The Sims™ 3 Community Blog
: September 2013
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Do You Want to Change the Future?

Sul sul! 


The thing I love the most about The Sims 3 Into the Future is that you can leave your mark on the future whether it is on a personal level or a grander scale. From influencing your family’s future lineage to manipulating the threads of time to create a happier or dirtier Oasis Landing, there are various ways for your Sim to have an impact. While experimenting with these changes, be sure to check out the Almanac of Time as it is a handy guide to all the impacts you can have on the future!


One way to affect the legacy of your Sims is through their descendants. Your Sims can actively change who their descendants will be, what they’ll be like, how many there will be, and even what kind of lifestyle they’ll have. Sometimes it’ll take a big change like winning the lottery to affect the descendants, but don’t be surprised if even something small will alter your descendants! Things like getting married, having children, dying, buying real estate, and traits can all influence your descendants. I love constantly modifying my Sims’ lives to shape and reshape their descendants, but don’t get too caught up and forget to visit them and say hello! Again, the Almanac of Time is a great resource for information on descendants and will even help you locate them in Oasis Landing! 

 


If your Sim is more interested in becoming famous in Oasis Landing, then he should try to achieve a Legacy Statue. There are five different Legacy Statues that recognize specific Sims for their contributions in shaping the future! You can earn one of these statues for yourself by performing specific tasks in the present day. After you’ve successfully accomplished this then the next time you visit Oasis Landing go check out that particular Legacy Statue and you might notice the statue now looks like your Sim!  The Almanac of Time shows how achieve each statue and the associated unique reward. 

  


But if your Sim wants to go big, then what could be grander than influencing the state of Oasis Landing for everyone!? There are two directions that you can help push the future towards: Utopian Oasis Landing and a Dystopian Oasis Landing. Once you’ve started to understand the future’s advanced technology a little bit better, you’ll be able to talk to the Time Traveler about changing the future and he’ll help guide you through the steps to affecting the future! You can’t expect to change the future without a little work. Don’t be surprised if you have to spend some time doing things like measuring cheerfulness or convincing other Sims that the sky is falling in order to set the present on a path of change.


If you decided to alter the future in a positive way, you will find Oasis Landing different than before! In this utopian flavored Oasis Landing, your Sim will quickly notice the colorful trees, delightfully oversized flowers, rainbows, and the visibly happy residents! The residents walk with a carefree spring in their steps, and enjoy dancing with themselves and hugging each other. Their whimsical happiness is contagious and if your Sims gets inspired by this wonderland then they might notice they too can inspire other Sims to dance and hug. 


 


There is plenty to do in this utopian world! The delightfully oversized flowers are not only pretty to look at, but you can also shake them to harvest dew. Throw dew at other Sims, or even yourself, to change their hair and skin color. You can also blow dew bubbles and have dew fights. 


If your Sims needs some quality alone time then they should go fishing. It’s no secret that I have an inexplicable fondness for snails, so if you do too then you might catch your very own Rainbow Snail by fishing while you’re here! And as your Sim is wandering out and about, he might just stumble upon a Rainbow Knoll, and if they’re lucky enough then they might find a Pot of Gold. So go exploring and enjoy Utopian Oasis Landing!



If you went the dystopian route then you will find Oasis Landing littered with not only trash piles, but with danger and the unexpected! Meteors falling from the sky, and geyser rifts cropped up all over the world! These geyser rifts are Designer Chris’ favorite part of the dystopia! If your Sim is feeling brave then she can jump into a geyser rift and do some exploring. Who knows what might happen to her while she is down in the ground! Maybe she’ll find a collectable, become a lightning magnet, start glowing green, or some other unexpected consequence! 

 


While this may all seem a little chaotic and overwhelming to your Sim, the Sims of Oasis Landing have adapted quite well. They don’t mind being a little stinky and you’ll see them not only searching through trash piles for useful objects, but you’ll also see them jumping in and playing with the trash! Their fondness for trash and geyser rift exploration aren’t the only oddities of their behavior as you might even see these Oasis Landing residents eating something surprising… 



Bugs! You heard that right! With all the bugs crawling around, the Sims decided to give them a little nibble and to their surprise found them satisfyingly scrumptious. Now your Sims can learn from their example and become a bug eating connoisseur! Your Sims might not like eating bugs right away, but once they become more comfortable eating these creepy-crawlies they’ll start to offer bugs to other Sims to eat. My favorite part is that once your Sims is scarfing down bugs like it’s no big deal, they can eat bugs no matter what world they’re in! So if my Sim is feeling a little hungry and is closer to the great outdoors then the nearest café then she can simply look for a bug on the ground. Super convenient!  


 


If, after all this experimentation your Sim just wants to get back to the normal Oasis Landing, don’t worry! At any point if you don’t like what you’ve done to the future you can always change it back to its normal state. Travel back to the present and ask the Time Traveler for his help with repairing the future and the future will be back to normal before you know it!


