THREAD CLOSED

I'm enjoying this so far and I haven't even begun to think about making mermaids yet. I made a specific SIM for the island, mainly to just explore. I think my favorite thing so far is when the Sim is beachcombing for shells or trash and gets all these negative moodlets because a crab bit them or a seagull snatched the item away. That is so true to life. The jellyfish and sharks are a nice touch too. I haven't tried to kill anyone off yet. The nude sunbathing means no tan lines. I do like that the Sims look sunkissed when they tan the right way and the tan lines when my Sim forgets to change to nude are hilarious. I'm SO glad to finally have loungers that work, omgosh. I still have a lot of stuff to do before I even think about exploring the mermaid side of things. Next up is the kava party, then the careers. The "Did you know" thread has been very helpful in guiding what I'm playing.

"drake_mccarty;c-17151818" wrote:

"Beardedgeek;c-17151249" wrote:

"drake_mccarty;c-17151171" wrote:

"Beardedgeek;c-17151139" wrote:

"keekee53;c-17151129" wrote:

"Beardedgeek;c-17150909" wrote:

"jooxis;c-17150897" wrote:
I'm having trouble getting into it. I feel like I've already done everything that the pack offers in my first day of gameplay.
I feel this is easily the weakest expansion pack they have released so far in terms of gameplay and it is even weaker than most of the game packs in this regard which is alarming. And that makes me quite sad and not very hopeful about Realm of Magic.

I think it depends on what you consider "gameplay". I have been playing every day since this pack dropped and I still have tons of things to do.
Plus I just genuinely love what I have already done.
Spending every day snorkeling, free diving for seashells and doing yoga in the evenings... (who me? Jealous of my Sims? Nah...)

huh It is very clear fun is subjective because watching my sim swim around a buoy, watching bubble as they dive and then watching them finish the evening with yoga...I need more going on in my game for entertainment.

Apparently so.
I loathe interactive careers ( working from home I can deal with, but doctor or scientist? It's soooooo frustrating after awhile).

I also enjoy them doing similar tasks as snorkeling. Which is all the tasks.
I still don't get why snorkeling is wrongfully percieved as a "rabbit hole" when you have the exact same interactivity there as literally all other tasks. You can describe every action in the game like you describe snorkeling: workout? Check. Jogging? Check. Cooking? Check. Swimming in a pool? Check. Karaoke? Check.

Clearly those referring to snorkeling as a rabbit hole are talking about diving. You know that, you’re just trying to play semantic games with it.

Snorkeling is just as thrilling as diving tho. Your sim swims around a small area and pop up’s tell you what they find. I mean at least they don’t disappear but it’s not like snorkeling is a super exciting activity that adds so many dimensions to the game. It’s like a different form of jogging, and I don’t consider that very entertaining to watch given the repetition in just one play through.

So two things:

1. If you first try to correct me then say you don't find a reasonable difference, then your correction is pointless.

2. Why play the Sims if the default-for-all-interractions is boring to you? And has been in all Sims games, 1-4?

What exactly is “default for all”? This is an expansion pack and it should provide a hefty amount of *NEW* gameplay, *NEW* features, and new stuff. Snorkeling is supposedly one of the new gameplay features of this pack and I said it’s about as thrilling as going for a jog. Clearly you aren’t understanding what I’m saying. Whether that’s intentional or not, I don’t really know or care.

I corrected you because you were trying to create an argument based off your own misunderstanding. I’m not trying to get into a game of semantics with you, just clearing up some misinformation you are so gleefully spreading even though you knew what they meant. Other poster thinks I can read minds, no, I can read text on this website.

I really would like you to clarify a bit on that second bullet. It sounds like you are putting words on my mouth on that and I would like more details about what you mean before I respond to it. @Beardedgeek

ETA: @keekee53 you make such an excellent point with the interactive vs skill based gameplay!! You took the words right out of my mouth.

