Code, as well as pictures, came with the update. I have a link to the information, but I'm gonna make you read the forum to get the information. If I had to go out and find it, so do you.

BTW, with these threads, I make it my goal not to endorse speculation. The speculation I do is often very mild and directly related to the information I've seen. I don't want to pass out wrong information and if I am wrong, I fix it.

Methinks that Herbalism is a skill:

<E n="key">Genre_Book_Skill_Herbalism</E>

You're right. It wasn't my goal to be dismissive of overwhelmingly fair complaints. I'm sorry that I didn't find a better way to articulate that. I just saw quit a few comments implying herbalist was a career. I could see people beleiving that was the case, and being upset when it wasn't. I probably should have kept my mouth shut though, huh?

I wasn't really angry, just imagined the beginning of the first shrek :D... i don't think you should keep your mouth shut, you're right in saying we shouldn't get our hopes up before the official announcement... it was just a little too... cinematic, i guess?

The camping vacation was actually one of my favorites in TS1 and TS2. I'm hoping it isn't too watered down compared to the ones that came before it but then I remember that this isn't an expansion pack. It's reminding me of those store packs from TS3 (hopefully everything actually works) so it might be okay to not get my hopes up.

From the December 16th patch notes:

Sims now accrue PTO by going to work, and can use their PTO to take a paid day off without losing work performance
Sims also want to take time off, and may get tense if they don’t
Sims will start off with 3 days PTO already accrued, so they can start work and immediately take a long weekend to recover.

I have no idea about booking cottages etc.

I for one, am glad to see the Game Pack concept, especially if it will replace the store. For the price of a stuff pack we are getting some actual gameplay. While still overpriced (what DLC isn't) it's better than selling a handful of objects or one lot for 20 bucks. I definitely like the idea of these mini-packs so I can pick and choose what I want to bloat fill my game with.

Camping would not have been my first choice but I would imagine that this was in the works before the Base game even released.

I assumed that it would be similar to the alchemy skill and attached to some sort of object. There has to be something more to do with all those flowers and herbs than throwing the occasional leaf in a recipe.I think we will definitely see a salve for the poison ivy. Maybe we will be able to make calming teas to mellow out those tense Sims, or some perfume or anti-aging lotions etc. LOL...hope springs eternal.

World adventures
Go to Egypt and fight a mummy! Go to China and become a karate expert! Go to France and learn how to make some great wine! - And much, much more.

Granite Falls
Become a herbalist!

I wasn't a big fan of WA, at least not until Twallan's Traveler came along, but I certainly can't deny that they were trying to overwhelm us. Now it feels like they are trying to underwhelm us - "will you finally stop buying this kiddie stuff and set us free to make some real games?"

That would be an illogical comparison. World Adventures was an expansion pack and Outdoor Retreat (Granite Falls is the world) is a game pack. Additionally, I recall the lot of people here not being overwhelmed by the expansion itself, but overwhelmed by the fact that EA thought that World Adventures was what we wanted for a vacation EP, granted, the majority of complaints stemmed from it being quest based. And alas, the negative feedback on an incomplete vacation EP for Sims 3 stemmed Island Paradise which followed suit to what simmers had originally ordered (for the most part).

There will always be text in games, if you don't want any text go look at some ikea instructions, and I assume you're jumping to conclusions that there will be rabbit holes in the gp, where was that information released from?

Maybe that was my fear talking. Remember the rocket, and before that, the Vault of Antiquity. How will they represent hiking without terrain?

I remember people hated WA tbh. I enjoyed it, it was something new and not similar and I loved the nectar collecting/making. But yeah, this is a GP and is not even priced as a EP so we can't really compare it to a EP.

I hated the main attraction for WA but I liked what it gave us (martial arts, nectar making, collecting, photography). That was a bit of a trend in TS3 for me. The expansions came with cool extras but the main things tended to be very lackluster.

This is true. Additionally, about a year or so after WA I remember Gurus were not calling it a Vacation EP and refused to call it that because of the outlash lol. I personally never played WA, I only got it because Custom Worlds required it. I have attempted it before, and just the frustration after a lengthy loading screen bogged me down from continuing.

Looking back, I feel like WA lacked balance. It was obviously the vay-cay expansion (IP is a little half and half), but the overabundance of tombs probably set them back a bit. Considering how monotonous tombs ended up bring, they should have culled them back a a little and put attention elsewhere.

WA gave us open-ish shops. They could fleshed that out a little more as it had a direct impact of the game as a whole rather than samey tombs that can't be redone more than once. We were itching for open shops in the base game and that could have really been it, but it failed. Some registers didn't even work outside of the vacation world world, or combined two different things (food and grocery...).

It's clear that they tried, but it lack a Sims oriented focus.

Both are the first packs to come out/be announced after the base game was released; both include new world(s) and new activities. The essential difference is that TS3 was a big game, set in a big base world, so it could afford an expansion pack of the magnitude we were used to in earlier Sims games, while TS4 is set in a much smaller, downgraded environment so the pack had to be downgraded as well. Its official title does not mean much except that it clearly reflects its downgraded status - even EAxis people were aware that EP would sound rather overblown and that they had to invent something new.

