I really appreaciate that you are trying to bring more representation into game and I like the way you decided to highlight some Simmers - for example during the Black History Month by highligting black creators.
But I have to ask though - so far, it seems that the only focus we've got, in game and on social media, is focus on ethnicity, culture and LGBTQA+ community.
Is there any specific reason why we haven't really got yet focus on disabilities, conditions like vitiligo, albinism, and neurodivergency? I completely understand how hard it is to implement these into game, especially when you have to be careful about making it right.
But I think that there could be definitely done more in terms of social media and bringing some awaraness to these topics - for example, while you celebrated both Black History Month and Women International Day,
you didn't make any post related to the Autistic Acceptance Month (April, so the last month). I'm feeling like that the wonderful simmers who are either disabled, neurodivergent or have any condition, are being forgotten.
Will you try to actually focus more on this topic, either by bringing it somehow into the game or by bringing the awareness and higligting related creators?
Btw, I want to give you a reminder that this month is the Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month - so should we expect something related to this - either update or highlight of these wonderful simmers?
First I do want to say thank you for the inclusiveness and diversity we have so far in the game. It takes courage to be socially responsible and support causes some may because of their beliefs don't support or could say boycott this company over. Thank you for what has been done/
Normally I wouldn't post this here but since it's a day where people cannot troll the post I'm going to say this.
More diversity and representation needs to be in the game. It's not about being politically correct it's about being more realistic in the game. Whether it's honouring the Haitian People or Cubans or Aborigines or Melanesians or other Indigenous People worldwide.
@PatrickClaster I completely agree with you on doing something for autism, disabilities, disorders, conditions and representation in the game.
@EA_Leeloo and the gurus will we get something in November for Native American History Month this November? If not I'll be ok with it. I'm simply curious.
Playtesting - not just tabletop games and card games any more. Really that should have been playtested in Beta and not [img]just with accounting and marketing but actual players. https://i.imgur.com/t48COW6.jpg[/img]
Why can't ghosts have babies and will they ever be able to? Sims 3 ghost families were amazing, now ghosts are just not fun to play with anymore. Soon after a sim passes, their ghost text or call you for becoming friends with someone else saying "they're pretty cool!", like they're dead. Why do they have cell phones?
Speaking of, why can't cell phones be disabled permanently? Why can't we have the newspaper service back, which is a subscribable (optional) service in game? Why can't we have carpools? I miss the sims 2 carpooling system so much and I'm sure I'm not alone with this, I just don't like sims disappearing or the lot. Carpools add realism to gameplay.
Why were supernatural life states cut in ts4 when sims players were used to getting a new lifestate with every expansion in ts3? Can we expect fan favourite occults (like werewolves, fairies, genies and zombies) to make a return in future packs?
Speaking of future packs, when you said "many, many years to come" during the livestream, were you just reading (Graham? Grant?)'s old letter or did you actually mean it? Is sims 4 still happening for at least 2+ years? And what concern should we have on the aging engine as the game is 7 years old this year?
Will we get roadmaps back, or some other form of communication to indicate what's coming next?
Babies?
How did 2020 and the pandemic affect game development? Can we expect higher quality packs releasing in future? We've seen the improvements on stuff packs (which is great), but can we expect more improvements to game- and expansion packs to raise their quality above their predecessors also?
Looking back at the start of sims 4 to the current state of the game, do you feel as developers that you've accomplished your team's goals?
Please do read my questions and if you do not answer them, that's completely okay. But I'd love my concerns to be known to the team.
Thank you for your hard work, as a long time fan I appreciate your continuous efforts to improve our gaming experiene.
[b] Gameplay is dull and boring. [/b] A couple of days ago (05/04) I made a new save with 6 different sims, all of them with the "improved" traits, 5 adults and 1 teenager. I just let them roam free, autonomy on, and I only controlled one single sim. I played for 4 hours, and [b] NOTHING INTERESTING HAPPENED! [/b] If it were The Sims 3, in less than 2 hours of gameplay [i] SO MUCH [/i] would've happened, there would've been fights, and deaths, and love storys, but noooo, nothing happened, about 3 thunderstorms happnened, one of the sims stood outside during one and NOTHING HAPPENED!
Nothing ever happens! All I want is dynamic gameplay, this is all I ask for, I love the game, I love this franchise, I love this game so much I bought it! I live in Brazil were piracy runs amock, and I'm judged by my peers because I bought the game when I could've pireted it. I spent BR$1.120 this is more than the minimum wage here! I could've bought a refrigirator with this money! Please work on the gameplay, [b] IMPROVE BASE GAME GAMEPLAY! [/b] I don't want to spend a whole other fridge on a [i] dull and boring game [/i], to try and [i] "fix it" [/i]
[s] also kits suck they are just a mini version of a stuff pack and they are overpriced. they are only BR$ 10 cheaper than a stuff pack here, it sucks! [/s]
Hey, The Sims Team!
You are going to get a large push for L.G.B.T.Q. Representation, but, you and your team are doing great already. The point of listing every difference will not come off as inclusion. You've made no difference between husband and husband, wife and husband, haven't even spoken a preference word. You haven't made any preference come off as the "default" to sims either. You've made 100% no difference between any body, and this is progressive, already!
Directly, please do not put different options for transgender sims. I make effort to understand transgender, my brother is openly this F.T.M. But me and him do not like seeing trans male or trans female, it is male and female, even when you are transgender. I've read and heard it can make transgender people feel bad to see they are not referred to as "real" male or female. You've already allowed for a sim to change their gender, body, and fertility to however this player feels. What you've done so far is perfect, please keep this the way you've already put.
