I've returned to Sims 3! .. «12...Next Go

dancingindior

What are some things you noticed after taking a hiatus? Whether you just haven't played in years, or you've returned from Sims 4 to Sims 3.

I forgot just how much DETAIL is in this game! Especially interactions with other sims, the talking options you get are endless.
I also forgot that sims outside your household can propose things such as moving in, etc.

- I had actually forgotten what an open world was, or was like
- Theres CANES and STROLLERS!!
- The teens actually look like teenagers
- Generations is legit the best pack - prom etc
- Oh, CAS, how i missed you
- Sims 3 is actually far harder in terms of gaining and keeping relationships and moving up the job ladder - but this could be due to me forgetting so much stuff.

Mikezumi

Welcome back to TS3 I took a two year break because of upheavals in my life but, apart from having to get used to the controls again, it was like I never left it. I have never tried TS4 and didn't play other games during my break so my memories had not been clouded.

Stormkeep

I recently reinstalled both Sims 2 and Sims 3. So much stuff to get re-familiar with I couldn't even begin to list them all. Will say it was freaky relearning some of the things that are in TS4, but different in 2 and 3.

I started (in both 2 and 3) with a Sim at University...something you can't even do (yet) in 4 and in TS3 had quite a few moments of confusion and pleasant surprise as I got re-familiar with things:
- Street art...anywhere!! I spent time looking through buy mode trying to find the squares to place on the ground and walls at first.
- Herbs for my rebel student sim...yah, herbs beat that bubble machine any day.
- Roomates (and apartments that aren't tied to EA lots)! So sweet.
- Seasonal festival lots...I had totally forgotten how these worked. I really like TS4 Seasons...but omg, I wish they'd given us the tools to make lots where what was on them rotated with the Seasons like we can in 3.

I could go on...just for my TS3 list, and the TS2 one is probably longer.

What's really challenging now, is keeping it all straight in my head, because I'm cycling between playing 2, 3 and 4 atm....I like them all, each has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, but it gets confusing jumping between them.

Stutum

I just went back to TS3 myself, on this very day. I've missed getting friends and keeping the social meter up by hanging with coworkers when at work, I missed fire alarms that actually serve a purpose (and not just being an annoyance), and I missed the open world. The only thing I miss from TS4 that I can think of, is having a bar or the like that's open 24/7, those really come in handy when it's 4 o clock in the morning, and your sim is wide awake and lonely.

But all in all, this was a wonderful revisit.

Nikkei_Simmer

Welcome back...to @dancingindior, @Stormkeep, and @Stutum. Lots to explore... If you utilize mods; Get NRAAS Errortrap & Overwatch, that will take care of a lot of the lag.

Stormkeep

@nikkei_simmer That is indeed the first thing I did. I may have forgotten some things...but I did not forget my goto mods.

My first day after reinstalling was spent redownloading all of the mods and CC I liked, and NRAAS was first on the list. I reinstalled TS2 the previous day and did the same thing for that as well. So refreshing that I could still find mods and CC I remembered from almost a decade ago.

igazor

My wrist is hurting from clicking "Awesome" all the way down this thread. Welcome back, everyone.

One thing I've always wanted to see was a scenario where TS3 and TS4 sims (sure, let's throw in TS2 and we probably shouldn't forget Medieval and TS1 as well) can meet and report on what they really think of each other. Of course that can't be done in-game, but I am surprised no one has devised a split-screen kind of video where these things appear to happen.

Stormkeep

Thank you, @igazor, and thank you for helping to keep the NRAAS suite alive! I definitely would not have reinstalled the game if the NRAAS mods weren't available, don't consider the game playable without them (not a dig at all at the game, there's a similar mods list for both TS2 and TS4 for me as well).

Nikkei_Simmer

igazor wrote: »

Of course that's can't be done in-game, but I am surprised no one has devised a split-screen kind of video where these things appear to happen.

Unfortunately, I can't do a video, since I don't have TS4... but...

Stutum

Thanks, @Nikkei_Simmer , it's great to be back. And it's also good for my sim not to get a zillion messages from other sims during the days. xD
I'm a bit skeptical to mods and such, but I'll keep it in mind.

pkinitasims

I love TS3 it;'s by far my favourite ever. However, I find that the game crashes a lot and I lose all my game progress, especially when I play in the island which is my all time favourite world! Does anyone know if there is a fix or a mod that fixes this?

