Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
Getting into TS3; some questions
BabySquare
Posts: 7,869 Member
Hi everyone, 
I'm thinking about getting into playing the sims 3. I do own most of the packs, and played it briefly on my old PC but I never really did much with it but am considering doing so now, but I have a few questions.
Firstly, I'm on windows 10 (fully updated) - I don't know when sims 3 last had a patch, but would its current version be compatible with the current version of Win.10? has anyone had any issues?
Secondly, due to the open world aspect of it, obviously non active households continue they're lives while you're playing in a different household, but do non-active sims continue to gain skill points and build friendships? I'd rather these things happened when I'm there to see it, so is there a mod, equivalent to MC command center, that can allow me to tweak this?
Thirdly, can you recommend any really good/must have mods?
Fourthly, can anyone recommend a decent online game guide? I barely remember what I did in 3 so I feel like a completely new player.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
I'm thinking about getting into playing the sims 3. I do own most of the packs, and played it briefly on my old PC but I never really did much with it but am considering doing so now, but I have a few questions.
Firstly, I'm on windows 10 (fully updated) - I don't know when sims 3 last had a patch, but would its current version be compatible with the current version of Win.10? has anyone had any issues?
Secondly, due to the open world aspect of it, obviously non active households continue they're lives while you're playing in a different household, but do non-active sims continue to gain skill points and build friendships? I'd rather these things happened when I'm there to see it, so is there a mod, equivalent to MC command center, that can allow me to tweak this?
Thirdly, can you recommend any really good/must have mods?
Fourthly, can anyone recommend a decent online game guide? I barely remember what I did in 3 so I feel like a completely new player.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Gallery ID: babysquare
6
Comments
Anyway, I recently acquired a brand new laptop that has Windows 10 and so far two months into playing I have had no problems. I play on game version 1.67 though, which is much better than the evil 1.69 in my opinion. I know many other simmers who play on 1.69 and have had no problems. But there will be others much smarter than me answering on here so do not take this answer as gospel truth lol
Your second question: Friendships, yes they will be continued without mods. Not as well as WITH mods, however. But skill points? Yeah, that’s a solid nope. Sims don’t gain skills when inactive. But I could be wrong
Third, I can recommend the entire Nraas suite of mods
But to start out with you should use ErrorTrap, Register, Overwatch, and Master Controller.
Master Controller especially has helped save my towns with the Reset Town option. I can finally play for longer than 7 sim weeks!
Game Guides, I’d say you should look at Carl’s Sims 3 game guides . I still look there myself for info on certain things and I’ve been playing since the game first was released...which is longer than I care to admit xD
I hope this somehow helps. I’m not as educated in the finer details of this game as others on here are, but this is all my two cents
I play on Windows 10 with absolutely no issues.
Yes, sims do gain skills and relationships if they are the inactive household. NRAAS's StoryProgression can replace EA's Story Progression and be used to tweak this if you wish.
Besides NRAAS StoryProgression, I also recommend the following NRAAS mods:
-Overwatch which helps keep the game running smoothly.
-MasterController which allows you to do a number of things...things that make you the master controller of the town.
-Careers so you can install and use custom careers.
-Porter to more effectively move families from one save to another while maintaining relationships and family ties.
-Relativity to adjust how fast time moves (I use 50% speed).
-Traveler so your sims can travel to any installed world and aren't limited to the vacation destinations.
If you want to look through all NRAAS mods and download them here ya go: https://www.nraas.net/community/Mods-List
And https://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/ for an online game guide.
Have fun! Happy simming! I hope you'll share your gameplay with us in the "What happened in your sims 3 game today?" thread.
Thank you for such a lovely welcome!
I'm trying to navigate my way through Carl's sims 3 guides now, and wow! lots of mod suggestions, thank you so much!
Realistically I probably wouldn't get much time to play until June, as I'm a bit snowed under with uni work, but when summer comes I'll have 4 months to fill!
As far as non-active household story progression goes, I'm not sure if it would be simpler to have all my households in one save, or divvy them up into one per save. I guess I'll need to read up about sims 3 then make a decision.
Some of the NRaas mods are, in my opinion, pretty much must haves for this game. Error Trap and Overwatch do a lot to keep your game running well, and MasterController gives you tools to fix some problems that might crop up or ways to change some things, plus has some other nice features (like Stylist). There are couple others that would be recommended in the keep-your-game-trouble-free category, but these three are the ones I always have.
