Growing Together Livestream Reaction ❤️

That was soo much information. We went from like no information in that gameplay trailer to so much that my brain is having a hard time remembering it all. 🙃 I know the past few weeks have had their ups and downs. A lot of emotions in the community over choices being made. But we're allowed to have complex emotions, especially about something we're paying for.

And it looks like we're getting so much in this pack. Which is awesome. Both in the current definition, and the old definition which is closer to terrifying. Everything is so gonna break. But I am so excited. A tempered excitement by all the other feelings, but excitement nonetheless.

Infants look so adorable. Eliza as a new mom is something I didn't expect to see. Not only did they add Iggy back into the family, but they gave us a new way to have children. And it's instant. No pregnancy even. I have some mods that do similar things, but not quite what they did. It's very interesting to see what kinds of things you could do with both, or either.

So much base game content. I'm wondering if that giant llama is something like the bears your kids can talk to. Or if they can sit on it like a rocking horse that doesn't rock? Rocking Llama.

Being able to see the course of your sim's life, the big events is super cool. And I'm wondering how modders could integrate their things in with that. Same with the new skill icons. And how that would effect occult skills. Cool new icons for those too?

Is there an option for just an average or normal family dynamic? Neither close, nor difficult, just average.
I kind of feel like since this pack is so pervasive in its effects it will take a bit of a learning curve to get used to, more so than others. If you don't want to deal with cats or dogs you don't have to. But if you have a difficult relationship with your child, it will affect how you play. I think that learning how things work will take some time. And that's kind of exciting. Because it means it's actually made to Do something about the emptiness sims had before.

Though idk that I will use the system they made for compatability as it stands, very much. I don't particularly use likes and dislikes. They are really heavily weighted. And when sims dislike a thing, it's hard to get them to do it, even when necessary. I think I'll be cautious as it pertains to this.

But this was really very interesting. And just seeing the little things made me happy. A marriage certificate. We didn't even get that in the wedding pack, unless I missed it somehow. A certificate for losing your first tooth. And a new baby certificate. They didn't say birth certificate they said baby certificate from what I remember. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not. Or if we are getting a new variant. Maybe for if you had a home birth, idk. But it's cool.

I am wondering if the keepsake box only works for elders or if it's just usually them that does it. Because my sims usually start as YA and sometimes are immortal. And don't usually have parents. It'd be nice if they could start the box themselves.

We didn't get to see anything about the family tree, but they said that there was still a lot that wasn't gone into. So perhaps that's part of it. And maybe BG had things that weren't mentioned. And that's where family tree updates are.

All in all I'm still looking forward to this. And we only have a little over a week before we find out the first of it. Though I'll be waiting for the mod fixes.

expansion packs

LBonne24
Seasoned Novice
2 years ago
"Hahcbeachwaves;c-18235713" wrote:
Did they mention if sims will recognize relatives, who aren’t in their household? Besides grandparents I mean

I don't remember. I feel like maaaybbe. I think when the second half started he mentioned how they wanted things like that to be possible. I remember thinking he was basically reiterating things the sims community had been complaining about, but saying that they wanted to give these as features as if it was a new idea. So I thought they would elaborate and show it.
But we didn't see the family tree at all. And the next thing they showed was the family dynamics thing and the dad sim not being close to the oldest daughter. But being good with everyone else.

And then I got caught up in everything else they showed us, and everything. I was in the livechat on my phone and watching the stream on my TV. So toward the end, like a ton of the comments were just "family tree" and I was one of them. Earlier comments here and there mentioned it. But I think a lot of people thought they would still show it before the end or mention it more clearly. But they didn't. And we never saw the grandfather who didn't live in the house. He wasn't even in the relationship panel for the husband from what I saw, but was for the wife (bc it was her dad).

And that's was kind of worrisome for me. Like I know they could be new sims and all. But they were put together for the livestream. They made sims at every lifestage. And previous tweets and stuff had said they were gonna work on this. So I thought that he would know who his father in law was. The only one who it would make sense to not know would be the husband's mother, and the infant and newborn. If that. Or at least have it in the family tree.

Though it could be bc they had clicked on the new "family" button in the relationships panel. And maybe they didn't set up in-laws as family. But that's weird too.
LBonne24
Seasoned Novice
2 years ago
"LSM36;c-18235799" wrote:
I general I'm really excited for this pack. And I think that the things I'm a little worried about not showing up in the livestream, like family tree fixes/recognizing family, may show up in the pack or bg and were part of the things that didn't make the livestream cut bc of time.

But one thing I am kind of disappointed by, that was shown in the livestream, was that they showed they didn't bother to fix the best friends thing and instead reinforced it with their friendship bracelets only being able to be given to one Sim at a time.

It's bizarre. The SimGuru in the sloth suit said that it was because "you know, you can only have one best friend." And I just thought, why wouldn't you have fixed that with this pack. You are changing relationships, and deepening every lifestage. But you really still think people, and thus sims, can only have 1 best friend? Even just speaking in terms of gameplay that reduces the types of stories you can tell.

You can't have a group of people who are all best friends or even all close friends. At best you can have individuals who are close friends. A few of them can be bffs with eachother, and then put them in a group to hang out. That's it. You have to do so many separate gameplay elements.
And if one of those close friends asks to be your BFF and you already have one, you can't say yes without losing the previous one. And your only other option is "No way!" Which lowers your friendship.

