Life and Death Negative thread

I thought what we saw in the trailer wasn't bad, but I would have been more excited for this pack 4+ years ago when every new pack (and the patch that came before it) didn't totally break the game. I still haven't installed the pre-Lovestruck patch. The Reaper's Rewards event was supposed to tempt me to do that, but considering the number of still-active bug reports related to the event, not to mention the July and September patch-related bugs that are ongoing, I'm somehow still not tempted to update. 

Here's my wild guess as to what will be broken in this pack (and possibly the patch before it): 

• Funerals sound like they're going to function basically like weddings with MWS. And I think we all know how that pack worked out. 
• Apparently, ghost sims will be able to form "special connections," including ones that can lead to "spectral woohoo." Whenever they touch anything to do with how romantic relationships are formed and maintained, relationships get broken. Prepare for the return of the dreaded... let's say... inappropriate attraction to family members... bug. 
• This pack includes a bunch of festivals. Festivals are already broken; the fixtures that appear during a festival don't disappear after the festival. That means different festivals that take place in the same location at different times overlap each other and are therefore non-functional. 
• There is a new reward system "combining aspirations and wants." This system will probably be bugged, just because it's new and also because it depends on wants, which are already problematic if not fully bugged (e.g., fears never going away and whatnot). 
• Sims are supposed to be able to be reincarnated with bonus traits and with milestones and such carried over from their past life. Do we really think this will work as planned? There is a current bug where some people can't choose a toddler/child/teen/YA trait upon aging up. And just a reminder that it took them 2 YEARS to fix the bug where toddlers did not receive bonus traits upon aging up.
• Speaking of aging, there is currently a bug where infants/toddlers/pets auto-age-up several times in a row. Could this possibly be a problem in a pack where sims reincarnate? 
• There is an existing bug where dead sims are not greyed out in the relationship panel or in the family tree. I think this might be important with a death-themed pack coming. Just me?
• There are four new grief types and different situations (besides a death) in which sims will experience grief, including divorce, getting fired and who knows what else. This feature will be overpowered on launch, and your townies will be sad all the time. Maybe if you also have Lovestruck, your worlds will be full of couples stargazing during the day while also bawling their eyes out. 
• Rotational players will have sims dropping dead in their played households when they're not actively playing them because rotational players are an afterthought when it comes to these types of things. Remember the disappearing milestones problem when GrT came out? Yeah. There will probably be many more unforeseen problems for rotational players. 
• The simology panel will break because they'll be adding even more stuff to it. 

What did I miss? 

I watched a youtube video of Kate Emerald about the houses she contributed. I wanted to play in the starter but was surprised that the sims team edited the house. The version in the game is smaller than the one Kate Emerald made with the result that it is no longer functional. The upstairs bathroom is gone, the downstairs bathroom has a toilet that can't be used. There is a nightstand blocking the toddler bed. There are also some items like lamps, the lower bunk of a bunkbed and some other items missing. I thought the entire point of asking simmers to create the houses was to avoid situations like these. I feel sorry for Kate Emerald, she created such a beautiful build and it was messed for the final release.

Also there is one dress in CAS for male sims. This should have been hidden. It is great to have filters to allow cross dressing for those who are interested in that kind of stuff. But they shouldn't be in the regular catalogue.

Oh, I just remembered one of my concerns!

I hope that the new traits will be included in Sim Characteristics, Turn-ons and Turn-offs, and have self-discovery moments.

For example, Horse Ranch traits still don't affect Social Compatibility and have any Self-Discovery moments.

My suggestions?

• Social Compatibility & TOTO (TOTOs exclude minuses):
  • Macabe:
    • + Pessimistic
    • - Optimistic
    • - Funny
  • Chased by Death:
    • + Spirited
  • Skeptic:
    • + Cerebral
    • - Idealist
• Self-Discovery Moment categories:
  • Macabe - Mood (shared with Cheerful, Gloomy, and Hot-Headed)
  • Chased by Death - Scared (shared with Erratic and Paranoid)
  • Skeptic - Smart (shared with Genius and Bookworm)

Oh, additional concern!

The new careers should also have associated university degrees that give head start in the career. For now, Romance Consultant in Lovestruck don't have these.

My suggestions?

• Undertaker career Mortician branch - Biology degree
• Undertaker career Funeral Director branch - Communications degree
• Reaper career - That I truly don't know here... History? Biology? Villainy?

I am genuinely excited about the Life & Death EP.   I am thrilled about the Reaper Career, the improvements to ghosts, funerals, & the rebirth mechanic.  That said, after reviewing the early access content, I have a few initial thoughts/criticisms, about the pack.

I am a bit disappointed that:

• The Mourningvale neighborhood only has four lots.  While I do love the world of Ravenwood, I wish there was a larger "spooky" themed livable area.
• Sims in the Reaper Career lack the ability to “reap” Sims outside of working hours.
• There is no official psychic career or spirit board & the psychic tent object from the pack is not functional.
• Children can’t receive heirlooms & teens can’t participate in the bucket list.
• The bathroom set doesn’t include a matching toilet.
• There is no complete three-piece sofa set.
• There is no single bed or infant crib.
• There is no glass door to match the greenhouse windows.
• There is no special aspiration for ghosts.
• The thanatology skill is only 5 levels.

