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Ranking Expansion Packs
RememberJoy
Posts: 1,139 Member
So I was curious to see how I really felt about expansions so I created a chart to (not so) scientifically calculate an accurate tier list. I ordered each category from 11 to 1 with 11 being my favorite.
I than added them up to see which pack was really my favorite, and this is how it added up for myself:
1. Island Living
2. Cottage Living
3. Seasons
4. Get Together
5. Eco Lifestyle
6. City Living
7. Snowy Escape
8. Get Famous
9. Cats and Dogs
10. Discover University
11. Get To Work
Here's my list for those who are curious.
For a long while I've thought of Seasons and Get Together as my top two packs, so I find this interesting but not necessarily wrong, I do love Island Living and Cottage Living. The only thing I would change on this list is putting City Living higher than Eco Lifestyle, but otherwise I think this list is fairly accurate for myself.
So I'm curious to see how other peoples list's compare to how they rank the expansions, are they consistent or do you unknowingly love another pack more?
I than added them up to see which pack was really my favorite, and this is how it added up for myself:
1. Island Living
2. Cottage Living
3. Seasons
4. Get Together
5. Eco Lifestyle
6. City Living
7. Snowy Escape
8. Get Famous
9. Cats and Dogs
10. Discover University
11. Get To Work
Here's my list for those who are curious.
For a long while I've thought of Seasons and Get Together as my top two packs, so I find this interesting but not necessarily wrong, I do love Island Living and Cottage Living. The only thing I would change on this list is putting City Living higher than Eco Lifestyle, but otherwise I think this list is fairly accurate for myself.
So I'm curious to see how other peoples list's compare to how they rank the expansions, are they consistent or do you unknowingly love another pack more?
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Comments
One thing I would say about your method though, by simply adding the columns up you are giving each of those things equal weighting. I, personally, would disagree with that method.
For me the neighborhood and gameplay aspects of expansions are significantly more important than CAS and Build/Buy. I could live with weaker offerings in CAS and Build/Buy if the neighborhood and gameplay added is top notch but I'd be royally 🐸🐸🐸🐸 if the reverse was true (because that would make it more of a Game Pack or Kit...and not worth the premium price).
I'd fill in my rankings here, but I honestly can't remember what CAS and Build/Buy stuff is even from each specific pack. I could easily do the world/gameplay aspects though.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
I did have this thought as well, but for myself all four categories are important with gameplay being slightly more important. I suppose you could start at 22 and go down to 11 to add more emphasis on a category.
As for knowing what BB and CAS come with each pack, this what I did. If you go into the gallery in game and find a build that uses all the EPs you can click on the icon and it will show you all the BB and CAS that come with each pack. I actually went through each item and tallied which items I loved/used a lot and divided that number by how many items came with the pack to determine my ranking for those two categories.
Here's what I would rank for the two categories I actually can off of the top of my head. I'll have to spend some time filtering BB and CAS by pack to refresh my feelings for those. I also gave seasons a boost of 50% on it's Gameplay score, because it has NO world largely because the Gameplay is the primary focus for the EP and having it has an effect on every single World you have access to. I feel it shouldn't get penalized for that.
This puts them ranked in this order (so far) for me...which is pretty close to what my gut would have told me....which probably just reinforces that I don't see CAS/BB as being as important for a EP. Of course, I also use a lot of CC. I'd surely feel different if I did not.
1. Cottage Living
2. Seasons
3. Eco Lifestyle
4. Snow Escape
5. Island Living
6. Discover Uni
7. Get Together
8. City Living
9. Cats and Dogs
10. Get To Work
11. Get Famous
I posted this here without the CAS and BB rankings because, honestly, I'm curious how it will differ once I go through and figure those out.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
I'm pretty sure I'd never be able to gather the data required to put such a chart together for my own preferences. I don't keep up with what items came from what pack, not because I don't know how to find out but because I don't care (as long as I like whatever it is, anyway). I mix things up all the time in ways that please me, and it doesn't matter to me if I'm using them as they were intended or in locations they were meant to be used. As long as things work for my particular purposes, that's all I care about.
