@SimGuruEugi, are you able to shed any light on the decision to confine apartments to San Myshunu and not allow the building of apartments from scratch? I think it would go far in helping players understand why these restrictions exist. Thanks!
You can think of an apartment building as a neighborhood. They are authored by our world creation team as part of the world we ship for the EP. (We actually can't patch worlds without invalidating saves).
If we had allowed the creation of apartment buildings from Build/Buy, we would not have been able to achieve the look we were going for. For instance, B/B limits construction to five floors, but you want buildings to look like they have many more than that, so you can look over the city skyline.
There are also performance implications. You might want a building to look like it has, say, hundreds of windows and small items of decor. If those were actual B/B objects, they would all count against our performance metrics.
We also allow multiple households to inhabit the same building. So we'd have to add some element that would have allowed players to define the boundaries of an apartment. If it wasn't properly authored (e.g. lacking front doors), some game functionality might not work.
So we reached what we think is a good compromise. We modeled "shells," which are apartment buildings that look great but are technically one object, and then we allowed B/B operations inside it.
I can answer more specific tech questions if you have any.
If they listen to the community, because they do not liberate the possibility from creating apartments, was what more he was wishing and what more has disappointed me, I have almost 6 lots with apartments from the announcement and I took a big disappointment with the second trailer. I feel my English belong to the community Simmer of Spain, he would be grateful to him very much if he could answer
We do listen. If we didn't listen, we wouldn't be here. Many players want many different things. If we not only listened, but actually executed on what every single player wanted, we'd have to ship thousands of versions of the game. Part of our job is gathering all the feedback and come up with a product that's feasible and satisfies the most common case.
If we concentrated all our efforts on delivering a pack that was all about building apartments, then it'd be unfair to those players that care less about building and more about storytelling, for example. If you're all about building, I think you'll really enjoy penthouses and what's going to be in the pack. And if you're not into building at all, you'll also get a lot of enjoyment out of City Living. There's something there for everyone. That's what listening is all about.
@SimGuruEugi Going on that reasoning I have to ask. Other versions of the Sims managed to support many play styles plus having many creative tools. Why were decisions made so that this time around so many creative tools were cut and several play styles ignored?
Not necessarily true.
For example, World Adventures was 90% a Linear RPG. And other Expansions followed. Not everyone's cup of tea.
Builders couldn't build a lot of comminity lots in The Sims 3.
In fact, if memory serves correct, builders can actually build more community lots as of Dine Out (19 months), than they could 18 months into The Sims 3.
In fact, The Sims 4 will most probably beat The Sims 3 for most amount of buildable non-residential lots in the game, giving builders a huge advantage over 3.
So far, it's just Apartments that builders cannot build.
They couldn't build outside a shell in 3 either.
But there was a lot of stuff builders couldn't build in 3.
So it's not as if builders are ignored this iteration. Just in 30% of this pack (they can still build Penthouses and Community Lots).
This is the only reply I'm going to post in this thread because I don't think it should be used to debate with other players. So you never should have posted this here in the first place, but since you did I'm going to reply.
You are incorrect that WA was only linear. Just like everyone keeps arguing for TS4, you did not have to play it that way. But the most significant difference is that the developers provided us all the tools we needed to create our own worlds and build our own tombs. I understand that you prefer the console versions of this game and that's fine, but there is a reason that a lot of us always preferred the PC versions, and that was because of all the freedom we had to create our own gameplay. I'm betting you probably never used any of it, but it was definitely there.
And since you brought it up, in TS3 we could build museums, libraries, pools, bars and lounges, parks, fishing spots, ponds, and yes, apartments. You did not have to use the pre-made shells to build them, either. We could also build spas, gyms, tattoo parlors and salons, and yes, even restaurants. There are probably others I'm not thinking of ATM.
Did some of these venues and buildings require extra packs and DLC? Yes, but so does TS4. And with mods you could even build your own rabbit holes in TS3!
Prefer this game all you want, but stop spreading lies about what the developers provided to us in previous versions of the game. That does a real disservice to their work.
And if any gurus are listening, for many of us the ability to use our imaginations and creativity to create our own gameplay was the essence of The Sims. I'm sorry you are having to deal with disappointed players over the lack of build able apartments but it shouldn't come as a big surprise.
