1. A Sheep's Short Tale
Learning a Power Point Program and Playing
Around with The Sims 3
This quality work of art is brought to you by: peasant007

2. So, yeah, I'm a total sheep. When TS3 was first
announced, I thought that it would be this great thing
that I would abandon TS2 over; much like I did with
TS1. However, the more information that was
released showcasing the “features” TS3 had to offer,
the less I wanted the game. This was, of course, all
before “The Horror” thread started over at MATY; that
thread just validated my reasons no to buy the game.
Not only did the game play sound unappealing, but I
had just discovered Boolprop.com and all of the
legacy stories over there. How I wish I would have
found out about that site sooner, but I digress. I
started my own legacy story about six months before
TS3 was supposed to be released, and I wanted to
finish it before I decided to play around with a new
Sims game.
Nuh huh. No way, Jose'. Not gonna get it.
So, what did I do almost first thing June 2nd? Baaaaa!
After playing around with TS3 for a couple of days, I
figured I would show a few pictures from my game
AND learn how to use Impress; all so I can continue
writing the Devereaux and Yax familes. Frankly, I
found myself missing them and I am anxious to get
back to them.
So, here are some of my opinions of The Sims 3.

3. First things first. I knew going in that the entire
neighborhood would age and die without my playing
with them. I didn't realize how painful that would be,
though. Not that I was attached to any of the Pre-
Mades, but it solidified the fact that if I were to do a
Sims 3 Legacy story, my family would really only have
one kid per generation.
The picture above is of Bella Goth, er, Bachelor and
Malcom Landgraab. My game is playing with High
Free Will, Story Progression On, and Aging On. As it
stands currently in my game, Bella is an elder and is
NOT married to Mortimer, who is also an elder. I
thought with Story Progression On that they would
get married; this is apparently not the case.
As a person who DOES play her spare families this
was unappealing from the get go. Heck, even as a
regular player, I get bored playing one family
constantly, but I LIKE having all of my families meet
each other and interbreed. The literally culls
randomly, and I would hate to lose a family that I like.
I realize that this MIGHT be appealing to some
players, but really, what was wrong with playing
families in rotation?

4. So, speaking of spares, I decided to recreate Lillian for
this endeavor. From memory, this is the best I could
get. Admittedly, I didn't spend a WHOLE lot of time
on modifying her face, but for some reason, whatever
I create in CAS looks almost completely different
when playing the game. Anyway, she has a fat head,
even when I changed the shape size. She looks
weird, doesn't she?
Lillian here was assigned the following traits: Evil,
Insane, Inappropriate, Family Oriented, and Lucky.
Her favorites were: Pop music, the color black, and
PB&J sandwiches. She also likes long walks on the
beach and would love to spend time with that extra
special someone...
Honestly, the Evil trait made me laugh the most; a
close second being Insane. Evil Baths, Evil Dances
(not that they looked any different from the usual
ones), and best of all, Donating to Undermine
Charities was funny. Plus she cackled and talked to
herself constantly, which is what she's doing in this
picture. Much like her TS2 version, she gave some of
the best evil faces.
Upon further consideration, I should have replaced
Inappropriate with Charismatic, as that would have
been more in line with her other self, but her wearing
all the wrong clothes at all the wrong times made me
giggle. Then again, Insane did the same thing. Oh
well.
An interesting note: When you pick their LTW, it
gives you five options based off of the traits you
chose. Lillian, of course, chose to be “The Emperor of
Evil.” Other sims created can have different options.