NOTE: Don't know enough about non binary to have an opinion on what should and shouldn't be put, so please let me know in replies if you are knowledgeable. They pro nouns sound O.K. So I am not talking about removing this idea.
Does the team intend on developing story progression? If I'm not mistaken it won a poll a couple years ago and nothing has been said about it ever since. Sims 4 would finally feel truly alive if story progression was a thing.
Hi Sims Team! Thank you for allowing us to provide some input for your Livestream. I have a few points that I think would improve the existing game: 1. Would it be possible to update the whims? I would love to see sims have more trait/aspiration-specific whims. 2. Could you add in more aspirations and make them harder to complete? There is a lot of content from expansion/game packs that are not tied to aspirations, and I agree with the others that have stated that the aspirations feel more like tutorials instead of long-term goals. 3. Would it be possible to increase the number of trait slots? this would add more personality to the sims imo. More traits would be nice as well. 4. Being able to save/copy outfits to different outfit types in CAS would also be REALLY helpful. 5. Are there any plans in the works to implement a chemistry/romance system in the game? It can be pretty boring if your sim can basically have a romantic relationship with any other sim with no difficulty.
i'd love to see simulation lag fixed, better babies and maybe a preteen life stage. can you guys also fix origin, so it doesnt eat my all cpu when i try to repair my game.
I tried posting this before but It said there was an error so let me try this again :s I feel like graveyard lots would be beneficial especially to those to play multiple generations/legacy challenges. It’s annoying to want to keep urns and tombstones but when you cant see where one of your sims died, it’s lost forever . If there was a graveyard lot that you can place and then your active households tombs/urns automatically go there, that would be great tbh. And on that note, ghosts are one sided, all ghosts leave behind are broken sinks and electronics but why can’t they leave behind something cute like a knitted item for their kid if they had the knitting skill before death etc and leave broken appliances for when their angry or if they were a evil sim before death? Also i feel that the packs are extremely overpriced, it’s unfair to pay the equivalent to the entire game over and over and over again for a small chunk of new content. it’s hard to keep up with buying these overpriced packs especially since so many jobs have been effected by the pandemic.
Hi. First of all I have loved this franchise for 20 years and really appreciate everything you do.
I do have things I would like to see in the game.
Babies need to be released from their bassinet, they are not objects to be deleted in build/buy 😞
Burglars are needed too, they have been in the game since the beginning and it is disappointing that they are not yet and police npc's are also needed along side them.
More family dynamics are needed such as cousins, aunts, uncles, stepfather/mother/siblings, half sibling, and also girlfriend/boyfriend/fiance in CAS options.
More traits and a couple more trait slots, like sims 3 with 5 trait slots
More aspirations that feel more like lifetime goals and not pack tutorials.
More waist length hair for female and just more long hair in general for male sims. (I know we can take filters off, but I generally forget to do that, it just makes it so much easier to have them there)
More male CAS items. More CAS items for toddlers, children, teen specific and elder specific cloting
In any future packs it would so much better if the CAS items for male and female were equal in number. The females get way too much and the males not enough.
Layers for CAS would be awesome. Being able to put a jacket over a top separately is needed.
It would be really awesome if whims could be updated to the latest pack and not disregarded. I like to play with them but not the way they are. It would also be better if they would work with traits more than emotions. Also if fears could be added to this. Kind of like Sims 2 wants and fears, but whims instead of wants.
A memory system would be fantastic, like the Sims 2. It would make Sims feel more in depth.
The Sims game needs to feel less childlike. It feels more like it's target is children instead of teen and above. There are hardly any consequences to actions. And hardly any negative things happening.
Story progression is sorely needed. It makes me sad that if I am playing with aging on, Neighbours die and never get engaged, married or have children on their own.
More musical instruments such as bass guitars, drums, singing career, band career.
We need more kitchen wall cabinets that match all of the cabinets we already have. Also when we have new kitchen sets to have wall cabinets with them always.
Thanks for all of the hard work you do. I really appreciate it.
whims need to be fix we are in a long over due for open world that don't make the sims feel like the sims at all. can we save outfits and hairstyles there are a few npc that are missing to make the game feel more like the sims I'm sure you know what npc we want. as much as the sims 4 bright cheerful atmosphere I'm getting a bit bored seeing it? Maybe that's why players are now looking at Sims 2 and Sims 3 again?. Simcity need a new game someday I want to see a mix of simcity with natural disasters and the same sims feeling of game play to say hey this has real consequences you're choice matters that would be good for storytelling.
toggle to turn off random townie generation to only have sims of my own?
choosing my own npcs such as maids and firefighters from existing households?
more couple/group interactions for my sims in future packs/updates,
such as say, couple dancing?
to not babble too long i would just like to have better control of my sim worlds population and have my sims bit more interactions that make them feel close as opposed to separated
so I wonder if there is hope for these features to show up in my game one day?
Also I'd like information on following subjects:
New pack trials, when and which packs?
Will the delete save button remain in that very accident prone placing it was moved to in last update? (pls no im gonna misclick it and cry)
What is that new trait/aspiration panel slot that was leaked on livestream? *googly eyes*
Hints on future content?
(i know, i know but i had to try )
First of all, thank you for hosting an event like this. It means a lot to the community that you are willing to listen to and engage with our experiences and concerns.
