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Parenthood -- where nothing really matters
I8PIKACHU
Posts: 572 Member
I played the Parenthood GP and really felt empty. While the actions with the teens were wildly hyped, there really isn't any reason to have those interactions because they have no consequence with the lives of the sims.
No matter if the teen is an emo or outspoken, the end goal is all the same: they all turn into regular adults and need jobs and everything is erased from their teen experience as if the pack never existed.
I've found it's easier to avoid the Parenthood pack interactions and obtain the goals of the teens quicker. The pack adds obstacles that have no real meaning nor consequence and are easy to avoid because no matter what you do, your sim will turn out the same with or without the pack.
As for the objects, the diary is cute. The science experiments are clever but after you do them the first time, there is no reason to ever do them again - ever. I did it without parents and my sims completed one experiment in a sim evening.
Unlike the toddler pack that added multiple dimensions to the little sims, the teen quests are not enough to give dimension because there's no consequence to how they live. Toddlers were new to The Sims, teens are not new. If you ignored the needs of your toddlers, Child Protective Services would take your babies away from you. There are no consequences for not tending to the needs of teens, whether you are a parent or a teen. I tested the teen experience by having teens live in a home without a parent. They acted as if I never installed the game pack. Whether they were "responsible" or not, they acted the same regardless of the traits. The trait system does not work.
While Maxis says the interactions impact character values traits, tuning these to any degree does not change how your sims live. Whether you have low conflict-resolution or high conflict-resolution, you will never notice it in the short daily lives of your sims.
There are a lot of details in this pack that you can try to tune, but the end result is meaningless because it doesn't change how your sims live before you installed the game pack.
As for the new objects, there really isn't anything very interesting besides the cute diary object. The science objects are nice to have but have no replay value or meaning to them. You probably will not want two robots or two volcanoes.
You can get this pack if you want a couple of neat objects. If you ignore teen emotions and traits, your sims will turn out just as if you did not install this pack. So that leads to the question, why go through all the trouble?
No matter if the teen is an emo or outspoken, the end goal is all the same: they all turn into regular adults and need jobs and everything is erased from their teen experience as if the pack never existed.
I've found it's easier to avoid the Parenthood pack interactions and obtain the goals of the teens quicker. The pack adds obstacles that have no real meaning nor consequence and are easy to avoid because no matter what you do, your sim will turn out the same with or without the pack.
As for the objects, the diary is cute. The science experiments are clever but after you do them the first time, there is no reason to ever do them again - ever. I did it without parents and my sims completed one experiment in a sim evening.
Unlike the toddler pack that added multiple dimensions to the little sims, the teen quests are not enough to give dimension because there's no consequence to how they live. Toddlers were new to The Sims, teens are not new. If you ignored the needs of your toddlers, Child Protective Services would take your babies away from you. There are no consequences for not tending to the needs of teens, whether you are a parent or a teen. I tested the teen experience by having teens live in a home without a parent. They acted as if I never installed the game pack. Whether they were "responsible" or not, they acted the same regardless of the traits. The trait system does not work.
While Maxis says the interactions impact character values traits, tuning these to any degree does not change how your sims live. Whether you have low conflict-resolution or high conflict-resolution, you will never notice it in the short daily lives of your sims.
There are a lot of details in this pack that you can try to tune, but the end result is meaningless because it doesn't change how your sims live before you installed the game pack.
As for the new objects, there really isn't anything very interesting besides the cute diary object. The science objects are nice to have but have no replay value or meaning to them. You probably will not want two robots or two volcanoes.
You can get this pack if you want a couple of neat objects. If you ignore teen emotions and traits, your sims will turn out just as if you did not install this pack. So that leads to the question, why go through all the trouble?
Let your soul shine through.
Post edited by I8PIKACHU on
25
Comments
The Vampire Pack is not regular at all. Even the toddlers update was not regular. If you ignore the needs of your toddlers, child protective services will take them away. Both of those packs/updates have serious consequences for sims.
Already had this feeling regarding the projects and it turned out correct
From what I've seen so far, these new values don't do much.
Lol, I feel like "but the CAS and objects are nice" is pretty much the only thing I say about a lot of packs to this game
Yeah but if you ignore it then it is regular. If you don't ignore Parenthood then you get a game out of it. If you ignore Vampire stuff you don't get much out of it either.
i could be wrong, but did anyone actually ever say that the character values were going to impact the sim before they reach YA and actually receive the trait from it? It kind of seems to me like you were expecting something that was never premised.
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Because I played it through and it doesn't really make a difference whether you pass the traits or not.
