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Al Fresco Street Market - your opinions wanted

I have been popping in and out of the forums, mostly lurking, the past couple of weeks. I saw the new venue PC set and it looks nice - glad we finally got lemon trees and REAL eggplants (which in my opinion should've been called 'aubergines')

I wanted to know what else can you do with this set?

What have you done with the set?

and some screenies too please :)


This set reminds me of the farmer's market in TS1 - speaking of TS1 I think I'll go and play that one now :D
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Comments

  • sirenprincesssirenprincess Posts: 220 Member
    edited December 2012
    I think the set is pretty cool. Of note, all of the produce you buy from the stands is at least excellent quality. This is good and bad. Cool that it is great for my cooks, but it almost makes things too easy for gardeners. I think I'll have to impose some self-limits on it. The stand also sells cooking and gardening books for cheaper than the book store or the consignment store that I've seen.

    My favorite thing about the market stands is that you can buy World Adventure fruits without traveling!! Normally I wouldn't like something like this that makes it easier to obtain something hard to get in the game, but I've been too afraid to travel to other destinations since the Generations patch caused all those issues with travel. Maybe it's fixed now--I don't know--but my sim hoods are too precious to me to take the chance, so I'm very, very happy to have access to the WA fruit again.

    I have yet to see anyone tending the lemonade stands. I thought it would be like the bake sale stands, that some kids might come tend them, but no. Adults can't use them that I've seen, which makes me a little sad. No lemonade unless you have kids.

    I personally placed a pizza oven in the 'restaurant' area and I put the wishing well from Lucky Palms in there. It looks pretty good.

    In general, I am very happy with this set. Gardening is one of my favorite things in the game, and I am happy to have a set that allows you to buy and sell produce. That being said, the venue is just okay. I like it, but I don't feel it's worth $12 over what the premium content alone will eventually sell for. Basically, you are paying more to get the premium content sooner. I like the premium content enough that I'm okay with that.
  • AznSenseiAznSensei Posts: 11,789 Member
    edited December 2012
    Before I was gifted this set, I was reluctant on purchasing this set mainly because I didn't see the draw of the market stall or lemonade stand, along with the # of items that come in the venue (much more expensive than the Greenhouse Venue). After having it in my world, the views have changed.

    While I don't see too many simmers in the Market Venue, they are some pretty nice items to have for gardener sims and all. The Venue is also gorgeous and beautifully made (even though I know simmers can make better ones).

    Plus like sirenprincess says, it's a nice addition that you can buy stuff from World Adventures also in the market stalls without having to travel.

    The Purple Eggplant and Lemon Tree Harvestables were a major shock to me to be quite honest. A few days before the venue was released, I made statements saying the Harvestables wouldn't come out in the store sometime soon unless EA has improved on their tech and found a way to release them, given the whole "temporary install" concept rather than permanent ones like you would find in Expansion Packs and all.

    Also, if you have Monte Vista, or even World Adventures you can find one new recipe in the Pizza Oven and new types of food/nectar to order in the registers of World Adventures. Another nice little bonus I think.

    The Lemonade Stand "CAN" be useless if there are not enough children sims in the game. In Monte Vista, there are only "3" children in the entire world, which would be really difficult to be able to see one man a lemonade stand.
  • SadieStarSadieStar Posts: 880 New Member
    edited December 2012
    I like the venue because I think it's a versatile one which helped me justify paying the price for it. Here's a screenshot of my Sim in Champs Les Sims buying produce from the cart. I recolored it to go along with France's market aesthetic. iJuVU.jpg

    I also think this is one of those venues that you can place in other worlds. I have all the store ones, and can see definitely see myself placing it in sunlit tides, lucky palms, Hidden Springs, and prob other as well. Even though I will likely recolor the outside/switch up the decorations to fit more with the theme of some of the towns (ex. Sunlit Tides), it won't as be difficult as say changing the look of the Lucky Simileon, lol I love that venue, but it looks very out-of-place when I place it in some worlds (thank goodness for simmers who can build)! :D

    I agree with Sirenprincess and AznSensei in that it's awesome that the store team linked this venue with WA, giving sims the ability to purchase rare fruits from the cart and different nectars from the travel destinations--you also can find flame and life fruits for purchase there sometimes! Additionally I like how autonomous the produce cart is, sims always want to tend it in my game. I haven't really checked out the lemonade stand yet.

