Sims Medieval

The Sims Medieval – Patch 1.3 #TSM #SimsMedieval

stargrace April 28, 2011 1 Comment

A lot of people have been looking forward to this patch, although there is apparently a bit of an issue if you have the digital version of the game vs. the CD version. I updated without any issues – but keep in mind when you do an update like this you lose your quest progress. I wasn’t particularly enjoying the quest I was on so I didn’t think it was too big of a deal. The screen shot above is using the new camera feature that allows you to move 360 degrees around your character even while in the castle – no more barbie house view. This was probably the biggest change for me and the one I was looking forward to the most. The only issue I still have with the camera views is that I’m constantly right clicking on my portrait in order to change the view back to how I’d like it. It seems to flip between camera abilities too easily (ie: right clicking the portrait puts you into the ‘follow my character’ view, and the arrow buttons allow you to swivel around that character, rather then the base view which is more free form). Below are the patch notes (since for some reason my update didn’t come with any notes for me to read) and in italics are my comments about the ones I’m most looking forward to. Enjoy!

Here is a list of what will be included in the new update!

• New Feature: Free Play Ambition – Set up your perfect kingdom without worrying about long term goals. In this special ambition, you can play quests when you wish, or control up to four heroes at once in a more open free play mode. (Very excited about this! Some times I just want to do things ‘free form’)
• New Feature: Child Succession – If a Hero Sim dies, but already has children, you can choose to have one of the children grow up and take over their parent’s job!
• Camera improvements – Have you ever wanted to get a better view of the action? The camera now allows tighter zooming and full 360 rotation in buildings. (The most important thing to me in all of these updates)
• End Game Improvements – Similar to the Free Play Ambition, can now play quests, earn XP, and build buildings even after your ambition is completed!
• Hero Leveling Improvements – Can now gain XP beyond level 10 for all heroes, giving additional benefits.
• Brave New World Quest Improvements – When you complete the quest “Brave New World” and start a new ambition with that character, he or she will now retain several abilities from their previous profession!
• Kingdom Aspect Improvements – Can now gain additional benefits when increasing aspects beyond their maximum capacity
• Ambition Improvements – Certain ambitions now allow one or two additional buildings to be placed at the start.
• Increased the maximum number of residents in a household from four to five. Go ahead and have another child!
• Implemented game stability improvements that affected some players.
• Adjusted several quests for clarity.
• Fixed several bugs related to staying on a quest for a long period of time.
• Improved detection of monitor resolution for some hardware configurations.
• Fixed a variety of issues in Create-A-Sim.
• Fixed several text and art inconsistencies.

Over all I’m pleased with the patch, and I hope to see more coming. I’m almost sad that there is no store attached to this version of the Sims franchise, unlike Sims 3. I got a few free sims points with my Sims 3 purchase (Generations is coming up soon and I’m looking forward to that expansion) and enjoy browsing the stores for new goodies. Ah well.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Let Me Tell You A Story #SimsMedieval

stargrace March 23, 2011 7 Comments

No one knew how she became Monarch, but there she was. Good, parents eaten by whales – with one fatal flaw that I can’t reveal here because then of course all of her opponents would figure it out and her life as monarch would be over. She ruled kindly – except for that one guy she threw eggs at in the stocks and she released him afterward and apologized. Government pressure, and all.

One day she heard about mysterious fires taking place in the forest just outside the Kingdom. Curious, she went there to find out what was up – and found three peasants burning a large pile of books. When asked why they would do something so foolish (after all, who doesn’t love a good book?) they claimed what was the point! They couldn’t read!

The monarch gasped. Her peasants couldn’t read?! Well this would not do. Not at all. So she decided that the best thing for her to do would be to hire a local teacher, rather then foreign ones. Keeping jobs within the kingdom. The teacher was not that easy to find though. He wanted a duchy in return for teaching and after speaking to her advisory she learned there were no free ones available at the moment – but – if she went and spoke to some bandits and waged a small war she may be able to give that to the teacher and everyone would be happy. The fight was over quickly, she gave the land to the teacher, who in turn told her he needed a primer before he could teach. A trip to the market soon followed. Finally, the new teacher was ready – all he required was that the peasants be lead to the forest and that the queen help teach the first class.

Was that it?

So she lead the three peasants to the forest, and together they and the teacher and her frolicked amongst the trees reading books instead of burning them – and that’s how Lady Stargrace restored literacy to her kingdom.

Above is an example of the very first quest (after the tutorial which I don’t really count) that I encountered in The Sims Medieval which released yesterday. Each step of the quest left me with options on what to do, and I progressed the quest in the way that I wanted. I had any number of options, including forgetting literacy all together, hiring foreign teachers, etc. It was great, and a LOT of fun.

The tutorial to the game is a little dry and gives you a very ‘on rails’ feeling – plus it’s long, and you can’t save during it which bothered me. Your best bet is to finish it as fast as you can and not dawdle until afterward. Then you’re free to do whatever you want – and wow is there a lot to do. Where as with MOST Sims games I’m spending the majority of my time decorating, this game is completely different.

So far I’ve only played the monarch NPC but you get to alternate and do quests with specific other created (or pre-created if you want) characters. I purchased a tavern for my kingdom and created Troubadour Tipa who entertains. I can use that character to complete my entertainment quests if I want. I also built a market, and have a Scopique D’Twitter character who sells wares. I haven’t gotten incredibly far in any of the stories yet or finished off more then the one quest because I’ve been side tracked by the very basic and common Sim things like interacting with every single member of my castle household, and expanding it to allow for a banquette hall for foreign visitors. I think next I’ll be working on the wizard tower, but I haven’t decided.

Learning the controls of the game was a bit different then the regular Sims games as well, and if you were tired of making sure your character went to the bathroom then fear no longer as the only two ‘bars’ you have to watch is hunger and energy. I find it amusing that my Queen is eating everything with her hands – but hey that’s how it was done. She spends a lot of time eating gruel. Gross.

The graphics are absolutely amazing, and I’ll be posting a lot more about this game as I continue playing it. Anyone else enjoying it yet? Let me know in comments! What’s your favorite part so far?

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!