Not once in the 4 years this game has been out have I ever used any of them. Especially not that creepy ass bear.

I never use them. The only times I have used costumes in Sims is for the Halloween parties in 3 and 4. And never on pets.

Restaurants in 3 are not that bad if you have some store content and/or mods. In fact, it gives more variety than TS2/TS4 restaurants:
- World Adventures, the very first EP added a functional register to buy food and eat it. You only need the register and nothing else (well, other than tables and chairs). This is the easiest way to set up a restaurant in TS3.
- In TS3's Late Night bars you can orders single servings and group meals like pizza.
- There's also the Seasons Food stands, which sell all kinds of seasonal food and drinks.
- TS3 University Life adds a barista bar with all kinds of drinks and some food to buy. This is very easy to set up, just place this object and that's it.
- You can use resort buffet tables to make buffet restaurants and select the foods you want to serve with this mod.
- If you have Into the Future, you can place the food/drink synthesizer and it'll spawn waiters and add the "Order" interaction to all tables in the lot.
- You can use this mod to spawn this functionality and add new functionality to all bistros and diners so they'll spawn waiters to serve your Sims.
- The Indulgent Bakery Store Set (Plus NRaas Cupcake) allows Sims to buy all kind of baked goods and well, any food, and eat it on the spot. So it's similar to the WA Register with the added benefit that you can cook the food with a different household and then sell it for the whole world, so it's more realistic than food appearing from nowhere.
- The most complete restaurant (which closely resembles TS2/4 restaurants) comes from the combination of TS3 Store Business As Usual Bistro Set + Ani's Business As Unusual Mod (HERE). With these two in tandem, you can assign a chef and as many waiters as you want to a special stove, select hours, adjust wages, choose menu, change the uniform of the staff and more. It requires a little bit to set up because the interface is not very optimized, but it works perfectly. The only thing you can't do is order a drink and a meal at the same time (TS4) or leave without paying (TS2). Both TS3 and TS4 lack all the special table interactions TS2 has though, like propose or toast.



The same with business. With a combination of mods and store content you can have all kinds of business (check Ani's mod at Nraas). Even without store content, you can have venues that charge for the hour just like in TS2 using this mod, which TS4 lacks. In TS4 you can't have home business but in TS3 with any of the aforementioned mods/store content, you can.

It really doesn’tcount if you need mods to make it any good. It’s still a fail on EA’s behalf. And the majority of these aren’t restaurants. Like, the food register - that’s intended for grocery shopping and it happens to sell dishes.

That’s a major problem with our community - we’re complacent with doing work the developers do not. A mod shouldn’t be used to make a game or feature enjoyable. It should enhance something that was already fun to begin with.

This is why EA push and push with how far they can go. If they make something that sucks and players fix it to have fun, you’re not paying for fun, you're paying for a company to produce broken content, among other things.

I do hope they look at the bottom line as well, not just comments :lovestruc

Animations for dogs then, since the cats has mice. Nothing for the sims, because this is only for cats and dogs.

Mad house on the official forums. For some reason people are assuming this is a free game update even though the disclaimer in the video says it’s a stuff pack. Even after being presented with that there’s some that still want to cling onto the patch idea.

I personally have no interest in this. Pets used to be a one and done thing, and it worked. Now they have Cats and Dogs that isn’t even fucking finished, and a separate pack for hamsters (presumably). I got C&D for 50% off, I’m not buying a stuff pack that’s main feature is a side feature previously from the Pets expansions. Yawn.

I think people are hoping it's a free stuff pack like the holiday one. Personally, if they do charge for it then it's a huge ripoff and I bet EA will lose money because of it. Either way, we won't know until tomorrow. So let's just hope it's good news and actual information about the pack.

"A stuff pack that has a mouse or hamster included? Fantastic! I'm going to buy it.”

Said no one with functional brains ever.

I agree.

But sadly many will lap this up. Wait till the game changers get hold of it and present it as the best hamster ever.

I despair at the community at times I really do.

We need a stuff pack with 40 chairs for Clint! LOL

I hate to think how they might sell the TS5 Merchandise, half of this here, half of that here, 1 pack per season, than 4 in 1 pack.

