KellyM has pre-ordered me the game and the guide and has shipping set for overnight. I’m thinking of taking Friday off that week.
I am so looking forward to the apiration award that can change your aspiration. And restaurants. I am so looking forward to adding a restaurant to my cultural center. And to odd shaped pools. We had pool mazes in the sims I.
I really like uni, not as much for the Uni, but for the nice thing that you can combine households and harvest clerks from the neighborhoods to send them to college, and also the better fence options. And the easier re-earning of reward objects.
I am desparately hoping they will eliminate the bug that makes invisible NPCs fill some lots and the bug that make kicky ball dead zones. Many a good house has been abandoned to those bugs.
I am also hoping that after this we will get elevators and curved stairs.
Yeah, I tend to get Simitis too. Thank Og my boss and co-worker are understanding.
As for the problems you are having, I got this nifty little box from J.M. Pescado that fixes those and a few others (like the Headmaster glitch, stuck bills, etc.) and it lets you re-roll your Lifetime Want if you don’t like it.
There’s a scary message that comes up when you click on “Kill Stuck NPC’s” but it doesn’t actually do what the message indicates. It just pops up to let you know it’s working.
I have many fixes by this Pescado and they seem to do the job without corrupting anything else. It probably helps that I only get stuff from him so there’s no worry about it conflicting with other hacks.
He also addresses the annoying espresso cup problem (walking 4 flights of stairs to leave it on a night stand :mad: ) and many others.
I particularly like the “Higher chances of alien abduction & satellite death”.
Make that “Clear Off World Loiterers” that gives you the message. :smack:
I got it confused with “Kill Stuck Bills”.
If you wish to kill NPC’s, though, there are hacks for that too.
Agreed! I hate it that we lose career rewards, diplomas if we forget to take them down, paintings of family, etc. when we move. The inventory feature gets me excited about this EP!
Screw the cowplant! I just want to keep my custom paintings and pictures.
There is actually a ton of new info that I’ve somehow missed.
You can now get ‘Rivals’ that will follow you around with the soul purpose of ruining your day! On a date? They may come and make moves on your love interest and even can steal them away!
As said before, you can choose whether to see the neighborhood around you, but it’s more detailed than that. You can choose whether to see “neighborhood objects” (water tower and stuff that you add from the Neighborhood View), if you see your neighbors or not, how far you see and how much objects fade into the distance.
In cars, while you can’t actually drive them you can play with the stereo, turn the headlights on or off, woohoo or try for baby (the windows fog up to preserve that teen rating)! Teens can drive. You can also have custom parts for your car.
When you buy a car you can assign an owner, which means you can have a multiple car family without teens randomly driving off in dad’s Ferrari.
Turn Ons/Offs: You choose these while creating a character. For your already established Sims, the game will randomly assign them but you get a free potion that will allow you to change your Turn Ons/Offs just in case your Sim Girl no longer fancies her Sim Boy because she now finds his brown hair a Turn Off.
Vampires: There are apparently two Grand Vampires, one male and one female. You must build up a relationship with one of them before you can be bitten, but from my understanding, once you have a vampire established then that new vampire will be able to turn others. Vampirism is not genetic, so little baby fangers. It is viral. Also, no reflections!
As a vampire you have the option to “Fly Here”. The Sim will turn into a bat, fly to their destination and then re-materialize into their natural Vampy Sim form.
Also, clarification on the cars: Your Sim can go places in them (school, work, downtown, etc.) but it’s no Grand Theft Auto. You don’t get to pilot the vehicle.
Also, instead of calling a cab, then saving and loading the Neighborhood, then picking a destination, then waiting for that to load, etc. etc. BLAH! when going out you get to choose your destination directly from an address book.
So now a Sim goes from their home to their destination directly and therefore much quicker.
I also get the impression when in a lot with other lots viewable, while you cannot go to another Sim’s house you can see them (if the option is set to), click on them and interact with them just like now when they randomly walk by your house.
Looks like I was wrong on this part, but you can click on any house you can see on your lot and as long as someone lives there and enter it directly, instead of having to exit to the neighborhood screen first.
Don’t read any further if you still want surprises. I would use a spoiler box but this is a lot of crap and it might make it difficult to read.
From the Maxis chat transcript here are the new/interesting things I picked up:
Vampires can hold down a regular day job – they just get a bit crispy on the way to the carpool. “Work places are vampire safe.” I would think if you own a car and build an attached garage, your vampire Sim would be completely safe.
You can have bowling alleys in your Sims’ homes (though they are a bit pricey).
The transcript says cars will cost from $1,000 to $11,000 simoleans which is strange because I’ve seen a screen shot showing them costing as little as $250. I suppose it must be something they changed. :dubious: Dang it.
New dine out meals will include filet mignon, fried chicken, a nectarine tartlet dessert, & shrimp.
New homemade meal: Crepes Suzette
Cars can be stolen by the burglar, but you can install a car alarm. They can also be repoed if you are in that much debt.
Pictures taken in the new photo booth can be added to your Sims new inventory and taken home to be put on display by either hanging them up or placing on a table.
Vampires hypnotize Sims as part of ‘turning’ them.
Some extra on the Matchmaker: in addition to the potion you can buy to ‘heal’ your Sims of the vampire virus, you can also buy a love potion from her, and you can call her up to come to your house and help them find the perfect date.
Sims will be able to live Downtown.
You will be able to make different roof pitches using a new cheat (‘bout time!).
On rivals: “So, Sims can get “Furious” at eachother now. Like, if a Sim cheats with the girlfriend of his best friend, the best friend and Sim will suffer some serious relationship damage that heals over time. They can even become Romantic Rivals in that state, and fight over that special someone…you can fight em off, and they’ll never bother you again. (if you win). Weakling Sims can, of course, just pay off their rivals in an act of extreme cowardice.”
