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If you could update one expansion pack?
Zeldaboy180
Posts: 5,997 Member
The Gurus have come to you for a decision. Theyre updating one Expansion pack, and they want you to decide what they do.
You can add anything within reason, so no open world, create a style etc, And it must be related to the pack you chose.
Which pack would you pick and how would you flesh it out?
I would pick island living, and change the whole diving mechanic. You can now dive underwater, And there's an actual diving skill. The actual diving world is a small neighborhood about the size of the magic realm with only one lot being the main special lot you enter.
Of course there would have to be a loading screen in between diving for something like that. There would be collectibles to collect like seashells, kelp, treasure chests that randomly respawn in different locations, as well as a cave to explore and woohoo in.
The cave contains an entrance to a secret lot, called the mermaids grotto, which is similar to the hermit's House, except if you befriend them they give you mermaids kelpm
Your sim can only stay underwater for a limited amount of time, which increases with their diving skill. If you don't surface in time you will drown. There's sharks too that you need to watch out for, And you also have to wait to depressurize before diving again.
Mermaids of course can stay under for as long as they want, with no fear of sharks and don't need to be depressurize. Mermaids can fulfill every single one of their needs underwater.
You can add anything within reason, so no open world, create a style etc, And it must be related to the pack you chose.
Which pack would you pick and how would you flesh it out?
I would pick island living, and change the whole diving mechanic. You can now dive underwater, And there's an actual diving skill. The actual diving world is a small neighborhood about the size of the magic realm with only one lot being the main special lot you enter.
Of course there would have to be a loading screen in between diving for something like that. There would be collectibles to collect like seashells, kelp, treasure chests that randomly respawn in different locations, as well as a cave to explore and woohoo in.
The cave contains an entrance to a secret lot, called the mermaids grotto, which is similar to the hermit's House, except if you befriend them they give you mermaids kelpm
Your sim can only stay underwater for a limited amount of time, which increases with their diving skill. If you don't surface in time you will drown. There's sharks too that you need to watch out for, And you also have to wait to depressurize before diving again.
Mermaids of course can stay under for as long as they want, with no fear of sharks and don't need to be depressurize. Mermaids can fulfill every single one of their needs underwater.
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Comments
But if I had to choose, it would be Seasons. Not because it's a bad pack, it's actually my favourite, but the one thing it's missing is a new world, one that is always cold and snowy. Unless they're planning to add that in a future pack, but without actual weather effects for people who don't own Seasons, do a DLC for a DLC again, or include a feature that was previously exclusive to another DLC in a new pack (all of which would probably 🐸🐸🐸🐸 people off), I don't see such a world ever coming to TS4, because the perfect ship for it has already sailed.
And while I'm at it, I would change the invisible skating skill to a visible one, make bee-keeping also a skill rather than relationship-based, and make it so that not every sim is afraid of thunderstorms and blizzards by default.
Something wicked this way comes!
I don't use MCCC.
Playing a famous musician in Get Famous has been so lacklustre for me. My Sim just stays at home writing songs all day and occasionally 'busks' for fame. That's it. There is no real performing aspect. I would love an interactive career just like the Actor career, where bands perform gigs, have meet and greets, do interviews etc. It won't be too much to ask as famous sims can do most of this anyway, but tying it into a musician career would really bulk it out.
But if that is not possible, at least add instruments like drums, electric guitars, brass instruments etc to help form bands. The player can decid e on the genre of the band - traditional metal band? Yep! A rock band with a brass instrument and a violin thrown in? Why not? Bands can be named and have their own line of merchandise. Again, I don't think is asking too much as sims can have their own merch to a certain extent.
I honestly don't understand why they never added that feature in the first place. It makes perfect sense.
My idea was very similar in a lot of ways, only I would have 2 diving lots (one for each of the scuba diving buoys in Sulani) The diving site in Lani St. Taz would be around a dark, rocky reef with small shipwrecks, and the diving site at Mua Pelam would be lighter/shallower with more ocean life (and possibly rubbish to clean) and would also be affected by the environment level (turtles would appear at higher levels).
The scuba diving skill would have 5 levels, at level 1 you could only free dive (very limited time in an underwater lot with a small cool down), but at level 2 you could buy the rebreather and stay there indefinitely. Mermaids naturally would not require this.
Activities would include finding shells/ collectibles on the ocean floor, treasure chests that open at different skill levels (and respawn over time), underwater photography and spearfishing (with a non-violent animation like a stream of bubbles), as these all make use of the items purchased from the buoys (the diving knife would be required to do any diving at all).
I also thought of a rabbit hole cave that could be used to explore (like the jungle exploration text adventures), and that mermaids could use the cave as a shortcut to the Forgotten Grotto (updated so that the water was swimmable). Mermaids in the grotto had some special interactions to eat plankton (by diving underwater) as well as the ability to summon other mermaids there. Ordinary sims who accessed the grotto regularly could find mermadic kelp by fishing there.
