Mods and CC are better than the actual game content «12...Next Go

bixters

Something I've noticed with this iteration of the Sims is that the work of modders and CC creators has far exceeded the work of EA/ Maxis.

While EA's content is terribly slow to release and often lackluster, the content created by the community has shown more depth, style and ingenuity than anything EA has put out for the Sims 4 to date. Mods and customer content have always been a part of the Sims, ever since the Sims 1, but at no other point in its history have I seen the content they create so completely overshadow the content released by EA.

Mods such as MC Command Center, Less Musical Chairs, Zirbu's Happy Buffs to Fine and many others have helped stabilize the game and get rid of annoying bugs that Maxis rarely fixes. Mods such as MC Woohoo, Risky Woohoo, Road to Fame, Extreme Violence, Go to School, Go to College, Playable Careers, Self-Employed, Turbo Careers, as well as mods adding zodiac signs, gender preferences, more than 3 traits and favorite foods have added countless content and depth to what is still a game that is lacking content. Other mods have added new vacation destinations such Tropical Getaway, as well as supernaturals such as fairies, witches, sorcerers, mermaids, functional robots and most recently zombies. They recently created several additional small pets to the game to make up for the lack of them in the deplorably bad "My First Pet Stuff." Even more groundbreaking, modders are experimenting with online Multiplayer, specifically this user- https://www.youtube.com/user/iampokemonnumber1fan, and it is expected to be released soon.

EA/Maxis should really be embarrassed about this. Modders and CC creators are releasing content faster and often superior to what EA is actually releasing. They don't even acknowledge how important modders are to this game. Games such as Planet Coaster and Cities Skylines praise and exhibit the work of their Custom Content creators, showing it off on their social media, as well as making it available directly available to the user from the game itself through "Workshops." Even companies like Bethesda listen to and sometimes collaborate with modders and CC creators in order to make their games better.

And yet, EA is silent. They don't acknowledge their efforts, and they don't ask for their advice or opinions on the game. Content for the Sims 4 comes out incredibly slowly, little gameplay is added, and what is added reeks of little effort or thought. Of the packs we've received, the only notable ones have been Dine Out, Parenthood, Get Together (only because of the group system), and Vampires. Modders and CC creators are forced to make up for EA'a failures, and yet they receive no appreciation.

Seriously, EA, you need to either start pushing out more quality content, or you should embrace the modding and CC community and acknowledge their efforts. It doesn't help your image when they release content faster and often better than yours. Either release better content or embrace the modding community.

Because the path your going down now looks quite bleak...

Vriyaya

I actually disagree. Mods and CC are great, but to expect that any company is going to be able to match the volume work that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of individuals are willing to do for free on their own time sounds silly to me. Thats not just in regards to this game but any game with a large modding community.
Take Skyrim for example... the vanilla game is very highly rated. Yet most people play it with mods. Having a community of modders doesn't come across to me as a reason any company should be ashamed of their game.

bixters

Vriyaya wrote: »

I actually disagree. Mods and CC are great, but to expect that any company is going to be able to match the volume work that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of individuals are willing to do for free on their own time sounds silly to me. Thats not just in regards to this game but any game with a large modding community.
Take Skyrim for example... the vanilla game is very highly rated. Yet most people play it with mods. Having a community of modders doesn't come across to me as a reason any company should be ashamed of their game.

The problem is that the mods are BETTER than the game. Skyrim was a good game without mods, the Sims 4 is not. Why should modders be expected to make a mediocre game better when the developers (EA) is unable to do it themselves, or at least acknowledge their efforts?

Vriyaya

bixters wrote: »

Vriyaya wrote: »

I actually disagree. Mods and CC are great, but to expect that any company is going to be able to match the volume work that thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of individuals are willing to do for free on their own time sounds silly to me. Thats not just in regards to this game but any game with a large modding community.
Take Skyrim for example... the vanilla game is very highly rated. Yet most people play it with mods. Having a community of modders doesn't come across to me as a reason any company should be ashamed of their game.

The problem is that the mods are BETTER than the game. Skyrim was a good game without mods, the Sims 4 is not. Why should modders be expected to make a mediocre game better when the developers (EA) is unable to do it themselves, or at least acknowledge their efforts?

That's just another point of disagreement then. (I'm not trying to argue, I respect your opinion ) I've been playing Skyrim since 2012 and have almost always had it modded, whereas with TS4 I don't use any of the mods you mentioned except MCCC, and I only use that one to have quick access to certain cheats and to use the flags.