  • NotSoLuckyNotSoLucky Posts: 4,682 Member
    edited December 2012
    Get rid of all the market stands and leave only one.

    No townie sims will buy from you if there are other carts there. They instead will buy from those and try to sell their own veggies.

    I also noticed that none of them buy anything unless they have the hungry moodlet.
  • maria_loves_alexmaria_loves_alex Posts: 9,054 Member
    edited December 2012
    Thank you for all the comments :thumbup: I'm on the fence with this one because of the cost

    Might have to sit it out for now.

    Thank you again, at least now I know what it does :thumbup:
    My Page: http://mypage.thesims3.com/mypage/maria_loves_alex

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  • elanorbretonelanorbreton Posts: 14,518 Member
    edited December 2012
    I'm on the fence with this one because of the cost
    Yeah, that's the only reason I haven't bought it. It does look great, but the amount you get for the price is pretty poor when you compare it to the greenhouse venue.

    I'm just gonna patiently wait until it goes on a mega-deal :D
  • enkeli63enkeli63 Posts: 6,637 Member
    edited December 2012
    This set also includes 4 wall vine pieces! They're amazing and I love them so much 8) Now we can make a nectary with creeping vines on the walls, etc. These are the best non-pc items in the set!! Also, the twinkling lights columns are gorgeous and you can recolour the lights to suit your designs.

    I'm sorry I don't have any screenshots of those items. I do have some of the market stand and lemonade stand.

    Here's a little boy giving psychiatric advice :D It's a very cute interaction!!

    Screenshot-830_zps00b84ed9.jpg

    Here's an interesting shot I caught when my sim was tending the market stand. She snatched an apple when no one was looking! She's not a klepto sim or anything. :lol:

    Screenshot-801_zps83c0820b.jpg

    P.S. Next time I load up my game, I'll take pictures of the vines and other pieces from the set that I love.
    OriginID Starwing6
    my Sims 4 story blog: http://www.starwingsims.com/

    Join SimsWriters.com to promote or enjoy fan-generated content (stories, videos, music, etc) celebrating The Sims.
  • maria_loves_alexmaria_loves_alex Posts: 9,054 Member
    edited December 2012
    thanks enkeli, you just had to make me want it! :lol: but still I'll just ahve to wait for a good sale
    My Page: http://mypage.thesims3.com/mypage/maria_loves_alex

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  • LadyLaFleurLadyLaFleur Posts: 2,185 Member
    edited December 2012
    I like it but I've never been able to get anyone to buy anything. My sim just tends the stand for hours and nothing happens. :P
    "This game lends itself to certain abuses." - Calvin
  • YahtzamiYahtzami Posts: 6,301 Member
    edited December 2012
    As others have said, I love being able to get higher quality produce for my gardening sims (and most of my sims garden at least as a hobby). I was also overjoyed at being able to buy the WA fruits and veggies without traveling too! The venue itself is gorgeous, but the carts make it super easy to create open air markets that fit into any world! Here is one I made to fit into my HS game:

    HSFarmerscopy.jpg

    Download: http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=6723691

    Here are some additional screenshots

    Screenshot-308.jpg

    Screenshot-311.jpg
  • JoolsterJoolster Posts: 6,417 Member
    edited December 2012
    I'll try not to repeat what has already been said, and apart from the usual pretty looks and lovely decor I found it very useful on my recent sim trip to France. I got a challenge for X excellent fruit which I could not find anywhere in France and the buydebug plants are normally of nice quality. Iadded the vendor stall onto the main nectary lot and it saved me a lot of hassle. :D
  • jcp011c2jcp011c2 Posts: 10,859 Member
    edited December 2012
    I love it. I haven't put it in any other worlds other than Monte Vista - yet, but intend to. In Monte Vista I added in all four festival food concession stands, that way the Sims can have some food while they shop. Thinking about putting the woodfire grille in there somewhere too...

    All that though did take away from the "old style" feel of the market, and made it a little crowded. Though I haven't experienced any routing issues as yet.
    It's kind of sad that I have to point out that anything I say is only just my opinion and may be a different one from someone else.
  • HideakiHideaki Posts: 218 New Member
    edited December 2012
    The stands are priced at 500 by themselves, though not able to buy seperatley yet. So that means the venue is costing you 1200. I'd wait, build up a lovely venue now then buy the stands and add them in when you can buy them for 500 points. Saves you plenty of money that way. :]
  • murfeelmurfeel Posts: 7,584 Member
    edited December 2012
    enkeli63 wrote:
    This set also includes 4 wall vine pieces! They're amazing and I love them so much 8) Now we can make a nectary with creeping vines on the walls, etc. These are the best non-pc items in the set!! Also, the twinkling lights columns are gorgeous and you can recolour the lights to suit your designs.