I also wish that:

• The pack came with more new harvestables & regional recipes.
• The B/B had a few more “neutral” swatches without skulls, etc. & that the fridge had a couple of swatches without the freezer boney.

Finally:

• This is more of a standard complaint - But, I hate that EA continues to use time limited purchase exclusives as a means of creating FOMO.  No content should ever be a permanent time limited exclusive.
• And, this is not really a specific issue with Life & Death, but since the pack comes with new costumes, I will continue to request a costume category in CAS, so that each Sim can be assigned a specific costume.

Really hoping the Celebration of Life festival was broken in my game. Because when I loaded into it, it was just a single stage with a single picture so you can mourn one sim. Also some people dressed up as bird. They didn't even have a podium for speeches, or things to do. They didn't even put it in a space with a lot of room so you can properly grieve with a crowd. How is this a festival? How is this a celebration, when it's just a half-baked funeral? Heck, there's a graveyard right there, and it's fully decked out for funerals already, every single day.

Next, I hate some of the clothes for men. They've had this issue with the past few packs, where so many of the male clothes are bulky and don't show the sim's shape well. They all look bloated. Not everything has to be form-fitting, but we've been getting more and more of these looks.

Here's my sim in normal clothes (center)

And here he is in some L&D clothes.

And these are just the tamer examples, and still better than 98% of Lovestruck's oversized clothes. I like having bulky clothes, but I feel like the balance is really off.

I don't know if this constitutes as negative but I don't like the fact that we can't scrap a single item from the bucket list without doing away with the entire list. For example, Genesis, the female in my Opposites Attract couple, doesn't like video games. It's one of her dislikes. And her bucket list revolves around being successful. One of the goals in being successful is reaching level 10 in video gaming. And if that happens to show up, I would have to scrap the entire list. And that really sucks because the other goals might be goals I would like for her to achieve like earning a certain amount of Simoleons or finishing university. As it stands right now, the goals are random and one goal can render the entire list useless if the goal contains something your Sims dislikes doing. A bucket list that requires a Sim to reach level 10 in video gaming is useless to a Sim that doesn't like video games. 

I wish there was a way to remove a single item from the random bucket list goals. As it sands right now, you would have to scrap the entire list and then hope the goals you want your sim to achieve show up again, and  since it's random, that could take a while. Genesis still doesn't have a bucket list because of this problem. 

Sigh . . . they're still not fixing ghosts' needs. I feel like as a bare minimum they could have at least done away with hunger and bladder.

• I haven't seen anything about zombies. When are we getting them, if at all? I know they want to focus on ghosts.
• They're reusing the specters from Paranormal Stuff, but they just swapped their palettes.
• The village area looks very small, with a ton of non-interactive set dressing to make it look fuller. 
• Worried how they'll get funeral to work, considering My Wedding Stories is STILL having issues.
• It doesn't look like we'll actually be able to see or access a Netherworld location or something. Maybe we'll see it in the gameplay trailer. But if we don't get it, it'd be pretty disappointing that the pack seems to focus entirely on the living, of ghosts in the world of the living.
• "Disappear into a Crypt." Dang it, it's a rabbit hole, isn't it?
• Festivals. They're better than nothing, but The Sims 4 has terrible festivals. Here's hoping they actually make them unique and interesting, instead of just having your sim do a couple of interactions for a minute, buying a new shirt, and then just standing around and talking for 6 hours because there's nothing else to do.
• Moon Revelry sounds so lame. Like you can swim, talk in front of a bonfire, dance, and be nude... Which you can already do. Not very groundbreaking.

I'm usually more kind but the recent leaks about all these sims mobile games and no sims5 have put me in a bad mood. 

Funerals that looks like weddings from my wedding stories, I don't trust that anything will work as intended from your trailer, just fake animations and reactions. Sure, add some sims arguing like some sort of story. Whatever.

Another slightly themed world, we only have five billion of them. I'm sure there are some rabbit holes there.

The bucket list looks like normal aspirations to me, sure, call that a gameplay feature, whatever.

Oh hey look, it's a reskinned magic realm. Let me guess, the grim reaper is your teacher or something.

FAKE MEMORIES

Reincarnation? I guess that's cool.

Locking the family portrait behind a pre-order, what, you are not gonna sell it as a microtransaction?

An excerpt from the blog post I'm curious about (with these parts in bold):

For some Sims, leaving life behind is hard to do. With The Sims 4 Life & Death Expansion Pack, players can let their Sims linger on as playable household members where they can wreak havoc on the living or lend a helping hand. Ghost Sims who build special connections with each other can also pair up for a special, spectral Woohoo inside objects of all shapes and sizes. As Sims adjust to their playable Ghost Sims form, they can customize their looks in CAS, build Ghost Powers and even earn Fear or Goodwill essences from their interactions with the living to make simoleons. Yes, there is still room to grow in the afterlife!

What do they mean by that? I really hope they aren't saying these as empty marketing words to pad out the blog's content (ghosts can already be part of the household and you can change their appearance in CAS).

Also, the rebirth thing... Why aren't the sims starting from the newborn phase?

And Bucket List goals... Please I hope that it'll be cross-pack compatible! I hope it will include occult stuff too. Growing Together did well-ish... But High School Years pre-patch really messed it up bad.

Pack seems interesting, but I can't help but be... Skeptical... (get it?)