Forum Discussion

Seasoned Hotshot

5 months ago

Please update the secret lots & neighbourhoods

Please upgrade the secret lots. I mean the ones including Sylvan Glade, Forgotton Grotto, etc. Also the nieghbourhoods themselves.

Unfortunately The Sims 4 gets really boring, really fast.

The secret areas initially give you a sense of wonder and discovery. Only to find that it's completely empty, and only contains plants, dig sites, and fishing spots. These are exactly the same useless things I have in the nieghbourhood around my lot that I rarely ever click on. What on earth is the point in visiting them?? They become completely pointless and hugely deflating.

The neighbourhoods themselves feel completely empty and useless, and the secret worlds feel exactly the same.

I don't need to run around collecting plants - I have plants at home
I don't need to use the random grill down the road - I have ovens/grills at home
I don't need to use the random bench down the road - I have chairs at home
I don't need to visit the random vendor down the road - I have a fridge

There is absolutely no reason for me to step off my lot. It's so depressing :(

At the very least, I wish we could have a "edit neighbourhood" button to place new objects down. We could bring some life into these places! Make little camp sites for us and townies to use. Make little outdoor movie hangouts, excersise areas, especially training courses for horses... The possibilities are endless! There's a reason so many people have downloaded the T.O.O.L. mod to be able to do things like this.

I tried to upgrade Sylvan Glade myself for the new fairy pack. It has always had little fairy sprites in it and I was so immensely disappointed they didn't do anything with it for the new pack. They even added a teleport stone for these secret places - why?!
I tried to make it a mystical fairy location - but the buildable lot is way too small (and you need to cheat to build on it) and any lot traits I tried to attract other sims didn't work - no one visits.

There are also still some neighbourhoods that the rivers/lakes/etc haven't been made swimmable. So it feels like mermaid sims are unable to live there. I don't always want a big pool in the garden, and it's pointless having a mermaid if you can only see their tail when they're in the bath.

Random world events would be a nice addition - we had an ice cream van that would travel around in The Sims 3 in the summer... Could we not have a van spawn in on the road in our neighbourhoods? With the chime to announce it's there? Maybe even travelling merchants that appear, or musicians... There's so many ideas you could have to randomly appear to make the surrounding area less useless and devoid of life.

22 Replies

Malymin
New Traveler
5 months ago
For me it's more a matter of.... I like using those areas to get plants for free on fresh saves. Since wild plants are always normal quality, they're not a substitute for a garden, so much as a place to forage for specific plants to plop in one's own greenhouse. And also, aesthetically, it just stinks that the flowers and mushrooms, which are arguably just as much an aesthetic part of those areas as a functional one, usually aren't even visible. The "fairy circle" of mushrooms in Sylvan Glade just isn't the same when it's just dormant clumps of dirt!
Then again, I also like to use "community gardens" in Willow Creek, Moonwood Mill, etc to house plants that would take up too much space on my own lot, so this might just be a difference of playstyle regarding gardening.
I've been thinking that the same way seasons causes empty areas of some neighborhoods to seasonally spawn food stalls and skating rinks, it would make sense if installing some relevant nature and occult packs would add some extra stuff to the hidden worlds? It would make sense, for example, for Sylvan glade to have, at the very least, to spawn in interactive ambient birds (Cats & Dogs birds) a tree and rabbit stump (Cottage living) and some EBN fairy related plants/objects, like a fairy house near the existing "fairy circle" of wild mushrooms. Since I brought up the plantsim stump earlier in relation to EBN, I think the "completed" version - which looks like a pink weeping willow or weeping cherry - might also look nice somewhere in there.
Not sure what ideas I have for Forgotten Grotto... it's got a bit of a different atmosphere. Gloomy, but not quite gothic. A sense that human sims used to be here, but aren't any more.
I feel like they should probably both have some kind of "restroom" inside them - a "party bush" type object for sylvan glade, and an abandoned outhouse (probably a new object) for forgotten grotto.
... on an unrelated note, I like that the new world has rabbitholes for various kinds of ordinary shopping - groceries, garden supplies, used books, and (on the coastal area) a fish market - that sell things you can't necessarily get from buying on the computer or from build/buy (at least without cheats). I like being able to buy the romance festival planter and hydroponic planter without cheats now, for example. I think more worlds' shell buildings could, at the very least, be converted into these kinds of places? Maybe also throw in a hardware store that sells handiness related stuff as an option, too.
Teknikah
Seasoned Hotshot
5 months ago
I've had a further thought on top of what I already suggested, that I also mentioned on this thread
I mentioned spawning world events, but also a revamp to the Seasons calendar...
Why could we not have festivals from the Seasons calendar spawn in the local area?? Such as a big Christmas tree? That you and other sims that spawn in the neighbourhood can decorate and sing and whatever. Like the bonfire festival in one of the new worlds.
Couldn't we just have an area of space in each neighbourhood dedicated to rotating festivals that spawn in if you've got a date on the calendar telling it to spawn in?
Again, if it's Christmas spawn a tree and a hot chocolate maker, some seats, a stereo...
For easter an area where the flower bunny hangs around with eggs hidden in the nieghbourhood maybe? You could replace some of the random spawning plants/rocks/etc with eggs temporarily
Going one step further it oculd put a default set of items down, but allow you to edit it. So that every time it's called to load in it has your edits (think of the rotating lot from Eco Lifestyle with the maker/gardening/market versions depending on what is voted for. When building the lot you have 4 different versions to build)