Mini rant about Snowy Escape
... Okay, maybe it's not so mini after all... But let me start this off by saying that Snowy Escape provides quite a few features that I've been asking for for a long time, and is one of my favourite EPs. This post is not meant to trash the pack in any way, there are just a few annoying things that I'd like to talk about.
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.
2. Emotionally mindful
Arguably the most annoying new feature is that my sims constantly get into an emotionally mindful state from doing normal everyday activities, providing a very strong "fine" moodlet that overrides every other emotion I may have been working on. The game probably expects me to be happy about that because all I have to do now is go hiking in Mt. Komorebi to become even more mindful and choose any emotion I want, but there's no time for that when my sim has to be at work in half an hour! The father of my wannabe adrenaline seeker is a painter who constantly gets that moodlet from painting, making it nearly impossible to paint emotionally.
3. Rock climbing
This skill gets credit for even existing separately, because knowing TS4's tendency to always take the easy way out, it wouldn't have surprised me to see rock climbing, skiing and snowboarding lumped together in one new winter sports skill. However, it's very tedious. The mountain expedition advises sims to bring some experience with rock climbing, level 6 at least - fair enough. So I made my sims climb up and down that tiny wall by the hiking trail a million times, but their skill would only go up at a snail's pace, still stuck at level 4 or so till this day. I ended up "cheating" by taking on the expedition with a witch and a vampire who could just teleport past any walls they couldn't climb, but the journey wasn't very eventful as a result. You know, with skiing and snowboarding, it's at least fun to watch them do it, but climbing gets old fast, so if anybody has any tips on how to build that skill more efficiently, I'm all ears.
4. Winter sports, children and pets
This is another situation like with candle-making in Eco Lifestyle, where children can technically engage in the activity, but without building the corresponding skill, so they're forever stuck with the most basic candle or, in this case, the easiest slope. I mean... The animations are there, the clothes are there, the equipment is there in the form of little snowboards and skis for smaller sims, so why not let them build the skills, too, even if they have to max their own motor skill first? Another thing that annoys me is that you can take dogs on a hike, but not cats, just adding to the endless list of reasons why dogs in this game are great and cats are useless. And it would have been nice if you could go sledding with them, too.
As I said, I still love Snowy Escape, but I think we're definitely past the flirting phase by now, the butterflies are gone and I can see the flaws in this relationship. Feel free to share your own gripes, or help me out with mine if you can!
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.
2. Emotionally mindful
Arguably the most annoying new feature is that my sims constantly get into an emotionally mindful state from doing normal everyday activities, providing a very strong "fine" moodlet that overrides every other emotion I may have been working on. The game probably expects me to be happy about that because all I have to do now is go hiking in Mt. Komorebi to become even more mindful and choose any emotion I want, but there's no time for that when my sim has to be at work in half an hour! The father of my wannabe adrenaline seeker is a painter who constantly gets that moodlet from painting, making it nearly impossible to paint emotionally.
3. Rock climbing
This skill gets credit for even existing separately, because knowing TS4's tendency to always take the easy way out, it wouldn't have surprised me to see rock climbing, skiing and snowboarding lumped together in one new winter sports skill. However, it's very tedious. The mountain expedition advises sims to bring some experience with rock climbing, level 6 at least - fair enough. So I made my sims climb up and down that tiny wall by the hiking trail a million times, but their skill would only go up at a snail's pace, still stuck at level 4 or so till this day. I ended up "cheating" by taking on the expedition with a witch and a vampire who could just teleport past any walls they couldn't climb, but the journey wasn't very eventful as a result. You know, with skiing and snowboarding, it's at least fun to watch them do it, but climbing gets old fast, so if anybody has any tips on how to build that skill more efficiently, I'm all ears.
4. Winter sports, children and pets
This is another situation like with candle-making in Eco Lifestyle, where children can technically engage in the activity, but without building the corresponding skill, so they're forever stuck with the most basic candle or, in this case, the easiest slope. I mean... The animations are there, the clothes are there, the equipment is there in the form of little snowboards and skis for smaller sims, so why not let them build the skills, too, even if they have to max their own motor skill first? Another thing that annoys me is that you can take dogs on a hike, but not cats, just adding to the endless list of reasons why dogs in this game are great and cats are useless. And it would have been nice if you could go sledding with them, too.
As I said, I still love Snowy Escape, but I think we're definitely past the flirting phase by now, the butterflies are gone and I can see the flaws in this relationship. Feel free to share your own gripes, or help me out with mine if you can!
