So let's worry about the authenticity of administering a vaccine to a huge malevolent plant. Should they have required an alcohol swab first?
What about not including vaccines at all in the final battle and instead asking you to collect ingredients to create a chemical like bleach or a herbicide (or any chemical that raises pH levels)*, which actually can kill a plant unlike vaccines. Straw manning my arguments won't make them any less valid. The truth is that any person could've written a more coherent resolution with a little bit research. But it seems some people don't care about coherence, internal logic, consistency and quality writing.
* EDIT: This is how you kill Plant 42 in Resident Evil (V-JOLT). You didn't throw vaccines in glasses at her because it wouldn't a 🐸🐸🐸🐸 thing. Yes, Resident Evil, a game about zombies and fantasy science, has more consistency and coherence than this pack.
So let's worry about the authenticity of administering a vaccine to a huge malevolent plant. Should they have required an alcohol swab first?
What about not including vaccines at all in the final battle and instead asking you to collect ingredients to create a chemical like bleach or a herbicide (or any chemical that raises pH levels)*, which actually can kill a plant unlike vaccines. Straw manning my arguments won't make them any less valid. The truth is that any person could've written a more coherent resolution with a little bit research. But it seems some people don't care about coherence, internal logic, consistency and quality writing.
* EDIT: This is how you kill Plant 42 in Resident Evil (V-JOLT). You didn't throw vaccines in glasses at her because it wouldn't a plum thing. Yes, Resident Evil, a game about zombies and fantasy science, has more consistency and coherence than this pack.
I admit it never occurred to me to analyze the method of defeating the plant. I found it quirky, humorous, and exactly what I would have expected in the Sims.
So let's worry about the authenticity of administering a vaccine to a huge malevolent plant. Should they have required an alcohol swab first?
What about not including vaccines at all in the final battle and instead asking you to collect ingredients to create a chemical like bleach or a herbicide (or any chemical that raises pH levels)*, which actually can kill a plant unlike vaccines. Straw manning my arguments won't make them any less valid. The truth is that any person could've written a more coherent resolution with a little bit research. But it seems some people don't care about coherence, internal logic, consistency and quality writing.
* EDIT: This is how you kill Plant 42 in Resident Evil (V-JOLT). You didn't throw vaccines in glasses at her because it wouldn't a plum thing. Yes, Resident Evil, a game about zombies and fantasy science, has more consistency and coherence than this pack.
I admit it never occurred to me to analyze the method of defeating the plant. I found it quirky, humorous, and exactly what I would have expected in the Sims.
I think a choice was made. You can't make something stop to be vaccinated that doesn't want to be and that happens later. I don't think syringes would help then so they just took this approach to prepare the player in a sense for something that happens later.
Also about the splash thing.. it can be good for stories as you play .. if the possessed are more of a zombie like creature it give us more options to work with.. not less.
Especially if you use it for more than just the aspiration story line which I do and plan to do.
Good point that it's more difficult ... but not impossible.
Dexter immediately comes to mind, although he was very athletic, stealthy and overly practiced. I don't know if people are playing with low-skilled Sims, but I see there's a training dummy, so I doubt that's the idea; for average Joes to save the town.
I don't yet have the pack, just sharing thoughts.
More importantly, let's please stop using the word, "vaccine" incorrectly. Does this liquid splash PREVENT possession?? I think people would WANT that. "Shot" does not equal "vaccine." (Or liquid medicine, of course.)
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If you haven't finish the story, make sure you don't mind reading this spoiler.
If you have made more vaccines then necessary for the storyline, you still have vaccines in your inventory when you come to the end, you'll have the opportunity to throw them at the Mother causing more injuries.
That's yet another nonsensical part. A vaccine could never be used that way. Sims just throw glasses of "vaccines" at the plant and they have an instantaneous harmful effect. Vaccines were made earlier in the game to HEAL / free people from Mother's control, so it doesn't make sense that later on they can be used to hurt Mother herself? You're literally throwing at Mother her OWN PATHOGENS! It's a massive plot hole and it's never explained. What kind of deus-ex-vaccines are these? They work exactly how the plot needs them to work at any given moment. They have no consistency or underlying rules.
Honestly, the more I think about the plot in StrangerVille, the angrier I feel THIS is what passes now as an acceptable plot.
They're obviously NOT vaccines? That must just be the wrong word. No way that's the right word.
"Challenge everything" My Game Twitter
EA, fix the EA app & CAW EIG!
@simmerLella You're right. A vaccine doesn't work once you're alreaddy infected. It has to be something else. It's a cure, good for the sims, bad for the source of the infection.
