Feedback: Updated Gardening System

Quality of plants not/very slowly progressing/ No evolve
(Not evolving)
Quote from SimGuruNick
"I'm not sure this is necessarily a bug, I think it might just be part of the new gardening design. Evolutions have slowed down, as it's now an end-game long-term goal. The Evolve commodity starts at around 50, and evolution is available at 100. Fertilize gives a solid amount of evolve commodity, depending on the quality of fertilizer but it's around 8. So you need to fertilize a plant about 7 times before it's ready to evolve. There are other factors that can affect the evolution rate as well, such as sheltering the plant. Sheltered plants have the benefit of being protected from the seasons but the evolution rate is much slower. Bluebells, for example, evolve 4x slower when sheltered than when not."
I will look into filing an issue regarding the Lessons not explaining all of this thoroughly enough. But if, after reading all of this, you believe that your game is still bugged and your plants just aren't evolving period, I would appreciate a save file to help us investigate."

Splicing doesn't produce new harvestable
Quote from SumGuruNick
"Splicing can produce a new harvestable, but there's supposed to be a lower chance that it does this. This is by design. For example, grafting a rose to a grape for bonsai buds will have the plant produce roses OR grapes OR bonsai buds, with the bonsai buds having the lowest chance. So if you're not seeing the new harvestable, I think it might just be a case of bad luck"

"EuphorialQueen" wrote:
My issue with this change is it also lowers the change of getting other things that depend on having one of the spliced harvestables.
---
Bird of Paradise = Chrysanthemum + Tulip
Bonsai Buds = Daisy + Strawberry
Bonsai Buds = Grapes + Rose
Cowplant Berry = Snapdragon + Dragonfruit
Death Flower = Orchid + Pomegranate
Dragonfruit = Strawberry + Snapdragonf
Grapes = Bluebells + Strawberry
Orchid = Lily + Snapdragon
Parsley = Basil + Sage
Plantain = Lemon * Pear
Pomegranate = Apple + Cherry
---
I like the five step evolution idea in the upgraded gardening system but thought it was supposed to make things easier.
Not happening and leads to frustration.

@EuphorialQueen Rare seed packets, available in Build/Buy, were added to help with this.

"EuphorialQueen" wrote:
I understand the intent of the rare packets. https://ea.i.lithium.com/html/images/emoticons/ea_heart.png I am grateful they are available. Getting ONE Bonsai Bud /maybe/ for 250 simoleons or worse paying 1000 simoleons for two magic beans .. ?
I love this game and I am not going anywhere. I just don't want it to be impossible to complete certain goals within the limits set by the game.

@Rawla You are welcome. Taking so long to evolve is my biggest concern as well. I rarely if ever play on Long unless it is required for a challenge. After the patch I was testing the new garden system. My poor gardener could not complete step two of the Freelance Botanist aspiration because nothing was evolving. After installing Seasons I put him in the Gardener career. Some of the work-at-home tasks could not be completed because he needed to evolve a plant and it was not happening.

The new garden system is now impossible to get the grafted plants to work properly you get the 2 types like the Lilly and the Snapdragon but impossible to get the Orchid to help craft the death flower from level 6 grafting now level 9 and still no Orchid same with the cow plant grafting it says rare not impossible

"Sentinel1969;c-16576044" wrote:
The new garden system is now impossible to get the grafted plants to work properly you get the 2 types like the Lilly and the Snapdragon but impossible to get the Orchid to help craft the death flower from level 6 grafting now level 9 and still no Orchid same with the cow plant grafting it says rare not impossible

From the looks of it that was an intended change :'(
The seed packs in build/buy are supposed to provide "a chance" to get things like Orchids or Death Flowers. I have been experimenting with the bees. You can 'gather a swarm' and send them to get gifts. Sometimes they bring back rare seeds. Of course those with just the patch and not the Seasons EP do not have that option.

I actually like the new system.

Yes, it's a lot more work than before, less money, more things to take into consideration when creating a garden - but isn't that what this game needs? Isn't that the complexity everyone misses in TS4?