The Sims
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand basket?!
I noticed that any book or whatever you order from the computer automatically is sent to your sims's inventory. Wouldn't it be a bit more detailed having it placed in the mailbox?
@SimGuruEugi Do you think elevators could ever be patched to become an actual Build/Buy object if City Life is installed, independently from a shell so it can be used in other lots? TS2 and TS3's elevators could be placed everywhere and I'll really miss that because I like to place elevators in mansions/malls. I'm not asking if they will be patched, just if this possibility exists.
@SimGuruEugi - Thanks so much for answering so many questions. I'm especially excited that @SimGuruNick has secured a fix for Sims always having to use the bathroom and always missing work/school when lots are loaded.
My question is related to one that was asked a few pages back about "away actions" for our Sims. In addition to more actions, such as "Do Homework", I would REALLY love it if our Sims kept all their moodlets and their emotional states when they were off-lot. I often build up my Sims to have the right moodlets before they go to work or school. However, if I then go to a community lot with the Sims who are still at home, their current Emotion disappears and they are labeled as "Fine" unless their needs start to decay, when they switch to "Uncomfortable". It seems unfair that our Sims' work and school performance should be penalized by taking them out of the ideal mood when we take the Sims who stay behind to a community lot. Why don't Sims maintain their Emotional state (except for Uncomfortable) when you are playing other Sims away from the home lot? And could this be fixed?
Hello, everyone! I have some questions to @SimGuruEugi (and I hope he can answer and I thank him in advance):
1) Can we wait for polls asking what Simmers would like to have in future content? I think if there was a poll about the apartments, most of the Simmers would have choose to be allowed to build their own apartment complexes than having a "design" view...
2) Can we wait for truly funcional elevators?
3) And can we wait for a future update improving the apartment system in TS4 (allowing us to build our own complexes)? Or this theme will not be worked anymore in this game?...
Those all seem to be questions about future content, which we all know cannot be answered.
Well, I think they're more related to things that should be in the new EP and didn't; so they're more about if the dev team will update these things or if it's better for us to forget about them.
Those all seem to be questions about future content, which we all know cannot be answered.
Well, I think they're more related to things that should be in the new EP and didn't; so they're more about if the dev team will update these things or if it's better for us to forget about them.
Still, even if they decide to update these, it would be considered future patch content. Anyway maybe SimGuruEugi could at least tell us if in his view such updates are feasible or if they would probably require too much work for a free update on past content.
I'm not sure if this has been asked before but this thread is very long so I'll ask... But if someone knows an answer has already been posted, if you could be so kind as to help me find it, that would be great.
So I was playing a sim household the other day, and they're my only played household in this save game. Anyway the main sim was talking to an npc named Markus and they got together to hang out a few times and we got the relationship to friendship level and they were romantic interests as well. Well the NEXT sim day, Markus was no longer in my sim's relationship list and she couldn't call him or invite him over. He still existed because he occasionally calls my sim to go to a community lot. But she can't invite him out herself, and the relationship seems to still be gone (I haven't checked today while playing). I don't understand if this is part of relationship culling or what but it's incredibly frustrating and really wrecking my game right now. Just hoping to find out more about what is causing it. Thanks.
I'm not sure if this has been asked before but this thread is very long so I'll ask... But if someone knows an answer has already been posted, if you could be so kind as to help me find it, that would be great.
So I was playing a sim household the other day, and they're my only played household in this save game. Anyway the main sim was talking to an npc named Markus and they got together to hang out a few times and we got the relationship to friendship level and they were romantic interests as well. Well the NEXT sim day, Markus was no longer in my sim's relationship list and she couldn't call him or invite him over. He still existed because he occasionally calls my sim to go to a community lot. But she can't invite him out herself, and the relationship seems to still be gone (I haven't checked today while playing). I don't understand if this is part of relationship culling or what but it's incredibly frustrating and really wrecking my game right now. Just hoping to find out more about what is causing it. Thanks.
If you're interested, MC Command Center now has options for "tailored" relationship culling, or you can disable culling (all kinds) and decay (all kinds) using the mod, if you'd rather.
More info? Post here: (to keep THIS thread on-topic.)
Hey @SimGuruEugi, how are ya?
