I finally got this expansion after months of dithering, when it was announced I just had no interest in it but disregarding the occults and zombies, which was my main reason for not wanting it, everything else eventually sold me and I'm so glad it did.
I love all the new CAS, build/buy stuff so for those alone it has been worth getting, the overall old fashioned vaguely victorian style of everything is lovely, I gutted a starter home and replaced everything with the new furniture and it's nice to live in such a themed house. I really like the gramophone stereo.
The town isn't bad, there are a lot of small parks, I see why that gets mentioned as the small park problem now. But there are also a lot of large empty plots and everything is well spaced. I was most impressed with the way auto placement worked, in most towns it sticks things the wrong way round and in totally unsuitable places, this one it seemed like they had planned it a little better, and it used the petite pony instead of the large equestrian center. I didn't feel the need to move or replace anything for once.
I've put my usual pairing in, my self sim and Dallas Shallow, she's a fairy and he's a werewolf, considering I had no interest at all in the occults I'm enjoying them far more than I expected, I really thought I'd hate him as a werewolf but he doesn't look too awful, of course I could tweak him in CAS so that helped.
It changed their relationship dynamic a bit, normally I can't keep them apart but his inappropriate sniffing doesn't go down too well and neither does implying her mother was a glowbug
Also werewolves and neat sims do not work, she really doesn't appreciate jokes about shedding, and he isn't interested when she talks about flowers, but there are some funner interactions like the fairy werewolf tag.
Because of having some foresight due to things read on this forum I made sure to fence her garden in straight away, she is doing the greener gardens LTW, but I didn't notice there was a plant growing behind the house till a zombie ate it, so far I've had two full moons, first one I had three zombies, second one I just had one who got in a car and drove off, not really an invasion as such but that's fine.
Dallas is doing the alchemy LTW, the more I read about this skill the more I wished I had it, and it does seem it will be as useful as I thought, he isn't so tied to his occult state as my fairy so once he can make the elixirs I shall be using him to try out the other life states, werewolf was sort of fun to try for novelty's sake but I don't think I'd want it long term, the hunting was useful though, but I think he will be changing to a witch next.
Then I guess I'll see about this witches and fairies not getting along thing, after a couple of rejected first kisses, totally unheard of for this couple, they finally got together so I'll be interested to see if it affects them like the werewolf/fairy combo did.