Their Story Progression mod is very popular and allows you to control a lot of things that the game's story progression does not. I'm not the one to tell you what all you can do with it because I developed my play style when I had a computer that was a little under powered and thought the mod was going to be "too much," and I just never got around to playing differently. I have the game's story progression turned off, and I switch households. Not necessarily recommending that, but playing that way I do see that some of the sims in households that I switch to have gained a few skills even without any story progression (for me, it's mostly athletic, social networking and musical instrument skills - maybe charisma if the sim already has a point or more in that skill), and they do develop relationships. Thinking that is probably something you can control with NRaas's Story Progression, but someone else will have to help on that front.
I use and like some of their other mods, too, but not sure I'd classify them as must haves, and it might take all day to talk about them.
As for guides, Carl's Sims 3 Guide is still available and covers most things I ever want to check out. https://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/
My Sims 3 Studio
My forum builds thread
But everyone plays differently so choose however you wish. The best part about the Sims is that there’s no wrong way to play.
I don't know what onedrive is, and I've never used it, so I'm guessing it won't be an issue.
As far as story progression goes, the things I don't want happening in my non-active households are;
- sims gaining weight (or suddenly becoming really muscular)
- relationships breaking up/divorce (I don't mind if they make new friends, I just don't want their existing relationships to decay)
- any changes to their jobs
- aging (can you turn aging off for everyone)
- massive skill gains (I don't mind slight changes here and there)
I'm guessing NRAAS can help with these, but maybe turning story progression off would be easier.
Like everyone else says, everyone has a different play style, and I have turned off/turned on a lot features in the SP mod.
I have tons of other mods installed that enhance/change the gameplay as well.
https://graceymanorsims3.tumblr.com/
The last patch for TS3 was Patch 1.69, which is the version you'll get if you play on Origin. I play my game on Windows 10 also (via Origin), though I have to run the application (TS3.exe) in compatibility mode for Windows 8.
I second the need for the NRaas mods, especially ErrorTrap and Overwatch which are practically essential to keep your game running smoothly. MasterController adds a bunch of fun new options such as the ability to look into inactive Sims' homes, set relationships between two Sims (be they active or inactive), force-kill Sims or even completely erase them from existence
Kapaer's Children Can series of mods allows children to do lots of things they can't do in the base game, like play musical instruments, read skill books and sheet music, and help out in the garden.
If you're a family player, you might appreciate the Call to Meal mod by icarus_allsorts. Because you shouldn't have to herd cats to get everyone to sit together at the dinner table!
The Cook With Any Ingredient mod, also by icarus_allsorts, doesn't just allow you to do as the name says, it also allows you to cook any dish at any time of day
If you like creating Sims, I'd also recommend Shimrod101's Zoom In CAS mod. It gives you a great up-close view of your Sim!
If you like taking screenshots, I recommend this camera mod by aikea_guinea. It gives you better control of the camera by getting rid of the annoying drift, and also allows you to take pics from a lower angle than would be possible with the vanilla camera :>
And if you like watching your Sims paint pretty pictures (who doesn't?), let me point you to this painting replacement mod by Plum. Be warned though: it's a large file (110 MB)! Anyway, it seems the pictures on that site aren't working too well, so here's a little sampler of the paintings in this mod, from my own game:
As far as game guides go, I'd also recommend Carl's Sims 3 guide, but SimsVIP also boasts some really comprehensive guides that cover the expansion packs from Generations to Into the Future.
Hope you found this helpful, and happy Simming!
P.S.
TS4 Sims in TS3
Hi @TinySpaceFox , That's really good info to know, thank you
http://www.nraas.net/community/Story-Progression-Rotational-Caste-Settings
With NRaas Traveler, we also have the option of playing multiple connected worlds within the same game, although only one world is actively simulated at any given time. I have 16 such connected worlds in my one ongoing game, with "my" sims living in 5 of them (the rest are assorted vacation and other destinations). I keep making the storylines cross over; there is no need to have 5 or more separate games if one doesn't want that, so this can become yet another form of rotational play.
http://www.nraas.net/community/Traveler-FAQ
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
Since I am still running Windows 7, I am not an expert on this. But other Simmers here have told me not to worry about upgrading to 10 on account of TS3.
In my experience, under base game story progression, not a great deal. I have seen Sims pick up relationships, but seldom real skill gain. Then again, I tend to stick with my own household, and not mind other Sims' business.
Igazor has you covered in the mod department. He's my guru, and won't steer you wrong. I also recommend NRaas Master Controller, which is a useful toolkit, and one other NRaas mod which expands some aspects of game-play beyond the T rating on the box, and which therefore cannot be discussed here. Certainly not a "must have", but entertaining.
Carl's is still a great all-around guide to TS3. You can find it here: https://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/
Happy Simming!
Main Sims 3 blog: currently playing the Knight Legacy
I'll have to read up on these mods, as I really know nothing about the functionality of sims 3 (or how mods actually work, for that matter).
One quick question, which I think relates to the traveller mod.
