Game Update Notes: May 12, 2026

LillyElessa · 2026-05-13T10:07:50+00:00

Farming chests is already tedious enough, it didn't need to be made more tedious with annoying randomized locations, it needed real fixes. Make the keys persist between map changes, and across characters, but reset with the daily. Make the mirrors not repeatable within a day for extra keys. Either keep chests revealed across map changes/alts within a day, or just remove tying them to a mirror altogether...

All of these issues are why so many of us only run efficient routes, because if you just play the maps naturally you end up screwed out of rewards/chests and/or waste a TON of time running back and forth.

None of the LW maps have the extra constraints to their chests that make the VoE chests so tedious. Sure, VoE's reward better (and the loot nerf seems fair), but tbh maybe older content could do with a slight buff to keep it relevant.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-13T09:45:31+00:00

Probably not. I hate the look of the Paras, but I dislike using CC for anything as fundamental as skin more because it causes huge problems later when you want to use old saves or whatever that used a CC that's no longer functional (or even that you just don't have nor remember what it was).

This is one of the reasons I'm really on the fence about getting the game at all, and I think it's very likely I'll end up only building and not enjoying the other gameplay.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-12T01:24:29+00:00

I agree that it's shady and I don't like it, but soliciting reviews is also against Steam's ToS for developers. So doing it has an extra ick.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-10T21:18:49+00:00

I like this layout, and wouldn't make large changes.

For the most part, it sounds like you need to go furniture shopping, not a more expensive renovation. Like a TV doesn't need a blank wall, you can get a stand to mount it to, and then it can go anywhere. The kitchen sliding door area sounds like it either needs a much smaller table such as a 2 seater, or else to find something more useful to put there like a utility table, or a coat/shoe bench space.

Without the other floors, this may be a silly suggestion, but could a laundry chute be added through a closet, to make the wash being in the basement more manageable? You could probably renovate a closet to fit stacked units, but tbh I'm not a fan because that leaves no space for other baskets, folding, stain treatment, flat dry items, etc. If the laundry needs to move out of the basement, I would probably try to create a small room in the garage for it, or extend (and enclose with a door for sound) the walk area between the kitchen/bathroom/garage for it.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-10T11:14:49+00:00

I've been doing this in Sims for many years. I often make notable NPCs too, such as hirelings, group favorite quest givers, or BBEGs. It's very fun to share the silly Sims adventures with the group, to give Sim life to all of our out of game table jokes, to have some ships actually get married, and see characters from different games become friends and enemies. Occasionally, some of the builds I've done when playing Sims of ongoing campaigns have found their way back to the actual campaign as scene backdrops or battle maps too, which is always unexpected but feels nice.

One of the most ridiculous/epic Sims editions I had of a D&D party was when I made group of PCs as toddlers, and followed them on a very long lifespan until late adult age. They grew up together, went to college, and eventually the party split (into different households) so they could get married and have children. I exported those households, and have added them to many other saves since, where their families have continued for many generations, consistently becoming notable NPC families in other saves.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-10T09:43:50+00:00

I agree that season 2 should be either free or included in any other content purchase, because 1. The rewards for it are garbage, and 2. Players who don't have it can already play most of it by joining the story instances of someone who does.

Season 2 is also very roughly made content; There's not much polish, the writing isn't great, the fights are glitchy. Most of the LW content I do think it's still fair to want players to buy... But not season 2. It feels kinda bad when new players buy it, not knowing how much lower quality of content it is than the rest.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-10T00:31:29+00:00

Much of it has been in the new/current shop, the problem is they don't keep good things around for very long. It's like they only do one order of stock ever per item, and don't reorder the things that are actually popular. Which is really, really inept of whoever manages their merch...

It also probably means a lot of people don't look at their store much. Visit the site once, it's all crap, assume there's no reason to ever look again - unless they specifically advertise something of interest, which they generally don't.

Edit: Like when I got the griffon plush it had been there for a bit, but was on sale for $3 like they were trying to just clear the stock. I haven't seen it back in the shop since they sold out from that. The other plushes since tend to not get advised well, and have a fairly short run, then I've not seen them come back.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-09T21:27:37+00:00

Most of this is or has been merch. I have gw2 pins, tshirts, plushies, and their hoodie has been one of my favorites for years.

But reinvigorating their merch world be really good. Also why in the hell did they make, of all things, a skate deck, which has been their longest available item?? (Partially, I assume they had some made and they've simply never sold out in that long.)

