Who Let the Pets Out?

[ManagerJosh]

We all know we love our furry little friends, and well, if Maxis does ever release a Pet Themed Expansion pack, what do you you want in the Expansion Pack? :D

[Mirelly]

LOL Josh. In keeping with this thread's title I vote for pet doors (eg cat-flaps in doors)

[aharris]

I want hairballs. It's so unrealistic to have cats without hairballs. :p


I think pet influencing reactions could be lots of fun. We all know our pets manipulate us, so why not let sim pets manipulate their owners?

[FinalFantasy4ever]

What I want is pet dorrs like Mirelly said and I want to be able to have more pets then like in ts1 where they counted as family. Maybe make a second bar you can click an arrow and go to or something and have your pets there. Never could make my family seeing as how we have too many cats hehe

[KatAnubis]

We all know we love our furry little friends, and well, if Maxis does ever release a Pet Themed Expansion pack, what do you you want in the Expansion Pack? :D

1) ways of preventing pets from going outside. (For example, require a pet door for indoor/outdoor pets, but without one they are indoor only.)
2) life cycle for pets
3) more than one size of pet
4) pet genetics
5) Body Shop and Create a Sim for pets (I hated that you had to go to the pet adoption for *all* your pets. I wanted to be able to have a pet created as part of a family if I chose.)
6) from Unleashed: able to train pets, able to show pets, etc.

[Melara]

More breeds of dog that actually LOOK like their breeds. But most importantly, I think I would want some level of the same control over the pets as we have over the normal Sims. I mean, I want to be able to click on the pet's icon and see that pets needs. If they're hungry, if they need to potty, blah blah blah. I mean, they wouldn't be able to fulfil those needs on their own (unless there was a doggy door), but at least you'd have a better idea then what you needed your sims to do.

Breeding would be cool too, but probably too complicated. You know, breed your two dogs or your show dog to someone else's and have puppies, and even have the option of spaying/neutering your pet.

[Flameangel]

I'm not sure what else I would like BUT I do like the ideas everyone else posted.

[person123]

i want different breeds that actually had different facial features. and i also want it to be sorta like making children. you can make them with CAS, or you can adopt them, and when adopting them, you can't choose what they'll look like, etc. also, i want a LARGE variety of pet items. and i hope that they'll make it like regular sims 2 items, where you can choose the color and stuff. i also want more interactions between owner and pet.

[Kristalrose]

I'd like to see some genetics with the animals. If you have a poodle and a pekeneese (sorry for the bad spelling) breed, you have a peekapoo. It would be fun to see what sort of odd breeds we can come up with. One of my favorite aspects of raising sims babies is the genetics--this one has mom's hair and dad's eyes, this nose is dominant through all the kids this man has, etc. It would be fun if they could reproduce that with animals. But I can see how hard that would be.:rolleyes:

[ChaosShade]

i'd really like to see pet genetics and life cycles

[Sylla]

As well as a wide variety, I would like pets that actually help you achieve some goal, like say you had the scientific career path, you could get a rat or hampster and do experiments on them, nothing nasty mind you, just say a maze or something like that.
Maybe a few new career paths like magician (so you can pull a rabit out of your hat), circus performer (or animal tamer) and vetinarian.
I would really like pet snakes too.

[Mirelly]

Hmm ... the mongrels might be interesting ... :p

[suitemichelle]

if there are pet lifetimes, does that mean we could have a pet Cemetary?

[aharris]

Wouldn't it be even neater if that pet cemetary let you bury things in it that came back as evil zombies? :eek:

[Flameangel]

I think you guys are getting a little over excited!:p:D What about, bad dogs that like bite a sim when it get's to close. The sim yells and runs away off screen. Cats that jump on fences and teez dogs:p

[SimSay]

I loved unleashed, but didn't like the hundreds of strays! So I went on a mission to get all of them adopted!

But one thing which would be really cool when (not if!) would be to have allergies! Now that is realism! So a new family memeber could sneeze everytime the cat/dog was round!

Oh and to have a cat sit on your lap

And sneakily sleep on your bed!

If they bring mice back they, how about catching them & hand rearing - ok probably too much of a handful!

[Mirelly]

One major problem I can conceive concerning pets is the lifespan thing. IRL people get thru several dogs or cats per lifetime. In sim terms this would mean a dog pregnancy lasting only a day, puppyhood 2/3 days and adult dog maybe another 10 or 15 ... I'm not sure I could cope with all the pain. If TS2 pets have a much longer life tho' it might make that aspect of the game feel wooden and too unreal.

