You know, I ask why even bother? Why even bother implementing "elevators"? Why even bother modeling, coding, and texturing them? Since they're not gonna animate? I wonder with the TS4 team sometimes…
I guess it looks a little less goofy than a Sim disappering behind a brick wall.
You know, I ask why even bother? Why even bother implementing "elevators"? Why even bother modeling, coding, and texturing them? Since they're not gonna animate? I wonder with the TS4 team sometimes…
I guess it looks a little less goofy than a Sim disappering behind a brick wall.
Also, I guess they wanted to go for at least slight realism. A lot of tall buildings have lifts. It'd be slightly odd the sim walking out into a hallway and just vanishing at an undefined spot.
I don't know... I'm quite ticked at the too much/not enough time, not enough money/budget limits, developers droppin projects(for whatever sam plum reason) mess. There is no other game like or similar to The Sims franchise...
As much as they charge, they would make their money back (double if not triple); given over to time and quality and some plum listening and giving players what they want. I don't wanna here that plum you cant satisfy everyone... get outta here wit that! Whatever... You wouldn't make any content at all ever with that philosophy... So you hold back because you don't know who to please... Whatever!...
We live in a world where PS4 can drop a VR headset $399plus and games for it for $19.99 each! (They make that 100x over each quarter; no matter if its GP/SP/EP). The math is jacked up here and somebody done got greedy seeing all that Sims 1,2,3, and 4 cash coming thru and said "LET'S DO LESS WITH LESS" and lace our pockets... We have the entire world tricked out on the sims, they'll buy anything we throw at'em... Some will drop off but they'll compromise cause there's nothing else like us!... Trash!...
I want 2016... Know what, scratch that.... I want 2020 quality game play and graphics, and interactive tech. We all know that with tech and A.I. they are always 10 to 15 yrs ahead of what they actually show and sell us.
I call BULL... I want Sims 4 to be what it should... not 3, not 2, not 1... If you make somethin you know what we want. If you make plum elevators, they need to do what elevators do, or DONT put them in the game(common sense course 101)... Do we really need to ask or complain.... You know we want cars and subways we can actually use... Id rather you take 2 yrs and drop an EP than give me some half baked so called simulator game with play like an 1982 COLECOVISION console.... I'm Pist and frustrated. And yeah I know... I'm about 1/18 of the simmers population so who gives a plum, right? well that's what forums are for; voice your opinion.
I'm getting really tired of that "too expensive" excuse. That's the one excuse I wouldn't ever wanna hear from a studio that makes a barebone game priced at 60$ and spoon-feed its customers the missing features in the form of DLC ranging from 10$ to 40$. If there's one single thing that shouldn't be a problem for them, it's money.
Maybe the blame goes to EA and not Maxis, we wouldn't know. Still, there's definitely something wrong going on.
I vote we pack them off to the John Hammond school of project management. https://youtu.be/DqM0yZK__gI
Just ignore that whole dinosaurs-eating-customers problem.
I was really looking forward to some good ol' fashioned elevator woo hoo. It's just another one of the dreams off my wish list that won't be fulfilled it seems.
@taigoesrawr I think you meant ... your SIM was looking for some good ol' fashioned elevator woohoo
I'm a girl who likes to play with boys, what can I say...
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
Oh, I forgot Elevators were even going to be in this pack xD I do wish they were animated but it doesn't have that huge an impact at least - might mean that Sims can travel a bit faster but still, that's a bit disappointing.
Live your life to the fullest, don't wait for a miracle to happen, be the miracle to make things happen.
Sometimes your creativity is limited where you use it most, but you can use those limitations to inspire new forms of creativity you may never have thought of beforehand.
I'm also very bothered by this. And the explanations provided do not make it better. It really seems like their budget is so limited. And that's the reason why every piece of content they have released is missing something major (Dine Out was great but you cannot be a chef, GTW retail system is half baked, no apartment building, transportation or elevators in City Life...). Sadly, since this has to do with budget limits, it's likely it will keep happening with future content too...
They said the development costs were too high to do it right. That seems to be the canned answer for everything.
