Hi all,
Still haven't played with
Pets Cats & Dogs on TS4 yet... but I'm really thinking about trying it out during this sale. Here are my questions, to start:
- Do NPC families/townies and inactive families autonomously get pets?
- Do pets generate with crazy patterns/proportions and wacky clothing?
- What's the oddest "townie" pet you've seen?
- Is the "pets disappearing glitch" only if you have Eco Lifestyle?
- Anything else you want to share before getting the
Pets Cats & Dogs EP?
Thanks ♥
Edit: I mean the Cats & Dogs EP
SORRY!
Edit 2: All of you have been so very helpful with your answers! (It's also great to see none of you have experienced your pets disappearing. I keep reading about that on the bug forums, and it's been turning me off.) But maybe it's not as big of a deal after all. Thank you each!
Comments
2. Not that I've ever seen
3. Major Whiskers (that tophat is adorable not weird)
4. Can't answer this one. My daughter hasn't played in awhile.
5. When I was playing I loved the small dogs and cats because they're so little and cute (no offense big dogs). The raccoon and fox are neat. My only thing is that you can't see what's wrong with them just like babies. They always seemed unhappy and scared of everything no matter what trait they had.
2. Never seen nothing like that
3. The ghost dog that lives in the pet cemetery. He only hangs there afer midnight so if you wish you won't ever see him. You can also delete him in the household manager.
4. I have Eco Lifestyle and my pets never disappeared (i don't use mods)
5. Playing with pets raises fun super quickly, almost like woohooing. They also diminish the effects of tense and sad moodlets.
2. No
3. A huge poodle like thing, but ugly. It's the only stay I haven't liked though.
4. I have eco lifestyle and didn't notice my pets disappearing, it's possible I didn't play households with pets long enough
5. It's one of my least favourite packs, but I still play with pets from time to time. They're cute and also good company for sims who live alone. In a bigger household they often feel really needy and it can be hard to find time to keep them happy. I recommend experimenting with different traits because you can end up with very different pets.
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
2. Not from what I have seen, but the strays are not always the most appealing if you care about appearances.
3. Yeah, probably Mayor Whiskers or Whittaker the ghost dog, but I love them!
4. I have Eco and have not noticed anything.
5. As someone that has Pets as a make it or break it pack, this is the worst Pets pack in the series in my opinion. The pets look great, but they are incredibly shallow, take up a family slot as an NPC, and children cannot do simple things with them like bathe and walk them. Beyond the gameplay with them, they do not have proper developed relationships with anything other than Sims (no other pets), the breeding is frustrating, and even though we cannot control them it is ridiculous that we do not have some sort of info panel on them. I still play with them, but nothing like the other iterations. They really get ignored.
@telmarina Aww, this sounds awesome!
@Calico45 This is very insightful — thanks.
Y'all have been very helpful with your answers! I'm also happy to see none of you have experienced your pets disappearing. I keep reading about that on the bug forums, and it's been turning me off. But maybe it's not as big of a deal after all. Thank you each!
Sims 3 MyPage: https://mypage.thesims3.com/mypage/sketches
#FixThePersonalities
2. nope
3. nothing really that odd
4. I have Eco and some of my pets disappear regularly while others don't, not sure if the bug came with Eco or the patch before that
5. like others mentioned you can't directly control your pets, so they are actually like pets, you have to take care of them and they in return lighten up the household imho. There are other perks depending on the pet's traits. Pets can be turned into familiars if you got ROM.
I love them, but I just love having animals arround irl and in game, they don't have to do anything special for me.
That said, dogs can be trained to attack other sims, which can be fun (one of my famous sims has her dog attack paparazzi and stans).
so, I love the pack, but I would probly wait till the pet disappearing bug is solved before buying it.
How do you get your pets back?
Edit: LOL I just invited my disappeared pet to Hang Out at Current Lot. He responded, "I'll be right over," and showed up at the front of the lot. That's adorable!
