Sims 3 Things you didn't know! «1234567…33...Next Go

WillowG145

Lately I've discovered sims dogs like tomatoes! I Always thought only horses would eat stuff in the garden, not the dogs!
Plus, when hungry, dogs can drink from lakes or rivers to have their hunger filled. I guess is how strays can survive around the world

igazor

TreyNutz wrote: »

I was watching an old Llandros9 video on YouTube last night and he was taking his sim family to the Hidden Spring festival lot. The husband and wife were in a group together (but the children were not, dunno why). To disband the group he just clicked on the blue plumbob icon on the portrait panel. I didn't know that was possible. I always thought I had to do an 'ask to leave group' interaction with another sim in the group. I guess that's in the game and not a mod, but haven't tried it yet myself. That will be useful with the game does weird grouping when my sims attend class at university.

I didn't know that about the group plumbobs in the portrait panel either. But children and younger can never be part of a group-up formally, that's hard blocked by the game core. No one is really sure why, especially when families are involved.

igazor

WillowG145 wrote: »

Lately I've discovered sims dogs like tomatoes! I Always thought only horses would eat stuff in the garden, not the dogs!
Plus, when hungry, dogs can drink from lakes or rivers to have their hunger filled. I guess is how strays can survive around the world

It is nice to think that about the strays, I agree. But actually stray animals are Service Sims and the game takes care of their basic needs when they aren't interacting with sims or each other on-screen. They also usually disappear off the map into total hibernation in between appearances. It's probably just as well though, very few of us want to see dead stray animals all over our worlds or see them dropping from exhaustion because they couldn't make it "home" or to a source of food fast enough.

Jemkatk

jaletu2005 wrote: »

Well here's a strategy - keep some dried food in your sims inventory (if you have WA) so they never starve and let their needs bottom out.
I also like to have a gnome or two or flowers to give as gifts to friends around Snowflake day.

But something you didn't know? Well, if you hit Ctrl F you can place triangular tiles. Makes interesting decorating options!

Flame fruit from the store can also give you a Warmed (I think) moodlet.

While in University I stock up on those or buy the ITF fridge that materializes food and throw an entire serving in my inventory for between classes.

The futuristic food doesn't go bad and you can feed your friends and even get extra moodlets if you add Wonderpetal or BuzzBerry!

Also at Uni, you can apply for funds every 2-3 days and so can your other playable roomies.

jaletu2005

Now see, I didn't know any of that!
I was just reading on the Sims VIP site about the game guides and found a couple of interesting things:
1. You can take greeting card photos at the various rabbit holes (like City Hall) but they have a different background! I have never even tried this before. I thought they would look just like the photos in the booths at the fairs.

2. You can join the Polar Bear Club by just swimming in the ocean in wintertime! How cool!

Both of these require Seasons. I'll see what else I can dig up.

Oh and @igazor , thank goodness those strays get fed! I always feel so sorry for them esp. when they are sleeping in snow in winter.

cwaddell

Jemkatk wrote: »

....

Also at Uni, you can apply for funds every 2-3 days and so can your other playable roomies.

Actually sims can apply for funds every 24 hours after the last time they got them. Through the week the time they can get the funds starts getting later and later in the day because the 24 hours is counted from when they come out of the admin building with the funds not when they go in. Then there is also the class schedule to work around.

Also the higher their GPA the more funds they get.

Anthonydyer

I have played this game since 2011 and am still finding things I have never seen before. Last night I had my first meteor attack. That was scary!

Pancakesandwich

Another one: Evil Sims can set a burglar free while that burglar is standing in front of the police car. For some reason though, the police officer will go complaining to a random Sim within your household, not necessarily the one that did the freeing.

MRSMLOG

For anyone who's played "Sims Medieval" as you know there are dangerous "Dire Chinchillas" in the woods around the kingdom. In the Sims 3 there's a Dire Chinchillas painting! It's in one of the two "Sorcerers Friends" sets of pictures (under decor>wall decorations).

