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DizzyDee-K's avatar
DizzyDee-K
Seasoned Ace
2 months ago

[EBN] Enchanted by Nature is the first EP I've truly regretted purchasing.

Playing with a brand new Save in a brand new The Sims 4 folder. No mods. No CC.

It's a beautiful World .... but:

  • Frequent crashing is still an issue. I've never had my game crash so often. 
  • Fixed I can't repair my game because "We've paused the download because you don't own this title."
  • Patched on July 29. So far this seems to be improved, but I haven't had a lot of play time. Time will tell. Under investigation The Balance and Luck systems overwhelms all other gameplay.
  • This UI choice is still annoying. The method for monitoring Balance and Luck is buried in the Simology tab. Making it difficult to keep tabs on whilst playing. Especially when playing with multiple Sims.
  • Patched on July 29.  Can't really judge yet. This may be addressed by a patch. Balance and Luck change dramatically, suddenly and inexplicably. E.G. My Sim is fine. Needs are fine. Suddenly he's not caught a fish and his luck is bad? His Balance has plummeted? And now he has some ailment he can't afford to cure so he has to abandon all else to go off in search of a cure.

And my Sim hasn't even made it to becoming a Fairy. Sheesh. 

Back to my regular game. Looking to relax so I open up the household of my nice elderly retired Sim. Of course she's cooking. Of course she catches on fire. Plum. Bad Luck. Out of Balance. Argh. 

Turned it all off. I am not enchanted. 

 

24 Replies

  • BarMaster71's avatar
    BarMaster71
    Rising Scout
    2 months ago

    Intern Waffle, what you've described and the way you've described it doesn't sound like engaging with game mechanics so as much as it sounds like being slavish to them. 

    There's the imagination/storytelling aspect of the game to consider here. The game mechanics ideally should allow enough wiggle room for a player to freely construct whatever narrative(s) they choose to create for their households at their leisure. When the mechanics are loose enough to allow for that, then the player can embrace the mechanics that do exist and incorporate them into their narratives. 

    But when the mechanics become too intrusive and stifling, that all goes out the window, and you have the game dictating what the player needs to be doing at every turn, essentially turning it into a checkpoint/objective driven game. 

    Besides, it's perfectly possible to introduce new and satisfying gameplay mechanics without slapping yet another system onto the already mile-long simology panel (with all packs and everything enabled). They did it most recently with Businesses & Hobbies by introducing small business gameplay, and they did that without imposing another system on us.

    If they're going to continue expanding this game, then I'd much prefer they'd continue along the lines of B&H rather than struggle to come up with yet another new system-based pack. It's getting ridiculous. At this point, I'm half-expecting them to introduce a new "skin dryness" system wherein if you're not applying moisturizing lotion at least five times a day, your Sim will dry up and turn into dust.

  • Intern_Waffle_64's avatar
    Intern_Waffle_64
    Seasoned Ace
    31 days ago

    The game isn't "dictating what you have to do" by offering you content that has a feature that has consequences, and then the feature happens, and there's consequences. 

    Your sim wakes up and is hungry. Is the game "dictating what you have to do" because now you eventually have to feed them? C'mon.

  • BarMaster71's avatar
    BarMaster71
    Rising Scout
    31 days ago

    That's funny, I don't seem to recall complaining about the hunger bar. Are you trying to to draw a parallel between having to eat when you're hungry and having to wait a day to do things you might like to do because some luck goddess isn't smiling favorably upon you that day?

    Look, if you enjoy limiting mechanics, you do you, but you might've considered that other players might not be down with that sort of thing before writing what reads a lot more like lecture to other players than it does an offering of well-meaning advice.

  • onyx779's avatar
    onyx779
    Seasoned Traveler
    31 days ago

    I literally logged on to make this exact post. I wasted money when I purchased this. Number 1: Even turning off the balance and imbalances... MY SIMS ARE CONSTANTLY AFFLICTED BY AILMENTS! I've never hated a pack more than this, not even wedding stories. The only good things that came with this pack is the ability to evolve all plants at once and a new world. I paid the equivalent of a brand new AA video game price for a DLC that ruins my gameplay. At this point it's got to be a sickness to continue purchasing anything for this game. And I've never even played as a fairy yet!

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