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Pets EP: “What is needed for a very good Pets Expansion?” (Pics)
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The German Sims Team asked, “What is needed for a very good Pets Expansion?” I think we could have a go at answering the question even if we don't speak German.
For me, I think we’ve already seen similar versions of Pets given in Sims 2 and 3, so I would like them to try something different. Rather than pets, I would prefer an animal expansion to be centered on farms, safaris, or zoos (including petting zoos). If they really are intent on sticking with the style of pets that we have seen in previous versions of the game, then please include:
1.) Some new animals with different requirements like potbellied pigs, sugar gliders, and hedgehogs.
2.) The standard pets as well:
3.) Veterinarian, rancher, zookeeper or similar animal caretaker career track.
4.) Some ‘special’ pets like freezer bunnies and/or llamacorns.
5.) The ability to open a pet store & groomer in combination with GTW EP.
6.) A pet daycare center for while people are away or at work. Perhaps they could learn skills there and/or gain friends.
7.) Special interactions with pets between toddlers, kids, and teens who sometimes bond even more strongly with pets.
8.) Interactions between pets. Parrots that sit on dogs’ heads, kittens that snuggle dogs, dogs that chase bunnies, etc.
9.) Expansion Pack integration. For GTW there could be police dogs and the ability to open pet stores. If a vacation EP is added, I would hope you could have pets go on vacation, too. Pets could serve as familiars in a Supernatural EP.
10.) Both low and high maintenance types of pets to give Simmers the option of micromanaging and lavishing attention on their pets, or just having some around that do their own thing.
11.) The return of aquariums and fish tanks.
12.) Animals as customizable as Sims so that you could pull their ears long or short, give them big or small paws, adjust their snouts, etc. They should also have traits.
13.) Pet ghosts.
14.) Pets as beings. Don’t make them into objects like Sim babies by attaching them to pet beds or something similar.
15.) Petsitters to care for your pets while you are at work, on vacation, or for those that don’t want to deal with all the upkeep. This would be a good teen/pre-teen job.
16.) The ability to have more than one animal in a cage, hutch, or other enclosure.
17.) Pet gates, hutches, kennels, other places to keep animals.
18.) Lots of interactions – pets to sleep at the foot of the bed while the Sims are sleeping there (not either Sim or pet as in previous expansions), kids and toddlers to cuddle pets, birds to ride on shoulders, agility courses, handshakes, high fives, nose kisses, pawing for attention, rubbing against trouser legs, and so on.
19.) Silly animal behavior. Each type of animal should have a few funny/stupid interactions when left on their own:
20.) The ability to add pets on top of 8 family member limit. (# of Sims + # of pets > 8)
21.) Neutering. If there is autonomous breeding then there should also be an option to neuter pets.
22.) A way to prevent strays from appearing on lots.
23.) Build mode for pet houses, mazes, gyms and tunnels.
24.) Dog Parks with group activities/multitasking for dogs -- tag or hide and seek type games, chasing each other, carrying a stick together, playing ball together, tug-of-war, water sport and so on.
Edit: Changed things a bit to hopefully make it clear that I would prefer a farm, zoo, or safari pack, but if we're going to get another standard pets pack, this is what I'd like to see.
Edit 2: An Exotic Pets Zoo version was added here, a Petting Zoo here, and a Safari thread here if anyone would like to contribute ideas there on the off chance that EA is considering something like this.
For me, I think we’ve already seen similar versions of Pets given in Sims 2 and 3, so I would like them to try something different. Rather than pets, I would prefer an animal expansion to be centered on farms, safaris, or zoos (including petting zoos). If they really are intent on sticking with the style of pets that we have seen in previous versions of the game, then please include:
1.) Some new animals with different requirements like potbellied pigs, sugar gliders, and hedgehogs.
2.) The standard pets as well:
3.) Veterinarian, rancher, zookeeper or similar animal caretaker career track.
4.) Some ‘special’ pets like freezer bunnies and/or llamacorns.
5.) The ability to open a pet store & groomer in combination with GTW EP.
6.) A pet daycare center for while people are away or at work. Perhaps they could learn skills there and/or gain friends.
7.) Special interactions with pets between toddlers, kids, and teens who sometimes bond even more strongly with pets.
9.) Expansion Pack integration. For GTW there could be police dogs and the ability to open pet stores. If a vacation EP is added, I would hope you could have pets go on vacation, too. Pets could serve as familiars in a Supernatural EP.
10.) Both low and high maintenance types of pets to give Simmers the option of micromanaging and lavishing attention on their pets, or just having some around that do their own thing.
11.) The return of aquariums and fish tanks.
12.) Animals as customizable as Sims so that you could pull their ears long or short, give them big or small paws, adjust their snouts, etc. They should also have traits.
