I purchased City Living a little over a week ago while it was on sale for 60% off. What I've now found in my shortish time playing the pack, that this City Living is but a shadow of what it could have been..I feel like there are appartments to live in, but nothing else. Where are the events? Yes there are the festivals but they aren't much from what I've seen. Just some vendors with sims using some interactive items.I remember Sims 3 Late Night at least added in a fame system. At least there was some progression provided for our sims. If you wanted to get into the more fancy establishments, you had to build a bit of a name for yourself. But there is no systems like that provided here.. I noticed one of the couches that came with City living is nothing but a RESKIN of a couch from base game. Are they really doing this? If we can create a style, we could do it ourselves. https://i.imgur.com/d2d23YV.jpgI tried to find alternate ways for my sim to make money. I hoped I could have my sim learn a skill like dancing, and use that skill to busk on the street. But it looks like you can only busk with violin or guitar. And what's worse is sims barely tip you at all. And even worse than that, you cannot busk wherever you please like how it was in Sims 3. Nope.. there is predefined spots where you can busk. Like an item you can use. And you can forget about it if another NPC is using it before you can. He will busk from morning till night, and then all night, and your sim wont get a chance to play.I feel like the city should have had so much more. I mean it's a city for fucks sakes. Wheres the bowling, movie nights, beaches, nightclubs, vip accesses, subways, tourist attractions. It just feels so bare. Even for the discounted $20 I spent on it, it doesn't feel worth it.

Completely agree, City Living is terrible and it's actually the reason I stopped playing the Sims 4 and refused to buy any more packs. I also bought it discounted and still felt ripped off (50% off).The apartments are one of the worst things for me, I was so angry when they revealed that you can't build them or move them, you are stuck with what you get. Having creative freedom has always been the most important thing for me with the Sims, and this just removed it in the worst possible way. Compared to the Sims 2, these apartments are absolutely terrible. There are so many limitations and in the end, playing an apartment just felt no different to a house, only with a pretty backdrop (which is clearly the main priority for the sims team in this game judging from how nearly all the packs have been handled). There's no lively communal areas and social life that you got in Sims 2 AL (and no loading screens to visit neighbours), nor roommates. Just incredibly disappointing.I also totally agree about the busking, I'm surprised no one else already mentioned this before. It's very frustrating trying to play a musician sim who busks for their job, I tried to do this and gave up in the end due to the problems you've mentioned above, just like so many other (flawed) gameplay elements of the Sims 4 that I gave up on and never touched again. As you said, I also noticed that the busking area was ALWAYS occupied so I could barely ever get my sim to busk in the first place. And even if it happened to be empty for once and I clicked on it and told my sim to busk, there was a high chance that another sim would get there first and start using it before my sim got there. And like you said it was so hard to get tips. It was so much easier in the Sims 2, where you could go up to any musical instrument and play for tips, and usually you got quite a few tips as well. You could also freestyle for tips wherever you wanted.Yeah I agree about the recolours, there's loads more in CL as well. It's becoming a concerning trend for the Sims 4, with many objects in new packs bring recolours. The worst example is the MFP pack, nearly everything in there is either a recolour, or clearly part of a set in C&D. It's extremely lazy. I'm starting to think now that this is why we didn't get create a style or a colour wheel for CAS, because that would get in the way of them making tons of recolours of objects and outfits/hair and selling them again in future packs.But yeah, the two words for me that best describe CL are "missed opportunity". That is honestly all I could think of while trying to play it, it's honestly totally shocking what we ended up with for a full price expansion. It seems that much of what you listed and other things you'd expect to see in a city pack (eg restaurants), were split up and sold in other packs. IMO CL and GT could easily have been combined into one big city pack, albeit with only one of the worlds. That said though Windenburg was pretty much a city and that's how most cities are here in Europe, so I would've been happy to have that instead of San Myshuno, but with an urban district or something added in.

