Vampires - First Impressions

[Carl]

Share your first impressions of the new pack here. Got this thread started a little early but know some people are excited, so may as well have it ready!

Most of my own thoughts on it are on the Vampires Game Pack page. I will say that my time with it this past week has been pleasant, I very much love the leveling system for vampires and the accumulation of power that comes with it. There's enough here to justify the price tag if you like the idea of playing as one. Otherwise you would get gothic decor and a vampire lore skill that isn't very useful without vampires around. If you don't wanna play a vampire, grab it on sale

I think most people would come to this conclusion on their own, given the title of the pack. Note that Forgotten Hollow is a single neighborhood (not a full world) as I had originally erroneously reported a few days back. Just poor terminology on my part. Vampires aren't so abundant as to be annoying but are definitely present in the game world, particularly at night. You could learn vampire lore and go about curing them if you chose.

EA did give me a copy, but none of that sways my opinion in any way. I feel it's about par for the course as far as quality goes. I've said before these are more worthy of the price tag than Sims 3 store worlds and things like that and stand by that opinion. It is all a matter of taste and if you like the core idea of the content, it's well executed in that regard. It has been improved a bit lately due to them putting extra time into game packs and I'm happy to support them especially with the recent release of toddlers.

[Junan]

Three new lot traits - Registered Vampire Lair (regular incoming mail), Vampire Nexus (vampire visits more likely) and On a Dark Ley Line (probably vampire equivalent of twins lot trait).

Also a word of caution for those playing with vampires; the western lot in Forgotten Hollow (Garliclauter Place) has A LOT of decorations that put out the smell of garlic, which I believe is a self-defense mechanism against vampire visits. This seems weird considering said lot has the Vampire Nexus lot trait.

[FrancescaFiori]

In the livestream they explained the backstory for that lot and I thought it was very clever.
Supposedly a couple from the big city bought the house, thinking they were just buying a cute house in a quaint little town. Then, vampires started showing up at their door all the time, so they put up all the garlic to try and protect themselves, but since the lot is a vampire nexus it didn't work, so they eventually fled and now the house is abandoned and selling cheap!

Anyway, I thought it was a fun story. Really enjoying the pack so far. Can't wait to delve deeper!


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[Playalot]

Loving it! Initial response is that toddlers + vampires=gaming bliss. I've only played long enough for my sim to be transformed and to compel his spouse so he could Drink Deeply (no asking politely nonsense in my game!) so I have a lot more exploring to do.

So far it seems that these, like the toddlers, for me are the best vampires we've had so far in The Sims. The customization in CAS is really good and having a Dark Form is a really great addition. I love the fact that you can have outfits in all the categories in the Dark Form, I didn't expect that to be honest.

My disappointment so far is the size of Forgotten Hollow but I already knew that before delving into the pack and that hasn't changed. Although the neighborhood is quite perfect for vampire, one neighborhood with 5 lots is just not enough.

[ratchie]

I haven't played for long but I am a little disappointed in the number of townie vampires. I honestly expected more that three.  The cas options are great and I like the new buy mode items. The vampire powers seems easy enough to understand and I am sure the challenge team will come up with some ideas for the future.

Rachel

[Nindigo]

@Playalot Like you, I was a little disappointed with the size of the neighborhood. But I digress. At this moment, I'm updating and repairing my game to see if it fixes some missing Sim names, conversation topics, and item names. My Sim's welcome wagon consisted of that young male vampire with the feathery earrings. Every conversation topic landed two pluses for some reason, so they are good friends already. I haven't created a vampire yet, but plan to have my Sim turned into one. Don't want everything unveiled too fast

[Junan]

Delving into this, I find that Mist > Bat in every manner; I see the bat as the game's ninja teleport from sims 2 and the mist as sim 2 witch's magivestigum teleport. This is because the mist ignores obstacles such as locked doors and walls while the bat does not.

[Ynde]

Does anyone know what the Vampiric Entrance (or something like that) power is supposed to do? I thought it would let me just walk into sims houses without being invited, but it doesn't seem to work that way.