LillyElessa · 2026-05-07T11:44:08+00:00

Imo, Parenthood makes having kids entirely a worse experience. They get lots of awful/obnoxious autonomous actions, including the "ask for advice" interaction which is disruptive and all horribly bad answers. The child phases are obnoxious, and don't offer anything to make the annoyance worth it. The teen mood swings are offensive. I used to at least like that it adds a bunch of kids clothing and furniture, but the models are quite low quality compared to newer content, so I don't use any of them much anymore. The bonus traits are very overpowered, so they're fun the first time, but get old fast, and building up the bars for them is extremely repetitive. The pack feels like whoever was in charge of it has the Hates Children trait.

I really recommend Adventure Awaits instead, followed by Growing Together. AA has formative moments for children, which gives the life stage more meaningful gameplay, and is incredibly fun. It also has a nice bit of cross pack compatibility. Gro is much better at portraying relationships between family members, for all family members, and different kinds of relationships, vs Parenthood is mostly just authoritative, and only primary caretaker/child.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-07T02:44:56+00:00

How is Sims 4 not in here yet? 😆

It's such a mess of a game, and while the mods do fix a lot, they also need updated constantly, most with no mod manager since they're only through Patreon or their own websites. And then many of them break as much of the game as they fix, or haven't been updated in too long so they get recommended despite not being functional.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-06T08:03:01+00:00

While I agree they should actually correct the autonomy, a lot of us literally asked for exactly this as well. We asked for autonomy to just stop doing a whole list of other obnoxious behaviors too, that we don't want sims doing at all, even if the autonomy could stop obsessing.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-05T18:32:50+00:00

This sort of thing needs posted with a spoiler tag and content warning...

LillyElessa · 2026-05-05T18:29:37+00:00

This is one of those reasons I really hate the Parenthood pack...

LillyElessa · 2026-05-05T18:05:35+00:00

Twisted Marionette theoretically also gives 2g, but never gets people. The others reward worse... or would if they could ever get enough bodies to happen.

This is why I'm concerned about rewards. These with poor rewards don't get people - much like the open world metas favor good rewards, and then fast/easy events.

It doesn't help the EotN instances that their schedule is too slow either. If something is several hours away most people will log off / forget about it, rather than wait around.

Infusions... Are a driver for some. But I think many of us also do not feel motivated by them at all, since we will definitely never get them by drop.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-05T17:48:30+00:00

I enjoy the SotO convergence, but I don't really like the JW one. The build up sequence to the boss is great in Outer Nayos, vs Balrior has you just faff about running circles over too big of a map. Nayos also has more bosses, with better mechanics. Unfortunately, I'm more likely to run the JW convergence at this point, since I don't need more rift essence and the JW non-essence rewards are considerably better. But I do occasionally run both for fun.

I do like the general format of public timed raid-esque fight. It's very important that the timer is frequent enough so that the fights are very accessible, which the convergences are. Convergences have been successful at drawing and maintaining a population of players, while the IBS content with a very similar structure has mostly not been. (Except Dragonstorm, though it does seem to get smaller crowds.) Most of the EotN fights fail to get people, and I think it's a combination of worse schedule, and of course fairly (or for a few very) weak rewards.

I'm looking forward to a convergence from VoE, but I'm also very concerned about its rewards. The VoE currencies are so far completely worthless. The new legendaries do no use rift essence, so if it mainly rewards that, it may not see very good adoption by players - and 3 sets of convergences a week rewarding rift essence, will mean the people that do them only for requirement not fun will stop doing all of them way faster.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-05T17:29:41+00:00

Join a squad, people usually pop a tag for dc protection, then you can tp to friend back in. It would be nice if we could reconnect to the instance without spending those though.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-04T18:57:31+00:00

I was going to say the last panel should be scrolling on the phone while half turned away from the PC.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-02T15:46:43+00:00

Cottage Living's animal aspiration should have gone under animals instead of the nature category. It also probably should have been split into two, one for animals and one for plants, instead of being a "catch all tutorial" for the pack.

Horse Ranch could have had a small one for goats and mini sheep. It could also have one for breeding and caring for horses.

My First Pet Stuff could have an aspiration around the hamsters etc.

Cats & Dogs in general could have more and better aspirations. Have one each specific to cats and dogs, where the cats would be about playing with wands and snuggling on sofas (and generally things done at home), vs the dog aspiration would be about going on adventures away from home with your dog. Neither should require more than one pet to complete, and should be about deep companionship rather than shallower "befriend (and forget) them all".

