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Kit Packs Are Stuff Packs

LoanetLoanet Posts: 4,079 Member
Kit Packs sound like Stuff Packs, only called 'kit' instead.

It's just another way to wrangle money out of us. Basically they've run out of themes so they're going to do a few things at a time and they're going to charge a few bucks at a time and slowly crank up the price.

That, or the kits will get smaller and smaller until we're paying £5 for each item or upgrade. It looks big now, but mark my words it'll get much smaller. They'll stop releasing Stuff Packs now, and only release Game Packs and Expansion Packs. Then they'll release Expansion Packs the size of Game Packs. It'll cost a fortune. Of course if we stop buying in protest they'll just stop making.
Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.

Comments

  • 12JEREMIA12JEREMIA Posts: 3,143 Member
    I personally don't stuff packs will never be renamed kit packs, cause kit packs are gonna be super smaller than stuff packs and larger than store content (TS3 Store). Maybe you should ask any SimGurus the difference between stuff packs and kit packs, OK?
  • logionlogion Posts: 4,712 Member
    edited February 2021
    I recently saw on twitter that the icons for the kit packs are named SP20, SP21 and SP22. So it looks like they will even name them the same. It could just be their way of avoiding having another name in their coding but who knows...

    The numbering also seem to hint that there is a Stuff Pack 19 in the works (or another kit) unless it was cancelled.
  • LoanetLoanet Posts: 4,079 Member
    edited February 2021
    logion wrote: »
    I recently saw on twitter that the icons for the kit packs are named SP20, SP21 and SP22. So it looks like they will even name them the same. It could just be their way of avoiding having another name in their coding but who knows...

    The numbering also seem to hint that there is a Stuff Pack 19 in the works (or another kit) unless it was cancelled.

    You see, I was exactly right. They're classing these as our Stuff Packs now, the only difference is they're calling them Kit Packs. And they're cheaper but also come out more frequently and are bound to be smaller.

    I mean, I'm not going to miss Stuff Packs, but look at it this way - a Stuff Pack was $9.99. Now say you'll get three Kit Packs released every three months for $4.99, so you're paying more for the same amount. It looks big this time, keeping in mind that these are the early releases, but I'll put money on the size of each kit shrinking, but if people still want all the content...

    Oh yeah, and if you're one of those people who says "Well it's not happening to me right now", I'd like to remind you of when the price of Game Packs and Expansion Packs went up in Europe before they went up in America. "It doesn't affect me so why should I care?" Because of a little word spelled EMPATHY.
    Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
  • auroraael14auroraael14 Posts: 988 Member
    edited February 2021
    I think kits are one theme/room/category with like 12 or 13 items or objects all fitting within that theme. Take the country kitchen. It's only a kitchen set with one theme. Or the retro sportswear also one category/theme and comes with like 8 outfits. Then we have bust the dust which is vacuuming. It comes with a few different vacuums and gameplay. Smaller than a stuff pack related to one theme and category.

    I still think we will get stuff packs as well. The kits will be more frequent than the other three types of packs to tide people over until bigger packs are released.
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  • LoanetLoanet Posts: 4,079 Member
    I think the team who used to make Stuff packs are now the team making Kit Packs.
    Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
  • Horrorgirl6Horrorgirl6 Posts: 3,170 Member
    edited February 2021
    Dude, they are not replacing stuff packs.The regular stuff packs are now mini game packs.Base on skill, job, and quest.
  • ashcrash19ashcrash19 Posts: 4,406 Member
    Seems like since the stuff packs were becoming more fleshed out these are the new mini stuff packs--I'm hoping the original stuff packs will stay the same price and still have more content (like paranormal did). To me, super niche packs make sense, just not sure why they waited so long to implement. Game Packs are still my favorite, so hopefully those are still a thing.
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  • catloverplayercatloverplayer Posts: 93,362 Member
    edited February 2021
    Loanet wrote: »
    Kit Packs sound like Stuff Packs, only called 'kit' instead.

    It's just another way to wrangle money out of us. Basically they've run out of themes so they're going to do a few things at a time and they're going to charge a few bucks at a time and slowly crank up the price.

    That, or the kits will get smaller and smaller until we're paying £5 for each item or upgrade. It looks big now, but mark my words it'll get much smaller. They'll stop releasing Stuff Packs now, and only release Game Packs and Expansion Packs. Then they'll release Expansion Packs the size of Game Packs. It'll cost a fortune. Of course if we stop buying in protest they'll just stop making.