[Junan]

Does anyone know what the Vampiric Entrance (or something like that) power is supposed to do? I thought it would let me just walk into sims houses without being invited, but it doesn't seem to work that way.

When you use that ability (by clicking on the door), it'll unlock the door for you. This should enable you to see inside but in the event it doesn't, press the End key once.

P.S. Influence emotions at max is pretty powerful: +8 to the emotion specified for 4 hours in a small radius around the vampire. Good vampires can use the positive emotions to aid other sims in their goals more easily such as skill building or finding love; careful not to use playfulness when a Sim's happy is close to 7 or higher.

[Lal-Soukyan]

Vampires, to me, feels more like an expansion than just a Game Pack. I feel like it is easily worth the money, even paying full price since I couldn't wait! I am not at all happy with myself for staying up so late on a work night, but vampires are so much fun!

I agree that I wish there were more vampires in the other areas of the game. I did have fun filling the city with vamp families though!

I really really really want more vampire inspired toddler and child clothing choices.That being said, the only thing that was actually disappointing to me was that there wasn't any new choices for tattoos. I was hoping for some gothic inspired ink

If they do faires and witches with the same thoughtfulness, I will lose my job cause I will be playing Sims 4 constantly. I am always going to wish for a Magic version of Sims 3 University. *cough* Hogwarts *cough*

[Junan]

On a Dark Ley Line (probably vampire equivalent of twins lot trait).

I appear to be incorrect on this assumption; anyone who's ever played Sims 3 will, at some point, have known about the Magic in the Air moodlet, which can result in the child of a couple being a different life state than expected. This is the case with this lot trait, but for vampires only. It does give a +3 Energized "Hoping for Fangs" moodlet after trying for a baby.

[cyclonenic]

I've discovered i better garlic up my dynasty houses as the Count just gatecrashed in the early hours and drank from one of my sims....How Rude!

[Playalot]

@cyclonenic  you'll be pleased to know that the game code is such that the chances of this happening get reduced greatly after the first visit. I'd still put some garlic in everyone's inventory though, just to be sure, if you don't want them being drunk from. 

[Junan]

I've discovered i better garlic up my dynasty houses as the Count just gatecrashed in the early hours and drank from one of my sims....How Rude!

@cyclonenic  you'll be pleased to know that the game code is such that the chances of this happening get reduced greatly after the first visit. I'd still put some garlic in everyone's inventory though, just to be sure, if you don't want them being drunk from. 

How did this happen? He does not have the Eternally Welcome perk...

I also have a particularly odd question: When my vampire drinks, he randomly gets a notification wall message along with the Divine Drink moodlet; so far, he has triggered this on Alice Spencer-Kim, Jade Rosa, Johnny Zest and Zoe Patel. What do these four have in common?

[Playalot]

I can't figure out what triggers the Divine Drink Moodlet either. All the sims my vamp think are particularly delicious don't seem to have anything in common with each other or with him. @Carl  any idea what triggers this?

[MissTrips]

I really like how you can customize your vampire's abilities.  I have one vampire that's incredibly strong  (she crushes metal and gems into elements!) and garlic resistant, but she has to sleep in a coffin and has a harder time filling her thirst gauge while the second is a mental manipulator that burns super quickly in the sun.  The strong one has a dark form, so she can blend in easily with her prey, while the matchstick always looks creeptacular and thus uses their mental abilities to keep people from noticing them.  It makes for fun story telling!

I did however find it a little surprising at how quickly I was gaining Vampire Lore and Power points.  Inside of a week they were both Master Vampires and on their way to Grand Master, and had both maxxed out Vampire Lore.    They'd hit up a local vampire for some training and then spar each other and always compelled to feed.  Felt a little too quick, especially as Vampire Lore is a 15 level skill, I was anticipating much more reading time.

