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What are the new gameplay elements of seasons?
I've tried looking for some and honestly I didn't find much.
- we already had gardening. The improved gardening system seems to only force me to rotate the plants out and make them produce fruit a lot faster.
- I've seen some sparse new interactions like "play in the rain"
- I've most definitely encountereed the annoying forced calendar events.
I feel like The Sims 2 and 3 provided better and less forced seasonal activities. Gardening made sence for The Sims 2 because we never seen it before. And festivals were the thing of The Sims 3's seasons, so is the thing for The Sims 4 seasons just forced events?
Also, god they're annoying! I don't want to cancel Christmas, but maybe not every year my sim will be in the mood to do literally everything on the list, including buying a fireplace to summon the Santa Claus!
- we already had gardening. The improved gardening system seems to only force me to rotate the plants out and make them produce fruit a lot faster.
- I've seen some sparse new interactions like "play in the rain"
- I've most definitely encountereed the annoying forced calendar events.
I feel like The Sims 2 and 3 provided better and less forced seasonal activities. Gardening made sence for The Sims 2 because we never seen it before. And festivals were the thing of The Sims 3's seasons, so is the thing for The Sims 4 seasons just forced events?
Also, god they're annoying! I don't want to cancel Christmas, but maybe not every year my sim will be in the mood to do literally everything on the list, including buying a fireplace to summon the Santa Claus!
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Comments
Sorry to annoy you with a question, but...
Please explain how better and less forced the seasonsal activities were? Hopefully after you do that I can understand you better.
The Sims 2 wasn't the first game to bring the gardening. The Sims Unleashed was. But it was first to bring some short of skill progression in gardening and fishing (which was first seen in The Sims Vacation).
You can also cancel the hidden holiday, at least for the HH you're currently playing.
As for new game play elements if you mean new to the series there’s not much. There’s a thermostat but I don’t see that as gameplay. Just a way to make your bills higher.
Nothing was forced in The Sims 2 or 3. You had the option to participate in festivals in The Sims 3, but you didn't get punished for not doing so. In The Sims 2 there wasn't really any seasonal festivities, but all weather interactions were new and it added a full on gardening skill. That included new things such as juicers and new effects on existing food.
Not to mention in both you could tune weather per world as you seen fit.
In The Sims 4 it seems that there are less weather interactions overall and that the only new thing is the calendar holidays, which your sim gets upset over if they don't participate.
I thought of doing that, but then wouldn't that be majority of this pack cancelled?
It's especially awkward when a holiday comes on while you're in Granite Falls or Selvadorada and you can't even access the items that you need to complete it.
I think you can just delete the holiday off the calendar, or change what you want your sims to do that day or whatever day. Customize it as you like. Have a blank calendar if you want or create your own holidays. It's fun. If my sim does not buy something of rebate day, I don't care if they get a bad moodlet about because first off I don't notice it. lol Besides, they'll get over it. In sims 2 and 3 you have a few traditional Holidays but with sims 4 you can create, or not have any at all. That's better to me. But that's my opinion. I know we all like different things.
I do like to set events on the calendar. you get to choose what time of day/night when it starts.
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Well there's the beekeeping, ice skating, grand meals, Santa or should I say Father Winter, (you don't need a fireplace, he comes anyway), Holidays and Traditions etc, quite a lot of Gameplay.
I just enjoy the weather. Staying inside during a storm, enjoying the first snow, building snow pals together, raking leaves in the fall, bathing toddlers in the summer, even going to the pool for a bbq is more fun because it makes sense, there’s a heatwave.
I like the swing set for the kids, I like their seasonal crafts and the scouts, i love the flower arranging skill and use them to decorate the house.
All in all, to me, it adds a lot of immersion. I am really enjoying the holidays as something to do in the weekends as a family and I love that I can plan events on the calendar.
To each their own, but for me Seasons added so much to the game, it feels at least twice the size of any previous expansion.
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Ice skating and roller skating was also in The Sims 2 and as always it's just a bit of an animation.
Also are you sure about Santa? The game specifically told me "appears around fireplaces" and got me quite peeved as tried to fit a fireplace to my tiny home not needing a fireplace.
Beekeeping felt like The Sims 3 store item - very bare. You can "play" with your bees or just harvest honey. That's all.
I feel like it could have focused less on existing farming and more on maybe adding cows, pigs, besides bees?
