Its a Trap! [Rant]
Posted: 21 Mar 2019, 06:33
Greetings all, I am on my second town (decided to reset the first one) and on the verge of calling it with this game, especially with the bug that made working at the police station a nuisance. Once all my sims die off and go to the aether, i'll let the game stew for a bit and see if any new updates make the game worth playing... seriously though, this game's been active for 5 years and they just released a garage update?! Anywho... I'm just here to vent a little bit, and list off my biggest grievances with this game; and hopes for improving the game. I know this is a free to play game, and it's a time sink because of the nature of F2P game mindset. My town is at lvl 47, with 28 Sims- and two on the way, and this game has gotten to the point of Work-Farm-Dream-Work cycle, especially when it's costing me 900,000 Sims to build anything in the main town, and 1mil to build the hospital, and Dream Orbs to build anything on the Island... It's going to take me a long darn time to build the anything.
To the Topic: Trap, i'm defining as quest or game objective that results in a net loss of resources and time. There is no real order to this list, add to it or comment, up to you.
1> Marriage. Aside from the first free one, i've never had a sim get married for anything less than 6LP Ring. I'll be damned if i'll spend any more than 6 LP to get my Sims to say "I Do." I've lost LP trying to get Sims married with the 3LP Ring, and almost wanted to sabotage that relationship because of it. The Game Devs should just put a flat "Get Married (4LP)" option, rather than allow people to waste their luck trying to get married with anything less than 6LP ring...
2> Pregnancy. I liked the prospect of pregnancy in the game, and it's one of the reasons why i quit SimsMobile [woohoo with random joe, and half-an-hour later: baby! :/]. But the pregnancy event... Oy. Done early enough in the game, it's a great XP farm, though you're spending a lot of money and other sims times trying to reach the objective of a "super baby." In the late game, the doctor and yoga visits become stupidly expensive- but atleast you'll have enough sims to do the bonus tasks. Stupidly expensive objectives, and town-wide time sink... And you have to complete the Quest to unlock general pregnancies... Speaking of which, why are pregnancies a trap? The pregnant sim can't do anything related to hobbies. So, all they're doing is gardening until she pops. Oh, and each new baby costs 5LP. So, is the 2LP + Appointment Costs + wasting everyone's time equivalent to 5LP and a useless Sim for a week? Debatable.
In my current game, i got some LP from the Devs when i reported the Police Station bug, and i decided it was time to repopulate the town with Elder popping up. I regretfully got four sims pregnant with one doing the Event. The Doctor and Yoga appointments cost 150,000+ each... I went through my inventory, sold a lot of "Free!" stuff and even demolished the pool of the Haunted House [and the Nosferatu's Basement I added] and the Beach House back bungaloo to pay for the last visit. My town isn't bothering to do the latest Bonus event [which is a 15 hr event ], just focused on gardening and going to work.
Morale: Do the Pregnancy event late game, with town of ~20 and a LOT of money in the bank. Then never again... Don't even do the normal pregnancy. Just spend the cash to adopt, save the LP to bake Birthday cakes until the automatic aging quest is compete.
3> Stables. This is an unavoidable trap. The Island is a nice location with some good stuff, but the you have to start the Stables questline to unlock the island. What makes this trap worse, is the fact the game forces you buy a horse, then fix up a hobby objective that the horse can't even compete in! You've got to buy better horses to compete in the different tiers of the Horse Riding hobby.
If the quest had to clean up the Simple Tricks pen, rather than the Jumping pen, this trap wouldn't be as bad...
4> PETS. I did the quest, and got a kitten. I immediately regretted starting the quest when i found out it takes 15 LP and a day to bake the damned fuzzball a cake to age up. A sim got a Lifetime Dream to play catch with a dog. Doesn't sound too bad... Wrong- Dog? LP. Frisbee? LP. Food bowl, water dish, and dog house? 20,000$. A different sim wanted to play with a cat all day- same deal. Pets are a waste, and aren't worth the chump change they occasionally cough up.
5> Restaurant & Night Club- Do you want to waste a sim's time for absolutely no gain? send them to tend the bar at the Restaurant or Night Club; or have them tend the kitchen and wait tables in the restaurant or the Burger stand in the mall... 10 hrs of NOTHING. Restaurant is worse, as you have to spend time and money to fix it up; and you can't even have two sims cooking at the same time. But hey, atleast you can have some sims flirt at the bar, or dance on the dance floor.