[Nindigo]

Some positive feedback from me

I can appreciate how the developers have stuck with several classical features such as vulnerability to garlic and sunlight, bat and mist form ability, and no mirror image (this one in particular is awesome). According to old lore, vampires can control wolves as well. There are no visible wolves in The Sims, but you can still hear them howl at night. That at least is a reference of sorts and creates a great atmosphere. Another cool detail - ears and fangs can have various appearances accommodating both old and new fashion. This gives vast opportunities to create any style ranging from monstrous to plain looking. Kudos for that

[Ynde]

Really enjoying this so far. I've found that it's much harder to level a "good" vampire than one that is constantly compelling Sims for drinks. That regular little boost really makes a difference. My guilty drinker vampire needs to do a lot of sparring to keep up with her less conscientious mate. I'm planning to do a vampire that completes all the new aspirations, and I already know which one not to do first.

[Hechicera]

Vampires, to me, feels more like an expansion than just a Game Pack. I feel like it is easily worth the money, even paying full price since I couldn't wait! I am not at all happy with myself for staying up so late on a work night, but vampires are so much fun!

I agree that I wish there were more vampires in the other areas of the game. I did have fun filling the city with vamp families though!
...

I agree, and I'm not much of a "Vampire person" if that makes sense. A little too old for goth, though not my younger sister. And the novel then movie craze made me bored. (Don't even get me started on Zombies). But I found the way they did it here to be much more fun than expected.

And my game did randomly generate "townie" vampires in the city. Especially at city venues or festivals after dark. I know this because ...

Really enjoying this so far. I've found that it's much harder to level a "good" vampire than one that is constantly compelling Sims for drinks. That regular little boost really makes a difference. My guilty drinker vampire needs to do a lot of sparring to keep up with her less conscientious mate. I'm planning to do a vampire that completes all the new aspirations, and I already know which one not to do first.

My new family's first heir had been having issue finding a bride (maybe it was the chubby geek thing?). So, he went off to the romance festival one night with his current interest, a very cute blonde, who promptly ignored him. Which was a step up from their usual fighting! He asked the Romance Guru for a future and she gave him the line about tall and dark. He turns around and there is very nice looking quite dark lady right there! Who, according to his usual luck, also hates him on sight. He was quite persistent though, and kept calling.

She was, as you have guessed, a randomly generated vampire. They could only make friends over the phone. Eventually he got enough of a relationship to get her to move in. She was already a master vampire and had absolutely every negative that would make it hard to socialize and fit in. And in two added bits of cruelty, she was a foodie that couldn't eat, and despite all those hard to socialize negatives her aspiration was to be a good vampire that fit in! So pitiful. And so, very, very hard! The relationships all tanked, and it took some doing, much harder work than I'm used to in Sims 4, but they married. And for further vampire sad-sack, she did just complete her aspiration, and just had her third child .. and she also hates children. This is what mother-in-laws are for. Well, other than food sources, of course.

This degree of trait, situation, and aspiration mismatch was quite interesting though.

[marwolfer]

I'm quite enjoying it, tbh, which doesn't happen much with me! lol I'm more often than not disappointed by the packs. But I'm really having some fun playing a vampire. There's still a bit of a learning curve, but overall I really like it.

[MarianT]

Woot! My vampire hunter just slew his first vampire. I meant to get pictures, but was too worried about getting the right options. I'll be adding a Vampire Option and Vampire Hunter Option to the Rival Dynasties Challenge later on today, now that I know that hunting a vampire can work.

I'm enjoying these vampires quite a bit more than the ones from TS3; I never did anything with vampires in TS2. They are very well thought-out, and you can have so many different options. The animations are entertaining, and I like the clothing and furniture. I really hope they do something similar with witches. Forgotten Hollow is nice and gloomy and about the right size for me, but I hope that if we get other supernaturals, we'll get a larger, empty world that our vampires, witches, and werewolves can share.

A couple of minor gripes -- it's too easy to turn a Sim into a vampire once your vampire acquires the power. I'd have expected friendship status to be necessary, but you don't even have to introduce yourself. Gaining vampire lore skill is also easy.

