Forum Discussion

pandacookiesims's avatar
3 months ago

Alien occult overhaul for GTW

I posted a similar topic in the old forums, but it wasn't carried over. This discussion is similar but has new suggestions and explanations (post has been edited).

So, aliens are an occult sim available via the get to work DLC and some base game interactions. However, they are quite uninteresting. They have a few powers and interactions, but are mostly a nuisance, since the game likes to cause sims to get abducted all the time. The get to work expansion added new interactions, but they are locked behind career events. There is even a hidden lot, Sixam, the alien home world, that sims can visit. Though the only thing sims can do is harvest a few plants and collectibles.

Overall, in comparison to occult sims from various DLCs, they are boring, and I'm surprised they haven't received a free update. Mods have been created to make them more interesting, but they need to be made into a genuine occult sim. Here are my suggestions for a get to work overhaul for aliens.

  1. Make aliens a genuine occult sim with powers, ranks, and perks. Give them specific CAS traits, aspirations, and preferences, and add more variety to the body and outfit categories for customizing the alien form. Add a new destination world, Sixam, and add new scifi/futuristic themed CAS and build mod items. Sixam, unlike Batuu, will actually be explorable and function similarly to Selvadorada. Features available on Sixam include a bar lot with custom alien food and drinks, vacation rentals, vendor stalls and sales tables, interactive shells, a community board, new harvestables and collectibles, and explorable ruins (similar to jungle adventure) with traps, treasure chests, and relics. Sims will be able to walk around and find plants and dig sites for obtaining new harvestables and collectible metals and crystals. They can also interact with NPC aliens and cute alien wildlife.
  2. Alien ruins, like Selvadoran ruins, will require the sim to purchase adventure gear to navigate, disable traps, solve puzzles, and open treasure chests. Sims will be able to find relics, alien technology, rocket ship blueprints, and weapons (raygun) in the ruins. Sixam relics can be decorative items that act as aura emitters or have functions similar to Selvadoran relics (which will require sims to use the archaeology skill and table to extract and authenticate). Relics can be placed in museums or added to lots in build mode from the sim or household inventory. Alien technology will include eco living style power and water generators that run on Sixam metals and crystals and a new cooking appliance for preparing alien themed recipes. Rocket ship blueprints will allow sims to unlock new designs for buildable rocket ships. The raygun will function similarly to the simray. Features include disable alien disguise, turn sim into alien (temporary), and stun alien/alien pet.
  3. Alien wildlife will function similarly to cottage living wildlife. When on Sixam, sims can meet and interact with alien wildlife, talk to them, pet them, and give them gifts. Sims can befriend alien wildlife and ask them to join their household. Like any other household pet, they'll need a pet bed, food bowl, toys, and alien pets will only eat alien fruit harvestables or alien pet food recipes. Alien pets will have a unique skill that functions similarly to the debate skill. They can entice their owners to dote on them and give them extra food/treats. They can entice other household pets to give them their pet beds and toys. Alien pets can be trained and use pet parkours (if the sim has the appropriate Sixam culture skill rank).
  4. Introduce a new skill, the Sixam culture skill. The Sixam culture skill will allow sims to obtain a better understanding of aliens and alien technology. The Sixam culture skill will function similarly to the selvadoran and sulani culture skills. Visiting Sixam and interacting with aliens and alien wildlife, exploring ruins, studying alien technology and relics, and discovering harvestables and collectibles will increase the skill level and unlock new interactions. 
  5. Community board missions on Sixam will function similarly to cottage living missions. Rewards will include Sixam upgrade and salvage parts and other items. Completing missions will also increase the Sixam culture skill.
  6. Introduce new collectible metals, crystals, and Sixam upgrade and salvage parts that can be used for crafting. Sixam metals. crystals, and ugrade parts would function similarly to base game collectibles. They can be analyzed using the chemical analyzer, studied under the microscope, sent to the geode counsel and receive an element that can be added to a new element rack. Sixam salvage parts would function like robot salvage parts from discover university. Metals, crystals, and harvestables can be obtained the normal way when exploring Sixam. Sixam upgrade and salvage parts can be obtained from completing community board missions, cloning (scientist career), disassembling alien relics, weapons, and technology, and searching through trash piles after making repairs to alien technology. If sims have the appropriate Sixam culture skill rank, they can perform new interactions on the woodworking table, archaeology table, robotics crafting station, and gemology table. On the woodworking table, they can upgrade their raygun using Sixam upgrade parts. On the archaeology table they and extract and authenticate relics. On the robotics crafting station, they can craft alien themed toys and drones using Sixam salvage parts. On the gemology table, they can make chargeable alien themed jewelry with Sixam metals and crystals. Sims can also perform upgrades to alien technology with Sixam upgrade parts. Charged alien theme jewelry, when worn, will provide buffs against alien powers.
  7. Overhaul the astronaut and scientist career with new tasks and promotional goals. Make the astronaut career an active career. Specific suggestions for the scientist career include having career tasks or promotion goals related to traveling to Sixam, exploring ruins, studying alien technology, and creating new inventions such as an alien food synthesizer (makes alien themed recipes with optional ingredients). Specific suggestions for the astronaut career include having career tasks or promotion goals related to traveling to Sixam, exploring ruins, discovering rocket ship blueprints and weapons.  Scientists and astronauts will be able to unlock certain interactions when talking to specific NPC aliens (similar to ROM sages). Examples include share knowledge of alien technology, give treasure chest hint, decipher rocket ship blueprints (must have blueprints in inventory), and assist with relic research (must have relic in inventory).
  8. Introduce methods for regular sims (not in the scientist or astronaut career) to travel to Sixam (not via abduction). Suggestions include befriending an alien NPC and asking them to take the sim to Sixam, discover a secret portal gate, and discover a crashed alien space shuttle, repair it using the handiness skill, and fly it to Sixam. Unlike the rocket ship, the space shuttle will be a one - time use item and will break down after making the initial journey to Sixam. Sims will have to find a way to return home, such as locating a portal gate on Sixam.
  9. Add a goaled alien party social event.
  • luciusstorm's avatar
    luciusstorm
    Seasoned Veteran

