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What other venues could potentially fit the "Stuff Pack" model?
jackjack_k
Posts: 8,601 Member
As we all know, Bowling Alleys basically create a new kind of destination, while being in the scope of a Stuff Pack.
Considering The Sims 3's Store Venues often came with one or two game-play objects, with around 15 items or so for around $20, the fact that Stuff Packs that can come with 1 - 3 gameplay items, and around 60 items, for half the price is a good deal imo.
Thinking about the scope, what venues would you like to see?
1. For me, a Laundry Stuff pack, could add Washers, Dryers and maybe Clothes Line, and we could have Laundromats as well.
2. Potentially an Arcade with different Arcade machines, potentially with the same animations, but different games and textures for the machines, and some awesome decor.
Can you guys think of anything? 1 - 3 gameplay items that could define a new venue.
Considering The Sims 3's Store Venues often came with one or two game-play objects, with around 15 items or so for around $20, the fact that Stuff Packs that can come with 1 - 3 gameplay items, and around 60 items, for half the price is a good deal imo.
Thinking about the scope, what venues would you like to see?
1. For me, a Laundry Stuff pack, could add Washers, Dryers and maybe Clothes Line, and we could have Laundromats as well.
2. Potentially an Arcade with different Arcade machines, potentially with the same animations, but different games and textures for the machines, and some awesome decor.
Can you guys think of anything? 1 - 3 gameplay items that could define a new venue.
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While not necessarily 'venues' (although they could be, depending on the packs you have), I wouldn't mind seeing other packs based on ages, similar to that of the Kids' Room SP. Teens and elders in particular could use some things to sprucen up their lives with. I already made an outdoor stage for kids to play their puppetshows on for the neighborhood, as well as a store with a boys and girls room set up for Sims to go in-game to buy stuff at. It would be easy to make a place for teens or an elderly retirement home with the appropriate packs.
I would also like to see the return of casinos. I really loved building them and playing with them in TS3.
I'd love a farming/gardening themed pack with a Farmer's Market and new plants types and recipes to go along with it.
A play place for kids/toddlers. Jungle gyms, slides, treehouses, and sand boxes please!
Concert/live show venues would make me beyond happy, so long as the ability to form a band goes along with it. A more fleshed out music career and an actor/agent career would be great with this as well. More careers, active and passive, in general would be great.
Last isn't a venue exactly, but I really want more vacation destinations. Give me a beach and a ski resort, and I can work with that.
Both weights and poles could have some entertaining gameplay depending on the Sims' Fitness skill, too. Sims could fall off the pole if they're low-level, or drop the weights on their feet, and there could be more weights (and more pole tricks) the higher the skill, leading our Sims to eventually master all sorts of gravity-defying, circus-like acrobatics on the pole, or go all-out Olympic weightlifter.
"Band Stuff" is another pack I'd like to see, with bars and nightclubs being repurposed as concert venues for local bands. Throw in a drum kit as the new gameplay object, a bass guitar as a reskinned guitar, and "Play in Band" as a new Club activity that lets the various objects (and microphone, if you have City Living) play in sync with one another, and I think we've got ourselves a decent Stuff Pack.
Also, I'd love if a few other things were reconfigured this way: the attended bar objects, the barista bar, and the food stands. Then I could have a guaranteed attended and somewhat used food stand in, say, a Retail lot (I'd love a food stand in my retail plaza) or outside a café or in a park, or there could be a functioning café in the Library or Museum.
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Casinos
Skating rinks.
There are many things I would love to see, but I think most of what I have would be more suited for a GP than a SP ... but still, lets see.
1. Laundry stuff. While not necessarily a new venue ( though I do have laundry places ) isn't necessarily a venue I would ever need/use. But I would love laundry for my sims household. So laundry, iron boards, soaps, piles of clothes, cabinets ....
2. Cycle stuff. I would love for my sim kids/teens/adults to have bicycles, and be able to ride them around their little hoods. Maybe scooters, big wheels for toddlers, skateboards for child/teen/adults. Bikes, bike racks, helmets, pads.
3. Pool stuff. Billiards and pool halls. Pool tables, cue racks, chalk, racks, lighting.
4. Pool stuff. Floats, water noodles, water balloon fights, pool slide, water wings for toddlers. Wading pools.
5. Gym stuff - I do like the idea posted above about new gym stuff and being able to use free weights and dumb/barbells.
6. Goth stuff. Goth make-up, clothes, pictures, posters, shoes ...
You could have a bunch of furniture from the actual IKEA range. Just like actually going to IKEA, but without the cinnamon rolls and meatballs.
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Teen Stuff. Though I think this would fit better as a game pack that adds proms, first dates, bedroom items specific to teens like teen idol rock posters and such, maybe some clothing specific to the age group
Elder Stuff. Bridge game, Conasta, Rocking chairs for the front porch, "Show family photos" interaction where the grannies and grampas can share their grand baby pictures with their friends, knitting, building soap box derby cars with the grand kids would be awesome.
