Carl's review of Dream Home Decorator pack is out

"Dannakyri1;c-17898590" wrote:
I love the fact that I can take a job, steal all their stuff, give them a bathtub and get paid still.

@Dannakyri1 This is the only part of the pack I genuinely love. The fact that you can throw parties at the house when the owners are away. Just my gameplay style.

I just wish they added some kind of "punishment" for you if the owners came back and caught you in the act. Get you fired or something. Drop your reputation. Just the kind of stuff I live for.

The Renovation system that was added in the Sims 3 Ambitions EP has a complexity many people are unaware of.

What happened to Carl would not happen in The Sims 3:


The scoring for each renovation also takes into account:
- The Environment score (which is a BG system). The math the game uses to calculate this are extremely complex.
- Whether the player moved an object of its original location rather than buying a new one.
- Client's traits. For example, snob sims want you to spend more money; hates the outdoors sims want as few windows as possible.
- Plants, rugs and home-made items give a boost to the score.
- Extra points if you use an object whose subject is the client (like a painting or sculpture of the client) or someone from their household.
- Special actions such as discussing the renovation and taking measurements give additional score but are NOT required.
- Objects that contain the word "cheap" internally deduct points.
- The number of rooms and square tiles is stored before the renovation to use for scoring later.

"Naus;c-17899870" wrote:
The Renovation system that was added in the Sims 3 Ambitions EP has a complexity many people are unaware of.

The scoring for each renovation also takes into account:
- The Environment score (which is a BG system). The math the game uses to calculate this are extremely complex.
- Whether the player moved an object of its original location rather than buying a new one.
- Client's traits. For example, snob sims want you to spend more money; hates the outdoors sims want as few windows as possible.
- Plants, rugs and home-made items give a boost to the score.
- Extra points if you use an object whose subject is the client (like a painting or sculpture of the client) or someone from their household.
- Special actions such as discussing the renovation and taking measurements give additional score but are NOT required.
- Objects that contain the word "cheap" internally deduct points.
- The number of rooms and square tiles is stored before the renovation to use for scoring later.

Seeing how thoughtful the Sims 3 code was really makes the Sims 4 seem lacking. :(

It appears Carl has filled in the lgr gap in terms of knowing his reviews are going to be more critical. It’s what I expect now from him. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing and definitely not a troll but for me when I want to watch a review I want a full honest opinion and Carl like lgr is the opposite end to some of the super positive ones lilsimsie and deligracy who I find over positive. Both types of reviews I don’t find helpful or sometimes truthful. Plumbella does good reviews as she looks at both positives and negatives and is more balanced. Personally this time I liked grim cookies he is usually very positive in his reviews so for his to be negative I think is a much more honest reaction which I value more.

"ashcrash19;c-17898207" wrote:
Is it just me or has he become more and more negative? I remember when Carl's Guides were neutral or positive. The last year or so it seemed he's always upset.

It's because he's being influenced by the increased negativity of the fanbase in general. It gets to a point that you feel out place for thinking differently than the majority, this allows negative influences to make adjustments to way you think. I'm sad to say that I've only come to understand this now because I, myself was undergoing it.

Case in point, it follows the same deal of if you hear a lie enough times it becomes the truth.

I don't see any depth to the dog poop stunt. What did the last masterpiece your sim painted look like? You already can hang literally anything on the wall and sims will get a positive vibe from it--so that probably isn't the point; never has been.

I want to think that Carl gets the manifest style of TS4 that makes it different (better or worse, whatever) from TS3. But he's lately brushed that aside so flippantly that it's hard to take him seriously. He's clearly joined in with some solid critique of the GP and stated it effectively. But I'm glad I wasn't deterred by his (comparatively restrained) criticism of Island Living, for example.

I think I've settled into a playstyle that the game rewards, and it's surprisingly opposite to what Carl--who has apparently built a livelihood on the back of a game he seems to fundamentally not enjoy--recommends.

"Naus;c-17899870" wrote:
The Renovation system that was added in the Sims 3 Ambitions EP has a complexity many people are unaware of.

