I tried to play an island family on release day but all the bugs kinda got in the way. So instead of playing I went to Sulani to build a couple of houses and look at the scenery but didn't play another household before yesterday. I was waiting for my mods to be updated before 'diving' into the expansion. The world is very pretty, and I like hanging out with the dolphins. My conservationist Sim is doing her best to clean up the island but I am taking it slow because I was excited about playing this newest career, and don't want to miss anything.The little festivals are very laid back which is pretty realistic and falls in line with the island life vibe. But the number of bugs is still breaking my immersion as I reset frozen Sims and toddlers with toys glued on their hands every few minutes. Which is frustrating because there is a beautiful new world and some new gameplay I would rather be enjoying. The mods I use to make my restaurants work as they were intended to work have been updated so I am going to try building an island themed restaurant for my island Sims. If 'tourists' from the other worlds decide to come I will do my best to ignore them while pretending they came for the super fresh fish entrees. LOL But so far I have not had any Sims from the other worlds invading the beaches. There is one thing that bothers me about the locals. While I like the fact they are very friendly, they are a bit too friendly and treat your Sims' homes as if they live there. The locals raid your fridges, take over the beds, spend up to 24 hours on your lot, and appear at all hours of the night. And usually visit when they are tired and starving. Some kind of curfew needs to be implemented to keep them from visiting between 11 PM and 7 AM unless they have been invited to a party or event hosted by my Sims. I am also a bit confused about why the Islanders become so flirty without any romantic actions being initiated by my Sims. Tonight I am going to take a look at the traits these Islanders have. Are they all romantics by nature?
In spite of all this expansions shortcomings, I am enjoying the new world of Sulani. I am doing my best not to think about some of the things I think are missing. I'm not sure if that is because I have been disappointed before and will probably be in the future as well, or I am at the point where I feel there isn't much else to be added to make the game feel complete for me. All I know for sure is I am tired of new bugs cropping up whenever we get anything new in updates and packs. After waiting almost three weeks for certain critical mods to be updated, I will be very cautious about purchasing new packs and downloading updates in the future. Island Living came out over two weeks ago and we are still waiting for at least a few of the most irritating new bugs to be fixed in a patch.
I think the pack is ok. Biggest problem for me is what's the point in all the activities. Why even bother scuba diving if you get the same treasure you would from fishing or asking the dolphin to get it for you. Jungle adventure was great for this if you wanted the treasure you had to dig it up and could only be found at dig sites so your sims had work to do if they wanted treasure. What's the point in festivals if you can do the same thing on ant other lot. It would be cool if festivals were a bit more beneficial to the player like the ones I city living. Like if you go to the fire dance festivals you can learn a new dance or some reason to make Me want to bring my sims. I admit this pack does a great job creating the feeling of being relaxed and living the chill life on the island. Mermaids are decent, I wish they had more to do. I get the underwater thing might be a big job, that's fine but why can't mermaids do more. I see no benefit of being a mermaid. Why can't they just catch fish without a fishing rod ,breath under water or even be able to go deeper under water for longer.
I think the pack is OK. I wish I was blown away by it, but I'm not. I kind of have mixed feelings. The world is gorgeous, the best one in the game IMO. But the gameplay aspect is very limited. I would have liked to have seen mermaids done a bit better, with actual powers. Festivals are boring, unless I'm missing something. Where is the music or gameplay objects? I was hoping to see something similar to the City Living festivals, where's the actual stuff to do. In my game, Sims just stand around. If Sulani was like Selvadorada and there was a skill to learn more about the Sulani culture, I think socializing would be more fun, as you learn more about the islanders. The re-used animations are a bit annoying. Toddlers with the duck in the ocean. A modder has already corrected that and changed it to a seashell. There's a mod now for notifications in case we want to go to Sulani festivals. All of that should have been in game already. & then the rabbit holes....too many of those. The cave....not much too it; they could have given us options to choose from to at least make that a bit more interactive. I honestly just feel that they missed a lot of opportunities to give us better gameplay. It seems that the focus was to make the world pretty, which if that's the case, then mission accomplished.
