I find the constant sick pet stray or otherwise is a pain. The complaints about food and litter (which is full and clean) is also a pain. I have a few households that have pets but I don't give them to everyone.
I love playing pets but they don't fit every family. I think half of mine have pets though.
I use a mod for less dirty&sick strays, because as usual with new features the Maxis default is unplayable.
I have a few more adjustment mods (shorter walks, kids can walk dogs), but the core gameplay is fine by me. I don't want playable pets.
I play when it makes sense for the story I'm playing. For example in my current save my Sims want a dog but they've been having trouble finding the perfect one, but when their eldest son ages to Teen (and can take care of a lot of the care responsibilities) if I can't get a good one through adoption I'll make one in CAS for them. Tempted to start with a puppy this time since I've never raised a puppy or kitten in the game.
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I'm playing more with them now 'cause I vowed to have at least one house with a pet for suburban neighborhoods. But until very recently I forgot their existence when I was out Brindleton Bay.
The cats and dogs in this game are adorable and so cuddly looking. I also love the little details for example the way the male and female animals act differently. The sims team did an incredible job with this. I enjoy the way we can customize the appearance and markings to create our IRL cats and dogs too.
I do not play them because certain choices were made that just do not make sense in my game. Dogs that are constantly terrified and whimpering. Animals that just pass out for no reason what so ever. Sick and dirty pets everywhere. They constantly fight each other. I could go on and on.
I think the decision to make them unplayable but still take up a sim slot is probably the biggest reason I do not enjoy playing them though. I was worried about this decision. I did not believe the AI was smart enough to handle this. I was right. They are unable to find their beds, food bowls and litter boxes at all. If a decision like this is going to be made then the game itself needs to be able to handle it. The decision to make them unplayable made them just that in my game. Completely unplayable.
I did with one household, but usually I have so much going on with my saves (drama, skills, jobs, kids, etc.) that a pet just doesn't fit in(yet). I have plans to incorporate them more in the future. Also, I do have a save where I am trying to max every skill, collection, etc., so I will be owning a cat and dog in that save at some point.
Almost all the time! I love them in my gameplay and I don't experience a lot of issues when playing them. I also find good for my loner children sims to play with.
I rarely play with pets in any of the sims games, they're too high maintenance and they get boring quickly. I prefer creating stories and drama in my sim's lives, not emptying a digital cat's litter box. Pets just feel like cute background noises and nothing else.
They constantly get sick, as a PP said, and for me the dogs run away soo often if you don't walk them constantly. I gave a dog up for adoption in my current family because they had quadruplets and couldn't handle both lol.
I play with them all the time. I think they're great other than the bug where they're sick whenever you load into a household after a while.
I kind of get a laugh when people say they are high maintenance and difficult. For me that's part of the fun of them.. and they are only as difficult as the traits you choose for them. I give my dogs minimum attention and haven't even seen one try to run away yet.
I play with them when I occasionally get the urge. The animal animations are so cute and sometimes I just find myself watching them instead of paying attention to my sims.
Sim: "I'm starving!"
Player: *instructs sim to prepare meal* "Then eat something, you little goofball!"
Sim: *starts cooking meal*
-5 seconds later-
Sim: *Stops cooking meal* "I'm so hungry!"
Player: *head hits desk*
I always play with a cat. Some games, I'll use a female Tonkinese I created that's talkative.
I also recreated Dex-Starr from the Red Lanterns. It's fun watching him "greet" people.
"That person who helps others simply because it should or must be done, and because it is the right thing to do, is indeed without a doubt, a real superhero." - Stan Lee
This is difficult for me to understand about myself. But I rarely play with them at all. I felt like I needed them in my game and in my neighborhood(s) but I have no real desire to have them in my active families. Its just one more sim to take care of, but I really can't take care of them because I don't really know what they need and can't tell them to go do it at any rate. I tried the playable pets mod and that helped, but it was so buggy in my game that it broke saves and I had to get rid of it.
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One funny side effect of playing with pets is I control kids and toddlers less and less. The parenting skill lets you order them around, and I only briefly check their needs now. Otherwise it's full autonomy for them.
Yesterday I tried clicking on the whistle to call back a child playing in the snow. Took my brain a few seconds to adjust.
In the end I just called the child home. NOT as convenient tbh.
Unless a dog is a focal point of a family I'm playing, I only ever consider adding a cat. The timing and frequencies for pet-related activities are all wonky. The pets get sick waaaay more frequently than sims and walking the dog can take half. the. day. Even the short walk takes several hours. That's why I get the cats-- my sims don't have time to walk the dogs, especially when the sims need an hour just to feed their own slow selves, and the dogs (understandably) get sad and trail my sims around when they don't get walked. I tried just making the dogs lazy, but then they just slept all the time.
It's a bummer, because I'm in the weird minority that prefers these unplayable pets.
I'm still undecided if I like the pets in TS4 as whole, but there sure are a lot of problems with them! To mention a few: pets being always sick & filthy when rotating to a family, suitable pooping place problems with dogs, short walk taking half a day in Windenburg and what else... If they don't fix these things then I will continue to only seldom play families with pets and also do not recommend getting this pack to anyone asking about it.
Very strange in my game...I have very few if any strays wandering in my neighborhoods. Maybe because I don't ever go to BB, I just forget about it all the time. When I do go, I don't see that many animals, which is a good thing. I'd hate to see dirty and sick strays. I have never been too much of a pets person in the sims. The only time I loved them was in Sims 3, the horses I loved. Of course they were the major source of most of the glitches in that ep. I am thinking of getting one of my sims, who probably won't get married and settle down, a dog. I love the cats most but they have no place as they don't do anything. At least dogs you can teach tricks and use the obstacle course. All my other sims can't have pets, they have toddlers, lol.
In my house, dog hair sticks to everything but the dog.
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I use a mod for less dirty&sick strays, because as usual with new features the Maxis default is unplayable.
I have a few more adjustment mods (shorter walks, kids can walk dogs), but the core gameplay is fine by me. I don't want playable pets.
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
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I do not play them because certain choices were made that just do not make sense in my game. Dogs that are constantly terrified and whimpering. Animals that just pass out for no reason what so ever. Sick and dirty pets everywhere. They constantly fight each other. I could go on and on.
I think the decision to make them unplayable but still take up a sim slot is probably the biggest reason I do not enjoy playing them though. I was worried about this decision. I did not believe the AI was smart enough to handle this. I was right. They are unable to find their beds, food bowls and litter boxes at all. If a decision like this is going to be made then the game itself needs to be able to handle it. The decision to make them unplayable made them just that in my game. Completely unplayable.
oh well see now you just opened me up to a whole new world lol
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I kind of get a laugh when people say they are high maintenance and difficult. For me that's part of the fun of them.. and they are only as difficult as the traits you choose for them. I give my dogs minimum attention and haven't even seen one try to run away yet.
Good thing there's a litter box that zaps the poo away, then.
Player: *instructs sim to prepare meal* "Then eat something, you little goofball!"
Sim: *starts cooking meal*
-5 seconds later-
Sim: *Stops cooking meal* "I'm so hungry!"
Player: *head hits desk*
I also recreated Dex-Starr from the Red Lanterns. It's fun watching him "greet" people.
Yesterday I tried clicking on the whistle to call back a child playing in the snow. Took my brain a few seconds to adjust.
In the end I just called the child home. NOT as convenient tbh.
It's a bummer, because I'm in the weird minority that prefers these unplayable pets.
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