As for what those are for me, I think a large problem with The Sims franchise as a whole is that it feels like a Millennial Young Adult simulator, with few activities and meaningful relationships for other life stages. I think this has gotten better with newer packs, but the base game is still a bit lackluster in this area. Teen sims are practically just young adults who go to school. Children have very few things they can actually do in the game and their skills mean nothing unless they complete the entire aspiration.
Additionally, the family interactions are still lacking. Not only interaction-wise, but just the ability to create diverse families from the get-go in CAS. As of right now, the only pre-set relationships you can make in CAS are parent/child, sibling, and spouse. There is no way to create your aunt or grandparent or cousin without having to first make the parent. For people who have lost their parents or have difficult relationships with them, but still have close relationships with other members of their family, it can be painful to have to make them in the game, even as just a placeholder. Families look many different ways and a way TS4 can honor that is by giving the ability to make grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins, boyfriend/girlfriends, and fiances out the bat from CAS. Ideally, it would be neat if those relationships had unique interactions in-game, but I believe the bare minimum is just to be able to establish those relations.
Another way to build upon the diversity of the game is to add more LGBTQ+ representation. As a person in that community myself, I have always valued the inclusivity of the Sims franchise, all the way from the days of TS2 up until today. The gender options update was a HUGE milestone for TS4, but there are some areas of improvement. The team made all the clothing choices available for all body frames, however, many of these options look distorted, giving the appearance of body characteristics that aren't there. For example, putting many of the dresses on masculine framed sims makes them look like they have breasts even when they do not. I think it would be nice to go back and retexture some of these items, but I think its more important that moving forward, new content is given this thought and reviewed on both frames to make sure it looks presentable. Furthermore, gender-neutral pronouns and language would be an ideal addition to TS4. Many people are now out as nonbinary (including myself!) and feel limited by the binary choices of gender in the Sims. Many games still have this issue, but I have high expectations for TS4 as a life simulator to be leading in this area. I understand that translation can be a big barrier in making a change like this, but with thoughtful collaboration with members of other cultures and native speakers of other languages, I believe TS4 can do its best to offer more gender neutral language in the game for its nonbinary players.
Next, an idea I have is to give players the ability to create custom styled looks. I have a LOT of sims in my save file, and dressing them each can be a pain. I usually go to styled looks to pick something quickly, but the options are so limited and I find myself with townies who wear the same handful of outfits. Giving players the chance to save custom styled looks would be a great opportunity. There could even be an option to upload custom styled looks on the gallery! With this in mind, I would love it if townies would randomly generate to the styled looks. I have a lot of NPCs who walk around in the most bizarre clothing and I either have to go into CAS to fix them or let it break my suspension of disbelief as I play. This could happen independent of the previous idea, but would go nicely together.
Lastly, I have a note on the cross-compatibility of packs. I have all packs (except Batuu) and I always get excited when there is cross-compatibility, but unfortunately this doesnt happen often. I would love to see more holiday traditions involving activities from Spa Day or from Eco Lifestyle. Things of this nature really bring The Sims 4 to life and make buying multiple packs really worthwhile. Going forward, it would be nice to see more effort put into the cross-compatibility of DLC.
Thank you so much for your time and energy. I really appreciate the extra care gone into hearing the voices of the TS4 community as of late, and believe that you are all doing your best to improve upon this game. I hope you all have a marvelous day!
I wish I knew this before so I could have played TS2 and TS3 a little to really clearly cover what we are missing, but let me try to explain without just saying: Take TS2 and TS3 with TS4 graphics.
<3 First of all let me start with the amazing job you all did for years for us and the only reason why we are critical is because you guys set the bar so high for yourself. <3
STORYTELLING:
The game is not as in dept as TS2 and TS3 was. I find it hard to explain why exactly that is but I think this might be a part of it: Storytelling. We want to create our own story, and be creative with that. In order for that story feel real our actions must have consequences deeper than just a whim that lasts 3 hours.
MEMORIES:
Memories would help with that. We need our Sims to remember that Sim X cheated on them and not interact the same way we do with the our new romance. We need to Sim to remember exes, best friends, lovers, cheaters, bosses etc.– Sentiments were definitely a great start and showed you really understand we missed that. It gives more dept to the game, but something like memories is still missing. Ideally those memories effect your Sims behavior in the rest of their life.
Closed world can be better:
Another thing what makes the game feel shallow is the closed world and all rabbit holes. I understand why the world is closed and I have my peace with that, but in TS2 it was done better. Little details make it feel more real. My Sim disappears into oblivion when going to work or travel. It would be great to have cars to make that illusion a bit more realistic. I don’t need open world but at least do it as in TS2 that you get picked up by a car and once you are promoted your cars get bigger until you get a helicopter. – Make sure that progress in the game unlocks these kind of fun little things that make you feel you are achieving something.
UNIVERSITY and TRAVEL:
This is a personal opinion, but I know many longtime fans share this with me: I like realistic play. One of my favorite packs were TS2 University and Bon Voyage and TS3 University life and World adventures. It made the game more realistic.
I really hoped that Discover University and the Island Living/Snowy Escape/Jungle Adventure/Outdoor retreat would do that for TS4 but I was a little disappointed. I do see a huge improvement in Snowy Escapes vs Jungle Adventures but to be honest it still feels a bit shallow. Like there is no real dept or effect to playing these packs where in TS2 and TS3 this really was a HUGE addition to the game and gameplay.