Sims 3 MyPage: https://mypage.thesims3.com/mypage/sketches
#FixThePersonalities
Mine doesn't. (That was a good question.) The pet just .... vanishes. BUT. His household profile icon appears to be "away," and he stays in my Sim's Relationships panel. I am playing this EP tonight, and the cat has disappeared at least 4 times by now... Each time, I just invite him back over! 😂 It's a cumbersome glitch, but it's a huge relief the pet isn't gone forever. Looking forward to a fix, too.
Sims 3 MyPage: https://mypage.thesims3.com/mypage/sketches
#FixThePersonalities
- No
- Honestly, I don't think I see too many spawned pets in my game. Definitely not outside of Brindleton Bay
- This is actually my first time hearing of such a glitch.
- "Anything else you want to share before getting the Pets Cats & Dogs EP" :
At the expense of being a wet blanket again: It's...alright. Just alright.
Much like almost everything in this game, it's a lot better if you're not comparing it to past pets expansions. But that's pretty hard to do considering how good Pets was for TS3. So I'm gonna consider that a strike against it because I'm so tired of "this thing is good as long as you don't look at the better thing right behind it"
If I'm being honest, the only thing that makes it a must have pack for me is the beautiful world that comes with it. And I definitely wouldn't recommend this pack unless you have the control pets mod to go with it. I don't know what on earth they were thinking, taking that option away. The excuse they gave reeeeeally doesn't hold up. At all. I'm so thankful that mod released like...the same day the pack came out. I tried playing without being able to select my pets or look at their needs and it was an even bigger pain than the babies in this game. Because there is always something wrong with your pets.
The pets are cute but not particularly fun without being able to play as them. The veternarian active career isn't fun at all (though that's how I've felt about every active career besides acting). It's kinda infuriating that they brought CASt back but only to design pets and nothing else. And, like someone already said, this pack is just cats and dogs. None of the really cool smaller pets that you could find in the wild and raise. This isn't the worst expansion pack for TS4 (that honor still goes to City Living). But you wouldn't be missing much by skipping out on it.
Honestly as a pack I wouldn't recommend it at all, to put it simply there's nothing to do. Pets are just sort of there, they serve no purpose they just exist in the game. There isn't really anything to do with them, litter boxes are autonomous, feeding is autonomous, you can't really teach them anything and there's barely any socials involving pets. And outside of Brindleton they're non existent, none of the households have them by default and you won't see pets out and about ever.
The strength of the pack is the world, which is my favorite Suburban type world. It's a really nice world and there's a lot of variety to it but otherwise the pack is nothing special. If you enjoyed playing with pets in past games you might enjoy these pets, but imo they're not fun to play with.
(More info)
Thank you, @Onverser your comment is very insightful!
I am finding the same experience, now that I'm actually playing with the EP. That said, I certainly adore the world and befriending pets. Mayor Whiskers is my favorite so far. It's a shame they don't let you control pets.
Sims 3 MyPage: https://mypage.thesims3.com/mypage/sketches
#FixThePersonalities
For me the worst thing is the fact that the collectibles spawn so often, especially the feathers. That's fine for some sims but at other times I get fed up with them. The frequency of skunk spraying is also a pain.
I got Cats & Dogs on this sale too about a week ago and those are the things that really threw me off so far.
Also there is no UI for the pets as far as I know so you don't know their age, can't look up their traits or when they have their birthday etc.
But yeah for 20$ it's an okay pack not full price though.
The Cats & Dogs can be both a pet & a familiar if you have Realm of Magic.
Does you sim live in Windenburg or do you have the pee bushes on the lot? I've found that removing those makes the pets be sprayed by a skunk less often.
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
I wasn't playing in Windenberg but I had the bushes on several lots in the main save I've been playing since getting Cats and Dogs. I did notice that fewer gift boxes with feathers were spawned after I removed the bushes but I didn't notice whether the skunk spraying happened less often.