I'm not outraged I didn't get more for free, I'm outraged they wasted a perfectly good lifestate by making it a gimmicky seasonal thing. I don't want free plant sims, I never asked for free plantsims and if free plantsims are going to be like this and get in the way of real plantsims then I DEFINITELY don't want them. This "free" content comes at the cost of a better product. So hell yeah I'm gonna complain. Free stuff is cool and all, but only when the free stuffs existence doesn't affect expected gameplay.

I'm puzzled by your continued inability to understand this, I shouldn't be grateful for something that ruins gameplay potential just because it's free, they're essentially handing me a turd and saying "here! it's free!" If it was something innocuous like the free Christmas Stuff pack, y'know something that doesn't really affect gameplay or ensure they won't make seasons. Then I wouldn't be complaining. But as things are these shit plantsims are essentially the only reason we'll never get not shit plantsims.

Why are you not getting this?

Usually, when a company offers up something free to seek a financial return, they don't put out something lackluster or bad.

I could understand it being something minor in Cool Kitchen, as those weren't really PlantSims, but Sims who turn green and sprout leaves in response to ice cream.

Here, they're making them actual PlantSims, but given the response, I don't think these are going to produce a stellar profit, if any. The player base can be a tad naive, but far from stupid.

Welcome to the wonderful world of EA, where occasionally some good idea does happen, but the execution is kinda missing. As in, for that kinda stuff, I'd like to see a public execution or two

So, let me get this straight, players have to go around town, collect these magically beans in the right emotional state and collect a stumpy, stump, grow some tree portal so their sims can become a plantsim...only temporary...with no real special powers...except getting a moodlit to go outside and have some needs replaced? Basically, it's a fetch quest for a temporary effect. I'm surprised the sims team didn't make players' sims eat the beans, fart out a big, green gas cloud and turn into a plantsim that way since they love excrement and flatulent jokes. I read this from the wiki, and I don't know why this occult, or whatever, would be associated with Cool Kitchen Stuff. Why would plantsims and an ice cream maker be related to each other? Ice cream...plant ice cream...why?

Um yea, I'm not really outraged by the fruitless plantsims-haven't really played this game ever since the toddler patch. Honestly, I knew the Sims 4 wasn't for me even before its launch. After I gave it a try I still found it to be lackluster. The only aspect that was wonderfully done were the adorable toddlers. I especially love these little boogers when they are wearing their hooded pajamas while throwing tantrums! Other than that, that's really the most enjoyable area of the game. Once they turn into children, then what? I'm not going to play with these boring mini adults with incest problems! I expected better from EA, but after the buggy (yet entertaining) mess the the Sims 3 was, I wasn't surprised they went with this game. Just about anything they add (except toddlers) would be half-done, and I know for a fact I will get bored with new items and such in a couple of days. I haven't even bothered, and more than likely, will not buy any of its packs. Don't care for this free stuff either, but toddlers were well done.

I think you forgot a few steps: you have to collect these magic beans from passing, random plantsims that are in the right emotional state, not be in that state yourself, and then after entering the portal inside the hideous tree (lat. arbor hidiota) you have to find a forbidden fruit and eat it in order to get the green disease.

Reminds me of the challenges in a vaguely related game. I think it's called, uhm, SimsFreeplay, perhaps. http://simsfreeplay.wikia.com/wiki/A_Quest_for_Toddlers

You have to collect beans from plantsims who are in specific emotional states, but other than that you've got it.

The plantsims in Sims 4 aren't really occults, there's no genetics involved it's more or less a temporary overlay giving your sim green hair and skin. They ripped it from cool kitchen, but back then it wasn't advertised as a plantsim it was just a special effect your Sim got from eating some special ice cream. I'm assuming not many people use that particular flavor which is why Maxis decided to ram it down our throats again, calling them plantsims this time. Part of me remembers Maxis clarifying that The 'plant' Sims in Cool Kitchen were not plantsims - I see they're back to "things change"

I would just prefer for my own created Sims to not be transformed into plantsims without me being the one to turn them. These challenges have always used played Sims and I find that incredibly annoying.

Soooo, if I download this patch. I will have sims that I play AND unplayed sims walking around as plantsims, and I would have no control over this whatsoever?

Sort of. Bear in mind that they'll be in plantsim form only for the purpose and scope of walking by so you can ask for a bean. They don't actually stay plantsims for 5 days. They're plantsims for like an hour while they stroll by when you're at the park. And then if you go meet them somewhere else or call them for a party, they're normal again.