5. The graphics are pretty, but honestly they aren't that
much better than TS2. Seriously, as I was playing the
game, Keith walked in, glanced at my screen and
asked if I was playing TS2.
When I read everyone talking about how great the
loading time is, I feel sad. Are people really that
stupid? When TS2 came out, a bare bones game also
loads that fast; it's just years of gathering CC that bogs
a game down.
No load time to get to places: so what? Essentially a
save game treats the entire neighborhood as a
household. What are we giving up so we can get to
Central Park faster?
I know that this all sounds very negative so far. I
know that people will say “that's just because you're
used to TS2.” They would be correct, I suppose.
Don't get me wrong, I actually LIKED this game. God
knows I spent an insane amount of time playing
around with it, staying up until the wee hours. It IS
addictive...but as a different type of game. I don't
look at this as the dawning of a new Sim era.
It's kind of like the Sims, but it's not. Actually, it's an
awful lot like the Sims for Playstation; you focus on
one family and their goals and dreams. That's what
this was all about.
Of course, Sims 2 is also like that, but as J.M. Pescado
put it, Sims 3 is a game to beat then put to the side,
Sims 2 is a toy. I agree whole heartedly with his
assessment. I can see myself becoming bored with
this game so much faster. I can't really build my
terrible terrible Pleasantview and rule over all of them
with an iron fist if I can only play with one family with
any real success.

6. Speaking of success, I totally cheated the entire time.
Whenever a new game comes out (that's not a
MMORPG) I play around with it in Debug Mode so I
can see how it runs without having to actually worry
about dying at all the wrong times. Then I replay (in
the case of RPG games like Oblivion) the entire thing
without cheating. My husband tells me that I am
unusual in that respect and I am fine with that.
Anyway, I got Lillian married off to this guy, Milton
something or other. It's hard to tell who are townies
and who is a playable, so I don't know how that will
work out when Pinstar rewrites the Legacy rules for
Sims 3. I guess one has to stick specifically to NPC
characters. Anyway, Milton was apparently a
playable. One thing I learned, when getting married,
the Sim selected for the entire process is the last
name the spouse will take; NOT the one who initiates
the action. That was rather irritating.
Another irritating thing is the romantic actions. Every
time you have to go through this enitre process of
flirting and hugging before they get to kissing; even
when it's a husband and wife of many years.
You also cannot customize maternity clothes. And on
the subject of maternity, giving Lillian a whole week
off, no choice, when she was having a baby was
obnoxious. Her LTW was to become “The Emperor
of Evil” and having to wait a week before getting a
promotion got real old, especially since time move
SO REDICULOUSLY SLOW! There is no difference
between Speed 2 and Speed 3. Turning down the
graphics did not help.

7. Babies are babies. Much like Sims 2, you cannot tell
what or who the kid will look like until they hit toddler
age. All the babies have the darker skin tone and eyes
and the only difference is what color the blanket is to
show what the gender is.
However, a positive point is you can determine what
sex the baby will be by what the mother eats during
the pregnancy; watermelons for girls and apples for
boys. This is great news for people who might take
the Matriarch or Patriarch handicap. No more having
multiple babies of the wrong gender as you wait
patiently for the new heir to be born. But then again,
where is the fun in that?
Babies have viewable needs, so they are much higher
maintenance than their TS2 versions. They are also
babies for three days instead of the one.
Needs decay very quick, at least that's how it looked
to me. As soon as Lillian got done snuggling Tabitha
here, one sim hour later Tabitha had the “lonely”
moodlet and wanted to be picked up again. Gone
are the days where you can just leave the kid in the
crib and wait for them to age to toddler.
Because Lillian was cheated into a high mood for the
entire pregnancy, I was able to pick out Tabitha's
traits. Even with Debug Mode off, the traits wouldn't
stick. I would have to go back into Debug Mode,
Shift Click on the sim, and reselect the wanted trait;
sometimes four or five times.
With a born sim, you don't get to pick what their
favorites are, and you also don't get to customize their
voice. This leads to your created sim having a unique
voice, and all born sims having the same voice that
was assigned to them. Beauty marks are also not
genetic, nor can you give them when you are
changing their appearance.

8. There is some semblance of genetics I suppose.
Milton had some very dominant genes, so they would
override Lillian's pale skin and blue eyes. Tabitha is a
dead ringer for Milton, she inherited nothing from
Lillian. Look at those eyebrows crawling on Tabitha's
forehead. They look like caterpillars!
Another nice thing though is when you want to
change a toddler's appearance, they can go to the
dresser and mirror themselves instead of having their
parent pick them up and carry them to accomplish
this.

