Previews / Sims 3 Previews / Sims 31970-01-01T01:00:00Zhttp://www.thesimsresource.com/articles/posts/Previews / Sims 3http://www.thesimsresource.com/articles/posts/ http://www.thesimsresource.com/articlesview-post/post/14298/ 2009-11-01T01:00:00Z pstrongEA Redwood Shores/strong, the Halloween sprit is well and truly in the air as staff arrive in full costume for the annual parade, while Sims fans are sat busying themselves, tearing into the first Expansion Pack to come out of the studio for The Sims 3. Exciting times, what with the release of Create A World as well. But what will this pack offer the game players, builders, storytellers and custom content creators of our community? Let's find out.../p h3But haven't our Sims travelled before?/h3 pa rel=lightbox[item] href=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-721h-650-1339248.jpgimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-250h-196-1339248.jpg border=0 width=250 height=196 style=float: right; border: 0; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; //a OK I admit, I came here expecting to see the Sims 3 version of Vacation or Bon Voyage, based on the first snippets of info to come out about World Adventures. One reason being that because I have known for some weeks that I would be here previewing the EP, I tried to avoid reading most of the earlier sneak peeks posted by the big gaming sites because I wanted to write an article based on my own experience of the game without thinking about those other comments and comparisons./p pAs it turns out, I now see that you can't really compare World Adventures to the earlier Vacation based EP's as rest and relaxations is certainly not what Adventuring is about. I'm over that comparison now and I see World Adventures as more of a mini-game within the game, like the old, original role playing games seen on the PC. And that's not a bad thing. You could totally loose yourself as an adventure. In fact, by collecting relics and treasure and building your skills as you go, it's entirely possible (and tempting to me) for a Sim to make a career out of Adventuring!/p pSo what about all those earlier previews of the game? I found it really strange that EA released so much information about this EP before the fan event. These get-togethers of players are usually the first source of juicy info about the games for our communities but this time was different, maybe due to Create A World, I never did quite get to the bottom of it. But as it makes it a bit harder for us to write fresh articles that aren't full of things you already know, I'm going to try and focus on the smaller things about the game, and areas that haven't yet been explored (excuse the pun) in such detail by the big gaming sites, but I will gloss over the big stuff for those of you that live in TSR land :-)/p pIf you see a picture you like in this preview, click it for a larger version./p p style=text-align: right;emstrongUse Page Nav to continue to page 2.../strong/em/p

EA Redwood Shores, the Halloween sprit is well and truly in the air as staff arrive in full costume for the annual parade, while Sims fans are sat busying themselves, tearing into the first Expansion Pack to come out of the studio for The Sims 3. Exciting times, what with the release of Create A World as well. But what will this pack offer the game players, builders, storytellers and custom content creators of our community? Let's find out... But haven't our Sims travelled before? OK I admit, I came here expecting to see the Sims 3 version of Vacation or Bon Voyage, based on the first snippets of info to come out about World Adventures. One reason being that because I have known for some weeks that I would be here previewing the EP, I tried to avoid reading most of the earlier sneak peeks posted by the big gaming sites because I wanted to write an article based on my own experience of the game without thinking about those other comments and comparisons. As it turns out, I now see that you can't really compare World Adventures to the earlier Vacation based EP's as rest and relaxations is certainly not what Adventuring is about. I'm over that comparison now and I see World Adventures as more of a mini-game within the game, like the old, original role playing games seen on the PC. And that's not a bad thing. You could totally loose yourself as an adventure. In fact, by collecting relics and treasure and building your skills as you go, it's entirely possible (and tempting to me) for a Sim to make a career out of Adventuring! So what about all those earlier previews of the game? I found it really strange that EA released so much information about this EP before the fan event. These get-togethers of players are usually the first source of juicy info about the games for our communities but this time was different, maybe due to Create A World, I never did quite get to the bottom of it. But as it makes it a bit harder for us to write fresh articles that aren't full of things you already know, I'm going to try and focus on the smaller things about the game, and areas that haven't yet been explored (excuse the pun) in such detail by the big gaming sites, but I will gloss over the big stuff for those of you that live in TSR land :-) If you see a picture you like in this preview, click it for a larger version. Use Page Nav to continue to page 2...

