Sims 3 Traits, Bodies and a Other Tid Bits

Friday, March 28, 2008

Ok so as an avid Sims fan, I’ve decided to keep you all updated on all and any Sims 3 info. Thing is, little tid bits keep coming in so it’s hard to keep one article updated. What I’ll do, is as I find something new and / or interesting, I’ll make a little entry. At the end of each entry, I’ll link to every other Sims 3 entry I’ve made.

I for one am SUPER excited about The Sims 3 and am deeply disappointed that we’re all going to have to wait another whole year. All I hope is that they at least don’t push the date up any further… gawd knows I’ve been waiting for Spore long enough and that date just keeps getting moved forward.

Traits

Ok so here are a couple of traits, it’s not all mind you. I’m sure they’ll keep adding and / or adjusting it right up until the actual release. (go to the Sims 3 Rumours page to read about the upcoming features in The Sims 3) But as far as we know, you’ll be able to choose something like 5 traits from a very long list. I guess 5 isn’t too bad, at least there’ll be around 80 or so to choose from, unlike in Sims 2 where there’s only 5 personality sliders.

Adversarial
Artistic
Athletic
Brave
Charismatic
Childish
Clumsy
Commitment Issues
Conversationalist
Creative
Cursed
Daredevil
Dreamer
Easily Bored
EVIL
Excitable
Family-Oriented
Flirty
Fortunate
Friendly
Frugal
Genius
Gloomy
Good Sense of Humour
Good
Green Thumbs
Gourmet
Grumpy
Handy
Hot-Headed
Hydrophobic
Idealistic
Inappropriate
Insensitive
Kleptomaniac
Light Sleeper
Loner
Lucky
Mooch
Natural Cook
Neat
Nice
Nosy
Outdoors Person
Over Emotional
Paranoid
Partier
Perfectionist
Pizza Lover
Playful
Romantic
Rude
Schmoozer
Shy
Slob
Socialite
Tramp
Unforgiving
Unlucky
Vegan
Whiney
Workaholic
Worrywart

Some of them are obvious, like Genius. We’re well accustomed to The Sims 2 and that’s most likely some one who wants knowledge, although I’m sure there are going to be a lot of extra features which will surprise us. But, there are some I’m curious to see how the interactions will play out, like Lucky and Unlucky or Over Emotional. There are also a couple of I’m happy to see on, like Hydrophobic and Kleptomaniac… gives it a bit more of a ‘real world’ feeling, but not too much. Lol I’m curious to see how just what exactly the Klepto’s sim actions will be.

An interesting tid bit, you could score relationship points by cooking another Sims favourite dish.

Traits, as every Sim has them, is going to change a lot of the game play. Socialising I think will be just a tad bit more difficult, not like in Sims 2 where it’s just so easy to have tons and tons of friends and BFF’s. Now you’ll have to spend time with a Sim and find out what they’re like… you won’t be able to make jokes with a Sims with not sense of humour, for example.

And for the best part of traits, for me anyway is that traits can be passed down from parents to children. A pregnant Sims actions will effect her unborn baby’s traits.

There is another thing which is going to be kewl, your Sims creative side. You know how in The Sims 2 every painting they paint differs according to skill level, well in The Sims 3 every painting will differ according to a Sim. Also it seems they’ll be able to paint things they’ve seen. EA mentioned how two different Sims might spend the day at the beach and come home and each paint the sunset, but each ones perception is different, so the paintings of the same sunset will look different. Can’t help but have a huge grin for this one, attention to detail

Socialising

Well there will be a way for you to now change the tone of your Sims conversation, so you can keep it just as friends or change the tone to flirty. Only thing which irks me in The Sims 2 is how easily they fall in love with their best friends, usually by accident on your part.

Customizing the Sim Body

I think I might have mentioned this in my Sims 3 Rumours post, but you can now customize your Sims body according to actual weight and muscle. These 2 sliders will allow you to effectively make a large variety of different looking Sims.

