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Mad Poster
#2526 Old 24th Feb 2019 at 6:51 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Apsalar
The objects are really cool, but as usual there are WAY too much that is deco. Deco trailers are so disappointing, and that's just the most jarring example.

Could you imagine If trailers were in TS3, just maybe they would have turned it into sort of motor-houses system similar to houseboats in Island Paradise except on the road.... Even (and only way since tight spaces would require very midget-like objects) If those trailers were only interior pre-design shell objects.

Quote: Originally posted by DeservedCriticism
But oh no, Vampires required EFFORT. They had to do animations and code in a skill system and the like, and we all know how awful it is to provide effort.

Simmers who are longing for that kind of experience ever than never would have to pray for Witches to return to such degree in quality, because I don't see there will ever be another chance like this in the lifetime of the remainder of TS4's left development time. Players shouldn't be layed back and expect that witches are coming. Leave your money in pockets - save it better for a witch pack!

P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
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Mad Poster
#2527 Old 24th Feb 2019 at 6:58 PM
So no martial arts skill and the laptops are worse than they were in TS3. There goes every last incentive I had to buy this pack. What the hell happened!? Game Packs used to be the good ones. Now we've gotten two good expansions in a row and two game packs that I can't give even the slightest of damns about

Even the military career isn't as good as the custom ones we already have.

The Receptacle still lives!
Test Subject
#2528 Old 24th Feb 2019 at 6:59 PM
*le sigh*
I do like the Build and Buy objects and CAS items. And I appreciate the new world but I don't like the idea of being forced to play a story. At least with Jungle Adventures, I didn't have to go to the temple.
They shouldn't have a centered a pack on a story. Strangerville could have been the dangerous stuff game pack and if the devs insisted,, had that story as an optional side quest.
Wasted potential

OH and the laptops are portable, i.e they're draggable, but knowing my sims, they'll never put it back in their inventory and I don't feel like having to buy a bunch of laptops

I'll just wait for the CC lookalikes
Mad Poster
#2529 Old 24th Feb 2019 at 7:16 PM
Having checked out a video of the final boss fight...that was a pretty neat group activity. As someone who tells various stories with my sims, I can appreciate this on some level...but not enough for me to want this pack. The boss fight was pretty much the only fun looking thing about this "story" everything else is fairly linear, boring, and not worth going through more than once. And the last thing a sims game should ever have is a lack of variety and replay value. I've never been a fan of being told how I'm supposed to play my sims game. Which is why I never got into any of those Life Stories spin-offs in TS2.

But thems the breaks when the devs have their own stories they like to push, I guess. Here's hoping it's not a whole year before the next game pack.

The Receptacle still lives!
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#2530 Old 24th Feb 2019 at 8:44 PM
“Wow, that one neighborhood has some great houses!”
*looks inside*
Did everyone literally JUST move in?

Also, EA needs to stop having town with 50 lots that you can only use 7. The lot with the trailer park was so sad. At least make the lot LOOK like a trailer. Hell, provide players with parts to make lots loom like trailers or give players trailer objects to live in.

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~ Just a click a day is nothing short of helpful! ~
Scholar
#2531 Old 24th Feb 2019 at 9:30 PM
Quote: Originally posted by matrix54
The lot with the trailer park was so sad. At least make the lot LOOK like a trailer. Hell, provide players with parts to make lots loom like trailers or give players trailer objects to live in.

Exactly what I was thinking - at least try to make it seem like you're making an effort, ea. They just come off as super lazy/understaffed/underfunded at this point. It's laughable.

So be it. Move. ~Jason Bourne
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Mad Poster
#2532 Old 24th Feb 2019 at 9:37 PM Last edited by jje1000 : 24th Feb 2019 at 10:05 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by Apsalar
Exactly what I was thinking - at least try to make it seem like you're making an effort, ea. They just come off as super lazy/understaffed/underfunded at this point. It's laughable.


I've always found it strange that there's so much deco used in the TS4 BGs, and that a lot of it could be disassembled into unique build/buy items with relatively little effort.