6> Second Stories & Patios. Second stories are a nice way to expand your house, especially if you're on a small lot. Not for the cost of 300,000$, basements are cheaper. Patios are just an obnoxious waste of cash... you want to spend hundreds of dollars to put a mosiac masonry in a 3x6 part of your backyard... Ya, no.
7> Castle. I originally though this would be a cool house for a sim family to live in. What i got were two hobbies, some nice costumes, and a 4-hr stint to generate a nominal bonus for a day. So much for living in a castle...
8> Interactive Careers. The Law Enforcement career is somewhat exempt from this list- as it is part of a Quest, but investing time and money into the Movie Set or Hospital careers are the real traps. My biggest gripes with these careers, that makes them traps, are the ludicrous amount of resources needed to expand the career- in both the supplies needed AND the coins needed to expand the proportionally small storage for said supplies. You need 600 X, 1200 Y and 250 Z to build Annex 4? First to need to spend time collecting the 10,000+ coins needed to for the 100 Storage increase, and you need to store what you need to build Annex 4.
I haven't built the Wizard tower or Wilderness Adventure locations, and doubt i will- so they are getting a pass, but in my last game- they were definitely traps. The Wilderness Adventure had too many "hobby quests" to get effectively "part 2" of this hobby chain is just ludicrous. I will work towards this Wilderness Adventure quest, because i'll be damned if i spend more time grinding for pittance with the Medical career.
Now, to lighten things up... Hopes and QoL Changes.
1> Household names. One thing that irks me, is that if you move someone into another household, they gain their surname- and keep it if they move out. I wish there was a way to keep a sim's name, or a way to change it.
2> Genealogy. I kind of wish there was a way to track a sim's lineage. in my current game, i had two female sims get married and they got pregnant at the same time [they live in the Haunted House. ;] and the kids are listed as Brother/Sister rather than Step-Brother/Step-Sister. If i could have a Brady Bunch family, I would- but no. I wish there'd be something in the game that registers a baby's father is, to the last one the woman woohoo'd with.
I would like to see something like the PC games- a Risky Woohoo could result in a surprise pregnancy with an unpartnered sim; Starting a Family with a partnered sim starts a pregnancy event. More interactive than "click on a crib".
3> Multiple Births. I'm never going to complete the "perfect baby" quest, especially when the bonus events take over half the day. So, why not an option when the doctor is visiting, "Extended Exam" then when she returns with "Unexpected Surprise" option locks in Twins, and depending on how well you've completed the Bonus quests would get a "More Unexpected New!" option for triplets in the last visit. Yes, it would break the household limit- but still, having a doctor say "you're gonna need more cribs" would be fun.
So, yea... sorry about that. Im going to go back and slowly watch my SimVille population drop...
To the Topic: Trap, i'm defining as quest or game objective that results in a net loss of resources and time. There is no real order to this list, add to it or comment, up to you.
1> Marriage. Aside from the first free one, i've never had a sim get married for anything less than 6LP Ring. I'll be damned if i'll spend any more than 6 LP to get my Sims to say "I Do." I've lost LP trying to get Sims married with the 3LP Ring, and almost wanted to sabotage that relationship because of it. The Game Devs should just put a flat "Get Married (4LP)" option, rather than allow people to waste their luck trying to get married with anything less than 6LP ring...
2> Pregnancy. I liked the prospect of pregnancy in the game, and it's one of the reasons why i quit SimsMobile [woohoo with random joe, and half-an-hour later: baby! :/]. But the pregnancy event... Oy. Done early enough in the game, it's a great XP farm, though you're spending a lot of money and other sims times trying to reach the objective of a "super baby." In the late game, the doctor and yoga visits become stupidly expensive- but atleast you'll have enough sims to do the bonus tasks. Stupidly expensive objectives, and town-wide time sink... And you have to complete the Quest to unlock general pregnancies... Speaking of which, why are pregnancies a trap? The pregnant sim can't do anything related to hobbies. So, all they're doing is gardening until she pops. Oh, and each new baby costs 5LP. So, is the 2LP + Appointment Costs + wasting everyone's time equivalent to 5LP and a useless Sim for a week? Debatable.
In my current game, i got some LP from the Devs when i reported the Police Station bug, and i decided it was time to repopulate the town with Elder popping up. I regretfully got four sims pregnant with one doing the Event. The Doctor and Yoga appointments cost 150,000+ each... I went through my inventory, sold a lot of "Free!" stuff and even demolished the pool of the Haunted House [and the Nosferatu's Basement I added] and the Beach House back bungaloo to pay for the last visit. My town isn't bothering to do the latest Bonus event [which is a 15 hr event ], just focused on gardening and going to work.
