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I just got Island Living, but can't play yet. Advice for what to do when I can play?
nerdfashion
Posts: 5,947 Member
I'm on a vacation for 3 weeks, and the release date for Island Living was over that time, and I'm still gone for a little under two weeks. I figured that while I wait to actually play the game, why not get some gameplay advice from all of you who have played? I'm a supernatural player who doesn't play with families often, if that helps.
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I am always way behind other simmers because I don't play like other simmers. I explore a pack. ANY pack, in my own way and in my own time. Afterall, the world I play in sims 4 is MY game.
Maybe create a mermaid and explore that occult? I’m not a fan of occult’s but the mermaids are really beautiful in this game.
I have added (through gameplay) two more mermaids, and one gave birth to a baby boy, now a toddler, he is also a merboy. It took me six sim weeks to get the island in top-notch shape, and several sims all worked together to make this happen. I'm not sure how many more merfolk I'm going to add, but I do want to add a few more before it's over.
Here are some pictures I took in my game, I've already posted them but just in case you haven't seen them I'll put them in the spoiler below.
As your island gets better, cleaner, you'll get these type of pop up.
I’ve never had sharks in my game before how did you get them? Do you like have to clean the island up first?
The problem is present in many packs but it's pretty damning here. If you start a Sim, make a mermaid - which requires only 500 satisfaction - and play in the Conservationist career while fishing on the side, you've completely done this pack in one sitting.
Everything else that exists in the pack is scenery, they did fantastic with world building and some neighborly Sim behaviors. What's here is not bad per se, it just needed more work to truly become what it could've become.
An Azure Dolphin, summoned by a mermaid
There are 3 kinds of Dolphin in Island Living, but they're not particularly interesting and you get done with them quickly. They cannot impact your gameplay, it's like Bertie's Bee Box with the interactions and stationary nature.
More time invested into making a fleshed out mermaid system is a big one. Players like to level up in new things in Sims and unlock abilities, gradually grow more powerful. With mermaid, you're given everything up front and there are only a couple of interesting abilities depending who you are. Yes, I didn't say this in my upcoming mermaids guides but it is important to me that if someone seeks a guide they get a guide and don't have to read or hear my opinion for 5 minutes.
Another thing is the water transportation. Changing clothes all the time is annoying, but my big gripe is that without gameplay, the transportation doesn't exist for a reason. It's literally taking me nowhere. Transportation in a game should take me to more gameplay. Sims 4 has had a problem in that there isn't much reason to go anywhere so a bigger neighborhood like we have doesn't NEED explored. We need outdoor activities that make sense to use, to get us to check. I guess the collections are too bland or there aren't enough uses of them, but I see no reason to head to the islands in Sulani.
The world of Sulani is beautiful - Island Living Expansion Pack for The Sims 4
The world really can be stunning, but the world needs to be your primary point of excitement.
It's hard to be critical of a team you respect and a franchise you love, while also knowing some fans will feel I'm criticizing on something they love. Truly I don't want to do that, I just feel some responsibility to be completely silent and it's a status quo I'd like to see change. I wish that whatever caused me to feel this way wasn't this way. It just feels like tough decisions were made or something, because it comes across as rushed and I'd never put that on the average developer. If they needed more time to realize the vision that is what they should've had. I know they want us fans to be happy with what we're given.
That said the team did some things in good faith this week like releasing improvements to the lackluster RNG fishing skill and giving us the ability to better tailor our catches with bait, and they made sure you can fish off the canoes in Island Living. One of the Mermaid's more interesting abilities can also boost this.
Ecology of one island is changeable in The Sims 4 Island Living
The Ecology of one island changes, but it changes fairly quickly and there's not a big impact, just scenery.
Sims is best when things work together and they've managed that on many packs, making sure things like clubs from Get Together always work with new features, and it must be a lot to manage. The fact you can make a Conservation club is awesome. How about we could fix the Ecosystem on all three islands? Why only 1 - time of course.