Let’s look at university packs in TS2 and TS3; this was done AMAZINGLY! There were different ways to get enough point to graduate, making home work, attending classes ACTIVLY next to the rabbit holes, write papers… It was not easy, but if you planned it right you could do it in two semesters and still have time to throw parties and work a job, join a sorority etc. In TS3 university is just A LOT of the same. All your classes are rabbit holes and you do nothing waiting for sims to come out. You write a paper and make a presentation. Doesn’t matter if you study biology or literature. You basically do the same thing. We can see through those hollow shells, it’s just lazy to be honest. Give is some interaction. Let me have some interaction with the skeleton during class, let me practice with it at home. Let me paint for creative studies and let me work with the lab if I do science… things like that would make a HUGE difference. It is too easy to achieve things (but very inactive) and it doesn’t really have an effect on your Sim when you achieve it.
TEENS:
The same laziness we see when you created teens. I mean come one…. Really? I understand that is it a lot of work to create a new life stage including animations and actions but this was really a new low for you guys. It really said: we don’t care at all. I don’t understand how you dared to give us those, it’s so painful that we are spending hundreds of dollars on this game only to look at the modding community to fix things that should have been basic.
BABIES: Worse than teens. They are objects. I mean they don’t even feel like Sims. They are attached to their cradle. It’s embarrassing really.
Overall the game is just not in dept enough. It feels shallow, we can FEEL exactly where you didn't really try. Or where you guys were not allowed to spend more time on which was so needed. It really makes me feel EA cares more about the money and less about the quality of the game.
Yes we still buy everything you create, because we trust you and hope you will do better. But honestly we won't be idiots forever, spending hundreds of dollars for something that is NOT WORTH IT. You still have our support which is mainly based on the work MAXIS did, but please do better because we won't stay forever. Your credits will run out some day.
Pronouns - Yes or No? Possible or not? Are you considering them?
I know that the most common argument is that you can't do them because of languages that don't support gender neutral language. I would want to say as someone whose language indeed doesn't have gender neutral form, that this is not indeed entirely true. While my language indeed doesn't have official gender neutral pronouns, verbs, adjectives and even some nons, the amazing LGBTQ+ community of my country came up with their own version of neutral language - they even figured out how to make gender neutral verbs or adjectives in our very gendered language.
You have resources you could use. Your teams who usually translates game would collaborate with the LGBTQ+ communities and ask them how to make pronouns work in their language.
Hello dear Sims 4 developers :-) Thank you very much for the opportunity to write to you, i really appreciate that. Sims 4 is a wonderful game. Unfortunately, there are things that have bothered me in the gameplay for a long time. For example: that there are no options that make it possible to control townies yourself. That means you can decide their design yourself and stop their endless regeneration. Until now, I have been forced to delete them again before starting the game so that the game uses the Sims I designed as townies. It does that for about 10 minutes, after which the townies generated by the game conquer my game again. It is tedious to have to delete them again and again. I had already tried to redesign them, it doesn't help. Infinitely more are generated. Thank you for your "hearing" and the wonderful Sims 4 game!!! I'm looking forward to more surprises :-) <3
Will there ever be a release of a tool to either create new neighborhoods or to edit the current neighborhoods outside of lots? And would you consider releasing some lot traits that are based on neighborhood views? Not for skill increases, just for some added buffs. For example: A waterfront view, a historical district, penthouse view, or polluted view etc.?
The sims has always been ahead of its time, groundbreaking and exiting to play and explore. It was the highlight of my childhood to adulthood ...until sims 4 was released. I feel like it took a big step back in a lot of ways, made with less love, attention to detail, gameplay, depth, realism, immersiveness, customization and sims personalities. The goal seemed to have shifted from making a game as amazing as possible for all ages to charging as much money as possible while doin bare minimum (small not-even-open worlds with sad houses, no cars, object babys, low polygons, clay textures, bad light, shallow gameplay, less interactions & things to do, „stupid“ AI, no meaningful wants or fears, no chemistry system, etc..), a somewhat half-a*sed, buggy, goofy game for easily entertained 6 year olds with small attention span, limited mental capabilities and semi bad/weird taste, eventhough 60% of players are females between 18-24. having played previous sims titles as a child myself, i NEVER thought: "oh, this is too challenging and complicated. I wish there were less things to customize in the settings, goals faster to reach and no NPC story progression". Instead it just kept me occupied and happy for years and not just 2 hours max.
your big selling point is "moods" when it just makes them seem emotionally unstable and bipolar. Even just the simple happy meter in the sims 3 seemed more realistc then all these random mood buffs from literally anything. There is more to a persons life experience then its "current mood", all other things like reaching a meaningful life goal impact, having wants and fears, attractivness preferences and automated memory system seem to have been forgotten.
I like that you at least tried to give the personalities more depth with lifestyles (which should be base game) u made it somehow mostly annoying. You stayed at home for too long cuz youre taking a break from going through all those loading screens and u get punished with the "indoorsy" trait way too fast that makes them tense for way too long and theres nothing u can do. why does going inside not shorten the tense timer at least?
The AI feels so stupid and not like real people what so ever. how is it worse then back in the day? All those random push ups, constant standing up and sitting back down for no reason, them walking all the way they were gonna go when u cued up a social interaction instead of just stopping, forgetting what they were doing or having to "think" about it for a long time when i told them to do something, other sims not taking care of themselfes or toddlers when im away with a sim, most times just on computer when autonously doing something, etc.
in retail stores they all stand in ONE tiny corner until they decide to buy the only 2 or 3 different objects sims chose to like out of the whole store. The hired employee even with nearly maxed retail skills still isnt doing anything most of the time and keeps forgetting his/her work assignment.
maybe you should re-evaluate some of the people you have hired when single modders & CC creators are able to make better content for the game for free and YT-simmers building better houses for a pack, then the 200+ people you are paying to do so.
