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  • dspvitordspvitor Posts: 45 Member
    @SimGuruEugi We have hall of the apartments or our sims will disappear at the door and appear already at the top?
    Sorry my bad English. Not mastered the language and use a translator to be closer to you.
  • PixelsimmerPixelsimmer Posts: 2,351 Member
    edited September 2016
    IngeJones wrote: »
    IngeJones wrote: »
    Is there any way it could be made so that when you load a family, and it's the middle of the night, they're in bed when the lot finishes loading, or those of them who should be at work or school are at work or school? I always find them on the sidewalk no matter what time of day and they're all flashing red for missing school or work.

    That should be happening already. Were they in bed/at work when you saved the game?

    This is usually after switching households, or going in and out of household management or build mode from map. I do switch households a lot, as I am a kind of rotational player. I know it would be unreasonable to expect for them to be doing particular interactions, but I felt the game would know at least if it was work hours or typical sleeping hours and be able to set them up in a vaguely suitable way upon load.

    Got it. Sounds like something we should investigate. Can @SimGuruNick take note of it?

    Thanks Eugi, yeah we've got a report on this one. It's actually already fixed in a future patch. :)

    That's really great! I've been waiting for a fix to that problem for quite some time! :) thanks a lot!
  • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
    IngeJones wrote: »
    IngeJones wrote: »
    Is there any way it could be made so that when you load a family, and it's the middle of the night, they're in bed when the lot finishes loading, or those of them who should be at work or school are at work or school? I always find them on the sidewalk no matter what time of day and they're all flashing red for missing school or work.

    That should be happening already. Were they in bed/at work when you saved the game?

    This is usually after switching households, or going in and out of household management or build mode from map. I do switch households a lot, as I am a kind of rotational player. I know it would be unreasonable to expect for them to be doing particular interactions, but I felt the game would know at least if it was work hours or typical sleeping hours and be able to set them up in a vaguely suitable way upon load.

    Got it. Sounds like something we should investigate. Can @SimGuruNick take note of it?

    Thanks Eugi, yeah we've got a report on this one. It's actually already fixed in a future patch. :)

    omg you guys deserve some roses! It's been one of the most annoying things for a year or so!
    "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
  • PrincessVeePrincessVee Posts: 1,787 Member
    IngeJones wrote: »
    IngeJones wrote: »
    Is there any way it could be made so that when you load a family, and it's the middle of the night, they're in bed when the lot finishes loading, or those of them who should be at work or school are at work or school? I always find them on the sidewalk no matter what time of day and they're all flashing red for missing school or work.

    That should be happening already. Were they in bed/at work when you saved the game?

    This is usually after switching households, or going in and out of household management or build mode from map. I do switch households a lot, as I am a kind of rotational player. I know it would be unreasonable to expect for them to be doing particular interactions, but I felt the game would know at least if it was work hours or typical sleeping hours and be able to set them up in a vaguely suitable way upon load.

    Got it. Sounds like something we should investigate. Can @SimGuruNick take note of it?

    Thanks Eugi, yeah we've got a report on this one. It's actually already fixed in a future patch. :)
    Woohoo! Thank you so much!
    Intel i7-6700HQ; nvidia gtx970m 3 gb; 1tb HHD and 256gb SSD; my drivers are always up to date.

  • PrincessVeePrincessVee Posts: 1,787 Member
    @SimGuruEugi @SimGuruNick I already posted this question, but you probably didn't see it. Sorry if I'm bothering. But was the has to pee walk animation changed? It seems to be slower and less wiggly than before? Also sims start walking normal even before reaching a toilet.
    Intel i7-6700HQ; nvidia gtx970m 3 gb; 1tb HHD and 256gb SSD; my drivers are always up to date.

  • haecandromehaecandrome Posts: 19 Member
    The limitation I was talking about was about our ability to patch exiting lots by adding/removing objects and build buy structures. That data is defined in what you download, but only matters the first time you play. After you save your game, objects, walls, etc. become part of your save game. That's why we don't patch *those aspects* of worlds.

    As for retrofitting worlds, it's partly a matter of fiction. We wanted San Myshuno to feel very unique, and we put all our world creation efforts there, rather than diving our attention and adding apartments to our suburban worlds.

    Those lots' purpose is to support the active careers they are associated with (and giving birth, for the hospital). If you were to travel there, but not as part of that flow, the venue might not work as you'd expect it to.

    Thanks for these responses, very interesting stuff! It's cool to see what's going on behind the scenes and actually understand what's going on in the game we're playing. I personally agree that it's nicer to have a big, thriving world with apartments than just an apartment "district" in the worlds we already have, was mainly just seeing if the current worlds that have been released have the option to be expanded in the future if you guys felt like it was appropriate. Also thanks for satiating my GTW world curiosity!
  • mrnhmathmrnhmath Posts: 750 Member
    Gurus, there's any reason on why the employee limit on retails, which is 3, is so low?
  • MicemSimsMicemSims Posts: 463 Member
    There were a lot of discussions, but I wasn't involved in them.

