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Instructor
#51 Old 24th Jun 2010 at 4:08 AM Last edited by Celebriton : 24th Jun 2010 at 4:48 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by sakrayami
Teens in Sims 3 have no free-time, they live in a dictatorship. They are supposed to work right after school, even in weekends. Teens have no time for girlfriend/boyfriend, they have to do lessons, work, eat and sleep. On top of that, they can't stay out too long, the police is coming after them treating them like criminals driving them home in a police car. Where a yelling mom or dad is waiting to act even more like dictators.

They also get extra tasks from school, which is ridicilous. I know i can ignore it, but usually when i play with teens i give them the job where they can sleep while working. And i use "testingcheatsenabled true" to keep their needs up - else they won't reach do to do the homework or gain skills. I know there must be some hacks somewhere where teens can have some freetime, and stay out late. But i am not sure if i will use it untill i am sure it does not crash my game. Any advices for a "safe" mod to use, so my teens can be out later and get out of this dictatorship?


What kind of question do you ask?

Everybody do the samething as you discribe it in East Asia. This is normal, what do you hope for teenager and children, more time to play???

This is for their future too, if they want to recieve better life in the future, higher salary up to USD 10-20 higher than average workers a month, etc........they need study harder and no time for playing. :p
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Instructor
#52 Old 24th Jun 2010 at 4:53 AM Last edited by CormorantEnt : 24th Jun 2010 at 5:18 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by tjstreak
Which group of kids live happier lives? Probably the second. (I was in the first group and largely view my high school and college years as a waste of time and money.)


My family has had to deal with both extremes. I would not say that either extreme by itself will bring happiness to anyone.

No matter how booksmart someone is; if they don't have common sense, then they're never going to be happy. There will always be that one swindler who gets them and crushes their dreams.

And living the opposite way is nice for a while - until your closest associates all become criminals and end up in jail and you can't afford your own bills and medical needs; and your kids turn to crime to not starve.

Knowing what Higher Being or higher cause you have wrapped your life around, and that you're headed in a direction beneficial to that, will bring a lot more sense of resolve to someone than either extreme of the economic or educational ladder.

I realize the Sims has never been adequate for exploring that. However, I find that those who do live this way tend to become more balanced in terms of social development versus academic development.

Truly beneficial education is also at least 70% self-taught or done through self-research. This is difficult for the modern education system to adapt to, as it is built entirely on the Statist assumption that central planning always knows best.

Yet, I see your point. I went to Lansing Community and to Ferris. In terms of content covered in the academia, LCC was probably more comprehensive most of the time. Overall, not much difference.

However, Ferris was far more organized. Plus, the student body living on campus was dependent on each other for a lot of things. Therefore, there was an environment present that encouraged limited socialization and...dare I say it...clique alliances.

At LCC, it was an every-man-for-himself mentality. The guidance counselors at both colleges, I've found, were less-than-reliable for helping me out. I learned a lot more about how to apply my education through trial and error than I ever did from their suggestions. It's not to say they were useless, just not adequate.

Concerning Sims, I tend to agree with you that teenage Sims should not be under so much demand. In Nightlife, I usually use the Education Adjuster to set their school as "no school." I force them to have As and argue that they were home schooled.

That way, I can use them as actors and actually get something done with them. I just use money cheats all the time as well, because if we can't follow them to work, jobs are meaningless.

Quote: Originally posted by summersong86
I'm still very stuck in the control freak Sims2 environment.


Sounds like those are things I'll have to keep in mind once I have a computer than can handle Sims 3. I would like to be able to use it for storyboarding, but much like you, I don't think I could ever leave behind Sims 2 and its absolute control.

Mobility and environment detail are things I thirst for; but to forfeit total control is to forfeit what the game would founded upon. Sims 2 anatomy may have its flaws, and the engine may be broken in many ways, but I'll hang on to it even after I can support Sims 3. Why? Because like you, I LOVE being in control!

Sims 3, from what I'm reading, is too much like Spore. And I have no use for Spore.

You can find me on the Sims 4 Gallery as DozerfleetProd. If you have XBox One or PS4, please test out my creations, and let me know if / how well they work on consoles.
Instructor
#53 Old 24th Jun 2010 at 5:35 AM
Quote: Originally posted by CormorantEnt
Sims 3, from what I'm reading, is too much like Spore. And I have no use for Spore.


What? You lost me. I exert complete control over my Sims in 3 at all times. Granted, I use mods but the Sims I care about do little without my okay.

