Luc's just had his chat, and there's quite some interesting news again. The major thing is probably that there will most likely not be any weather in the game, unlike stated at the E3. According to Luc it's not as important as "making the Sims smarter". It was first mentioned as a big feature when the game was presented at the E3 in 2003, but Maxis never really mentioned it anymore since then. Now it looks like it probably won't be possible to get Sims struck by lightning after all. The reason Luc gave that the feature was removed was because it was raining inside as well, which was "stupid". When somebody asked if they've completely given up on the rain already, Luc said "never surrender!" There are already discussions being held about it right here and over here on the BBS, where you can participate as well. TSZ members can also post their comments to this news item to share their opinions. But there's also some good news...
Better news like that Luc has already said they will start on The Sims 3 after The Sims 2 ships. Besides that, he mentioned basements briefly as an option for The Sims 2 ("Someone figured out how to do basements"...). Sims will be able to lend and borrow money from others in the Sims 2, while locks on doors "might still be added in the game" but that's not very likely. However, it is possible for Sims to spy on others. Luc doesn't want to share pictures of the Newbies and Goths yet, to keep a surprise for when the game ships (which is also why he doesn't answer all questions). There's not much news from CaSIE yet. Maxis is still working on it, to make sure skins made with CaSIE will work in The Sims 2. Finally, adding music to the game is as simple as with The Sims 1 - an MP3 or a shortcut to one will be enough for the game to recognise and play it.The full transcript will be uploaded to the official site soon. Check back here tomorrow for news about that, with more information from the chat.
Written at 01:00 on Friday, 13 February 2004 by ChEeTaH.
