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What makes a sims 4 pack good ?
Horrorgirl6
Posts: 3,183 Member
I think sims 4 had some good packs .So what makes them good ?
Post edited by Horrorgirl6 on
4
Horrorgirl6
Posts: 3,183 Member
Comments
GTW tries to juggle Retail, Aliens and Active careers, and the first two are suffering from that. Strangerville has Sparring as an afterthought. Compare to Bowling Night that does the theme justice with in-depth details (switching into different shoes, themed team shirts and gloves in CAS, the different ball unlocks, an extra skill and even a secret achievement).
- Providing features that imagination cannot
Fun as it can be to play, a university pack isn't really needed. I can easily gate access to careers and cheat-promote sims that graduate from my imaginary colleges that I ran before the pack released. But I cannot that easily imagine bicycles, cows or little spectres that zip around the lot.
Especially the bicycles are great value, because modders have used them as bases for different vehicles including a wheelchair and a horse.
Occults with developed gameplay (eg pre-nerfed Vampires) that includes both imaginative and more play directed features, lots of things for sims out of world to do (eg the festivals with City Living), good CAS that suits the overall (occult) theme of the pack, ditto for Build/Buy.
Female Simmer from Australia (she/her)
I had one of my Sims marry the Grim Reaper & now they have a lot of kids.
I'm not like a lot of simmers here where I focus on just one aspect of the game so only think something is good if it enhances that. All a pack needs for me to consider it good is to do whatever it is that the pack adds in a way that I will use it and enjoy it regularly.
That makes packs focused on highly "situational" things less good as far as I'm concerned. So a pack like Get Famous is less good than a pack like Seasons to me because what GF adds is situational and not something I'll even touch with most households, other than the World. If Del Sol Valley had been larger and more interesting, I'd think differently about the pack as a whole.
A pack that is very situational for one aspect, but I still rank as good would be Vampires. Because, though Vampires themselves are definitely situational, the pack has really great BB and CAS assets.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
Some of my favorite parts of Maxis packs was when I could use the features of the packs in all worlds, they allowed me to change how to play my households and offered me variety. Playing with a different household could lead to different results and using other packs could also lead to different results.
Some of my least favorite parts of Maxis packs was when I was restricted to a world, I could play different households and end up with the same results. Changing things around with different packs doesn't do much and the pack left a lot up to the user to "pretend" that things were happening.
Some of my favorite parts from different packs: The four different seasons, Apartments, The many different Cats & Dogs, Robotics, Wellness skill, The different temples in the jungle, photography, clubs.
Some of my least favorite parts from different packs: Rabbit Hole Solutions and Repetitive tasks from different packs or things that don't work well in the game.
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
spellcasters, fame, vet clinics, sustainable living, Strangerville, JTB, etc.
However, I'll also rate games like Island Living and Snowy Escape highly because of the massive amount of location specific gameplay it adds. Living in Sulani is vastly different to just visiting, and life there is also very different from say Newcrest or Willow Creek. It adds something unique.
Cas/BB is important, and there are game packs that I find myself returning again and again to. Few of my builds are made without something from snowy escape or spa day and if it's an ordinary home movie hangout and parenthood are used all the time. In fact I bought movie hangout because I thought I'd use the cinema a lot, but what I find myself using is the bb items more than anything.
Dine out is in my mind one of the worst ideas for a pack that ever existed. It's buggy, repetitive, there is a lack of variety in game play and limitations that makes little sense - it's also one of those "greedy packs" that exists only because it was a way to make extra money. Restaurants ought to be base game, running them a part of GTW. My wedding stories rates right up there too - as many of the interactions ought to be base game.
Now if I was in charge, the Basegame would include seasons (with weather that can be toggled on and off entirely or by world), most of get together, all interactions in parenthood and restaurants and retails stores.
One is that a lot of care was put into the details. For example, I love that in Spa Day, when you watch sims doing the yoga class, even if they are all at the same level and they all fail at a specific pose, they do not all fail in the exact same way. Some start shaking and jitter around, some can't reach far enough, some fall over, some just give up. This kind of variety and detail captivates me. The more detail, the happier I am.
The other is that the player is given full control over how and when features of the pack are used. Everything in the pack needs to be optional, including any new systems that affect how the player plays. A good example of this being done well is the fame system. You can have it on for every sim, off for every sim, off for most sims but on for just the ones you want it on for. If you have it on, the things that will raise fame are clearly marked so you can avoid them if you want to progress slowly, or choose them more if you want to progress quickly. And you can quit it by stepping out of the spot light any time you want. I like this. An example (in the same pack) of this being done poorly is the reputation system. It's just on. For every sim. Whether you like it or not. There is no way to get rid of it, and no way to modify it.
So, basically, how much I like a pack amounts to a combination of whether the features included are both optional and detailed.
Next up, I like packs that were similar to Sims 2 or Sims 3, because I have a soft spot for the previous versions, and I don't want my Sims 4 not have them.
Finally, I like packs that work seamlessly together, where you have to think about what pack actually had the item, because it flows so well with another. Seasons is one of those packs that is a pack you don't really think about, but adds so much.
Packs I'm usually not a fan of are the ones which basically offer a "brief distraction". E.g. holiday themed ones which require you to travel to a specific location and do a specific thing for a little while. Packs like this often end up being forgotten after trying them out like 2 times. However, I think they CAN be done well depending on how much depth there is and how much advantage they take over their theme.
If you want my opinion on "how NOT to do a pack" then look no further than My Wedding Stories. Technical issues can be fixed. My main issue with it is that they have a very specific theme but then fail to actually add depth to it, not taking advantage of that specific theme. It's just a shallow micromanagement event which is missing all the potential fun drama wedding scenarios could have. Heck, it's called My Wedding STORIES. Yet all the party events are basically copy-pasted with nothing making e.g. bach parties unique and the weddings themselves are missing so much content that should be there. The pack is such a missed opportunity.
Unfortunately EA failed to expand on a sims personality by not giving an extra trait slot for attending University.
That's what I liked about TS2 University because it felt like your sim had an experience that added to who they are.
Sometimes I would give out traits that I felt matched my sims Uni experience.
TS3 University added social groups as well for which you could earn an another trait in addition to the academic one.
TS4 got nothing.
So packs that integrate into normal everyday gameplay I tend to like. You can get the full experience in basically any world. And I like packs that will offer a different experience for different sims/households.
But I also like packs that have gameplay specific to one world. I like playing with many different types of sims. So packs that offer a new way to play and the lifestyle and everyday game play feels different than other worlds are good imo. I also like when these type of packs feels different for each sim or household you play with.
A good example is Sulani but the pack doesn't do a good job in being replayable. I don't think we have yet to get a pack that has a world that is both vastly different from other worlds and also has a lot of replayability on a similar scale to Cats and Dogs or Get Famous.
For me dine out is one of my favourite game packs because I use it a lot. Every new world that releases I love making a restaurant that fits the world and making a menu that also fits the world or culture. I also like having my sims go out and eat at restaurants and that's something I do with basically every household I play with.
Seasons is also used a lot. I mean it's one of those packs that are so integrated into every type of gameplay that it's impossible to not play with it.
And ik a lot of ppl don't like mws but after the fixes I think it's a pack I will use a lot so it's probably going to be high up on my list of most used game packs.
I like that the worlds are all distinct in terms of architecture and foliage. I think my favorite EP is Cottage Living for the farming, the pretty world, and cottages. But I also very much like City Living, which is so completely different. I love being able to send my sims to the Jungle, the city, the countryside and even to another world. I love having lots of options in CAS and BB. I can have a stone temple next to a sleek spa or gym.
I also love the details, both large and small. The sweetness of one sim teaching another sim how to knit, the way I can customize my Vampires so they are all distinct from one another. Sometimes I'll just watch a new sim cooking - it is hilarious! The animals in Cottage Living are wonderful, and I love how much that pack has added to my game. When a Vampire sneaks into a house that has the 'no shoes' rule, they take off their shoes! That's so crazy and so much fun.
For me it's changing the way you play to tell more unique stories. Features that add to this playstyle are: apartments, festivals, seasons, cottage living (garden-to-table experience, lot trait that only let's you cook when you have the ingredients), neighbours stopping by, hobbies, likes and dislikes, sentiments, clubs, new careers, cross-pack gameplay, things restricted to age groups that are not YA (e.g. playing with void critters for kids only), the ability to create Sims with skills via story feature in CAS, unique (as in not just a recoloured mesh from another pack or BG) CAS items.
Things currently not in game that would also add to this playstyle: bands, solo music career (cross gameplay with GF and CL), new instruments, new skills for toddlers and kids (e.g. learning nursery rhymes), new hobbies (e.g. pottery, jewellery making, ballet, sewing), unique interactions for elders (e.g. walking with a cane, yelling at teenagers, telling special bed time stories to toddlers that will make them sleep better).
What makes a Sims expansion boring?
Repetetive tasks (e.g. open careers in GTW), story-based gameplay (Strangerville), just scenery but not much to do (Island Living).
https://youtube.com/channel/UCaj9o4hycNSPy8U1Ip0OCFA/videos
The Sims should always be the focus of any pack, never the player. What happens to the Sim, how the Sim feels about stuff, what interaction and or memory and or consequence will change it's life forever? Or at least for a very long time. Gameplay matters, so much more than something to do temporarily and or decor but of course decor adds to immersion. But gameplay should always expand the soul of the Sim. It's not a race to the top or bottom but the journey.
I agree.
I mean, I get why people find Strangerville boring, but I've played through it 6 times with a different angle on the story each time. Just like Romeo and Juliet was retold as (among others) both West Side Story and Warm Bodies, there are ways to hit the same story beats but keep the story itself new and interesting.
That's not to say that I don't appreciate new gameplay and new worlds, but if the worlds don't get my imagination going, I may as well be playing in Willow Creek or Oasis Springs. And if the Gameplay doesn't enhance the stories I'm inspired to tell, it may as well not be there, because I'm never going to use it.
For me it's all about the story I both create and discover with my Sims.
So, yea, what makes packs good is what inspires each of us.