On a more positive note, I do like the conservation career. It really fits my Sim & current storyline. & I'll add that this is the first time that I've liked pretty much everything in CAS & Build/Buy.
I just pretty much copied my rant from another post. I will clean it up a bit because I was really annoyed when I typed it. Honestly, the more I play it, the angrier I get.
So much gameplay seemed to be taken away this time around.
Examples: You can't take away dive lots and add nothing, you can't take away houseboats and add nothing. No resorts?! At least give us the option to make a rental lot in sulani.
Added features should have been part of Seasons
Examples: swimming in the ocean and suntanning were added in sims 3 seasons so even these features feel like they added nothing. Pool floaties could have been added in seasons as well.
Items added feel undone or underwhelming
Examples: We got lounge chairs they cannot even talk with other sims on. Off the Grid feels like a throw in. I get it was a freebie patch trait but proper off the grid household item should have been added. Too funny that you can flush a toilet but cant clean it.
Learn the Sulani Culture - UMMM Where?
All the Sulani culture speak and I still feel like I learned nothing about the island. Summoning the "ancestors" give you a buff and you STILL LEARN NOTHING. A buff really?!?!?! In Jungle Adventure at least when you spoke with a local, you actually learned something. The cave IS NOTHING. Go in the cave to complete a MURAL and then what??? NOTHING. Where are we learning about the culture?? The kava party is just drink kava. The festivals are fairly boring and no one is telling you anything new about the island.
The Pretty.
All we got was a pretty world some pretty hairs and some nice clothes. This was on the level of a stuff pack not even a gamepack. All we got was stuff no gameplay. I am sorry but aquazips, floaties, tanning and playing in a waterfall are not what I call gameplay and it surely was not worth 40 dollars.
Careers
Not much work was done here but recoding teen jobs for adults. What was that adding an A and YA in the code so it opened up for them. Lifeguard a rabbit hole, Diving another rabbithole. NO underwater....LOL They could have at THE VERY LEAST used the cave. After completing the mural open up to one dive lot or something underwater.
Bugs
As if the disappointment with the pack wasn't enough, the bugs are the worse. I literally cannot play at the sand simoleon beach or the sapphire shores. Toddlers are a mess with getting caught in loops, restaurants are horrible with food being taken by other diners, etc
Reused\Missing stuff
Really you guys added another useless bonfire with nothing new related to the island. The same fire dance from GT...LOL At least you could have added a hula dance. No real matching island overhead counters. No new fridge or stove. No new whims for the island.
My only positive
I personally like the conservation career but I also like the get to work careers even if they are repetitive. The sad part is the GTW careers are deeper than this one but I still like it.
I have to stop here because I could go on and on.
Lastly, I ran across this article and all I could do was laugh...the bad guy perception is not a perception EA, it is a reality. I have been robbed with this pack.
Then why not have a system that has consequences for sims that do it? Like getting arrested.
Sims also can graffiti with no consequence whatsoever. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal. It was in the sims 3. But yet sims can deface their world without fear of the law.
I wish people wouldn’t make excuses for poor gameplay!
How come this is an poor gameplay that sims didn't have consequence in doing grafiti when Grafity in City Living was considered as an art, rathwr than an annoying activity? The theme of that pack os about culture and expressing/showing them and one way to do that is by allowing sims to create graffiti/mural in the sims world. That ahouldn't be illegal if that was the theme of the pack they introduced(City Living). That is not poor gameplay.
University has themes of creating Mishief and Mayhem so it is understandable that creating grafitiin that pack is a considered as crime rather than art.
Different Packs means different focus means different gameplay.
Just because they have different focus it dosen't mean its poor gameplay.
The Sims 4 is supposed to be a Life Simulation. And it doesn't matter what the theme of the pack is graffiti is illegal. The only expection to this are artists that are commissioned and paid (depending on who owns the property) by the City, County, State or Private Business Owner. But doing graffiti just to do it should have consequences as it falls under vandalism if the property owner doesn't want that on their property and not to adequately reflect that is "hug boxing".
Taking a bit off topic but still Graffiti...
