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The Sims 3: why scientists have dirty knees
You might not be interested in certain Sims 3 hobbies like gardening (pictured) and fishing. Too bad. You're liable to be railroaded into them whether you like it or not.
Read about mandatory gardening, Animal Crossing-style seed hunting, and the magical butterly interface mod after the jump.
As a career scientist, Harlan Whyte has to advance his gardening and fishing skill. I imagine it's possible to be a scientist who doesn't garden and fish, but you're not going to make much progress.
Fishing is pretty painless. Read a book to learn the basic skill, then go to a body of water and click on it. Gardening is a bit more involved. Read a book to learn the basic skill, which gives you some seed seeds. Then plant them. Then water them. Then weed them. Then water them again. Then weed them some more. Keep watering. Water them some more. Over the course of a few days. Don't forget the weeding. Then harvest them. All the while, you're getting really dirty, so make sure you've got a good shower. Science requires a good shower. Also, buying a lawn sprinkler and leaving it turned on 24/7 means you can skip the watering.
It's not very convincing to me. Do the world's top scientists really have to take so much time out of their day to weed bell pepper bushes and apple trees? Of course, there are fringe benefits, like the Flame Fruit (see yesterday's account of the mysterious Cozy Fire bonus carrying it in your pocket), the Money Tree, and some sort of Life Bush I've seen referenced, but haven't found yet. And to "learn" new plants, you have to hunt around town for seeds. And when I say "you have to hunt around town", I mean "you" the player, not "you" your sim. The seeds are tiny specks. Scroll around the map looking for them. You can't miss them, so long as you know to look for little specks (for 40,000 life points, you can buy a magical butterfly that you set to show seeds, insects, or rocks on the map view). Once you've found some seeds, send your gardener/scientist to gather them.
The whole town gathering schtick - it's also how you get bugs and precious minerals - takes an awkward page from Animal Crossing, where the cartoon world make it entirely appropriate that you might spend days on end catching bugs and digging for fossils. But it just feels weird in The Sims 3, where most of the gameplay is supposed to have some real-world analog. It's as if the developers couldn't quite come up with a convincing way to create some sort of crafting progression based on gardening, so they just scattered it around town like so much chicken feed.
Up next: the immaculate conception of Nicole Fugger
(Click here for the previous Sims 3 game diary.)
By Halibut Barn at 3:29 PM ON 05/29/09
Are those...bacon trees?
By sirSandwhich at 3:47 PM ON 05/29/09
I would certainly spend all day cultivating bacon trees.
By Navanafti at 3:49 PM ON 05/29/09
Good call, Halibut... The best kind of tree that could ever exist would be bacon.
And since Harlan is a scientist, I'm sure he did some gene splicing or something to create those bacon trees.
They seem like they're pretty laden, as well. He could get some good breakfast every day of the year and still have extra to sell.
By Navanafti at 3:51 PM ON 05/29/09
On second thought, I think they're the money trees that he mentioned in the article...
By Skipper at 4:16 PM ON 05/29/09
Why on earth would a scientist have to be a gardener? I'm assuming you would need similar to Sims 2 style abilities: Logic, mechanics, maybe cleaning, perhaps even some cooking.
What does gardening increase? Remind me not to be a scientist when the game releases.
By Zader at 4:56 PM ON 05/29/09
Im gonna make the best garden on the block!
By Tom Chick at 5:09 PM ON 05/29/09
Ha ha, bacon trees would be pretty awesome! Unfortunately, those are only money trees. You harvest bags of money from them. Among the stats tracked on your gardening journal is the biggest bag of money you've harvested.
As for why scientists have to garden, I imagine it's because Maxis needs to tie each of the skills into the different careers. So what are they going to do with gardening? When you think about it, tying gardening to science is the least contrived of their options. In an MMO, consider herbalists and potion makers going together (unfortunately, there is no potion making I've found yet).
Fishing and science, on the other hand. Sheesh. Now that's a stretch.
By Ornithopterx at 5:51 PM ON 05/29/09
Mendel was a hobbyist gardener! (Not that Mendel was a scientist, per se.)
And as for fishing, well there's...Cousteau? I've got nothin'.
By Pogo at 7:21 PM ON 05/29/09
What kind of job do you have as a scientist? I could see this making sense if the scientist jobs were in the field of botany or... umm... whatever scientists who study fish are called.
By Mystik at 7:35 PM ON 05/29/09
I swore those were bacon trees too until I looked closer. Looks more like the aspiration money tree in Sims 3 but much much bigger lol. Please tell me it's just natural sciencetist that have to do that. Don't get me wrong I enjoy fishing and gardening but for it to be relevent to advance in a career seems a lil crazy.
By artemis at 8:39 PM ON 05/29/09
ichthyologists
By runedot at 11:23 PM ON 05/29/09
"seed seeds"
So they're seeds that grow into plants that give you ( presumably, a variety of) seeds?
By joesocwork at 12:22 AM ON 05/30/09
Now a bacon with cheddar tree... hmm,hmm....
Sounds like they're cross pollinating Sims II Expansion Packs to me!
By fluttereyes at 3:57 AM ON 05/30/09
Can I just ask something? Are you testing just the disc based game or have they given you Riverview too? I'm surprised at the amount of gameplay on it at this time
By Choklad at 10:54 AM ON 05/30/09
Fishing and gardening? That is indeed a stretch. Would fit much better with the cooking career.
I love these blogs. Keep 'em coming.
By Steiner at 1:09 PM ON 05/30/09
Ha! Now that I know that you have money trees in your backyard, I'm going to send my evil Mohawk Sim over to harvest them while you're sleeping!
By Aeon221 at 6:56 PM ON 05/30/09
Scientists have dirty knees because they are planning to look at these.
By RG at 7:00 AM ON 06/01/09
I am a scientist, yet I don't go fishing and get somebody else to look after the garden.
By lalaman at 8:44 PM ON 06/02/09
You're a scientist and you get somebody else to look after the garden?? how so?? who do u get to look after ur garden?
By kittenvamp at 6:38 PM ON 06/08/09
For those of you who think that gardening started in the sims2 you're wrong thy've been developing the sims3 for years and the developers were adding gardening to the game before seasons came out. Also my only my science sims in Riverview want to garden, this is because Riverview is basically a rural town full of gardeners, farmers and other plant based thing (have you even read the names of the buildings?). Gardening does take a long time but its totally worth it. I'd reccomend these 3 traits together Green Thumb, Angler, and the cooking one so that your sim can grow/catch their own ingredients.
By Lord Lollipop at 9:35 AM ON 06/11/09
If you want perfect analogy to real life, get up off of your butt and walk out your front door. Else, quit whining.
By TheBlindOBserver at 1:21 AM ON 06/12/09
For what it's worth, you don't need the fishing skill until you get to the job similar to some sort of marine biology, or something similar.
By saradippity at 7:10 PM ON 06/21/09
You don't actually have to garden or fish. Once the skill for fishing is above 3, you can watch the fishing channel. You can also watch the garden channel or read books.
saradippity:
You don't actually have to garden or fish. Once the skill for fishing is above 3, you can watch the fishing channel...More »