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[Sowelu]

The obvious Steam achievements are neat for one reason:  Global stats.

http://steamcommunity.com/stats/Magicka/achievements

92.0% of players (of game owners?) bothered to get so far as to cast a spell.  87.2% bothered to kill Behold.  So I guess a little over 5% of people who got far enough to cast a single spell never bothered to even complete the tutorial.  Huh.

But yeah.  Achievements for "completed a chapter!" plus global stats are interesting.

[Virtz]

An eye for an eye - Defeat Beholder, the watcher. [Kill the monster at the end of the tutorial. Really. You can't not kill it. You have to in order to proceed. Why get an achievement for this? There's an achievement for every boss after that too.]

You can actually go "E BANANER" and skip the tutorial. That's the one achievement you can miss simply by skipping the tutorial.

[Sowelu]

So I'm wondering.  Which happiness mechanics were peoples' favorites?  Sims 2 or Sims 3?  Or, if they're different, Medieval?

I really adore the Sims 3 moodlets, except for when they're being all cheap.  I like that your wants are of limited frequency, compared to Sims 2 where you could score almost infinite aspiration by getting into a loop of romantic wants where another one would spawn as soon as you completed the first one.  So I guess I like Sims 3 exclusively, it just needs better balance.  I don't like the limited autonomy in both games, and I really think the days along with many actions should be about twice as long, even if that does make it a little more boring sometimes.  When it takes ten minutes to fumble around a doorway when someone else is in the way...yeah.

[forsaken1111]

If it helps, Sims Medieval is almost exclusively based on moodlets. Your only 2 needs are energy and hunger now, which you regain by resting and eating respectively. You gain a positive moodlet if you bathe, for example, or use a chamberpot but there is no need bar to punish you for not bathing. Almost everything is tracked with the moodlets now, and I find it to be pretty good honestly.

[Neonivek]

I like the moodlet system in The Sims 3 probably the best.

I mean it isn't perfect but it by far is what I think happyness could be reflected as.

Interestingly enough the Moodlet system was originally created with the idea of "buffs and debuffs". The final result was pretty good.

As for autonomy. The Sims 3 is also by far the best as long as you realise that the sims needs don't need to be very high all the time. As for amount of stuff done in a day... I have no problem with that for the most part.

[G-Flex]

I like the moodlet system in The Sims 3 probably the best.

I mean it isn't perfect but it by far is what I think happyness could be reflected as.

Quite frankly, I think it's rubbish that they can't even come up with something more complex than DF's placeholder "happy/unhappy thoughts" system for a game that revolves around managing people's lives.

This isn't to say it's not an improvement over previous titles, but goddamn, they could do so much better. As it is, it's extraordinarily easy to keep sims happy for silly reasons (remind you of anything?), except for when certain bugs hit.

Basically, that kind of linear mood system just doesn't cut it if you're trying to represent a person's mental state, especially because it consolidates all short and long term issues into a single "Are you feeling good?" scale.

I also feel like the new personality system is a step forward, backward, and sideways at the same time. The "trait" system is great if you're creating wacky quirky sitcom characters, but that's about it. There's little sense of simulation in it, and everyone winds up being defined by a few specific quirks and literally nothing else, and a lot of those traits aren't even particular well-designed or balanced (it's actually easier on average to keep a neurotic sim happy and tranquil than one who isn't neurotic, for instance). It's an entertaining system, and on average it differentiates sims a bit more, but it entirely neglects the subtle and universal variations between people that are necessary if you're going to even claim to be running a simulation... which, of course, they don't.

This is discounting all the other weird technical and implementation problems with the game (just check out the readme for what is probably the most popular core mod). The Sims 3 is like a lot of other modern games that attempt to seem sorta complex: A lot of it is built more-or-less out of cards, designed to appeal for long enough that you've bought the game and gotten some enjoyment out of it, but little more, with middling levels of patching and support after-the-fact.

As for autonomy. The Sims 3 is also by far the best as long as you realise that the sims needs don't need to be very high all the time. As for amount of stuff done in a day... I have no problem with that for the most part.

