The Dust Kit is kind of worth the money. After all, if you don't like dusting, that's all it's about, so you don't have to buy it. And it's pure gameplay.
But the CAS and Furniture packs? It doesn't matter that I like the items. There's significantly less stuff than any Stuff Pack, There's no hair or accessories in the CAS pack, and we're hardly low on excercise clothes anyway. It certainly wasn't one of the things people were desperate for. You want to give us something a little more niche that we don't have much of? How about swimwear? Or nightclothes?
The furniture? There's cabinets and a handful of clutter. Oh, I like it. But it doesn't deserve to be half the price of a Stuff Pack. Aged kitchen furniture is hardly what I call 'niche'.
Hardly any of the stuff in the Kits is 'niche', nor does it fill in a gap. It's vague, and easily aimed at lots of people, just so that lots of people will buy it. Emo and super-goth clothes are niche... so less people will buy that kind of Kit. If you want emo and goth style, you still need to buy Vampires, which is a full Game Pack with a life-state in it.
Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
Apparently we will be getting at least one more Stuff Pack (check the release timetable). I expect that they were already making that, though, and there's no guarantee there will be more afterwards.
I'm not the sort of person to say "Oh, Bust The Dust should have come with Laundry Day." That's called Retrospect. Laundry Day is three years old! But the CAS and Furniture could so easily be in real Stuff Packs, or part of Game and Expansion packs. Exercise clothes and farm-style furniture doesn't need special tiny packs for itself!
Of course I would want them to be cheaper, but they're not. And me not buying the ones I am interested in isn't going to make them suddenly be $3 a kit. I always want every single thing I purchase to be cheaper. I am not an impulse buyer and I research and comparison shop or I wait for sales for most things I purchase unless it's a necessity, and a video/pack is not a necessity. It's a luxury that I splurge on for my own entertainment when it's something I'm interested in. I haven't bought any of the kits yet because they're not really something that I "must have".
As someone who, like you, generally supports the idea of the kits but hasn't bought them yet, it's interesting to me that there are other people in this category, while conversely some of the people who have complained loudest about the very idea of the kits have already purchased them, almost as soon as they were available.
I think the kits needs to be lowered in price a little to make them worth it, but that's EA and I doubt these will ever go on sale since they are so cheap. I just feel like this new pack type SO FAR is unnessecary (with the items we have seen so far) but I dont mind other people buying them, it allows me to know more about them. I will consider buying Bust the Dust once there is a mod to remove the dust bunnies, too over the top for me.
I think Zero has a mod to delete dust bunnies already. And a few more related to this kit.
All of these comments about it being a "cash grab" confuse me. Nobody is forcing you to buy the packs. They are a business that needs to make money so the content creators can make money too. Don't like it? Don't buy it.
All of these comments about it being a "cash grab" confuse me. Nobody is forcing you to buy the packs. They are a business that needs to make money so the content creators can make money too. Don't like it? Don't buy it.
Yes, but the problem with your argument is that if you do like it, you have to get it regardless of the price. And how are you supposed to know if you'll like it if you don't get it? You don't see all of the swatches in the previews. And what if you get it, and find you don't like it? Are you still obliged to like it and never complain, even after you've paid money for it?
And it's been noted that a lot of the content is not 'niche'. It's not 'specialised', like emo clothes or swimwear or even Manly Men clothes. It's extremely generalised stuff that could be put out in full Stuff Packs with gameplay and furniture. The furniture could go in a full farming pack - people are even SAYING we might not get a farming pack, which is silly. It's not meant to appeal to small, previously unnoticed groups, because the more people it appeals to, the more money EA gets.
Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
All of these comments about it being a "cash grab" confuse me. Nobody is forcing you to buy the packs. They are a business that needs to make money so the content creators can make money too. Don't like it? Don't buy it.
1. Kits are priced at $4.99, which is half the cost of a traditional stuff pack (and in some regions more), but they contain a third of the content of a stuff pack. It should not be too hard to see why some people might find that objectionable and a "cash grab."
