Here's my bet, everyone remember it. You guys ready?
You talk to the Romance Guru, he gives you a reading of some kind, and then you get!!!!!!!
A moodlet buff. Happy, Sad, Angry, Flirty, etc etc. He gives moodlet buffs. Because as we all know, EA clearly hasn't explored and copy-pasted the moods system enough already.
I hope I'm wrong, and if I am, I expect that he either makes it so the next Sim your sim speaks to gets an automatic boost to their relationship (or bestows an interaction on your sim that does the same; the trailer looked like maybe the festival awards a temporary new social interaction), or he matches you with another existing Sim. If I'm right about the moodlet buffs though...? I better not ever hear another word from any users here about how I'm "just being negative," cause yeah, that'd be proof that's not the case.
maybe his like sims 2 matchmakr npc would give a random date
That's what I'm thinking, will choose a random date or love potion. Meh... I'd rather have the atteraction system back.
Gosh. I miss that system so much. It would've be perfect to reimplement it now, but I guess not this time around folks.
~I just like lifestates. Is that too much to ask for?~
The festivals look extremely boring it reminds me of Get Together play base game content over and over but in a club! I agree with you they seem to refuse to make many new animations its not bad enough 4 life stages are exactly the same we have to keep rehashing the same content over again in "new ways" for expansions. I guess this is what we should expect when something like a lounge chair would be a main expansion feature as it cost so much because of new animations. I'm sure that's why we will never see toddlers either why put effort when people will buy any low quality product they push out.
Sims 4 went from "You Rule" to "One of the stories we want you to tell"
The festivals look extremely boring it reminds me of Get Together play base game content over and over but in a club! I agree with you they seem to refuse to make many new animations its not bad enough 4 life stages are exactly the same we have to keep rehashing the same content over again in "new ways" for expansions. I guess this is what we should expect when something like a lounge chair would be a main expansion feature as it cost so much because of new animations. I'm sure that's why we will never see toddlers either why put effort when people will buy any low quality product they push out.
Hypothetical question (and I'm not arguing or anything, this is just a genuine curiosity):
Say you are a producer with a limit budget and a deadline. Do you:
1. Make 3 new features but reuse some animations.
2. Make 1 new feature with all new animations.
What I'm basically asking, is what do you value more highly? New features? Or animations?
Of course, both is better. But if I had to chose, I'd chose option 1. But it does depend on the feature itself, there are some features where it would be more important to have the new animation, like romantic social interactions.
I have absolutely no problem with re-using existing content, as long as it is used for a new and interesting purpose and as long as it is accompanied by a healthy dose of new content, commensurate with the price of the pack. Since CL is a full-on EP and pretty expensive, I certainly expect to see a considerable amount of new content - both new objects (like furniture) which normally just use existing animations, as well as brand new features with completely new animations. In short, I expect a fair mix. Having said that, though, I see no reason to think that this will not be the case with CL.
I can see some people here who are very OK with having the same actions/tasks being used as new feature.
For example building the rocket. But it is not that I cannot use the rocket outside my lot right now, I can. I can put the rocket in public areas or I can put the rocket inside a park! And guess what I can create the aura I want by adding aura enabled objects.
The question is what is new about this??? That they created a space and called it festival areas??
I can create festivals in my game this way. Place couple of rockets in a specific lot, plan a party there so I can invite many many sims and at the same time start clubs!!
The question is what do you see new in building rockets??
And as for the animation part I clearly mentioned that EA is trying hard to prevent the need of using any animation in this game. They are avoiding it big time. They want to keep the cost the lowest they can.
Some keep asking me for proof of the things I said ignoring that what I have written is based on the festival trailer. Actually I have even used the same order of things that appeared in the trailer. So if they fail to see the recycled stuff the trailer is showing how else do I expect them to believe my words.
You don't need to believe me and I wont gain anything whether you believe or not. Just watch the trailer and think it over yourself. The trailer has more recycled stuff crammed as festivals than new stuff offered by this EP!
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
Also let me do Ambitions , since Jackie said it was mosty base game content. New town: Twinbrook[6]
New creature: SimBot [7] A SimBot is created by Sims with a high Inventing skill with an opportunity. As well as Inventing SimBots, players can purchase them with 40,000 Lifetime Happiness points.[8]
New mode: Renovation Mode is a variation of Build and Buy Modes and used by the architect to remodel for clients[9]
New Build mode abilities: modify the pitch of individual roof sections and add multistory columns.[7]
New CAS clothes and hairstyles for female and male sims.
3 new skills:
Sculpting: Sims can create sculptures out of ice, metal, clay and wood with another Sim posing for them[7] (Previously seen in The Sims: Bustin' Out).
Inventing: There seems to be a wide variety of inventions. Servos are back as SimBots, along with a time machine. Sims get scraps for inventions from junkyards, a new type of lot, or by blowing things up, or simply just buying scrap.[7]
Tattooing: Players are taken to the tattoo editor where they can choose tattoos with up to five layers, modify their colors, change the size, modify the opacity, and select where to place it: upper, lower, or full back, neck, ankle, chest, stomach, wrist, shoulder, bicep, or forearm.[9] (Previously seen in The Urbz: Sims in the City and The Sims 2 for PS2/Xbox and Gamecube). Tattooing is a hidden skill.
