Maybe I'm weird but I think that currently we have too much items and things from the packs in the basegame but DLCs have still the same price and no new content to replace taken one.
For example we have just a few wooden floors in the basegame. To implement more wooden patterns, EA could just add more swatches for existing floors but not, they reimplement a floor from Spa Day into the basegame.
To be honest I feel that it is unfair for me as for a customer. I paid for something (DLC) and now, my product has less content then in a day I bought it, because someone moved some things to the base game and I have no other items/improvements instead.
I know a lot of people don’t mind that they do this because hey others can get content for free so what’s the big deal. For me, I just think it’s weird that EA does this, and it shows a lack of forward thinking. If you wanted to make all worlds vacation worlds, you should have considered that years ago when you first designed Outdoor Retreat, for example. Now vacation packs lose their novelty of being vacation packs. And you’re right, the inherent value of the pack does lessen/shift when things get added to the base game.
"NationalPokedex;c-17926297" wrote: I know a lot of people don’t mind that they do this because hey others can get content for free so what’s the big deal. For me, I just think it’s weird that EA does this, and it shows a lack of forward thinking. If you wanted to make all worlds vacation worlds, you should have considered that years ago when you first designed Outdoor Retreat, for example. Now vacation packs lose their novelty of being vacation packs. And you’re right, the inherent value of the pack does lessen/shift when things get added to the base game.
What's the big deal? The big deal is it shows how lazy or inept Maxis is by not creating a totally new floor or tile or wall panel and just grab something from DLC and throw it into the base game and say look how hard we work. Maxis has to give out 'free' content as part of live service. If they keep throwing in stuff from DLC into the base it just proves they don't work all that hard on creating something new for live service. It's like hey Maxis (EA's Live Service policy) you need to offer free content as part of the live service. Maxis: Ok here is a wall from Spa Day! ...........look we've lived up to the requirements of Live Service! let's call it a day.
The only way I can see it being possible to stop this is to accept DLC for DLC. Right now, the standard is if they want to expand something they have to make it base game so everyone gets it. They don't update old packs, I suspect because it will only garner good will of a portion of their audience. If they are not willing to do this and we still want things expanded, then it will have to be paid for.
It comes down to item per item for me, but as a general rule if I am given an improvement as compensation and the pack isn't gutted I am still happy. In fact, I have a mental list of features I suspect will become targets in the future and if not some I hope so (lifestyles could be so much more). For example, I don't particularly care that BG has a whittled down calendar, especially since I can now keep track of all those stupid festivals.
But yes, just picking random CAS assets and giving them to base game doesn't do anything for pack owners.
"Sthenastia;c-17928584" wrote: I noticed on Twitter that in the new patch we will get male haistyle fom Discover Univesity in the basegame :/
The dreadlocks hair? If so, I can give that one a pass cause basegame can always use more black hairstyles. But I really hate that they constantly just port paid-only assets to free for a lot of updates. When packs are often already way overpriced in comparison to the amount of content they bring, choosing to make some of those items suddenly free later on is...hmmhmhmhmm. Plus I'd like new stuff too. Or just...updates for older stuff that really needs updating (which they sometimes do but not nearly enough imo).
If they regularly brought in new content or updated old content along with porting paid-only assets to free, I feel like it would be less frustrating. But as it is it just feels...cheap. I know they got to make money and all that but good will goes a long way for consumers.
If they are going to continue with this tendency to put paid DLC in the basegame, they could mitigate the annoyance of it for me by going back and updating the textures and appearances of many of the basegame objects, which just are not up to the standards of recent packs. There's one couch in particular which I hate to use because its supposed fabric texture looks like plastic, it is so bad. Lots of the wood grains also look plasticky or undefined. They've been improving the hairs, which is great, but they should improve the original objects too, to at least give the impression they are always striving to improve the basegame.
> Sthenastia said: Maybe I'm weird but I think that currently we have too much items and things from the packs in the basegame but DLCs has still the same price and no new content to replace taken one. For example we have just a few wooden floors in the basegame. To implement more wooden patterns, EA could just add more swatches for existing floors but not, they reimplement a floor from Spa Day into the basegame. To be honest I feel that is is unfair for me as for a customer. I paid for something (DLC) and now, my product has less content then in a day I bought it, because someone moved some things to the base game and I have no other items/improvements instead. >
I completely agree! Look at the upcoming pack, for the perfect example. The kids cooking and gardening and the awesome pond tool were clearly made for the pack and that’s what it looked like (to me) in the trailer. And then we find out that it’s going to be base game. I feel like a chunk of the expansion is being given away. Granted, the pack’s gameplay is much more interesting than the Sulani expansion… And then the kitchen looks like a nicer version of the country kit, which is nice because the kit’s upper cabinets are weird mis-match style. But still… It’s bad enough that packs seem to be more anemic anemic (like ROM not having matching upper cabinets or magic clutter items), but this kind of stuff just seems to be happening more. Like with the Decorator pack, this was THE perfect pack to give us customizable swatches (which can be done since we had it in prior games) and the trailer hinted at it since we see the decorator flipping through them (plus we could finally make the colors match), but no…. And the new bunk beds they gave us were ones we could have made ourselves, with the “why wasn’t it done for the update?” snapping of the desks, etc., when what they should have done was give us double beds to match the style of the single beds. It’s very frustrating.
The pond should be base game. It was base game in previous games. I was surprised when they didn't add it when they added terrain tools. But in Sims 2 and 3, you could ice skate on the ponds if it was cold enough in winter.
As far as giving away DLC stuff, they should at least retexture it. Heck, they could probably hire a gamechanger or well known CC maker to do the retexturing for them. Why not? They're having gamechangers make the houses now. I actually think it's a good cost-saving measure. Influencer is happy to be selected, and they don't have to worry about fulltime pay or a benefits package. They already tested the water with this in a previous patch; I don't think it was poorly received.
Edit: Quoting the message I was replying to for clarity.
"Felicity;c-17928990" wrote: The pond should be base game. It was base game in previous games. I was surprised when they didn't add it when they added terrain tools. But in Sims 2 and 3, you could ice skate on the ponds if it was cold enough in winter.
As far as giving away DLC stuff, they should at least retexture it. Heck, they could probably hire a gamechanger or well known CC maker to do the retexturing for them. Why not? They're having gamechangers make the houses now. I actually think it's a good cost-saving measure. Influencer is happy to be selected, and they don't have to worry about fulltime pay or a benefits package. They already tested the water with this in a previous patch; I don't think it was poorly received.
Wait, not to derail the thread, but is the pond tool actually not BG? I know it was in the livestream, but they went over free update stuff as well. From the beginning I was pretty sure it was.
It is. I was responding to a message I didn't quote.
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