Otherwise, I think being a kid is like being an adult: you get out of the experience what you're willing and able to put into it. I spent my teen years chained to the yoke of college-prep and then spent my extra-long college years learning how to have fun. Now that I'm an adult with a family of my own, I'm just now learning how to do everything in moderation, from enjoying my son and husband, friends and relatives to going back to school for an actual career.

In the Sims, my teenagers get to an A and then do the things they want to do. I don't give them jobs because they don't get to move out with their money so what's the point?

As an example, I have a teen whose LTW is to be an author. He's already 4 points into the writing skill with two published works under his belt. He also has a committed girlfriend, likes to do the laundry for his mom, helps with his three younger siblings and is the darling of his girlfriend's family. He's holding out for the lifetime reward for writing but is already sitting on 10k points. I'm pretty happy with him! Hee.
Fat Obstreperous Jerk
#54 Old 24th Jun 2010 at 11:47 AM
The key to understanding life is the realization that it is never, at any point in your life, ever a good plan to act your age. If it's an age-appropriate thing to be doing, it's probably the wrong thing to be doing. If I conducted myself in an age-appropriate manner, I would be dead! It is, however, important to always remember what is best in life: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill because they pissed me off.
Banned
#55 Old 24th Jun 2010 at 2:15 PM
Quote: Originally posted by CormorantEnt
Concerning Sims, I tend to agree with you that teenage Sims should not be under so much demand. In Nightlife, I usually use the Education Adjuster to set their school as "no school." I force them to have As and argue that they were home schooled.


Actually, this was not my point. With the Sims, you can experiment. You can have one good kid who goes to school, does his homework, graduates, gets a job, has a family, retires and dies.

Or, you can have a bad kid, who cuts class, doesn't do his homework and does not follow the program.

Or better yet, you can have both in the same family.

One of the strange lessons of the Sims is that the well trodden route is not the best. Getting and remaining in a ho hum career for your life is not the route to either wealth or happiness. It's the sims who travel a different path, who go into business for themselves (e.g. gardening, fishing, writing, painting, adventuring, etc) who do the best.

So the problem may not be too much homework or too many demands from a career. The problem may be the decision to let other people (teachers, bosses and the like) to dictate how you will live your life.

Yes, the Sims does have important life lessons.
Field Researcher
#56 Old 24th Jun 2010 at 3:30 PM
I find the teens very boring. I usually just age them to young adults A.S.A.P. LOL
Instructor
#57 Old 24th Jun 2010 at 6:48 PM
Quote: Originally posted by tjstreak
Actually, this was not my point.


Thanks for clarifying. That makes a lot more sense.

You can find me on the Sims 4 Gallery as DozerfleetProd. If you have XBox One or PS4, please test out my creations, and let me know if / how well they work on consoles.
Scholar
#58 Old 24th Jun 2010 at 10:59 PM
My child sims dont go to school because they dont learn much there anyhow. Rabbotholes are boring.


"When the moon is in the seventh house
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars"
Instructor
#59 Old 24th Jun 2010 at 11:07 PM
all my kids are all school and no play, lol i don't know why. i guess i don't want them staying home since its really stressful for me tending to their needs.
Field Researcher
#60 Old 25th Jun 2010 at 2:23 AM
Quote: Originally posted by tjstreak
Actually, this was not my point. With the Sims, you can experiment. You can have one good kid who goes to school, does his homework, graduates, gets a job, has a family, retires and dies.

Or, you can have a bad kid, who cuts class, doesn't do his homework and does not follow the program.

Or better yet, you can have both in the same family.

One of the strange lessons of the Sims is that the well trodden route is not the best. Getting and remaining in a ho hum career for your life is not the route to either wealth or happiness. It's the sims who travel a different path, who go into business for themselves (e.g. gardening, fishing, writing, painting, adventuring, etc) who do the best.

So the problem may not be too much homework or too many demands from a career. The problem may be the decision to let other people (teachers, bosses and the like) to dictate how you will live your life.

Yes, the Sims does have important life lessons.


In the real world, you can't make a living off of 10 plants.

In the sims, you can. Outstanding and perfect plants can be 10-15 simoleons a pop and if you harvest 10 a day, that's 150 dollars. That's about the same as a day of work in a career.

In the Sims, regardless of what your book is about, you WILL get some royalties. Regardless of what your name/notoriety is, your painting WILL sell for soemthing. That's not true in the real world.

If a sim wants to join the science career or the education career and they're happy doing it, and they want to make friends with their coworkers and they do, and they want to get a promotion and they do, I say they're living happy lives. So what if they are taking a mainstream career?

