What I really like better about the Windows and Mac games specifically The Sims 4 is they don't have a time limit that blocks unlocks compared to The Sims FreePlay. The biggest gripe with The Sims FreePlay is that the game loves to have permanently missable items which can be a problem to completionists.
The Social Events and Professions (since they reuse the HUD from Social Events) in The Sims 4 Get to Work are the only thing in TS4 that has a time limit, the Prestige Social Events being the only one with unlockables that has a time limit but you have unlimited tries. In a Prestige Social Event, you have to complete the goals in the social to score a Bronze, Sliver, or a Gold Medal before time runs out and this is required to complete some Aspirations' goals. Otherwise, you can take your time unlocking things whatever it's a Career/Social Event unlock, Aspiration, and even a Skill.
Even The Sims 4 isn't immune to the permanently missable items. As of version 1.17, you are no longer allowed to obtain the Growfruit, the 2 Pots, and the 12 Eggs. 1.16 featured Jasmine Holiday who could give you the Growfruit but that NPC was removed on 1.17 so obtaining the Growfruit isn't possible. In addition, the removal of the NPC also made it impossible to obtain and unlock the two Challenge pots which required giving Growfruit to Jasmine. What even worse is the two pots are locked items (although they don't have anything special; they're the same as a normal pot) which only unlock for the save file and Household. The Gallery is the only way to get those items without using mods or cheats. I think the other missable item in TS4 is the TS3 promotion items which required owning TS3 and all 11 EPs although it's still said they are obtainable.
Looks like history is going to repeat itself with the SimTown Heath Spa Event, Romance Island made Simmers upset on Facebook and Answer HQ that they weren't allowed to continue gathering resources to build the final buildings. Like the previous event, you can't even use LP to skip tasks, only SP (Social Points) and you're also charged SP to get requirements, and the cherry on top is you're charged SP to purchase the final Moonstone and Jade Deposits. However, the XP rewards were placed with Coins but good luck trying to get a lot of coins. Now the event has ended so you can't gather resources anymore. That means I can't get the Massage Table and Sea Resort Template without paying 365 SPs.
However, the Events might re-appear again possibly allowing a second chance. The Styles of Time appeared again allowing me a second chance to complete the event. I wish The Sims FreePlay would try to fix/avoid the permanently missable item issue, TS4 tried to prevent it. Most things (except the Eggs, Growfruit, Pots, and Bun Bun or through glitches) in TS4 aren't missable and you can take your time unlocking the item. I understand TS4 is a paid game and FreePlay isn't but you can see what I'm talking about.
@WinMacSims3 It isn't really fair to compare a free game like this with expensive paid games like Sim 2, Sim 3 and Sim 4. The difference isn't between iOS/Android games and Windows/Mac games either because you can get both free and paid games for all those platforms. EA has chosen only to make the Sims Freeplay available on mobile devices (probably because EA doesn't want it to compete with the Sims 4) - but other similar free games are also available for Windows. An example is the game The Tribez which can be downloaded for free to all platforms (except Mac). See http://www.game-insight.com/en/games/the-tribez The Tribez is quite similar to the Sims Freeplay even though it is actually bigger. (Generally I prefer the gameplay in the Sims Freeplay. But I also like The Tribez because it is bigger - even too big for my taste
Without the time limits in some of the quests I think that the Sims Freeplay would become boring when you reach the top level (which is lvl 55) where you still only can have 34 sims unless you also pay for VIP10 which is way too expensive for me because it still only would add very little to the game. There is generally too little to play for when you can't advance in level anymore. So the time limited quests are in my opinion quite necessary to keep this game alive.
Looks like history repeats itself again with the Simtown Market. Just like Romance Island and SimTown Heath Spa, you can only use SP rather than LP and it doesn't help that it uses professions which like TheGirlWhoGames said, are time consuming. The Halloween Update ups the ante by giving you two Events rather than 1 although at least the other quest allows LPs to be used.
If you think Romance Island and SimTown Heath Spa were bad (in terms of Resource gathering), this one probably is gonna get worse. I'm unsure if the resource gathering is better or worse than the last two events but the fact that you can only use SP (you can still use LP to complete the Profession tasks to gather Resources) and require a Profession could make it jarring to some.
I just downloaded it to try it out and I'm already annoyed with the real time aspect.