Yeah I don't understand why they decided that should be the canned answer because blaming it on costs still doesn't make sense to me. Do their animators get paid per animation? Because I'd think they'd have animators on staff who get paid a set salary no matter how much they animate per day. That's kind of how most full-time jobs work. And given that this is a city living pack set in high-rise apartment buildings which inherently have elevators (or else residents who are in extremely good shape), I'd think 2-3 elevator animations would kind of be a given. So are they trying to say they don't have full-time animators on staff and that's why we don't get a seemingly simple animation?
They are most likely paid per day but there's so many animations they can do in a day. In video game developpement, tasks are counted in man-hours, each task has an estimated man-hour cost (how much time it will take to make it) for each discipline. They have a budget in man-hour for each displine and they try to use it as efficiently as possible. SimGuruGraham has explained a bit more what it is, and how they are juggling all this. Most likely elevators animations were not included because the animators already had enough work to keep them busy, or it would have needed work from another discipline who were already busy too.
I keep an ongoing curated list of things we want to add to the game, and each thing on that list has man-hour estimates from 19 different development disciplines (something we thankfully streamlined down from 25 different disciplines that could potentially be working on a feature in the past). At the start of any project we work on, we have a pool of time we can use from each of those 19 different disciplines to complete the project within our schedule. If the list of planned features for a given project exceeds the available man-hours for any of those 19 disciplines then we're out of scope and need to cut something so that we're back within our schedule.
Now with that in mind, no feature touches all 19 disciplines. As you're looking through a list of features that you're considering for any project, it's a constant balancing act to figure out what to approve and what to cut so that you come as close as possible to maxing our your available time in every discipline without going over. Things change during development as well, because those estimates I mentioned earlier are just that... estimates. Once work actually begins those numbers can fluctuate, which can lead to being out of scope, which can lead to production needing to make calls to adjust accordingly so we're back on track. For example, if I recall correctly, every unique walkstyle added to the game takes two days of animation time. Thus, if we have a little animation time to spend, we can add an extra walkstyle and it has very little impact on other disciplines. When we have these holes in the schedule to fill, we look at that list of things we want to add and pull stuff in that's not only a high priority to the game experience, but also makes sense because it fits in the schedule. My list ranks both priority and man-hour estimates, and both of those things are considered when we approve a feature.
What I find sad and I don't think I've seen it commented is the way the "spicy food competition" works. This promotional picture makes you believe that they will all stand at the table and eat at the same time until there is a winner (as this competitions work in real life and in past iterations)
However, after watching the livestream, some videos posted after the embargo was lifted, and the festival trailer, I realized that each sim that takes part in the contest just grabs a plate and sits alone somewhere. That misses the whole point and fun of the competition in my opinion and I can't quite understand why.
I know Sims are having trouble with sitting and standing at the right time in TS4 but then, they could have gone for a different activity maybe to avoid this.
Origin ID is: AlbaWaterhouse
All my creations are CC free.
@AlbaWaterhouse
I like that it's not like a real life competition, too niche for my taste. I think they went for a different activity in fact, because the accent is put on the "spicy" and not on the quantity.
@AlbaWaterhouse
I like that it's not like a real life competition, too niche for my taste. I think they went for a different activity in fact, because the accent is put on the "spicy" and not on the quantity.
The accent is the spicy, but why setting up a table like that if they won't stand there?
Maybe they could have just like a food cart dedicated to it.
Origin ID is: AlbaWaterhouse
All my creations are CC free.
What I find sad and I don't think I've seen it commented is the way the "spicy food competition" works. This promotional picture makes you believe that they will all stand at the table and eat at the same time until there is a winner (as this competitions work in real life and in past iterations)
However, after watching the livestream, some videos posted after the embargo was lifted, and the festival trailer, I realized that each sim that takes part in the contest just grabs a plate and sits alone somewhere. That misses the whole point and fun of the competition in my opinion and I can't quite understand why.
I know Sims are having trouble with sitting and standing at the right time in TS4 but then, they could have gone for a different activity maybe to avoid this.
Wow!! Seriously? Nooo, that can't be right!! I don't know what to even say to that... I really don't. smh
I'm a girl who likes to play with boys, what can I say...
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
@AlbaWaterhouse
I like that it's not like a real life competition, too niche for my taste. I think they went for a different activity in fact, because the accent is put on the "spicy" and not on the quantity.
The accent is the spicy, but why setting up a table like that if they won't stand there?
Maybe they could have just like a food cart dedicated to it.
