Still planing with TS2 anyone ?

[buddha pest]

I also played TS3 for only a week or so before going back to my precious.

Haven't kept up with any of the developments or EP news or anything. Are the genetics still subpar? Do the kids still inherit one parent's face or the other? If that's the case, I'll never switch over.

I wish more folks were around for TS2 chit-chat. I always loved lurking The Podium, and Planet K 20X6, and whatnot during TS2's heyday.

[J. M. Pescado]

Actually, the way the design tool works, not everything is going to be the same shade even if you use the same base swatch, because what happens is that the thing you choose is overlaid onto a graymap that provides the shading and texturing. A darker graymap thus produces a slightly darker shade of the final outcome.

[CatOfEvilGenius]

TS3 doesn't interest me at all.  Still love TS2.  Still finding new things to do with TS2.

[Faizah]

I also played TS3 for only a week or so before going back to my precious.

Haven't kept up with any of the developments or EP news or anything. Are the genetics still subpar? Do the kids still inherit one parent's face or the other? If that's the case, I'll never switch over.

I wish more folks were around for TS2 chit-chat. I always loved lurking The Podium, and Planet K 20X6, and whatnot during TS2's heyday.

Hair genetics are just about non-existent, but I have had triplets with three distinct faces, so, there's that. I mentioned them on page 2, but here, have a screenshot:


(Middle one resembles CAS-made father a bit, at least with that mouth.)

More images: http://s131.photobucket.com/albums/p282/Lady_Faizah/TS3/

[jonas]

I do still love TS2 and there are things I miss about it.  I especially miss the genetics.  They really need to get that down better for a game like this and the sims in TS3 tend to look VERY similar until they reach young adulthood.  I hate that. I used to live for my sims in TS2 to reach the teen years to see how they turned out because they were all so different from each other.  Plus, the teens were PRETTIER in TS2 - both female and male. In TS3, they all have that exact same look.  And forget about the children in TS3 - you can rarely see a difference between male and female at all. 

However, while I still have all my TS2 and still have tons of stuff I haven't even tried yet in that game, I haven't played it in ages.  2 big reasons being I don't have a No CD crack/patch for Sims2(WCIF a good one that covers everything?) and the game takes 30 minutes to load.

I love - absolutely love - the design tool in TS3 and that is still the most amazing thing about it to me.  While I agree that houses can be tedious to make, what I like to do is: Make the house - furnish quickly - get playing - and then, as time goes by, change room by room as I get inspired.  I don't advise completely creating a house right away - it's just too tedious.  But soooo much more fun when you do it as you go.

The traits also far outweigh the "personalities" of the sims in TS2, but they lack in their animations and abilities.  They should be more fleshed out.  I want my sim snobs to walk around with more snobbery and refuse friendships with poor sims.  I want my couch potatoes to NEVER exercise, no matter what we tell them, and evil...don't get me started. Ambitions is helping that a bit, but the profession "desires" are getting rather old, rather quickly.

[J. M. Pescado]

I do still love TS2 and there are things I miss about it.  I especially miss the genetics.

Genetics exist much as they did in TS2, as far as facial features are concerned. Hair genetics have basically disappeared because the game has no record of "original" haircolor, and eyecolors have basically become random flip, since with the ability to pick totally arbitrary stuff, there is no longer a clear dominant/recessive/genetic system. However, let's face it: Haircolor is something you can change on a sim at whim, and absolutely no evidence remains of the original, as opposed to in real life, where it is VERY OBVIOUS when someone is a fake, and it looks terrible.

They really need to get that down better for a game like this and the sims in TS3 tend to look VERY similar until they reach young adulthood.

That is because kids in real life tend to look very similar: Like little annoying maggits.

I hate that. I used to live for my sims in TS2 to reach the teen years to see how they turned out because they were all so different from each other.  Plus, the teens were PRETTIER in TS2 - both female and male. In TS3, they all have that exact same look.

There's a reason for this: "Vanilla Pudding Syndrome". If you're breeding your sims with random townies, you're getting Vanilla Pudding in your genepool.

And forget about the children in TS3 - you can rarely see a difference between male and female at all.

There *IS* no difference between male and female in TS2 *OR* TS3. Both sims share the same bodies, and they are only distinguishable by hairstyle and mode of dress. If you don't make that distinctive, they are completely indistinguishable in both games!

[Mimic]

I think for me, TS3 needs Aspirations. I liked how in TS2 there was that bar to the left that determined if your Sim was a loser or not. In TS3 the closest thing to it is the Ambitious trait "Anxious to Advance" moodlet. Which does not invoke Aspiration failure and mental breakdowns, so meh.

[jonas]

As always, I'm overjoyed to be responded to by you, Sir.