Again, you seem to have an extremely odd expectation for the pack.
And you obviously misunderstood me. What I mean with "like all other interactions" is that's the same TYPE of interactions. To work out you click on the workout equipment and wait for 10 minutes while the sim cycles an animation. Same with gardening. Or diving. Or cooking. Or watching tv.
But for some reason you single out this pack?

"shellbeme;c-17150621" wrote:
I feel like there is a lot more to it than we realize so it feels like a game pack. Honestly, it feels like a stuff pack to me right now. I am really disappointed. I think part of the problem lies in the fact that we have no way of knowing currently, when events are going on. I see posts about all these events but I haven’t seen anything in my game about it.

Evil poachers and anti environmentalists? Haven’t seen anything and wouldn’t know where to look. If the idea was to get us to explore the world more, it just hasn’t translated.

This might have been a great idea if this was an open world where we could just span over places and see events and things taking place, but that’s not the case. I hope they come up with some ideas to improve it.

I've seen loads of anti-environmentalists - they have a red exclamation point over their heads. Since spreading the conservation gospel is a work-from-home task that pops up frequently, they're a good target for my conservationist Sim. She's been somewhat successful - the exclamation point was noticeably dimmed after she talked to the anti-environmentalist (but not always - probably depends on the NPC's traits). I should note that she reached the top level in the career, so she has the bonus trait of being more persuasive.

It's a beautiful EP. But thats it. Not enough to do. Certainnly not worth the $40 they charge for it. Mermids are a huge let down. I'm very disappointed and will not rush out to buy any future EP's.

I played 30 minutes and haven't played since... nothing to do!

"Francl27;c-17152355" wrote:
I played 30 minutes and haven't played since... nothing to do!

More to do than in seasons....

I like certain things about Island Living, and it does add some stuff to the game, but not enough to call it an expansion nor for asking a price this high. It should have been a Game Pack as best, and even then there are game packs that added more gameplay than IL does. So overall disappointed with what I got for the price and that this is called an "expansion" which means we won't get a new one for a while, but I will play with it nevertheless.

"Beardedgeek;c-17152389" wrote:

"Francl27;c-17152355" wrote:
I played 30 minutes and haven't played since... nothing to do!

More to do than in seasons....

Because seasons should have came with ocean swimming, suntanning, lounge chairs and pool floaties. Then they could have focused a bit more on interactive gameplay in island Living.

If I am not mistaken those basic things were in Sims 3 seasons.

"Beardedgeek;c-17152166" wrote:

"drake_mccarty;c-17151818" wrote:

"Beardedgeek;c-17151249" wrote:

"drake_mccarty;c-17151171" wrote:

"Beardedgeek;c-17151139" wrote:

"keekee53;c-17151129" wrote:

"Beardedgeek;c-17150909" wrote:

"jooxis;c-17150897" wrote:
I'm having trouble getting into it. I feel like I've already done everything that the pack offers in my first day of gameplay.
I feel this is easily the weakest expansion pack they have released so far in terms of gameplay and it is even weaker than most of the game packs in this regard which is alarming. And that makes me quite sad and not very hopeful about Realm of Magic.

I think it depends on what you consider "gameplay". I have been playing every day since this pack dropped and I still have tons of things to do.
Plus I just genuinely love what I have already done.
Spending every day snorkeling, free diving for seashells and doing yoga in the evenings... (who me? Jealous of my Sims? Nah...)

huh It is very clear fun is subjective because watching my sim swim around a buoy, watching bubble as they dive and then watching them finish the evening with yoga...I need more going on in my game for entertainment.

Apparently so.
I loathe interactive careers ( working from home I can deal with, but doctor or scientist? It's soooooo frustrating after awhile).

I also enjoy them doing similar tasks as snorkeling. Which is all the tasks.
I still don't get why snorkeling is wrongfully percieved as a "rabbit hole" when you have the exact same interactivity there as literally all other tasks. You can describe every action in the game like you describe snorkeling: workout? Check. Jogging? Check. Cooking? Check. Swimming in a pool? Check. Karaoke? Check.