Ooor, could have given us a world with a park specifically packed with seasons related objects, maybe a place to hold flower arrangement or cooking competitions?
It just felt the most... Passive of all the Seasons expansions so far for me I guess. And the most unflexible.
Maybe I'll try to literally spam holidays on my calendar, to see if it spices up the months a bit, but so far to me it felt like it was 95% just looks.
It's spiced up my game. I packed three holidays together in summer, one right after the other: Midsummer Eve, Midsummer, and Summerfest. The first is a mischief-making holiday, the second more an equinox/nature celebration, and the last a July 4/summer party festival. Having them back-to-back was really enjoyable for me. It also gave me longer gaps in between holidays for the rest of the season, which is also how summer feels as an adult!
I only have one vacation-day holiday per season; everything else, sims have to squeeze in their fun before or after work/school.
I agree with you that Seasons, like almost everything else we've received in this version of Sims, is less flexible, less sandbox-y than the previous ones have been. I can still make it work for me, and hope some of what I and others have suggested helps it work for you, too.
Santa or whatever his name in game is can come without a fire place. He will continue to show up as a townie there after which is just a little distracting.
I do think though it could have added more game play items. Things like snowball fight takes forever and looks really bad and nothing like the trailer, kiss in the rain is the same animation as kiss just outside. The weather itself adds a lot but I think game play items it’s still a little off.
The Sims 2 didn't include an option to turn off the weather. If you wanted to do that, you'll have to get a weather machine, make it rain/snow/hail, then make it clear skies and don't turn it off. You have a weather machine that you need to get no weather.
At least The Sims 2 let you set the order of the seasons. Each season lasted for 5 days, but the order can be customized. The order is applied to the neigborhood it was applied in, so if you change the order in the downtown, the order of the main neighborhood won't change.
The Sims 3 allowed players to turn off the weather effects and seasons and change the season lenght. These settings are only applied to one save, not the entire game. I have to admit, the festivals was an awesome feature just because it used a hidden marker that changes the lot with seasons. Holidays were also in The Sims 3, but players couldn't create them and sims only got wishes.
The Sims 4 only allows to set the season lenght to 1 week, 2 weeks, or 4 weeks (why not 3?). But it allows the player to turn off blizzards and thunderstorms and only allow the rain and snow (which can also be turned off). Temperature effects on sims can also be turned off so sims won't freeze to death. Seasons cannot be turned off, but it's easy to get a weather machine. The seasons settings only apply to the save. The new features I can see there is the climate (Oasis Springs and Selvadorada rarely have snow and it rains a lot in Brindleton Bay), that sims and pets react to blizzards and thunderstorma and run indoors, and customizable holidays. If the holidays become annoying, these can be deleted or have their traditions removed. As holidays can be edited during that holiday, traditions can be removed before it ends.
I think the main idea of the holiday is that sims want to do the traditions and gain satisfaction points if it was good (good for money tree).
They also made it so the temperature effects also affect sims indoors if it's extreme. +Sims have hot weather and cold weather outfits, which they never take off when they go indoors (players should be able to set if sims put on the everyday outfit when indoors or not on the lot).
While The Sims 4 didn't add any really new objects (except that kiddie pool, but it's so small), they did change a weather system a little bit.
So yes, I understand you.
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/940199/seasons-simguru-maxis-sourced-info/p1
Why not take a peek at Carl's seasons guide?
Beekeeping & Honey
Beekeeping (Bee Box/Honey) Video
Scouts (Child/Teen "Career")
Scouting Video
Gardening Updated for Seasons
Rewards Updated
Careers Updated
Skills Updated
Gardening Career-Botanist and Floral Designer
Flower Arranging Skill
Weather in Seasons
Weather Machine - Change Seasons and Weather Forecasts
Patchy the Straw Man (Scarecrow)
Holidays
http://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/expansionpacks/seasons/
SimsVip
https://simsvip.com/sims-4-seasons-guide/
LGR
IGN
https://www.ign.com/wikis/the-sims-4/Seasons_Guide
And a few more.
https://www.everybodyplays.co.uk/guide/The-Sims-4-Seasons-Expansion-Pack-Guide-Weather-Gardening-Ice-Skating-and-so-much-more/2759
https://guides.gamepressure.com/thesims4/guide.asp?ID=45350
https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sims_4:_Seasons
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/942252/seasons-picture-thread/p1
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/942308/things-you-ve-discovered-in-seasons/p1
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