Also, only during the day. If you only go out at night, e.g., because you play a vampire, you won't see a single plantsim and wonder WTH the event was even about.

Which I have to wonder if it's EA's way of dealing with the fact that it's a right nightmare to survive the night even WITH a human in control. I expect that if they actually left those unplayed sims as plantsims for 5 days with only the free will AI to keep them alive... oh, man... it would have the same effect on the town poulation as, shall we say, the bubonic plague in ye olde days.

Also, vampires can't be plantsims, so you won't see those walking around painted green.

But yeah, other than that you'll have no control whatsoever over who gets plantsimmed and who doesn't.

Oh yeah, and each plantsim is forced to have a certain mood so it can give you the bean for that specific emotion. So you may see someone who's otherwise sweet and friendly stomping by raging angry, just cause it got picked to represent that emotion.

I hate it, and of all the Sims it messed up the sim I made of myself, which was the most work I put into a sim. ugh ffs

I don't know if it's San Myshuno, or what - but, I have yet to see a PlantSim in my game. Not complaining, just surprised - because I wasn't thrilled about this challenge and almost didn't patch till it was over.

Is it triggered by calling Jasmine? - because I know she's not in my game and I haven't called her either.

MC Command Center logs every household created and I haven't seen a notice about her (she's actually a special household, not named Holiday in the game coding - so, it's obvious in the log when she's created) and I run the clean_jasmine command (a MC Command Center console command) to get rid of her after every challenge, so I don't end up with multiple Jasmines next time. Hmm.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen one in San Myshuno either. Nor in Forgotten Hollow, come to think of it.

Your best bet are the first three worlds, actually. Even better, the parks in the first two. Take a day off, pack a few sandwiches along, and go play chess with the people there, keeping an eye on the road there. You'll meet more than enough.

And no, it happens even if you've never met Jasmine. Though I'm under the subjective and unscientific impression that having her along (she seems to tag along for the rest of the day after you call her) does make more plantsims stroll by.

Of course, sooner or later you'll have to call her, if you want to actually finish the challenge, seein' as you need the tree stump from her to finish it.

It's even better, really. If you'll look at what it's trying to do, it doesn't even check whether the sims it picks are actually capable of having that emotion. It's the easiest to see if you have for example the Unemotional trait installed, but I think even in vanilla you can block some emotions. So you can see some poor guy shanghaied into playing emotional plantsim, trying over and over again to psych themselves into an emotion they can't possibly have.

So not only it's all you wrote, but it's also the usual half-baked EA implementation we all know and love :p

Well, more like the right emotion for the bean you still need, but otherwise, yep. That's pretty much it. Spend some hours waiting for some plantsims.

The difference is that the bean is generated when you ask for it, so you can actually get a different bean by getting the plantsim in a different mood.

For example, since we're talking about "simulating life", the easiest way to get an angry bean is to get one of the plantsims raging angry at you. Make an enemy, really. Then ask them for their bean, and they'll give it to you. I mean, you might be their new nemesis, but you asked, right? They can't POSSIBLY say "no" just because you just yelled at them, threw a drink at them (note to self, next time don't throw it with the glass too), called their mother a llama, and proclaimed them your sworn enemy. That's how real people act, amirite?

I haven't seen them in Willow Creek either. Oh no, I'm not calling Jasmine - I'm in the minority who don't play with lifestates and really don't want them in their game. As I said, I almost didn't patch till it was over, but I wanted to test a few of the features in the newest MC Command Center, so patch I did.

I'm quite content to be free of Jasmine and PlantSims.

Well that's just lovely...

So, not satisfied with playing with my Sims when I'm not looking (figuratively I don't have the game installed anymore) and fattening them up when I'm not looking, they now play "Invasion of the Green Body Snatchers from Emotion Bean 5" with my Sims and turn them into green possession victims?

*deep breath* Maxis, Sim Team, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dar, or what ever EA calls you this month, listen up; all I ask of you (well, most of what I ask of you) is that you don't touch my Sims for your stupid promotion projects or with your stupid AI without getting my persmission first and with an option for me to turn it off if I don't like it. NOT EVERYONE just plays a single, YA, "trendy" yoursim. So stop pretending that the Single YA yoursim wishfulfilment and the Legacy Style are the only playstyles. And DON"T turn my SIms into Green possesed emotion zombies. Understood? Good.