Careers & professions
5 new professions: Architectural Designer, Firefighter, Ghost Hunter, Investigator, and Stylist.
New career track, education[8] and new features added to the existing medicine career track
Sims can become self-employed by going to the city hall after gaining one skill point in a skill career.
Control Sim’s actions and interactions while they’re on the job. According to a member of The Sims 3 staff, Sims will even be able to manage their careers to an extent while the player is not controlling them. "Every career has responsibilities and its own active jobs. Each active job will require [the player's] full attention, but there are still options that allow [the player's] Sim to progress and level up while not controlling them."[10]
On-the-job choices now change the town and affect other Sims as well. Players modify the town’s structure as an architect or set neighborhood fashions as a stylist.
New lifetime wishes:
Home Design Hotshot (Earn 100 top scores for jobs in the Architectural Design profession)
Descendant of da Vinci (master painting, sculpting and inventing)
Fashion Phenomenon (Reach level 10 in the Stylist profession)[11]
Firefighter Super Hero (Save 30 lives on the job)
Paranormal Profiteer (Reach level 10 in the Ghost Hunter profession)
Pervasive Private Eye (Solve 35 cases on the job)
Monster Maker (Create 3 Monsters)[12]
New Lifetime rewards:
Fireproof your home,
Career cash booster,[12]
Artisan crafter (boosts value of invented/sculpted items) [11]
Professional Simolean Booster
Efficient Inventor
Entrepreneurial Mindset, Suave Seller
Fireproof Homestead
My Best Friend
Earthquakes have been added to the game.
Child sims can run bake sales to make money.[13](Also abel to bake more recipes)
New objects: fire engine vehicle, personal fire extinguisher,[14] detonation packs, tattoo chair,[7] lockpicking kit,[12] trampoline and Gnubb set.
Collect scrap from the junkyard, and broken objects for inventing[7]
New upgrades[14]
Six new traits: Savvy Sculptor, Eccentric, Dramatic, Eco-Friendly,[15] Perceptive,[12] and Born Salesman/Saleswoman.[8]
Addition of the consignment shop as a place for Sims to sell their own items (collectibles, sculptures, etc.)[16]
Ability to register at City Hall to be self-employed in a "Skill Career" for the following skills: writing, painting, sculpting, inventing, photography, nectar making, gardening and fishing.[16]
Overhauled real-estate system that lets the player purchase and upgrade any community lot building.[16]
New laundry system. It gives Sims a good moodlet. There are washers and dryers available including one dryer that has a special "surprise."[6]
New Death: death by meteor.[5][17]
New vehicle type: Motorcycle
Messages that appear on the right side of the screen are more organized.
New lots including the consignment store, junkyard, hangout, laundromat, and fire station.[18]
New songs
Why some of the things expanded some base game features . Most of the features, and careers are new.
So... You're comparing festivals to an entire expansion pack?
Almost everything in city living is new...
That was not my intention , Jackie said Free time, and Ambitions were 80 % percent base game content . Which was not true , this was my response to her comments .This was not meant to be compare with city living.
I have absolutely no problem with re-using existing content, as long as it is used for a new and interesting purpose and as long as it is accompanied by a healthy dose of new content, commensurate with the price of the pack. Since CL is a full-on EP and pretty expensive, I certainly expect to see a considerable amount of new content - both new objects (like furniture) which normally just use existing animations, as well as brand new features with completely new animations. In short, I expect a fair mix. Having said that, though, I see no reason to think that this will not be the case with CL.
Yeah, I think a balance is good. I don't expect new animations for every feature, but an expansion does need a few. The basketball must have taken a lot of animation work.
And as for the animation part I clearly mentioned that EA is trying hard to prevent the need of using any animation in this game. They are avoiding it big time. They want to keep the cost the lowest they can.
I do see your point about festivals. I guess we'll see more of those on the live stream and I'll reserve judgement until then. I do really like the flea market though.
On the statement I highlighted above, I'm just going to point out that this is your opinion, and that's fine. Perhaps they are trying to keep animation costs down, I don't know as I'm not privy to their decision making processes, I can't validate or dispute that. It's opinion. However there are evidently new animations in this expansion, I just pointed out basketball as an example, so I don't support your insinuation that they are trying to completely avoid adding new animations completely.
In my opinion, they see to be making production decisions to ensure the cost of new animations is spent in the appropriate places. For interactions where new animations are necessary. And recycling old animations where suitable. I don't see this as cutting corners, but as a clever way of maximising the available resources. Why waste time and money animating something less important, when you could add a whole new, highly requested, feature like basketball?
And if people disagree with me, that's absolutely fine. I'm just rationally imagining what I would do in a situation where I was given a deadline and a budget and had to make tough decisions. Perhaps others would prioritise differently.
I can see some people here who are very OK with having the same actions/tasks being used as new feature.
For example building the rocket. But it is not that I cannot use the rocket outside my lot right now, I can. I can put the rocket in public areas or I can put the rocket inside a park! And guess what I can create the aura I want by adding aura enabled objects.
The question is what is new about this??? That they created a space and called it festival areas??
I can create festivals in my game this way. Place couple of rockets in a specific lot, plan a party there so I can invite many many sims and at the same time start clubs!!