Overall, though, I'm very pleased. How often do you get to cure a vampire?

[oshizu]

@MarianT

I can't tell you how excited I am to hear that you'll be adding Vampire Bloodline and Vampire Hunter Options to the Rival Dynasty Challenge!!! *jumps up and down wildly
Thank you so much!

[scoed]

This game pack is the best yet. I love occult life states and this one is very well thought out. I love sims 4 vamps. Best sims vamps yet. Strike that best sims life state yet. Not a fan of the Dampened Emotions power though as emotions is the coolest feature in sims 4. It actually seems more of a weakness then a power.

[Junan]

This game pack is the best yet. I love occult life states and this one is very well thought out. I love sims 4 vamps. Best sims vamps yet. Strike that best sims life state yet. Not a fan of the Dampened Emotions power though as emotions is the coolest feature in sims 4. It actually seems more of a weakness then a power.

That one is a matter of the player's perspective; on one hand, it prevents one of the most important features happening 75% of the time at max rank. On the other, it'll be very hard to kill your vampire with emotions such as anger, embarassment and playful.

[scoed]

This game pack is the best yet. I love occult life states and this one is very well thought out. I love sims 4 vamps. Best sims vamps yet. Strike that best sims life state yet. Not a fan of the Dampened Emotions power though as emotions is the coolest feature in sims 4. It actually seems more of a weakness then a power.

That one is a matter of the player's perspective; on one hand, it prevents one of the most important features happening 75% of the time at max rank. On the other, it'll be very hard to kill your vampire with emotions such as anger, embarrassment and playful.

Of course it is a matter of perspective but given my sims are generally in positive mood of an appropriate type it hampers development in a noted way. Also I never lost a sim to emotions without trying so I never worry about such deaths. Emotions are easy to regulate and offer bonuses that ease gameplay. From my perspective Dampened Emotions should be there with the weaknesses as all positive emotions and some negative emotions act like a buff for certain activities and they are easy to control. To me it is a huge debuff. Worse than any of the five weaknesses I chose.

[Hechicera]

@cyclonenic  you'll be pleased to know that the game code is such that the chances of this happening get reduced greatly after the first visit. I'd still put some garlic in everyone's inventory though, just to be sure, if you don't want them being drunk from. 

Not foolproof! One of them drank from a Sim in a test run and he had garlic in his inventory. I did not look at that vampire though to see if he had the trait that might make that possible. It was one of the three pre-gen ones.

Still so very rude!

[Junan]

@cyclonenic  you'll be pleased to know that the game code is such that the chances of this happening get reduced greatly after the first visit. I'd still put some garlic in everyone's inventory though, just to be sure, if you don't want them being drunk from. 

Not foolproof! One of them drank from a Sim in a test run and he had garlic in his inventory. I did not look at that vampire though to see if he had the trait that might make that possible. It was one of the three pre-gen ones.

Still so very rude!

Are these vampires in their Dark form prior to doing this? Carl has noted this may be what's causing it.

[Playalot]

The whole 'garlic in the inventory thing' is not foolproof for sure. Although a dev pretty much indicated that it was. Reason being that NPC vamps spawn in with randomized traits and powers/weaknesses.  I've been spectacularly unlucky in this in one of my saves as when I switch to the NPC to check them out many have the immune to garlic power. lol

[Hechicera]

Are these vampires in their Dark form prior to doing this? Carl has noted this may be what's causing it.

Good point. Since this was a Maxis made one, I checked, and ... I can't tell! He is the male of the couple, and both forms are the same.  I will have to pay more attention to this.

He does not have the garlic trait though, and ironically he wants to be a good vampire. Off to a poor start there buddy!

[Puppetmaster1]

I never really played any of the supernatural aspects of the Sims before, but am really liking this. They put a lot of thought into it, and I think gives a really good vampire experience.  The Bonuses and Weaknesses really let you play the type of vampire you want to.

Also, in terms of depth, this is the best pack so far in Sims4. I like this a lot more than Get Together or City Living.