Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
Dogs Shortchanged?
cbartsch69
Posts: 169 Member
Have any other players noticed or felt like the game is heavy on cat content but very light on dog content? Maybe EA employs mostly cat people, but the difference seems crazy! I know it's early, so maybe I'll discover more as we go along, but several things seem glaring. There are specific cat toys (like the dangler), four litter boxes, four cat condos, etc. (Not to mention we have a cat island, a cat pub, a cat lady, etc., etc., but other pet areas are dog and cat areas).
BUT there are no specific dog toys (as it seems the balls are cat or dog) like bones or other chew toys. There are also no dog-only beds (it seems, because the two pet beds seem to work for cat or dog), and the big one NO DOG HOUSES!!!
I mean, I know they probably put a lot of their effort into the dog obstacle course, but those items seem so limited. I mean, unless you're raising show dogs, who spends all their dog time training them on obstacle courses? How hard would it have been to have a few more dog specific items to play with. (And from what I saw in another post, puppy options got shortchanged too, while cats got a LOT.
(And this is coming from someone who's not a current pet owner, but when I have owned pets they've been CATS. I've never owned a dog, so perhaps I looked on this as my chance and there's just not as much to do with dogs in this game).
I could go on, (and probably will as I keep playing, but it seems like dogs lost out in this pack.
Luckily it's easily fixable! There's enough great about this expansion pack to keep me enjoying it for now, but I do hope that our next patch includes a few dog-only toys (especially chew toys--ones you can play tug-of-war with as that's a BIG dog behavior I want to play), better puppy interactions (if that's indeed needed, I've only read about this being an issue, haven't discovered it for myself yet) and of course outdoor Dog Houses!!!!!
BUT there are no specific dog toys (as it seems the balls are cat or dog) like bones or other chew toys. There are also no dog-only beds (it seems, because the two pet beds seem to work for cat or dog), and the big one NO DOG HOUSES!!!
I mean, I know they probably put a lot of their effort into the dog obstacle course, but those items seem so limited. I mean, unless you're raising show dogs, who spends all their dog time training them on obstacle courses? How hard would it have been to have a few more dog specific items to play with. (And from what I saw in another post, puppy options got shortchanged too, while cats got a LOT.
(And this is coming from someone who's not a current pet owner, but when I have owned pets they've been CATS. I've never owned a dog, so perhaps I looked on this as my chance and there's just not as much to do with dogs in this game).
I could go on, (and probably will as I keep playing, but it seems like dogs lost out in this pack.
Luckily it's easily fixable! There's enough great about this expansion pack to keep me enjoying it for now, but I do hope that our next patch includes a few dog-only toys (especially chew toys--ones you can play tug-of-war with as that's a BIG dog behavior I want to play), better puppy interactions (if that's indeed needed, I've only read about this being an issue, haven't discovered it for myself yet) and of course outdoor Dog Houses!!!!!
3
Comments
I do see what you mean though, there definitely should be more dog/pet beds in general. I'm not a fan of the two flat ones. I could have sworn I saw a dog chew for sale in one of the food stalls but I may have got that wrong.
I'm certainly not saying you're wrong. It's tough to get the balance right.
New animations - especially interactive animations - are one of the toughest new thing the Devs need to add, so I wouldn't hope for a tug-toy too soon.
BUT there are no specific dog toys (as it seems the balls are cat or dog) like bones or other chew toys. There are also no dog-only beds (it seems, because the two pet beds seem to work for cat or dog), and the big one NO DOG HOUSES!!!
I mean, I know they probably put a lot of their effort into the dog obstacle course, but those items seem so limited. I mean, unless you're raising show dogs, who spends all their dog time training them on obstacle courses? How hard would it have been to have a few more dog specific items to play with. (And from what I saw in another post, puppy options got shortchanged too, while cats got a LOT.
(And this is coming from someone who's not a current pet owner, but when I have owned pets they've been CATS. I've never owned a dog, so perhaps I looked on this as my chance and there's just not as much to do with dogs in this game).
I could go on, (and probably will as I keep playing, but it seems like dogs lost out in this pack.
Luckily it's easily fixable! There's enough great about this expansion pack to keep me enjoying it for now, but I do hope that our next patch includes a few dog-only toys (especially chew toys--ones you can play tug-of-war with as that's a BIG dog behavior I want to play), better puppy interactions (if that's indeed needed, I've only read about this being an issue, haven't discovered it for myself yet) and of course outdoor Dog Houses!!!!![/quote]
And more vareity pet beds. And more breeds like the kelpie.bule and red heeler.
Most if tge dogs I have owened were kelpies.
I do agree with the are more cat objects but I haven't played the pets yet to know what the difference is but they seem to each have their own thing.
complete forum tutorial
Thank you @MDianaSanders for halloween-fying Golluma
And what's the point to "dog-only" beds? Trust me, cats do not give two toots whether Petco was selling a bed as a "dog bed", they will sleep on it regardless.
Yup my cat sleeps in one of our dogs beds and woe betide the dogs if they attempt to make her move! Lol
They also sleep in her bed. Or try too.
One of my boys gets extremely dramatic when it gets hot during the summer. This past summer, I got him a "pupsicle" (self-chilling) bed and a raised vented bed. Both were intended for dogs, but my cat loved them and we had a much less dramatic summer as a result.
Yeah cats have more physical "stuff", like litter boxes and cat trees, BUT the dogs have more interactions, like taking them on jogs/walks, bathing the dog, dogs can swim, etc.
Which seems real, I mean cats tend to NEED boxes, whereas dogs tend to go outside, more dogs like swimming than cats, cats prefer to groom themselves over baths wheats dogs think bath time is playtime.
My cat in real life just claims things as his, does not matter if it's not a "cat" toy or bed, he likes it, he takes it, haha, so I don't really see how any of the toys/beds in game could have realistically been made dog only, and I take the point about a chew bone being something dog exclusive, but there ARE chew toys in game (they look like balls), they just aren't dog exclusive as the cats can bat them around (because they look like balls).
It makes me ponder how Sims 3: Pets' developers managed to have the time to add SO much more items for our dogs when the scope of the pack was not only literally cats and dogs.
You can definitely notice they are under some big constraint when making expansions for TS4, whether that is time, budget, or both.
Probably means we have cat people on the EP team.
I assumed dog houses were a given. I totally believe they should be added. But keep in mind the work needed, which is very similar to a littler box.
1: The coding that will result in a cat or dog being trained or preferring to sleep in their dog house.
2: The training done by a SIm if training is required.
3: The animation that will lead to them entering and sleeping in it.
4: The things they can do while in it.
5: Any effect it has on the pets stats.
6: If it's a woo-hoo place, then it involves more coding for pets interacting with each other too.
7: Can cats use it? You know why people will ask why not.
And finally the object's appearance, which is the easy part. Even so, people will need more than one of these, at least three, low cost, medium cost and high-cost, for big dogs AND small dogs.
But I still say we could use a few more objects for dogs (and cats, too, no reason the objects can't work for both), like the dog (and cat) houses, bed varieties and of course the chew/tug toy for dogs. It's the objects where dogs feel the most short-changed (outfits, too... Lots for cats and little dogs but hardly any for big dogs?).