The question is what do you see new in building rockets??
And as for the animation part I clearly mentioned that EA is trying hard to prevent the need of using any animation in this game. They are avoiding it big time. They want to keep the cost the lowest they can.
Some keep asking me for proof of the things I said ignoring that what I have written is based on the festival trailer. Actually I have even used the same order of things that appeared in the trailer. So if they fail to see the recycled stuff the trailer is showing how else do I expect them to believe my words.
You don't need to believe me and I wont gain anything whether you believe or not. Just watch the trailer and think it over yourself. The trailer has more recycled stuff crammed as festivals than new stuff offered by this EP!
I think the trailer makes all those recycled features look new and fun at first glance and people think "oh new things to do outside!! great!" but once they start playing they'll realize there's nothing special about most of those activities and will get bored quickly.
Let's say you've never built a rocket ship in your game and you want to try it out at the new and shiny festival venue. You'll do it once and then what? Play some video games outside? Then what? Take selfies? Are you guys seriously excited to do things you can already do in game just because you'll do it at a different lot?
Spice festival and flea market are the only ones that have some different gameplay but there's still not a lot to do. If you're content with having those 2 festivals go ahead but paying for the stuff we already have and saying it's what you wanted anyway just doesn't make sense to me.
Let's say you've never built a rocket ship in your game and you want to try it out at the new and shiny festival venue. You'll do it once and then what? Play some video games outside? Then what? Take selfies? Are you guys seriously excited to do things you can already do in game just because you'll do it at a different lot?
...
The main point isn't to build a rocket ship. I won't do it once. I'll have a festival scene where I can imagine and play plenty of scenario involving my Sims, a festival and building a rocket ship. It's about storytelling and watching my Sims story unfold.
Let's say you've never built a rocket ship in your game and you want to try it out at the new and shiny festival venue. You'll do it once and then what? Play some video games outside? Then what? Take selfies? Are you guys seriously excited to do things you can already do in game just because you'll do it at a different lot?
...
The main point isn't to build a rocket ship. I won't do it once. I'll have a festival scene where I can imagine and play plenty of scenario involving my Sims, a festival and building a rocket ship. It's about storytelling and watching my Sims story unfold.
That was only an example to doing the same old things. It's the same with humor and romance festivals, we've seen and done it all before. I also love telling stories through sims but doesn't it get boring when you've seen every interaction and gameplay there is and there's not much left to do?
Festivals will be cool for a week at best, then they'll be as ordinary as anything cause they don't have a good amount of new gameplay, that's what I mean.
Let's say you've never built a rocket ship in your game and you want to try it out at the new and shiny festival venue. You'll do it once and then what? Play some video games outside? Then what? Take selfies? Are you guys seriously excited to do things you can already do in game just because you'll do it at a different lot?
...
The main point isn't to build a rocket ship. I won't do it once. I'll have a festival scene where I can imagine and play plenty of scenario involving my Sims, a festival and building a rocket ship. It's about storytelling and watching my Sims story unfold.
This. As someone who plays to tell stories, not to achieve things, this kind of variety is important to my playstyle.
EA CREATOR NETWORK MEMBER — Want to be notified of patches, new Broken Mods threads, and urgent Sims 4 news? Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/luthienrising.
Let's say you've never built a rocket ship in your game and you want to try it out at the new and shiny festival venue. You'll do it once and then what? Play some video games outside? Then what? Take selfies? Are you guys seriously excited to do things you can already do in game just because you'll do it at a different lot?
...
The main point isn't to build a rocket ship. I won't do it once. I'll have a festival scene where I can imagine and play plenty of scenario involving my Sims, a festival and building a rocket ship. It's about storytelling and watching my Sims story unfold.
That was only an example to doing the same old things. It's the same with humor and romance festivals, we've seen and done it all before. I also love telling stories through sims but doesn't it get boring when you've seen every interaction and gameplay there is and there's not much left to do?
Festivals will be cool for a week at best, then they'll be as ordinary as anything cause they don't have a good amount of new gameplay, that's what I mean.
No, it doesn't get boring for me. I'm not playing to achieve something and then I'm done. It's like asking "aren't you bored of eating a good meal if you have already tasted the same thing before". If it's something enjoyable, it doesn't stop being enjoyable when you've done it once. Festivals will be a new tool I'll use, along the rest, for my gameplay.
Let's say you've never built a rocket ship in your game and you want to try it out at the new and shiny festival venue. You'll do it once and then what? Play some video games outside? Then what? Take selfies? Are you guys seriously excited to do things you can already do in game just because you'll do it at a different lot?
...
The main point isn't to build a rocket ship. I won't do it once. I'll have a festival scene where I can imagine and play plenty of scenario involving my Sims, a festival and building a rocket ship. It's about storytelling and watching my Sims story unfold.
That was only an example to doing the same old things. It's the same with humor and romance festivals, we've seen and done it all before. I also love telling stories through sims but doesn't it get boring when you've seen every interaction and gameplay there is and there's not much left to do?
Festivals will be cool for a week at best, then they'll be as ordinary as anything cause they don't have a good amount of new gameplay, that's what I mean.
No, it doesn't get boring for me. I'm not playing to achieve something and then I'm done. It's like asking "aren't you bored of eating a good meal if you have already tasted the same thing before". If it's something enjoyable, it doesn't stop being enjoyable when you've done it once. Festivals will be a new tool I'll use, along the rest, for my gameplay.