Pancakesandwich

Base game:
While a Sim is pregnant, that Sim as well as the spouse (if there is one) will have wishes to buy baby/toddler objects.


Even if you turn off story progression, premade pregnant Sims will still give birth. But the baby won't age unless aging is on.


If two Sims with a romantic relationship are cuddling on a bed (choose this option first!!) then there will be another option to kiss the other Sim. First kisses can be done in bed this way.


Into the Future:
Plumbots have a special lifetime reward that's supposed to remove the maintenance need. If it works? I don't know, haven't tried it out yet.


If a Plumbot adopts a child, then the Plumbot's creator will count as the grandparent of that child.


Plumbots (even if built in the present and you've never been to the future before) are treated as if they had level 10 in the future technology skill, even though it doesn't show under certain circumstances. If they have the repairman trait chip they can also instantly upgrade the sonic shower even if your own Sim has a low technology level.
The same goes for children that were adopted in the future, but the skill always shows.


A Plumbot with the learning trait chip installed can actually learn the bot-building skill. Which means that this one Plumbot could build an army and take over the world. Or something like that.


Plumbots can make silly faces. Don't ask me how.


The current emotion of a Plumbot (happiness, sadness, anger, flirtiness) is shown by a symbol on its display. The graphic varies from head to head, where the less advanced looking heads have more pixelated symbols.


In the dystopian future, meteors fall down pretty much every day. But did you know you could actually collect those? They're sometimes pretty large things that literally won't fit on anything but the floor.


For the creation of a dystopian future you will receive a meteor magnet. And you can keep it! I often had my Sim get wishes and autonomous actions related to attracting meteors too.


If you look closely at the "screwdriver" they use to tune Plumbots, you'll notice how it somewhat resembles the Sonic Screwdriver from Doctor Who.

Pancakesandwich

This is a double post, but I think it should be mentioned that each pack registration at the Sims 3 store site will unlock a different, free set of things. (it's not technically related to the gameplay, but still somewhat. It does give you more content for the game after all)
For example I've just registered Into the Future and so I could download the "Cosmic Cosmetics Bundle" (for free), which I couldn't even download at all if I didn't have ItF.

There are little things for Seasons, Pets, Generations, Showtime, and probably a few more too. You can access that list by Home->Sets->Holidays&Gifts->Registration Rewards

jaletu2005

I just love the Dr. Who references in the game - sonic screwdriver and Tardis.
Another feature that I've only recently begun to use: if you have pets, they can be trained to fetch collectibles and bring in money for the household. Some collectibles are really worth alot and it's not too hard to train the pet to do this either.

Faerie197

I do somewhat agree. There is a lot of stuff to do in Sims 3. And it can be rather overwhelming. A single sim can't take advantage of everything available to do. Well, they an if aging is disabled. But even just enabling aging when children are growing up, your sims will die of old age before they can truly master everything they can do.

slynnski

Sunnyyesjams wrote: »

GITTE2001 wrote: »

If your sims doesn't have to got to work on normal work days (pregnancy leave and those things) they can ask how it is at work, and if there's any stuff going on they can work on those problems at work via their pc! Just discovered this 5 minutes ago.

Whattt! And all this time I was getting frustrated because my pregnant sims couldn't advance in their careers! *Face palm*

Does their job performance go up when they do this?!

Pancakesandwich

Did you know... that if you name a star (when found by telescope) after a Sim's name, you will get a memory according to that?

Did you know... that you can harvest plants in another household without anybody caring? I just robbed some farmers within a few hours because I was bored

Did you know... (in Into the Future) you can apparently win at least up to 100,000 simoleons in the lottery? Yes, 100,000. Your Sims will literally be richer than any other premade family ever, over night. My current household's second lottery ticket caused this

Did you know... that you can easily copy a CASt pattern onto another kind of object without even leaving CASt? Just set the pattern you have on one object as favourite, then go to the other object and choose the Favourites category. This also works very well to make each part of a dress have the exact same colours.

