Seasons - First Impressions

[Turoskel]

Now that I've been playing with this ep for a while I don't think I'd play without it mainly because of the buy/build stuff more than anything else. I use the new furniture, windows, lights, and decor objects a lot.

As for the weather, well I've taken to making summers the longest season at 21 days, spring and fall at 14 days and winter at 7, I turn off rain as I too find it just too much and too often, plus I've suffered from the building/save bug because of it, it's not so much the rain itself as the fact it makes it so dark all the time, for a while I left hail on as it doesn't soak my sims, but that too makes it very dark during the day.

Winter looks lovely but a week of it is just about enough for me, still that week gives my sims the chance to build snowmen and igloos and whatever else they wish to do.

There are some things I do like though other than the new clothes and objects, the gift giving parties I enjoy, I like the way everybody turns up with a present and they all take their seats and chat with each other, it has a nice friendly feel to it. Costume parties are also quite fun. I like being able to write a love letter to a romantic interest and then getting one back from them, I don't like all the unwanted attention from already married men and women though.

The gifts are a pain but also a nice bit of money sometimes depending on what they send you, unless the gift comes from a romantic interest I sell it.

I wasn't too bothered about Alien abductions until I had a male heir in my townie dynasty game trying to supermax logic, poor guy was permanently pregnant during his young adult life and what's worse I had to send every single baby back, that got tougher with each one, I felt so sorry for him. Since then I have avoided doing anything that attracts them and if I have a logic supermax in my immortal one it will be a girl.

[simlover16]

Definetly one of my favorites!

[Mack]

I just recently joined this forum. I read and experienced myself while playing some of the comments, challenges, and problems others players have encountered. Then I realized that Seasons is based on our unpredictable Mother Nature. I live in Canada and we go through the four seasons. We never know what kind of weather we going to have in a year. We can have a cold, rainy Summer or one with a heat wave, a Winter with very little snow or one where the snow reaches the house's roof. Frost in the Spring and Fall can put your plants "dormant" and a few days later it is warm enough to "harvest".  It is a year of surprises and versatility. It is never dull. That is why I love playing with Seasons. If it was predictable it would not be fun.

The graphics are fantastic and realistic. I am a bit disappointed in the greenhouse. As my Sims is a self-employed gardener, I taught he could make money all year around with a greenhouse. It obviously not the case. So, during Winter, I have him updating all appliances until spring comes around. I have a few indoor planters but they take a lot of room in my small house on account that there is not much money yet. Just like in real life. And for some reason, in my game it rains every Leisure day. I force my family anyway to go to the festival but they get all wet and sometimes there is no one other Sims in sight except the vendors. Make sense, who wants to go on a picnic when it is pouring outside. The only one that is having fun is the toddler. The kid is never bored or wet.

[Axiom]

First off, Seasons is just awesome.

Since I have Supernatural, I played with the Weather Stone. I love the hunter's storm in particular, since its snowy and just spectacular to see everything covered in snow...
My jaw hit the floor.

Also, how does one get the greenhouse?

[fortheloveofcake]

The actual greenhouse is a set from the Sims 3 Store. In my games though, I just build a room and make all the walls windows, with no flooring, and then turn moveobjects on, which allows you to plant inside the 'greenhouse'. Plants do not go dormant in winter this way!

[simlover16]

Anybody else been having problems with things happening in Seasons that they shouldn't be happening in? For example, I get heaps of hail in Summer, snow in Fall and Trick-or-Treaters in Spring!

Now, I have noticed trick-or-treaters in anytime of the year. I just ignore them. They get on my nerves.

[Tiamet]

I live in Canada and we go through the four seasons.

Five.  You forgot Highway Construction. 

[Korva]

It definitely rains too much for my liking, too. It makes the weather control machine LTR pretty much mandatory unless one wants to (and can) cheat all the time. Snow I don't mind at all -- the more the merrier! Wish there was some kind of early warning before plants go dormant, though. And once they do, they never show as such immediately for me (except for the trees), they just get "stuck" so it looks like the whole garden has bugged out until the game realizes that it should actually display dormant plants as such.

