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Unpopular Opinions (The Sims 3)

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  • MikezumiMikezumi Posts: 49,697 Member
    @DillynJames I've never tried TS4 so have no idea how it works but I know my sims never have trouble finding sims out and about. Of course, I use mods so perhaps that might influence the number of sims I see around and they seem to be living full lives when I watch them in map view, including finding love and training toddlers.

    It's true that Late Night bars are not bustling as we were given to expect but if I place just one or two bars in a town they are always packed! I think Bridgeport is a problem because the population simply can't fill that many bars.
  • AlexaKryAlexaKry Posts: 2,706 Member
    edited September 2019
    @DillynJames : if I could I would give you more than just one awesome!
    The "empty lots"-argument is just wrong! I have never empty lots, unless it is in the deepest night or in the middle of the day where every Sim is working!
    I sometimes even have "problems" when I want to send some Sims out for a romantic date and the lot is full of Sims who observe what my Sims are doing! Not very romantic! :D
    And I don´t like the Sims 4 way at all, where the same few Sims are at all the different places I send my Sims to. This is completely unrealistic!
  • DillynJamesDillynJames Posts: 551 Member
    edited September 2019
    AlexaKry wrote: »
    I sometimes even have "problems" when I want to send some Sims out for a romantic date and the lot is full of Sims who observe what my Sims are doing! Not very romantic! :D
    And I don´t like the Sims 4 way at all, where the same few Sims are at all the different places I send my Sims to. This is completely unrealistic!

    RIGHT? Try having a date and eating outside of a Bistro at 6:00 pm. You can never get good screenshots because sims are EVERYWHERE. It's a good and bad thing, lol.

    And I get what you mean about "the same sims are all at different places" too, in 4. I find it kind of annoying that you can go to a gym in Willow Creek and Bella Goth is there, then you go to a bar in Oasis Springs and Bella Goth walks in. Then you go to a random sims house in Brindleton Bay and Bella Goth is walking on the sidewalk. And you end the night going to the celebrity nightclub in Del Sol Valley and Bella Goth will be there trying to bride the bouncer to get in before you even get to the door. Like, why?

    I don't want to get this thread too off topic so I'll end it there, but that was on my mind today.
    modthesims.info/member.php?u=8889989 320k downloads on ModTheSims; CarlDillynson
  • ItsJanierItsJanier Posts: 884 Member
    @DillynJames I agree with you, it is easy for my Sims to find friends and I see Sims everywhere when I play The Sims 3. My Sims actually live right next to gym and beach so there is always Sims near.

    When it comes to LilSimsie, she is a builder. Most of her videos are about building and that's probably why she prefers to TS4(because the build mode in TS4 is really powerful and easy to use).
    I watch a lot of her videos and when she plays her play style focuses mostly at staying at home. In TS4 because of those closed neighborhoods Sims walk by your lot all the time. So you see other Sims that aren't part of your family literally all the time.
    So that might be the actual reason why she says that and why her Sims in TS3 doesn't meet people as easily.
  • TurjanTurjan Posts: 1,713 Member
    edited September 2019
    @DillynJames Late Night, heh. Yes, those bars are pretty much always empty, except maybe one of them.

    Lilsimsie doesn't know much about Sims3, which is quite obvious when you watch her Let's Play, which I did on the side for at least some episodes. You have to be fair though that you have to know that, if you go and visit someone, don't do this directly from your home lot. If you click their house, see they are at home and decide to go there, you activated the sim and he will be gone or leaving when you arrive. You are much better off checking in Town View and then have your sim go somewhere nearby the house you want to visit, like on the other side of the road. She also doesn't use a mod that lets you look inside houses.

    She's a YouTuber, and I can somehow see that making videos in Sims3 isn't exactly a great use of your time, given how well the game already runs on its own. It should be much easier in Sims4.


  • ingridmfingridmf Posts: 67 Member
    edited September 2019
    Unpopular Opinion #4
    I don't have any stuff packs *ducks*

    Same, well I only have one, High End Loft stuff and only because I really like modern houses and the items were actually pretty good. Everything else just doesn't appeal to me. I generally find stuff packs to be a waste of money seeing as you can find much better for free but that's just my opinion. I don't know if that's an unpopular opinion but yeah. Also there was a sale when I bought High End Loft Stuff lol

    Unpopular opinion #1 : I'm not a huge pet fan IRL and even less in the sims. I find taking of them to be super tedious and I've done it maybe twice since the game came out (I tried a horse and then a dog if I remember correctly, did not like it at all).

