Okay, this thread is for discussion of this news item

http://www.sims2community.com/2006/...seasons-part-1/

and here's part 2

http://www.sims2community.com/2006/...seasons-part-2/

I will try to answer questions, so feel free to ask!

aw, this sounds so exiting! Seems like a great EP.
I really like the idea with the sunburn and that the snow falls in layers. God, I am so excited right now! I want to play.
And I'm really happy about the new careers!!

this is going to be awsome!

i like the fishing and the sunburn and a home made garden, what the heck am i saying, i love it all! :D

Hey, the Sunburn does look cool! As does the rest of it...

This is all the stuff I wanted for the Sims 2! Thanks so much for the pictures, Babbelsim! This is so cool! I always have to wait for a big holiday to get expansion packs, but I might have to get this early. I love the new careers (in theory, that is), and weather being in layers (especially on CC) is amazing!

Um, what's with the green person? (See some of the lower pictures in the edenstyle site...)

Ahhhhhh!!! Soooo excited about this now! I hope they don't leave a huge gap between realeasing it in the US and England

I had no interest in this EP before but now it looks pretty darn interesting.

I want this so bad! It looks awesome.

Yay I am loving the snow, wow this looks better than I thought... I'm starting to get all excited.

Your welcome dear! :D
and about that green sim, there's a little video on the right on the edenstyle site, they call it the plant sim or someting.

Argh I thought I wouldn't even buy this EP but after seeing this I just NEED it I'm just very very wary of the fact that it's released so soon after Pets...and we all know how buggy that one was...bugs and loose ends is what I fear most.

BUMP Yes, I am allowed to bump

Part 2 is up, and more screenshots, so enjoy!

PS - I was dubious about how much 'fun' weather can be, but they added quite a bit more than that with outdoor activities, and it really rounds out the game for me, makes the home times a lot more fun.

Okay, I HAVE to have this EP... I thought it would be pretty and make for some nice pictures for my story right from the beginning, but now I -need- it!

It doesn't really come across as an 'all-new' EP, though, like they said they would do for the spring release. It has a lot of elements of Vacation and ... whichever one added gardening from Sims 1 (darn my memory... I got them all at once though).

Dang, if it were coming out one day earlier, it'd have come out on my birthday.

Thanks very much Tiggerypum for the detailed reports.

I am thinking its is a very good expansion to get, must think of way to get money to buy it. :D

question: does season also means depreciation/deteriotion of house paint and roof leeks and stuff like that?

Gardening came with Unleashed in Sims 1.... although plant people didn't, lol. Look, Pets came with a Sims 1 EP (unleashed) but that's not enough of a reason to say we don't want it in Sims 2 or it's an old idea or something. There's a lot to this ep, a lot of interactions, new objects, things we can do. I think it's worthy of being called an EP (say, vs. a 'stuff pack')

Nixie, I didn't notice or hear about any paint peeling, thank goodness.... and depending on where your camera is, you can have a visual that might look like the roof is leaking But no leaks either I think. Think mostly fun. I don't find repainting the house fun, do you

Oh wow! This looks like it's going to add HEAPS off stuff! ^_^ xD xD xD I'm excited about it now, I just hope that it isn't buggy >.<

Edit: I love the reflections in the swimming pool xD

So, did you ask how they fixed the rain coming in the roofs? :D

Any new build features?

I was rather disappointed to see in one screeny that the water in ponds still looks dead.

Having a look myself this looks more like a giant stuff pack. Its seems to focus on new objects, looking at it this way.

The thought of a new neighborhood is driving me crazy, surely you don't need a new neighborhood to house the new objects, I hope its not another neighborhood like Bluewater thats works exactly the same way as the main neighborhood from the Base game.

All some of those facts would probably drop out just like the promised Tattoo Parlor in OFB.

Wow! This ep looks great. When I first saw the advert in the back of Pets I was like, woaaaah, I want that, I want it even more now! Thanks for giving us all the info Tig, I bet you had fun!

Inge, if your camera is not inside the house, you might see some effects if it is raining or snowing, you just need to move in a bit. Snow does not accumulate inside the house, although at a bad camera angle you might just see some falling. And as you move a bit closer, the effect is gone. There's the greenhouse, which is a special sort of build item. New pool walls (rounded). No spiral staircase, if that was the question.

Conrad, I say it's an expansion. The ep brings a lot of new interactions to the Sims. I've played it. Stuff packs are primarily objects and do not usually add many new things for the Sims to do (for example, new clothing, new bedroom set, new stuff to hang on the wall, etc, is nothing _new_ for your Sims to do) Call it what you will, but I feel expansion is the right word - it significantly expands the sims universe/behaviors for me, making the game more complete.

And the new neighborhood is not necessary. Like every other expansion, you will get the features in ALL your neighborhoods and I already said in my article (which doesn't even mention a new neighborhood) is that the biggest thing is that your sims _don't_ have to go someplace else (like Uni, or Bluewater Village, or Downtown) for most of the features. We had a new neighborhood on the test version we saw, 2 months before release. I don't know if they will include a new neighborhood or just give us some of the lots to move into our games, if you want to experiment with having things set up for you. It's easy to delete neighborhoods, Maxis has a simple button or whatever for it.

What I reported, I playtested, so those items/behaviors are in the game right now. Seems unlikely they'll delete any of them.

I was just thinking of what the Maxoids said on chat when Sims2 was new out, they said they had to leave out weather because they hadn't worked out how to stop the rain coming through the roofs.

Though I think the real truth is they put most things into the game and then decide which will be for future EPs and take them out again. If one of those things accidentally made it into a preview screenshot, they have to think up some reason why it's not in the game. It sounds better to say there was a technical problem instead of "well we took it out to make you pay more for it later" :D

The build feature I think would be most useful is a set of wallpaperable stair landings at 4, 8 and 12 clicks high.

You can customize the hairstyle for each outfit?! And they're bringing back the gardens?! Sunburns?!

That's it. I'm sold.

I'm actually pretty excited about this latest expansion pack, but my only worry is with the rendering of seasons and weather ... how will our current systems handle the impact? There won't be any new neighborhoods, but the animations and things going on might cause some problems for some of us ... not to bring a damper on the excitment. I AM excited ... just ... cautiously excited.

see..now this EP is EXACTLY what i've been waiting for....and it'll be released at the perfect time for me..i just really..really hope maxis is getting it as perfect as possible so we can avoid the mass amounts of bugs that popped up with each new ep... ohh everyone was so gung-ho for pets but this ep is mine!...i can't wait!