Timing & Aging

I can’t remember if I already mentioned this in Sims 3 Rumours post, but now timing will be a little different too. What I mean is, the rest of your neighbourhood will keep moving along with your family, going about their day and aging.

The game creators keep mentioning how if you bump into your boss while in town, doing something embarrassing could effect your job. This makes me wonder about townies who are actually going to be designated as your boss… as they have said that work will still be a rabbit hole, ie; you won’t be able to actually go with your Sims to work.

I also like how they say that your Sims actions will have ripple effects on not only Sims in the same town, but for the future generations… I’m sure I’ll waste hours contemplating on all the things my Sims will be able to do.

Motives & Moodlets

So instead of having those 8 motive bars, they’ve changed it a little and made only 3. One for example, is stress versus fun. Still not 100% sure exactly how this is going to work… I mean if you have say a hygiene meter, can you just have showers and skip the loo altogether, or does it have to be a balance between it? Either way, I don’t mind, I handle the 8 motive bars just fine, but a change in the way it works is always nice.

They have now what they compared to the buffs and debuffs in World of Warcraft, they call them moodlets. For example if your Sims gets caught in the rain, he’ll be wet and miserable and the moodlet will stay put until you do something about it. Other moodlets aren’t that easy to get rid of like if another Sim they know dies, the moodlet will obviously take longer to get rid of. Some moodlets have positive effects, like a promotion but do dissipate over time.

Pleasant Valley

First things first, no backdrop buildings, every building you see you’ll be able to interact with. They say we can expect the town to grow and expand and the location to go deeper and expand over time too. Man, all this work going into The Sims 3, I can barely wrap my head around an expansion. But I’m sure EA won’t disappoint us.

There are whispers of a Science lab… where your aspiring Scientist Sims will go to work (does this mean you will actually see your Sim go into his or her work building? Very nice if it is.) all that they said about this specific building is that Sims shouldn’t eat fish from the nearby pond. LOL I couldn’t help but laugh at this one, very cute touch.

Some locations, like a restaurant for example, serve multiple purposes. Like socialising and work, should your Sim have a culinary career.

No More Aspirations – It’s Dreams and Promises

They have decided to replace the current aspiration system in The Sims 2 with a new system of Dreams and Promises. Your Sim is going to have a lot of Dreams, for example, a lot of stargazing might trigger a Dream for him or her to become an astronaut or if he sees something in the store window that he wants. These Dreams are represented by thought bubbles. But Dreams come and go. You now have the choice of making a promise to fulfil that Dream. So unlike in Sims 2 where they got their own fears and wants, and you would suffer aspiration loss if a fear was realised, The Sims 3 is bringing a more customized approach to this. You decide which Dream you’ll Promise to fulfil and if you break a Promise, you’ll end up with a sad and depressed little Sim.

I for one do like the current aspiration system in The Sims 2 but the Dreams and Promises sounds like it’s going to be lots of fun. It is nice having a little more control over things like that.

The Working Sim

So like I’ve mentioned, work is still a rabbit hole in The Sims 3 (you don’t go in with them, they disappear and you wait till they get back). But they are making a couple of changes. They’re incorporating a system called Opportunities where you get extra tasks to do, for example taking home extra dishes to wash, if you’re in the culinary career track. These extra work opportunities are of course optional, but as we all know, I’m sure each Opportunity will have it’s own positive or negative effect.


In conclusion, I am super hyped for The Sims 3, it sounds like a lot of effort is going into making it as great as it’s predecessor. And like with Sims 1, it’s going to be one of those changes, where you won’t be able to play Sims 2 anymore.

On this note I’d like to add, a lot of people are actually complaining… can you believe it? That they’ve spent all this money on Sims 2 and they don’t want a Sims 3 to be made. Well if you still want to play and are happy to play Sims 2, then don’t freaking buy it you morons. A true Sims fan wants to constantly be surprised and challenged. If games didn’t evolve then we’d all still be playing Wolfenstein.

Happy Simming!

Sims 3 Rumours