1821

Jeff, I seem to recall you can change settings so that your sims will be more self-sufficient and more likely to do things based on his or her traits. Maybe if you tinker with those settings, you’ll see more emergent behaviors.

-Tom

1822

I find myself using High Free Will, but also making sure to have multi-person families and trying to never / rarely pause to give commands winds up having people do their own thing fairly often.

1823

Yep, they’re already at full “free-will” settings. There are so many interactions available when you click them manually, but when they’re left on their own, they just stick to the same few things over and over when interacting with other people. But it could all just be in my head.

1824

We picked up a bunch of stuff from this last night, including Sims Medieval and the expansion. Just a quick note, my wife decided to google gamefly coupons and came up with a 20% off code which stacked with the sale prices.

1825

If I have bought most of my expansions from EA (shameful I know) do these play nice with those? Anyone know if that causes an issue?

1826

Register the keys you’ve bought from Gamefly with Origin and don’t worry about it.

Smaller expansion keys (like the stuff packs) aren’t even registered with Origin; you register them within the Sims 3 store page accessed from the launcher. Sims 3 expansion vs. content registering is kind of a mess.

1827

Yeah this. My wife had no issues getting them together and once she added them to her sims account, they all showed up in her origin client also.

1828

Since Amazon and Steam have a sale on the expansions I was thinking of getting one, probably Ambitions. I got the game a year or so ago, played it for 10-20 hours and never touched it again. I tend to try and play it as a game (trying to ‘win’ by improving myself as much as I can) and as a game it is pretty light.

Anyone have any tips for someone who plays it like a game to get the most out of it? Is it a lost cause for me?

1829

Playing it like a game is pointless. Even though the Sims 3 and Sims Medieval are the most “gamey” of the Sims, the activities (like treasure hunting in World Adventurers) are basically just time sinks and grinds.

1830

Not sure if it’s your thing, but I had a lot of fun doing the Immortal Dynasty challenge:
http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/challenges/immortaldynasty.php

There’s specific rules to make it more difficult, but in a nut shell you start with one character and need to eventually make him and 1 child from each of the next 7 generations immortal and living in a house together.

Start with one Sim. Only by accomplishing key tasks is your Founder granted the power of immortality upon reaching Elder status. The firstborn of every generation must also complete the same tasks to achieve their immortality. Your ultimate goal is 8 immortal Sims under one roof and to preserve their Dynasty forever with a valuable museum.

1831

Yikes, the immortal challenge seems complicated, but sounds like it may be interesting. I might try that one next time I fire up the game. I did end up buying Ambitions since it was only $10. Thanks for the suggestion!

1832

Anyone still playing this?

We just got the Pets expansion, and since installing it the game tends to freeze from time to time. Google shows its a common problem, but no clear solution found. I’m trying to see how it works with advanced graphics disabled, but some of what I read in Google suggests its an issue with the Sims AI. Anyone had this problem?

1833

I haven’t played in a while, but I’m intrigued by the university expansion - that was what I was missing most from Sims 3

1834

I had the same problem with the pets expansion i ended up uninstalling it and everything went back to normal.

1835

Been dabbling with University and encountered a weird problem with a new sim. He refuses to dress appropriately for any occasion. He changes into formal attire upon arriving home, into swimwear before university classes and into sleepwear when he’s at public places in town. He gets a lot of laughs from other sims, but doesn’t seem to notice.

1836

So you’ve never before encountered a sim with the Inappropriate trait? That’s what it sounds like.
You can brainwash him using the Midlife Crisis lifetime reward. Or you could enjoy the different ways he tackles his existence.

1837

That’s the thing, this sim wasn’t given any “bad” traits, including that one. Only thing I can think of is it could be a bug, and/or related to his Lifetime Wish.

Another issue: At one point, the sim put in a request for a pet adoption and the social worker never showed up, making travel and university classes unavailable and forcing me to reload an older save. Edit: And initiating a request in the older save results in the same thing: social worker no show.