2. Yes, EA is a business that needs to earn a profit, but EA will not go out of business and the developers will not suffer, if
the price of kits was lowered to something more in line with the content.
3. Yes, no one is forced to buy a kit, and I am choosing not to buy them at the current price. But, that choice does not mean
that I cannot express my opinion on the matter, just as you are free to express yours.
@EternalSunshine Saying they contain a third of the Stuff Pack content is generous. The Fitness pack contains entirely clothes - and it doesn't exactly fill in any gaps - the furniture pack contains clutter and counters - clutter is never interacted with and many counters are reused meshes. Compare either of these packs to something like Paranormal, with clothes and gameplay and functional items and new animations, which all require new meshes and programming.
Plus, on average you'll get 60 new items, often more in a stuff pack. Between THREE Kit packs, you get 43 pieces.
Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
@EternalSunshine Saying they contain a third of the Stuff Pack content is generous. The Fitness pack contains entirely clothes - and it doesn't exactly fill in any gaps - the furniture pack contains clutter and counters - clutter is never interacted with and many counters are reused meshes. Compare either of these packs to something like Paranormal, with clothes and gameplay and functional items and new animations, which all require new meshes and programming.
Plus, on average you'll get 60 new items, often more in a stuff pack. Between THREE Kit packs, you get 43 pieces.
@Loanet You're right. When I stated that kits contain a third of the content of a stuff pack, I was speaking in general terms, in that each kit now contains one stuff pack component. Item count wise, a full stuff pack will generally offer more content than the three current kits combined. This is especially true when the kits are compared to the most recent stuff packs. In terms of item count, the closest comparable stuff pack to the combined kits, would probably be Perfect Patio Stuff which contained 12 CAS items and and 32 BB items for a total of 44 pieces.
All of these comments about it being a "cash grab" confuse me. Nobody is forcing you to buy the packs. They are a business that needs to make money so the content creators can make money too. Don't like it? Don't buy it.
Yes, but the problem with your argument is that if you do like it, you have to get it regardless of the price. And how are you supposed to know if you'll like it if you don't get it? You don't see all of the swatches in the previews. And what if you get it, and find you don't like it? Are you still obliged to like it and never complain, even after you've paid money for it?
And it's been noted that a lot of the content is not 'niche'. It's not 'specialised', like emo clothes or swimwear or even Manly Men clothes. It's extremely generalised stuff that could be put out in full Stuff Packs with gameplay and furniture. The furniture could go in a full farming pack - people are even SAYING we might not get a farming pack, which is silly. It's not meant to appeal to small, previously unnoticed groups, because the more people it appeals to, the more money EA gets.
I think both of your arguments are valid, but to me. I think a lot of the problem isn't necessarily people buying packs and not liking them as it's just they just lack patience and jump on the bandwagon and have to get it right away instead of taking a few days to research the pack and watch reviews or item overviews on Youtube.
Yes, everyone has different opinions, and the only way to know for sure is to buy the pack, but there are so many Simtubers (some gamechangers, some who aren't) who review a new pack and give their feedback, or even just go through the swatches of clothing items or build buy items.
I always watch a few reviews and at least one overview before I decide whether I want to buy a pack or not. That's the reason I didn't get Parenthood until it was on sale for $10. I was interested in the CAS and some of the Build-Buy items, but the actual Gameplay in the pack didn't interest me that much. And because of that, it wasn't worth $20 to me. But during one of Origin's sales, I saw it was Stuffpack Price and decided to go for it since at this time, Nifty Knitting wasn't even out yet so most stuffpacks weren't that great yet.
I don't know, maybe I'm just more patient than most people and wait for sales a good 90% of the time, or even check third party websites. And maybe that's why I don't feel as ripped off as so many others do?
That's not to say that Kits will go on sale, since we have no idea, but if people would just wait a few days and take some time to research, maybe less people would feel ripped off?
