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Which adventure is the most stressful for your sims?
EnkiSchmidt
Posts: 5,343 Member
Which of the adventure dlcs taxes your sims the most when it comes to their needs and moodlets?
Assume an unmodded game, but full access to bb.enablefreebuild, and as many sims as you want in the household. You can buy helpful items from all dlc (example: tents for the jungle).
Please not that I mean specifically the adventure content, not the pack as a whole. A full hike to the jungle temple and back, for example, not a leisurely stroll around basecamp.
Assume an unmodded game, but full access to bb.enablefreebuild, and as many sims as you want in the household. You can buy helpful items from all dlc (example: tents for the jungle).
Please not that I mean specifically the adventure content, not the pack as a whole. A full hike to the jungle temple and back, for example, not a leisurely stroll around basecamp.
Currently playing: Journey to Batuu & Horse Ranch mashup
Which adventure is the most stressful for your sims? 44 votes
Jungle temple
61%
27 votes
Mt. Komorebi summit
20%
9 votes
Battle for Batuu
0%
Werewolf tunnels
0%
Strangerville mystery
15%
7 votes
Other
2%
1 vote
2
Comments
This one takes the cake for me. I won’t forget the day when my fully prepared team of five played the guitar around the campfire in the temple and suddenly everyone was on fire AND a skeleton attacked them. Just last week I sent two rival groups of sims into the jungle and it was even better. Afterwards everyone was limping on their last leg and a long-standing relationship was destroyed (no deaths, though).
Bringing more than one sim is helpful for extinguishing fires or taking turns hacking away the vines at the portals (one sleeps, one hacks).
Mt. Komorebi
My close second. Unlike in the jungle, I had deaths here occasionally and reaching the summit is not a given. A team consisting of beginner climbers (skill level 6) can fail even if everyone is focused and using climbing gear – just last week I had a six hours uncomfortable moodlet from an injury and only four hours left at the very first steep wall. The sims all were beginners and didn’t have enough satisfaction points to buy the moodlet solver, so they had to abort the expedition. Still, even with the risk of failure objectively being greater than in the jungle, Mt. Komorebi drains my sims’ needs less.
Bringing more than one sim is recommended to plead with the Grim Reaper in case of accidents.
Batuu questline
Technically the worst that can happen here are timeouts (getting arrested or getting escorted out of the area) and Dazed moodlets. Getting electroshocked by a droid isn’t even dazed, but uncomfortable, so even eight shocks in a row cannot kill a sim (I gave up after eight, maybe some more would have done the trick by draining hunger too much).
As for the needs, motive drain would probably be the worst of all adventure packs if we didn't take freebuild into account.
Bringing more than one sim is recommended so that one can “call over” enemies to give the questing sim breathing space. Droids in my experience are too unreliable.
Werewolf tunnels
My sims suffered a bladder accident from staying too long in the tunnels, and, yes, they can get turned into werewolves. But overall the tunnels are more boring than draining, especially for non-werewolves. I never had luck with mundane sims, they only ever found frogs or food and never even a different exit than the one they went in through.
Strangerville mystery
From a storyteller perspective this can be an intense experience, but gamemechanically there being no timer, a sim could take it easy here and attempt every step with full needs and plenty of moodlets. I only included this pack in the poll, because I’ve read a lot that players speedrun the mystery in a matter of two or three days and I expect especially with starting sims this would drain their motives quite a lot.
C.
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Definitely! I once had a family stay in a vacation home and their cat escaped to hunt a squirrel in a bush close to the temple entrance.
Strangerville mystery - This was very draining to do with two run away teens who had to go to high school and solve the mystery at the same time, but I also enjoyed it a lot. The other time I did it with a spellcaster and it was easier.
Mt. Komorebi summit - I have experienced zero deaths and have reached the summit at least 7 times. The only times I have had to turn back has been when some of my sims haven't been skilled enough in rock climbing. I'm honestly a bit dissapointed that there have been no deaths, but I'm also happy that I have been lucky enough to avoid them
Werewolf tunnels - I have explored these to some extent. I think it's quite easy and a bit boring after a while.