    Everything is possible. The question is whether or not we *should* do something, and what we end up *not* doing instead. There's a big difference between a "City Living" expansion pack and a "Make Apartment Buildings" expansion. We were going for the former. Some players will like it more, some players will like it less.

    We can't convince you that you'll like something just by talking about it. What we can do is put out what we think is a great product and hope that you'll give it a shot :)

    So does this mean there's still a chance for completely customisable/buildable apartments to be added into the game at some point too?

    Also thanks for the explanations, I really appreciate you taking the time.
  • SimburianSimburian Posts: 6,907 Member
    @SimGuruEugi I spend a long time trying to get my roof components to fit in properly without raising, lowering bits - to avoid them looking ugly and disconnected. Would it be possible for a type of "reconcile edges" (choosing which sections to connect)? I don't mean the automatic placing of roofs as in the previous game.
  • DavidMak89DavidMak89 Posts: 105 Member
    edited September 2016
    I really hope will get regular elevator back in next future pack.....really :/
    Post edited by DavidMak89 on
  • celipoesiascelipoesias Posts: 433 Member
    edited September 2016
    @SimGuruEugi I understand the lots are not manipulable after a save-game because they are part of the my own game. But... and the public areas of the world? The areas that are off the lot, you can add things or modify them?

    I've seen two changes of worlds happen before my eyes in a save-game that I have since the game was released. Can you tell me about this? I did a post with pictures, a few months, ago showing what were the changes that affected my original current save-game that I play since september 2014

    You can see the images here: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/14975194/#Comment_14975194



    Post edited by celipoesias on
    tenor.gif
  • FeyonaFeyona Posts: 145 Member
    SimguruEugi, thank for taking your time to answer many questions.
    There is another one that I think many players would love to get an answer for. Will we ever get spiral staircase in the game? Is it possible? Have you discussed this before? They are so sophisticated and require less space than regular stairs.

    Thank you in advance.
  • jackjack_kjackjack_k Posts: 8,601 Member
    BeSims wrote: »
    @SimGuruEugi, are you able to shed any light on the decision to confine apartments to San Myshunu and not allow the building of apartments from scratch? I think it would go far in helping players understand why these restrictions exist. Thanks! :)

    You can think of an apartment building as a neighborhood. They are authored by our world creation team as part of the world we ship for the EP. (We actually can't patch worlds without invalidating saves).

    If we had allowed the creation of apartment buildings from Build/Buy, we would not have been able to achieve the look we were going for. For instance, B/B limits construction to five floors, but you want buildings to look like they have many more than that, so you can look over the city skyline.

    There are also performance implications. You might want a building to look like it has, say, hundreds of windows and small items of decor. If those were actual B/B objects, they would all count against our performance metrics.

    We also allow multiple households to inhabit the same building. So we'd have to add some element that would have allowed players to define the boundaries of an apartment. If it wasn't properly authored (e.g. lacking front doors), some game functionality might not work.

    So we reached what we think is a good compromise. We modeled "shells," which are apartment buildings that look great but are technically one object, and then we allowed B/B operations inside it.

    I can answer more specific tech questions if you have any.

    If they listen to the community, because they do not liberate the possibility from creating apartments, was what more he was wishing and what more has disappointed me, I have almost 6 lots with apartments from the announcement and I took a big disappointment with the second trailer. I feel my English belong to the community Simmer of Spain, he would be grateful to him very much if he could answer :(

    We do listen. If we didn't listen, we wouldn't be here. Many players want many different things. If we not only listened, but actually executed on what every single player wanted, we'd have to ship thousands of versions of the game. Part of our job is gathering all the feedback and come up with a product that's feasible and satisfies the most common case.

    If we concentrated all our efforts on delivering a pack that was all about building apartments, then it'd be unfair to those players that care less about building and more about storytelling, for example. If you're all about building, I think you'll really enjoy penthouses and what's going to be in the pack. And if you're not into building at all, you'll also get a lot of enjoyment out of City Living. There's something there for everyone. That's what listening is all about.

    @SimGuruEugi Going on that reasoning I have to ask. Other versions of the Sims managed to support many play styles plus having many creative tools. Why were decisions made so that this time around so many creative tools were cut and several play styles ignored?

    Not necessarily true.

    For example, World Adventures was 90% a Linear RPG. And other Expansions followed. Not everyone's cup of tea.
    Builders couldn't build a lot of comminity lots in The Sims 3.
    In fact, if memory serves correct, builders can actually build more community lots as of Dine Out (19 months), than they could 18 months into The Sims 3.
    In fact, The Sims 4 will most probably beat The Sims 3 for most amount of buildable non-residential lots in the game, giving builders a huge advantage over 3.

