Ive had some annoying opportunities. Sometimes the game wants me to do a thing, when I don't know how to do it.

like collect Platinum. for the past few months if I was collecting I would pan the mouse around town looking for random rocks and bugs and junk. I rerad a comment, typical of YOU being NO HELP and us noobs getting talked down to. A guy asked "Where can I find Platinum" The response "Look around town" His response "No Duh, where" to that the forum know-it alls said "Stop being lazy and use your map"

I clicked on my Sim's car, clicked travel to community lot and looked on the map and saw NO ICONS! For a few months I ignored this find a thing request any time it came up. but then I had to explore the Dragon's Maw! What an epic title for a lame quest that turned in to me finding rocks. I looked again and here in the spot I been ignoring was a map view icon. and sudenly there were the icons for finding rock.

How come NONE of you Sims Forum know-it-Alls never tells the poor noob "On the right hand side of the control panel is an icon of a city click this to bring up a map with extra icons that you won't see if you go to the map by way of driving. These icons indicate collectables." In stead you guys just assume us who ask questions know this and call us dumb for not knowing it. NOTHING on Google NONE of the forums said this information. Instead I was told to go to my happiness rewards and by a collector assistant. the dang thing still uses the map that I didn't know existed. I thought that icon was to take my Sim to the Late night down town city area to visit vampires and get hot dates.


Then on to next story. Having passed lame old Dragon's Maw and collected rocks all day I was asked to type a new story, one I write my self and deliver it. I did so and after a LOOOOONG time Nothing happened. I searched and searched and NO one had this answer. people were asking if there stories would follow them in there inventory if they moved and if they could write astory from Egypt but nothing said how to put a story in your inventory to give to the guy in china.

So I gave up, went home, was going to switch families. Then suddenly here's the book in my mail box. my HOME mail box. I can't get a book in my Hotel Mail box?! No! I have to go home, then go back on vacation to finish. on top of that I have an inventory full of junk I bought for other sims. In my FAMILY Inventory! I have no way I know of to give my family inventory to an other sim. Why do I have TWO inventories? Now I have to take each sim I was giving my items to to china one at a time.

theres always some kind of pain like having to sculpt a sculpture of a sim when that skils not unlocked yet.

So are you asking for help or just wanting to criticize the "help" you've gotten?

OUCH!!! Somebody's a little cranky today.

I have a different question.

@kaykeyser - Please do not take this the wrong way. I am not trying to be insulting at all. But why do you play this game? From your posting history here, it sure sounds like you are getting more frustration than joy out of it, overall. Or maybe I am just missing the joyous parts?

I could (and probably should) mind my own business, but between that and the poor quality of assistance you are suffering through, this though being one of the friendliest and most helpful TS3 communities around, I can't help but think your time could really be better enjoyed doing other things.

I'd like to add that judging by the "issues" you're having in-game you might want to look at and actually read the tutorials that come with the game and its EPs. They have tidbits of information that is left unknown and yet incredibly helpful to some of the savviest sims players, so you may not even have to talk to us "know-it-alls".

Maybe because most people started The Sims 3 years ago by playing the tutorial, during which, surprise, one of the first things you learn after a few minutes is how to use Map View.
If that had happened to me, I would have become suspicious that when not even Google gives me any help that maybe the answer to my question seems to be so obvious for other users that I may have missed something myself.

Besides, you will never find Platinum in your home world. It's only available in China. (Unless you play in a custom world that has Platinum spawners enabled for home worlds.


You do get written books in vacation world mailboxes if you write them there.


And in general, the quality of answers you can get here only reflects the quality of the questions. People here know a lot, but they are not clairvoyant. Had you asked what the other user meant by telling you to go to the map, I'm sure they would have told you. How were they to know that you were not familiar with the basic functions of the game yet?

Sorry, I've only been half paying attention to the internet for the last few weeks: US presidential elections. Plus my knowledge of the game is pretty spotty (especially since World Adventures is an expansion I don't have).



You can... it's just very rare. Sunset Valley has maybe 3 or 4 high level spawners that will possibly create it (they cycle between silver, gold, and platinum). Riverview is a little better at finding metals. It's also available in consignment shops and alchemy shops (especially if you get the mod that ups the number of things for sale in them).

Are you sure it's platinum and not plutonium? Because plutonium is a base game metal.

Please forgive us for trying to avoid insulting your intelligence by repeating things that we were sure you would have already figured out for yourself from the tutorials.

In order to forestall something else that you may find to be a major annoyance; two sims need to have enough romantic interactions (unbroken by "Friendly" Funny" etc.) to get to the point where the other sim thinks your sim is being "Extremely Irresistible" before they can propose going steady. They must propose going steady before they can propose getting married. (Which also requires "extremely Irresistible") And then they need to actually have a wedding, although that can be a party with friends and a wedding arch (in deco) or a Private Wedding where they just exchange rings on the spot. (So be sure they aren't in a restroom....) And Story Progression does marry sims off rather quickly, occasionally even if they are engaged to someone else, so have that wedding as soon as it's practical.

Oh, and how to give things to another sim from Family Inventory:

Send your sim to visit the other sim's house.
Open the cheat window (Control-shift-C)
Type Testingcheatsenabled true
Shift-click the ground on that lot.
A pie menu should appear. Click "Buy on this Lot"
Open Buy Mode
Go into Family Inventory, find anything that belongs to someone who lives on this lot and drag it out. Place it in convenient locations.
Open the cheat window again
Type Testingcheatsenabled false.

If the game thinks it's too bulky for you to carry in your personal inventory, the other sim won't be able to carry it, either. The best you can do is deliver it.

(And yes, the 5 base game metals are iron, silver, gold, platinum, and plutonium. )

Hm, it's Palladium, not Platinum.

And unfortunately you don't have access to your family inventory when you open BuyMode via the cheat on a lot that is not your own.

Well, I fail reading comprehension for the day. Thanks for correcting my derp

I could have sworn I remembered giving another family the crib my sim who had no intention of ever having children found. Maybe I just ended up buying them a new one and pretending it was that one.

You may've had access to it due to the architect profession. Otherwise I don't know.

Just in case this is serious:


Well yea, they were right. When you need to look for a metal/bug for a quest, you will have special map tags highlighting where those are. If you see no special tags, it means the metals/bugs haven't spawned yet. Some, like the Assassin Bugs in China or the Mummitomium in Egypt, spawn more rarely and in smaller quantities and you need to wait more.


I'm assuming you got an opportunity to write a book at home and deliver it to a sim in a foreign world? That is what you should do: write it at home, take it out of the mailbox and put it in your inventory, then travel to the foreign world and deliver it to the target sim. The basecamp adventure boards double as mailboxes, which you can use even when you're not home (for donating to charities, smelting metals, receiving books and letters etc.).
There's a similar opportunity for painting, where you have to paint something and deliver it to a foreign sim, I think.

Your rants lead me to believe that either you didn't explain properly, or the other persons didn't understand you.


You can give objects to sims via the "Give Gift" Friendly interaction (I think it comes with Generations?) or using the Transfer option of Master Controller. Gifts are pulled from both the personal and family inventory, so you can gift another sim a bathtub from your family inventory, for example.


Those wishes are supposed to motivate you to keep practicing until you get to the level where you have those options.

To be fair, the opportunities are really annoying. Mostly I ignore them these days. I didn't sign up to play a quest game anyhow: what I want is to make things for my sims and send them through their little lives.