Clearly those referring to snorkeling as a rabbit hole are talking about diving. You know that, you’re just trying to play semantic games with it.

Snorkeling is just as thrilling as diving tho. Your sim swims around a small area and pop up’s tell you what they find. I mean at least they don’t disappear but it’s not like snorkeling is a super exciting activity that adds so many dimensions to the game. It’s like a different form of jogging, and I don’t consider that very entertaining to watch given the repetition in just one play through.

So two things:

1. If you first try to correct me then say you don't find a reasonable difference, then your correction is pointless.

2. Why play the Sims if the default-for-all-interractions is boring to you? And has been in all Sims games, 1-4?

What exactly is “default for all”? This is an expansion pack and it should provide a hefty amount of *NEW* gameplay, *NEW* features, and new stuff. Snorkeling is supposedly one of the new gameplay features of this pack and I said it’s about as thrilling as going for a jog. Clearly you aren’t understanding what I’m saying. Whether that’s intentional or not, I don’t really know or care.

I corrected you because you were trying to create an argument based off your own misunderstanding. I’m not trying to get into a game of semantics with you, just clearing up some misinformation you are so gleefully spreading even though you knew what they meant. Other poster thinks I can read minds, no, I can read text on this website.

I really would like you to clarify a bit on that second bullet. It sounds like you are putting words on my mouth on that and I would like more details about what you mean before I respond to it. @Beardedgeek

ETA: @keekee53 you make such an excellent point with the interactive vs skill based gameplay!! You took the words right out of my mouth.

Again, you seem to have an extremely odd expectation for the pack.
And you obviously misunderstood me. What I mean with "like all other interactions" is that's the same TYPE of interactions. To work out you click on the workout equipment and wait for 10 minutes while the sim cycles an animation. Same with gardening. Or diving. Or cooking. Or watching tv.
But for some reason you single out this pack?

I didn’t misunderstand you I asked for clarification, thanks for providing it. Clearly you and I have a much different view of what constitutes “fun” gameplay.

Skill based gameplay is fairly low level for myself. That includes cooking, fitness, gardening, anything that revolves around building skills. It’s more or less a background feature and a means to an end. I don’t play the game to watch my sim constantly cook, or workout, or garden those are skill based activities that fall to the background. I have never appreciated the numerous animations they created for cooking because they don’t change anything about the process or the end result. Cooking is a means to fill hunger, and it’s not like there is a ton of fun gameplay revolving around cooking. Now before you say snorkeling and cooking aren’t the same I am JUST making a comparison! You missed that when I compared snorkeling to jogging and you created a sub-discussion on that when it wasn’t my meaning at all! So I figure I need to clarify numerous times for you to not misinterpret my words.

Snorkeling is not your standard run of the mill activity like cooking, or working out, or gardening. It’s an activity that you won’t be doing daily, and if you do there is no real benefit to doing it. This might be where you and I are at odds, I get where you are coming from, and I am saying that for a “major feature” of this expansion pack this gameplay should be more than what it is. It has the complexity of the run of the mill interactions when it should be interactive and should add something to the game beyond watching your sim swim around a buoy.

As for why I am singling out this pack, am I supposed to single out some other DLC? Snorkeling, diving, both came with IL. Should I single out CL or C&D because snorkeling is a low level feature? This pack is the one being discussed here, I don’t know why you have a problem with anyone singling it out.

"keekee53;c-17152613" wrote:

Because seasons should have came with ocean swimming, suntanning, lounge chairs and pool floaties. Then they could have focused a bit more on interactive gameplay in island Living.

If I am not mistaken those basic things were in Sims 3 seasons.

Honestly I feel like they couldn't finish seasons as they wanted, so they piece-mealed off the bits in IL and sold it as another expansion. ALL of this should be in the Seasons expansion - now THAT would have been an epic expansion - IL had been part of Seasons. Kinda scandalous they are selling a part of Seasons as another expansion, now really EA, what's up with that?