I see where you're coming from but the thing is the stories you're telling in game all become similar at one point and what you can do to enhance the story is limited when there isn't enough content.
All sims are already acting the same way which makes it hard to create stories and on top of that we have little new gameplay which means there's not a lot to do to make those sims' stories more unique then others before them. New gameplay adds so much to stories, the more you can do in the game the more stories you can tell. Why wouldn't you want that if you're a storyteller?
I don't like playing to achieve goals either if I wanted that I'd be playing an rpg game not sims. The reason I'm saying it'll get boring after a while is because I've been playing with those same interactions for 2 years and told a good amount of stories with what I had already. I'm just tired of seeing the same things over and over again.
Would it be bad to have new romance interactions for the romance festival? Or new ways to make other sims laugh with the humor festival? That's all I'm asking for, new ways to play and tell stories. Why wouldn't anyone want that?
The cool thing about EP, GP, and SP is that if you don't like the content you don't have to buy it. Sorry I don't have more to offer but sounds like you don't want to spend the money and that's fine. That's the best way to make your point to the seller you are disappointed with their product. Same goes for everyone who wants it, they can buy it and support further content. If so many people are upset with the sims 4, being vocal is good but money talks louder than our forum posts. Stop buying things you don't like and the business will sort itself out.
Well that's an obvious and common sense. Don't like it - don't buy it. But for the record: just cause we hating the ep doesn't mean we aren't allowed voice our complains. Despite the ep sucking so bad, we still care for the sims franchise and therefor we don't like the rough ea is going with its some recent or all content. If we see a game that could have has so much potential but its development isn't taking seriously, we have the urge to keep on improving the whole game with its future stuff and imo we have the right to give our negative but constructive feedback that would help out the game to become the best series in the franchise.
It's nothing new because EA has taken the 2 a.m. infomercial route with the sims... its "new and improved" content is just the same stuff repackaged over and over again with surprise glitter and bling bling font.
Hypothetical question (and I'm not arguing or anything, this is just a genuine curiosity):
Say you are a producer with a limit budget and a deadline. Do you:
1. Make 3 new features but reuse some animations.
2. Make 1 new feature with all new animations.
What I'm basically asking, is what do you value more highly? New features? Or animations?
This argument falls flat on it's face when you recognize that Ambitions for example included more features than Get To Work, thus we are getting both less features and less animations.
I'm sure his complaint spawns from the fact that:
1) The animation pool is really really small for Sims 4; it's less to do with recycling animations so much as it is to do with recycling animations when you have like 5 animations total. If a game has 1000 animations, by all means, cut corners and recycle, but when a conversation between two sims involves my sim doing the same thing over and over and over, that's a problem. That is perhaps NOT a corner you should be cutting until you establish that your game has enough animations.
2) If we are getting both less animations and less features, then what the heck are they doing??? The only logical explanation is that Sims 4's budget is much smaller than Sims 3, and while that would explain all the issues, explaining why they would cut the budget is a mystery in and of itself. The Sims franchise has always been one of EA's biggest cash cows. Even if they expected failure from Sims 4 leading up to release (and they did, remember they withheld press copies and I promise you they did that for a reason), the solution is not to cut funding. That's insane. That's leaving one of your most popular products to wither and die instead of making efforts to rescue it. That decision in and of itself seems illogical, and we don't know for sure that funding was cut/reduced, so for all we know they could conciously doing less work knowing they can still score the same amount of money for a net profit.
I have absolutely no problem with re-using existing content, as long as it is used for a new and interesting purpose and as long as it is accompanied by a healthy dose of new content, commensurate with the price of the pack. Since CL is a full-on EP and pretty expensive, I certainly expect to see a considerable amount of new content - both new objects (like furniture) which normally just use existing animations, as well as brand new features with completely new animations. In short, I expect a fair mix. Having said that, though, I see no reason to think that this will not be the case with CL.
Yeah, I think a balance is good. I don't expect new animations for every feature, but an expansion does need a few. The basketball must have taken a lot of animation work.
And as for the animation part I clearly mentioned that EA is trying hard to prevent the need of using any animation in this game. They are avoiding it big time. They want to keep the cost the lowest they can.
I do see your point about festivals. I guess we'll see more of those on the live stream and I'll reserve judgement until then. I do really like the flea market though.
On the statement I highlighted above, I'm just going to point out that this is your opinion, and that's fine. Perhaps they are trying to keep animation costs down, I don't know as I'm not privy to their decision making processes, I can't validate or dispute that. It's opinion. However there are evidently new animations in this expansion, I just pointed out basketball as an example, so I don't support your insinuation that they are trying to completely avoid adding new animations completely.
In my opinion, they see to be making production decisions to ensure the cost of new animations is spent in the appropriate places. For interactions where new animations are necessary. And recycling old animations where suitable. I don't see this as cutting corners, but as a clever way of maximising the available resources. Why waste time and money animating something less important, when you could add a whole new, highly requested, feature like basketball?
And if people disagree with me, that's absolutely fine. I'm just rationally imagining what I would do in a situation where I was given a deadline and a budget and had to make tough decisions. Perhaps others would prioritise differently.