Hmm... Just heading out to the store so I will have to take a look later but could you not cure vampirism by throwing vampire-cure at a vampire?
I have never cured one, I am more in the business of adding more, lol. But if I do remember that correctly then that is a way of administering medicine.
They're obviously NOT vaccines? That must just be the wrong word. No way that's the right word.
They aren't vaccines. Honestly, they're what the plot needs them to be. When you're "curing" Sims they function as an anti-serum as I wrote here. But when you are fighting against the plant, they seem to function as herbicides or chemicals with high pH levels. It's what I'm trying to say, whoever wrote the script for this pack didn't take 5 minutes to do basic research and think things through.
TOP 10 REASONS WHY STRANGERVILLE IS THE WORST GAME PACK YET
1- Story is very linear and can be finished in less than 2 hours. It has little replay value.
This bothers me more than anything else. It's just ONE story that lasts a few hours. In TS3 World Adventures, we had three whole worlds full of stories - they had dozens of quests, dozens of tombs, each with unique themes, to explore, each world had their own unique fish, gems, metals and bugs, their own unique people, dress, recipes, songs, books, and elaborate skills each of which have their own set of quests, and plus Egypt had a new way to die (Mummy Curse) with several interesting ways of being cured. Even in a sim's own homeworld, there are quests offered to them to go to one of these worlds to seek something out.
What's more, there were other EPs in TS3 that had quest-like elements: in the Island Paradise EP, there were 8 hidden islands with 8 different ways to discover them; in the Into the Future EP, you can influence the future to have 3 outcomes - utopian, dystopian and standard. These EPs all had massive content in the way of quests.
Then we come to this pack. It's just so upsetting that TS4 players are just accepting how small this content is. You should expect and demand more especially for the money you're paying!
This also makes me worried for the future of the franchise. Is TS5 going to be as cheap and shoddy as TS4 with it's content and gameplay? *Sigh....*
----
With that said, I think there ARE stories that can be played out with the things in this pack. I don't play TS4 (I hate closed worlds), but I would like to give ideas to add fun possibilities.
1) The mother plant can be used for a "Little Shop of Horrors" story. Look up the Broadway play to learn more about it. I think that would be fun to play out. Is it possible to have the mother plant in other worlds? "Little Shop of Horrors" was set in a city. If not, Strangerville will do.
2) Bella's Disappearance Explained: Have Bella become an evil but powerful plant sim queen. That's what really happened to her during her disappearance. Find out if a plant sim can also be infected (I don't know since I don't play the game), so she can have her own minions (but that she herself isn't infected). Hopefully a mod will come out soon to make the infection or that wacky behavior permanent but still be curable. I just wish infected sims can attack other sims (like zombies did in TS2 and TS3). Anyway, the mother plant is her pet and guards the entrance to her palace. Have the whole town infected except you and a handful of unrelated sims. Survive and find the cure. You have to kill the mother plant to enter the palace. Then kill Bella and her minions and cure and save the townies, family and friends!
3) I heard from YouTube that EA put this pack out to coincide with Stranger Things (hence the name of the town, Strangerville), whose Season 3 will be out this summer on Netflix. You can do a similar story featuring child sims. I saw that there is a Millie Bobby Brown (the girl who plays Eleven on the show) teenage sim somewhere (though she looks more like an adult because of her height, yikes!), but you can just age her down.
Great feedback @ClarionOfJoy. Hopefully if we get another story based pack it will offer more for those who play Sims 4 and were disappointed with Strangerville.
But I wasn’t disappointed with what I paid for in the pack I mean yes I really don’t like the story driven part of it. But I love the world I love the quirky sims that live in this world without doing the story. That’s what makes the world fun and unique and that’s what will keep me playing. I love the items and clothes and just being creative with my own storytelling of my sims.
I prefer The Sims (main series) to remain as a sandbox life simulator with no linear story mode whatsoever. The only stories should be the backstories of premade Sims, which I can adjust and/or delete said Sims altogether. Single player RPGs, and even the spin-off Sims games handled story modes far better.
I'm not at all opposed to a scenarios/improved TS3 opportunities system, where there are quest-like elements, player control/interaction/input (the game not literally spoonfeeding me directions for one, singular route to take the story in), and meaningful rewards. But TS4: Strangerville is an entirely different genre from what The Sims has always been, and just not fun to me, as a long-time player of the series.
Right now, the game needs new systems that promote replayability. I want to have so many directions to take my Sim's life in that it would take dozens upon dozens of generations to do everything, and even still, no two Sim's lives would be entirely the same. That's the kind of feeling I got in The Sims 2 and especially The Sims 3, with so much content in that game (but too much unstability on my end to explore it all). A linear story that holds your hand, gives you no creativity or interaction, and has the lore and predictability of Mickey Mouse Club House is simply not it.
