Notice as of June 17th, 2021: Okay, maybe I'll post every now and then. Partially because I want something social to do (other than Twitter, FB, whatever... stuff I wish didn't exist xD) and my anger diminished a little lol. I'll give this one last shot.
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So, here are my ideas. Feel free to suggest anything, or add your own opinions!
So in other posts I mentioned how I'm desperate for fairies. I highly doubt I'm the only one.
To start, I think an ideal thing would be to have a game pack dedicated to them with their own world, along with their own perk trees, unique abilities both new and some old things from the Sims 3. If that isn't possible, it would be nice to include them in an expansion pack very similarly to how mermaids were integrated in Island Paradise.
CAS
I think we should have a mixture of new and old wings from the Sims 3. My ideas are dragonfly, butterfly, lady bug (that would be an interesting one to pull off, but I think it can be done), bumble bee, moth, various leaves, ethereal, and perhaps avian (bird wings)? Many different sparkles and glitter unique to each pair of wings, but perhaps not as bright, or flashy (as in no aura coming out of their back from their wings), and not as transparent as their Sims 3 counterparts. The wings would look nice to have elegant patterns, opaque (or at least color swatches that give us the option to either be transparent or opaque), and colorful, the option to make the iridescent/multicolored, with dynamic animations according to what the sims are doing, and maybe an idle animation, like the occasional soft flapping and fluttering, or being folded down behind their backs when not in use, like real life bugs. Of course, each should have numerous color swatches much like the mermaid tails.
Fairies should, of course, be able to levitate around using said wings, and perhaps have a similar self interaction like "I can fly!" from Sims 3.
Something like this.
Of course, we can't have fairies without traditional fantasy wear! Of course we should definitely have leafy and flowery outfits! But perhaps a bit more than what the Sims 3 had. In extension, it would be very fun and beautiful for some of the new outfits to be bug-like. Such as imitating butterfly or moth wings, or a lady bug outfit to match lady bug wings? It would also be stunning to have ethereal, angelic, royal, and crystalline outfits and/or tops and bottoms, plenty of accessories!
New skintones, or at least skin decorations such as leaves, flowers, or swirls. The option to shape ears into an elven shape.
New trait(s) and life wish(es).
Lore
This may or may not be possible, but the fact that we have fairy familiars for spellcasters could contribute to some lore and emotions? What if a playable fairy saw a fairy familiar, and gain a sad, tense, or angry moodlet for seeing their bound cousins. On the other side of the coin, they could be happy that their familiar cousins have become so dedicated to their spellcaster, and willingly being by their sides? Either or, I think playable fairies should have at least some kind of reaction to the fairy familiars.
Aside from that, it'd be interesting for them to have a backstory, or a particular fairy being with a backstory, like Vladislaus Straud from Vampires, or some of the spellcasters.
Abilities
Wouldn't be the Sims 4 without emotion inducers! Of course, much like the Sims 3, fairies should have auras or certain spells that would effect the emotions of the sims they target. Right now I don't have much to think on when it comes to said types of spells. So feel free to suggest!
Elemental abilities would be a lot of fun. Kind of like the Tinker Bell movies, fairies could have some influence on water, air, ice, and earth? (I'm having a hard time picturing fire fairies, personally, but feel free to come up with something about it that I haven't!)
The ability to hide their wings in order to hide their true natures to other sims?
Then we've got an integration for those who own Seasons, Island Paradise, and other occult life states. I'll explain below.
Water and Ice
The power to manipulate water, oceans, lakes, fish, fountains, put out fires, hot tubs, pools, showers, toilets, sinks, dowsing a sim, pranking a sim, summoning rain storms/thunder storms (though with mermaids having that ability, that may just end up being a carbon repeat...), producing puddles, cooling off overheated sims, having the ability to interact uniquely with mermaids, and simply bending and playing with water, not unlike the water benders of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Having the ability to manipulate the snow, or summon snowy weather (even in worlds you wouldn't normal see snow), freeze sims (not enough to kill them, just as a prank), bring snowmen to life, some Nutcracker Suite-inspired stuff, definitely having an influence during the winter holidays, causing bodies of water to become thicker ice so that sims could skate on it.
Air
This is where the fun of the avian wings would come in! The ability to clear the skies (though again, mermaids have that ability, so I don't know the full use of that), create winds to blow leaves or prank sims, a stupid joke with summoning "inner winds" that makes a sim pass gas over and over again... just... because... it's Sims...
Faster flying, making things float, creating rainbows, bestow something like "Flight of Felicity" from the Sims 3 to non-fairy sims, being able to blow autumn leaves or flower petals all over the place, creating a miniature tornado to prank sims, make messes, or simply remove leaves or pests.
