My issue with mermaids
Alright, I'll start off with the positive and say that mermaids are vastly improved over their sims 3 counterparts, but there are some things that bother me and I hope the devs are reading this cause ...
Forum Discussion
> @Zeldaboy180 said:
> Alright, I'll start off with the positive and say that mermaids are vastly improved over their sims 3 counterparts, but there are some things that bother me and I hope the devs are reading this cause I just don't get it.
>
> Mermaids need to purchase diving gear in order to dive for treasure or seashells, or even hunt for fish. That seems....weird? Why does my mermaid need to buy gear to dive down for treasure? I'd love for this to be corrected.
>
Hmm, 'corrected' doesn't seem right to me. I have no issue, personally, with them requiring tools - they're of human-level intellect (at least) and have hands, so it stands to reason that they'd be tool-users - but I'd have loved it more if they'd been able to craft their own.
> @Zeldaboy180 said:
> Also, why can't mermaids snorkel? I haven't played a normal sim yet so I'm not sure exactly what snorkeling does, but doesn't it let you go deep underwater and catch collectibles? Doesn't this put the mermaid at an advantage? If someone could offer insight to this I'd be happy.
>
Honestly, this does bother me. The way it's phrased, that it's a 'taboo subject' and that they 'wouldn't be caught dead' doing it, strikes me as being a bit... referencey. It feels like they're referencing something with this and I admit that if it's the case, the exact reference eludes me. I assume that it's ultimately a way of cutting down their workload. Which is a bit of a shame, since it could have been surmounted by either giving them a slow swim-speed animation (don't get me wrong, I love how fast they can swim, but it makes sense that they'd also be able to take their time), or they could just remain in human form and snorkel normally, with the reasoning that they use it as cover to hide their mermaid natures when humans are around. And as @Sephirajo pointed out:
> @Sephirajo said:
>Besides, for snorkeling, why wouldn't a mermaid enjoy swimming in shallow water viewing the coral?
>
It'd be a lot like a human going sight-seeing or on a nature walk, surely.
> @Zeldaboy180 said:
> Why can't mermaids eat while in the water? In sims 3 you could satisfy pretty much every need in the water except sleep. You could even eat kelp/fish raw while underwater or above it on the surface. In the sims 4 you can satisfy every need except hunger, you mermaid has to go on land to eat. A mermaid should never have to leave the water if you choose, that is their home, their natural habitat. Obviously living in the water 24/7 would get boring fast, but the point is a mermaid should be able to stay in the water for as long as you like.
>
Yeah, this bugs me too. Not enough to not play the game, and it's not going to result in a bad review from me, but I'll admit that not being able to eat in the water seems nonsensical. They're not much of an aquatic species if they have to come out onto land every time they want to eat something.
> @Zeldaboy180 said:
> Kelp should have been a new harvestable, or at the very least the ability to eat raw fish. Even eating coconuts/pineapples or basic fruit on the water would have been great. Another simple solution would be to add the "hunt for food" option while clicking on a buoy.
>
I agree, they could have done a lot more with this. Hopefully they'll add these elements in at a future date.
> @Zeldaboy180 said:
> Possible bug? I don't know if it's intended for sims to be able to be struck by lightning while swimming, but my mermaid was by a storm he conjured himself. Only thing is that there was no lightning bolt, it just caused all the sims in the area to reset and he got a singed moodlet, but did not get the singed appearance until he got out of the water.
>
100% sounds like a bug to me. I've noticed some weirdness with storms, and not getting the singed appearance seems to track with their look not updating until a state change (like the way you don't see them update with their tan until they stop performing the sunbathing action).
> @Zeldaboy180 said:
> Overall I'm very satisfied and loving my mermaids, I just wish these issues were fixed.
>
I'll admit I didn't check out mermaids in TS3 particularly thoroughly. Touched on them briefly but didn't invest any real time into exploring them. As a result I'm coming to the mermaids in TS4 more or less raw. I absolutely agree with most of your points, and I too am looking forward to seeing how they patch this content in the future.
The team seems to have invested somewhat less time into the mermaid subspecies than they did into vampires, but they've nonetheless done a very solid job.
> @Writin_Reg said:
> Mermaids are friends of fish - they don't eat them and do not like people who do.