13.) Pet ghosts.
14.) Pets as beings. Don’t make them into objects like Sim babies by attaching them to pet beds or something similar.
15.) Petsitters to care for your pets while you are at work, on vacation, or for those that don’t want to deal with all the upkeep. This would be a good teen/pre-teen job.
16.) The ability to have more than one animal in a cage, hutch, or other enclosure.
17.) Pet gates, hutches, kennels, other places to keep animals.
18.) Lots of interactions – pets to sleep at the foot of the bed while the Sims are sleeping there (not either Sim or pet as in previous expansions), kids and toddlers to cuddle pets, birds to ride on shoulders, agility courses, handshakes, high fives, nose kisses, pawing for attention, rubbing against trouser legs, and so on.
19.) Silly animal behavior. Each type of animal should have a few funny/stupid interactions when left on their own:
20.) The ability to add pets on top of 8 family member limit. (# of Sims + # of pets > 8)
21.) Neutering. If there is autonomous breeding then there should also be an option to neuter pets.
22.) A way to prevent strays from appearing on lots.
23.) Build mode for pet houses, mazes, gyms and tunnels.
24.) Dog Parks with group activities/multitasking for dogs -- tag or hide and seek type games, chasing each other, carrying a stick together, playing ball together, tug-of-war, water sport and so on.
Edit: Changed things a bit to hopefully make it clear that I would prefer a farm, zoo, or safari pack, but if we're going to get another standard pets pack, this is what I'd like to see.
Edit 2: An Exotic Pets Zoo version was added here, a Petting Zoo here, and a Safari thread here if anyone would like to contribute ideas there on the off chance that EA is considering something like this.
Post edited by [Deleted User] on
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Sometimes your creativity is limited where you use it most, but you can use those limitations to inspire new forms of creativity you may never have thought of beforehand.
1. No or limitable strays
2. A great genetics system, especially for mixing dog breeds
3. Not having to play as the pets in a household (let them be unplayed or played, our choice)
4. @greenXen's idea of special Sims pets like freezer bunnies!!!!! <-- I love this to death
5. A veterinarian career
I'd like to see farming that is fully fleshed out, with field crops and a whole lot of rural lifestyle things. I suspect it would be its own full-scale EP.
- Ability to raise cows, chickens/turkeys/geese, rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs, and horses in a farm setting.
- Ability to play some of these as you would a dog, cat, or horse.
- Ability to farm, expanding on gardening with an addition of the farming skill and a vast selection of crops.
- Introduction of tractors to make tending to the crops a quicker affair that doesn't take an entire sim day.
- Adding a large scale sprinkler system to help water crops -- allow it to scale down for smaller gardens.
- Ability to have a larger lot at a separate location to help with lag of so many animations running so frequently, you would be able to keep an average sized lot for your home. ** note this would only apply to those who want a larger scaled farm **
- Additional careers that center around animals and integration of animals in the medical and police fields (rehab pet/K9).
- Less limitations placed on pets, allow them to sleep in your Sim's bed with them.
- Limit strays to dogs and cats with wild horses being found in the countryside only.
Well, the llamacorns are kind of like pegasuses.
Barely tell the difference.
Sometimes your creativity is limited where you use it most, but you can use those limitations to inspire new forms of creativity you may never have thought of beforehand.
I would like to have a farming, safari, or zoo package in place of pets. We've done pets. I would like something new. But, from the way they asked the question, it looked like they were only asking about pets and headed down the road of repetition, so the answers are mostly geared just towards pets.
If they added pets as a separate EP on top of that, since I get the impression we are getting even more EPs than in the past this time, that would be fine.
I really like all of your ideas, and would love to see them in a pets EP
They should add a Farm, a Zoo, An Aquarium and a Horse Riding Center where you can take part in races.
A Vet active career is also needed but I doubt any of the lots I mentioned will make it as it seems the towns that come with the EP's will be no bigger than 1x1 (Exaggeration) but yeah those are my thoughts
- Dogs
- Cats
- Horses
- More rodents: mice, rats, ferrets, squirrels, guinea pigs, rabbits, chinchillas, hedgehogs etc. Also add the ability to have more than 1 rodents in the same cage, and we should have the ability to put rodents in any type of cages we want! Also they should be able to jump onto Sims' beds, and maybe even sleep there! Offsprings and breeding as well, please!
- Snakes
- Turtles
- Lizards
- Birds with the ability to carry them wherever you want, teach them to sing, talk etc.
- Real llamas!