(only reason it's turning more and more people to software piracy)

god, i almost don't even want TS5 to happen. it's too depressing.

LOL @ everyone complaining about the new stuff pack. Y'all said exactly the same thing about the pets EP but it wasn't even out for a day before everyone bashing it bought it anyway. I'm not holding out much hope that anyone here is going to stick to their "I'm not buying it" morals any more now than they did last time :\

Meanwhile I'll just sit back and continue to watch this train wreck with some popcorn and a full wallet...

A paper thin base game at a slightly reduced cost ($30) sold to us as a service that allows players to “tailor their own Simminh experience”with dozens of low cost add-ons.

No more expansion packs. Those are outdated. We get game packs, feature packs, and stuff packs.

Game packs are lots, locations, etc..
Feature packs focus on major gameplay additions (different pets, different kinds of weather), and stuff packs are focused around a game objects.

SimGuruWhomever: “We wanted to give players the ability to CUSTOMIZE their play EXPERIENCE from the ground up! Some players like the rain but hate the snow! Some player like cats but don’t like dogs - I can't see how, they so cute, but we’re here for them and we’re listening! The Sims is all about CUSTOMIZATION and we’re taking CUSTOMIZATION to the next level! If you don’t want a certain experience, you’re not obligated to have any content you don’t want. I know some players in the past would say ‘Gee, I really liked the furniture in this pack, but I don’t want to gameplay items I won’t use!’ We’re LISTENING to you guys! It’s all about CUSTOMIZING their own EXPERIENCE!”

Launch Day Expansion Packs:
Base Game - The Same Sims Experiemce You Know And Love!

Lights Out Game Pack - Adds night time activities to the base games, with a new downtown neighborhood with 3 new lots! Adds the new bar objects, bar stools, a hot tub, darts, and pool table! - $19.99

Family Life Feature Pack - Many new interactions to enhance family play making the base game feel like home again! New games for the family to play like hide and go seek and tag, new projects for Sims to bring home, and play date events for Sims to host! Being grounded has never been more fun! - $14.99

Great Gardens Stuff Pack - A fan favorite gets it own stuff pack! Gardening has never been more fun! With new harvestable, a greenhouse object, and sprinklers. Save time in style with new wrought iron outdoor decor and furnishings! - $9.99

Just wondering am I the only one who are seeing these weird symbols?

how's the air up there?

You are not.

When doing posts from a phone, for some reason, it adds those weird symbols, and I cannot fix them until I edit the post (which I did). However, there are some days where I simply cannot be bothered lol

Ah gotcha. Just saying since that paragraph has a lot of words and for a non-native English speaker like me, it messes up the whole reading in a glance thingy.

Ah that's the reason, I thought it was the ' in some words, but it doesn't always work that way.

Pretty damn crisp tbh.

From what I can tell, the hamster will be available to people without C&D, it's just some cat & dog stuff that (obviously) will require actual cats and dogs in the game. (In other words, the pet costumes won't be available if you don't have pets.) And yes, I'd pay $10 for a hamster - it sounds like a fun addition to my game. (I've missed having to feed the fish and clean their tank - fish just aren't interesting in Sims 4; there's nothing to do with them, other than fertilise your plants.)

I totally agree. I can see all the stuff packs I'm missing out on, and I'm just as surpriced everytime. I have very few. Game packs and exp on the other hand ... Stuff packs are easy to miss though, they don't usually add gameplay.

*insert every quote you complained about C&D* *also insert when you said you will still purchase despite your complaints*

So, full price for a pets expansion pack that was lacking in content, and they’re upselling you a single pet and some BS furniture and clothing to pad out the pack for a quarter the price of the expansion less than 6 months after the released of the pets expansion pack, with little to no fanfare or advertising with the exception of a trailer out of the blue a week before launch because showing this trailer when the actual quarter teaser dropped would have turned so many heads because pets JUST released.

Just making sure we’re on the same page that you’re being ripped off.

Maxis at least had the decency to put a series of unfinished concepts and assets into a big expansion pack at the end of the cycle for the sequel in TS2. Now, they just call it a stuff pack.