I don't want the autonomous story progression in my game, but I don't mind this kind. As long as they ask, I really like it.
I just wish there'd be more of those calls, because I haven't had any, yet. They seem rare.
Oh, this is interesting! Is it completely random? How well do you have to know the person ringing asking you whether they should have a baby? I'd hope it's not just a random townie that gatecrashed your date at the spice festival or something
@SimmerGeorge actually not completely. There was always a certain amount of story progression/aging in non active households etc. I don't use mods, but I played sims 3 from the beginning. Trust me....could not play like in Sims 2
So now I had it too and as expected I'm not a fan of it.
Rant under the spoiler, tl;dr the feature is too intrusive, it breaks character and is also glitchy.
First, the game chose a played, favorited household to make the call. In fact, it was my main family (I was playing a secondary family).
The game really should leave played sims alone. It doesn't know what's going on in the heads of my characters and I didn't ask it to try to guess.
Second, the answers weren't marked clearly. I assumed "Yes" would mean exactly that, "Are you sure" would randomize the outcome and "You, a father" would mean "No way, under no circumstances". So I chose the last option. It was also in character for the sim I was playing, who doesn't think the world of the sim who had called.
What happened next was that the caller got enraged and announced to try for baby at once. Okay, he's a hothead, so at least this reaction was in-character. But Daniel would never have called my active sim to help with a far-reaching decision. He'd never ponder having another child seeing that he already raises his own toddler daughter, the result of a traumatizing abduction, and occasionally has his husband's son over (who gets swapped back and forth between his mother's and father's household).
Third, the caller sim, Daniel is a man married to another man. Have fun trying to get pregnant, you two.
I switched to his household to check on the the two. Sure enough Daniel had a hidden trait called "trait_hidden_makePregnant". Damage done. I couldn't just let the little one poof into non-existance.
I waited 48 hours in fast-forward mode and nothing happened. So I switched to yet another household, reasoning that maybe story progression only harms currently unplayed households. Waited three days, then checked on Daniel again - still the trait, but still no baby or bump. In the end I reloaded an older save from 1,5 irl hours before the phone call (since there clearly was no baby and wouldn't be).
I had the phone call, answered yes and three simsdays later, Abiona gave births to twins. I play on rotation mode, so I went into the household and found the babies. I've set a better room for them. Abiona's husband is in Humour career and they already had a child. They live in a large appartment, so I knew there was enough space to welcome new member (s) into the family. Now they have three kids and life is a little bit more "Rock'n Roll".
I love this kind of story progression (where I can decide if yes or no the change will be done) and I hope they'll add more to the game.
Edit : I play vanilla (just installed the Show sim info mod). The phone call came before this installation.
Oh wow, I had no idea that this had been implemented, I haven't come across it yet. I would still prefer Sims to autonomously have babies, but this is definitely a feature I can't grumble at... now I just have to patiently wait for it to appear in my current save.
I do wish it would avoid played Sims. I can make then try for a baby whenever I want. It is the unplayed sims I would want to influence through this.
I enjoy getting the parent calls about when are you going to visit though. It makes my families seem like they are staying connected a little more autonomously.
I have never seen this in my game and I have had the Eco-pack for a long time. I wonder what the requirements are. Could it perhaps be because there are a lot of kids in my games?
I've had Geoffrey Landgraab call my Sim for the "Try for Baby" one. I answered yes, and despite having the gender settings on default, Geoffrey was the one who got pregnant.
My sim just got these messages, guessing they're one of the new Eco Lifestyle messages but I thought it was interesting, I've never seen anything centered around story progression for other families built into the game before so I thought I'd share it!
Ooh! 😯 That’s cute!
I don’t like Story Progression, but if it’s done like this, with us having some control over a family’s story, then I would be up for this.
Though this is a good start toward story progression, it would have been nice to have this as a base game update instead of in a pack.
It is a base game update as far as I know, as I think I've seen people say they have those without eco living?
@SeaDragonSong I don’t have Eco Lifestyle and I’ve never seen this in my game. When I first saw it, I thought it was from Slice of Life, but when I got the mod I still wasn’t getting these messages. It must be from Eco Lifestyle.
I have never seen this in my game and I have had the Eco-pack for a long time. I wonder what the requirements are. Could it perhaps be because there are a lot of kids in my games?
