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Bust the Dust Kit complaints

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  • calaprfycalaprfy Posts: 3,927 Member
    • Clean equals inspired mood and boost to all skills and working from home.
    • Dusty equals happy mood and boost to socials and relationships.
    • Dirty equals embarrassment!
  • elanorbretonelanorbreton Posts: 14,518 Member
    Well I switched to a larger house/family today in my rotation and actually did see one incident of auto hoovering. The house had been hoovered and was sparkly clean but the dad got up from watching TV and started hoovering again. Thankfully, it was only once.

    What drove me round the bend today was the permanent inspired moods for everyone. I spent the whole time stopping the 4 kids from making messes all over the place.

    And I got so annoyed at them all stopping in each room to sniff at the cleanness that I modded that out. Will have to mod the mood buffs out next. And all these years, I have rarely resorted to mods...
  • texxx78texxx78 Posts: 5,657 Member
    Unfortunatelly i will have to use at least one mod too. I will download the one that takes all the moodlets out. My sim enters her home and bam inspired, i right click (ui cheats) in the moodlet and take it out so that my sim can feel other things besides the cleaningness of her home; she goes upstairs and bam inspired, i take that out and after one sim hour bam inspired again...
    I managed to find a perfectly reasonable routine that keeps my sims house clean without ruining the rest of the gameplay but the moodlets are just too much...
  • LoanetLoanet Posts: 4,079 Member
    edited March 2021
    Americans pay $5. As a resident of the UK I'm paying $8.50. I know it has to be a round number, but if that's the case, to pay $5, why aren't I paying something like £3.50?

    What makes the packs worth more? Lord knows it can't be shipping costs...

    And yet I still have to endure the insult that I don't HAVE to buy it. You know what? I DO have to buy it. Because I want my collection to be complete, because I want full access to the Gallery and full gameplay, because there are items in there that I genuinely want, and yet for some reason EA says they're worth more in the UK. They aren't even worth $5! Liking the items in the pack and liking the price aren't the same thing.

    Do you know how EA will fix this price discrepancy? By making American kits more expensive - just like when they raised the price of Packs in Europe, and I predicted an American price rise a few months later right then. But how DARE I complain about the European price increase?! I should not buy the packs! I should stop playing the game! I should stop having fun!

    Whenever I complain about prices, I'm CLEARLY just picking on poor, sweet, delicate EA. How SELFISH I am.
    Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    edited March 2021
    Loanet wrote: »
    Do you know how EA will fix this price discrepancy? By making American kits more expensive - just like when they raised the price of Packs in Europe, and I predicted an American price rise a few months later right then. But how DARE I complain about the European price increase?!.

    @Loanet The UK has it probably the worst because of the pound difference. It's very similar across all countries with the Euro as well. I mean it's not as bad as the pound.
    Because Euros are worth more than dollars the prices ocer here are roughly

    6$ USD for kits
    12$ USD for stuff packs
    23,7$ USD for game packs
    and whole 47,5$ USD for expansions. That is almost 10 bucks more than the price in the US.

    Also it's important to note that for example 20€ are far more valuable than dollars. I can actually go grocery shopping for 2 weeks with 20€, at least for me as one person. So yeah, not only are Europeans paying more for the packs, the increased amount they pay is actually really valuable as well.
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • LoanetLoanet Posts: 4,079 Member
    edited March 2021
    @SimmerGeorge Stuff Packs used to be £7.99. When they rose to £9.99 (and rose in a lot of other countries as well) a lot of Americans told complainers "If you don't like the price, just don't buy the game. Or wait for a sale. That's how you should protest!"

    You know in two years I don't think I've seen a sale on individual Stuff Packs on Origin, in the UK - at least not in anything less than three or four years old. Oh, but there's 'Build Your Own Bundles' now. Except Bundles mean nothing to somebody who owns the vast majority of the pack anyway. I've owned the game since... Get Together, I think. All I have to do is put off buying an Expansion or Game Pack for two or three years and I can save a couple of pounds on a Stuff Pack I've put off for two or three years as well.

