's Blog

Ambitions hands-on preview - part 1

Picture the scene: you're playing The Sims 3. A family member or loved one peers over your shoulder and asks "what are you doing?". What's the answer? In my case, it's almost always "I'm waiting for my Sim to finish work". Sound familiar?

Well this scene will be changing very soon. As soon as you install The Sims 3: Ambitions, the answer will become "I'm waiting for my Sim to start work".

It's impossible to understate how much this expansion pack could change the way you play your Sims game. I only played for a couple of hours and I found that the new careers, or "professions" as they're called in the game (to distinguish them from the rabbit-hole based careers) are extremely involved.

Of the new professions, I played at least a little bit of the following:

• Stylist
• Interior designer
• Fire-fighter
• Private Investigator
• Inventor (self-employed)
• Ghost hunter

During the 4 hour preview session in London, I got plenty of hands-on time with the game. Plus, we were treated to a demo from Grant Rodiek, the producer of Ambitions, who showed us some of his favourite aspects of the new expansion. So, without further ado, here's a little bit about those professions:

Stylist

The stylist has the power to transform your townies' clothes from threadbare to designer flare, their hair from looking like hay to "hey good looking" and their makeup... is also something you can edit in this particular profession.

As a stylist your Sim will have working hours when they should head down to the salon. How much or how little work your Sim does is your choice. You could just hang out with your co-workers, and mess about all day. Or you could wait for a potential client to come in through the door. During your working day, you'll get special assignments to make over certain Sims. These pop up like opportunities.

The client will come along with a story about why they want or need a makeover, along with a list of requirements. These might be something like 3 x everyday clothes, 1 x formal wear, 1 x shoes, 1 x accessory, new hair style, new hair colour, new makeup. That's not a restriction, that's just the minimum you need to do to complete this client's makeover. So if their swimwear was offensively hideous, you could change that as well.

Will your makeover be a hit or a flop?

So you get your client to step up to the new stylists' object, and you'll find yourself in something that looks a bit like Create-A-Sim, but with a slightly different background. It allows you access to change hair, facial hair, eyebrows, makeup, and clothes. There are also some extra hair styles that are only available from the stylist, including a really cute new ponytail style for women. After you've changed all the different things the client asked for, they pay you for your work, and off they go.

As a stylist, your Sim will also have a couple of new socials available to them. They can compliment a Sim on their style to increase their relationship. Conversely, of course, you can also insult their sense of style, which will upset them.

Interior designer

The interior designer profession does not have a special lot or rabbit hole assigned to it. You can join the profession by looking it up in the newspaper. After that you will have certain working hours when you are "on the clock". During that time, available jobs will show up around town.

There's quite a large variety of jobs that might be available, and they will in some cases link in with story progression. For example, a couple expecting a baby might ask you to design them a baby room. A couple whose kid just aged up from a toddler to a child or from a child to a teen might ask you to redesign their child's room to suit their new age group better. On any given working day, there will be a handful of these jobs for your designer to complete for a fee.

There are a couple of restrictions on the interior design jobs. For example, if you remove everything from the house, the game won't let you return to live mode until you've replaced at least the basic items that Sims need to live (i.e. a toilet, a fridge, and one bed space per Sim).

Can you measure up to expectations?

Before your Sim starts the redesign, it may pay off to get to know your client a bit. Learn some of their traits and you might be able to provide them with a design that suits them better. A computer whiz might not have specified that they wanted a computer in their new living room, but you know they'll thank you for it. Your Sim can also "measure up" the house that's to be redesigned. This is just a little interaction that they do, and it has no real effect except that it will boost the final score for the redesign.

When you're ready, and when you know your client, you can hit renovation mode. This is very much the same as build mode and buy mode. As with the stylist profession, the client will give you a list of requirements for the job. In this case, it will be a list of new furniture that must be bought. Again, this is not a restriction, it's just a minimum. The renovation mode also features a budget, visible in the top left corner, which clearly tells you what your client's budget is, and how much you have left to spend. Most clients will like it if you manage to come in a little bit under budget. Frugal Sims will be delighted, of course, if you have plenty of money left over from the budget. However, if your client is a snob, they will prefer you to go over the budget!

If you want to give your makeovers the personal touch, you can actually access your family inventory from the renovation mode. This is great because it means you can place down paintings, sketches, and any collectible items you've placed there. Or if you're Cyclonesue you can put a dirty toilet in the family inventory, and leave it as a charming gift for your client.

