I recently watched this video:
"20 Things To Do In Cottage Living" https://youtu.be/1IYx3BN135Q
It only confirmed my thoughts on the pack when I could only find the "Simple Living" challenge, writing a cookbook, and buying groceries to be worthwhile gameplay.
Also, when your description of a feature amounts only to "this is cute/adorable" it's not a good endorsement.
She does a really really terrible job at selling the pack. I'm actually interested in this one, and she seemed to be pointing out how boring it is. And given that she listed canning as a new thing to do rather than just new cooking recipes, it also seemed like she was reaching to find things.
I guess I can thank this gamechanger for killing my interest for now. I'll get it on sale.
Edit: Okay, finished watching it. She lists hitting on Agnes Crumplebottom to get hit back by her as new gameplay. There's not enough squee in the world to make that sound like it would be fun and engaging more than twice.
Why aren’t you buying it instead of watching a gamechanger pick apart the EP you were interested in? I don’t tend to listen to the gamechangers because they can tell you anything and yes most will be honest they like it but the got the thing free. They didn’t pay for it so why should they care what they tell us?
She was not picking it apart. She was trying her best to sound super enthusiastic. Had she been picking it apart, or sounded the least bit negative, I would have taken it with a grain of salt. That someone who apparently loves the pack can't come up with much actual gameplay is telling to me. As for why I haven't bought it -- same reason I don't buy anything without at least some research. I'm not in a hurry. I can wait for a sale.
Well I can tell you I am having fun with it and I paid for it. Its my favorite pack I have played in a long time. I haven't been happy with most of the packs since Seasons.
I'm glad you're enjoying it. I mean that. Why are you in the negative thread again?
If it has a game pack worth of game play, I'll pay $20 for it happily. Vampires is still my favorite pack for the Sims 4, and it looks like it may have as much game play as that. So I will enjoy it Just... not now.
Just want to say I am 100% fully agree with you and in the same position. The world is beautiful and the pack itself looks fun...for $20. Maybe $30 if there is some long-run gameplay benefits that are expansion-pack worthy but hidden or it's just really fun despite the gameplay looking rather thin. I look forward to playing the game and getting it; just not at full price.
I genuinely do hope the folks who got it are having fun and it's worth the price; I just don't think it is (at least in terms of sheer content, the content itself seems fine although I may have some nitpicks here and there) and I feel like once the honeymoon phase passes, a lot of folks will be back to being frustrated with the series & criticizing the packs and their content...until the next one comes out. And then the cycle starts over again, lol.
Does anybody know what I’m doing wrong?
I moved lots with animals in my inventory and when I went to place them back with the coop and animal shed both down it will not let me place my cow down. Chickens worked just fine but cow remains red with “must be placed on specific object” I’ve tried the move object cheat and everything. It won’t let me sell the cow from inventory either. It’s just stuck. Pls help.
This is a complete guess on my part, since I don't have the pack, but cows are tied to their barns. Maybe the game requires you to click on the barn to place the cow back down?
The game has been out for less than twenty four hours. Threads are already popping up of things broken in other packs by this new pack. The formal EA bug site has received lists of bugs already. Less than 24 hours, day one.
Some dismiss such bugs but let me say if a player can't get groceries or other things because stalls are closed when they should be open, I would call that game breaking. If players can't find the ingredients such as mushrooms for an opportunity chore, I would call that game breaking. If players' other pets are missing in premade homes in other towns I would call that game breaking. These are not the only bugs on day one.
Here is what grinds my gears about what TS4 players are willing to accept. Bugs upon bugs upon bugs. It may not be game breaking to some to not be able to do something when they set out to do something in a game. But if that person has to forego that activity and or action and or work around it and or just forget it, then the pack or game is indeed game breaking if anyone has to skip something they sat out to do.
My other pet peeve is what is the job of game changers' early access?...just to make us buy something and get their clicks and or to do a little bit of beta testing and tell Maxis about bugs is what they should be doing. And tomorrow, you know what, players will throw this pack down forget all about it's bugs and what it broke in the previous packs and core game, and spend more money on a new shiny. EA is so happy with those who don't mind bugs and or subpar programming. Players are the reason TS4 is so darn buggy because tomorrow they will throw down the money for another new shiny.
'It's buggy but I bought it anyway' that is stated here thousands of times. Or I will buy it on sale, I don't care it's buggy, I want a new shiny. Players have no one to blame but themselves.
Preach!
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As far as bugs goes with Sims 4 it is nothing new and I always say an company rep is as good as it fixes it's bugs and EA/Maxis fail at that.Most knew bugs would be present day one and I laugh at patches offered the day before release like the patch going to resolve problems. Now most will be waiting some months for the bugs in this release on top of the other bugs that are present and yet still giving problems. May be the last day before Sims 4 gets it's death certificate all bugs will be fixed.
Omen by HP Intel®️ Core™️ i9- 12900K W/ RGB Liquid Cooler 32GB Nvidia RTX 3080 10Gb ASUS Ultra-Wide 34" Curved Monitor. Omen By HP Intel® Core™ i7-12800HX 32 GB Nvidia 3070 Ti 8 GB 17.3 Screen
The game has been out for less than twenty four hours. Threads are already popping up of things broken in other packs by this new pack. The formal EA bug site has received lists of bugs already. Less than 24 hours, day one.
