Mini rant about Snowy Escape

"GrumpyGlowfish;d-986493" wrote:

1. Lifestyles
I find them quite confusing. At some point while playing, I usually get a notification that a sim has reached the limit of how much they can work towards a lifestyle in one day, but it doesn't say which one, and looking at the lifestyles overview doesn't always help. I have this sim that I took to the slopes of Mt. Komorebi almost every day, but instead of unlocking the Outdoorsy and Adrenaline Seeker lifestyles I was hoping for, he got Close Knit and Happy Single from not having many friends or a partner, making it seem like lifestyles are determined more by what sims don't do than by what they actually do. I tried to cheat Happy Single away, and it disappeared from the simology panel, but is still marked as active in the lifestyles overview, no other lifestyles have been building up since then and I'm afraid that this sim is broken now.

I found Lifestyles to be so utterly borked that I turned them off. I tend to make my sims fairly well-rounded, and the mere fact that (a) even a sim that gets outdoors a lot still spends most of their time indoors, especially when it rains, (b) a lot of career advancement at least indirectly requires use of a computer, and (c) I don't like my sims to be slackers but calling them "workaholics" is a bridge too far...

...you begin to see why I finally just threw up my hands and decided that feature was far more trouble than it's worth.

My sims got the "Frequent traveller" lifestyle and now they get a bored moodlet that overrides every other moodlet whenever they don't travel, which is particularly annoying.

I was sad that dogs can't go sledding with sims, it would have been super cute !! However it makes sense to me not to be able to take a cat on a hike.

"Dianesims;c-17790399" wrote:
My sims got the "Frequent traveller" lifestyle and now they get a bored moodlet that overrides every other moodlet whenever they don't travel, which is particularly annoying.

I was sad that dogs can't go sledding with sims, it would have been super cute !! However it makes sense to me not to be able to take a cat on a hike.

My outgoing sims with people person lifestyle get a rejected friendship anger sentiment whenever they turn down invites to places. That's not fair, they need to work, rest, do other things, etc.

I think it makes sense kids can't do professional level snowboarding. Is there any (8) year old that can? That would be strange I guess ??

It's very uncommon to take cats hiking even if there are some who do.

I actually liked the emotionally mindful as it seems to stop all the flip flopping and just bring sims to a moment of peace. My sims doesn't get it too easy.
Maybe you are doing too many relaxing activities?
Yesterday i was playing all day and no one got it. But my sims were head banging to metal music, playing sabacc and beating up people mainly?? so I think it's only if you do a lot of relaxing things.

One time one of my sims got emotionally mindful in the past I loved the control you have over their emotions. And in the case of the painting you can make them have any emotion you want to paint. That's the idea of it YOU are in control.

With the rock climbing skill people keep asking for challenges saying stuff is too easy and the devs are trying to add more difficulty per simmers request. They said it in the paranormal livestream.

I have no experience with lifestyles but I'm not too into them either way. I'm all about the sentiments.

"crocobaura;c-17790363" wrote:
You can get your sim in a rock climbing club and they skill faster in a club meeting.

Thanks, I'll try that! I already have an extreme sport club that would be perfect for it, I'll just change their gathering place into something with a rock climbing wall nearby and add that to their activities.

"ACruelButLovingGod;c-17790387" wrote:
I found Lifestyles to be so utterly borked that I turned them off. I tend to make my sims fairly well-rounded, and the mere fact that (a) even a sim that gets outdoors a lot still spends most of their time indoors, especially when it rains, (b) a lot of career advancement at least indirectly requires use of a computer, and (c) I don't like my sims to be slackers but calling them "workaholics" is a bridge too far...

...you begin to see why I finally just threw up my hands and decided that feature was far more trouble than it's worth.

Yeah, it just seems a little extreme. I felt the same way about the celebrity quirks in Get Famous: Nice idea, but some of them are too easy to get because all they require is for sims to do normal everday things like eating food that isn't terrible, others are nearly impossible to get because playing the game normally almost never puts you in a situation that would trigger them. My celebrities usually trigger the food and mirror obsessions at some point, and there's nothing I can do about it, because, well... sims need both food and mirrors!

"Babykittyjade;c-17790424" wrote:
I think it makes sense kids can't do professional level snowboarding. Is there any (8) year old that can? That would be strange I guess ??

It's very uncommon to take cats hiking even if there are some who do.