I never really finished all quests/tombs. Once I got very close but then that damn bug made my sim disappear before arriving in Egypt. I don't see much replay value so I was too lazy to restart, thanks Twallan for whatever mod he did so I could set my sim visa all up to buy vacation houses. Plus, I loved that Traveler made seasons available in these WA worlds.

Btw, is photography making a comeback with this new dlc? Or are our sims supposed to go on vacation but not take pictures to show their jealous sim neighbors how great is the place they couldn't afford? I'm just joking, but right now we just have selfies, and it's just an interaction, no sim picture at all. I think once photography is back, we'll be able to paint still-life and portraits, memory scenes to paint later, etc (I used to turn the camera all around so my sims could paint self portraits on still-life mode, I miss this '-' )

Speaking again about worlds, I always thought that Monte Vista would work better as vacation(real vacation, not the tomb thing), even though some people thought it was almost the same as Champ les sims(I disagree). One of my favorites worlds, really beautiful but awful to live, everything distant, strange routes...it was the weirdest thing seeing athletes going to work(disappear) on Coliseum. (Now I'm wondering if it's possible to recreate those houses on TS4, I never deleted any of them, loved them all :lovestruc )

Hidden Springs can't hold a candle(imho) to Monte Vista, but it's obvious it was supposed to be a vacation world as well, but this was never properly implemented on TS3. It's impossible to live(play) there. Even its description matches a vacation world. Once again, thanks Twallan for Traveler.

Granite Falls and Hidden Springs...kinda the same concept?

I loved WA and still do. To date, I think it still has to be the biggest pack in terms of content. I never saw it as a vacation pack so the adventure gameplay never bothered me. That being said, my Sims had plenty of mellow trips that mostly consisted of fishing, drinking nectar with the locals and taking a bunch of pictures. Also, after being saddled with University as the first Sims 2 EP I think I would have been pleased with poop in a box, as long as it didn't have streakers, cheerleaders or mascots.

I think we will still get EPs for larger, cohesive concepts like pets and seasons but also have a regular schedule of stuff and game packs sold through origin.

New Trait listed:

<Parameter name="CAS_Traits" type="enum" labels="Ambitious,Genius,Perfectionist,Good,Outgoing,Bookworm,Creative,Romantic,Goofball, HatesChildren,HotHeaded,Mean,ArtLover,Snob,Active,FamilyOriented,MusicLover,Neat,SelfAssured, LovesOutdoors,Evil,Glutton,Foodie,Gloomy,Lazy,Bro,CommitmentIssues,Clumsy,Loner,Insane, Materialistic,Geek,Slob,Nevernude,Childish,Cheerful,Squeamish"

I don't mind the idea as long as it's executed better than that shambles of dlc they called "store content"

As long as it a) brings new, relevant content and b) doesn't extract content that should have been in an EP I'll be okay. (assuming that there will be EP's of course).

The price is also a concern, I can't justify spending the ridiculous amounts some people did on 3 for the content they received. If they bring the price down and up the content then I have no worries with spending my cash.

How often do you guys think they'll release these game packs? My guess would be that they do away with stuff packs and have maybe 2/3 of these in between every expansion? Though if there isn't going to be EP's I think it would be better to have something a wee bit more regular.

As far as a bit a speculation wouldn't it be nice if you could run a sort of B&B style thing? Turn your home into others people's.

Nevernude is also new?

It's not new in this file, it's from the Jazz file I use in my CaS mod. Nevernude has always been listed in here. I think they were planning on having the trait and dropped it from the game, unless it is actually in the game and has some different name, and also has some different function? lol.

Yeah, when WA first came out I wasn't really a big fan of it. I sent my sims to do the tombs and that was fun for a while...but then look at what it added. Photography, Martial Arts, Nectar...it was sneakily good IMO and a very underrated EP. Not as bad as showtime at least!

Also there is a voice actor that said they were doing voice work for a EP, so we may still be getting them. Could be though that the voice actor was doing voice for this Gamepack and just called it a EP though.



I bet if there aren't any EPs planned and all we get are these GPs then we'd be getting these nearly every month. This would actually make sense as to that whole subscription rumor too now that I think about it.

Yeah that's true, I guess when you're used to something you just expect it. Maybe a change is what they need. If the rumour is true though.

The only thing I ask is what happens to big things like a seasons? I can't see it being sold like that. Unless we have different sized ones which would vary the price.

You really think you're getting value out of that $20 game pack compared to what we get out of a $40 expansion pack?

I'd rather have one big, expensive pack than 4 small, cheap ones. The problem is and will always be that these packs are never made to work together perfectly - EP neighborhoods/worlds could be so much better if they had content from all EPs in. But that's obviously not feasible. Still, I would've liked a mega-world at the end of the TS2 and TS3 eras.