Some dismiss such bugs but let me say if a player can't get groceries or other things because stalls are closed when they should be open, I would call that game breaking. If players can't find the ingredients such as mushrooms for an opportunity chore, I would call that game breaking. If players' other pets are missing in premade homes in other towns I would call that game breaking. These are not the only bugs on day one.
Here is what grinds my gears about what TS4 players are willing to accept. Bugs upon bugs upon bugs. It may not be game breaking to some to not be able to do something when they set out to do something in a game. But if that person has to forego that activity and or action and or work around it and or just forget it, then the pack or game is indeed game breaking if anyone has to skip something they sat out to do.
My other pet peeve is what is the job of game changers' early access?...just to make us buy something and get their clicks and or to do a little bit of beta testing and tell Maxis about bugs is what they should be doing. And tomorrow, you know what, players will throw this pack down forget all about it's bugs and what it broke in the previous packs and core game, and spend more money on a new shiny. EA is so happy with those who don't mind bugs and or subpar programming. Players are the reason TS4 is so darn buggy because tomorrow they will throw down the money for another new shiny.
'It's buggy but I bought it anyway' that is stated here thousands of times. Or I will buy it on sale, I don't care it's buggy, I want a new shiny. Players have no one to blame but themselves.
You mention ts4 players specifically, but it bas never been just ts4. Ts3 was also riddled with bugs as was ts2, and people just accept it.
An entire expansion pack is almost completely unuseable in ts3 because of how poorly coded it is. I dont even have to mention the expansion pack for you to know which one I'm talking about.
You may say you can just download a custom world, which is true. But you shouldn't have to use mods or cc to fix ea issues.
If you go back to ts3 bug reports on the forums, they were sometimes 2 pages long per expansion pack alone.
Ts2 had its own issues. Agnes Crumplebottom being a big one. If a vampire ever bit her autonomously it would corrupt your entire game. Destroying a tombstone could corrupt your game.
My point is that the sims series has ALWAYS been a buggy mess of spaghetti code, and people have and always still buy the packa regardless.
My first ever post in a negatively thread! I'm usually a Pollyanna who defends this game...well except for Star Wars commercial pack.
I love my first let's stuff. I love Eco Living. I love Get Famous.
I wanted to love Cottage Living SO MUCH. But I so can't. I played the last two days and it's such a major drain. It's acting like my computer is a potato (computer is not potato). The lagging, the wait a second after you click the fridge to can, the animation glitches (I play 100% vanilla). I grew the crops, they weeded fine. I embroidered. I canned. I raised chickens and a cow. It is so boring. It's so tiring. I moved to another lot to built a more fantasy cottage, and landscaping was fun, but when it came to interior design...blah. I felt so uninspired.
I love country. I love farming. I love cottages. But there's not enough in the build to get excited about. In anticipation I built a farm I was planning to upgrade with new build buy stuff, only to find out the benches, chairs, couch that I already had were more country than what came in this pack.
I booted it up 4 times in the past 2 days and continually closed it in disappointed.
Again, I am a dedicated fan. But this pack is not fun to play.
The game has been out for less than twenty four hours. Threads are already popping up of things broken in other packs by this new pack. The formal EA bug site has received lists of bugs already. Less than 24 hours, day one.
Some dismiss such bugs but let me say if a player can't get groceries or other things because stalls are closed when they should be open, I would call that game breaking. If players can't find the ingredients such as mushrooms for an opportunity chore, I would call that game breaking. If players' other pets are missing in premade homes in other towns I would call that game breaking. These are not the only bugs on day one.
Here is what grinds my gears about what TS4 players are willing to accept. Bugs upon bugs upon bugs. It may not be game breaking to some to not be able to do something when they set out to do something in a game. But if that person has to forego that activity and or action and or work around it and or just forget it, then the pack or game is indeed game breaking if anyone has to skip something they sat out to do.
My other pet peeve is what is the job of game changers' early access?...just to make us buy something and get their clicks and or to do a little bit of beta testing and tell Maxis about bugs is what they should be doing. And tomorrow, you know what, players will throw this pack down forget all about it's bugs and what it broke in the previous packs and core game, and spend more money on a new shiny. EA is so happy with those who don't mind bugs and or subpar programming. Players are the reason TS4 is so darn buggy because tomorrow they will throw down the money for another new shiny.
'It's buggy but I bought it anyway' that is stated here thousands of times. Or I will buy it on sale, I don't care it's buggy, I want a new shiny. Players have no one to blame but themselves.
You mention ts4 players specifically, but it bas never been just ts4. Ts3 was also riddled with bugs as was ts2, and people just accept it.
An entire expansion pack is almost completely unuseable in ts3 because of how poorly coded it is. I dont even have to mention the expansion pack for you to know which one I'm talking about.
You may say you can just download a custom world, which is true. But you shouldn't have to use mods or cc to fix ea issues.
If you go back to ts3 bug reports on the forums, they were sometimes 2 pages long per expansion pack alone.
Ts2 had its own issues. Agnes Crumplebottom being a big one. If a vampire ever bit her autonomously it would corrupt your entire game. Destroying a tombstone could corrupt your game.
My point is that the sims series has ALWAYS been a buggy mess of spaghetti code, and people have and always still buy the packa regardless.