And the thing is, you're right, of course!

After I posted this and played again, I gave a second look to the teens in one of my games and they're not as bad as I thought.  I rarely breed with townies and all my sims tend to be good looking - and I recall having some nightmare-get them in surgery now!-sims in TS2 that drove me mad.  I haven't had any like that in TS3 so far.  I find that in-game sims in TS3 look much better than they do in CAS.

With genetics, I crave features skipping generations - which does not appear to occur whatsoever in TS3.  It's Mom or Dad only.  The random eye-color flip drives me mad. The hair doesn't bother me much as, like you say, can be altered at any time.

You also have a great point about the kids in TS2 and after looking around today - everywhere in RL too! It's kind of creepy, now that I've noticed it more how much kids around 7 to 10 years old look like any other kid, M or F! Only notable racial differences seem to make any large effect in facial features.

So now I'm back to just missing weather, mostly.  *edit* And the occasional puppy.

[J. M. Pescado]

With genetics, I crave features skipping generations - which does not appear to occur whatsoever in TS3.  It's Mom or Dad only.  The random eye-color flip drives me mad. The hair doesn't bother me much as, like you say, can be altered at any time.

Actually, color features do get derived from grandparents as well, with lower frequency, to simulate this behavior, so this isn't true either. Facial blends are mom/dad only...just like TS2.

You also have a great point about the kids in TS2 and after looking around today - everywhere in RL too! It's kind of creepy, now that I've noticed it more how much kids around 7 to 10 years old look like any other kid, M or F! Only notable racial differences seem to make any large effect in facial features.

See? Little maggots, all about the same.

So now I'm back to just missing weather, mostly.  *edit* And the occasional puppy.

Weather is prototyped in TS3 already, so it's coming.

The one thing to note is that TS3 has A LOT LESS PEE than TS2 did. They really did finally move away from peeing. In TS2, every expansion with the possible exception of FT gave us new ways for sims to pee themselves. In TS3, there are only two additional ways to pee, both fairly esoteric, and none of them are really special.

[Nepheris]

Mh, it seems TS3 is slightly more 'serious' in more ways than just pee. A lot less wacky antics and general hullabaloo. I quite like this in TS2.

[Georgette]

Mh, it seems TS3 is slightly more 'serious' in more ways than just pee. A lot less wacky antics and general hullabaloo. I quite like this in TS2.

And TS2 has a lot less wackiness than TS1. It seems they're trying to make it more serious each time.

[MaximilianPS]

Mh, it seems TS3 is slightly more 'serious' in more ways than just pee. A lot less wacky antics and general hullabaloo. I quite like this in TS2.

that is the reason why i prefear TS2 respect to TS3, also TS2 looks more like an AI Experiment respect to TS3 that looks much more like a game that need to be followed step by step, while TS2 can play alone (more or less)

[shastakiss]

The one thing to note is that TS3 has A LOT LESS PEE than TS2 did.

That's a good thing to you? Sounds like A LOT LESS FUN to me
I haven't tried the puddings s3. I still have a lot of playstyles and stuff (creatures especially) to try in s2 . It'll be a big "Phew! Finally!" day when I finally have all the sps and eps, when I can finally just get to playing instead of waiting to see how some ep will affect the way I build/furnish/CAS/CAN.

So yeah, I'm still playing s2. And I'm pretty happy so many talented creators are still sharing new stuff

edited for typo

[LynnMar]

yes, when I play it is ts2.  I never bought ts3 and don't ever plan on it.   I still have fun with ts2 and my goofy little people but actually ts1 was my all time favorite. My sims in ts1 were partying fools.  24/7.     

[drace]

I have both, though only play TS2 regularly. I'm finally, finally, finally invested in it and the neighbourhood! Which took me long enough, really.

Now, I also do miss a few features TS3 has when I play TS2, but I seem to tire of TS3 so much quicker and it didn't manage so far to make me care about it/its sims.

[...] and there seem to be significantly fewer ways to modify it, particularly since there can only be one core mod and story-progression mod, rather than a lot of interchangeable parts as in TS2. [...]

Also, my TS3 is so far behind on patches at this point that I don't even know how I'm ever going to get it up to date.

Exactly. On both accounts.

[J. M. Pescado]

Actually, it's far easier to mod TS3 than TS2. To do some of the stuff I've done in the Pudding so far is basically impossible, like making the buy/build dialogs show USEFUL information instead of utter twaddle.