    So they're saying that because I want the whole game, I just have to put off buying vital and deep packs like Seasons or Parenthood for a year in the HOPE that I'll save a buck on Laundry Day. That'll send a message to EA, I'm sure.

    I expect Kits will go on sale in bundles too. That'll make a BIG difference to excited customers who bought straight away.
    Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    calaprfy wrote: »
    • Clean equals inspired mood and boost to all skills and working from home.
    • Dusty equals happy mood and boost to socials and relationships.
    • Dirty equals embarrassment!

    :/ But aren't there already dozens of other ways to get these same benefits and or bad moodlets? When will Maxis come up with other moods and benefits instead of recycling what is already in the base and or other packs.
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    Cinebar wrote: »
    calaprfy wrote: »
    • Clean equals inspired mood and boost to all skills and working from home.
    • Dusty equals happy mood and boost to socials and relationships.
    • Dirty equals embarrassment!

    :/ But aren't there already dozens of other ways to get these same benefits and or bad moodlets? When will Maxis come up with other moods and benefits instead of recycling what is already in the base and or other packs.

    @Cinebar Honestly for 6 years now every time a pack comes out, it's "use this object to increase relationship gain" "use this to change your moodlets". It's getting so repetitive, from the tea brewing machine and potions in the base game, the trees in jungle adventure, the tiny homes, the good reputation benefits and the dust bunnies, there are literally 200 million ways to gain moodlets and relationship gain already.

    Not only is this repetitive to me, it also makes the game feel way too broken because you gain skills, money, moodlets like nothing. Really nerfs the challenging aspects of the game.
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    edited March 2021
    Cinebar wrote: »
    calaprfy wrote: »
    • Clean equals inspired mood and boost to all skills and working from home.
    • Dusty equals happy mood and boost to socials and relationships.
    • Dirty equals embarrassment!

    :/ But aren't there already dozens of other ways to get these same benefits and or bad moodlets? When will Maxis come up with other moods and benefits instead of recycling what is already in the base and or other packs.

    @Cinebar Honestly for 6 years now every time a pack comes out, it's "use this object to increase relationship gain" "use this to change your moodlets". It's getting so repetitive, from the tea brewing machine and potions in the base game, the trees in jungle adventure, the tiny homes, the good reputation benefits and the dust bunnies, there are literally 200 million ways to gain moodlets and relationship gain already.

    Not only is this repetitive to me, it also makes the game feel way too broken because you gain skills, money, moodlets like nothing. Really nerfs the challenging aspects of the game.

    Yeah, it would be worth the gameplay if there was not already all these other ways to get some benefits like clean equals inspired mood, which is possible in the base...when I did play my Sims were always inspired, happy and had no problems with socials. And or embarrassed or tense about something....I don't know, it just seems it would all make sense if none of it was possible in the base but it is, so I don't really see a point in adding in more and more packs that do the very same things for the Sims. ETA: some could argue that skills in the games work the same way, like how to get logic so several packs offer different ways (I wish) but TS4 is supposed to be about emotions but they never add any new ones when they do add a new pack or only one in a blue moon and it also turns out to be a same animation and reaction to one already in game even if named differently. This is the fail of TS4 on the scale of bigger problems.
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    edited March 2021
    Well I switched to a larger house/family today in my rotation and actually did see one incident of auto hoovering. The house had been hoovered and was sparkly clean but the dad got up from watching TV and started hoovering again. Thankfully, it was only once.

    What drove me round the bend today was the permanent inspired moods for everyone. I spent the whole time stopping the 4 kids from making messes all over the place.

    And I got so annoyed at them all stopping in each room to sniff at the cleanness that I modded that out. Will have to mod the mood buffs out next. And all these years, I have rarely resorted to mods...