The karaoke machine,bubble blower,taking toilet and videogame consoles are also using new animations.
Let's say you've never built a rocket ship in your game and you want to try it out at the new and shiny festival venue. You'll do it once and then what? Play some video games outside? Then what? Take selfies? Are you guys seriously excited to do things you can already do in game just because you'll do it at a different lot?
...
The main point isn't to build a rocket ship. I won't do it once. I'll have a festival scene where I can imagine and play plenty of scenario involving my Sims, a festival and building a rocket ship. It's about storytelling and watching my Sims story unfold.
The question is how many stories are you gonna do about rockets? one? two? three?? And if you have a blog or something how many times do you think your audience are going to read a story about rockets?
When watching game reviews made by professional sites one of the main reason they give a low rating to a game when it resorts to repetitiveness!
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
I can see some people here who are very OK with having the same actions/tasks being used as new feature.
For example building the rocket. But it is not that I cannot use the rocket outside my lot right now, I can. I can put the rocket in public areas or I can put the rocket inside a park! And guess what I can create the aura I want by adding aura enabled objects.
The question is what is new about this??? That they created a space and called it festival areas??
I can create festivals in my game this way. Place couple of rockets in a specific lot, plan a party there so I can invite many many sims and at the same time start clubs!!
The question is what do you see new in building rockets??
And as for the animation part I clearly mentioned that EA is trying hard to prevent the need of using any animation in this game. They are avoiding it big time. They want to keep the cost the lowest they can.
Some keep asking me for proof of the things I said ignoring that what I have written is based on the festival trailer. Actually I have even used the same order of things that appeared in the trailer. So if they fail to see the recycled stuff the trailer is showing how else do I expect them to believe my words.
You don't need to believe me and I wont gain anything whether you believe or not. Just watch the trailer and think it over yourself. The trailer has more recycled stuff crammed as festivals than new stuff offered by this EP!
I think the trailer makes all those recycled features look new and fun at first glance and people think "oh new things to do outside!! great!" but once they start playing they'll realize there's nothing special about most of those activities and will get bored quickly.
Let's say you've never built a rocket ship in your game and you want to try it out at the new and shiny festival venue. You'll do it once and then what? Play some video games outside? Then what? Take selfies? Are you guys seriously excited to do things you can already do in game just because you'll do it at a different lot?
Spice festival and flea market are the only ones that have some different gameplay but there's still not a lot to do. If you're content with having those 2 festivals go ahead but paying for the stuff we already have and saying it's what you wanted anyway just doesn't make sense to me.
Spice festivals will have new food which is good but didn't we get dine out already. More is always good but only in case you have a big chunk of other stuff. As for the flea market please mark my words it will be just another gimmick. It might be a new animation but no functionality. You as a seller basically selling your paintings to nobody. The buyer of the paintings and other stuff is just an illusion. Means the sim is not buying anything. It is just an illusion. Yes you will get money but the buyer is not getting the painting. There is no difference between selling paintings right now or selling them in the flea market.
Maybe for the first time players will like to go outside home to sell the painting but once you done it already its novelty just goes away. You will say why even bother to go there to sell when I can sell it here with a click and do other stuff instead?
I love the idea of a flea market but not an illusion one. I want a functional one, a real simulated one where the seller sells and gets the money and the buyer actually buys it and acquire the good in his inventory. I want sim A to buy and have Sim B's goods.
I hate illusions. They are just a pretend thing, a lie thing.
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
Let's say you've never built a rocket ship in your game and you want to try it out at the new and shiny festival venue. You'll do it once and then what? Play some video games outside? Then what? Take selfies? Are you guys seriously excited to do things you can already do in game just because you'll do it at a different lot?
...
The main point isn't to build a rocket ship. I won't do it once. I'll have a festival scene where I can imagine and play plenty of scenario involving my Sims, a festival and building a rocket ship. It's about storytelling and watching my Sims story unfold.
The question is how many stories are you gonna do about rockets? one? two? three?? And if you have a blog or something how many times do you think your audience are going to read a story about rockets?
When watching game reviews made by professional sites one of the main reason they give a low rating to game when it resorts to repetitiveness!
That's no different now than it ever has been. I spent 14 years playing The Sims, Sims 2, and Sims 3 making stories about getting a job, getting married, having babies. Rinse, repeat. Over and over again. Over and over, I used the same careers, the same objects.
So far, I've made one story (for myself - I, like most people, don't play games for an audience) about a rocket: My new Sim moved to this strange new world full of celebrities who didn't seem to know she recognized them (I get a kick out of my celebrity-filled save) and got a job as a Scientist. She started building a rocket at work, but she had GOALS: she wanted to go to Sixam herself, to meet the Aliens she believed in. So she worked harder to make enough money to stick a rocket ship in her front yard (it's a tiny house) and she spent her days off working on it. In the end, she because The Woman Who Brought The Aliens To Town.
For what it's worth, that was many hours of entertainment, all for only forty bucks. By the time I'd finished the Science career and brought the Aliens down from Sixam, I'd more than got my forty bucks' worth of entertainment out of the EP that added value to the basegame rocketship for me. I pay that to go to the movies three times, or for an art book (when I can get one on sale), or for dinner out.