Battle for Batuu - I don't have this pack.
I usually do these adventures with one or two sims. I think it might be harder with more sims.
with Mt.Komorebi and Strangerville you do it once and you can speed run it just vibing so eh I think of those more as fun outing less so great adventure
Batuu was most stressful for me rather than my sims cause I was so confused what I was supposed to do where and just ran all around the place confused and then I went home and realized it was in work tab like ?? what
doesn't help I never watched star wars so I still don't know what they want me to do
as for werewolf tunnels being entirely rabbithole I think of those as more of a side activity than adventure
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Mt Komorebi is also a lot of fun but I find building up the climbing skill to reach the top a bit grinding.
Batuu was mainly stressful because I had to figure out how to complete some tasks but it was fun. Just like strangerville my sims don't do this often.
Werewolf tunnels are just text adventures. The least interesting for me personally. The only thing I still want to do is find the werewolf wand without cheating.
If the werewolf tunnels are a candidate for this list, then the chestnut ridge caves should as well. They seem to be more in depth than many other rabbit holes.
First Genji manifested and scolded Vlad all the time. He even said Ji Ho will have his babies and not Vlad's!
Then poor Jeb turned into a skeleton - after drinking the cure(?)
And the worst: Vlad and Jack had those annoying suns over their heads for 2 days!
But Jack and Saiwa also had a hard time at Mount Komorebi.
They had been in the sports group of their school project but hadn't even been fit enough for the beginners rock, omg
And Jack tried to climb out of his coma and failed too.
Then he had a vision of Kiyoshi.
Strangerville was fun!
Batuu is also awesome!
It only was stressful for the First Order
(I never spend much time on rabbithole stuff. That's just too dull for my visual brain.)
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Temple runs are always tough on sims. I break everytime and end up cheating needs.🫣 Even more difficult in TS3 but some of my favorite memories playing sims is exploring temples.
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It would be magnificent.
also I used that Al Simhara stuff everywhere in ts3 to the point of ridiculous
like I'd have these box houses that were just kinda normal modern houses
but then you'd have those egyptian torch statue dudes everywhere or whatever for no apparent reason other than "thats kinda cool i like this lamp"
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Jungle Adventures is hands down one of the best TS4 packs! My main active sims will always have the Jungle Explorer and / or Archaeological Scholar aspiration at some point.
It is near impossible for me to play house for longer than 3 sims days, it drives me bonkers, so there comes a time when my sim HAS to go on a risky outdoor adventure in order to escape death by boredom. Potential death by poison however, totally acceptable! By all means, put that deadly curse on my sim, let him find the anecdote, as long as he doesn’t have to change another dirty nappy. Speaking of which… my attempt to bring along an infant on one of these jungle adventure quests sort of failed, because I’m unable to handle Growing Together’s baby carrier system. I don’t know how it works to be honest. I truly want it to function correctly so that I can explore the good old ”Lone Wolf & Cub”- type trope, but the babe won’t stay in and it frustrates me…Just saying that no one can blame me for turning my sims into runaway “dads”. 🫣
I’m currently playing the jungle quests as a werebeast with basic werebeast perks. The great thing about this is that toilets, beds and food are not required whatsoever, he can easily survive in the wild whilst keeping most of his needs in green. Even so, none of that makes the adventure less “stressful”, he has the werewolf curse after all, which can be exceptionally challenging at times, and none of it renders him immune from poisonous attacks and other curses.
Initially I wasn’t impressed with Jungle Adventures’ easy-as-pie temple puzzles and I had my concerns regarding replayability, simply because TS3 World Adventures exists and “tomb raiding” is huge and a lot more demanding in that pack. TS4 is TS4 however, with Selvadorada being arguably one of the most beautiful worlds in the entire sims franchise - a world that can also be delightfully dangerous. It keeps pulling me back in, if my sims could live there they would. It’s even more fun to explore the temples in First Person Mode which is not everyone’s cuppa tea for obvious reasons. Oh I can only imagine how wonderful it would be if we had an entire range of Adventure Game Packs! 🕷️💀
I kind of liked that my sim could take their time with the strangerville experience, and I actually enjoyed it the one time I have played it. I was actually afraid my sim and his friends wouldn’t beat the mother plant, as I wasn’t sure what to expect, or how or what to do at first, and I used a newly made military sim with no skills.