In my city Graffiti artists never seem to get caught and prosecuted and it does add a lot of colour to fences around the many building sites in the city at the moment. Some of them are extremely accomplished. I believe we even have competitions on selected sites sometimes. Those who graffiti hate on trains and bridges should get the full force of the law if ever they get caught.
It's not vandalism when Banksy does it. It becomes a walking tour with maps in Bristol UK! The last time I heard of one of his works was when the owner of a garage in Port Talbot sold the corner of his garage wall with one of Banksy's graffitis on it for a "six figure sum" as he couldn't sleep because 20,000 viewers turned up to look!
Artists have to start somewhere. Before graffiti is considered art, it's considered vandalism. Only when the artist gets fame, and has actual good work, and morals, is that his work starts to be seen as art. In my city there are a lot of people you vandalise trains and the city's buildings, and public places and it's not good. But there is also street art, small murals on abandoned houses and buildings that look fantastic, portraits of people, even without paint some just carve into the building faces but that look actually good. But never on public properties where actual damage is done, or private properties where people live in.
With TS3 Univerity Life they did just that, add depth. You start as a vandal but as you grow your skill you become an artist. You also have options, you can do street art on paper and such. This skill also goes in hand with the secret critic career, when you max out the Rebel group.
In TS4 everyone seems to be an idiot savant. Toddlers can make better sand sculptures than I ever did and do now. That doesn't even make any sense, it's not relatable which is something a lifesimmulator should achieve, relatability.
Turtle eggs, cute, but does this game actually need more happy moodlets? Does it? I mean really, does it. Collectibles, does the game need more? Does this game need to keep collecting for busy work, because there is no actual game play? Fill up the inventory! yay, isn't that a reason TS4 lags according to some smart people? Does the Sim care the inventory is being filled up? Busy work isn't gameplay, it's fluff to hide the lack of gameplay. Off the grid, isn't that a patched option? Isn't WB just as good to live off the grid? Oh, wait you aren't really off the grid, you have running water (where is the well, where is the bucket and the stream?) you have showers, you have stoves, grills, you have power to power phones, don't they die eventually? No, not in TS4. You have a powered fridge..hello insult to Castaway, what a facade this feature is. New drink,...oh great, another relaxed happy mood. Off the grid..and you live in a mansion made of steel, wood, and plastic, copper, pvc pipe, etc. I guess pretend is all TS4 needs. And your Sim didn't even have to build a lean to. Amazing feature.
NO Where in life is there a such thing as too happy ever being a bad thing - except maybe by people who resent others joy. Keep that in mind. I am always happy to find joy - it beats the heck out of unhappy. Can;t help it if you resent happiness. That is your problem - not mine. I find happiness where I can and relish it - not resent it. As for in this game - last I knew you don't even have it installed - so it should not matter to you at all.
WORD! I don't think you have to work hard for a happy state or you don't deserve it. Such an attitude implies (and I resent that very much) that characters (and people...) are too lazy and undeserving if they can't achieve happy.
I have a cudmudgeon character in game and I could make him have happy moodlets all the time by activating the right collector items. And if he has the moodlet but it does not suit the story I am conducting in my head - I ignore it and can do so because the game is not strict that way, I don't need my hand held and guided through a fixed script. I am immensely satisfied that the game does not force me to jump through hoops and that I can write my own story.
BORING? Hm, maybe for other people. People with a different... mindset. Or different creative process.
It's one of the reasons why I bought StrangerVille for the items but ignored the 'quest'. That sort of... in your face quest is not what I like and I feared that they would repeat that strategy with IL. Thankfully they toned it down. You can ignore the environment storyline.
If I want RPG with a questline and endgame I'll go play WOW or ESO. Sims4 suits my preferences for sandbox game where I can freely play out fantasies perfectly, a lot better than Sims3.
It gave me a happy moodlet to see the little turtles, so it seems pretty realistic that my Sim got one, too. But seriously, my Sim was running all over the beach digging for trash and collecting numerous unhappy moodlets as she went (getting pinched by crabs, finding nasty trash, etc), and her 'fun' bar was declining. So, not all sunshine and rainbows - the turtles were a bonus moment during a boring and repetitive but important task.
Sadly, I'm not impressed. I've placed a Sim there, twice and each time I've had to do a repair game just to be able to play in the other neighborhoods.