    That's what I'm worried about these Kits replacing Stuffpacks. There is plenty of sp themes they could still do and unlike sps kits aren't guaranteed to have gameplay objects.
  • catloverplayercatloverplayer Posts: 93,362 Member
    12JEREMIA wrote: »
    I personally don't stuff packs will never be renamed kit packs, cause kit packs are gonna be super smaller than stuff packs and larger than store content (TS3 Store). Maybe you should ask any SimGurus the difference between stuff packs and kit packs, OK?

    We ll find that out Tuesday when maxis goes more indephth about kits.
  • LoanetLoanet Posts: 4,079 Member
    If I'm any judge of EA, Game Packs will become the size of Paranormal Stuff but remain the same high price. Paranormal Stuff was big for a stuff pack but in no way was it Game Pack size.

    And Stuff Packs will simply no longer be made. Maybe they've got one waiting for release. Or maybe they'll divvy it up and release it as kits.

    After all of EA's demonstrations of how they love to rip us off, why does anybody have any faith in them?
    Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
  • texxx78texxx78 Posts: 5,657 Member
    edited February 2021
    If i would speculate i'ld say that all 4 dlc types will still be developed for 1 or 1 and a half years.

    Slowly, bigger pack' teams will be transfered to sims 5 development team while the small kits' team will still be releasing bits of content here and there even after sims 5 announcement...

    Haha that's why i don't like to speculate much...

    What i won't speculate, specially because we're just a few days away of knowing for sure, is the price of the kits...
  • SimmingalSimmingal Posts: 8,888 Member
    edited February 2021
    honestly? I think EA just got mad that their stuff packs started to deliver actual content so they had to come up with way to go back to luxury party stuff level of content while being sneaky like "hey lets call it kit so they never notice we did that cause there is no expectations for this new pack type"

    actually now that we talk about it yeah, luxury party is indeed kit how about you upgrade all those stuff packs to being actual stuff packs with some content now [:
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  • DaepheneDaephene Posts: 1,760 Member
    Simmingal wrote: »
    honestly? I think EA just got mad that their stuff packs started to deliver actual content so they had to come up with way to go back to luxury party stuff level of content while being sneaky like "hey lets call it kit so they never notice we did that cause there is no expectations for this new pack type"

    actually now that we talk about it yeah, luxury party is indeed kit how about you upgrade all those stuff packs to being actual stuff packs with some content now [:

    This is my theory. The last 3-4 stuff packs provide so much more than the old ones. I wouldn't be surprised if they keep making that size of stuff pack for the original price and also add these smaller kit packs to be what stuff packs used to be for less money.

    Expansion packs have been getting shallower and stuff packs have been getting deeper, while game packs are about the same. I think they are seeing more profit from the smaller bits of content for smaller bits of money than from the expansion packs, and are moving to do more of that.
  • LoanetLoanet Posts: 4,079 Member
    All of those three kits put together add up to a Stuff Pack, but mark my words you'll have to pay more if you want all three.
    Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
  • catloverplayercatloverplayer Posts: 93,362 Member
    Loanet wrote: »
    All of those three kits put together add up to a Stuff Pack, but mark my words you'll have to pay more if you want all three.

    Maybe. We'll know for sure Tuesday. I'm sure the Maxis is going to reveal prices Tuesday when they give us more info and we might even get to download these packs Tuesday.
  • EdithVEdithV Posts: 859 Member
    How often do we think they will release these kits?
  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    I hope kits aren't going to be something TS5 is doing, because Maxis has a way of adding to a current game whatever they are working on in an upcoming game but watered down for a current game.
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • DaWaterRatDaWaterRat Posts: 3,351 Member
    edited February 2021
    Loanet wrote: »
    All of those three kits put together add up to a Stuff Pack, but mark my words you'll have to pay more if you want all three.

    I'm completely expecting it to cost more to buy them individually than as a Stuff Pack.

    I'm expecting a price point of between $4 and $6 USD, with hopefully an option to buy a "bundle" at $10 (same as a stuff pack) to $12 (maybe as much as $15). The bundle will probably have to be one BB, one CAS, one Gameplay (just like the current option to build a bundle on Origin requires one stuff, one game, one expansion) so if you want only gameplay kits, or only BB, or only CAS, you're going to be shelling out.