http://www.thesimsresource.com/articlesview-post/post/14277/ 2009-10-31T01:00:00Z pa rel=lightbox[item] href=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-721h-650-1338224.jpgimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-250h-196-1338224.jpg border=0 width=250 height=196 style=float: right; border: 0; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; //a strongCreate A World/strong will be the first Official custom content tool from EA for The Sims 3. It will enable players to create whole new worlds for their Sims to live innbsp; just like the Riverview town released by EA.nbsp; It was created using a version of this very tool, as are the new locations in World Adventures.br /br /Although it's a standalone tool, it will require a full install of The Sims 3 to be able to use it. It has to be said though, before too many players start jumping for joy and declaring themselves the future of world builders, this tool is not for the faint hearted! With Sims 2, players could use Sim City 4 to terraform new neighborhoods with relative ease, but with World Builder the terraforming aspect, though not too difficult in itself, is only the beginning of what will become a far more technical process. br /br /Creating the land of your new world is much the same as using the terrain tools in game. You can create hills and valleys, mountains, lakes, rivers and ponds, place roads and sidewalks (or footpaths) with relative ease and flexibility, and you can even spray on custom terrain paints like lava, snow or pink cotton candy. But the difficult part will come in placing the necessary community lots, career rabbit holes and liveable housing lots in such way that it works well for both the game and the player./p pa rel=lightbox[item] href=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-721h-650-1338230.jpgimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-250h-131-1338230.jpg border=0 width=250 height=131 style=float: left; border: 0; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; //aMy first impressions from using the tool is that there may only be a small niche group of people within our community that will pull this off well. Of course, there will be a huge amount of people that will love to download and use these creations in their game too, so either way, you should find the release of this tool will enhance your gameplay no end!/p pThe tool is planned to be made freely available via download in December and will come with a help document and a pretty substantial list of rules that creators should follow in order to make their Worlds realistic in a playable, game compatible sense, even if not in a worldly sense. They cover: Lot location and routing, Performance, Gameplay and aesthetics, Technical and Other areas for consideration. If I get time later I'll post some of these tips to give you some more insight into the power of the tool and the way EA themselves use it./p pa rel=lightbox[item] href=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-721h-650-1338232.jpgimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-250h-196-1338232.jpg border=0 width=250 height=196 style=float: right; border: 0; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; //aObject placement is a breeze and the way the tool works will allow for easy management of a large amount of content. People familiar with Photoshop will quickly get used to using layers for their content types and attributes for many of the plopables. Items can be manipulated on placement with rotation and height placement. Objects can float, be stacked, or partially buried in the ground./p pResidential properties can either be imported from your game bin or you can drop out of the world editor and into a cut down version of the game which is basically build/buy, so that you can build on your lots and switch back to the editor seamlessly. Lots themselves can have attributes set too, such as the property value and vista bonus values for rooms with a view and Lots that provide Sims with the Vista moodlet./p pThe game can open preset lands for players to build upon but something you cannot do is open up an exported World and then start editing it. This means your masterpiece creation that will likely take days if not weeks to perfect, cannot be opened up and plagiarised by others, which many creators will be happy about I'm sure. Right now the plan is to make Worlds available on the Exchange via direct upload in the same was as game exports are managed, but if the export is a .sims3pack as is planned at this stage, there is no reason why you could not share them on your own sites or with friends. Expect pretty big file sizes though!/p pa rel=lightbox[item] href=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-721h-650-1338233.jpgimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-250h-196-1338233.jpg border=0 width=250 height=196 style=float: left; border: 0; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; //aNew Worlds can also be created by importing a height map. I tested this using an image of a plumbob. Once converted to greyscale this acted as my height map for a new world, as can be seen in this image. You could use anything from your face to a logo or just a beautiful formation of shades to create rolling hills and valleys. Water levels can be adjusted too so that you can flood certain areas.br /br /Any Expansion Pack, Stuff Pack and Store content you have installed can of course be used in your Worlds too. Custom Content is most likely useable but as yet we don't know how those files would be packaged. World sizes can range between 2048x2048 and 256x256.br /br /Oh, and during the demo we learned a trick about object placement on Lots which explained something many of us are unaware of. The rotation of the mailbox on a Lot determines the angle that the thumbnail image is taken from, so if you want your Lot thumbnail to show a particular side of a building, that's the way the mailbox needs to face. Useful tip? We think so :-)br /br /I hope this helps you understand some of the power of Create A World, and its complexity. It's clearly not going to become a mainstream tool used by masses of people to create quality content. On the plus side, harnessed by the right people, this tool will eventually provide all players with a wealth of new and exciting places for your Sims to live, work and even take adventures in!/p p/Steve/p pTSR Featured Artist, strongMurano/strong, attended the Simposium event and spent some time working with Create A World. Check out his a href=http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/Murano/blog/view-post/post/14268blog/a for his perspective and some more technical details./p pa rel=lightbox[item] href=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-721h-650-1338244.jpgimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-708h-106-1338244.jpg border=0 width=708 height=106 style=float: right; border: 0; margin-left: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; //a/p