Where I do agree though is when it comes to mods that are major bugfixes. I feel like bugfixes should be top priority on EA's side and we shouldn't have to mod fixes for them into our games.

bixters

Vriyaya wrote: »

....I've been playing Skyrim since 2012 and have almost always had it modded, whereas with TS4 I don't use any of the mods you mentioned except MCCC, and I only use that one to have quick access to certain cheats and to use the flags.
Where I do agree though is when it comes to mods that are major bugfixes. I feel like bugfixes should be top priority on EA's side and we shouldn't have to mod fixes for them into our games.

I think a lot of mods are used in Skyrim to enhance gameplay, but I feel like the base game is solid. I don't feel the same way about the Sims 4. I think the base game of the Sims 4 was lacking a lot, and even after they released content, most of it hasn't given us substantial gameplay. Which is why many people are critical of this game. A lot of customers now rely on mods and CC to make their game more entertaining while EA slacks off. But we can agree to disagree
I do also agree with you as far as bugs are concerned, EA started ignoring gamebreaking bugs in the Sims 3, and now they keep doing it now. And we have to rely on modders to fix those bugs because of their laziness. I don't understand why they don't collaborate with modders to fix them, since they clearly know what they're doing.

SimmerNickYT

Personally I'm not very active in the modding community at all, so I don't have a lot of knowledge of which mods are good and how good they are. But from my viewpoint I really agree. Just look at how a modder finished the MFP Stuff Pack by adding way way more reskins and recolours of the rodent cages. There are also some amazing CC creators who create such great items that we haven't seen in the game. Like two-tile windows and doors and a multi-level stained glass window.
Edit: I prefer to play my game and to build without CC which is very doable, but sometimes I like to try things out and just seeing what is possible without downloading is great to see.

TheGoodOldGamer

That's debateable. I play vanilla just fine, and this is the first Sims games I've played where I haven't felt any need for mods or CC at all.

cactusjuice

TheGoodOldGamer wrote: »

That's debateable. I play vanilla just fine, and this is the first Sims games I've played where I haven't felt any need for mods or CC at all.

Curious to know how is it that mods aren't better when you haven't used them? Personally I say the MODS are far superior, they always have been in Sims history, but its really the first time that they are needed to almost fully fix the game rather than just enhance it...

Hermitgirl

Something I've noticed with this iteration is that the work of modders is very often spectacularly good. I think... or it seems the way they produced this game has given them easier access to creating streamlined animations for example. Mostly things are that are picked the modding community are things that would discourage player choice or a certain play style if put in a general game.. or would cause instability in the game for many users because the game is built to run well on many systems.
Then of course we have the golden reason.... it would of course raise the rating of the game to a level higher than teen... kind of a no brainer why some mods that have always been created for the sims aren't part of the general game. At least I would think so anyway. I mean duh. Really.
Seriously EA thank you for making it so easy to create a mod... now I have to say on some level the patching is a different story it does take work to keep mods up to date. But .. well thank you also for the bug fixes ect when patching so often. It causes some work and headache but in the long run it's worth it. Personally I'm so glad that this particular iteration is so mod friendly that these creations can come to light. I have big hopes for the future as more is added in.

cactusjuice

I sometimes think Maxis is relying on modders to fill the gaps for them...

Jouvay

cactusjuice wrote: »

TheGoodOldGamer wrote: »

That's debateable. I play vanilla just fine, and this is the first Sims games I've played where I haven't felt any need for mods or CC at all.

Curious to know how is it that mods aren't better when you haven't used them? Personally I say the MODS are far superior, they always have been in Sims history, but its really the first time that they are needed to almost fully fix the game rather than just enhance it...

You didn't use NRAS' mods in Sims3?

MCComand is its equivalent in TS4.

cactusjuice

No never used that did however use MCC though. The, almost rhetorical, question I would ask is would you play S4 without MCC

Jouvay

cactusjuice wrote: »

No never used that did however use MCC though. The, almost rhetorical, question I would ask is would you play S4 without MCC

Well that's easily answered since I have my preferences - I love mods, and I love well done CC.

And I'd never boot up TS4 without MCC in much the same way I would never play TS3 without NRAS' modules.

cactusjuice

True but back to the original question it does seem that MCC and the like have exceeded the tools etc that Maxis/EA gave us

Jouvay

cactusjuice wrote: »

True but back to the original question it does seem that MCC and the like have exceeded the tools etc that Maxis/EA gave us

yup I agree.

And I'll give you this... I could understand TS3 needing modding tools to fix some issues: It's a simulation in an open world. I'm just surprised TS4 would have stability issues to the extent that it needed an MCC.

In any case, I've just accepted at this point that modding is essential to a stress-free simming experience in my game.