"coldplay2233;d-937833" wrote:I purchased City Living a little over a week ago while it was on sale for 60% off. What I've now found in my shortish time playing the pack, that this City Living is but a shadow of what it could have been..I feel like there are appartments to live in, but nothing else. Where are the events? Yes there are the festivals but they aren't much from what I've seen. Just some vendors with sims using some interactive items.I remember Sims 3 Late Night at least added in a fame system. At least there was some progression provided for our sims. If you wanted to get into the more fancy establishments, you had to build a bit of a name for yourself. But there is no systems like that provided here.. I noticed one of the couches that came with City living is nothing but a RESKIN of a couch from base game. Are they really doing this? If we can create a style, we could do it ourselves. https://i.imgur.com/d2d23YV.jpgI tried to find alternate ways for my sim to make money. I hoped I could have my sim learn a skill like dancing, and use that skill to busk on the street. But it looks like you can only busk with violin or guitar. And what's worse is sims barely tip you at all. And even worse than that, you cannot busk wherever you please like how it was in Sims 3. Nope.. there is predefined spots where you can busk. Like an item you can use. And you can forget about it if another NPC is using it before you can. He will busk from morning till night, and then all night, and your sim wont get a chance to play.I feel like the city should have had so much more. I mean it's a city for plum sakes. Wheres the bowling, movie nights, beaches, nightclubs, vip accesses, subways, tourist attractions. It just feels so bare. Even for the discounted $20 I spent on it, it doesn't feel worth it.Unfortunately if you want dancing skills, bowling and or movie nights you will have to purchase more packs. But I absolutely agree with what you have to say. Heck I bought it as full price... You can imagine how Tee'd off I am \(>o<)/

City Living is not a good expansion pack by any means. Basically there is no point to it, they added a decorative city filled with novelties and content that they knew players already didn’t use. I spent $18 on it months after it released, and I regret doing that because it was not even worth that. The apartments are trash. The festivals are base game content (most of which the devs told us people already weren’t using!), and that’s about it. I feel sorry for people who think CL is a good pack, because it’s really not at all.

"drake_mccarty;c-16408397" wrote:City Living is not a good expansion pack by any means. Basically there is no point to it, they added a decorative city filled with novelties and content that they knew players already didn’t use. I spent $18 on it months after it released, and I regret doing that because it was not even worth that. The apartments are trash. The festivals are base game content (most of which the devs told us people already weren’t using!), and that’s about it. I feel sorry for people who think CL is a good pack, because it’s really not at all. Agreed. imo there is nothing wong with the concept. I think every concept are great the problem will be on the implementation, especially at the festials. Just imagine if they added more fun objects that is related to let say "GeekCon" Like the sphere thingy from TS3 SHowtime instead of the rocketship, observatory, and Programming. THe only new thing in that festival was the Consoles. The interactions would have been nice but they are just reused base game animations. Then Don't get me started on that Immortal Romance Guru...

"TS1299;c-16408431" wrote:"drake_mccarty;c-16408397" wrote:City Living is not a good expansion pack by any means. Basically there is no point to it, they added a decorative city filled with novelties and content that they knew players already didn’t use. I spent $18 on it months after it released, and I regret doing that because it was not even worth that. The apartments are trash. The festivals are base game content (most of which the devs told us people already weren’t using!), and that’s about it. I feel sorry for people who think CL is a good pack, because it’s really not at all. Agreed. imo there is nothing wong with the concept. I think every concept are great the problem will be on the implementation, especially at the festials. Just imagine if they added more fun objects that is related to let say "GeekCon" Like the sphere thingy from TS3 SHowtime instead of the rocketship, observatory, and Programming. THe only new thing in that festival was the Consoles. The interactions would have been nice but they are just reused base game animations. Then Don't get me started on that Immortal Romance Guru...They felt very cheap to me. Like I already wasn’t using this stuff, is it supposed to appeal to me now that it’s in a city setting? Festivals could have been pretty cool had they made new content for them, instead of just a few shirts and food mixed with tons of existing gameplay.

Disappointed with City Living | EA Forums

86 Replies

krunji
7 years ago
"drake_mccarty;c-16595423" wrote:
"jooxis;c-16593875" wrote:
"drake_mccarty;c-16593070" wrote:
"jooxis;c-16593045" wrote:
I'm so disappointed that 2 years later the festivals (one of the MAIN features of the WHOLE expansion) still spawn on top of each other (yes, happened as recently as yesterday). Since it's been this long they obviously don't care about fixing it.

Their only suggestion was to stay at each festival until it ends. Bad workaround to a badly designed feature. The whole expansion is a mess honestly. I still haven’t seen any guru respond to the fact that dogs route fail in most of the apartments when you try to house train them.

Yeahh, not good enough. :neutral: I'm usually glad to try out a workaround for something but that one is too much of an inconvenience in gameplay.

I agree completely. Personally I don’t play in the city world very much, it’s poorly designed as a whole. The festival workaround is a major inconvenience, but I just ignore festivals entirely. They have always been just a means to get people to use content the game already had that people already weren’t using. I don’t know how plumhurt the developers had to have been to create events centered around unpopular content, but they did it and then proceeded to make sure the game shoved it down your throat every other day. I’m always amazed when people praise the CL expansion, it’s the most lackluster and uninspired expansion pack I have ever seen, and creatively it’s an absolute disaster.