You just need more realtime games such that you can switch between them
Freeplay is a little boring in the beginning until your population gets bigger. But with the max population of 34 sims one needs to enter the game all the time and such a game would be really expensive if it wasn't in real time. Actually so expensive that people just wouldn't buy it. So it would have been a much smaller game and without all those big updates. But then it wouldn't have been worth playing.
I just downloaded it to try it out and I'm already annoyed with the real time aspect.
You just need more realtime games such that you can switch between them
Freeplay is a little boring in the beginning until your population gets bigger. But with the max population of 34 sims one needs to enter the game all the time and such a game would be really expensive if it wasn't in real time. Actually so expensive that people just wouldn't buy it. So it would have been a much smaller game and without all those big updates. But then it wouldn't have been worth playing.
It's late at night, but I guess I can see what you're saying. I guess I am timid too because I don't really have a Facebook or anything else I can link it to to even have friends, I mean do I really need friends to advance in the game?
I just downloaded it to try it out and I'm already annoyed with the real time aspect.
You just need more realtime games such that you can switch between them
Freeplay is a little boring in the beginning until your population gets bigger. But with the max population of 34 sims one needs to enter the game all the time and such a game would be really expensive if it wasn't in real time. Actually so expensive that people just wouldn't buy it. So it would have been a much smaller game and without all those big updates. But then it wouldn't have been worth playing.
It's late at night, but I guess I can see what you're saying. I guess I am timid too because I don't really have a Facebook or anything else I can link it to to even have friends, I mean do I really need friends to advance in the game?
No you don't. But there will be some quests that you will have to ignore while you are playing.
Personally I don't like to use Facebook for my gaming either and in general I don't really like Facebook either because it wants to use my "friends" there for commercial purposes and it also wants to send me notifications about collegues to my family and my family's other acquaintances which usually are people that I don't even know. I also don't want Facebook to send notifications to my collegues and to my family's colleagues about my gaming.
So I prefer to use the Game Center instead to get friends for my games. But alas this doesn't really work anymore in iOS 10. If you are on android or Windows Phone then you can get friends for your games via Google+ or Xbox though.
I just downloaded it to try it out and I'm already annoyed with the real time aspect.
You just need more realtime games such that you can switch between them
Freeplay is a little boring in the beginning until your population gets bigger. But with the max population of 34 sims one needs to enter the game all the time and such a game would be really expensive if it wasn't in real time. Actually so expensive that people just wouldn't buy it. So it would have been a much smaller game and without all those big updates. But then it wouldn't have been worth playing.
It's late at night, but I guess I can see what you're saying. I guess I am timid too because I don't really have a Facebook or anything else I can link it to to even have friends, I mean do I really need friends to advance in the game?
No you don't. But there will be some quests that you will have to ignore while you are playing.
Personally I don't like to use Facebook for my gaming either and in general I don't really like Facebook either because it wants to use my "friends" there for commercial purposes and it also wants to send me notifications about collegues to my family and my family's other acquaintances which usually are people that I don't even know. I also don't want Facebook to send notifications to my collegues and to my family's colleagues about my gaming.
So I prefer to use the Game Center instead to get friends for my games. But alas this doesn't really work anymore in iOS 10. If you are on android or Windows Phone then you can get friends for your games via Google+ or Xbox though.
I had to make a Fb because I couldn't get my game center to work, I'm not really a fan of Fb either.
I don't think the Quests are bad as I thought, it seems the Building requirement problem has been fixed as building times for Quest buildings are adjusted so it's possible to complete the Quest in time and I have no problem completing Quests in time. However, I do find the timed Hobbies and Events to be annoying as you have to use up a couple or several days to fully level your Sim to earn the collectibles and hope the game's RNG gives you the missing collectibles as you tend to keep getting the same collectible over and over again. Not helped is that timed Hobbies limit the number of Sims (Makeup Artist and Finger Painting only allow one Sim during the Event) and their actions tend to take a couple hours to earn a collectible. It's pretty much mandatory to use LP if you want to have a chance of earning the prize which you better hope you do since the prize is permanently missable if the Hobby's prize is not earned.
At least Discovery Quests allow you to postpone them since you have to tap the icon and say Yes or build the building that starts the Quest, and the timer will start when you select Yes or finish building the building. Likewise, Makeup Artist and Fashion Hunter in the Sunset Mall also allow this since the timer for these Hobbies only starts when built. It's unfortunate that regular Quests, Hobbies, and Events don't have this feature.
