Future Sim Improvement Ideas

[samoht04]

Imagine the impact boating would have on fishing!

[Pam]

We already have a thread for this kind of discussion.  I'm merging this one with it.

[Esther1981]

I'm guessing the reason they didn't include autosaving is because (if your household is really big) it can take a long time to save the game and it would be extremely annoying if the game suddenly stopped to save itself unexpectedly.  Most games that use autosaving are divided up into sections or levels, so it makes perfect sense to save the game at the end of each section.

As for future expansions, I'm going to guess they'll make an "outdoors" expansion pack that will include things like pets and weather (and maybe even boating, who knows...that would be a first).   It would make sense to put it all in the same EP and there's plenty of stuff they could put in a pack like that!

I'm sure any ideas that we think of have already been thought of by the people at EA.  Remember, this is a multi-million dollar franchise that's been around for a decade.  

But if you have played Virtual Villagers 4 or Virtual Families, this isn't divided into levels. It just automatically saves it when the game has been open for 10 minutes. And it's done without any lag you don't even know it's saving it, it just does! But I now see that wouldn't be good in this game cause sometimes you have to save under a different name!

[samoht04]

Also what happens if something bad happens and you want to quit without saving....  After it has already saved itself?

[Esther1981]

Also what happens if something bad happens and you want to quit without saving....  After it has already saved itself?

Obviously, I hadn't thought of these things! I guess it's a good thing this game doesn't do that!

[TollingBells]

I also want my Sim to be invited to parties, other Sims' wedding or birthday parties, Funerals as well.
being able to take a gift with him when visiting other Sims? (or attending the parties that he was invited to   ) Receiving gifts on birthday would be nice too.

Actually, that sparked another idea- Not only would gift giving be nice, but think about a job that could open up-Wedding Planner! Maybe a wedding hall you can change wedding decorations and colors to different themes with different furniture-Like, if a Goth family member wanted to get married, using different gothic or black and purple furniture, or maybe it can be like the interior decorator profession- Adding in certain furniture or flowers or such for decoration, and doing it in a budget.

[Pam]

But if you have played Virtual Villagers 4 or Virtual Families, this isn't divided into levels. It just automatically saves it when the game has been open for 10 minutes. And it's done without any lag you don't even know it's saving it, it just does! But I now see that wouldn't be good in this game cause sometimes you have to save under a different name!

The enormous difference between Sims 3 and Virtual Villagers is the complexity of the game.  I haven't played VV4, but I've played all the others extensively (until I discovered Sims 3) and even wrote a walkthrough for VV3 for Jay Is Games.  They just aren't nearly as complicated and I'm sure it's a relatively easy thing to build in an autosave feature. 

[Esther1981]

The enormous difference between Sims 3 and Virtual Villagers is the complexity of the game.  I haven't played VV4, but I've played all the others extensively (until I discovered Sims 3) and even wrote a walkthrough for VV3 for Jay Is Games.  They just aren't nearly as complicated and I'm sure it's a relatively easy thing to build in an autosave feature. 

True! I think VV4 is the easiest, or I just got used to it through 1-3 because I could keep my tribe from starving! You wrote a guide for 3? That's awesome! I kinda feel bad sometimes because I was so addicted to LDW games, now I never play them anymore. Oops thank goodness I paused them before the Sims! I guess that's normal maybe? You fall in love with a game, play it nonstop than another game comes out and you forget the other one? I hope this doesn't make me a bad person!!

[Pam]

Well, I mispoke a little.  I wrote the FAQ for Virtual Villagers 3 and I wrote the walkthrough for Virtual Families. 

[beanutz]

I particularly liked the wedding planner idea. I also like the big insects and the suggestion that we can get our Sims to do the handyman/baby sitters job. And what about car cleaning as a job for the kids- Kids round our way are always looking to wash cars as a way of making extra cash.

I did marry off the Simbot to the handyman so that she could always get mended.

[TollingBells]

Maybe people should be able to mow the lawn, and use a bike rack or parking space for a riding lawnmower or a push mower...Maybe even have some that look like those old style pushmowers.  Kids could offer to mow the lawn, and it can be like a 'bautiful room' buff, that lasts a few days, and it increases for the mower price/style.

[Naga]

Many have already mentioned baby-toddler-children interactions, new instruments, hot tubs, seasons, new careers, etc, but I have to remind you all of the most important and immediate thing:

We need pets!

(At least the most important to me.)

Even though some of you don't like it, the pet expansions are in my opinion the best. First let it be clear that the main reason it is always one of the last few expansion packs is because of the improvement it brings to the game. When the game starts going down after a few boring expansions and loses some popularity (as what happened with TS1 and TS2), they give us a Pet expansion.

Now on to what should be in it. Clearly, the same old dog-cat-hamster-bird content isn't enough.

I'm not sure where some people think we could just leave a horse or dinosaur at. Maybe if there were some new rabbit-holes where you could buy/get/raise a horse, like a racing track, or give money to the science facility for them to research some DNA stuff and eventually make a dinosaur. Either way, the animal itself wouldn't be shown - it would be only in the text, or maybe have a picture like the insects do now. The top of it for dinosaurs would be having an exhibit in which they get tinified (like the aquarium).

Dogs and cats should of course be the topmost customisable content, with traits, careers, skills and clothing of their own (Yes, clothing. Maybe a part of beauty contests or some kind of pet model career.), but let's not forget about the others. Why is it so that Sims never had snake pets? People in real life do. Maybe spiders. Iguanas are obvious. Oh, and EA staff, in case you ever read this, remember: If you're gonna add guinea pigs, make it so they can have bigger cages, with those maze-looking tubes, and more than just 1 per cage.

Sorry for the long post, but I underlined the main stuff in case you are too lazy to read it all. =P

[Glic2000]

One thing that I do appreciate with the expansion packs is that EA seems keen on making sure that the new Expansion packs do not exactly duplicate content that came before in previous Sims games.  For example, World Adventures is a lot different than [The Sims] Vacation.

So, hopefully, presumably, if/when there is "The Sims 3:  Pets", it will try to "take things to the next level" as they seem to have tried to do with the other expansions so far.  I believe what Naga said; that it will include new, larger, more exotic animals, or (at least) combine the "pets" theme with other "outdoor" stuff.

Btw, further on the subject of autosaving:  games that use autosaving usually make the "autosave" a different game file than your "normal" saved games.  So you do not have to worry about the game autosaving over top of your regular saved game.   I still believe the reason it's not a feature is because of the memory/speed requirements.  Trust me, I've played a lot of games and The Sims 3 takes much longer to save and load than any other game I've ever played.

[deculbert]

Maybe people should be able to mow the lawn, and use a bike rack or parking space for a riding lawnmower or a push mower...Maybe even have some that look like those old style pushmowers.  Kids could offer to mow the lawn, and it can be like a 'bautiful room' buff, that lasts a few days, and it increases for the mower price/style.

Add a new storage building, like a shed for those items, and of course you would need trailers to hook to your trucks as your driving around town.

[gerrr00]

This thread has gotten long so I did not check to see if someone said this already or not... but I want to be able to have a more organized tabs when in buy mode.  I hate having to search and search for new store items.  There is a special button for CC, why not for the Sims store items?  That would be an awesome improvement.

I am frustrated right now because I bought the castle set and the items are all over the place.  Some if it is in build mode, others in buy mode.  Very disappointed that it is so hard to find all the pieces.  gerrrr