I agree The Sims (main games) should focus on the sandbox aspect and letting us tell our own stories. I don't mind background stories like in The Sims 2 or mysteries like TS3's Don's appearance in Riverview or who is Lolita Goth. But a step-a-step MMO-esque story mode doesn't belong in a main Sims game.
I think scenarios like in TS2 and opportunities in TS3 worked really well. I really opportunities because I can ignore them if I want. They are just icing on the sandbox cake, not the cake itself. StrangerVille is definitely a first for a main Sims game. My problem isn't necesarily the fact that it exist (though it worries me for the future of the series), but the fact that it was so lazily executed, both in terms of plot/narrative and gameplay.
TS2/3 were definitely the peak when it comes to complex sandbox systems, especially memories/aspirations in TS2 and story progression/traits in TS3. TS4 added emotions, which is VERY poorly designed system in my opinion. All Sims end up being happy 50% of the time, moodlets are pointless (might as well be colored squares), and traits don't do anything other than change default emotions and add bonuses to skill building. TS4 still lacks most complex systems previous games had.
I am curious but where isn’t this pack still a sandbox game you might hate the pack and the story and think it’s to handholding but others are just incorporating into their stories. It’s not a terrible pack you are just being picky and you can be you are the consumer.
But I wasn’t disappointed with what I paid for in the pack I mean yes I really don’t like the story driven part of it. But I love the world I love the quirky sims that live in this world without doing the story. That’s what makes the world fun and unique and that’s what will keep me playing. I love the items and clothes and just being creative with my own storytelling of my sims.
Neither was I. The comment was directed to those who were disappointed.
Hey folks let's keep in mind that some people like the GP and some don't but everyone's opinion is valid and they're entitled to think what they want about the pack. Keep your posts respectful please.
Great feedback @ClarionOfJoy. Hopefully if we get another story based pack it will offer more for those who play Sims 4 and were disappointed with Strangerville.
I don't have a problem with them adding a story driven feature if that's what they want to add to The Sims franchise. But I wish they did more for it. If you have played TS1 through TS3, whenever they added a new, never-before-introduced feature, they always filled it out to the fullest with tons of gameplay and items. That's why you'll find Sims 3 players still discovering new things about TS3 even though they've been playing it for 10 years at this point.
I don't like this game pack format because it gives the devs an excuse to put out less content for the theme of the pack. It's quite possible, though, that the devs might have wanted to add more to this pack, but I just keep getting the impression that they didn't receive a big budget for it.
So while I am having a lot of fun with the story so far, I do agree with you about the replay value. The chances of me doing another playthrough are very slim - which sucks because I spent 20 bucks on it. lol
Idk if it's the worse ( to this day nothing beats that 🐸🐸🐸🐸 laundry pack) but I thought looked meh. I felt the same way about it not being replayable, cause it's like okay you beat the main story now..so what else?
I figured the reason the "vaccine" (or whatever it should be called) works both against the infection in sims and the mother plant herself is because it contains stuff that destroys anything related to that plant (and therefore, its influence). But then again, I'm a total layperson when it comes to that branch of science, I didn't even know a vaccine doesn't work anymore when it's administered after you've already become infected with something, which means Resident Evil got it wrong, too, by calling the cocktail Claire brews up to cure Sherry of the G-virus a "vaccine".
But then again, we're talking about a game where people can store huge amounts of stuff in their personal inventories even when their clothes have no pockets, woodworking is lumped together with electrical engineering in one skill, songs take longer to write than books, everyone can become a doctor or an astronaut with just one call, and sims can travel to supposedly far-away vacation worlds in literally no time. I get that not everyone likes the same things (for me personally, StrangerVille is the best GP so far), but it's a little late to start questioning the game's realism now, isn't it?
I figured the reason the "vaccine" (or whatever it should be called) works both against the infection in sims and the mother plant herself is because it contains stuff that destroys anything related to that plant (and therefore, its influence). But then again, I'm a total layperson when it comes to that branch of science, I didn't even know a vaccine doesn't work anymore when it's administered after you've already become infected with something, which means Resident Evil got it wrong, too, by calling the cocktail Claire brews up to cure Sherry of the G-virus a "vaccine".
But then again, we're talking about a game where people can store huge amounts of stuff in their personal inventories even when their clothes have no pockets, woodworking is lumped together with electrical engineering in one skill, songs take longer to write than books, everyone can become a doctor or an astronaut with just one call, and sims can travel to supposedly far-away vacation worlds in literally no time. I get that not everyone likes the same things (for me personally, StrangerVille is the best GP so far), but it's a little late to start questioning the game's realism now, isn't it?
