Help?

[hils]

So, those of you who own Sims 3 does anyone want to give me an idiots guide? It seems very different to Sims 2.

For example in Sims 3 it seems you can't set up loads of different families in the same neighbourhood and switch between them. You can only play as one and then interact with any other characters you move in, which is a shame.

I created a Sam and a Dean last night and had Cas move in next door, but obviously I can now only play as Sam and Dean. Dean and Cas really didn't get along. LOL. And Dean kept going to Castiel's and kicking over the trashcan.

I need to start over though. I'm not sure why but whenever Sam changes out of his regular outfit into anything else his hair changes and I have no idea why. Is this something I can fix or did I mess up the settings when I created him?

Also, someone on here (I can't remember who) recommended a good piece of software for screencapping Sims. Any recs? It was something that just ran in the background and you just hit a key and it saved a cap to wherever you specified.

And my final question. lexalicious70 said it's possible to delete all the pre-loaded characters from a neighbourhood so that only the ones you make live there. How do I do that?

Any other hints and tips?

Comments

[mwmm23.livejournal.com]

For example in Sims 3 it seems you can't set up loads of different families in the same neighbourhood and switch between them. You can only play as one and then interact with any other characters you move in, which is a shame.

It's fine, you can switch between the families (I think it's something like Edit Town in the saving/quit menu then Change Active Household) :)

Then to keep Sam's hair the same you need to make sure that it's "locked" when you choose it so that it stays the same for all your outfits, you should be able to change that when looking in a mirror although maybe you can't...

Hope this helps!

[hils.livejournal.com]

Thanks! But if you change active family don't the others go off and do random stuff without you. So (for an extreme example) Sam could kill Dean while I was playing as Castiel?

I'll look into the hair thing though! Thanks!

[lexalicious70.livejournal.com]

I don't think they can do anything like that without you actively playing them. You can interact with them, (i.e. you can interact with Castiel while playing Dean,) but they won't do anything that will change your game until you go back to them.

Yeah, that hair thing is a pain. Mine does that, too. I think there is a lock feature, as your friend said above.

As far as I know, you can only play one family at a time, and then save and switch. Hope this helps!

[hils.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll give it a go!

And did you say I can delete all the other Sims that I didn't make?

[lexalicious70.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if you go into your families bin, you can drag the "townies" into the delete bin. I always delete them because it's more fun to have a town full of Sims you make yourself.

[hils.livejournal.com]

I think I might be doing it wrong. When I tried that last night I didn't have the option to delete them, only my own :(

[lexalicious70.livejournal.com]

Before you start creating any characters, open up the cheat window in neighborhood view. Type in "deleteAllCharacters". Should ask for a confirmation.

It will delete all your characters, townies too, and then you can start over.

[hils.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I shall give it a go!

[mwmm23.livejournal.com]

No problem! Yeah as savorvrymoment said below, you can just turn off story progression :)

Anyway, even if it is on I find it usually doesn't shake things up that much - I personally like having it on to see what randomness results from it and often not much seems to happen ;P

[savorvrymoment.livejournal.com]

Looks like mwmm23 covered everything. Just wanted to note the biggest problem I've had...

The thing with changing households in Sims 3 is you have to be careful about the 'story progression' aspect. Unless you're going to play with some sort of custom mod, I'd turn off story progression--in fact, this is what I do when I play. Otherwise, you switch households, then come back to find everything bonkers. Jobs changed, people moving, relationships severed, etc. If you turn off the story progression, it plays just like Sims 2. The characters will interact when the see each other and gain those 'friendship' points, but that's it.

(The story progression on/off is in the gameplay options menu)

As for sims dying? I've found no way around that. It doesn't happen often, but I've had a couple bite the dust for no apparent reason. I figure they burnt themselves trying to cook, lol.

[hils.livejournal.com]

Ahah! That is perfect! Just what I needed! Thank you so much. I am such a n00b!

[savorvrymoment.livejournal.com]

No problem. I had to have someone instruct me when I first started playing.

And just adding to Mwmm23 -- the patches have apparently calmed down the story progression, but when I got the game when it came out, it was a mess. People would randomly move out of their houses (that was the most annoying part--I go back to play the house and THEY AREN'T THERE!), quit their jobs, get married, have affairs. I was like, buh? There were so many complaints, though, that EA apparently fixed a lot of the the big issues.

Though I'm paranoid now after playing with it like that. And when I'm playing with my Sam & Dean and particular characters such as that, I have plans, know? lol. I'm like the evil overlord. ;-)

Anyway, just wanted to add--if mwmm23 says nothing much happens on story progression mode, EA has probably fixed a lot with the patches. The crazy must not be an issue anymore.

[lexalicious70.livejournal.com]

You can also turn off aging, too. If you're careful, and be sure to install smoke detectors over the stoves so they don't burn themselves up, you should be okay.

[savorvrymoment.livejournal.com]

Fire detectors! Omg, why haven't I thought of this? lol.

Every house is getting a fire detector from now on. Thank you. XD

[c00kie.livejournal.com]

I see you've already been helped, but I'm somewhat of an expert so if you have any additional questions, you can tweet me or ask me here if you need to. (Wow that sounded pretentious. Haha. Seriously though, I know way too much about this stupid game. *facepalm*)

When I first played I made all kinds of horrible mistakes. Poor Cas caught on fire and died, Dean tried to make out with Sam because I couldn't figure out how to edit the relationships, it was a mess. So don't feel like a noob, we've all been there! <3

[fathomlessspite]

You've already ahd your change active household answer :) As for sam's hair, you can set the hairstyle per outfit, you should be able to edit what you did in the original set up if you just go back to change appearance by clicking on him or on a mirror :)

I think you have to evict each household one by one to get an empty neighbourhood? i've never figured out any other way to do it, although that doesn't mean there isn't another way!

Also I've never thought to make Sam and Dean! With the Ambitions expansion pack there's a ghost hunter career as well, which would be appropriate :)

Was Sims 3 a christmas present? When i first got mine I was still a student so thankfully I had the time to become addicted for a bit lol.