http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/434.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net all
I'm hoping that the new career game play will work similarly to WA in that you can still go on vacation for fun, and not necessarily fulfill adventures. I like having the option to ignore my working sims and focus on another one during those hours their at work. I guess we won't know until it's released, just wondering if anyone has any speculation on the topic!

Sorry if there's already been a thread on this, I haven't really lurked in a while and I'm too lazy to dig through past threads! ]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2301758.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2301758.page GMT
[quote]"Several of the active jobs have been designed to allow your Sim to still progress while you’re busy with a different Sim elsewhere. For example, a Private Investigator can do low level police work or stakeouts while he isn’t working on an active case. The Firefighter is not always fighting fires so there are times where you can let him hang out and socialize at the Fire Station or work out when you aren’t controlling him. Both the Stylist and Architectural Design jobs will take you into a mode that will pause the game, but if you don’t want to do that you can still have your Sim research their field on the drafting table. Every career has responsibilities and its own active jobs. Each active job will require your full attention, but there are still options that allow your Sim to progress and level up while not controlling them. The most efficient progression will be with you controlling them but the balance is up to you. Similar to how World Adventures worked, it will be a challenge to control more than one Sim with multiple active jobs but we’ve offered many other avenues to help make it easier, and it can be done."[/quote]

http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/178785.page

So it seems you may not be able to progress quickly if you completely ignore your working Sims in the new jobs, but you won't have to be controlling them every second, either.]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2301779.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2301779.page GMT
I guess once we start playing it will make more sense, I'm just looking foreword to getting to explore all of the new possibilities!

Thanks for the info ]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2301796.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2301796.page GMT ).

I found it interesting that they mentioned being able to register a particular skill as being your job by going to City Hall, I wonder if that'll just mean that you get more opportunities related to that skill because you've given it priority or if it means you'll actually get extra opportunities only available if you have that skill registered (or perhaps both). I mention this because it's what made me think about the way they could have you work your own custom shifts rather than having all the active jobs have set hours.

Anyway, we'll just have to wait and see how it works and what the exact options actually are. It's a short time but it always feels too long when it's something you're interested in .]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2302206.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2302206.page GMT

I think the self-employed/skill career.. well hmm phrasing it like that I no longer know what I wanted to say. lol Well ok that's not true. I was thinking it could be something as simple (and lame) as getting more money from your sales (paintings, books etc) but I did read that it was an actual career so it'll be interesting to see how that is set up.

I really don't think the other jobs will consist entirely of flex hours but they could. Even fire fighters. Remember that the medical and law enforcement careers have pagers where they can call you into work for emergencies at any time when you're 'on call'

So you have to know that fire fighters HAVE to go to work in the same manner. They're always 'on call' but their 'down time' could easily be treated as flex time. Where other careers I'm certain will be opportunity based. From the 'official' response there appears to be minor tasks to improve your job performance where you can leave your sim alone but otherwise you would look for opportunities.

I imagine that every job is probably different though. The detective is probably entirely flex time where say.. the stylist and tattoo artist would likely have more standard work hours. ]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2302242.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2302242.page GMT
I don't know how I feel about flex time at work... like I said above I will just have to wait and play to see how I will choose to use all these new features. I am happy that we can follow our sims to work, but I also want to be able to ignore them and let them do their thing and still get promoted.

I think I need to do some more research!!
]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2302429.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2302429.page GMT We don't really know any more than anyone else. I'm just suggesting ideas that seem like reasonable design options. ]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2302437.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2302437.page GMT
Then I might not have to worry about missing work so much

But im glad that a guru posted that

It makes me happy to know that after im bored with a job I wont be forced to start over

Definately looking forward to playing it though.]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2302466.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2302466.page GMT http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2302821.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2302821.page GMT
This has been asked quite a lot and technically it hasn't been confirmed one way or the other. Still, if you look at the information that has been released so far it seems highly unlikely that they'll be making the other careers into "active" careers like the new ones. They might add new "active" careers at a later time and these might be related to the existing careers (in the same way as Doctor is related to the Medical career) but would likely still be seperate to the existing ones and there's no guarantee that they'll add any more at all.]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2303671.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2303671.page GMT http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2306135.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2306135.page GMT
I'd be happy to see some new LTWs from those careers too... we do already have several skill-related LTWs, but something like "make X simoleans from your paintings" would be welcome.]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2307535.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2307535.page GMT http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2307918.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2307918.page GMT
I was thinking that it might just basically allow you to select a skill and you'd get opportunities for that skill more often (mostly existing ones I'd imagine but maybe some new ones, WA added some as well after all). The current system is extremely random so if you want to focus on a particular skill and get opportunities for that then setting it as your career would be a good way to do that (if it works anything like I suspect). I think I might enjoy trying Nectar Making as a career (or Martial Arts, break those space rocks!) .