I've got a non-apartments question for you (really more of a thought experiment), which will hopefully be a nice change of pace.
One feature that's near and dear to my heart are cars, and the carpools that used to come for Sims going to work in the previous games. Obviously The Sims 4 doesn't have cars or carpools (carpools are a bit outdated anyway- everyone uses Ubers these days), but I've noticed that in many worlds (Windenburg in particular, although San Myshuno looks like it'll be another one), the roads are either barricaded by little pylon thingies, or there just aren't roads at all (eg. Windenburg's island).
Meaning that if cars were reintroduced, our Sims wouldn't be able to drive freely, or would run from one end of the map to the other to find a road, making them incredibly late for work.
So, I guess my question is this. Given the straight-up incompatibility with some worlds, if cars were reintroduced in a future EP, how would you foresee them being implemented?
I have another question, @SimGuruEugi. Are there any technical reasons that Sims' favourites - music, colour, and food - were removed from TS4? My Sims seem to only autonomously listen to the same station (Alternative) and I miss giving them favourites. But is there some technical limitation of TS4 that would stop this happening? I feel like it would be easy to add back with Hidden Traits...
@SimGuruEugi Can you please explain about Sim creation in reference to Sim culling? We have population caps and once reached Sims start to disappear.
I was in the process of bulldozing and creating lots so I wasn't actually even playing. I would go to household management and find that over the course of an hour or two there could be anywhere from 5 to 15 new households created. Would it be possible to have the option to stop new Sims being created by the game so we could actually have only the Sims we want in the game?
Sims are created on demand. As soon as you start your game, no librarian exists, for example. The moment you go to the library, one is created for you. If we didn't do that, venues and other systems wouldn't work properly, since they require Sims to fulfill certain roles.
I also have my Sims being up at night if I come back home from a venue. Let's say one parent going out during the evening and coming home around 4am and all the other Sims are doing various interactions when they should most likely be asleep.
I would love for "go to sleep" to be an away action, and when we return, they should actually be in their beds.
That's cool! I'll pass this feedback along as well.
How difficult would it be to add separate funds for household members? Similar to individual inventories and household inventories. Sims sharing a house would each have their own accounts. Sims with jobs would have their salary added to their individual accounts. Any type of expense would come out of the household funds, like build/buy mode purchases, cooking supplies, etc. There could also be a way to transfer funds from an individual sims' account to the household account. Thus allowing us to charge rent for roommates, buy mode purchases for a specific sim, etc. Allowance for teens and kids that would come out of the household account. Is this something that could be possible? I look at the transfers between household funds and business funds and it seems feasible.
One of the first prototypes of the game had that. It was never actually that fun to play and was pretty confusing.
It'd be interesting to re-explore that and try to add some cool gameplay to it. But, right now, we don't have any plans for it.
I also have my Sims being up at night if I come back home from a venue. Let's say one parent going out during the evening and coming home around 4am and all the other Sims are doing various interactions when they should most likely be asleep.
I would love for "go to sleep" to be an away action, and when we return, they should actually be in their beds.
That's cool! I'll pass this feedback along as well.
Yes there's nothing worse than bringing your love interest home after a date and finding the whole family waiting up for you
@SimGuruEugi@SimGuruNick I already posted this question, but you probably didn't see it. Sorry if I'm bothering. But was the has to pee walk animation changed? It seems to be slower and less wiggly than before? Also sims start walking normal even before reaching a toilet.
How difficult would it be to add separate funds for household members? Similar to individual inventories and household inventories. Sims sharing a house would each have their own accounts. Sims with jobs would have their salary added to their individual accounts. Any type of expense would come out of the household funds, like build/buy mode purchases, cooking supplies, etc. There could also be a way to transfer funds from an individual sims' account to the household account. Thus allowing us to charge rent for roommates, buy mode purchases for a specific sim, etc. Allowance for teens and kids that would come out of the household account. Is this something that could be possible? I look at the transfers between household funds and business funds and it seems feasible.
One of the first prototypes of the game had that. It was never actually that fun to play and was pretty confusing.
It'd be interesting to re-explore that and try to add some cool gameplay to it. But, right now, we don't have any plans for it.