For instance, this pack could have included a unique trailer build set with a new foundation, wallpaints, doors, windows, wall items and roof patterns. I mean, CC like this was already done for TS3:
https://www.thesimsresource.com/dow...ion/id/1040929/ Yet we got another Victorian build set, as if we didn't have enough of those already.

And yes, the amount of BG deco and items being recycled (or being reskinned) sort of makes me wonder what's going on- it's a far cry from worlds like Windenburg, Brindleton Bay, or even Selvorada. It sort of started getting noticeable in Get Famous, and it's continuing on here. Also interesting, they recycled an entire house from basegame: https://storylegacysims.tumblr.com/...-similar-to-the
Mad Poster
#2533 Old 24th Feb 2019 at 9:59 PM Last edited by SneakyWingPhoenix : 24th Feb 2019 at 10:09 PM.
Right time for me to credits maxis for creativity in building apartments that resembled trailers in Belladonna Cove. Although very far from perfect, they were included instead of fake pros. They were strategic about that. Although it's unfair to shove such comment in the face of a TS4 discussion, because that game is tenfold better and yadadad. Tbh, I could probably care less about premade Sims/BUILDS. Dunno why I'm ranting...

ETA: and as other mentioned set pieces, probably why they added a decorative wheel for such purpose with the expansion pack. What's intriguing about it, as the object gives you two ways to use it. One as I described with the usage of moveobjects (I used that wheel for building a bus before I found out there were trailers that had utilized it), or as a simply wall-hunging deco piece.

P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
Inventor
#2534 Old 24th Feb 2019 at 11:34 PM
Mad Poster
#2535 Old 24th Feb 2019 at 11:48 PM Last edited by SneakyWingPhoenix : 25th Feb 2019 at 12:05 AM.
^ *Clicks a time stamp of few minutes later in the video where houses are reviewed) Wow, she shoots fire (or however teens say it). Ohhhhhhh! Darn girl, more of that salt! Although the issues she address I think would be least of packs worries and should be rather trivialized, LGR will finish it off nicely by critiquing the faults of the pack's mechanics and features.

Haven't watch, but since it was on my recommendation page I thought to put it out. Just to keep things neutral I guess

P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
Top Secret Researcher
#2536 Old 24th Feb 2019 at 11:54 PM
lmao a total fail huh? Expected.. the houses are just shells they did not even try to fill them with furniture, there's a copy of base game house...

Then the gameplay is like... a less than two hours cookie clicker story that was already completely spoiled with trailer and info about the pack.
The only things worth this is more space in a beautiful world and items and fashion... that's it...

This is a stuffpack, a fucking stuff pack with a world and uninspired story. I refuse to accept this as a gamepack.
Inventor
#2537 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 12:17 AM
Apparently THERE ISN'T A MARTIAL ARTS SKILL. There's one object which reuses some animations from The Sims 3 (I checked side by side, and some animations are IDENTICAL), but there's no new skill, it's tied to the Fitness skill.

Honestly WHAT THE F*CK. Sorry for my language, but this is My First Pet Stuff levels of mediocrity. I can't believe they made such a bad Game Pack with so little content and almost nothing interesting to do once you finish the 2-hour story. It's an insult to those who have been supporting The Sims 4 through the ups and the downs. Have some respect for your customer base, okay?
Instructor
#2538 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 12:47 AM
"This world comes packed with both empty and filled lots."

"Unfortunately Toddlers have been left out when it comes to new CAS additions for them but that’s probably because StrangerVille might just be too dangerous for them to attire appropriately."


What an utter bootlicker.

A fool and his money are soon parted. ~ Thomas Tusser
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#2539 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 12:52 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Naus Allien


The shade, honey, I live.