I had a quick look on the sims wiki last night regarding the EPs I own - I know island paradise offers the option to run a hotel; if you have the traveller mod, can sims go and stay at a hotel in another world as guests? (not a vacation world, just a world with a hotel lot).
Is that what you had in mind?
The last time I did this myself I had a large travel party of six sims. I selected a very nice unoccupied house for them to stay in, let four of them stay there, and the other two went off to stay at the resort. Since the entire travel party was under my active control, I just kept switching sims to control both factions throughout the vacation. That was fun and they all had a great time, but not sure I would always want to play a split up travel party like that for many sim days.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
@TinySpaceFox , I just want to thank you for mentioning those camera mods. I added them to my game yesterday and I LOVE them! Thank you so much!
Completely done with EA
If you have issues with your GPU not being recognized, this forum and the edited SGR files I found helped me http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?board=12.0
My suggestions for game play:
For Supernatural, I installed but haven't played yet with this mod to prevent zombies during the full moon: https://morethanjustpixels.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/zombies-begone/
There are also mods on that site for vampires, kraken, and preventing certain deaths.
I ended up buying Seasons, University, and Island Paradise a couple years ago and haven't really played through it but from what I've read, there are issues with Island Paradise because of house boats (like one family is in a houseboat, not docked, out on the water and causes issues?). I recommend you read up on those before starting a save there.
I forgot what the issue was with cars being left on community lots (maybe lag?) , but someone on the forums recommended removing the parking spaces in community lots. I also read that there are non-functional decorative cars that were included in University that can be used instead on community lots instead of the parking spaces and random cars that park. I haven't played University so I don't know if this is true.
I can't really think of anything else right now since it's been a long time since I played, but welcome back to Sims 3!
I use this website for help with mod settings. https://simsarahsarah.tumblr.com/nraassettings
I just use it to get me started and tweak things here and there. She plays alot like I do... so it's just easier for me.
Hope this helps you as much as it did me - good luck and I hope you stay awhile!
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
I haven't been posting as I've had a huge uni essay to write, and wow, a lot of info has accumulated here, thank you. I'll look into it.
* I have windows 10 with patch 1.69 and it's fine.
* like others, I also like carl's sims 3 guide. I also like to watch video reviewes/gameplays on youtube, for exploring the options in each EP for example.
As far as game settings:
* I just turn off the game's story progression + Aging off (also in game options). No massive weight changes (unless the sim is fat, trained a lot a lost weight - then he'll probably gain it back at some point... oh, just like real life...)
* Sims DO NOT marry/divorce/move houses/make babies with SP off. They do not quit their jobs as well. However they can get jobs, if they are unemployed.
* I usually play epic span of life, or aging off- you can do that and age your controlled sims manually by celberating their birthday (or by cheats).
* They do gain new skills + improve skills, but nothing dramatic. If it's something that really bothers you, the skills can be removed specifically using nraas.
* One household per save / many households - I think you should try both as you play and see what you like better. I usually prefer many households in the same town, and rotate between them.
* Mods - nraas of course. I like to review MTS for game mods. Few examples:
"No Intro" to skip the intro in every launching.
Build/buy mods - I have "The Transmogrifier" and "Add Any Lot Size".
"Pose Player" is must, in my opinion, + different poses for your selection.
Special objects with functionality - I like most of Arsil's mods.
Several mods to avoid annoying stuff in game - I have one to prevent sims to answer automatically to phone, to avoid video games unless manually selected (I just hate the noise) etc.
Career mod - to enable rabbitholes careers in regular buildings.
Showcase
I also have just installed Sims 3 on windows 10. My main PC is still W7 and that is where I play the game, the laptop is a sort of backup, anyhow one thing you need to be aware of is the frame rate. On my laptop with all settings maxed it is over 140! Nearly everyone has told me that will damage the graphics card, so I am still working out how to cap it. Not sure what card you have, mine is an Nvidia 1050, but the ingame frame cap does not work. If you search my posts you will get lots of useful advice from everyone on how to cap the frame rate.
Enjoy the Sims again.
Keith
If you have NRAAS Retuner, you can go to Retuner>Settings>General>By Tunable XML>Sims3.Gameplay.Controllers>Lunar Cycle Manager>
Set your kChancetoSpawnZombie to 0
Set your kNumSimstobeZombifiedOnFullMoon to 0
Voila...no extraneous mods needed to clog up your mods folder. You can pretty much do anything with NRAAS Retuner and the NRAAS suite of mods.
I've been starting to bug @igazor or NRAAS forum and asking them about what to do with what settings I want in Retuner to get the results that I need without resorting to clogging up my mods folder with mods that can just as easily be dealt with in Retuner. That way I can clean up my mods folder and save most of that space for CC.
Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~