Right before TS4 City Living EP came out, when the Gurus were sharing info about festivals, I thought that was a cool feature that I would quickly get tired of, I thought they would feel repetitive after a while. Ten months after its release, I can gladly say I was wrong.
My experience with a festival is never the same mostly because I rotate a lot through different households so what my sims end up doing is always something different. And then, the more I played with them the more I realized I could do with them, using all five festivals to my advantage like a VIP player would do.
First and foremost, festivals are great for raising your sims’ skills. There are the obvious ones, like Programming and Video Gaming at GeekCon, and then Comedy and Mischief at the Humor and Hijinks Festival (it’s important to say that all these skills are raised extra fast at their respective festivals), but then there are other opportunities hidden here and there. Sims get a creative moodlet at the Spice Festival, so painting the floor mural or playing guitar or violin at the performance space will also raise those skills faster.
The charisma skill can have a boost any time by haggling with vendors (not only at the flea market but at any of the stalls), but due to the flirty moodlet sims get at the Romance Festival that skill builds up greatly while performing romantic interactions (that festival is also great for dates). Also, the amount of sims at any of these events makes for great opportunities to exercise the charisma skill, if that’s what you want for your sim. Which actually leads me to my next point.
Socializing opportunities are aplenty at festivals. Sims will run into neighbors, co-workers and maybe even some romantic opportunities to happen (not only at the Romance Festival). Wether it’s by telling jokes at the Humor and Hijinks Festival or haggling with any of the vendors they will see their social bars going green in no time. That’s great for sims who live by themselves and want some company, or if you’re playing one aspiration that requires interacting with others.
Speaking of vendors, festivals are a great place to try and learn new recipes. I’m one of those simmers who are really into cooking in the game, so I’m always hunting for those stalls to learn a new recipe. And when my sims live in another world, festivals are a great place to go and have options or new stuff they can eat (and then cook at home). It’s normal for my sims to have their Sunday brunch at the Flea Market, or for sims who live in the Arts Quarter to come downstairs to have dinner at the festival on Monday night.
There’s another strategic reason to go to festivals, and this might be my favorire one of all: they’re great if you need extra cash. Once my sim went to GeekCon and he was only level two on his Programming skill, but I think no one else tried the Hackathon so he took home that expensive computer. The Humor and Hijinks festival gives cash prizes plus actual prizes for the winning team. So what I like to do (and this feels a bit like cheating, I know) is to enter each one of my household in each team, so I will end up winning no matter what. Kaching!
And that also leads me to the last point, which is going to festivals as an opportunity for experiencing more of
These are some of the things I like to do at festivals in the game. What about you, what are your “VIP” strategies to make the most of them? How do your sims experience these events? Leave a comment below and keep playing like a VIP!