I always questioned how in Sims 3 that a sims inventory was so huge it could fit a car in it.😂
I figured the reason the "vaccine" (or whatever it should be called) works both against the infection in sims and the mother plant herself is because it contains stuff that destroys anything related to that plant (and therefore, its influence). But then again, I'm a total layperson when it comes to that branch of science, I didn't even know a vaccine doesn't work anymore when it's administered after you've already become infected with something, which means Resident Evil got it wrong, too, by calling the cocktail Claire brews up to cure Sherry of the G-virus a "vaccine".
But then again, we're talking about a game where people can store huge amounts of stuff in their personal inventories even when their clothes have no pockets, woodworking is lumped together with electrical engineering in one skill, songs take longer to write than books, everyone can become a doctor or an astronaut with just one call, and sims can travel to supposedly far-away vacation worlds in literally no time. I get that not everyone likes the same things (for me personally, StrangerVille is the best GP so far), but it's a little late to start questioning the game's realism now, isn't it?
I always questioned how in Sims 3 that a sims inventory was so huge it could fit a car in it.😂
Yeah were does sims keep the dirty dishes in their inventory - in their pants?
Allons-y!
---> Afterlife Game Pack Idea - improved ghosts, cemeteries and funerals, psychics, new skills, new career and more! <---
I agree with the basics, but not most of the nitpicks. I add a few nits I have picked on my own, though.
I don't care about the size of the world, or the badly made houses, because the world as such and it's setting bores me, so I won't ever be there outside of the story. I like Oasis Springs, and if I want a desert world that's where I'll go 10 times out of 10.
I don't care that laptops are only reskinned PCs, because I never used them, really outside the houses in Sims 3 anyway. They are, to me, a decorative choice (laptop of stationary PC), nothing more. But yes, it's lazy.
The story is bad because they have not put enough resources into it to make it good, or even really anything more than a one-time gimmick. No choices whatsoever, really. No CONSEQUENCES outside "being so bad at this that my sim actually got killed by the mother". Again, though, I don't expect more from a game pack (which is why Vampires and Jungle Adventures actually blew me away. They were AMAZING for being game packs!!).
The fact that you can only finish the Aspiration if you kill the mother, despite there being an option to befriend her is my biggest nitpick. The aspiration should account for both choices.
The MIB part of the military career seems unnecessary when you already can be a member of the Secret Service.
Comments
What about not including vaccines at all in the final battle and instead asking you to collect ingredients to create a chemical like bleach or a herbicide (or any chemical that raises pH levels)*, which actually can kill a plant unlike vaccines. Straw manning my arguments won't make them any less valid. The truth is that any person could've written a more coherent resolution with a little bit research. But it seems some people don't care about coherence, internal logic, consistency and quality writing.
* EDIT: This is how you kill Plant 42 in Resident Evil (V-JOLT). You didn't throw vaccines in glasses at her because it wouldn't a 🐸🐸🐸🐸 thing. Yes, Resident Evil, a game about zombies and fantasy science, has more consistency and coherence than this pack.
I admit it never occurred to me to analyze the method of defeating the plant. I found it quirky, humorous, and exactly what I would have expected in the Sims.
Same.
Good point that it's more difficult ... but not impossible.
Dexter immediately comes to mind, although he was very athletic, stealthy and overly practiced. I don't know if people are playing with low-skilled Sims, but I see there's a training dummy, so I doubt that's the idea; for average Joes to save the town.
I don't yet have the pack, just sharing thoughts.
More importantly, let's please stop using the word, "vaccine" incorrectly. Does this liquid splash PREVENT possession?? I think people would WANT that. "Shot" does not equal "vaccine." (Or liquid medicine, of course.)
My Game Twitter
EA, fix the EA app & CAW EIG!
They're obviously NOT vaccines? That must just be the wrong word. No way that's the right word.
My Game Twitter
EA, fix the EA app & CAW EIG!
I have never cured one, I am more in the business of adding more, lol. But if I do remember that correctly then that is a way of administering medicine.
They aren't vaccines. Honestly, they're what the plot needs them to be. When you're "curing" Sims they function as an anti-serum as I wrote here. But when you are fighting against the plant, they seem to function as herbicides or chemicals with high pH levels. It's what I'm trying to say, whoever wrote the script for this pack didn't take 5 minutes to do basic research and think things through.