    This is generally the way with all sales setups like this. EA's not breaking new ground in grubbing for money with this tactic. Not saying it's right, or fair. Just that it isn't new. Heck, check the pricing of a 6 pack vs a 12 pack of your favorite individually packaged beverage at the grocery store. This is basically the equivalent of just selling single cans ... which, coincidentally, my grocery store does for some products.

    Yes, I'm assuming that bundling will be an option and we don't know that. But we don't know that it won't either. And it's more likely that we can convince EA that it's ultimately more profitable to add bundling as an option than that they'll take it away after introducing it. I only want one of the three kits, but if I wanted two, and I could get a third for only an extra dollar or two, I might be tempted to throw it in anyway. It's part of how the psychology of marketing works.

    Now, the fate of Stuff Packs, in general, will be interesting to see. The last three have been very robust. Possibly budget-breakingly so. I'm not convinced they're going away, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they did. What I think is less likely is that they'll continue this breakdown through the Game and Expansion packs, as those usually include systems that in and of themselves won't fit inside what I expect the budget is for a Kit (at least in terms of man-hours, if not in terms of gameplay impact)

    I mean, right now with these three kits, they could be a Stuff Pack, sure. But they don't really fit together as a pack unless you squint (and even that's only possible because of the pandemic - if people hadn't generally been cooped up for the past year, no one would see how they went together at all), and the aesthetics of the three packs are very different. They could be leftovers from previous packs that were cut for budget/time, or they could be ideas that came up later that don't fit in the update team's budget. But they're not all on the same theme.

    Now, if next month they have an 80's themed CAS, some 80's throwback BB, and a Retro Tech gameplay that includes newspapers and landlines, then there's an argument to be made - and a very strong one that should be made very loudly - that they should have been a stuff pack. Heck, if they release a set of kits like this over the course of six months, they probably should have been a stuff pack. Outside of a six-month spread... it gets fuzzier, depending on how frequently packs are coming out and how long you think is reasonable for the team to hold back on an asset/Asset group until they can come up with either CAS and BB to fit with the Gameplay or else Gameplay that fits with the CAS or BB.
  • LoanetLoanet Posts: 4,079 Member
    Put all together, there's 43 items. The highest number of items is in the CAS pack, which is the easiest pack to make. That's significantly less than your average Stuff Pack. But I bet it'll cost $4.99 for each pack. So they'll be making about $5 for quite a lot less, just by dividing up what is ultimately a Stuff Pack into its component furniture/functional/CAS parts. We're not getting any hairstyles with our athletic pack, we're getting two functional items with multiple skins that we only use if we want to do more work, we're not getting any chairs or tables, and we're getting very little Clutter for what they're calling a KITCHEN pack...

    The Dusting Kit is kind of like the Laundry Day pack - to get the most out of it you need to have less fun - by dusting.
    Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
  • Amapola76Amapola76 Posts: 1,904 Member
    Loanet wrote: »
    Put all together, there's 43 items. The highest number of items is in the CAS pack, which is the easiest pack to make. That's significantly less than your average Stuff Pack. But I bet it'll cost $4.99 for each pack. So they'll be making about $5 for quite a lot less, just by dividing up what is ultimately a Stuff Pack into its component furniture/functional/CAS parts. We're not getting any hairstyles with our athletic pack, we're getting two functional items with multiple skins that we only use if we want to do more work, we're not getting any chairs or tables, and we're getting very little Clutter for what they're calling a KITCHEN pack...

    The Dusting Kit is kind of like the Laundry Day pack - to get the most out of it you need to have less fun - by dusting.

    Here's where that logic fails: Your arguments seems to be that all three of these kits together equal one stuff pack (which I also question), so instead of paying $10 for all of them, we would be paying (pure speculation at this point) $15 for all of them. But even if all that's true, here's the thing: I don't want all of them. I only want one of the three kits we've seen. So far, I haven't seen a single person on the forum say that they're interested in all three of this first set of kits; most people have said they want one, several have said they want two or none. So, if I can pay $5 for several items that I do want, instead of $10 for a few that I want plus a bunch of 🐸🐸🐸🐸 cluttering up my menu that I don't want... yeah, option 1 is obviously the better deal.