What happened to Carl would not happen in The Sims 3:

Spoiler

// Sims3.Gameplay.ActiveCareer.ActiveCareers.InteriorDesigner.Renovation
private float Metric_DirtyObjects()
{
	int num = 0;
	foreach (Action scoringAction in ScoringActions)
	{
		if (scoringAction.Origin == Origin.Owned && scoringAction.Item.Cleanable != null && scoringAction.Item.Cleanable.VisuallyDirty)
		{
			mbDirtyObjectsPlaced = true;
			num++;
		}
	}
	return 0f - (float)num * kMetricDirtyObjectsPointsDeductedPerDirtyObject;
}

The scoring for each renovation also takes into account:
- The Environment score (which is a BG system). The math the game uses to calculate this are extremely complex.
- Whether the player moved an object of its original location rather than buying a new one.
- Client's traits. For example, snob sims want you to spend more money; hates the outdoors sims want as few windows as possible.
- Plants, rugs and home-made items give a boost to the score.
- Extra points if you use an object whose subject is the client (like a painting or sculpture of the client) or someone from their household.
- Special actions such as discussing the renovation and taking measurements give additional score but are NOT required.
- Objects that contain the word "cheap" internally deduct points.
- The number of rooms and square tiles is stored before the renovation to use for scoring later.

Considering this was one of many careers and other in deph features in ambitions and now we're only getting one career at a gamepack price, i was expecting it to be at least as good.

"derevaun;c-17899911" wrote:
I don't see any depth to the dog poop stunt. What did the last masterpiece your sim painted look like? You already can hang literally anything on the wall and sims will get a positive vibe from it--so that probably isn't the point; never has been.

I want to think that Carl gets the manifest style of TS4 that makes it different (better or worse, whatever) from TS3. But he's lately brushed that aside so flippantly that it's hard to take him seriously. He's clearly joined in with some solid critique of the GP and stated it effectively. But I'm glad I wasn't deterred by his (comparatively restrained) criticism of Island Living, for example.

I think I've settled into a playstyle that the game rewards, and it's surprisingly opposite to what Carl--who has apparently built a livelihood on the back of a game he seems to fundamentally not enjoy--recommends.

Island Living is the most content-free EP ever, so yay for Carl.

"SamDenny;c-17899910" wrote:

"ashcrash19;c-17898207" wrote:
Is it just me or has he become more and more negative? I remember when Carl's Guides were neutral or positive. The last year or so it seemed he's always upset.

It's because he's being influenced by the increased negativity of the fanbase in general. It gets to a point that you feel out place for thinking differently than the majority, this allows negative influences to make adjustments to way you think. I'm sad to say that I've only come to understand this now because I, myself was undergoing it.

Case in point, it follows the same deal of if you hear a lie enough times it becomes the truth.

If you played TS3's Ambitions then how does this stand up to that? It cost $20 with one half baked career. TS3 Sims aren't happy if you don't meet the requirements for interior decorator. It's much more complex than this DLC. Big Fish site has several games like this DLC, and I can tell you the characters who request stuff (and other characters actually have to paint the walls and remove the furniture etc.) are not happy if an item is not filled to their specific requests. They are very popular with players who like strategy and or linear play and or time management games. This dlc seems to be hurry up and make a GP and call it a day. No new floors, or only one wall paint and or no consequences for selling off the big TV or a nice, expensive couch? It seems no one cared what the heck they were building that day. No specific room? Really? That's a good thing? lol A quick look at the game play of those little games over on BF and or TS3's Ambitions EP with more than one career and a complex interior decorator remake can show the difference between the truth and a lie.

"SamDenny;c-17899910" wrote:

"ashcrash19;c-17898207" wrote:
Is it just me or has he become more and more negative? I remember when Carl's Guides were neutral or positive. The last year or so it seemed he's always upset.

It's because he's being influenced by the increased negativity of the fanbase in general. It gets to a point that you feel out place for thinking differently than the majority, this allows negative influences to make adjustments to way you think. I'm sad to say that I've only come to understand this now because I, myself was undergoing it.

Case in point, it follows the same deal of if you hear a lie enough times it becomes the truth.

Not everyone are going to like a pack that Maxis makes, you know best yourself if you like this pack or not.

That's why I think it's good that we have Carl because he has a different point of view. Not everyone is going to agree with it but that's fine, people that want to listen to people with different points of view have the option to do so. It's better than just listening to people who have a very similar taste and tend to like everything that Maxis makes.

If you have doubts about this pack, listen to some other gamechangers, some of them really liked the idea of having no rules when doing decorations because they could build whatever they wanted.