And while I do agree that this grouping of kits was more generalized than niched, I kind of have a feeling the reason for that was because they were trying to get more people interested. I mean I'd argue Bust the Dust is pretty niche since there are many Simmers (like myself) who don't want even more chores in their game, but the others are defintely not niched themes.
But since Kits are brand new, they probably didn't want to risk sales by making ones that would appeal to so few people. That doesn't mean every Kit going forward is going to be the same and I certainly hope future Kits focus on more niche themes since this is an excellent opportunity to do that. But it's hard to tell this early on.
But also at the same time, I don't think the intention behind Kits is to get everyone to buy all three and make up a lackluster stuff pack, especially since the themes don't go together at all. But rather to allow people to pick and choose what they want.
I mean, not everybody actually plays the game. Some people just design Sims and others do nothing but build, and Kits are great for those kinds of players, which I think is possibly part of the reason behind splitting things up.
Yes, it's still to make money too, but that's kind of why companies exist. And yes I agree, Kits could be cheaper and that this grouping could have been included in other packs, but if the reason was truly to split up stuff packs, don't you think all three of these themes would have been connected in a very obvious way?
Given the considerable number of Sims players that buy every single bit of content that is released for the Sims, I can relate to the cash grab argument.
Also, the only kit that contains new gameplay has - in my humble opinion - some severe bugs and is not properly thought through. I feel they really should have taken more reference to how doing laundry works in TS4.
I do find the kitchen set really beautiful and my daughter begs me to get it, but I'm of the opinion that it has not enough content to make it worth the current price tag. There's not even a matching dining table, chair, dishwasher and barstool.
The third kit is even more lackluster, but luckily not my cup of tea at all so I don't care about that one for now.
Post edited by 83bienchen on
Now now EA, don't be stinking up our lovely lavender bath with your shopping fart. - My TS4 mods - Gallery ID: 83bienchen
I think SimGuruConor is the spiritual son of SimGuruCopeland, the content will be amazing like Copeland did for the Store from 2011 to 2013.
I want more kits !
But SimGuruConor doesn't even work on kits. He works on stuff packs.
Why he did the livestream with SimGuruNinja ?
SimGuruConor wasn't on the kits livestream. I think the other voice was SimGuruFrost
Yeah. And I doubt the dust kit would have so many tuning/balancing issues if SimGuruConor was the lead designer on the kit. The stuff pack team is really good at not making their gameplay features overtaking the whole game. Sims being obsessed with vacuuming reminds me of how TS3 store had items like the ice cream maker and deep fryer that Sims couldn’t stop using them.
Look at it this way - if you were going to buy an ice cream, would you rather pay $5 for an ice cream that is too big, and have to freeze some of it for later, or $5 for an ice cream that is just the right size at the moment, and have none for later? At least, it's just the right size for you; it's too small for most other people. But who cares about those other people? They're not you.
Then, for no obvious reason, the ice cream gets smaller. It costs more. They stop adding the sprinkles. Then they stop adding the syrup. Then you have to pay more for the flake. It's not big enough for you any more. Gosh, if only you had said something when it was bigger...
Too many people are being like "Oh, it's okay, I don't mind if the kit isn't bigger." But wouldn't you prefer it to be bigger?
Of course it would be nice if the kits were bigger. I loved stuff packs especially when they were coming about every month that we weren’t getting expansion packs or game packs. But so many people complained about them. I loved them and I still wish we got several many times a year. I don’t use custom content or mods, so I very much appreciate extra content, small or large. I happen to like all 3 packs they came out with, I wish the clothing pack would have had a little more for men and at least a toddler outfit, but I really do like the pieces we got. Many pieces mix and match well with other stuff which really increases it’s usefulness. Female sims got a pretty good deal of content. Males, children and toddlers didn’t get enough. I thought the kitchen set was pretty well rounded, loved the clutter objects that came with it. And I liked the idea of the dust buster. Maybe we will see a lawn mower or some kitchen or some activities for teens, kids, toddlers and elders. I’d love to see skateboarding for teens and children bikes for children, snd trikes for toddlers. Also, some small pets packs, some clothes fir teens, children, toddlers and elders. I’m looking forward to either a gothic kit, or even more so a stuff pack. I want a clothes pack that has a proper witches outfit with a witch hat with no spider on it, and an outfit for Dracula with a cape. Whether that comes in a little specialty kit or a stuff pack I don’t care.