I am very new at this game. Very interesting as a concept. It looks like it keeps players busy. I could see why people complain about it being limited.
I used to play but the time limits were so insane I decided to quit playing. It's a fun casual game to play when you lie in bed or something but you litterly have to play all day to complete things in time. I know it's how they make money, but dang gives us a little space to actually enjoy the game instead of rushing all these quests.
I used to play but the time limits were so insane I decided to quit playing. It's a fun casual game to play when you lie in bed or something but you litterly have to play all day to complete things in time. I know it's how they make money, but dang gives us a little space to actually enjoy the game instead of rushing all these quests.
Totally agree. I've been taking my iPad with me to work in order to work on the most recent quest.
I am very new at this game. Very interesting as a concept. It looks like it keeps players busy. I could see why people complain about it being limited.
The problem with Time Limits is that items are permanently missable if time runs out and nearly everything has a time limit when means many many items in FreePlay are missable. Events may avert this by having it run again but you have no control when it'll appear again. Romance Island will appear again giving older players a second chance to complete the island but unfortunately new players will only have one chance for now. .
If you have played other Sims games (yes, I'm talking to you The Sims 3) then you probably have been a victim of permanently missable items.
I used to play but the time limits were so insane I decided to quit playing. It's a fun casual game to play when you lie in bed or something but you litterly have to play all day to complete things in time. I know it's how they make money, but dang gives us a little space to actually enjoy the game instead of rushing all these quests.
Totally agree. I've been taking my iPad with me to work in order to work on the most recent quest.
I agree. The Sims FreePlay has been sending Event after Event after Event, not giving you a break from the time limits.
It's not only the time limits I dislike but also the requirement of using Social Pointsinstead of Lifestyle Points which became worse when Doctor, Doctor changed the Social Point Flower to use 20 LPs instead of 5. When Romance Island came out, the SP requirement was easily countered by farming LP with Hobbies (primarily Cooking) and using said LP on Social Point Flowers (Cooking gave you 5 LPs per complete Collection which covered the price of the spins). However, this will be made harder since SP Flowers require 20 LPs and most spins don't tend to give you many SPs anyway. This doesn't help the only other way to earn Social Points (besides spending real money, using 10 Keys, or Pets) is doing Social Tasks which requires Neighbors.
Events are also problematic for people who have reached the Life Dreams Quest since your Sims will like age due to the Sims doing actions all day throughout the Event. If you have Adults, except most of your Sims age to Seniors.
If I only had time to play a little in the evening then I would probably just ignore the timed events. But the prices in those events aren't that important anyway - and they sure are way too expensive to just buy for real money.
@WinMacSims3 I haven't played the Sims 3 game on tablet. But mostly I play pc games. Yes I have experience with Sims 2 UC, Sims3 and Sims 4. I brought the tablet in first place to be with me when I have to run my Parent's store when they are gone.
Comments
The Social Events and Professions (since they reuse the HUD from Social Events) in The Sims 4 Get to Work are the only thing in TS4 that has a time limit, the Prestige Social Events being the only one with unlockables that has a time limit but you have unlimited tries. In a Prestige Social Event, you have to complete the goals in the social to score a Bronze, Sliver, or a Gold Medal before time runs out and this is required to complete some Aspirations' goals. Otherwise, you can take your time unlocking things whatever it's a Career/Social Event unlock, Aspiration, and even a Skill.
Even The Sims 4 isn't immune to the permanently missable items. As of version 1.17, you are no longer allowed to obtain the Growfruit, the 2 Pots, and the 12 Eggs. 1.16 featured Jasmine Holiday who could give you the Growfruit but that NPC was removed on 1.17 so obtaining the Growfruit isn't possible. In addition, the removal of the NPC also made it impossible to obtain and unlock the two Challenge pots which required giving Growfruit to Jasmine. What even worse is the two pots are locked items (although they don't have anything special; they're the same as a normal pot) which only unlock for the save file and Household. The Gallery is the only way to get those items without using mods or cheats. I think the other missable item in TS4 is the TS3 promotion items which required owning TS3 and all 11 EPs although it's still said they are obtainable.
