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How do you implement Paranormal into your game?
Simmerville
Posts: 11,658 Member
I know there are many ways to play, and that's all fine. Some do rotations, some do legacies, some do royal dynasties, some play just one house forever.
I'd like to learn about how others implement the Paranormal features with their existing game. Even if you simply play it intensively in a separate save, I assume you will use at least parts of it in your regular save?
I did not get the pack yet because I won't have the time exploring new content quite yet, but I'm preparing the grounds. 3 houses has been chosen to be haunted, two large manors and one small rented house in one of my poor quarters. They all have a past of certain paranormal interests or activities, being from the "Night of the Dead", Sulani's island spirits or a tricky mix with one of my vampire clans. I'm not decided on how dedicated they will be, or if they all will have a running family thing where one member from each generation will bring on the medium skill. In a 4th household the main sim (pretending to be clairvoyant) will try to make a living from false séances, not sure if I will need to pretend the whole thing, though)
I also see that some teenagers might form a club to explore the paranormal, say going to "occult" places all over the worlds, or by spending a night as visitors to one of those haunted houses. A photographer could be into photographing those spirits. I wish my church/graveyard could be haunted, such a pity community lots can't have the new lot style.
Because I play rotationally I won't be able to go very deep on the new skill, but plan is to play those selected houses enough to get the Para Investigator license for the main characters. From there it will only be one day/night per rotation, which probably won't be enough to make any progress.
Do you play these new features in any smart, on-the-side way? Someone running a paranormal retail store? Photographers selling paranormal photos on Plopsy? Maybe there are small gifts that can be sold there, too? Any new plants for gardeners? Any spooky recipes for that odd little restaurant with graves in the backyard? Is a Sacred Candle making business possible? I'd love to learn more about those small but interesting possibilities for sims who won't go all the way.
I'd like to learn about how others implement the Paranormal features with their existing game. Even if you simply play it intensively in a separate save, I assume you will use at least parts of it in your regular save?
I did not get the pack yet because I won't have the time exploring new content quite yet, but I'm preparing the grounds. 3 houses has been chosen to be haunted, two large manors and one small rented house in one of my poor quarters. They all have a past of certain paranormal interests or activities, being from the "Night of the Dead", Sulani's island spirits or a tricky mix with one of my vampire clans. I'm not decided on how dedicated they will be, or if they all will have a running family thing where one member from each generation will bring on the medium skill. In a 4th household the main sim (pretending to be clairvoyant) will try to make a living from false séances, not sure if I will need to pretend the whole thing, though)
I also see that some teenagers might form a club to explore the paranormal, say going to "occult" places all over the worlds, or by spending a night as visitors to one of those haunted houses. A photographer could be into photographing those spirits. I wish my church/graveyard could be haunted, such a pity community lots can't have the new lot style.
Because I play rotationally I won't be able to go very deep on the new skill, but plan is to play those selected houses enough to get the Para Investigator license for the main characters. From there it will only be one day/night per rotation, which probably won't be enough to make any progress.
Do you play these new features in any smart, on-the-side way? Someone running a paranormal retail store? Photographers selling paranormal photos on Plopsy? Maybe there are small gifts that can be sold there, too? Any new plants for gardeners? Any spooky recipes for that odd little restaurant with graves in the backyard? Is a Sacred Candle making business possible? I'd love to learn more about those small but interesting possibilities for sims who won't go all the way.
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Comments
You can use the spooky lot trait to get ghosts to your graveyard. You can also summon the spirits by using the seance circle.
In my save, each notable spellcaster family has something they're known for. One family owns a potion shop, another has a tree orchard to supply wood for wands and brooms. My main family's thing will be raising mediums and making a family business out of performing exorcisms.
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
Most of my graveyards have a ghost or two, and they show (not every night) even without the old haunted lot trait. There seems to be so much more random spooky stuff with this pack.
Love the one main thing per household! That's pretty much how I do it sometimes, although I rarely keep going for generations. I don't have the witch pack, but I have some Herbalists selling home made stuff (from Outdoor Retreat I guess), they could perhaps make a twist over to the paranormal, including retail from the new pack.
Basically it’s a monarchy.
The King tho has a council
The Archmage leader of the College of Mages
And Lord Defender, who has control over the knights.
The Mages group tho each focus on a specific area of magic
The role of Archmage is good at all magic, however this mage in particular is best at Alchemy. He definitely summons daemons(vampires) and ghosts on a weekly/monthly basis. Definitely one of those “dark mages” you see in rpgs. Not a necromancer tho.
His twin brother is an enchanter & Dream interpreter. astrology and the cosmos definitely influence his power.
I have three mages, who focus on nature.
Fire and wild life, water/ice and aquatic life, lighting and Plant life
My next mage is my designated summoner.