I recently saw on twitter that the icons for the kit packs are named SP20, SP21 and SP22. So it looks like they will even name them the same. It could just be their way of avoiding having another name in their coding but who knows...
The numbering also seem to hint that there is a Stuff Pack 19 in the works (or another kit) unless it was cancelled.
You see, I was exactly right. They're classing these as our Stuff Packs now, the only difference is they're calling them Kit Packs. And they're cheaper but also come out more frequently and are bound to be smaller.
I mean, I'm not going to miss Stuff Packs, but look at it this way - a Stuff Pack was $9.99. Now say you'll get three Kit Packs released every three months for $4.99, so you're paying more for the same amount. It looks big this time, keeping in mind that these are the early releases, but I'll put money on the size of each kit shrinking, but if people still want all the content...
Oh yeah, and if you're one of those people who says "Well it's not happening to me right now", I'd like to remind you of when the price of Game Packs and Expansion Packs went up in Europe before they went up in America. "It doesn't affect me so why should I care?" Because of a little word spelled EMPATHY.
Worse — I believe I heard from Carl's Guide (?) or the other simmer (fakegamergirl?) that it be ONE every three month. Maxis? Ummhh... how does this exactly "will prevent content drought" when people are already suspecting you'll be cutting out stuff packs??
Kits done quite well the separation of CAS, Buy/Build and Gameplay
I hope they continue as that
Aslo I in place of developers, after some kits, will revisit features of EP pero example:
a Kit than add clubs system for people than no want or no have enough money for Get Together:
Just add club system and the rules of base game and packs you have installed, without GT premade clubs (as will come without Windemburg) and can include more club icons
I think that kits are going to be more niched items that wouldn't fit into an actual pack (or they are things that "would have" gone into a pack and got pulled out of the pack because it didn't really fit, and because they've already paid for these assets they decided to just market them in a new way so they still reap some coin for the cost of having the asset made).
The other thing is, there are a lot of players who buy packs just for the CAS/BB items and not the featured game play (Vampires, Batuu, RoM, etc), so maybe this will be their way of giving players a choice of buying just "stuff" instead of the entire pack they're not really interested in.
It could also be a way for them to add more things players have asked for without having to create an entire pack around it
It's also possible that it will end up being beneficial, maybe by taking out a bunch of objects from packs and selling them separately it will free them up to make the big packs beefier with more gameplay, since they can eliminate a lot of the "stuff".
Only time will tell.
I'm not 100% opposed to it because it's not mandatory to buy any of them.
I agree, I think Kits will be more restricted to singular groups within CAS, BB, Gameplay as the 3 kits showed.
A good example on a kit pack which would work as a kit is for the "Granny Chic" stuff which lost on the community vote in Nifty Knitting. There were a lot of disgruntled people at that point who really wanted more elder specific things.
I think Kits are a really good way forward, providing they don't go down the route of My First Pet Stuff and include items that 'should' have been in an EP.
What we saw in the CAS Kit didn't seem niche or specific in any way. It was 90s athletic wear. Wow, just what we've all been begging for. Not 'goth' clothes or a big lump of Toddler/kid clothes. Just more young-adult stuff, as if we haven't got enough or won't get more.
All of our Kit packs will basically be stuff left over from other packs that didn't fit. I believe EA has a limit on size or items for its packs so that Devs can't put as much as they want in it.
Prepping a list of mods to add after Infants are placed into the game. Because real life isn't 'nice'.
Comments
But the CAS and Furniture packs? It doesn't matter that I like the items. There's significantly less stuff than any Stuff Pack, There's no hair or accessories in the CAS pack, and we're hardly low on excercise clothes anyway. It certainly wasn't one of the things people were desperate for. You want to give us something a little more niche that we don't have much of? How about swimwear? Or nightclothes?