Lawn and Garden Stuff. Sims can now mow the yard, weed the flower beds, sweep the walks, install sprinkler systems, mulch the garden, rake leaves (maybe that'd require seasons though)
(Swings, see-saws, slides, more playsets like the pirate ship but smaller, pretty park decorations, pretty trees, bushes and flowers, functional picnic baskets, some games that can be played outdoors like catch and soccer etc.)
2) Romantic Wedding stuff
(Celebration venue [can throw any celebration party here, especially weddings] , lots of beautiful romantic wedding stuff in 3 or 4 themes, including dresses and suits, veils, hairstyles, themed wedding cakes, the cutting of cake [newly weds], etc., as well as some honeymoon stuff and outfits like a romantic bedroom set and sleepwear. Some new flowers and trees are always welcome. Would be cute if you can choose 3 courses that will be served during the party at the celebration venue.)
Pirates!! http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/906481/pirate-gp-smuggling-dueling-live-on-ship-or-build-own-and-more#latest
Vollyball (2v2) This one wouldn't come with a venure per-se but it could feature both land and water types.
Go Carts : If we can't have cars at least our Sims could race go carts
I love the cinnamon rolls though
Gardening fields could be harvested with a tractor.
Cows for milk, sheep for wool, goats for milk and chickens for eggs.
A special barn for making more expensive items from your collected vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs and wool. ex: butter, mayo, jam, ketchup, pickles, sauces, juice, yarn, dyed yarn....
Children could run a "Fresh Harvest Stand" to sell family harvested/created items.
Laundry indeed seems like a good choice for once because Laundry is something some people might want while others do not. Some view it as tedious, others view it as immersive. The stuff pack model provides people with the cheapest and easiest way to either opt to have it or opt to skip it, whereas packing it with an expansion would either annoy people or put a higher pricetag on a rather humble feature. This is a case where the option to pay $10 or not actually DOES come in handy.
Arcade stuff I think would be fine too. If we just got several arcade machines that provide the look and aesthetic of an arcade by letting us have pinball machines, crane games, hockey tables and standard box-shaped arcade machines, then the attraction is more about the immersion those elements provide to a lot rather than the arcade machines doing anything special, so that'd be fine in my mind. None of them have unique gameplay functions, all of them only fill the fun meter, but the lot itself would have a unique aesthetic.
The basketball hoop from City Living, I could see being a fair stuff pack theme; if they did a stuff pack that added sports stuff like a football (American), a soccer goal and a hacky sack, then again there's nothing groundbreaking or game changing about these objects, they just provide a new way to fill the fun meter.
Overall, I think the focus should be on immersion. I'm someone who likes gameplay, thus I am not the stuff pack's target audience. When the stuff packs actually do have gameplay (something truly game-changing and unique), it actually annoys me because now they want $10 for what's essentially one item of use to me. However, a pattern I see is that people who buy the stuff packs seem to want activities for their sims to do, as if they want to provide their sims with unique hobbies. It's not so much that the hobby itself needs to be revolutionary and unique gameplay-wise, it just needs to make the simulation of that sim seem more thorough. Yknow, sports stuff pack for your active sim, arcade stuff pack for your geek, etc etc. Exploring various hobbies that various types of people have (without making the hobbies so gameplay intensive that the gamepack and expansion pack customers are upset they didn't get it in their pack) is the key.
Usually I'm against the simulation and immersion stuff, but it seems the stuff pack customers truly want that kind of stuff, and if that's the case, they should definitely focus on finding more activities that seem akin to hobbies and places to hang out. An arcade, a sports stuff pack, maybe a hair salon with a chair that generates a stylist NPC that can either be used as the standard "change look" option or provide your sim with a random makeover, a grocery store...? Dunno, but yeah I think people just want stuff packs to make the game feel more immersive.
Having said all that, gotta add in I'd be happy to see Stuff pack production slow down while GP and EP production increases, but that's just me.
What was the cost of the avearge Premium store package in TS3?
I thought I saw someone say $20 which puts it in line with the Game Pack Pricing.
Would you say they held Vampires hostage by moving them from the EP package to the lower priced GP package?
-Toddler and kids stuff pack where there would be more clothes options and hair styles for toddlers, and maybe a stroller for babies and toddlers, so they can get a nap in outside of there house. They could have a Toy tea set, and little table and chairs, and maybe dolls that are like american girl dolls where they could play dress up with and have a bigger doll house, A dress up station or little wardrobe, or little vanity. And fairy gardens to play in, and eventually when cars come, electric one and 2 seater cars and peddle cars, tree houses and play houses that you can actually build, and gain skills from, and I had some more ideas but it might fit better for a game pack lol,
-Whenever They get Pets, I really want different pets stuff or game packs so you can have whatever kind of world you want. Like a Zoo pack where you can own your own zoo, have exotic animals, and petting zoos, Face painting stations, Ice cream stations, Giant aquariums that can have otters and polar bears, and sharks and jelly fish, and ect, where you could even scuba dive in, and a create a butterfly building option and bird Aviaries, and ect.