    Oh, wow, this reminds me of Virtual Families 2, Dream House. In that game when you get enough money (money is very hard to raise) to finish off and repair one of the rooms in the house those little Sims auto go sniff the room, players have to cancel that like ten dozen times. They were always going to sniff the air in that room. Not sure if it still was bad and or if it was good but it was so freaking annoying. lol Why did Maxis do the same thing for The Sims 4? autonomous actions are great in a game, but not to the point of redundancy.
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • simgirl1010simgirl1010 Posts: 35,707 Member
    This isn't meant as combative but really interested. What would you have done differently with the vacuums?
  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    Personally, I would have added new moodlets and new emotions to gain not inspired, or embarrassed, or tense, and or happy to boost socials...we already have a zillion ways to get there. New features means new and expanded ways to add things not ever in a game. To me the system seems ok and somewhat fun, but the results the Sim gains are redundant. TS4 keeps doing this. They are redundant with the redundancy. :D
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    edited March 2021
    Or maybe when someone leaves their house too dirty there could be penalties like reputation decreasing slightly whenever you invite sims over and they see the mess, or other sims gossiping about your dirty house or even a decreased chance that sims will accept your invitations because you have a messy place so you'd either have to visit them or go other places with them.
    Just from the top of my head.

    Maybe they could have added new options in the create a holiday menu for seasons. Correct me if I'm wrong and they actually did this but it would be so cool if we could create a "Spring cleaning" holiday event with vacuuming and cleaning the house as goals for the day. Lazy sims would ignore it and neat sims would be excited for it.
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • simgirl1010simgirl1010 Posts: 35,707 Member
    Those are great suggestions SimmerGeorge. That's what I think some simmers have problems with when they speak about endless negativity. Criticism without offering suggestions for improving gameplay.
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    That's what I think some simmers have problems with when they speak about endless negativity. Criticism without offering suggestions for improving gameplay.

    @simgirl1010 That definitely give me something to think about. :#
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • Pamtastic72Pamtastic72 Posts: 4,545 Member
    edited March 2021
    Loanet wrote: »
    Americans pay $5. As a resident of the UK I'm paying $8.50. I know it has to be a round number, but if that's the case, to pay $5, why aren't I paying something like £3.50?

    What makes the packs worth more? Lord knows it can't be shipping costs...

    And yet I still have to endure the insult that I don't HAVE to buy it. You know what? I DO have to buy it. Because I want my collection to be complete, because I want full access to the Gallery and full gameplay, because there are items in there that I genuinely want, and yet for some reason EA says they're worth more in the UK. They aren't even worth $5! Liking the items in the pack and liking the price aren't the same thing.

    Do you know how EA will fix this price discrepancy? By making American kits more expensive - just like when they raised the price of Packs in Europe, and I predicted an American price rise a few months later right then. But how DARE I complain about the European price increase?! I should not buy the packs! I should stop playing the game! I should stop having fun!

    Whenever I complain about prices, I'm CLEARLY just picking on poor, sweet, delicate EA. How SELFISH I am.

    It’s based on currency exchange rates + taxes/tariffs. The pound generally tracks very close to the US dollar in value, so the extra you’re paying is likely some kind of tax. Since EA is a US company it may be an import tax, and some countries tax digital entertainment as a luxury item.
  • elanorbretonelanorbreton Posts: 14,518 Member
    Loanet wrote: »
    Americans pay $5. As a resident of the UK I'm paying $8.50. I know it has to be a round number, but if that's the case, to pay $5, why aren't I paying something like £3.50?

    What makes the packs worth more? Lord knows it can't be shipping costs...

    And yet I still have to endure the insult that I don't HAVE to buy it. You know what? I DO have to buy it. Because I want my collection to be complete, because I want full access to the Gallery and full gameplay, because there are items in there that I genuinely want, and yet for some reason EA says they're worth more in the UK. They aren't even worth $5! Liking the items in the pack and liking the price aren't the same thing.