People have sank over >>700$/€!!!!!<< into the game (myself included) and THIS is what they got for it. If u make a game intentionally less good to overcorrect sims 3 performance issues, u shouldn‘t charge the same price for it. The sims 4 today, WITH all the expansions, still feels more like a 40€ game, especially if u compare it to games like: Detroit - Become Human, Far Cry 5, Red Dead Redemption 2 (all 60€ masterpieces). Our level of standards shouldnt be people with crappy laptops, it should be about trying to make the BEST game possible! People with low end laptops know they cant play triple-A games on em and dont even expect to be able to (they can also just lower the graphic settings, we shouldnt all suffer because of them even on ultra settings). A >700$ game SHOULD be a triple-A game but at this point ive seen mobile games with better graphics and light engine.
(also sidenote: it used to be a life simulation game and not a doll-house simulator)
… so i guess thats whats "on my mind" when i think about the sims 4, maybe u could explain some of this and why u think the sims 4 is worth over 700$?
Are there any plans or considerations for an updated, changed and/or improved system regarding owning residential, community, and business lots and running businesses from your home lot? This has always been a major part of my gameplay throughout the years, and while we have things like being able to own retail and restaurants, it'd be nice to know if there's any plans to add to that
I would like an inside view on which fixes are in progress and maybe which are being worked on. Since 411 means information, maybe give us a better inside view. Could have a Sims spotlight that showcases simmers builds/sims and not just the game changers. I think I have good builds but not one has been favorite by sims in the gallery 🤣. I know you cannot tell all but give us something.
Wanted to bring to your attention the fact that there are many people in Ukraine (including me) who have great interest in seeing The Sims translated to our language! (so much so in fact, that we've made the #theSimsinUkrainian trend on Twitter on multiple occasions!) We have some incredible professional companies, who'd do such a great job in translating (and who had made requests to do so prior! but were sadly ignored by EA) and there's a market for it too. It's one of those games that so many people grew up playing and loving with their entire heart, but there's a good chunk of the players who weren't able to enjoy it fully (or at all) because of the language barrier. It'd mean a lot to so many if you could look into it and finally fully immerse this treasure of a game into the Ukrainian gaming community. Thank you
Hey, so I’m just wondering would it be difficult to add half tiles to build mode? Like have the ability to build walls on a half tile? I can just imagine the possibilities if the community had the ability to build walls and such. I myself would enjoy being able to replicate builds I find on website that include the floor plan. Just a thought! Hopefully someone sees this :)
Comments
First I do want to say thank you for the inclusiveness and diversity we have so far in the game. It takes courage to be socially responsible and support causes some may because of their beliefs don't support or could say boycott this company over. Thank you for what has been done/
Normally I wouldn't post this here but since it's a day where people cannot troll the post I'm going to say this.
More diversity and representation needs to be in the game. It's not about being politically correct it's about being more realistic in the game. Whether it's honouring the Haitian People or Cubans or Aborigines or Melanesians or other Indigenous People worldwide.
@PatrickClaster I completely agree with you on doing something for autism, disabilities, disorders, conditions and representation in the game.
@EA_Leeloo and the gurus will we get something in November for Native American History Month this November? If not I'll be ok with it. I'm simply curious.
Why can't ghosts have babies and will they ever be able to? Sims 3 ghost families were amazing, now ghosts are just not fun to play with anymore. Soon after a sim passes, their ghost text or call you for becoming friends with someone else saying "they're pretty cool!", like they're dead. Why do they have cell phones?
Speaking of, why can't cell phones be disabled permanently? Why can't we have the newspaper service back, which is a subscribable (optional) service in game? Why can't we have carpools? I miss the sims 2 carpooling system so much and I'm sure I'm not alone with this, I just don't like sims disappearing or the lot. Carpools add realism to gameplay.
Why were supernatural life states cut in ts4 when sims players were used to getting a new lifestate with every expansion in ts3? Can we expect fan favourite occults (like werewolves, fairies, genies and zombies) to make a return in future packs?
Speaking of future packs, when you said "many, many years to come" during the livestream, were you just reading (Graham? Grant?)'s old letter or did you actually mean it? Is sims 4 still happening for at least 2+ years? And what concern should we have on the aging engine as the game is 7 years old this year?
Will we get roadmaps back, or some other form of communication to indicate what's coming next?
Babies?
How did 2020 and the pandemic affect game development? Can we expect higher quality packs releasing in future? We've seen the improvements on stuff packs (which is great), but can we expect more improvements to game- and expansion packs to raise their quality above their predecessors also?
Looking back at the start of sims 4 to the current state of the game, do you feel as developers that you've accomplished your team's goals?
Please do read my questions and if you do not answer them, that's completely okay. But I'd love my concerns to be known to the team.
Thank you for your hard work, as a long time fan I appreciate your continuous efforts to improve our gaming experiene.
A couple of days ago (05/04) I made a new save with 6 different sims, all of them with the "improved" traits, 5 adults and 1 teenager. I just let them roam free, autonomy on, and I only controlled one single sim. I played for 4 hours, and [b] NOTHING INTERESTING HAPPENED! [/b]
If it were The Sims 3, in less than 2 hours of gameplay [i] SO MUCH [/i] would've happened, there would've been fights, and deaths, and love storys, but noooo, nothing happened, about 3 thunderstorms happnened, one of the sims stood outside during one and NOTHING HAPPENED!