[quote=Srikandi715]I'd be happy to see some new LTWs from those careers too... we do already have several skill-related LTWs, but something like "make X simoleans from your paintings" would be welcome.[/quote]

That's a good idea, I like pursuing the big objectives. I'd quite like to see one or two new slots for longer term wishes that aren't quite lifetime wishes, things like the ever increasing "earn X in tips" and "make X nectar bottles". I tend to end up with about four going on for a single sim and don't want to cancel them (they don't always come back) but keep missing out on smaller wishes that can be done more regularly .]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2308190.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2308190.page GMT And I'd enjoy making a career out of nectar making too! Glad i'm not the only one thinking of that[/color] ]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2310179.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2310179.page GMT http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2310586.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2310586.page GMT http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2311482.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2311482.page GMT http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2312522.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2312522.page GMT
I don't think they'd make such a big deal about "following your sims to work" if it were only an oppertunity.

They do say "follow to work" not "sometimes follow to work"]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2312770.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2312770.page GMT
I expect you'll probably get "tasks" in a similar way to how opportunities work now (that is, there'll be a window with an accept/decline option, although it's possible that declining missions wont be an option for Firefighters and other jobs may also work slightly differently). I'm pretty sure you're then going to be able to actually go to the problem location with your sim and queue up commands to deal with the situation (so you maybe make your sim put out a nearby fire, then clear some rubble and then pick up a sim and take them to safety... As a Firefighter that is, not a Stylist ). If they didn't have things for you to do with your sim while they're at work then there really wouldn't be much of an expansion to speak of in terms of the main feature (not that I'm suggesting you meant that maria_loves_alex, it's just that you didn't mention it and that could confuse some people) .]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2314751.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2314751.page GMT ]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2316191.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2316191.page GMT http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2316372.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2316372.page GMT I’d think in the end many of us would end up playing single sims and not households just so we didn’t have the headache of picking which sim to follow thus giving them more chances to level up in their career paths.
]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2318211.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2318211.page GMT I’d think in the end many of us would end up playing single sims and not households just so we didn’t have the headache of picking which sim to follow thus giving them more chances to level up in their career paths.
[/quote]

If you think about it though, it's only really possible to ever focus on one sim at a time. You can queue up activities for multiple sims and do something else while they're busy but if you're doing that then you're not actively handling those sims. Ambitions careers will most likely involve a lot of supervision but it's unlikely that it'll stop you from playing multiple sims at once. As mentioned, the game may pause at times to allow you to complete a task for a sim (particularly Architect and presumably Stylist and Tattoo Artist as well) but that way your other sims wont be wasting their time since time wont pass for them (though they wont be doing anything either so I suppose you could say it'll make your own time a bit less efficient for the group but the same can be said for using buy/build modes, CAS and such). The biggest problem is likely to be the fact that you need to jump between lots quite often but that's likely to become more of a common occurence as future expansions take advantage of the open neighbourhood anyway.

We'll still have the option of having sims use the existing careers so if you don't want to be jumping between sims all the time then you can have one with a new "active" career and the rest with old careers. Infact with the skill registration options it might be possible to have several sims with skill based careers (or some classic ones) all working at the same time on different tasks in the same place, depending on how it works at least.]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2319008.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2319008.page GMT
Actually, I interpreted that in the opposite way. The careers that pause your game are the MOST compatible with managing multiple sims, since while your game is paused, nothing is happening to the other sims that you would want to be managing.