    Do you know how EA will fix this price discrepancy? By making American kits more expensive - just like when they raised the price of Packs in Europe, and I predicted an American price rise a few months later right then. But how DARE I complain about the European price increase?! I should not buy the packs! I should stop playing the game! I should stop having fun!

    Whenever I complain about prices, I'm CLEARLY just picking on poor, sweet, delicate EA. How SELFISH I am.

    It’s based on currency exchange rates + taxes/tariffs. The pound generally tracks very close to the US dollar in value, so the extra you’re paying is likely some kind of tax. Since EA is a US company it may be an import tax, and some countries tax digital entertainment as a luxury item.

    Yeah, doesn't the US charge you tax on top of that $5? So you're paying more than $5 for the packs anyway? Whereas in the UK, the £4.99 we pay is the total price.
  • Pamtastic72Pamtastic72 Posts: 4,545 Member
    edited March 2021
    Loanet wrote: »
    Americans pay $5. As a resident of the UK I'm paying $8.50. I know it has to be a round number, but if that's the case, to pay $5, why aren't I paying something like £3.50?

    What makes the packs worth more? Lord knows it can't be shipping costs...

    And yet I still have to endure the insult that I don't HAVE to buy it. You know what? I DO have to buy it. Because I want my collection to be complete, because I want full access to the Gallery and full gameplay, because there are items in there that I genuinely want, and yet for some reason EA says they're worth more in the UK. They aren't even worth $5! Liking the items in the pack and liking the price aren't the same thing.

    Do you know how EA will fix this price discrepancy? By making American kits more expensive - just like when they raised the price of Packs in Europe, and I predicted an American price rise a few months later right then. But how DARE I complain about the European price increase?! I should not buy the packs! I should stop playing the game! I should stop having fun!

    Whenever I complain about prices, I'm CLEARLY just picking on poor, sweet, delicate EA. How SELFISH I am.

    It’s based on currency exchange rates + taxes/tariffs. The pound generally tracks very close to the US dollar in value, so the extra you’re paying is likely some kind of tax. Since EA is a US company it may be an import tax, and some countries tax digital entertainment as a luxury item.

    Yeah, doesn't the US charge you tax on top of that $5? So you're paying more than $5 for the packs anyway? Whereas in the UK, the £4.99 we pay is the total price.

    Yes, in the US we actually pay sales tax based on state set base rates & county you live in of the recipient of the goods. So for example my state’s base rate is 6.5% then in my county we pay an additional 2.4% for a total sales tax of 8.9% so when I bought all three kits it was $16.30. One kit with sales tax in my area is $5.43. All states have varying rates of sales tax, with some states having 0% because they collect state income tax each year at the same time federal income tax is collected instead of taxing each sale. So, even in the US we don’t pay just $4.99, $9.99, $19.99, or $39.99 per pack/kit because however you’re taxed, even in the US the price will vary by state, and in some cases county as well.
  • EternalSunshineEternalSunshine Posts: 339 Member
    edited March 2021
    Yeah, doesn't the US charge you tax on top of that $5? So you're paying more than $5 for the packs anyway? Whereas in the UK, the £4.99 we pay is the total price.
    It depends. I do not pay tax on Origin purchases in my state.
  • texxx78texxx78 Posts: 5,657 Member
    So, i have improved my Bust the Dust gameplay by adding a few mods: one that takes out all the moodlets related to dust and other that takes out the random small earnings that the bunnies bring. Now i'm really happy :)
    Both the mods are from Zero. He has some amazing mods! I ended up downloading a lot of other mods (unrelated to this pack) :)
  • Mstybl95Mstybl95 Posts: 5,883 Member

    What drove me round the bend today was the permanent inspired moods for everyone. I spent the whole time stopping the 4 kids from making messes all over the place.