Create A World will be the first Official custom content tool from EA for The Sims 3. It will enable players to create whole new worlds for their Sims to live innbsp; just like the Riverview town released by EA.nbsp; It was created using a version of this very tool, as are the new locations in World Adventures.Although it's a standalone tool, it will require a full install of The Sims 3 to be able to use it. It has to be said though, before too many players start jumping for joy and declaring themselves the future of world builders, this tool is not for the faint hearted! With Sims 2, players could use Sim City 4 to terraform new neighborhoods with relative ease, but with World Builder the terraforming aspect, though not too difficult in itself, is only the beginning of what will become a far more technical process. Creating the land of your new world is much the same as using the terrain tools in game. You can create hills and valleys, mountains, lakes, rivers and ponds, place roads and sidewalks (or footpaths) with relative ease and flexibility, and you can even spray on custom terrain paints like lava, snow or pink cotton candy. But the difficult part will come in placing the necessary community lots, career rabbit holes and liveable housing lots in such way that it works well for both the game and the player. My first impressions from using the tool is that there may only be a small niche group of people within our community that will pull this off well. Of course, there will be a huge amount of people that will love to download and use these creations in their game too, so either way, you should find the release of this tool will enhance your gameplay no end! The tool is planned to be made freely available via download in December and will come with a help document and a pretty substantial list of rules that creators should follow in order to make their Worlds realistic in a playable, game compatible sense, even if not in a worldly sense. They cover: Lot location and routing, Performance, Gameplay and aesthetics, Technical and Other areas for consideration. If I get time later I'll post some of these tips to give you some more insight into the power of the tool and the way EA themselves use it. Object placement is a breeze and the way the tool works will allow for easy management of a large amount of content. People familiar with Photoshop will quickly get used to using layers for their content types and attributes for many of the plopables. Items can be manipulated on placement with rotation and height placement. Objects can float, be stacked, or partially buried in the ground. Residential properties can either be imported from your game bin or you can drop out of the world editor and into a cut down version of the game which is basically build/buy, so that you can build on your lots and switch back to the editor seamlessly. Lots themselves can have attributes set too, such as the property value and vista bonus values for rooms with a view and Lots that provide Sims with the Vista moodlet. The game can open preset lands for players to build upon but something you cannot do is open up an exported World and then start editing it. This means your masterpiece creation that will likely take days if not weeks to perfect, cannot be opened up and plagiarised by others, which many creators will be happy about I'm sure. Right now the plan is to make Worlds available on the Exchange via direct upload in the same was as game exports are managed, but if the export is a .sims3pack as is planned at this stage, there is no reason why you could not share them on your own sites or with friends. Expect pretty big file sizes though! New Worlds can also be created by importing a height map. I tested this using an image of a plumbob. Once converted to greyscale this acted as my height map for a new world, as can be seen in this image. You could use anything from your face to a logo or just a beautiful formation of shades to create rolling hills and valleys. Water levels can be adjusted too so that you can flood certain areas.Any Expansion Pack, Stuff Pack and Store content you have installed can of course be used in your Worlds too. Custom Content is most likely useable but as yet we don't know how those files would be packaged. World sizes can range between 2048x2048 and 256x256.Oh, and during the demo we learned a trick about object placement on Lots which explained something many of us are unaware of. The rotation of the mailbox on a Lot determines the angle that the thumbnail image is taken from, so if you want your Lot thumbnail to show a particular side of a building, that's the way the mailbox needs to face. Useful tip? We think so :-)I hope this helps you understand some of the power of Create A World, and its complexity. It's clearly not going to become a mainstream tool used by masses of people to create quality content. On the plus side, harnessed by the right people, this tool will eventually provide all players with a wealth of new and exciting places for your Sims to live, work and even take adventures in! /Steve TSR Featured Artist, Murano, attended the Simposium event and spent some time working with Create A World. Check out his blog for his perspective and some more technical details.