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~ Just a click a day is nothing short of helpful! ~
Instructor
#2540 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 1:57 AM
Looking over some of the videos leaves me cold. The CAS and build/buy items are excellent overall, but the gameplay itself seems lacking and at times quite annoying. I just don't think this kind of gameplay that they keep trying to push on us works well enough to be the flagship feature of a pack? A funny addition to a wider pack, maybe, but pretty much the sole focus of it, no.
Scholar
#2541 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 2:14 AM
Quote: Originally posted by andru
Looking over some of the videos leaves me cold. The CAS and build/buy items are excellent overall, but the gameplay itself seems lacking and at times quite annoying. I just don't think this kind of gameplay that they keep trying to push on us works well enough to be the flagship feature of a pack? A funny addition to a wider pack, maybe, but pretty much the sole focus of it, no.

Yes, that's exactly how I see it too - this is such a stupid thing to 'focus' a pack on. It's more like a bonus feature in a pack that focuses on other more in-depth gameplay. It doesn't matter how much work it takes, it's the end result that matters, and this is not enough to build a pack around, especially not for a simulation and sandbox game.

So be it. Move. ~Jason Bourne
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Instructor
#2542 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 3:22 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Naus Allien
Apparently THERE ISN'T A MARTIAL ARTS SKILL. There's one object which reuses some animations from The Sims 3 (I checked side by side, and some animations are IDENTICAL), but there's no new skill, it's tied to the Fitness skill.

Honestly WHAT THE F*CK. Sorry for my language, but this is My First Pet Stuff levels of mediocrity. I can't believe they made such a bad Game Pack with so little content and almost nothing interesting to do once you finish the 2-hour story. It's an insult to those who have been supporting The Sims 4 through the ups and the downs. Have some respect for your customer base, okay?


I mean dude, they've been recycling stuff since City Living. It's why my first thought after the trailer drop was "Jungle Adventures reskin," cause they just love grabbing the old systems they've developed and copy-pasting them to be used again. This is what they do: it always feels like they're trying to produce these with as little money and as little effort as possible.

The highpoint of Sims 4 was pretty much the Vampires/Toddlers to Parenthood era, where the packs at least felt decent. Vampires was the most in-depth we've ever seen a life-state, and we haven't seen one since. Toddlers weren't this amazing, innovative new improvement, but Toddlers were still far more detailed than the other lifestages of Sims 4, so it was an improvement over the standard. And while Parenthood isn't groundbreaking either, it is a nice bit of replayable, extra content to make family life more interesting, and more packs doing that would only improve the quality of that playstyle further. It was still lackluster Sims 4 the packs were for, but it felt like if the future packs all had quality of that calibur, the game could turn around. We know how that ended: Vampires sparked cries for Witches, Toddlers sparked cries for more teen content, and we haven't heard or seen any signs of either of those happening. We still have a grand total of two lifestates and the gamepacks post-Parenthood have been pretty bad. Seasons has probably been the only jump in quality that we've seen since that little point in time, and as nice as that EP turned out, there's still no denying it cut corners that previous Seasons EPs didn't.

The really depressing part about it is that this is more or less confirmation Martial Arts will never ever be it's own skill in Sims 4. They just took an old skill and said "lolnah fuck it." It really sucks "balance-wise" too because as much as they love insisting the emotions system isn't a total failure, 99% of the skill boosts are tied to Focused and Inspired. Energized benefits ONE skill, and Martial Arts would be a chance to turn that to two, at least. Dunno why they'd even opt out of Martial Arts cause like....is it really that hard? Copy-paste the coding for a new skill, think up some benefits of leveling the skill to put in (oh no, THINKING!!!), switch the animation Sims use just before/after a fight and done. They already lifted the animations straight from Sims 3 so wtf lift them for fights too. Instead they couldn't be assed for any of this, as if it's RLY RLY HARD to think up benefits for leveling the skill (honestly, copy Sims 3 ffs. The old benefit of crushing rocks for crystals would still be doable here as a means of converting fossil rocks to crystals) and RLY RLY HARD to copy-paste two more animation sets.