I agree with your post but one thing and may be an good reason some are harder on Sims 4 than the others is the fact that Sims 4 was stripped of features to lessen bugs and also not to stress lower end systems and put all systems on an equal footing by cutting the scaling up or down and here we are in 2021 seven years into it's production and bugs are still going on and you also pointed out an company lack of bug control. But you are right though that people because it carries the Sims title will still buy it and somewhat over look the bugs thinking EA/Maxis will fix them. Yes all the previous versions had their problems but they also had the features needed to make the enjoyable for some. I am sorry but EA/Maxis is operating off of 2014 technology even though they moved to 64 bit. I rather play those older versions than TS4 as I loved the features. You also pointed out EA/Maxis inability to maintain control of an program they own and yes Sims series is built on one main program with multiple programs and let alone it relies on AI most of the time which needs tweaking regularly. I If Sims 5 makes it out I fear it may be worse if EA/Maxis do not take the time to fix it's bugs and again it should not take months or years to fix bugs money should be no problem. One thing I learned from Sims 4 do not rush out and buy any new versions for it may be an mistake for me.
Omen by HP Intel®️ Core™️ i9- 12900K W/ RGB Liquid Cooler 32GB Nvidia RTX 3080 10Gb ASUS Ultra-Wide 34" Curved Monitor. Omen By HP Intel® Core™ i7-12800HX 32 GB Nvidia 3070 Ti 8 GB 17.3 Screen
The game has been out for less than twenty four hours. Threads are already popping up of things broken in other packs by this new pack. The formal EA bug site has received lists of bugs already. Less than 24 hours, day one.
Some dismiss such bugs but let me say if a player can't get groceries or other things because stalls are closed when they should be open, I would call that game breaking. If players can't find the ingredients such as mushrooms for an opportunity chore, I would call that game breaking. If players' other pets are missing in premade homes in other towns I would call that game breaking. These are not the only bugs on day one.
Here is what grinds my gears about what TS4 players are willing to accept. Bugs upon bugs upon bugs. It may not be game breaking to some to not be able to do something when they set out to do something in a game. But if that person has to forego that activity and or action and or work around it and or just forget it, then the pack or game is indeed game breaking if anyone has to skip something they sat out to do.
My other pet peeve is what is the job of game changers' early access?...just to make us buy something and get their clicks and or to do a little bit of beta testing and tell Maxis about bugs is what they should be doing. And tomorrow, you know what, players will throw this pack down forget all about it's bugs and what it broke in the previous packs and core game, and spend more money on a new shiny. EA is so happy with those who don't mind bugs and or subpar programming. Players are the reason TS4 is so darn buggy because tomorrow they will throw down the money for another new shiny.
'It's buggy but I bought it anyway' that is stated here thousands of times. Or I will buy it on sale, I don't care it's buggy, I want a new shiny. Players have no one to blame but themselves.
You mention ts4 players specifically, but it bas never been just ts4. Ts3 was also riddled with bugs as was ts2, and people just accept it.
An entire expansion pack is almost completely unuseable in ts3 because of how poorly coded it is. I dont even have to mention the expansion pack for you to know which one I'm talking about.
You may say you can just download a custom world, which is true. But you shouldn't have to use mods or cc to fix ea issues.
If you go back to ts3 bug reports on the forums, they were sometimes 2 pages long per expansion pack alone.
Ts2 had its own issues. Agnes Crumplebottom being a big one. If a vampire ever bit her autonomously it would corrupt your entire game. Destroying a tombstone could corrupt your game.
My point is that the sims series has ALWAYS been a buggy mess of spaghetti code, and people have and always still buy the packa regardless.
If we look at the revenue of who has made the most money it falls to TS4. TS4 raked in over a billion a few years ago. Though TS3 is extremely well loved by those who love story progression, (not just open world and CASt) TS4 has out sold TS3 within the same time frame of when TS3 was current. What does that say? That some who do care about bugs stopped buying TS3. What does it say about TS2? It says those of us who cared about subpar programming or half baked implementation stopped buying or they too would have made a billion within five years.
TS3 earned it's money on other things like store content but really if bugs were acceptable to some TS2 and TS3 players those games would have also made that billion.
It is TS4 that sells buggy packs and still somehow makes more than all three in five years.
I'm sorry I look at facts, yes, TS3 had bugs..and some of us stopped buying. TS2's so called corruption is overrated because the things you mentioned were player triggered no vamps bit anyone unless the player had their own vamp bite someone then the count and countess could bite autonomously and could bite anyone on a community lot. That's not the type of 'bug' I'm talking about if it so happened they bit a NPC. But the facts the features of this pack are broken on day one. So was Eco Livings features so were many of the other packs. That is the difference. Main features already busted. No matter how much problems another game had such as routing, sometimes, the very features in the pack were not broken. It's par for the course with TS4 packs.
ETA: Quite honestly, the two packs I would have even considered after Parenthood (yes I stopped a long time ago) were Eco Living for the challenge and to make a totally run down, polluted town, but those features were broken and NAPs were broken etc. and this one. But I can already see it's not doing what is supposed to do, already. I wait to see what they might do and the more we read the more we find out every pack has problems not worth dealing with and or paying to get.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
My first ever post in a negatively thread! I'm usually a Pollyanna who defends this game...well except for Star Wars commercial pack.
I love my first let's stuff. I love Eco Living. I love Get Famous.