http://www.thesimsresource.com/articlesview-post/post/10031/ 2009-02-05T00:00:00Z pIn January 2008, EA held a Creators Camp event at Redwood Shores which TSR attended. During the week I was blogging, live from the event. The following article is made up of those blog posts, full of interesting information about Sims 3 as well as what was happening at EA during the week./p h3TS3 Creator's Camp: Day 1, 06:30/h3 pIt's 06:30 in a still dark Redwood City, California. I'm always awake early on my first morning due to the 8 hour time difference from home, but it gives me some time to freshen up and start blogging for you all before I head over to EA!/p pAccording to my info pack there will be a total of 22 Custom Content Creators at the event from around the Simming community and from all over the world. 6 of those are from TSR so we have a great turnout! Our boys and girls are a class=null href=/artists/Estatica/Estatica/a, a class=null href=/artists/HatshepsutHatshepsut/a, a class=null href=/artists/Padre333/Padre/a, a class=null href=/artists/UlkrhsnUlkrhsn/a, a class=null href=/artists/DOT/DOT/a and a class=null href=/members/tdyanndtdyannd/a. They will be blogging on their own profile pages during the event too so be sure to check them out sometime this week./p pAs well as the Sims 3 Demos, creator workshops and time with the developers, EA have some weird and wacky events planned as usual, just to keep us on our toes! These range from Plumbob Cookie and Cupcake decorating to time in the sound studios recording some Simlish, so expect some light-hearted storytelling in these blog posts as well as the more serious business of Sims 3 and Custom Content./p pI'm off to hit the shower. My next post will probably be from within the walls of EA!/p p/Steve./p h3TS3 Creator's Camp: Day 1, 17:00/h3 pa rel=lightbox[item] href=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-721h-650-1050304.jpgimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-294h-218-1050304.jpg border=0 width=294 height=218 style=float: right; margin: 5px; //aDay 1 got off to a flying start with breakfast! Signup at the lobby was the first time many people had met in person for the first time. After many years of chatting with some of our own site staff this was that first time I actually got to meet any of the TSR FA's and Artists that attended. There are many familiar faces here too, from other fan sites and official sites from around the world who have attended these events before.br /br /After breakfast we went into the Triangle Room for the game demos and some updated info from the developers. We got to see more about 'Build Mode' than we have seen before in any previous demos, but there is still an embargo on certain things that we are not yet allowed to report about. I'll find out what I can tell you and post more later in the week (hopefully).br /br /As this whole event is about custom content we got to see for the first time exactly how custom content, custom editing and content sharing works. As expected, all of this CC is done within the game. There are currently no external tools like CAS or HomeCrafter which we saw in Sims 2, and with good reason; the game does it all so much better!br /br /As I write this update for you, all the CC creators are already creating! Wellhellip; creating their accounts on the new Sims 3 Exchange so that they can start sharing their first creations with strongyou/strong! After that they are jumping right into the game and getting hands on, learning the new interface and the techniques they will be using for the rest of the week.br /br /I'm off to do the same! Expect more later if I can get the go ahead to spill the 'Build Mode' beans ;-)br /br //Steve/p h3nbsp;TS3 Creator's Camp: Day 2, 07:00/h3 pa rel=lightbox[item] href=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-721h-650-1050683.jpgimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/1050/1050683.jpg border=0 alt=description here width=354 height=255 style=float: right; border: 0; margin: 5px; //aCouldn't sleep again.. awake since 4am! I didn't have a relevant picture for this blog entry so have a look at the nice January Sunshine of the EA Campus yesterday instead :-)/p pSo as I mentioned in yesterdays blog we saw some new things about the game during Day 1's demo that was not shown during the a class=null href=/articles/sims3Sims 3 Preview/a which I wrote about last year. The main thing being Build and Buy modes as they were 'off limits' before, but now we have some more info about that which I'm allowed to share with you!/p pWe also learned a lot more info about the custom content processes. The game tools are actually so powerful that pretty much all of the items which you will see in the basic game CAS and Buy Catalogue have been created in the game by the art team and content creators within EA. They didn't need flashy external tools to make all this stuff you truly do have the power at your fingertips to create content just as good as EA. The base meshes (shapes of the items) are imported to the game a default blue, then the artsy type get to work on them. That's pretty much how third party CC will work too./p pThe biggest power feature is Create a Style. When editing clothing, hair, accessories, walls, floors, furniture, build itemshellip; anything in the game that's customizable, you have the option to either do simple pattern or color adjustments, or go the whole hog and drop into Create a Style. Kinda hard to explain, especially given that I can't share pictures with you, but basically any item has between 1 and 4 channels to it. A bed for example might have the wood frame and the bedding, so 2 channels. A sofa might also be 2 channels, the fabric and the wood frame. Once you create the bed that you like from the range of hundreds of patterns and textures, and infinite colors for each of those, you can save them as a style and then apply them to any other item. And the process is a simple drag and drop. So place your bed in the bedroom, add a desk, a sofa and any other furnishings you like, then drag the style from the bed to all the other items. You now have a fully matching bedroom set designed by and probably unique to the Simming world! You can even drag it to the walls and have the pattern as paper and the wood as kick board and chair rails. And why not drop it on your chosen floor pattern too! Wildly open ended and freeform!