So I'm one rocketship story in, and I don't need another one to get my money's worth. But there are other rocketship stories I could tell! I could, say, tell a story about the poor, Genius kid who lives on the wrong side of the tracks in a one-bedroom apartment where he sleeps in the living room.* They can't afford to move or to buy him books or a computer. School is boring so he doesn't do his homework and cuts a lot. The other school-cutters in his neighborhood are into basketball or graffiti, but he isn't. When he wanders around the city, he stumbles on GeekCon... and on rocketship building. And it changes his life forever. (How it does that remains to be seen... I like to take cues from what I see happening in game, not just come up with everything in advance.)
Anyway, thank you for inspiring a story that will fit really well into my rotational save, in which I'm mostly focused on storytelling about teenagers I'm sure these forum will inspire other rocketships stories for me over the years, but just this one will likely give me enough entertained hours to be worth the $40 cost of the pack. So again, thank you.
*Just an added note: This reminded me so suddenly, after I thought of it, of friends of my kids' growing up, whole families in tiny apartments. One of those friends used to watch me play Sims. His family had a computer, but they didn't have money for games. He'd never played a legit copy with expansions. He was a really nice kid.
EA CREATOR NETWORK MEMBER — Want to be notified of patches, new Broken Mods threads, and urgent Sims 4 news? Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/luthienrising.
I hate illusions. They are just a pretend thing, a lie thing.
So... why do you play video games? You know it's all pretend, right? None of it is a direct correlation to reality. Even educational games designed to help students understand history or geography or politics aren't.
EA CREATOR NETWORK MEMBER — Want to be notified of patches, new Broken Mods threads, and urgent Sims 4 news? Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/luthienrising.
The sims has always been a multi tool thing , a game, a story engine, video engine, architectural engine
This game however is all based on showing things you cant do, own or go to. Like showing cars but not owning them, showing off beautiful parts of the world but not being able to go to them etc.. The game has become less game and more emphasis to be used as a taking picture tool for stories. I love telling stories but I need the game play to enjoy first to be able to tell my stories.
The Sims 4 is turning to scenery only. They care for the look of a tall building more than caring for a functional apartment. They prefer making illusions over giving the player game play options.
In this game they are always preferring a silly feature over an important one. Like how they give your playable sims love interests while the townies cant get married or get pregnant!
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
I hate illusions. They are just a pretend thing, a lie thing.
So... why do you play video games? You know it's all pretend, right? None of it is a direct correlation to reality. Even educational games designed to help students understand history or geography or politics aren't.
Do you know that they are called simulation for a reason right?? If Sims 4 was an RPG that would be fine. But it isn't. It is supposed to be a simulation. Like How Sims 2 buying and selling worked where something leads to another thing!
In Sims 2
Bella paints a painting ====> Bella sells it to Lothario & Gets the money ====> Lothario gets the actual painting and hang it in his house ===> Bella dies ====> Painting value goes up substantially ===> Lothario can sell the painting for a higher price to someone else, maybe to Bella's grandson!
In Sims 4
Bella paints a painting ===> Bella sells it to Lothario and gets the money (End of story). The painting has just disappeared, Did Lothario buy it? No.
Do you see it??? Do you see how a simulation should be?
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
I hate illusions. They are just a pretend thing, a lie thing.
So... why do you play video games? You know it's all pretend, right? None of it is a direct correlation to reality. Even educational games designed to help students understand history or geography or politics aren't.
Do you know that they are called simulation for a reason right?? If Sims 4 was an RPG that would be fine. But it isn't. It is supposed to be a simulation. Like How Sims 2 buying and selling worked where something leads to another thing!
In Sims 2
Bella paints a painting ====> Bella sells it to Lothario & Gets the money ====> Lothario gets the actual painting and hang it in his house ===> Bella dies ====> Painting value goes up substantially ===> Lothario can sell the painting for a higher price to someone else, maybe to Bella's grandson!
In Sims 4
Bella paints a painting ===> Bella sells it to Lothario and gets the money (End of story). The painting has just disappeared, Did Lothario buy it? No.
Do you see it??? Do you see how a simulation should be?
I see one aspect of simulation. Sims 4 improves other aspects for me.
For me, the game is not only one kind of simulation, and it's as much a storytelling tool as a simulation. There have always been limits to what it simulates. They just change from game to game.
Your opinion about what it needs is an opinion, not a fact.
EA CREATOR NETWORK MEMBER — Want to be notified of patches, new Broken Mods threads, and urgent Sims 4 news? Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/luthienrising.
Comments
Gosh. I miss that system so much. It would've be perfect to reimplement it now, but I guess not this time around folks.
Hypothetical question (and I'm not arguing or anything, this is just a genuine curiosity):
Say you are a producer with a limit budget and a deadline. Do you:
1. Make 3 new features but reuse some animations.
2. Make 1 new feature with all new animations.
What I'm basically asking, is what do you value more highly? New features? Or animations?
Of course, both is better. But if I had to chose, I'd chose option 1. But it does depend on the feature itself, there are some features where it would be more important to have the new animation, like romantic social interactions.
I'd like to know what everyone thinks.
For example building the rocket. But it is not that I cannot use the rocket outside my lot right now, I can. I can put the rocket in public areas or I can put the rocket inside a park! And guess what I can create the aura I want by adding aura enabled objects.
