Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
WWWWD? What Would Will Wright Do?
Rodgerick
Posts: 41 New Member
Certainly not this.
Most of the Sim games thus far have allowed for the player to customize his or her game and let creativity run wild. Yesterday when I picked up my preorder from a local store I was, for the first time in a long time, legitimately excited about getting a new title. Some games a good at release, others- Incredible. I was sure that the latter would be the case for the Sims 3.
I got back home, installed my copy of the game, went online to do my registrations, get my content, and load it up. My first impression was that it ran smooth, incredibly smooth. It looked better in just about every way than the Sims 2 and ran much better as well, so far so good. Then I got to the create a Sim. I was preparing myself for the new art style, New Age Sims with bloaty head Syndrome right out of Theme Hospital, but what I wasn't prepared for the very limited selection of hair styles... all seemingly taken from American Idle.
Did the designers forget what a casual haircut looked like? Are there no mirrors in the EA / Maxis offices? Okay. Not a big deal. I'll just give a bit more time. Surely the store will have some decent cuts! WRONG! More Emo cuts. Right.
I also have a problem with the Beard selection. Last time I checked most 5 o'clock shadows don't cover 50% of a person face...
I got down to the clothing. Brilliantly done Maxis, as a Database Developer I can appreciate the brilliance of your move to simply make the meshes normalized and having colors / patterns assigned to them. You'll save people alot of processing power and remove the needs for all those Recolor mods out there.
Alrighty, a few traits in, still VERY PUMPED, I make my Sim and I move him in. I customize my home and Sim away the rest of the day. All and all, very awesome.
DAY 2 - (DUN DUN DUHHHHHHH)
The glow has worn off. I load up my game and decide that I want to start a neighborhood from scratch, I LOVED doing this in the Sim 2, and had close to a hundred PC Sims of my own creation wandering around a Neighborhood completely designed by yours truely.
Only... there is no option to create my own neighborhood. No blank slots, no terrain selection, no Name field for a clever town name. Nada. Zilch. Zip.
Okay, still feeling creative, still wanting to make SOMETHING, ANYTHING. New clothing? Sure! That sounds like fun. I start looking for a body shop.
Once again, Nada. Zilch. Zip.
"That can't be good." I think to myself. I start to look through the folders and find that all of the files have been masked away in the ever so obscure .Package files. You modders know the ones. The ones that change with every game to keep us on our toes.
After this I loaded up the game, searched websites, and overall did my best find out what kinds of "limits" the game had.
I start to think about everything I can cannot customize in the Sims 3. Then I compared it with what I was capable of doing in the Sims 2. This is what I came up with.
+ The ability to color and texture anything.
- The ability to place lots wherever I so choose.
- The ability to create my own unique neighborhoods.
- The ability to easily export and import body styles and meshes.
- The ability to easily export and import clothing styles and meshes.
Things that didn't change.
* The ability to customize my Sims.
* The ability to customize my Lots.
Things that neither had.
* The ability to "freely" design a terrain and road network.
From what I can see, a lot of our creative tools were scrapped in order to save the end user from having to track down an endless amount of recolor mods.
Now... the big question and my postulated answer- What Would Will Wright Do?
Have EA / Maxis create a tool akin to the Body Shop for the Sim 3, as well as add in the ability to create and customize your own Neighborhoods.
With the Body Shop tool we can create what we want, the community as whole. We can make what you didn't think of without having to bug you about it. (as well as some things you wouldn't make even if we told you about it ::nod nod wink wink::)
With a Neighborhood creation tool we could finally have that one feature that the Sims 2 was lacking, expanding the creative possibilities of what the player can come up with. Town-wise at least. Heck, I'd be willing to buy an expansion if it had a detailed town creation tool, its something that SHOULD have been there, but just isn't. And unless I've missed my guess... you guys probably have at least one version of this software floating around your office... I mean, you did make the two towns we already have...
So What Would Will Wright Do?
Have fun and be creative as possible!
Most of the Sim games thus far have allowed for the player to customize his or her game and let creativity run wild. Yesterday when I picked up my preorder from a local store I was, for the first time in a long time, legitimately excited about getting a new title. Some games a good at release, others- Incredible. I was sure that the latter would be the case for the Sims 3.
