Is it weird that I feel like I'm Wasting Packs?

When I feel like I've gotten stuck in a "rut" of things I buy or do regularly with my sims, I make another extra sim... and just make them do things I wouldn't typically do in my other saves.

I'm so glad they gave us save slots. lol. This comes in handy; so all my super favorite sims I have plans for are safely tucked away in their own save and I can run off and go play others without them being disturbed.

Sometimes I'll go "hm... so I haven't played Outdoor retreat in a while.." and if all my other save files are occupied do so.
I'm very guilty of not using that pack, as well as spooky stuff and a lot of stuff from spa day. Also I'm really bad at not taking my sims out to events or even community lots, so having that extra sim to do all the things in my game I may be ignoring.

:smiley:

I don't think you need to worry about not using every little feature. Fun is what matters. And maybe you feel like trying some unused features a bit later. You've got all the time in the world and this way you still got somehing new to discover even after years.

At the moment I haven't tried out every feature myself because I started to play The Sims 4 only one year ago and bought many packs in quite a short time. But so what, I played The Sims 2 for about 15 years and this way I never got bored with it. :D

The Sims 4 is crippled beyond belief by their interpretation of the Whims system.

With TS4, I simply ignore the Whim system altogether - and there are a lot of Simmers who also don't like it or use it. This means I, like many others, are not pulled into exploring the wealth of things on offer.


Allow me to quote Tom "Metro" Schlueter:

Wishes in Sims 3 are a defining hallmark of the game - something that truly sets Sims 3 apart from all previous incarnations of the franchise. I distinctly remember when I first fired up the game and the typical "Join the X career" and "Learn the Y skill" wishes triggered right away. I thought..."What brilliant game design." It gave my Sim immediate direction and purpose.

TS4's Whim system is killing the game for a lot of Simmers because it simply doesn't pull them into playing the game.

Seriously. How many people can relate to their Sim cooking dinner and the Whim system wants them to go dance at the stereo or do push-ups?

TS4's game-play is crippled by the Whim system.

Maybe you and everyone else suffering from this same issue could try my play style.

I have many different saves but my favourite one is the save where I play with all the premade families(+ the ones from maxiscreator_01). For the maciscreator_01 I've build houses that focus on the items that came with their pack.
As an example the young couple from Romantic Garden Stuff(I can't remember their names) live in a small house that has a huge garden that is filled with flowers and other items from that pack.
I have done same thing with every pack(I own them all) so I have at least one family who focuses on every EP, GP & SP.

Before this I used to get the biggest lot there is, build a huge house and put all of my favourite gameplay objects there.. But that felt always really overwhelming and "too perfect"(I don't like it when games are too perfect).

Since I mostly buy for build and buy items, and not game play, I don't feel badly about not using some packs as much. I do, however, forget about some packs. Like Romantic Garden. Every once in a while I use the garden stuff, but I don't think I use much of anything else. I just forget it's there.

I actually noticed that about myself when I played Sims 2. Now what I do is, I give each sim a purpose to explore a certain part of the game. I play rotationally with lots of sims, so that works for me. I do that in Sims 4 and that way I never get bored.

I feel the same, I don't use vampires much, and also city life... but then again I know that sometimes I just buy packs for stuff, and maybe new towns(didn't like apartmentlife in CL). I haven't used cats and dogs much either, as in I don't have a cat or dog in my game yet. But I have 8 sims in my household now, suddenly got twins :sweat: but I use the furniture!

Also I would so much have loved university! I hope it comes out soon, I need it. It's the last expansion I need/want.

I just re-installed one of my older large houses to Newcrest and added the laundry in the basement, carried on and on with C&D stuff and Parenthood stuff. etc., etc., and seem to have used almost all of the packs available. I cannot remember what comes with which!

That museum in Bridlington Bay is nice so I've added that to Newcrest and will be putting all my Jungle Adventure finds in it, ditching the C&D stuff if need be.

All packs are useful if you get inventive.

I have played the Sims, since Sims 2. I had all EPs, SPs for Sims 2 and still never played every thing or every aspect of each one. With Sins 3, I was far more conservative in what I purchased, only buying the first couple of SPs, and all EPs, with the exception of Supernatural. I did try to play the game, selecting only a certain set of EPs, but I found traits I often used were missing, as a result. That taught me that even though I thought I wasn't using all aspects of a pack, I wasn't completely aware of just which pack the tings I did use originated. Don't beat yourself up. You probably use far more than you realize. The idea is to have FUN. Right now, I have everything except Vampires (having never been a fan of those, I was grateful EA gave us a choice, this time). Do I use everything from the new LD SP? Not quite, but I like experimenting with stuff. Some things (objects) I use as décor, just for fun.

I feel the same way sometimes. I bought cool kitchen stuff and i haven't even used the ice cream machine once whoops...but same with other things like hairstyles and even big expansion packs like city living with the sims 3 i would always use apartments not so much in the sims 4 need to admit though i use ALOT of items from City living :) I may just stick to buying packs i really want.