Okay now you have my attention. One more post, because I copied this a few minutes ago to post about later, but, I added the next part, too:
Outdoor Retreat was over using our compatibility region filters (when a Sim is requested for a “thing” we use a filter to determine who). Such that when the filter failed to find someone that fit the requirements exactly (male, bartending skill 5, young adult), it created a new Sim to fit the role rather than allowing for some flexibility (bartending 4 or 6 is probably just as well).
Along the same lines, we took the above fix and made it general – rather than always creating exactly what was requested by the game, we allow flexibility. Reducing the number of new Sims being created, that more often than not, would just come and go without the player realizing.
That line right there (bolded) speaks VOLUMES about how EA has NO idea about who some of their players are. Those of us with history. Who still has notebooks/etc of households from games gone by? Sims 2, Sims 3, other Sims 4 saves? Computers are grand for info-saving, but sometimes there's nothing like a piece of paper and a pencil. Old school.
I do. Pretty sure I won't be a party of one, either.
And he said they wanted to stealth-manipulate our NPCs etc, in a game they sold with "You Rule" for the slogan.
Come and go, on my watch? Not happening, HERE.
I notice. Trust me. And with MC... I *keep* my sims.
Edit: Notice is probably not strong enough. I watch my bin like a hawk. With MC.
This (from get_pop b) is what's currently in my game:
49 pregnant sims? Whoa. (And this is WAY off topic.)
Steering towards something more like on-topic, I'll probably have some things to address regarding the UI. Been playing, dropped by here to find something, you know how it is...
Just gathering info for that post, and my alarm run, still. Between net trips.
My inventory-inspired (main household) lockup just reared it ugly head in a NEW place...
I finished my edits using the Pancakes, and went out to Manage Households to switch to Jacobs house. Locked up THERE, as I was heading in. That's a first, before it's always been happening JUST coming out of CAS.
I am not amused. I didn't lose anything but a little time (waited 3 minutes and hit the big red X) ... again... of course, I don't know if I can get back IN yet... we'll see.
But if I can, I think I'll go run this alarm from some other house, and try to beat on my main's inventory issue after that.
Pain in the...
Sims don't know what they're doing, they don't know where they're going, and they don't seem to be able to keep track of what they're holding, either.
49 pregnant sims? Whoa. (And this is WAY off topic.)
Steering towards something more like on-topic, I'll probably have some things to address regarding the UI. Been playing, dropped by here to find something, you know how it is...
Just gathering info for that post, and my alarm run, still. Between net trips.
Yeah I was shocked by it too. I had to change the homeless setting too. Too many homeless. XD
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
By the way, who can point me to where ANY of the culling routines (sims, ghosts, relationships etc) are DOCUMENTED? As in, patch notes? Official FAQs? I REALLY want to see what EA has to say about that.
I don't know if they have.
Well, why not? As they are being included as apparently necessary functions to enable a smooth "You Rule" playing experience, why AREN'T they telling players things like, don't get attached to your ghosts or family trees, because culling removes the former and breaks the latter.
Things like, back when it was 180... it will take your bin 4 sim days to create 180 sims, after which any unplayed/unmapped old ones you have already customized will be randomly deleted, to make room for our All-Knowing Bin to create even more new sims for you to enjoy. And this will go on until the end of time. But, You Rule.
Relationship culling should never have seen the light of day to even catch my attention as an undocumented "feature." Feature is NOT the word I use to describe that mess. But it definitely happens in games, so, why is there no info on this readily available?
I am THRILLED Deaderpool was able to mitigate/stop that, it's a 0-100 settable OPTION for us, similar to what we have for Friendship and Romance (-100 to 100) decay.
All of that is turned off or dialed WAY down, here. My game hasn't blown up.
I had a SAVE file do that recently, but it wasn't from THIS. (Inventory, that was.)
At BEST, relationship culling should not have happened until AFTER players had the chance to set up clubs, if they're just dead set on it being a good thing to include. To unleash a gameplay-wiping function without ANY warning at the first launch following a patch, like happened with GT, is just inexcusable.
To have done so AND left all of us in the dark regarding its implementation was a Very Bad Thing.
How do we Rule, when you've made it impossible for our Sims to remember??????