I wanted to love Cottage Living SO MUCH. But I so can't. I played the last two days and it's such a major drain. It's acting like my computer is a potato (computer is not potato). The lagging, the wait a second after you click the fridge to can, the animation glitches (I play 100% vanilla). I grew the crops, they weeded fine. I embroidered. I canned. I raised chickens and a cow. It is so boring. It's so tiring. I moved to another lot to built a more fantasy cottage, and landscaping was fun, but when it came to interior design...blah. I felt so uninspired.
I love country. I love farming. I love cottages. But there's not enough in the build to get excited about. In anticipation I built a farm I was planning to upgrade with new build buy stuff, only to find out the benches, chairs, couch that I already had were more country than what came in this pack.
I booted it up 4 times in the past 2 days and continually closed it in disappointed.
Again, I am a dedicated fan. But this pack is not fun to play.
I'm expecting a lot more of this. Sounds like you wanted a genuine farming pack. So did I. It was clear to me that this wasn't going to be it. I think that people who just want to talk to cutesy bunnies are happy with the pack. People who wanted to run a farm, probably not so much. We need the TS3 tractor, among a bunch of other things.
My first ever post in a negatively thread! I'm usually a Pollyanna who defends this game...well except for Star Wars commercial pack.
I love my first let's stuff. I love Eco Living. I love Get Famous.
I wanted to love Cottage Living SO MUCH. But I so can't. I played the last two days and it's such a major drain. It's acting like my computer is a potato (computer is not potato). The lagging, the wait a second after you click the fridge to can, the animation glitches (I play 100% vanilla). I grew the crops, they weeded fine. I embroidered. I canned. I raised chickens and a cow. It is so boring. It's so tiring. I moved to another lot to built a more fantasy cottage, and landscaping was fun, but when it came to interior design...blah. I felt so uninspired.
I love country. I love farming. I love cottages. But there's not enough in the build to get excited about. In anticipation I built a farm I was planning to upgrade with new build buy stuff, only to find out the benches, chairs, couch that I already had were more country than what came in this pack.
I booted it up 4 times in the past 2 days and continually closed it in disappointed.
Again, I am a dedicated fan. But this pack is not fun to play.
Not to shine too much positivity in the negative thread (excuse me guys) but I just wanted to say have to considered other ways of playing? I definitely find every pack boring if I just follow the boring routine of go to work,come home,raise a chicken, etc. rinse and repeat.
I am unexpectedly really enjoying this pack but I'm not following any routine or traditional farming. I am integrating all of my own stories with my own Sims. I am making my whole world into an apocalyptic survival camp filled with swamps everywhere that sims have to get through to travel (when no alligators are present)
Using the farming aspect as means of survival.
I edited all of the important village sims like the mayor to have that close village community vibe with sims I actually like. And giving every sim a village style so I can easily spot fellow villagers vs foreigners.
I'm using the tool mod to edit the areas outside of lots to give sims more things to do and complete the look I'm going for.
Still working on things but having a lot of fun so far. Of course you may not be into what I enjoy but it's just an example. 😃
I wasn't expecting an industrial farm pack. I was excited for the little cute animals as advertised. But I moved in my legacy grandparents and gave them chickens and oversized crops and started them on cross stitching and canning. And other than the chickens t was a grind, so I was patient, waiting for the chicken festival at the end of the week. The festival was pretty bogus.
I do usually just take elements and fit them into my storylines. I plan to have a bunch of my households just use one or two aspects of the pack moving forward. The build buy had so much potential, but just came in dull textures. Everything looks faded and depressing. I wanted at least one single bed.
Maybe I'm not into British stuff? I actually am Irish and Scottish by heritage so that would be a shocker. There was a lack of plants and bushes too.
I own all the packs so I can compensate buy using furniture from cats and dogs, trees and bushes from outdoor living, etc. But really, this feels like a 4H game pack, not an expansion pack.
I wasn't expecting an industrial farm pack. I was excited for the little cute animals as advertised. But I moved in my legacy grandparents and gave them chickens and oversized crops and started them on cross stitching and canning. And other than the chickens t was a grind, so I was patient, waiting for the chicken festival at the end of the week. The festival was pretty bogus.
I do usually just take elements and fit them into my storylines. I plan to have a bunch of my households just use one or two aspects of the pack moving forward. The build buy had so much potential, but just came in dull textures. Everything looks faded and depressing. I wanted at least one single bed.
Maybe I'm not into British stuff? I actually am Irish and Scottish by heritage so that would be a shocker. There was a lack of plants and bushes too.
I own all the packs so I can compensate buy using furniture from cats and dogs, trees and bushes from outdoor living, etc. But really, this feels like a 4H game pack, not an expansion pack.
For some reason they put all the new trees and flowers (some of which are gorgeous) in Buydebug. I hate that. You can easily get them though if you go on the gallery because some builders have been collecting them in rooms for greater ease of access. I haven't been to any of the festivals yet (which yes look pretty lame from what I have seen) but I must say I love chickens. They are beautifully animated and fairly demanding if you get a full coop. I started with just one hen and one rooster and have populated my coop entirely with them; now they must be fed at least 2 times a day, their coop cleaned morning and evening, and they need a lot of interaction to keep them at least contented.
