Vampires - First Impressions

[MissTrips]

I really like how you can customize your vampire's abilities.  I have one vampire that's incredibly strong  (she crushes metal and gems into elements!) and garlic resistant, but she has to sleep in a coffin and has a harder time filling her thirst gauge while the second is a mental manipulator that burns super quickly in the sun.  The strong one has a dark form, so she can blend in easily with her prey, while the matchstick always looks creeptacular and thus uses their mental abilities to keep people from noticing them.  It makes for fun story telling!

I did however find it a little surprising at how quickly I was gaining Vampire Lore and Power points.  Inside of a week they were both Master Vampires and on their way to Grand Master, and had both maxxed out Vampire Lore.    They'd hit up a local vampire for some training and then spar each other and always compelled to feed.  Felt a little too quick, especially as Vampire Lore is a 15 level skill, I was anticipating much more reading time.

[Nindigo]

Some positive feedback from me

I can appreciate how the developers have stuck with several classical features such as vulnerability to garlic and sunlight, bat and mist form ability, and no mirror image (this one in particular is awesome). According to old lore, vampires can control wolves as well. There are no visible wolves in The Sims, but you can still hear them howl at night. That at least is a reference of sorts and creates a great atmosphere. Another cool detail - ears and fangs can have various appearances accommodating both old and new fashion. This gives vast opportunities to create any style ranging from monstrous to plain looking. Kudos for that

[Ynde]

Really enjoying this so far. I've found that it's much harder to level a "good" vampire than one that is constantly compelling Sims for drinks. That regular little boost really makes a difference. My guilty drinker vampire needs to do a lot of sparring to keep up with her less conscientious mate. I'm planning to do a vampire that completes all the new aspirations, and I already know which one not to do first.

[Hechicera]

Vampires, to me, feels more like an expansion than just a Game Pack. I feel like it is easily worth the money, even paying full price since I couldn't wait! I am not at all happy with myself for staying up so late on a work night, but vampires are so much fun!

I agree that I wish there were more vampires in the other areas of the game. I did have fun filling the city with vamp families though!
...

I agree, and I'm not much of a "Vampire person" if that makes sense. A little too old for goth, though not my younger sister. And the novel then movie craze made me bored. (Don't even get me started on Zombies). But I found the way they did it here to be much more fun than expected.

And my game did randomly generate "townie" vampires in the city. Especially at city venues or festivals after dark. I know this because ...

Really enjoying this so far. I've found that it's much harder to level a "good" vampire than one that is constantly compelling Sims for drinks. That regular little boost really makes a difference. My guilty drinker vampire needs to do a lot of sparring to keep up with her less conscientious mate. I'm planning to do a vampire that completes all the new aspirations, and I already know which one not to do first.

My new family's first heir had been having issue finding a bride (maybe it was the chubby geek thing?). So, he went off to the romance festival one night with his current interest, a very cute blonde, who promptly ignored him. Which was a step up from their usual fighting! He asked the Romance Guru for a future and she gave him the line about tall and dark. He turns around and there is very nice looking quite dark lady right there! Who, according to his usual luck, also hates him on sight. He was quite persistent though, and kept calling.

She was, as you have guessed, a randomly generated vampire. They could only make friends over the phone. Eventually he got enough of a relationship to get her to move in. She was already a master vampire and had absolutely every negative that would make it hard to socialize and fit in. And in two added bits of cruelty, she was a foodie that couldn't eat, and despite all those hard to socialize negatives her aspiration was to be a good vampire that fit in! So pitiful. And so, very, very hard! The relationships all tanked, and it took some doing, much harder work than I'm used to in Sims 4, but they married. And for further vampire sad-sack, she did just complete her aspiration, and just had her third child .. and she also hates children. This is what mother-in-laws are for. Well, other than food sources, of course.

This degree of trait, situation, and aspiration mismatch was quite interesting though.

[marwolfer]

I'm quite enjoying it, tbh, which doesn't happen much with me! lol I'm more often than not disappointed by the packs. But I'm really having some fun playing a vampire. There's still a bit of a learning curve, but overall I really like it.

[MarianT]

Woot! My vampire hunter just slew his first vampire. I meant to get pictures, but was too worried about getting the right options. I'll be adding a Vampire Option and Vampire Hunter Option to the Rival Dynasties Challenge later on today, now that I know that hunting a vampire can work.