I'll happily build a middle-Eastern style home in Willow Creek or Britechester, or a modern-art sort of house in Brindleton Bay or Glimmerbrook, or something else in some other style in some place most people might find it too out of place, maybe even utterly unthinkable to put there. I find it hard to rank CAS items for similar reasons. I find it hard to rank worlds because for me they have different purposes in different saves, and in turn being considered impossible to judge that way makes them strangely equal with each other.
As for gameplay, that's the weakest overall part of Sims 4 for me, but it doesn't bother me because I've never played this game for its gameplay. I make my own gameplay instead, so I can't fairly judge that, either.
Lastly, even if I could rank packs by these criteria, I'd have to include all packs that include at least some of each. Because short of turning off the packs not being judged, I couldn't really not include the things I like from Game packs as well.
Because I can't; I keep all sigs turned off.
1. Eco Lifestyle
2. Cottage Living
3. Island Living
4. Discover University
5. Cats+Dogs
6. Snowy Escape
7. Get together
8. GTW
9. City living
10. Seasons
11. Get Famous
Notes:
- DU really profits from CAS and the side features, bikes and robots, which I enjoy a lot. By its main feature alone this pack wouldn't be anywhere near the top.
- It pains me how much my erstwhile favorite, GT, has dropped, the more painfully the limitations of the club system surfaced and newer EPs stole the spotlight
Now for the corollary, there was a user who did several polls about our most played dlcs last year around this time, and they stated they wanted to do one like this every year. I really hope they do so, because I got crazy enough to actually keep a record of my most used EPs/GPs/SPs every month. (I tend to take lots of screenshots, so it wasn't hard to keep track).
So here is my list of most played EPs (gameplay features only) for comparison:
1. Eco Lifestyle
2. Discover University
3. GTW
4. Snowy Escape
5. City living
6. Cats & Dogs
7. Island Living
8. Cottage Living (added in september only)
9. Get together
10. Get famous
11. Seasons (added in november only)
GTW is that high because my story revolves around a bunch of infighting, backstabby police officers, so with one fifths of my sims being in the detective career, GTW is just very present in my game. It's the bread and butter gameplay so to say, but hardly my favorite gameplay "food".
That's amazing that you can keep track of that, I have no idea which expansions I use more as I play with all of them most of the time in one way or another. And hey, if no one else does the polls this year you could always start them up too. If I had to guess I'd say I used Get Together because of the clubs and Seasons because of the holidays the most this last year.
I ranked these packs based on how much I played them when they were released, if I remember spending time a lot in a world or built many houses with a certain pack for example then that pack gets ranked higher for me.
The list to the left is how I would rank the packs without using your scoring system, the list to the right are the packs ranked after your scoring system.
I think this scoring system showcased pretty well how I might remember having more fun with certain packs and how different it can be when I am comparing the content in these packs with the content in other packs.
Get Together/Cottage Living (ties) - I so love Windenburg & Henford
Island Living/Snowy Escape (ties) - I love the contrast worlds of Summer & Winter Fun
City Living/Discover University (ties) - I love the build modes & objects as well as the penthouses
Get To Work/Get Famous (ties) - I so love the Futuristic Sifi build modes & objects
Seasons - It's so perfect for holidays & the base
Cats & Dogs - It has a beautiful Autumn World, plus the pets are perfect for Familars
1. Get Together
2. Cottage Living
3. City Living
4. Snowy Escape
5. Get Famous
6. Island Living
7. Cats and Dogs
8. Seasons
9. Get to Work
10. Eco Lifestyle
11. Discover University
This is pretty close (not exact) to how I normally rate the packs with the big exception being Seasons that gets hugely penalized for having no world
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
1. snowy escape
2. cottage living
3. City Living
4. Cats and dogs
5. seasons
6. discover university
7. island living
8. get together
9. eco lifestyle
10. Get famous
11. Get to work
First would be Get Together, it came with a large explicable world. The only thing that could have made the world better would be being able to swim, boat (IL) and jet ski (IL) around the island, swimming in the actual fishing pond, and wading in the streams. It came with a new aspiration and traits. It came with new lot types, a cafe lot, a pool lot, and a nightclub lot. It came with a dance floor and synchronized dancing. It came with pool water where you could make pools look like ponds. It has steam vents and bubble vents and a pool/natural pool jumping board. It came with a woohoo closet that kids could play in too. It came with games, a dart board, a foosball game and a 4 player video game ( gave me a way to make an arcade ). It came with an expresso machine where coffee can change your moodlets. I can’t remember if it came with new fish and plants. It came with special lots, like the haunted mansion, the ruins and the bluffs. It came with a system where sims could call your sims invite them to an outdoor lot to party. It came with dancing around a fire, and a portable bar. And, last but not least it comes with a club system that interacts with most other packs. It just has so much in it that increases the fun in playing the game overall. Not to mention, it has both build and CAS. The reason it got a bad rap at first was because people overwhelmingly wanted toddlers back. So I think this one has to be first on my list. It’s still my favorite world.