Then why not have a system that has consequences for sims that do it? Like getting arrested.
Sims also can graffiti with no consequence whatsoever. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal. It was in the sims 3. But yet sims can deface their world without fear of the law.
I wish people wouldn’t make excuses for poor gameplay!
How come this is an poor gameplay that sims didn't have consequence in doing grafiti when Grafity in City Living was considered as an art, rathwr than an annoying activity? The theme of that pack os about culture and expressing/showing them and one way to do that is by allowing sims to create graffiti/mural in the sims world. That ahouldn't be illegal if that was the theme of the pack they introduced(City Living). That is not poor gameplay.
University has themes of creating Mishief and Mayhem so it is understandable that creating grafitiin that pack is a considered as crime rather than art.
Different Packs means different focus means different gameplay.
Just because they have different focus it dosen't mean its poor gameplay.
The Sims 4 is supposed to be a Life Simulation. And it doesn't matter what the theme of the pack is graffiti is illegal. The only expection to this are artists that are commissioned and paid (depending on who owns the property) by the City, County, State or Private Business Owner. But doing graffiti just to do it should have consequences as it falls under vandalism if the property owner doesn't want that on their property and not to adequately reflect that is "hug boxing".
Taking a bit off topic but still Graffiti...
In my city Graffiti artists never seem to get caught and prosecuted and it does add a lot of colour to fences around the many building sites in the city at the moment. Some of them are extremely accomplished. I believe we even have competitions on selected sites sometimes. Those who graffiti hate on trains and bridges should get the full force of the law if ever they get caught.
It's not vandalism when Banksy does it. It becomes a walking tour with maps in Bristol UK! The last time I heard of one of his works was when the owner of a garage in Port Talbot sold the corner of his garage wall with one of Banksy's graffitis on it for a "six figure sum" as he couldn't sleep because 20,000 viewers turned up to look!
Artists have to start somewhere. Before graffiti is considered art, it's considered vandalism. Only when the artist gets fame, and has actual good work, and morals, is that his work starts to be seen as art. In my city there are a lot of people you vandalise trains and the city's buildings, and public places and it's not good. But there is also street art, small murals on abandoned houses and buildings that look fantastic, portraits of people, even without paint some just carve into the building faces but that look actually good. But never on public properties where actual damage is done, or private properties where people live in.
With TS3 Univerity Life they did just that, add depth. You start as a vandal but as you grow your skill you become an artist. You also have options, you can do street art on paper and such. This skill also goes in hand with the secret critic career, when you max out the Rebel group.
In TS4 everyone seems to be an plum savant. Toddlers can make better sand sculptures than I ever did and do now. That doesn't even make any sense, it's not relatable which is something a lifesimmulator should achieve, relatability.
I agree with the Toddlers starting as "savants" It would have been good for them to improve their skills to start off their school years with better grades.
Now we've got the ability to wade and swim in the sea and possibly in all worlds later on there should be more done with sand and snow/ice talents. There are sand building competitions already in the real world as well as ice sculpting ones. (I used to have a professional ice sculptor next door, from Finland)! He went all over the world doing ice-sculptures in season.
I really like it and it is becoming one of my favourite packs. There is still a lot in the pack I am yet to do mainly the water related activities in the ocean. I like a lot of the build/buy and cas items. However I do agree that there could have been more put into the pack especially more gameplay around the Sulani culture where they could have done it like in jungle adventure where you learn the culture as a skill and unlock gameplay around that skill as you progress.
Sadly, I'm not impressed. I've placed a Sim there, twice and each time I've had to do a repair game just to be able to play in the other neighborhoods.
That's not normal that sounds like somethings wrong with the installation.
I feel like there is a lot more to it than we realize so it feels like a game pack. Honestly, it feels like a stuff pack to me right now. I am really disappointed. I think part of the problem lies in the fact that we have no way of knowing currently, when events are going on. I see posts about all these events but I haven’t seen anything in my game about it.
Evil poachers and anti environmentalists? Haven’t seen anything and wouldn’t know where to look. If the idea was to get us to explore the world more, it just hasn’t translated.
