Sims talk: Free Time

[strangetomato]

I really want to chat about the Free Time EP. I'm getting really excited about it, but I definitely won't be installing it until I see if there are any potential issues with it, and the first patch is released (since we all know that there will be one). So, if you don't mind some spoilers, let's chat.

I found this page, and it gives a lot of detail about the new features. I've already read about a lot of these things, but a couple of  "news to me" things did catch my eye. Especially this part:


Secondary Aspiration

One of the options that players will more enjoy will be for sure the possibility to choose a secondary aspiration. In this way our Sims will have an even more complex and realistic personality. To set a secondary aspiration you just need to click on Aspiration Benefits icon and choose the aspiration you like, Grilled Cheese aspiration included.


*squeals with delight*

Do you have any idea how excited I am by that? There are so many characters in Strangetown that should have this, in my mind. I love, love, LOVE how this will make them more complex. And it's a way to have them change over time, while not changing their basic aspiration (which I don't plan to do with the Maxis premades).

The new creature is a genie, like in Sims 1. This doesn't excite me all that much. He's not even playable, which seems unfair. Shouldn't he just be an NPC? And didn't they already do the wishing well? *sigh* I really wanted another playable creature with breedable genetic qualities! They just haven't been able to come close to doing anything as good the aliens, have they? Not even close.

Comments

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

I'm itching for this one, too. (true confession, I just ordered the prima guide--I even paid for shipping, well, I couldn't get freebie shipping since I didn't spend enough).

But anyway. . .

I've been sniffing around the threads at MATY (since the sims 2 comm is not giving me any details I can USE--come one people!) and I saw this:

Children can use the toddler toy (table?) with toddlers. OOOh, that excites me.

You can see baby's needs (so no more having to make them selectable--though I never did that, if they're crying it's only because of three things, figure it out, right?)

Sims can sing to babies/toddlers (not sure on that) and teach them lullabys etc. Oooh, so effing cute.

And there was something (I'm confused on this, so I might be wrong) sims can "get better" at their aspiration (maybe that's the secondary aspriation thing) and they get perks as they "get better" at their aspiration (or perhaps that was their hobby?). Again, the conversation was weak on that so. . .

All the kid/toddler/baby stuff has me wiggling.

I really want this expansion (even with my secur rom fears). I wouldn't get it until after I finish off Peculiar Book 1, though. That would be the best time to try out new stuff (and have to go without inSim/SimPE--might wait for inSim if it looks like it will update quickly--I hardly use simPE anymore and could go on a cloning spree before having to go without it).

I haven't read about any major bugs yet, either. Though I know they're there. People were reporting annoyances (like stuck hobby objects and the "hobby guy"--sounds like he's akin to the garden club woman--hand delivering an announcement and being dumb) but those can easily (and quickly) be addressed by the MATY folks.

I'm still worried about secur rom, though. I've read so much stuff (horror stories from BV) that I can't even figure it all out anymore. But if FT is relatively bug free (and even half as interesting as it seems) I'll risk it.

What I still want to know is: Will the "more" likes/dislikes from BV be included?

OH (yeah, I'm rambling, sorry) NEW CAREERS!!! (I just made a sim of my wife and he could give up his culinary career for architecture, though to hear him bitch about his real life job, maybe his sim self is better off in the kitchen!)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

There seems to be way more interaction between the different age groups, which is so great. I'm very excited about that.

I saw something about "getting better" at the aspirations. It does apply to their normal aspiration, and it's sort of like the business perks. For example, a romance sim can unlock things that make their hygiene decay more slowly or give them an extra chemistry boost. It sounds cool.

New careers are exciting too. (And I didn't know that your wife is an architect. That's cool.)

I'm willing to risk it for this EP too. It seems to be really worth it. I'll give it at least a week to be safe.

I do think I will be lost without InSIm, though, for the story. Does that usually update quickly? If not, I may have to do a couple of chapters where the characters just take up new hobbies. (No. I refuse to have that happen. There will be no "look at my new EP" chapters in Strangetown.)

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

Well I pre ordered mine with the Prima Guide from Amazon.com on the same day and they are both supposed to come today, although this morning per Amazon's website only the Prima Guide has shipped (humph) even though the delivery date for the game is still Feb 27th (shrugs).

I guess I'll find out soon, lol!

I'm going to install it right away! (WHEEE!) I don't have any story games going on and nothing it would kill me to lose, so maybe I'll be your guinea pig!