The only real gripe about Island Living is so much of its content will only make sense when used in that world. A mermaid should not be walking around Oasis Springs. The content is super self contained this time, but there's not much reason to stick around in Sulani, so it's a side attraction - a vacation world you can't actually vacation in. I know some of you return to places but lemme guess how many have returned to granite falls in the last 6 months. Yet, you can at least say a lot of the content there can be used for things in other worlds.
A jet ski in The sims 4
Jet Skis and boats exist to get from A to B, but there's not much reason to ever go to B.
You could get excited for scuba as a few of us did, until we realized it's a rabbit hole. The only major cosmetic failure is purely technical - I wish I could go underwater and snorkel or scuba dive with my Sims. I say let players take pictures of exotic fish and feel like they're exploring this world. One more way to get us to leave the home lot.
Anyway if I'm going to share an opinion I promise to keep it contained rather than complain extensively in other places. I put my gripes in my text and video fairly often but never do deter the focus and it should stay that way. I'd love to see Sims 4 be upgraded to have deeper and more interesting gameplay rather than always adding more and more stuff. We're drowning in options but interesting choices are not being made. Give me good reasons to go to different places, add some depth to things like traits, and make sure new skills, traits, aspirations and things to do that take more than a few hours are always included in the big packs.
The Sims 4 Island Living: Butterflies on the island.
Butterflies will appear on the one island that changes, once you've cleaned it up. However, when you've done that you've exhausted most of the gameplay from IL. If you feel the atmosphere is a must-have, you're probably going to be on the happier end of the list of people who've purchased it.
Perhaps to some extent, players who demand deeper gameplay have already gone and their opinion is no longer heard as there's no reason to follow a game that you can't get into. Otherwise I feel voices crying for deeper gameplay would be more prevalent. We are four years in, after all.
The Sims 4 really could be fantastic even without an Open World. Others were, they relied more on their gameplay. I shared with a couple friends an idea I had - I'd love to have to pay for clothes. Other things like traits not being deep enough really annoy me - I'd like more behaviors centered around them, abilities that do things, and maybe hidden bonuses. In order for one Sims to be extremely different from another on any level but a cosmetic one.
Our next gameplay pack is centered around magic, and I really hope I don't see +2 inspired, flirty, or happy for 4 hours spread out on 6 spells with 14 spells total. I'd like to see interesting spells that do things nothing else in the game does. Give me a reason to pick up magic when I'm playing and make sure I can be a powerful vampire wizard who moonlights as a line cook.
That's all I really have to say, this just doesn't add up to $40 of gameplay. The eye candy and world building is right in this pack, there's just not much to do with it. I won't assign it an arbitrary number - most of this is my opinion and each person should decide how much my complaints matter to them.
Spoilers!!!
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTo0DOxUSZJBBMFMx23sDUCejIAS1hNy1zXX2Qw8YmTFDiZElDM
https://cdn3.dualshockers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/The-Sims-4-DLC-Island-Living-PC-PS4-Xbox-One-Mac-ds1-1340x1340.png
https://i.redd.it/tn0sl3oxur331.jpg
The New Fish(there’s more to):
https://media.contentapi.ea.com/content/dam/eacom/SIMS/ep07-island-living/images/2019/06/fish.png.adapt.crop16x9.320w.png
Watch this video for a review on Mermaids!
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/960519/a-did-you-know-thread-on-island-living/p1
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/961151/sulani-lets-discover-the-world-through-screnshots/p1
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/960316/island-living-info-lps-reviews-builds-gameplay-tips-pics/p1
I really like the clothes in this pack. Ended up giving a few of my sims a makeover
Hmm... what you have mentioned so far:
I'm a supernatural player who doesn't play with families often, if that helps.
Should have mentioned that I also spend a lot of time in CAS... and that I find Build Mode a bore.
What do you usually do when you play?
I have a vampire, the sun-resistant version
You could always start planing for a sim that you want to play later on so that it is ready to go when you can start playing. What kind of story you want to tell.
They spawn in the deep water.