the Spa Day refresh is a step in the right direction, keep up the momentum!

davidsara

been playing sims since the good old days of sims 1 and been a big fan of the series for years until recently, sims 4's quality went super below par after a certain point (i think magic was my breaking point, it was just so... lacking) and after that i just stopped caring for the game, seeing the Spa refresh make the pack more relivent and even tie in with other packs gives me hope the team finally see that many packs werent up to the task of standing out.
keep up this momentum, rework those packs, make the game truly feel like a sims game again!
the next pack sorely needing a refresh is Realm of Magic, to many spells are just copypasto(hah) of other packs abilities especially the features found in Get to Work (clone sim, freeze ray, etc) and could use both a spell refresh as well as a new pair of traits.

the one thing that stood out from the spa pack was the new High Maintinance trait, a difficulty modifer in the form of traits is a most welcome addition, and i think Realm of Magic could do with one of these, think something along the lines of "Magic Accustomed" that requires magical usage in daily life, doing chores like cleaning, cooking, etc without using magic should make your sims fun go down and add a negative moodlet that makes their mood harder to keep up, this makes the trait a difficulty modifier in that magic becomes mandatory in the sims lifestyle but also requires the sim need their lifestyle balanced around magical charge as to much magic = overload.

an additional 3-5 spells along with reworking some would also be a huge step in the right direction, some simple yet impactful and unique spells:

• Enchant object (Prctical) = it can can allow certain items to be "commanded" to work on their own, for example enchanting and commanding a painting easil could allow you to automatically paint paintings based on the power of the spell cast (so a maxed out enchant with overload, traits, etc would put out great paintings or higher), this would work well with the new Magic Accustomed trait.
• Magical fishing (untamed)= go fishing, with magic! you either use a wand to "pretend" fishing like a rod and yoink out a fish or if you have the no wand trait you can lift a fish straight out of the water using telekinisis, the quality of the fish will depend on the charge and spellcasting strength.
• Pocket Sun (mischief) = cast a glowing heat giving ball of light to follow the target sim, givng a minor uncomfortable moodlet, if used with seasons the sim will slowly burn and overheat, if the sim is a vampire they will also be treated as if in minor sunlight the whole time if they do not hide in a coffin or dont have the trait to protect from sunlight
• Magical weather (untamed, requires seasons) = force change the weather to a magical sunlight, magical rain, magical snow or magical ecplipse, resulting in forced weather changes that give a weak mood boost to sims with certain traits (for example magical sunlight will make most sims feel happier while gloomy sims will be uncomfortable, magical rain will make gloomy sims happy but anger hot headed sims, etc) and magical eclipse will force nightime for the duration, allowing vampires to go outside without risk of the sun and forcibly transforming werewolves (when they arrive )

then add more functions for crystals, magical sims or level 9 gardeners to plant crystals and nourish them with magic to grow them into a crystal spire that can be harvested daily for 2 crystals (the crystal spire becomes barren after 7 harvests), crystal spires cannot be spliced but can be sampled by scientists (with Get to Work)
add an interaction for magical sims to siphon energy from crystals to drain the crystal of its power but give the sim a +1 moodlet related to the crystal for 3 hours and a bonus to the spells they cast for the duration, this will give crystals more uses

then some minor tweaks that would be most welcome would be:

• allow Chillio to also cause sims to become cold if seasons is installed
• allow Scruberoo to be cast on pets, pet cages, etc
• allow Zipzap to summon a lightning strike if used outside with seasons installed
• allow Necrocall to summon zombies (when added )
• allow Homewardio to be cast on other sims banishing them back to the rabbit hole from whence they came
• add an easter egg where if you Zipzap a green crystal spire while super charged theres a 25% chance you will transform the crystal into a tiberium spire, the tiberium spire has a value of 250simolions but if left planted in the dirt will have a daily chance of 10% to spawn a tiberium crustal near it, if you leave the tiberium crystal alone for 1 day it will plant itself and begin to grow into another tiberium spire, being near tiberium spire gives a stacking uncomfortable moodlet that gets stronger the longer you stay near them called tiberium sickness (+1,2,3 then 5) and if you stay near them for to long at its highest point your sim has a chance to die of sickness (this is a reference to both the command and conquer series as well as Sims 3's tiberium crystal HERE ) , this will also open up a new form of "farming" tiberium with a risky playstyle
• new* allow scrubberoo to clean up dust if you have the Bust the Dust installed

its not much of a discussion and more of a suggestion list but i still think the refreshing of Realm of Magic is very much needed and hoping to see more refreshes soon, i love the sims series and want to play more of sims 4 but i feel like theres just not enough to do at the moment so been playing a ton of sims 3 to pass the time

PreCiious

I agree... When i installed Realm of Magic it was my breaking point of getting CC. I immediatly downloaded the ''Pufferhead Stuff Pack'' bc Kids got NOTHING. So they should include stuff and gameplay for the kids too. I have a lot of mods for this pack bc it's so lackluster, got a lot of spells.

Scruberoo should also work with dust the bust?!

davidsara

PreCiious wrote: »

I agree... When i installed Realm of Magic it was my breaking point of getting CC. I immediatly downloaded the ''Pufferhead Stuff Pack'' bc Kids got NOTHING. So they should include stuff and gameplay for the kids too. I have a lot of mods for this pack bc it's so lackluster, got a lot of spells.

Scruberoo should also work with dust the bust?!

forgot bust the dust! scruberoo SHOULD work with it but doesnt, i'll add that to the list!
i honestly stopped playing just after real of magic because the magic pack is the one that usualy stands out most for me and sims 4 failed on this for me

SERVERFRA

We're finally getting nails & claws. Thank you devs & bravo.

NorthDakotaGamer

It may be that they finally heard players who want gameplay for all life stages to "help" with family gameplay. My concern it that any newly aspirations will just be tutorial types though. I want the aspirations to actually have meaningful gameplay as well.

sourapfel

I hope they're going to keep refreshing packs, althought the decision to start with Spa Day, a game pack that actually offered a fair share of gameplay for the price... not a good idea. My sim is busy at a spa, but there is absolutely nothing to do in an OR lodge. I could also come up with several things that should have been a part of Jungle Adventure or Parenthood. As usual, their priorities make me go hmmmmm but ultimately - it's free content so I'm not gonna complain.

davidsara

sourapfel wrote: »

I hope they're going to keep refreshing packs, althought the decision to start with Spa Day, a game pack that actually offered a fair share of gameplay for the price... not a good idea. My sim is busy at a spa, but there is absolutely nothing to do in an OR lodge. I could also come up with several things that should have been a part of Jungle Adventure or Parenthood. As usual, their priorities make me go hmmmmm but ultimately - it's free content so I'm not gonna complain.

i hope so to, i want to enjoy sims 4 as much as i did sims 1 2 or 3 but 4 is just so... well lacking in polish