If that's the case it sure isn't what you said
this kind of implies that you've only played to teen (seeing as how the only way to have a high or low character value is by being a teen or younger). the character values don't have an impact until you get the trait from them after becoming a YA, and I don't recall anyone ever having said otherwise
If what you're trying to say is that you wish the system were more impactful before reaching YA, that's fair. But to say the traits dont work when you haven't even gotten them yet is maybe a little bit unfair.
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I've played through YA and Adult with the traits. It's as if I never installed the pack.
It's probably because most of the effects of the traits aren't glaringly in your face like some other features of this game tend to be. And I like that actually. Being able to give a polite introduction from being well mannered, or thank the host at a party, career bonus from responsibility, negative emotions going away quicker with emotional control. They're all subtle things that I feel really shapes my sim. I quite enjoy it!
This may seem like an obvious question, but do you have freewill turned off for both your controlled and uncontrolled sims? If so, they are going to do what you direct them to do, not what their traits make them want to do.
The Sims has always been an active game, not a passive game. If someone is sitting around expecting the game to constantly dazzle them, then I'm not sure why they are even playing this game in the first place. People get out of it what they put into it. There's no real "replay" value on any object. Swimming pool, basketball hoop, dollhouse, activity table, puppet theater, treadmill? Basically the same animations over and over. TV shows, movies...each channel has a different one but those channels show their same show or movie each time. Dancing, singing, etc. have skill improvements but if you keep doing those at the same skill level, it's the same. Cooking? I cooked a meal, guess I don't need to ever cook anything again...already seen it. There is literally no object that they could create for a game like this which someone could just sit around and replay over and over to be entertained. If you're looking for the game to entertain you, then you've got the wrong game. This game is all about giving you the tools to make your own game to entertain yourself.
Come on, EA! Give us what we truly want!!! More build tools!!!
PS Please don't tell me I am wrong about build tools. You know you love all of those fantastic lots you can download from the Gallery. Just think of all of the fabulous builds you will see with the introduction of new build tools!
"If you build it, they will come." - Movie: Field of Dreams
I haven't purchased, I've only watched some brief snippets of Let's Plays. I do recall however how one Sim had Argumentative and had a social interaction..."Unintentionally Provoke." I thought that was very odd because the player had to intentionally select unintentionally provoke, so it was "unintentional" in name only. It left me wondering which of the following was true:
1) The traits and new gameplay are weaksauce and basically do absolutely nothing unless you MAKE them do something, thereby defeating the point. I mean we all complain the current traits are bad and a big part of that is that Mean and Evil Sims for example will still gain positive relationships if left unattended, so YOU have to often lead them to being mean and Evil. If Argumentative is something Sims rarely act on unless ordered to, it suffers from the exact same problem.
2) The traits still often pop up and show themselves via random gameplay and via Sim AI. That the dialog option exists is merely to provide players with storytelling options if they so prefer to manually select the choices themselves.
I find OP's first post a tad cryptic in how it was written so I'm unsure if he's criticizing just teens or the collective package including the value traits, though it seems like he means the traits are weak too. I'd love to hear commentary about them either explaining strengths or problems with them.
I think you are wrong. @SimGuruNinja, and @SimGuruMegan, is it true none of this matters when Sims grow into adult hood? If behavior will be reflected in whether Sims learned to be nice or naughty? Isn't it true if they don't learn to stop belching and farting they will do those things as adults? I know they get a trait as YA but I think saying this pack doesn't affect anything as they age is just wrong. Because if I'm wrong, then I'm having a fun time finding out. They said this would affect relationships, and I think it does but want to know the facts from the gurus.
It's a very fun GP if you don't play all nice and perfect. It's one of the best packs in the series in a long time. (Besides Vampires).
ETA: It's changed my whole Newcrest where I have a dysfunctional living, lol, so sorry OP, I disagree that none of it matters.
I will just add this I think players should learn to step out of the box and play the other side sometimes, when it's offered to find out how differently Sims can grow up. ETA: Fun fact the little boy toddler (actually a good kid) was so angry he wanted to bite a stranger walking by the house. Of course I will have to oblige him.
for everyone. Our sims parenting affects 'character values' which will have impact on how our
sims behave in the future. Once our kids turn into young adults, is when they show the outcome of their upbringing.
If you read the gameplay guide, you would know that. There's also plenty along the way that shows their
upbringing. I am personally loving this new pack and the more we play the more we discover.
This. He or she, is just not putting out the right information.
"If you build it, they will come." - Movie: Field of Dreams