My only two qualms are the lack of a toilet/bathtub and that children have less clothes than toddlers. I personally think it should be equal or flipped.
ETA: There is in fact a bathtub, which makes me even more mad. Two packs in a row with everything except toilets.
Well if only lack of toilets was the only issue with this game...
I share his opinion on that Snowy Escape did not have enough unique things to do.
Oh yeah, and it is even more astonishing how gaudy the complete lack of gameplay and activities in this new GP are. I mean, I think there was even more to do in Snowy Escape, cause this new GP sits right next to Island Living, except IL had at least a more decent amount of lots.
It’s an EP not a GP, just so others don’t get confused. 🙂
if you ask me snowy escape and island living are glorified game packs. both sit well next to outdoor retreat and jungle adventure.
I recently watched this video:
"20 Things To Do In Cottage Living" https://youtu.be/1IYx3BN135Q
It only confirmed my thoughts on the pack when I could only find the "Simple Living" challenge, writing a cookbook, and buying groceries to be worthwhile gameplay.
Also, when your description of a feature amounts only to "this is cute/adorable" it's not a good endorsement.
She does a really really terrible job at selling the pack. I'm actually interested in this one, and she seemed to be pointing out how boring it is. And given that she listed canning as a new thing to do rather than just new cooking recipes, it also seemed like she was reaching to find things.
I guess I can thank this gamechanger for killing my interest for now. I'll get it on sale.
Edit: Okay, finished watching it. She lists hitting on Agnes Crumplebottom to get hit back by her as new gameplay. There's not enough squee in the world to make that sound like it would be fun and engaging more than twice.
Why aren’t you buying it instead of watching a gamechanger pick apart the EP you were interested in? I don’t tend to listen to the gamechangers because they can tell you anything and yes most will be honest they like it but the got the thing free. They didn’t pay for it so why should they care what they tell us?
She was not picking it apart. She was trying her best to sound super enthusiastic. Had she been picking it apart, or sounded the least bit negative, I would have taken it with a grain of salt. That someone who apparently loves the pack can't come up with much actual gameplay is telling to me. As for why I haven't bought it -- same reason I don't buy anything without at least some research. I'm not in a hurry. I can wait for a sale.
Well I can tell you I am having fun with it and I paid for it. Its my favorite pack I have played in a long time. I haven't been happy with most of the packs since Seasons.
This pack and seasons, cats&dogs, eco-lifestyle have been fun for me.
only wish we had pigs, sheep, and a horse to go with them.
whoever put this cottage pack together needs to stick around for any future expansion packs.
Is anyone else finding it hard to play in HoB? I have bien's mods installed and no Fox challenges, so I don't have the household spawn glitches to bloat my game. But my computer chugs when I'm playing in the world. My computer is practically fried by the time I finish playing.
🐲🐲🐲🐲
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
🐲🐲🐲🐲
@Gordy try turning off the eco lifestyle stuff in your options if you have this pack. I discovered the sun rays from Henford on Bagley being green was causing my computer serious lag. If turning off the eco settings doesnt remove the sun rays (it does for brand new games but not for games already started) turn eco options back on, use the cheat to change the eco footprint to industrial, then go back into options and turn eco settings back off and use the eco footprint cheat again to change footprint to normal.
The larger HoB lots seem to be laggy on their own, the eco sunrays doing their thing to enhance that (as most of HoB is set to green eco footprint by default) also I think whatever teases the fridge menu lag and the teleporting Sims issue is bad for game play performance as well. Too many animals also make the game quite laggy.
Now now EA, don't be stinking up our lovely lavender bath with your shopping fart. - My TS4 mods - Gallery ID: 83bienchen
I really want this expansion pack, but I’m afraid it will murder my game with lag. I’m an Xbox player, so just how bad is the lag for this pack? My games already suffering some lag and I’m afraid more will cause it to be unplayable.
I don't know about xbox, but I'm not having lag on my PC. I've rebuilt all the houses and play tested them for 2 sim weeks each. Anyone try to see if the lag is from the houses that came with it and not the world itself?