It's the ones you have to control without pausing that are going to create more multi-management issues.]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2320731.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2320731.page GMT http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2322060.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2322060.page GMT I want to follow my sims to work, but sometimes I might want to play with the sims that are at home, and have them get things done while the other person is gone like I normally do. I'm very excited about being more involved with my sims jobs, but the more I hear about it, the more I see that I'd have to give it my full attention. I hope they have it so you can basicly ignore them completly and still have them progress in their jobs. I know it's been posted that you don't always have to have your full attention on the jobs, but even then it seems you have to set them up with something to do. I almost liked it sometimes when my sims would go off to work and I wouldn't have to worry about them. Gave me more time to focus on other sims. Like I wouldn't like it if I were busy having one of my sims improve a relationship, and suddenly my firefighter sim has to put out a fire, making me have to leave what I was doing before and put out the fire. Of course, I don't really see a way to avoid that, so basicly there's no way for them to make the game for it to satisfy me. Oh well. ]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2322148.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2322148.page GMT
If you think about it though, it's not going to be any different to the current system (the only possible exception being if your firefighter travels to a different neighbourhood to fight fires, in which case it'll be like taking them on a short vacation and wouldn't affect your other sims at all). If you have two sims carrying out activities in different areas then you have to switch back and forth and use the pause and command queue functions to make sure they're both doing what you want. I'd imagine free will still functions while sims are on the job so you can probably leave them to deal with some situations if you wanted but they might not be as effective or do exactly what you'd have wanted (the same as with anything else you leave to free will really).

I suppose the reason that The Sims 3 is more solo sim friendly is because it has the open neighbourhood. In The Sims 2 if you had two sims on different lots then you could only view and control one at a time and the other would stay there unaffected but with the open neighbourhood you can have several sims scattered around in different areas all active at the same time and that makes it harder to keep track and maintain full control. I'm not sure it's so much the expansions that are encouraging this type of play, it's just that by taking advantage of the open neighbourhood (or merely having it) it's naturally easier to play sims that stay together in the same area or simply to have just one sim at a time.

If you have multiple sims you either have to accept that you can't control them all the time or you have to make extensive use of the pause and command queue features including jumping between lots to maintain full control (with this becoming more important as new features are added to the neighbourhood).]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2323294.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2323294.page GMT
Actually, I interpreted that in the opposite way. The careers that pause your game are the MOST compatible with managing multiple sims, since while your game is paused, nothing is happening to the other sims that you would want to be managing.

It's the ones you have to control without pausing that are going to create more multi-management issues.[/quote]

Interesting point. : ) You could be right.]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2340356.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2340356.page GMT I’d think in the end many of us would end up playing single sims and not households just so we didn’t have the headache of picking which sim to follow thus giving them more chances to level up in their career paths.
[/quote]

If you think about it though, it's only really possible to ever focus on one sim at a time. You can queue up activities for multiple sims and do something else while they're busy but if you're doing that then you're not actively handling those sims. Ambitions careers will most likely involve a lot of supervision but it's unlikely that it'll stop you from playing multiple sims at once. As mentioned, the game may pause at times to allow you to complete a task for a sim (particularly Architect and presumably Stylist and Tattoo Artist as well) but that way your other sims wont be wasting their time since time wont pass for them (though they wont be doing anything either so I suppose you could say it'll make your own time a bit less efficient for the group but the same can be said for using buy/build modes, CAS and such). The biggest problem is likely to be the fact that you need to jump between lots quite often but that's likely to become more of a common occurence as future expansions take advantage of the open neighbourhood anyway.

We'll still have the option of having sims use the existing careers so if you don't want to be jumping between sims all the time then you can have one with a new "active" career and the rest with old careers. Infact with the skill registration options it might be possible to have several sims with skill based careers (or some classic ones) all working at the same time on different tasks in the same place, depending on how it works at least.[/quote]

For me I find that I’m so compulsive about my sims that I’m jumping lot to lot and sim to sim just to manage them and keep track of what they are doing if they are not on the same lot. After a point it seems like your zipping around in circles the whole time you play in your attempts to control them all. I can play for a long period of time and get off the computer feeling wiped out.
Maybe I should scale back my family members but I always start my Sim game out with one sim and then build up the generations with them. It takes a lot of time to keep relationship up within family members that are spread out all around town and multiple generations alive.

But you are correct; I will probably end up having one sim in the household with the career and the rest off doing small stuff.
]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2340426.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2340426.page GMT Maybe I should scale back my family members but I always start my Sim game out with one sim and then build up the generations with them. It takes a lot of time to keep relationship up within family members that are spread out all around town and multiple generations alive.