Check out my new blog - I Think My Cat Is An Alien
Fat Obstreperous Jerk
#61 Old 25th Jun 2010 at 6:07 AM
Quote: Originally posted by CleoSombra
In the real world, you can't make a living off of 10 plants.
You can, but it's a bit more challenging, since you have to avoid being busted by the Feds.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill because they pissed me off.
Theorist
#62 Old 25th Jun 2010 at 7:40 AM
OP Sakrayami: I understand, TS3 seems like a way to do things you can't do in rl yet has these limitations - no alchohol only juice, no partying, no teen woohoo or marriage or driving, and no experimental substances. But your sim doesn't need a job because there are no separate accounts afaik. But if you are roleplaying them as working teens then cheat away or accept that taking honors classes and having a job that pays well ( without asking for a degree ) and having a life is very difficult / impossible. You can get away if you use reward items like the mood master thing, iron bladder, and dirt resistant to cut down time if it doesn't bother you to have your sim never use the toilet or shower.

Just so you know, everyone, adults and children, has curfew. Get AwesomeMod so that police aren't psychic and won't send you home unless the see you. And last is this: When you get around the age of 24 you will realize that teens are a bunch of whiney, think everyone should respect them yet they don't have to respect anyone, shop at Hot Topic, think crime and drugs are cool, selfish little brats. Teens should be herded like cattle and branded numbers on their rears so the cops can keep track of them, because they deserve it for their appalling attitude and sense of entitlement.
Scholar
#63 Old 25th Jun 2010 at 4:56 PM
Quote: Originally posted by J. M. Pescado
You can, but it's a bit more challenging, since you have to avoid being busted by the Feds.


Quote:
When you get around the age of 24 you will realize that teens are a bunch of whiney, think everyone should respect them yet they don't have to respect anyone, shop at Hot Topic, think crime and drugs are cool, selfish little brats. Teens should be herded like cattle and branded numbers on their rears so the cops can keep track of them, because they deserve it for their appalling attitude and sense of entitlement.
Today 01:07 AM


Funny, that's what we 40-somethings say about people in their early 20's.

What if one little pop could open a world of wonder
So sensory, so satisfying. It's the magic Friskies makes happen every day in so many ways
Friskies, feed the senses. Cat sez eff that, gimme cheezburgers.
Fat Obstreperous Jerk
#64 Old 25th Jun 2010 at 5:19 PM
The rule is that those DAMN KIDS are all like that. As you get older, the age it takes before someone stops being THOSE DAMN KIDS gets larger.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill because they pissed me off.
Instructor
#65 Old 25th Jun 2010 at 5:24 PM
Quote: Originally posted by J. M. Pescado
The rule is that those DAMN KIDS are all like that. As you get older, the age it takes before someone stops being THOSE DAMN KIDS gets larger.


I agree with Pescado. Now the interwebs must explode.
Banned
#66 Old 25th Jun 2010 at 5:27 PM
Quote: Originally posted by CleoSombra
In the real world, you can't make a living off of 10 plants.


In the game you can. Try life fruit farming and have an omniplant which you feed expensive books.

At one point I had one agricultural sim who would sell her produce for about 20,000 simoleons a week!

Quote: Originally posted by CleoSombra
In the Sims, regardless of what your book is about, you WILL get some royalties. Regardless of what your name/notoriety is, your painting WILL sell for soemthing. That's not true in the real world. .


I see the gardening, fishing, book writing, painting, etc. etc. as being surrogates for private enterprise. This is particularly true with inventing.

The real money, however, is in heavy industry (in Sims terms, making supernovium) I had one sim make over 1 million simoleons in pretty short order.

One of the aspects of the sims game is that it really does not allow for the possibility of failure. Every politician, if they stick around long enough, will become Leader of the Free Wold. Every business person will become the CEO of a megacorporation. Every musician will become a rock star. Every military grunt will eventually become an astronaght. All your sim has to do is go to work everyday and eventually he/she will succeed.

Anyone who has owned a business in the real world knows that failure is a real possibility. In fact, 95% of businesses fail within the first five years. (Or more accurately, the money from their small business loans run out by this time, and they no longer can claim losses from their business on their tax returns to offset other income.) People get fired all the time, often for no reason at all.

