Expansion idea: Do-It-Yourself

[Angstrom]

I would really like to see an expansion pack where Sims can improve their houses themselves - or hire workers to do it.

The Build Mode would offer the choice between two options - Instant Build (which would function as regular build mode) or Plan. Walls, staircases, windows and other stuff built in the Plan mode would be visible as blueprints - transparent blue.

A household Sim - or a hired NPC Sim - would work at the planned structures until they are finished. The total cost for planning, and having a hired NPC constructing, would then slightly less than the cost of instant building. If the household Sims do the job themselves, they would save even more money, but lose time. (A family of really handy Sims would however be able to improve a house, improve it, sell it for a good profit and repeat this for a living.)

Building walls, staircases etc would practice Handiness. Creating floor and wall covering would practice Painting, and planting trees and bushes would practice Gardening.

Other features that would fit well into this expansion pack:
* Architecture career
* Pottery and Sewing
* Carpenter's bench for making furniture
* A Noisy, Dirty Concrete Mixer which can be bought to speed up home improvement - at the cost of negative moodlets for everyone on the lot.
* Protective clothing, used for construction, workbenches and gardening
* Laundry (decreasing showering/bathing time, but every time a Sim showers/baths they drop a bundle of smelly clothes which must be washed in a sink or a washing machine)
* New upgrades.
* A TV channel for home improvement.

What do you think?

[FalseZen]

Yelchy. Sorry, but I have to do enough laundry IRL. For me doing the laundry is not fun, IRL or in any game. lol :P

The rest of the ideas sound cool. I especially like the idea for the Carpenters bench. Selling the furniture or putting them in the house.

[simsfanforever99]

I think this sounds VERY extensive...but what else could we add with it ?

[Angstrom]

FalseZen: Hire a Maid.

The benefit would be less time spent in the shower and the bathtub. 30 Sim-minutes for a shower is too long.

[FalseZen]

Why would I want laundry in my game if I'm only going to hire a maid anyway? lol

Sorry, but not everyone is going to agree with you on every single thing you would like to see in the game. I have my own ideas about what I would like to see in the game too, as do others. I personally would not like it. Don't take it as meaning it isn't a good idea. I didn't say that. Its just how I feel.

[Sookielee]

Love the ideas, but like most others I do not want laundry in my game. No matter what the advantage would be I could not stand having to do it in game.

[Rikachu]

It would add a lot of realism, and I would love that in the game!

[Mrs. Crumplebottom]

This sounds just like more chores. We've got enough to do IRL. I dunno about you, but I'm NOT paying 30 dollars to have more chores, and having to wait to have my house built.

If you want realism, play Life. The storyline may suck though.

[FalseZen]

If you want realism, play Life. The storyline may suck though.

Bwhahaha! You make me laugh.... :lol::rofl::lol:

These were my thoughts exactly when I saw that idea. Anyone who thinks doing chores in a game would be fun, must not do any IRL. lmao

[Mrs. Crumplebottom]

Bwhahaha! You make me laugh.... :lol::rofl::lol:

These were my thoughts exactly when I saw that idea. Anyone who thinks doing chores in a game would be fun, must not do any IRL. lmao

I don't do any IRL, and I still don't think it fun. That must make me extra lazy.

[Dafoe2029]

I love the ideas. The laundry i think would definitely be a great feature too.

[Mrs. Crumplebottom]

The laundry i think would definitely be a great feature too.
Why?!?!

[Snowpelt]

Another idea to add to this would be more mini-game things for cooking, painting, and those kinds of activities. That way in our single-sim households, we wouldn't have to watch a progress bar slowly creeping forward....very slowly. -.-

[lostinshalott]

Be funny you could see your sims living in trailers and being under high stress as the housing prices drop, they could deal with pirate builders who never show up or give the old "it'll be finished in 6 weeks" ahh this sounds fun!

[mdossantos047]

Meh...I don't think I'd get an expansion pack like this, tbh.

[crocobaura]

This sounds like one of those really expanded on ideas, that take a lot of time to implement but whose features the players don't use much, kind of like university, weather, pets. But I woulod love to have the possibility to have my sims work on say the bed and improve the energy gain on it.

[Angstrom]

To encourage the player building stuff themselves, there should be new Build mode objects available only with plan building (if not built-in before the Sim moves in).

For instance, we could have elevators and half walls.

[Shnorlick]

Really good idea, this is one of the expansion pack ideas that appeals to me the most.

Oh, and bring on the laundry! Yeah it's not fun IRL, but neither is unblocking the toilet or paying bills.

[aeval99]

I like this. The more crafting items, the better. I even like the idea of laundry...let's give those maids something to do besides brushing their teeth and eating my food.

[SwaSwa]

Laundry just sounds boring and time consuming, imo. The developers aim with TS3, whether they succeeded or not, was to reduce the amount of time spent doing all the every day mundane things in order to increase the amount of time sims spend enjoying (or wrecking) their lives. So, laundry is thankfully an unlikely feature for any future EPs.

I'm not sure what you mean by improving their own house. I don't think sims should build any of the structure of the house in game. I think it would just be too complicated to work out and whilst theory may sound cool would end up being complicated and boring so that most players probably won't use the feature.

The idea of being able to make flower pots, some kinds of furniture, bed covers e.t.c though to personalise the house is a great idea though. I'm hoping that a future EP will bring back all the hobbies from Free Time as well as many more like... I dunno, candle making, make-your-own-comestics e.t.c and will provide us with plenty of oppurtunities in which to use them (e.g. fix your bosses car for a promotion), as well as making money with them by selling them from home or setting up a shop like in Open for Business.

[starved4pizza]

If there's gonna be an option for laundry, then there should be laundrymats for the poor sims.

[HystericalParoxysm]

Closing thread as we now have a sticky for all speculation and ideas for TS3 expansions. Please post here if you would like to continue discussion on this topic:

Expansion Ideas & Speculation (http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=352890)