    This annoyed me so much that I had to learn to make mods for this game just to stop it. Constant inspired with 4 kids and a toddler was a freaking nightmare. Not to mention the hoovering being autonomous and my sim quitting the assigned task to do it. Constantly. Every. 10. Seconds.
  • carpe_diemcarpe_diem Posts: 280 Member
    Mstybl95 wrote: »

    What drove me round the bend today was the permanent inspired moods for everyone. I spent the whole time stopping the 4 kids from making messes all over the place.

    This annoyed me so much that I had to learn to make mods for this game just to stop it. Constant inspired with 4 kids and a toddler was a freaking nightmare. Not to mention the hoovering being autonomous and my sim quitting the assigned task to do it. Constantly. Every. 10. Seconds.

    I have that in my game too, it's soo annoying! My sim's cancel their actions (eg. cooking a meal) to vacuum all the time. It's reported as a bug on the forum:
    https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-BDK-Wont-stop-Vacuuming/m-p/10125109#M175779
  • carpe_diemcarpe_diem Posts: 280 Member
    edited March 2021
    I do like the Bust the Dust kit in many aspects, and I like the idea of it but the kit/pack is very buggy and bad tuned (too much and all over the place, see James Turners video). Many of the bugs in my game did ocur within a hour of playing (these bugs are also reported by other players on the bug forum, BTW I don't have mods/CC in my game) so I wonder if the kit was play tested? Is this because they working from home? Is it because they are planning to end the sims 4 soon? Or is sims 4 going to end itself with all these bugs? I understand that programming a game is really hard work, but I think that it's a little sad when the game turns out to be unplayable because of bad tuning and lots of bugs. I really would have been more positive to the kit if there were less of them. :/

    BUST THE DUST KIT - CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK / FIXES

    1. Handheld & upright vacuum cleaners needs to have a dock/platform (didn't we have one for the robotic vacuum in Cats & Dogs EP?). Right now you need to own 9 vacuum cleaners in a big family (8 for their inventories +1 as a decoration on the lot), it's better if we can buy a dock where the vacuum cleaner can return to after usage.

    2. Add an usable broom E.g. This could be used for off the grid/Historical players (Update to Laundry day SP: making the wall hanging broom usable)

    3. The house gets dirty to fast. My suggestions: To keep the Pristine level - vacuum every day, To keep the Dusty level - vacuum every 5-7 days.

    4. Dust bunnies spawn to often (I'm ok with 1/week or an option to toggle Dust bunnies on/off. Now I get 3+ Dust bunnies/day).

    5. Dust bunnies should not generate money if you haven't interacted with them/asked them (How to keep my poor sim poor when I get money from just having Dust bunnies/Dust on the lot?)

    6. Positive moodlets (from Pristine/Dusty level) shouldn't be constant. There is already a problem with challenges in the game, your sim's gets stuck in a constant good mood. My suggestion: If having a Pristine / Dusty level = the possibility to get a Pristine moodlet (+2 inspired) / Dusty moodlet (+1 happy). You will now get the moodlet every now and then, similiar to how the lot traits works.

    7. This had been perfect timing to add the Maid career to the kit / Base game (a sim with this career will be assigned to this role when playing on another household)

    BUGS
    1. Sims cancel their actions to vacuum
    2. Floor become clean by itself
    3. Sims with slob trait can't fulfill aspiration milestone
    4. Can't turn off the dust system
    5. Sims can't vacuum up puddles (with upright vacuum cleaner)
    6. Adult sim's can't use handheld vacuum cleaner on floor (puddles/dirt/childrens mess/etc)



    Post edited by carpe_diem on
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    @carpe_diem Wow that's some great feedback. I would even say go ahead and put all this in a new thread in the feedback section? Maybe someone from EA checks that section and will see who knows.
    But the feedback definitely deserves its own thread in the correct section of the forums and I think your post has a really good summary.
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • EllupelluelluEllupelluellu Posts: 6,777 Member
    @carpe_diem , just have to say, as a person who is in the "positive side", your "complaining" post was awesome :) and added links to bug reports too :) Very good :)
    My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
    Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
    My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
    Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..

    My Story:Villa Catarina
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