Nothing ever happens! All I want is dynamic gameplay, this is all I ask for, I love the game, I love this franchise, I love this game so much I bought it! I live in Brazil were piracy runs amock, and I'm judged by my peers because I bought the game when I could've pireted it. I spent BR$1.120 this is more than the minimum wage here! I could've bought a refrigirator with this money!
Please work on the gameplay, [b] IMPROVE BASE GAME GAMEPLAY! [/b] I don't want to spend a whole other fridge on a [i] dull and boring game [/i], to try and [i] "fix it" [/i]
[s] also kits suck they are just a mini version of a stuff pack and they are overpriced. they are only BR$ 10 cheaper than a stuff pack here, it sucks! [/s]
You are going to get a large push for L.G.B.T.Q. Representation, but, you and your team are doing great already. The point of listing every difference will not come off as inclusion. You've made no difference between husband and husband, wife and husband, haven't even spoken a preference word. You haven't made any preference come off as the "default" to sims either. You've made 100% no difference between any body, and this is progressive, already!
Directly, please do not put different options for transgender sims. I make effort to understand transgender, my brother is openly this F.T.M. But me and him do not like seeing trans male or trans female, it is male and female, even when you are transgender. I've read and heard it can make transgender people feel bad to see they are not referred to as "real" male or female. You've already allowed for a sim to change their gender, body, and fertility to however this player feels. What you've done so far is perfect, please keep this the way you've already put.
NOTE: Don't know enough about non binary to have an opinion on what should and shouldn't be put, so please let me know in replies if you are knowledgeable. They pro nouns sound O.K. So I am not talking about removing this idea.
1. Would it be possible to update the whims? I would love to see sims have more trait/aspiration-specific whims.
2. Could you add in more aspirations and make them harder to complete? There is a lot of content from expansion/game packs that are not tied to aspirations, and I agree with the others that have stated that the aspirations feel more like tutorials instead of long-term goals.
3. Would it be possible to increase the number of trait slots? this would add more personality to the sims imo. More traits would be nice as well.
4. Being able to save/copy outfits to different outfit types in CAS would also be REALLY helpful.
5. Are there any plans in the works to implement a chemistry/romance system in the game? It can be pretty boring if your sim can basically have a romantic relationship with any other sim with no difficulty.
can you guys also fix origin, so it doesnt eat my all cpu when i try to repair my game.
I feel like graveyard lots would be beneficial especially to those to play multiple generations/legacy challenges. It’s annoying to want to keep urns and tombstones but when you cant see where one of your sims died, it’s lost forever . If there was a graveyard lot that you can place and then your active households tombs/urns automatically go there, that would be great tbh. And on that note, ghosts are one sided, all ghosts leave behind are broken sinks and electronics but why can’t they leave behind something cute like a knitted item for their kid if they had the knitting skill before death etc and leave broken appliances for when their angry or if they were a evil sim before death?
Also i feel that the packs are extremely overpriced, it’s unfair to pay the equivalent to the entire game over and over and over again for a small chunk of new content. it’s hard to keep up with buying these overpriced packs especially since so many jobs have been effected by the pandemic.
I do have things I would like to see in the game.
Babies need to be released from their bassinet, they are not objects to be deleted in build/buy 😞
Burglars are needed too, they have been in the game since the beginning and it is disappointing that they are not yet and police npc's are also needed along side them.
More family dynamics are needed such as cousins, aunts, uncles, stepfather/mother/siblings, half sibling, and also girlfriend/boyfriend/fiance in CAS options.
More traits and a couple more trait slots, like sims 3 with 5 trait slots
More aspirations that feel more like lifetime goals and not pack tutorials.
More waist length hair for female and just more long hair in general for male sims. (I know we can take filters off, but I generally forget to do that, it just makes it so much easier to have them there)
More male CAS items. More CAS items for toddlers, children, teen specific and elder specific cloting
In any future packs it would so much better if the CAS items for male and female were equal in number. The females get way too much and the males not enough.
Layers for CAS would be awesome. Being able to put a jacket over a top separately is needed.
It would be really awesome if whims could be updated to the latest pack and not disregarded. I like to play with them but not the way they are. It would also be better if they would work with traits more than emotions. Also if fears could be added to this. Kind of like Sims 2 wants and fears, but whims instead of wants.
A memory system would be fantastic, like the Sims 2. It would make Sims feel more in depth.
The Sims game needs to feel less childlike. It feels more like it's target is children instead of teen and above. There are hardly any consequences to actions. And hardly any negative things happening.
Story progression is sorely needed. It makes me sad that if I am playing with aging on, Neighbours die and never get engaged, married or have children on their own.
More musical instruments such as bass guitars, drums, singing career, band career.
We need more kitchen wall cabinets that match all of the cabinets we already have. Also when we have new kitchen sets to have wall cabinets with them always.
Thanks for all of the hard work you do. I really appreciate it.
make werewolves and better mermaids and better aliens
pleasee add cars
generations
like there is so many stuff to dooo
toggle to turn off random townie generation to only have sims of my own?
choosing my own npcs such as maids and firefighters from existing households?
more couple/group interactions for my sims in future packs/updates,
such as say, couple dancing?
to not babble too long i would just like to have better control of my sim worlds population and have my sims bit more interactions that make them feel close as opposed to separated
so I wonder if there is hope for these features to show up in my game one day?
Also I'd like information on following subjects:
New pack trials, when and which packs?
Will the delete save button remain in that very accident prone placing it was moved to in last update? (pls no im gonna misclick it and cry)
What is that new trait/aspiration panel slot that was leaked on livestream? *googly eyes*
Hints on future content?
