Autonomous Vampire Feeding being Changed and Reworked...or just the same idk

[Playalot]

From what I can gather from the posts that SimGuruNinja has made on the Official Forums a game play feature of the Vampires pack has been removed from the game. This feature is the autonomous feeding of NPC vampires from your sims.

The initial visit from Vlad has been changed to just a visit that will not result in Vlad feeding as well.

Now, according to SimGuruNinja, vampires will still visit your sims, but no longer feed.

Please read the thread for yourselves as I'm still rather confused about exactly what NPC autonomous vampire behavior has been left in the game pack - but I think it is just night visits.

I'm not happy as I am a big supernatural fan and although EA are completely within their legal rights to change any aspect of the game without notification, this has left a very sour taste in my mouth.


http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/936022/have-vampires-been-nerfed/p1


**EDITED: The most recent post form SimGuruNinja states that nerfing has not occurred and will not: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/936242/have-vampires-been-nerfed-recently-nope#latest Let us hope we have seen the last of silent ninja nerfing (No pun intended)

[oshizu]

Thanks for the link, @Playalot.
I read that one comment by SimGuruNinja:

It was nerfed. You'll still get vamp visitors, but the break-ins w/ a bite shouldn't occur. We had lots of feedback given to us on this specific event.

And once again, as in the case of alien abductions and male pregnancy, the nay-sayers ruin the game for the rest of us.
I thought this might happen, but had been hoping it would not. I guess it's true--the squeaky wheel does get the oil.
To be honest, if they were going to nerf that, I'd much rather they fixed the 9-hour break-ins at community lots. I wonder if that's been fixed yet.

Instead of listening only to a small vocal minority of complainers, I feel EA should have held a general poll to gain a better idea of the general consensus on vampires.
Bah!

[HelenP]

Just read the entire official thread, looks like they are trying to set vamp break-ins like the welcome wagon so will happen more often but be cancellable each time.

SimGuruNinja has done well in responding and taking on board the feedback.

[HelenP]

Quoting SimGuruNinja who just posted this on the official site.

The initial visit is the only thing we changed. We didn't touch the rest. And I'm looking into turning it back on with an option to quit.

As far as I can tell the 'initial visit' referenced is the one from Vlad when he can drink from your sim.

[FrancescaFiori]

I think this was poorly done, but I'm very encouraged by the thread and all of SimGuruNinja's follow-up comments. Hopefully they can work out a good compromise.

I can certainly understand why some players found the break-ins upsetting, but preventing them completely was so easy. All you had to do was hang up some garlic. The way they've nerfed it now there's no way for those of us who liked the feature to opt back in. It seems like there's a lot of ways they could have done this differently; lot traits, a gameplay setting, or even a free garlic wreath in a Sim's inventory as a housewarming present for those who don't want to take them time to learn to make them.

It also just seems shady that they made this change without even mentioning it in patch notes or anything. (Unless they did and I missed it?)

I'm glad EA listens to player feedback, and I hope they continue to do so, and I REALLY hope it results in some tuning to this particular issue that brings back the element of danger and unpredictability that made it so fun.

[Playalot]

Just to be clear, EA are well within their legal rights to change (remove or add or alter) any aspect of the game and they are under no legal requirement to have to inform anyone of any changes they make.

So looking to what has been said now it seem that they have gone back on their first post that all NPC vampires will not drink from sims but to just changing the initial visit from vlad. Again, don't take my word for it as tbh I still find it all rather confusing and quite a bit of conflicting information from SimGuruNinja.

I agree it is good that Dave Miotke (SimGuruNinja) is engaging with the community over this which is a marked change to how comments over the alien abduction nerfing went unacknowledged for years. However, even though under no legal requirement to inform of changes it certainly would have been a more pleasant way to discover the changes rather then trying to piece together information from posts on the OF's.

The reality is that often it is the objectors that get listen to as those of happy with certain features don't take to the OF's to post about it incessantly as we are just quietly playing the game. I do find it saddening that fans of Vampires and the game play we first had when the pack launched were not openly consulted rather than changes being based on people who did not like vampire game play and yet still bought the pack. 

[oshizu]

After having read through the entire thread now, I get the feeling that "all vampire break-ins" had been nerfed intially.
Then, thanks to vampire lovers' enthusiastic support for autonomous vampire break-ins on the thread Playalot linked for us, the nerfing is now described as applying "only to the initial visit."
Whatever actually happened in the background, I'm glad that autonomous break-ins won't stop.