The question is what is new about this??? That they created a space and called it festival areas??
I can create festivals in my game this way. Place couple of rockets in a specific lot, plan a party there so I can invite many many sims and at the same time start clubs!!
The question is what do you see new in building rockets??
And as for the animation part I clearly mentioned that EA is trying hard to prevent the need of using any animation in this game. They are avoiding it big time. They want to keep the cost the lowest they can.
Some keep asking me for proof of the things I said ignoring that what I have written is based on the festival trailer. Actually I have even used the same order of things that appeared in the trailer. So if they fail to see the recycled stuff the trailer is showing how else do I expect them to believe my words.
You don't need to believe me and I wont gain anything whether you believe or not. Just watch the trailer and think it over yourself. The trailer has more recycled stuff crammed as festivals than new stuff offered by this EP!
That was my point
Yeah, I think a balance is good. I don't expect new animations for every feature, but an expansion does need a few. The basketball must have taken a lot of animation work.
I do see your point about festivals. I guess we'll see more of those on the live stream and I'll reserve judgement until then. I do really like the flea market though.
On the statement I highlighted above, I'm just going to point out that this is your opinion, and that's fine. Perhaps they are trying to keep animation costs down, I don't know as I'm not privy to their decision making processes, I can't validate or dispute that. It's opinion. However there are evidently new animations in this expansion, I just pointed out basketball as an example, so I don't support your insinuation that they are trying to completely avoid adding new animations completely.
In my opinion, they see to be making production decisions to ensure the cost of new animations is spent in the appropriate places. For interactions where new animations are necessary. And recycling old animations where suitable. I don't see this as cutting corners, but as a clever way of maximising the available resources. Why waste time and money animating something less important, when you could add a whole new, highly requested, feature like basketball?
And if people disagree with me, that's absolutely fine. I'm just rationally imagining what I would do in a situation where I was given a deadline and a budget and had to make tough decisions. Perhaps others would prioritise differently.
I think the trailer makes all those recycled features look new and fun at first glance and people think "oh new things to do outside!! great!" but once they start playing they'll realize there's nothing special about most of those activities and will get bored quickly.
Let's say you've never built a rocket ship in your game and you want to try it out at the new and shiny festival venue. You'll do it once and then what? Play some video games outside? Then what? Take selfies? Are you guys seriously excited to do things you can already do in game just because you'll do it at a different lot?
Spice festival and flea market are the only ones that have some different gameplay but there's still not a lot to do. If you're content with having those 2 festivals go ahead but paying for the stuff we already have and saying it's what you wanted anyway just doesn't make sense to me.
The main point isn't to build a rocket ship. I won't do it once. I'll have a festival scene where I can imagine and play plenty of scenario involving my Sims, a festival and building a rocket ship. It's about storytelling and watching my Sims story unfold.
That was only an example to doing the same old things. It's the same with humor and romance festivals, we've seen and done it all before. I also love telling stories through sims but doesn't it get boring when you've seen every interaction and gameplay there is and there's not much left to do?
Festivals will be cool for a week at best, then they'll be as ordinary as anything cause they don't have a good amount of new gameplay, that's what I mean.
This. As someone who plays to tell stories, not to achieve things, this kind of variety is important to my playstyle.
No, it doesn't get boring for me. I'm not playing to achieve something and then I'm done. It's like asking "aren't you bored of eating a good meal if you have already tasted the same thing before". If it's something enjoyable, it doesn't stop being enjoyable when you've done it once.
I see where you're coming from but the thing is the stories you're telling in game all become similar at one point and what you can do to enhance the story is limited when there isn't enough content.
All sims are already acting the same way which makes it hard to create stories and on top of that we have little new gameplay which means there's not a lot to do to make those sims' stories more unique then others before them. New gameplay adds so much to stories, the more you can do in the game the more stories you can tell. Why wouldn't you want that if you're a storyteller?
I don't like playing to achieve goals either if I wanted that I'd be playing an rpg game not sims. The reason I'm saying it'll get boring after a while is because I've been playing with those same interactions for 2 years and told a good amount of stories with what I had already. I'm just tired of seeing the same things over and over again.
Would it be bad to have new romance interactions for the romance festival? Or new ways to make other sims laugh with the humor festival? That's all I'm asking for, new ways to play and tell stories. Why wouldn't anyone want that?
This argument falls flat on it's face when you recognize that Ambitions for example included more features than Get To Work, thus we are getting both less features and less animations.
I'm sure his complaint spawns from the fact that:
1) The animation pool is really really small for Sims 4; it's less to do with recycling animations so much as it is to do with recycling animations when you have like 5 animations total. If a game has 1000 animations, by all means, cut corners and recycle, but when a conversation between two sims involves my sim doing the same thing over and over and over, that's a problem. That is perhaps NOT a corner you should be cutting until you establish that your game has enough animations.
2) If we are getting both less animations and less features, then what the heck are they doing??? The only logical explanation is that Sims 4's budget is much smaller than Sims 3, and while that would explain all the issues, explaining why they would cut the budget is a mystery in and of itself. The Sims franchise has always been one of EA's biggest cash cows. Even if they expected failure from Sims 4 leading up to release (and they did, remember they withheld press copies and I promise you they did that for a reason), the solution is not to cut funding. That's insane. That's leaving one of your most popular products to wither and die instead of making efforts to rescue it. That decision in and of itself seems illogical, and we don't know for sure that funding was cut/reduced, so for all we know they could conciously doing less work knowing they can still score the same amount of money for a net profit.
