Future Sim Improvement Ideas

[Pam]

I would really appreciate it if there was some way to find out the age of sims that weren't in your household. Several times now I have had one of my (often young adult) sims get to know someone in the town in the hope of marrying them - they look the same age, but when they finally get married and I go to start my family, I find out that they are due to age up to elder in a couple of days time! Very frustrating, particularly if they are a female and I was hoping for several kids.
Does anyone else have this problem?

The best way to find out their age ranges is to throw a party.  Their age group (Young Adult, Adult) will show up with their name on the party invitation screen.  It won't give their exact age, but at least it helps a little to know their range.

[kat]

Another improvement that I think would be really great is if there was a lifetime reward for 'faster gardening'; this has to be the longest chore in the game. 

[Kilgore Trout]

My main issues are largely UI ones. The queue management could be improved - if my sim starts an interaction, I'd like him to be able to finish it first when I add a new one, rather than it being automatically cancelled - after all, I can still click to cancel it. Similarly, being able to rearrange an existing queue would be a godsend.

Another thing is the lack of an autosave feature. I understand that many people would not want such a feature, but I've lost two long chunks of play by forgetting to save at regular intervals and the game crashing on me. I'd be happy with an optional pop-up prompt every 3 days asking if you want to save the game.

And it's a shame they didn't add a museum with WA. I'd have loved to have been able to take archaeology as a career for my Joneses, or even as a skill, with challenges such as "Explorer - has completely explored x tombs" or "Curator - has donated x items/$x worth of items to the museum".

Actually, on the subject of careers, an academic one would have been good too. At say level 6, you can diversify into Music Teacher (Music skill), PT Teacher (Physical skill), Lecturer (Logic skill)... And you'd get to work at the same time your kids were at school

[TheLostGirls]

That would be sweet.

[17irish11]

Ok, I don't now about anyone else, but I really miss the old paints, wallpapers, bricks and stone work to decorate with.  Not real pleased with the selection they are giving us in Sims 3.  I was hoping with the new release of HEL that we would see more in the way of wall and floor decorations.  

I also would like a way to go back to one color pattern on an item (such as a rug) easier.  Unless I am missing something (which is always possible) I end up clicking the buttons to try to find the pattern that I selected.  I forget sometimes to hold down the shift button to get more than one.  

[Simbacat]

I agree Irish, I really liked the variety of exterior colors I had in TS2. I really like being able to customize furniture though, since the selections are a bit thin.
I miss the games that they used to play in TS2 (except the pillow fights...pillow fights in the street? seriously?) I remember they used to have this rock, scissors, paper thing game in TS2 that was kind of funny.

EA seems to be keeping to the forumulas that were successful with previous expansions.... we had Vacation (which turned into Bon Voyage and then WA.....Unleashed and Pets and so forth) I think this means that we will eventually have pets in TS3...at least I hope we do. It would be cool if the pets had their own set of traits as well.

One thing they really need to do is improve the AI. My sims certainly look better, but man, they are as dumb as bags of hair sometimes. TS2 at least had somewhat more competent sims. The borked routing is awful. I also hope they improve the carpool situation as well. Why does the carpool still come when my sim has a car? And why can't each of my sims use their own car? It's pretty unrealistic that my legacy family allows their teenage son to drive a police car to school (although it probably gets him a lot of respect in the parking lot).

I imagine they will eventually address these issues in future expansion packs......the TS2 base game was hardly perfect and did improve with each expansion (at least it did for me).
Thinking about all this, I really have to wonder if EA pays any attention at all to what we as players would like to see in our game.

[Edit: Please put spaces after punctuation. It's difficult to read without them.  Thanks! -Pam]

[kat]

I know the baby subject is one that is slightly done to death, but I've been thinking that it would be neat if EA actually brought out a "Parenting Pack", with more baby/toddler interactions, clothes and objects. Also more maternity wear as we don't seem to have any option with that. Also a couple more items that toddlers could self-learn from, like the xylophone and peg box. And more child friendly wallpaper etc. I mean, I know we can customise it but it would be nice not to have to bother.

