Feedback on Island Living

I get a similar impression. It’s certainly a nice looking world, but it seems that’s one of the listed features. Personally, I do not agree with that as I do not view worlds as game features. Looking over the pack as a whole it doesn’t seem to have any new features. Mostly just gameplay activities and two careers. I don’t exactly think this pack hit the nail on the head, but I never expected it to anyway. Not to beat a dead horse, but Sims 3 did this exact same pack a lot better. Of course it had new features along with the activities, and career, but that’s not how they do things with Sims 4.

"simmer_jay;d-961560" wrote:
Rather, the gameplay feature should have been about living on an island and included things like resorts, hotels, tropical vacation type things.

I don't know, but for most people living somewhere isn't about resorts and tropical vacation things. In this case, it's about living by the seaside, engaging with local culture, trying out the local cuisine, have some free time seaside activities like snorkeling, aqua zips, diving, swimming, sunbathing, etc., but also improvements to fishing (which are clearly no accident given the content of the pack - fishing on boats is awesome btw, I really love that xD), different types of jobs, etc.

That being said: yes, I think they could have added resorts. But I'm glad they are not the main feature of the pack and I prefer living in Sulani to vacationing in Sulani. I'm also glad I don't run into a lot of familiar faces from other worlds there. It's quite lovely to meet mostly locals, especially in the more remote parts. Resorts / vacationing would probably make the thing feel more touristy and less homey.

"SimTrippy;c-17130082" wrote:


I don't know, but for most people living somewhere isn't about resorts and tropical vacation things. In this case, it's about living by the seaside, engaging with local culture, trying out the local cuisine, have some free time seaside activities like snorkeling, aqua zips, diving, swimming, sunbathing, etc., but also improvements to fishing (which are clearly no accident given the content of the pack - fishing on boats is awesome btw, I really love that xD), different types of jobs, etc.

Yeah, fair enough. Obviously locals wouldn't have any need for resorts and such; and some of the features they've included are unique and interesting. But I was just trying to think of something that would have been the main feature over mermaids. Something that would use the tools the game already has so that they could leverage their resources, and make the pack feel "meaty-er".

I don't know that mermaids are necessarily the main feature - I think it's the conservation angle? I haven't heard a ton about that, though. I think that mermaids are getting all of the attention because they're a new occult.

"superkyle221;c-17130104" wrote:
I don't know that mermaids are necessarily the main feature - I think it's the conservation angle? I haven't heard a ton about that, though. I think that mermaids are getting all of the attention because they're a new occult.

True. But they are a huge component to the pack, so it seems reasonable people are giving them the most attention. But I just think they could have been done with greater depth and attention to detail if they got their own pack.

Personally I think the whole “culture” aspect they keep doing with Sims 4 is very off putting. Maybe it’s just me, but I do not see any value in experiencing “culture” through a video game. Like it’s a game, and sometimes they choose very weird things that don’t add anything fun to it. If I wanted to go experience other cultures I would do that somewhere other than in front of a monitor.

"drake_mccarty;c-17130114" wrote:
Personally I think the whole “culture” aspect they keep doing with Sims 4 is very off putting. Maybe it’s just me, but I do not see any value in experiencing “culture” through a video game. Like it’s a game, and sometimes they choose very weird things that don’t add anything fun to it. If I wanted to go experience other cultures I would do that somewhere other than in front of a monitor.

Without a doubt it is much better to experience a culture and all it has to offer in person from those who live it, but not everyone can afford to do that. I definitely don't mind having diverse cultures reflected in various media, including gaming. It's about experiencing that culture as an outsider, but I would argue it's more about seeing your culture accurately and wholistically reflected in such a way that makes you feel represented and part of the gaming community.

"simmer_jay;c-17130133" wrote:

"drake_mccarty;c-17130114" wrote:
Personally I think the whole “culture” aspect they keep doing with Sims 4 is very off putting. Maybe it’s just me, but I do not see any value in experiencing “culture” through a video game. Like it’s a game, and sometimes they choose very weird things that don’t add anything fun to it. If I wanted to go experience other cultures I would do that somewhere other than in front of a monitor.