The other side is that most sims, even at the top of their careers do not make a lot of money. Most cannot buy a nice house without using cheats, or even a fancy car. One has to be creative to get rich.
Fat Obstreperous Jerk
#67 Old 25th Jun 2010 at 5:33 PM
Quote: Originally posted by tjstreak
The real money, however, is in heavy industry (in Sims terms, making supernovium) I had one sim make over 1 million simoleons in pretty short order.
If you don't have the fix in AwesomeMod, compendium is the way to go: Since every time you recompend a compendium, it gains percentage value, you get runaway exponential growth VERY quickly and will easily blow out int32 within a hundred moves, and int64 will overload in a hundred more. That's quadrillions of bucks.

Quote: Originally posted by tjstreak
Anyone who has owned a business in the real world knows that failure is a real possibility. In fact, 95% of businesses fail within the first five years.
The goal of a small business is to sell it to some bigger sucker before they realize that your business has no profit model. The business fails if you can't find a sucker.

Quote: Originally posted by tjstreak
The other side is that most sims, even at the top of their careers do not make a lot of money. Most cannot buy a nice house without using cheats, or even a fancy car. One has to be creative to get rich.
You're kidding, right?

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill because they pissed me off.
Forum Resident
#68 Old 25th Jun 2010 at 7:02 PM
There was a mod for Sims2 (I can't remember where I got it - here or somewhere else) that had a boarding school. You loaded the yuppy larvae into a bus on Monday morning and it returned them on Friday. You only had to "play" them on Saturday and Sunday. Hows that for a solution to the curfew? Ha, ha, you could send them to the Police Station rabbithole and pretend they're in juvie...

My cat taught me how to fetch. I throw the toy, she shows me where it landed, and I fetch it.
Lab Assistant
#69 Old 25th Jun 2010 at 8:07 PM
Dear Santa, for Xmas I wish for a teen expansion for my Sims 3 game, I also wish for them nifty Star Trek sporks, but we all know you're Chinese (all my gift says their made in China) and only eat with chopsticks, so no sporks for me... Anyway, I want a teen expansion with graffiti skill and pimples. And maybe some "steal my moms car" and shoplift interactions. Thank you!
Instructor
#70 Old 25th Jun 2010 at 10:03 PM
Quote: Originally posted by tjstreak
One of the aspects of the sims game is that it really does not allow for the possibility of failure.


In The Sims 3 that is true, not in The Sims 2 or The Sims were they could be demoted or even fired.

The problem is the game was developed to make sure the player could never "lose" and so the moment the player understand that critical failure cannot happen in any circumstance there is no point in playing, at least not bothering with gameplay elements that are simply padding.

This is a trend on new game were they are making the games a non-challenge (or when a challenge happens is due to poor design and not intended) and that is why we have stupid things as "no bills" aspiration rewards.
Lab Assistant
#71 Old 25th Jun 2010 at 11:48 PM
The Sims seems to represent teens pretty well. School, homework, job; school, homework, job; school, homework, job; school, homework, OHAI FREE TIME :D!; school, homework, job; homework, job... etc. Oh, and they play guitar/sing for eons if you leave them to their own devices. Rather realistic. Minus the singing part, I fail at singing.
Test Subject
#72 Old 26th Jun 2010 at 1:48 AM
This whole thread had me lol'ing. Especially Summersong's posts.

Girl, you really need to be a writer. That chiz is hysterical.

My teens aren't A+ students, a lot like how I am! I leave time for myself (being 17) to go run around and socialize with my friends, have a part time job, and do my school work. I try my hardest in school, but my hardest isn't, "MUST-GO-HOME-AND-STUDY-UNTIL-I-THROW-UP-TRIG." I almost wish the education system in this game was different, I wish they split it up into private/public again. I want my gifted teen simlets to go off to some private school that throws up homework on them until their balls are blue and suffocated. I want my less gifted teens, the ones who want to get that part time job (which should realistically only be three days a week, I mean come on. The way they have it set up is silly! Or maybe let the kids create their own work schedule some how, that would be very nice) or socialize with a thousand and one of their friends go and do exactly that.

In all honesty, my Sims get B's in school. Some have jobs, others don't. Some have a happy medium of work and play. I just wish the education system was different.

“Most beautiful dumb girls think they are smart and get away with it, because other people, on the whole, aren't much smarter.”
-Louise Brooks
Fat Obstreperous Jerk
#73 Old 26th Jun 2010 at 3:06 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Drakron
The problem is the game was developed to make sure the player could never "lose" and so the moment the player understand that critical failure cannot happen in any circumstance there is no point in playing, at least not bothering with gameplay elements that are simply padding.
You can be demoted and fired in the Pudding same way as in TS2. Left to themselves, sims seem quite adept at managing this.

