Apocalypse! How many are left?
Alie:
Quote from: vecki on 2009 July 08, 03:07:49
Haven't even bothered arrquiring TS3. The reports here and elsewhere indicate that it's just not that interesting.
Still plodding along in TS2, where for the first time I've actually gotten an entire neighbourhood and sub hoods into their third generation without either getting bored and starting from scratch or being bugged into oblivion by a new EP (yes, JM, I need to make more backups).
This is me, except I'm only on a second generation.
Tikkititi:
Quote from: Insanity Prelude on 2009 July 12, 21:50:13
I kind of like Sims 3, but I miss a lot of things about 2, and 2 doesn't heat up the laptop to unacceptable levels.
Ha! I didn't even think about this. Yes, TS2 does not give my thighs third-degree burns. This is a good thing. :D
sleep:
I'm still on Sims 2.
It happened that I had to get a new computer just as S3 came out, so I could play it if I liked. But there's still masses of stuff in TS2 that I haven't really explored, and I have no desire to abandon all the tweaks, mods and interesting CC that improve my game. It will be a long time before Sims 3 matches that.
I followed all the threads for a while when S3 came out, but it didn't appeal beyond a certain level of curiosity. And besides, they all look like puddings.
pbox:
I initially got TS2 in order to build stuff -- I made countless lots and several full neighbourhoods in it, but after finishing Elsewhere this March, I was kind of done with it. I did some meshing (which was new to me) and recolours after that, but I never built anything again and basically shelved the game itself -- also because my "actual game", a neighbourhood I had built from scratch in a sort of "settler" game, had been wiped out in a harddrive failure the year before and I had never seriously started playing after that again.
So when TS3 came out I didn't really switch so much, rather restart under different conditions -- I'm not sure whether I'll stick with it, or eventually start with TS2 again, or what. On one hand, I never want to look at shitty TS2-style lot impostors again (even looking at my own TS2 hoods makes me cringe now), on the other hand I want the TS2 sims back -- I never really paid attention to that, but playing TS3 made me aware of how good their animations actually were, and how much an animation can suck when done badly. The difference between old and new animations in TS3 (it recycles some TS2 ones) is glaring and obvious in my eyes. Same with the artwork (icons and stuff), I was never a big fan of the TS2 art but TS3 made me appreciate it :P .. at least it's consistent.
The look of the sims themselves doesn't really bother me either way -- I have no townies anyway, neither frog-faced TS2 ones nor identical puddingface TS3 ones, and the sims I make myself look decent to me in both games without too much effort. My standards are not terribly high when it comes to that -- they don't scare me, and I can tell them apart, that's good enough. Clothes/hair, same thing -- for TS3, there's CAST to make things look decent, for TS2 there's 345627 fanseelamb downloads; both are good, easy solutions. Genetics seem to have been ditched more or less, but I played the whole breeding game in TS2 already so I'm not too heartbroken.
CAST does play a huge role for me when it comes to build/buy mode, though -- even the simplest starter shack now takes forever to build, because I spend hours picking out wallpaper. I probably should like it, but it's a timesink within a timesink .. argh.
Build mode itself hasn't really changed; new suckage and new features pretty much even out in my eyes. The fact that neighbourhoods aren't editable right now is of course a disappointment, but I'm pretty sure they *will* be editable so I'm not really conting that. Same with the non-stackable, non-recolourable stairs -- they've been made recolourable for TS2, so why not for TS3 as well --, and the usual random pile of windows/doors where nothing fits together .. it's just a matter of time for add-ons to become available. Right out of the box, TS3 plant meshes are way better than any TS2 custom content that I've ever seen, so it can only get better. I wouldn't even be terribly unhappy should it turn out that we can't change the neighbourhood terrain, since I happen to like the Sunset Valley map anyway (except for the big-ass lots -- but now that there's trees the size of real trees and not bonsais, 20x30 isn't all that large anymore since a few trees will already take up a lot of the space). Only that the lots aren't next to each other (but have useless little gaps in between) is bugging me -- not very much right now, but it may become a PITA in the future.