Such a shame additions like this aren't going to happen :(
But I thought about it more and: Get to Work.
It's cool that it has active careers and lots for it, but I would love to make those useful outside of a Sim being in the career:
if your Sim gets sick, let them be able to call for an appointment, go to the hospital if necessary, get checked out the way pets can in the vet clinic (well, obviously not via the same mechanic/animation lol). I'd love to be able to bring Sims for check-ups, vaccines, injuries etc. Add the ability for Sims to get physically injured and get treatment or surgeries, casts and bandages etc. Have a pharmacy and a wider variety of medication for all the various illnesses (that could be expanded to other packs, so treatment for stuff that they can contract in the jungle etc).
As for the police station: add burglars and have the ability to report Sims for wrongdoings. Make the police patrol streets (more in urban areas maybe) and police cars drive by. Give the detectives/police officers the ability to bring home kids and teens if they're out past a certain time (with Parenthood consequences being higher or lower depending on the family board curfew set).
(also, arrest Sims for crimes against fashion for a bit of a giggle lol)
I'd also love if there was a way to have a combined residential/retail lot. I mean, it's doable now but it's not fully functional (in that if Sims return from school/work, they go to the home lot). it's also one way to technically own two lots. But to expand on that and be able to only own one lot that the Sim can live in as the same time as running a business would be great.
Also, separate out the retail options. Clothing store, furniture, art, books, food, medicine etc could all have individual requirements. And if there was a "generic retail" that would allow Sims to have a mix of any of the possibilities. For cross-pack compatibility, other packs with items for sale could add options to the list of options (pet care, flower arrangements, potions etc)
I think because it was the first EP, it has a lot of room for potential improvement, especially with all the additions to the whole game since.
I love those ideas too. You never know, there was a survey a while back ago about possibly updating an expansion pack, I know that island living when the poll here on the forums, But there's no telling what the majority of people actually voted for or if they'll even do anything with it.
I had the impression that only ever implied small tweaks rather than whole new features (or even just determining satisfaction so they know what to do better in future iterations), but I guess you ever know.
The update would be: being able to build apartments and set them and the rent whereever we want plus the ability to be a landlord *you are responsible for fixing stuff in your tenants apartment etc
Shopping bags animations
Ringing costumers from register
Individual object pricings
Updated animations for shopping interactions to make them more interesting and less repetitive
Lost/confused costumers and a new interaction "Can I help you?"
Business stars
Sick sims can go to the hospital to get cured
Burglars, burglar alarms and police NPC's
OR
Cats and Dogs - because there are much more pets you know?
wishful thinking T-T
so make it possible for DU to stop having 2 conflicting identities: the merciless grind that makes a unicorn out of the idea of college as a social experience, and the social experience that no one can afford anymore but we all like to dream about that was last seen in the 70s or 80s.
make it possible to live at home and still attend, make distance learning a thing, and let people have a reasonable continuing or adults-with-families option.
my crazy vampire Sims eith cheats for everything can still go party hardy, and make of college the moveable feast that it hasn't been for anyone since the last boomers went through.😈
Let's make Liberty and Justice For All a reality.
Your sims can live at home and attend DU. I do it regularly. What DU doesn't offer is night classes that work for Sims with 9-5 type jobs.
> My initial thought was IL and expanding on mermaids with a skill tree similar to the ones we have.
>
> But I thought about it more and: Get to Work.
>
> It's cool that it has active careers and lots for it, but I would love to make those useful outside of a Sim being in the career:
>
> if your Sim gets sick, let them be able to call for an appointment, go to the hospital if necessary, get checked out the way pets can in the vet clinic (well, obviously not via the same mechanic/animation lol). I'd love to be able to bring Sims for check-ups, vaccines, injuries etc. Add the ability for Sims to get physically injured and get treatment or surgeries, casts and bandages etc. Have a pharmacy and a wider variety of medication for all the various illnesses (that could be expanded to other packs, so treatment for stuff that they can contract in the jungle etc).
>
> As for the police station: add burglars and have the ability to report Sims for wrongdoings. Make the police patrol streets (more in urban areas maybe) and police cars drive by. Give the detectives/police officers the ability to bring home kids and teens if they're out past a certain time (with Parenthood consequences being higher or lower depending on the family board curfew set).
> (also, arrest Sims for crimes against fashion for a bit of a giggle lol)
>
> I'd also love if there was a way to have a combined residential/retail lot. I mean, it's doable now but it's not fully functional (in that if Sims return from school/work, they go to the home lot). it's also one way to technically own two lots. But to expand on that and be able to only own one lot that the Sim can live in as the same time as running a business would be great.
>
> Also, separate out the retail options. Clothing store, furniture, art, books, food, medicine etc could all have individual requirements. And if there was a "generic retail" that would allow Sims to have a mix of any of the possibilities. For cross-pack compatibility, other packs with items for sale could add options to the list of options (pet care, flower arrangements, potions etc)
>
> I think because it was the first EP, it has a lot of room for potential improvement, especially with all the additions to the whole game since.