The furniture? There's cabinets and a handful of clutter. Oh, I like it. But it doesn't deserve to be half the price of a Stuff Pack. Aged kitchen furniture is hardly what I call 'niche'.
Hardly any of the stuff in the Kits is 'niche', nor does it fill in a gap. It's vague, and easily aimed at lots of people, just so that lots of people will buy it. Emo and super-goth clothes are niche... so less people will buy that kind of Kit. If you want emo and goth style, you still need to buy Vampires, which is a full Game Pack with a life-state in it.
I hope it's a Wedding Stuffpack.
As someone who, like you, generally supports the idea of the kits but hasn't bought them yet, it's interesting to me that there are other people in this category, while conversely some of the people who have complained loudest about the very idea of the kits have already purchased them, almost as soon as they were available.
I think Zero has a mod to delete dust bunnies already. And a few more related to this kit.
Yes, but the problem with your argument is that if you do like it, you have to get it regardless of the price. And how are you supposed to know if you'll like it if you don't get it? You don't see all of the swatches in the previews. And what if you get it, and find you don't like it? Are you still obliged to like it and never complain, even after you've paid money for it?
And it's been noted that a lot of the content is not 'niche'. It's not 'specialised', like emo clothes or swimwear or even Manly Men clothes. It's extremely generalised stuff that could be put out in full Stuff Packs with gameplay and furniture. The furniture could go in a full farming pack - people are even SAYING we might not get a farming pack, which is silly. It's not meant to appeal to small, previously unnoticed groups, because the more people it appeals to, the more money EA gets.
1. Kits are priced at $4.99, which is half the cost of a traditional stuff pack (and in some regions more), but they contain a third of the content of a stuff pack. It should not be too hard to see why some people might find that objectionable and a "cash grab."
2. Yes, EA is a business that needs to earn a profit, but EA will not go out of business and the developers will not suffer, if
the price of kits was lowered to something more in line with the content.
3. Yes, no one is forced to buy a kit, and I am choosing not to buy them at the current price. But, that choice does not mean
that I cannot express my opinion on the matter, just as you are free to express yours.
Plus, on average you'll get 60 new items, often more in a stuff pack. Between THREE Kit packs, you get 43 pieces.
@Loanet You're right. When I stated that kits contain a third of the content of a stuff pack, I was speaking in general terms, in that each kit now contains one stuff pack component. Item count wise, a full stuff pack will generally offer more content than the three current kits combined. This is especially true when the kits are compared to the most recent stuff packs. In terms of item count, the closest comparable stuff pack to the combined kits, would probably be Perfect Patio Stuff which contained 12 CAS items and and 32 BB items for a total of 44 pieces.
I think both of your arguments are valid, but to me. I think a lot of the problem isn't necessarily people buying packs and not liking them as it's just they just lack patience and jump on the bandwagon and have to get it right away instead of taking a few days to research the pack and watch reviews or item overviews on Youtube.
Yes, everyone has different opinions, and the only way to know for sure is to buy the pack, but there are so many Simtubers (some gamechangers, some who aren't) who review a new pack and give their feedback, or even just go through the swatches of clothing items or build buy items.
I always watch a few reviews and at least one overview before I decide whether I want to buy a pack or not. That's the reason I didn't get Parenthood until it was on sale for $10. I was interested in the CAS and some of the Build-Buy items, but the actual Gameplay in the pack didn't interest me that much. And because of that, it wasn't worth $20 to me. But during one of Origin's sales, I saw it was Stuffpack Price and decided to go for it since at this time, Nifty Knitting wasn't even out yet so most stuffpacks weren't that great yet.
I don't know, maybe I'm just more patient than most people and wait for sales a good 90% of the time, or even check third party websites. And maybe that's why I don't feel as ripped off as so many others do?
That's not to say that Kits will go on sale, since we have no idea, but if people would just wait a few days and take some time to research, maybe less people would feel ripped off?
