Showtime is a complete waste of money?

The original catch all. General game help, banter, things you should probably put in the correct forum, This is the place.
User avatar
igazor
Organizer
Reactions:
Posts: 17102
Joined: April 8th, 2013, 6:00 pm
Answers: 203
Location: Everyone should strive to find their inner platypus.

Showtime is a complete waste of money?

Post by igazor » August 22nd, 2019, 8:49 am

On genies -- I don't mess around with the freeing them from the bottle thing. I did go through that once and the scenario left me feeling flat because there was just no way to make it seem more realistic. But like many of the other occults, the resident genies in my game who have their own families, pass their genetics down, and are sometimes hybrids with at least one of the other occult states I treat more like misunderstood minorities. One of my favorite sims whom I had no hand in creating myself but was born into my game is a triple genie-vampire-fairy hybrid, all passed down from parents and grandparents; and is the partner of a younger sibling of the one who will inherit my long-running household's legacy (so this will be one of many sibling-in-law households when they grow up to be YAs). The genie hybrid will not be bored, I'm planning to send him to Uni with his partner and others when the time comes and have him major in fine arts, culinary to prove that genies can produce perfectly edible meals without the hand clapping nonsense if they want to. And because of his genetics he doesn't look anything like the stereotypical blue-skinned djinns that we often see.

I mean, this was a stock plot storyline for I Dream of Jeannie. The in-laws and/or boss or client are coming over for dinner and Jeannie (or Samantha, if you prefer Bewitched) had to do everything the mortal way to get through the evening. Okay so still not realistic but I can't help being a child of the decade that produced these things. :)

Dominoes -- builds its own skill and logic, much like chess except without the formal opponent ranking opportunities. The real reason I find it important is not that the actual mechanics of the game are so fascinating, but it's the only table board game a group of up to 4 can play together and it features prominently on family game nights and at my less than rowdy parties and get-togethers. Sims cannot play Scrabble, Monopoly, Risk, card games, etc., but I see this game as representative of that type of group entertainment. The animations are mostly them scratching their chins and pondering their next move(s) and again aren't all that fascinating to follow, but it's cute to watch when one sim finally wins. Besides, my aforementioned legacy sibling and his partner love the game as they used to play it together when they were still children.

User avatar
Kukko69
Reactions:
Posts: 305
Joined: October 4th, 2018, 7:04 am

Showtime is a complete waste of money?

Post by Kukko69 » August 22nd, 2019, 9:02 am

igazor, it is actually true that dominoes serve as a good get-together game since it's suitable for more than just two players. However, my opinion on the matter of boredom stays, and I've replaced it with Cluedo and Monopoly - heck, even basic deck of cards! The animation may remain the same, but at least I can pretend it's more exciting to watch ;)
Good, Eco-friendly, Vegetarian, Green thumb, Cat person, Equestrian, Bookworm, Perceptive, Childish

User avatar
igazor
Organizer
Reactions:
Posts: 17102
Joined: April 8th, 2013, 6:00 pm
Answers: 203
Location: Everyone should strive to find their inner platypus.

Showtime is a complete waste of money?

Post by igazor » August 22nd, 2019, 9:11 am

But don't you need to have Showtime installed in order to have something to be replaced by the other custom board/card games that borrow the animations from dominoes? Or are they really independent of all that?

Anyway, sorry for taking things so far off-track. If I were to rank the EPs in order of importance in my game, Showtime would be tied with ITF at the bottom of the list. But each of the packs still does have at least some of its own redeeming qualities. :)

User avatar
enable_llamas
Reactions:
Posts: 209
Joined: August 16th, 2016, 6:00 pm

Showtime is a complete waste of money?

Post by enable_llamas » August 22nd, 2019, 9:25 am

Chain_Reaction wrote:
August 21st, 2019, 8:31 pm
I really wish they'd ask themselves "how much replay value does this feature have?" before they decide on what they're doing with an expansion.
I rather wish they'd asked themselves "Do people really want 984769643 mimes let loose in every single world without an option to disable/limit them". That's really my biggest gripe with it, the way it not only generates a million of those but also dragoons all of your role sims into stupid careers, leaving them to wander around town in their equally stupid acrobat/magician/whatever career outfits.

The careers themselves are 50/50 to me, I enjoy playing the singer and don't really care for the other two much. I like it in the one game tho, I wouldn't replay it on a regular basis. Like Igazor, the Build/Buy items are what kinda redeems it to me. The main ep gameplay I could take or leave and never even think twice about.

User avatar
JohnL83
Reactions:
Posts: 1696
Joined: July 23rd, 2018, 6:00 pm
Answers: 3

Showtime is a complete waste of money?

Post by JohnL83 » August 22nd, 2019, 2:14 pm

Kukko69 - I don't do fantasy stuff in Sims either, but I did try some of it out just to see. The genie is kind of fun. I do not have Supernatural or Into the Future, but I have all the others and while some of the stuff was kind of "meh" I do enjoy a lot of things that come with it, new clothes, the stage props, fog machines for your dance clubs...etc. So for what I payed in the Steam sale for those EP's it was worth it all IMO. Also, I have very few glitches in my Simfests, there are times, if I'm in a world other than Starlight Shores, there is no one preforming, but it doesn't occur very often and all my Sims who are performers attend even when I don't play that family.

