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Island living is .... pretty but meh
jimbbq
Posts: 2,734 Member
Ok I always wanted a topical destination but this is not a vacation destination it is a world to live in. It is incredibly pretty but that’s all there is in this pack it seems. There are new ways to move around islands but there is hardly any new game play? Like the new calendar system or celebrity system in other EPs. island living is really meh gameplay wise. Does anyone like this pack and if so why ?
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Game play though, you're right. There's not much to do that's any different from anything in the game already. I don't regret buying it at all though, I really do like the island life as a different way to play and I get a lot of use out of the items that came with it. I didn't pay full price for it however and got it on a 50% sale which is likely why I'm ok with it. I'd have been ticked if I'd paid full price for it.
But then the sale happened, and I bought it a couple weeks ago, and I have been utterly absorbed.
No - this isn't a vacation world. It's a remote, South Pacific, archipelago attempting to retain native culture and values, and to preserve its environment.
The major gameplay element is the Conservationist career, with two tracks, Marine Biologist or Environmental Manager - so far, I have only played the administrative side, but with Work From Home allowing hands-on play at my discretion, I am still out to Mua Pel'am many times a week, enjoying my restored island environment and working to keep it that way.
That gorgeous outrigger canoe was not a needed perk - but I love it, and am proud to have it docked outside my waterfront home. It's fun to cruise around on doing nothing.
But I also really like my neighbors in Ohan'ali Town, who are far more engaging than the rich peeps on Lani St. Taz. I see them often, at my doorstep, bringing my Sim food and spending an evening chatting and joking and dancing and being social. I like that the Island headwoman is erratic and hot-tempered, but also fun to know. I like her mahu granddaughter. I like my co-worker and his sociable wife. Ohan'ali Town feels like a community because of how it acts.
I like cooking in a kalua pit. It takes a bit longer. I don't have as much portion control. I don't mind, because I nearly always have friends over to share.
I haven't played a Child of the Islands yet, to know what spiritual prohibitions and imperitives drive the Sulanese, but I know that system exists and, at some point, I want to explore it.
It took me forever - well, in-game forever, IRL a couple weeks - to manage to be on hand for a turtle hatching. Not a lot of depth there, but it's just one event out of many on the islands.
I haven't played a mermaid, but my Sim is dating one. Not really my niche, but I like having them in-game.
I haven't played a lifeguard yet, or a Dive Instructor, or as a self-employed Fisherman - but I know I can.
And the longer I play, the less inclined I am to just raid the BB assets to build a tiki bar. I mean, I may - but my first unique build was a National Park lot with Island Spirits lot trait, to be a mara'e - a sacred terrace - for the restored Mua Pel'am.
I guess the islanders won me over, and I went native. This is the most fun I have had in a pack for ages. I feel like there is a lot, woven right into the pace of life on Sulani, and that I have only just scratched the surface.
The level of detail, and depth of cultural references from across Oceania, had me zooming in and googling history, athropology and culture. Do you know where our canoes come from? By the shape of the sail, French Polynesia - that arrangement is distinct to the Marquessas.
There are elements from Tonga, Tahiti, Samoa, Hawai'i, Aotearoa... Someone really did their homework for this pack, and it shows.
Sarong? More like sa-Right! Envy my tropical man-skirt! Edit to add an image and rave about CAS options. They're deep.
Mermaids are lackluster compared to vampires and spellcasters because there's very little disagreement as to what a mermaid should be. I've never seen anyone suggest something for a mermaid to do that they can't already do.
Perk trees just don't make sense on a mermaid except to gate off content you've already got access to in Island Living.
This is what I love about Island Living, we can have such wildly different experiences. My Sulani is a tourist trap.
Ohan'ali Town has a colonial house, an overcrowded beach, a lifeguard house, a trashy jetski rental place, and a bougie hotel on the other side of the water, owned by Nancy Landgraab (of course) where tourists eat as a restaurant. It even has a tourist-y tiki bar, because of course.
Lani St. Taz is scuba diving schools and spa resorts, bougie beach wedding venues and a luxury yacht that acts as a floating nightclub.
Even poor Mua Pel'am hasn't escaped the development that plagues the rest of the islands! It's got its own resort (Sulani is perfect for Spa Day), and a crashed plane out on an island where the survivors scrape by.
My Sulani has... not fared well under colonialism.
The bb and cas is fine, I like the new house foundations and roof patterns. The cas items are fine as well, though forgettable and I rarely use them because they seem so out of place anywhere exept Sulani, and I don't have any active family currently living there.
Island Living is one of those expansions that would've been better off as a game pack with lots of wasted potential. I just don't get why they didn't add resorts and hotels to the pack, it would've added more gameplay than anything in the pack combined since resorts could also be used for different worlds in many different styles. Had they added them, we could have placed unique hotels and resorts in any world we'd like, such as a penthouse hotel in San Myshuno, a cabin-styled hotel in Granite Falls and so on. This would have made the pack a worthwhile investment.
I like to build stuff
The dolphins - pretty but entirely pointless.
The "summon island elementals" is completely unfinished and is literally just a few random ghosts that appear - should've just been left out entirely if they're not gonna give any narrative behind it.
The conservation career is awful - there was lots of new conservation features added with this pack to "save the island" but the conservation career is just a rabbithole that uses none of these features, they needed some sort of narrative on saving the island but there's just nothing.
And finally mermaids - they might as well not be there, there's nothing mermaid specific built into the game they're just average sims that have a tail when they go in water and that's it, the mermaid spells are so un-fleshed out they might aswell not even be there
It's really disappointing since the world, CAS, and build buy is amazing, the gameplay just isn't there. It seems like they tried to do too much and didn't have time to finish it
Sorry, but the bolded part caught my attention because I feel very differently about the CAS in this pack. I find it surprisingly versatile. Obviously it's all a matter of taste, but have you tried combining the Island Living CAS with items from other packs? I think they work very well for everday, party and hot weather wear in any world.
Other than that I mainly use Sulani for my Sims to get away from it all and relax. I rarely have families living there, but I use a 'National Park' lot as a rental of sorts and just have my Sims take some days off and take a mini-vacation during which they don't leave Sulani. It is a very nice change of scenery. I agree though that they could have added more gameplay to the pack.
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/956513/netz-a-porter-outfits-ready-to-wear-for-your-sims-no-cc-required
Twitter: NetzspannungTS
we all try ...
Origin ID: simaddict1990
Nice! I'm mad I didn't come up with that and I can totally see people wearing those outfits where I live. Also, I agree. I tend to leave Sulani alone only because I don't like the neighbors being nice and bringing me food and kava periodically. It's a lovely gesture, don't get me wrong but shouldn't this happen on a Friday night into the weekend when less people generally work?