Don't get me wrong, now. I've logged literally hundreds of hours on Sims 3 since it was released in June of 2009. And thousands of hours playing Sims 2 and The Sims before it. I love The Sims 3. (I have to say this because whenever I criticize the game, people get pretty defensive about it.) But there are a few things which have really vexed me over the months.
1. Inventory Control
If you have been playing Sims 3 for very long, you have no doubt tried your hand at collecting things. The first advice I have for you is: save up your Lifetime Happiness points for the Collection Helper. I'm sure it's possible to collect things without the Collection Helper, but why would you want to?
The basics of collecting are simple. You go out and find things. You keep them, display them, or sell them. But there are a lot of finer points which it can be helpful to learn.
1. Skillz
There are two skills you need to be a great gardener: gardening (duh) and fishing. If your Sims are busy, you can have another household member actually catch the fish. Then just drag them into your gardening Sim's inventory.
These fish can then be used to fertilize your garden. They make a HUGE difference. Fertilized plants grow faster, yield more produce, and give produce of a better quality. The better the quality of the fish used as fertilizer, the better your results.
Justin and G's comments dovetail right with what I have been concluding:
1. Arlington ruins pitchers
2. Safeco ruins non-extraordinary RH hitters
3. A's never have enough money
4. LAAA suffers from no particular disability
As long as we're airing The Sims 3's dirty laundry, can we talk about its depiction of mental illness? I think the polite word to use in this situation is "problematic."
There are two traits that cover mental illness. The first is "Insane," which is about as problematic as you can get.
A Sim with the Insane trait:
Q. Any ML comps for this swing?
This weekend I got into a surprisingly long and involved conversation with a Simming friend about what I meant by "good" or "bad" traits. She hadn't thought about the traits beyond which ones she found funny. Admittedly I tend to overthink this game from time to time. (Not possible!) But taking a high-level look at traits can give your overall gaming strategy a big boost.
I define a good trait as one that:
I raced out last night and picked up a copy of Ambitions, the latest expansion pack. My VERY first impression was that this expansion pack takes a heck of a long time to install. I'm pretty sure that's true (and not just due to my impatience) because it turns out that THIS EXPANSION PACK IS WICKED HUGE. Also, AWESOME.
Fishing is a skill in The Sims 3, one which is greatly aided by the "Angler" trait. There are several dozen kinds of fish which can be caught, including those which were introduced with the World Adventures expansion pack.
With The Sims 3, every time your Sim fulfills a wish, they get Lifetime Happiness points. These also accrue as your Sim's life passes along, and in fact your Sim can rack up a fair number of Lifetime Happiness points just by playing the game.