I first noticed culling in March 2015 but I understand some players had seen it months before. At the time I had been playing one household per game so I hadn't noticed if Sims were disappearing. I'd worked quite a while trying to recreate the Goth house from TS3 and even longer filling up the little cemetery that goes with it. I started wondering why I stopped getting hauntings and sent one of my Sims out to "mourn" only to find the tombstones empty.....and.....well that was days of game time wasted. After that I noticed that coworkers or Sims I had seen were gone.
All of this really surprised me because of the hundreds (big underestimate ) of hours playing TS3 I had only lost one family I had played to "moving out of town". I had seen occasional pop up notices about someone moving but it had never been a played household with that one exception.
The relationship culling was another big surprise. I had a Sim with several good friends and a fiance on his relationship panel. I closed the game and when I opened it again the panel was empty......again so much for those hours of play gone.
"People really love to explore 'failure states. In fact, the failure states are really much more interesting than the success states." ~ Will Wright
Well I dunno if this is new, but sims going to greet other sims (as mentioned in the OP walking way off the lot to say hi), if they carrying a plate of food and finish eating it while chatting to that faraway sim, now leave the empty plate on the side walk. I can't move it ....the option to clean it is greyed out. The only option is to shift click and "set as head". This obviously gives that sim a plate for a head and if you click on the plate head.....the sim will first (obviously sit lol)....then put the plate on the floor...then clean it. This will then make the sidewalk plate disappear.
Well I dunno if this is new, but sims going to greet other sims (as mentioned in the OP walking way off the lot to say hi), if they carrying a plate of food and finish eating it while chatting to that faraway sim, now leave the empty plate on the side walk. I can't move it ....the option to clean it is greyed out. The only option is to shift click and "set as head". This obviously give the sims a plate for a head and if you click on the plate head.....the sims will first (obviously sit lol)....then put the plate on the floor...then clean it. This will then make the sidewalk plate disappear.
Needs to be fixed.
Don't you just love all the creative work arounds the players come up with? The ones they have to come up with.
"People really love to explore 'failure states. In fact, the failure states are really much more interesting than the success states." ~ Will Wright
I first noticed culling in March 2015 but I understand some players had seen it months before. At the time I had been playing one household per game so I hadn't noticed if Sims were disappearing. I'd worked quite a while trying to recreate the Goth house from TS3 and even longer filling up the little cemetery that goes with it. I started wondering why I stopped getting hauntings and sent one of my Sims out to "mourn" only to find the tombstones empty.....and.....well that was days of game time wasted. After that I noticed that coworkers or Sims I had seen were gone.
All of this really surprised me because of the hundreds (big underestimate ) of hours playing TS3 I had only lost one family I had played to "moving out of town". I had seen occasional pop up notices about someone moving but it had never been a played household with that one exception.
The relationship culling was another big surprise. I had a Sim with several good friends and a fiance on his relationship panel. I closed the game and when I opened it again the panel was empty......again so much for those hours of play gone.
I didn't notice it until the family tree patch, so probably around the same time as you too. I was like "what is happening to my ghosts and Sims?" It was freaky discovering it.
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
I first noticed culling in March 2015 but I understand some players had seen it months before. At the time I had been playing one household per game so I hadn't noticed if Sims were disappearing. I'd worked quite a while trying to recreate the Goth house from TS3 and even longer filling up the little cemetery that goes with it. I started wondering why I stopped getting hauntings and sent one of my Sims out to "mourn" only to find the tombstones empty.....and.....well that was days of game time wasted. After that I noticed that coworkers or Sims I had seen were gone.
All of this really surprised me because of the hundreds (big underestimate ) of hours playing TS3 I had only lost one family I had played to "moving out of town". I had seen occasional pop up notices about someone moving but it had never been a played household with that one exception.
The relationship culling was another big surprise. I had a Sim with several good friends and a fiance on his relationship panel. I closed the game and when I opened it again the panel was empty......again so much for those hours of play gone.
I didn't notice it until the family tree patch, so probably around the same time as you too. I was like "what is happening to my ghosts and Sims?" It was freaky discovering it.
It was right around the time of the release of GTW. Is that when the family tree patch was done?
"People really love to explore 'failure states. In fact, the failure states are really much more interesting than the success states." ~ Will Wright
I'm going to add more to my first post, since more has been changed I wasn't aware of that is extremely annoying. I will edit the first post instead of it getting lost in the deep.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
I played for a while this morning, once I finally got that MC alarm done. Killing time waiting to see when 2.10.0 is going to land, which should be soon, but I don't have a firm ETA.
