Just wondering if anyone has seen any info on the mechanics of how Investigator cases will work.

Is it just gonna be an expansion of the WA quests, one challenge leading to another, or will they come up with some other way to do it?

I don't think we've found out yet.

I'm pretty sure they'll stick with those Opportunities until the end of Sims 3 since it's a cool way to do quests.

That was kinda my thought, too... just expand it a little bit, like perhaps requiring a photograph of a meeting between two sims, or something like that.

Oh, it would be so cool if some cases requires photographs or something like that.

But I have no idea what cases will be about. I'm sure they're not including homicides or even cheat-sex in the game so... I'm pretty sure we're going to investigate some silly cases...

Homicide, probably not.

Cheating? Well, it's already written into the social interactions... I doubt they'll be X rated, and perhaps not even R, but there's still a possibility of a PG-13 version of the cheating spouse case.

Chances are they'll use the opportunity system or something very similar. But from what I've read, PI quests will be different from WA quests in the following way: they give the player much more scope to choose how to proceed. EA seems very focused in this EP on letting you have "evil" sims, and that seems especially the case with the PI. For instance, there's this from the last EA ambitions blog:

There was the time McSolver was hired to dig up some information so the client could blackmail a rival. While doing the digging (literally, in a trash can), McSolver decided to collect early and do a little blackmail of his own.

On another case, McSolver needed to gain permission from a suspect to dust around the house and snoop for clues. This could have been handled in a civil manner, but McSolver isn't patient or civil. Instead, he busted out his trusty lock pick kit, broke into the home, obtained the prints, and "borrowed" a television. For evidence, of course.

Stolen cars, missing art, heists conducted by mad scientists, endless stakeouts - all in a day's work for a private investigator.

And this from Gamespot:

GS: What exactly goes into being a private investigator? Going through other people's mail and trash? Taking incriminating photos?

GR: You're going in the right direction! There's the less-honorable side of things, such as going through a suspect's mail or trash. However, private investigators can also conduct stakeouts, assist the police, snoop for clues with their trusty magnifying glass, or dust for prints. There's also blackmail, bribery, fisticuffs, and a handy lockpicking kit for other case-related issues.

What I wonder about is how "clues" and "prints" will be handled. Are these objects or spawners that will be placed in the houses where the investigator is investigating? Or is the investigator just gonna do a "snoop" type animation until they randomly "find" something?

If truly a part of the new EP game play (and not oversell on EA's part) this would make me interested in Ambitions.

Sri-thanks for the updates.

Hmmm... didn't Sims2 have a fingerprint scanner gadget as a bonus object for one of the careers? (Law enforcement?) They could resurrect something like that for scanning for prints... or they did mention the "trusty magnifying glass," that could be what they use to find prints. Perhaps clicking on an object (table, counter) and selecting "search for prints" or something like that.

Yeah... IIRC, the fingerprint scanner actually tracked which sim had used an object most recently, and that sim would appear in the thought bubble over the head of the sim who was scanning. That was kinda cool, even though it had no gameplay value whatsoever except for skilling and fun.

But I guess it won't be EXACTLY the same, since now the PI has to DUST for prints.

Need the Inventor to be able to make a DNA analyzer gadget

Hmmm... an Inventor/Investigator? Could be interesting to play...

I think it's going to be like adventures in WA but with a little bit of the CSI pc games added in (you have to search for specific things in houses etc).
Or at least that what I interpreted from various artices.

Either way, I don't think I've ever anticipated an EP as much as I am Ambitions.

I wonder how cases are going to be created in Sunset View/Riverview/Custom Worlds. I'm sure Twinbrook will be way more cool to play with PI since the ambient will prolly be all about the cases.

The way cases are mapped to families is gonna have to be at least somewhat random. And I agree that that could make for some interesting weirdness

Interesting weirdness sounds fun!

Weird and randomness is what The Sims is about, that's why it's so entertaining :D

I'm looking forward for the lock picking kit. I was really exited when I heard we have kleptos, but I hate that you have to be invited in before you can steal. Being able to break in, is going make klepto sims more fun to play.

I hadn't thought of that... might add some interesting twists to the Criminal career, too. (evil grin)

From the BlackGarden review at TSR. http://www.thesimsresource.com/arti...post/post/17534

This sounds interesting, but worries me that the Investigator career will become boring repetitive, like WA missions eventually do.

I still think they'll feel less repetitive than the WA adventures did, because even if you do the same case template five times, it'll be in five different houses with five different families... that might be families you made and played and have some feelings for. In other words, I'm hoping for what they like to call "emergent gameplay", where things combine in unpredictable ways.

Of course, if the cases are ALL about rummmaging through the trash, and townie sims aren't really involved, we might not get so lucky :/

I personally found the WA quests rather boring. I've never even finished them. Maybe I should. I hope that the new format will make them more interesting for me. As I'm rather looking forward to the Private Investigator field and the Architecture field. And thank you to rainbowtwilight for linking to the review.

Finding out who was kicking the garden gnomes? What did someone say earlier about "interesting weirdness"?

It should be like Heavy Rain, with preset Scenarios you can play, but i think it will be watered down again, to fit the PEGI 12 crowd.

Preset scenarios is exactly what folks are worried about. I love heavily scripted story-driven games myself, and I play a lot of them, but I almost never replay them. To fit the way the Sims works, you really need to be able to replay the same case indefinitely, in different locations, in different towns, and with different sims, without having exactly the same thing happen twice.

This wouldn't bother me at all I love heavy rain.