There’s a bunch of new Wants relating to things you can do downtown (dine, bowl, date, etc.).
Sims can now receive love letters and hate mail in their mailbox.
The Sims have 2 turn-ons, 1 turn-off which will be randomly assigned to pre-existing Sims. You will have a freebie potion in your inventory to change them to your liking. They include things such as hair color, pajamas, vampirism, stinkiness, makeup, etc.
Release date as stated in transcript: 9/15
Your Sim can dine out alone, on a date, as a family or even with a whole group of friends.
“There are lots of nice new attractive Sims.” Yeah. We’ll see.
Ghosts you put in cemeteries will be “happier and more relaxed there then they can be at home sometimes”
There are bigger and smaller lots to play with now.
“Outings” are like a big mobile party and you can get “tons of cool rewards” for successful ones.
Vampire coffins are considered a single bed and come in all sorts of colors.
No circular driveways for now – just straight.
Teens can drive their siblings to school in the family car.
You can propose over dinner.
Whew! That’s a lot of stuff and *supposedly * they are holding back.
This is one of the EPs I’ll buy for the objects, not the theme - much like Vacation for The Sims. I haven’t heard anything very wowing about this EP. Vampires are okay, but I was never a fan of the idea of Sims owning cars; it’s always struck me as exceedingly pointless. I’m mostly annoyed that they promised not to remake any of the Sims 1 expansions and this is very obviously Hot Date + Cars and Vampires; and hot date was one of the worst expansions made for the Sims IMHO. If they remake Vacation before doing something with more lifestages (middle-age/preteens/perschoolers) I’ll be very pissed indeed.
I’m hoping I’ll be pleasantly surprised by the theme.
I loved hot date because it gave you the downtown. I never cared all that much for dates, though they were good ways to boost an aquaintance to a friend. The down town was a huge expansion in what sims could do. I wish they would bring back park rentals. Pincnics were awsome. Didn’t Hot Date introduce long term relationship scores? That was huge to me. I hated friendships fading so fast.
I am most looking forward to the gameplay aspects of this EP. C’mon, inventories are exciting. I hate having to lose all your stuff when you move. That means that they suffer a depreciation hit everytime they move. Now you can give your kid your old furniture when he moves out. That is awsome. Cars represent a new funtionality too. Being able to move between places with few screens. You won’t spend as much time waiting for pointless screens to load. Being able to change your aspiration is huge. If there is a sim that I like playing and I want to have tons of kids, having her lifetime goal as Golden Anniversity sucks.
I am also looking forward to cemetaries. Ghosts are important to gameplay, but are a pain in the ass everyday. Even if you like them on your lot, it means that move and you lose them.
And more lot sizes, I really like that versatility.
Y’all make this sound like SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much fun. I bought the original Sims for my PC , and never could get them to do what I told them to do , I swear they had minds of their own. I could never get the husband to get his ass to work , he lost his job, got depressed, and refused to do ANYTHING. The wife was unhappy constantly. It was WAY too much like real life, and I eventually tossed the damned CD in the trash.
And Lute’s right, PapSett. You’ve always had the option of turning Free Will off. They’ll just stand there until you instruct them to do something. Of course that means they’ll wet themselves if you don’t instruct them to use the toilet, but it’s a good tool to use until you get the hang of running your Sims.
They improved the AI in the Sims 2 a lot.
It still gets me how they actually acknowledge others when in the same room by looking at, thinking about, or waving to them. And if one Sim doesn’t like the other, they give the dirtiest looks! :eek:
I built my first garage last night in preparation for Nightlife!
From this and other screenshots the “parking spot” looks to be 5x8, leaving ample room for a Sim to maneuver around the car so I built an attachment onto one of my houses using those dimensions. I could go ahead and plant a non-working car in there from modthesims2.com, but I’ll wait.
The screenshot shows it right up against the directly the sidewalk, but if you want to enclose it in a garage (without cheating) it’ll have to be at least 2 squares back from the sidewalk in order to draw the walls.
I did use “moveobjects on” while doing mine last night to make an asphalt driveway attached to the street so it’s seamless.
I have no idea of any of this will be any good when I get the game, but dammit! I’m having fun.
I have no idea when it’s getting released here in South Africa… I have to see if I can convince my dad to ship me a copy (birthday present?) as soon as it releases in the states. I played University into the ground… I need new stuff!
Tell me about it!
My husband’s biggest complaint is lack of hair styles and clothing for his male Sims.
I just downloaded about 80 new things from modthesims2.com and I’m no where near done for the day.
Next I’m on to thesimsresource.com.
This is why Maxis only puts a few new hair styles/color options at a time; they know we’ll do all the work for them. :dubious:
Yeah, and that plus the wants & fears really changed the whole flow of the game for me. Instead of focusing on the basic motives, you can now let the AI handle those and focus on satisfying the wants & fears. Much better.
Of course, I haven’t played my copy in months. Hoping the next expansion pack will get me interested in it again. That’s how it was with the first version, anyway – new exp pack comes out, I play it obsessively for a month, and then lose interest until the next one.
Wha? Hot Date + cars and vampires isn’t just a remake of Hot Date. From all the features I’ve heard about on this exp pack, it sounds really unfair to call it just a remake.
One thing about The Sims games is that people usually only remember the most recent version they played, and forget all the stuff that expansion packs added. The most significant changes that Hot Date brought to the game were rolled into the initial release of Sims 2 – downtown area, long-term relationships, gift-giving, tiered socials, hot tubs, etc.
They can also be repoed if you are in that much debt.