Secret Lot?

I've seen another cave on the volcano island, hidden in the back but you can walk to it, but I couldn't interact so I left.

Someone mentioned that you need a mermaid of a certain skill level to unlock the lot

"Sapphisims;c-17126318" wrote:

"yupp;c-17126309" wrote:
Someone mentioned that you need a mermaid of a certain skill level to unlock the lot

Oooh, is there a hidden mermaid skill? Or is it just athletic skill?

I have no idea. I cheated the level of the cave mapped by shift clicking on it but I didn’t have a mermaid go in it. I wonder if I use a mermaid if it’ll work.

You have to find it. It is not a secret if you don't look and find it.

"Sapphisims;c-17126359" wrote:

"yupp;c-17126353" wrote:
So I tried with a mermaid. Still nothing. There is another cave entrance on the other side of the volcano but sims can interact with it

ahh, thank you anyway. I'm just guessing there isn't one and they were talking about the rabbit holes in the cave :(

I hope not. That would be such a big missed opportunity

"Writin_Reg;c-17126381" wrote:
You have to find it. It is not a secret if you don't look and find it.

I get that, but I've spent at least seven hours on this EP now and nothing, and it doesn't look like anyone online has had any luck either, so I'd rather know for sure that it even exists rather than waste any more time hahaha.

@Writin_Reg did you find it?

I'm glad I finally, after a lot of searching, found people asking about the secret mermaid cove or whatever the gurus called it. They mentioned that unlocking this thing will allow mermaids to start appearing in the world, just as vampires do with the Vampires pack. I really want that, and it's frustrating that there haven't been any hints other than this "thing" exists.

The gurus talked about it in the Q &A stream on June 21st, at about the halfway point (at exactly 14:06 in the video replay). There is a secret spot called Mermaid's Cove somewhere on Mua Pel'am, the natural island, which it sounds like is unlockable in only a very specific way. You have to maximize the conservation level of the island with a discovered mermaid actually in your household, and then you will be able to find the entrance to this secret cove. Its main property is that it will spawn NPC mermaids. It is not in the same place as the main cave but is deliberately hidden in a very sneaky spot; in the video the gurus are looking for it all around the volcano at night but never actually find it. I couldn't tell from the conversation whether this cove is an actual hidden lot your sim can travel to, like Sylvan Glade or Sixam, or another rabbithole which, once unlocked, merely triggers a new spawner. I hope it is the first.

"MidnightAura;c-17128421" wrote:
Didn’t the Gurus say they were no longer adding secret lots after they discovered they were rarely used?

There was a lot that was wildly exaggerated in the streams (mermaids luring sims to death, dangerous cave, sharks being dangerous) that since Thursday evening and way too much game time than I would normally give; have not been able to replicate. Even my friend couldn’t either.

I will believe it when I see it.

Aww! I love the secret lots. I often use them in storytelling. I think there should be more of them. They have been around since TS1 and can act as a real motivation for maxing out a skill or completing a series of interactions; they make it all seem more purposeful and magical. I loved the secret lots in TS2 -- the hobby lots and the Bon Voyage lots were all great. They need to add some more to TS4: the changing temple is the best thing about JA but I also really liked the hermit’s lot in OR. This would have been the perfect pack in which to have a really mysterious and transcendent secret mermaid lot, full of waterfalls, corals and bioluminescence as well as mermaids and hidden treasures (like Ariel's collection).