Autonomy has always been pretty bad in The Sims, and it still is. They still have no concept of being proactive; a sim will go to bed even if he should know full well that he'll be pissing his pants in the middle of the night. If they screw up even basic things like that, how can we expect them to make much more complex decisions that are obvious and intuitive to a human player, like "don't cook breakfast because you suck at cooking and the guy who doesn't suck at cooking will be up in an hour" or "you're a firefighter responding on-site to a giant housefire, maybe I should continue to put out the blaze instead of watching the man's television" (yes, they will do this).

[Sowelu]

Well, the main problem with Sims 3 being too easy to keep people happy is that it's not designed for people who play to win.  Sims 3 expects you to either A) allow your sims to fail, B) be an active force of malevolence, or C) at least not be a powergamer.  It WOULD be nice if that was harder.  But yeah, when things go sour, they can take some pretty nasty mood hits.  It just doesn't happen often enough and it's too avoidable.

[Neonivek]

The problem with trying to make it harder Sowelu is that the fans actively complain it is difficult because they take The Sims as more of a simulation then a quasi-strategy game.

They dislike that Sims cannot take care of themselves for example and one of the initial disapointments people had with The Sims 3 was that the Sims themselves couldn't plan ahead and attempt to better themselves in order to get promotions for jobs.

Also YEAH some negative moodlets are HARSH especially if your not racking up possitive ones. Though some of the negative moodlets are really stupid such as "Lost a friend" from drifting appart. Though it isn't a game about unhappyness anyhow. For the most part all the large negative moodlets are long term except for being on fire and I guess a break in.

Then again some possitive moodlets are insane as well... You can get +95 just by having a great looking house and having a great meal. Which to put it in perspective, death is a -50 and being on fire is around -50 as well.

[diamok]

One thing I just did that didn't seem "realistic" was...I took my Knight Maiden chic, who was married to my evil iron-fist Monarch and had her challenge him to a dual to the death.  She of course kicked his butt and ended his evil sim life.  Immediately after the grim reaper took his dead cold sinister body away, she started mourning him...I was like WAH, you killed him...on purpose, with the dual to the death challenge.

She now walks around with two moodlets over head, one about losing a friend and one mourning his wicked still heart.  BLAH!

Take care,

[Neonivek]

People have mourned people they kill even when they knew that person was some crazy evil (wo)man.

[Shades]

Does anyone else get annoyed that, although wasd scroll, q and e don't rotate the view (in fact q prompts you to quit).

[forsaken1111]

One thing I just did that didn't seem "realistic" was...I took my Knight Maiden chic, who was married to my evil iron-fist Monarch and had her challenge him to a dual to the death.  She of course kicked his butt and ended his evil sim life.  Immediately after the grim reaper took his dead cold sinister body away, she started mourning him...I was like WAH, you killed him...on purpose, with the dual to the death challenge.

She now walks around with two moodlets over head, one about losing a friend and one mourning his wicked still heart.  BLAH!

Take care,

This is classic tragedy, the conflict between duty and love. On the one hand she is expected to protect the kingdom from its enemies, even if that enemy is the king himself. On the other, she loves the king and his passing saddens her. I don't see the problem.

[diamok]

@Neonivek & forsaken1111 - You both are correct, except I made her with the sole intention of killing him off to take over the throne.  Sadly though, the game does not take these sorts of coups in to account.

It was pretty fun watching him terrorize everyone though...I had to make sure she was leveled up enough to be safe when fighting him. 
Also pretty fun creating a sim with no other intention then offing them.  lol

Take care,

[forsaken1111]

I'm not sure how I feel about you complaining that the game doesn't understand an overcomplicated situation you caused on purpose. They can't foresee every possibility.

[Ultimuh]

So I have gotten the game today, played it for hours.
Well It did meet my expectations, which were fairly high but still knowing it might suck.
Well it's.. A good game overall, but some things are.. either lacking or just bugging me.
Some of the things have been mentioned by others so I wont.
But It's a decent game so far.