The werewolf tunnels involve almost no stress at all and no gameplay challenges, but there is the possibility of getting in a fight, or even getting turned into a werewolf. (This is apparently unusual, but it did happen to my very first sim to ever explore the tunnels, Salim Benali's daughter Laila from my San Myshuno game.)
Mt. Komorebi there is one point where you wonder if they will survive or not! (the tallest ice cliff)
It was fun and suspenseful.
But needs are very easy to take care of. There are tons of warnings and suggestions about bringing your own supplies, and then there are multiple places to sleep etc. along the route. And there's no way to get lost or anything so there is not much challenge in that sense.
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/18343965/#Comment_18343965
First person mode!! Why didn't I think of that?! You're brilliant! I must do this.
I agree, the temple puzzles are easy, so I randomize which Sim solves them and what they choose. Then it's up to them, not up to me. I like to take groups into the jungle for more challenge, as the insect attacks happen more frequently and supplies are limited. I have a main rule that I use to up the stakes; I make them camp out and stay overnight somewhere before they reach the temple to represent a long journey and being "lost", and they take time to explore all they can, eat, bottle shower, etc so it starts to feel very dire by the time they reach the "safety" of the temple, where they have to set up camp again. They also have to camp once on the return journey as well, so anyone who is poisoned is facing a race against time to get back and find a cure. I also have them all spend one day in the village to "prep" and buy supplies. What they see is what they get.
This all ends up taking about fourish Sim days to play out, with a lot of pausing, as Sims tend to try to run all the way back to the toilet when they're need drops and I have to cancel the action and direct them to a dirty bush, lol. Oh, I also have them travel to the park lot near the gate before starting their journey, and I make sure there are no amenities there so they don't constantly have the urge to run back to the lot to fulfill any needs. It also adds to the challenge to take a pet along.
But playing this way with this pack has opened up some really exciting gameplay where I've found myself riveted in my seat, wide-eyed and wondering if some Sim wasn't going to make it. It's exactly the kind of unpredictable chaos that I long to have more of in the game. 😊
I love doing the jungle and temple explorations with large groups! I have my sims buy supplies exactly the same way: what they see is what they get - they only get the one chance, so when it’s just dolls and baskets instead of repellents and machetes…well… good luck friendos!
In one of my saves the jungle is crammed with secret military labs and outposts - the largest of them is built atop a subterranean Omniscan Temple (bye bye museum) which, in my story, is home to the “original” Mother of the Jungle, a somewhat sedated version of her more aggressive “daughter” that lives in the secret lab in Strangerville, although she can be pretty lethal too! Basically, Mother of The Jungle is the True Mother, in fact, she’s the one that actually communicates through the one that lives in Strangerville ( that’s right, Stranger Momma is possessed by her own, dear Jungle Momma) with the sole purpose to take over and control Simnation. There’s much more to this story of course and it requires my Sims to go on many expeditions ( jungle, desert, mountain) in order to solve an ancient mystery and ultimately save the world.
When I play with the groups I rotate between several military units consisting of either 8 sims ( including 1 or 2 scientists ) or one with 7 sims and a highly trained K-9, which is a German Shepherd that fears nothing, except fridges, poor chap.
But wait, when you say that you randomize which Sim solves the puzzles and what they choose, do you mean that they can somehow autonomously solve it then, or do you skip the “examine” interaction and have them choose a random question mark and see what happens?
I’m curious, I need to know, more chaos is best!! 😆
I have a couple of scout groups that will go to Silvadarodo ( rental/town part ) as a field trip too.
