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SimGuruBChick
Posts: 1,013 SimGuru (retired)
Hi all
Please note that we are running the "Ask a SimGuru" sessions once a week from now on, every Tuesday. We have closed the old "Ask a SimGuru" thread and this is the new place where they will be taking place.
FYI - we will also be taking a break over the holiday season. Here are the new dates:
Tuesday December 16th - last usual session of the year
Tuesday December 23rd - on break
Tuesday December 30th - on break
Tuesday January 6th - on break
Tuesday January 13th - usual sessions recommence
The Rules
1. Please read the thread before asking a question. We can answer more questions if we don't have to answer the same ones over and over.
2. Please be constructive.
3. Respect your fellow Simmers.
4. We will try to answer all your questions, but there are a lot more of you than us
5. We can try to answer bug questions and pass on bugs you find, but the better place to report bugs and issues is here: http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-4-Bug-Reports/bd-p/The-Sims-4-Bugs
IMPORTANT: The Gurus (none of us) cannot discuss future content. That includes what we're making, when we're making it, whether it'll be a patch, paid content. We just can't. We'll tell you as soon as we're able. If you ask about future content, the answer will always be "No comment."
Look forward to chatting with everyone on Tuesday.
Please note that we are running the "Ask a SimGuru" sessions once a week from now on, every Tuesday. We have closed the old "Ask a SimGuru" thread and this is the new place where they will be taking place.
FYI - we will also be taking a break over the holiday season. Here are the new dates:
Tuesday December 16th - last usual session of the year
Tuesday December 23rd - on break
Tuesday December 30th - on break
Tuesday January 6th - on break
Tuesday January 13th - usual sessions recommence
The Rules
1. Please read the thread before asking a question. We can answer more questions if we don't have to answer the same ones over and over.
2. Please be constructive.
3. Respect your fellow Simmers.
4. We will try to answer all your questions, but there are a lot more of you than us
5. We can try to answer bug questions and pass on bugs you find, but the better place to report bugs and issues is here: http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-4-Bug-Reports/bd-p/The-Sims-4-Bugs
IMPORTANT: The Gurus (none of us) cannot discuss future content. That includes what we're making, when we're making it, whether it'll be a patch, paid content. We just can't. We'll tell you as soon as we're able. If you ask about future content, the answer will always be "No comment."
Look forward to chatting with everyone on Tuesday.
SimGuruBChick
Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combinations
Thanks to 06bon06 for my lovely new signature pic
Infinite Diversity, Infinite Combinations
Thanks to 06bon06 for my lovely new signature pic
Post edited by SimGuruBChick on
8
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
I know you can’t talk about future content, but could the following features be included into the Sims 4 base game? I would love to have family trees, toddlers, story progression, working genetics, and dishwashers patched into the base game like the past few patches we have been getting. It would be really cool if future EPs had genetics that allowed supernatural abilities to be passed on to offspring and the mixture of multiple supernaturals could be possible. Thank you for your time. If you are worries about funding these changes, I’m sure there is plenty of DLC items that could be sold again like how much DLC that got sold with the Sims 3.
With 3 months past since TS4's release, while the EA team did patch in some features to the game, many questions about the 80+ still missing features, as well as the long-term plan and health of the game, remain questionable. We still have not gotten any real information about the next Expansion, aside from a not-so-helpful Mad Libs-esque hint on Twitter. There seems to be a trend at work here since even before TS4's release. We have seen a massive hesitation to release information about the game. From the exclusivity of the Yibsims and the Sims Camp, to the RNG distribution of the CAS Demo, to the devs being silent about certain aspects of the game such as family life, and the next Expansion. Now, before you bring up the NDA and trade secrets clause, remember that in the past, EA didn't hesitate to brag and advertise about upcoming features to the game. IIRC, there were advertisements for The Sims 2 in the later Sims 1 Expacs, mainly Makin' Magic. The same would be so in TS2, as on the back of my TS2 Uni CD case is an advertisement for the upcoming TS2 Nightlife. Now we fast forward to TS4, and we're three months into the game, and we still don't truly know what the first expansion for TS4 is. Review copies of TS4 would not be distributed prior to the September 2 release. Is it because there isn't one coming soon? Or is EA is afraid of leaking info in fear of an outrage ala Toddlergate and Poolgate in June of this year? Or is all the expansion pack work being done reactively, instead of proactively with a plan like in TS2? The silence won't do any better, because it causes tension the longer the silence goes, resulting in a bigger disappointing feeling once the silence is lifted.