Shadowmarked

I've never used mods or cc in any sims game, so I don't know if stuff is good or not, but showcasing cc creators work would be neat. Especially since there is a large group of simmers that do use them.

peeangg

I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I remember a guru maybe(?) saying that they're leaving sort of "hooks" in the code for modders to pick up on and make it easier to create more content and add features so they can focus on what they think needs to be done. That might be why the mods are doing so well, they made it easier to modify the game. If this is true then I'd be super disappointed, but also kinda glad they did it. Disappointed because they're not just adding it to the game themselves and relying on the community to do it instead, but glad because they're at least acknowledging the issue and letting the community help. Again, my memory might be completely wrong about this so don't take my word as fact.

Gonna have to agree with you about the base game lacking. It reminds me of what LGR said about how all the packs do is introduce new ways to do things we could already do, while not actually adding new gameplay mechanics themselves. This kinda weakens it by oversimplifying the game.

Cinebar

That's the way it's always been. Modders are free to use higher polys, for cc hair and clothes etc. Some don't pay attention to the faces/verticles and polys, until they start to lag out the game. lol Maxis has a rule to stick to lower polys for things like hair. Sims walking around with 35,000 polys of cc hair all day, every day, is too much of a strain on machines. Then think of that hair and if it is townified to where all the Sims in game could be wearing it. Performance issues do influence what is high poly or low in any game. As far as modders creating mods people like to use, it's always been that way. To remove, improve or totally change a game. I'm not sure I agree with you about Maxis should be ashamed. They have a route they have to follow, not sure I agree with their 'vision' about TS4 but modders have been where to go when you want something to work differently or even add custom animations and situations.

Even Will Wright was amazed by what content creators and modders could do way back in TS1, and would download player content (mods and cc) and try them out and play the game with them installed. lol It's no shame for Maxis, in my opinion , that modders can make some amazing stuff and mods/hacks but it does matter if they don't (or wouldn't) make the game more modder friendly to players.

Katiardguez

bixters wrote: »

Something I've noticed with this iteration of the Sims is that the work of modders and CC creators has far exceeded the work of EA/ Maxis.

While EA's content is terribly slow to release and often lackluster, the content created by the community has shown more depth, style and ingenuity than anything EA has put out for the Sims 4 to date. Mods and customer content have always been a part of the Sims, ever since the Sims 1, but at no other point in its history have I seen the content they create so completely overshadow the content released by EA.

Mods such as MC Command Center, Less Musical Chairs, Zirbu's Happy Buffs to Fine and many others have helped stabilize the game and get rid of annoying bugs that Maxis rarely fixes. Mods such as MC Woohoo, Risky Woohoo, Road to Fame, Extreme Violence, Go to School, Go to College, Playable Careers, Self-Employed, Turbo Careers, as well as mods adding zodiac signs, gender preferences, more than 3 traits and favorite foods have added countless content and depth to what is still a game that is lacking content. Other mods have added new vacation destinations such Tropical Getaway, as well as supernaturals such as fairies, witches, sorcerers, mermaids, functional robots and most recently zombies. They recently created several additional small pets to the game to make up for the lack of them in the deplorably bad "My First Pet Stuff." Even more groundbreaking, modders are experimenting with online Multiplayer, specifically this user- https://www.youtube.com/user/iampokemonnumber1fan, and it is expected to be released soon.

EA/Maxis should really be embarrassed about this. Modders and CC creators are releasing content faster and often superior to what EA is actually releasing. They don't even acknowledge how important modders are to this game. Games such as Planet Coaster and Cities Skylines praise and exhibit the work of their Custom Content creators, showing it off on their social media, as well as making it available directly available to the user from the game itself through "Workshops." Even companies like Bethesda listen to and sometimes collaborate with modders and CC creators in order to make their games better.

And yet, EA is silent. They don't acknowledge their efforts, and they don't ask for their advice or opinions on the game. Content for the Sims 4 comes out incredibly slowly, little gameplay is added, and what is added reeks of little effort or thought. Of the packs we've received, the only notable ones have been Dine Out, Parenthood, Get Together (only because of the group system), and Vampires. Modders and CC creators are forced to make up for EA'a failures, and yet they receive no appreciation.

Seriously, EA, you need to either start pushing out more quality content, or you should embrace the modding and CC community and acknowledge their efforts. It doesn't help your image when they release content faster and often better than yours. Either release better content or embrace the modding community.

Because the path your going down now looks quite bleak...

Modders and Cc Creator do an excellent job everyday and they deserve all the acknowledgements and praise for not only creating but maintaining their creations updated. At the same time the cc and mods can be enjoy because EA has allow the game to be mods/cc content friendly. One goes with the other. The modders and cc creator wouldn't be able to make any mods or cc if Ea hadn't created the game and allow it to be custom content friendly.