This might have been a great idea if this was an open world where we could just span over places and see events and things taking place, but that’s not the case. I hope they come up with some ideas to improve it.
I like the pack over all, but I got tired of living there very quickly. I miss the change in seasons and weather. I think honestly I would have liked it better as a vacation destination now that I have had it for a while. I am going to set it up that way. I still don't regret buying it but I do agree with other people that it feels more like a game pack than an expansion.
I still like the pack and I enjoy what it has added to my game. I love the merfolk as well. My only wish was for an EP that it had a few more lots, and I do wish that the diving was more interactive. There is a cave in Sulani, but it is a rabbit hole, I so wished that this was a hidden world.
I'm having trouble getting into it. I feel like I've already done everything that the pack offers in my first day of gameplay.
I feel this is easily the weakest expansion pack they have released so far in terms of gameplay and it is even weaker than most of the game packs in this regard which is alarming. And that makes me quite sad and not very hopeful about Realm of Magic.
I'm having trouble getting into it. I feel like I've already done everything that the pack offers in my first day of gameplay.
I feel this is easily the weakest expansion pack they have released so far in terms of gameplay and it is even weaker than most of the game packs in this regard which is alarming. And that makes me quite sad and not very hopeful about Realm of Magic.
I think it depends on what you consider "gameplay". I have been playing every day since this pack dropped and I still have tons of things to do.
Plus I just genuinely love what I have already done.
Spending every day snorkeling, free diving for seashells and doing yoga in the evenings... (who me? Jealous of my Sims? Nah...)
I'm having trouble getting into it. I feel like I've already done everything that the pack offers in my first day of gameplay.
I feel this is easily the weakest expansion pack they have released so far in terms of gameplay and it is even weaker than most of the game packs in this regard which is alarming. And that makes me quite sad and not very hopeful about Realm of Magic.
I think it depends on what you consider "gameplay". I have been playing every day since this pack dropped and I still have tons of things to do.
Plus I just genuinely love what I have already done.
Spending every day snorkeling, free diving for seashells and doing yoga in the evenings... (who me? Jealous of my Sims? Nah...)
Gameplay is the new layers/complexities that the expansion offers that add to your experience and keep you engaged. Of the gameplay you mentioned you enjoyed here, one came with Spa Day and the another one is a rabbithole so that doesn't really help of course you can have fun with the expansion and create your own gameplay and challenges, but what the team offered this time is very scarce.
I'm having trouble getting into it. I feel like I've already done everything that the pack offers in my first day of gameplay.
I feel this is easily the weakest expansion pack they have released so far in terms of gameplay and it is even weaker than most of the game packs in this regard which is alarming. And that makes me quite sad and not very hopeful about Realm of Magic.
I think it depends on what you consider "gameplay". I have been playing every day since this pack dropped and I still have tons of things to do.
Plus I just genuinely love what I have already done.
Spending every day snorkeling, free diving for seashells and doing yoga in the evenings... (who me? Jealous of my Sims? Nah...)
Gameplay is the new layers/complexities that the expansion offers that add to your experience and keep you engaged. Of the gameplay you mentioned you enjoyed here, one came with Spa Day and the another one is a rabbithole so that doesn't really help of course you can have fun with the expansion and create your own gameplay and challenges, but what the team offered this time is very scarce.
Snorkeling isn't more of a rabbit hole than working out. I don't get why so many claim it is?
I have had the pack 3 days and have played constantly.
The world is beautiful, I had my sim clean the island up quickly by working none stop and it was worth it.
The game play is very shallow, like others I would like to have seen more work on the culture. Can't help wondering what the people whose culture this was based on are thinking.
Parrot fish are not recoloured salmon, gold fish are a cold water species like perch and would die in the ocean etc, etc. Mistakes like this make me wonder if the programmers know anything about the planet we live on.
I have played the summer here for two years with the season length set at 28 days (weather machine assisted) , why? Because I am dreading the vile brown murky grass that comes with any season that is not summer. Grass (the sort that is used in this game and across the planet for gardens and growing in the wild) doesn’t have the ability to just change colour in the cold, its beyond ridiculous. Plus the psychological effect of having to put up with murky brown grass and brown 'ever green' shrubs is truly depressing. I cant even think about chancing that on these islands. Basically the plants, grass, trees should always be green like any that live on or close the equator. This can't be explained by the “Its just a game” excuse, its a fundamental part of this planet. Get out more guys or at least watch David Attenborough and find out how the planet really works.
