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[McNum]

The special object is called The Weather Stone.

I think it appears automatically if you have both Supernatural and Seasons installed. You'll get a message in the top right saying that it has appeared somewhere in the neighborhood, and if you take a Supernatural to it, they'll be able to change the weather into something special. I can't remember all of them, but I know the fairies can make it rain flower petals, which makes plants grow faster and werewolves can make a storm that increases spawning of collectable for its duration.

It's a neat trick, not really essential to anything, but making it rain flowers is nice. I know witches and vampires can do something, but I can't remember the exact effects or if ghosts can do something, too.

 

[Mojojo]

So EA/maxis had a live broadcast yesterday about their 2013 planning for Sims 3 :
3 EPs are planned :

University Life : official trailer

Sims 2 University was a favorite among many simmers, so EA seems to be playing it safe with that one.
It seems the university is a world by itself you send your sims to, shame you can't integrate it to the open neighborhood and existing town.

now for the new 2 EPs , EA is trying original stuff again :

Paradise Island in june . Scuba diving, underwater stuff,probably the mermaid lifestate which was heavily hinted at in seasons, customizable houseboats, resort managing, etc..

and for Fall , an untitled Futuristic setting expansion and a movie themed stuff pack.

 

[Effect]

Makin Magic was my favorite expansion pack for The Sims 1. Just found out about the Supernatural expansion. Amazon.com is selling Sims 3 with you able to add one of the expansions at a discount. Figure I might go for that combination but curious as to how it compares to the Magic expansion that game with The Sims 1. I know they won't be the same but this might be as close as an expansion I'm going to see. Anyone try it out yet?

 

[Mojojo]

Makin Magic was my favorite expansion pack for The Sims 1. Just found out about the Supernatural expansion. Amazon.com is selling Sims 3 with you able to add one of the expansions at a discount. Figure I might go for that combination but curious as to how it compares to the Magic expansion that game with The Sims 1. I know they won't be the same but this might be as close as an expansion I'm going to see. Anyone try it out yet?

it's a good xpac but don't expect to get the same feel(fun?) as makin magic.. This one is more about the occult lifestates you can create from start (witch-the funniest imo-, Fairy -another good one-, vampire, werewolf(still bugged to this date: you can choose his werewolf look in CAS, but after a save, your sim looses the glowing eyes and gets a default werewolf face, quite disappointing), ghost -pretty useless-, and genie only if you have Showtime xpac).

The alchemy skill is great, the zombies can get quickly annoying, the new town has a nice layout and the new rabitt hole profession fortune teller fits the theme well.

My main gripe is like for most sims 3 xpacs, it doesn't feel complete, with EA purposely putting items with the same theme on the overpriced online store(magic book, crystall ball, voodoo doll, etc..) or needing other xpacs to unlock some features..Witch can get a familiar to boost their skill , cat or small critter, but you need the Pets xpac for that.

As for buying it with base game, check for Sims 3 Plus Supernatural, it's all bundled in one(they do a Sims 3 Plus Seasons too), might be a better deal?

 

[Jintor]

I want to break someone over this fucking shit. Boot up sims - Sync Cloud Data (takes 5 minutes), Launcher --> Main Menu (3 minutes), Main menu --> Town (2 minutes) and then even then it still fucking lags like a dog even setting half the graphics options to low/mid! And I'm still getting bugs up the wazoo! There's a bowl stuck to my Sim's hand at all times and she can't cook anything because there's something invisible in the way or some shit! What the fuck is this

 

[McNum]

I want to break someone over this fucking shit. Boot up sims - Sync Cloud Data (takes 5 minutes), Launcher --> Main Menu (3 minutes), Main menu --> Town (2 minutes) and then even then it still fucking lags like a dog even setting half the graphics options to low/mid! And I'm still getting bugs up the wazoo! There's a bowl stuck to my Sim's hand at all times and she can't cook anything because there's something invisible in the way or some shit! What the fuck is this

"Sync cloud data"? Mine doesn't do that. Oh, you might be running it through Origin? Don't do that.