    Unpopular opinion #2 : I have no interest in occult sims which is why I never bought Supernatural. The only ones I tolerate and don't mind playing with are vampires from LN. I never play with the other ones that come with the EPs I do have (mummies, simbot, aliens, plantsims etc...)
  • LinamintsLinamints Posts: 952 Member
    Emily4331 wrote: »
    @DillynJames I have the same outlook. It's unrealistic to just meet someone, fall in love, and live happily ever after.

    Mine: EA Worlds are lacking in variety for all types of players. I prefer more metropolitan worlds for most of my sims. With all expansions, store content, etc, The Sims 3 has 18 (if I counted correctly) worlds to choose from. Of those 18 worlds:

    -6 quiet towns. (Aurora Skies, Appaloosa Plains, Twinbrook, Riverview, Sunset Valley, Hidden Springs).
    -6 supernatural, or otherwise themed to not fit a normal save, worlds. (Lunar Lakes, Midnight Hollow, Moonlight Falls, Barnacle Bay, Dragon Valley, Monte Vista).
    -3 metro worlds, Starlight Shores being the least metro, but still metro enough. (Bridgeport, Roaring Heights, Starlight Shores). And you could argue Roaring Heights also has the themed handicap. If you like the town, but want a more modern population you'd have to edit every single person in the world.
    -3 island/tropical worlds. (Isla Paradiso, Lucky Palms, Sunlit Tides).

    As you can see, it heavily favors players looking to play quiet, family-oriented saved games and players who want to play themed saves (supernatural or otherwise). I know the "solution" would be to find a custom world, but the fact of the matter is that most custom worlds don't come with a population and I think most of us don't really have the time, patience, or willingness to create a huge amount of sims to populate a world. :lol:

    My sims don't usually fit into any category but metro and maybe island/tropical, but I greatly prefer metro. And it gets pretty tiring, then, playing the same 3 worlds. And often the same world (Bridgeport) repeatedly because I'd have to de-1920's Roaring Heights to play a modern save, and Starlight Shores just isn't my cup of tea in most cases.

    Yes, yes...first world problems, I know. :lol:

    I can agree that there is a limitation for more city oriented players. One thing you can do for custom worlds with no population is just save all the "modern enough" and plop them down. I used to do this a lot for unpopulated worlds. I've been slowly amassing a large collection of carefull crafted sims though, so I think my next world will be populated purely by my own design.
    "Parenting is just like gardening, except if you let your garden die you don't go to prison." - Anna Blast
  • emorrillemorrill Posts: 8,110 Member
    I just thought of another "unpopular" opinion. Actually, I think most people on this forum will probably agree with it, while people who exclusively play Sims 4 will find it unpopular - but I'm sure there are other Sims 3 simmers who might think this too...

    Unpopular opinion: I don't understand what people mean when they say their worlds are "empty" and lacking sims in Sims 3. I don't have a high-end computer (in fact, I play on a 2014 refurbished laptop) and I still see sims out and about quite often. Places like city/town squares, theaters, gyms, libraries, work places - I usually always see a good amount of sims around when I go to out. And a lot of times you'll see entire families out! I love that about Sims 3! I mean, usually, they show up AFTER my sims gets there, but that's just how the game is "written."

    The only place I would say (for me, at least) that are a little lackluster are the high-rise bars in Late Night. They were shown to be lively places in the release trailers, and we all know that's not really the case. Overall, however, I haven't had many issues regarding empty towns or buildings.

    The reason I bring this up is because I often see influencers on Youtube always say "A problem with Sims 3 was that you could never meet anyone because sims were never around!!" Not to throw her under the bus, but Lilsimsie is the kind of the worst about it - she says that ALL. THE. TIME. when she's praising Sims 4. In her most recent video, I believe, she said she had to use "online dating" on Sims University because she "could never meet new sims in town because they were always empty" and thats why she likes Sims 4 instead. I'm just like what are you talking about? You can definitely prefer one or the other (or both!) depending on your play-style, but I just get irked when people say things about Sims 3 that just aren't true. Criticize the game for legit reasons - there is no need to make things up.

    Sorry, rant over.