Ohhhhhh. So, if I were to play this challenge, which I will not, my sims would have to talk to these green bean sims in "wacky moods" just so they can join "the green (not so giant) group." Hur, hur, hur emoshuns! I'm sick of these emotions. Who were the specific geniuses to think of turning an online game into an emotional "juicy drama?"--not my words. They do have special powers such as making plantsim babies and doing "spores of happiness' right? Is a Seasons ep coming or are they going to throw out a winter gp? What about a summer gp with beaches? I'll gladly trade in emoshuns for some oceans. A spring gp? Autumn? Can I get some rain? No? I'll...go back to playing The Sims 2.

No, they pretty much have no powers, unless you use mods.

Well, as I've mentioned before in other threads, I think the TS4 ones are actually modelled after cats.

The first time I started to suspect that was when TS4 first came out, and being the friendly and social puppy type, I just had to befriend the maid. (Even though she threw away my career reward coffee maker instead of washing it.) Then she finishes the work and leaves. Then an hour later comes to my door and wants in, to hang out with me. Then she wanted out again. Then she wanted in again. Then she wanted out again. Repeat ad nauseam. And then it hit me. By Odin's iPatch, that's a cat in human disguise.

And I had a bit of further confirmation more recently, when I finished cooking something of excellent quality, and my neighbour sim shows up at the door and asks to be let in and fed :p

Stuff like that.

So, yeah, there's probably a fat orange tabby somewhere, going, "What are these people complaining about? Everyone acts very naturally!" :p

Oh, this gets better... So I tried playing as a plantsim again,

I go to the park in the first world, and... my food bar keeps going down, while the water bar doesn't. Basically there's no photosynthesis happening. The game obviously doesn't think I'm outside.

One of the other sims calls, wants to go to Geek Con with me. Well, sure, it beats starving in the middle of a fucking park on a clear summer day, for lack of sun. Except... yep, you guessed, no photosynthesis going on there either.

Ah well, I go home, make sure my sim has plenty of food and water when 8 PM hits, then save the game and exit. When I reload, the game resets my food and water bar to around 50%. Yep, since there's no way to just cook something or similar, this sim won't survive the night.

Seriously, at this point I'm convinced that the only way EA could have made this be more of a piece of shit, would have involved actually squatting on a toilet...

Hey I just joined the game and I want my character to become a vampire. But I know nothing about it. So if I do the event will that ruin his chance to become vampire? I mean I started the event already because I was a like cool I get to plant more seeds. I did that a lot in TS3. Eh, it was the only thing I did in TS3. I was a seed nut in TS3. So when I saw this I was thinking it was like an easter egg hunt but with seeds and some plant would sprout money or eat people. I did not know it might turn me green and perhaps I will not get to be vampire. If that is true I mist stop trying to collect the seeds from the moody plantpeople.

You don't become green until you actually eat the fruit. And even then only for a couple of game days. It's not permanent. If you want to be green any longer, well, you can plant it so you have a steady supply of the fruits. Or if you don't want to be green, just ignore the fruit.

Basically, if you want to be a vampire, the event IS a bit of a waste of time, not the least because vampires tend to be out and about at night, while the green NPCs for the event are out only in daylight. So you'd have to delay the vampire part for an easier time finishing it. But it's only a delay either way. Even eating the fruit is only a few more days delay, nothing more.

That said, unless you want to RP becoming one, you can also start as a vampire from day 1. You know, in case you want to RP some older vampire or something. (I like my vampires as old as the Roman Empire, shall we say.) Just start a family in CAS, use "Add Vampire" to add a second character, then delete the first one.

Not that becoming one is any harder, mind you. You just have to talk a little to, well, almost any existing vampire character, so you're on good terms, and then tell them to bite you. Considering that two of them showed up as the welcome wagon if you started in Forgotten Hollow, and the Count does the rounds every night too, you can be a vampire before the first sunrise.

After which, well, you don't have to worry about being green any more, unless you choose that skin colour in CAS :p

Alright. I'm not doing a cas vamp. More a Renfield hello how are you, you strange man/woman staring at my neck. I'm new in town, thingy. Kinda sad I don't get to do an event but no real loss. TS4 is not my main game just a side dish. I only got Sims4 to have something to do if my main game went on maintenance. I think I will dig up the stump and throw it away and ignore the event.

Well, you'll have an event all right if you don't get vamped soon :p

That said, well, there is a reason to do the event anyway. Namely that after the first day when you get the fruit, once a day you can go into the portal tree and get some random element. As in, chemical element. Still not really worth the bother of chasing down plantsims in daytime as a vampire -- and even less so if you get the vampire perk to make your own elements -- but I suppose it makes it be not a complete loss.