Edit: I read about NRAAS and overwatch, does that fix it?

Faerie197

Eh, Sims 4 is an entirely different beast. And one I'm not particularly fond of despite buying the base game and several expansion/game packs (Get to Work, Dine Out, and the one that lets you go on an archeological adventure vacation). Sims 3 just keeps pulling me back with it's simple yet deeply engaging world and game play. In Sims 4 my sims rarely leave the house. But in Sims 3 they do so quite often. Maybe it's a day at the beach, or heading to the local park for a chess tournament, or even just heading out to the nearest cafe because they feel lonely I have many reasons to send my Sims out into the community. And unlike in Sims 4 it feels like an actual community even without the NRAAS Story Progression mod.

@pkinitasims Yes, and no. It'll fix a lot of the crashes due to things becoming cluttered and unstable over time. But it's still a good idea to save regularly, as well as to back up your favorite games.

Speaking of returning to the game, in a couple weeks I'll probably be diving back in again and doing another Isle Paradisio game. I love that World, but my current computer setup isn't really able to handle the island setting. Especially if the family lives in a houseboat. But in a couple weeks my new Alienware Aurora will be arriving. I'd ended up customizing it with an 8th Gen Intl i5 8400, dual AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics cards (in crossfire config), 16gb DDR4 XMP 2933MHz Single Channel HyperX ram, a 2TB 7200 RPM SATA hard drive, and 850 Multi-GPU Approved power supply. No liquid cooling required, so I'm not worrying about the cooling method causing damage to my computer tower if it leaks.

Not the best confiq I could have gotten, but not too shabby considering I also wanted to keep things to a reasonable price. If I'd gone with all the bells and whistles I wanted it'd have been $4,324.99 (plus tax and shipping&handling) instead of just under $1700. I should finally be able to run Sims 3 without any lag spikes while on the islands

Oh, and run my other games with higher graphics settings too. I suppose.

Also got my eye on an Alienware gaming laptop. But that'll have to wait. Most of this year will be spent paying off my new desktop.

Stormkeep

@Faerie197 , don't waste your money on an Alienware laptop...they stopped being great-systems-worth-the-money quite a few years ago when Dell acquired the company, now, like all Dell products, they are just over-priced. MSI is the way to go for good gaming laptops.

Hejix

Welcome back. I try to play all the games to keep things fresh. (Only missing sims 1, snif.) They all have their pros and cons!

What I love in sims 3 are the worlds and the details. When I look at my screenshots, they are so diverse, how could I ever stop playing? (yes, time and real life happening, I know, I know...)

puzzlezaddict

@pkinitasims The world of Isla Paradiso is so poorly made that it’s almost unplayable without some serious intervention. Sims get stuck all over the map due to the bad design, and the game engine will drive itself crazy trying to fix the issues. Even the most powerful computers with the most impressive pile of NRaas mods can't run the world without lag, glitches, crashes, and a generally frustrating play experience.

The solution is to either edit the world yourself, or download a fixed version. @ciane has provided her version of IP for anyone who wants it, and she’s also documented the edits necessary to make the world playable. Here’s her thread on the subject:

https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/811253/removing-ip-lag

It should also be noted that the features of IP work just fine. You can place them in any world that has the space and deep enough water.

Also, NRaas ErrorTrap and Overwatch are great to have no matter what world you're playing. They'll clean up your game in the background, removing stale or corrupt data without your having to do anything. Depending on which packs you have installed, you may also want Register (manages Service sims, including stray pets), Traffic (controls vehicle spawning), and Traveler (fixes the broken travel transitions for all kinds of travel). MasterController is also useful for its ability to reset stuck sims and objects, as well as the entire world.

https://www.nraas.net/community/home

KatyFernlily

Stutum wrote: »

I just went back to TS3 myself, on this very day. I've missed getting friends and keeping the social meter up by hanging with coworkers when at work, I missed fire alarms that actually serve a purpose (and not just being an annoyance), and I missed the open world. The only thing I miss from TS4 that I can think of, is having a bar or the like that's open 24/7, those really come in handy when it's 4 o clock in the morning, and your sim is wide awake and lonely.

But all in all, this was a wonderful revisit.

http://simsasylum.com/tfm/index.php?/topic/2762-23-hour-bars-and-clubs/

Bettyboop55

Welcome back

I was not only pleased to have open worlds back but excited to be able to use transport such as cars, bikes and broomsticks.