Seasonal plants just make sense when seasons exist. Again, I will say, this is one of the little complex touches that make the game realistic. All I see is people complaining that 4 is too easy, things rarely make sense and generally there isn't much thought put into the features we're getting. Now that they actually re-worked a feature to function more realistically and give players some actual challenge, people are displeased...?

I didn't like the way gardening functioned before. It gave you way too much money and would make your sim rich so quickly I didn't even know what to do with all that money.

I'm tired of sloppy gameplay of TS4 and to me the gardening change is a move in the right direction. I understand it's a game, but games are about the challenge of achieving your goals. How is it fun to get your garden to be perfect in a few sim days?

"agustd;c-16578901" wrote:
I actually like the new system.

Yes, it's a lot more work than before, less money, more things to take into consideration when creating a garden - but isn't that what this game needs? Isn't that the complexity everyone misses in TS4?

Seasonal plants just make sense when seasons exist. Again, I will say, this is one of the little complex touches that make the game realistic. All I see is people complaining that 4 is too easy, things rarely make sense and generally there isn't much thought put into the features we're getting. Now that they actually re-worked a feature to function more realistically and give players some actual challenge, people are displeased...?

I didn't like the way gardening functioned before. It gave you way too much money and would make your sim rich so quickly I didn't even know what to do with all that money.

I'm tired of sloppy gameplay of TS4 and to me the gardening change is a move in the right direction. I understand it's a game, but games are about the challenge of achieving your goals. How is it fun to get your garden to be perfect in a few sim days?

I agree with you 100%.

"agustd;c-16578901" wrote:
I actually like the new system.

Yes, it's a lot more work than before, less money, more things to take into consideration when creating a garden - but isn't that what this game needs? Isn't that the complexity everyone misses in TS4?

Seasonal plants just make sense when seasons exist. Again, I will say, this is one of the little complex touches that make the game realistic. All I see is people complaining that 4 is too easy, things rarely make sense and generally there isn't much thought put into the features we're getting. Now that they actually re-worked a feature to function more realistically and give players some actual challenge, people are displeased...?

I didn't like the way gardening functioned before. It gave you way too much money and would make your sim rich so quickly I didn't even know what to do with all that money.

I'm tired of sloppy gameplay of TS4 and to me the gardening change is a move in the right direction. I understand it's a game, but games are about the challenge of achieving your goals. How is it fun to get your garden to be perfect in a few sim days?

I agree! Gardening felt over-powered to me before. However, I will say that it is a bit annoying when you can't complete the Gardening career task for the day, or it costs your Sim extra money to do so (for example, buying a seed packet is a requirement for the career, which my Sim only rolled after I'd bought loads of seed packets and planted a full garden to prepare her for her new career).

Both the Freelance Botanist and Gardener career are impacted in a questionable way with the new system. I get it that the changes make both more challenging. Also a bit frustrating when certain goals are not able to be completed.
My career gardener received a Cowplant berry as a promotion reward. I planted it in anticipation of needing it later to complete the final stage of the aspiration. The very next work day the work-at-home task was to feed a Cowplant. It was still a baby plant and not yet full grown! Tasked failed. :'(
Of course once it did mature the task did not appear again.

"agustd;c-16578901" wrote:
I actually like the new system.

Yes, it's a lot more work than before, less money, more things to take into consideration when creating a garden - but isn't that what this game needs? Isn't that the complexity everyone misses in TS4?

Seasonal plants just make sense when seasons exist. Again, I will say, this is one of the little complex touches that make the game realistic. All I see is people complaining that 4 is too easy, things rarely make sense and generally there isn't much thought put into the features we're getting. Now that they actually re-worked a feature to function more realistically and give players some actual challenge, people are displeased...?

I didn't like the way gardening functioned before. It gave you way too much money and would make your sim rich so quickly I didn't even know what to do with all that money.

I'm tired of sloppy gameplay of TS4 and to me the gardening change is a move in the right direction. I understand it's a game, but games are about the challenge of achieving your goals. How is it fun to get your garden to be perfect in a few sim days?

Yes I agree with this. At first I thought the revamped gardening was too easy because my sims didn't have to water their plants as frequently... but as time goes on I see it's actually harder - because of plants becoming dormant, not as many harvestables, splicing is not guaranteed to get the third "new" plant - etc.

I like the challenge.