And while I do agree that this grouping of kits was more generalized than niched, I kind of have a feeling the reason for that was because they were trying to get more people interested. I mean I'd argue Bust the Dust is pretty niche since there are many Simmers (like myself) who don't want even more chores in their game, but the others are defintely not niched themes.
But since Kits are brand new, they probably didn't want to risk sales by making ones that would appeal to so few people. That doesn't mean every Kit going forward is going to be the same and I certainly hope future Kits focus on more niche themes since this is an excellent opportunity to do that. But it's hard to tell this early on.
I mean, not everybody actually plays the game. Some people just design Sims and others do nothing but build, and Kits are great for those kinds of players, which I think is possibly part of the reason behind splitting things up.
Yes, it's still to make money too, but that's kind of why companies exist. And yes I agree, Kits could be cheaper and that this grouping could have been included in other packs, but if the reason was truly to split up stuff packs, don't you think all three of these themes would have been connected in a very obvious way?
Also, the only kit that contains new gameplay has - in my humble opinion - some severe bugs and is not properly thought through. I feel they really should have taken more reference to how doing laundry works in TS4.
I do find the kitchen set really beautiful and my daughter begs me to get it, but I'm of the opinion that it has not enough content to make it worth the current price tag. There's not even a matching dining table, chair, dishwasher and barstool.
The third kit is even more lackluster, but luckily not my cup of tea at all so I don't care about that one for now.
I want more kits !
The Sims 4 Ideas Corner
- 👕 [CAS] Male content | 💰 §1 Million Lifestyle | ♂️ Man lifestyle for The Sims | ♻️ Content from The Sims
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The Sims 4 General DiscussionBut SimGuruConor doesn't even work on kits. He works on stuff packs.
Okay.
The Sims 4 Ideas Corner
- 👕 [CAS] Male content | 💰 §1 Million Lifestyle | ♂️ Man lifestyle for The Sims | ♻️ Content from The Sims
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The Sims 4 General DiscussionSimGuruConor wasn't on the kits livestream. I think the other voice was SimGuruFrost
Yeah. And I doubt the dust kit would have so many tuning/balancing issues if SimGuruConor was the lead designer on the kit. The stuff pack team is really good at not making their gameplay features overtaking the whole game. Sims being obsessed with vacuuming reminds me of how TS3 store had items like the ice cream maker and deep fryer that Sims couldn’t stop using them.
The Sims 4 Ideas Corner
- 👕 [CAS] Male content | 💰 §1 Million Lifestyle | ♂️ Man lifestyle for The Sims | ♻️ Content from The Sims
- 🔨 [Build/Buy Mode] Ideas | 📱 Ideas from The Sims FreePlay | ✈️ Vacation : Gameplay update | 🥦 New meals
The Sims 4 General DiscussionWorse — I believe I heard from Carl's Guide (?) or the other simmer (fakegamergirl?) that it be ONE every three month. Maxis? Ummhh... how does this exactly "will prevent content drought" when people are already suspecting you'll be cutting out stuff packs??
I hope they continue as that
Aslo I in place of developers, after some kits, will revisit features of EP pero example:
a Kit than add clubs system for people than no want or no have enough money for Get Together:
Just add club system and the rules of base game and packs you have installed, without GT premade clubs (as will come without Windemburg) and can include more club icons
I agree, I think Kits will be more restricted to singular groups within CAS, BB, Gameplay as the 3 kits showed.
A good example on a kit pack which would work as a kit is for the "Granny Chic" stuff which lost on the community vote in Nifty Knitting. There were a lot of disgruntled people at that point who really wanted more elder specific things.
I think Kits are a really good way forward, providing they don't go down the route of My First Pet Stuff and include items that 'should' have been in an EP.
All of our Kit packs will basically be stuff left over from other packs that didn't fit. I believe EA has a limit on size or items for its packs so that Devs can't put as much as they want in it.
Also, kits can fill the lack of legacy items like pool tables or telescopes, not the oversized one.
About instruments, I think that can be randomly added in another pack, just like chemistry with Snowy Escape