I too, would love if my archeologist sim ( and another family I have ), could live in the town part of the Jungle. I love the way they made Silvadorado, and was thrilled to see stray cats there as well!
C.
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Lol. Not exactly an adventure in the sense of the original post but infants are challenging. Same goes for the animals. Caring for multiple animals that can't be controlled is hard. My current household has two horses, a cat, 2 goats and 2 sheep and they are a handful. In some ways even more difficult than the selvadoradean jungle. A different kind of challenge if you will.
Better not take the nervous race horse, my sims recommend renting jungle experienced mules from local providers
I greatly enjoyed bringing horses for roleplay purpose. Time-saving not so much, because when the sims dismount, the horses run around and have to get called over again, thus losing a little time.
Bikes (especially cc bikes reskinned to look like quads) might be a tad bit better.
Ignore the Sith in the foreground, have a look at the sim in the background - he can swat the gnats while sitting on his horse. Loved that detail!
My Lara Croft sim would
As would I...
@CAPTAIN_NXR7 So... I'll try to explain my "method" (more of a lack of method, really
So, I start with paying attention to my Sim characters. For example my first real "jungle challenge" Sim group consisted of an aspiring archaeologist whose husband (the more experienced archaeologist) had disappeared while researching Omiscan history in Selvadorada (adult), her young son the stowaway (child), a scientist/museum curator who knows the lost archaeologist (elder), a young treasure hunter and his dog (teen), a secret Vampire hired for heavy physical activity (I think adult), a young investor from the city with no jungle skills whatsoever but wanted to come to protect her investment (young adult), and an Omiscan native who is secretly an Alien, hired because she "knows the lost trails and the lore" but is actually trying to sabotage the journey to protect the temple and its mysteries.
I am, of course, obligated to play these Sims as they were intended, I even "cheated" them some starter skills, nothing above a seven or eight, which is rare, and not too many, just enough to distinguish who they are as personalities. The archaeologist and the scientist are the two most likely to have ancient knowledge, as well as the Alien. But the investor is a little clumsy and the treasure hunter too eager so they both make foolish decisions. The Vampire might have some secret knowledge of special artifacts that he is looking for, but he mainly just kind of stands by, playing the part of hired muscle, unless faced with a physical challenge, since that's what he's hired for.
So they reach the temple and the two professionals stop to excavate to find clues to the lost husband before touching anything else, but the treasure hunter forges ahead, sees a gate, tries to walk through, gets zapped. He finds a totem puzzle but when the archaeologist comes down, she and the scientist examine it, but the skeleton shows up and they all retreat back to camp. By now they suspect the Alien, who was giving them terrible advice and always smiling when they were in pain, so they wake up early while she's still sleeping to try to find the treasure before she finds them, and when they return to the puzzle, the scientist takes a look and makes a "decision", whether he has a definitive answer or not because it's now a race against time to beat the Alien.
From there, it was mainly the archaeologist or the scientist doing a single examination, and if they got the answer they could proceed, but if not, the treasure hunter or Vampire could try at random. If there was something to excavate, the archaeologist and scientist would be busy with that, and the treasure hunter or vampire would try first. In cases where there was more than one puzzle in the room, everyone split up and they all tried one, sometimes selecting a random answer, but mainly only the archaeologist and the scientist could examine a puzzle.
Happily enough, I had a lot of traps go off this way and the archaeologist got poisoned, the Vampire started running out of blood and went into his dark form, the evil Alien woke up and started coming down to find them but I wasn't allowed to play her while the group raced to get through before she caught up to them. It was pretty tense going for a bit, but it was magnificent.
I guess to sum it up a little more simply, I will sometimes just let the Sims take turns, deciding if they have the knowledge to examine or not, limiting their information and often selecting a random question mark. I love playing it this way and I have plans to bring a group of elders to the jungle for a "last huzzah" to find fortune and adventure. I've had them made for a while and put off the journey because I had fun playing them at their home in the senior community living facility, but I think it might be almost time to set them on their way. There's eight of them so that will be interesting.