But you are correct; I will probably end up having one sim in the household with the career and the rest off doing small stuff.
[/quote]

I tend to do much the same, which is why I usually move out spare family members as soon as possible (there's often a gap though when I have a Teen that I'm focussing on and still have their parents around, I can't usually bring myself to just have the parents doing nothing or leave them to free will ). I find that I'm often trying to be as efficient as possible with my sim's time but forget to be efficient with my own time and end up feeling like I haven't done as much as I wanted to. It's something I have to watch out for when I'm playing to make sure I just relax and enjoy the game rather than worrying about "making progress" .]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2340734.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2340734.page GMT
I've too much to accomplish in my game to not make progress. heheh But every now and then I still get bored and have to play something else. (Now if only my allies would quit dragging me all the way back across the galaxy for those stupid bio-disasters. They have their own bloody ships for crying out loud! Let THEM deal with it themselves). ]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2340761.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2340761.page GMT
I've too much to accomplish in my game to not make progress. heheh But every now and then I still get bored and have to play something else. (Now if only my allies would quit dragging me all the way back across the galaxy for those stupid bio-disasters. They have their own bloody ships for crying out loud! Let THEM deal with it themselves). [/quote]

This is one of those "and in the game" moments . I'm guessing that's Spore, you're not trying to conquer the entire galaxy are you?

Actually I was going to give Galactic Domination a go but the game isn't really designed for that, saying that though it's been a while since I played it . What you want is something like Galactic Civilisations II or the classic MOO II .

Oh dear, we're way off-topic again... Erm, so anyway I was thinking of making an Alien sim and his career could be "Galactic Defender", starting off as a lowly mechanic and building his Invention skill to the point that he can build a replicator out of a rock so that he can run his own spacecraft and save the galaxy (but only Tuesday to Thursday, Space Pirates don't work those other days of course). Will this be in Ambitions? Well it might appear in that future Aliens and Space expansion, you never know .]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2340901.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2340901.page GMT

I'm not entirely sure we'll get aliens in the game since we've already got the green skin color without them. On the other hand we haven't seen UFOs either which is odd since UFOs have been in both the previous game and every single SimCity game. If they bring UFO's back it's reasonable that aliens will come with them. So that would suggest a possible high-tech EP which could be interesting. ]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2340968.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2340968.page GMT [/quote]

That's a shame, Galactic Civilisations II (particularly the Ultimate edition with all the expansions) is possibly the best 4X space Strategy type game ever (Master Of Orion 2 has got to be close though and Gal Civ is based on the MOO games anyway) and it's not too expensive on Impulse but it's not particularly cheap either (with the expansions at least, which are really worthwhile). I just like to push Impulse really, it's a much better download service than Steam (though it doesn't have the other features Steam does) .

My galactic domination scheme started on the basis that I could literally buy the Galaxy, I created a business type race and kept them near the middle of the track (I can't remember what the final title was) and then basically started trading spice and buying up all the planets I could. It may actually be easier than conquering people since they wont be randomly attacking you, most people get on well with you (or can be bribed) and with the special ability you get for the business option you can make a planet ready for buyout instantly once every so often . The game could use an Empire management screen though, once you get to a reasonable size it becomes far too much trouble to fly back and forth and keep track of all your planets, as I said though it's not really designed for huge empire building in space.

[quote=Jaghar7]I'm not entirely sure we'll get aliens in the game since we've already got the green skin color without them. On the other hand we haven't seen UFOs either which is odd since UFOs have been in both the previous game and every single SimCity game. If they bring UFO's back it's reasonable that aliens will come with them. So that would suggest a possible high-tech EP which could be interesting. [/quote]

I think they'll probably add them at some point, we have green skin but we don't have alien eyes and the sliders don't really allow particularly alien features. If nothing else, they could tie it into Spore in some way for a bit of cheap advertising. An entire expansion dedicated to high-tech things would be cool, maybe I could get those Plasma Cannons and Super Weapons after all .]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2342422.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2342422.page GMT .[/quote]

See, that's how I feel too. : ) That's why I was wondering how I'd managed this new EP with more in-depth careers. Would I like it? Or would I feel even more pressured into “making progress”. : ) Shall be interesting to see the new EP in action.]]> http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2342459.page http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/preList/191101/2342459.page GMT