Category: Sims 3

Complete Badge – Win 6 Fights in a Row

Ok, usually I don’t like playing with Evil sims or any sim who likes to pick fights. But one of the Sims Badge Achievements is “Winning Streak” – Win 6 fights in a row. So I went to a local bar and started picking a fight with some strangers. First I had to do a few actions from the Mean menu, then the Fight menu appeared and she could start a Brawl. She’s an evil Sim and has level 7 athletic, so she got a good moodlet about winning. I did this 6 or 7 times and did not get the badge achievement yet. I wonder if I’m missing anything? Does the fight have to be in a certain lot?

Update: I did it! Don’t do the ‘Brawl’ interaction at dive bars. You’ll need to get your relationship low enough with the ‘victim’ Sim by declaring them a nemesis or other interactions under the Fight menu. Then you’ll get a ‘Fight!’ interaction. The fights don’t last as long as the brawls do, which is nice! It wasn’t hard to complete the achievement badge. Now I can stop playing my evil family and do some good achievements! There are a couple other evil achievements, but I’ll work on those later!

SimPort Touring Process

Looks like my level 10 magician, David Copperfield, successfully went on tour to a friend’s game. One of my Sim friends sent out a request to host a level 10 magician at a Coffeehouse. I decided to give it a try since David meets the criteria. So first I clicked on the ‘View Simport’ button in the friend’s request announcement at the top corner of the screen. The SimPort window appeared. I clicked on ‘Accept’ within the request message, and a dialog appeared to let me choose which Sim should go. I think only David was available, so I clicked on ‘Next’. Then it had a few confirmation dialogs to make sure I really wanted him to go, and whether to save my game. I clicked yes. So for about a minute and a half the game went into the loading status with the message ‘Booking Tour’. I could still hear sound effects in the background, like the game play was still moving forward with the other family member. But there was nothing I could do to interact with her. Then for another 2 minutes or so, the game was in the ‘Saving’ state with the loading icon. Finally the game play resumed and I think the other family member DID continue to go about her business without me! Her energy was dangerously low. David ran out to his limo and drove out of town, with the status of ‘Going on Tour’ or something similar. When he was out of the town, his Sim icon went dim and the tooltip says he’ll return around Tues. at 12:30 AM. He left around Monday at 2:00 pm. It looks like you still can go to Edit Town or Save your Game when your Sim is on tour.

Already there’s a new message that the Tour Stop is complete, and both me and the requesting friend have Simoleans, SimPort Stamps, Lifetime Happiness rewards.

Naughty Reputation and Failed Greet Interaction

Another ‘bug’ that seems to be happening is that when I go to greet a Sim in the neighborhood at a community lot (also happened at a house party), the target sim just freezes and my Sim (David) never greets him. The stranger just stands there as if waiting for something, and David just stands there waiting for the other to ‘accept’ the greet! Then, I cancel the interaction, and sometimes the stranger is still frozen! No interactions can be made, even ‘Call Over’. I noticed it the first time on the Coffee shop proprietor, so I used the ResetSim ‘cheat’ to reset her. I think it just made another Sim become proprietor, and I can’t remember if that solved the issue.

Now I’m starting to notice that whenever Sims in the neighborhood see David, they get a frowny-face memory bubble above their heads. And I realized that he has a Naughty Reputation (had 2 loves at once), so that would explain that. But do they start out with a low relationship status because of that? Are they supposed to ignore or resist my Sim’s interactions? What all does the naughty reputation do, and is it causing the failed greet interaction bug? How do I remove the Naughty Interaction? The 2nd woman he loved died a long time ago, and I saw the option to ‘Confess to Cheating’ with the other woman, but didn’t want to try that and jeopardize the relationship. He never did marry her, but they are going steady. I’ll try the confession and marriage to see if that helps his reputation.

Sim Click Pie Menu Not Appearing

I noticed there was an update to the Sims 3 today, great!! I’ve been noticing a few bugs here and there with Showtime, and I hope they get fixed. Also my game has been running very slow lately, either I have too many objects or Sims in my saved game, or my laptop is getting old! I’ve tried setting the graphic settings down, since it seems to be a rendering issue. But it doesn’t seem to speed it up very much, plus then I don’t get the nice detail and texture on Sims and objects! Anyway, now I am noticing that sometimes clicking on my Sim doesn’t bring up the pie menu. I click and wait a several seconds, and nothing happens. I think it is only a problem on community lots; works OK at his house. There should always be some options when clicking on a Sim, like making a cell phone call. He’s a magician Sim, so clicking on him is how I get him to perform for tips. I wonder if it has something to do with the community lot not being completely rendered when I try to pull up the menu. Anyone else having this problem?

Sims 3 Badges

The Sims is an excellent example of open-ended gameplay. There are tons of different aspects of the game that you can explore and play, and of course EA keeps adding more until it’s to the point where there’s not enough Sim hours in the day to do everything. Especially when you have to worry about your Sims’ basic needs as well! So lately I’ve been focusing my efforts on the Badges that EA added. They’ll keep adding more with new expansion packs, so I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get them all, but it’s fun to see your achievements and show them off on your Player Wall. It says you can even buy more badges at the Store! But I don’t think I’d buy something like that, unless it was free!