9. Toddlers are useless after they were potty trained and
were taught to walk and talk. They only learn three
skill points total on the xylophone and logic blocks;
there is no bunny head to learn charisma from. The
worst part of this is that toddlers remain at that age for
seven days. Seeing as time crawls, this was painful as
they do nothing of use.
So, of course, Debug Mode went back on and I aged
Tabitha up.
And I had to keep picking her new trait three or four
times before it stuck.
For the record, it was not the Debug Mode that was
causing the trait to not stick. I tried regular aging with
the cheat mode off, and it STILL didn't work. I had to
RESORT to using the cheat mode. I know that if a sim
doesn't have a good age period the game will assign it
a trait, but that wasn't the case. The game let me pick
and it wouldn't stick.

10. There is the ultimate positive part of the game. I
absolutely LOVE the color wheel and design option
on most things. I can live without new meshes for
now; I love how I can make a signature outfit for a sim
and totally coordinate their surroundings. Because
Tabitha had the “good” trait (I made her like the
female version of Zane) I decided that all of her stuff
would be pink, cream, and brown to Lillian's black
and dark purple.
Then it eventually spread out over the house.
The house is now looking suspiciously like something
a Squeaky Clean character wouldn't mind living in.
Poor Lillian.
One of Tabitha's traits is also Artistic, which means
she likes excels at painting and the guitar. Seeing as
there is no piano, and kids can't use the guitar until
they are a teenager, Tabitha spent most of her free
time in front of the easel.
A note on taking pictures: the mouse is too sensitive,
so it is hard to get a precise angle. Plus, you have to
put the walls up and be on the floor that the target on
is before you go into Camera Man Mode. It takes
some getting used to, and I still haven't perfected it.
It's a learning curve, I realize, as I know using Camera
Man Mode in TS2 took some time getting used to.

11. Getting your sim to do anything takes FOREVER. It
took Tabitha almost two hours to age up and blow
out her candles; it wasn't a nice, quick age transition.
Once again, as time takes forever, this was painful.
There also is no party timer, so I had no idea when
her birthday party was going to end, or how well the
party was going.
By the way, you cannot customize the birthday cake,
so you are stuck with a uglier version of the Sims 2
cake. In fact, I noticed that most animations and
items come directly from TS2. One of the saving
graces of this game is the fact that you can customize
everything, so I don't know why you can't customize a
cake. Or stairs and fences for that matter.

12. Lillian eventually met her LTW and became The
Emperor of Evil. That's why she's glowing red
here. What's funny is the fact that the guy I
created (Michael) for Tabitha to marry also had
the good trait; so whenever Lillian walked by
either of them, they would both “Boo” her.
So, these sims don't have memories anymore,
they just have moodlets. Okay, that's fine.
However, when you meet their LTW, it becomes
locked and you don't get an option to give them a
new one. They also don't stay satisfied forever
like the Perma Plat status in TS2. Instead they
have a Fulfilled moodlet that lasts for 7 days, and
then it's back to babysitting them.
I realize that Perma Plat came with University, but
I was under the impression that meeting their
LTW in TS3 would be similar to that. Before you
meet their LTW, you have the option to buy, with
Aspiration Points, a chance to change their LTW.
That option goes away once their LTW is fulfilled.
I really wish that option stayed there forever. I
could deal with having to spend 30,000
Aspiration Points to give them another chance to
be Fulfilled for another week.
Oh, but I'm sure that option will be in an
upcoming expansion pack.

13. Honestly, I put this picture here because it made me
laugh. Tabitha and Michael just got married and are
on the bed to Try For a Baby. Lillian followed them
into the bedroom and stood by the bed with the
thoughts of having grandchildren running through her
head.
Remember, Lillian is Family Oriented; both here and
in TS2.
Notice the nice coordinating bedspread and curtains?
Much love for the color wheel option.
I also should have given Michael some socks for his
outfit; I didn't see them when he was standing up in
CAS, so I thought they wouldn't be noticeable.

