I want to start this with saying that I haven't purchased the pack yet, so my perspective is only from seeing trailers and watching LPs and reviews on YouTube. With that said, I am getting the impression that some are feeling this pack is slightly lacking in replayability. It seems to be one of those "complete and move on" type of packs, similar to strangerville. So I was thinking of giving some feedback/ideas for future content via feedback on the conception of this pack.
What I think should have happened is Island Living should have not included mermaids. Rather, the gameplay feature should have been about living on an island and included things like resorts, hotels, tropical vacation type things. Building and running your own resort would naturally have way more replayability to it. Similar to restaurants, resorts could have had themes, lot traits etc. The tools are there already, so I'm not sure why they didn't choose this path for development.
So what about mermaids? I know a lot of people requested them, but it doesn't seem like they got the treatment they deserved like vampires did. I was assuming that with the introduction of the occult system with vampires they would use that as a base and flush out several other occults, including mermaids.
Both of those packs (Dine Out and Vampires) have the ability to be played with many times over. Don't get me wrong, I love what they did include (conservation, island culture, DOLPHINS) and from what I've heard/seen, it is a truly stunning world. But I get the sense that the "sandbox" type of play has been lost a bit.
Thoughts?
5
Comments
I don't know, but for most people living somewhere isn't about resorts and tropical vacation things. In this case, it's about living by the seaside, engaging with local culture, trying out the local cuisine, have some free time seaside activities like snorkeling, aqua zips, diving, swimming, sunbathing, etc., but also improvements to fishing (which are clearly no accident given the content of the pack - fishing on boats is awesome btw, I really love that xD), different types of jobs, etc.
That being said: yes, I think they could have added resorts. But I'm glad they are not the main feature of the pack and I prefer living in Sulani to vacationing in Sulani. I'm also glad I don't run into a lot of familiar faces from other worlds there. It's quite lovely to meet mostly locals, especially in the more remote parts. Resorts / vacationing would probably make the thing feel more touristy and less homey.
Yeah, fair enough. Obviously locals wouldn't have any need for resorts and such; and some of the features they've included are unique and interesting. But I was just trying to think of something that would have been the main feature over mermaids. Something that would use the tools the game already has so that they could leverage their resources, and make the pack feel "meaty-er".
SimmerJay CAS Challenge! ✨
True. But they are a huge component to the pack, so it seems reasonable people are giving them the most attention. But I just think they could have been done with greater depth and attention to detail if they got their own pack.
SimmerJay CAS Challenge! ✨
Without a doubt it is much better to experience a culture and all it has to offer in person from those who live it, but not everyone can afford to do that. I definitely don't mind having diverse cultures reflected in various media, including gaming. It's about experiencing that culture as an outsider, but I would argue it's more about seeing your culture accurately and wholistically reflected in such a way that makes you feel represented and part of the gaming community.
SimmerJay CAS Challenge! ✨
Good points. I just personally feel that it’s a layer that doesn’t add much to the game. In general experiencing culture does not sound like a fun feature of a video game, at least for myself. If it was something original, like designed specifically for the game and not based on any one particular one, then maybe, but the whole taking a real world culture and cherry picking elements to make it a feature of a pack is just not something that I find very useful.
A few new skills would've been nice, and I wish swimming had been implemented in other worlds. I haven't played much with mermaids, but from what I've seen/heard they're not a very detailed occult. I really liked the detail put into vampires. I'm more excited about the next pack than this one for that reason.
I think the resorts and hotels end up not being fit for the theme of the pack. And by that I mean this is an Island World where you are suppose to live a laid back beach life, get to know the locals and use your natural surroundings to make a living, by selling collectables, fishing (love the new fishing system), among other things. It's not a port island, it's not a vacation island where there's lots of tourists. I don't know if you have noticed, but townies from other worlds don't go into Sulani. It's it's very own ecossystem within the game.
I think mermaids fit perfectly in the pack, not all occults have to have a perks system like vampires otherwise we'd be spending a ton of money on GP's. Mermaids have cool powers already, fitting for them, and they are much more developed then in TS3 with far better animations, just wish they had their own unique tombstone.
But I do agree that something is missing from the pack, after playing for a while I have found myself doing the same things over and over again....again, but in a new world/scenario. This pack reminds me of a prettier version of City Living but with amazing swimming animations and an occult lifestate.