Mazakeen

I love this thread. Its technically not cheating.

MoonandStars83

@Pancakesandwich re: the ITF lotto win, if a Sim who wins a large sum by getting winning numbers in the future makes a significant donation to the Plan the Future (I think) charity at City Hall, they'll have a Legacy Statue in Oasis Springs next time they visit.

TreyNutz

Pancakesandwich wrote: »

Plumbots have a special lifetime reward that's supposed to remove the maintenance need. If it works? I don't know, haven't tried it out yet.

That LTR does work. It more or less freezes the maintenance bar. The interaction to tune up is still there but won't affect the bar. On subsequent reloads or travel the bar may reset at 50% full, but it won't decay.

Pancakesandwich wrote: »

Did you know... (in Into the Future) you can apparently win at least up to 100,000 simoleons in the lottery? Yes, 100,000. Your Sims will literally be richer than any other premade family ever, over night. My current household's second lottery ticket caused this

Did you know... that you can easily copy a CASt pattern onto another kind of object without even leaving CASt? Just set the pattern you have on one object as favourite, then go to the other object and choose the Favourites category. This also works very well to make each part of a dress have the exact same colours.

The highest my sims have won from checking lottery records is 3 million simoleons. That can totally change a game.

You don't even have to save the pattern in CASt. Just drag the pattern and drop onto the other object or clothing part, then choose which channel to apply it too on the new object. You can also select an object, grab the 4 channels all at once, and drop onto other objects.

edit: plantsims have an option to Absorb Puddle instead of mopping it up. This increases their water motive.

Faerie197

Most I've had a sim win is 50 simolions. Which due to me not noticing the amount the win was for (or how much the painting had sold for) triggered part of the storyline for one of my now defunct games. That game's now defunct because the 2nd attempt at it got corrupted too, and I refuse to do a 3rd game staring Alicia Swan. She's just too evil for my liking, even if her receiving her just deserts is amusing.

Pancakesandwich

@MoonandStars83 Well, I did it without any numbers from the future I wonder what my future descendants look like now?

TreyNutz wrote: »

The highest my sims have won from checking lottery records is 3 million simoleons. That can totally change a game.

@TreyNutz So basically... your Sims didn't need to have jobs anymore, and could afford just about anything in the universe?

TreyNutz wrote: »

You don't even have to save the pattern in CASt. Just drag the pattern and drop onto the other object or clothing part, then choose which channel to apply it too on the new object. You can also select an object, grab the 4 channels all at once, and drop onto other objects.

Okay, that's even better. I didn't know they could be dragged too.

TreyNutz wrote: »

edit: plantsims have an option to Absorb Puddle instead of mopping it up. This increases their water motive.

In which pack are they?

lisasc360

@Pancakesandwich, plant Sims came with University Life EP...
http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/universitylife/plantsims.php

Pancakesandwich

@lisasc360
Welp, now I need to decide between Ambitions, Generations and University

lisasc360

@Pancakesandwich,

Pancakesandwich wrote: »

@lisasc360
Welp, now I need to decide between Ambitions, Generations and University

Yikes, but they are all pretty good packs there. Granted the there was no world with the Generations pack but it has a lot a nice items and you Sims can have midlife crisis. Hopefully you will be able to own them all one day...

Pancakesandwich

@lisasc360 I think I'm going to take Ambitions first, for the inventor career (time machines are awesome). Then Generations and then University Life. Does Generations also add a new lifestate?

lisasc360

@Pancakesandwich, No new lifestate came with Generations. I've seen players stating that they see this pack more as a stuff pack instead of an expansion pack.

This tells you what comes with this pack. It allows teens to do pranks on other Sims, the Chemistry talent comes with it, a day care profession, a boarding school as well as other things...
http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/generations/