Goldmoldar

If the developer does not respond to fix problems within the game and the modders do. I tip my hat to the modder because mods do not only go beyond features it is also used to fix problems temporarily until the developer gets to it. I have no clue on how to make mods but it appears some knows how EA/Maxis code and are able to work it. If EA/Maxis did not allow mods and they do not fix bugs in an timely manner there would be a whole lot more people complaining.

Chazzzy

One thing I will say is that the CAS options are much better in this game. I really don’t need too many CC clothing items. I add them just because for a little more flavor but I do actually like CAS items included in the game.

I do feel like the gameplay features are lacking, and the majority of my mods are fixes for things that aren’t working the way I believe they should and more custom careers.

Sagittarius_Dreamer4

@Chazzzy I feel the same way. I play vanilla, but have used mods in the past, and in CAS I've never felt the need for items. As far as game play MCCC amongst others (polarbearsims for example) was something that I used in my game that added a lot to what I desired.

catitude5

bixters wrote: »

Something I've noticed with this iteration of the Sims is that the work of modders and CC creators has far exceeded the work of EA/ Maxis.

While EA's content is terribly slow to release and often lackluster, the content created by the community has shown more depth, style and ingenuity than anything EA has put out for the Sims 4 to date. Mods and customer content have always been a part of the Sims, ever since the Sims 1, but at no other point in its history have I seen the content they create so completely overshadow the content released by EA.

Mods such as MC Command Center, Less Musical Chairs, Zirbu's Happy Buffs to Fine and many others have helped stabilize the game and get rid of annoying bugs that Maxis rarely fixes. Mods such as MC Woohoo, Risky Woohoo, Road to Fame, Extreme Violence, Go to School, Go to College, Playable Careers, Self-Employed, Turbo Careers, as well as mods adding zodiac signs, gender preferences, more than 3 traits and favorite foods have added countless content and depth to what is still a game that is lacking content. Other mods have added new vacation destinations such Tropical Getaway, as well as supernaturals such as fairies, witches, sorcerers, mermaids, functional robots and most recently zombies. They recently created several additional small pets to the game to make up for the lack of them in the deplorably bad "My First Pet Stuff." Even more groundbreaking, modders are experimenting with online Multiplayer, specifically this user- https://www.youtube.com/user/iampokemonnumber1fan, and it is expected to be released soon.

EA/Maxis should really be embarrassed about this. Modders and CC creators are releasing content faster and often superior to what EA is actually releasing. They don't even acknowledge how important modders are to this game. Games such as Planet Coaster and Cities Skylines praise and exhibit the work of their Custom Content creators, showing it off on their social media, as well as making it available directly available to the user from the game itself through "Workshops." Even companies like Bethesda listen to and sometimes collaborate with modders and CC creators in order to make their games better.

And yet, EA is silent. They don't acknowledge their efforts, and they don't ask for their advice or opinions on the game. Content for the Sims 4 comes out incredibly slowly, little gameplay is added, and what is added reeks of little effort or thought. Of the packs we've received, the only notable ones have been Dine Out, Parenthood, Get Together (only because of the group system), and Vampires. Modders and CC creators are forced to make up for EA'a failures, and yet they receive no appreciation.

Seriously, EA, you need to either start pushing out more quality content, or you should embrace the modding and CC community and acknowledge their efforts. It doesn't help your image when they release content faster and often better than yours. Either release better content or embrace the modding community.

Because the path your going down now looks quite bleak...

I couldn't agree with you more. I like to build and decided to build my own houses from now on. I use a lot of custom content because I want my creations to be unique, no the same things in every house, how boring. I try to keep mods that change the game to a minimum because when they come out with something new, they are like a bull in a china shop, breaking everything in sight. I'd like to have more of those but I know they will just break them.

princess_kaguya

bixters wrote: »

And yet, EA is silent. They don't acknowledge their efforts, and they don't ask for their advice or opinions on the game.

theyre ashamed cuz we make better content

DragonCat159

And without mobs, half of the fanbase wouldn't be here with us, long enough to be entertained with TS4. Heck, I always stumble across a comment in the forums saying modding is the only thing that keeps them playing TS4 as the vanilla game alone became a bore and unplayable to them. I personally for that reason alone won't consider modding TS4 any time soon until core (though unlikely) gets improved, but I am inspired to start learning how to and to create good mods for TS2 and TS3.

zap608

As I a creator I am delighted by the above comments, thank you EA wont pay for copyrights. We take textures and ideas and make what we want too because we can. Objects are nothing more than lines really they dont exist but the ideas and pictures are owned by manufacturers and artists and so they want payment for them.
The Sims 2 however, did have some awesome stuff. The detail was better and a lot more work was put into objects on that game than this. My favourite has to be the Energiser. I took that in Blender and had a good look, awesome peice of kit.