I think not adding underwater lots to this world is such a huge miss....even if it was only one 64x64 underwater lot with an underwater "neighborhood", it would go a long way to make this pack feel bigger and even more awesome. I'd like to see my sims actually take pictures underwater instead of a rabbit hole. To me it's the biggest miss. It would have been cool to be able to interact with extra sea life, gather sea horses underwater to put them on an aquarium, jellyfish, sea rays, anemones...etc. It would have been be cool if we had an aquarium that we could upgrade and customise with plants and fish that we catch while diving......gathering pears from oisters underwater would also have been amazing....I can think of a lot of things. I really hate that it's a rabbit hole ahaha I don't think this EP even brings a new aquarium at all which is very weird now that I think about it.
The conservationist career is a cool angle but it doesn't feel very fleshed out either since it's just talking and taking pictures and surveying over and over....although changing the island for the better is cool. But there's not much replayability there, it's very much like with Strangerville, you do the story once....then maybe in a few months you do it again...rinse repeat.
There are the odd jobs which I think people forget...I think some of the replayability of this pack lies in there but you will see the same ones pop up from time to time.
This is more like Island Eye Candy than Island Living, IMHO. You're paying for island atmosphere and island animations. And, really, it's animations with zero depth. It just feels like there is no meaningful gameplay behind the pack, but I think it's just an extension of the base game problems, where the game doesn't present much challenge or meaningful goals that feel fun to embark upon and rewarding to achieve. The island health stuff was a step in the direction I'd like, but it's limited to one island of the 3 that make up this very tiny world.
It's also super inconsistent and weird they made this a normal world, rather than a vacation world. In fact, it could've been the perfect pack to introduce real vacation homes, like The Sims 2.
It's gorgeous, and the art team really carries the rest of the development team with this pack. It just needs some actual gameplay, hell, the entirety of The Sims 4 does.
I agree, this could have been treated as an dual Neighborhood, one as an home neighborhood two as an vacation world with actual hotels and resorts that the customer could freely choose for to do it you now have to do an work around which sometimes is not the best way. Would I pay $40 for this pack, I would say no maybe $29.99 or lesser would be an good point for me and even saying $29.99 is stretching it. It is not an ugly world it is pretty but as with all the packs I play they do not have enough to keep me drawn to it.
You're more generous than I am, lol. I wouldn't pay more than $20 for this, and that's on a good day.
For me, I would loved seeing the following:
-Seeing Sims swim underwater (I forgot how awesome it was to see my mermaids swimming from all angles and from below!)
-Underwater lots (I'm starting to miss this!)
-Babies/toddlers/children having mermaid features (even if it's just scales)
-Houseboats (man, I really miss this one so bad!)
-Actual lifeguard career and other careers or jobs that are not rabbitholes
-Mermaid transformation (ala Sims 3)
-Mermaids' drowning power not nerfed and is actually dangerous
-Seeing an actual Kraken (ala Sims 3)
-Adults playing with toddlers in the water (ala Sims 3)
-Maybe a bit more activities or games like beach ball or something
I'm glad I got the pack at a reduced price elsewhere. It does feel more gamepack-y, especially if one is to play this world by itself and not travel to other worlds or have other packs to flesh it out. Still, I do not regret buying it (at that reduced price). ^_^
While I do love the pack and feel more engaged with the mermaids in this iteration, I do feel something is missing. I can't quite put my finger on all of the elements, but I remembered there was a bit more content in Sims 3 regarding this theme excluding the mermaids. (Maybe it's also having a bigger ocean and swimming underwater or just having a bigger world overall.)
(She/her)
I am mostly frustrated by the off the grid lot trait. I love the idea, but I wish they had included more new items to go with it, such as the ability to generate solar/wind power and gather rain/ocean water and convert it to potable water. These could have been neat little extras that wear down and need to be repaired like the items in some of the City Living apartments. New battery-powered lamps and radios along with some updated kitchen items that feel more off-grid-y (like propane stoves and ice fridges).
I have all the other content packs for the games, so I have access to the camping items, but this is supposed to be playable with the base game and it feels a little raw for them to just update some of the base game items to magically work off-grid instead of creating new items for the expansion. I just have to pretend my sims are 'off the grid' until some lovely people make some custom content.
I'm still liking the game, but I am definitely sad I purchased at full price and will probably not do that again for the next expansions.