I'm enjoying these vampires quite a bit more than the ones from TS3; I never did anything with vampires in TS2. They are very well thought-out, and you can have so many different options. The animations are entertaining, and I like the clothing and furniture. I really hope they do something similar with witches. Forgotten Hollow is nice and gloomy and about the right size for me, but I hope that if we get other supernaturals, we'll get a larger, empty world that our vampires, witches, and werewolves can share.

A couple of minor gripes -- it's too easy to turn a Sim into a vampire once your vampire acquires the power. I'd have expected friendship status to be necessary, but you don't even have to introduce yourself. Gaining vampire lore skill is also easy.

Overall, though, I'm very pleased. How often do you get to cure a vampire?

[oshizu]

@MarianT

I can't tell you how excited I am to hear that you'll be adding Vampire Bloodline and Vampire Hunter Options to the Rival Dynasty Challenge!!! *jumps up and down wildly
Thank you so much!

[scoed]

This game pack is the best yet. I love occult life states and this one is very well thought out. I love sims 4 vamps. Best sims vamps yet. Strike that best sims life state yet. Not a fan of the Dampened Emotions power though as emotions is the coolest feature in sims 4. It actually seems more of a weakness then a power.

[Junan]

This game pack is the best yet. I love occult life states and this one is very well thought out. I love sims 4 vamps. Best sims vamps yet. Strike that best sims life state yet. Not a fan of the Dampened Emotions power though as emotions is the coolest feature in sims 4. It actually seems more of a weakness then a power.

That one is a matter of the player's perspective; on one hand, it prevents one of the most important features happening 75% of the time at max rank. On the other, it'll be very hard to kill your vampire with emotions such as anger, embarassment and playful.

[scoed]

This game pack is the best yet. I love occult life states and this one is very well thought out. I love sims 4 vamps. Best sims vamps yet. Strike that best sims life state yet. Not a fan of the Dampened Emotions power though as emotions is the coolest feature in sims 4. It actually seems more of a weakness then a power.

That one is a matter of the player's perspective; on one hand, it prevents one of the most important features happening 75% of the time at max rank. On the other, it'll be very hard to kill your vampire with emotions such as anger, embarrassment and playful.

Of course it is a matter of perspective but given my sims are generally in positive mood of an appropriate type it hampers development in a noted way. Also I never lost a sim to emotions without trying so I never worry about such deaths. Emotions are easy to regulate and offer bonuses that ease gameplay. From my perspective Dampened Emotions should be there with the weaknesses as all positive emotions and some negative emotions act like a buff for certain activities and they are easy to control. To me it is a huge debuff. Worse than any of the five weaknesses I chose.

[Hechicera]

@cyclonenic  you'll be pleased to know that the game code is such that the chances of this happening get reduced greatly after the first visit. I'd still put some garlic in everyone's inventory though, just to be sure, if you don't want them being drunk from. 

Not foolproof! One of them drank from a Sim in a test run and he had garlic in his inventory. I did not look at that vampire though to see if he had the trait that might make that possible. It was one of the three pre-gen ones.

Still so very rude!

[Junan]

@cyclonenic  you'll be pleased to know that the game code is such that the chances of this happening get reduced greatly after the first visit. I'd still put some garlic in everyone's inventory though, just to be sure, if you don't want them being drunk from. 

Not foolproof! One of them drank from a Sim in a test run and he had garlic in his inventory. I did not look at that vampire though to see if he had the trait that might make that possible. It was one of the three pre-gen ones.

Still so very rude!

Are these vampires in their Dark form prior to doing this? Carl has noted this may be what's causing it.

[Playalot]

The whole 'garlic in the inventory thing' is not foolproof for sure. Although a dev pretty much indicated that it was. Reason being that NPC vamps spawn in with randomized traits and powers/weaknesses.  I've been spectacularly unlucky in this in one of my saves as when I switch to the NPC to check them out many have the immune to garlic power. lol

[Hechicera]

Are these vampires in their Dark form prior to doing this? Carl has noted this may be what's causing it.

Good point. Since this was a Maxis made one, I checked, and ... I can't tell! He is the male of the couple, and both forms are the same.  I will have to pay more attention to this.

He does not have the garlic trait though, and ironically he wants to be a good vampire. Off to a poor start there buddy!

[Puppetmaster1]

I never really played any of the supernatural aspects of the Sims before, but am really liking this. They put a lot of thought into it, and I think gives a really good vampire experience.  The Bonuses and Weaknesses really let you play the type of vampire you want to.

Also, in terms of depth, this is the best pack so far in Sims4. I like this a lot more than Get Together or City Living.