This bothers me more than anything else. It's just ONE story that lasts a few hours. In TS3 World Adventures, we had three whole worlds full of stories - they had dozens of quests, dozens of tombs, each with unique themes, to explore, each world had their own unique fish, gems, metals and bugs, their own unique people, dress, recipes, songs, books, and elaborate skills each of which have their own set of quests, and plus Egypt had a new way to die (Mummy Curse) with several interesting ways of being cured. Even in a sim's own homeworld, there are quests offered to them to go to one of these worlds to seek something out.
What's more, there were other EPs in TS3 that had quest-like elements: in the Island Paradise EP, there were 8 hidden islands with 8 different ways to discover them; in the Into the Future EP, you can influence the future to have 3 outcomes - utopian, dystopian and standard. These EPs all had massive content in the way of quests.
Then we come to this pack. It's just so upsetting that TS4 players are just accepting how small this content is. You should expect and demand more especially for the money you're paying!
This also makes me worried for the future of the franchise. Is TS5 going to be as cheap and shoddy as TS4 with it's content and gameplay? *Sigh....*
----
With that said, I think there ARE stories that can be played out with the things in this pack. I don't play TS4 (I hate closed worlds), but I would like to give ideas to add fun possibilities.
1) The mother plant can be used for a "Little Shop of Horrors" story. Look up the Broadway play to learn more about it. I think that would be fun to play out. Is it possible to have the mother plant in other worlds? "Little Shop of Horrors" was set in a city. If not, Strangerville will do.
2) Bella's Disappearance Explained: Have Bella become an evil but powerful plant sim queen. That's what really happened to her during her disappearance. Find out if a plant sim can also be infected (I don't know since I don't play the game), so she can have her own minions (but that she herself isn't infected). Hopefully a mod will come out soon to make the infection or that wacky behavior permanent but still be curable. I just wish infected sims can attack other sims (like zombies did in TS2 and TS3). Anyway, the mother plant is her pet and guards the entrance to her palace. Have the whole town infected except you and a handful of unrelated sims. Survive and find the cure. You have to kill the mother plant to enter the palace. Then kill Bella and her minions and cure and save the townies, family and friends!
3) I heard from YouTube that EA put this pack out to coincide with Stranger Things (hence the name of the town, Strangerville), whose Season 3 will be out this summer on Netflix. You can do a similar story featuring child sims. I saw that there is a Millie Bobby Brown (the girl who plays Eleven on the show) teenage sim somewhere (though she looks more like an adult because of her height, yikes!), but you can just age her down.
Have fun!
Removed inappropriate comment, please keep comments respectful~Rtas
Neither was I.
I don't have a problem with them adding a story driven feature if that's what they want to add to The Sims franchise. But I wish they did more for it. If you have played TS1 through TS3, whenever they added a new, never-before-introduced feature, they always filled it out to the fullest with tons of gameplay and items. That's why you'll find Sims 3 players still discovering new things about TS3 even though they've been playing it for 10 years at this point.
I don't like this game pack format because it gives the devs an excuse to put out less content for the theme of the pack. It's quite possible, though, that the devs might have wanted to add more to this pack, but I just keep getting the impression that they didn't receive a big budget for it.
But then again, we're talking about a game where people can store huge amounts of stuff in their personal inventories even when their clothes have no pockets, woodworking is lumped together with electrical engineering in one skill, songs take longer to write than books, everyone can become a doctor or an astronaut with just one call, and sims can travel to supposedly far-away vacation worlds in literally no time. I get that not everyone likes the same things (for me personally, StrangerVille is the best GP so far), but it's a little late to start questioning the game's realism now, isn't it?
Something wicked this way comes!
I don't use MCCC.
I don't care about the size of the world, or the badly made houses, because the world as such and it's setting bores me, so I won't ever be there outside of the story. I like Oasis Springs, and if I want a desert world that's where I'll go 10 times out of 10.
I don't care that laptops are only reskinned PCs, because I never used them, really outside the houses in Sims 3 anyway. They are, to me, a decorative choice (laptop of stationary PC), nothing more. But yes, it's lazy.
The story is bad because they have not put enough resources into it to make it good, or even really anything more than a one-time gimmick. No choices whatsoever, really. No CONSEQUENCES outside "being so bad at this that my sim actually got killed by the mother". Again, though, I don't expect more from a game pack (which is why Vampires and Jungle Adventures actually blew me away. They were AMAZING for being game packs!!).
The fact that you can only finish the Aspiration if you kill the mother, despite there being an option to befriend her is my biggest nitpick. The aspiration should account for both choices.
The MIB part of the military career seems unnecessary when you already can be a member of the Secret Service.