I am playing with a family of four and a dog (two parents, a child and a toddler), and my personal challenge is that the toddler must gain all her skills and the dog can't run away once. They have the Simple Living Lot Challenge and are trying to live off only what they can grow and sell. I find the pack kind of challenging with chickens and I just started with oversized crops. One of the parents must go every day to sell produce and eggs or they run out of money. Taking care of a full garden plus animals does require effort and planning. I wish there was a chore system so that sims could be assigned particular tasks at certain times of day. A working alarm clock would be nice too.
As it is, I have my little boy clean the coop and interact a little with the chickens every morning before school (he helps a little with gardening and playing with the chickens in the evenings once his homework is done), the mom works all day with various chores and goes to the market just after lunch to sell crops or eggs or whatever and the dad tries to keep the chickens and bees happy, as well as taking care of the oversized crops and doing whatever harvesting that mom can't manage. (I have been resorting to using the toddler to keep the dog from being neglected and their relationship is really high) They eat a lot of leftovers, although with all the canning I find their cooking skill goes up fast. But I can't imagine having a cow or running errands for the villagers and exploring for more plants or writing a cookbook or or picnicking or doing cross-stitching or knitting at this point since my sims are barely managing as it is. And forget training the dog or learning a musical instrument or even reading for pleasure (the mom is a book worm) because there is simply no time for any personal development.
My complaints about this pack are the incomplete nature of the canning system. None of the fruit from the basegame fruit trees can be canned, and none of the products of canning are spreadable on existing baked goods (or even the new ones, with the exception of crumpets and these have to be cooked with the jam the inventory, and not have it added later). It just seems kind half-done. Now generally I love the new overhaul of all the dishes in the game to require particular ingredients (it's an excellent system), and the jams are useable in most pies and as ingredients (instead of fresh fruit) in many of the desserts and baking dishes (which is also great). Sadly though the jams are not spreadable, and there is no spreading animation. Why even have jam at all if you can't spread it on bread, scones and muffins? I mean I know this would create an astronomical number of dishes as a result, but at the very least we should have had an option for whateverkind of jam with toast, if any kind of bread and jam is in the fridge. I am also annoyed that sims can't make soy milk using the canning system and that the plant milk comes from cows.
My first ever post in a negatively thread! I'm usually a Pollyanna who defends this game...well except for Star Wars commercial pack.
I love my first let's stuff. I love Eco Living. I love Get Famous.
I wanted to love Cottage Living SO MUCH. But I so can't. I played the last two days and it's such a major drain. It's acting like my computer is a potato (computer is not potato). The lagging, the wait a second after you click the fridge to can, the animation glitches (I play 100% vanilla). I grew the crops, they weeded fine. I embroidered. I canned. I raised chickens and a cow. It is so boring. It's so tiring. I moved to another lot to built a more fantasy cottage, and landscaping was fun, but when it came to interior design...blah. I felt so uninspired.
I love country. I love farming. I love cottages. But there's not enough in the build to get excited about. In anticipation I built a farm I was planning to upgrade with new build buy stuff, only to find out the benches, chairs, couch that I already had were more country than what came in this pack.
I booted it up 4 times in the past 2 days and continually closed it in disappointed.
Again, I am a dedicated fan. But this pack is not fun to play.
Not to shine too much positivity in the negative thread (excuse me guys) but I just wanted to say have to considered other ways of playing? I definitely find every pack boring if I just follow the boring routine of go to work,come home,raise a chicken, etc. rinse and repeat.
I am unexpectedly really enjoying this pack but I'm not following any routine or traditional farming. I am integrating all of my own stories with my own Sims. I am making my whole world into an apocalyptic survival camp filled with swamps everywhere that sims have to get through to travel (when no alligators are present)
Using the farming aspect as means of survival.
I edited all of the important village sims like the mayor to have that close village community vibe with sims I actually like. And giving every sim a village style so I can easily spot fellow villagers vs foreigners.
I'm using the tool mod to edit the areas outside of lots to give sims more things to do and complete the look I'm going for.
Still working on things but having a lot of fun so far. Of course you may not be into what I enjoy but it's just an example. 😃
That sounds great. I think we all play our sandbox stories more than actually playing how a pack was built. However, if anyone sets out to play a pack exactly how they build them, without intertwining them into some far out story in our heads, we are always disappointed with TS4.
People have become accustom to pulling things from across the entire game and it's packs to play a so called 'story' but if we sit down and just go through the packs as they were meant to be played we soon find out features are not fully playable, things go wrong, loops happen in the mechanics, or routing issues, and or some off the wall bug happens in a different area of the game, such as with a Sim and or a different pack or core's object. TS4 has had a long life, the past few years all new packs have been a bug fest. Time to think about giving up on the loose noodles in the code.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
I know this is not a particularly serious issue, but man, I think the randomly generated townies are the fugliest I've ever seen in this game. I've gone through several rounds of deletions already. My sim also has a more serious issue where Nancy Landgraab called about shutting off her power "temporarily" almost a full sim year ago, and it never came back on. The only way to get it to turn back on is to close the lot each time and do something else, then come back. So every time that happens, it's time for another round of deleting hideous townies. Then as soon as my sim leaves the lot again, every time she comes back the power is back off... and here we go, deleting ugly townies. It's quite the cycle.
I hate Living off the grid! ICottage Living is forcing me to live off the grid I feel cheated! You should have told us! I feel like wasted the money I paid for this package! :#
I hate Living off the grid! ICottage Living is forcing me to live off the grid I feel cheated! You should have told us! I feel like wasted the money I paid for this package!