I'm not saying TODAY soon, just, soon in general.
I have seen a cc bug, a woohoo-mod bug, and SEVERAL of those head-scratcher interaction combos that just leave you wondering...
Elder Vivian is married to townie Vicente. She's pregnant (all that came from MC). So I decided to have them woohoo. After they're done, she gets up, being pregnant, to go to the bathroom. Just as SOON as I told her to go pee, Vicente has the want pop in above his action bar to give her a hug.
I cancelled that so he wouldn't knock her off her task (never mind following her into the bathroom and probably embarrassing one or both of them). So she finishes, then decides, since she's already in there, she may as well throw up, too, at which exact point her Squeamish husband decides it would be a wonderful idea to go give her a KISS.
Ewwwwwwwwwwww!!!
The reason I was playing them at all is because I couldn't get into my main house for the inventory issue. Too whipped to tackle that, I need sleep first. Just been switching around for a couple of hours per house, moving through early Sunday morning hours.
I'm not too thrilled by what I'm seeing. Something is rotten in Denmark.
Things mods aren't making any difference to. I was talking about the same kind of disconnects @Cinebar was. Posting about some of what I've been seeing. I guess I should go start my own thread. Maybe I'll do that after I've had some sleep. (Up all night.)
Apologies. I didn't mean to run away with your thread. I'll try to do better at staying more relevant. And less "in your face"... I overwhelm. That was not my intention at all.
It seemed like related examples to me, but, I could be wrong.
It's O.K. @egwarhammer , don't leave this thread. I didn't know what you were talking about that is all. I just wanted it clear you have seen some of the things I mention and they aren't mod related or CC or cheat related. Everything in my thread is very real. If you can see the same problems (being a modder and knowing where to look in the code) then perhaps you can help Maxis fix what is driving me insane. lol I would like to continue my DS hood, I really would, but if I'm going to blow a fuse every time I start over, (for the same reasons) I don't think I will last long enough for to fix the no action in queue to go wave to someone who has already moved to a different location on the lot or all the other program changes I added to my first post. Please stay and explain to others reading (especially Maxis) what you are saying that you also see the same sort of bad programming and annoyances.
Thank you. I'm happy to have you in my thread as long as we don't discuss MC and what it can and can't do. But you could help shed light on what exactly is wrong in the programming that I see all these things in a vanilla game.
ETA: People who only play one Sim, one household and one lot may never see half of what I have endured, though.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
C'mon gang, don't be like that. If you have something to add related to Cinebar's insights... please do.
MC 2.10.0 is up, I've got things to do related to that. I'm not going away MAD, or even going AWAY... just wanted to let the thread know I've got other fish to fry now, anyway. (Saved by the bell, gang! haha!)
Actually I DO want to address one thing you said, @Cinebar ... I am NOT a programmer. I am not a modder, either. When I said, I mod my game, what I meant was, I use mods in my game. (Because I can't play without them.)
Hanging with Deaderpool etc has helped me understand a lot more about the behind-the-scenes stuff than I used to, for sure. But the idea of actually DOING anything with a tuning or script file just terrifies me.
I know people who can, and will... that's close enough for me. Kinda OT, sorry, but it's been mentioned by a couple of people, so I wanted to try to clear that up.
I don't MEAN to present myself as a modder, I am so NOT one. Just a nerd/geek type with a love of detail and a fair understanding of getting MC to do what people want.
Now, I'm off to install the new version. I hope everybody reading this is having a great day/night.
I have eight Sims in one house. The Stoddard-Collins family. I decided on a Sunday they should all get out of the house and do their own things because I needed to work with Roger and Jason McGuire (enemies in the soap) for a few hours. So, I took each family member somewhere else and left them. Carolyn, David and Victoria went to a park. Mrs. Johnson went grocery shopping and then to a movie. I left them there to return home to Roger, Elizabeth, and Jason. Well, well my idea of how to get some peace for a little while didn't work. The game automatically sent them all back home. WTH.
I left them there on purpose like we did in the beginning of this game's release. I waw sick of the going upstairs to wave at someone though that someone had already went downstairs..but the Sim just keeps walking anyway to the place place the other Sim had been. Ridiculous. But this game decides oh, no...you can't switch from one Sim to another, I will just send them all back to you!