Apparently, split-levels are broken in TS3 in a way that becomes manifest on some tpyes of modern building -- right now I don't worry about that, since I start out with a traditional fisher/farmer community so the style is appropriately oldfashioned. By the time I get to build anything contemporary, this may be fixed or I just stick with the traditional style anyway. Still, it's a pity they didn't even change it, only broke it needlessly.
One nice little change is that we can now build anything up to 1 tile from the edge with no further ado; it just works. And the seamlessly rendered TS3 environment has made me finally understand, I think, why they made that last tile off-limits in the first place -- what would happen with the outer side of the wall, which is the same as the inner side of the same wall on the next lot? There would have to be endless graphical fighting if a wall would occupy the same space twice. If I'm right, I believe I simply never realised this since in TS2 you never see the actuall wall on more than one lot, only the impostor -- but in TS3 the limitation is obvious and makes sense.
That placement of buildings on lots can't be controlled in TS3 is certainly idiotic. I don't usually move lots, though .. so it's not really an issue for me.
The unified time, unified light, unified rendering in and of the neighbourhood in TS3 are a huge plus -- this will never be possible in TS2 with any amount of modding. Makes a big difference for me, seeing as making neighbourhoods is why I play in the first place. For the same reason, the "seamlessly disconnected" way the sims are acting within that neighbourhood (or "being acted", rather, and terribly), unless you try to babysit every single one of them simultaneously, is a major show-stopper. Right now it's still feasible (albeit a bit nuts) for me to attempt to babysit (I only have 15-20 sims), and I can tweak a lot of things since that's become really simple, but I'm not sure how it will work out when the town becomes too large to manage manually. This is where it may turn out I'm going to revert to TS2 .. I'm not looking forward to do nothing but queue up things all the time.
Overall progress in TS3 goes much, much faster -- I played my one "actual" TS2 neighbourhood for more than a year (RL), and some of my founder sims were still alive when I lost it. I'm at the same point in TS3 now, after only a few weeks.
I miss keyholder doors, or other access management facilities. I miss LotFullOfSims. I want to have multi-household lots again, without having to work around things all the time -- right now I can only put close friends or family members on the same lot (so that it's not going to be weird when they use each others' stuff, I mean). The fact that sims now at least recognise their own beds is making it a bit easier, though.
I'm not sure if it's a mac issue, but it looks like they completely ditched the idea of realistic light now. But since their workaround actually works -- lights simply stay on 24/7, but it's very unobtrusive so you don't really notice --, fine with me. It doesn't look too weird, it's just odd.
TS3 introduces some stupid and useless gameplay aspects (gems? the hell? they look like they're dropped in from some sort of Nintendo game for six-year-olds .. and i DNW your silly opportunities), but so did TS2 and every single EP. I'm already used to ignore what I don't like.
TS3 actually works on my mac. I have no crashes, no lagging, no issues whatsoever (except assorted graphics things they didn't bother to make work for OSX, and two CAS crashes so far). This is vastly different from my TS2/Aspyr experience. It may make a difference that I also got a new mainboard and a system upgrade in the meantime, but other than that it's the same machine.
I'm not exactly sure since I don't recall anymore when and how I became aware it was even possible to mod TS2, but my impression is that TS3 modding is a lot more fast-paced, and much easier too. Needless to say, that would be the biggest plus. The XML tuning system is a simple and efficient solution that works very well for me -- I don't have to keep track of oodles of different mods from different sites written by people who may just disappear without notice, but just change stuff myself instead with very little effort.
Mootilda, from my own egoistic point of view it would be a pity if you'd decide to entirely ignore TS3, but I understand your reasoning. I also cannot imagine to spend time on both games in parallel .. there are only so many hours in the day.
J. M. Pescado:
Quote from: pbox on 2009 July 15, 00:38:50
I miss keyholder doors, or other access management facilities. I miss LotFullOfSims. I want to have multi-household lots again, without having to work around things all the time -- right now I can only put close friends or family members on the same lot (so that it's not going to be weird when they use each others' stuff, I mean). The fact that sims now at least recognise their own beds is making it a bit easier, though.
Lot Full Of Sims is an optional component of AwesomeMod. Lockable Door Control is being investigated.
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