Earth
These would be the most classic of the fairies. Gardens and nature would be associated with these fairies, with the ability to rapidly grow crops, revive dead crops (or kill crops if they're mean or evil), talk to plants, have a special hidden interaction for plant sims, having great influence within Sylvan Glade, giving fellow sims a nature-related buff moodlet, pranking sims by having flowers growing out of their skin, having a great love of animals and forests, get a moodlet themselves when they're around several plants, whether they be crops or decorative plants, produce seeds, give a green thumb blessing to sims, etc.
Ethereal and Emotional
Auras of course, being able to bless or curse sims with various light or dark abilities, inducing emotions with some type of mystical manipulation, something similar to "Inner Beauty" from Sims 3, being able to turn ordinary sims into fairies, various pranks as stated above, freeing bound fairy familiars, and other ethereal and emotional things I'm not thinking of.
Of course, if a perk tree is possible, it would be interesting, as to not make it overpowered, for fairies to choose their path, and use the points they gain to be dedicated to certain aspects or abilities. They should have limited magic and energy, and certain side perks to reduce the amount they spend, or have more generalized passive or ability perks.
I also think it would be really cool if toddlers and children had very limited abilities as fairies (mainly just for their entertainment), and their perk trees being unlocked (or at least having more abilities) when they become teen and older. But all ages should have fairy wings I believe.
World
It should be split into three to four districts. Water/snow lands, deep and very beautiful enchanted forests, and floating crystalline lots and islands. If that's too much, then a colorful mystical forest containing both natural and crystalline structures decorating the place with a few lots would be fine, as they would be compatible with other worlds more easily. There should definitely be a magic feel to it.
Build/Buy
Definitely themed things like sticks, flowers, leaves, crystals, ice, etc.
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I also think there could be great inspiration taken from these two dollmaker games from Azalea's Dolls:
https://azaleasdolls.com/dressupgames/fairyofseasons.phphttps://azaleasdolls.com/dressupgames/fairyofsecrets.php
In conclusion... I have no conclusion.
What do you guys think?
Comments
Because what I want for Faeries is basically Brian Froud's Faeries as a pack, and that's (most likely) not going to happen.
So this seems like a good alternative, even if I can't quite bring myself to be enthusiastic about Pretty Pixies being the extent of Faeries.
Proud Giyu Tomioka simp.
However as far as CAS goes, I would like to have some more modern fashion in addition to the traditional fantasy stuff maybe something like this.
As well as some kind of inclusion of the Seelie and Unseelie courts Even if they're just traits or aspirations.
Just some excerpts from Wikipedia. Since I don't feel like explaining. Lol.
"The Seelie Court were described as those fairies who would seek help from humans, warn those who have accidentally offended them, and return human kindness with favors of their own. Still, a fairy belonging to this court would avenge insults and could be prone to mischief."
"The Unseelie Court, conversely, was used to describe the darkly-inclined fairies. Unlike the Seelie Court, no offense was deemed necessary to bring down their assaults."
But it's defintely more of a hope/dream than a probability.
But yeah I've read a couple of Brian Froud's faery books as well, and I can see what you mean. I even prefer to spell it "faery" rather than "fairy" (just need to speak the Sims 4 language in the off chance a dev may read this, even though I don't know if there was much point in that xD). I think the biggest issue is that a lot of the faeries he depicts are not very family friendly, but with a few they do have very beautiful dresses and wings. And I love their abilities and lore. (Of course I was also excited that he was responsible for the artistic design of the movie The Dark Crystal, a childhood favorite of mine).
@AbbyBaba729 I can see that being a thing.
@MeowchaFrappe Ah good idea with your modern take! Didn't really think of that.
The Seelie and Unseelie courts sound familiar... what's it from?
The thing is, his depictions of Fae are much closer to "real" faeries than the ... basically pretty pixies that are the "default" picture most people have of Faries. While the art is his interpretation of the fae, the faeries he's drawing are much, much older, coming from mostly European (and mostly English, Scottish, Irish and French) folklore.
Pretty Pixies is what I call the interpretation of Faries as Tinkerbell and her cousins... or more or less Fairies as they've been in the Sims so far. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's superficial (and Victorian) and doesn't touch on what makes Faerie Kind interesting to me. I don't want just pixies. I want Nixies, Dryads, Sidhe, Spriggans, Nockers, Redcaps, Pookas, Goblins, Boggarts, brownies, Domovoi, Water Babies, Swamp Hags, Leprechauns... But I know that's too much, even if they stick to the ones that look more or less like humans.
And like MeowchaFrappe, I want the Seelie court and the Unseelie court. They're a long-standing part of European (mostly gaelic) Faerie lore.
I just don't think they'd go 100% Brian Froud due to a lot of adult themes in the books. I like the idea of taking inspiration from powers and some looks though. It would be really fun to have faeries of all sorts of different varieties like the ones you just mentioned from the books.