Looks like history is going to repeat itself with the SimTown Heath Spa Event, Romance Island made Simmers upset on Facebook and Answer HQ that they weren't allowed to continue gathering resources to build the final buildings. Like the previous event, you can't even use LP to skip tasks, only SP (Social Points) and you're also charged SP to get requirements, and the cherry on top is you're charged SP to purchase the final Moonstone and Jade Deposits. However, the XP rewards were placed with Coins but good luck trying to get a lot of coins. Now the event has ended so you can't gather resources anymore. That means I can't get the Massage Table and Sea Resort Template without paying 365 SPs.
However, the Events might re-appear again possibly allowing a second chance. The Styles of Time appeared again allowing me a second chance to complete the event. I wish The Sims FreePlay would try to fix/avoid the permanently missable item issue, TS4 tried to prevent it. Most things (except the Eggs, Growfruit, Pots, and Bun Bun or through glitches) in TS4 aren't missable and you can take your time unlocking the item. I understand TS4 is a paid game and FreePlay isn't but you can see what I'm talking about.
Without the time limits in some of the quests I think that the Sims Freeplay would become boring when you reach the top level (which is lvl 55) where you still only can have 34 sims unless you also pay for VIP10 which is way too expensive for me because it still only would add very little to the game. There is generally too little to play for when you can't advance in level anymore. So the time limited quests are in my opinion quite necessary to keep this game alive.
If you think Romance Island and SimTown Heath Spa were bad (in terms of Resource gathering), this one probably is gonna get worse. I'm unsure if the resource gathering is better or worse than the last two events but the fact that you can only use SP (you can still use LP to complete the Profession tasks to gather Resources) and require a Profession could make it jarring to some.
WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?
Freeplay is a little boring in the beginning until your population gets bigger. But with the max population of 34 sims one needs to enter the game all the time and such a game would be really expensive if it wasn't in real time. Actually so expensive that people just wouldn't buy it. So it would have been a much smaller game and without all those big updates. But then it wouldn't have been worth playing.
It's late at night, but I guess I can see what you're saying.
Personally I don't like to use Facebook for my gaming either and in general I don't really like Facebook either because it wants to use my "friends" there for commercial purposes and it also wants to send me notifications about collegues to my family and my family's other acquaintances which usually are people that I don't even know. I also don't want Facebook to send notifications to my collegues and to my family's colleagues about my gaming.
So I prefer to use the Game Center instead to get friends for my games. But alas this doesn't really work anymore in iOS 10. If you are on android or Windows Phone then you can get friends for your games via Google+ or Xbox though.
I had to make a Fb because I couldn't get my game center to work, I'm not really a fan of Fb either.
At least Discovery Quests allow you to postpone them since you have to tap the icon and say Yes or build the building that starts the Quest, and the timer will start when you select Yes or finish building the building. Likewise, Makeup Artist and Fashion Hunter in the Sunset Mall also allow this since the timer for these Hobbies only starts when built. It's unfortunate that regular Quests, Hobbies, and Events don't have this feature.
Totally agree. I've been taking my iPad with me to work in order to work on the most recent quest.
The problem with Time Limits is that items are permanently missable if time runs out and nearly everything has a time limit when means many many items in FreePlay are missable. Events may avert this by having it run again but you have no control when it'll appear again. Romance Island will appear again giving older players a second chance to complete the island but unfortunately new players will only have one chance for now. .
If you have played other Sims games (yes, I'm talking to you The Sims 3) then you probably have been a victim of permanently missable items.
I agree. The Sims FreePlay has been sending Event after Event after Event, not giving you a break from the time limits.
It's not only the time limits I dislike but also the requirement of using Social Points instead of Lifestyle Points which became worse when Doctor, Doctor changed the Social Point Flower to use 20 LPs instead of 5. When Romance Island came out, the SP requirement was easily countered by farming LP with Hobbies (primarily Cooking) and using said LP on Social Point Flowers (Cooking gave you 5 LPs per complete Collection which covered the price of the spins). However, this will be made harder since SP Flowers require 20 LPs and most spins don't tend to give you many SPs anyway. This doesn't help the only other way to earn Social Points (besides spending real money, using 10 Keys, or Pets) is doing Social Tasks which requires Neighbors.
Events are also problematic for people who have reached the Life Dreams Quest since your Sims will like age due to the Sims doing actions all day throughout the Event. If you have Adults, except most of your Sims age to Seniors.