I love the secondary aspirations too! Makes so much more sense. I've often said my husband is a Knowledge/Romance. A faithful Romance, but a Romance all the same, thinking about woohoo every second. (Well we *do* have six kids, lol) and I'm Family/Knowledge. So I like that aspect of the EP.

I'm curious to see what secondary aspirations you all give to our favorite Maxis characters!! All I know for sure is Vid is going to be Knowledge/Family. Ripp will probably be Romance/Family for me (that ought to be interesting!)

I'm sure I'll be back...

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're brave! Well, I hope it goes well for you. It really doesn't seem to have the same crazy bugs that BV had. *knocks on wood* I'd love to see some pics when you start playing with it.

Ripp really should be Romance/Family in my mind too, as fucked up as that may be (and well, the boy is not particularly well balanced). I see him as wanting that, deep down, but also fearing it (like in that dream he had). I wonder how the wants/fears of those two aspirations would interact?

I have some ideas for the other characters too, but I will have to give it all a nice long pondering, to see how I can make it best suit my story.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Please, once you get it installed and play around, share with scaredy cats like me who have to hear all the good and bad before I venture forth.

[ikichi.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of ashamed of this, but Free Time is one of the huge reasons I'm itching to get a new 'puter (though mine is pretty old, functional or not).

I think I'm gonna follow Madame_ugly's lead and grab the prima guide. Though I *do* want some surprises. I'll just leave it on the shelf until I get stuck).

I'm so excited about the toddler interactions, and the new instruments. The secondary aspiration is something that's been needed for a while. (I saw screencaps of it somewhere but I'm not sure where...) The genie does seem like a wishing well for people w/o seasons. Granted, I still haven't had a werewolf, but I'm already bored by Zombies and Vamps. (And bigfoot seems boring. Ditto the breedable creatures! Nothing is more awesome than aliens! (and they just *look* a little different! that's it!)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I want the guide now too.

It's funny, isn't it? The aliens really don't even DO anything special. It's just genetics. But that's all we really want.

I do think that Servos are cool too, though I haven't even had one yet (one day soon).

[music-simbol.livejournal.com]

"Is there something new for people that like aliens?
Unlocking knowledge aspiration benefits you can summon aliens and be abducted by them."

i think you'd find that useful. madame_ugly as well.

(back later to talk more)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yes. I remember reading that. Very cool. I can do that with cheats, but it's nice to have a legitimate in-game method.

I do hope there is more to the alien thing, though...

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

*sim dials a long twelve digit number on a special phone*

operator: Intergalactic Bell, how may I direct your call?

caller: Yes, I'd like to schedule an abduction.

operator: Yes sir. I'll patch you through.

----------------

LOVE IT.

[simpathology.livejournal.com]

The new creature is a genie but without playability. Damn it, I was hoping to breed in something new and exciting into my families of aliens. I probably should suck it up and install the minute I get the game, but I want to wait until my hacks are all updated. Granted, most of the Pescado and TwoJeffs hacks I have are already listed as either in the works or pre-gameplay reformatted, but the ones I'm really leery of playing without are InSim (even if I don't use it all that much anymore) and SimPE. I guess I can go on a cloning spree though....

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I was browsing the BBS, and I see that there are some weird glitches being noticed, like losing money when you return home from work, and the return of spontaneous combustion. *snicker* From just playing the violin, for example.

This is why I will wait...

And I really do need InSIM. Group scenes would be impossibly hard without them. And scenes that take place on community lots? Forget it. I need InSIM.

[soma910.livejournal.com]

I love how we can now age up to 3 friends of our Sims on birthdays without hacks. No longer will I feel weird when an adult Sim is best friends with a child!

I've been excited for this EP since it was first announced, since normal mundane things like hobbies really appeal to me. Regardless of the predetermined interests, I'm going to have my main Sims master everything! :D :D :D Okay, maybe not bird watching/nature.

The new career items sound very cool as well. The Koi pond will be awesome since I'm not that great at building natural looking ponds. Too bad we can't fish in them, but then again, that would seem slightly twisted, haha.

There are more aspiration rewards like needs falling slower, but I'm afraid that'll make the game... easier. I had to get rid of the snapdragons because my Sims never needed to sleep after that. Oh well, it's not really a big issue. I micromanage my Sims so much they never need to complain. This allows me to loosen up I suppose. :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those adult-child friendships can be a little odd, but maybe not. It could be their child's friend. (I have some friendships forming between children and non-related adults in my prosperity 'hood. Sims don't seem to let age hold them back.)

