Inventory

Inventory is a feature that enables Sims to store and carry a number of items. It was introduced in The Sims: Hot Date, re-introduced in The Sims 2: Nightlife, and is a base-game feature in The Sims 3. It is also available in The Urbz: Sims in the City, The Sims 2 Pets for Consoles, and The Sims 2 Castaway.

The inventory can be a space-saving feature, as it allows items to be stored until they are needed, without taking up space on the lot. Most games do not limit the number of items that can be placed in inventory, but some, such as The Sims 2 Pets for console, do.

Note: In The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, items cannot be added to or removed from a Sim's inventory while on a community lot, unless the Sim or a member of the Sim's household owns the lot. In The Sims 3, items can be removed from a Sim's inventory while on a community lot.

The Sims: Hot Date
The inventory feature was introduced in Hot Date, and was carried forward into later expansion packs.

Some items can be placed in a Sim's inventory by interacting with the item, but most cannot be. Items which a Sim obtains on community lots are directly placed into their inventory, and items received from other characters may be. Makin' Magic added categories to keep track of the spells in a Sim's wand and the magic ingredients they have.

Items cannot be manually removed from inventory. Many can only be given as gifts. Some will automatically be taken out of inventory when the Sim returns home from a community area. Small pets can be removed from inventory by interacting with an appropriate cage or tank. Vegetables from Unleashed will remain in inventory until they're either sold at market or stored in a pantry. Seeds and plant tonic from Unleashed, and ingredients and wand charges from Makin' Magic are used directly from inventory.

The Urbz: Sims in the City
The Urbz: Sims in the City includes an inventory feature that is divided into 3 sections (first for objects, second for build items, and third for Power Socials). The Urbz: Sims in the City only allows 12 different objects in each section of the inventory, and up to 99 of the same item. Having two different colors of the same object will count as two objects instead of one.

Objects in the district (Including the Cheat Gnome) are Public Property and cannot be stored in the inventory except for walls, wallpaper. and floor titles.

The Sims 2: Nightlife


Inventory is a feature introduced in Nightlife, and carried forward into later expansion and stuff packs. Some items (such as cell phones, handheld games, magazines, etc.) are immediately placed in inventory upon purchasing them, while others must be manually moved into a Sim's inventory. The inventory feature allows Sims to carry items with them when they move, and is the only way for Sims to keep career rewards when moving. In The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories a Sim's inventory does not have an object limit.

A Sim's inventory can be accessed in the Rewards panel. The inventory button is at the top, and looks like a backpack.

When objects are in Sim's inventory, they are effectively "in limbo"; they will not depreciate (or appreciate) in value, and food placed in inventory will not spoil.

Prior to Seasons, multiple copies of items appeared individually. Seasons introduced grouping, which grouped identical objects regardless of their color scheme. Bringing up the item tooltip allows the player to select a specific object in the group. Players should note that it also groups all serving platters together, regardless of what's on them, and does the same for individual plates. Likewise, when dealing with (garden crops) from Seasons, it does not take quality into account.

Placing Objects
When a Sim's inventory is open, objects on the lot can be grabbed with the hand tool, as in Buy mode and Build mode. Grabbing an object and dragging it to the inventory panel will place it in inventory. With Pets or later, pressing the I key will automatically place the grabbed object in inventory.

Items that are "in use" cannot be placed in a Sim's inventory. This includes electronic items such as televisions, stereos, and computers that are turned on, and food that is being prepared. Most Build mode items cannot be placed in inventory. Bills, old newspapers, and homework cannot be placed in inventory.

When using use the interaction, "Make Many...", when the food or craftable item is completed, it will be placed in the Sim's inventory. In FreeTime, drawings made on the SIM series Drafting Table and items made on the sewing bench will automatically be placed in inventory.

Very large objects, such as cars and helicopters, ice and roller rinks, and even the pirate ship, can be placed in inventory.

