Island Paradise - First Impressions

[Ricalynn]

This sounds like the too many work outfits bug.  Have you looked to see if she had a bunch of them that need to be deleted?

[Teacup Chihuahua]

I'm loving this ! Am playing with the scuba diving LTW .Have meet and befriended a merman. The water is beautiful,  so much detail. All in all I think this the best one yet  

[azokka361]

Has anyone been able to fill their sims Hygiene by swimming in the ocean, as shown in the live broadcast?

[Joria]

I have a major problem with this EP.  I want to do it ALL and I want to do it all NOW, and you just can't .  I keep wandering from trying one thing after another and never quite the get hang of anything except diving.  I love the diving!  Such a terrible problem to have,    This truly is the best EP ever, but ya know, it really had to build from all the others to be as perfect as it is.  Just imagine if this wasn't the last.  Nothing else would have been good after this one if it came before the others.  Kind of like learning the abc's before you read Shakespeare.

[Ricalynn]

It's not the last one though.  There is one more EP coming this fall.

[Susinok]

It's not the last one though.  There is one more EP coming this fall.

What is it on? What more could they possibly add? Maybe Open for Business?

[Shirin]

What is it on? What more could they possibly add? Maybe Open for Business?

I believe it's called Into the Future - we'll hear more, well, into the future.

Edit: What I can't believe is that no one has commented on the tents that are available without buydebug!

[Ricalynn]

The next expansion is off topic and I shouldn't have brought it up.  And yes tents! Although there is a new bug with them.  Don't place them on community lots or you may not be able to pick them back up again.

[Teresa]

So having not played in the new town yet, I saw today in my dynasty that only basic snorkeling is available in the older towns without going into Edit Town to do a major remodel?  So no dive caves, no doing the diving skill challenges, no mermaids showing up in Sunset Valley, etc.?  Is this more like a destination vacation or a stand-alone expansion where the features are really only going to be felt in Isla Paradiso with the hidden unlockable areas? 

[Ricalynn]

Mermaids will show up regardless.  There is no way to shut them off so townies everywhere will be slowly going scaly.  In non challenge games, you have the ability to place dive lots but they can be glitchy and it requires a bunch of tweaking/cheating to get right from what I can tell.

As for challenge games, we'll know more very soon.

Oh and two out of three of the diving skill challenges can be completed with just snorkeling.

[Shirin]

Well. I have a new one.

It's not an impression, though I'm sure this girl is leaving one!

When switching to snorkelling gear, some hair (and apparently suits) are incompatible. So I just get annoyed with the random changes. But now? My future mermaid sim has taken to snorkelling with no hair - at all. And no suit - at all. Nor does she get the naked blocking like when skinny-dipping or in a shower/bath. It's very bizarre.

Well, I followed a hunch (she had been unemployed, and when I restarted with her, same thing). I changed her swimming outfit from one of the IP bikinis to a base game 1-piece. No more naked-bald bug with distorted flipper-feet. Now she has proper flippers, the IP bikini I changed away from, and short hair.

[Seabody]

Didn't get to play it all tonight, only a few things, so my first impression is very brief.

Upon installing the game, I immediately made a new save in Isla Paradiso, created my Sim and gave him the two new traits, and his LTW was Hotel Mogul (I think that was what it was called). He moved into a custom houseboat, which immediately set sail. Playing in the boat was fun, my fears about the camera pulling away and having to re-render the contents of the house were unfounded. I'll be moving in someone like Robin from my Dynasty or Max Skills to tinker with the boat engine and make it faster. The boat seems slow to me, it took two hours to travel a fairly short distance.

I bought a private lot, converted it into a hotel and promptly sold it, because I wanted to play more with the boat first. The hotel concept seems really fun and thorough, but I haven't played it beyond building yet.

I sent my Sim off to discover an Uncharted island, he seems to own the entire thing. I want to discover a larger island, see if he can build a house on all of it.

I also messed about when diving, I want to play more with it, it's a brilliant idea. Apart from teleporting from the dive lot to a nearby island, I've been glitch-free so far, which is nice compared to some of the things I've read.

[doxxielover]

Seabody, depending on how you play the hotel really is a "free" source of income. You can play by staying, and working there. Or you can simply upgrade when needed through map mode, and live off the profits it brings each morning. Plus it supply's and free land home/bed. It does or doesn't require involvement either way. At least for me. Good luck, I really love this EP and I hope you do to once you get more into it.

[Twinmum]

I only got my copy late Saturday, so I haven't had a lot of time to play, but I'm loving what I have seen so far! I moved a couple onto an empty block and built a small house. I was a little disappointed that I couldn't have a house and a houseboat on the same lot, but I guess they will just buy or build a houseboat when they can afford it (so I haven't checked out the houseboats yet). Andy has been spending most of his days scuba diving and has met a mermaid. I've had him look for a few diving jobs, but he seems to be stuck on the latest one which is to find 5 messages in a bottle - so far he has none  I love the under water part, although, I'd like to be able to pull the camera up a little bit more before you hit the surface.
After a day or so, I realized that I could buy that first resort for nothing, so they are now hotel managers and are slowly adding to it. Biggest problem I have faced so far with the resort is no matter what sort of food I change the buffet to, I get negative reviews that I had the wrong sort of food available. I have bought a second table, but I can see I'm going to have to buy a few to keep more people happy.

Overall, I've only had one or two glitches so far. I've had the one where the sim gets teleported to an island when exploring a cave. It doesn't happen every time and one time after being teleported out, when he got home still in his diving outfit, I sent him to bed and he got out of his gear while standing in the water and then swam into the bedroom! I've had a couple of lags, but they were minimal and only just long enough to notice before the game resumed.

[Bluebonnet]

I had high hopes for this expansion and I wasn't disappointed! One of my favorite things is building and there is plenty new features to deal with in that department.

Two minor things I don't like too much is that leveling the diving skill can be pretty boring if you're not really interested in collecting shells or fish. I dragged my Sim through for the sake of getting the treasure chests and the islands. Another thing that doesn't do it for me is the Lifeguard career respectively the 35 rescues - without CPR - to get the island. I've almost got every other island already by fulfilling the requirements, but I think on this one I will cheat.

I built a houseboat for my Sim from scratch and it's awesome. With autopilot and fast speed I get reasonably around in no time and can do other things during the travel time. The resorts are my absolute favorite. I've just started work on the Hideaway which is now renamed to the Blue Lagoon (ha, I know, not very creative, but Blue happens to be my nickname  and getting the first positive feedbacks. I think this my favorite EP so far!