Mermaids? Haven’t seen one or searched for one, so I have no opinion on them.
I would have liked some more fishing spots, fishing used to be (along with gardening) one of my favourite activities (I play to relax). Fishing seems to have been made so easy I don’t bother as much as I did. Oh and pineapples like being wild, I grafted mine to increase the quality and it worked perfectly.
Not worth the price due to shallow game play, rabbit holes and no attention to weather and plants on the island considering its unique environment & geographical placement. Love the beautiful scenery and the frogs in the waterfall and the real new fish.
One last thing, you know nothing about Planet Earth EA, so don’t give me protected spices to catch and threaten my sim with consequences if I put them in a tank, let me breed them or knock it off.
Find me; Freeasabird, The Shed @ Sims 4 Studio. Custom content for The Sims 4.
For me Sims 4 is WAY more strict than any other Sims game - it has WAY more limitations and I can't do what I want. In sims 2, where a lot of bad things could happen, I almost NEVER let anything bad happen to my sims, they were happy all the time, mostly. but the few times that they were miserable, fed into the time they weren't and made them more special and 'real. I just want that back. The incessant smiling only works for me if I actually have to work for it - it's not about real life happiness, it's a GAME. And for me, I love giving my sims happy lives, but there's no fun or meaning if there are no challenge. I wish the game could give us the OPTION to play more challenging, instead of the happy rainbows all the time. That way, people that want the psychedelic smiling can have that, and the rest of us can get real gameplay also.
Playing the Sims has always been difficult at the start of a new version of the game. When you get a routine and some experience, it will become easier to achieve what you want. I don't know what you mean with "psychedelic smiling"? Try to play with some sims with bad traits and/or at other places than you have tried until now!
Picture: Robinson going mad without human companionship.
Picture: Vaiana scolding to a criminal person, doing illegal fishing.
For me Sims 4 is WAY more strict than any other Sims game - it has WAY more limitations and I can't do what I want. In sims 2, where a lot of bad things could happen, I almost NEVER let anything bad happen to my sims, they were happy all the time, mostly. but the few times that they were miserable, fed into the time they weren't and made them more special and 'real. I just want that back. The incessant smiling only works for me if I actually have to work for it - it's not about real life happiness, it's a GAME. And for me, I love giving my sims happy lives, but there's no fun or meaning if there are no challenge. I wish the game could give us the OPTION to play more challenging, instead of the happy rainbows all the time. That way, people that want the psychedelic smiling can have that, and the rest of us can get real gameplay also.
Playing the Sims has always been difficult at the start of a new version of the game. When you get a routine and some experience, it will become easier to achieve what you want. I don't know what you mean with "psychedelic smiling"? Try to play with some sims with bad traits and/or at other places than you have tried until now!
Picture: Robinson going mad without human companionship.
Picture: Vaiana scolding to a criminal person, doing illegal fishing.
“At the start of a new version of the game” ummmm we are almost 5 years in my friend, the issue isn’t the “newness” of the game.
For the psychedelic smiling just watch them. It has nothing to do with traits it’s just the way the Sims will smile, you can’t miss it the animation was not designed to be subtle. Traits/location, no offense, do not have any effect on your sim besides their emotional state.
@Simsister2004 LMAO no this is not what I'm talking about - Sims 4 is the easiest and simplest games of all of them - it's not about difficulty - I WISH Sims 4 had actual difficulty. The problem is that I CAN'T make it difficult for my sims, like AT ALL. Everything is super easy to achieve, and it doesn't have to be - if they don't want to turn people off that like the happy happy, then they could make a hard game mode with all the danger settings - better yet, let US decide exactly what can happen in the game, after all we're supposed to 'rule'.
Allons-y!