What do you mean centered around unpopular content people weren't using? As in, the objects we can find at each festival?

Like, was that a legit explanation for the festival concepts that gurus gave? Because if so then I have no words. That's just so low. I do recall them saying the voodoo doll was among some of the least used objects from base game so I guess that's possible festivals were never meant to be a fresh, exciting idea but just a way for them to force stuff down our throats because THEY felt proud of certain objects and felt personally offended that players did not find them that interesting.

@Cynna Remember when Grant said on twitter that MFP Stuff "sold well despite community's sentiment"? Looks like the next stuff pack is going to be called "My first exciting summer in The Sims 4 stuff". Even with the added content of older stuff packs summer is still underwhelming. I don't care for heatwaves if my sims don't really suffer any consequences of them, like sunburns. Summer is nothing more than a moodlet, it goes by unnoticed.
Zmias1
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
"marcel21;c-16593808" wrote:

city living does not have much space to add new stuff

It is limited, as I had to substitute the sky gym for a mall that I added in its place.
drake_mccarty
7 years ago
"agustd;c-16595684" wrote:
"drake_mccarty;c-16595423" wrote:
"jooxis;c-16593875" wrote:
"drake_mccarty;c-16593070" wrote:
"jooxis;c-16593045" wrote:
I'm so disappointed that 2 years later the festivals (one of the MAIN features of the WHOLE expansion) still spawn on top of each other (yes, happened as recently as yesterday). Since it's been this long they obviously don't care about fixing it.

Their only suggestion was to stay at each festival until it ends. Bad workaround to a badly designed feature. The whole expansion is a mess honestly. I still haven’t seen any guru respond to the fact that dogs route fail in most of the apartments when you try to house train them.

Yeahh, not good enough. :neutral: I'm usually glad to try out a workaround for something but that one is too much of an inconvenience in gameplay.

I agree completely. Personally I don’t play in the city world very much, it’s poorly designed as a whole. The festival workaround is a major inconvenience, but I just ignore festivals entirely. They have always been just a means to get people to use content the game already had that people already weren’t using. I don’t know how plumhurt the developers had to have been to create events centered around unpopular content, but they did it and then proceeded to make sure the game shoved it down your throat every other day. I’m always amazed when people praise the CL expansion, it’s the most lackluster and uninspired expansion pack I have ever seen, and creatively it’s an absolute disaster.

What do you mean centered around unpopular content people weren't using? As in, the objects we can find at each festival?

Like, was that a legit explanation for the festival concepts that gurus gave? Because if so then I have no words. That's just so low. I do recall them saying the voodoo doll was among some of the least used objects from base game so I guess that's possible festivals were never meant to be a fresh, exciting idea but just a way for them to force stuff down our throats because THEY felt proud of certain objects and felt personally offended that players did not find them that interesting.

Cynna Remember when Grant said on twitter that MFP Stuff "sold well despite community's sentiment"? Looks like the next stuff pack is going to be called "My first exciting summer in The Sims 4 stuff". Even with the added content of older stuff packs summer is still underwhelming. I don't care for heatwaves if my sims don't really suffer any consequences of them, like sunburns. Summer is nothing more than a moodlet, it goes by unnoticed.

No the gurus never presented festivals specifically in that light, but awhile back they did share some info pertaining to unpopular content that players didn’t use in the game (like the voodoo doll, mischief, the game pad thing, etc). Tbh it’s not a coincidence that festivals were assembled with base game stuff, especially the things that Maxis knew the players didn’t use. I mean the only new concept was the yard sale, the rest of them are repurposed from the base game (not saying that every festival is comprised of only unpopular content, but they all are made up of bg stuff - even the yard sale is just bg recolors). Given how they used to think telemetry was the best way to collect data it wouldn’t surprise me if their usage stats decided for them that they could save some $ by repurposing existing content players weren’t using and spend that money elsewhere, like on the city decorations.

I don’t know if they will release another paired SP, but I agree that summer is nothing special for how Grant said they focused on it.
Cynna1065
7 years ago
"agustd;c-16595684" wrote:

@Cynna Remember when Grant said on twitter that MFP Stuff "sold well despite community's sentiment"? Looks like the next stuff pack is going to be called "My first exciting summer in The Sims 4 stuff". Even with the added content of older stuff packs summer is still underwhelming. I don't care for heatwaves if my sims don't really suffer any consequences of them, like sunburns. Summer is nothing more than a moodlet, it goes by unnoticed.

I have very little doubt that a pool or a beach pack will arrive fast on the heels of Seasons. At this point, it's a no brainer. There was already a need for these things. Seasons only compounded that need because those things are now conspicuously absent.