[Lissa]

I played Sims 3 for a couple of months and then gave up.  I could not make the sims I wanted to make in the Sims 3 Cas.  I like to make sims of my relatives and friends, and populate the neighborhoods with them.  I can do that with Sims 2, or at least make sims that remind me of them.  In Sims 3, the only way I can make sims look like someone is if the model already looks like a Sims 3 pudding.  I also find it boring to play sims that all look like first cousins, at the very least.  Combine that with the inferior genetics, and Sims 3 is not interesting to me.  Too bad, there are things in Sims 3 I like a lot, but they do not make up for inferior sims.

[maxon]

For me it's the record keeping: you just can't keep records of sims lives in TS3 like you can in TS2.  I am a very heavy user of the camera/story-telling facility of TS2.  That, and the lack of memories, it's just a pointless game to me with little meaning.  I also like genetics and very inter-related neighbourhoods so that's another turn off for TS3 for me.  I do like the design aspects and the open neighbourhood though I have not bothered with AM or anything else that would seek to control who gets wiped out when you don't want them to, mainly because I've only played the game twice since I played it in June last year to see what it was like.  I get BORED with it very quickly.

[Process Denied]

In Sims 3, there is supposedly more opportunity for storyline,, but what's the use of storyline if it isn't recorded?  I hate them not having memories, and I do understand that memeories were the major cause of corruption in Sims 2--but I still miss them.  I use to check them and laugh at what they have done while I was away.  Sims 3 is okay as long as it's heavily hacked, but so is Sims2.  I want to go back to Sims 2, but I have a bug that is effecting vacations and it's been too long to figure how to fix it.  I have Deluxe now and I can't get the hack utility program to work with it.  Maybe I'll just live with it and stop taking them on vacation.

[J. M. Pescado]

The capability exists to hack in a memory system, if you REALLY want it. Just don't blame me if it chews up your game memory. Feel free start a specific thread to bitch about what you'd like added to the memory system. The question, of course, becomes: What events are worthy of record that are not immediately evident anyway? Do you really need a record of every time Brynne pisses herself?

[maxon]

The capability exists to hack in a memory system, if you REALLY want it. Just don't blame me if it chews up your game memory. Feel free start a specific thread to bitch about what you'd like added to the memory system. The question, of course, becomes: What events are worthy of record that are not immediately evident anyway? Do you really need a record of every time Brynne pisses herself?

Perhaps not, but I'd be up for a record of every single fight.

[J. M. Pescado]

Oh, better than that. It's actually a prototype item in the Pudding that records fights to FAR greater detail than the Sims ever did, short of Rhaydenstats. In AwesomeMod's Undiscovered Shinies, there is a FIGHT TRACKER....which will track each and every fight your sim gets into, recording win/loss ratios vs. individual opponents, numbers of enemies defeated, and even some skill challenges for FIGHTING. There is even an "I Wanna Be The Guy" minigame.

[maxon]

Oh, better than that. It's actually a prototype item in the Pudding that records fights to FAR greater detail than the Sims ever did, short of Rhaydenstats. In AwesomeMod's Undiscovered Shinies, there is a FIGHT TRACKER....which will track each and every fight your sim gets into, recording win/loss ratios vs. individual opponents, numbers of enemies defeated, and even some skill challenges for FIGHTING. There is even an "I Wanna Be The Guy" minigame.

Sounds like you could hold sweepstakes.  Well, I admit it sounds fun.  If you can also add a tracker of the number of times they get drunk and hit on their boss's wife, I'm in.

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, there aren't any actual drunkenness effects, unless you want to use some crappily written mod by someone else, but it's certainly possible to add a Romance Skill with tracking stats.

[Kazzandra]

Like many here, I never saw a good reason to downgrade to pudding. Why have pudding when you can have pie, specially prepared just for you with mods, cc, and hacks?

I don't know why Pescado is pudding-pushing so much, because even despite the ululations that Sims 3 has everything Sims 2 had and moar! (well, at least minus drunkenness effects and actual dominant/recessive genetics), it's just not a mature pudding. It might be someday. Heck, I didn't switch from Sims 1 to Sims 2 until Seasons had just come out.

I think the traits and moodlets are too transparent and take a lot of the "surprise" out of the game. With Sims 2, knowing how the code works might allay some of the surprise, but I still am encountering issues that I've never encountered before in Sims 2 that I've never had need to know how worked. Even if you know how the code works, such as with personality points, you can get surprised just because you might not have that in the forefront of your mind while immersed in play.

For instance, for the first time, I had a child catch his father cheating the other day and he just started sobbing uncontrollably. I didn't know that this was in the game code. I couldn't get it to happen again. He was also my first runaway teen. That may be 2006 to some people, but  I was completely surprised and amused by it. I'm a slow player like so many here, and I don't get a lot of chances to sink hours into playing anymore, so perhaps that's part of it.

The Sims 2 community is still alive, but mostly it's over as GOS now. And it's, in many ways, better than ever.