(I thought I had left a comment here??)

Better than not getting a larger budget, otherwise we be having another Love Struck situation.

I feel like maybe its a new concept and didn’t want it to look like a flop, while Lovestruck was done countless of times in the sims series.

Lovestruck is barren and devoid of any real content. What is there could have been significantly improved with the simple inclusion of having things to do. Literally just that. It didn’t seem like there was a solid theme or consistency outside of “love” - dating isn’t an experience, just an activity.

Despite using the existing 3 (technically 4) main social lots in the base game, the pack doesn’t enhance them. Just one tandem date activity in each would have been 10x better, but I like inclusion of the board game. I would have having a world just to have more dating activities.

1. The woo-hoo blanket was perfect for park settings, but a picnic basket to pair with it would be better than magically spawning food. A larger group picnic blanket would also be great.

2. Any bar game would be great for bars. Poker, Shuffleboard, Billiards, Arcade cabinets, Bingo… anything.

3. Couple specific styles of dance would be a great addition to nightclubs as well as the ability to do certain dancing based on the music playing. There’s not really much else they can add to nightclubs that doesn’t already exist, outside of dancing on bars/tables.

4. Music instruments to learn or for NPCs to play would be a great addition to lounges, which you could also use to woo a love interest. If it must be in Mexico, a mariachi band NPC group would be great with maracas, or someone playing violin to couples on dates at dinner.

5. Obviously, dumbbell racks, but having a bench press machine to spot someone would have been perfect, or helping a partner do sit ups. A spray tanning booth at a gym would be great for woo-hoo.

Or that canoe from TS3 store.

These personality changes from Grow Together is driving me nuts. Oh a romantic interaction failed? I guess I'm Unromatic now! Oh it's storming outside? I guess I'm Paranoid now! One tiny thing shouldn't make a Sim throw a part of their personality out the window. I also hate the Fear emotion. It throws all my control out the window. Not only that, they run outside and into another building... you were already under a roof!

Ever since TS3, they were very unsubtle about gameplay additions. In TS3, they eventually tuned many of them, but 4 does not get this treatment. Everything is in your face at all times, all at once.

But TS4 sims are so much smarter... according to Rachel Franklin.

The Sims 4: E3 2014 Gameplay Presentation

https://youtu.be/kAh9NXJg5ZU?feature=shared&t=243

Maxis is going to up their game with their sales pitches if they want any kind of success with Project Nay-Nay....

Gameplay trailer dropped. 100% better than whatever Lovestruck was.

Is that darker/foggier area (like at 3:08 in the gameplay trailer) a part of the world or is it a separate underworld? I assume the former, but I would love for it to be the latter. Having an underworld would be really cool.

Edit: So it does seem to be a part of the world. But it's so deceptive because a lot of the world they have shown is show green in comparison. Honestly, I think it would have been better to give us an Underworld subworld (or whatever) rather than a regular new world. But what do I know?

Thumbing through the catalog, this will be the first time we get a matching swing and monkey bar set.
Wow... how do we not have any new playground equipment?

Also, as a builder, I hate the fridge so much. I hate when they add unnecessary details or motifs to otherwise things. Like, why is there a freezer bunny skeleton in my fridge? It turns a great item that would be tucked neatly into a cabinet (which Simmers love) into something I'm inclined to use less frequently.

But does it give any difference when theres no open world? Or we can suspect we can just pan the camera over there?

As always, I'll be waiting to hear actual impressions when the pack is released...

But so far it does look to be the most inspired pack they've done for a long time.


It looks like the Grim Reaper lot is in its own underworld area. It doesn't look very big though.

I decided to audit the trailers for gameplay items. Far more than we’ve gotten in a while - even repurposed items.

*stares at Lovestruck*

It would be nice if we could pick a reaping outfit and sythes but life will go on. Having the crow not be one of a few reskinned birds or not having more than one stand is such a missed opportunity, so hopefully the bird cage is functional. Like, imagine the bird variety would could have but don’t.

Everyday Items:
Tarot Cards Activity
Crow Stand
Bucket List Journal
Casket [Covered, Uncovered]
Deceased Sim Photo + Decorative Memorial Tables
Grave [Stone, Wood & Dirt]
Mausoleum
Will
Music Box
Funereal Incense Burner
Well Of Longing And Regret

Returning & Updated Items:
Coffin [Stone, Wood]
Podium
Rocking Chair
Funereal Canon
Fire Pit
Swing Set [Wood, Iron]

Career Items:
Reaping Fountain
Reaping Portal
Reaping Dummy

Potential Gameplay Objects:
Tarot Reading Booth (Shown, but never used)
Bird Cage (Shown, but never with a bird)
No Ghosts Sign (Uncertain if this is functional)

From the coding they released for modders to have an early look at, it seems there will be a lot of old occult cheats now made into game features in Cas. Whenever a new occult has hit the game, players could use cheats to add an occult life state to normal sims, or remove it. Also MC has long made use of those cheats in its cheat features.

Now it looks like players will be able to add and remove occult status in Cas as a feature. So not a new feature at all, if its the stuff Gurus have been hyping on these last few weeks. Just converted from a cheat to a feature.

Also the colour of ghosts can be altered, similar to the way lights can be altered. With ghosts, their colour is representative of the manner in which the sim died. So changing the colour would then, I'm guessing, change the way in which the sim died? Rewriting - by recolouring - their history? Again that was always easy to do by adding the ghost trait of another manner of death and removing the original ghost trait. Now that's just another occult feature, too.

Seems like they're making a few occult cheats of MC redundant. Was that what their big mod-breaking warning was all about? The cheats will still be needed more so in the long run, as they are just far more quicker to do than drag a family into Cas. Especially if there are more than eight sims in the household. So I hope Maxis don't make a terrible judgement call and remove those old occult cheats from the game!



It reminds me of the Sims 3 Sims Store "Ghastly Manor" lot. - https://store.thesims3.com/productD...=OFB-SIM3:70060

@coolspear1 I thought the color of a ghost in TS4 depended on their emotion, no?

Yeah, could be. Point being. either way the colour is representational of something specific. So changing it on the fly like house lighting is doing something against the grain. Though come the winter holidays, having a rainbow assortment of ghosts on the dance floor will at least match the lights on the Christmas tree., and players be damned if they can no longer make any sense of which ghost's sim died in which way and what each their current emotions are. It's a party, they should all be frikken happy! Just keep the ghosts away from the bar, though. Not unless you got a mod to prevent them making all those drinks puddles.