The other concern of the silence from EA is regarding to family life. Many simmers have stated their complaints about family life being an after-thought in TS4, with the removed features and clunky new mechanics/goals to the game. Toddlers are an obvious exclusion, and will be brought up over and over again until the community gets a clear cut answer. Families trees are the same, why all of a sudden is it too hard to implement them, let alone give a clear cut answer like the toddler situation? The last names not being changed issue still has not been rectified. And the 180 sim population limit before the game starts culling sims, as well as the small neighborhood sizes, limits the lifetime of a family.
Also, some of the small details that made the charm of past Sims games are not there in TS4. Sims don't wave at each other in the morning like in TS2. It's a neat detail to have the repairman wave at your sims when he comes in to fix your things. Now in TS4, they don't either wave, and there's still no repairman in sight. Many other services are still MIA. We still don't know why they are not in the game yet. Is it again one of those cases of it being "too hard" to implement, or is it some bizarre lore reasoning like all of those services happenend to go on indefinite strike? Even with that reasoning, it wouldn't explain burglars not being in the game. Heck, wouldn't a police strike prompt for more burglars? We still don't have a way to make portraits of sims like the Still Life painting feature in TS2 and TS3. The selfie animations don't net a photo of it in anyway, which is yet another trend of this game, with so many things being pretend for the theoretical sake of either performance, simplicity, tactile, intuitive, or the popular "too hard to implement". We have pretend daycare. We have pretend school and work where sims can't even build up relationships with their peers. Pretend selfies. The carpools are pretend because sims just walk to the sidewalk and disappear to work/school. In fact, the excluded items in the game took away many aspect of simmer's playstyles such as family play. Where are the video game consoles? Pinball machines? Arcade games? VR headsets? With all the emphasis on technology in the game, considering how sims are obsessed with their phones and selfies in the dumbest of situations, such as when they're using the toilet, how come those things are not in the game?
Speaking of annoyances, the little details added into TS4 seem to be tacked on to make players feel uncomfortable for the sake of the game trying to live up to the standard of "Smarter Sims, Weirder Stories", but doesn't. On the Woodworking table, there isn't an option for a sim to make multiple objects with one command like with OFB, you have to command your sim to make an object EACH time. Was it made that way to force more "intuitive and tactile" play, or is another example of "too hard to implement?" And the multitasking, while on the surface a good idea, appears to be more of a pain to deal with. So often do sims want to butt in on other sims doing things for the sake of multitasking. Why do sims suddenly have urges to hug or talk to another sim that is either in the shower or using the toilet? Do sims in the TS4 world have no sense of privacy? Do they not know how to lock the door to prevent those walk-ins, or did the EA government remove those too because of either the "Weirder Stories" or the "too hard" clause? Going back to multitasking, it seems like it makes the long interactions such as cooking a meal or eating one even longer, because while the sim talks to another sim, the progress bar for the main interaction pauses during the talking. I know that it's there possibly to make the game realistic, but it is a drag knowing that a sim taking 1 hour to make a meal and eat will take 2 hours because other sims want to talk while they're cooking or eating. And most of the interactions take a very long time in the game, showering with the cheaper showers can take as much as 90 sim minutes to do. I highly doubt that they do that for realism, because normally showers don't last
any where near that long. You can't even dress your sims in their work outfit if you wanted to in TS4, other than when they actually go to work.