    Now, DaWaterRat made an excellent point, which is that it will look a lot shadier if we start to see groups of kits coming out together that look like they could or should have been a single cohesive stuff pack. But if it's like this first set, where it's a disparate group of kits from which people are likely to pick and choose... yes, please, for the love of God, let me pick and choose. I'd much rather have that than, oh I don't know, spending $10 for a whole bowling system and a bunch of crappy furniture that I have never used and never will use, because I just wanted one really cute hairstyle and a single cute top.

    I mean, look, we still don't know all the details. And when we do, it still may seem like a bad deal to you. But it's illogical to act like it's inherently a bad deal for everyone.
  • EternalSunshineEternalSunshine Posts: 339 Member
    edited February 2021
    Amapola76 wrote: »
    Loanet wrote: »
    Put all together, there's 43 items. The highest number of items is in the CAS pack, which is the easiest pack to make. That's significantly less than your average Stuff Pack. But I bet it'll cost $4.99 for each pack. So they'll be making about $5 for quite a lot less, just by dividing up what is ultimately a Stuff Pack into its component furniture/functional/CAS parts. We're not getting any hairstyles with our athletic pack, we're getting two functional items with multiple skins that we only use if we want to do more work, we're not getting any chairs or tables, and we're getting very little Clutter for what they're calling a KITCHEN pack...

    The Dusting Kit is kind of like the Laundry Day pack - to get the most out of it you need to have less fun - by dusting.

    Here's where that logic fails: Your arguments seems to be that all three of these kits together equal one stuff pack (which I also question), so instead of paying $10 for all of them, we would be paying (pure speculation at this point) $15 for all of them. But even if all that's true, here's the thing: I don't want all of them. I only want one of the three kits we've seen. So far, I haven't seen a single person on the forum say that they're interested in all three of this first set of kits; most people have said they want one, several have said they want two or none. So, if I can pay $5 for several items that I do want, instead of $10 for a few that I want plus a bunch of ❤️❤️❤️❤️ cluttering up my menu that I don't want... yeah, option 1 is obviously the better deal.

    Given the prices of the items in the past Sims Stores, I tend to agree with @Loanet. I fear that kits will be just another way for EA to make us pay more for less. Moreover, unless you are really concerned about menu clutter, the kit option is still likely to be a worse deal, since stuff packs can often be purchased for $4.99 during a sale. I personally would rather buy a full stuff pack for $4.99, than one kit for $4.99. If EA actually prices the kits at around $3.33 (1/3 the price of a traditional stuff pack) or less, then I can see how a kit might be a better choice for some people.
  • Amapola76Amapola76 Posts: 1,904 Member
    the kit option is still likely to be a worse deal, since stuff packs can often be purchased for $4.99 during a sale.

    That's very true. But it's also true that TS3 store items regularly went on sale, not to mention those set completion deals. So if that holds true for the TS4 kits, we could see opportunities to buy kits for just a couple of dollars.

    Also, I haven't seen anyone point this out yet, but TS3 store sets varied in price depending on what was actually in them. Sure, there were some one or two item purchases, but they were a fraction of the cost of the larger sets. One of the many things we still don't know is whether all kits will have the same price, much less what that actual price would be.
  • crocobauracrocobaura Posts: 7,342 Member
    Amapola76 wrote: »
    the kit option is still likely to be a worse deal, since stuff packs can often be purchased for $4.99 during a sale.

    That's very true. But it's also true that TS3 store items regularly went on sale, not to mention those set completion deals. So if that holds true for the TS4 kits, we could see opportunities to buy kits for just a couple of dollars.

    Also, I haven't seen anyone point this out yet, but TS3 store sets varied in price depending on what was actually in them. Sure, there were some one or two item purchases, but they were a fraction of the cost of the larger sets. One of the many things we still don't know is whether all kits will have the same price, much less what that actual price would be.


    There is less gameplay in the vacuum kit than in laundry day. At least laundry day offered the possibility for doing laundry without electricity, and they gave the wash basin and the clothes line. So far it looks like you can only banish the dust bunnies with a vacuum. Whichever way you look at it there is less offered for your bucks. And there are no hairs. Also comparing with TS3 is not a good idea. TS3 store offered a lot of gameplay items that were traditionally in game and left very little gameplay in the EPs and Stuff packs. And some of those things only came packaged with other things I didn't want and were too expensive. TS3 Store is not a good model to follow. Some people say they watched ads, for points, but that choice was limited to a small number of countries.
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