Forum Discussion
"invisiblgirl;c-17091626" wrote:
I haven't been all that excited about most of the EPs for S4 - I preordered Seasons (and I have no complaints), but the other two that I own were bought more for content (CL and GTW). I didn't care about apartments, festivals or active careers. The others have things I definitely don't want in my game (I love cats, but I don't want them getting sick or dying, and I was very disturbed by the strays in previous Pets EPs).
There are several game packs, however, that are must-haves: Parenthood and Spa Day, for sure, and the worlds and content for Granite Falls, Jungle Adventures and Strangerville are quite useful.
The strays seem to be limited to Brindleton Bay, so if you don't spend much time there you won't see them as much.
I've been using GTW more to create shopping locations for my Sims to visit. I'm currently working on making an art gallery with paintings I've downloaded from the Gallery, and also a department store where Sims can purchase some of the science items (like upgraded SimRays and the satellite dishes), some fully upgraded stereos and TVs, and several costumes from Get Famous. That way my other Sims families can shop there and get the items without having the be a scientist, get to level 10 Handiness or build the acting skill. My final project is to have two clothing shops, one for men's wear and one for women, with the best of the career outfits that have to be unlocked in CAS -- business, social media etc. What I do with all these projects is I create a Sim, cheat them the skills to make or unlock the items and the money to purchase the lot, then I mark them as Played but don't touch them, and then I send other Sims to shop. So my Sims can have upgraded TVs for the two extra channels (Music TV and Fireplace), a satellite dish to watch Alien TV, and extra paintings without having to have the Painter skill or the Expressionistic aspiration trait. I put all this in a template save, then when I start a new save (either I have a new story idea or I just want to try something different espcially when we get new content) I select that save, do a Save As with a new name, and everything is set up for my new household. I've also given some families pets (the Bjergsens have a Bernese Mountain Dog named Gracie after a friend of mine's dog, for example, and Bob and Eliza Pancakes have an annoying yappy Chihuahua) and done makeovers on a lot of the base game premades (updating hairstyles and outfits with more recent content -- I give the households I don't plan to actively play a few extra outfits so they're not wearing the same thing everyday. It's been a lot of work but worth it.