(i know, i know but i had to try
🏡 Gallery 📖 Stories 🌍 World Project 🥔 MOD/CC Free
First of all, thank you for hosting an event like this. It means a lot to the community that you are willing to listen to and engage with our experiences and concerns.
As for what those are for me, I think a large problem with The Sims franchise as a whole is that it feels like a Millennial Young Adult simulator, with few activities and meaningful relationships for other life stages. I think this has gotten better with newer packs, but the base game is still a bit lackluster in this area. Teen sims are practically just young adults who go to school. Children have very few things they can actually do in the game and their skills mean nothing unless they complete the entire aspiration.
Additionally, the family interactions are still lacking. Not only interaction-wise, but just the ability to create diverse families from the get-go in CAS. As of right now, the only pre-set relationships you can make in CAS are parent/child, sibling, and spouse. There is no way to create your aunt or grandparent or cousin without having to first make the parent. For people who have lost their parents or have difficult relationships with them, but still have close relationships with other members of their family, it can be painful to have to make them in the game, even as just a placeholder. Families look many different ways and a way TS4 can honor that is by giving the ability to make grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins, boyfriend/girlfriends, and fiances out the bat from CAS. Ideally, it would be neat if those relationships had unique interactions in-game, but I believe the bare minimum is just to be able to establish those relations.
Another way to build upon the diversity of the game is to add more LGBTQ+ representation. As a person in that community myself, I have always valued the inclusivity of the Sims franchise, all the way from the days of TS2 up until today. The gender options update was a HUGE milestone for TS4, but there are some areas of improvement. The team made all the clothing choices available for all body frames, however, many of these options look distorted, giving the appearance of body characteristics that aren't there. For example, putting many of the dresses on masculine framed sims makes them look like they have breasts even when they do not. I think it would be nice to go back and retexture some of these items, but I think its more important that moving forward, new content is given this thought and reviewed on both frames to make sure it looks presentable. Furthermore, gender-neutral pronouns and language would be an ideal addition to TS4. Many people are now out as nonbinary (including myself!) and feel limited by the binary choices of gender in the Sims. Many games still have this issue, but I have high expectations for TS4 as a life simulator to be leading in this area. I understand that translation can be a big barrier in making a change like this, but with thoughtful collaboration with members of other cultures and native speakers of other languages, I believe TS4 can do its best to offer more gender neutral language in the game for its nonbinary players.
Next, an idea I have is to give players the ability to create custom styled looks. I have a LOT of sims in my save file, and dressing them each can be a pain. I usually go to styled looks to pick something quickly, but the options are so limited and I find myself with townies who wear the same handful of outfits. Giving players the chance to save custom styled looks would be a great opportunity. There could even be an option to upload custom styled looks on the gallery! With this in mind, I would love it if townies would randomly generate to the styled looks. I have a lot of NPCs who walk around in the most bizarre clothing and I either have to go into CAS to fix them or let it break my suspension of disbelief as I play. This could happen independent of the previous idea, but would go nicely together.
Lastly, I have a note on the cross-compatibility of packs. I have all packs (except Batuu) and I always get excited when there is cross-compatibility, but unfortunately this doesnt happen often. I would love to see more holiday traditions involving activities from Spa Day or from Eco Lifestyle. Things of this nature really bring The Sims 4 to life and make buying multiple packs really worthwhile. Going forward, it would be nice to see more effort put into the cross-compatibility of DLC.
Thank you so much for your time and energy. I really appreciate the extra care gone into hearing the voices of the TS4 community as of late, and believe that you are all doing your best to improve upon this game. I hope you all have a marvelous day!
Sul Sul,
Rhyan
<3 First of all let me start with the amazing job you all did for years for us and the only reason why we are critical is because you guys set the bar so high for yourself. <3
STORYTELLING:
The game is not as in dept as TS2 and TS3 was. I find it hard to explain why exactly that is but I think this might be a part of it: Storytelling. We want to create our own story, and be creative with that. In order for that story feel real our actions must have consequences deeper than just a whim that lasts 3 hours.
MEMORIES:
Memories would help with that. We need our Sims to remember that Sim X cheated on them and not interact the same way we do with the our new romance. We need to Sim to remember exes, best friends, lovers, cheaters, bosses etc.– Sentiments were definitely a great start and showed you really understand we missed that. It gives more dept to the game, but something like memories is still missing. Ideally those memories effect your Sims behavior in the rest of their life.
Closed world can be better:
Another thing what makes the game feel shallow is the closed world and all rabbit holes. I understand why the world is closed and I have my peace with that, but in TS2 it was done better. Little details make it feel more real. My Sim disappears into oblivion when going to work or travel. It would be great to have cars to make that illusion a bit more realistic. I don’t need open world but at least do it as in TS2 that you get picked up by a car and once you are promoted your cars get bigger until you get a helicopter. – Make sure that progress in the game unlocks these kind of fun little things that make you feel you are achieving something.
UNIVERSITY and TRAVEL:
This is a personal opinion, but I know many longtime fans share this with me: I like realistic play. One of my favorite packs were TS2 University and Bon Voyage and TS3 University life and World adventures. It made the game more realistic.
I really hoped that Discover University and the Island Living/Snowy Escape/Jungle Adventure/Outdoor retreat would do that for TS4 but I was a little disappointed. I do see a huge improvement in Snowy Escapes vs Jungle Adventures but to be honest it still feels a bit shallow. Like there is no real dept or effect to playing these packs where in TS2 and TS3 this really was a HUGE addition to the game and gameplay.