Without a doubt it is much better to experience a culture and all it has to offer in person from those who live it, but not everyone can afford to do that. I definitely don't mind having diverse cultures reflected in various media, including gaming. It's about experiencing that culture as an outsider, but I would argue it's more about seeing your culture accurately and wholistically reflected in such a way that makes you feel represented and part of the gaming community.

Good points. I just personally feel that it’s a layer that doesn’t add much to the game. In general experiencing culture does not sound like a fun feature of a video game, at least for myself. If it was something original, like designed specifically for the game and not based on any one particular one, then maybe, but the whole taking a real world culture and cherry picking elements to make it a feature of a pack is just not something that I find very useful.

The new world is beautiful but content-wise it feels a bit lacking. I don't know that it has a lot of replay value for me because once the novelty wears off I'll probably go back to playing in the normal worlds.

A few new skills would've been nice, and I wish swimming had been implemented in other worlds. I haven't played much with mermaids, but from what I've seen/heard they're not a very detailed occult. I really liked the detail put into vampires. I'm more excited about the next pack than this one for that reason.

"simmer_jay;d-961560" wrote:
I want to start this with saying that I haven't purchased the pack yet, so my perspective is only from seeing trailers and watching LPs and reviews on YouTube. With that said, I am getting the impression that some are feeling this pack is slightly lacking in replayability. It seems to be one of those "complete and move on" type of packs, similar to strangerville. So I was thinking of giving some feedback/ideas for future content via feedback on the conception of this pack.

What I think should have happened is Island Living should have not included mermaids. Rather, the gameplay feature should have been about living on an island and included things like resorts, hotels, tropical vacation type things. Building and running your own resort would naturally have way more replayability to it. Similar to restaurants, resorts could have had themes, lot traits etc. The tools are there already, so I'm not sure why they didn't choose this path for development.

So what about mermaids? I know a lot of people requested them, but it doesn't seem like they got the treatment they deserved like vampires did. I was assuming that with the introduction of the occult system with vampires they would use that as a base and flush out several other occults, including mermaids.

Both of those packs (Dine Out and Vampires) have the ability to be played with many times over. Don't get me wrong, I love what they did include (conservation, island culture, DOLPHINS) and from what I've heard/seen, it is a truly stunning world. But I get the sense that the "sandbox" type of play has been lost a bit.

Thoughts?

I think the resorts and hotels end up not being fit for the theme of the pack. And by that I mean this is an Island World where you are suppose to live a laid back beach life, get to know the locals and use your natural surroundings to make a living, by selling collectables, fishing (love the new fishing system), among other things. It's not a port island, it's not a vacation island where there's lots of tourists. I don't know if you have noticed, but townies from other worlds don't go into Sulani. It's it's very own ecossystem within the game.

I think mermaids fit perfectly in the pack, not all occults have to have a perks system like vampires otherwise we'd be spending a ton of money on GP's. Mermaids have cool powers already, fitting for them, and they are much more developed then in TS3 with far better animations, just wish they had their own unique tombstone.

But I do agree that something is missing from the pack, after playing for a while I have found myself doing the same things over and over again....again, but in a new world/scenario. This pack reminds me of a prettier version of City Living but with amazing swimming animations and an occult lifestate.

I think not adding underwater lots to this world is such a huge miss....even if it was only one 64x64 underwater lot with an underwater "neighborhood", it would go a long way to make this pack feel bigger and even more awesome. I'd like to see my sims actually take pictures underwater instead of a rabbit hole. To me it's the biggest miss. It would have been cool to be able to interact with extra sea life, gather sea horses underwater to put them on an aquarium, jellyfish, sea rays, anemones...etc. It would have been be cool if we had an aquarium that we could upgrade and customise with plants and fish that we catch while diving......gathering pears from oisters underwater would also have been amazing....I can think of a lot of things. I really hate that it's a rabbit hole ahaha I don't think this EP even brings a new aquarium at all which is very weird now that I think about it.

The conservationist career is a cool angle but it doesn't feel very fleshed out either since it's just talking and taking pictures and surveying over and over....although changing the island for the better is cool. But there's not much replayability there, it's very much like with Strangerville, you do the story once....then maybe in a few months you do it again...rinse repeat.

There are the odd jobs which I think people forget...I think some of the replayability of this pack lies in there but you will see the same ones pop up from time to time.