Quote: Originally posted by Drakron
This is a trend on new game were they are making the games a non-challenge (or when a challenge happens is due to poor design and not intended) and that is why we have stupid things as "no bills" aspiration rewards.
The ironic thing is that the No Bills aspiration award is possibly one of the lower-yield rewards in the game. It costs a fair chunk of points, so you had to at least manage to play the game decently to get it, and for all your trouble, it probably only saves you like $100 a week in the average case. Bills have never been a significant gameplay element unless you mismanage things. Heck, they're not really significant in real life unless you're mismanaging your finances...which, sadly, most people do. It is apparently harder to succumb to the temptations of being a moron when you're controlling people in third-person. Just think of all that useless crap you keep buying that you would never give to your sims. If you stopped buying all that crap in real life, you'd be in much better financial shape. You, too, can live in a tent like a sim.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of those I had to kill because they pissed me off.
Test Subject
#74 Old 26th Jun 2010 at 4:24 AM
There still is challenge in TS3, so I don't know why that would even be an argument. Truthfully, I don't think the game is meant to be a third-person shooter or RPG, you know what I mean? Campaign options aren't really an "option" in TS3, it's really just a simulator of life with wacky occurrences and embellishments. :P

Perhaps it's less challenging than it was in TS2, but I don't think there is an incredible significance in the change.

And LOL at J. M. Pescado, for he is indeed right. MAYBE THIS GAME IS A LESSON TO SOCIETY. :o Ahaha, JK, but still. I think bills are more of a problem IRL then it is in the Sims, because even if you manage them properly, there are still fees that apply to reality and don't in the Sims. I.e. Hospital Bills - sometimes those far exceed what people are able to pay.

“Most beautiful dumb girls think they are smart and get away with it, because other people, on the whole, aren't much smarter.”
-Louise Brooks
Banned
#75 Old 26th Jun 2010 at 5:23 AM Last edited by tjstreak : 26th Jun 2010 at 5:40 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by J. M. Pescado
Since every time you recompend a compendium, it gains percentage value, you get runaway exponential growth VERY quickly and will easily blow out int32


Well yes and no. Trying to make money making compendium is like a ponzi scheme. Compendium works best with expensive metals -- the more expensive the better. Supernovium works best with inexpensive metals. Which metals predominate in the game: cheap stuff like copper and iron.

So, if you have a bunch of copper and iron, supernovium is the way to go. On the large display case, use four parts of whatever cheap metal is plentiful (usually iron or copper), then use one part of the other metal, one part gold, one part silver and one part something else. Use the cheapest stuff you can use. Figure that the cheap metals are about 25 each and the expensive one is about 200, you have about 375 in it. This will yield a piece of compendium worth about 450, or a piece of supernovium worth around 7500. One gives you a 25% profit, the other a whopping 2000% profit.

Now keep in mind that making the transformation costs 500. If you make compendium, you go into the hole about 50. If you make supernovium you have a net profit of 7000.

When you have a bunch of supernovium, it is now time to start making compendium. I have not played with the ratios yet, but you want to use say four parts of supernovium with something else. I haven't tried it, but you might try to go with 7 parts supernovium with 1 part of something else. That will give you a piece of compendium worth around 40,000. (4 parts supernovium = 30,000 plus the whatever else = approximately 40,000). In future iterations, you might try 7 parts supernovium with your ever increasing compendium -- gaining 25% with each iteration.

In the course of a single afternoon, your sim can make well in excess of 40,000. He basically runs the display case 8 times. This is much much better than any regular job in the game.

Quote: Originally posted by J. M. Pescado
[The no bills reward] probably only saves you like $100 a week in the average case. Bills have never been a significant gameplay element unless you mismanage things.


Have you seen the typical home which is uploaded -- they are freakin mansions. It takes a sim two hours to go from the top floor to the bottom floor. If he needs to take a leak, he will pee all over himself before he can reach the john!

I while ago, I designed a simple little house for around 4000. It was 3x3, on a 10 x 10 lot. While the idea was initially a joke, it probably is the best house I ever designed. It played like a charm.

First of all, bills were about 75 a week. And when your sim starts with 16,000 and only spends 4000, do you know what they can do? A lot.

For example, they can buy an interest in a business and receive an income of 1000+ a week without doing a lick of work. And they still have enough money left over, after buying their home and an interest in a business, to take several trips abroad.

The lack of crap forces them to go into the community to do things like exercising, and/or laundry. This actually helsp their socialization. They no longer can sit at home all day. They have to go out and meet with other sims.

Sometimes, less is more.
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