Generations

[MDPthatsme]

I saw that Pink expressed some comments on the new expansion so I decided, "We need a thread for that." Here we are!

How is everyone enjoying the new expansion pack?

Personally, I didn't even know one was coming out, but I'm regular TS2 player now.

[Deleted]

It's brilliant.

Memories back at last. More easily accesable than Sims2, it lets a Sim have 300, but you can delete, rename, change the descriptions of them which is great because although the met so and so are gone, you get the first time they went to book shop, or the park etc. But it's great to see how you chosen spouse partied before you, who they kissed, and crushed on etc.

They seem to get caught out cheating a lot easier, although I haven't necessarily been totally descreet, but it's great that the non-playable Sim can break up with a playable. Even if it is at your wedding party because he sees your ex who also happenned to be married wondering out of the bedroom in his undies. Although it may have been that the three involved were famous so it got in the paper.

Daycare profession-haven't got very far with it, it's like dealing with more demanding than normal toddlers.
But the strollers are great. Actually functional, and the water slides, wedding cake/arch, and everything. Hopscotch is great, even if it creates tons of wish spam. But the best bit is kids can play submarine in the bath and get clean at the same time. It's the cutest thing to watch.
Afterschool classes for kids, boarding school-different ones gain different skills, and they cost 800, but parents cana ctually want to send them to a specific one. My teen girl kissed a guy, so the dad wanted her sent to the school of peace and love. And I haven't got there yet, but prom and graduation parties. Oh the field trips at school are great. And the cemistry table has some great potions. Although not all them seem so thought out.
And the new traits, I haven't fully played with yet.
The midlife crisis wishes can be avoided, but they get some great wishes. Flirt with certain Sims, plan an outfit etc.

[Deleted]

I almost forgot the age sliders are fantastic as you can choose exactly how many days you want each age range to last, so you could have it 1 days as a baby shorten old age etc but lengthen Ya and adult.

[MDPthatsme]

I found this YouTube review channel. The guy there is great. He really gives a great review.

13pumpkin and I went and bought Ambitions and Generations...we're having a hard time getting the custom content to show up in her game...right now, we're uninstalling and reinstalling, re-patching. Ugh.

[jennifer]

Wow, great in-depth analysis Pink! Thanks!

I've got a query regarding our teens going to school though. I've heard this isn't like TS2 University in any way but I was curious as to whether teens can go off to college or Uni?
The EP sounds like we get a lot of cool objects and new interactions but I can't help feeling that I'm going to be disappointed with this one.

[Kiri]

It's interesting Jen, I think a lot of people felt that way - because there was a fair amount of negative comment at N99 about it. But there's been a survey since - and it's now looking that Generations is going to end up being their favourite expansion.

I think if you go into it with the expectations that it's rounding out what is already in the game, rather than adding a new tier of playing - you're likely to feel better about it.

[Deleted]

No uni at all. There's boarding school, but you don't see that, likewise if you ask them to pull pranks at school you don't see them happenning either. I haven't seen prom yet about how much if anything you see of that.
But I do like midlife crisis, it lasts a week when they age to adult, and they get some weird random not their usual selves wants.

[simslia]

I enjoy the expansion and some of the new things.

I turned one of my kids imaginary friends into a real person, he's an adult now, and I"m toying with the idea of him marrying in to start the next generation. (That my have been a spoiler for my future legacy, but since its not in cyberspace existence yet, I will choose to continue and not block it or anything).

I love the new toys, and I really do think that there are so many great additions, like having your kids be read to to fall asleep, and playing at the park, and the prom is fun (although all my sims keep being sent home from boarding school to attend prom, which is bogus because then they just stay at home even though it says they are in boarding school, and then the 1600 dollars it took to send them to Smugglesworth prep school means that it is wasted because they don't get to graduate from there.. I'm assuming this will be fixed in the future).

Overall impression, 4/5 plumbobs.
I really want Uni. Like. Really want Uni. But I would want it where if my Uni child went to University I could control what they do there like it was their house and what the rest of the family is doing at the same time. Not that it was some separate world like in TS2.

[dbloveshermac]

I like Generations; it adds a lot for each lifestage (well, maybe not babies), and especially makes the YA -> A transition more interesting.

My one complaint is that it seems to have made my sims stupid or put molasses in their veins. I give them a command and they just stand there for a sim hour and don't do what I told them to do and miss the bus or the carpool. :-( Is anybody else experiencing this?

[Deleted]

Yes, not contstantly and mainly in my larger families or hoods. But not as much in my test families, which tended to be small. But they do tend to be slower than normal doing the carpool, bed, and bladder related things especially.
Little bit annoying. I don't know of a fix though.

[Rad]

Yeah, the Dayes are slower than a slow, slow thing. The Knights seem OK though. The Populouses crash to desktop so much that I'm looking into running them with an any game starter mod and excluding Generations.

[jennifer]

Rad: Funny you mention that because my game has been really slow since installing Generations. AND, I've had that really annoying crash to desktop as well, along with a little message saying, "The sims 3 has stopping working, windows is trying to find a solution..." bla bla bla.
Added Generations .exe file to the DEP settings and restarted. No luck though, it's still crashing after about 1/2 hr playing. Haven't got the energy tonight to figure it out. I need a break. lol

I will say this though I do love some of the new clothes and objects included in this EP. Oh and egg throwing....classic!

[Deleted]

Save Day care career for an empty house then. 2 toddlers at level 1, 3 for level 2. Really slow to do-invest in the toddler rides, and have a second adult at home so both can be riding at the same time. Gets their fun done better anything else, and if they both completly thrilled you could probably do a promotion in 2 days. Maybe 1 if your really lucky. And do it with a man. Maternity leave would be a waste of time with it, as none of the desired qualities can be done whilst not working. Although I think you can emergancy cases whilst on leave.

There's egg throwing?

[dbloveshermac]

Egg throwing is one of the pranks, Pink. I had a teen (who woke up having a mood swing) roll up a want to egg someone's house.

I started a new play family after getting thoroughly fed up with it taking one of the Foliages three hours to go to the bathroom. I wanted to at least play the game a little before getting back into slow-as-molasses legacy land again. So I made a couple and had one of them do the daycare thing. I had given her the nurturing trait, and it was really easy for her. The only challenge was keeping the potty emptied.

[bunnylita]

I'm a little terrified of running a day care center. How many kids show up?

And I like the teenager mood swings. Although I wish some of the pranks weren't pulled at the school rabbit hole.