"MaggieMarley;c-16595685" wrote:
On the topic of only including objects necessary to one pack in another, the following have annoyed me:

- Tents not included in jungle adventure. Must buy Outdoor Retreat.
- Pumpkin carving not included in Seasons. Must buy spooky stuff.
- Fireworks not included in Seasons (I wanted to do firework night as a holiday, which is big here in the UK). Must buy City Living).
- Bonfires not included in Seasons (again, I wanted to do firework night which traditionally has a bonfire). Must buy Get Together.
- Small pets not included in Cats and Dogs (I know, clues in the name, but I’d have liked a Pets EP). Must buy MFP.
- Horses not included included in Cats and Dogs (as above). Must buy God knows what future pack.

All by design, I'm sorry to say. :/

I'll also add:

- no bunk beds in Kids Room Stuff or Parenthood
- no lounge chairs, anywhere.

"drake_mccarty;c-16596109" wrote:

No the gurus never presented festivals specifically in that light, but awhile back they did share some info pertaining to unpopular content that players didn’t use in the game (like the voodoo doll, mischief, the game pad thing, etc). Tbh it’s not a coincidence that festivals were assembled with base game stuff, especially the things that Maxis knew the players didn’t use. I mean the only new concept was the yard sale, the rest of them are repurposed from the base game (not saying that every festival is comprised of only unpopular content, but they all are made up of bg stuff - even the yard sale is just bg recolors). Given how they used to think telemetry was the best way to collect data it wouldn’t surprise me if their usage stats decided for them that they could save some $ by repurposing existing content players weren’t using and spend that money elsewhere, like on the city decorations.

I don’t know if they will release another paired SP, but I agree that summer is nothing special for how Grant said they focused on it.

I'm not exactly a fan of CL. However, I enjoy the pack because I enjoy city-living. I was raised in a row house. I'm a city girl, through and through. City Living (particularly the Spice District) is the closest thing in TS4 that I can personally identify with.

That said, I couldn't agree with you more about the Festivals. One of TS4's most egregious mistakes was releasing festivals so quickly -- with only BG items to choose from -- and making it so that the festivals can never be customized by the player. The festivals quickly became rote, irrelevant, and an honest to goodness pain in the rear. The festivals will forever remain so because they're unchanging, frozen in time -- the most boring period of TS4 history, at that. What a misstep.
MichaelUKingdon
7 years ago
"MsKatieRose;c-16595721" wrote:
"marcel21;c-16593808" wrote:

city living does not have much space to add new stuff

It is limited, as I had to substitute the sky gym for a mall that I added in its place.

absolutely. the available lots are small to. agree its limited. it should of had a lot more community lots to. i think they decided to just do a festival park instead of new community lots and very few residential lots.

it was such a boring pack for me, as for the community lots and festival, most of it was base game content.

it should of had more New activity, shops, public transport.

instead they put very few things into the festivals.

spice market
flea markets
i forget the other two.

singing skill, no career for it.
basketball skill.
I found the new careers to be so boring, and out of place in a city pack.
tagging art skill

no apartment building, not even in the other hoods :o

would of loved some new shops for

flea market
spice market
comic store
grocery shopping
music store
cafes to buy food and drinks instead of all those food stands.(so many of them)
MichaelUKingdon
7 years ago
"MaggieMarley;c-16595685" wrote:
On the topic of only including objects necessary to one pack in another, the following have annoyed me:

- Tents not included in jungle adventure. Must buy Outdoor Retreat.
- Pumpkin carving not included in Seasons. Must buy spooky stuff.
- Fireworks not included in Seasons (I wanted to do firework night as a holiday, which is big here in the UK). Must buy City Living).
- Bonfires not included in Seasons (again, I wanted to do firework night which traditionally has a bonfire). Must buy Get Together.
- Small pets not included in Cats and Dogs (I know, clues in the name, but I’d have liked a Pets EP). Must buy MFP.
- Horses not included included in Cats and Dogs (as above). Must buy God knows what future pack.

It's not nice.

I wanted things like this

easter
school summer break
halloween
bonfire night
christmas
new year

but you have to own Halloween pack and get together for me to get most of what i wanted tied in with weather.

the sims 4 and all its packs to me is like a unfinished puzzle. i have to buy all packs to complete it.

seasons was small this time, it as some great game play but needs other packs to complete it.

like the large fire and pumpkin carving and, groups in get together, and

all the family packs and garden packs go well with it and help fill it up more but not everybody as them.

seasons on its own is a great pack but for me needs other packs to keep it enjoyable and to add more activity's.

Happy with seasons, just wish it had more activity like it did in the sims 3.

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Disappointed with City Living

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