My personal choice would be to have a pet themed EP where sims go to buy a pet fully grown but neutered by a local simcity ordinance to control the terrible strays problem of yesteryear. Of course there would be a wide range of poochies and moggies to choose from with many different breeds available. They would live for a good portion of a Sim's lifespan ... say around 40-50 days and leave behind an urn/tombstone.

[aharris]

I don't think it would so complicated. The pet wouldn't have to have 6-7 life-stages comprising 50+ days of life. I could see the pet having 2 life stages and I could see them being timed so that a sim could go through maybe two during his life-span (three counting one in the house when he was born). It might not be totally realistic, but I think it would work.

[Zootyzoot]

In Unleashed the animals were all tiny, which was cute but a bit dull. I'd like to have great big dogs that took up sofas. Their interactions with toddlers would surely be the height of cute. And maybe farm animals? So maybe farms, like in Unleashed? So maybe communes? So maybe wealth-sharing? :)

About the animals dying thing - I wouldn't mind. I think it would be terrible if they lasted for unrealistic amounts of time. Maxis should definately tailor animal lifespans to Sim lifespans, with things like guniea-pigs lasting a fortnight, maybe. I think it'd be pushing the T-for-Teen thing a bit too far if they woodenised aminal lifespans. Indestructible babies I can understand - superpets I can't.

The strays on Unleashed were indescribably irritating. I desperately hope Maxis leaves them out. If they don't I probably won't buy the pack.

[SimSay]

Farm animals? Arghhhh! I'd hate chickens roaming round my garden! - Although I could see it being a nice way to restock the fridge for free! Cows as well!

On other sites I think I noticed there seemed to be quite a lot of support for Horses as an EP. However that's not my thing at all, so unless they went all out, Sims go Country! Where you could have horses, do a buckin broncho (body point scoring!!), chickens & foxes (ha ha ha - eat the chickens!!!), And obviously need cow pats!

[Mirelly]

Yeah if we do get pets we need to see cats on counters and tables raiding the plates (and sims who are able to shoo them off). Dogs should beg for scraps at table and big dogs should be able to get get their front paws on the table and steal the pork chops ... :p

[Angelyne]

I think it'd be pushing the T-for-Teen thing a bit too far if they woodenised aminal lifespans. Indestructible babies I can understand - superpets I can't.

Sorry to be picky, but what does T for Teen have to do with the lifespan of pets?

[Zootyzoot]

T-for-Teen means making teenagers sterile and unable to WooHoo, babies indestructible, drugs (including legal ones) non-existent (apart from caffiene), that kind of thing. And making pets sugared-up to the extent that their lifespans were unrealistically extended would push it too far. See? ;)

[Flameangel]

hmmmmm..... I'd love to have dogs,cats guinea pigs dog houses. When one of your sims were home say they HATED a sim the dogs would bite at the mail man or sim and run away! Or dogs trained to fetch the paper!

[aharris]

Or maybe dogs trained to guard your house so that when teh burglars come, they take care of it instead of the sim havig to have an alarm or call the cops. Wouldn't it also be funny on the reverse if some dogs were naturally protective and attacked burglars for breaking in while others had to be trained because otherwise they'd follow a burglar around trying to make friends? :)


Wouldn't it also be interesting if cats also showed a wide range of personality? What about the cat that took an instant dislike to the toddlar that was endlessly fascinated with its tail and finally turned around scratching the kid? Not so funny in real life (although the kid has to learn sometime IMO), but funny as hell in a videogame. Just like some cats are natural mousers, and others will just watcxh mice like some vague form of entertainment (training aspect needing to come in again).

[ChaosShade]

I'd like to be able to breed pets at home, then sell them. That way sims could be animal breeders as a new home based business.

[suitemichelle]

groomers, trainers, pet boutiques, yes: cross breeds and horses.....

[mirdonamy]

I second KatAnubis! I agree with everything listed here 100%

I have 5 kiddies (kitties) at home, my children. They do NOT go outside. I don't want my cats (in the Sims) to go out either (it's not safe). Also, a life cycle for pets is very preferable. We should be allowed to cremate & bury our beloved pets who've passed on.

Arie

1) ways of preventing pets from going outside. (For example, require a pet door for indoor/outdoor pets, but without one they are indoor only.)
2) life cycle for pets
3) more than one size of pet
4) pet genetics
5) Body Shop and Create a Sim for pets (I hated that you had to go to the pet adoption for *all* your pets. I wanted to be able to have a pet created as part of a family if I chose.)
6) from Unleashed: able to train pets, able to show pets, etc.