/p pYou can then share these Styles or individual creations with other players either through the exchange or your own websites./p pLet me talk a bit about strongBuild Mode/strong! You builders out there are in for the treat of your life with Sims 3! Power tools are abundant here as well, for example, expanding your home as funds allow is so quick and easy! If for example you want a bigger bedroom, grab the outer wall and drag it out as far as you wish, the bed, side tables, window and any other objects along that wall will move with it too. The floor will expand in the same pattern, walls are redecorated and even the roof will free form around it in real time. Same goes for reducing rooms, or you can drag out an entire outside wall of a house and have all rooms enlarge, maintaining their scale and object positioning as accurately as it can./p pstrongStairs /stronghave changed a lot: no longer do you have modular or internal stairways, they are now the same thing and just behave differently depending on how you use them. If you place a stairway internally between floors it will take the guise of an internal stairway, and will even box in the area below it with walls and finish it with the deacute;cor you already have in the room! These can be removed though if you want an open staircase. When placing modular stairs these can now be placed with a 90 degree L shape turn in them, making shaped stairways so quick to produce. You also have a width slider allowing you to place stairways between 1 and 10 tiles widenbsp;in an instant!/p pstrongDoors /strongwill ship in 1, 2 and 3 tile sizes, and even with 1 tile doors that sit in the center of 2 tiles to allow more freedom in design than ever./p pstrongLighting/strong has had a major overhaul too. Internal and external lighting is better realized and put to best use when you build with open spaces in buildings, like courtyards. You can leave the roof off an area of the house and unlike previous Sims games, these will be recognised as outdoor, and lit accordingly. The lights that you place can be set to many different colors to provide ambiance and mood, with the ability too to set them to either dim, bright or normal!/p pstrongRoofs /strongare now truly dynamic and with the roof height slider you can make anything from flat roofs to tall spires instantly. They reform as you change the shape and size of your house too./p pOK, I'm gonna leave you with that info overload for now and go freshen up for another day. I still have lots to tell you about Create a Sim so I'll start blogging again from EA later./p p/Steve/p p style=text-align: right;strongemContinued.../em/strong/p

In January 2008, EA held a Creators Camp event at Redwood Shores which TSR attended. During the week I was blogging, live from the event. The following article is made up of those blog posts, full of interesting information about Sims 3 as well as what was happening at EA during the week. TS3 Creator's Camp: Day 1, 06:30 It's 06:30 in a still dark Redwood City, California. I'm always awake early on my first morning due to the 8 hour time difference from home, but it gives me some time to freshen up and start blogging for you all before I head over to EA! According to my info pack there will be a total of 22 Custom Content Creators at the event from around the Simming community and from all over the world. 6 of those are from TSR so we have a great turnout! Our boys and girls are Estatica, Hatshepsut, Padre, Ulkrhsn, DOT and tdyannd. They will be blogging on their own profile pages during the event too so be sure to check them out sometime this week. As well as the Sims 3 Demos, creator workshops and time with the developers, EA have some weird and wacky events planned as usual, just to keep us on our toes! These range from Plumbob Cookie and Cupcake decorating to time in the sound studios recording some Simlish, so expect some light-hearted storytelling in these blog posts as well as the more serious business of Sims 3 and Custom Content. I'm off to hit the shower. My next post will probably be from within the walls of EA! /Steve. TS3 Creator's Camp: Day 1, 17:00 Day 1 got off to a flying start with breakfast! Signup at the lobby was the first time many people had met in person for the first time. After many years of chatting with some of our own site staff this was that first time I actually got to meet any of the TSR FA's and Artists that attended. There are many familiar faces here too, from other fan sites and official sites from around the world who have attended these events before.After breakfast we went into the Triangle Room for the game demos and some updated info from the developers. We got to see more about 'Build Mode' than we have seen before in any previous demos, but there is still an embargo on certain things that we are not yet allowed to report about. I'll find out what I can tell you and post more later in the week (hopefully).As this whole event is about custom content we got to see for the first time exactly how custom content, custom editing and content sharing works. As expected, all of this CC is done within the game. There are currently no external tools like CAS or HomeCrafter which we saw in Sims 2, and with good reason; the game does it all so much better!As I write this update for you, all the CC creators are already creating! Wellhellip; creating their accounts on the new Sims 3 Exchange so that they can start sharing their first creations with you! After that they are jumping right into the game and getting hands on, learning the new interface and the techniques they will be using for the rest of the week.I'm off to do the same! Expect more later if I can get the go ahead to spill the 'Build Mode' beans ;-)/Steve nbsp;TS3 Creator's Camp: Day 2, 07:00 Couldn't sleep again.. awake since 4am! I didn't have a relevant picture for this blog entry so have a look at the nice January