Second on my list is Get to Work Disappointingly the world is small so it doesn’t get much credit in that department. But the 3 new active jobs with their own work places I hugely enjoyed. I was hoping to see more work places like those in future packs, I feel like active jobs were severely nerfed because many people didn’t think they had enough control over them. I thought they did a great job with the active careers in this pack, and was looking forward to more of them. Retail, Retail, Retail. Admittedly, the retail system could have been better. But, I wanted a way to make a business and sell things, well in my case actually make a business so my sims could buy stuff at a store.. The mechanisms for running a store were pretty good, if they had only made it like Dine Out where you could set up a business without having a sim buy it, it would have been much better though. My daughter has her world filled with businesses. It’s too bad we couldn’t have a home run business. And buying clothes from a mannequin was sorely lacking in clothing retail. The game should have come with buying clothing from the beginning, unlocking pieces after they were bought, a huge major flaw in my book. But that was more the fault of the base game rather than the pack. I would have liked to have been able to buy clothing off of a rack instead of off of mannequin though, that way we would have so much more variety. It would have been nice to add separate pieces to our home clothing inventory. Like add a necklace or ring after creating a jewelry store, shoes after creating a shoe store, etc. we could have made different departments within a store too. Mannequins should have been for looks like in a regular store, and we should have been able to buy off of a rack any piece clothing in CAS one item at a time. Get to Work really needs an update in the way clothing is sold. And they should add a clothing challenge where you have to buy clothing ( whether from the drawer, mirror, online, or from a retail store, by piece). This is one expansion that could benefit greatly from an update as Retail is an important aspect of the game in my opinion. Add some jewelry counters, some shoe racks, some hats on a shelf. Let’ sims buy ( open up in personal inventory ) separate pieces. Give retail shopping for clothes and accessories a reason to be there. Also, please add some fruit and vegetable bins so we can sell any type of fruit, vegetable, herbs, fish, out of bins ( without growing it, fishing it, if making it, the same with honey, cricket flower,, bread, eggs, milk etc. open all those products up to those who own retail stores so they can buy and resell it. That only makes sense. It would be nice to do that with any food made item too. Store owners shouldn’t have to make anything they sell, they should just have to buy it at wholesale and sell at retail. Still Retail was an important item on my list as not all of my sims, farm, create candles, create furniture ( eco lifestyle/wood working table e), etc. and at least many of those things can be downloaded from the gallery. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, it brought us Aliens.
Third for me would probably be City Living A nice city with lots of apartments and festivals. Home gaming machines,karaoke, Bubble machine ( mood builder ), basketball, and a lot of other game play items. It also came with many lot traits another new aspect to the sims game just before it’s release. It had a small amount if grungy stuff. It had a lot of furniture, and a great variety of clothes. It had a cultural aspect and added many food items as well as food stalls ( we shouldn’t have to pay to open stalls though, I hope they will remedy that, even if they limit the number that could be on a lot ). Overall it had lots of game play. And lot of places to place sims. It came with the Karaoke bar lot too.
Next I think for me would be Island living. Ocean Swimming, sun tanning, lounging, new lot trails, aspirations, and sim traits, beach combing, shell collecting, more bathing suits, I loved the nice relaxing word and building materials, came with a small boat and jet skiing. New plants and fish, festivals a new active career, other careers and part time careers, and being able to make money with side jobs. It came with cute island furniture and a lot of other build buy items. It is such a beautiful world.
Next are Cottage living and Cats and Dogs. The major feature with each is Animals. Both have nice worlds too.