[Pam]

I agree Irish, I really liked the variety of exterior colors I had in TS2.

The exterior wall coverings can be customized to any color you like, just like almost everything else.

And why can't each of my sims use their own car?

There's a feature now that lets you select a car as your Sim's preferred vehicle.  Once that is done, that Sim will always use that particular vehicle.  Just click on the car with the active Sim and make the selection.  Although, I don't think you can forbid a Sim from using a particular vehicle.

[TheLostGirls]

I REALLY hate the tantrums. On my legacy, family (check the stories section look for the word Degrassi) Hank refused to sleep because he had a tad less then one full square of clearence between the wall and his side of the bed. It was kind of funny to watch, but extremely irritating.

[Simbacat]

I agree Irish, I really liked the variety of exterior colors I had in TS2.

The exterior wall coverings can be customized to any color you like, just like almost everything else.

And why can't each of my sims use their own car?

There's a feature now that lets you select a car as your Sim's preferred vehicle.  Once that is done, that Sim will always use that particular vehicle.  Just click on the car with the active Sim and make the selection.  Although, I don't think you can forbid a Sim from using a particular vehicle.

Right...but if I have 2 sims in one house with 2 cars,they only ever use one of them.It's really irritating.I'm sorry my punctuation isn't perfect.

[Pam]

Right...but if I have 2 sims in one house with 2 cars,they only ever use one of them.It's really irritating.I'm sorry my punctuation isn't perfect.

I'm not sure what you mean.  They can only use one at a time, but each Sim can use his or her own car.  If nothing else, you can put a car into each one's inventory and they'll drive them.

As for your punctuation, it's good.  You just need to put a space after commas, periods, parentheses, etc.  Without those spaces, the search engines read it as one long word that doesn't really exist.  I'll continue to put spaces in for you because we need posts to be easily readable and searchable.  It would just be helpful to me if you'd do it yourself when you post a message like the others do.  I mean, you put spaces after your words, so just put spaces after punctuation marks, too. 

[samoht04]

I know that this is just a game but with Story Proggression there are so many possibilities. e.g Hair Grows (Hairdressers) Grass and Plants Grow (Lawn Mower and Gardener) Sims grow taller gradually (Not just for a birthday, they have already done it with outwards)

I'd quite like to see some expantion packs for pets, magic, seasons, Businesses, University, Nightlife (I know thats basicly all from ts2 but How many more catagories are worth putting in?) In Pets well not just Hamsters, Dogs, Cats, Birds. I think more pets like Reptiles, Rabbits, Guinea Pigs, Turtles, Fish... and also wild animals like wolves, foxes, badgers, rabbits, deer, ducks, birds...

[Simbacat]

I didn't know you could put cars into their inventory...that is good to know. I know that they will sometimes keep the car in their inventory after they use it, but I didn't know that you could just put it in yourself.
What I meant by my original post was that say I have 2 sims that live together. Sim 1 has a truck and Sim 2 has a car. The only car they ever use is the one I assign a preference to. There isn't a way to assign an owner to a car like there was in TS2. Not a big deal, but kind of unrealistic.

[17irish11]

I agree Irish, I really liked the variety of exterior colors I had in TS2.

The exterior wall coverings can be customized to any color you like, just like almost everything else.


Thanks Pam, I will have to investigate it to see if I can figure out how to do that. 

[Pam]

What I meant by my original post was that say I have 2 sims that live together. Sim 1 has a truck and Sim 2 has a car. The only car they ever use is the one I assign a preference to. There isn't a way to assign an owner to a car like there was in TS2. Not a big deal, but kind of unrealistic.

Ok, you take Sim 1 and click the truck and select "Make Preferred Vehicle."  Then take Sim 2 and click on the car, again selecting "Make Preferred Vehicle."  Now Sim 1 will always drive his truck and Sim 2 will always drive her car.  So, you have assigned an owner to each vehicle.  Is that not what you want to do?