Find "...\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\TS3W.exe" and make a shortcut to that. No Origin, no Launcher. Straight boot into the game.

Anyway, for your corrupted objects and slowdown, well, you need a few mods. Do you have the Mod Framework installed? It's basically a few folders you need to set up in your "...\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3" folder. Make a folder called "Mods" there and in that folder make one called "Packages". You can also make one called "DCCache", but I don't use that one.

Then in the Mods folder make a plain text file and rename it "resource.cfg". Paste the following into it:

Priority 500
PackedFile DCCache/*.dbc
PackedFile Packages/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Packages/*/*/*/*/*.package

Alternatively, you can download it premade from ModTheSims. Not sure if you need to be a member to do that.

Anyway that's the boring part, now for the fun part.

Get this: NRaas MasterController
And especially this: NRaas Overwatch

Download the BaseMod part at the very least, and you may want the Cheats and Intergration addons for MasterController. The Cheats one lets you adjust skills and money on Sims, not really needed, but handy at times when a bug suddenly wipes out all your skills.

Now to fix the issues you have, go to City Hall, pick the NRaas option, and Master Controller. A window with all kinds of things will pop up. Select "Town" and then "Reset Everything". Wait about five minutes. This doesn't roll the town back, it merely does the "reset" command on every single object and Sim in town. Expect that number to be 30,000+ items. There, you've fixed the invisible object, the stuck bowl and pretty much any weird state any Sim is in in your town. You may lose your promised wishes and opportunities for your Sims when you do this, though, but it's a trade-off that's worth it.

Overwatch is a more passive one, it tracks known unfixed bugs and fixes them realtime. An incredibly handy mod, in other words. I wouldn't even dare starting Sims 3 without it. The first you'll notice Overwatch doing is a little popup in the beginning saying "[number] vehicles removed." If you've played that save a while, expect four digits. Then about 50 more each Sim night as well as notices that a stuck Sim has bee unstuck. Also expect your save file to drop in size by 10-20MB after that. And the game to run much smoother.

This should help keep your game running as well as it can. There are other interesting mods on that site, I'd recommend Story Progression, but that one makes Sims 3 even more of a resource hog than it is, so you know, be warned. And Saver. Staggered Autosave every 15 minutes? Yes, please. There are also some... stranger mods there, but you can pick and choose to your liking. Only Master Controller and Story Progression need a common file to work together (The Master Controller Progression one), the rest just work. If you've patched your game up to version 1.50, of course.

Also, all NRaas mods have an ingame menu that lets you tweak them to your heart's content. Like tweaking Saver to save every 20 or 30 minutes instead, and have it pause the game after saving, so you can leave the chair if it takes long and not come back to seeing a Sim make Life Fruit pancakes. ...yes I've seen that one.

 

[Jintor]

Honestly, that seems like a lot of work when all I wanted to do was futz around with Firefighting.

Is fire meant to spread that fast? I've been fighting a 'small house fire' that engulfed the entire room in moments, way faster than my beginner could take care of it. My sim actually wet herself and nearly passed out midway through. not to mention apparently no other god damn firefighters want to help take care of it. Also AI sims like to walk right into the middle of the flames and burn to death. Great job.

 

[McNum]

Fire spreads somewhat fast, but if it's just s small fire, a rookie firefighter should be able to handle it. Basically, you need to keep your needs up when you're on duty. Not sure what went wrong there. And yes, a Sim's AI will tell it to stand right next to a fire rather than, you know, run like hell.

And yeah, getting Sims 3 moddable is a bit of work, but it is worth it. The game will run much smoother with Overwatch installed.

 

[Dakota47]

Just bought this through the Origin Humble Bundle. Any tips for someone who has never really played a Sims game?

 

[McNum]

The Origin bundle was Base Game + Late Night + High-End Loft Stuff, right?

