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Help with making Sims 3 Fun
Curl
Posts: 34 Member
Hey! 
So this is probably a very silly statement, but I'm a little lost here. I don't know how to enjoy Sims 3.
I have all of the Sims 3 EPs and Stuff packs, and funny enough I have no clue on where to start and how to enjoy the game. I really enjoy the University aspect, so I've only used this and stopped playing TS3 til I make another college student. I dislike staying in town as well since all the townies seem very old or very young, and the neighborhoods are void of any entertainment, especially Sunset Valley. I tried Nightlife and made one of my Sims visit a club, but no one was there to enjoy the fun. Another issue I've been witnessing is that in University and in general, not many people are on the lots and I'm used to Sims 2 when there's a lot of people to talk to. I also like Seasons, but again people are barely in festivals as well.
I just don't know how to fully enjoy The Sims 3
I would deeply appreciate tips on how to make the town more lively, enjoy ALL the eps/sps, and experience fun shops/lots. Plus, I'd deeply appreciate if someone could briefly help me out on why Townies aren't visiting lots and such.
I'm open to all ideas !
So this is probably a very silly statement, but I'm a little lost here. I don't know how to enjoy Sims 3.
I have all of the Sims 3 EPs and Stuff packs, and funny enough I have no clue on where to start and how to enjoy the game. I really enjoy the University aspect, so I've only used this and stopped playing TS3 til I make another college student. I dislike staying in town as well since all the townies seem very old or very young, and the neighborhoods are void of any entertainment, especially Sunset Valley. I tried Nightlife and made one of my Sims visit a club, but no one was there to enjoy the fun. Another issue I've been witnessing is that in University and in general, not many people are on the lots and I'm used to Sims 2 when there's a lot of people to talk to. I also like Seasons, but again people are barely in festivals as well.
I just don't know how to fully enjoy The Sims 3
I would deeply appreciate tips on how to make the town more lively, enjoy ALL the eps/sps, and experience fun shops/lots. Plus, I'd deeply appreciate if someone could briefly help me out on why Townies aren't visiting lots and such.I'm open to all ideas !
2
Comments
A lot of people do better when they start with a story in mind, including me—I find it feels like busywork when I'm just building skills and completing tasks for the sake of advancing. It's also fun to commit to trying something you've never done before, like having lots of kids instead of only a few or trying to make it as a collector/gatherer instead of having a proper career.
The LEPacy-type challenge can also be intriguing, especially if you're just getting back into the game. You unlock one EP (you can include SPs if you want to prolong the legacy) at each generation, when the heir is born, reaches YA, or completes a LTW, whichever you prefer. It's counterintuitive, but sometimes having fewer packs and fewer things to do can make your existing options more attractive (the paralysis of choice and all that).
Whatever you do, pay attention to what you're thinking about while you're playing. If something appeals to you while you're going in a different direction, keep it in mind for the next sim, generation, or family. There are so many options in the game that it's almost impossible to cover them all in their various combinations, and that's a huge part of why there are still so many of us playing the game nine years after its arrival.
Then for lots you can make a bar set as a supernatural hangout and with you mixing up elixirs turning the townsfolk into a mythological creature freakshow you will have lots of friends.
Quick tip for busy lots is
!: Add some sims to empty houses,the issue is you have a huge town spreading the population among all those places so if you have 10 community lots and only assuming three show up at each that is 30 people right there.
2: Most importantly sims of a feather flock together,households go together places which is why you see like all the Lau Sister's at the same lot or all the Parrott girls.If you populate some empty houses with larger amount of members when they go to a place they go together.So if you make a big 7 bdrm house with 7 sims in it if you are ever visiting the library etc and one member of that house decides to go most likely you will see the other six or majority anyway.Now use this same concept among several houses you will have busy venues.So place 5 sims in that 5 bdrm home and four in the 4 bedroom empty house you will see them.I love running into the sims I place when playing to see who clashes or ended up hooking up or causing mischief.
The fun of sims is not just playing but watching everything else going on too and appreciating your creations be it builds or the sims themselves.I have played games sometimes 5 or 6 days in like "Where is Denise??" etc a sim I made excited to run into them sometime or "Where is hank" the homeless looking hobo I gave the insane trait.For me anyway like chance encounters to see what my little sims are up to.
One thing I started about a year and a half ago is start a YouTube channel where I put videos telling about various things I've been getting up to with the game. I've got over 100 videos up now. Maybe you might like to have a look at some of them and see if you get any ideas. As I said above, I often try to get badges when looking for something new and a lot of my videos begin with me trying for a badge, or series of badges and then things just evolve.
Whatever you end up doing - have fun and Happy Simming.
Here's the link to my channel.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
And that was not enough so decided to light a few on fire with her fire spell
Nothing says fun like watching a char broiled frog human running and screaming through a park.Ahhh the sims 3 you complete me.Great fun for the kids too would have loved seeing that growing up in RL
1 - There are two ways to enjoy more of the EP and store set collections of fun you already have without having to keep moving worlds and stop/starting gameplay.
a - One is to use Edit Town to put a cross-section of fun types lots from what you have to work with into one world. Most of my worlds have bowling alleys and dance clubs, for example, there is no reason why Uni World and Bridgeport need to have a monopoly on those. But don't get carried away because, as has already been noted, too many fun community lots in the same world will lead to sims available to visit them being spread out too thin.
b - If not averse to using mods, have your sims vacation to the other EA and maybe custom worlds you have available by way of NRaas Traveler. That way if they live in a colder urban setting or a more mundane suburban one, for example, they can still enjoy tropical activities, resorts, casinos, mingling with a mostly occult population, horeseback riding, etc. by vacationing in worlds that offer these more naturally and not be limited to the 3 WA worlds, Uni, and Oasis for destinations and fun places to make new friends while taking a break from the typical work-eat-sleep-skill up grinds.