Morale: Do the Pregnancy event late game, with town of ~20 and a LOT of money in the bank. Then never again... Don't even do the normal pregnancy. Just spend the cash to adopt, save the LP to bake Birthday cakes until the automatic aging quest is compete.
3> Stables. This is an unavoidable trap. The Island is a nice location with some good stuff, but the you have to start the Stables questline to unlock the island. What makes this trap worse, is the fact the game forces you buy a horse, then fix up a hobby objective that the horse can't even compete in! You've got to buy better horses to compete in the different tiers of the Horse Riding hobby.
If the quest had to clean up the Simple Tricks pen, rather than the Jumping pen, this trap wouldn't be as bad...
4> PETS. I did the quest, and got a kitten. I immediately regretted starting the quest when i found out it takes 15 LP and a day to bake the damned fuzzball a cake to age up. A sim got a Lifetime Dream to play catch with a dog. Doesn't sound too bad... Wrong- Dog? LP. Frisbee? LP. Food bowl, water dish, and dog house? 20,000$. A different sim wanted to play with a cat all day- same deal. Pets are a waste, and aren't worth the chump change they occasionally cough up.
5> Restaurant & Night Club- Do you want to waste a sim's time for absolutely no gain? send them to tend the bar at the Restaurant or Night Club; or have them tend the kitchen and wait tables in the restaurant or the Burger stand in the mall... 10 hrs of NOTHING. Restaurant is worse, as you have to spend time and money to fix it up; and you can't even have two sims cooking at the same time. But hey, atleast you can have some sims flirt at the bar, or dance on the dance floor.
6> Second Stories & Patios. Second stories are a nice way to expand your house, especially if you're on a small lot. Not for the cost of 300,000$, basements are cheaper. Patios are just an obnoxious waste of cash... you want to spend hundreds of dollars to put a mosiac masonry in a 3x6 part of your backyard... Ya, no.
7> Castle. I originally though this would be a cool house for a sim family to live in. What i got were two hobbies, some nice costumes, and a 4-hr stint to generate a nominal bonus for a day. So much for living in a castle...
8> Interactive Careers. The Law Enforcement career is somewhat exempt from this list- as it is part of a Quest, but investing time and money into the Movie Set or Hospital careers are the real traps. My biggest gripes with these careers, that makes them traps, are the ludicrous amount of resources needed to expand the career- in both the supplies needed AND the coins needed to expand the proportionally small storage for said supplies. You need 600 X, 1200 Y and 250 Z to build Annex 4? First to need to spend time collecting the 10,000+ coins needed to for the 100 Storage increase, and you need to store what you need to build Annex 4.
I haven't built the Wizard tower or Wilderness Adventure locations, and doubt i will- so they are getting a pass, but in my last game- they were definitely traps. The Wilderness Adventure had too many "hobby quests" to get effectively "part 2" of this hobby chain is just ludicrous. I will work towards this Wilderness Adventure quest, because i'll be damned if i spend more time grinding for pittance with the Medical career.
Now, to lighten things up... Hopes and QoL Changes.
1> Household names. One thing that irks me, is that if you move someone into another household, they gain their surname- and keep it if they move out. I wish there was a way to keep a sim's name, or a way to change it.
2> Genealogy. I kind of wish there was a way to track a sim's lineage. in my current game, i had two female sims get married and they got pregnant at the same time [they live in the Haunted House. ;] and the kids are listed as Brother/Sister rather than Step-Brother/Step-Sister. If i could have a Brady Bunch family, I would- but no. I wish there'd be something in the game that registers a baby's father is, to the last one the woman woohoo'd with.
I would like to see something like the PC games- a Risky Woohoo could result in a surprise pregnancy with an unpartnered sim; Starting a Family with a partnered sim starts a pregnancy event. More interactive than "click on a crib".
3> Multiple Births. I'm never going to complete the "perfect baby" quest, especially when the bonus events take over half the day. So, why not an option when the doctor is visiting, "Extended Exam" then when she returns with "Unexpected Surprise" option locks in Twins, and depending on how well you've completed the Bonus quests would get a "More Unexpected New!" option for triplets in the last visit. Yes, it would break the household limit- but still, having a doctor say "you're gonna need more cribs" would be fun.
So, yea... sorry about that. Im going to go back and slowly watch my SimVille population drop...