Now another big concern is the direction of this game was mostly dictated by the "visions" of the higher ups at Maxis and/or EA. Now, I do know that having a solid vision can yield big rewards if done properly, with Will Wright having visions of a city building game coming off of creating a game to destroy several islands, as well as a vision of a life simulation game, coming from when his house was destroyed in the Oakland fire of 1991. But the vision would have to be something that people would want. People ended up wanting a city building game in SimCity, and same with the life simulation in The Sims. However, the visions that the heads at Maxis have went with for the latest editions of those
games in SimCity 2013 and The Sims 4 have been met with massive dissapointment, and a horde of angry customers wanting to know why they were sold a fraction of an actual game. Another word that you guys bring up a lot is "foundation". Well, isn't a foundation a strong backing to something to begin with? The game itself doesn't appear to be that way because so many things are missing, and much of the features in the game are just backtracking with the return of loading screens, the removal of CaST, as well as making the neighborhoods so restrictive. And to label a game as a foundation is actually quite insulting itself, because it gives the impression that features were intentionally left out for the
sake of selling them at a later time. Games have to provide adequate gameplay by themselves, not be just a shell of it, and having to fork over more money to get the full experience, and feature that should have been included with the base game to begin with.
One other aspect of your "vision" was the emphasis on linear gameplay through goals. Unfortunately, while they do provide gameplay on the first try, it ends up being a pain to do the grind over and over again for aspirations and careers, especially when some of the goals either require specific tactics to do, or are difficult to achieve because of dependence on RNG. The "writer's block" goal was one of those, with people reporting their sims unable to get into writer's block even after having their sims practice writing for hours, days, or even weeks. Needing to have your spouse be your BFF for the soulmate aspiration sounds as if you HAVE to play the game THIS way, even moreso due to the 1 BFF restriction per sim. In real life, a BFF can be someone other than a spouse, and people even have multiple best friends at a time. That leads to the 5 BFF requirement, in which you have to make a BFF, then end the relationship, and repeat until you get the 5. That doesn't sound like a Friend of the World at all, more like making friends with benefits, sounding eerily like friendzoning. The specific goals being there makes the game appear like an RPG instead of a sandbox life simulation that the original Sims was based on. And when modders have to make mods to remove those goals, as well as the other many annoyances in the game, it would probably be a sign that the players don't like it. Was the addition of all these goals meant for tactile gameplay, or was it for some other reason that we do not know of? In fact, was the whole idea of making TS4 true to the visions of the devs that important, just to appeal to a few certain players and the heads of EA, while alienating almost the rest of the Sims fanbase?
And another big concern is the future of the game, as well as the franchise. Many details about the future of TS4 are seemingly kept under wraps, with you all not being fully open about what's to come. As I mentioned, while details will alienate the fanbase if they are unfavorable, like say, the expansion is something absurd like Bros vs. Geeks, holding out the details until the very last moment will result in an even bigger disappointment, because it gives the impression that the devs have set this up for a failure, and knew about it, yet greenlighted the project anyway. Or it sounds like that the expansions to the game were designed reactively, instead of proactively with a plan like in TS2. And will the new features in expansion packs mesh well with past expansion and the base game, or will they feel tacked on? There were many small details in TS2's expansions that made it work like a well-oiled machine. Dogs could bathe in the Water Wiggler toy in OFB. You can set the vending machines in AL to make sales in a business in OFB. TS2 (and I think TS1) are the only sims games to have actual functioning restaurants that you sims can go to for a meal, or even own with OFB. Whereas in TS3, they didn't seem to function as well together, and feel tacked-on.
The lore of the sims themselves in TS4 also fall short compared to the other games. The lack of personal sim bios hurts noticeably. And the families themselves are mostly forgettable. The BFF household, which was said to have a possible love triangle forming, isn't so because Liberty and Summer don't have any romantic relationship with Travis. Johnny Zest was said to have been disowned by the Landgraabs, but doesn't see them as family or even know them. That means that a player could make Johnny fall in love with them, resulting in incest according to the family bio, even though according to the game, it's not. The Spencer-Kim-Lewis family could have been made easier with a family tree, and Olivia's last name is too long when you edit her with the cas.fulledit cheat. Did the playtesters not catch that? The returning families are no different. Bella Goth appears to have lighter skin, and people have made accusations of "whitewashing" in the game. Dina and Nina Caliente have a different mother, and Don Lothario lives with them. The personalities of the twins are mixed up. Nina is the active one in TS2, and Dina is the lazy one, but they got those reversed in TS4. And Don has no romantic relationships with any of the ladies in the household. Compare that to the TS2 families. People loved stories like Brandi Broke trying to keep her life in check as a single mother, and the Pleasant family with the twins and Daniel's infidelity. Why aren't there any families like this in TS4?