Now they're adding friendship bracelets. And making it so that if you give one friend a bracelet and not the other, they'll be jealous. But they literally won't let you give all your friends bracelets. Idk what kinds of childhoods they had, but growing up for me exchanging friendship bracelets was a sign of being friends. Usually close ones. But by no means was it exclusive.
The only jealousy might be that some kids ended up with an arm full bc they were popular and well liked.
If you had a bff you might exchange a necklace or a bracelet with that on it. If you had 2 and they weren't bffs you would wear both. If you had 2(+) and you All were bffs you would have something matching. It wasn't that hard. And the friendships were real.

Sometimes it was actually making lanyards for eachother's backpacks but I digress.

I have always found this dynamic so weird. Like ok you push monogamy a lot. But seriously you're pushing 1 best friend so hard that you can only make a single friendship bracelet and it causes a bunch of angst? At least until it falls off, and you start it all over again with a new one. What was the point of that?

Also bffs can change over time. Especially as you age. This honestly could have been something, a system that starts in childhood, for this pack. Especially since it looks like that's when the bracelets start. They could've made it so that as you're making your first friends you are experiencing the highs and lows of this. Maybe the bff you had from childhood, that you maybe knew from infanthood bc your parents were friends, fell out with you in high school. Now you're making new friends and the ones you make in high school are actually forever. And it's more than one.
And those are milestones. 1st BFF. BFF breakup ?. New friendship after loss of a friend. True bffs . Idk.

Just that little scene they did, showing us the friendship bracelet kit, them exchanging it all cute, and then going her actual close friend will be so hurt, and also we're gonna ask for it back now. And you can also only ever give out one at a time. It was like so weird. It's like how you can't be snow bros with multiple ppl. Just because the label is the same doesn't mean the relationship feels the exact same. You're all different people. The way you relate will be different, the reasons you are friends will be different. You're perfectly capable of being friends, and sustaining deep relationships with multiple people. So of course you can have multiple bffs. ?

This is my only real complaint though
SheriSim
Seasoned Hotshot
2 years ago
I thought it was a great live stream, the pack seems like it is going to be so in-depth. I would have liked to have seen more about the furniture in the pack, but i’m sure streamers will do that as soon as they open it up for them to do so….. maybe they have opened it with the release of the livestream. I can’t remember where they said the swimming areas were, but I’m pretty sure they mentioned it. I liked the idea of having platonic science babies, I do wish you could choose to go through the pregnancy if you wanted to though. I miss not having apartments, Over all, I think they did an incredible job with the pack.
MVWdeZT
Rising Hotshot
2 years ago
Probably the best livestream I've seen (and I think I've watched them all). Can't wait for the pack. But now I feel like I might have to start from the beginning with an all-new family.
Beatreject12
2 years ago
"MVWdeZT;c-18235871" wrote:
Probably the best livestream I've seen (and I think I've watched them all). Can't wait for the pack. But now I feel like I might have to start from the beginning with an all-new family.

This. I'm literally going to start the game from scratch. I'm keeping all my builds, but this pack is so foundational that with all the Sims themselves I have a need to start over. It is a simultaneously exciting and daunting thought.
Simmingal
Hero
2 years ago
Honestly I think that 3 hours of stream was just too much for poor brain RAM :lol:

its also still hard to tell which parts were update which parts were pack even if we did get confirmation on some things

as for pack
this is probably similar pack to parenthood in that you discover the gameplay as you play and ts just sort of there on the background making some interesting happenings

I am little worried there seemed to be no way to delete milestones after your sim reaches them but i have not lost my hope for cheat to remove/add them

i just think that it can potentially get little chaotic like the previous iterations memory systems when sims remember all and everything even though it is exciting for now

also i kind of worry that its gonna just be milestones in this pack it would be lovely to have some for all packs like say "adopted a pet" or "turned vampire" or whatever
RoseOfMontana
New Traveler
2 years ago
I had to step away at the two hour mark, but I think this was the best live stream ever and the pack is huge and I love what I saw. Cannot wait for the update and I am so glad that I have already purchased the pack. There is so much information to digest and I am glad for this forum a lot of you all will be going through it with a fine tooth comb.
Branwen84
New Spectator
2 years ago
I had to pause halfway through for dinner, and then it got too late to finish - did they answer(or show) whether or not there will be forehead kisses for everyone?
I saw that they did show a separate panel for milestones, which made it look like they probably will add permanent memories, not just temporary buffs. Am relieved about that, would have been disappointed if milestones were basically just a clone of sentiments.
Olala_1986
2 years ago
Great livestream, I’m especially excited for base game update. Science baby must be my favorite addition, also great that existing babies are getting update and infants look similar to toddlers who are my favorite younger life stage. :)

That being said, the DLC from the livestream seems massive and along with update introduces a lot of new systems. And this is where I’m going to exercise caution. Last update broke my game on PS5 and now when it’s fixed, I’m not going to jump again into deep water. The new likes/dislike category and family dynamics could easily make game way better or unplayable if not tuned well aka lifestyles from SE. I need to see people playing with this update and expansion to see how it really works with all packs and how many things it breaks.
shira3000
2 years ago
I feel very good after watching it. I have to say that the first trailer was pretty disappointing for me, and I thought my expectations were too high again and as usual I will be disappointed with the pack. But yesterday's livestream brought back the joy and anticipation in me and I was very pleasantly surprised by the very detailed and rich new game. Also the infants update. So lovely and detailed. I'm happy.
I'm a family player and this really hits a lot of my expectations that have been waiting for years, and I'm sure that millions of other family players like me have been waiting for something like this. It's nice and proper that EA finally invests a little in a realistic game, simple, such elementary things. Enough with all the science fiction and the attempts to reinvent themselves all the time - in the end this style of play is the most wanted in my opinion, and it will appeal to the taste of the broadest common denominator. how fun!!!