Well, first of all, go claim your copy of the Riverview world on the Sims 3 Store. Since you have the game on Origin, you should be able to use your Origin account information there. Free DLC goodies are nice, after all, and Riverview is a personal favorite world for me.

Let' see... you should lave the Guide on, it only pops up when you encountered something new with a quick "I see you're trying to... Would you like that explained? Yes/Later/Never." The game is very freestyle, though. It's almost impossible to play it wrong once you get the "Select Sim, select object to interact with, select interaction" flow of it all. 90% of all Live mode gameplay is that.

As for building stuff, keep in mind that Sims are dumb. Make sure to leave room for them to pass by each other. Oh, and two things: Get a fire alarm for the kitchen and a burglary alarm next to the main door of the home. Easy to miss those two.

You might want to look into mods, too, there's one called NRaas Overwatch that's a lifesaver at times, as it fixes bugs and corruption as it happens. and it will. Sims 3 is a fun game, but it's Bethesda caliber buggy. If you do run into a problem where you Sim becomes strange or unresponsive (more than usual, at least) do this:

Press Control+C to access the command line.
Type: testingcheatsenabled true
Type: resetsim [firstname] [lastname]
Your Sim will be destroyed and recreated at the front door of its home. Don't worry, it won't hurt and it's a great way to get a Sim unstuck or fixed.

Other than that, just have fun. It's a sandbox, poke it and see what happens. Start a family, raise some kids, have an affair with the neighbor, become a vampire, start fires, and most importantly: Laugh at the pure random silliness the game can dish out.

 

[Dakota47]

Awesome McNum, thanks!

 

[McNum]

Awesome McNum, thanks!

Forgot something... It's Shift+Control+C to open the command line. Type "help" in it for a command list. Now try typing "help" again after enabling testing cheats. I have no idea what half of those even do...

 

[Dakota47]

Had a good first experience. At first I tried to play the game the 'proper way'. I found that kinda boring. I had way much more fun fucking with my sims. I made a household consisting of a young adult neckbeard living together with his grandmother. Gave the neckbeard especially all kinds of negative traits and basically made his life a living hell. Fun!

 

[McNum]

Had a good first experience. At first I tried to play the game the 'proper way'. I found that kinda boring. I had way much more fun fucking with my sims. I made a household consisting of a young adult neckbeard living together with his grandmother. Gave the neckbeard especially all kinds of negative traits and basically made his life a living hell. Fun!

Good, you've already learned the secret to The Sims 3. Perfect lives are boring and negative traits are the spice of life. Just... don't pick Absent-Minded. It's annoying as it makes the Sim forget the commands you give it. Hot-Headed, Evil, Commitment Issues, Daredevil, Unlucky, and Loser are all funny to put on a Sim for flavor.

Unlucky and Loser in particular come with a funny perk. and sad, but hilarious at the same time. Gonna spoiler tag it in case you want to find out for yourself:

Spoiler

Unlucky and Loser Sims are invincible! While they are much more likely to die in a fire, get electrocuted or be killed otherwise, the Grim Reaper will revive them because their constant failing amuses him.

 

[Dakota47]

Good, you've already learned the secret to The Sims 3. Perfect lives are boring and negative traits are the spice of life. Just... don't pick Absent-Minded. It's annoying as it makes the Sim forget the commands you give it. Hot-Headed, Evil, Commitment Issues, Daredevil, Unlucky, and Loser are all funny to put on a Sim for flavor.

Unlucky and Loser in particular come with a funny perk. and sad, but hilarious at the same time. Gonna spoiler tag it in case you want to find out for yourself:

Spoiler

Unlucky and Loser Sims are invincible! While they are much more likely to die in a fire, get electrocuted or be killed otherwise, the Grim Reaper will revive them because their constant failing amuses him.

Great tips, especially the spoiler part. I'll remake the neckbeard and grannie with the traits you recommended. Grannie stays absent-minded though, for roleplaying purposes. She is a senior citizen after all.

 

[Kinky John]

PSA: You can get the Town Life stuff pack for free if you have The Sims 3 on Origin.