Before more occults, more realism

I don’t even have Laundry Day. Definitely not buying the Water Heater/ Lawn Care EP. I get that some folks just love replicating the most boring parts of everyday life, but even when I’m not playing occults, I’m not wasting time doing virtual laundry. If I wanted to do laundry or mow the lawn, I’d close up my laptop and do the real thing. At least I’d get some level of personal benefit from it, then.

"CAPTAIN_NXR7;c-18207389" wrote:


I'm a little concerned about this attitude within the sims community. What's up with this notion that a "life simulator" equals "REAL LIFE simulator"?
I'm really not getting it.

When did this push for ultra realism in The Sims even start? I mean, to me, demanding “real life” kind of robs the game of its unique identity. The Sims franchise has always been a little quirky and off kilter, and occults have always been a part of that. It’s never been really “realistic.” I get that not everyone wants to play occults, but honestly, there’s no imbalance between occult and non-occult gameplay. In fact, TS4 is behind on Supernatural life states, compared to other versions of the game.

"cyncie;c-18208755" wrote:
I don’t even have Laundry Day. Definitely not buying the Water Heater/ Lawn Care EP. I get that some folks just love replicating the most boring parts of everyday life, but even when I’m not playing occults, I’m not wasting time doing virtual laundry. If I wanted to do laundry or mow the lawn, I’d close up my laptop and do the real thing. At least I’d get some level of personal benefit from it, then.

I must admit that I find pleasure in doing domestic chores in the game. It's all easy and quickly done - so different from doing it in the real world.

I don't play occult stuff very much but I am thankful for the occult pack contents and worlds because I can use them for my Victorian & vintage games.

More realism and less occults? In 8 (!) years of time we had 3 fleshed out occult lifestates and 3 simplified ones (aliens, mermaids and robots). That is less than one per year. In the good old sims 2 and 3 days nearly every EP added a lifestate which meant in average we got 2 per year. We get less than half as much lifestates as in previous iterations.

For GP only 3 out of the 12 we have now add an occult lifestate: vampires, spellcasters and werewolves. Some might add strangerville and batuu to the list but without an actual lifestate, they don't feel the same. These two packs just add things to do for regular Sims.
For EP 3 out of the 12 add a basic occult as a side feature. The main focus for all of them is realism
For SP we only have 1 out of 18 for occult gameplay : paranormal stuff. And no spooky stuff doesn't count because costumes and pumpkin carving are real things
Kits: zero. Kits could be ideal to add fantasy clothing or furniture because it is not for everyone but so far nothing

Occult gameplay is hardly the main focus in the sims 4 and occult players often have to wait years for new content. So why should occult gameplay be pushed aside even more?

I do want a game that functions properly. I enjoy combining realistic elements with magical fantasy gameplay. to me sims is a form of escapism and occult lifestates added a very much needed flavour. I like playing out fantasies, that's the kind of life I like simulating. Realistic elements like doing laundry, working a regular 9 to 5 job and helping kids with homework can fit in just fine for my spellcasters, werewolves and aliens.

If you enjoy things like rainpipes and waterheaters, fair enough. But it would be more polite to ask for these things without bashing on occult gameplay. Occults can be a valid part of the game, not just an afterthought after only has the right to exist after every single little detail of realism is added.

I got to say that I quite agree that occult and realism can go hand in hand together in the Sims.

I do not own vampires, wolves and spellcaster expansion packs, but from what I have seen, they also add really nice new building/ decorating styles.

When it comes to greenhouses, I really would like them to add grow lights, as they had in the Sims 2. But not necessarily to make growing plants in greenhouses more realistic. I would like to have it for my plant-sims, to do photosynthesis without having to drain plants on cloudy/ rainy days. I always feel sad when I have to do that.

100% fixes in Base & the necessary packs.

Am more interested in the game working properly, the bugs squished and brokenness fixed.