Cottage Living (July 22) Am I fool to be excited?

[Nindigo]

To be honest, I don't mind that we have to clean the cowshed and chicken coop regularly (daily?) - that is actually realistic. There are daily chores when you have animals. Since I won't be playing with aging on (I never do), it isn't going to be a stress factor for me to spend time doing these things. And if you couple that with not having an insane amount of animals, I don't think it is going to be that bad. That said, I do hope a few things get adjusted/fixed before release.

Carl definitely plays differently than I do. He reminds me of a friend I have who also puts emphasis on efficiency in his games. Kinda like Farmville and Minecraft - efficiency, mass production - that kinda thing. I think it has to do with having the mindset of an engineer.

Anywho, everything in a Sims game becomes repetitive at some point sooner or later once the novelty of a thing wears off. It either makes you stick with it or run away screaming, I guess.

[christinal3106]

I'm probably about to write a really long post, so my apologies. I have been back and forth with the sims 4 since the beginning.  Here lately, I am loving it.  It reminds me of every sims game, since 2 anyway, since that is the first sims game I personally played.  I am almost obsessive about it for awhile, then I stop playing, sometimes for years.  There is something consistent though in my personal game play that makes me know that it will be something that I continuously use. Almost every game I start, I have a garden.  Even through the gardening resetting bugs and everything, I had a sim grow every single plant possible to perfect quality. It took forever, but I played this sim for a really long time, and it is my "completionist save," a game I could back to whenever I needed information or want to test things out.  Even before Blaire, there was always a garden, I always want the plants to evolve to perfect, and I would only cook things that my sims had the ingredients for.  So for me, when I saw those op golden chickens and simple living lot challenge, I almost cried tears of joy.  How many times, my sims have went through the whole garden thing, I will happily let golden chickens make all their plants perfect, and not have a single issue with it.  We had that in sims 3, in a different form. Combine the gatherer trait and the swiftgro gardening station, and you had perfect plants in no time, that day even.  Then add the green dragon who will harvest everything for you, gardening became a breeze, and that is something that I have been waiting for!  Sulani mana is cool, but you can only use it once a day on one plant.  So yeah, long story short, thank god for golden chickens.  Also, because of Blaire and diving into the game so deeply, I can for sure say yes, the sims in sims 4 are unfortunately shallow.  The gameplay in sims 4 is not. Sure there are some throw away skills like bowling, singling, dancing, DJ mixing, etc. However, there are so many skills that add so much.  Ok, sorry I'm done.

[scoed]

Is it wring to be more excited about the free update than I am the pack I spent $40 on? Look in the free update we are getting a calendar for those without Seasons, a fun pond tool, lot challenges, group cooking with children, children gardening, and more. The big one is lot challenges. I love the spooky trait but it gets pushed out for more practical traits more often than not. Same is true for off the grid. Not any more once the free update goes live. Then activities for kids is so, so needed. I am so hyped. I am excited for Cottage Living don't get me wrong, but the ability to place every negitive trait on a lot for added challenge is so so cool. Who else is hyped about the free update? Has anyone heard when it is going live?

Also I want to point out there is only 6 days before attack chickens comes to my game. Midnight treats for all my roosters. Poor Grim will never know what hit him if he come to my lot. I am so excited for this. They had me at death by chicken. Yes I said this before, but I can't wait.

[Brian_Z]

Yes, the patch contains 3 things I've wanted for a long time, and the community has been begging for, for even longer-- kids cooking with supervision, kids gardening, and ponds.
My main household's next generation won't be ready, just too many days to play and not enough real-time days to go.  But I did get another household ready, and it's probably better to experience it with more average sims than with my hand-raised, over-achieving, spellcaster sims.
When is the patch going live?  I hope they give modders some time to catch up?  I remember with EL their original release was way too close, and then they pushed it back a day.  Modders had less than 24 hours before the first users in East Asia went live with the new pack.

[scoed]

The new forum is live! Three days till the pack goes live. Less for the pre-pack patch. Remember packs and patches are notorious for breaking mods and CC. Please remember to remove your mod folder until the mods and CC are updated or given an all clear. I can't wait. I likely will not be able to play the pack or patch until Thursday night as I am a day sleeper, but I just can't wait. First thing I want to do is make a midnight treat and get me my attack chicken. Those evil red glowing eyes make me smile. No fox will be safe. And none will dare pick on my chickens. Yes I have had dreams about these evil rosters. I am that excited.

[reggikko]

Well, my two cents might not be a popular opinion these days, but the game is what you make it. I put all kinds of restrictions on my Sims to NOT make a bajillion dollars and to not max everything in a week. Yeah, if I used every OP feature the game offers, of course I would get bored quickly. I am excited for Cottage Living. I've been watching Let's Play videos from numerous creators and the consensus is that overall, it's a very good pack. Most of the creators I watch are not afraid to voice a negative opinion when it's warranted, but they all look like they are having a blast with this pack.

Also, with all due respect to Carl, I find his videos consistently too negative so I stopped watching. I realize that negative reviews get more views, but it's just not for me. This is why I take the opinions of many Game Changers with a grain of salt. Lots of them don't really play for fun. It's their job to make videos or write reviews and that's where their focus is. For example, James Turner mainly plays when a new pack comes out so he can continue his Rags to Riches series. In between packs, he is mostly a builder. Many Game Changers are builders, but don't really play, and so on.