The broken "hit on anything with a pulse" attraction system is hilarious, really. It badly needs to be fixed so opting out actually works, though. Mind, I'd like to see truly polyamorous Sims who have 2+ friends-with-benefits/mates and who don't mind said mates doing the same.

[quinti.sims]

This is a nice ep but I can't get my face painted it keeps freezing , my sims is stuck "reset sims"

[fortheloveofcake]

Five.  You forgot Highway Construction. 

In my part of Canada (Winnipeg) we have two seasons.... Winter and Construction!

[ysmith]

I need help with my sims3 game, I installed and unstalled this game and it gets freezing on me. Can someone be kind enough to tell me what is wrong?

[Schipperke]

I need help with my sims3 game, I installed and unstalled this game and it gets freezing on me. Can someone be kind enough to tell me what is wrong?

Welcome to the forum, ysmith.  Your question really doesn't seem related to this thread, which is specifically about peoples' first impressions of the Seasons EP.  I think your question really belongs in the technical support board, where it is more likely to be seen by someone who may be able to answer it.  I suggest you start a new thread in that board.  When you post your question, it helps if you can give as much information as possible about the problem.

[beardeux]

Hi,   I've just installed Seasons 4 days ago.  So far I'm not really too impressed.  I ran through a test year to see what each season was about.  I've now played through 2 years.  On the plus side, I really like the look for all the seasons.  The festivals are super.  The graphics are fantastic and I see a world with a huge potential for fun and new skills.  Love this part of the EP.  I love weather in TS2.
   
However, on the down side, I've found that I had about 80% bad weather.  I have rain/storms/hail/snow 5 out of 7 days for the whole day, every season. It would have been nice to have slider bars for the bad weathers in the options, like the number of days per season.   If I got a break it was only for an hour or two.  I'd get to my destination and it would start again.    It's really frustrating me.  Prior to Seasons (and it has come so late into the EP's)  I've always done mostly outdoor activities.  My homes tend to be on the smallish side, with all their activities outdoor.  So now I'm faced with having to modify all my homes with a basement or upper level.  I'm not fond of building, but I do want it nicely done.  I've had my sims spending the vast majority of time indoors.  Boring...  The bad weather doesn't seem to bother the pets though, except for being startled by the lightning/thunder.  I wouldn't want my pet out in all that bad weather.  I find myself locking the doors to keep them in ;-).  I want them safe (lol).  A lot of extra mouse clicking.
   
Seasons has brought a flood of mail.  In a house of 6 sims, I get anywhere from 10 - 30 letters for the group everyday.  Just a ton of more mouse clicking and carpal tunnel if you ask me.
   
Another issue I have is the amount of extra vehicles that are removed each night by Overwatch.  This too appeared with Seasons.  I get numbers ranging from 7000 - 90,000 vehicles each night.  Ridiculous.  The game freezes for 10 - 30 seconds while it trumps up all these cars to be removed.
   
I will keep playing for a week or so, to be totally fair but if the weather doesn't improve, I think I'll uninstall it.  I'm truly saddened I feel this way.  I was so looking forward to this one.

[Pam]

@beardeaux:

I have found that the weather varies from file to file.  Some have lots of bad weather, others not so much.  I think maybe it's unique to each file.

[Turoskel]

I understand your frustration there Beardeux, some games it seems to rain incessantly but I feel Pam is right it does vary from file to file, the fact you can set the weather per save game means it isn't a universal thing in any case.

It would be a shame to totally uninstall it, have you thought about just turning the rain off in options? most games I have rain fog and hail turned off and a short winter season just for a bit of snow, although I do wish it wouldn't snow in spring.

There is much about this ep that I love, the only downside to me is the amount of bad weather, have enough of that in real life, but at least in the sims you can turn it off.