---> Afterlife Game Pack Idea - improved ghosts, cemeteries and funerals, psychics, new skills, new career and more! <---
Comments
In spite of all this expansions shortcomings, I am enjoying the new world of Sulani. I am doing my best not to think about some of the things I think are missing. I'm not sure if that is because I have been disappointed before and will probably be in the future as well, or I am at the point where I feel there isn't much else to be added to make the game feel complete for me. All I know for sure is I am tired of new bugs cropping up whenever we get anything new in updates and packs. After waiting almost three weeks for certain critical mods to be updated, I will be very cautious about purchasing new packs and downloading updates in the future. Island Living came out over two weeks ago and we are still waiting for at least a few of the most irritating new bugs to be fixed in a patch.
On a more positive note, I do like the conservation career. It really fits my Sim & current storyline. & I'll add that this is the first time that I've liked pretty much everything in CAS & Build/Buy.
So much gameplay seemed to be taken away this time around.
Examples: You can't take away dive lots and add nothing, you can't take away houseboats and add nothing. No resorts?! At least give us the option to make a rental lot in sulani.
Added features should have been part of Seasons
Examples: swimming in the ocean and suntanning were added in sims 3 seasons so even these features feel like they added nothing. Pool floaties could have been added in seasons as well.
Items added feel undone or underwhelming
Examples: We got lounge chairs they cannot even talk with other sims on. Off the Grid feels like a throw in. I get it was a freebie patch trait but proper off the grid household item should have been added. Too funny that you can flush a toilet but cant clean it.
Learn the Sulani Culture - UMMM Where?
All the Sulani culture speak and I still feel like I learned nothing about the island. Summoning the "ancestors" give you a buff and you STILL LEARN NOTHING. A buff really?!?!?! In Jungle Adventure at least when you spoke with a local, you actually learned something. The cave IS NOTHING. Go in the cave to complete a MURAL and then what??? NOTHING. Where are we learning about the culture?? The kava party is just drink kava. The festivals are fairly boring and no one is telling you anything new about the island.
The Pretty.
All we got was a pretty world some pretty hairs and some nice clothes. This was on the level of a stuff pack not even a gamepack. All we got was stuff no gameplay. I am sorry but aquazips, floaties, tanning and playing in a waterfall are not what I call gameplay and it surely was not worth 40 dollars.
Careers
Not much work was done here but recoding teen jobs for adults. What was that adding an A and YA in the code so it opened up for them. Lifeguard a rabbit hole, Diving another rabbithole. NO underwater....LOL They could have at THE VERY LEAST used the cave. After completing the mural open up to one dive lot or something underwater.
Bugs
As if the disappointment with the pack wasn't enough, the bugs are the worse. I literally cannot play at the sand simoleon beach or the sapphire shores. Toddlers are a mess with getting caught in loops, restaurants are horrible with food being taken by other diners, etc
Reused\Missing stuff
Really you guys added another useless bonfire with nothing new related to the island. The same fire dance from GT...LOL At least you could have added a hula dance. No real matching island overhead counters. No new fridge or stove. No new whims for the island.
My only positive
I personally like the conservation career but I also like the get to work careers even if they are repetitive. The sad part is the GTW careers are deeper than this one but I still like it.
I have to stop here because I could go on and on.
Lastly, I ran across this article and all I could do was laugh...the bad guy perception is not a perception EA, it is a reality. I have been robbed with this pack.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ea-struggles-with-perception-that-were-just-a-bunc/1100-6468234/?ftag=NLS-04-10aaa1d
Artists have to start somewhere. Before graffiti is considered art, it's considered vandalism. Only when the artist gets fame, and has actual good work, and morals, is that his work starts to be seen as art. In my city there are a lot of people you vandalise trains and the city's buildings, and public places and it's not good. But there is also street art, small murals on abandoned houses and buildings that look fantastic, portraits of people, even without paint some just carve into the building faces but that look actually good. But never on public properties where actual damage is done, or private properties where people live in.
With TS3 Univerity Life they did just that, add depth. You start as a vandal but as you grow your skill you become an artist. You also have options, you can do street art on paper and such. This skill also goes in hand with the secret critic career, when you max out the Rebel group.
