Story Mode
Motoki:
Quote from: KarateKari on 2009 July 16, 00:04:50
Quote from: chaos on 2009 July 15, 23:21:44
Not once have I seen a notification that a household has moved.
This is all I ever see. Literally half of my town plays musical houses almost every night.
Me too. Also note that you won't actually see the notification that they moved unless you turn on the debug storymode notification messages, which are disabled by default. However if you get 1am pauses in your game you can rest assured that is what is causing it.
Doc Doofus:
Quote from: Talinn
The other point I made is about Pescados ideas being "ambitious". I am still thinking that Pescados project has a high risk to fail. If I understand his ideas correctly, Pescados story mode implementation will be some sort of the good old life game, where the overall structure developing is determined by the micro behaviour of the single elements. From that game we know that obtaining a somewhat stable situation over generations is a good piece of luck.
EXCELLENT POINT.
For anybody not familiar with the game of Life, it's discussed here:
http://www.math.com/students/wonders/life/life.html
Life uses a bottom-up simulation. There are a few elegant rules that spawn great complexity, and the interest is in the chaos that arises from the simple beginnings. Unfortunately, chaos, although interesting, is the typical (even desired) result of A-life simulations. But a village simulation like TS3 requires some kind negative feedback mechanism to prevent chaos. (Like, too big, too small, too old, too unemployed populations). And that is best instituted from the top-down level.
So top-down and bottom-up are BOTH REQUIRED.
Quote from: Cherita
...there are probably EP-minded reasons behind some of the current failures. Thus I'm concerned that the first or second EP that they spit out is going to completely break all of the hard work involved in this project.
Ah, that's the exciting part of it. I'm actually looking forward to that collision of wills. EA has engaged in these battles before with their customers about how their game ought to work. It's more fun than the game itself! Personally, I want this to be so successful that it remains permanently stuck 10 inches up EA's rectum, turning slow circles. I would like them to scratch their heads wondering how they can make THEIR EP compatible. However, that is not likely. It's just going to be a hilarious shit storm when they come out with their next EP.
Quote from: Stormcha
I believe it was Story Progression and not marketing which is why they pushed back the date. EA I think did a rush job on story progression.
No, I really, really doubt that. From what the vibe I am getting from Pescado's comments about story progression, it sounds like they didn't keep things simple enough. I still strongly believe that Story Progression had to be the simplest and easiest part of the programming project for the Sims 3. The fact that they did such a horrible job at it tells me that they just never bothered to QA it or think it through, and probably had people throwing in ad hoc ideas to the point where it became poorly functioning spaghetti nonsense.
Story Progression needs to be made simpler.
Quote from: Stormcha
All he needs to do is what he dislikes and does not want to produce. Take for instance Teen/Adult he needed to do it.
Yes. I love the sly social commentary about the sims community implicit in the way he implemented it.
J. M. Pescado:
Quote from: tallinn on 2009 July 15, 17:55:34
The other point I made is about Pescados ideas being "ambitious". I am still thinking that Pescados project has a high risk to fail. If I understand his ideas correctly, Pescados story mode implementation will be some sort of the good old life game, where the overall structure developing is determined by the micro behaviour of the single elements. From that game we know that obtaining a somewhat stable situation over generations is a good piece of luck. You can have all sorts of developments from a fast-dying-out population over a locally or overall cyclic population to an exploding one.
Well, there are two control factors involved.
1. A population cannot explode because they are constrained by their living environment. The kind of environment you structure for them will directly affect their behavior.
2. A population that dies out simply fails the evolutionary test and will be replaced by new random immigrants. (The evolution simulation alone makes this interesting!)
In any case, this project is as much a science experiment for my amusement as it is intended as a Story Progression simulator. For those who want the statically anchored village,the IndieMod option, once the linkage is complete, should satisfy them.
Quote from: tallinn on 2009 July 15, 17:55:34
For the purpose of the game only the stable populations would make sense IMHO. Of course one can fix odd developments by moving families in and out of the neighborhood whenever there is a need for that. But that is what the EA code does, and people don't seem to like it. There is a lot of ranting about "where are my families?" in the sim forum I normally read. And as the families the players want to stay in the neighbourhood not only include those actually played but as well those that are friends of the families actually played, the number of families available for moving out may be very limited.
To be honest, overpopulation is not as much a problem as underpopulation. Given the way I design, the environmental constraints will halt the population growth well before overpopulation becomes a factor. Since sims are not able to directly modify their environment without the player's intervention, to some degree the player's own actions define the neighborhood's flavour. If the neighborhood winds up as a retirement community, the player will know it is because he caused it!
Quote from: tallinn on 2009 July 15, 17:55:34
The other problem I see is that micromanaging all sims in the neighborhood will overwhelm ordinary PCs. Although it would be nice to be able to watch initially dating sims, first kisses and all that stuff, I am more interested in having interesting sims to meet by those that I play. The Indiemod does deliver them.
Actually, the micromanagement is not as intensive as you'd think. It is often more computationally intensive the way Story Mode does it than the way I do it: Case in point: The Nightly Musical Houses Shuffle that is normally imposed by Story Mode hammers your computer far harder than ordering 30 sims to run high-resolution Supreme Commander simulations.
Quote from: tallinn on 2009 July 15, 17:55:34
Pescado, I did not understand your comment that the sims are not motivated to get jobs :-) If I start a new family one of their first wishes is always to get one. If I would have to create a concept how to micromanage sims by the PC I would follow the path created by the wishes that appear. Most often they make sense.
Yes, but here's the thing: While the wishes appear, sims do not, in any way, act upon their wishes, and simply hang around listlessly in Story Mode until forcibly dragooned into a random job by the job boss-and-coworker engine.
chaos:
Quote from: Motoki on 2009 July 16, 00:06:21
Quote from: KarateKari on 2009 July 16, 00:04:50
Quote from: chaos on 2009 July 15, 23:21:44
Not once have I seen a notification that a household has moved.
This is all I ever see. Literally half of my town plays musical houses almost every night.
Me too. Also note that you won't actually see the notification that they moved unless you turn on the debug storymode notification messages, which are disabled by default. However if you get 1am pauses in your game you can rest assured that is what is causing it.
I do have the notifications enabled. I see lots of antagonizing and befriending, some new jobs, and some new babies, but no promotions, demotions, firings, or moves. It's a new town, though. This will probably change over time.
Kerryee:
Kinda funny to come on here today and find these thread, when the IndieStone mod vrs Awesomemod thing has been what is mainly on my mind lately. I have been a very serious Awesome devotee, until I found the Indie mod two days ago. Since the, I've been kinda going back and forth, playing out with one for awhile, then quitting without saving and playing out with the other. I've noticed that my "townie" (i.e., any Sim not being actively played by me, in my definition) Sims get promotions and demotions like crazy, have had a massive flood of babies, and the romance has been so heavy that there were no non-NPC single guys when I got around to finding my Sim a man with the IndieStone mod, while with the Awesomemod, the soap opera drama stuff takes a backburner, and the majority of the storyline notices I get are attempted move-outs and move-ins. Too bad for me, I like soap opera drama. ;D But I dearly miss my other Awesomod benefits while playing with Indie, like the Smarter Chair Finder, No Magic Scrolls, etc. I'd love more than anything to see the two combine somehow, though I understand that it won't be in the vein that I would hope to have. So, here's my question: how badly will I fuck up my game by switching back and forth between the two mods?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page