It looks like a buffet to me, so multiple Sims can pick food at the same time, which would have been less convenient with a food cart I think. They probably could have put a different number of Sims and plates though.
What I find sad and I don't think I've seen it commented is the way the "spicy food competition" works. This promotional picture makes you believe that they will all stand at the table and eat at the same time until there is a winner (as this competitions work in real life and in past iterations)
However, after watching the livestream, some videos posted after the embargo was lifted, and the festival trailer, I realized that each sim that takes part in the contest just grabs a plate and sits alone somewhere. That misses the whole point and fun of the competition in my opinion and I can't quite understand why.
I know Sims are having trouble with sitting and standing at the right time in TS4 but then, they could have gone for a different activity maybe to avoid this.
I noticed that too. It looks so sad. Sims take their plate and go eat it at some random table. Then if they "win" the challenge they just stand up and change into the chilly t-shirt. No winners or losers, no audience. It doesn't look like a competition or fun activity at all. It's just a glorified buffet table...
I was expecting something like this:
It must also be noted that the promo screenshots have been heavily staged and suggested this was going to be the case...
I have no idea how they will work on The Sims 4 but I hated elevators in TS3. My sim would spend like 2 hours trying to get downstars for work or school and always be late. The less buggy things we get, the better.
I wasn't thinking about that, good point. I guess I would like all transportation to be optional. Meaning you won't get late for work or be unable to go outside if the elevator buggs out. But it would have been nice to have the option to use it. I don't really expect any kind of transportation at the moment. I didn't play the earlier games but it looks like it was a big feature there, in this iteration it is missing. I'm guessing that they don't want to do a little bit of transportation, it's either all in or nothing.
Hmm.... something I did like in World of Warcraft was getting on the deeprun tram. Wish the video below showed the animations on the side, I loved watching the dinosaurs, or whatever it was my memory is hazy, swimming in the ocean.
If I was dreaming freely I would like to build my own subway-lots, airplane-lots and ship-lots and when traveling between lots I would get these fun animations for it. That would be fun to build, and I could get to choose how my world maps were connected. Airplanes to Oasis Springs, or big owls if we are getting a bit fantasy, I could totally rock that. Now if they would prefer to have these between only two points, or if you can go by train to all the train-lots and by arplane to all the airplane-lots and by ship to all the ship-lots that would be fine by me. But I would have a lot of fun designing my own system for travel.
Example of a airplane-lot
Example of harbor-lot
Example of train-lot
I have played a few MMO-games so I feel a little bit lost not having some kind of travel-system. Now if I could build those points myself it would be great! Traveling from San Myshyno, that airplane-lot is sparkling clean and sleek to the Oasis Springs airplane-lot that has a filthy-lot trait would be fun. It would bring more to the experience.
Well, since I am not going to wait I have actually downloaded lots from the gallery and am trying to build this for myself. No fun traveling-animations but at least it is something. Got some pretty pirate-ships from talented builders that I have placed in Windenburg and on the beach for Oasis Springs so that is one travel-line. Then I have some spaceships for airplane-lots. I can dream that we will have some kind of fun system for it one day, until then I will just play make believe with my own.
What I find sad and I don't think I've seen it commented is the way the "spicy food competition" works. This promotional picture makes you believe that they will all stand at the table and eat at the same time until there is a winner (as this competitions work in real life and in past iterations)
However, after watching the livestream, some videos posted after the embargo was lifted, and the festival trailer, I realized that each sim that takes part in the contest just grabs a plate and sits alone somewhere. That misses the whole point and fun of the competition in my opinion and I can't quite understand why.
I know Sims are having trouble with sitting and standing at the right time in TS4 but then, they could have gone for a different activity maybe to avoid this.
I noticed that too. It looks so sad. Sims take their plate and go eat it at some random table. Then if they "win" the challenge they just stand up and change into the chilly t-shirt. No winners or losers, no audience. It doesn't look like a competition or fun activity at all. It's just a glorified buffet table...
I was expecting something like this:
It must also be noted that the promo screenshots have been heavily staged and suggested this was going to be the case...
Normally I'm quite fine with renders and promos etc not really representing actual game play but this really crosses that line for me. I'd consider "misleading" as the word of the hour as opposed to 'staged' actually.