>
Nah, that's a Child of the Ocean thing, as has been mentioned above. I've met a few of the mermaids wandering around and it's really only Nalani, that I can tell, who doesn't eat fish. Most, possibly all, have Child of the Islands, though.
> Alright, I'll start off with the positive and say that mermaids are vastly improved over their sims 3 counterparts, but there are some things that bother me and I hope the devs are reading this cause I just don't get it.
>
> Mermaids need to purchase diving gear in order to dive for treasure or seashells, or even hunt for fish. That seems....weird? Why does my mermaid need to buy gear to dive down for treasure? I'd love for this to be corrected.
>
Hmm, 'corrected' doesn't seem right to me. I have no issue, personally, with them requiring tools - they're of human-level intellect (at least) and have hands, so it stands to reason that they'd be tool-users - but I'd have loved it more if they'd been able to craft their own.
> @Zeldaboy180 said:
> Also, why can't mermaids snorkel? I haven't played a normal sim yet so I'm not sure exactly what snorkeling does, but doesn't it let you go deep underwater and catch collectibles? Doesn't this put the mermaid at an advantage? If someone could offer insight to this I'd be happy.
>
Honestly, this does bother me. The way it's phrased, that it's a 'taboo subject' and that they 'wouldn't be caught dead' doing it, strikes me as being a bit... referencey. It feels like they're referencing something with this and I admit that if it's the case, the exact reference eludes me. I assume that it's ultimately a way of cutting down their workload. Which is a bit of a shame, since it could have been surmounted by either giving them a slow swim-speed animation (don't get me wrong, I love how fast they can swim, but it makes sense that they'd also be able to take their time), or they could just remain in human form and snorkel normally, with the reasoning that they use it as cover to hide their mermaid natures when humans are around. And as @Sephirajo pointed out:
> @Sephirajo said:
>Besides, for snorkeling, why wouldn't a mermaid enjoy swimming in shallow water viewing the coral?
>
It'd be a lot like a human going sight-seeing or on a nature walk, surely.
> @Zeldaboy180 said:
> Why can't mermaids eat while in the water? In sims 3 you could satisfy pretty much every need in the water except sleep. You could even eat kelp/fish raw while underwater or above it on the surface. In the sims 4 you can satisfy every need except hunger, you mermaid has to go on land to eat. A mermaid should never have to leave the water if you choose, that is their home, their natural habitat. Obviously living in the water 24/7 would get boring fast, but the point is a mermaid should be able to stay in the water for as long as you like.
>
Yeah, this bugs me too. Not enough to not play the game, and it's not going to result in a bad review from me, but I'll admit that not being able to eat in the water seems nonsensical. They're not much of an aquatic species if they have to come out onto land every time they want to eat something.
> @Zeldaboy180 said:
> Kelp should have been a new harvestable, or at the very least the ability to eat raw fish. Even eating coconuts/pineapples or basic fruit on the water would have been great. Another simple solution would be to add the "hunt for food" option while clicking on a buoy.
>
I agree, they could have done a lot more with this. Hopefully they'll add these elements in at a future date.
> @Zeldaboy180 said:
> Possible bug? I don't know if it's intended for sims to be able to be struck by lightning while swimming, but my mermaid was by a storm he conjured himself. Only thing is that there was no lightning bolt, it just caused all the sims in the area to reset and he got a singed moodlet, but did not get the singed appearance until he got out of the water.
>
100% sounds like a bug to me. I've noticed some weirdness with storms, and not getting the singed appearance seems to track with their look not updating until a state change (like the way you don't see them update with their tan until they stop performing the sunbathing action).
> @Zeldaboy180 said:
> Overall I'm very satisfied and loving my mermaids, I just wish these issues were fixed.
>
I'll admit I didn't check out mermaids in TS3 particularly thoroughly. Touched on them briefly but didn't invest any real time into exploring them. As a result I'm coming to the mermaids in TS4 more or less raw. I absolutely agree with most of your points, and I too am looking forward to seeing how they patch this content in the future.
The team seems to have invested somewhat less time into the mermaid subspecies than they did into vampires, but they've nonetheless done a very solid job.
> @Writin_Reg said:
> Mermaids are friends of fish - they don't eat them and do not like people who do.
>
Nah, that's a Child of the Ocean thing, as has been mentioned above. I've met a few of the mermaids wandering around and it's really only Nalani, that I can tell, who doesn't eat fish. Most, possibly all, have Child of the Islands, though.
