Family Saving and Copying

I've had a chance to play Sims 3 and focused on how to move families around.

You have limited save slots. These slots save the entire town in its current state and can be overwritten by a new save if you choose. Save slots are available in the Main Menu just after entering the game.

When you first enter a town, you get to choose an Active Family. This is the family you play every time you enter that saved file from now on. You can choose a premade family from the town or the household panel or make your own.

The Household and Lot Panel is the same from saved town to saved town. If you create a family or copy a family into the panel, they will be in that panel in any save file no matter which save you enter. Also, putting a family in a house does not remove them from the household panel -- you place a copy into the game but the family does not disappear from the panel unless you choose to delete them from it. You can also play a family to a certain point and save a copy of them (and their progress) into the household panel. As always, they show up in the household panel for every save you have. The panel never changes, just the active save file changes.

I'm sure it works the same way for houses, though I didn't get to tinker with that.

You can change your Active Family by entering the Options Menu, choosing Edit Town, and clicking the button with two houses on it (one big, one little), which says "Change Active Household." Your previously active household will lose its promised wishes (the things you clicked on to Promise, not lifetime wish or general progress).

So, if you like to make stories or want your Sims at a certain point before putting them into the "main" game you're playing, this is what I suggest:

Create a Main save file.

Create a Temp save file.

Create and play families in Temp Save until you're happy with them, then copy them into the household panel and place a copy in Main Save. Rinse, repeat until all the families you want are set up the way you want them.

If you want those families to stay pristine without too many changes, do the following:

• Options Menu
• Options...
• Game Options (the gears)

Tweak:

• Lifespan (short to epic)
• Sim Aging (on or off)
• Story Progression (do neighbor Sims change?)

Sims 3 Official Updates

Any reliable news site can give you the current information on Sims 3. That isn't what this is.

Fans grouse that the Official Sims 3 Site doesn't update enough.

If you've been reading thus far and continue to read in the future, you know or will find that I don't hesitate to castigate the company, fans, or even game when I feel like it.

This complaining is just silly. I realize that we all want updates (myself as much as anyone else), but not updating the website means they have more important things to do, which is a good thing -- they're sprucing up the game itself, fixing bugs, maybe even working on (and here I'm crossing my fingers, because they haven't promised us one) a nice Body Shop for us.

You can take all the screenshots you want when the game is out. For now, settle down and try not to grumble about the crumbs they do give us. Time moves faster when you stay positive.

Sims 3 Party Line

I've been part of an administration before, and one thing I learned is how to spot a party line -- a pre-defined list of things you're supposed to say no matter what. I noticed in videos of the Creator's Conference that when anyone asked one of the developers a question, they always steered the answers to specific positives about the game.

I can assure you that this is not an accident.

The people working on the game have most likely been ordered to keep certain things quiet and keep harping on others, such as the "innovative" new town design or the "amazing" traits system.

Of course, some things haven't been decided yet, so they can't give straightforward answers. Others are supposed to be surprises, so they shouldn't give straight answers.

But the truth is, when everyone is saying the exact same thing, repeating themselves, and sidestepping direct questions, it is a conspiracy.

This particular conspiracy to limit information and really push the major differences between Sims 2 and 3 is not surprising, though it is annoying for those of us who keep up to date with all the new articles about the game -- when the last seven have read exactly the same, you can almost quote the new article's phrasing before you click the link. They all cover the town design, create-a-style, fatness, and traits system. Always those and a few small related things (rarely anything new).

But at the end of the day, you look forward to the game because it will have surprises left. It brings a certain level of anticipation to the table that the game would lack if we knew every nuance beforehand. While there are questions I would like answered beforehand that have more to do with custom content creation than gameplay, I think anticipation can be a good thing. I just wish my anticipation had been rewarded for February instead of moved back to June.

Ah well. We'll live, won't we?

Sims 3 Securom

They said they would have it but, as of the Creator's Conference, it's back "under discussion." Which means there's a slim chance it won't show up at all.

If they include it, it will NOT be the version you have to verify every 10 days online, it will be a version where you can install the game on 3 computers at a time; you can uninstall it and get one of those installs back (just go through the appropriate steps) as many times as you want, and in the case of an unexpected computer crash, you can call a service line to restore one or more installs. (This information from the Parsimonious Creator's Camp review and FAQ, which seems to be missing -- I'm thinking she violated some of the Non-Disclosure Agreements, noted by SteveB: "Yea, lots of NDA's!" and they asked her to take her review down.)

Even this "nice" version they offered, without the regular verification, seems massively complicated to be allowed to play your own video game.

I don't like the idea of jumping through hoops for a bunch of stubborn executives who still think Securom can protect them from pirates. Torrentfreak claimed that Spore was "the most pirated game ever" due to the Securom DRM, though EA Games tried to discredit them by offering their own interpretation, one that didn't blame Securom but instead lauded the popularity of their game -- with the most astounding bravado I've ever seen in my life, considering they didn't have a leg to stand on. Torrentfreak had no ulterior motive and plenty of reason to indicate Spore would have had much lower piracy numbers if it hadn't possessed Securom -- Torrentfreak even backed up this claim by saying that other games with DRMs had higher download rates than the norm, providing a trend.

Whatever you think about this DRM, if you want to help make sure they don't use it in Sims 3, use one of these tips to protest the use of Securom as a security measure. The letter writing reminds me of Shawshank Redemption, but without the prison or Morgan Freeman. Andy Dufresne says "It works!"