I think that might have been the final straw. Now, forget 'you rule' no you don't the game decided they all needed to come back home and switching to play one Sim on a different lot no longer works. The game will send them all back to your house. Can I get an Angry Bird emocion? Wasn't it supposed to be up to me when I would switch from one to the other, and not the game to decide they all needed to come back home?
I usually only play households of 2 or 3 sims at a time, and when I can, I keep them together. But after reading this, @Cinebar tonight I checked it out in my game. (Villareals were spread out.) Sure enough. It HAS changed.
And I am not impressed. I liked the old way MUCH better. This is like having invisible chains linking your sims... and in Map view, it seems like if you visit one house in a subhood, that pulls all the neighbors off their lot (or in from wherever) and onto the lot you just loaded. Go out to Map view again, most of them will then show as "not home."
It's annoying.
They did something different, but it's hard telling what.
If they'd spend as much time fixing broken things as they do breaking working things... we'd have a much better game to try to play. This is ridiculous.
Yes! I understand your frustration so well! I love Sims 4, I play sims 4, but all of the bugs that you listed make it torturous to play. I hope they will fix them in the future.
Intel i7-6700HQ; nvidia gtx970m 3 gb; 1tb HHD and 256gb SSD; my drivers are always up to date.
I was encouraged to post in here by a new and fabulous (and highly knowledgeable) new friend I made on these boards. I wanted to share my woes from what looks to be a different POV: I have only the base game. No paid content purchased.
I'm not part of that "pledge" I see here and there, it's far more basic than that. Though I respect the work put into those EPs SPs and so-forth, they don't contain anything that jumps out as me for my own playing purposes.
Only base, except I also use mods Detailed below is why I thought I ought to at least pay a visit in here: I use mods because the vanilla base is unplayable, from a tolerance standpoint.
Oh it runs, all right, but it's got ages-old (relatively speaking) glitches that seemed to accompany the various patches-with-content.
For example, Sims take waaaay too long to eat. (a mod took care of that, mostly) They take all Sim day to work in even the small gardens I have for them to generate income. A mod addresses that.
They meet and make friends with townies (All but one household is made up of townies, but to supply some progression, I use MC Command. Otherwise they age and die off but their household situations remain static.) but the very next time it's "cheerful introduction, playful introduction-- "Y'all" get the picture. acquaintances evaporated like a summer rain shower. This was not the case before one of the patches. I should have done some homework to supply which patch appeared to be the culprit, but it's been reported as "relationship culling". (a mod addresses that)
If I let them make their own way for a while (they're on "auto")-- they stand around for a few Sim minutes, then it's always "to the computer". A mod addresses that
Art imitating life, imitating art.. But I didn't buy a life simulator to mirror what goes on around me IRL every day-- it would be cheaper to look out the window.
Early in 2015 they came out with the woohoo challenge and I swear, right after that they all got way too flirty, way too easily, and that includes adults and parents getting flirty buffs around children.
Bad-taste-in-mouth.
So, in summary, the road to Heck is paved with good intentions and although I think the EA dev squad meant well with these content-patches, insufficient attention to detail appears to have been paid.
Every plum (Yes I wrote "plum", it has multiple applications based on context and this way everyone gets the picture.) attempt to fix a glitch and add goodies -- has resulted in an issue in my game that was worse than the problem they sought to address.
I suppose that would be another reason why I avoid paid additional content. An half-dozen malevolent genies are already on the loose, and purchasing these things might release the biggest one yet.
I'll close with "Please, research and test content-payloaded patches (especially) before releasing them!!!["/color]
Though I really dig the mods that are out there as much as I am sure the mod-writing nerds enjoy making them, I'd really prefer the game behave at least somewhere along the lines of the intent behind it.
With all due respect, it just points out to sloppy support of the game.
Intentions aside, even the appearance of shoddiness.. is bad for the game, bad for those who play it, and bad for the company image.
@egwarhammer , I glad you have been able to confirm if you take a Sim to a community lot and then switch back to household the game will then send the Sim at the community lot back home. This was so very aggravating and disappointing to me that they have done this. When I first got this game I would send one of my Sims to a community lot and leave them and then go back home to get some time with the Sim at home and maybe call over a friend or their sweetheart to spend some private time. Not anymore. I was very dismayed to see them all coming back into the yard. And I hadn't even clicked' bring Sim here' or bring home etc. That is the last thing I wanted them to nerf. That was actually one of the best features of TS4 was to leave Sims somewhere so you could play the others in the household for awhile.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
I was encouraged to post in here by a new and fabulous (and highly knowledgeable) new friend I made on these boards. I wanted to share my woes from what looks to be a different POV: I have only the base game. No paid content purchased.