I do have the townie spawning bug, though, and at least 2 of the spawned households are blank, but it seems like it was supposed to be a household of animals.
I really want this expansion pack, but I’m afraid it will murder my game with lag. I’m an Xbox player, so just how bad is the lag for this pack? My games already suffering some lag and I’m afraid more will cause it to be unplayable.
If you activate the Simple Living lot challenge and have the GTW EP, children cannot take care of any illnesses.
If you fully upgrade a chicken coop, the occupants will not eat any special treats.
Someone please tell me I'm wrong.
I don't have any children in my current household so I can't speak to that but my coop is fully upgraded and I'm able to give my rooster, hen, and chicks treats.
Fresh products are nice to have in game, but I feel like there could have been more options available for these.
For example, toddlers can't drink milk from the cows.
Cats cannot drink milk neither.
I was expecting something like being able to serve them milk in a bowl, and to give meat or leftovers bones to dogs from the fridge. We didn't get any other recipe for pets neither.
Canned products you're only able to eat them directly, doesn't matter if it's jam or mayonnaise.
Everything feels a little lazy and like they don't really put any detail on these kind of things. Like everything's a bit basic and unrealistic. Sims would simply grab a bottle of milk and drink it directly just like that, which I'm pretty sure nobody ever does that.
Having the simple living trait disables the option for quick meals. It's silly and frustrating to have up to 50+ bottles of milk in the fridge, and don't be able to drink a single glass of it. 😅
You can't plant anything outside your lot, including on the "community garden".
So far I haven't seen dogs or cats interact with other animals. I needed a mod for my dog to chase the foxes away more often. That's just lame. I wish there were new traits for cats and dogs too, such as sheep guard dog, or llama guard dog in this case. 😅😂
Birds are cute, but is silly they're so basic. They won't interact with the bird bath or any other objects already in game, like the little bird houses or the bird feeders.
You can't sell honey or other kind of items in town.
Picnics are very disappointing. It doesn't add anything new to the game. (What's the point of a picnic basket without a picnic blanket and eating together on the grass - there's a mod btw that allows you to do this -).
They really need to start making more interactions for kids and toddlers. Toddlers can't interact with the birds. Can't play in the pond more than splashing. Can't do anything but wade in the water. It feels lazy that toddlers can pet a chick and a cow, but can't interact with the bird tree?
With the addition of new berries and pie recipes, and all the hype about cottagecore, it would have been nice to see some more interactions, as kids being able to pick up eggs and berries in baskets, being able to taste berries from bushes and get different moodlets, taste to see if sweet enough, etc. To ask mom or grandma to teach to cook a berry pie. To get excited about fair in town, etc.
Entries at festivals are broken.
If picnics were the biggest disappointment of this pack, the "fairs" are the second place winner 🥈
After having played with cows for a week and another week in Finchwick, I like most of the pack, except for the quests that I probably won't touch anymore outside of some dedicated farmhand challenge.
Gripe 1, unlike Odd Jobs, the villagers never tell you what they want you to do exactly, they only give you a vague idea of what the first step of who knows how many might entail. Or how many more steps there are. Or the simple fact that there will be more steps. Compared to that hassle, trading in two chickens for animal treats yielded many bagfuls. Most of the other stuff seems to be buyable from the vendors and for the upgrade parts there is a mod that makes them buyable.
Gripe 2, the villagers themselves come with little stories to endear them to us. Okay, I thought, maybe once I'm back in my main save and swapped my own sims in for the default villagers, I might feel more attached. But then I realized that I'd have to create sims specifically keyed to the story mold. The foodstuff sim will always be infatuated with the creature keeper, no matter what I make them look like and what traits I give them. Worse, in every new generation the foodstuff lady will always inherit an unrequited love for the creature keeper, as if that was a job requirement. What works in Harvest Moon, where the second generation stays at child age (in most games), just doesn't work The Sims.
(In my Oregon Trail save one of my own sims expressed an interest for the Foodstuff Lady and will sweep her away on the trail with him and the Creature Keeper will be forgotten ho History).
