Sims 4 Adventure Awaits Negative Discussion thread.

I thought about creating a new post titled, "Adventure Awaits, No Adventure and Plenty of Awaits." or "Challenges without the Challange" but I will post my negative thoughts here.

Imaginary Friends
I dislike how there is no challenge to getting an imaginary friend. It isn't a rewarding experience to the player and doesn't require the child Sim to put in any effort. Lil Simsie was able to get on in about 1 Sim hour. It should take a least 1 day of interacting with it. 1 Sims hour is too fast to build friendship with the doll. It was also too easy to turn the doll human. Maybe, the Sim who wants to turn the doll human should have maxed out the imaginary skill. That would've made the feature more rewarding.

The second thing I dislike is that there is no special trait, ability, or benefit for imaginary friends turning into human. There are several new reward traits in the game plus a few base game ones. The game could have given the imaginary friends a set of reward traits they start out with, that normal Sims have to work to get, based on their personalities.

Hosting a Retreat
This was a feature I was excited about but after watching a few videos I was turned off. I can't set the price of how much the different roles would pay. It's based off the value of the lot which means everyone pays the same price. I couldn't have VIP guests and charge them more than the other guests. I also can't create a free children's camp. Another thing is, Sim I set as staff have to pay me rather than me paying them. I can create a children's retreat, bring on another camp counselor but they additional camp counselor would pay me money rather than me paying them a salary. It makes running a retreat business unrealistic. They could've added an extra menu for employees.

Another big issue I found is that I would have to deal with the hassle of unlocking and locking doors. There aren't enough door locking options for the retreats. For example, if I wanted a VIP area for some guests, I couldn't lock doors to prevent other guests from entering. It's an all or nothing system and I don't like it.

Going on a Retreat
The main issue I saw with going on retreat, that Lil Simsie pointed out, is that the player has to pay for burnt objects to be replaced. I also think there should be a way for a household to claim an area. For example, if I want to build a small suite for a family they can claim beds, but other Sims would be allowed into their suite. If one Sim claims the suite, it's only for the single Sim and no one else can enter. For example, if I wanted a room for a couple with a bathroom, since only the Sims can claim beds to stay in the same room, any Sim could use the bathroom.

Competitions
This is the one feature I was excited about but it's lack-luster. It's only for story-telling purposes and your played Sims aren't really competing against other Sims in the game. I thought of creating a Sim with the competitive trait who competes with other Sims for various skills because they want to be the best at every skill. This won't happen because the other NPCs in the game, even if they have the competitive trait won't really compete.

Also, there aren't enough competitions. I'm disappointed that there aren't' competitions for mental skills. Why does the development of mental skills keep getting left out of packs? I was thinking of creating a chess camp with a chess retreat competition that happens on weekends. It's not going to happen because there is no option for mental skill competitions. There also isn't the ability to have a fishing retreat competition, something that's often done in real life.

Watching Sims Creators play the competitions was boring. The game required a lot of imagination and explanation from the creators rather than actual gameplay.  The Sims felt robotic, and it didn't seem like they had personalities.

The players can't set the time when the elimination occurs. There was no way to set an elimination event in the schedule. It works better if players can set their own elimination event in the schedule where there is a host that can give them feedback, Sims playing in the event can talk about their experiences, and a vote can be cast to eliminate a player (Eco Lifestyle introduced a voting feature).

There wasn't a sense of drama or intensity in the competitions. The most I saw was Sims crying because a Sim left but no one was happy a Sim left. For example, James Turner has two Sims who hated each other. When one of the Sims was eliminated, the other wasn't happy but was indifferent.

Lastly, I dislike Sims can't compete as teams. There was the option to form alliances but that basically didn't do anything to influence gameplay. There wasn't a real connection Sims had between each other when playing. It seemed like they had no personality even though they were assigned roles. There weren't a sense of community or any major interactions with each other.

New Playground Venue
Why does this exist when custom venues exist? I'm assuming this feature was added to the pack and the base game to sell packs to players who want a fun playground but only own the base game. This should have been a custom venue preset rather than a new venue. This is adding to the new venue bloat that's already present in the game. Please, no more venues.

Businesses and Hobbies
Businesses and Hobbies just came out a few months ago and I feel like features that would've made Businesses and Hobbies better are locked behind this pack. For example, the ability to have custom outfits for customers is something I wanted for that pack. I thought I could create a school with uniforms with that pack, but the custom outfit option isn't available and was withheld for this pack.

Another feature that was withheld for from this pack was the ability to create a custom schedule. I don't' want to create a full custom schedule but having the ability to set opening and closing times for a business would have made the pack better. Also, the ability to set shifts for employees could have made a big difference. To see a feature that would be awesome in Businesses and Hobbies locked behind a pack that's coming out the same year and isn't compatible with Business and Hobbies is a huge turn off.

Missing Disallowed Behaviors
You can set behaviors for what you want the Sims to do on a venue, but you can't set them to not do something. The feature to set disallowed behaviors has been present since Get Together. Creating a disallowed action such as push-ups or sit-ups, cooking, cleaning, etc. would have made the custom lots and retreats function better.

Customizing Existing Venues
I was under the impression that players could also customize the roles, schedules, and outfits of existing community lots. I'm disappointed because there is a bug where the roles are removed from the Community Spaces from Eco Lifestyle. I was hoping buying this pack would give me the ability to fix that bug and add back the roles that were deleted. I wanted to have functioning Community Spaces again.

I also wanted to customize the clothing requirements of existing venues. For example, I want the Sims who visit night clubs to wear party wear and Sims who visit lounges to wear formal wear.

Serving Food is Still Awful
An option to assign tables in the game for served food is needed. Watching the chefs cook the food and then require the player to drag it onto the table for the guests was immersion breaking.

Overall Sentiments
They game has some good features for build mode such as the custom venues. I think that's the strongest feature of the pack. Overall, the gameplay for the pack looks shallow like all the other packs.