So, I do MOSTLY love this pack. It might actually be my second favorite TS4 expansion (first being Get Famous). Buuuuuuut....
Henford on Bagley is one of the most poorly made worlds in this game. I was okay with it being small....until I saw how much space they wasted on decorative buildings. It's freakin San Myshuno all over again. I think what's the most insulting is the town square/marketplace/whatever and how it's got all these little stores that you can't even go inside of. But look, guys! You can "window shop"! [eyeroll]
Also not a fan of wild rabbits just waltzing in and out of my sims' houses.
I have actually wondered sometimes if Maxis devs sit around and decide how to annoy players. Such as wild rabbits wandering into houses. Stuff like that has been going on since TS2 but it seems TS4 has magnified it even more. Back in The Sims, Bandit the racoon never entered the house. It just dumped the trash on the road and woke up the whole house. The strays in the pet pack back then didn't wander into homes. This free for all stuff started being more common in TS2 with strays and other things like the Penguin. I think some devs do an evil laugh as they code the game to make things like animals come into the houses as annoying as possible. Yeah! Let's drive them crazy!
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
I have actually wondered sometimes if Maxis devs sit around and decide how to annoy players. Such as wild rabbits wandering into houses. Stuff like that has been going on since TS2 but it seems TS4 has magnified it even more. Back in The Sims, Bandit the racoon never entered the house. It just dumped the trash on the road and woke up the whole house. The strays in the pet pack back then didn't wander into homes. This free for all stuff started being more common in TS2 with strays and other things like the Penguin. I think some devs do an evil laugh as they code the game to make things like animals come into the houses as annoying as possible. Yeah! Let's drive them crazy!
They don't poop or break stuff, so it's not that annoying. Real life chickens do tend to walk indoors if they find the door open.
I have actually wondered sometimes if Maxis devs sit around and decide how to annoy players. Such as wild rabbits wandering into houses. Stuff like that has been going on since TS2 but it seems TS4 has magnified it even more. Back in The Sims, Bandit the racoon never entered the house. It just dumped the trash on the road and woke up the whole house. The strays in the pet pack back then didn't wander into homes. This free for all stuff started being more common in TS2 with strays and other things like the Penguin. I think some devs do an evil laugh as they code the game to make things like animals come into the houses as annoying as possible. Yeah! Let's drive them crazy!
They don't poop or break stuff, so it's not that annoying. Real life chickens do tend to walk indoors if they find the door open.
You can stop all this entering by just looking at the menus for the doors and gates and choose who can get in. Simples.
I have actually wondered sometimes if Maxis devs sit around and decide how to annoy players. Such as wild rabbits wandering into houses. Stuff like that has been going on since TS2 but it seems TS4 has magnified it even more. Back in The Sims, Bandit the racoon never entered the house. It just dumped the trash on the road and woke up the whole house. The strays in the pet pack back then didn't wander into homes. This free for all stuff started being more common in TS2 with strays and other things like the Penguin. I think some devs do an evil laugh as they code the game to make things like animals come into the houses as annoying as possible. Yeah! Let's drive them crazy!
They don't poop or break stuff, so it's not that annoying. Real life chickens do tend to walk indoors if they find the door open.
You can stop all this entering by just looking at the menus for the doors and gates and choose who can get in. Simples.
But it's so cute when the fox enters through the front door and exits through the back door just so he can sneak up and hunt my chickens. I love the mayhem.
> @SIMS4challangeLv3er said: > I hate Living off the grid! ICottage Living is forcing me to live off the grid I feel cheated! You should have told us! I feel like wasted the money I paid for this package! :#
You can turn that lot challenge off, even if it’s pre-set on the lot. None of them are locked onto the Henford lots like they were in the City Living apartments.
I have actually wondered sometimes if Maxis devs sit around and decide how to annoy players. Such as wild rabbits wandering into houses. Stuff like that has been going on since TS2 but it seems TS4 has magnified it even more. Back in The Sims, Bandit the racoon never entered the house. It just dumped the trash on the road and woke up the whole house. The strays in the pet pack back then didn't wander into homes. This free for all stuff started being more common in TS2 with strays and other things like the Penguin. I think some devs do an evil laugh as they code the game to make things like animals come into the houses as annoying as possible. Yeah! Let's drive them crazy!
I actually never had a problem with random animals and sims strolling into my houses like they own them until TS4. This is the game where suddenly every townie forgets their manners and just barges in without being invited. Or where every rabbit suddenly has the strength to open a front door XD
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Just want to say I am 100% fully agree with you and in the same position. The world is beautiful and the pack itself looks fun...for $20. Maybe $30 if there is some long-run gameplay benefits that are expansion-pack worthy but hidden or it's just really fun despite the gameplay looking rather thin. I look forward to playing the game and getting it; just not at full price.
I genuinely do hope the folks who got it are having fun and it's worth the price; I just don't think it is (at least in terms of sheer content, the content itself seems fine although I may have some nitpicks here and there) and I feel like once the honeymoon phase passes, a lot of folks will be back to being frustrated with the series & criticizing the packs and their content...until the next one comes out. And then the cycle starts over again, lol.
This is a complete guess on my part, since I don't have the pack, but cows are tied to their barns. Maybe the game requires you to click on the barn to place the cow back down?
Preach!
You mention ts4 players specifically, but it bas never been just ts4. Ts3 was also riddled with bugs as was ts2, and people just accept it.