I was pleased to have babies you could properly interact with, carry and take out in the pushchair.

I was very pleased to have CASt.

I was very pleased to have a full suite of terrain editing tools and paints and especially pleased to be able to build my own world.

I was pleased to have normal sims, who do not suffer from endless mood swings, are true to their traits and have the capacity to express emotion. It was also great to see TS3 sims don't walk through things or each other.

What upsets me is why I ever left off playing TS3 in the first place. At least I now know what I expect from a pc sims game and I will not be tempted to move again unless there is another game which meets all my requirements.

Anyway I hope you really enjoy exploring all good things TS3 has to offer. Just remember to take regular breaks, say every couple of days or so

Faerie197

TS3 may well be the best one in the series. It's definitely superior to TS4. I mean, yeah TS4 has some nice ideas. How the sim is feeling affecting what interactions are available is interesting. And the way Get To Work's careers work is engaging, as is the way running a business or a restaurant (if you have Dine Out) is handled. I like those active careers a lot more then the ones in Sims 3. They feel like what was promised in TS3's Ambitions expansion. And I'd love it if my Sims in TS3 would leave the house under their own direction to go places like they (sort of) do in TS4.

I've had a TS4 painter get bored working on their latest painting, leave the house, and head over to the nearby pond to chat with neighbors. All without me having to do anything. Something that they just don't do on their own in TS3 even though they can go anywhere in the World at the drop of a hat. Instead a TS3 sim will hang out in the house growing increasingly lonely (unless there's others in the house) and stir crazy if they are making money by painting or writing. And I wish my TS3 sims could figure things out like "Do I eat supper or watch some tv? Hey, why not do both!" Like they do in TS4. Then again they do get ready for the day twice as fast due to focusing on one task at a time (instead of 2 or 3). Being able to socialize while eating would be nice though.

Overall though, for everything I think TS4 does well or in an interesting way, I often find that TS3 does it better, or at least in a more engaging way. Sure my sims don't have unique interactions based on their mood (usually). But their emotions (and they do exist) are not robotic. They're driven by what's going on around them rather then a plug-n-play emotional wheel. Spouse died recently? The family will sigh, cry every now and then, and the surviving spouse is likely to just stare off into the distance now and then while they deal with grief.

A family member dies in TS4? Oh well, just watch some TV or enter a room with a Mood affecting piece of decoration, that'll remove that sadness immediately. No need to feel grief for months or years when you can turn on your Mood Lamp.

... I prefer how TS3 does it.

king_of_simcity7

Welcome back

Stutum

I have missed the food processor so much.

xxnearlyperfectx

Welcome back everyone!

alejandro15039

Lucky you, I've tried going back to Sims 3, unfortunately my game is playable for 3 days, after that, the lag gets really serious.

Faerie197

alejandro15039 wrote: »

Lucky you, I've tried going back to Sims 3, unfortunately my game is playable for 3 days, after that, the lag gets really serious.

Jebus Mice, how much CC do you have then?!

alejandro15039

Faerie197 wrote: »

alejandro15039 wrote: »

Lucky you, I've tried going back to Sims 3, unfortunately my game is playable for 3 days, after that, the lag gets really serious.

Jebus Mice, how much CC do you have then?!

No CC, just a default skin, Nraas mods and other bug fixes mods, it's a shame because I recently bought the Supernatural exp, but the game is unplayable.

puzzlezaddict

@alejandro15039 There are plenty of reasons why TS3 would lag, and many of them are entirely fixable. Why don't you start a thread in Technical Issues and ask for help? It would be good to know which other packs you have installed, and which worlds you're playing in, as well as the specs of your computer. Even better than specs would be a dxdiag—you can post the results at pastebin.com or some other free site and then provide the link in your post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

alejandro15039

puzzlezaddict wrote: »

@alejandro15039 There are plenty of reasons why TS3 would lag, and many of them are entirely fixable. Why don't you start a thread in Technical Issues and ask for help? It would be good to know which other packs you have installed, and which worlds you're playing in, as well as the specs of your computer. Even better than specs would be a dxdiag—you can post the results at pastebin.com or some other free site and then provide the link in your post.

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/pc/how-to-gather-dxdiag-information/

Thanks, I actually wanted to try something I saw a long time ago, may reinstall the game to see if I can fix it.