Though if faeries do come out and it's the cliche type, there could be a chance the PC players will get/create some nice mods to perhaps make them look or behave closer to Brian Froud's? I mean that's pretty much what some people did with mermaids. We have so many custom tails, skin details, make up, and other things now, and a mermaid expansion mod that gives them several new abilities. That and the Sims community seems to have a thing for hybrids, so maybe we'll be able to have a mod to create faery/spellcaster hybrids, or faery/vampire, etc, etc, you know what I'm getting at lol. With being able to create faery hybrids, one could make them much closer to the books.
Basically, even if it is Pretty Pixies as you call it, there's still hope I believe.
Okay, um... The Faries in The Sims so far are Humanoids with Insect wings. These are a type of Fairy called Pixies. The ones that Froud wrote about aren't "his" they're from European (and other) Folklore. He didn't create them. Tiny Humanoids with Wings was a Victorian take on Faries to try to make them Palatable for Victorian Sensibilities and is really limited to Field Sprites. Froud's interpretation is just one way of drawing those Fae, but I'd be good with any visual interpretation of more kinds of Fae than just Pixies. I picked his book because it's a good compendium of several different kinds of Fae from European (mostly English, Scottish, Irish, and French) Folklore. I mean, I like his art style too, but that's really secondary to wanting other kinds of Fae from Folklore. And honestly, you could go with his work on Labyrinth too, since those are all Fairies by my book. But my wish isn't so much for a particular art style as the addition of more varieties of Fairy. So we could have Pixies, and Sidhe, and Brownies, and Nockers, and yes Goblins.
Now, I understand the limitations of the game, so I'm okay with getting Pixies as the only available Fairy type. But Pixies are just one of so many kinds of Fae from Folklore (and as I said, most of it sanitized by Victorian Society) and Modders can only do so much. I mean, I put together a Redcap with just a Spellcaster, using mostly the RPG Changeling: the Dreaming imagery for Redcaps. But she's not really a redcap from Changeling. She can't eat anything - including things that can't be eaten like baseball bats. And while I might manage the visuals, Brownies won't take care of domestic tasks any faster, Nockers won't have any better luck when digging for crystals, Goblins won't be any better at mischief, Redcaps won't be any better in a fight. They'll all just be Pixies with different skins. And Sidhe will still be Spellcasters with Pointy Ears rather than Faries because Sidhe should have magic.
Like I said, I'm okay with just getting Pixies. They're fine. My calling them Pixies isn't intended as an Insult. It's simply a classification of what they are. But I'm not going to get excited for Pixies. Even if they are a way to make Toot-Toot from the Dresden Files. Because I know that Faries are so, so much more than just Tiny Humanoids with Wings. And I didn't learn it from Froud, I learned it at my Irish great grandmother's knee.
Dark, scary, baby stealers.
The Wild Hunt.
The Yule Lads.
Eating in fairy land costing you your loved ones.
Spending too long in fairy land, and having decades pass in the mortal world.
And the Fae, the Wild Hunt, are the Norse gods.
when i picture fairies i picture mischievous & giggly creatures.
as for ts4 fairies i'd love them with lots of glitter, sparkles, fairy dust, slightly shiny auras, and i'd love if they had a slight magic glitter sound when they move/fly, but very slight just to not annoy the players. i'd also love if they could shrink and had some gameplay while shrunk. i know that would be hard to animate but i would really love it. i'd love if they had a perks tree. ts3 could be a great influence on the gameplay they could use now & it could also get expanded. like you said, fairies could play a big role on emotions influence and could also get in the way of someone else's relationship, sabotaging it or inducing it. they could also be able to talk to animals & plants. element fairies like the ones from the tinkerbell movies would be pretty cool too, and i don't think they'd really need seasons except for the winter one, but some crossover gameplay would be great.
i'd love if also the current Sylvan Glade fx fairies get an enhancement to the point of being interactable. sims could go to Sylvan Glade & talk with these fairies, and depending on the interactions sims could gain fairy powers or get pranked by them.
a controversial idea, but like vampires, fairies could get the chance to break into sims houses at night & break their stuff while shrunk & giggling on the process! this would annoy almost everyone LOL (it could come with a toggle tho) but it would be hilarious.
as for the world, i'd love a Sylvan Glade but bigger and livable, expanded with the things you mentioned.
if we happen to get werewolves on the same pack, then the world could be like this: the light side where there's a fairy community, and the darker side of the world where all the werewolves would hide on.
yep i'd also love a bit of fairies lore just because! like for example bringing our first fairy in the franchise, our Faerie Queen Mara from ts1!
and we could also get a new npc just for the lols, the tooth fairy, so our kids could finally lose their teeth and then the tooth fairy would come! if the kids have bad grades they could just leave nothing or a prank, but if the kid has good grades they could leave some cash.
i love that book!
as much as i'd love to see more folklore-like fairies, for the sims aesthetic & stuff i think a Tinkerbell inspired fairy would do just right for now, like in the case of mermaids. the design is simple yet pretty, it's how lots of people picture them, too.