I totally agree. Hooray for the mundane! It's the little details that do it for me. It makes it more "real" in all the right ways. I've even heard some mention of new personal interactions, like between the new BFF category (which is also exciting! J/R/O can be BFFs! I'm way too excited about that...) there is an interaction where they tell an inside joke. Too good.

Hey, what's wrong with bird watching? *snicker* It's not like it's "nerdy", right? ...right?! (I love how varied all the hobbies are.)

Yeah, having lots of things to make the game easier, leaves more time for hobbies! ^_^ (Like the snapdragons keep your employees happy at work - it serves a very useful purpose.)

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

How about those pics in the sims 2 comm?

It's official. I'm getting this EP. But I'll finish Peculiar Book 1 first. That should give the modders time to fix any issues and I'll know what's bad about it by then.

(and the clown makeup--too funny, I was looking to download some for potential use in Top Model--how freaking perfect)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It was great to see those pics. I'm getting so excited. (And it's nice to see something positive on my friends page... those sim_rants are starting to grate on my nerves. By that's a totally different topic, and I'll just hold my tongue.)

I will be doing the same. I simply must have this EP, and I'd love to have it right now, but I'm going to wait too.

Heheh. That's awesome. Clown makeup. (Oh, and my SO made his simself uglier, but he might be TOO ugly now. Is there such a thing?)

Some of the new clothes in Free Time looks really great. I really like the preppy stuff, and the layered outfits are sort of odd but I really like them too. They'd be great for certain characters. And that gypsy-type bohemian thing (must be the "artist" look - LOL). Oh, and how could I forget the ballet outfits for men? So good.

The architect drafting table looked great too, didn't it?

[katsuko]

*deep breath* If my copy shows up early, I'm considering going ahead with the install. I'll be a beta-guinea pig (womrat?) for hacks to check 'em out, including InSim - I just downloaded the most recent version and plan to plunk it into my downloads after installing Free Time. And if it works, you can bet I'll be crowing about it in simpathology.

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

I installed Free Time last night. My sister went to Houston yesterday and asked me if I wanted the EP, so I had to make sure it'd run in my computer before risking spending money on a game that maybe wouldn't run at all.

So, I "arrred" it through bit torrent, something that makes me feel a bit guilty. Nonetheless, I'm glad I did it, because now I'm sure it runs in my PC (and it seems you are allowed to try a game for 24 hours) amd I'll have my copy this Friday after all.

Anyway, so far, I've only played for an hour or so with my "spare lot" (Helena's lot) and it's awesome. There are a lot of new options and things to do, and I'm sure we'll all spend a long time trying them out.

Your previous sims are assigned a certain number of "Aspiration points": 6 if they are elder, 5 if they are adults, 4 if teens and so on. You can spend them right away and there are four "paths" like OFB that you can follow to use them: For example, Helena is a romance sim, so I gave her the four rewards for the Romance path (increased chemistry, social and hygiene decay is slower, something about being well known as a "Casanova" and the "smooth talk" interaction, that you can use if you are caught cheating). With the remaining point, I unlocked the knowledge aspiration for her (with three more rewards if I get enough points in the future). The other two "paths" are related to slower motive decay (from fun to energy at the top) and work (you can get more vacations and the chance to get your job back if you are fired).

I hope this made sense :(

Oh, your previous sims also have a "predestined hobbie", but you can have them follow anyone you want. Helena was assigned the "nature and garden" hobbie, but according to her story, I'm making her also follow the arts and crafts hobbie.

Something I noticed is that my sims LTW changed when I installed the pack. Helena now wants to be a "Rock God" instead of an artist and *spoiler* Ripp now wants to woo hoo 20 sims, instead of reaching the top of the adventure career. I haven't seen my other sims, but that's a bit annoying, because I was really looking forward to have Tim reach the 100000 LTW.

By the way, reaching a LTW no longer gives your sim the perma-platinum status. You now have to fill your "aspiration" bar, and reaching your LTW is one of the ways to do so. You get points when you get married, have babies, get your first woo hoo, etc. So no more "boring" elders.

You also get something called BFF. If you are really close to a sim, he becomes your best friend forever, and has a special yellow icon. That sim can't get angry with you, has a much slower relationship decay and you get new interactions like "inside joke" :D.

Finally, you can walk to lots now! That was one of the reasons I wanted BV, but it's available in FT too!

Anyway, if you are interested in something else, I can take pictures, so feel free to ask ^^.