A compromise might be to allow us to choose how much money someone leaving the household can take with them, and deduct it from the funds of the ex-household. The player might have some idea of how much money they intended for the adult kid or divorcing partner to have saved up for themseld.
@SimGuruEugi I understand the lots are not manipulable after a save-game because they are part of the my own game. But... and the public areas of the world? The areas that are off the lot, you can add things or modify them?
I've seen two changes of worlds happen before my eyes in a save-game that I have since the game was released. Can you tell me about this? I did a post with pictures, a few months, ago showing what were the changes that affected my original current save-game that I play since september 2014
So, I double checked with our technical director, and it appears we have made some targeted fixes to world objects (e.g. trash cans) to fix bugs. This is unlike Sims 3, where I believe we never touched the worlds.
However, we still can't modify lots, since those have player placed objects. We have also never added/removed entire lots or neighborhoods from existing worlds.
SimguruEugi, thank for taking your time to answer many questions.
There is another one that I think many players would love to get an answer for. Will we ever get spiral staircase in the game? Is it possible? Have you discussed this before? They are so sophisticated and require less space than regular stairs.
Thank you in advance.
We all love spiral staircases! But I'm not able to talk about content that's not in the game. Sorry.
I noticed that any book or whatever you order from the computer automatically is sent to your sims's inventory. Wouldn't it be a bit more detailed having it placed in the mailbox?
It's for convenience. We used to have it implemented such that you'd actually have to wait for the mailman to deliver it the next day, but people didn't like that!
Comments
This is the only reply I'm going to post in this thread because I don't think it should be used to debate with other players. So you never should have posted this here in the first place, but since you did I'm going to reply.
You are incorrect that WA was only linear. Just like everyone keeps arguing for TS4, you did not have to play it that way. But the most significant difference is that the developers provided us all the tools we needed to create our own worlds and build our own tombs. I understand that you prefer the console versions of this game and that's fine, but there is a reason that a lot of us always preferred the PC versions, and that was because of all the freedom we had to create our own gameplay. I'm betting you probably never used any of it, but it was definitely there.
And since you brought it up, in TS3 we could build museums, libraries, pools, bars and lounges, parks, fishing spots, ponds, and yes, apartments. You did not have to use the pre-made shells to build them, either. We could also build spas, gyms, tattoo parlors and salons, and yes, even restaurants. There are probably others I'm not thinking of ATM.
Did some of these venues and buildings require extra packs and DLC? Yes, but so does TS4. And with mods you could even build your own rabbit holes in TS3!
Prefer this game all you want, but stop spreading lies about what the developers provided to us in previous versions of the game. That does a real disservice to their work.
And if any gurus are listening, for many of us the ability to use our imaginations and creativity to create our own gameplay was the essence of The Sims. I'm sorry you are having to deal with disappointed players over the lack of build able apartments but it shouldn't come as a big surprise.
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand basket?!
I noticed that any book or whatever you order from the computer automatically is sent to your sims's inventory. Wouldn't it be a bit more detailed having it placed in the mailbox?
My question is related to one that was asked a few pages back about "away actions" for our Sims. In addition to more actions, such as "Do Homework", I would REALLY love it if our Sims kept all their moodlets and their emotional states when they were off-lot. I often build up my Sims to have the right moodlets before they go to work or school. However, if I then go to a community lot with the Sims who are still at home, their current Emotion disappears and they are labeled as "Fine" unless their needs start to decay, when they switch to "Uncomfortable". It seems unfair that our Sims' work and school performance should be penalized by taking them out of the ideal mood when we take the Sims who stay behind to a community lot. Why don't Sims maintain their Emotional state (except for Uncomfortable) when you are playing other Sims away from the home lot? And could this be fixed?
Add Manage Neighbourhood Options - assign your own Sim to NPC jobs!
The Problems with Death in The Sims 4
Distinguish Elder gameplay with Elder-only reward traits
Filter Rugs by Room Size
1) Can we wait for polls asking what Simmers would like to have in future content? I think if there was a poll about the apartments, most of the Simmers would have choose to be allowed to build their own apartment complexes than having a "design" view...
2) Can we wait for truly funcional elevators?
3) And can we wait for a future update improving the apartment system in TS4 (allowing us to build our own complexes)? Or this theme will not be worked anymore in this game?...