14. So Tabitha had a a daughter (assured by the fact that
she ate a bunch of watermelon) named Morgan.
Morgan was not born with the blond hair, but she
DID get either Michael or Lillian's blue eyes.
Anyway, that was when I learned that a bunch of the
kids books helped with skill building. Which ones I
don't know, because skill points don't show up until
the kid hits child age and uses that skill; then they start
at level three. This was a cute and new animation
though; Tabitha reading with Morgan.
This is when I also came to appreciate, once again,
the humor of the game designers. Three of the
children books had a very distinct Dr. Seuss sound to
them:
* “Frank I'm Not” Which would be, I'm assuming,
followed with a “Sam I Am”
* “Oh the Destinations You'll Briefly Visit” which
would be “Oh the Places You'll Go”
* And my favorite, “Blueish Eggs with a Side of
Pastrami” which is of course, “Green Eggs and Ham”
I may be sometimes resentful of how EA games
handles their business actions, but their game
designers have never failed to make me laugh. And a
sad thought just occurred to me; with how illiterate
some of the BBS people are, I highly doubt that they
would even get the Dr. Seuss Easter Eggs. /sigh

15. When someone is helping a child with their
homework, they will actually sit on the floor with
the child. That animation of the “Help Child with
Homework” interaction is new. The actual
animations of the kid doing homework is the
same as TS2. However, if the kid isn't getting
help, they will actually do their homework at a
nearby table. In fact, they will autonomously do
their homework if they aren't directed to do
something else, and their homework sits in their
inventory; the kids don't place it on the ground or
some other random area where you have to look
for it. That was a very nice feature.
A nice thing is with elders, while they will
automatically age into white hair, you can go to
the mirror and change their hair color back to
their original color. Lillian doesn't look like an
elder sitting here. BUT, Elders have such frumpy
looking clothes, so I couldn't give Lillian an outfit
that looked exactly like her Adult one.
Lillian lived to be 96 days old. Milton died at 90.
Lillian had the Heartbroken moodlet, and
everyone else had the Mourning moodlet for two
days. They would stop what they were doing and
start crying over Milton, and then Lillian when she
passed on. Fortunately for me (not really them) I
had purchased the Moodlet Manager item with
Aspiration Points, so I was able to zap away their
bad moodlets.
I turned the house next door into a community lot
(nicely enough, with only a click of a button) and
made the Merryweather Mausoleum. The ghosts
will occasionally come out of their graves and
wander around town, sometimes taking a cab to
get to their destination.

16. Apparently birthday cakes can set on fire.
When this game was announced, we were told that
the Sims were smarter than their predecessors. That
is a big, fat, huge, bald, BLATANT lie! They will run
from all over to panic over a fire. They also have
MAJOR pathing issues. All of those people piled up in
the doorway; they had been like that since they were
told to gather around and watch Tabitha and Michael
age up. Morgan has the Brave trait, so she was the
only one not doing the “FIRE!” panic dance. But,
she's patiently waiting for the people to move out of
her way so she can extinguish the flames.
No sims died and eventually I got Morgan to call the
Fire Department who came to put the fire out. Then,
with a click of a button, I was able to replace all of the
burned items; that was a pretty nice feature.
Once again, I love the color wheel. See the pretty
pink walls and floors? /glee

17. So, the game is rated a “Meh.” It's okay for what it is. It is
entertaining and addictive like the other two, but I felt
myself missing some of TS2 features; and I'm not even
really referring to stuff that came from expansion packs.
Memories, better pathing intelligence, and prettier sims.
Compare this stock picture of my SimSelf to the first
picture. It's not really that much of a difference, and I
think this one looks better. I LIKE the cartoony look TS2
has over the Pixar Entertainment look TS3 has. In fact, if
the color wheel would have been introduced to TS2, it
would stand as the far superior game to this day.
I will continue to play TS3 when I'm bored, but I will
prefer TS2 for quite some time yet. TS3 was not the giant
leap from TS2, like TS2 was to TS1. In fact, I remember
when TS2 came out and most people had no problems
abandoning TS1 for it (despite what all the big, huge,
FLUFFY BBS sheep seem to think. They are only 14, what
do they know?). Now I'm reading about how people
played TS3 and uninstalled it. That DID not happen with
TS2. Oh well.
So, that's it. It was okay, but more importantly, I've tooled
around with this Power Point program to feel comfortable
enough to do a Devereaux update.
Thanks for reading, and I hope the template isn't too
bothersome.
The End