I can’t wait until everyone can check out all the fun things you can change and alter in The Sims 3 Into the Future! 


Happy Simming! 


Lauren

@SimGuruLauren


16:40
19/09/13
Posted by: SimGuruLauren

1010 Things You Should Know About Plumbots

Hey Simmers! 
Today I’m happy to be able to share more info on one of my absolute favorite parts of The Sims 3 Into the Future – Plumbots! From the very beginning of this pack, we set out to make Plumbots feel like a natural evolution of everything fans loved about bots from older Sims games, just bigger, better, more customizable, and more durable. We had so much fun acting out bot animations and telling crazy bot stories. Here are a few fun facts to get you ready to play with the future and Plumbots!

1.  Plumbots are an integral part of the household of the future. Most families in the future have at least one bot to help out around the house, and several service industries have enlisted Plumbots to do work like firefighting and pizza delivery. 



10.  Programmable Personalities! One of the things that set Plumbots apart from all other beings in The Sims universe is their ability to change personalities with the flip of a trait chip. Without trait chips, bots are pretty simple creatures; you only need to keep their batteries charged and their chassis tuned. Trait chips hold the personality programming for your bot. With a simple Adjust Trait Chips interaction, you can change your bot from fun-loving to evil in a snap!

11.  There are dozens of trait chips available for Plumbots. Competent Cleaner is a great trait chip for some instant help in a messy house. Need some help in the garden? With the RoBotany Gardener chip, bots will automatically tend the garden and fertilize plants – no ingredients needed! The Office Drone chip will allow your Plumbot to get a job and earn some simoleons for the household. If you’re looking for a bot with a little more humanity, give Sentience a try. This chip is the closest program to humanity that a Plumbot can equip. And of course the Efficient and Solar Powered trait chips are always good to have on hand since they will help your Plumbot run more smoothly. 


100.  For players who want to dive deep into the world of creating and customizing Plumbots, a Bot Workshop is the place to start. Improve your Bot Building skill by Designing Nanites and Trait Chips. Nanites are one of the building blocks for bot trait chips; you can learn how to make them by Designing Nanites on the Bot Workshop or find them in the wild. By Designing Trait Chips, you will learn how to make new trait chips for your Plumbots. 


101.  Create-a-Bot! With a little Bot Building Skill, you can use the Bot Workshop to create and customize a Plumbot in the brand new Create-a-Bot Mode. This mode allows you to customize everything physical about your bot. With tons of heads, torsos, arms, legs, and hovers to choose from, the options are endless! Try out patterns on your bot with Create-a-Style, and of course share your unique creation with friends on the Exchange when you’re done.

110.  Bots are upgradeable! Improve your Bot Building skill to upgrade Plumbots. Upgrades will allow bots to equip more trait chips at once and expand their personality. With a high Bot Building skill, you can also improve the quality of your bot as you give them tune ups. Having a higher quality level will make your Bot run more efficiently and use less battery power. These upgrades increase the value of your Plumbot (should the day come that you want to sell your metal friend).

111.  Plumbots are self-sustaining. Bots are capable of tuning and charging themselves, but with the right trait chips installed they can do so much more! Create a household full of bots equipped with Office Drone, Limitless Learning, and Sentience trait chips, and you never need a human again!

1000.  Romance is in the silicon. With the Capacity to Love trait chip, Plumbots can simulate all the gushy feelings human Sims love to express. Bots can even woohoo with each other in a variety of places; for a great new woohoo spot, look no further than the Bot Workshop! Of course, since Plumbots aren’t human, they don’t reproduce like human Sims, but with the RoboNanny trait chip installed your bot will take excellent care of your little ones.


1001.  Plumbots can project the future! With a Holo-Projector chip, bots can help you contact your friends in the future so you can keep in touch, even when you’re separated by time and space. Who needs a phone when you have a Plumbot?!


1010.  While visiting the future be sure to swing by the Nuts n’ Bolts Bot Emporium. The Emporium is a great place to purchase bots with pre-programmed personalities. The helpful Sales Bots will also be happy to sell you finished trait chips for your Plumbot as well as a wide array of ingredients for making trait chips in your Bot Workshop. No need to use valuable Lifetime Happiness Points to buy a Plumbot! If you want a bot of your own without the work of making it from scratch, this is definitely the place to go. 

Whew, that was a lot of bot-related info! I hope your circuits aren’t overloaded. Out of all the features in The Sims 3 (including Witches and I really liked that one), I had the most fun making Plumbots, and I really hope that you love playing with bots as much as I do. I can’t wait to see the fantastic creations and stories our amazing fans create with Plumbots! Happy Simming!

00:57
11/09/13
Posted by: SimGuruFooLiz

The Sims 3 Island Paradise Has Docked!