Let’s look at university packs in TS2 and TS3; this was done AMAZINGLY! There were different ways to get enough point to graduate, making home work, attending classes ACTIVLY next to the rabbit holes, write papers… It was not easy, but if you planned it right you could do it in two semesters and still have time to throw parties and work a job, join a sorority etc. In TS3 university is just A LOT of the same. All your classes are rabbit holes and you do nothing waiting for sims to come out. You write a paper and make a presentation. Doesn’t matter if you study biology or literature. You basically do the same thing. We can see through those hollow shells, it’s just lazy to be honest. Give is some interaction. Let me have some interaction with the skeleton during class, let me practice with it at home. Let me paint for creative studies and let me work with the lab if I do science… things like that would make a HUGE difference. It is too easy to achieve things (but very inactive) and it doesn’t really have an effect on your Sim when you achieve it.
TEENS:
The same laziness we see when you created teens. I mean come one…. Really? I understand that is it a lot of work to create a new life stage including animations and actions but this was really a new low for you guys. It really said: we don’t care at all. I don’t understand how you dared to give us those, it’s so painful that we are spending hundreds of dollars on this game only to look at the modding community to fix things that should have been basic.
BABIES:
Worse than teens. They are objects. I mean they don’t even feel like Sims. They are attached to their cradle. It’s embarrassing really.
Overall the game is just not in dept enough. It feels shallow, we can FEEL exactly where you didn't really try. Or where you guys were not allowed to spend more time on which was so needed. It really makes me feel EA cares more about the money and less about the quality of the game.
Yes we still buy everything you create, because we trust you and hope you will do better. But honestly we won't be idiots forever, spending hundreds of dollars for something that is NOT WORTH IT. You still have our support which is mainly based on the work MAXIS did, but please do better because we won't stay forever. Your credits will run out some day.
I know that the most common argument is that you can't do them because of languages that don't support gender neutral language. I would want to say as someone whose language indeed doesn't have gender neutral form, that this is not indeed entirely true. While my language indeed doesn't have official gender neutral pronouns, verbs, adjectives and even some nons, the amazing LGBTQ+ community of my country came up with their own version of neutral language - they even figured out how to make gender neutral verbs or adjectives in our very gendered language.
You have resources you could use. Your teams who usually translates game would collaborate with the LGBTQ+ communities and ask them how to make pronouns work in their language.
You can make it work.
your big selling point is "moods" when it just makes them seem emotionally unstable and bipolar. Even just the simple happy meter in the sims 3 seemed more realistc then all these random mood buffs from literally anything. There is more to a persons life experience then its "current mood", all other things like reaching a meaningful life goal impact, having wants and fears, attractivness preferences and automated memory system seem to have been forgotten.
I like that you at least tried to give the personalities more depth with lifestyles (which should be base game) u made it somehow mostly annoying. You stayed at home for too long cuz youre taking a break from going through all those loading screens and u get punished with the "indoorsy" trait way too fast that makes them tense for way too long and theres nothing u can do. why does going inside not shorten the tense timer at least?
The AI feels so stupid and not like real people what so ever. how is it worse then back in the day? All those random push ups, constant standing up and sitting back down for no reason, them walking all the way they were gonna go when u cued up a social interaction instead of just stopping, forgetting what they were doing or having to "think" about it for a long time when i told them to do something, other sims not taking care of themselfes or toddlers when im away with a sim, most times just on computer when autonously doing something, etc.
in retail stores they all stand in ONE tiny corner until they decide to buy the only 2 or 3 different objects sims chose to like out of the whole store. The hired employee even with nearly maxed retail skills still isnt doing anything most of the time and keeps forgetting his/her work assignment.
maybe you should re-evaluate some of the people you have hired when single modders & CC creators are able to make better content for the game for free and YT-simmers building better houses for a pack, then the 200+ people you are paying to do so.
People have sank over >>700$/€!!!!!<< into the game (myself included) and THIS is what they got for it. If u make a game intentionally less good to overcorrect sims 3 performance issues, u shouldn‘t charge the same price for it. The sims 4 today, WITH all the expansions, still feels more like a 40€ game, especially if u compare it to games like: Detroit - Become Human, Far Cry 5, Red Dead Redemption 2 (all 60€ masterpieces). Our level of standards shouldnt be people with crappy laptops, it should be about trying to make the BEST game possible! People with low end laptops know they cant play triple-A games on em and dont even expect to be able to (they can also just lower the graphic settings, we shouldnt all suffer because of them even on ultra settings). A >700$ game SHOULD be a triple-A game but at this point ive seen mobile games with better graphics and light engine.
(also sidenote: it used to be a life simulation game and not a doll-house simulator)
… so i guess thats whats "on my mind" when i think about the sims 4, maybe u could explain some of this and why u think the sims 4 is worth over 700$?
More hidden lots
Wanted to bring to your attention the fact that there are many people in Ukraine (including me) who have great interest in seeing The Sims translated to our language! (so much so in fact, that we've made the #theSimsinUkrainian trend on Twitter on multiple occasions!) We have some incredible professional companies, who'd do such a great job in translating (and who had made requests to do so prior! but were sadly ignored by EA) and there's a market for it too. It's one of those games that so many people grew up playing and loving with their entire heart, but there's a good chunk of the players who weren't able to enjoy it fully (or at all) because of the language barrier. It'd mean a lot to so many if you could look into it and finally fully immerse this treasure of a game into the Ukrainian gaming community. Thank you