In TS4 everyone seems to be an idiot savant. Toddlers can make better sand sculptures than I ever did and do now. That doesn't even make any sense, it's not relatable which is something a lifesimmulator should achieve, relatability.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
I agree with the Toddlers starting as "savants" It would have been good for them to improve their skills to start off their school years with better grades.
Now we've got the ability to wade and swim in the sea and possibly in all worlds later on there should be more done with sand and snow/ice talents. There are sand building competitions already in the real world as well as ice sculpting ones. (I used to have a professional ice sculptor next door, from Finland)! He went all over the world doing ice-sculptures in season.
That's not normal that sounds like somethings wrong with the installation.
They do have plans to try and do that.
Okay actually I'm totally and completely nuts LOL
Evil poachers and anti environmentalists? Haven’t seen anything and wouldn’t know where to look. If the idea was to get us to explore the world more, it just hasn’t translated.
This might have been a great idea if this was an open world where we could just span over places and see events and things taking place, but that’s not the case. I hope they come up with some ideas to improve it.
I feel this is easily the weakest expansion pack they have released so far in terms of gameplay and it is even weaker than most of the game packs in this regard which is alarming. And that makes me quite sad and not very hopeful about Realm of Magic.
I think it depends on what you consider "gameplay". I have been playing every day since this pack dropped and I still have tons of things to do.
Plus I just genuinely love what I have already done.
Spending every day snorkeling, free diving for seashells and doing yoga in the evenings... (who me? Jealous of my Sims? Nah...)
Gameplay is the new layers/complexities that the expansion offers that add to your experience and keep you engaged. Of the gameplay you mentioned you enjoyed here, one came with Spa Day and the another one is a rabbithole so that doesn't really help
Snorkeling isn't more of a rabbit hole than working out. I don't get why so many claim it is?
The world is beautiful, I had my sim clean the island up quickly by working none stop and it was worth it.
The game play is very shallow, like others I would like to have seen more work on the culture. Can't help wondering what the people whose culture this was based on are thinking.
Parrot fish are not recoloured salmon, gold fish are a cold water species like perch and would die in the ocean etc, etc. Mistakes like this make me wonder if the programmers know anything about the planet we live on.
I have played the summer here for two years with the season length set at 28 days (weather machine assisted) , why? Because I am dreading the vile brown murky grass that comes with any season that is not summer. Grass (the sort that is used in this game and across the planet for gardens and growing in the wild) doesn’t have the ability to just change colour in the cold, its beyond ridiculous. Plus the psychological effect of having to put up with murky brown grass and brown 'ever green' shrubs is truly depressing. I cant even think about chancing that on these islands. Basically the plants, grass, trees should always be green like any that live on or close the equator. This can't be explained by the “Its just a game” excuse, its a fundamental part of this planet. Get out more guys or at least watch David Attenborough and find out how the planet really works.
Mermaids? Haven’t seen one or searched for one, so I have no opinion on them.
I would have liked some more fishing spots, fishing used to be (along with gardening) one of my favourite activities (I play to relax). Fishing seems to have been made so easy I don’t bother as much as I did. Oh and pineapples like being wild, I grafted mine to increase the quality and it worked perfectly.
Not worth the price due to shallow game play, rabbit holes and no attention to weather and plants on the island considering its unique environment & geographical placement. Love the beautiful scenery and the frogs in the waterfall and the real new fish.
One last thing, you know nothing about Planet Earth EA, so don’t give me protected spices to catch and threaten my sim with consequences if I put them in a tank, let me breed them or knock it off.
Playing the Sims has always been difficult at the start of a new version of the game. When you get a routine and some experience, it will become easier to achieve what you want. I don't know what you mean with "psychedelic smiling"? Try to play with some sims with bad traits and/or at other places than you have tried until now!
Picture: Robinson going mad without human companionship.
Picture: Vaiana scolding to a criminal person, doing illegal fishing.
I meant diving
“At the start of a new version of the game” ummmm we are almost 5 years in my friend, the issue isn’t the “newness” of the game.
For the psychedelic smiling just watch them. It has nothing to do with traits it’s just the way the Sims will smile, you can’t miss it the animation was not designed to be subtle. Traits/location, no offense, do not have any effect on your sim besides their emotional state.