All of you have a great weekend!
Those all seem to be questions about future content, which we all know cannot be answered.
Well, I think they're more related to things that should be in the new EP and didn't; so they're more about if the dev team will update these things or if it's better for us to forget about them.
Still, even if they decide to update these, it would be considered future patch content. Anyway maybe SimGuruEugi could at least tell us if in his view such updates are feasible or if they would probably require too much work for a free update on past content.
I also think @SimGuruEugi is perfectly capable of deciding for himself what he can and can't share with us. He's been amazing so far.
https://deaderpool-mccc.com/
https://www.patreon.com/egwarhammer
https://twitter.com/eg4mccc
https://eg4mccc.tumblr.com/
So I was playing a sim household the other day, and they're my only played household in this save game. Anyway the main sim was talking to an npc named Markus and they got together to hang out a few times and we got the relationship to friendship level and they were romantic interests as well. Well the NEXT sim day, Markus was no longer in my sim's relationship list and she couldn't call him or invite him over. He still existed because he occasionally calls my sim to go to a community lot. But she can't invite him out herself, and the relationship seems to still be gone (I haven't checked today while playing). I don't understand if this is part of relationship culling or what but it's incredibly frustrating and really wrecking my game right now. Just hoping to find out more about what is causing it. Thanks.
I'm an organizer of the Monthly SimLits Short Story Challenges
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If you're interested, MC Command Center now has options for "tailored" relationship culling, or you can disable culling (all kinds) and decay (all kinds) using the mod, if you'd rather.
More info? Post here: (to keep THIS thread on-topic.)
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/837115/need-help-with-mc-command-center-ask-here#latest/
https://deaderpool-mccc.com/
https://www.patreon.com/egwarhammer
https://twitter.com/eg4mccc
https://eg4mccc.tumblr.com/
I've got a non-apartments question for you (really more of a thought experiment), which will hopefully be a nice change of pace.
One feature that's near and dear to my heart are cars, and the carpools that used to come for Sims going to work in the previous games. Obviously The Sims 4 doesn't have cars or carpools (carpools are a bit outdated anyway- everyone uses Ubers these days), but I've noticed that in many worlds (Windenburg in particular, although San Myshuno looks like it'll be another one), the roads are either barricaded by little pylon thingies, or there just aren't roads at all (eg. Windenburg's island).
Meaning that if cars were reintroduced, our Sims wouldn't be able to drive freely, or would run from one end of the map to the other to find a road, making them incredibly late for work.
So, I guess my question is this. Given the straight-up incompatibility with some worlds, if cars were reintroduced in a future EP, how would you foresee them being implemented?
Purely hypothetical, of course.
Add Manage Neighbourhood Options - assign your own Sim to NPC jobs!
The Problems with Death in The Sims 4
Distinguish Elder gameplay with Elder-only reward traits
Filter Rugs by Room Size
Sims are created on demand. As soon as you start your game, no librarian exists, for example. The moment you go to the library, one is created for you. If we didn't do that, venues and other systems wouldn't work properly, since they require Sims to fulfill certain roles.
That's cool! I'll pass this feedback along as well.
They are the same. But we did make some speed improvements, so hopefully you'll notice faster loading screens.
One of the first prototypes of the game had that. It was never actually that fun to play and was pretty confusing.
It'd be interesting to re-explore that and try to add some cool gameplay to it. But, right now, we don't have any plans for it.
Yes there's nothing worse than bringing your love interest home after a date and finding the whole family waiting up for you
I'm not sure. I'll have to ask the animators.
A compromise might be to allow us to choose how much money someone leaving the household can take with them, and deduct it from the funds of the ex-household. The player might have some idea of how much money they intended for the adult kid or divorcing partner to have saved up for themseld.
So, I double checked with our technical director, and it appears we have made some targeted fixes to world objects (e.g. trash cans) to fix bugs. This is unlike Sims 3, where I believe we never touched the worlds.
However, we still can't modify lots, since those have player placed objects. We have also never added/removed entire lots or neighborhoods from existing worlds.
We all love spiral staircases! But I'm not able to talk about content that's not in the game. Sorry.
It's for convenience. We used to have it implemented such that you'd actually have to wait for the mailman to deliver it the next day, but people didn't like that!