The requirement for the baby phone call is that your sim must have a friend who has the family-oriented trait and is married. That’s why I’ve seen a lot of people get this call when their sims are friends with Geoffrey Landgraab for example.
I got the phone call for engagement ring from one of my sims friends who has the non-committal trait and has a girlfriend. That’s why he called to ask you to make the decision for him - he’s non-committal and needed a push. I said yes and the got auto-engaged. I was going to do it at some point anyway, so I just took advantage of the phone call which matched my plans.
I assume the other calls have similar triggers, but I haven’t checked.
I know this in an old thread, but just noticed recently that played households have aging automatically turned off so sims won't even age up or progress beyond any relationships you forged when interacting with them via another household. I'm curious if that also stops any sort of story progression as well? Does it make a difference if you switch them temporarily to unplayed so they progress a bit without you?
I enjoy a mixture of story progression and no progression, as sometimes with big families I don't mind sims that are not ever used still have lives and I'm curious if they're doing anything that makes it so only played houses don't participate in auto progression of any sort?
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I just wish there'd be more of those calls, because I haven't had any, yet. They seem rare.
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I could never get into Sims 3 because of the enforced story progression
I like these new popups.
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Rant under the spoiler, tl;dr the feature is too intrusive, it breaks character and is also glitchy.
First, the game chose a played, favorited household to make the call. In fact, it was my main family (I was playing a secondary family).
The game really should leave played sims alone. It doesn't know what's going on in the heads of my characters and I didn't ask it to try to guess.
Second, the answers weren't marked clearly. I assumed "Yes" would mean exactly that, "Are you sure" would randomize the outcome and "You, a father" would mean "No way, under no circumstances". So I chose the last option. It was also in character for the sim I was playing, who doesn't think the world of the sim who had called.
What happened next was that the caller got enraged and announced to try for baby at once. Okay, he's a hothead, so at least this reaction was in-character. But Daniel would never have called my active sim to help with a far-reaching decision. He'd never ponder having another child seeing that he already raises his own toddler daughter, the result of a traumatizing abduction, and occasionally has his husband's son over (who gets swapped back and forth between his mother's and father's household).
Third, the caller sim, Daniel is a man married to another man. Have fun trying to get pregnant, you two.
I switched to his household to check on the the two. Sure enough Daniel had a hidden trait called "trait_hidden_makePregnant". Damage done. I couldn't just let the little one poof into non-existance.
I waited 48 hours in fast-forward mode and nothing happened. So I switched to yet another household, reasoning that maybe story progression only harms currently unplayed households. Waited three days, then checked on Daniel again - still the trait, but still no baby or bump. In the end I reloaded an older save from 1,5 irl hours before the phone call (since there clearly was no baby and wouldn't be).
I love this kind of story progression (where I can decide if yes or no the change will be done) and I hope they'll add more to the game.
Edit : I play vanilla (just installed the Show sim info mod). The phone call came before this installation.
I actually might even prefer this method of dealing with things instead of The Sims 3's Story Progression.
I enjoy getting the parent calls about when are you going to visit though. It makes my families seem like they are staying connected a little more autonomously.
I have never seen this in my game and I have had the Eco-pack for a long time. I wonder what the requirements are. Could it perhaps be because there are a lot of kids in my games?
I don’t like Story Progression, but if it’s done like this, with us having some control over a family’s story, then I would be up for this.
(She/her)
@SeaDragonSong I don’t have Eco Lifestyle and I’ve never seen this in my game. When I first saw it, I thought it was from Slice of Life, but when I got the mod I still wasn’t getting these messages. It must be from Eco Lifestyle.
The requirement for the baby phone call is that your sim must have a friend who has the family-oriented trait and is married. That’s why I’ve seen a lot of people get this call when their sims are friends with Geoffrey Landgraab for example.
I got the phone call for engagement ring from one of my sims friends who has the non-committal trait and has a girlfriend. That’s why he called to ask you to make the decision for him - he’s non-committal and needed a push. I said yes and the got auto-engaged. I was going to do it at some point anyway, so I just took advantage of the phone call which matched my plans.
I assume the other calls have similar triggers, but I haven’t checked.
I enjoy a mixture of story progression and no progression, as sometimes with big families I don't mind sims that are not ever used still have lives and I'm curious if they're doing anything that makes it so only played houses don't participate in auto progression of any sort?