I'm not part of that "pledge" I see here and there, it's far more basic than that. Though I respect the work put into those EPs SPs and so-forth, they don't contain anything that jumps out as me for my own playing purposes.
Only base, except I also use mods Detailed below is why I thought I ought to at least pay a visit in here: I use mods because the vanilla base is unplayable, from a tolerance standpoint.
Oh it runs, all right, but it's got ages-old (relatively speaking) glitches that seemed to accompany the various patches-with-content.
For example, Sims take waaaay too long to eat. (a mod took care of that, mostly) They take all Sim day to work in even the small gardens I have for them to generate income. A mod addresses that.
They meet and make friends with townies (All but one household is made up of townies, but to supply some progression, I use MC Command. Otherwise they age and die off but their household situations remain static.) but the very next time it's "cheerful introduction, playful introduction-- "Y'all" get the picture. acquaintances evaporated like a summer rain shower. This was not the case before one of the patches. I should have done some homework to supply which patch appeared to be the culprit, but it's been reported as "relationship culling". (a mod addresses that)
If I let them make their own way for a while (they're on "auto")-- they stand around for a few Sim minutes, then it's always "to the computer". A mod addresses that
Art imitating life, imitating art.. But I didn't buy a life simulator to mirror what goes on around me IRL every day-- it would be cheaper to look out the window.
Early in 2015 they came out with the woohoo challenge and I swear, right after that they all got way too flirty, way too easily, and that includes adults and parents getting flirty buffs around children.
Bad-taste-in-mouth.
So, in summary, the road to Heck is paved with good intentions and although I think the EA dev squad meant well with these content-patches, insufficient attention to detail appears to have been paid.
Every plum (Yes I wrote "plum", it has multiple applications based on context and this way everyone gets the picture.) attempt to fix a glitch and add goodies -- has resulted in an issue in my game that was worse than the problem they sought to address.
I suppose that would be another reason why I avoid paid additional content. An half-dozen malevolent genies are already on the loose, and purchasing these things might release the biggest one yet.
I'll close with "Please, research and test content-payloaded patches (especially) before releasing them!!!["/color]
Though I really dig the mods that are out there as much as I am sure the mod-writing nerds enjoy making them, I'd really prefer the game behave at least somewhere along the lines of the intent behind it.
With all due respect, it just points out to sloppy support of the game.
Intentions aside, even the appearance of shoddiness.. is bad for the game, bad for those who play it, and bad for the company image.
I don't blame anyone playing with mods to correct and improve what is so wrong about this game. But I just can't be bothered or have the time (though it seems I'm here often) to remove mods and reenable mods and look for mod updates. I want Maxis to know why the game they built isn't that great. If they are interested in my saved game with this mess they are welcome to it. Because it's game breaking to me to be so annoyed, aggravated and tense when playing when I see these things which I said someone who only plays one Sim may not see most of it, if ever. I'm happy you found ways to enjoy it. I know if I 'loved' the game I wouldn't hesitate to add fun mods, and all sorts of custom content like I did in the past. But I'm too old to pay for stuff that is not working and or what they have built is backwards to the other games.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
Speaking only for myself, I bought the game and intend to use it, but it is intolerable in its vanilla form, I use the mods.. also because of the rich history of "feedback" about the glitches that they multiply with each "fix" -- not even being responded to in an official or convincing manner.. I am honestly convinced that they won't fix anything. Nothing effective has been done about eternal eating, life-long gardening and relationship fade-out-- and they have been aware of these for quite some time.
Instead we get easter eggs, growfruit, and a clown.
I acknowledge the apparent good intentions of putting these things in for the players but the silence regarding things that need to be fixed is deafening.
Might be a coincidence but there has been a spate of "please fix this" feedback and GD talk -- and here's the "coincidence" part, Sim Guru Drake posted an exhaustive play-by-play of all the things they added to the game, some paid content, others by way of free patch content.
Like I said I am just talking of my impression, the timing of this 'table of contents" is a bit convenient and it reinforces my belief that the glitches are not a priority.
So for me, at least, I have MC Command Center. It makes the game enjoyable enough for me in the time between when I bought it and the time my interest in or involvement with Real Life -- pushes fun, games, and gaming to the "yesteryear" closet.