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    Unpopular opinion #2 : I have no interest in occult sims which is why I never bought Supernatural. The only ones I tolerate and don't mind playing with are vampires from LN. I never play with the other ones that come with the EPs I do have (mummies, simbot, aliens, plantsims etc...)
    ^This is exactly me @ingridmf . :p
    Except I don't even have mummies (outside of the tombs) simbots, aliens, or plantsims that I play. In fact I have never played with a simbot in The Sims 3!
    I know that sounds crazy...but I'm just more into playing the "boring" humans. :p
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  • mw1525mw1525 Posts: 1,214 Member
    @Turjan - Agreed about visiting Sims using the map visit command. It's true by the time your Sim arrives the ones they were visiting will be leaving or long gone. However, there's a rare interaction which has fired maybe three times in the entire time I've been playing this game in which your Sim (the one doing the visiting) will get on their cellphone and call the one they were visiting to let them know they are standing outside of their home. The other Sim will promptly return home and invite your Sim in. Unless that interaction has been removed (patched out), it's still in the game, it's super rare but it's there.
  • king_of_simcity7king_of_simcity7 Posts: 25,102 Member
    AlexaKry wrote: »
    I sometimes even have "problems" when I want to send some Sims out for a romantic date and the lot is full of Sims who observe what my Sims are doing! Not very romantic! :D
    And I don´t like the Sims 4 way at all, where the same few Sims are at all the different places I send my Sims to. This is completely unrealistic!

    RIGHT? Try having a date and eating outside of a Bistro at 6:00 pm. You can never get good screenshots because sims are EVERYWHERE. It's a good and bad thing, lol.

    And I get what you mean about "the same sims are all at different places" too, in 4. I find it kind of annoying that you can go to a gym in Willow Creek and Bella Goth is there, then you go to a bar in Oasis Springs and Bella Goth walks in. Then you go to a random sims house in Brindleton Bay and Bella Goth is walking on the sidewalk. And you end the night going to the celebrity nightclub in Del Sol Valley and Bella Goth will be there trying to bride the bouncer to get in before you even get to the door. Like, why?

    I don't want to get this thread too off topic so I'll end it there, but that was on my mind today.

    Bella Goth is everywhere in TS4 it seems.

    I was always put off by the fact that there was no sense to the closed world in TS4. It kills the realism which you only get in TS3. I know that there are vantages and disadvantages to both but after TS3 I just cannot go back to random Sims at random places. It seems to be a quick fix to something that was not always a problem to begin with
    Simbourne
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  • emorrillemorrill Posts: 8,110 Member
    mw1525 wrote: »
    @Turjan - Agreed about visiting Sims using the map visit command. It's true by the time your Sim arrives the ones they were visiting will be leaving or long gone. However, there's a rare interaction which has fired maybe three times in the entire time I've been playing this game in which your Sim (the one doing the visiting) will get on their cellphone and call the one they were visiting to let them know they are standing outside of their home. The other Sim will promptly return home and invite your Sim in. Unless that interaction has been removed (patched out), it's still in the game, it's super rare but it's there.

    I have never seen that happen in my game...but that's cool! :star:
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  • PlayerSinger2010PlayerSinger2010 Posts: 3,267 Member
    I just thought of another "unpopular" opinion. Actually, I think most people on this forum will probably agree with it, while people who exclusively play Sims 4 will find it unpopular - but I'm sure there are other Sims 3 simmers who might think this too...

    Unpopular opinion: I don't understand what people mean when they say their worlds are "empty" and lacking sims in Sims 3. I don't have a high-end computer (in fact, I play on a 2014 refurbished laptop) and I still see sims out and about quite often. Places like city/town squares, theaters, gyms, libraries, work places - I usually always see a good amount of sims around when I go to out. And a lot of times you'll see entire families out! I love that about Sims 3! I mean, usually, they show up AFTER my sims gets there, but that's just how the game is "written."

    The only place I would say (for me, at least) that are a little lackluster are the high-rise bars in Late Night. They were shown to be lively places in the release trailers, and we all know that's not really the case. Overall, however, I haven't had many issues regarding empty towns or buildings.

    The reason I bring this up is because I often see influencers on Youtube always say "A problem with Sims 3 was that you could never meet anyone because sims were never around!!" Not to throw her under the bus, but Lilsimsie is the kind of the worst about it - she says that ALL. THE. TIME. when she's praising Sims 4. In her most recent video, I believe, she said she had to use "online dating" on Sims University because she "could never meet new sims in town because they were always empty" and thats why she likes Sims 4 instead. I'm just like what are you talking about? You can definitely prefer one or the other (or both!) depending on your play-style, but I just get irked when people say things about Sims 3 that just aren't true. Criticize the game for legit reasons - there is no need to make things up.