    I'm actully VERY angry with EA right now. I've been clammoring for climbing Ivy decor for my lots and right when EA decides to finally create some it's in a daggone venue, which means the peices will never be sold individully so I could at least get the Ivy I had been asking for! :cry:
    Thank you, EA, for paying attention to simmers, but really, EA? Holding them hostage like that?! I would cry if I wasn't so dehydrated and hungry at the moment. :XD:
    NotSoLucky wrote:
    Get rid of all the market stands and leave only one.

    No townie sims will buy from you if there are other carts there. They instead will buy from those and try to sell their own veggies.

    I also noticed that none of them buy anything unless they have the hungry moodlet.

    Wow--sounds like they've got the market cornered! :shock: LOL! *laughing at my lame joke*

    [EDIT]
    Yahtzami wrote:
    HSFarmerscopy.jpg

    May I ask where that greyish fountain she's sitting on at the bottom comes from, please? :oops:
  • YahtzamiYahtzami Posts: 6,301 Member
    edited December 2012
    I'm not sure. I think it is from an EP or a SP. Let me see if I can find out for you.

    OK, I have looked on line but without going into my game, I can't be sure. I am WANTING to say that it came with either SN or Seasons, but I can't be positive. Next time I open my game, I will let you know for sure unless someone else has the answer first.
    Post edited by Unknown User on
  • JoolsterJoolster Posts: 6,417 Member
    edited December 2012
    murfeel, if your machine doesn't burst into flames and die a painful death when you try to run the in-game store, do that, venue items often pop up individually on there. :D
  • TanyaRubiroseTanyaRubirose Posts: 11,033 Member
    edited December 2012
    My opinion, along with some pics of it, can be found here: http://www.simomania.com/al-fresco-street-market-review/

    Note I don't have a lot of free children in 🐸🐸🐸🐸 right now, so the lemonade stands are useless. Plus, you might want to delete those anyway; after adding the lot, I started getting routing issues from a neighborhood child sim a lot, and those never happened before.
  • dragon114dragon114 Posts: 1,203 Member
    edited December 2012
    take the market and the greenhouse venu and you have your self a full garding carrer like the ambition's one
  • judynjojudynjo Posts: 29 New Member
    edited December 2012
    I love the look of the market stalls. Just tried them out tonight. After tending the stall for awhile a Sim finally came over and threw some money in the jar.

    I'm a bit disappointed that you don't actually sell your fruit or vegetables, you just get money a bit like a tip jar. Or am I missing something?

    I also love gardening and was looking forward to being able to sell produce at the market.
  • ThellianaThelliana Posts: 1
    edited January 2013
    I was super excited to download this content and now that I've played it for a few hours I am going to erase the lot from my town becuase this BS market is useless. No one ever purchases anything from you while you tend a cart, they go to other carts but never the one your sim tends and if you consign things they never sell. Between this and the stone's throw greenhouse that still doesn't work even after I've attempted their "fix" I am just sick of the store content all around. I've dropped more money than I'd like to admit on EA crap, the least they could do is make sure the things work before they list them.
  • KarritzKarritz Posts: 21,908 Member
    edited January 2013
    I have the Al Fresco Street Market set and the Greenhouse set. When I start a new game I like to add them both to my game along with several other venues - some from Supernatural plus others. This means I am always looking for places to put them. I put 3 Supernatural venues on a single lot and have been doing that for a while now.

    Then I decided there wasn't much action in the sales at the Street Market whenever I put it in my game, but whenever one of my sims visits the Greenhouse there are usually multiple sims there hanging out and doing nothing much - except on one noticible occasion when two witches started having a duel inside the greenhouse when I was looking for seeds with my sim. I got a bit of a shock - that duel looked fierce. Then they both ran away.

    So I thought I'd put the Humble Market stands in my greenhouse venue. I added a lemonade stand and the childrens bakers stand just because I could.

    The first two times I sent a sim to the greenhouse with the market stands etc they consigned some produce from their garden and tended the stand for hours and nothing happened. There were sims swarming all over the place though. At around 7pm I got my sim to leave the stand untended and the townie sims mobbed it and my sim sold most if not all consigned produce. This happened twice.