One missing feature (two technically) in the Gallery appears to be yet another squandered resource. Back in the days of the Exchange, players could upload stories to them to share. Yes, most of those stories were teenage cliches that all ended in the usual way, but at least they storytelling option was there. TS3 expanded on that with being able to upload videos in the same way. You would think that you could do the same with the Gallery because of the "Weirder stories", but it's not so. Why was this feature left out of TS4? Is it because storytelling was not in the vision either? Or is it because the typical teenage cliche stories would be too much to keep the game Teen rated? The second would be
attributed to not having proper staff to moderate to prevent people from uploading stories with inappropriate content, would that be "too hard" to do as well? And some people, myself included, actually like to read horribly written stories and watch horrible videos, because that's human nature to laugh at the very worst that human society has to offer with media.
Game performance is another issue. You have emphasized that a lot of features (i.e. open world, CaST) were removed to improve game performance, and while it seems so on the surface, the loading screen times increase significantly as a save ages. Players have reported loading screen times to go over a minute now, as well as issues of save games getting corrupted. And this is all happening in the base game. If, for some reason, the game can be salvaged, and all or most of those missing features from Sims games past would be re-added, will the performance of the game still be reasonable? Or will it contribute to a massive bloat like the loading times for TS2 and TS3? And note that you have to look at a loading screen at least two times, one to go to a venue, and one to go back to your house. If you can count the amount of time spent on loading sceens over a save game's age, it will add up significantly.
In the end, it's all on you EA. Will TS4 be able to be salvaged to become a likeable game like how Blizzard fixed Diablo 3 to be after it's lackluster release? Or is it too flawed to the point that the game has to be redone completely like the FFXIV MMO, which saw a massive increase in play after the first release was shut down due to being flawed beyond repair, and the second re-released version improved the game to the point that it has a sustainable player base now. There's nothing wrong with either of those options, especially the second one, but the player base has to know that concerns of TS4 aren't being ignored just because it's not blind praise. No one wants to see a game franchise like The Sims end in this way, but if EA continues to take the current path with the game, (being silent about family life as an example) it may be yet another example of EA running yet another game franchise into the ground. In fact, a lot of the 2014 video game releases have been disappointments, and sadly TS4 was one of those.
I think I may have missed some concerns about the game that the community have brought up, but they would have said so already. I also apologize if this appears to be a mess to read, but the concerns of this game are significant and have to be dealt with.
As you mentioned, we can't make promises about future content but you're definitely not alone in the things you would like to see in the game. Family trees, toddlers, story progression, and dishwashers are some of the biggest asks we see on the forums and we're keeping track of the things you you guys are asking for. You're other ideas around genetics are really interesting as well. Thanks for the suggestions and feedback!
My sims can now eat the vegetables from their garden; they don't have to make enemies of their best friends in order to complete the "Friend of the World" aspiration; and the young adult sims in my legacy will no longer marry people who are 3 days away from becoming an elder because now they can see their age under their name.
All this plus a Christmas tree and 3 new sweaters!
The number of things added exceeded expectations. Then I looked at all the changes and bug fixes. Holy cow !
It's a very impressive patch, and I'm looking forward to getting to my computer and sinking my teeth in.
I didn't see maids mentioned in the patch notes, so I have to ask about that. Are they still showing up and milling about ?
If so, I'm genuinely interested in knowing what's causing the flakey service. What is the conflict keeping our trusty house keepers from providing us with the legendary service Sim Maids are known for ?
Also, thank you for the Christmas content !
Very very much appreciated. Happy Holidays !
Yay! Hope you have fun with the new changes and holiday stuff. ^_^
I'm less happy about other things I read (dumbing down of career and aspiration objectives), particularly since I'm in the middle of a legacy and have no intention of starting over just because you changed the rules, so to speak. Maybe it's not as bad as it sounds. I'll have to wait until I get into my game, I guess.