I would consider one mod until they stop relationship culling and that would be a one time mod that fixes this for me and doesn't do anything else. I shy away from big script mods that have the ability to change many things.
Because if you even mention mods in a thread no matter if it isn't about mods they seem to ignore those players' complaints. It's sort of not fair to ignore feedback because no point in putting this over in the bug threads because as I said some are bugs known to them, some of them are their own programming that is annoying as all get out, and some are backwards programming. Like making a Sim walk to my Sim instead of my Sim going to them when I didn't use the option to call over. When I click I expect my Sim to go there. Or making a Sim use any bookcase when I clicked a specific bookcase. I expect to be obeyed and that Sim use the bookcase I chose.
It seems mods are carrying this game more and more and they are or seems to be oblivious as to why.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
Might be a coincidence but there has been a spate of "please fix this" feedback and GD talk -- and here's the "coincidence" part, Sim Guru Drake posted an exhaustive play-by-play of all the things they added to the game, some paid content, others by way of free patch content.
Like I said I am just talking of my impression, the timing of this 'table of contents" is a bit convenient and it reinforces my belief that the glitches are not a priority.
Consider that when performance or intentions are called into question that it is necessary to substantiate assertions and show proof of work. I personally believe that two expansions and countless minor updates within the span of one year is overload and that they should have focused more on expansions without wasting any time on what I would call patch candy. "We've fixed the following with build x.xx.xxxx and we're busy working on expansion 3, enjoy your game" is more than sufficient provided that the problems are actually fixed.
"Video gaming began as an engineer's hobby and a means of creative expression for those of higher technical inclination. It is expected that those who are capable of higher engineering-related achievements will see value, in electronic entertainment products, where others see failure." -Sasquatch
Comments
Anyway here are my stats.
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Sims: 179
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Female Sims: 97
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Male Sims: 82
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Grim Reapers: 0
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Babies - Female: 2, Male: 1
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Children - Female: 5, Male: 18
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Teens - Female: 18, Male: 9
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Young Adults - Female: 39, Male: 24
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Adults - Female: 28, Male: 20
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Elders - Female: 5, Male: 10
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Ghosts: 0
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Homeless Sims: 71
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Homed Sims: 108
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Married Sims: 74
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Pregnant Sims: 49
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Sims in Hidden Households: 0
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Aliens: 7
[05/09/16 22:21:19]
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Households: 74
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Homeless Households: 40
[05/09/16 22:21:19]Total Homed Households: 34
Steering towards something more like on-topic, I'll probably have some things to address regarding the UI. Been playing, dropped by here to find something, you know how it is...
Just gathering info for that post, and my alarm run, still. Between net trips.
https://deaderpool-mccc.com/
https://www.patreon.com/egwarhammer
https://twitter.com/eg4mccc
https://eg4mccc.tumblr.com/
I finished my edits using the Pancakes, and went out to Manage Households to switch to Jacobs house. Locked up THERE, as I was heading in. That's a first, before it's always been happening JUST coming out of CAS.
I am not amused. I didn't lose anything but a little time (waited 3 minutes and hit the big red X) ... again... of course, I don't know if I can get back IN yet... we'll see.
But if I can, I think I'll go run this alarm from some other house, and try to beat on my main's inventory issue after that.
Pain in the...
Sims don't know what they're doing, they don't know where they're going, and they don't seem to be able to keep track of what they're holding, either.
Wow.
Wish me luck, off to try again.
https://deaderpool-mccc.com/
https://www.patreon.com/egwarhammer
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I first noticed culling in March 2015 but I understand some players had seen it months before. At the time I had been playing one household per game so I hadn't noticed if Sims were disappearing. I'd worked quite a while trying to recreate the Goth house from TS3 and even longer filling up the little cemetery that goes with it. I started wondering why I stopped getting hauntings and sent one of my Sims out to "mourn" only to find the tombstones empty.....and.....well that was days of game time wasted. After that I noticed that coworkers or Sims I had seen were gone.
All of this really surprised me because of the hundreds (big underestimate
The relationship culling was another big surprise. I had a Sim with several good friends and a fiance on his relationship panel. I closed the game and when I opened it again the panel was empty......again so much for those hours of play gone.
Needs to be fixed.
Don't you just love all the creative work arounds the players come up with? The ones they have to come up with.