    I decided to make a little move of it and started a new game just for that purpose. I don't have much movie making experience yet and still have a lot to learn but - the townies didn't appear in the flocks they did the first few times I tried it. Maybe it was later in the game before and more of them had spawned than was the case when I made my movie during the first few days of a new game.

    I had only one sim I controlled in the game and she didn't have a garden so she harvested produce from the greenhouse. Then she consigned it to the market stand she later tended.

    This is the link to the movie if you are interested.

    http://www.thesims3.com/contentDetail.html?contentId=440542

    The thing that happened is two townie children turned up and played ball for a while. Then one of them tended the lemonade stand. Then my sim (a witch in a pink skirt and white top) went and got some psychatric advice from him.

    She couldn't buy lemonade as the stand didn't have any lemons. She went and got some lemons and tried to add them to the stand but he was tendign it and so she couldn't. Foot tapping. Then she went and tended her stand. Eventually she had to do more harvesting from the greenhouse garden and consign some more produce she harvested from the greenhouse. If you watch the movie whenever you see white numbers floating up on the left of the screen - she just sold something she had consigned.

    I obviously need to rearrange the market stands if I am going to continue to do this because my sims are blocked from leavign the lot by the place I have put the stands. But the townie sims are not blocked, They come and go rapidly all day. Most consigned produce is sold after 6pm. I didn't notice if they were hungry at the time.
  • stickykissesstickykisses Posts: 2,039 Member
    edited January 2013
    murfeel wrote:
    I'm actully VERY angry with EA right now. I've been clammoring for climbing Ivy decor for my lots and right when EA decides to finally create some it's in a daggone venue, which means the peices will never be sold individully so I could at least get the Ivy I had been asking for! :cry:

    An entire world which normally comes with at least the equivalent of one or two sets, is a little bit over $20 bucks. The Alfresca market isn't even close to being worth $17 dollars, let alone $20. This constant price-creep is precisely why it's gonna take a seriously strong hook to get me to move to Sims4.

    I understand more coding etc is why they have to increase their prices over time, yet the price increase is a lot more than what is needed. It's like the cat food. Five years ago the brand I buy cost fifty six cents per can, and then it jumped to 78 cents. (The cans are only two ounces.) They said it was because of gas prices. Okay, how many of those little tiny cans fit in the back of a semi-truck -- a million? Well, a million times 25 cents is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars -- no way did the price of gas necessary to haul one semi-truck across country go up that much.

    Vote with your feet. [edit]None of that would be a big deal, except so many other products and services increased at the same astronomical rate. My office rent went up 600% in ten years -- did YOUR salary increase that much? Well it did for the landlord (I moved along with everyone else and the building is STILL three-quarters empty).

    [edit for moar whining lol]He was trying to get all the other commercial property owners in town to raise their rents to the same insane level, so we'd have no choice, but now a group of us are discussing building our own dang office complex as a cooperative. Just screw those jerkwads and the horse they rode in on. I do not have a money tree in my backyard.
  • maria_loves_alexmaria_loves_alex Posts: 9,054 Member
    edited January 2013
    darrqqrrad just dropped this venue set on me! that was just too sweet of her, now I'll get to try it out for myself finally! :D I love the ivy wall decor too, and style of the set is right up my alley.

    Thnak you again darrqqrrad (I hope she can see this) for the the incredibly kind gesture, my gardener sims will really love this and it'll complete the gardener career/experience for me

    thankyou3-gif.17210
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  • Illyianna2005Illyianna2005 Posts: 895 Member
    edited January 2013
    I love the Market as well, I currently just finished updating LP to all the most recent Expansion. I'm getting ready now to color the Market and place it in LP. It just adds a really nice flare to the game, gives it a very romantic, realistic feel. I know right, who ever heard of romance and realistic in the same sentence, lol, j/k.
  • JessabeansJessabeans Posts: 3,714 Member
    edited January 2013
    Hideaki wrote:
    The stands are priced at 500 by themselves, though not able to buy separately yet. So that means the venue is costing you 1200. I'd wait, build up a lovely venue now then buy the stands and add them in when you can buy them for 500 points. Saves you plenty of money that way. :]

    I'm waiting for the stands to be sold separately, I seldom ever use EA lots because they are always missing something or have pathing issues. It will be nice once it's available by itself so I can build a community garden/farmer's market. I do still enjoy looking at people's screenshots until I can get it myself.
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