Of course, if you don't care, you don't care. That's fine too.

New DRM News - 3.18.09

From videogamer.com interview with associate producer MJ Chun.

MC: . . . we had a strong DRM thing. And then we got such good and such vocal user feedback, so now we're getting the final pieces together. It's not going to be the crazy, manage-18-accounts or count-the-number-of-times-you've-installed thing. But it is going to have copy-protection.

VG: So will there be limited installs?

MC: Um... [to Public Relations] do you know the answer on that? I used to know that information, and then we changed it. EA subsequently told us there will be a press release about this in the near future. The engineers have been amazing, because to change the DRM strategy this late is something that's asking a lot of an engineering crew who have already put a lot into it. But they were willing to be flexible, because as gamers themselves they were like, "yeah, it's a pain in the ass".

So it's confirmed they're doing something different, we just don't know what yet.

Sims 3 Prices

Regular Version: $50
Collector's Edition: $70

If you need a USB drive, were planning to use the Sims 3 Store anyway, and/or wanted the game guide, the CE is not a bad deal. Hardcore fans care about having the extra logo'd items either way, and that's cool, but if you don't need the extras, ignore the CE. Want is not a good reason for a $20 price jump.

The Sims 3 Store

I think they started the stores to allow fans to pick and choose what they want instead of shoving Stuff Packs in our faces. The only problem is that the Sims 2 Store is three times more expensive than Stuff Packs ever were, even though the Store costs tons less to maintain than Stuff Packs (no packaging, discs, delivery, or middlemen).

Let me do the math for you:

The Store lets you buy points at $5 for 500, $10 for 1000, $20 for 2000.

1 Store Point = $0.01
100 Point Items = $1.00
75 Point Items = $0.75
25 Point SALE Items = $0.25

A Stuff Pack gives you 66-110 items, depending on the pack, and runs $20-$25.

66 Items for $20 = $0.30 Each
66 Items for $25 = $0.38 Each
110 Items for $20 = $0.18 Each
110 Items for $25 = $0.23 Each

The above were calculated where 1 Item includes the mesh and all recolors.

Let's compare that to the fan community:

TSR boasts over 615,000 downloads with 3 subscription packages.

Package 1 (2 Months/$10.95) = $0.000002 per Item
Package 2 (6 Months/$29.10) = $0.000005 per Item
Package 3 (12 Months/$52.75) = $0.000009 per Item

If you take into account they probably included recolors in the download number, the price goes up -- negligibly. This is, of course, calculated assuming you download everything. Downloading less than everything means you're paying more per item.

To find how much each item costs, just divide the Package Price (A) by the number of items you downloaded (B). So A/B=X. For example, if you get the 2 Month package and download 70 items, it would look like this:
$10.95 / 70 = $0.16 per Item

Still cheaper than either the sale items in the official store or the best of the Stuff Packs.


I find official content shops just short of unethical. They're not a "solution" to any problem I've ever heard of, though I'm sure the creators tote it as this amazing place for people to pick and choose what they want. "Oh my God, it's so convenient!"

In reality, it's a way to wring excessive amounts of money out of fans. Not only are the prices much higher than the Stuff Packs, or the cost of production cut way down (and not reflected in the price), but points systems are specifically designed to distance the customer from the idea of spending real money -- and the result is that people spend more than they would if the store had real prices on things.

At least pay sites -- for the most part -- let you grab a monthly subscription to download anything you want.

The official store also has the extra kick-in-the-face of your not being able to share store content in the towns or Sims you make, thus limiting the player's ability to share, an aspect of the game that the creators have really toted in anticipation of TS3's release.

This won't sound new to you cynics out there, but to optimists, I assure you, the official Sims Stores are a ripoff. If they had been created to make your life easier as a fan and consumer, the company would have reflected (in the item prices) how inexpensive it really is for them to list things on the site.

Since they raised the price per item instead of cutting us in on their savings, it's obvious what the company cares about most. (Hint: It's not the fans.)

Sims 3 System Requirements

The developers still aren't sure what your computer will need, but Sims 3 will have options to put your graphics on lower resolution just like Sims 2. So while you might need a better computer to play with high-resolution, I wouldn't stress too much yet about being able to play the game at all. The developers are very concerned with making the game playable on older machines.

Consider it from a mercenary standpoint. The more people with capable computers, the more copies of the game they'll sell. And with how many times they've said "It'll run on your grandma's PC!" this is a very big issue to them. They are not going to let it be a huge monster that only state-of-the-art computers can run.

So You Still Want to Improve Your System?

If you want to improve your computer without buying a new one, you just need to update your ram and graphics card (aka video card). If you don't know how to install these things and don't know anyone who can help, don't buy anything on your own, just take it to a place you trust to install a new one. National chains will gouge you on the price, but they'll also get the job done.

If it's your processor that's outdated, it's cheapest to get a new computer due to compatability issues.

Minimum system requirements will play the game at the lowest settings, recommended will play it at normal, but if you want the best performance, you need a better system than they ask for. CanYouRunIt.com lets you choose your game from a list and download an ActiveX/Java application which examines your computer and gives you an analysis, including recommendations for upgrades if they're needed. You can uninstall the application when you're finished.

(Everything here is a generalization and can vary from game to game, system to system, and part to part.)