I think if we ask ourselves the motivations behind this pack being made, the ones that make sense to me are:

1) Whether or not it's a reference to Stranger Things, clearly many fans thought so. Attempt may have been to cash in on those fans, even if it's only the name and weird/creepy tone that feels similar; focus is just to get them browsing and not neccesarily to fully fulfill on that "promise."
2) Perhaps the devs on so focused on what THEY wanna do, they're actively ignoring fan requests and just doing what they think is cool. Bethesda did DLC for Skyrim around the "Volkihar" vampire tribe, and the thing was, they totally rewrote what the Volkihar could do. Before they'd been described as vampires with ice powers that could traverse through solid ice and knew powerful ice magic, but upon release they were a straight copy of the vampires from the TV Show Underworld, presumably because a dev liked the show. Totally possible the Sims team has done the same and their thought process has been "but I like this" and not if it makes sense for the game or is even wanted by fans.
3) Money. Pack made it clear it'd be cheap to make so they did it.

None of those are really fantastic motivations for making a pack, and I stand by what I said that if Harry Potter were at it's highpoint in popularity right now, we would've gotten a Witches pack already.
I just think that while it's possible we may see future upticks in quality like with Vampires or Seasons, go total up the packs and ask how many felt truly good in your opinion. For me they're batting about a 14% success rate, so even if Witches or University were next and turn out good, think we gotta expect more packs like Strangerville instead of more packs like those as the standard. Perhaps it's fascinating to watch this tire fire from the sidelines, but obviously not good for the Sims franchise. Don't think Sims 5 can save the Sims now because if this is the quality standard the team is growing accustomed to making, they're not gonna spontaneously improve come Sims 5.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#2543 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 4:08 AM
I think the team is just bored of the series and are looking for ways to make it more interesting to themselves rather than players.

The Sims isn’t really a series for story telling. It’s about providing tool for a simulation. Someone needs to be interested in that kind of game development.

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~ Just a click a day is nothing short of helpful! ~
Forum Resident
#2544 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 5:43 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Naus Allien


That girl's really likeable. Loved the moment of her being like:
"Is that how everyone felt about Pet Stuff when I didn't really care?!"

Also, I can't believe I wished people would use the spoiler tags more in a SIMS forum lol

Welp, of to watching a german Game Changer who is super specific about everything to find out if I like the objects and clothes.
dodgy builder
#2545 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 8:35 AM
I like some of the objects and the grungy style. The airplane you can build a house inside is fun. I don't like the gameplay though, and not the story either.

Does the story really only last about an hour? Sometimes videos can be edited, så perhaps they edited out some boring sections of it?
Test Subject
#2546 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 10:10 AM
Just wait till the devs try to pass off the empty house interiors and base game duplicates as part of the wEiRd StRaNgErViLlE AeStHeTiC
Forum Resident
#2547 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 10:17 AM
Now this is just lazy, even by their standards:

Mad Poster
#2548 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 11:38 AM Last edited by SneakyWingPhoenix : 25th Feb 2019 at 12:03 PM.
If these type of game packs to the point we are getting, than I don't want to imagination what they're next EP will be. Heck, they're might not even be more expansion packs, so game packs might take over.

Positive note: the boss looks nicely animated... that's it.

P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
One horse disagreer of the Apocalypse
#2549 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 2:37 PM
It was quite a long video to say "They have reused a basegame lot"

"You can do refraction by raymarching through the depth buffer" (c. Reddeyfish 2017)
Mad Poster
#2550 Old 25th Feb 2019 at 3:22 PM Last edited by SneakyWingPhoenix : 25th Feb 2019 at 6:40 PM.
Speaking of 'sezing' thing, anyone up for another bingo game? Perhaps 'for next anticipated pack what is coming? Idk.

ETA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n0IvjB7cr8, a minute in and even SimSupply makes a but that it doesn't have a replay value... but like I just said, I'm a minute in. I'll have to hear his whole talk If his really is being genuine about it. I still stand that they go the wrong of delivering their stories. It just deviates the attention of making mechanics dynamic rather than linear and exclusive to whatever SV had only delivered.

P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
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