Sunshine of the EA Campus yesterday instead :-) So as I mentioned in yesterdays blog we saw some new things about the game during Day 1's demo that was not shown during the Sims 3 Preview which I wrote about last year. The main thing being Build and Buy modes as they were 'off limits' before, but now we have some more info about that which I'm allowed to share with you! We also learned a lot more info about the custom content processes. The game tools are actually so powerful that pretty much all of the items which you will see in the basic game CAS and Buy Catalogue have been created in the game by the art team and content creators within EA. They didn't need flashy external tools to make all this stuff you truly do have the power at your fingertips to create content just as good as EA. The base meshes (shapes of the items) are imported to the game a default blue, then the artsy type get to work on them. That's pretty much how third party CC will work too. The biggest power feature is Create a Style. When editing clothing, hair, accessories, walls, floors, furniture, build itemshellip; anything in the game that's customizable, you have the option to either do simple pattern or color adjustments, or go the whole hog and drop into Create a Style. Kinda hard to explain, especially given that I can't share pictures with you, but basically any item has between 1 and 4 channels to it. A bed for example might have the wood frame and the bedding, so 2 channels. A sofa might also be 2 channels, the fabric and the wood frame. Once you create the bed that you like from the range of hundreds of patterns and textures, and infinite colors for each of those, you can save them as a style and then apply them to any other item. And the process is a simple drag and drop. So place your bed in the bedroom, add a desk, a sofa and any other furnishings you like, then drag the style from the bed to all the other items. You now have a fully matching bedroom set designed by and probably unique to the Simming world! You can even drag it to the walls and have the pattern as paper and the wood as kick board and chair rails. And why not drop it on your chosen floor pattern too! Wildly open ended and freeform! You can then share these Styles or individual creations with other players either through the exchange or your own websites. Let me talk a bit about Build Mode! You builders out there are in for the treat of your life with Sims 3! Power tools are abundant here as well, for example, expanding your home as funds allow is so quick and easy! If for example you want a bigger bedroom, grab the outer wall and drag it out as far as you wish, the bed, side tables, window and any other objects along that wall will move with it too. The floor will expand in the same pattern, walls are redecorated and even the roof will free form around it in real time. Same goes for reducing rooms, or you can drag out an entire outside wall of a house and have all rooms enlarge, maintaining their scale and object positioning as accurately as it can. Stairs have changed a lot: no longer do you have modular or internal stairways, they are now the same thing and just behave differently depending on how you use them. If you place a stairway internally between floors it will take the guise of an internal stairway, and will even box in the area below it with walls and finish it with the deacute;cor you already have in the room! These can be removed though if you want an open staircase. When placing modular stairs these can now be placed with a 90 degree L shape turn in them, making shaped stairways so quick to produce. You also have a width slider allowing you to place stairways between 1 and 10 tiles widenbsp;in an instant! Doors will ship in 1, 2 and 3 tile sizes, and even with 1 tile doors that sit in the center of 2 tiles to allow more freedom in design than ever. Lighting has had a major overhaul too. Internal and external lighting is better realized and put to best use when you build with open spaces in buildings, like courtyards. You can leave the roof off an area of the house and unlike previous Sims games, these will be recognised as outdoor, and lit accordingly. The lights that you place can be set to many different colors to provide ambiance and mood, with the ability too to set them to either dim, bright or normal! Roofs are now truly dynamic and with the roof height slider you can make anything from flat roofs to tall spires instantly. They reform as you change the shape and size of your house too. OK, I'm gonna leave you with that info overload for now and go freshen up for another day. I still have lots to tell you about Create a Sim so I'll start blogging again from EA later. /Steve Continued...

http://www.thesimsresource.com/articlesview-post/post/2742/ 2008-07-19T00:00:00Z pimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/738/738315.jpg border=0 width=150 height=156 style=float: left; border-width: 0px; border: 0; margin: 10px; /On Friday, July 18th 2008, Tug and I visited EA Redwood Shores (for the second time in 6 weeks), this time to have a first preview of The Sims 3! The game was not shown at E3 this week and was only represented by the a href=http://thesims3.ea.com/home.phpofficial video/a released to coincide with the event. The information that will be published here and by our fellow fans that attended the event will be your very first detailed look at the game and is exclusive to our communities, even before the big gaming magazines and websites get near it!