But IF Pets and Farming will be combined or two separate packs, then I want these animals as well:
- Cows
- Pigs
- Sheep
- Chicken
- Geese
- Ducks
- Goats
PLEASE Maxis! I would SO pay for these type of things for my game, and I know many others would as well! Also exotic pets/animals are another thing that many of us want, so you really should have some ideas for future content based on our suggestions
I don't think the fur is as big an issue as the polycount. Even without fur, you can get some nice looking animals:
But, with a super low polycount (or the very low art budget we saw referenced earlier), you could end up with this:
I hope that now that the game is not online they will up the polycount limit a bit. It could make a big difference for pets.
So for my take on an Pet EP -
1. dogs
2. cats
3. horses
4. minor pets (from pervious games)
5. more minor pets options (including how you cage them, multiple in the same cage, type of cage, type of outside cage/perch, holding interactions - IE multitasking with a large bird on your shoulder)
6. Exotic Animals. [I WANT TIGERS! Lol] - but on a real sense, like @That1chick said cows, sheep, chickens/turkeys/geese, rabbits, goats, pigs, horses.
7. My input - Small animals: monkeys, penguins, Civets, foxes, beavers, otters etc. Large animals: WOLVES, alligators, bears, moose.
8. Special Animals - for horses Unicorns and/or Pegasus, for dogs I don't know like wolves or something, for cats a tiger or lion or something. I cant think of supernatural animals for dogs and cats at the moment, if there is any in the first place.
9. PET STORE - With option to run as business or work at, GTW EP!!
10. As Multiple People said already, Animal-influenced careers!! Veterinarian, pet store owner/employee, groomer, daycare. Even dog/cat/horse walker would be so cool. Also a animal rescue center (for strays you pick up off the side of the road, but you care for them at the center and get them adopted out) would be Epic.
11. Horse races, dog/cat shows, etc. be able to actually see and interact with those types of things.
12. As @greenXen said the ability to sell animal products. (My input - to have a store that you can put those products in and sell: like the Alchemy store in TS3 Supernatural EP)
13. Giving the animals jobs would also be cool, police dogs/horses, gather/hunter for collectibles cats.
14. The option to have the pets as Sim-like active actions or like minor pets action. Purely for those who want to have a full-blown pet in the house full-time job or for those who want the pet in the house, but not the full-time job of taking care of it.
15. More collar choices, more jumping obstacles, more saddle/bridges, more dog toys (there are not as many as with cats), more horse toys. More dogs bed, cat beds, horse stalls. ADD HORSE TRAILERS!!!
16. A full-blown Dog center, a full-blown Horse center (Equestrian), a full-blown cat center, and any other main animal added to the EP! That you can enter and interact with!
Now for my take on a Farm/zoo/safari/aquarium stuff/game pack -
1. Have zoos and aquariums that we can visit.
2. Have the option to run these lots.
3. Have a farming career.
4. Have the option to run a farm, with it as your home or with it as a side business on a different lot.
5. Improve gardening skill and how fast you garden/farm.
6. Have the choice of what type of farm you want to run - farming/gardening=fields of crops, animal farming with cattle=milking cows, shaving sheep's wool, chicken eggs etc.
7. In a zoo/safari/aquarium sense - Tigers, lions, whales and dolphins would be so EPIC!!! Sharks, elephants, giraffes, zebras, would be awesome!
8. BEING ABLE TO RUN A 'WILDLIFE PERSERVE' with all the exotic animals listed above and many, many more.
9. Bringing back the circus career would be cool.
10. Oh, having a circus that comes to town, so we can visit it, would be cool.
I think I've covered my ideas and inputs.
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Thank you @MDianaSanders for halloween-fying Golluma
@06Bon06, they do make excellent pets, don't they?
If you need to take it that way, yes they do!
Like baies make excellent decor in this game :P
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Thank you @MDianaSanders for halloween-fying Golluma
You know people are asking for daycare centers for the babies (and possible toddlers/pre-schoolers). A pet daycare might also be nice where you can drop off your pets. Possibly even stay for a bit and let them interact in a large pen/playground type area with other pets. Good pet-pet interaction.
Can I drop my toddlers off too? XD
I want pet stores back like in Sims 1. My young self enjoyed going there just to make my sims look at the pets lol
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Thank you @MDianaSanders for halloween-fying Golluma
Yes, yes, the pet center is open to all kinds of pets (including toddler pets).
> SakuraJones wrote:
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> 16. A full-blown Dog center, a full-blown Horse center (Equestrian), a full-blown cat center, and any other main animal added to the EP! That you can enter and interact with!
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> You know people are asking for daycare centers for the babies (and possible toddlers/pre-schoolers). A pet daycare might also be nice where you can drop off your pets. Possibly even stay for a bit and let them interact in a large pen/playground type area with other pets. Good pet-pet interaction.
Also if the pet-center could train your animals. (Such as potty training, tricks, skills, etc.)