I'm disappointed that culling, protecting particular Sims from culling, and the max pop, were not addressed further. Maybe you're still looking at it.
It's obvious a lot of work went into this patch, and I thank you all for your hard work. It's impossible to please all the people all the time, so it's important to me that you know how much I like the game and how much I appreciate your efforts.
Looking about how to mod the sims 4, I had been wondering. Don't you have tools to create careers, trait and such ? Wouldn't it be possible to make these tools available ?
Or a more precise documentation, at least.
Tanks.
Eowyn.
We appreciate hearing your concerns. As today's patch notes hopefully show, we are working hard to improve the game and address concerns like yours.
I can definitely understand the frustration around the lack of information on future plans. I can't comment on specifics, but it is something we are discussing internally (what do we announce, and when).
We're aware of some issues with Maids. I'm not super close to that part of the game so I can't give you specifics but it is something we're looking into.
I think there other main issue of the game are the maps. I would love to see a bird's eye view of the map like I could with Sims 1, 2, and 3. The lots already feel too small and can't even fit everything I want it to which is bad considering it is a base game and more items will be added later with EPs. Lack of community lots and NPCs bothers me too. The world just feels really tiny. Could the neighborhoods and lots be expanded a bit? But thank you for bringing rotational gameplay back and making it easy to visit other neighborhoods.
So far I really love this game & it's a huge improvement from the past two games, but there are some things I do miss (like subsets, the way you can view & edit your world, toddlers of course etc.)
We do have internal tools that we use to make the game and it's not unprecedented for Maxis to make those tools available (an example would be Create a World for The Sims 3). It does take a certain amount of work to make tools like that user friendly and ready for you guys though and right now we're mainly focused on improving gameplay and broadening the play experience. Never say never though!
Good to hear! We were concerned about changing Career and Aspiration goals mid-game for players, but felt it was important to try to address the feedback we'd been getting about them being too specific and too repetitive. The game already had other systems (e.g., Whims) to offer specific objectives. Give it a play and let us know what you think.
It's hard to fix every issue in one patch. Keep letting us know what you're having trouble with, and we'll do our best to get to it.
I'll be honest, I look forward to the guru Q&A every week.
But some weeks, I look forward to it just because it feels like an event.
Rarely are you allowed to tell us anything new (heck, most of the time it reads like a wish list ... might as well ask the players to sit on a gurus lap and tell them what the players wants for Christmas) but I still look forward to it.
I feel like another weekly event or three would help curb the "I need something, anything new !" vibe we're all dealing with.
An announcement about when you'll make an announcement would be enough to help keep the masses satisfied, if only for a little while.
We are still looking into lighting issues. I don't believe any lighting updates were included in this patch.
Thank you! Thank you! to all the ones who contributed and made the decision to do a Holiday pack download!! WE - me - my sis, my Sims all thank you!
Thank you for making the fruits and vegetables edible.. - question? Any chance of actually doing something with the flowers instead of planting them around the house? Like maybe when a Open for Business type of thing comes along they can be used for a Flower arranger business..
Any hint, word, idea, time frame - of when another world will be available to play.. And/ or opening up the current ones some more?
Any more free downloads as like the past 3 months or are you preparing for the new packs and expansions?
I like the notes on the patch updates is it one person or everyone that participates..
Anything you can't answer just nod or blink or wink. somehow..
We're looking into adding more to do in the home. Is there anything specific you're thinking about?
Thanks! It was time to switch out the old ghost avatar. Just realized I missed the boat on the swimwear avatar too!
Oh, and I'm having some issues with the CameraMan mode. When saving two angles sometimes the camera goes from one to another in a 360º rotation, lots os people reported the same on the internet. And the Video Recording system of the game is weird. I don't have any lags while playing the game, but when I start recording videos there are some lags that ruin the video, even when I'm using Uncrompressed quality. In The Sims 3 the Uncompressed mode seems to record in a little slow motion, and it removes all the lag, so the videos end up perfect, even though my Sims 3 used to have some lags while in gameplay.
I hope I've made my issues clear, and hope you guys can look into it! Thanks a lot for this thread and for the great update!