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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 12:22 AM
Default Expansion idea: Past-present-future
Inspired by games such as SimCity 2000 and SimCity 3000, The Sims 3 should have an expansion pack where technology advances through gameplay.

The player should be able to start at A. D. 1800, with the limited technologies and fashion styles of those times: Outhouses instead of toilets, wood-fueled stoves, ice-boxes and so on. Forget about TV sets and computers. If you cannot afford a horse or an ox, you'd have to walk around town.

Job opportunities would also be different. (There would be a Military career, but the top job would probably be something like Cavalry commander instead of Astronaut).

Younger generations of Sims would be allowed to buy novelties such as light bulbs, grammophones and bicycles. Elder Sims would be able to talk about the days before these innovations, at the astonishment of the younger ones.

However, it would not stop at computers or MP3 players. Future Sim generations would have hover-cars, artificial wombs, robots and other cool science-fiction stuff.
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Lab Assistant
#2 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 12:35 AM
It certainly would help clear up the "If the Sims 3 is set a considerable amount of time before a game released in 2000, why don't they have the relative advancement of the 1950's?" issue.
But think about it - that would mean a lot of content. A lot of content you're not buying in the store.
Scholar
#3 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 1:33 AM
I really wish you would have just written all this stuff in one thread instead of three different ones.

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Lab Assistant
#4 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 1:40 AM
@Gangreless
Ya, rly. ò.ó

@Splurgy
I wondered that the first time I saw "50 years before" I was like Yes, but where are the jukeboxes?!? (Huge oldies fan)
But yeah, that problem would occur.

Winning the Game
Don't be absurd. This is a Maxis game! What's to win? You and your sims can play unto perpetuity, getting into entanglements and trying to get out, and by the time you know it, it will be 3am your time, and you don't even have your teeth brushed...
--The Sims 1 Prima Guide
Lab Assistant
#5 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 1:51 AM
That would be really cool if technology advanced with generations. I'd want to see being able to choose the starting tech and rate of progression, and it would be nice if there were opportunities for sims to invent things such as flush toilets. Of course, these advances items would become available on schedule even if playable sims didn't invent them.
Lab Assistant
#6 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 2:03 AM
Be so fun could take it to tudor times and regent times ahhh period dramas <3 and then I could do a fifth element style thing wow this sounds cool!
Scholar
#7 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 3:34 AM
I love this idea and I think a game like that would be fun, but it would be a logistical nightmare for EA to pull it off...look at how much trouble so many people had with just the base game of Sims 3. I've already done this on my own in my Sims 2 game with custom content...alot of vintage cc is available. It's going to take time, but eventually we'll be able to do the same thing with Sims 3. But instead of EA making a product that automates everything for us (and probably wouldn't do it all that smoothly anyway), we'll be able to do it how we want. I'm trying to learn how to create for Sims 2 and plan on moving on to Sims 3 and I'm very interested in vintage items...starting with prehistoric-type content (a tree or rock "portapotty" for example). As far as EA goes, I think following your idea theme is a great idea for themed stuff packs...and would be the only acceptable stuff pack releases in light of the creation of the online store IMHO. Another idea that coincides is different cultural themes...even lost cultures like Aztec and Ancient Egyptian. Honestly though, I think EA isn't going to be that creative (they leave that to the fanbase).

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Mad Poster
#8 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 3:37 AM
That would be nice and interesting but it would be like 5 games in one and they'll have to include a lot of content into it. I don't think it's ever going to happen.
Field Researcher
#9 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 4:32 AM
There's no way they'll have the neighborhood actually grow and change overtime... Oh, wait, they already promised it would! Too bad it doesn't even do that properly.

But in all honesty, there'd be too much code to write to implement technological advancement. And what would happen when you got to the latest tech age? It would just stop there and the rest of the generations would just be stuck in the same age. It doesn't seem like it would work.

But I agree that some stuff packs with period furniture and themed sets would be a great idea. As far as in-game tech advancement, I think that's a no-show.
Field Researcher
#10 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 5:19 AM
There is no advancement because they'll let just about anyone be a scientist in Sim-land. They have been stuck in the year 2000 technology-wise for decades. I've excepted this as fact and moved on. Though, if there WAS an expansion pack with all kinds of period content, I would camp out at walmart if I had to.
Test Subject
#11 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 10:07 AM
IMO, the Sims gameplay would not support the suggestion about technology advancement, as the timeline in the game is not really "linear" (sorry, I do not really know how to say that in English, it is not my native language). But I certainly would like a stuff pack or exp pack dedicated to various historical eras, like stone age, medieval, regency/colonial, victorian, and mid-20th century etc... with content and activities fitting for those periods. But I'm afraid we'll never get one.
In TS2 I've been making regency neighbourhoods in Jane Austen style, with all the fabulous CC from MTS and other sites :D, and I can't wait to do that in TS3!
Lab Assistant
#12 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 11:52 AM
I think that sort of expansion pack would be impossible to make. As suggested before, I'm all for the idea of theme based stuff packs for the 60s/hippie era etc. I'd kill for some more retro things in my game.

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retired moderator
#13 Old 5th Jul 2009 at 8:02 PM
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

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Locked thread | Locked by: HystericalParoxysm Reason: See new sticky.
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