The Festivals are boring

"Zeldaboy180;d-992508" wrote:
I'll be the first to post about it, the festivals are incredibly boring. I'm loving this pack so far, but I haven't gone to a single festival since I won the needed prize for my aspiration. I actually like the City Living festivals, most of them anyway. The Sulani/San Myshuno festivals are kind of meh compared to city living, but at least there's actually activities to do and unique collectibles you can only get at those festivals.

You can't say the same for the cottage living fairs. All it is is submit entry and wait 8 hours for the world's slowest judge to make up her mind. There is nothing else you can do. The shops sell the same stuff they always sell, no unique merchandise or shirts. There isn't even a unique reward besides the Ribbons you get. There is quite literally nothing unique to do in a festival after you submitted your entry besides bribe the judge or wait.

Speaking of bribing the judges, I'm convinced that the results are complete random chance and has nothing to do with quality like it says. My sim's max happiness/max relationship rainbow cow lost to a normal cow with low attention. My friend's cow came in third place in the competition when there were only TWO competing cows. You can't convince me it's not just random chance.

Combining all of this, it just makes for a boring fair that I find myself skipping every week now that I have my aspiration.

I usually don't skip a lot of the city living festivals. The Flea Market is a good chance to find rare collectibles, The spice festival has a lot of unique collectibles and is generally a fun time, not to mention rare garden plants can be found. The Humor and hijinx festival is a great way to improve comedy/mischief skills and is great for a rags to riches challenge with the cash bonus if you win, and I've lost it a couple times or drawn so it's not always an easy guaranteed win. The romance festival just has an all around great atmosphere.

It's just sad that these festivals feel so lackluster. They didn't even have to do much. Make the prize a chance at an animal upgrade part since they seem to be so rare for me. Or earn valuable treats. Make the stalls sell unique rare items. Have music playing and activities for children. Even a pie eating contest would have been great.

I couldn't agree more. I would just have been happy if there had been a food stall, like the one from Britechester, selling unique English foods (fish and chips, bangers and mash or those new fast foods from DU like Mushy Peas, Fish Hand Pie, Chip Butty and Sausage Roll). Actually, they wouldn't even have needed to have a food stand. Instead, they could have had something like the Sulani town potluck with all the locals bringing a dish relevant to the fair.

For the pie and vegetable judging context, have sims bring a variety of pies or vegetable dishes. For the chicken and egg competition, have chicken and egg dishes available, and for the milk and cow competition, have milk-made dishes, ice cream if you have Cool Kitchen etc, or dishes made from beef (meat pies etc). At least if there was food available, sims would seem more social and relaxed, sitting around and eating instead of standing and chatting in a tight bunch in front of the competing entries.

I do agree that if they really wanted the fair to be fun though the developers should have included a greater variety of rare prizes and unique collectibles (ones that you could only get at the fair). They should also have introduced a unique fun group activity that a few sims could do together to build fun, social and relationship points. I like your idea of the pie eating contest (which was fun in the Sims 3). They could also have added a lawn bowling or ring toss object (something like the horseshoe game from OL), or if they really wanted something more elaborate and quintessentially English, a small version of the game of croquet.

And I will always think it a missed opportunity that in an English world they didn't reintroduce social tea drinking as a group activity with a tea set object allowing for various interactions (such as they had in the Brunch at the Old Mill Set). Then at each fair there could have been a table or two with tea sets on them that sims could sit at together, drinking tea, chatting, eating little sandwiches or sweets, and it would really improve the atmosphere of the whole event. As it is there is no real reason to go to the fair at all if your sim isn't competing; if there were some unique or special foods and activities it would at least be more of a motivation to visit the fair.