    So far, it's just Apartments that builders cannot build.
    They couldn't build outside a shell in 3 either.
    But there was a lot of stuff builders couldn't build in 3.
    So it's not as if builders are ignored this iteration. Just in 30% of this pack (they can still build Penthouses and Community Lots).
  • orangeplumboborangeplumbob Posts: 1,102 Member
    @SimGuruEugi, are you able to shed any light on the decision to confine apartments to San Myshunu and not allow the building of apartments from scratch? I think it would go far in helping players understand why these restrictions exist. Thanks! :)

    You can think of an apartment building as a neighborhood. They are authored by our world creation team as part of the world we ship for the EP. (We actually can't patch worlds without invalidating saves).

    If we had allowed the creation of apartment buildings from Build/Buy, we would not have been able to achieve the look we were going for. For instance, B/B limits construction to five floors, but you want buildings to look like they have many more than that, so you can look over the city skyline.

    There are also performance implications. You might want a building to look like it has, say, hundreds of windows and small items of decor. If those were actual B/B objects, they would all count against our performance metrics.

    We also allow multiple households to inhabit the same building. So we'd have to add some element that would have allowed players to define the boundaries of an apartment. If it wasn't properly authored (e.g. lacking front doors), some game functionality might not work.

    So we reached what we think is a good compromise. We modeled "shells," which are apartment buildings that look great but are technically one object, and then we allowed B/B operations inside it.

    I can answer more specific tech questions if you have any.

    Ok @SimGuruEugi, can we delete the shells and say put different shells down and build all new apartments in this new sim world? I am currently building all my worlds as blank slates. What if I don't like a specific shell? Can I change it out for a different one?

    Second, can I delete the entire "apartment" inside the building. Meaning start from scratch on the specific apartment space? All the walls? Or all the apartments given a certain type of space and you can only change let's say what is inside a 20x20 wall box. I'd be okay if we can wipe the "lots" within the buildings and start there from scratch.

    You can't delete the shells from regular gameplay.

    You can delete all the of an apartment's inside walls, and you can freely build on all apartments in a building.

    Thank you for answering my questions. This does help. As much as I am disappointed in not being able to build apartments, I am actually really excited about this pack.

    One last question, can you build commercial lots in the shells rather than apartments? I know the penthouse lot can be, but I was wondering about inside the shell building. It'd be kind of cool to use one of the buildings as a mall.
  • egwarhammeregwarhammer Posts: 5,752 Member
  • PixelPrincezzPixelPrincezz Posts: 321 Member
    @SimGuruEugi I'm sorry to ask that since is not actually a tech question but I was wondering about City Living expansion, if you don't mind me asking, I realized there will be cockroaches and rats in some apartments, right? Can they harm our sims in any way or they just scare sims off? How can our sims get rid of them, and are there any other pests coming with the EP?

    Thank you very much ;)
    “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ― Oscar Wilde
    EA ID: PixelPrincezz
    90dia7ml8p6n.jpg
  • simgirl1010simgirl1010 Posts: 35,709 Member
    @SimGuruEugi I'm sorry to ask that since is not actually a tech question but I was wondering about City Living expansion, if you don't mind me asking, I realized there will be cockroaches and rats in some apartments, right? Can they harm our sims in any way or they just scare sims off? How can our sims get rid of them, and are there any other pests coming with the EP?

    Thank you very much ;)

    I was also wondering what effect they will have on our sims. There's an apartment living live stream tomorrow so hopefully we'll get some answers.
  • Forest_NinjaForest_Ninja Posts: 1,181 Member
    @SimGuruEugi I'm sorry to ask that since is not actually a tech question but I was wondering about City Living expansion, if you don't mind me asking, I realized there will be cockroaches and rats in some apartments, right? Can they harm our sims in any way or they just scare sims off? How can our sims get rid of them, and are there any other pests coming with the EP?

    Thank you very much ;)

    I was also wondering what effect they will have on our sims. There's an apartment living live stream tomorrow so hopefully we'll get some answers.

    Oh boy! Now we'll all get to see what elevators do!
    "Video gaming began as an engineer's hobby and a means of creative expression for those of higher technical inclination. It is expected that those who are capable of higher engineering-related achievements will see value, in electronic entertainment products, where others see failure." -Sasquatch
  • PrincessVeePrincessVee Posts: 1,787 Member
    @SimGuruEugi I'm sorry to ask that since is not actually a tech question but I was wondering about City Living expansion, if you don't mind me asking, I realized there will be cockroaches and rats in some apartments, right? Can they harm our sims in any way or they just scare sims off? How can our sims get rid of them, and are there any other pests coming with the EP?

