My first pet stuff pack

Simmerville

I'd love my kids to have small animals in their room, but this pack seems stuffed with outfits and extras that I will never use. Dressing my cat up in a dress is out of the question, and such is turning my dog into an astronaut.

Could someone give a quick comment on how big part the small animals actually are? Can you do things with them, such as teaching them tricks? Can they be moved to other rooms (in inventory like we do in TS3)? Can they breed?

Chazzzy

The small pet (the little guinea pig they cloned 4 times and changed the name of to give the appearance its 4 different animals but definitely is not) never leaves its box. It has some interaction where it “goes into space” for a few hours doing who knows what but then comes right back with a postcard. You see nothing of this.

You can pick the cage up and move it around in Buy/Build mode. You can pet, feed, talk to it. You cannot set it on the floor to run around.

That’s all I can recall. My families were either obsessed with staring at that thing or refused to clean it autonomously and ended up getting sick so I don’t even put them in my houses anymore.

My favorite thing from that pack is actually the fish coffee table and there’s not even real fish in that but it looks cool.

Simmerville

Ah, thanks a lot. Might give it a wait, then. It's fun to plan what pack to get next, but there might even be new packs available before I'll get to it.

LaBlue0314

The only thing I use from this pack is the furniture that matches up with the things that should have been included in the Cats and Dog EP. I only got this because it was on sale for around $7 a while back.

Simmerville

LaBlue0314 wrote: »

The only thing I use from this pack is the furniture that matches up with the things that should have been included in the Cats and Dog EP. I only got this because it was on sale for around $7 a while back.

But are your sims, too, obsessed with watching those small animals and getting sick very often?

LaBlue0314

@Simmerville I only played with the hampsters just once, got bored, and that was that. I'm glad I got the pack on sale, wasn't planning on getting it. I have enough troubles with my sims getting killed by too much toddler cuteness.

MaggieMarley

The small pets are objects, like babies. They are tied to the cage, but your sim can feed them treats, “play with” them (basically hold them with the chance they will bite), talk to them, and children can “study” them which gets their homework done.

You can’t teach them tricks and they cannot breed.

They will only give your sims rabid rodent fever if their cage is dirty and they bite your sim. If you keep their cage clean and don’t handle them unless the cage is clean, your sims won’t get sick. Mine have never gotten sick from their rodents.

I never noticed my sims watching the rodents too much, or at all really.

I guess I kind of found the rodents boring. I love hamsters in real life and have owned many, but it’s hard for a game like TS to replicate them well. I’d have liked if we could at least let them run around the house in a ball or in an exercise pen. I’d also have liked if they weren’t tied to the cage, and if there were more interactions with them outside of the cage besides the brief play with interaction. It’s also very unrealistic how much they bite, even with a high relationship. Hamsters are very gentle creatures irl and most of mine never bit a soul. They don’t even look like hamsters in the game - more like guinea pigs.

If you have a high enough relationship with your rodent they will do things like build rockets and explore space, or go on holiday and bring back a postcard. I guess that is kind of cool. I never actually saw a rodent do any of these things though - I just got a pop up saying they were doing them.

Simmerville

MaggieMarley wrote: »

The small pets are objects, like babies. They are tied to the cage, but your sim can feed them treats, “play with” them (basically hold them with the chance they will bite), talk to them, and children can “study” them which gets their homework done.

You can’t teach them tricks and they cannot breed.

They will only give your sims rabid rodent fever if their cage is dirty and they bite your sim. If you keep their cage clean and don’t handle them unless the cage is clean, your sims won’t get sick. Mine have never gotten sick from their rodents.

I never noticed my sims watching the rodents too much, or at all really.

I guess I kind of found the rodents boring. I love hamsters in real life and have owned many, but it’s hard for a game like TS to replicate them well. I’d have liked if we could at least let them run around the house in a ball or in an exercise pen. I’d also have liked if they weren’t tied to the cage, and if there were more interactions with them outside of the cage besides the brief play with interaction. It’s also very unrealistic how much they bite, even with a high relationship. Hamsters are very gentle creatures irl and most of mine never bit a soul. They don’t even look like hamsters in the game - more like guinea pigs.

If you have a high enough relationship with your rodent they will do things like build rockets and explore space, or go on holiday and bring back a postcard. I guess that is kind of cool. I never actually saw a rodent do any of these things though - I just got a pop up saying they were doing them.

Thanks a bunch, that was useful! I too loved the rocket thing in the video, I thought the rodent was escaping due to poor conditions, though

TheGoodOldGamer

If you have Vampires, the rodent illness can kill them. Then their ghost will have that silly hamster suit. And that made it worth it to me, lol. A new way to kill a vamp, and make them goofy in the process, is a win-win.

kalaksed

two of my households couldn't get enough of the rodents early on. the pets especially would hang around the habitat, watching the occupant instead of eating or peeing or bathing. sims weren't quite as obsessed, but it got close sometimes. it's been toned down since, but in my main household, at least one sim will still wander up and interact with the rodent on their own (this household uses the bubalus since they're mostly alien and that fits them better). though it's not always enough to get someone to feed him on their own before he dies

i've given multiple households the rodents, though. trying to find things that match them somehow. like the vampire household gets a rat in their child's room, the aliens and a voidcritter crazed household each get a bubalus, a few 'normal' households get hamsters (one still has the cat watch him more than anything. but that rather makes sense), alexander goth has a hedgehog, as does the stellar academy (but no real reason for the academy. it was just the least used of the options when i got to them)

i've caught my rodents blasting off in the rocket or setting off nukes or hosting raves at various times. just happened to have the camera turned in their direction when it happened. usually i just get the announcement about it, and by then it's too late. (i've also had several households feed their rodents the iq limiter treat so they're just normal rodents. that happen to live forever because they ate the treat that does that. even if you have aging turned off, rodents will still die of old age without that immortality treat)

also, you can have your sim research the rodent illness on the computer, which gives them the ability to get booster shots that enable them and their family to be permanently immune to the rodent fever

Simmerville

Thanks @kalaksed very helpfull

SilentKitty

I love my little hedgehog!

Earlier sims have had cats and dogs and just like in real life that is a big commitment. It was too much responsibility for my current sim. She has a aquarium with fishes and a cute little hedgehog to keep her company. Also there is a cowplant in the backyard and Patchy comes by every now and then. So even if she spends most of her time gardening, writing or making floral arrangements she isn’t lonely.

DreamaDove

I've been debating getting this pack as well, but there just isn't enough in it that appeals to me. I really dislike that you can only have one rodent in the cage at a time, that there aren't multiple types of cages, that you can't put it in a ball to roll around, and that the plastic tubes in the pack are just decorative 2D stickers.

If all the objects in the pack had been devoted to the rodents instead of adding stuff for C&D (which should have just been patched into the game for people with that pack) then it could have been worth it. SP are usually very specific in their theme, and if the rodents had been more detailed and with more functions then it would have been worth it.