(The only problem with FT is that I can't use Insim now :P)

[redqueenofevil.livejournal.com]

This is a good intro to what we can expect. Can you tell us more about how the secondary aspirations affected your sims? Also, have you used any of the new objects like the sewing machine or violin? If so, for the violin, even if you're a high skiller in creativity, do you have to start at 0 on the violin? (This is how it would be IRL), or are you just awesome on the violin as soon as you pick it up?

[hcraig480.livejournal.com]

I've been playing with FreeTime for the last few hours and so far I love it! I always check out the new characters that Maxis makes with new EP's and I have found my new favorite. His hobby is tinkering and it's fun to figure out all the ways he can explore it.

There are enough extra things that weren't mentioned in the adds to make the game exciting. My favorite is the Reading hobby. There are lots of different types of books the sims can read and there is a new parenting book. Sims can finally be good parents! I have a feeling I'm gonna be up for a long time tonight.

[saunasims.livejournal.com]

I got Freetime this afternoon! I've been savoring it, I haven't even installed it yet. But gleeeeee. :D I shall be postin' pictchas etc asap. Including checking if the new fancy abductionamation also has a new animation!

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

Well it appears Free Time gives us a little glimpse of Sims 3! Hubby brought the game home (bless him!) and I began playing in a lot with Ajay Loner. Well, this NPC comes and places a gift on the doorstep and it contained a computer that looks like the ones in Teen Style Stuff but a little different. The popup message said something about "things to come." Well, I had Ajay sit down and start playing on it, and one of the options was to play The Sims 3! (Mind you, I don't know if it was this "special" computer or all computers in this EP because I had been playing all of five minutes when this happened.)

Anywho, it appears we will be getting more body styles in The Sims 3, as evidenced by Ajay's game. It showed a BBW (big beautiful woman) sim!! Squee!

Just thought I'd share!

More to come... oldest of my spawn is pestering me to play...

[80sfiend.livejournal.com]

EEEK! That's really exciting!!! :D The Sims 3 is going to be so amazing, I mean The Sims 2 is already so AWESOMETASTIC. :D

[saunasims.livejournal.com]

I'm using the Curious brothers as my guinea pigs, by the way. Pascal's already got the 'summon aliens' benefit, but I decided to mix things up so Vidcund's now part Family and Lazlo's part Pleasure. Aaand.. Vidcund's got a very appropriate favored hobby out of his (pre-destined, regular ol' first time you play with the brothers) abduction!

Warning: huge pic.

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/9184/vidcundsq8.jpg

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

Okay let me just say that I really, really, really, really wish we could pick or change our sims' "secret favorite hobby" or whatever it's called. It's annoying, to say the least, that the game picks this favorite activity for your sims that doesn't seem to fit with what you have in mind for them whatsoever.

For example, I created a ballerina sim. Her secret favorite hobby is tinkering. I also created a hick sim who has all these junk cars in his yard and works on them but never gets any done, and his favorite hobby is music and dance. Arrrghh!

'Nuff said.

It's not so bad finding out what a sim's secret hobby is if you don't really have a storyline in mind. Like it was cool in my game to see Lazlo interested in Nature, Johnny and Ophelia both interested in Music and Dance, and Ripp in Arts and Crafts. Some even made sense, like Pascal, Vidcund, and Loki were all science buffs. Likewise, the General's favorite thing is Fitness.

The game does look at their personality and interests to choose the hobby, so most of the time it makes sense; at least a little. But it's just annoying if it totally doesn't line up with the storyline you have planned and I wish there was a way to change it, KWIM?

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

Also wanted to add that I've been using the BV version of the Insim and it seems to work fine. Granted, I haven't tried all of its parts, but it's not doing anything wierd like spawning pieces of itself all over hither and yon.

Also "pregnancy wear any outfit" seems to work and so does "no autonomous dirty joke."

Those are the only hacks I've installed so far. I've been just dealing with all the congratulating and pillow fighting. Sigh.

I did read in the Prima Guide that FT makes some activities more/less attractive for certain age Sims... for example, an adult won't be as likely to run off to the swings. That's a relief.

[cindyanne1.livejournal.com]

Speaking of the ballerina sim I mentioned above. Here's a picture of her teaching her "ballet class" (yes they can teach, but no, not like this... I totally set this picture up!)

Anyway, the girls are the Ottomas girl, Jill Smith, and the Traveller girl. Awww... aren't they cute?