/p pUnlike one of my usual in-depth previews, things will be a little different this time around. Here you will find bullet pointers and notes that I took during the event which have been somewhat hurried together in preparation of our live chat, held the day after the event and hosted by myself and Tug from Redwood Shores./p pUnfortunately there were many aspects of the game that developers were unable to talk about for varying reasons. Some features are simply not developed yet, others were buggy and anything at all to do with custom content was taboo this time around. Obviously very much more solid detail will be released nearer the 2009 release and later this year when custom content is finalised and work starts on building out the tools./p pIn the meantime though, take a look at all the juicy details of the things that we do know and join us in the live chat if you are in time, or in our new a href=http://forums.thesimsresource.com/forumdisplay.php?f=641 target=_blankSims 3 discussion forums/a to discuss all things good (and bad) about The Sims 3./p pI can tell you also that the game is far from Alpha, so if you have any desperate issues with features or really want to see something specific in the game, be sure to discuss it. EA will be sniffing around the community to see what people are saying and are still taking on board feedback that can influence final game tuning./p pIf the notes don't make a huge amount of sense to you, I'll try and clear things up in my summary at the end :-)/p pstrongDisclaimer stuff:/strong As usual, this preview has been written based on an early build of the game, so some of the content I talk about might be different in the final version./p h2 class=nhpIntroduction/h2 pstrongAll info points are numbered so that you can refer to them when commenting in the chat or forums./strong/p p style=text-align: center;a rel=lightbox[item] href=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-721h-650-738317.jpgimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-514h-306-738317.jpg border=0 alt=Click to enlarge width=514 height=306 style=border-width: 0px; border: 0; margin: 10px; //a/p p1) Ben Bell, Senior Producer of Sims 3 opened the demos by giving us a brief outline of the major changes between Sims 2 and 3. TS3 offers a richer, deeper experience with more emotional characters (Sims) with real depth to their personalities. The new world (or environment) is interactive and comes to life in front of your very eyes./p p2) Thanks to new attributes, each Sim will be virtually unique in its behaviour, attitude, looks and even sounds! EA called this the 'snowflake effect'./p p3) Wishes replace wants - more dynamic to actual life experiences./p p4) The town is fully customizable and allows you to remove and change Lots and Sims./p p5) Young adult is the new default age and is changed to represent life between 18 and 30 years./p p style=text-align: center;a rel=lightbox[item] href=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-721h-650-738318.jpgimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-522h-291-738318.jpg border=0 alt=Click to enlarge width=522 height=291 style=border-width: 0px; border: 0; margin: 10px; //a/p pnbsp;6) Adult now considered more 'middle age' and includes wrinkles./p p7) The Town Centre plays a large part in gameplay and building socials./p p8) The town is made of 'functional, plopable public buildings' as well as your own made homes and services./p p9) Some old service NPC's remain and are joined by some new ones./p pnbsp;/p h2 class=nhpNew Gameplay/h2 p10) No loner individual Lots, player have realtime access to the 'Open World'/p p11) No Loading when changing Lots or families, as the simulator is running for all Sims, all the time./p p12) Everything in the game happens for a reason. If someone moves is across the street it's part of the dynamic population management and not some random action./p p13) The base game with ship with several types of ownable cars./p p14) Magical valet parking (car fades in and out) on all Lots and streets./p p15) Job aspects that you can do at home called 'opportunities'./p p16) Day/Night transitions over the town.. light changes and shadows move across the ground as the sun goes up/down./p p style=text-align: center;a rel=lightbox[item] href=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-721h-650-738319.jpgimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-534h-318-738319.jpg border=0 alt=Click to enlarge width=534 height=318 style=border-width: 0px; border: 0; margin: 5px; //a/p p17) Teenagers sneak out at dusk and can be seen around town acting suspiciously./p p18) Quick click icons on Sims face in UI to go quickly send them to work or home./p p19) Map Tags float over areas of the hood - a quick way to find your way around./p p20) Sims also have Map Tags so you can find them easily/p p21) Can buy an empty bookcase and buy books in the game. There are lots of books!/p p22) Can still get jobs from newspapers and online or browse the city and apply to workplaces near the home./p p23) Sims can move nearer to their place of work, or even find work near home to reduce travelling time./p p24) Currently an 8 Sims per family limit./p p25) Next to the mood bar is a small bonus bar/p p26) Socials are now more important.. not just good and bad/p p27) New timeline dragbar which is specific to a few interactions. This lets you control how long a Sim spends on certain tasks like sleeping, fishing etchellip;/p p28) High level logic allows a Sim to tutor other Sims - Cooking unlocks recipes (Moodlets like divine food) - Fishing unlocks bigger fish (Caught fish can be put in an aquarium at home, and even given a name)/p p29) Careers have more gameplay - No longer just sent to work - Can now decide how hard to work - You can choose a less stressful day but will gain less skill - You could sacrifice hard work for doing more socializing at the workplace/p p style=text-align: center;a rel=lightbox[item] href=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-721h-650-738321.jpgimg src=http://images.thesimsresource.com/scaled/w-507h-308-738321.jpg border=0 alt=Click to enlarge width=507 height=308 style=border-width: 0px; border: 0; margin: 5px; //a/p p30) Specific homework tasks for kids, like read a certain book or catch a certain fish./p p31) Moodlets replace memories./p p32) Moodlets are icons in the UI and are based on activities and events that are happening that day (moving home, being comfortable, getting married, having a kids etc.)/p p33) Moodlets give an insight into why a Sim is acting the way it is./p p34) Brush teeth is back - Gives a minty breath moodlet./p p35) Cell phone notification system to noify you of opportunities and can be used for contacts etc. All Sims have one./p p36) Funds and worth as 2 separate values now (worth includes property and object values)/p p37) Difficulty levels per family (suggest how hard a family is to play based on personalities etc)/p