An entire expansion pack is almost completely unuseable in ts3 because of how poorly coded it is. I dont even have to mention the expansion pack for you to know which one I'm talking about.
You may say you can just download a custom world, which is true. But you shouldn't have to use mods or cc to fix ea issues.
If you go back to ts3 bug reports on the forums, they were sometimes 2 pages long per expansion pack alone.
Ts2 had its own issues. Agnes Crumplebottom being a big one. If a vampire ever bit her autonomously it would corrupt your entire game. Destroying a tombstone could corrupt your game.
My point is that the sims series has ALWAYS been a buggy mess of spaghetti code, and people have and always still buy the packa regardless.
I love my first let's stuff. I love Eco Living. I love Get Famous.
I wanted to love Cottage Living SO MUCH. But I so can't. I played the last two days and it's such a major drain. It's acting like my computer is a potato (computer is not potato). The lagging, the wait a second after you click the fridge to can, the animation glitches (I play 100% vanilla). I grew the crops, they weeded fine. I embroidered. I canned. I raised chickens and a cow. It is so boring. It's so tiring. I moved to another lot to built a more fantasy cottage, and landscaping was fun, but when it came to interior design...blah. I felt so uninspired.
I love country. I love farming. I love cottages. But there's not enough in the build to get excited about. In anticipation I built a farm I was planning to upgrade with new build buy stuff, only to find out the benches, chairs, couch that I already had were more country than what came in this pack.
I booted it up 4 times in the past 2 days and continually closed it in disappointed.
Again, I am a dedicated fan. But this pack is not fun to play.
I agree with your post but one thing and may be an good reason some are harder on Sims 4 than the others is the fact that Sims 4 was stripped of features to lessen bugs and also not to stress lower end systems and put all systems on an equal footing by cutting the scaling up or down and here we are in 2021 seven years into it's production and bugs are still going on and you also pointed out an company lack of bug control. But you are right though that people because it carries the Sims title will still buy it and somewhat over look the bugs thinking EA/Maxis will fix them. Yes all the previous versions had their problems but they also had the features needed to make the enjoyable for some. I am sorry but EA/Maxis is operating off of 2014 technology even though they moved to 64 bit. I rather play those older versions than TS4 as I loved the features. You also pointed out EA/Maxis inability to maintain control of an program they own and yes Sims series is built on one main program with multiple programs and let alone it relies on AI most of the time which needs tweaking regularly. I If Sims 5 makes it out I fear it may be worse if EA/Maxis do not take the time to fix it's bugs and again it should not take months or years to fix bugs money should be no problem. One thing I learned from Sims 4 do not rush out and buy any new versions for it may be an mistake for me.
If we look at the revenue of who has made the most money it falls to TS4. TS4 raked in over a billion a few years ago. Though TS3 is extremely well loved by those who love story progression, (not just open world and CASt) TS4 has out sold TS3 within the same time frame of when TS3 was current. What does that say? That some who do care about bugs stopped buying TS3. What does it say about TS2? It says those of us who cared about subpar programming or half baked implementation stopped buying or they too would have made a billion within five years.
TS3 earned it's money on other things like store content but really if bugs were acceptable to some TS2 and TS3 players those games would have also made that billion.
It is TS4 that sells buggy packs and still somehow makes more than all three in five years.
I'm sorry I look at facts, yes, TS3 had bugs..and some of us stopped buying. TS2's so called corruption is overrated because the things you mentioned were player triggered no vamps bit anyone unless the player had their own vamp bite someone then the count and countess could bite autonomously and could bite anyone on a community lot. That's not the type of 'bug' I'm talking about if it so happened they bit a NPC. But the facts the features of this pack are broken on day one. So was Eco Livings features so were many of the other packs. That is the difference. Main features already busted. No matter how much problems another game had such as routing, sometimes, the very features in the pack were not broken. It's par for the course with TS4 packs.
ETA: Quite honestly, the two packs I would have even considered after Parenthood (yes I stopped a long time ago) were Eco Living for the challenge and to make a totally run down, polluted town, but those features were broken and NAPs were broken etc. and this one. But I can already see it's not doing what is supposed to do, already. I wait to see what they might do and the more we read the more we find out every pack has problems not worth dealing with and or paying to get.
I'm expecting a lot more of this. Sounds like you wanted a genuine farming pack. So did I. It was clear to me that this wasn't going to be it. I think that people who just want to talk to cutesy bunnies are happy with the pack. People who wanted to run a farm, probably not so much. We need the TS3 tractor, among a bunch of other things.
I'd suggest bikes but sims tend to just pull the bike out of their inventory...and walk anyway.
Not to shine too much positivity in the negative thread (excuse me guys) but I just wanted to say have to considered other ways of playing? I definitely find every pack boring if I just follow the boring routine of go to work,come home,raise a chicken, etc. rinse and repeat.
I am unexpectedly really enjoying this pack but I'm not following any routine or traditional farming. I am integrating all of my own stories with my own Sims. I am making my whole world into an apocalyptic survival camp filled with swamps everywhere that sims have to get through to travel (when no alligators are present)
Using the farming aspect as means of survival.
I edited all of the important village sims like the mayor to have that close village community vibe with sims I actually like. And giving every sim a village style so I can easily spot fellow villagers vs foreigners.
