Rookie mistakes you made when first playing the Sims 3

[Schipperke]

I didn't make --too-- many rookie mistakes with the third game in series, but some horrid ones were done with Sims1, ten years back.

Oh yes, Sims1.  I had such trouble just looking after my Sims' moods!  Half the time they were in such a bad mood they wouldn't go to work, and there never seemed to be enough time for them to do everything that needed to be done.  I don't know if managing their moods got easier in Sims2 and Sims3, or if it's just that I finally got better at doing it.

[CrossedTowers]

Oh yes, Sims1.  I had such trouble just looking after my Sims' moods!  Half the time they were in such a bad mood they wouldn't go to work, and there never seemed to be enough time for them to do everything that needed to be done.  I don't know if managing their moods got easier in Sims2 and Sims3, or if it's just that I finally got better at doing it.

I do believe so. With Sims1, my Sims were starving. With Sims2, my Sims were hungry. With Sims3, my Sims are momentarily overstuffed.

[MoMoll]

One of the biggest mistakes with the sims was when there was a fire. I didn't know what to do and fried a few sims that way.

[SimPoseyYum]

Gah!  You called my bluff!  Well done, Sportsfan!  Ok, I promise, by this time tomorrow, I will have started a bona-fide Dynasty, on (shudder) Normal-Life mode.  I can just imagine the rookie mistakes I'll make (just to bring this back on topic).

~ SPY

To show I'm good to my word, it is just about 24 hours later and I did, indeed, start a bona-fide Dynasty on Normal.  Three times.  First in Bridgeport, then in Twinbrook and finally, back to my comfy stomping grounds, Sunset Valley.  I haven't gotten much further than settling in on the lot, but it's a start!

I don't want to further derail this topic, though, so I won't go into any other details.  I just wanted to make this one follow up.  Back to the discussion of rookie mistakes .

~ SPY

[MarianT]

I've been playing for several months and only just now realized you can put the television on "mute" -- wish I'd known that when I had a couch potato Sim in the Wishmaster Challenge who loved the kids' channel.

[Sportsfan]

I've been playing for several months and only just now realized you can put the television on "mute" -- wish I'd known that when I had a couch potato Sim in the Wishmaster Challenge who loved the kids' channel.

Wait you can?! That's news to me.

[samoht04]

Wait you can?! That's news to me.

Same here! 

[MarianT]

Just click on "change volume."

[amber1195]

I made every possible mistake there was to make on the sims 3. But I know pretty much everything now (:

[Widonja]

I moved 5 ghosts in my household (OH My Ghost)... And I had no idea how to get them out

[VampirePlasma]

I don't like reading intructions and following them. I usually just go and try to fund everything on my own. I made my CAS sims, 4 of them. Mom, dad, boy and girl. I only knew about motherlode. That was a cheat that stayed in my mind from the sims 2. So I have no problem with money factors. But controlling my sims, oh my gosh. That could have been a reality show! I didn't know I could leave the house (in the sims 2 it took years to load the town, and then years to load the place.) so they all got the stir crazy moodlet. And when I bought empty lots my sims would starve to death. I also didn't know I could have more than 4 families so I just kept earsing my families. It was a complete mess! My sims mood would drop, and I didn't know about testingcheatsenabled true. After I tried it, and wrote it right (I used to write it like this testingcheatsenable true.) I wish I would have never found out how to write it right.

[xian_lim]

My sims 2 knowledge is quite helpful except when I had my first toddler in the game. I remembered that I looked all over the Kids category of Buy Mode in searching for the diaper changing table but I didn't see any. I bought a bathtub and found no option to bathe her! I sat there watching her hygiene depleted until....I saw the 'change diaper' option when I clicked on the toddler..Another thing was that I didn't know the round bubble on top of lots in Map View can be clicked. Only then I knew I could be in my desired career even though it was not in newspaper that day.

[SimPoseyYum]

Hi there, xian_lim!  Welcome to the forums!  That poor baby, getting smellier by the moment! 

[xian_lim]

Hi there, xian_lim!  Welcome to the forums!  That poor baby, getting smellier by the moment! 

Thanks! Luckily the toddlers in The Sims 3 do not cry the way in The Sims 2. I can't stand the wailing and turn off the audio when playing Sims 2 most of the times.  

[Lynley1248]

I think having played the previous versions helped and I also watched/read everything I could about the Sims 3 before buying, so I knew the basics and didn't have too much trouble. My main problem was with things that were different from Sims 1 and 2; things like trying to figure out how to bathe a toddler (and then realizing that I couldn’t) or the moodlets and wish system.  I still forget to use my LTHPs for LTR.
  
It took me a long time to figure out CAS.  Not how to use it per se, but how to save patterns and transfer them.  It was ridiculous how long it took for me to discover that you can drag and drop patterns onto other objects.  I would just save the patterns and then go from there.   That discovery made building so much easier. I also remember it took me a few weeks to realize that I could change job performance when my sim was at work.  After that, work hard became a favorite of mine.

There are still a lot of things I haven’t figured out yet; I realize this every time I browse the guide.