    Thank you very much ;)

    I was also wondering what effect they will have on our sims. There's an apartment living live stream tomorrow so hopefully we'll get some answers.

    there's a live stream tomorrow? who said that?
    Intel i7-6700HQ; nvidia gtx970m 3 gb; 1tb HHD and 256gb SSD; my drivers are always up to date.

  • EmmaVaneEmmaVane Posts: 7,847 Member
    @SimGuruEugi I'm sorry to ask that since is not actually a tech question but I was wondering about City Living expansion, if you don't mind me asking, I realized there will be cockroaches and rats in some apartments, right? Can they harm our sims in any way or they just scare sims off? How can our sims get rid of them, and are there any other pests coming with the EP?

    Thank you very much ;)

    I was also wondering what effect they will have on our sims. There's an apartment living live stream tomorrow so hopefully we'll get some answers.

    there's a live stream tomorrow? who said that?

  • SimsILikeSimsSimsILikeSims Posts: 1,634 Member
    IngeJones wrote: »
    IngeJones wrote: »
    Is there any way it could be made so that when you load a family, and it's the middle of the night, they're in bed when the lot finishes loading, or those of them who should be at work or school are at work or school? I always find them on the sidewalk no matter what time of day and they're all flashing red for missing school or work.

    That should be happening already. Were they in bed/at work when you saved the game?

    This is usually after switching households, or going in and out of household management or build mode from map. I do switch households a lot, as I am a kind of rotational player. I know it would be unreasonable to expect for them to be doing particular interactions, but I felt the game would know at least if it was work hours or typical sleeping hours and be able to set them up in a vaguely suitable way upon load.

    Usually this is after a patch, or after I have edited townies outfits then rotated households. They were in bed or at work before the rotation. Moreover, even if I send a SIM back to work or school immediately, they still get bad performance that day.
    I have been playing The Sims since 2001, when Livin Large came out. My avatar deliberately looks like Chris Roomies from TS1.
  • Livin in SimLivin in Sim Posts: 1,145 Member
    IngeJones wrote: »
    IngeJones wrote: »
    Is there any way it could be made so that when you load a family, and it's the middle of the night, they're in bed when the lot finishes loading, or those of them who should be at work or school are at work or school? I always find them on the sidewalk no matter what time of day and they're all flashing red for missing school or work.

    That should be happening already. Were they in bed/at work when you saved the game?

    This is usually after switching households, or going in and out of household management or build mode from map. I do switch households a lot, as I am a kind of rotational player. I know it would be unreasonable to expect for them to be doing particular interactions, but I felt the game would know at least if it was work hours or typical sleeping hours and be able to set them up in a vaguely suitable way upon load.

    Got it. Sounds like something we should investigate. Can @SimGuruNick take note of it?

    Thanks Eugi, yeah we've got a report on this one. It's actually already fixed in a future patch. :)

    You, sirs, are gentlemen and scholars!
  • RobertaSimRobertaSim Posts: 3 New Member
    @SimGuruEugi Is it possible (for you) the characteristics of the world San Myshuno to transfer (only in respect of the apartment buildings) to the world Magnolia Promenade?
  • N0NoTToN0NN0NoTToN0N Posts: 1,024 Member
    Thanks so much @SimGuruEugi for so much patience and taking your time to answer all these questions.

    I have a few questions prompted by the relationship decay that has been recently introduced.
    1. Are there any plans for it to be dialed back at all, if so how much and when? (on a personal note, I was thoroughly enjoying the rotational play style {huge selling point for me to stick with the franchise} with TS4...way more than I remember with TS2)
    2. if not,
      ............. What is the current rate in sim time?
      ..............Can the "Beloved Reward trait" be fixed? (It has really been taunting me since the decay...like trying to Jedi mind trick it to work, taunting me)
    3. In the future can we have some warning when game changing aspects are going to be implemented? It would be helpful to know when the "rules of the game" change.
    4. (This might not be the place for this, but...) Would it be possible to have a data gathering place on the forum for Gurus to get a more accurate feel for what the community wants by percentage? I've responded to surveys when they pop up from Origin but something real time where a guru can see what topics are being currently brought up by the community and create a post...a mini survey where people can click "yes" or "no"? Not a discussion thread...just vote counts.
      ...........Since everyone is entitled to things they want in the game but how much and at who/what expense is always the debate, it may even help (or maybe not :/ ) the community get a feel for the direction of the game a head of time without a lot of drama and battling feelings of entitlement.

      Thanks so much again for your time. I truly appreciate everyone who works on a game...especially a sims game, I wouldn't trade those headaches for the world.
    19172275569_bb0181ed75.jpgGingerThyme; by T Reece, on Flickr

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