----> Check out and download my creations HERE <----
----> View my Showcase thread HERE <----
I do like these - I was not fond of the ones in Sims 3 - I rarely played them because they were not fun. But these seem more like mermaids I wanted than Sims 3 version. Like in Sims 3 the leg scales bugged me - a lot! They were by in large just Sims with a hydration problem that got a tail when ever they got wet. There was little control over it. The Sims 4 version just seems more like they should be and they have a few powers as well. So yes these are much better done - everything about them including denying they are merfolk. LOL. Wouldn't you if you were a mystical creature in this day and age? LOL.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
> Playing more of it, I do feel the packs are not as fleshed out in content, though I still love mermaids.
>
> For me, I would loved seeing the following:
>
> -Seeing Sims swim underwater (I forgot how awesome it was to see my mermaids swimming from all angles and from below!)
> -Underwater lots (I'm starting to miss this!)
> -Babies/toddlers/children having mermaid features (even if it's just scales)
> -Houseboats (man, I really miss this one so bad!)
> -Actual lifeguard career and other careers or jobs that are not rabbitholes
> -Mermaid transformation (ala Sims 3)
> -Mermaids' drowning power not nerfed and is actually dangerous
> -Seeing an actual Kraken (ala Sims 3)
> -Adults playing with toddlers in the water (ala Sims 3)
> -Maybe a bit more activities or games like beach ball or something
>
> I'm glad I got the pack at a reduced price elsewhere. It does feel more gamepack-y, especially if one is to play this world by itself and not travel to other worlds or have other packs to flesh it out. Still, I do not regret buying it (at that reduced price). ^_^
>
> While I do love the pack and feel more engaged with the mermaids in this iteration, I do feel something is missing. I can't quite put my finger on all of the elements, but I remembered there was a bit more content in Sims 3 regarding this theme excluding the mermaids. (Maybe it's also having a bigger ocean and swimming underwater or just having a bigger world overall.)
This. So much this. I would also like to add a suggestion of ideas that I saw somewhere else, in Carl's youtube channel's comment section, by someone nicknamed Elaine:
"I would have loved if they had created an underwater hidden world you could only find as either a High-Level Mermaid ( and yes that means a tier system for mermaids) or with a high enough culture rating ( yes that means a skill for Sulani culture) combined with a High relationship with a dolphin who can take you under to the hidden world. And one of those caves should lead to a shrine to these island elders (for extra spice you can't make it past the text adventure if you have a neutral or good relationship with the spirits - bad relationship could lead to physical harm for trying to enter their shrine). They honestly could have reskinned the oasis spring cave for this. Also, agree with the multiple people I have seen say that lifeguard could and should have been an active job and odd jobs absolutely could have exploited the work from home concept they have developed in 2 different models previously."
That is what I wanted to see. That and your suggestion about actual underwater and ocean gameplay and deeper occult features for mermaids to set them further apart from other Sims.
What is missing is GAMEPLAY. An expansion pack should offer more depth than a simple gamepack. Even Strangerville offered more gameplay, and it was just a Game Pack. The ideas are there. They just need to fully flesh them out, adding truly robust gameplay and immersive environment. But until they do, this "expansion pack" just feels like the watered down version of its Sims 3 counterpart.
This barely qualifies as a Game Pack, and I feel cheated and duped to have bought such a weak game pack at the price of an expansion.
Without it, I still think of it as more of a holiday destination game pack rather than a full expansion pack. It’s very disappointing.
Dear, EA.
You created a game that shipped with hidden worlds. Your telemetry (?) shows that very few players use those worlds. To paraphrase one of your representatives: 'We created these beautiful, mystical places and no one uses them.'
Well, EA, if you don't understand the reasons why, I'll try to simplify it for you: no one uses those worlds because they serve no purpose. Beauty is not gameplay. Once players earn passage and are finally able to enter, there's nothing to do in those worlds except collect some crap and go home. There's precisely zero reward for the effort. Plus, the player has no means of impacting those worlds because things cannot be built there.
(::knock, knock:: Is this thing on?)
EA, you had a chance to create a beautiful, fascinating and useful hidden lot for Island Living. It could have been linked to mermaids and used for actual scuba diving. But you didn't.
Why not?
Basically, I would like to know what on earth is wrong with you?! It's as if you have no clue. Please, please, please stop this nonsense. It's embarrassing and you're better than this.
Some EA mouthpiece is going to step up and blame the lack of a hidden lot on the consumer, I just know it. However, it's not the customers' fault. It's yours! This is all on you.
/end rant