I'm using the tool mod to edit the areas outside of lots to give sims more things to do and complete the look I'm going for.
Still working on things but having a lot of fun so far. Of course you may not be into what I enjoy but it's just an example. 😃
I do usually just take elements and fit them into my storylines. I plan to have a bunch of my households just use one or two aspects of the pack moving forward. The build buy had so much potential, but just came in dull textures. Everything looks faded and depressing. I wanted at least one single bed.
Maybe I'm not into British stuff? I actually am Irish and Scottish by heritage so that would be a shocker. There was a lack of plants and bushes too.
I own all the packs so I can compensate buy using furniture from cats and dogs, trees and bushes from outdoor living, etc. But really, this feels like a 4H game pack, not an expansion pack.
For some reason they put all the new trees and flowers (some of which are gorgeous) in Buydebug. I hate that. You can easily get them though if you go on the gallery because some builders have been collecting them in rooms for greater ease of access. I haven't been to any of the festivals yet (which yes look pretty lame from what I have seen) but I must say I love chickens. They are beautifully animated and fairly demanding if you get a full coop. I started with just one hen and one rooster and have populated my coop entirely with them; now they must be fed at least 2 times a day, their coop cleaned morning and evening, and they need a lot of interaction to keep them at least contented.
I am playing with a family of four and a dog (two parents, a child and a toddler), and my personal challenge is that the toddler must gain all her skills and the dog can't run away once. They have the Simple Living Lot Challenge and are trying to live off only what they can grow and sell. I find the pack kind of challenging with chickens and I just started with oversized crops. One of the parents must go every day to sell produce and eggs or they run out of money. Taking care of a full garden plus animals does require effort and planning. I wish there was a chore system so that sims could be assigned particular tasks at certain times of day. A working alarm clock would be nice too.
As it is, I have my little boy clean the coop and interact a little with the chickens every morning before school (he helps a little with gardening and playing with the chickens in the evenings once his homework is done), the mom works all day with various chores and goes to the market just after lunch to sell crops or eggs or whatever and the dad tries to keep the chickens and bees happy, as well as taking care of the oversized crops and doing whatever harvesting that mom can't manage. (I have been resorting to using the toddler to keep the dog from being neglected and their relationship is really high) They eat a lot of leftovers, although with all the canning I find their cooking skill goes up fast. But I can't imagine having a cow or running errands for the villagers and exploring for more plants or writing a cookbook or or picnicking or doing cross-stitching or knitting at this point since my sims are barely managing as it is. And forget training the dog or learning a musical instrument or even reading for pleasure (the mom is a book worm) because there is simply no time for any personal development.
My complaints about this pack are the incomplete nature of the canning system. None of the fruit from the basegame fruit trees can be canned, and none of the products of canning are spreadable on existing baked goods (or even the new ones, with the exception of crumpets and these have to be cooked with the jam the inventory, and not have it added later). It just seems kind half-done. Now generally I love the new overhaul of all the dishes in the game to require particular ingredients (it's an excellent system), and the jams are useable in most pies and as ingredients (instead of fresh fruit) in many of the desserts and baking dishes (which is also great). Sadly though the jams are not spreadable, and there is no spreading animation. Why even have jam at all if you can't spread it on bread, scones and muffins? I mean I know this would create an astronomical number of dishes as a result, but at the very least we should have had an option for whateverkind of jam with toast, if any kind of bread and jam is in the fridge. I am also annoyed that sims can't make soy milk using the canning system and that the plant milk comes from cows.
That sounds great. I think we all play our sandbox stories more than actually playing how a pack was built. However, if anyone sets out to play a pack exactly how they build them, without intertwining them into some far out story in our heads, we are always disappointed with TS4.
People have become accustom to pulling things from across the entire game and it's packs to play a so called 'story' but if we sit down and just go through the packs as they were meant to be played we soon find out features are not fully playable, things go wrong, loops happen in the mechanics, or routing issues, and or some off the wall bug happens in a different area of the game, such as with a Sim and or a different pack or core's object. TS4 has had a long life, the past few years all new packs have been a bug fest. Time to think about giving up on the loose noodles in the code.
How is it forcing you to live off the grid?
Henford on Bagley is one of the most poorly made worlds in this game. I was okay with it being small....until I saw how much space they wasted on decorative buildings. It's freakin San Myshuno all over again. I think what's the most insulting is the town square/marketplace/whatever and how it's got all these little stores that you can't even go inside of. But look, guys! You can "window shop"! [eyeroll]
Also not a fan of wild rabbits just waltzing in and out of my sims' houses.
They don't poop or break stuff, so it's not that annoying. Real life chickens do tend to walk indoors if they find the door open.
You can stop all this entering by just looking at the menus for the doors and gates and choose who can get in. Simples.
But it's so cute when the fox enters through the front door and exits through the back door just so he can sneak up and hunt my chickens.
> I hate Living off the grid! ICottage Living is forcing me to live off the grid I feel cheated! You should have told us! I feel like wasted the money I paid for this package! :#
You can turn that lot challenge off, even if it’s pre-set on the lot. None of them are locked onto the Henford lots like they were in the City Living apartments.
I actually never had a problem with random animals and sims strolling into my houses like they own them until TS4. This is the game where suddenly every townie forgets their manners and just barges in without being invited. Or where every rabbit suddenly has the strength to open a front door XD
How much can this game handle? The world only has 12 lots.