Why can't I play more then one fam in a NBH?

[nova-storm]

So I have sims 3 and so far i like most of it. But I want to play other Sims with out going to a new game and starting fresh. I want to go from house to house.
1. Why did they do this?
2. Is there a hack that will fix this.
3. Am I just daft and you can play them?
4. Do you think they will make it so you can play them with out exiting the one you are in.

[DaSpecial1]

1. No one knows why EA does anything. Because they suck.

2. Since it was done by design it can't be "fixed" so much as worked around. Awesome mod at MATY gives you the option to switch houses, however the families you leave will still progress.  With awesome mod you can make your favorite families "sacred" but that only stops major events from happening while you're with another family--they will still go on living while you're away and can still die of old age. Still it's a major improvement on game play options by Pescado.

Be aware that many mods for EA fixes are still in Beta form.

3. No, we all were all disappointed in the single house play when it first came out.

4. No, EA could care less about changing things once they have your money.

Really there is a lot of information out there on how to fix many Sims 3 issues, so be prepared to search the threads and read up on all the progress. Have fun .

[nova-storm]

The awesome mod sounds fun! I think i will look in to it. How fun it might be to come back and see what has gone on while away! I have the game in Epic mode so I don't think they will die of old age. But it will be great to go tinker in other houses! Thanks for this. and Lets hope for an EP that will let us live in other houses!

[Engram]

They probably won't do it. This style of play was introduced because people asked for a living neighbourhood where everyone aged at the same rate so that the grandkids were not bringing home grandpa's childhood friend. And apparently "the fans", whoever they are, also didn't care for switching families and tend to play only a single household. And thus Sims 3 was born.

So you either use Awesomemod or learn to live with it.

AM also has the option to turn on Sims 2 style aging, which could be what you are looking for. This makes it so that only the currently played household ages and nobody else in the hood gets any older. If you leave story progression turned on, the other families will still do stuff, like get into relationships, progress in their jobs, etc, but nobody except the current household will actually age. But if you have age set to epic then this feature may not interest you because your sims live a really long time anyway.

[Zombie Cakes]

I actually was wondering about this myself. I found on Yahoo Answers there is a way to go to more than one house without starting a new game:

"Go into 'Options' and then 'Edit Town'. It should go into the map view. Then press 'Change Active Household'.

But be careful, if you have story progression turned on (this can be turned off in the options menu) your original family may change eg. they might grow up, lose their job, have another child etc." (Which is what DaSpecial1 said in a few posts above)


I also read they will loose any saved wants and some items in their inventory.

It sucks EA Had to do this -_-

[DaSpecial1]

But be careful, if you have story progression turned on (this can be turned off in the options menu) your original family may change eg. they might grow up, lose their job, have another child etc." (Which is what DaSpecial1 said in a few posts above)


I also read they will loose any saved wants and some items in their inventory.

Awesomemod nipped those (bold) issues in the bud.  Making a family "sacred" stops job loss, school grade failures, (e.g., an A+ student suddenly failing due to homework loss after switch).  I assume if the child was already doing badly in school he might continue on that path though.  Just be sure that your patch is up to date and that you follow all the directions for correct installation and usage of AM (awesomemod).