    I think these are very interesting ideas. I enjoy occult sims and recently started exploring aliens. I might very well purchase a pack like this.

    Unfortunately, short of making that pack dependent on Get to Work (which is something EA appears to avoid whenever possible), I'm not sure how it would work. 

    • pandacookiesims's avatar
      pandacookiesims
      New Scout

      Yes. This pack would essentially require 1 hard dependency (get to work) and several soft dependencies (discover university, jungle adventure, crystal creations, etc). Get to work introduced active careers and the Sixam hidden lot. Thus, to expand aliens into an actual occult sim and make certain elements functional, the pack would be linked to get to work. 

  • EgonVM's avatar
    EgonVM
    Seasoned Ace

    What do you mean by "BGC occult sim"? What does "BGC" mean?

    I think this all could be put into Get to Work refresh. After all, alien life state comes from Get to Work expansion pack. I'll also add some feedback to ideas too.

    1. Agreed.
    2. Interesting idea...
    3. Very interesting...
    4. Get to Work really needs a new skill after Photography was put into the base game.
    5. Again, interesting. Instead of Batuu, we'd have our very own original alien world.
    6. Interesting, yet Get to Work does bring some new collectibles: new plants, metals, and even geodes.
    7. I don't think they'll make the astronaut career into an active one because the active careers have branches. I would be interested in rather seeing it become a work from home career. Also, the top level scientists sometimes at work have to travel to Sixam and join the alien party there.
    8. Now that I have something to say about. There are two ways to travel to Sixam: by an upgraded Wormhole portal or by upgrading the rocket ship. Rocket ship can be upgraded by anyone with 10 levels in Rocket Science skill. If you don't have room, you can always put the ship in a community lot. Wormhole Portals can also be sold in retail stores. Though additional ideas are interesting, if you keep the world secret, so many gameplay features will go unnoticed. So these have to be made easier, that's for sure.
    9. Agreed. Why can't non-scientist arrive to an alien party?
    • pandacookiesims's avatar
      pandacookiesims
      New Scout

      BGC stands for base game compatible. Aliens are a base game occult sim. Get to work expanded gameplay related to aliens and added Sixam to the game. Get to work genuinely needs a refresh and update. Many players have commented on this extensively in the old forums.  I don't know if EA would ever release a free update to get to work, especially if they intended to add the features I suggested to improve alien related gameplay. They might instead release this content as a new pack. Honestly, I own over 40 DLCs. I'm sure other players have invested hundreds of dollars into the sims franchise in general and the sims 4 specifically. EA could show some customer appreciation and release a free patch update to give get to work an overhaul.

      And I agree that any sim should be able to attend or host an alien party., regardless of career.

      • EgonVM's avatar
        EgonVM
        Seasoned Ace

        Ok.

        However, alien life state isn't from the base game. They are from Get to Work. I even googled it to see if I missed something. Nope, no news of them being brought to base game like Photography skill was. The base game does feature a green skin tone to all sims and little alien critter collection for sims using the space ship, but for alien life state, alien-specific eyes, alien abduction etc you need Get to Work. You could try removing Get to Work expansion pack and seeing if you can add an alien in CAS.

        That is why I'm against it being a pack: it would be alien version of My First Pet stuff, aka DLC for DLC. I'm rather for it being done as Get to Work refresh.