I'm a girl who likes to play with boys, what can I say...
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
@AlbaWaterhouse
I like that it's not like a real life competition, too niche for my taste. I think they went for a different activity in fact, because the accent is put on the "spicy" and not on the quantity.
The accent is the spicy, but why setting up a table like that if they won't stand there?
Maybe they could have just like a food cart dedicated to it.
It looks like a buffet to me, so multiple Sims can pick food at the same time, which would have been less convenient with a food cart I think. They probably could have put a different number of Sims and plates though.
Yes, it could be like a buffet table but then why call it competition or stage the promo picture in such a way?
Either way, it's just a bummer.
Origin ID is: AlbaWaterhouse
All my creations are CC free.
I think the team maybe has too many producer/gurus and not enough technicians. Too many man-hour resources stuck in meetings not enough in front of their PCs. Now before any moderator decides this is guru-bashing it's not. People are just doing their appointed jobs, I understand that. But de facto if choices have to be made between animating one feature or animating another, then at some point there were not quite enough animator-hours to complete the job as I am sure *all* the producers would have wished it to be completed.
Con sidering that Sims just teleport into elevators that renders the elevators useless.
I mean could they just not teleport anywhere? I don't see the point in having elevators if no one can really use them
Well, technically TS4 doesn't have elevators as the doors don't open etc etc. They really are just "locations" that the game recognizes as points to spawn (read 'fade') in and out sims.
I'm a girl who likes to play with boys, what can I say...
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
You know, I ask why even bother? Why even bother implementing "elevators"? Why even bother modeling, coding, and texturing them? Since they're not gonna animate? I wonder with the TS4 team sometimes…
Like they model the rest of the city where it is for looks only. An illusion
The main purpose is you can take a picture of the sim standing in front of the elevator so it gives an illusion.
Sims 4 is catered to those who are into taking pictures only. It should be moved from game section to photography software section
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
Doors automatically opening for a small square boxed room are too expensive and not affordable. But you have talking toilet instead
You know by now where this game is heading!
What worries me is that the developers seem to LOVE the talking toilet (they highlight it in every livestream) and the stupid costumes (they literally crack up at their mere sight). So sadly this may be an indication of where the game is heading.
Comments
I guess it looks a little less goofy than a Sim disappering behind a brick wall.
Also, I guess they wanted to go for at least slight realism. A lot of tall buildings have lifts. It'd be slightly odd the sim walking out into a hallway and just vanishing at an undefined spot.
I don't know... I'm quite ticked at the too much/not enough time, not enough money/budget limits, developers droppin projects(for whatever sam plum reason) mess. There is no other game like or similar to The Sims franchise...
As much as they charge, they would make their money back (double if not triple); given over to time and quality and some plum listening and giving players what they want. I don't wanna here that plum you cant satisfy everyone... get outta here wit that! Whatever... You wouldn't make any content at all ever with that philosophy... So you hold back because you don't know who to please... Whatever!...
We live in a world where PS4 can drop a VR headset $399plus and games for it for $19.99 each! (They make that 100x over each quarter; no matter if its GP/SP/EP). The math is jacked up here and somebody done got greedy seeing all that Sims 1,2,3, and 4 cash coming thru and said "LET'S DO LESS WITH LESS" and lace our pockets... We have the entire world tricked out on the sims, they'll buy anything we throw at'em... Some will drop off but they'll compromise cause there's nothing else like us!... Trash!...
I want 2016... Know what, scratch that.... I want 2020 quality game play and graphics, and interactive tech. We all know that with tech and A.I. they are always 10 to 15 yrs ahead of what they actually show and sell us.
I call BULL... I want Sims 4 to be what it should... not 3, not 2, not 1... If you make somethin you know what we want. If you make plum elevators, they need to do what elevators do, or DONT put them in the game(common sense course 101)... Do we really need to ask or complain.... You know we want cars and subways we can actually use... Id rather you take 2 yrs and drop an EP than give me some half baked so called simulator game with play like an 1982 COLECOVISION console.... I'm Pist and frustrated. And yeah I know... I'm about 1/18 of the simmers population so who gives a plum, right? well that's what forums are for; voice your opinion.
I vote we pack them off to the John Hammond school of project management.
Just ignore that whole dinosaurs-eating-customers problem.