On Friday, July 18th 2008, Tug and I visited EA Redwood Shores (for the second time in 6 weeks), this time to have a first preview of The Sims 3! The game was not shown at E3 this week and was only represented by the official video released to coincide with the event. The information that will be published here and by our fellow fans that attended the event will be your very first detailed look at the game and is exclusive to our communities, even before the big gaming magazines and websites get near it! Unlike one of my usual in-depth previews, things will be a little different this time around. Here you will find bullet pointers and notes that I took during the event which have been somewhat hurried together in preparation of our live chat, held the day after the event and hosted by myself and Tug from Redwood Shores. Unfortunately there were many aspects of the game that developers were unable to talk about for varying reasons. Some features are simply not developed yet, others were buggy and anything at all to do with custom content was taboo this time around. Obviously very much more solid detail will be released nearer the 2009 release and later this year when custom content is finalised and work starts on building out the tools. In the meantime though, take a look at all the juicy details of the things that we do know and join us in the live chat if you are in time, or in our new Sims 3 discussion forums to discuss all things good (and bad) about The Sims 3. I can tell you also that the game is far from Alpha, so if you have any desperate issues with features or really want to see something specific in the game, be sure to discuss it. EA will be sniffing around the community to see what people are saying and are still taking on board feedback that can influence final game tuning. If the notes don't make a huge amount of sense to you, I'll try and clear things up in my summary at the end :-) Disclaimer stuff: As usual, this preview has been written based on an early build of the game, so some of the content I talk about might be different in the final version. Introduction All info points are numbered so that you can refer to them when commenting in the chat or forums. 1) Ben Bell, Senior Producer of Sims 3 opened the demos by giving us a brief outline of the major changes between Sims 2 and 3. TS3 offers a richer, deeper experience with more emotional characters (Sims) with real depth to their personalities. The new world (or environment) is interactive and comes to life in front of your very eyes. 2) Thanks to new attributes, each Sim will be virtually unique in its behaviour, attitude, looks and even sounds! EA called this the 'snowflake effect'. 3) Wishes replace wants - more dynamic to actual life experiences. 4) The town is fully customizable and allows you to remove and change Lots and Sims. 5) Young adult is the new default age and is changed to represent life between 18 and 30 years. nbsp;6) Adult now considered more 'middle age' and includes wrinkles. 7) The Town Centre plays a large part in gameplay and building socials. 8) The town is made of 'functional, plopable public buildings' as well as your own made homes and services. 9) Some old service NPC's remain and are joined by some new ones. nbsp; New Gameplay 10) No loner individual Lots, player have realtime access to the 'Open World' 11) No Loading when changing Lots or families, as the simulator is running for all Sims, all the time. 12) Everything in the game happens for a reason. If someone moves is across the street it's part of the dynamic population management and not some random action. 13) The base game with ship with several types of ownable cars. 14) Magical valet parking (car fades in and out) on all Lots and streets. 15) Job aspects that you can do at home called 'opportunities'. 16) Day/Night transitions over the town.. light changes and shadows move across the ground as the sun goes up/down. 17) Teenagers sneak out at dusk and can be seen around town acting suspiciously. 18) Quick click icons on Sims face in UI to go quickly send them to work or home. 19) Map Tags float over areas of the hood - a quick way to find your way around. 20) Sims also have Map Tags so you can find them easily 21) Can buy an empty bookcase and buy books in the game. There are lots of books! 22) Can still get jobs from newspapers and online or browse the city and apply to workplaces near the home. 23) Sims can move nearer to their place of work, or even find work near home to reduce travelling time. 24) Currently an 8 Sims per family limit. 25) Next to the mood bar is a small bonus bar 26) Socials are now more important.. not just good and bad 27) New timeline dragbar which is specific to a few interactions. This lets you control how long a Sim spends on certain tasks like sleeping, fishing etchellip; 28) High level logic allows a Sim to tutor other Sims - Cooking unlocks recipes (Moodlets like divine food) - Fishing unlocks bigger fish (Caught fish can be put in an aquarium at home, and even given a name) 29) Careers have more gameplay - No longer just sent to work - Can now decide how hard to work - You can choose a less stressful day but will gain less skill - You could sacrifice hard work for doing more socializing at the workplace 30) Specific homework tasks for kids, like read a certain book or catch a certain fish. 31) Moodlets replace memories. 32) Moodlets are icons in the UI and are based on activities and events that are happening that day (moving home, being comfortable, getting married, having a kids etc.) 33) Moodlets give an insight into why a Sim is acting the way it is. 34) Brush teeth is back - Gives a minty breath moodlet. 35) Cell phone notification system to noify you of opportunities and can be used for contacts etc. All Sims have one. 36) Funds and worth as 2 separate values now (worth includes property and object values) 37) Difficulty levels per family (suggest how hard a family is to play based on personalities etc)