strangetomato | Sims talk: Free Time

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Sims talk: Free Time

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.

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GAH! Now Amazon is saying it won't ship until March 4th??? No way... methinks they just didn't have enough staff to unpack all the boxes and get all the pre-orders shipped on time and surely I'll get it before THEN. Geez.

Anyway I'm having hubby stop at our local Wal-Mart and see if its there on his way home from his farm meeting today. If it is, yay! If not, I suppose I'll just have to wait. Bummer.

At least I'm getting the guide today tho... so I'll be able to plan what I want to do with all of my simmies.

Like I said if it destroys my game in the big fiery ball from space, it's no biggie... because I don't have much going on. So I'll be happy to post all the good and bad if ya'll don't mind spoilers!

*snicker* You're like me. I love reading the whole Prima Guide before even getting the game (sometimes I even dogear pages, such a nerd I am).

I for one would love to see any and everything you want to show. The good, the bad, and *snicker* the ugly. I don't consider it spoilers. I consider it being an informed consumer.

Okay, shameless plug here... feel free to ignore, lol.

If you've ever been on sexysims2.com, (it's terribly X-rated, I know (blush) but I have "anatomically correct Servos" there for download. They are servos that look like sims and are really fun. They're in the adult section because they *can* be adult, but they don't have to be. I play with them normally (shrugs)

I made them using Christianlov's mirror, which unfortunately is no longer available for download. Sigh.

Anyway, if you'd like to take a look, they're on that site. My username is the same there, Cindyanne1. Granted, they're not for everyone. Some might find them downright creepy, and that's okay, lol!

/end shameless plug

*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.

You can get a "servonochores" fix at MATY. I got it before I even made a servo. I think it also keeps them from leaping into the pool and frying themselves.

SERVO RIGHTS!!! (sorry, the Servos of Nocheat will never let me live it down if I didn't write that)

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?

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.)

Well, I hope it's just a mistake... but maybe they're just "burning up" the violin with their awesome playing. :P

There does have to be a new death too, right? I wonder what it is...

One of Ripp's aspirations really should be romance (If I recall, even your family Ripp was pretty slutty. Heheh.)

I love the secondary aspirations. I can't really say it enough. Aspiration changing never really worked for me, since I can't imagine anyone just changing so drastically (well, the aspiration reward items re-programs them, so that's funny and appropriate). This way, you can alter part of their personality, but leave some the same. It's just right.

Yes. I love it too.

I wonder how they summon them, and if it will be a cool animation. It might be usable for my story, if someone has to get in touch with Stella after she leaves the planet.

I think I've heard of skins for servos that make them look more human before. That's interesting. Sort of like a cyborg. (And I've been to the site before. Some of it is VERY adult.)

Also, I didn't know that you made content. That's very cool. I really intend to at least recolour something one of these days. I want to produce some CC as well as consume.

I've never heard of Christianlov's mirror. What did it do?

But they don't have to be slaves, right? They're just like sims.

(I really need to read up on the Servo Rights movement in Nocheat.)

I'm looking forward to the assigned hobbies as a source of comedy too. I won't stress over it (unless we really can't change them, but there has to be a way - there is for everything else.)

Hmmm, I WONDER how you would use that crab conversation bubble? *snort* The same way I would. It's up there with the pearl necklace icon.

New conversation balloons could be very interesting...

Nice. I love it. Is there anything different about it, though? Or is it just an instant abduction? I would love there to be a different sort of animation. I could REALLY use that in my story.

Well I don't really make a lot of stuff, just those Servos (giggle) and a residential lot on MTS2 and a few sims on MTS2 and that's it. I wish I was better at making stuff... I can't get over some of the things out there!

I don't remember everything Christianlov's mirror did, but you could make any sim look like any other sim... which is how I was able to get the Servos to look Simlike. See, Maxis gives each Servo a random facial structure and hair (I figure because hair color is a turn on item) but it always has default 001 skin and default 001 eyes (light/brown.) Anyone can make a human-looking Servo with Insim... just use the age adjuster. Age the Servo down to a teenager and then back up to an adult. Bam... instant human-looking Servo. You can even use the appearance adjuster (since Servos can't use Maxis mirrors) to change haircut, hair color, makeup, facial hair, etc. but it will always, always, always have light skin and brown eyes.

There for a while I made it my mission to create a Servo with Bink's cyborg skin and Lyran's Ice eyes. I just thought it was the way Servos ought to have looked in the game! So I came across Christianlov's mirror, made a Sim that looked the way I wanted my Servo to look in CAS, put that Sim in the bin, and then used the mirror to change my Servo to look like that sim. Worked like a charm. The Servo still reverts to Maxis every now and then, but that's easily fixable with the Insim or boolprop.

Anyway, that's my Servo saga! I only wish I could make a default replacement Servo but that is beyond my capabilities, lol!

I had it, but it was one of the hacks that just stopped working when I installed pets (like marriage equality, etc. I took out all my hacks and cc when I installed, and enabled/ checked for current versions but still nada).

I felt super guilty so I moved her out and got her married.

I just didn't know what to do with her! My noservochores wasn't working and if I left her alone she'd just. keep. COOKING. D:

I'm a big supporter of Servo Rights. But Nervous was constantly in near failure until the twins were kids. And I didn't know my hack wasn't working. And I am ashamed. :(

*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.

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)

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.

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?

Sure, I'm gonna try the violin right now.

The "Multi-painting" works with Free Time, so I'm gonna see if it changes with a sim with high creativity points or not. Wait a bit! :)

(agreed on the sims rants, it's like ranting for ranting's sake, like all the good topics have been exhausted)

As for your mate's sim being TOO ugly, have you ever seen the adult version of Eugenia Bendett full on? http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y165/MadameUgly/EugeniaBendetTeen.jpg (that's her as a teen when she went through her blond phase). I seriously doubt your mate is THAT ugly.

I can't wait for creators to start recoloring the clothes (or for someone to do a conversion so you don't need the expansion--I love those).

The drafting table did look good. I think it's the career reward. I wonder what it's like when a sim teaches another on it (and if kids can be taught on it).

I thought the same thing. Your sims' phone bills are going to be CRAZY.

No, trust me... he's uglier than that! *snort* He has the largest nose ever. And ears. And brow. I'll send him along, and you can see for yourself. He has some mad ugly going on. (Not in real life... just to cover my ass here. *snort*)

(Here's a question to prove how clueless I am: I saved his sim in bodyshop, so that's in Saved Sims, right? But how do I know which file he is?)

Oh, me too. I hope they get moving on those conversions right away. Some of those child and teen outfits would be so great for adults too. And I want to see billions of argyle sweater recolours. I want more argyle than I know what to do with.

The kids can get taught on all career rewards, can't they? Or are the newer ones different (I'll admit that I haven't even seen them all yet).

It he's TOO extreme, he might not be included. Like I said, I want all contestants to be roughly even, so no obvious first one out or winner. (if the sim is really that freakish, he might be good for a dilution challenge--hmmm)

Yeah, if you saved him in body shop he's in your saved sims. But he'll have a number for a name. I'd say go into simPE and see if you can see his number (it should be on the character screen). Or, if that doesn't work (now here's the dingleberry way I'd do it), clone him and name him then just delete the extra one when you're done. I've never had to send a sim that wasn't a clone (read: renamed) so I'm not sure.

I think all kids can be taught off teachable career rewards but I'm not sure if the drafting table is interactive like that or one of those "mood" things (I'd guess interactive but with maxis you never know--the seasons career rewards were a mixed bag--though the journalism one is good like snapdragons).

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Sims talk: Free Time

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