I reckon there are kids like that, yes, but even if not, I don't know any vampires in real life either, yet I do enjoy having them in my game. Not everything has to be about realism, and it isn't anyway, because how is it realistic that children can make dipped candles, but not watch them dry, which is basically everything older sims do when they make cylindrical or rectangular ones? I could go on for a very long time about all the things children, cats and other sims can't do in the game that they could in real life, so yeah, real life doesn't really matter here.

One time one of my sims got emotionally mindful in the past I loved the control you have over their emotions. And in the case of the painting you can make them have any emotion you want to paint. That's the idea of it YOU are in control.

Except I'm not, because that silly moodlet tends to come up at the most inconvenient times and override everything else I've done to get into a specific mood up until that point. And I don't mean the strong version of the moodlet that lets you choose an emotion, I mean the basic one that comes first and requires you to do even more emotionally mindful stuff before it goes away, and as I explained above, I don't usually have time for all those steps.

With the rock climbing skill people keep asking for challenges saying stuff is too easy and the devs are trying to add more difficulty per simmers request. They said it in the paranormal livestream.

There's a difference between "challenging" and "annoying" that the devs have never really understood or cared about. There is no challenge in watching sims take twice as long as they usually would to build a specific skill, it's just more boring.

Lifestyles are dumb anyway. It settles and places your sim into a routine that you must keep in order to maintain that lifestyle and then they have the nerve to place a daily cap on it to work with. Once you get the lifestyle, you worry about losing it and have to play their way to keep it. Sims should be free to do what they want when they want without the restriction of losing a lifestyle if it is not properly maintained. You don't keep it forever.

Emotionally unbalanced as with all other exaggerated emotions for sims in this version of sims, is not really impactful and I can agree with you there.

Yamachan is a terror. His statue won't disable him for me. He interrupts my sims and stalks them and then heads to their sim kids room to stalk the children while they do homework and such. He trespasses and litters on the ground making undesired items that no one logs in to play sims to want that item specially anyway. He wont respect private dwelling lot traits and refuses to respect lock doors. I just about it too. He needs fixing so his fans can have him and then I wont need to deal with him. He uses objects around the house while taking up too much space around the house and blocking other objects needed.

Skiing and snowboarding gets old fast. Wish you could race other sims or enter competitions and make money from winning as well as getting metals or trophies. They could of done more with it.

The furniture isn't Asian anyway. ok fine maybe the hotpot table that's it. The rest of it is just tiny bits of decor or lamps but not the actual furniture. To give you the illusion that it was but yet it's not. The finally have a map I like and they added Yamachan the terrorist.

Rock climbing got boring after the first 2 hours. Meh idk. I seem to buy packs for items now not for content. The festivals hardly match the map its like one of those things you do in an Asian mmo like 15 yrs ago.

They rush those packs out which is fine I guess since I get more recycled items from them for building. They could of just been honest and posted a warning about what Yamachan is like and then I would of never bought the pack for him to ruin my map.

Not sure how I feel about the other stuff since I am usually busy trapping and killing Yamachan.

Lifestyles make no change in gameplay and are ignored by everyone I know because of how little they do.

Yamachan is a wannabe classic NPC like Bonehilda or the Sims 2 University mascots but in reality he's just an unispired NPC there to only look cute.

The skills are basically the main feature in this pack. Look what we've come to, buying a pack that consists only of skills for 40$ yeay Simmers!

There are so many things they could have done with the winter sports theme like idk maybe Winter sports competitions? Extreme Sports as a career option? Even adding a GoPro object for your sim to post their expeditions online? These are things I thought of in 2 minutes, c'mon team where's the creativity?

Where's the meat in this pack?! Remember when we used to get 3 whole worlds, complex features and tools, traits and aspirations and even several skills, careers, lot types, foods just with 1 PACK in the Sims 3? Yeah these times are over because people will buy anything EA throws at them.

"GrumpyGlowfish;c-17791437" wrote:

With the rock climbing skill people keep asking for challenges saying stuff is too easy and the devs are trying to add more difficulty per simmers request. They said it in the paranormal livestream.

There's a difference between "challenging" and "annoying" that the devs have never really understood or cared about. There is no challenge in watching sims take twice as long as they usually would to build a specific skill, it's just more boring.

I actually like that the skills are harder to level up. This will make more use of the reward traits: Top Notch Toddler, Physically gifted (kid trait), Scouting Aptitude (Scout trait), Savant (25% faster skill build), etc. It also makes the game more challenging (by trying to get the reward traits, and having a reason to get them).

But I still think that the progression speed for skills need to be adapted for what life span you play on (shorters life span = fastest progression speed). Or maybe give us an option for difficulty levels in the game?