I'm sad that you can't cook the recipes that came with this expansion if you don't use the simple living trait. Or, you can if you cook in a group, but I don't want to have to do that every time. Maybe there's another way but I haven't heard anyone else bring it up (is my game bugged?) There are sooo many recipes you miss out on if you don't want to use the simple living trait...
> @ShawSims said: > I'm sad that you can't cook the recipes that came with this expansion if you don't use the simple living trait. Or, you can if you cook in a group, but I don't want to have to do that every time. Maybe there's another way but I haven't heard anyone else bring it up (is my game bugged?) > There are sooo many recipes you miss out on if you don't want to use the simple living trait...
My bad... just read in a different thread that mods that make baking cupcakes available in the oven can break it, and I had one of those mods. So now the recipes actually show up!
I would love to use the cross stitch feature. Still experiencing the black/white yarn bug on console. I bought the pack at launch and I've yet to play with llamas and the colorful yarn
I am playing on the lot in the HoB Centre. It's not really big but has a chicken coop. I would love to have a lama next to it but the shed is SOOO BIG. I understand why but I still think it's a shame. I have to let her move out of that lovely place just to be able to have a llama or a cow.
I had been wanting canning in the sims 4 for quite awhile before they came out with it, so I’m glad they added it. I don’t use mods. I have some sims can and sell their cans, sometimes they gift them, and I believe they can use them in recipe’s sometimes. I wish they had added a sewing machine with a color wheel and patterns, I still hope they add that in a pack. I love the animals in the pack though! Oh, and I love the simple living challenge, most of my sims use that. I wish they had a clothing challenge as well.
For me this pack sits right next to Island Living. I am flabbergasted by the complete lack of features and gameplay & even more horrified that the majority of the community isn't even noticing it. They really succeeded on getting us used to so little gameplay on so called ''Expansion packs''.
Gosh, I see a lot of gameplay in the pack. Taking care of farm animals, making friends with rabbits, birds, and foxes, new crops, buying groceries for the simple living challenge, the new embroidery skill. Children being able to help garden and cook, canning, a few new swimming areas, contests, running errands for townspeople. But then I see a lot to do in Sulani too, fishing, sun taming, floating, swimming, boating, jet skiing, making kava, new plants, collecting shells, beach combing, going to the various easy going festivals.
I never get used to the world. Others find it pretty, I find too small, full of areas you can't have access to, there's nothing really interesting to do or interact with. I find the aesthetics just terrible. It looks just like Willow Creek. There are no new vegetation, nothing to make it unique apart from the ugly blueish/greenish lightening. I feel like the world had so much potential.
The festivals aren't festivals. Someone should point this out as false publicity. There's absolutely nothing festive about CL festivals. It's just lame, there's barely anything to so, the Sims just stand there still or dancing like they're in the club.
There are such a small variety of animals you can get, and not much you can do with them. The basic things are covered. But big animals can't even have babies? Imagine your sim children feeding a baby calf, that would have been cute.
I also wanted ducks and ducklings and sheeps. As I said before, there was no variety. I don't understand how difficult would it be to simply clone a chicken and add it as a duck, modders did that already thankfully.
Lack of pack crossing. You can't even sell honey as an item in the main stalls. What in the world? How so anybody thought of that?
And lots of missed opportunities. There could have been a functional recipe book, with pies recipes and their needes berries. You could unlock new recipes to participate in the pie contest. You could unlock your own family recipe and share it with your children.
Kids and teens could be sent for groceries in baskets. Or could pick up vegetables and berries in small baskets to bring back home. Idk there are a lot of missed opportunities imo.
For me this pack sits right next to Island Living. I am flabbergasted by the complete lack of features and gameplay & even more horrified that the majority of the community isn't even noticing it. They really succeeded on getting us used to so little gameplay on so called ''Expansion packs''.
Gosh, I see a lot of gameplay in the pack. Taking care of farm animals, making friends with rabbits, birds, and foxes, new crops, buying groceries for the simple living challenge, the new embroidery skill. Children being able to help garden and cook, canning, a few new swimming areas, contests, running errands for townspeople. But then I see a lot to do in Sulani too, fishing, sun taming, floating, swimming, boating, jet skiing, making kava, new plants, collecting shells, beach combing, going to the various easy going festivals.
