I’ve Never Played ITF Before But I Probably Should HaveSo, uh, a disclaimer; this is literally my first time playing with ITF. I've never done Made The Most Of My Time before, and I was super nervous about it. I needed it to go quickly, though. Like. Very, very quickly.
We started by becoming Good Friends with Mr. Relevart. He told Sweetie that if she wanted to make the future Utopian, she would have to start by measuring the laugh patterns of sims.
She did a great job in her graduation gown and bunny make-up. I'd laugh, too.
After only gathering the laughter of three Sims, (Emit, her mother, and this graduation girl,) Emit told her to go throw dew at people.
Hey, Allie's supposed to be purple!
(Speaking of Allie; she spent her time enjoying her retirement and trying to get me the Fit as a Fiddle Badge. Thanks, Allie!)
Bittersweet quickly became Best Friends with Emit, then ran around throwing more dew. After hitting only SIX sims, she got a call that the
whole future had been changed.
”WHAT! It works THAT fast?! But I wanted to throw more dew!"
Thankfully for Bittersweet, the next task was the break into the military and spread dew all over Sunset Valley. (And wouldn't you give, like, a million dollars to see her break in? I bet she would hum her own theme song.)
Since I don't have any photos of that, I would like to take this moment to share my Sims Future Conspiracy Theory, so get your tinfoil hats ready:
I think that these things-Utopian prep vs Dystopian prep-should have the opposite result.
In order to get the (super creepy) Utopian future, you have to make people full super good and in the moment. If people are only focused on the present, and their own pleasure, why would they care about the future? Conversely, if you go around telling people the future will be terrible, won't they feel compelled to do something about it? If we suddenly have a bunch of meteors falling, with no reasonable explanation, wouldn't millions of dollars go to figuring out how to stop it?
(You can take off the foil now, that's my whole bit).
Anyway, this was my first time in the Utopian future.
......
Neat!
I stayed for about twenty-four hours. I had to talk myself out of trying to collect anything, (time for that in the next house,) but Sweetie and I did check out the winning lotto numbers. She rolled a wish to get a philanthropy legacy statue, for a whopping
thirty thousand LTH points. I allowed it on the off chance we won the lottery, but. We didn't
Emit told her that, to cause the Dystopian future, she should use a meteor magnet, and trash talk the environment. To me, er. Not delight, but pleasant surprise, I suppose, every time Sweetie trash-talked, literal trash showed up on the ground. I thought that was a nice detail.
"The meteors are coming! They're coming RIGHT THROUGH THE CEILING!"
Sweetie talked to six people. Four of them were random elders, one was Michael Bachelor, and one was Lisa Bunch. All of them were at the gym. This, again, was somehow enough to impact the
whole future. Maybe one of those elders was a politician or something.
The Dystopian time portal is a gross brown. I thought that was another nice little detail.
The Dystopian future is, uh. Dirty! It's dirty. And nothing else has really changed.
(Honestly, this is why I was initaly iffy about buying this pack. Neither of the "alternate" futures really appeals to me. One is Stepford Wives-y, and the other just needs to be hosed down. There's not really any cool gameplay options, besides two unique collectibles in each future).
I thought that Sweetie would accomplish her LTW the second she got home. She didn't. I checked online, fearful for another bug, but no; she had to reset the time continuum to the original future. Super conveniently, she could do that when she was at level ten of the Advanced Tech skill.
I'm sure you know what happened next.
Allie spent her time in the hot tub. She was about 93. I like to think she occasionally hollered encouragement.
After far, far too long, Allie finally maxed the skill and reset the time portal. I thought that this would be the moment her LTW triggered....
But no. Despite her Legacy statue, best friend, and timeline experience, nothing happened.
On a hunch, I sent her to the normal future. She achieved her LTW instantly, and I missed the screenshot. (I wonder if "experiencing the future" only counts when the LTW locks in place? After all she was literally born in the Normal future).
At any rate, she promptly purchased her LTRs, (Collection Helper and Hover Bed,) and went back home. I checked the see if Allie had enough points for one more Inheritance, and she was only 2k short. I decided the extra money would be worth it. We had sunk a lot into those synthsizers. Allie and her daughter spent their time working on Allie's Athletic skill.
Finally, finally,
finally, with Bittersweet at ten days to Adult, and Alabaster at 96, the two Paperclips hugged for the last time.
Allie moved to a small house near the Festival. She left with a satisfied look on her face. She knows she's done well in establishing the Project.
We'll miss you.
Sweetie bought Everfresh Supermarket, bought a plane ticket, and the Paperclips said goodbye to Sunset Valley.
Household Skills: Advanced TechI have really, really mixed feelings about this skill. Overall, I enjoyed it. It makes sense for some people to be better with technology than others, and I really enjoyed the detail where the skill grew a little every time a Sim used a future tech object. It reminded me a lot of real life. For example, I'm much better with computer and technology than one set of grandparetns, and the only reason is that I grw up using a lot of tech, and they didn't. The other set of grandparents, however! Engineering degrees, both of them. My grandma can virtually run circles around me, because she's dedicated time and energy to understanding tech.
On the other hand, trying to raise the skill quickly, or even trying to supermax it, is exhausting. It's exhausting, and it isn't fun. I genuinely had more fun with Athletics, and the only way to raise that skill is to do the same work-out animation over and over again. Maybe it's because the only effective way to skill-gain at later levels (that I found) is the Synthesizer. It quickly became boring and repetitive. I was bored playing a game, and that's not something I want.
As a skill, 7/10. As a supermax, 2/10. In my opinion, this might have worked much better as a hidden skill.
Career will wait till the next house.
Lifetime Wishes:Hi-Tech Collector was Nate's wish, and
Made the Most of My Timewas Bittersweet's. They're both, in my opinion, very quick, easy LTWs to accomplish. I know, I know. I just said that Advanced Technology is a frustrating skill, and these both require it.
And yet, I still managed to get a man to supermax the skill in about, what, eighteen days? That's not even the full Young Adult lifespan. Again, I'm being very, very particular here. It is my opinion (and only opinion, you're more than welcome to disagree,) that a Lifetime Wish should maybe take a Lifetime to accomplish. These wishes both seem like they're there to encourage played to take advantage of the Advanced Technology skill, (which I really do think would be better as a hidden skill), and the "change the future" ability, which I've already stated I'm not a fan of. If you need quick LTHP, they're awesome, 10/10. If you want to have your Sims really work toward their goal, 3/10.
All of this being said, I had a blast playing this family. To me, Alabaster and Nate felt like the quiet, lovingly exasperated parents of a rumbustious young woman. While I didn't much care for the skill, the fact that I got done with it so quickly for Nate and Allie allowed them to spend more time with their daughter and with each-other. This was also my first time playing with ITF. I like the clothes, I like the hair, and the Normal future has grown on me. It's a really unique, out-there concept; I look forward to see what else EA has done with it.
See you guys next time! The next house is going to be a
little unconventional. I hope you'll enjoy!