*A Circus pack/carnival/fair where you can ride elephants and have camel rides, have a reason for clowns, where they can have performance comedy skills gained, aerial silks and hoops, tight robe walker, and different circus animals that can learn tons of skills and tricks, and a ring master, and face painting stations also, Clowns that can do animal balloons, and a souvenir circus stands with popcorn and cotton candy, and circus animal stuff animals, and glow sticks. Plus it could combine in City Living so every time they go to the circus they actually go:))
*A Forest Creature animal pack, it would be perfect to be paired with Fairies or Elfs, or a mystical animal pack with unicorns and dragons, they could add deer, and rabbits, and foxs, and owl pets, If mystical then they could have centaurs, and mermaids, and ogres, and trolls, and gnomes coming to life.
*Farm Life pack so you can have horses, cows, pigs, goats, lamas, alpacas, rabbits, and chickens, and ect.
-Cars, and getting to places pack, they could include bikes, scooters, skate boards, roller skates, strollers, Ice cream/Food trucks that your sims can chase-plus it would add a ice cream person career, and business. Different variety of cars, electric and peddle cars for kids and toddlers, like a one and two seater options, Horse drawn wagons, and 🐸🐸🐸🐸 wagons that you could live in, Oh and Campers, And motor homes, and trailers you can live in so you can travel and live every where and decorate the inside and outside, They can add a create a trailer camper feature. They also can add trailer parks, and they could easily be added for outdoor retreat:))
- Fashion Designer and Jewelry designer, Shoe Designer and Model Career. I would love where my sims could create different fabrics, and sew their own creations, where you could actually design the clothes and accessories,shoes your self. Maybe in your sims wardrobe they can add a spot for your sims to have clothing accessories. . I would also love if the Sims 4 Gurus could add the option for purses and backpacks, and coats, and sweaters so you wouldn't want to go to the mods, and to be able to design them yourself. For the jewelry designer they could go collect crystals, or buy crystals, and stones. And chisel them into different jewelry. They can design engagement rings, Anniversary jewelry, and I am sorry jewelry, best friend necklaces and bracelets. Or club jewelry, and High school, colleges graduation rings. They can add a bunch of new tools, Like sewing needles, fabric machine, knitting, embroidery machines, and a sewing box, and even different patterns, and pin cushions, shoe making tools,measuring tapes, and mannequin form with the option of designing right on it, You could gain all kinds of skills and more game play. When you create new clothes, and jewelry instead of it being done instantly, after you design it, it could take a long time to make it. Depending on what kind of item you are making.
-Door to door, social media salesmen or saleswomen career. You could sell makeup, tupperware, essential oils, lose weight wraps, and diet pills, and vitamins, storage 31 bags. They could go door to door, or sell online, Or have a party to sell to everyone. Just like real life. Like instead of avoiding them on facebook. Your sim could try to avoid them to, it would be great:)) lol. They could try to climb to the top of the sale men pyramid. Make extra money on the side, even have their sims friends join them and sell under them. Get a discount
-Funeral, Wedding, bachelorette, and bachelor parties, holiday parties, Children themed parties and get together, play dates, More dating options, and better birthdays stuff pack, They can add magicians, and puppeteer performers, and children's theater, and theater all together lol, Face painters/ I mentions a few times up there ^, Clowns with animals balloons for little kids birthday parties, and maybe miniature pony rides.
-Grocery stores, and other career stuff packs:))
Why do people keep referring to the Premium store?
Let me make this simple. Let's say I accuse the baker of murdering people and cooking them in meat pies. Once I make this accusation, you say "well do you think the barber murders men while giving them a shave?" Even if you're right, your claim does not disprove mine. BOTH claims could be correct, they're not mutually exclusive. I think the TS3 store was crap, I think Sims 4 stuff packs are crap. This is not a competition to be least bad, because all I care about is that both were bad. I didn't even mention Sims 3, and you blindly turn this into a TS3 vs. TS4 thing.
As for your second snippet, no, because I think the Vampires and the GP model are appropriately priced. It's like offering the customer a chance to buy the supernatural life stages of Sims 3 WITHOUT paying for Moonlight Falls, Alchemy, the new venues, the Fortune Teller career, etc etc, but the price is cut in half to match the missing content. The trade seems fair.
Took the liberty of doing a little editing for ya...
Along the lines of the farming/gardening theme, how about an orchard venue? Sims could go pick fruit from trees as a family and there could be a petting zoo (if we get pets), a hayride, baking contests, a flower show, pumpkin carving, or maybe even a corn maze. There could be ice cream or baked goods stalls with new food items. There could even be a new woo-hoo spot inside a hay bale. Lol.
I like the Casino idea. That definitely seems like the sort of thing you could add to a bar and have the Sims there act differently, without being an outright new venue.
I support such a model for specific scenarios such as Vampires and laundry since those are controversial and not everyone enjoys those.
However, Bowling is not such a hot-button topic. Everyone is fine with bowling. What's more, I'd love to know who these mysterious customers are that apparently readily buy every stuff pack but do not have the desire or the funds to buy expansions. Expansions are supposed to be the main attractions that people eagerly await and pay up for, so taking content AWAY from an expansion to move it to a Stuff pack does not seem to be in the customer's interest, but rather in EA's.