Wow! Can you believe  The Sims 3 Island Paradise  launch day is finally here!? What an adventure this project has been! In fact, it’s been exactly one year since the very first meeting we had to figure out the theme for the 10th expansion pack for  The Sims 3  . And, despite it being the 10th in a long line of great  The Sims 3  titles, I’ve never been more excited for the launch of any game I’ve ever worked on!  The Sims 3 Island Paradise  is a huge expansion pack that adds major features for everyone – regardless of how you play  The Sims  . From houseboats and resorts, to uncharted islands and scuba diving, I can’t think of any other TS3 expansion that added so many new major systems and ways to play. But you guys already know all about what’s in the pack! So instead of using this blog to recap all of the great things in  The Sims 3 Island Paradise , I thought I’d share a few tips and tricks so that you can dive into your very own paradise as soon as you get your hands on it.



•    The easiest way to get into resort management is to “buy” Hobart’s Hideaway. This once, beautiful resort has fallen into disrepair and needs a lot of work, but it’s a great way to kick start your resort empire without too much financial commitment! Due to the state of the resort, it’s going for the low, low price of §0.00! It will get you into resort management much quicker than building one from scratch.
•    There’s a multitude of different ways to discover uncharted islands. Some can be discovered by simply exploring the area around them via boat, and others will take a little bit more investigation. Try talking to some of the local Isla Paradiso residents, as they have inside knowledge of the surrounding islands and may send you on a quest for discovery!
•    Scuba diving opens up a whole new underwater realm for your Sims to explore. But it can be dangerous! Make sure to acquire the Scuba diving skill by snorkeling first before you try heading out into the deep waters.
•    Keeping guests at your resort happy is a tricky thing to do! Amenities and fun objects found in the Resort Objects Tab in Build & Buy Modes are key to making sure your resort guests have a great time. Happy guests can mean a successful resort!



•    When it comes to houseboat living, the ocean is your backyard! Move between ports whenever you’d like, or leave the landlubber life behind completely and make home sweet home in the middle of the ocean.
•    Scuba diving Sims may encounter a mysterious mermaid from time to time beneath the waves. Becoming friends with one is key to revealing the secret behind transforming your Sim into one of them!



•    When it comes to building houseboats, there are many hull sizes and shapes to start with. If you’re building a smaller houseboat, ladders and the All-in-One Bathroom are crucial for maintaining a functional household in a cramped space.
•    AQUA SLED!!!!! Different boats travel at different speeds. So if you’re looking to get somewhere quick, save up and purchase an Aqua Sled or Speedboat for your Sims. Both will get you where you need to go (which can be a very long way in Isla Paradiso).

And there you have it - some hot tips to get you up and Simming on the sunny shores of Isla Paradiso. As always, and even more so with this expansion pack, I can’t wait to hear about all the fun you’ll have with  The Sims 3 Island Paradise  - I’m always amazed to see the content and stories that we didn’t even think were possible being told and created by you. Until next time Simmers, Shaka Brah!

-SimGuruRyan

00:48
11/09/13
Posted by: SimGuruFooLiz

Mermaid Madness

Mermaids are a new occult life state in The Sims 3 Island Paradise! Mermaids are a lot like regular Sims, but they like to spend their time swimming, preferably in salt water. As expected, Mermaids are more versatile in the water than regular Sims. They can swim faster, stay underwater indefinitely and, if they have the Evil trait, they have the special ability to Summon Sharks!



Mermaids Sims have beautiful fish-like tails when in water and scaly legs when on land. Their scale colors can be adjusted using the “Change Scale Color” interaction on the mirror. Female Mermaids will also be able to adjust the color of the seashell tops they wear while swimming with this interaction.




Mermaids have a “Hydration” motive that is fulfilled by water activities like swimming and bathing, and if you have The Sims 3 Seasons, even walking in the rain! It’s important to pay attention to this motive since Mermaids are creatures of the sea, they are easily dehydrated. If their Hydration motive gets too low they will start dry out! First they become chapped, then they get flakey (eww!) and finally they collapse from dehydration. If this happens, another Sim needs to revive the Mermaid by pouring water on them otherwise they’ll get a visit from the Grim Reaper!

Of course, Mermaids can have children. If a Mermaid falls in love with another Mermaid (woohoo!) they are guaranteed to have Mermaid offspring. A Mermaid and a regular Sim have a 50/50 chance of their children being Mermaids. 



Mermaids can eat the same foods as regular Sims, but they prefer tasty kelp and fresh fish. This makes them very popular with cats if you have The Sims 3 Pets! It is rumored that there is a secret, uncharted island known only to Mermaids. If your Sim is lucky and befriends a Mermaid they may let you in on the secret! 


00:45
11/09/13
Posted by: SimGuruFooLiz
 
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