Here’s a great list of badges including those included with ShowTime. http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/achievements.php

Serve Perfect Lobster Thermidor 20 Times

I tried working towards earning one badge where a 5-star chef serves perfect Lobster Thermidor 20 times. I had a gardener Sim in the same household who grew perfect ingredients. At first I had the chef just make single servings of the dish 20 times, and that didn’t seem to work, then I started using the Serve option. When each dish was done, I hovered over it and verified it was Perfect quality. I thought it might be this fancy fridge that I got somehow that wasn’t in the Buy Menu, so I switched to one of the best fridges in the menu, but it never unlocked the badge for me. However, I was able to get the other badge where the Sim makes a bunch of other dishes at perfect quality.

Showtime SimPort Details – Unable to Save or Use Edit Town

I’ve been playing Sims 3 Showtime recently, trying to earn the many badges that are related to Showtime features. Two badges are related to the new SimPort feature, a new social feature that allows your Sim to visit your friends’ games (go on Tour), and your friends’ Sims to visit your game to perform on stage. First you’ll need to invite/request friends using the friend search in the game. Then you can send requests out to your friends to Host their Sim, or Send your Sim on Tour. One of your friends will need to accept within 1 (human) day. Then I’m not quite sure what the next step is, I think you’ll need to accept one more time. I sent a Host request, got a message that someone accepted, then I had to click Accept again. Then the game gave me a message that I won’t be able to Save the game or go to Edit Mode while the town is Hosting a Sim! I thought that would be OK because it shouldn’t take too long for this Show to happen and be over with! But nothing happened after that, and after several hours I wanted to save my game, and told it to cancel the SimPort. But it didn’t seem to cancel, and Edit Town was still disabled. I finally did Save and Quit, so I’ll see what happens when I go back to the game today.

Once you accept the SimPort, I think you should be able to go to Map View to see what venue and time the Show will take place. Hopefully that will let you know when it will be over!

For more information on the SimPort feature, I found a good video here: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xp0tc0_the-sims-3-showtime-simport-guide-grk_videogames
Another resource is an article here: http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/sims-3/1470718-send-receive-sims-sims-3-showtime-guide-using-simport.html

Requirements: In order for Sims to be eligible to go on tour, they will need to have a household of at least two members and be a level two performer. Only one Sim can be on tour at a time. Once your Sim goes on tour, they could be away for up to 12 Sim hours

Freezer Bunny Magic Gnome

I’ve noticed that the ice cream truck hangs out a lot by a Sims’ house in the middle of the night. At Caesar’s household, I started seeing an item that appeared like the magic gnomes do, but it’s pink. It’s called a Freezer Bunny Magic Gnome. I wonder what it’s for, except to let dogs chew on it? But it’s worth quite a bit of money, over 900 Simoleons!!

Freezer Bunny Magic Gnome

Sims 3 Canine Relationships and Woohooium

Wow, it’s been a long time since my last post. I will try to post a little more often since there’s SO much stuff in the Sims 3! I currently have all the expansion packs: Ambitions, World Adventures, Generations, Pets, and Late Night. I’m not excited about Showtime because it seems redundant since we already have Celebrity status, dance clubs and lounges, and forming your own bands.

Anyway, my latest game-play goal is to explore the relationships and skills of dogs. I created a man named Caesar Milan and 4 dogs. 3 of the 4 have the hunting skill, so I’ve been building that up and see what they can find after ‘Sniff out Collectable’. At first they get snake skins, leaves, bags of chips, and rocks, but one just found a metal called Woohooium! This is the first time I’ve seen that, so I had to look it up. After you get it smelted and put it in the bedroom, it will glow little red hearts when your Sim woohoos (carls sims 3 guide). Perhaps it will allow Sims who are not even in a relationship to woohoo! we’ll see. I wonder if it will do anything for canine woohoo?? I haven’t explored that yet, but I have bred a horse at one of the Equine centers and she gave birth to a foal.

And… of course the game crashed and I didn’t save it! Lately it’s been crashing and freezing a lot!! But that will be for another post. I’ll have to restart and see if the dog can find the Woohooium again.

Rocky, my dog, found Woohooium again so I got it smelted and put it in the bedroom. Caesar became acquainted with woman in the park and the next day invited her over. They went into the bedroom and suddenly the romantic options became available. I don’t think they were even friends at that point yet. Things progressed quickly and he was able to invite her to cuddle on the bed and make out. I didn’t see the option to WooHoo yet though! Woohooium seems like a pretty handy metal to have on hand if you’re looking to hook up quickly 🙂

Architecture Profession Tips

I bought the Sims 3 Ambitions a week or so ago, and have been testing out some of the new features and professions. This will be the first in a series of posts about the new expansion pack! For the first I’d like to give some advice and information about the Architecture Design profession.

