It took me 3 Sim weeks. But I did enroll my Sim in the military career and gave him a dog, so he had a few other things to mind while solving the mystery. And he has zero skills when I started.
And I found out relatively late that spores were way easier to find at the lab, so that cost a few in game days too.
The only cheat I used was reset sim, but that had no effect on the story whatsoever. I also went in with little to no advance knowledge about the pack and haven't consulted any walkthroughs, just used the aspiration as a guide.
In real time it took me a few days, several hours total. I did get the "You've played TS4 for 5 hours" achievement somewhere along the way, but like I said, my Sims dog needed attention too.
I feel like it could be completed in 3 Sim days or under. Really, it's just about getting your Sim's needs high enough to go and click through everything a few times without passing out so it doesn't take that long. I spent about 22 hours playing the mystery altogether because I wanted to flesh out my Sim's personality and the story that I had created for her. But even trying to prolong the mystery, it was kinda hard to keep it going.
I wanted to really enjoy this pack to the full, and not rush my way through game play just to get to the end without having things spoiled for me. I made a pretty good educated guess of what "the mother" might be based on pre-release information from the gurus and limited previews from the game changers, but i didnt want to know any more than that, so i have fairly successfully managed to avoid all spoilers on here and youtube and avoided the greater world wide web in general to protect myself whilst i played things out at a liesurely pace.
So, with that pressure taken away i chose to play a slow and gentle approach, i enrolled one sim as a new recruit in the military career and my other sim is a social media star, famous for her conspirary theory investigations! It was my intention for her to move in with her new friend at the trailer park, with the addition of a tent for extra sleeping space and an outdoor gym/training space. I played on from there with both sims going to work each day up until the final stage when they took some vacation days and worked from home!
As a result i actually drew the whole thing out to take 28 days, which was the whole of spring and summer for my world. We all rolled back to the 8 bells for celebration drinks on the final evening of Summer. Sort of fitting i feel.
I know that is a LOT longer than most people, but i feel like it was the most organic way to play the game. I didnt cheat any needs, all my sims started out with zero skills and whim points, i set up clubs for the strangerville troopers, the strangerville exposers team (S.E.T.) and the mother fighters who met regularly through my game play. I didnt look up any cheats or information so it took time to feel my way through the actions and work out what i needed to do. Juggling needs with work and finding time to actually play out the storyline AND build meaningful relationships with other sims took time. Sometimes i could go 2 days without working towards storyline progression/aspiration goals, but it added to the depth and immersion of the story for me.
As others have said the storyline can be used as an aid to dollshouse or sandbox style play. I had a story i wanted to tell and the mother was part of that but not the only element, i wanted my sims to become part of the local community and not just in and out. It means now that they have solved the mystery i still want to play with them and am looking forward to keeping not-so-strangerville in my game now i have grown to love the locals!
Has anyone else taken as long as me to play through? how do i feel about the amount of content and how long it took me to play through? I think for a game pack the length of story was enjoyable and appropriate, pretty good value for money alongside the nice selection of build/buy and CAS objects. But i do feel that there was a lack of narration through the story progression, which often left me guessing and assuming what had actually happened. Some might say that gave me room to tell the story i wanted to tell, but i feel like if you are going to tell a story you need to tell it in full and in detail, not in bit parts where the player is left with many unanswered questions at the end. Combined with a slightly dissapointing world (i think the number of lots is ok, but would have liked another empty lot for a commercial/community building on the town square and im a little dissapointed by the quality of furnishing/use of a basegame house) i dont regret my purchase in the slightest, but it has left me feeling like they could have gone that little step further to make the pack that little bit better.
idk the exact sim day but i estimate it was over 15. i also completed it without cheats and enjoyed the whole playthrough. im looking forward to releasing mother again on an unsuspecting strangerville when my current hero dies and seeing if theres any improvements on time or if i can find things through different methods
It took me a whole spring (and mine is set to 28 days) to complete. No cheating and I had my sim build relationships with townies while I was solving the mystery. I wanted my sim to stay in Strangerville also after completion of Mother. I did stay for awhile but then I got tired of the always Hot weather & moved to another town. I am thinking of moving my sim back now. She is married and has a toddler so maybe she will take them back so they can see where she grew up.
@annalephant I took about three seasons to solve the mystery. So, approximately 80 days. My sim started the mystery as a teen, and then YA that was an aspiring actress. Also dealing with the death of both parents and no money, she had a lot on her plate.
I decided to take it slow because I had my own story intertwined with strangervilles story so for everything to come together it happened when it needed to. so i didnt rush the story. but i did finally finish it but my sims story is still going on. so im still playing but the mystery was solved. my hero sim was a teen when he started the mystery but he was working on it and finished when he was a young adult. During his time trying to save the town he met a teenage girl who he shared his secrets with and fell for. He spent a lot of time with his dad who is in the military. and got to hang out with his dads military and scientists friends and spent time with his dog. After he saved everyone he took after his dad and joined the military.
Comments
In real time it took me a few days, several hours total. I did get the "You've played TS4 for 5 hours" achievement somewhere along the way, but like I said, my Sims dog needed attention too.
So, with that pressure taken away i chose to play a slow and gentle approach, i enrolled one sim as a new recruit in the military career and my other sim is a social media star, famous for her conspirary theory investigations! It was my intention for her to move in with her new friend at the trailer park, with the addition of a tent for extra sleeping space and an outdoor gym/training space. I played on from there with both sims going to work each day up until the final stage when they took some vacation days and worked from home!
As a result i actually drew the whole thing out to take 28 days, which was the whole of spring and summer for my world. We all rolled back to the 8 bells for celebration drinks on the final evening of Summer. Sort of fitting i feel.
I know that is a LOT longer than most people, but i feel like it was the most organic way to play the game. I didnt cheat any needs, all my sims started out with zero skills and whim points, i set up clubs for the strangerville troopers, the strangerville exposers team (S.E.T.) and the mother fighters who met regularly through my game play. I didnt look up any cheats or information so it took time to feel my way through the actions and work out what i needed to do. Juggling needs with work and finding time to actually play out the storyline AND build meaningful relationships with other sims took time. Sometimes i could go 2 days without working towards storyline progression/aspiration goals, but it added to the depth and immersion of the story for me.
As others have said the storyline can be used as an aid to dollshouse or sandbox style play. I had a story i wanted to tell and the mother was part of that but not the only element, i wanted my sims to become part of the local community and not just in and out. It means now that they have solved the mystery i still want to play with them and am looking forward to keeping not-so-strangerville in my game now i have grown to love the locals!
Has anyone else taken as long as me to play through? how do i feel about the amount of content and how long it took me to play through? I think for a game pack the length of story was enjoyable and appropriate, pretty good value for money alongside the nice selection of build/buy and CAS objects. But i do feel that there was a lack of narration through the story progression, which often left me guessing and assuming what had actually happened. Some might say that gave me room to tell the story i wanted to tell, but i feel like if you are going to tell a story you need to tell it in full and in detail, not in bit parts where the player is left with many unanswered questions at the end. Combined with a slightly dissapointing world (i think the number of lots is ok, but would have liked another empty lot for a commercial/community building on the town square and im a little dissapointed by the quality of furnishing/use of a basegame house) i dont regret my purchase in the slightest, but it has left me feeling like they could have gone that little step further to make the pack that little bit better.
Im a simmer forever