    Sorry, rant over.

    Really? How do you get them to show up? I've been to the parks at 12:00 on a Saturday afternoon and there's only a few people there, EVER. My worlds seem much more lively in TS4.
  • TurjanTurjan Posts: 1,713 Member
    edited September 2019
    @PlayerSinger2010 Use a world that doesn't have more community lots than households. Usually, the game will push two to three households on a community lot you visit.
    The bistro, the grocery store or the theater can become really cramped. The one in Twinbrook was always that full that it got very difficult to navigate the place.
  • AlexaKryAlexaKry Posts: 2,706 Member
    @PlayerSinger2010 : it depends on your computer.
    If your computer isn´t meeting the requirements Sims 3 has, there won´t be anybody at your public lots!
    The better the computer meets the specs, the more Sims will visit the lots.
  • mw1525mw1525 Posts: 1,214 Member
    @DillynJames - My game's just the opposite. My Sim always seem to show up to the crowd :D! The most congested world for me is Sunset Valley at Mirabella Plaza. Not only do the Sims plug up the doorways of the grocery store or the book store, but they take up all the bench spaces on the entire strip! Plus, the kids seem to like doing homework in groups at the entrance to the movie theater.

    @PlayerSinger2010 - Day of the week and time of day are also important factors when looking for Sims to appear on lots. There will be fewer Sims available Monday-Friday during working Hours. There will be less teens available on Saturday if the game has given them Day Spa jobs (which it loves to do in my game :(). Sunday morning will generally call Sims to City Hall to protest about something. Weekday mornings between 6am - 7am you may find Sims heading to the diner to get breakfast. Usually, somewhere between 6pm-8pm local townies start to complain of starving and will head to the Bistro, the park or anywhere there is a public picnic table, picnic basket or fire pit present to eat. The main parks seem to pull families otherwise it has NPC or unemployed Sims showing up (at least in my worlds it does) :).
  • ApparentlyAwesomeApparentlyAwesome Posts: 1,523 Member
    I love the unpopular opinion threads! I had to think for a while because the ones I kept coming up with are pretty popular, at least here, then I though of this one and yeah, this will do. :mrgreen:

    Unpopular opinion: Sims 3 sims are the best in the The Sims series so far.


    1. If you have the time and patience to use the sliders (even though I think they should've added more) they can all look different and unique so I never understood the pudding face comments.

    2. They look more realistic while still having a slight cartoonish look, which I prefer. I remember once someone saying they put them in mind of clay like it's a bad thing but clay is moldable if you're willing to work with it.

    3. Personality traits were better than personality points because not only were they not tied to zodiac signs (and I feel they should've been done better as well) it's easier to get a Sims personality just right instead of chipping at points here to add to there and/or trying to balance the zodiac sign vs how you want them to act.

    4. They act how you make them to act and how you play them to be. It could just be me but I've always felt Sims 3 had this intuitivness about gameplay. Like if I control a sim for a while and go to control another sim in the household or even outside the household the game picks up on that it seems and for the most part keeps that same system I had going until I step back in. That changed some with new additions like the attraction system for example but it's still there.

    There are, of course, improvements that could be made (favorites having more sway, meaningful Zodiac signs, even better personalities and gameplay associated with them), and the other Sims games have a lot of good things going for the sims too, especially TS2, but the sims in Sims 3 top the others to me.
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  • jaletu2005jaletu2005 Posts: 688 Member
    Two unpopular opinions:
    1. I love the open world!
    After playing for years on one lot and having lots of fun too, I finally got used to the fact that Sims 3 is open world. I now go everywhere in my sim's world - not just stay at home. I love to look around that world where things are happening to other sims and watch things unfold. I love the interactions and that I won't see the same sims everywhere my sim goes. It is true freedom and a mini universe for me to get to know and explore with my sim. I love it!