Same here, and also about Island living. I keep being flabbergasted at the people arguing there is no gameplay in Island Living. I think it has to do with what one's definition of "gameplay" is, I guess. Island living and Country Living both have at least as much gameplay as Seasons, City Living or Outdoor Living. Slightly less than Vampires, because Vampires was specifically about adding a very detailed gameplay to a very small subset of Sims. But then you could argue that since it only concerns vampires, on average Vampires consists of absolute 0% gameplay.
Anyway, As much as I got bored by Country Living, arguing that it has no gameplay is... beyond strange to me. Did they not start the pack? Farming, produce competitions, errands, taming wild animals, a whole new cooking system with attached traits...
Comments
if you ask me snowy escape and island living are glorified game packs. both sit well next to outdoor retreat and jungle adventure.
This pack and seasons, cats&dogs, eco-lifestyle have been fun for me.
only wish we had pigs, sheep, and a horse to go with them.
whoever put this cottage pack together needs to stick around for any future expansion packs.
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
🐲🐲🐲🐲
I have heard a lot of people reporting on Answer HQ that this world doesn't run great though, so I wonder if it's something else.
I do have the townie spawning bug, though, and at least 2 of the spawned households are blank, but it seems like it was supposed to be a household of animals.
Current or next gen?
If you activate the Simple Living lot challenge and have the GTW EP, children cannot take care of any illnesses.
If you fully upgrade a chicken coop, the occupants will not eat any special treats.
Someone please tell me I'm wrong.
I don't have any children in my current household so I can't speak to that but my coop is fully upgraded and I'm able to give my rooster, hen, and chicks treats.
For example, toddlers can't drink milk from the cows.
Cats cannot drink milk neither.
I was expecting something like being able to serve them milk in a bowl, and to give meat or leftovers bones to dogs from the fridge. We didn't get any other recipe for pets neither.
Canned products you're only able to eat them directly, doesn't matter if it's jam or mayonnaise.
Everything feels a little lazy and like they don't really put any detail on these kind of things. Like everything's a bit basic and unrealistic. Sims would simply grab a bottle of milk and drink it directly just like that, which I'm pretty sure nobody ever does that.
Having the simple living trait disables the option for quick meals. It's silly and frustrating to have up to 50+ bottles of milk in the fridge, and don't be able to drink a single glass of it. 😅
You can't plant anything outside your lot, including on the "community garden".
So far I haven't seen dogs or cats interact with other animals. I needed a mod for my dog to chase the foxes away more often. That's just lame. I wish there were new traits for cats and dogs too, such as sheep guard dog, or llama guard dog in this case. 😅😂
Birds are cute, but is silly they're so basic. They won't interact with the bird bath or any other objects already in game, like the little bird houses or the bird feeders.
You can't sell honey or other kind of items in town.
Picnics are very disappointing. It doesn't add anything new to the game. (What's the point of a picnic basket without a picnic blanket and eating together on the grass - there's a mod btw that allows you to do this -).
They really need to start making more interactions for kids and toddlers. Toddlers can't interact with the birds. Can't play in the pond more than splashing. Can't do anything but wade in the water. It feels lazy that toddlers can pet a chick and a cow, but can't interact with the bird tree?
With the addition of new berries and pie recipes, and all the hype about cottagecore, it would have been nice to see some more interactions, as kids being able to pick up eggs and berries in baskets, being able to taste berries from bushes and get different moodlets, taste to see if sweet enough, etc. To ask mom or grandma to teach to cook a berry pie. To get excited about fair in town, etc.
Entries at festivals are broken.
If picnics were the biggest disappointment of this pack, the "fairs" are the second place winner 🥈
Gripe 1, unlike Odd Jobs, the villagers never tell you what they want you to do exactly, they only give you a vague idea of what the first step of who knows how many might entail. Or how many more steps there are. Or the simple fact that there will be more steps. Compared to that hassle, trading in two chickens for animal treats yielded many bagfuls. Most of the other stuff seems to be buyable from the vendors and for the upgrade parts there is a mod that makes them buyable.
