ambitions expansion is worth buying for semi-fans(not huge fans) of Sims. Or should one wait for the price to drop?

[Leto85]

So the big question is whether the Ambitions expansion is worth buying for semi-fans(not huge fans) of Sims. Or should one wait for the price to drop?

If you want to wait for the price to drop, you could wait for another 3 to 4 years. I have noticed that when The Sims 2 came out, only that was the first moment when The Sims 1 and the expansions became cheaper. When The Sims 3 arives, the same did happen with The Sims 2, while the Sims 1 was completely no longer available. Games get cheap very fast, because a lot of new games tracked the attention of players quickly. But the Sims is an exeption on the rule, because of the expansions, that makes it keep interesting. That way, the price can be the same for as long as the product didn't become replaced with a newer version.
If it is worth buying depends completely on yourself. What do you like about it, when reading all the new articles about it, and what do you dislike? I will absolutely recommend the game, mostly because the new jobs are different enough to entertain boys and girls.
Besides that, being a self employee is maybe even better. Try to run your own business, with the rest of your family as your staff. If you combine Ambitions with World Adventures you can even begin your own nectar farm, starting with the first apple seed, working your way up to a whole factory of nectar making sims. It is hard to do, but in the end you will be rich. From that point you can even start to become a business tycoon, buying out all the businesses in your town, including some other lots, like parks, beaches and even the graveyard. If you are succesfull in upgrading those lots to the next level (improve them with more items) you can get even more money out of them.

So, what do you think. Will that be worth buying it?

[Saltypaws]

For big fans of sims3, it is worth it, but I can't see paying alot more money for the same thing, just in a different store.  If I had a choice of getting it now at say, 60.00 at one store and week later pay the normal price at another store, then I would wait for the second store.  I am a huge fan, but I won't pay 20.00 more because I want it now, but, that is me, I can't speak for other people and whatever they do is right for them.  The price doesn't really drop that much though from the original price.  I have seen sims2 games that are still selling for the same price that they were selling for way back when.  Geeze, sorry, really got off topic on this one, I quit now, lol.

[kaykay]

If you are just a semi fan, I'd probably wait it out at least a little while. If you are not into the sims careers and you'd rather focus on like other things such as relationships and the money making skills then it's not such a big deal. I'm pretty sure the patch included the option to become self employed so thats a pretty cool little add in that makes the game more exciting for free : D. World Adventures price was already dropped to 30 bucks from 50 here in Canada (at least in my city) so it doesn't seem like you'd have to wait for years to get it a bit cheeaer. I love the new expansion pack though it's been a lot of fun. I haven't had a lot of time to explore it fully yet though, I've been trying to build a house for like 3 days lol, I'm so not a builder. I've bought every one of their games ever since I was nine lol so I suppose I'm more then a semi fan.

[Sarah]

I have tried a pre-built stylist/hobby inventor in Twinbrook until he set himself on fire sculpting a metal statue and crumpled into a pile of ashes before I knew how to help him. I was surprised to see that the fire alarm did not go off when his burning backside was hopping around directly under it, and i found that you can not put out the fire by jumping in the bathtub (needless to say that he did not have a shower).

I don't know whether you play with testingcheats on, but whilst inventing one of my Sims set himself on fire and he was a fair old run from the nearest bathroom so I just cancelled the 'on fire' negative moodlet from his moodlets and it put out the fire. Someone else posted much earlier in the thread that their Sim died from fire through inventing, and initially I assumed it must have been a large fire (didn't have Ambitions at the time) but my Sim was on fire the way you described, with his backside burning and him freaking out. So I guess I saved him by simply cancelling the moodlet?

You should make a movie with your blue sims. It would be funny though, with the right music. 'I'm blue, dabadedabadaa...'

lol I'm not making blue movies! But that song is now stuck in my head I may write up the story of the family though, except I've taken hardly any photos.

So the big question is whether the Ambitions expansion is worth buying for semi-fans(not huge fans) of Sims. Or should one wait for the price to drop?

I love the Sims, and when TS2 was out (and the original Sims) I bought the expansion packs immediately, I couldn't wait for them. With Sims 3, I had no choice but to wait for WA since I didn't have a computer capable of playing it. In fact when I bought WA it was sitting in my house waiting for our new computer to arrive. I saved about £10 or so waiting for it though, because I bought it about 2-3 months after it was out. With Ambitions my friend bought me a gift card so I already had £10 off, only paid £14.98 for it and that was the day after it was released. If you actively want to try out the new professions or the new skills (and laundry! ), then get Ambitions. If you can wait a few months for it to come down in price it'll be more attractive as a proposition. On the other hand, if you were going to get it for the chance to be self employed, the patch covered that. I believe the update Ambitions came with was essentially the same as the one EA issued when Ambitions was released.

If you're a semi-fan, maybe waiting is the option for you. You'll only have to wait a few months for it to come down in price, it's not as though the game relies on the expansions to keep it going. The beauty of the Sims is that it'll only get boring if you allow your gameplay to stagnate, and you can easily shake things up.