First, you’ll need the Drafting table and the stool in order to ‘Research Architecture Design’ and practice painting. Use the phone to sign up for the profession just like any job. If you want to create a Sim specifically for this profession, I would suggest picking traits such as:

  • Handy
  • Artist
  • Loves the Outdoors (I thought this may come in handy if he needs to visit the outside of people’s houses)
  • Perfectionist

Are there any others you suggest? You can also give him the Lifetime Want of ‘Home Design Hotshot” and he’ll keep getting wishes regarding furthering his career.

How Do Architecture Jobs Work

Your Sim will have specific hours (8a-6p M-F) in which he can pick from several renovation requests marked on the map. You can read a description of what the client wants. Then the game will ask you if you’d like to begin now, or come back to it later. Choosing Begin now will take you to the client’s home and enter Build/Buy mode. You will be given a checklist of items to buy and place in the home, and a budget. I find this pretty neat; you get to use the client’s money, and they give you a pretty large budget. You get to pick styles for the furniture and decor of the room. You can place the new objects anywhere in the home, and delete or modify any furniture, walls, flooring, or landscape. So you can go above and beyond what the client demands.

Completion, Portfolio, Reviews

When you’re satisfied with your work and have completed the checklist items, you can submit the renovation for review. Your sim will call the client (who had vacated the lot) and they will come to review your work. They’ll give you a review and comments, your fee and perhaps a bonus. The game will ask you if you’d like to take a picture for your portfolio. The reviews tend to get better as your profession level increases. But I just received a negative review for a renovation I had to come back to. She said it was ‘cluttered’ and she couldn’t reach the new items (it was a large house and the renovation was for a larger pool area). I’m not sure why she couldn’t reach the area, I just had some foot lights and flowers around, but a clear path and steps in the pool.

Bugs

When you submit the renovation for approval, some buggy gameplay may occur. First, you will be taken out of build/buy mode which means the walls will suddenly become opaque. Then when the client enters the house again to review, your Sim should also be able to enter, and the camera view should be able to ‘enter’ and view the house. But I experienced a bug where the walls remained opaque, even though I could see inside the house if I zoomed in the camera so it ‘entered’ the house. It was very annoying since I tried to take a photo for my portfolio. I didn’t try leaving the lot and re-visiting since I wasn’t sure if the photo would still work for the portfolio.

Another bug I encountered was when the client never told me her ‘review’. (It was for the pool renovation mentioned above). All I saw was the completed checklist. There were no extra interactions on the client to make her review the renovation again. I later figured out that if you zoom out to Map view, you should be able to see the map icon again, and on it will be an option to submit the renovation for review. But when she did renovate it she gave me a negative review! I’m not sure if it had something to do with coming back later.

Tips

In the negative review the client said “You didn’t use all the budget! Do you think I want it to look cheap?” Although in another review it said “I’m glad you saved me so much money!” So I’m not sure if you should use all the budget or not. I would suggest spending it all if you have a wealthy client. To avoid the “cluttered” review, maybe avoid adding too many lights or flowers.

Let me know if you have any other tips or comments!

Sims Ambitions Expansion Pack – Worth it?

Well, I finally decided to write another post for my Sims blog! No, I didn’t forget about this blog, but I have been pretty busy with some new websites and family stuff! I actually haven’t played the Sims since my last post I believe, which is really quite good for me, since I can get addicted when a new expansion pack comes out. Unfortunately my parenting responsibilities prevent me from playing these days. But I hear that the next expansion pack for the Sims 3 came out recently… shipped June 1st? I’m checking prices now to see if it’s gone down: EA Store (available as a direct download!) and Best Buy are still $40. You can get it for slightly cheaper on Walmart ($38.54) or Amazon ($36.99) but you may have to pay for shipping.

Control Your Sim At Their Job!

This expansion pack seems pretty neat. The biggest new feature or gameplay change is being able to control your Sim at his job. You don’t have to sit and wait while your Sim goes off to work during the day. There are several new ‘professions’ to choose from in which you complete missions or tasks around town to get paid. Seems kind of like the World Adventures missions or jobs. I really like that aspect of the previous expansion pack, so I think I’ll like this new one. You can choose from: firefighter, private investigator, doctor, ghost hunter, stylist (did I miss any?). There are also new hobbies such as inventing, sculpting, and tattooing, which can earn Simoleons. Guess what you can invent? A ghost-capturing device used in the ghost hunter profession, or a time machine! You can sell your creations in a new consignment shop, and as with any skill-building hobby, your Sim won’t be very good or be able to build the fancier inventions until they build up their skill. The review at CNET seems to have a good intro/summary to the new features. It says you can choose to be ‘self-employed’ by earning Simoleans from Gardening, Fishing, Nectar-making from World Adventures, as well as the new hobbies. But I’m not sure if these ‘hobbies’ can actually bring in enough Simoleons to sustain a comfortable standard of living (will you have enough time for other things, or do you need to dedicate every spare moment to your profession?).

What do you think? Have you gotten the new expansion pack yet, or decided whether it was worth it?