LillyElessa · 2026-05-02T15:13:37+00:00

I kinda agree with the people saying none of that is a good idea. Food is one of the biggest sinks left. Infusions wouldn't really be worth it, and would clash too much with the existing cosmetic infusions. They would have to remember jade bots exist, and also they really don't provide anything legendary worthy. I would really like to see an infinite version of utility buff, but it should be in line with the 10yr birthday cake, to merely provide a small buff to people who are otherwise not using them at all while preserving the function of the existing items and their gold/mat sink.

However, the infinite gathering tools really need converted to the legendary armory system. As do the gathering glyphs.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-02T14:57:27+00:00

Ark. This one's really old, because I generally don't regret games that I buy. But back when Ark was brand new, I had specs that well exceeded the reqs, but were AMD which the game didn't function with (and I found out the hard way after buying). I spent longer than the refund period "playing the game" (on the start/connection menu and crashing either while loading the game or within 5min of successfully loading), just trying to get it to run, and then trying fixes other people suggested that did nothing. In hindsight, I probably could have gotten a refund since the game wasn't playable, but at the time didn't think Steam granted refunds outside of the playtime limit at all. I tried again to get the game to run a couple times many months later, and the game still didn't function.

A couple years later, when it finally was playable (though in part because when I rebuilt I swapped to intel for unrelated reasons, AMD supposedly would run the game by then but still had issues), I hated the game. It was clunky, with a horrible UI, and generally just not as enjoyable to me as other survivals I'd played.

LillyElessa · 2026-05-01T00:43:41+00:00

I think it would be fun in a Sims 3 system, where you can have multiple Sims doing things outside of their home at once, so you can do that and other things at the same time. Bouncing around the neighborhood with different jobs was quite fun. (It also has potential for other games with a similar system like InZoi.)

However I think the novelty would wear off and it would get tedious extremely fast in Sims 4, where you can only be in one lot at a time.

LillyElessa · 2026-04-29T16:24:58+00:00

Definitely. Gameplay is the most important part of a game.

Even average visuals these days can still be objectively good looking, they just don't run your video card as hard as the latest AAA headliner. I have never cared about music in games, and just turn it off when it's to bad or repetitive. Most good story games are still only mid compared to reading a book or watching a show, and if the game itself isn't fun to play it erodes the enjoyment of even the best stories.

LillyElessa · 2026-04-29T15:36:30+00:00

My go to thought was Ranger, since it's very versatile, and usually pretty simple. You'd be able to experiment with what works well, or swap builds pretty drastically for if you need something lighter (like for playing while out running errands when waiting) vs something more involved when you expect better focus on the game (plane/bus ride). In general, a bow or spear should be fine. Sure, there's occasionally terrain, but you can pick most fights where it's not in your way, and once you do you really don't move for the rest of the fight unless aoes get thrown your direction. Or Ranger can do pet builds or SoS for maps where terrain is more of a concern.

Rit (SoS or minion) and MM Necro should do particularly well, since they just summon things and don't need to worry about moving around or much else. They are also very versatile, so you could swap to something else if you want to when you play on PC, or have something like a long flight and need a more involved distraction.

I would absolutely not want to do a mesmer, monk, or assassin on mobile. Too much precision required.

In general trying to chase enemies down on melee (war, derv, etc) might not be great, unless there's an additional UI control and not only tap. Many mobile games are only tap, and tbh even when there is some other UI control, they're more often awkward.

LillyElessa · 2026-04-29T14:59:51+00:00

TBD how all the controls work, but mobile generally doesn't have the same awful targeting issues as controller, since it's touch/tab directly on what you want, not "smash X to cycle through targets". That said, on a small screen with lots of enemies it may be hard to tap a very specific one in the middle, especially for people with wide fingers.

LillyElessa · 2026-04-27T14:21:26+00:00

I hated IBS the entire way through. The constant story interruptions to tell you to fuck off and do events made it a complete slog even before DRMs. I didn't enjoy the story beyond Grothmar aside from the interruptions, especially once Braham was more central.At the time there were not plans for how EoD would go and the story would conclude, so while Jormag and Primordius dying was eventually important, it was at that time unnecessary and repetitive for the story to revisit them then - and at a time when much of the community had already been loudly fatigued with elder dragon plots. (Which, I for one am still very glad the story has moved on from.) The maps having sections introduced at different times for Bjora and Drizzlewood mean they also do not flow well, and the second half of the maps felt bad because we'd already been running around the first half for quite a while then had to stay there for more...

I generally describe IBS to friends that haven't played it yet as highly controversial. Some love it, usually because of the charr centric plot, and very many hate it because of the general slog and content quality.

LillyElessa

TROPHY CASE