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Scenario Surviving the Holidays - How do you feel about it?
MiaSkywalker
Posts: 3,436 Member
Personally, I found it disappointing and lame. I was hoping it would actually have something to do with the holidays, but it doesn't. It seems like a watered down version of the permanent one they have: Finding Love After a Breakup.
I've now done this scenario three times, and always felt it was easy. It's also apparently bugged (for all I know, all of the scenarios might be); the first time I sent a Sim off to another community lot without the other Sim, the scenario auto-completed, even though both Sims still had the red Festering Grudge sentiment towards one another. The second time, I made sure not to have them leave the lot except together, but again, I sent them off to a community lot (this time together), and within minutes of that, the scenario completed, even though at least one of them still had the sentiment.
So I tried a third time, yesterday, and was able to complete it - without ever leaving the lot - in one Sim day. Seriously. I didn't use any cheats, and the only lot traits I used were Study Spot and Home Studio, and that's just because I like having my Sims do skilling stuff. All I did was have them play chess together until their friendship bars were slightly green, then had them converse. As long as I kept free will off, and manually selected what friendly interactions they used (pausing frequently, to make sure the other Sim didn't autonomously select a mean interaction), then they didn't automatically do mean interactions. After getting their friendship bars to Good Friend (something that doesn't really take much time), I had each of them apologize to the other several times, mixed in with other positive interactions. After a few times of that, the sentiment started to decay rather rapidly.
Is anyone else finding this scenario waaaaay too easy? The "Finding Love After a Breakup" scenario is a lot more challenging, particularly if you're determined to get those specific Sims back together and not with other people. I've done that one a few times, and I think the fastest I managed it was something like 6 Sim days. This temporary scenario really feels like an extremely watered down version of that, as well as having the bug associated with going to a community lot.
So I'm just curious what other people think about it. Maybe it's just the way I play. I tend to micro-manage, and I'm rather a power player, and perhaps this scenario is more interesting to players who just let things happen autonomously.
I've now done this scenario three times, and always felt it was easy. It's also apparently bugged (for all I know, all of the scenarios might be); the first time I sent a Sim off to another community lot without the other Sim, the scenario auto-completed, even though both Sims still had the red Festering Grudge sentiment towards one another. The second time, I made sure not to have them leave the lot except together, but again, I sent them off to a community lot (this time together), and within minutes of that, the scenario completed, even though at least one of them still had the sentiment.
So I tried a third time, yesterday, and was able to complete it - without ever leaving the lot - in one Sim day. Seriously. I didn't use any cheats, and the only lot traits I used were Study Spot and Home Studio, and that's just because I like having my Sims do skilling stuff. All I did was have them play chess together until their friendship bars were slightly green, then had them converse. As long as I kept free will off, and manually selected what friendly interactions they used (pausing frequently, to make sure the other Sim didn't autonomously select a mean interaction), then they didn't automatically do mean interactions. After getting their friendship bars to Good Friend (something that doesn't really take much time), I had each of them apologize to the other several times, mixed in with other positive interactions. After a few times of that, the sentiment started to decay rather rapidly.
Is anyone else finding this scenario waaaaay too easy? The "Finding Love After a Breakup" scenario is a lot more challenging, particularly if you're determined to get those specific Sims back together and not with other people. I've done that one a few times, and I think the fastest I managed it was something like 6 Sim days. This temporary scenario really feels like an extremely watered down version of that, as well as having the bug associated with going to a community lot.
So I'm just curious what other people think about it. Maybe it's just the way I play. I tend to micro-manage, and I'm rather a power player, and perhaps this scenario is more interesting to players who just let things happen autonomously.
My Sims 3 Profile Page, since the forums don't connect to our Sims 3 profiles anymore.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
Post edited by EA_Cade on
1
Comments
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/18020398#Comment_18020398
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/994938/scenarios-coming-to-base-game/p18
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
Has anyone tried a household of 8? Do ALL the Sims in a household have to be friends without negative sentiments to pass the challenge?
You might try only controlling ONE Sim in the household. Asylum-challenge-style.
I've never tried with a full house, either. It might be interesting if they DO all get negative sentiments towards one another. The scenario might not let you create a household with more than two, however; I don't know, as I've never tried it.
As for asylum style, hm... that's a good idea. As I said, I tend to be a micro-manager, so letting Sims just do what they want isn't instinctive for me. Especially since in Sims 4, Sims tend to behave identically and have similar wishes, no matter what traits they actually have.
I doubt I'll have the chance to try again before the scenario expires, however, and really, I prefer the breakup one, simply because it IS more challenging.
@musteni: The problem with playing them as part of a story is that although you can add the household into an existing save, you can't use an already existing household. I really feel that's a serious limitation with scenarios, and why they aren't really going to be the draw that Maxis thinks they will be.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
I looked over the bug thread: The bug is what I encountered in my first two play throughs, but is NOT what I encountered in my third. The third playthrough just showed how easy the scenario is, even without that glitch. My Sims never left the lot, so never encountered the bug. It's just that - if you are concentrating solely on that situation and nothing else - it's very simple to complete.
Otoh, the Breaking Up scenario is a bit more challenging; they have two red bars you have to combat, not just one, and while you can get the friendship bar easily up to max green, the romantic one isn't so simple. I've done that scenario twice, but each time I did, I found that I couldn't initiate romance without the other Sim rejecting, if there was still a negative sentiment towards the first Sim. That meant it was absolutely necessary to get rid of those negative sentiments before I could start flirting between the two Sims.
The bug is a problem, but the scenario is also simply far too easy. And since you can't add a scenario to an existing household in an ongoing game, that makes them fairly useless for storytelling in a game.
The only kind of garden I can grow is a virtual one.
Dragons - must haz dragons!
You can start a scenario in an existing game. Just not using a household already placed in that game. You can use a household from your library, though.
The biggest problem was to make the two sims interact. They were stuck together in a big house with free will off, so they could easily avoid each other. Then at the end of the first day Sim A ate Sim B's ordered food. Now that was a reason to interact, but in a negative fashion. I had to force myself not to make them brawl.
I let Sim A apologize and the next day made sim B give a romantic gift to A. Then I waited what they'd do and the receiver of the gift chose to continue down the romance path. After that point I helped the two with flirty moodlets from the TV and food. By the end of that day (and after three woohoos) they were Enemies with Benefits. It was easier to get that status than I remember, probably because we now have a crapton of ways to add positive moodlets.
Here's the full chronicle: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/18024014/#Comment_18024014
You'll notice that only 4 posts cover the challenge gameplay, whereas five deal with the sims living without interacting and then the aftermath.
Was it a challenge? No. Was it fun? Yes, but not because of the idea, but because of the spin I put on it. Could just as well have been another simmer nudging me to play this particular story hook. From official scenarios I expect something more meaty, like the whole town hating you for being a crimelord's kid and your sim (or little gang of sims) can either confirm their opinion or redeem themselves.