So you can make a big club,but you cant make a cafe,a restaurant etc.

I understand that jobs and the school are rabbit holes, sims is not advance enough for that, the spa and the movie theatre is debatable,but the grocerie store,the bookstore the diner and bistro?

just my opinion.

Unfortunatly, if all rabbit holes became open buildings, we would need God's computer to run TS3 :P

I vote for the "cheap" option! Open restaurants and shops were already available with the Sims 2 so I don't see how much more computer juice would be required run them in to the current Sims 3 game. But then again, I'm not a game developer or have much knowledge in computer programming and such so I could be wrong.

This topic gets rehashed so many times on this forum....

It was pretty much all covered in this thread: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=414836

Basically though, the rabbitholes are just there to provide a work location. The extra stuff is there as a bonus.

Some of them also make good neighborhood decorations. :D

So what you're saying is, ask not if EA has been cheap in giving us rabbit holes, but instead ask if and when EA will give us open shops and restaurants ?

Exactly. The "problem" with an open neighbourhood is that you can no longer have Sims disappearing into thin air to work, they have to have a physical location, or it looks silly. Now if you have these work locations, why not give them extra functionality? After all, wouldn't it be a bit silly if you couldn't (for example) go for a meal at the restaurant, even though it's primary function is a work location for the Culinary career? I suspect that would have got more complaints than the rabbithole....

Open shops and restaurants are definitely possible in TS3, WA and Ambitions, and to a certain extent LN prove that. I suspect it just wasn't in what EA wanted to put in the game or they wanted to save it for an expansion. Lets not forget, TS2 base game didn't have open restaurants either. I reckon it will happen, but don't expect rabbitholes to go away.

I hope you're right! I still wish we could recolour the rabbit holes though cause some of them could use a face lift to beautify the neighborhood.

I dunno, has anyone ever thought maybe EA would screw up how rabbit holes would be opened, and that nobody would want to play them? I mean, at first I was like "what's the use of this big blank building," but now I sort of look at it like this:

Rabbit holes may be too complicated to open up, completely. The game would have to keep up with everyone who works in one, what day they work in one, and what kind of job they're supposed to be doing so they don't just stand around uselessly. For it to correctly make any real sense, different doctors would have to be working in places specifically designed for them, different educators would have to be spread out in their correct positions, and different restaurant staff would have to be working in different places on the correct days for their shift, etc. I say this is how it'd have to be, or most of the players would be crying foul: "Why give us jobs to watch if everyone's doing the same thing in the same place?! We may as well not pay attention to them at all!" So without a lot of simulated hustling and bustling, I doubt it'd be a very fun experience even if all the buildings were completely open.

Or worse; ye gods. It'd be like the professions in Ambitions turned up to nine-thousand-eleven, where you have to be constantly hands-on and aware of what your sim is doing. Click on this pile of paperwork to make them complete/sort it. Experiment with this sciency-thing. Check on this patient. Help this child. Do this. Do this. Do this. That would be awful. I barely want to tell my sim to quit painting when he forgets to go pee, so that kind of playing would be a nightmare for me.

So maybe it's just me, but after WA and Ambitions, I've started realizing I'm just too lazy for so much hands-on playing in this game; especially if, like a job, it'd be the same thing over and over again. I'm sure there's other ways the rabbit holes could be opened, but with the quest-style gameplay we sort of started off with like opportunities and the sort, people probably would've hated it more. Not to mention, I doubt the AI is sophisticated enough for it all to be automated. Open rabbit holes just seem like more trouble than they'd be worth.

They could at least give the OPTION to create our own open restaurants and stores.

Those of us who have better computers should not have to suffer when this could be 100% optional.

^ this...
but also this:



/lazyresponseislazy

Its not that I am bothered by the rabbit hole bookstores or restaurants, but I would want the option to create my own like in sims 2 (not buying food from a cash register in WA), Im not saying they have to replace the rabbit holes, but I dont think adding a podium, restaurant sets, etc. would hurt my game. Just patiently waiting for my proper OFB remake.

While I would appreciate more detailed non-rabbit holes lots, I am perfectly happy with the cafes and whatnot that I find in the custom worlds I use. They often use the WA registers and it works just fine as a nice little hangout, cafe, etc. We have libraries, so why do I need an open bookstore? What could I possibly find interesting in a grocery store? Can't say I'm incredibly interested in watching my Sim watch movies in the theatre, I'd probably just switch to another Sim while they watched anyway. I let my Sims eat outside when they go to the Bistro. I'd rather go for a picnic in the park than go to a restaurant anytime.

I guess my point is that I don't feel the need to have a ton of open lots. The ones we have are good enough, and I'm capable of making/downloading cafes and whatever to use otherwise.

Some rabbitholes I don't care about, school, work, etc. Others I'd like to see opened up.

I felt it was worse with Medieval though. So many things were rabbit holes which should've been playable area.

The difference between Sims 2 and Sims 3 is clear. In the Sims 2, we could have everything open because it wasn't a whole neighborhood running, but a single household. Therefore, you could have as much stuff as you wanted, yet the engine was limited to one lot. At least we can thank that in the sims 3 base we had restaurants, grocery stores, etc lol.

But I definitely agree that we need at least the option to make our own custom restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores(this rabbit hole is gonna be opened with the latest Stuff Pack, so thumbs up EA for that).

I am with you on this. I make nice hangouts with registers, or coffee machines and bars. Would love some vending machines, I think that would rock.

I don't watch my sims anyway when they go to the gym, or the library and I know skilling would take time, then I can have time to switch to another sim in the household and give them the attention they need. The rabbithole is another reprieve from having to do anything with that sim, especially when they are satisfying an opportunity. I need time people!

I understand rabbit holes for work and school but not the others.
They aren't funny at all :-/

Wait, seriously!? That sounds too good to be true if they're beginning to open up community lots.

I wish that Hogan's was an open lot - I'd kill to see Zelda Mae flippin' burgers ...

Actually, I don't see why that would happen. The game already summons sims from all over the neighbourhood to the different community lots, it would be like any other open community lot, like a park or a nightclub, with the other lots running on minimum in the background. Once your sim is on that lot it becomes active and fills up with sims. Also, they should really put limits to the number of sims that can fill up any available positions and lots, so there won't be unnecessary large number of sims present on a lot at any given time.

I'm agree rabbit hole is convenient and low CPU power friendly.

Rabbit hole is also very promising if we can make custom rabbit holes, like Fisherman port (with Fisherman career path suitable for a island world), Airport, Bakery, Cafe, Factories, etc. But so far we can't.


But I also like open building too. Both for career and entertainment venue. I can say open building is hard to create to be fun. Ambitions' Fire Station building and Late Night's clubs are very nice and fun. Excellent gameplay. But Consignment Store and Stylist Building is so empty and boring.

For shop buildings, I prefer rabbit hole, because it's convenient. Based on my experience with the Consignment Store, open building shop is quite boring.

Yes, look up the SP, one of its big features is opening up the grocery store.

Show us exactly where it says that, because all I've seen about it is it's just giving us more options for our current rabbitholes.

Really? That's not what I got from it. I don't remember it specifically saying it would be opened up, just that we would be getting a new one. I'm fairly certain it's just a re-designed grocery store that will be under 'community objects.'