Yes!! This is exactly what I was thinking. Get to work has so much potential that was merely limited due to it being the first expansion. The first and foremost “fix” would be to correct the doctor career and add more hospital employees, if anything, at least for a space filler. Additionally being able to place smaller clinics in other worlds would be neat too. I think this would be awesome and agree with everything @darrenfroggy suggested. Also, if this is an update, other careers would be cool too... firefighter, pharmacist, dentist, optometrist... all implemented like the vet career in cats and dogs (except firefighter of course, that would need to be implemented as an active career like the ones featured in get to work).
You can live at home, it's basically off campus living. The one sim I sent to college, moved into a dorm for the full college experience, but I moved her out in off campus living after the first semester because the dorm was too loud and the cafeteria cook was never present and if it wasn't for some dorm mate who always brought plates of food, she would have starved to death. You go to college during the day but come back to the comfort of your own home at night.
Underwater areas, mermaid treasures and mermaid decor.
Also I'd really like an update for mermaids to get a perk tree similar to vampires and spellcasters, wouldn't have to be as big, but I would love it if one would actually have to choose between being a good, bad or neutral mermaid.
I'd imagine it like this:
1.Seahag (evil mermaid)
can (actually) drown sims, call a seamonster (which can kill sims, mermaids and humans alike), can call storms, has siren songs that only have negative effects...get's fun from drowning and torturing sims (with seamonster/siren songs)
becomes soulmate with sharks
starts every relationship in the red, even worse with landlover mermaids
can eat everything but loves eating fish, can eat raw fish
2.Landlover (a mermaid that is interested in the human world)
has mermaids kiss which can make human sims breathe underwater for 24 simhours, can call sunny skies, has siren song with only positive effects, gets dry scales slower....get's fun from looking for human treasures under the sea + has more luck doing so
becomes soulmate with turtles
starts every relationship with human sims in the green
does not eat fish
3.Seacreature (prefers her own kind and ocean living)
can scare sims out of the water but not kill them, has siren songs that confuse sims so they leave them alone, gets dry scales faster...gets fun from looking for mermaid treasure+has more luck doing so
becomes soulmate with dolphins
starts relationship with other seacreatures in the green
only eats seafood (can't eat raw fish)
and then some powers/perks that are kinda neutral, like the fish calling (maybe being able to dance with fish underwater?) and so on.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/924539/features-that-needs-depth-and-ways-to-improve
A lot of people are saying that they would update Island Living but I really like that pack! It's one of my favorites (a tie with Get Famous and City Living). The only thing I would change about Island Living is that Sims could go on vacation to Sulani because I feel like that is a nescisary element missing from the gameplay. I have many more things about the packs I would change but for now my biggest concern is Get to Work.
Flesh out diving. Let the player at least look at the sim finding things underwater. And even better, let the player help the sim explore and move around underwater.
Second one, house boats. This is something that I LOVED from The Sims 3, and actually was the feature in this pack that I wanted the most. I loved having my sims live out in the water, being surrounded by nothing but ocean.
Get to work would be fun with more active careers..
City Living and Discover Universtiy are just not great packs, they are lacking and could use a lot more in them to make them worth expansion price.
Get together would be fun with even more club activities and how about Mummy & Me toddler clubs if we could let toddlers join clubs with a parent?
IL, in my opinion, is the best expansion and I play it a LOT but because I play it so much I'd probably get more out of an update... let us see underwater when scuba diving?
I always thought it should be an EP because the entire magic theme is so expansive in itself. I'd like to see some new branches of magic like a Necromantic type ( zombie minions, voodoo, ghost manipulation, life and death) and maybe Summoning (conjure objects, people, animals, mystical beings, have more than one Familiar at a time), Divination (spirit boards, tarot, crystal ball reading etc.), or Transference (turning something into a magical object like a broom that sweeps by itself or creating a portal, or siphoning magic from an object or mystical being and having a special effect from that) as well as adding more to the other paths.
I think kids and toddlers born from a Spellcaster should have some limited magic and effects. And Familiars could have more gameplay added to them where they can converse with their Spellcaster, have opinions, do a few things on their own with their Sim or other Sims like be petted or hugged, bite, scratch, or zap with magic. Maybe even sit on your Sim's shoulder sometimes. And some color variations of the Familiars.
I'd also like to see more interactive play added to the magic realm, and more broom flying animations where the Sim doesn't disappear if they remain on the same lot. Having your Familiar sit on the broom with your Spellcaster would be really awesome to see too.
And... a couple of Spellcaster/magic lot traits so that magic is used freely on a lot or the objects on that lot act enchanted.
Lastly, (I think), more witchy CAS for both males and females and kids and toddlers (and pets) too!