Cottage Living Gameplay Trailer 7/1

"Onverser;c-17922725" wrote:
A lot of talk and not much content really. A whole 30 seconds of waffle about canning which is pretty clearly just herbalism recycled, cross stitching is blatantly just knitting recycled, more plant/gardening options that actually look like plants instead of bushes is nice but could've been an update, the animals sort of do the job for those interested but otherwise meh. Seemed a real struggle for them to make just 4 minutes worth of video on this pack which isn't a great sign :#

It's fine if the pack doesn't interest you, but this isn't accurate. Just saying that something is recycled doesn't make it so. Does the activity do the same thing, use the same animations and/or have the same properties? If not, then it is not recycled. In response to your point, cross-stitching in the pack comes with 34 new designs which can be displayed or hung on the wall, plus cross-stitching from reference for even more unique designs. The animations from what I have seen look completely different, with sewing motions and the sticking of a needle in fingers, and are nothing like the knitting animations. Nifty Knitting is actually one of my favourite packs and it has many different products, decorative, and useable, as well as a new aspiration, some of which can be unlocked in CAS, as well as an Etsy-like selling market. Cross-stitching will have both different products and new animations from knitting.

The same point applies to herbalism and canning, leaving aside the fact that we had canning in both the Sims 1 and the Sims 3, and it is more likely they are bringing back a popular feature from earlier games that players have been asking for, than simply reusing a niche activity from an early GP. The animation for herbalism involves a sim stirring a small saucepan on a stovetop or a grill with the requirement of certain ingredients in your sim's inventory. The animations for making jams and conserves look more involved to me, with yes a saucepan stage but also a step that apparently involves sealing the jars in a large crockpot. If anything, herbalism reuses general cooking animations, just as canning seems to do too. However, with the new group cooking options, probably the whole family will be able to help with canning (which is how it worked in my house growing up), and to me this suggests new and different gameplay from what we've had before. Presumably the jams and preserves will also be useable as ingredients in a wide number of recipes, edible on their own and (hopefully) spreadable on the baking and pastry items already in the game. So they will obviously do more than cure a buff caused by a toxic plant or an insect bite.

I think they haven't revealed everything that is happening in this pack even in this latest gameplay trailer. For instance, what is going on with that demonic-looking red-eyed chicken that was briefly shown in the trailer? How many new harvestables and recipes will be included? How will the lot challenges work (which also seem to involve new gameplay)? What kinds of errands will there be, and how will the Finchwick fair and its competitions work? I am glad the embargo is lifting early as I intend to watch a lot of gamechanger videos to find out even more than this trailer showed.