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 🙂

The Sims Medieval

I’ve seen advertisements for the Sims Medieval but I never took the time to really check it out until now. I just assumed it’s not for the PC or it’s just a Stuff Pack. But it seems like it’s a stand-alone game for the PC. It takes place in the Middle Ages and allows your sims to go on quests to find adventure and romance, and build up a kingdom, whether it’s good or evil, romantic or warlike. The Sims become Epic Heros and their sons and daughters can grow up to take their place. Read more information on the EA website: http://www.ea.com/the-sims-medieval which explains some of the other features: magic to help your sim complete quests, blacksmiths to forge weapons, physicians to find cures for ailments, and diplomatic actions such as treaties, trade, and war. It sounds pretty interesting, but I haven’t had much time to play the Sims lately and I don’t think I’ll be buying it anytime soon. What is particularly interesting is the Kingdom customization and building, starting from an empty field and building up castles, churches, and houses. Perhaps they’ve combined elements from Sim City and the Sims into one game, which would be really neat. Have you tried the Sims Medieval? What do you think?

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?

Error Unable to connect to EA download manager from Sims Launcher

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Boy, I’ve just wasted some time trying to install updates for EA Download Manager, Sims 3 base game, and Sims 3 World Adventures! Not too long ago, perhaps after the last Sims update, the EA Download manager would start opening every time I open the Sims 3 Launcher. That is really annoying. I read that the EA Download Manager is required to be installed in order to receive updates, but does it have to open up a window each time? When I play the Sims 3, I don’t want any other windows or programs open in the background to affect performance!

Errors During Updates

I started getting an error message: Error Unable to connect to EA download manager . Then there was an update for the manager, which I thought would fix the errors. Nope. Then there was an update available for the Sims 3, seen in the Updates tab of the Sims 3 Launcher. So I started that one. At one point the installer closed, so I opened the Launcher up again. This time it said the Sims 3 Base game was not compatible with the expansion pack version and needed to update. So I started to worry that the wrong update was applied, or didn’t finish completely and I may have to re-install the whole game!

Re-installing the EA Download Manager

I really wanted to make sure I had the latest, non-corrupt version of the Download Manager, so I uninstalled my current version (both a EA Download Manager and EA Download Manager UI, how annoying). I did a search and found a link to download it here. Just click on the EA Download Manager button down at the middle of the page. This is a 20 MB file, which is different from the version in the EADM folder in the Sims installation directory. So that installed fine.

Actual Updates to the Sims 3

So, once the EA Download Manager is installed and running, I ran the Sims 3 updates again. This time it ran an update for the Sims 3 base game. You would think the update to the base game would happen first, so you wouldn’t get that ‘Sims 3 Base game incompatible’ message. But I think everything installed ok.

  • The Sims 3 World Adventures is now updated to version 2.4.7
  • The Sims 3 base game is now updated to version 1.9.22

Processes Running During Sims 3 Launcher

Now I’ve closed both programs, but I still see the EADM process in the Windows Task manager. There’s also an EA Core Server Application running. I ended the download manager task and opened Sims 3 Launcher with no errors. So I wonder if it will work now without opening a new window for the EADM. Perhaps the EA Core Server is handling part of it now?

Ancient Art of Smashing Boulders – Breaking Large Rocks

I’ve seen several large boulders while exploring tombs in Egypt and France, and my sim was unable to ‘clear’ or break through them like the piles of rubble. The message claimed that an ancient Chinese artifact or tool was required to break through them. So how do you obtain this ancient Chinese artifact?

Go to China and complete Adventures!

Of course the first thing you need to do is travel to China and start completing adventures! I’m not sure if they are random or go in order, but it took me quite a while until I found the one that claims to teach you the ‘ancient art of smashing boulders’. You will need to explore a tomb (the Temple of Heaven) that claims to be large and confusing, but I didn’t find it that hard actually. You will find Pangu’s Axe and be asked to return it to your contact. Do this (you may need to complete another task after that) but at some point they will let you keep it!

How do you use Pangu’s Axe?

Simply go to any of the large boulders or piles of rubble now and click on ‘Clear’. If your Sim is carrying the Axe in his inventory, he will hold it above his head while it starts to glow, then bring it down on the obstacle and it will instantly be cleared! Pretty cool!

How to get the Omni Plant

I enjoy growing gardens and improving the gardening skill in the Sims 3. As your sim gains the gardening skill, they are able to plant and grow more and more things. There are also many special types of plants that can be found as seeds or earned. For example, you can find seeds for a Life Plant, Death Flower Bush, Money Tree, and Flame Fruit Bush. By completing opportunities, you can gain knowledge of several other types of plants: Eggplant, Cheese Plant, Steak Plant, and Burger Patty Plant. I’ve gotten all of these before. But now I’m currently on a challenge/opportunity to grow 10 Outstanding steaks, and in return I’ll gain access to the Omni Plant (at least that’s what it sounds like)! I’ve heard of it, but never seen the Omni plant or know what it grows. On a Gamespot forum, they claim it replicates anything you feed it from your inventory. You can ‘Feed’ it items when it’s mature. On the Sims Wiki, you can find the gardening skill necessary for each type of plant, prices, and more.

Update: My omni plants have replicated roasts, snails, and pomelos. I think you get about 4 for each, which means your 1 item you feed an omni plant is quadrupled. I was also able to replicate Life Plant and Flame Bush, but the death flower did not appear in the list when you select an item.

Omni Plants ready for harvest