I got back home, installed my copy of the game, went online to do my registrations, get my content, and load it up. My first impression was that it ran smooth, incredibly smooth. It looked better in just about every way than the Sims 2 and ran much better as well, so far so good. Then I got to the create a Sim. I was preparing myself for the new art style, New Age Sims with bloaty head Syndrome right out of Theme Hospital, but what I wasn't prepared for the very limited selection of hair styles... all seemingly taken from American Idle.
Did the designers forget what a casual haircut looked like? Are there no mirrors in the EA / Maxis offices? Okay. Not a big deal. I'll just give a bit more time. Surely the store will have some decent cuts! WRONG! More Emo cuts. Right.
I also have a problem with the Beard selection. Last time I checked most 5 o'clock shadows don't cover 50% of a person face...
I got down to the clothing. Brilliantly done Maxis, as a Database Developer I can appreciate the brilliance of your move to simply make the meshes normalized and having colors / patterns assigned to them. You'll save people alot of processing power and remove the needs for all those Recolor mods out there.
Alrighty, a few traits in, still VERY PUMPED, I make my Sim and I move him in. I customize my home and Sim away the rest of the day. All and all, very awesome.
DAY 2 - (DUN DUN DUHHHHHHH)
The glow has worn off. I load up my game and decide that I want to start a neighborhood from scratch, I LOVED doing this in the Sim 2, and had close to a hundred PC Sims of my own creation wandering around a Neighborhood completely designed by yours truely.
Only... there is no option to create my own neighborhood. No blank slots, no terrain selection, no Name field for a clever town name. Nada. Zilch. Zip.
Okay, still feeling creative, still wanting to make SOMETHING, ANYTHING. New clothing? Sure! That sounds like fun. I start looking for a body shop.
Once again, Nada. Zilch. Zip.
"That can't be good." I think to myself. I start to look through the folders and find that all of the files have been masked away in the ever so obscure .Package files. You modders know the ones. The ones that change with every game to keep us on our toes.
After this I loaded up the game, searched websites, and overall did my best find out what kinds of "limits" the game had.
I start to think about everything I can cannot customize in the Sims 3. Then I compared it with what I was capable of doing in the Sims 2. This is what I came up with.
+ The ability to color and texture anything.
- The ability to place lots wherever I so choose.
- The ability to create my own unique neighborhoods.
- The ability to easily export and import body styles and meshes.
- The ability to easily export and import clothing styles and meshes.
Things that didn't change.
* The ability to customize my Sims.
* The ability to customize my Lots.
Things that neither had.
* The ability to "freely" design a terrain and road network.
From what I can see, a lot of our creative tools were scrapped in order to save the end user from having to track down an endless amount of recolor mods.
Now... the big question and my postulated answer- What Would Will Wright Do?
Have EA / Maxis create a tool akin to the Body Shop for the Sim 3, as well as add in the ability to create and customize your own Neighborhoods.
With the Body Shop tool we can create what we want, the community as whole. We can make what you didn't think of without having to bug you about it. (as well as some things you wouldn't make even if we told you about it ::nod nod wink wink::)
With a Neighborhood creation tool we could finally have that one feature that the Sims 2 was lacking, expanding the creative possibilities of what the player can come up with. Town-wise at least. Heck, I'd be willing to buy an expansion if it had a detailed town creation tool, its something that SHOULD have been there, but just isn't. And unless I've missed my guess... you guys probably have at least one version of this software floating around your office... I mean, you did make the two towns we already have...
So What Would Will Wright Do?
Have fun and be creative as possible!
0
Comments
+ The ability to place lots wherever I so choose.
+ The ability to create my own unique neighborhoods.
+ The ability to easily export and import body styles and meshes.
+ The ability to easily export and import clothing styles and meshes.
+ The ability to "freely" design a terrain and road network.
+ A Body Shop equivalent for the Sims 3.
+ Any sort of Neighborhood modifying functionality.
A few things I left out of the original post...
+ Less "Emo" Cuts, More Casual Cuts, More Music Stations, More Instruments.
+ In General, more of what we like, Less of what we don't ( its pretty hard to guess, but we're pretty vocal
Seriously though, I think ALOT of our concerns will get a response, maybe not in the next couple days but I definitely second the bodyshop and terrain.. and god PLEASE an empty neighborhood? I had to go through and delete all of riverview for one of my games so I could start that way LOL
You can't create your own neighborhood??!?!?!?!
What???!
Nooooo!!
What if I want to make...like, my own family and friends in one neighborhood?? I don't want all these other sims interfering! I need to make my own neighborhood eventually!!