Also, I'm really glad that the devs won't take the path of "only in Forgotten Hollow" which has only three vacant lots because isn't that where "our" vampires live due to the shorter daylight hours?
And I agree with @HelenP that SimGuruNinja has done a really great job of responding to the community.

Edited to add: In my excitement, I conflated "autonomous breaks-in" to include "autonomous feeding."
What would the point of the first without the other? A vampire breaks in then makes tea on the tea brewer or reads a steamy romance novel in the living room?
Sorry for my lack of clarity: I see both as part of a single event.

[Playalot]

Thanks for your thoughts and clarification @oshizu  the thread is a lot of conflicting posts. I hope that not only will autonomous break-ins remain but also autonomous feeding. Without that particular feature NPC vampires really are just decoration.

[scoed]

@Playalot I too,  hope that not only will autonomous break-ins remain but also autonomous feeding. Vampires aren't cool if the can't ever bite anyone. It was a feature the advertised and part of what attracted me to the pack. It honestly as it was this pack is the best part of the game. I hope they don't ruin it with stupid nerfs like this

Vampire pch is one of the few packs where they kept a lot if the quirkiness of the sims franchise. Each version of the game is getting less and less quirky. This nerf is removing the fun of this game especially if the vamps are now going to be toothless. If crap like this keeps happening and the fun is sterilized out of the game what is the point of it?

It become a collection of bugs and glitches minus as the only hope for humor and randomness. The play level is too easy to be even slightly difficult so they challenge isn't there. The only point of this game is it's quirkiness and the humor and they are reducing it. I am not happy. Instead of nerfing the fun out of the game they should fix some of the billion or so bugs in the game that reduce the fun for everyone. This sucks.

[scoed]

I just read the post and this still isn't good but at least they are listening and working on a compromise. Compromises are a good thing.

[Playalot]

I agree @scoed  it's very disappointing news. The only thing we can do is, I guess, post our concerns and wishes in the post on the OF's and hope that SimGuruNinja will indeed do his best to retune/replace the game play feature we all want as vampire/supernatural fans.

While there are a lot of benefits to the Live Service aspect of TS4 the changing of game play features to be well... watered down or removed, is a draw back if those particular features are liked. I have to admit to being a bit old school really and prefer when everything was on disc and never changed but I also like the new content that they do patch in and so on. What a conundrum.

It's very true that TS4 is a vastly different game to TS3 and TS2 and the level of quirky and unexpected and of difficulty and so on is just simply not the same. It's a point I personally struggle with often. It doesn't stop me liking portions of TS4 but it always has me yearning for more of what is 'missing'. Although, you could argue it is not missing as much as TS4 is a planned game designed to be a different gaming experience.

I'm trying to be fair and just but if I'm honest I am extremely disappointed with this turn of events and feel rather like the wind as been taken out of my sails yet again. For me, it becomes rather difficult to sustain a level of interest and enjoyment for a while after nerfing as taken place and it always seem to me that it is the features I like the most that are nerfed and, like you say, many of the bugs I loath remain.

[Playalot]

FYI, I changed the title of this thread to try and reflect more accurately what seems to be occurring currently. I am still unsure whether NPC vampires can feed autonomously or not. Hopefully as SimGuruNinja works through this we will get some clarification.

[Nindigo]

The comment in the official thread that 'not all us want to play with laundry and utopia worlds' put a smile on my face. Anyway, I removed my angry response. I got emotional; an absolute freak accident

However, I still agree with the majority of the supernatural fans. I vouch for a game with diversity, and I really hope people will make an effort to distinguish the game world from the real one. Vampires can't even kill a Sim whereas an extreme mood can. Think about it for a second. What is more scary now?

[Playalot]

@Nindigo   I understand completely where you are coming from.

[scoed]

The sims games I played before sims 4 (Medieval, 1, 2, and 3) where more fun to play. Sims 3 is a better game. Had my game not crashed to the point of requiring a reinstall and all the content from store too thus requiring a whole day do so. I still would be playing it and not sims 4. IF this trend continues I will not be buying sims 5. As it will likely be completely devoid of randomness and quirkiness.

I wonder how long before they nerf the random features in jungle adventures? Surely if a harmless fake bite upset people that much, a possibly lethal fake bite from a spider randomly happening in the jungle will upset people too. I guess laundry day is safe from nerfs as it has absolutely nothing fun or interesting in it.