I agree and can add a few things to your rant on snowy escape.
1 the vending machines are always broken. That is not cute. It’s annoying and looks glitchy
2 toddlers are constantly abandoned on the slope. There is no way to feed a toddler once you take one with you. Once again bad design. Why can I purchase a meal for a toddler once in snowy escape? The meal stands close too quickly and I am stuck with garbage vending machines. That brings me back to point 1
3 sentiments have no context. Half the time I don’t know why they have one. I’d like a notification on that. Also, I got furious sentiment after neighborhood brawl. My sims laughed and hugged and got a furious sentiment. Why? So no animation indicator of sentiment nor a notification on why the sentiments are assigned. It’s garbage and useless. Who’s the genius behind this addition to the game?
4 lifestyle points are gained in the wrong way. My doctor is a people person because he has to talk to patients on his job? He is not friendly. He’s just doing his job. That doesn’t make him a people person.
5 what is the purpose of snow bros? I got excited about that and quickly disappointed. The only thing they can do together is build a snow man. They could have done that before snowy escape. When I tried to get them to snowboard or ski together repeatedly, the “snow bro” does it one time and goes away. Then I can’t find them. (Sim scattering like roaches is a constant issue) The continuous action gets termed all the time. Especially with other sim and toddlers resulting in abandoning toddlers on slopes. Actually if you have multi sim household all actions you assign get canceled all the time as soon as you switch between sims and often even when you are looking at them. It’s not free will. It’s just frustrating. Yes I can tone it down, but then they don’t do anything on their own. Ughh can it be just toned down a bit. While they are at it can sims creators fix the constant movement. I get you can multitask but do they have to get up, sit down, move two steps, sit down, get up and talk to everyone all the time.
6 climbing is a fantastic idea. I don’t mind so much the slow progression. I got to lvl 5 no problem I think this game lacks challenges in general so a bit of difficulty is much appreciated, but to go on an expedition with another sim they need the skill as well and this game has no story progression so they are not building the skill together. I have to play with each sim in turn to get the skill. Ughhh. There is no option to practice together, so they can get the skill together. Yeah you can create a club and make climbing a feature, but they are still not building the skill together. It’s just such a terrible, not thought out design.
7 my problem with sims 4 in general and not so much with snowy escape is lack of drama and long term effect. Sims are 90% of the time happy and now mindful (which is the same as happy). Reputations are very superficial and have no game impact. Relationships are superficial and have no game play impact. Traits are superficial and have no game play impact. Memories are tedious and have no game impact. Sentiments are confusing and have no game impact (or very little). Animations and autonomy is poorly designed. There is no dramatic, interesting animations. No relationship come with interactions that are fun to watch or play (and if they made one it repeats like a broken record). The game made everything so easy and cut so many animations. Your sim gets either things spawning in inventory or getting them in a computer. Which is simply boring. Lifestyle are like everything else just a profile blurb. My evil, klepto mob boss who watched his mother burn to death and has an awful reputation is the same clone as my good, candle maker who wants to save the environment. They make friends the same way, enjoy the same things, hate the same things and are 90% happy. No attractions, likes, dislikes, distinctive animations, interesting interactions, long term impacts, no drama, no challenge. In terms of game play this game is bad. Build mode is fantastic. Game play is just awful. Autonomy is out of control. Sims constantly quit on assigned task and do task that make no sense. Push ups during weddings in the middle of watching a ceremony ? Why isn’t that option excluded? Thinking of family member all the effing time. Changing into bathing suits to use the pool, eating at the pool. The usage of pool is soooo annoying I stopped building pools. Changing into workout close to play basketball in the middle of winter and not changing back after stopping to play basketball results in sims constantly freezing to death. Simple fix. Either stop making them change or make them change back after done. They use pools even if access is blocked. Things spawning in inventory out of thin air. For a “life simulation” game they butchered life.

"arleta;c-17810062" wrote:

4 lifestyle points are gained in the wrong way. My doctor is a people person because he has to talk to patients on his job? He is not friendly. He’s just doing his job. That doesn’t make him a people person.

I want the sims team to add the new relationship “professional relation” to avoid getting a lot of random friends (and to avoid getting the “people person” lifestyle from your career).

Professional relations
*All relations at work (e.g. your colleagues, or the relations with your patients if you´re a doctor) or with working sims (e.g. the barista / librarian / food stand employee) will list as a “professional relation” (work as a regular relationship but you will not become friend with them)
*Click on a sim in your relationship panel and choose “Get to know IRL” to start a “real” (friendly) relationship