Agh, I can't take this. All I'm hearing is bad news and I haven't even began playing yet.
*slams door*
(lol)
I had my mom's laptop open to my photo album on myspace, lol.
lol
and not being able to build a house without a sim was great. but now you can't do that. AHHH.
(some of you Spore players might get it)
I remember the 1st one im sure you only had 1 neighbourhood to start with but by the last expansion you where up to 8 or so and could even make your own, just like sims 2.
early days but im sure they put all their effort into just 1 neighbourhood so they can get that sorted before thinking about making it all bigger. We shall see as times goes by.
Obviously there are broken features, such as the Neighborhood Storymode toggle switch, and the mode itself... Has anyone at EA spoken out yet about "Hey guys, sorry about that, we're working on it." Customer Service is key, and I felt like Maxis had that with Sims 2.
It's a shame that most good threads in this sea of complaints will go unnoticed, or uncared for.
Then again, if I were a game developer (as big as EA), I wouldn't mind taking a month vacation after launch day.
i really didn't like the mocking snip at the community with the response ". . . due to our flawed, mortal forms, it is possible that you are still experiencing some problems as you play Sims 3." & " . .
As much as we love to hear compliments about all of our hard work, please try to keep the email sent to this address on topic."
so to keep on topic, is this what Will Wright would do?
The Sims 3 Team worked very hard to make your Sims 3 experience as enjoyable and defect-free as possible. Due to the size and complexity of a game like The Sims 3, and due to our flawed, mortal forms, it is possible that you are still experiencing some problems as you play Sims 3. We wish to provide our dedicated fans with a simple method to report any problems you may encounter. Our intention is to identify and fix as many issues as possible in game updates. If you run into something you believe to be a defect, you can help the entire community by spending a couple minutes to provide us some information about what you are experiencing. The better the description of the problem, the more likely we will be able to identify, and address, your issue in a game update.
1) A detailed description of the problem is required.
2) If the problem you encounter can be triggered commonly, or at will, some basic steps outlining the method of reproduction are greatly appreciated.
3) If the problem is a crash, game performance, or graphical in nature, attaching your DXDiag or System Profile to your email will help us diagnose the problem. See the end of the post for a description of how to generate your DXDiag (PC) or System Profile. (Mac)
4) If you are experiencing a visual problem, a screenshot or short, in-game movie can’t hurt.
As much as we love to hear compliments about all of our hard work, please try to keep the email sent to this address on topic. We will make sure to review the forums if our egos need love. Inquiries outside of gameplay (i.e. installation difficulties, copy protection, store purchases, and website) should be directed to customer support rather than this email address.
For the time being, we have set up an email address where you can send your reports. mailto:TS3TechHelp@ea.com At some point in the future, this email address will be replaced by a web submission form. There will be warning on the official The Sims 3 forums before the email address is deactivated.
Unfortunately, due to the limited number of hours in the day, it is unlikely that you will receive a human response to your email report. Don’t fear. As long as the email address is not being heavily abused, we will review all bug reports and will be working diligently to fix the most prevalent and problematic issues.
While we hope you never need to use this address, please know that it is here if it is needed.
System Information Instructions:
Windows PC:
1) Click the “Start” menu.
2) Click “Run.”
3) Type “dxdiag” at the prompt.
4) Click the “Save All Information...” button.
5) Save the info off to a file and attach it to your composed email.
Mac OS:
1) Click on the Apple Menu.
2) Select “About this Mac.”
3) Select “More Info...”
4) Under View select “Mini Profile.”
5) Under File select “Save As...” and save the information out in RTF. (Rich Text Format) Attach this file to your email.
Soft Crashes:
If your game is crashing to desktop, the game will attempt to place crash dump files in your \My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\ directory. There will be two files, a .mdmp and .txt file that are time stamped at the point the game crashed. If these files have been created, then attaching these files to your description of what was going on in game will help us.
Hard Crashes:
The first thing you should do if you are experiencing ingame crashes or graphical issues is update your drivers. (video card drivers most importantly) Depending on your video card manufacturer, you can find drivers at:
NVidia: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
ATI: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
Intel: http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/detect.htm
If you already have updated your drivers and are still experiencing blue screens or reboots while playing The Sims 3, you will find time-stamped crash dumps in \WINDOWS\Minidump\. Attaching these to your email along with your DXDiag will be helpful.
I wonder if something will come out to change that? :roll: