Or how I made my sim to live several days in the Thriftea store so that you don't have to...
I'm not a CAS player I'm integrated economy and common sense player. So I was concerned about new Trendi/Thrift feature. Could it be of any use for my style of play and will it make any sense at all. So as soon as I had my hands on Expansion I made a test Sim and sent her to stalk Thriftea shop and devastate Trendi. here's what I managed to find out.
Trendi App:
1) At any time there are 25 outfits offered for you when you brose Trendi. But You can't see outfits preview in Trendi app. So what's the purpose for reserving 1/3 of app UI for mannequin picture then? Makes me feel like it's a feature not finished properly.
2) Trendi outfits are not generated randomly. There's a set pool of
30 outfits each with it's own name. For the test purpose I've completely buy out Trendi stock 12 times. Three times a day for four days in a row. I wanted to see how many different outfits I will accumulate and if there's a random factor. All outfits and their rarity distribution are shown below under a spoiler. So far I didn't see any other ones appearing on the App. So I assume there are no more. Also when you are listing your outfits on Trendi they do not appear among 25 offered at any time.
1.Artisanal Effect (Trend - Boho) - 12/12
2.Boho Comfort (Trend - Basics) - 9/12
3.Campfire Chic (Trend - Hipster) - 12/12
4.Coffee Shop (Trend - Basics) - 10/12
5.Crooner (Trend - Country) - 10/12
6.Dark Academia Prep Modern (Trend - Basics) - 10/12
7.Dressed for Success (Trend - Preppy) - 9/12
8.Fuzz Taste (Trend - Streetwear) - 11/12
9.Great Outside (Trend - Streetwear) - 12/12
10.Llamacore Farmhand (Trend - Country) - 11/12
11.Lo-Fi (Trend - Preppy) - 10/12
12.Made To Last (Trend - Streetwear) - 7/12
13.Mountain Peak (Trend - Basics) - 10/12
14.Nocore Possibility Space (Trend - Polished) - 9/12
15.Perfect Poise (Trend - Preppy) - 11/12
16.Planet Tone (Trend - Basics) - 10/12
17.Rocksteady (Trend - Streetwear) - 12/12
18.Rough Diamond (Trend - Polished) - 11/12
19.Shaken Not Stirred (Trend - Polished) - 11/12
20.Simple Style (Trend - Basics) - 9/12
21.Smart Selection (Trend - Basics) - 11/12
22.Smarts (Trend - Basics) - 10/12
23.Sweet Ensemble (Trend - Basics) - 10/12 (this one is literally the same as #2!!!)
24.Trasher (Trend - Hipster) - 9/12
25.Untrendi (Trend - Preppy) - 8/12
26.Urban Country (Trend - Country) - 11/12
27.Urban Oasis (Trend - Basics) - 7/12
28.Vine League (Trend - Preppy) - 9/12
29.Worn Threads (Trend - Streetwear) - 9/12
30.Y2K Basic Wear (Trend - Basics) - 10/12
3) If you use List on Trendi option from the Phone App it'll simply open your inventory with preseted filters. And you'll have to list outfits from your inventory. There's no Trendi interface for that.
4) Trendi/Thrift outfits tend to stuck on some categories and be used instead of designated outfits. Like suddenly sim can sleep/jog in a Trendi outfit.
5) Outfits created through Thrift system completely ignore body frames and are applied to both genders. But at the same time not all clothes is tagged for both of them. As a result when You are selling your fashion looks and sims of both genders start to wear them only parts of outfits can be seen on sims sometimes. Like only top or bottom or even only some of accessories.
6) Trendi followers count, Simstagram followers count, Social Bunny followers count are all different from each other and are not interconnected.
My conclusion. Trendi App (not the thrift system in general) is absolutely non-versatile unfinished feature with zero re-play value. Since App offer is limited to same 30 outfits only it has no random surprise purchase factor like Plopsy has. And since Trendi/Thrift outfits system not integrated/interconnected with styled looks feature in CAS there's literally no incentive to purchase these 30 styled looks. Why bother and clutter your inventory, creating buggy situations when you can style more interesting ones yourself for free?
I've lost count how many times Styled Looks system was requested by community to be editable, savable and more usable. It could help avoiding fashion disaster with NPC sims and now it could be perfectly integrated with Trendi. Create a look in Thrift store - have an option to add it to styled looks. Trendi could use the pool of styled looks then to generate pool of outfits for sale. But instead Trendi app will always be same Base Game + HSY 30 looks.
Also since all operations with outfits actually are doable from Sim inventory (and some only from inventory) I do not understand the purpose of the App at all. It can easily be removed from sim Phones without any major impact. The only loss would be 30 preset looks and unfinished interface.
Comments
1) Thrift lot type generates absolutely horrific NPCs. "Fashion Enthusiasts" & "Fashion Browsers" appear on the lot sometimes in normal clothes and sometimes in ugly situational outfits. So fashion police Thrift Store edition can be a never-ending topic.
2) My first idea was that situational outfits are from the pool generated by Trendi app. But after I've found out that Trendi outfits are not randomly generated, I realized that these NPCs unfortunately wear absolutely random stuff. From my tests and observations I can conclude that these situational outfits always have glasses type of accessory, both bracelets, some rings, socks, leggings, and very often hats. And these accessories also bypass locks for career ones, holiday ones etc. I'm also pretty sure now that's "everyone wear officer hat all of a sudden" phenomena came from these situations. 'Cause I see lots of them generated around Thriftea store.
Here are the most remarkable ones. Enjoy.
So far I've found out about two events being "held" at Thriftea. One being a "Fashion Show" and another one "Amateur Comedy Night". For both of them a player is notified once they are already starting to happen. In both of them there's no way to direct your sims to "participate". You can not talk to shop NPC's to join. There are no participate/join action on any object of ground or sim itself.
1) Fashion Show is "strange" to say the least. Contestants seem to appear in the same randomly generated situational outfits for "Fashion Browsers". Nobody cares about the "show" aside from other contestants. And everybody seem to only "boo" each other. No positive reactions. No taking pictures. Sims just randomly pose in the area not far from the mic. one after another. And then everyone simply goes away. No results, not even a formal notice that "show/competition" has ended. And from my observation a sim under your control is never taking a part in this one autonomously unlike in a comedy one.
2) Amateur Comedy Night happened for my sim around 3PM in the day During this time my sim managed to perform "amateur comedy routine" autonomously using mic, but when selecting mic there's no option to perform it (only when sim already performing). There were 4 more sims in "contestant" roles. One of them - father Winter. All dressed similarly and none of them performed in the end. They just sat and stand around. Also apparently unlike fashion show during this time the venue was closed. No Tea/Thrift sellers NPCs and no visitors. At 8 PM these four contestants just get up and leave. After that all NPCs immediately reappear in store. Again no conclusion to the "event". No results, no notice.
Amateur Comedy Night looks pretty intimidating and not fun at all
Selecting a mic during this event when a sim is already performing autonomously (has an option to perform amateur routine):
Selecting a mic during this event when a sim is not performing (has NO option to perform amateur routine):
3) Browsing interaction on clothes racks is not available per command, sims only can do so autonomously.
Conclusion. I can not understand the purpose of these two events. Obviously both a very poorly coded. Can't properly involved the controlled sims and are more of annoyance than a fun experience. Especially the "fashion show" since so many simmers were dreaming about the proper fashion shows and fashion career since Sims1.
I've tested what was most important for me and it and looks like Trendi price tags do not influence cost of clothes in Retail system. Each outfit is GTW retail is still 175$ base. You can not apply composed Thrift outfits to mannequins fast. You can put clothes racks in retail store of course but store visitors ignore them completely - no autonomous browsing behavior. Oh, but you can put a cash register on a new thrift counter... isn't it nice.... Also if you place Bubble Tea counter or Photo booth at your retail lot these are also completely ignored.
Oof! Oof! Total oof!
I have these things to say...
1. If these clothes will go to both genders, why even be able to choose a gender of the mannequin when putting together an outfit? Not to mention that not all the clothing pieces are for both genders. Some examples I can bring is the male towels and Get to Work's unlockable gloves (which are for male sims only). If these can't be worn, they will be gone. So if you are to sell a male towel, you may see a woman walking around in just underwear.
2. Categories thing are annoying as well. A great outfit to go on the streets. Why are you sleeping with it? Why are you wearing shoes to the bed? It would have been great if we could also set categories for the outfits. Maybe I want this to be worn to formal events? Maybe I want this as someone's cold weather outfit? The idea of temporary outfits are not bad though...
3. These situational outfits... We are going to have this thing again, eh? Good news is that these fashion police threads are always funny. We can laugh at how terrible are sims' fashion sense.
4. The fashion show thing seem relatable. If I see someone with a terrible fashion sense showing off, I would disapprove as well. It had so much potential though...
5. Mannequins could have been used in this pack when they are placed in the new thrift lot. They could be a fast way to sell Thrift outfits, they could be a way to get an outfit fast without having to put them together.
Welp, didn't buy this expansion pack for that feature anyway...
I haven't done much with the fashion/thrift store system yet, but I was disappointed to find that you can't just BUY a thrift store item by itself, like "that's a cute jacket, I want to buy just that," like you can at a real thrift store. You have to create a WHOLE OUTFIT instead. I liked the jacket but hated all the pants, etc., because the thrift store only has a small amount of items (HSY and others) available at any given time. (I am not sure if I can get access to each specific item in an outfit separately once I buy it - haven't tried that yet. Would be nice if I could.)
That is such a strange way of handling it.
@RoseQuartz my main disappointment was non-compatibility with GTW. I like making stores and I was expecting that outfits will cost different amounts now since they have individual prices. But they are still the same.
I'm not a modder myself but with Plopsy system which introduced locking clothes from usage on the basis of tags and with Thrift system which introduce personal price for each clothing item I hope that someone will come with a mod that'll bring back Sims 2 shopping for clothes. Basically all but starting CAS outfits will be locked (the same way knitted objects are locked now) and could be bought individually since it's already price tagged. One can hope, right? )
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And too bad we can’t “choose for our sims to do the modeling and comedy thing…
@EgonVM, I would have liked the idea of categories too. Like someone else mentioned, I don’t think they finished th app…..
@RoseQuartz I was hoping that they would come up with a simple clothing lot trait where we could open up pieces of clothing by buying them. I still hope if the refresh get to work they bring that out
Like literally, all they do is just a few quick code changes and nothing else. They don't bother to go back in and fix or adjust the textures so they'd be able to fit on the models properly, this is how we end up with clothes that just look wrong or weird on the "opposite" gendered rigs.
God, I miss the gender-exclusive clothing and hair choices.
TL;DR: It's fine that you want to be more inclusive but you need to actually put in the effort, instead of just changing up the code and calling it a day.
ETA: I'm not saying any of this to be an "ist", "phobic", against or changes to the game to make it more inclusive. I am merely expressing my frustrations at the lack of time and care being put into this game. True I don't know how much time is or isn't given to the Gurus when it comes to these matters, but surely they can do better. This game is 8 years old and worth hundreds of dollars, it's time that effort is being shown in the quality of the product again.
Plus there is a bug that you can't sell outfits on Trendi. If you click outfit selling nothing happens. Someone said you have to move your mailbox in build mode.
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Trendi was one of the few reasons I was interested in this pack, and it seems to be so half-baked!
I guess I'll wait and see if this is ever updated before buying. Taking away Trendi, the only features I'm left interested in are some of the BB and world, and I'm not sure that's even worth 50% since this pack seems to introduce a lot of bugs I'd have to start dealing with as well.
Thanks for letting me know.