Eventually I may go ahead and get the other two expansions just to get stuff like the violin to play and some other things and interactions. I'm so grateful to the Nraas mods so that I can put a stop to zombies and other such nonsense. (no offense to fans of these EP's, as I've stated before IRL I LOVE movies about this stuff...the TV show Supernatural is a guilty pleasure of mine and my childhood would have been incomplete without Star Wars and other wonderfully fun sci-fi movies)

User avatar
igazor
Organizer
Reactions:
Posts: 17102
Joined: April 8th, 2013, 6:00 pm
Answers: 203
Location: Everyone should strive to find their inner platypus.

Showtime is a complete waste of money?

Post by igazor » August 22nd, 2019, 4:37 pm

JohnL83 - Just FYI, violins are store content associated with Dragon Valley (or rather they are from a store set advertised as going together with DV). They didn't come with an Expansion Pack.

User avatar
igazor
Organizer
Reactions:
Posts: 17102
Joined: April 8th, 2013, 6:00 pm
Answers: 203
Location: Everyone should strive to find their inner platypus.

Showtime is a complete waste of money?

Post by igazor » August 22nd, 2019, 10:33 pm

And here I thought I was being helpful, but judging from the reaction button I have made you unhappy...do you have an aversion to TS3 store sets? :-o

User avatar
fxchristensen
Reactions:
Posts: 100
Joined: January 8th, 2014, 6:00 pm
Answers: 1

Showtime is a complete waste of money?

Post by fxchristensen » August 23rd, 2019, 5:19 pm

Chain_Reaction wrote:
August 21st, 2019, 8:31 pm
fxchristensen wrote:
August 20th, 2019, 2:01 pm
an odd glitch that blanks out the audition request but, since I realize what the blank bubble represents, it's no big deal for me.
Are you talking about the interaction bubble? That should be fixed in the careers testing version I do believe.

I haven't tried the careers testing version. I tend to wait for the final version but looks like I am missing out? Anyway, thanks for the info!

User avatar
JohnL83
Reactions:
Posts: 1696
Joined: July 23rd, 2018, 6:00 pm
Answers: 3

Showtime is a complete waste of money?

Post by JohnL83 » August 23rd, 2019, 9:31 pm

igazor wrote:
August 22nd, 2019, 10:33 pm
And here I thought I was being helpful, but judging from the reaction button I have made you unhappy...do you have an aversion to TS3 store sets? :-o
I'd have rather used some sort of frown face, but the only option close to that was the crying thing. I suppose I could have just liked it. I'd hardly cry over it being in the store. LOL We need a few more options for reactions that are more "middle of the road". Like, "bummer", "that's cool" and maybe a "thank you", etc. :) I've often wanted to react with a "thanks" but often opt for "like".

Besides, don't most of the store items cost tokens or simpoints or something? I don't seem to have any points. I just thought the violin was part of an EP and I hate trying to mess with the store. Plus I never see the stuff I want on any kind of a decent sale the way Steam does. The only thing I've ever gotten was the free Riverview download. Also, I'm not even sure how it all works with Steam.

User avatar
igazor
Organizer
Reactions:
Posts: 17102
Joined: April 8th, 2013, 6:00 pm
Answers: 203
Location: Everyone should strive to find their inner platypus.

Showtime is a complete waste of money?

Post by igazor » August 24th, 2019, 12:30 am

The violin comes with the Duke of Bows Renaissance Faire set for (currently) 1,710 store points. If you purchase the gold version of Dragon Valley for $34.99 in cash (credit card), you get 1,900 points as part of the bundle which you may then choose to use to purchase the Renaissance Faire set. Or you can skip Dragon Valley and the set entirely and purchase the violin separately for 823 store points (if it helps, think of it this way as being roughly the equivalent of $8).

The TS3 store no longer handles cash (credit card) transactions. Cash (credit card) purchases like the DV world and purchasing bundles of points must be made through Origin, but it's fine to use the Origin.com website instead of the client app. Either way, the world and contents are downloaded through the store, not through Origin, and installed by way of the Launcher. It all works fine with Steam installs provided that your game is registered with the store (or Origin.com). Dragon Valley is one of my favorite worlds, so I did the gold edition and the Renaissance Faire set route long ago. You also get Archery with the store set and of course baby dragons and a great world to play with DV itself. But if you have no interest in any of that, you could purchase a 1,000 store point bundle from Origin.com and use that to get the standalone violin item with 177 points to spare.

By the way, if you've never registered your Steam base game or WA with the store by way of the old TS3 website or with Origin, you get 1,000 store points for each one if you were to do so now. That's a very old offer that is still being honored. That doesn't give you a cash world like DV, but it allows you to go store shopping for other things like the violin. The store carries a lot of redesigned items like clothes and furniture sets that some like while others deem as not really necessary, but the store worlds and many of the premium items that add to our gameplay options can be great fun to have.

Post Reply