After you've completed your fabulous redesign, you report back to your client with a quick phone call, and if they're available they'll come home to check on your handiwork. They'll check it all out, and tell you what they think. If you've paid no special attention to it it'll be "ok", but if you measured up the house, and really got to know your client and considered their personality in your design, they will love their new room, and should pay you a bit extra to thank you for your efforts.

Finally your Sim can take a photo for their portfolio. If you have World Adventures, here's where you can bring in the photography skill, and the nice cameras, to take a professional-looking photo. Otherwise, your Sim will have to put up with their less-than-spectacular camera phone for this.

Fire-fighter

If your Sim likes a bit of adventure and action, or just likes bright flashing lights and loud noises, perhaps they'd enjoy the new fire-fighter profession. Like the stylist profession, this new profession has its own open community lot. The lot contains a fire engine (of course!), an alarm in every room, plus a bunch of recreational stuff for the fire-fighters to use when they're just hanging out.

When your shift starts, you have to head down to the fire station. You can do basically whatever you want there until your shift starts. You could even just sit around eating and watching TV. However, if you prefer to do something more productive, you could maintain or upgrade the fire engine and maintain the alarms around the station. Alternatively, you could hang out with your co-workers, or hit the gym in the basement to keep yourself in shape.

Whatever you're doing, when that alarm starts ringing you'd better get to the fire engine - and fast. Of course, if you're upstairs, you can slide down the pole to get back to the ground floor really, really fast. Well, you could just hang around a bit longer, after all you haven't finished your sandwich yet... mmmm sandwich... ok ready now, did someone say fire?

Save the day! And impress the ladies...

Depending on how well you've maintained your fire engine you'll either zoom to the scene of the fire, or you'll be overtaken by your elderly mother en route. All of the jobs my Sim went on were small house fires, however Grant told us that that there are plenty of other different kinds of fire that your Sim might get called out to help with.

Upon arriving at the scene, your Sim can start to extinguish the fire. Or they can take a few pieces of furniture first. Y'know, you can just tell them it was burnt. They'll never know. Once you've put the fire out, you'll be given a grade depending on how long it took you to deal with the fire, and you'll be graded accordingly.

And for those of you wondering - yes, you can buy the fire pole for your Sims' houses, without them necessarily being in that profession. I had a pole going from my Sims' bedroom into the kitchen. It was sweeeeeet.

________________________________________________________________________________

I'm going to cut this review off here, for now, because it's getting rather late and... wow look how much stuff I still have to write about... new traits, laundry, and three more professions, and "more", as they say. So you've read all this? On to part two then...

What's new? New legacy, mad scientist, ect.

Ok, so far in my legacy:

First gen: I started with Clara Freece, she married, had one child - a boy, Chad.

Second gen: Chad married Janny. Clara died. Janny ended up reaching lvl 10 of the science career. Chad stayed unemployed, but painted.

Third gen: Chad and Janny had a boy. He married, they had two children and adopted two. Chad died in an...accident...where he /somehow/ got trapped in a room...with an oven...yeah.

Fourth gen: I have four children. Two are toddlers, two are babies still. Ian, Sylvia, Chance, and Graham.

I'm planning on having them adopt one more. Chad and Janny had this awful wish to have five grandchildren. I killed Chad to make room for the last child that my third gen will be adopting later, so Janny will get that fullfilled. I hought it would be fun to tackle that challenge. If it was just the parents, I couldn't do it, but with the help of Janny and a babysitter, it's working out just fine. The two children that I had them adopt were babies, but this last one will be a child. I cant handle another baby for my own sanity.

I'm blanking on my third gen's names...that's awful. The wife is unemployed since her main job has been popping out two babies and taking care of them and the adopted ones. The husband is an athlete, but he hasn't been to work in quite some time. I've been timing the adoptions so that he hasn't had to go for a while.

The legacy house looks great. Two stories. Four bedrooms (so far; I'll be adding some soon), two bath, study, two living, kitchen w/ dining bar thing. All of the appliances and electrinicas are either self-cleaning or unbreakable.

In the family's posession we have the collector helper and three deeds (one of which is the actual ownership of the grocerey store). Low on money? Check the deeds, if they don't have anything to be collected, find some gems.

I'll be getting some screen caps soon. I've been lazy.

Poll Results Are In!

From my fist poll, here are the results:

What character set would you most like to see for toddlers/kids?