It was right around the time of the release of GTW. Is that when the family tree patch was done?
I'm not saying TODAY soon, just, soon in general.
I have seen a cc bug, a woohoo-mod bug, and SEVERAL of those head-scratcher interaction combos that just leave you wondering...
Elder Vivian is married to townie Vicente. She's pregnant (all that came from MC). So I decided to have them woohoo. After they're done, she gets up, being pregnant, to go to the bathroom. Just as SOON as I told her to go pee, Vicente has the want pop in above his action bar to give her a hug.
I cancelled that so he wouldn't knock her off her task (never mind following her into the bathroom and probably embarrassing one or both of them). So she finishes, then decides, since she's already in there, she may as well throw up, too, at which exact point her Squeamish husband decides it would be a wonderful idea to go give her a KISS.
Ewwwwwwwwwwww!!!
The reason I was playing them at all is because I couldn't get into my main house for the inventory issue. Too whipped to tackle that, I need sleep first. Just been switching around for a couple of hours per house, moving through early Sunday morning hours.
I'm not too thrilled by what I'm seeing. Something is rotten in Denmark.
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As in a game bug or something to do with mods?
Apologies. I didn't mean to run away with your thread. I'll try to do better at staying more relevant. And less "in your face"... I overwhelm. That was not my intention at all.
It seemed like related examples to me, but, I could be wrong.
Sorry.
BBL.
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Thank you. I'm happy to have you in my thread as long as we don't discuss MC and what it can and can't do. But you could help shed light on what exactly is wrong in the programming that I see all these things in a vanilla game.
ETA: People who only play one Sim, one household and one lot may never see half of what I have endured, though.
C'mon gang, don't be like that. If you have something to add related to Cinebar's insights... please do.
MC 2.10.0 is up, I've got things to do related to that. I'm not going away MAD, or even going AWAY... just wanted to let the thread know I've got other fish to fry now, anyway. (Saved by the bell, gang! haha!)
Actually I DO want to address one thing you said, @Cinebar ... I am NOT a programmer. I am not a modder, either. When I said, I mod my game, what I meant was, I use mods in my game. (Because I can't play without them.)
Hanging with Deaderpool etc has helped me understand a lot more about the behind-the-scenes stuff than I used to, for sure. But the idea of actually DOING anything with a tuning or script file just terrifies me.
I know people who can, and will... that's close enough for me. Kinda OT, sorry, but it's been mentioned by a couple of people, so I wanted to try to clear that up.
I don't MEAN to present myself as a modder, I am so NOT one. Just a nerd/geek type with a love of detail and a fair understanding of getting MC to do what people want.
Now, I'm off to install the new version. I hope everybody reading this is having a great day/night.
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I usually only play households of 2 or 3 sims at a time, and when I can, I keep them together. But after reading this, @Cinebar tonight I checked it out in my game. (Villareals were spread out.) Sure enough. It HAS changed.
And I am not impressed. I liked the old way MUCH better. This is like having invisible chains linking your sims... and in Map view, it seems like if you visit one house in a subhood, that pulls all the neighbors off their lot (or in from wherever) and onto the lot you just loaded. Go out to Map view again, most of them will then show as "not home."
It's annoying.
They did something different, but it's hard telling what.
If they'd spend as much time fixing broken things as they do breaking working things... we'd have a much better game to try to play. This is ridiculous.
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I was encouraged to post in here by a new and fabulous (and highly knowledgeable) new friend I made on these boards. I wanted to share my woes from what looks to be a different POV: I have only the base game. No paid content purchased.
I'm not part of that "pledge" I see here and there, it's far more basic than that. Though I respect the work put into those EPs SPs and so-forth, they don't contain anything that jumps out as me for my own playing purposes.
Only base, except I also use mods Detailed below is why I thought I ought to at least pay a visit in here: I use mods because the vanilla base is unplayable, from a tolerance standpoint.
Oh it runs, all right, but it's got ages-old (relatively speaking) glitches that seemed to accompany the various patches-with-content.
For example, Sims take waaaay too long to eat. (a mod took care of that, mostly) They take all Sim day to work in even the small gardens I have for them to generate income. A mod addresses that.