Another mage is a Healing & Poisoning expert
My Mood:
These are all the events associated with the haunted house lot type. You can summon both Guidry, Temperance and the spectres by using the seance circle. You can find all objects left behind by the spectres in debug if you wish to place them on your lot.
So this pack is unsuitable for rotational players?
Most packs are less suited for rotational players, that's a fact, but I don't think this pack is any worse in that matter. You just need to set it up the way you like and focus on whatever you like the most. Many rotational players do stay with the same house for 1-2 weeks, which will be plenty to focus on any pack's features. I play only 1 day per house, but I'm free to skip a rotation fully if I will rather enjoy a new pack with one household for longer. In this thread I meant to ask for long term gaming, not the first exploring. I want to find smart ways to use pack features so that I will always have a couple houses that are dedicated to certain features and goals. Ie I have a few fame searching sims, but most of my houses have no interest in such things. I have a couple families owning a retail store, and another couple families running farms. My goal is to have some sim in each and every career, which should at least give my rotations some variety
I'm looking forward to explore this pack as I introduce the features to the 2-3 houses that will be haunted by playing them a few more days than I normally do. But after that, they will only be played 1 day per rotations like the rest of my households.
In one household the grandkids are going to have summer break at grandma's creepy haunted house. I wanted the seance table to be more of a group activity, that sims can causally dabbled with with friends but you need skills for a group seance. That's all I got so far. I wish this pack had new foods,crafts, or harvestables but it doesn't.
My TS2 save is a recreation of Pleasentview, so really anything goes, and I leave it quirky.
My vampires save is rather self explanatory, I use the club system to control my clans. An Evil one run by Vlad, and a “vegetarian” one run by Caleb. It focuses mostly on vampires, but other occult’s make appearances when it makes sense.
My premade rotation save is also self explanatory, occult’s are used when their house pops up in rotation. Currently I’m playing a YA Cassandra Goth in that one, she’s a medium and single mom at the moment. I placed haunted houses in Windenburg (the older section), and that’s where I have her living.
My Legacy save currently has almost all occult and paranormal banned (using mods). It’s on Generation 20, and the only occult Sims still in that save are Vlad, Caleb, and Lilith. I sort of use them as lore in that save, each generation being warned to stay away from them.
I'm still in the experimental mode of course but without a doubt, the Goth house had to be haunted. I found out pretty quickly that a wide open house is very good for scared sims to be able to run around and act out their fear. I added the Spooky trait for an additional fear amplifier. So the storyline becomes, the house is haunted and Bella decides to try and take control of it. So she starts performing ceremonies and trying to contain some of the ghostly activity. It doesn't quite work. It turns out Cassandra has a morbid fascination with the haunting and has several cursed dolls stashed in her room! Not only that! Cassandra longs to join the undead and whether it's as a ghost or a vampire she doesn't care which! Mortimer is still a writer and mostly just takes it all in and writes about his experiences. Meanwhile Bella is making a change from being a Secret Agent to being a paranormal investigator.
So, I have a coven of witches who have a seance table on their gathering lot and they'll sometimes commune with the dead together.
I have 3 witches who practice the medium skill, only one of them being serious about it and is in the paranormal invest career.
The 2. witch is currently an inmate in my haunted asylum (heroic mode) and trying to "solve" the mystery there (well...she'll probly make it worse tbh, she is a weird one) and the 3. is living in a haunted house too (normal mode) but isnt very bothered or interested in it (it is more her child daughter, a vampire, who is obsessed with death in any way).
Also I am currently working on a church+graveyard which includes some of the paranormal stuff as decor (not haunted tho as it will not be residental) and I got a shop that sells all kinds of dark magical things which I just updated with the paranormal stuff.
I honestly really have to restrain myself from not making (almost) every lot haunted and everyone a medium....I just love it so much!
The "spooky photographer" is an awesome idea btw, I may turn my Cassandra Goth into one (she has been obsessesed with death ever since her dad died....and came back as a hamsterghost lol).
It's fine for rotational play, I do not see a problem with it and I play rotational.
Maybe it depends on how strict your rotational rules are? I know some players have a schedule when they rotate and to which household,
I do not have any rules and I play with ageing off, so that might make it easier for me (?).
Sims actually learn the Medium skill quite easily even in a non-haunted house. The séance table works in nearly the same way. I guess the outcome might be limited, but light is flickering and there are spooky sounds when communicating with the dead. So, maxing the skill should be done within reasonable time, sim won't get that certificate from the Guido(?) guy, but can get it from the aspiration reward store, and with Medium level 5 I don't see why there should be any difference when having paranormal gigs in that career.
Also found that if I enter a haunted house after 9 PM, and miss the "are you ready for some haunting" popup, the night seems to be quite calm even in a haunted house. So if this makes a difference, it's possible to avoid chaos to get a good night's sleep. None in my household woke up even once - but I guess this might be harder later on in the development.