OK we all know about sims culling and how it spoils the game. We have been vocal about the culling problem for over a year now and EA just did some fine tuning regarding the townies regeneration and a very subtle increase in the cap limit that is already obsolete for me personally.
This problem is still very much there and there is every day a post or two about it and instead of being completely solved/fixed EA introduces another problem, another culling mechanic that deletes relationships!! Yep its not a bug, its a new culling mechanic. Why? what is going wrong here?
I have noticed after playing few of my rotational houses that the sims in these houses have lost relationships. Some of these might have been just acquainted while others I am sure were more than that.
So the question is, after the so many complaints about sims culling (sims being deleted) why EA has introduced another awful culling technique related to the relationships? I don't understand.
Is it because the relationship panel will take time to load when the sim knows many other sims? Well, EA could give the option of "Forget this sim" "Ignore this sim" instead of game randomly and generically deleting relationships, so that the relationship panel wont be over populated.
I'm not just talking about the game deleting relationships between played sims and townies but played sims and other played sims. This is a setback for my stories. I have to reintroduce the sims again to move on and I know it wont work because after I fix everything and play other houses then return to the first house there will be more relationships lost. So it will be like an endless loop
So now instead of having to deal with one problem "sim culling" we now have to deal with another one too "relationship culling". Good job EA. What will be next? Lots culling? or maybe skill culling?
These are the things that really kill my enthusiasm for this game. Good going EA.
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
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Of course for those not wanting to use mods, it's a very game breaking issue.
Race Against the Clock: Can your elder sim turn back the clock before their time runs out?
I can play at last TS2 TS3 and TS4 So great that toddlers are here!!!
First it was the random romances that would start when rotating away, now relationships have to be redone... I play many households, that is a hassle.
I agree with a comment above, without mods I could not play this game, period. They need to start adding options in settings instead of trying to forcing playstyles onto people. Let the player decide what they want and test the darn game more thoroughly.
Rotation is the main reason I still play this version. It's just set up in an easy way, but these bugs keep messing up progress and story lines.
*There's nothing wrong with loving the Sims 4, there's also nothing wrong with seeking improvements.
A list of Mods I use.|My Sims 4 Mod and CC "Master" post. Helpful Links included.
Blows my mind that this decision was made.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
"Some info regarding this new relationships culling :
- The max number of relationships that a non-played NPC is allowed to have with other NPCs : 10
- The max number of relationships that a played NPC is allowed to have with other NPCs : 20
Exceding those caps will trigger the relationships culling
- When relationships are culled from an NPC relationship tracker due to the number of relationships exceeding the cap, this is how much below the cap the number of relationships will be after the culling : 5
- The relationship depth below which an NPC relationship will be culled, this is for sims that have never been played : 25
- The relationship depth below which an NPC relationship will be culled, this is for sims that have been played in the past : 15
- This is happening between 2am and 5am
There are a couple of conditions that makes Sims completely immune to relationships culling :
- Brother and Sister, Son and Daughter, Grandchild, Grandparent, Parent, Stepsibling, Cousin, Aunt and Uncle, Niece and Nephew, Husband and Wife
- BFF, Good friends
- Divorced, Promised, Engaged, Widow/widower, Married, Significant other, Lovebirds, Lovers, Soulmates, Sweethearts, Total Opposites, Exchanged Numbers
- Enemy, Enemies with benefit,
- First Kiss, Renewing vows, Have done woohoo, Have done woohoo recently, Leave at the altar/Left at the altar, Cheated with, Has been unfaithful, Partners in crime, Getting married, Got cold feet"
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/14391214/#Comment_14391214
It's ridiculous.
Horrid change, terrible decision. Man, EA come on. What are you doing? That's not even half good.
Why should I care if NPCs aren't allowed more than 20 NPC friends? How does this affect my played Sims? And the points you listed said NPCs not Played Sims relationships.
Am I confused? ETA: Second part, if NPC I play has more than 20 NPC relationships they get culled. Why would I care? because I am playing them right? and I would be choosing and probably not let them get involved with that many townies (non played) anyway. Right?
I think it is primarily affecting rotational players.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
Those are just noted "rules". You don't need to care about who an npc knows if you don't want to. That npc may know a lot of people in a players rotation though, but they can only stay knowing 10 of those people. It's probably not the most important thing.
Now for a rotational player (which you might be, not sure I remember) your sims are making friends (and sometimes romances) while you're away and that can easily go past 20. Now there are rules listed for who a sim stays knowing after the relationship culling, but in addition to stripping away friends you might actually care about (but may not want to play) it has also been stripping away (bug I presume) played household friends as well as (in my case, also baby daddies - marked "played").
Btw, sorry if I'm misunderstanding what you're asking.
To add on, when this sim culling took place, my sims were only left knowing some members of their immediate family, no one else. As a rotational player, that's a problem. At least for me and many others (perhaps not everyone), so we've been using a mod to correct that (There are at least 2 I believe)
*There's nothing wrong with loving the Sims 4, there's also nothing wrong with seeking improvements.
A list of Mods I use.|My Sims 4 Mod and CC "Master" post. Helpful Links included.
Sounds more like a bug to me.
But see, that's the real problem - we should NOT need to use any mods.
Esp with the fine print saying they don't technically "support" it.
We pay for the game to work-as-intended.
I would never buy dinnerware that's broken.
(unless I was creating one of those mosaic-tile projects)
Or a broken TV.
So why do I have to settle with the game always "broken"?...
Well, I wouldn't have bought the game if I couldn't use mods - supported or not, but that is a different argument.
The upshot is without that mod, then the game is absolutely broken for me. I find single sim play dull as dishwater. They have made a bad decision here. Technically, the game isn't broken with this decision, but it would certainly be a gamebreaker for me, personally if I couldn't do anything about it, hence why I would have never bought the game without the ability to mod. It is the same reason I bought the latest Fallout on PC and not for my console.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
This is how I feel too. In the beginning I had so many issues with this game and people would tell me "just use mods"... I hated that. I never wanted to use script mods because the game is unfinished and these mods can go unsupported and cause issues (loss of game play elements) when you have to remove them, temporarily or permanently.. I don't like that.
Sadly I think that's just the way things are going to continue to be. There are going to be things we want or dislike and we'll have to rely on our mods. I'm really grateful for the modding community because I could not play (personally) without the mods I have.
*There's nothing wrong with loving the Sims 4, there's also nothing wrong with seeking improvements.
A list of Mods I use.|My Sims 4 Mod and CC "Master" post. Helpful Links included.
Hopefully they provide a fix. And only 20 relationships allowed? Wow! Lazy.