Get Famous is next. It came with an Active Acting Career and a Fame system and I believe they brought Reputation with it. The lack of more active careers was disappointing as well as how small the world was.
Next would be Snowy Escape. it brought winter activities, but not ones that could transfer over to other worlds. Many of the lots were small, it had some festivals, but not that appealing to me. I liked the winter clothes.
Next is Seasons, but no world, that disappointed me. Also…. It rains too much in most places for me, and there need to be a way to tell what the weather will be in each world before you travel. I do love the calendar and Holiday aspects.. .. that actually might put it on par with Get Fsmous, and Snowy escape to be honest.
Then is Eco Living I like the community lot type and the hobbies. I like the type of world and that you can pollute it or make it green. I don’t care for many of the NAP’s. The CAS and Build buy was limited I thought. The world was too small.
Discover University had too few and too small of lots. It’s dissapointing you can’t rotate away to other households easily. College is just not fun in this game. The Robotics is nice, and the bikes were a nice addition, but toddlers should have had trikes, and children should have had bikes. Just disappointing in many ways. But it did add some activities.
But I think it mostly comes down to this:
1. Seasons
2. Island Living
3. Eco Lifestyle
4. Cottage Living
5. Discover University
6. Get Together
7. Cats & Dogs
8. City Living
9. Snowy Escape
10. Get to Work
11. Get Famous
I know that a lot of people don't put Island Living that high up, but it just makes me happy.
Also posting on my blog.
I feel like for me personally top 3 are correct and the rest aren't and it didn't really work for a few reasons, a. Seasons doesn't have a world so it scores a definite zero on the first category which then puts it way behind all the others, and b. I value gameplay and worlds a lot more than clothes, so some of the packs scored high on clothes and low on gameplay which totally skewed the results. For example the lowest scoring on gameplay was Snowy Escape, but it's top 4 because CAS and build buy were both 9/10, and the highest scoring for gameplay are the bottom 4 because their CAS and build buy.. kind of sucks
Fair points. I did consider giving seasons higher points for changing all the worlds, but it still ended up fairly high on my list so I didn't think it was necessary for myself so I just gave it more points for game play.
I noticed that you ranked packs not in order from 11 to 1 but more of random numbers. I did that at first and found the results weren't as accurate as when I chose to place them in a descending order from favorite to least favorite.
Without using that chart my rankings are:
1. Island Living
2. Snowy Escape
3. Seasons
4. Cottage Living
5. Get Together
6. Discover University
7. Get To Work
8. City Living
9. Cats & Dogs
10. Get Famous
11. Eco Lifestyle
Using that chart my rankings are:
1. Island Living
2. Cottage Living
3. Get Together
4. Snowy Escape
5. Seasons
6. Cats & Dogs and Discover University (tied)
7. Get Famous
8. Get To Work
9. City Living
10. Eco Lifestyle
Here is my chart:
Since Seasons does not come with a world I wrote N/A and gave it an average score of 6 so as not to penalize the pack for that. When ranking CAS for Island Living and Get To Work I looked only at the clothes and hair for human Sims so as to make it more fair to the other packs that do not include items for the occults included in these packs.
I am not surprised that Island Living came out top since there is so much that I like about that pack and I was expecting Eco Lifestyle to still come last since nothing in that pack appeals to me at all, but it is interesting to see where packs can move in the rankings based on using different ranking methods.
https://youtube.com/channel/UCaj9o4hycNSPy8U1Ip0OCFA/videos
Just noticed that, I ranked out of 10 rather than best to worst
Without the chart:
1. Eco Lifestyle
2. Island Living
3. Get To Work
4. Get Famous
5. City Living
6. Seasons
7. Snowy Escape
8. Cottage Living
9. Get Together
10. Cats & Dogs
11. Discover Uni
With the chart:
1. Island Living
2. Cottage Living
3. City Living
4. Eco Lifestyle
5. Snowy Escape
6. Get Together
7. Get To Work
8. Get Famous
9. Seasons
10 & 11. And the last two were ties, Cats & Dogs and Discover University
I did not give Seasons a world rating so that's probably why it's so low on the list, but otherwise, after thinking about it, the chart is pretty much right on. Amazing!