2 - In addition to too many community lots vs. the local population (this is more evident in Bridgeport than anywhere else), there is also a possible technical reason for the empty lot syndrome. If your processor or graphics card is under-powered or, just as much, if the game thinks they are even mistakenly, it will throttle sending sims out to community lots in a sometimes misguided effort to preserve performance. If the game is unnecessarily under-ranking your components, this can be fixed with some simple edits to the base game's sgr files. The DeviceConfig.log, a file that gets generated on each startup of the game and is in your TS3 user game folder in Documents, if you care to share the first 40 lines or so (not the long lists of game options that follow) would tell us if this is part of what is happening -- you could send it by way of PM if you prefer not to paste it in here.
Of course, if your system really is under-powered for the game, then the community lot throttling is supposed to happen for a good reason and it shouldn't be overridden. The DeviceConfig log would tell us that as well.
3 - If you are not happy with the way in which EA's built-in story progression is managing the inactive residents living in your worlds, you may want to try a modded version to see if those do more of what you had in mind. The two other choices are NRaas StoryProgression and AwesomeMod's StoryMode. They both work very hard, and in very different ways, to keep demographics in balance and help to prevent the Ghost Town Syndrome and worlds full of elders who never bothered to have kids along the way to keep the population going. Uni World is a special case, although NRaas SP can help there too with a bit of work on the part of the player should they wish to periodically repopulate it with fresh student bodies.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
And to you, @igazor , thank you tons for the informative answer. I'd be more than glad to send in my device log thingy in PM.
@CravenLestat Why haven't I thought of that?? I def need to do that!
@Karritz I'll be more than happy to watch your videos, as they seem lovely as ever. Thanks so much !
Also, this thread about imaginary friends was a lot of fun to read:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/913767/do-you-use-imaginary-friends/p1
@CravenLestat mentioned making townies into Frogs, in one of my videos one of my witches got abducted by ab alien and she returned home she turned the alien into a frog.
A witch is supposed to like having a cat as the cat will make the witch more powerful - but my witch's cat had a problem and kept shredding her feet. They became enemies. Fun.
I have used a mod to make sure all of my babies get an imaginary friend. 100% of the time instead of the default 75%.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
Personal favourite fun things - making snow angels, using the tanning booth, ice skating, flying a broomstick, having a dorm party, the architect career.
The other thing to remember is there is so much (particularly when you add store content and cc) that it is impossible to enjoy it all in one go. Better to select a few things to try at a time and go back to what you like best.
Wherever I am friends call me Betty
Sim enim est vita
https://graceymanorsims3.tumblr.com/
So to make a town lively, I just make a lot of sims from CAS, broaden an existing family, or both? And also use the Story Progression mod?
@Karritz Whats the mod for the imaginary friend? I def need it ;o
Then follow these instructions
https://nraas.wikispaces.com/Imaginary+Friend
Go for the instruction to set the IF to 0 and just change the number to whatever chance you want it to be. In the instructions it changes from 75 to 0 but I change it to 100.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuW44b3uCMtCSaq4gwC8EZg
@puzzlezaddict , I actually LOVE this idea!!!
*Fairy Jared and Vampire Connor*
Or the Plumbot lovers club..
Or help Agnes get her beloved Erik back from ghostitude:
Or try one of the myriad of challenges...
I don’t understand it when people say there is no one at community lots mine are always brimming (mod free!!)
*Fairy Jared and Vampire Connor*
@Charlottesmom Of course I wasn't taking the idea seriously, but now that you mention it... I suppose it could really be fun, that is, if I managed to have a sense of humor about the situation. Depending on the kids and how I felt about their neighbors, allowing them to act out might be a very fulfilling experience.
On the subject of teenage rebellion, how do you think dad would react if his daughter brought home her new boyfriend, and it turned out he was a frog person in a leather jacket? Although I have to admit, he looks surprisingly good in a tux. And it was quite considerate of him to match his vest to her dress.
...
...
Uhm okay. I 'll just see myself out then, shall I?
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
Same, every time I start a new family it is like a new game, I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface.
@OP Try following their wishes and see what happens. Play with some supernaturals you haven't tried, make an evil witch.
complete forum tutorial
Thank you @MDianaSanders for halloween-fying Golluma
I started a circus with a Clown, two mimes, a living mermaid, a pig nosed lady and a magician, all packed in a small portable house. It goes as well (or as chaotic) as you think...
Also the pig Lady is really clumsy, constantly "trying" to burn the house down.
I like my werewolves. They are strong, they can find metal, gems and insects just by hunting around, and they can eat raw fish and meat. Which means if you want a little challenge put your were onto an empty lot with just a tent and a toilet. And maybe one of those firepits you can roast stuff on. Then let the were live on what he can catch by fishing, and make himself some money by hunting gems. He can also make himself a pack by biting innocent citizens as they go about their business..... The first time I did it my were was already fully skilled, but as that turned out to be very easy to manage I might try it with a juvenile were. Some of my friends had a challenge with klepto sims to have an empty lot with just a couple of "allowed" objects and try to steal their way to the good life.