"Erica87;15495501" wrote:
@meubanks @ChelleJo I'm sorry for being so rude in my post, I didn't mean to be this harsh. It's just that the past day has been a bit stressful and this one proves to be similar right now and it was getting to me a bit but I didn't mean it personal and I'd like to apologize for it. I'm actually thankful for your input @meubanks because I do want to limit possibilities for exploitation. Do you guys feel like disallowing the use of club perks would be too limiting? Should we only disallow the perks that help with faster skill gain?
I haven't played with clubs all that much, the only thing I use them for is to quickly gather friends (or potential baby daddies) in one place. For example, my matriarch's kids who moved out are in a club with her so I can quickly call them over for birthdays and the like by starting a club gathering. That's what I do with clubs. But I see that there's definitely potential for exploitation and I'd like the challenge to stay fair and balanced for everyone.
@Erica87 I didn't think you were being harsh or rude. I just wanted to make sure that you didn't feel overwhelmed or obligated by what I intended as a helpful suggestion. To be fair, the clubs that I use are definitely set up for min-maxing, and they typically only include the members of the household, which is what makes running a 24/7 gathering practical. The "normal" way that most people use them is probably less exploitative than my particular setup is. My goal in normal game play is to move kids out with a decent head start on skills and such. I'm not trying to age them up quicker, I'm trying to max them out before their birthday. However, the overall effect is that I do age them up well ahead of schedule, because there isn't much of an advantage to keeping them as children once all of the aspirations are finished.
The main thing that makes the clubs exploitable is the fact that you can rocket the kids so quickly through school performance that it allows you to age them up to teen more quickly, which allows you to move them out more quickly in turn.The matriarch can potentially have more children per generation. In truth, the skills themselves aren't that big of a deal on a non-heir who will eventually be moved out. It's the increased speed in raising the children that seems the most unbalanced to me.
Having had the chance to think it through more closely, maybe the perk to restrict is the "Networked Club" perk, which boosts school performance, and the emotion specific vibes, which allow them to stay focused all day. As an added bonus, this change would have no effect on the matriarch, who can't work outside the home any way.
Since none of the challenges goals are specifically impacted by skills, this approach would allow clubs to still feel useful, while reducing their most exploitable advantages.
My shortlist of recommendations:
1.If clubs are used, the Networked club trait cannot be purchased for clubs which allow children. Reason- this perk gives an advantage which directly benefits the challenge by allowing faster school promotions.
2. Possibly restrict Rally the Troops. The ability to fill all club members needs on-demand with a single mouse click has obvious advantages to just about any challenge. A case can be made either way for this one, but it is a powerful perk. Note that this one only works during an active gathering, while "Networked Club" only requires a sim to belong to the club. Play style has a big impact on the usefulness of this perk, but when you know how to use it, it's incredibly strong.
3. Restrict all Emotion-based club vibes except for the default happiness vibe and it's upgrades. The ability to give a strong emotional boost on demand has obvious advantages, particularly with Focused, because the ability to stay very focused all day directly influences school promotions. It is virtually impossible to get an 8 hr focused mood any other way for kids. That's why the vibes are a bit exploitative in my opinion. The max level vibe is difficult to override. Even if the kid's needs start to fail or they get stressed, they will probably not lose the focused state.
If you do these rules, the skill boosts themselves wouldn't be particularly unbalancing. Since the "goal is to get them an A and age them up, the skills are not critically important to the challenge. The kids would gain skills faster, but they would progress through school at a normal pace, and therefore not really break the intent of the challenge. This approach removes the unfair advantages, with the fewest number of rule additions, while allowing the most flexibility for players who want to use clubs. It levels the playing field without unnecessary restrictions on anyone's play style.
If any of my convoluted rambling is not clearly explained feel welcome to ask for clarification or further feedback. My recommendations are only suggestions. I'll support your decisions whether you use them or not.