They meet and make friends with townies (All but one household is made up of townies, but to supply some progression, I use MC Command. Otherwise they age and die off but their household situations remain static.) but the very next time it's "cheerful introduction, playful introduction-- "Y'all" get the picture. acquaintances evaporated like a summer rain shower. This was not the case before one of the patches. I should have done some homework to supply which patch appeared to be the culprit, but it's been reported as "relationship culling". (a mod addresses that)
If I let them make their own way for a while (they're on "auto")-- they stand around for a few Sim minutes, then it's always "to the computer". A mod addresses that
Art imitating life, imitating art.. But I didn't buy a life simulator to mirror what goes on around me IRL every day-- it would be cheaper to look out the window.
Early in 2015 they came out with the woohoo challenge and I swear, right after that they all got way too flirty, way too easily, and that includes adults and parents getting flirty buffs around children.
Bad-taste-in-mouth.
So, in summary, the road to Heck is paved with good intentions and although I think the EA dev squad meant well with these content-patches, insufficient attention to detail appears to have been paid.
Every plum (Yes I wrote "plum", it has multiple applications based on context and this way everyone gets the picture.) attempt to fix a glitch and add goodies -- has resulted in an issue in my game that was worse than the problem they sought to address.
I suppose that would be another reason why I avoid paid additional content. An half-dozen malevolent genies are already on the loose, and purchasing these things might release the biggest one yet.
I'll close with "Please, research and test content-payloaded patches (especially) before releasing them!!!["/color]
Though I really dig the mods that are out there as much as I am sure the mod-writing nerds enjoy making them, I'd really prefer the game behave at least somewhere along the lines of the intent behind it.
With all due respect, it just points out to sloppy support of the game.
Intentions aside, even the appearance of shoddiness.. is bad for the game, bad for those who play it, and bad for the company image.
I don't blame anyone playing with mods to correct and improve what is so wrong about this game. But I just can't be bothered or have the time (though it seems I'm here often) to remove mods and reenable mods and look for mod updates. I want Maxis to know why the game they built isn't that great. If they are interested in my saved game with this mess they are welcome to it. Because it's game breaking to me to be so annoyed, aggravated and tense when playing when I see these things which I said someone who only plays one Sim may not see most of it, if ever. I'm happy you found ways to enjoy it. I know if I 'loved' the game I wouldn't hesitate to add fun mods, and all sorts of custom content like I did in the past. But I'm too old to pay for stuff that is not working and or what they have built is backwards to the other games.
@Cinebar Thanks for that. I agree with you.
Speaking only for myself, I bought the game and intend to use it, but it is intolerable in its vanilla form, I use the mods.. also because of the rich history of "feedback" about the glitches that they multiply with each "fix" -- not even being responded to in an official or convincing manner.. I am honestly convinced that they won't fix anything. Nothing effective has been done about eternal eating, life-long gardening and relationship fade-out-- and they have been aware of these for quite some time.
Instead we get easter eggs, growfruit, and a clown.
I acknowledge the apparent good intentions of putting these things in for the players but the silence regarding things that need to be fixed is deafening.
Might be a coincidence but there has been a spate of "please fix this" feedback and GD talk -- and here's the "coincidence" part, Sim Guru Drake posted an exhaustive play-by-play of all the things they added to the game, some paid content, others by way of free patch content.
Like I said I am just talking of my impression, the timing of this 'table of contents" is a bit convenient and it reinforces my belief that the glitches are not a priority.
So for me, at least, I have MC Command Center. It makes the game enjoyable enough for me in the time between when I bought it and the time my interest in or involvement with Real Life -- pushes fun, games, and gaming to the "yesteryear" closet.
Because if you even mention mods in a thread no matter if it isn't about mods they seem to ignore those players' complaints. It's sort of not fair to ignore feedback because no point in putting this over in the bug threads because as I said some are bugs known to them, some of them are their own programming that is annoying as all get out, and some are backwards programming. Like making a Sim walk to my Sim instead of my Sim going to them when I didn't use the option to call over. When I click I expect my Sim to go there. Or making a Sim use any bookcase when I clicked a specific bookcase. I expect to be obeyed and that Sim use the bookcase I chose.
It seems mods are carrying this game more and more and they are or seems to be oblivious as to why.
Consider that when performance or intentions are called into question that it is necessary to substantiate assertions and show proof of work. I personally believe that two expansions and countless minor updates within the span of one year is overload and that they should have focused more on expansions without wasting any time on what I would call patch candy. "We've fixed the following with build x.xx.xxxx and we're busy working on expansion 3, enjoy your game" is more than sufficient provided that the problems are actually fixed.