Hi all,

i am oretty unfamiliar with this series so excuse me if i ask for something that was already answered. a couple of times So here is that little fact that really bothers me. I started a new game some time ago today. Met a sim in the park, went back home, phoned him (via mobile phone), he answered my call, we tlaked to each other BUT in "reality" (i moved the camera back to the park) he was still sitting there eating... . Yea, i was kinda disappointed (.

No, it's not a glitch. The non-active sim is being controlled by Story Progression, so it probably wasn't considered important to have them suddenly go through a phone animation when you probably wouldn't see them anyway. But it's disconcerting when you do see them doing something else, thanks to open world.

Okay, thanks guys.

With University Life, if you send texts to another Sim, the recipient will actually receive the text, complete with the "receive text" interaction and animation. It's pretty neat.

Pretty sure OP's Sim and the call's recipient were on different lots.

But yeah, EA done goofed there. It would've been great if they'd changed that so you could see Sims answer calls like the texts Nikel mentioned.

I guess the game was not designed around the idea that players wander around with their game camera and be not constantly focussed on their active Sims all on the same lot. Because if you play it just like that (never pan around, send the whole family to the same lot together, and never pay any attention to what's going on on different lots) you'd never notice that inactives don't answer their phones. You cannot call Sims on the same lot and when you call a Sim that happens to enter the same lot the call stops immediately. [sarcasm] So, rejoice, because TS4 won't have that anymore that your game immersion "breaks" because of that! [/sarcasm]

I'd be disappointed, too! It's bad manners to talk with your mouth full. I hope he wasn't eating with other Sims. That would also be very rude.

You can also go to the prom with a Sim who is clearly not at the school. Now there's an immersion breaker. Text saying your Sim is dancing close with the other, and they you notice the other Sim is sitting over in the park, or something. Or better yet, a guest in your home.

The guy at the park was on the phone, he was just using a Bluetooth ear-thing. But it was kind of rude of him to talk to you while eating.

But seriously ... considering how laggy the game can be sometimes, we should be happy that they don't spend time animating Sims that we will almost never see.

@amberland
"...we almost never see"!!!
Yeah! Almost...
I witnessed that situation twice just yesterday when I was playing my Sunset Valley save. I have a girl there who lives at the house which is between Claire Ursine's and Hank Goddard's-Pauline Wann's house. She was playing online video games (or so I thought, lol!!!) with Claire Ursine... But (what a pity, EA breaks the illusion OP is talking about!) the same time Claire passes outside my sim's house with her toddler in her arms!!!
And the same night I sent my girl to the Grind (I always have clubs and bars from Late Night EP in all my towns). When she was in her car her phone was ringing so when she reached the club she answered it. It was Marty Keaton... The same Marty Keaton who was just coming out of the Grind and he was not talking on his phone, but my sim was... lol!!!
... Probably EA never thought something like that could ever happen

I've had sims call me and when I'm chatting them, they will walk to my house for a visit


This is so sad your poor sim is probably so lonely he had to pretend to be popular enough to get a date to a prom.

My sim called her boyfriend to a date. After couple of hours he didn't show up, so I went to look for him and saw him flirting with another girl . He then showed up after six hour and acted like nothing ever happened. I even got the pop up saying people have been seeing them around the town and they should slow it down before someone gets hurt. So as you can see, TS3 isn't that different from real life.

it is just a game, afterall.

Since others already told you about the texts and calls and all, here's a little story/story of my sims life/song/song that I just singed,
I remember when my sims first met (Music playing) they were madly in love and never went (Parody of a song) anywhere, ever, not, together! Ohhh. oh oh oh oh! He called her, they broke up, Ohhhh! oh oh oh oh oh! But he never called her!

Does that explain anything?

Well, I'd share my stories too.
1. My sim had a date with a girl, who invited him to her party at that evening (sent invitation during their date). They spent whole evening on community lots doing different stuff, and once they got home she send a text complaining he didn't show up at the party! I guess, she didn't mind she wasn't at her party too.
2. My sim invited someone to his place. The notification poped up, saying the sim had unexpected stuff to do and couldn't come, yet he came over anyway...

I fail to see your point. If calling Sims is just an illusion and the reason is "it's just a game" to get it out of the way, then what makes evil showering and extreme jogging to be unlikable illusions if "it's just a game?"

I know! You didn't get the point...

Ugh, you just don't get it. That's not what I meant!

OP was disappointed that Sims who are being called don't really answer the phone, as it's just an allusion. Christmas fear stated "it's just a game," implying that minor details are very much unneeded because... "it's just a game, and it's not important."

But if that's really the case, then why do people hate these named interactions so much? They hate it because EA implemented them lazily. Instead of making Sims actually take "evil showers", they only renamed it. But because christmas fear said "it's just a game," she implies that "You don't have to complain about this lazily implemented minor feature. You expected something more than this but EA did this instead? Deal with it because it's just a game!"

We expect good tidbits would happen when Sims do something, but instead EA would turn us down with our expectations. And instead of having a clear explanation why EA didn't implement a tidbit as we would probably expect, christmas fear lightly stated that "it's just a game."

Now THAT'S what I meant.


Note: I want to clarify that I didn't mean to be personal with christmas fear at all, so I apologize for that. I just wanted to counter her argument, that's all.