Objects cannot be added to or removed from a Sim's inventory when Buy and Build modes are unavailable, though the player will be able to view the selected Sim's inventory. This normally occurs on community lots and in hotels, but also occurs when a burglar appears or a fire occurs. However, when a young adult Sim visits the college's secret society, his or her inventory can be accessed, and objects can be taken from or added to the secret society lot. When members of the lot owner's household visit an owned community lot, their inventories can be accessed. However, they cannot place community-lot-only objects in inventory.

Business Purpose and Shopping Cart
Crafted objects (toys, robots, flowers, pottery, and sewn items) as well as food immediately go to the maker's inventory if they use the "Make Many..." interaction. If the crafting is done in an owned community lot or home business, the crafted objects will appear in the owner's inventory whether it's crafted by any employees or household members. Caught fish, harvested products, and magic reagents will appear in the inventory of anyone who catch, harvest, or brew them.

Business owners require the crafted objects, food, fish, products, and reagents in their inventory in order to restock them. Otherwise, the items will remain out of stock. Retail items that can be purchased in Buy Mode, however, will not be taken even if the owner has them in their inventory.

To avoid confusion, the following terms "Purchase" and "Pay" have the different meaning. "Purchasing" means taking any objects mark for sale to the shopping cart, while "Paying" means handing over the money to the cashier to possess the purchased items to the inventory

Sims who travel to a business lot can purchase items for sale. The items will appear in their shopping cart, which is below the inventory tab. Players can only view or remove the purchased items in the shopping cart, because the items don't belong to them yet. Sims still need to pay the items in the cash register. Once they pay them, the objects appear in their inventory. Customers or visiting Sims who also purchase any items in a business lot will have them in the inventory. Because objects do not depreciate in inventory, they will be fully refunded if they sell them right away when being played.

Sims who purchase items but not pay them will not possess the items when they get home. It will stay in their shopping cart instead. When they return at the business lot, they can pay still can pay the items they purchase. When the customers appear as visitors, some objects aren't actually bought. Clothes (not sewn outfit), video games, personal electronics, and magazines don't appear in their inventory when they purchase it.

Other Notes
Previously, Sims can give their handheld to children with "Give Handheld" special interaction. This interaction, however, is removed if any later expansion or stuff packs are installed. This is because Sims can take out the handheld from the inventory and place it to other Sims' inventory, as well as the gift giving feature from Seasons.

The game disables the players to access some Sims' inventories. While going on a vacation, the family who brings along other Sims cannot access their inventories. The player cannot see what they have with them. Also, roommates' inventory will be replaced by Roommate Satisfaction Meter, making the player unable to see their personal belongings.

Some special objects will or already appear in some Sims. Townies, NPCs, CAS Sims, and pre-Nightlife Sims will have a bottle of ReNuYu Porta-Chug, as well as children who grow up to teenagers. Bigfoot, Witch Doctor, and Wise Old Man have 5 maps to their secret vacation lot, and the latter two have voodoo dolls and Dragon Scrolls, respectively. All hobby instructors have their own hobby plaque. High witches and Sims who are turned into one have a cauldron and a spellbook.

The Sims 3
In The Sims 3, a Sim's personal inventory is where books and collectibles are stored. It is more limited than in The Sims 2: it can only contain objects that a person could realistically carry. Certain objects such as guitars and laptops, when placed in a Sim's inventory, allow that Sim to use them wherever they are.

In the Windows and Mac OS X versions of the game, each Sim has a separate inventory; in the PS3 and Xbox 360, the Sims' inventories are shared.

Unlike The Sims 2 and The Sims Stories, food placed in the inventory in The Sims 3 (and The Sims Medieval) will eventually spoil.

Family inventory
Each household has a family inventory, which can be accessed in buy mode by clicking the cardboard box icon. When moving house, if the player decides to 'pack furniture' from their previous dwelling, the furniture is placed in the family inventory. Unlike the individual Sims' inventories, it can store practically any object in the game.

If the Food Replicator or Teleportation Pad are purchased as lifetime rewards, they will be placed in the family inventory. The same applies when buying large furniture (e.g. tents, Sheng Hai Training Dummy, Board Breaker) in markets in Shang Simla, Al Simhara, or Champs Les Sims.

Inventario