The karaoke machine,bubble blower,taking toilet and videogame consoles are also using new animations.
The question is how many stories are you gonna do about rockets? one? two? three?? And if you have a blog or something how many times do you think your audience are going to read a story about rockets?
When watching game reviews made by professional sites one of the main reason they give a low rating to a game when it resorts to repetitiveness!
Spice festivals will have new food which is good but didn't we get dine out already. More is always good but only in case you have a big chunk of other stuff. As for the flea market please mark my words it will be just another gimmick. It might be a new animation but no functionality. You as a seller basically selling your paintings to nobody. The buyer of the paintings and other stuff is just an illusion. Means the sim is not buying anything. It is just an illusion. Yes you will get money but the buyer is not getting the painting. There is no difference between selling paintings right now or selling them in the flea market.
Maybe for the first time players will like to go outside home to sell the painting but once you done it already its novelty just goes away. You will say why even bother to go there to sell when I can sell it here with a click and do other stuff instead?
I love the idea of a flea market but not an illusion one. I want a functional one, a real simulated one where the seller sells and gets the money and the buyer actually buys it and acquire the good in his inventory. I want sim A to buy and have Sim B's goods.
I hate illusions. They are just a pretend thing, a lie thing.
That's no different now than it ever has been. I spent 14 years playing The Sims, Sims 2, and Sims 3 making stories about getting a job, getting married, having babies. Rinse, repeat. Over and over again. Over and over, I used the same careers, the same objects.
So far, I've made one story (for myself - I, like most people, don't play games for an audience) about a rocket: My new Sim moved to this strange new world full of celebrities who didn't seem to know she recognized them (I get a kick out of my celebrity-filled save) and got a job as a Scientist. She started building a rocket at work, but she had GOALS: she wanted to go to Sixam herself, to meet the Aliens she believed in. So she worked harder to make enough money to stick a rocket ship in her front yard (it's a tiny house) and she spent her days off working on it. In the end, she because The Woman Who Brought The Aliens To Town.
For what it's worth, that was many hours of entertainment, all for only forty bucks. By the time I'd finished the Science career and brought the Aliens down from Sixam, I'd more than got my forty bucks' worth of entertainment out of the EP that added value to the basegame rocketship for me. I pay that to go to the movies three times, or for an art book (when I can get one on sale), or for dinner out.
So I'm one rocketship story in, and I don't need another one to get my money's worth. But there are other rocketship stories I could tell! I could, say, tell a story about the poor, Genius kid who lives on the wrong side of the tracks in a one-bedroom apartment where he sleeps in the living room.* They can't afford to move or to buy him books or a computer. School is boring so he doesn't do his homework and cuts a lot. The other school-cutters in his neighborhood are into basketball or graffiti, but he isn't. When he wanders around the city, he stumbles on GeekCon... and on rocketship building. And it changes his life forever. (How it does that remains to be seen... I like to take cues from what I see happening in game, not just come up with everything in advance.)
Anyway, thank you for inspiring a story that will fit really well into my rotational save, in which I'm mostly focused on storytelling about teenagers
*Just an added note: This reminded me so suddenly, after I thought of it, of friends of my kids' growing up, whole families in tiny apartments. One of those friends used to watch me play Sims. His family had a computer, but they didn't have money for games. He'd never played a legit copy with expansions. He was a really nice kid.
So... why do you play video games? You know it's all pretend, right? None of it is a direct correlation to reality. Even educational games designed to help students understand history or geography or politics aren't.
This game however is all based on showing things you cant do, own or go to. Like showing cars but not owning them, showing off beautiful parts of the world but not being able to go to them etc.. The game has become less game and more emphasis to be used as a taking picture tool for stories. I love telling stories but I need the game play to enjoy first to be able to tell my stories.
The Sims 4 is turning to scenery only. They care for the look of a tall building more than caring for a functional apartment. They prefer making illusions over giving the player game play options.
In this game they are always preferring a silly feature over an important one. Like how they give your playable sims love interests while the townies cant get married or get pregnant!
Do you know that they are called simulation for a reason right?? If Sims 4 was an RPG that would be fine. But it isn't. It is supposed to be a simulation. Like How Sims 2 buying and selling worked where something leads to another thing!
In Sims 2
Bella paints a painting ====> Bella sells it to Lothario & Gets the money ====> Lothario gets the actual painting and hang it in his house ===> Bella dies ====> Painting value goes up substantially ===> Lothario can sell the painting for a higher price to someone else, maybe to Bella's grandson!
In Sims 4
Bella paints a painting ===> Bella sells it to Lothario and gets the money (End of story). The painting has just disappeared, Did Lothario buy it? No.
Do you see it??? Do you see how a simulation should be?
I see one aspect of simulation. Sims 4 improves other aspects for me.
For me, the game is not only one kind of simulation, and it's as much a storytelling tool as a simulation. There have always been limits to what it simulates. They just change from game to game.
Your opinion about what it needs is an opinion, not a fact.