Gripe 2, the villagers themselves come with little stories to endear them to us. Okay, I thought, maybe once I'm back in my main save and swapped my own sims in for the default villagers, I might feel more attached. But then I realized that I'd have to create sims specifically keyed to the story mold. The foodstuff sim will always be infatuated with the creature keeper, no matter what I make them look like and what traits I give them. Worse, in every new generation the foodstuff lady will always inherit an unrequited love for the creature keeper, as if that was a job requirement. What works in Harvest Moon, where the second generation stays at child age (in most games), just doesn't work The Sims.
(In my Oregon Trail save one of my own sims expressed an interest for the Foodstuff Lady and will sweep her away on the trail with him and the Creature Keeper will be forgotten ho History).
Sorry, I know this is a tangent, but I am intrigued. Is there another thread where you talk about this Oregon Trail save in greater detail?
There are sooo many recipes you miss out on if you don't want to use the simple living trait...
> I'm sad that you can't cook the recipes that came with this expansion if you don't use the simple living trait. Or, you can if you cook in a group, but I don't want to have to do that every time. Maybe there's another way but I haven't heard anyone else bring it up (is my game bugged?)
> There are sooo many recipes you miss out on if you don't want to use the simple living trait...
My bad... just read in a different thread that mods that make baking cupcakes available in the oven can break it, and I had one of those mods. So now the recipes actually show up!
Gosh, I see a lot of gameplay in the pack. Taking care of farm animals, making friends with rabbits, birds, and foxes, new crops, buying groceries for the simple living challenge, the new embroidery skill. Children being able to help garden and cook, canning, a few new swimming areas, contests, running errands for townspeople. But then I see a lot to do in Sulani too, fishing, sun taming, floating, swimming, boating, jet skiing, making kava, new plants, collecting shells, beach combing, going to the various easy going festivals.
The festivals aren't festivals. Someone should point this out as false publicity. There's absolutely nothing festive about CL festivals. It's just lame, there's barely anything to so, the Sims just stand there still or dancing like they're in the club.
There are such a small variety of animals you can get, and not much you can do with them. The basic things are covered. But big animals can't even have babies? Imagine your sim children feeding a baby calf, that would have been cute.
I also wanted ducks and ducklings and sheeps. As I said before, there was no variety. I don't understand how difficult would it be to simply clone a chicken and add it as a duck, modders did that already thankfully.
Lack of pack crossing. You can't even sell honey as an item in the main stalls. What in the world? How so anybody thought of that?
And lots of missed opportunities. There could have been a functional recipe book, with pies recipes and their needes berries. You could unlock new recipes to participate in the pie contest. You could unlock your own family recipe and share it with your children.
Kids and teens could be sent for groceries in baskets. Or could pick up vegetables and berries in small baskets to bring back home. Idk there are a lot of missed opportunities imo.
Same here, and also about Island living. I keep being flabbergasted at the people arguing there is no gameplay in Island Living. I think it has to do with what one's definition of "gameplay" is, I guess. Island living and Country Living both have at least as much gameplay as Seasons, City Living or Outdoor Living. Slightly less than Vampires, because Vampires was specifically about adding a very detailed gameplay to a very small subset of Sims. But then you could argue that since it only concerns vampires, on average Vampires consists of absolute 0% gameplay.
Anyway, As much as I got bored by Country Living, arguing that it has no gameplay is... beyond strange to me. Did they not start the pack? Farming, produce competitions, errands, taming wild animals, a whole new cooking system with attached traits...
@Amapola76 I probably win the award for most delayed answer, and I'm so sorry for just leaving my piece and never checking back into this thread! Anyway, yes, I used to have a thread in the stories section, but it focused more on weaving a story around my gameplay rather than commenting the gameplay itself.
Oregon Trail challenge diary: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/993491/oregon-trail-challenge-diary
The Challenge rules are here, if you are still interested: https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=643800