Pranks and mischief should be 100% something focused on in a fairy pack though. Because well, you really can't have fairies without pranks and mischief. I mean even the Seelie are known to mess with humans, they're just not as darkly inclined as the Unseelie so maybe their pranks could be a bit more lighthearted in nature compared to the Unseelie?
Also a new suggestion for the world: perhaps it could be like Realm of Magic where there's two worlds in one? The "main" world could be a Scottish inspired world (or even the Scottish Highlands mentioned in the survey back in April) and the world you described so beautifully could be the actual fairy realm?
As much as I love the idea if there being some "darkness" to the faeries I doubt Sims would go to some of these extremes you mentioned. (mainly the changeling and baby stealing) Although, I do feel some of these could be quite possible if modified.
- I don't think they could have decades pass in the mortal world (since Sims doesn't really have the same times as we do) but I think going to the faerie realm on say Tuesday and then returning on Friday when you get back to the "real" world would be quite possible. Possibly followed by a buff feeling embarrassed or dazed from staying so long.
- Maybe the faerie realm wouldn't have to make you lose loved ones, but eating something there should defintely affect Sims in some manner. I'd honestly love that.
And as for the Wild Hunt... how about they just give us a whole Norse Mythology pack? I mean, I doubt they would realistically... but I can still dream, right? I don't know about you, but I for one would love a Norse Mythology themed pack.
Then powers are structured similar to how Vampire powers are structured, in that there's no specific tree to climb, but there are powers ranked by level. And the costs for those powers would also be influenced by the Fairy type. Some would be cheaper, possibly to the point of being free, others would be more expensive or even locked, and the rest would be the "base cost" whatever that may be.
There would also be a skill that they level up in faster (for example Gardening for Garden Fairies, Cooking for Household, Handiness for Mountain, Fitness for Guardian) and associated tasks that they can perform faster. And if those tasks are available to children, child fairies get the bonus too. All Fairies would get Mischief as a "bonus" skill as well.
When the Fairy becomes a Teen and gets access to the Power perks, they also then have to choose a court. NPC representatives of each court come and make their pitch, and depending on the Sim's traits, the game text suggests one or the other, but the final decision is up to you. Not sure what benefits choosing a court would have, as this is mostly half-remembered from 3 am this morning.
And while this was a fun exercise, it's all much more than they'd actually put in a Game Pack. Unless Conor was in charge because he seems to be able to get a heck of a lot out of his budgets.
If you have more ideas, feel free to let me know!
Let's get EA/Maxis to notice this one!
Oh, @bella_goth , sorry I forgot to notify you of the post. I meant to, I just totally forgot...
i think faries should be able to fly and have magic powers they should be very pretty and magical and they could come with there own fary world that normal sims cant go to thats a secret
hopefully we get them notified by devs and they consider all the concepts
Because it's a habit. xD
Yeah I hope so too. Maybe if we're lucky, well behaved, and we wish really, really hard, the next pack after this ghostly one will have faeries... wishful thinking on my end, but no harm in dreaming. xD
It would be super awesome if there could be evil fairies, but idk how that would work :#
Well, Evil trait exists, even if it's mostly useless. And they could do as they've done and take from the Mischief school of Magic and other things (like the Voodoo doll) and somehow parse those out as Fairy abilities. I mean, it's part of why some of us are asking for the Seelie and Unseelie courts (though they were defined more by how benign or malign the fairy was towards humanity. And even the Seelie could be cruel.)
No need to apologize for not being able to reply, it's hard to keep up when a thread starts gaining this much attention. But I'm defintely glad to see that it is. Maybe we actually can get EA/Maxis to notice this thread and include some of our ideas.
I get what you're saying about including this in Realm of Magic, but considering it was more focused on witches (well Spellcasters technically) I don't think that the ideas would have meshed well together, especially if they choose to incorporate actual fairy mythology.
Maybe we can try to keep your superhero thread, other desperate threads, and this thread on the first page and near the top as much as we can (though let's not stress ourselves out over it xD). I think they might eventually get looked at if they are.
That would actually be really awesome if you wanted to that. A lot of people really seem to want this pack, so if EA actually listened and at least checked out our threads (this one and my superhero thread) we might actually stand a chance at getting the gameplay we'd love to have.
And well, I guess the best way to keep this thread, my superheroes thread, and the werewolf thread would be to just keep talking about possible pack features and pitching ideas.
Maybe even trying to make mock-up characters/samples with CC?
for skills they could have one for each element so that if someone wanted a earth fairy they could do that but also allow us to mix it up so if someone wanted a water and ice fairy they could do that.
I think if done right and if the sims team listens to our suggestions they could come up with a really fun and cool fae pack