    2. The sims in Sims 3 are more alive than we give them credit for.
    I discovered that after you play a sim for a while, their personality just seems to blossom. Quirks and fears, likes and dislikes, they begin to surface. They interact with other sims more spontaneously and new interactions crop up. But you have to play them and not just take them to work, feed them, bathe them, send them to bed, etc. They have to interact with other sims, make friends, try different things, have success and failure, etc. Then things start to pop. It's like a new baby. Sims come into the world knowing nothing. As they develop and learn, they change and are more alive and fun to play with. Some sims are more interesting than others too. I know it gets frustrating but it's so worth it to give them time to fully develop who they are and what they want.
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  • StephStebStephSteb Posts: 2,271 Member
    edited September 2019
    @jaletu2005 I 10000000000% agree!

    Another unpopular opinion: I absolutely love custom content skins, makeup, clothes, and hair for my sims. The only sims in my game who use regular content are the rando/npcs/townie sims. Also, if I see a rando sim with any kind of cc, I immediately edit them so that they are in all regular stuff. I have this weird idea that if the NPCs and townies use any cc that it will bog down my game.

    However, not a fan of houses/community buildings with cc. If the building says it has cc, NOPE. Once you uninstall the lot, a lot of the stuff that you no longer need is still hanging out in your inventory. Such a pain to get rid of!

    Not a fan of the whole "berry sweet" sims thing.

    Not all EA created houses are move in ready and I end up creating entirely new houses when I realize this because I have to renovate them. HAVE TO.

    I love having big families but hate when I hit an error 12 while saving!

    I really enjoy custom worlds and one of my favorite parts is customizing it even more after I explore it!

    I understand on a logical level that sims are just pixel people but I always try to give them a good life. People that torture etc their sims seriously disturb me, lol
  • StephStebStephSteb Posts: 2,271 Member
    Another unpopular opinion: I absolutely HATE skyscraper apartments and will tear them down and replace them with regular buildings. The elevators (unless it's the ITF elevators) cause too many errors.

    Also, even though I play mermaids a lot, I don't like dive lots in worlds. Too many glitches and drag.
  • mw1525mw1525 Posts: 1,214 Member
    @jaletu2005 - I wish I could give your post multiple awesomes!!

    I love the open world, too! Not just because I can see what my townies are up to at all hours of the day and night but, because certain parts of each world are so beautiful they actually help me de-stress just by looking at them. And, I totally agree with everything you said in opinion 2!
  • thebriamonthebriamon Posts: 377 Member
    I have a few that aren't really "unpopular", but I do feel the odd man out sometimes in Sims discussions.

    1. I hate building. I hate it. Sometimes I download lots for my sims, but when pressed to actually make something, my houses are the most boring, square little things. I decided to just go with this recently when populating a custom world that needed more low end housing, and just made a very boring home, and set up a whole street of them and decided I'd call it government housing. Boom! now I have 16 more cheap 10 x 15 lots for my sims to live in.

    2. It actually seems to me that most of the people I talk to like to have epic age spans on no aging at all, and I'm so bored by that. Even when I make my own simself and my husband, we are on a normal lifespan. I play rotationally, thanks to NRAAS mods, and so I feel like I get pleeeeenty of time with each sim. Part of the fun for me is watching my whole neighborhood grow and age. I usually populate with my own sims and I like to see who marries whom and whatnot.

    3. I'm trying to get into occults. One thing I've done recently that has helped me to even care about fairies is I made a fairy family, made everything about them gold in CAS (hair, eyes, skin, clothing), and I've named them Helen and Paris of Troy. I made another fairy family Odysseus and Penelope of Ithaca, and they are silver. But the 5x lifespan is still too long so I changed it with the NRAAS retuner mod to just 1.25x.
  • emorrillemorrill Posts: 8,110 Member
    thebriamon wrote: »
    I have a few that aren't really "unpopular", but I do feel the odd man out sometimes in Sims discussions.

    1. I hate building. I hate it. Sometimes I download lots for my sims, but when pressed to actually make something, my houses are the most boring, square little things. I decided to just go with this recently when populating a custom world that needed more low end housing, and just made a very boring home, and set up a whole street of them and decided I'd call it government housing. Boom! now I have 16 more cheap 10 x 15 lots for my sims to live in.

    ^This! :lol:
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  • BluegayleBluegayle Posts: 4,175 Member
    Lots on here I agree with in part but just like the thread on Sims4 simmers are listing multiple so makes it hard to vote. And @jaletu2005 I don't think open worlds have ever been unpopular. (but I could be wrong).
    "Every child matters. If we fail our children, we are bound to fail our present, our future, faith, cultures, and civilizations as well."
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