Anyway, I said all of that to say that there are people out here who enjoy the game and the direction it has gone. I love gardening and the way they've implemented the animals looks great to me. I don't plan to have a huge number of animals so that it makes caring for them a hassle, just like I don't have my Sims plant gardens so big that my gameplay consists primarily of caring for the garden. It certainly helps that I'm not really interested in my Sims getting rich! That's not to say that I love every choice the developers and/or EA have made, but overall I do truly enjoy playing this game. I never played Sims 3, so I have nothing to compare to there, but I was a dedicated Sims 2 player for a long time. Yes, Sims 2 had some features that would have been great in a newer version of the game, but TS4 has stuff that could not have been done in TS2. It's a balance and if you (generically) are only ever looking for the negative, then that's what you'll find. Sorry for the novel-length post. Any criticism given is not directed at anyone personally and I hope it's accepted as just a differing viewpoint and not an attack.

Editing to add that no one forces you to use OP features.

Just a few more days!

[scoed]

Here is the link to Carl's guide.

https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/expansionpacks/cottageliving/

Just putting it on the forum.

Anyway, @reggikko Carl hasn't released a review yet. He is waiting for the actual pack as to be fair. What is being discussed is his two let's play videos. They are not negative though the second did showcase a feature that can be abused. The Sims 4 has no shortage of these. But to be clear these videos are not negative. In fact Carl seems to be enjoying himself the whole time. Carl hasn't released his review yet. I find his reviews honest and fair.

Yes you can and should skip any feature you don't enjoy. I put limits on my sims all the time. I love the Sims but it doesn't mean I  will not call out a weak product. That said Cottage Living doesn't look remotely like a weak product.

[reggikko]

@scoed Thank you for letting me know that the video is mostly positive. I assumed by some of the comments here that it was not. Oops. My apologies for that, for sure. I will watch it tonight. I admit to not being on Carl's channel for a bit, but I am certainly willing to give it another go. As far as my comment, I was referring only to negativity on the youtube videos, not Carl's official reviews.  Maybe I should just watch and not read the comments, which tend to amplify anything negative. Anyway, thanks for clarifying.

[scoed]

@reggikko Carl's videos were neither positive or negative, they were him showing the new features and playing the game. He seemed to be having fun. One thing Carl enjoys is pushing the limits of the game. He did that in video 2 and exposed like most Sims 4 packs there is some OP mechanics that can be exploited. I expected this to be the case as most Sims 4 packs have features that can be abused. But like you said you can set limits on your sim to keep things more balanced.

It was the second video that sold me more than any other video I watched. Yes, birds bunnies and golden chickens can be exploited, but at the same time the video showed some of the whimsy that made me fall in love with the Sims. The seen when the Midnight rooster kept beating up the Grim Reaper who was trying to reap a cow but couldn't as the chicken was relentless. I laughed so hard at that. Some people chose to focus on the exploits or how unrealistic the game play is, but I seen fun to be had. I love those midnight roosters. I don't mind that I will have to restrict how many bird trees I put in my yard in order to not break them. Carl's videos wasn't positive or negative, just him playing the pack his way and seemingly having fun doing it. I had fun watching them.

His review will likely be up soon. He will actually give his opinion then, be it postive or negative

[scoed]

Carl has his first guide up. Thought the link should be on this thread.

https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/expansionpacks/cottageliving/

One more day till Cottage Living is live. Gnome on the GO is already live, as is the pre-pack patch. I am already having fun with the new stuff. Here is the patch notes for those that missed them.

https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/update-7-20-2021

Strangely they left off lot challenge system added this patch. Oops. I guess we are getting too much new stuff they couldn't keep track. Still best patch ever in my mind even if new bugs came with it.

[scoed]

Carl has a new video. It is a bit negative. But here it is.

https://youtu.be/VwF3UvBaNs4

[MarianT]

I saw the video. I do wish that if he thinks TS4 isn't challenging enough (and I agree), that he would mention that here on the forum we have a year-long tournament of challenges and several long-term challenges to help players have more fun.

[scoed]

I saw the video. I do wish that if he thinks TS4 isn't challenging enough (and I agree), that he would mention that here on the forum we have a year-long tournament of challenges and several long-term challenges to help players have more fun.

that is true. And while I choose not to participate I do see the appeal of them. I personally also do challenges, but mine tend to be a bit more restrictive or have crazy goals.

I do wish he would mention this board from time to time. The challenges are great for those into them. The story boards are great for the creative simmer. And there are many people like myself who try to help people with their sim questions. It is an underutilized resource he can plug.

[reggikko]

I saw the video. I do wish that if he thinks TS4 isn't challenging enough (and I agree), that he would mention that here on the forum we have a year-long tournament of challenges and several long-term challenges to help players have more fun.

I fully agree. Challenges, whether the formal ones here on the forum or self-imposed rules, do make the game more challenging and more fun. I too wish that the dev team and/or EA hadn't chosen to keep making the game easier and easier as it went along. When it first shipped both careers and Aspirations were considerably harder than they are now and I do kind of miss the challenge so I make my own rules when I play to keep up my interest. The forum could use the boost that new members coming over from the YT channel could bring. I have a tiny Facebook group for myself and a few friends where we post pictures and informal stories about our games and I mention the forum there all the time, even though it's only like 10 people!