1st- Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies

2nd- Tie between Sesame Street and Spongebob Squarepants

3rd- Tie between Ni Hao, Kai Lan and Caillou

Last- (With no votes) Dora the Explorer

I'll be releasing these sets in the order of placement in the poll.

Thanks to everyone who participated!  Your feedback really helps me understand what members want.  Please continue to visit my page and participate in new polls.  And remember, I'm always taking requests for stencil work!

You all rock so hard!

-Jez

Similicious TSR Award .. or June to June Award.

Hey everyone,

The first award show  will be hold in June 2010. The categories are :

Best Artist
Best Cloth*
Best Hair*
Best Accessory*
Best Shoe*
Best Make-up*
Best Sim*
Best Pattern
Best Set
Best Lot
Best Object
Best Story
Best Screenshot

*This Categories are for Male and/or Female

You all can send me an private message what you would nominate for an award.

Not allowes is :

- Nominate me

- Nominate yourself

- Nominate something that is before June 2009.

So, send me a private message with your choices.

Nice day, Guslucky

The Garden Family tree

I promised you the Garden Family tree and here it is. The red line is the heir-line and thus you can see that the next heir is Broccoli.

Enjoy:)

More on Belladonna

I worked some more this weekend on "The Fae of Dolphin Cove".  Belladonna is difficult to work with sometimes cause I just never seem to know what her next move will be...she is somewhat "unpredictable".  I'm getting anxious write the last few chapters.  I'm glad that you are enjoying her story, and hope that you will read it to the end. 

I've also been busy building.  Two more lots will be available for download tomorrow, May 10th.  One of them is a remake of "Fae Cottage", since EA came out with more Fairy items, I just had to go back and add them in.  I also chose a bigger lot for a garden and added a pond.  I wasn't happy with the color of the house, so I re-painted and added a driveway for those non-Fae-types.

The other house is called "Tom's Cabin".  It's a large lot with a huge pond, boat dock and very secluded in the woods.  I'd like to live there myself!  (Then I could just hide away and Sim all of the time!)

I'm going to be emptying out my game and downloads in the next couple of weeks, getting ready for "Ambitions".  You know the routine, move this file here and that file here...ugh, I just wish there was an easier way.  Takes me weeks to get everything back the way I want it.  Happy Simming!

Ambitions System Requirements

It looks like the same system requirements as World Adventures. I wonder if they will put in some patch to allow the game to actually recognize and use more than 2GB of RAM? I hate that I have to use CFF Explorer to go in and change that manually. I know it is easy for me to do, so how hard can it be for THEM to do? And with all of the expansions they keep adding - and the downloads they keep encouraging - and the downloads they *know* that we will be doing ourselves from fan sites like TSR, you would think that they would see the necessity of it.

Well, I can hope at least, right?

s3pe

I'm still learning to use the s3pe to merge .package mods - or at least, remembering how to do that. It is surprisingly easy (other than looking for the dang 00000000000 files to delete - once you have a lot of merged files). And then it's just a matter of running Sims3 Dashboard to make sure there are no broken/conflicting mods and all is good. It REALLY speeds up the game (es[ecially load time) and helps with the game's memory usage.

Old Fashioned Community Lots

Hello again! I published a gallery with pictures of the lots I have done so far. What I have in the buildings may change before I'm done, but the appearance of each building won't change much. The colored squares in front of the buildings are the rabbit holes. I put them there so they are fully visible and easily accessible. They have worked fine like that so far, though I did have one sim get stuck when she came out of the spa rabbit hole. I will have to test it some more. I put cash registers in all the shops, but they don't always work. For example, I put a general store register in my lady's shop and even though there is a clerk standing there, when you click on that register to "buy", there are no items on the menu. I have a couple of the lots completely done, but I want to make sure I've included all the things I want before I finalize anything! Some of the lots will have rabbit holes and some will be just community lots like the library and museum. I don't know yet if I'll include the hospital and the police department or not. I thought about making one of the lots into a doctor's office and an apothecary's shop (or drug store)using the hospital rabbit hole. Any thoughts on that? I'm having so much fun with this! Can't wait to share the lots with everyone! Missy

Fred in Texas

I am back home now. But I had the most amazing, wonderful trip to Texas. I met my sister Barb. it was even more awesome than I imagined.

Barb is the sweetest, funniest sister in the world, and I am glad and happy she is MY sis! Her husband and her family made me feel at home the very first moment I set foot in there home. Love you Dan!

Now look at the two of us:........ We are FRED & BARB!!!!