@taigoesrawr I think you meant ... your SIM was looking for some good ol' fashioned elevator woohoo
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
Sometimes your creativity is limited where you use it most, but you can use those limitations to inspire new forms of creativity you may never have thought of beforehand.
They are most likely paid per day but there's so many animations they can do in a day. In video game developpement, tasks are counted in man-hours, each task has an estimated man-hour cost (how much time it will take to make it) for each discipline. They have a budget in man-hour for each displine and they try to use it as efficiently as possible. SimGuruGraham has explained a bit more what it is, and how they are juggling all this. Most likely elevators animations were not included because the animators already had enough work to keep them busy, or it would have needed work from another discipline who were already busy too.
However, after watching the livestream, some videos posted after the embargo was lifted, and the festival trailer, I realized that each sim that takes part in the contest just grabs a plate and sits alone somewhere. That misses the whole point and fun of the competition in my opinion and I can't quite understand why.
I know Sims are having trouble with sitting and standing at the right time in TS4 but then, they could have gone for a different activity maybe to avoid this.
All my creations are CC free.
I like that it's not like a real life competition, too niche for my taste. I think they went for a different activity in fact, because the accent is put on the "spicy" and not on the quantity.
Elevators are not animated?..
Just when I thought this game couldn't possibly get any lazier.
And people keep defending this kind of stuff.
Really, The Sims fans really deserve to get less and less.
The accent is the spicy, but why setting up a table like that if they won't stand there?
Maybe they could have just like a food cart dedicated to it.
All my creations are CC free.
Wow!! Seriously? Nooo, that can't be right!!
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
It looks like a buffet to me, so multiple Sims can pick food at the same time, which would have been less convenient with a food cart I think. They probably could have put a different number of Sims and plates though.
I noticed that too. It looks so sad. Sims take their plate and go eat it at some random table. Then if they "win" the challenge they just stand up and change into the chilly t-shirt. No winners or losers, no audience. It doesn't look like a competition or fun activity at all. It's just a glorified buffet table...
I was expecting something like this:
It must also be noted that the promo screenshots have been heavily staged and suggested this was going to be the case...
I wasn't thinking about that, good point. I guess I would like all transportation to be optional. Meaning you won't get late for work or be unable to go outside if the elevator buggs out. But it would have been nice to have the option to use it. I don't really expect any kind of transportation at the moment. I didn't play the earlier games but it looks like it was a big feature there, in this iteration it is missing. I'm guessing that they don't want to do a little bit of transportation, it's either all in or nothing.
Hmm.... something I did like in World of Warcraft was getting on the deeprun tram. Wish the video below showed the animations on the side, I loved watching the dinosaurs, or whatever it was my memory is hazy, swimming in the ocean.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=4YUosbYm4gk
If I was dreaming freely I would like to build my own subway-lots, airplane-lots and ship-lots and when traveling between lots I would get these fun animations for it. That would be fun to build, and I could get to choose how my world maps were connected. Airplanes to Oasis Springs, or big owls if we are getting a bit fantasy, I could totally rock that. Now if they would prefer to have these between only two points, or if you can go by train to all the train-lots and by arplane to all the airplane-lots and by ship to all the ship-lots that would be fine by me. But I would have a lot of fun designing my own system for travel.
Example of a airplane-lot
Example of harbor-lot
Example of train-lot
I have played a few MMO-games so I feel a little bit lost not having some kind of travel-system. Now if I could build those points myself it would be great! Traveling from San Myshyno, that airplane-lot is sparkling clean and sleek to the Oasis Springs airplane-lot that has a filthy-lot trait would be fun. It would bring more to the experience.
Well, since I am not going to wait I have actually downloaded lots from the gallery and am trying to build this for myself. No fun traveling-animations but at least it is something. Got some pretty pirate-ships from talented builders that I have placed in Windenburg and on the beach for Oasis Springs so that is one travel-line. Then I have some spaceships for airplane-lots. I can dream that we will have some kind of fun system for it one day, until then I will just play make believe with my own.
Normally I'm quite fine with renders and promos etc not really representing actual game play but this really crosses that line for me. I'd consider "misleading" as the word of the hour as opposed to 'staged' actually.
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
Yes, it could be like a buffet table but then why call it competition or stage the promo picture in such a way?
Either way, it's just a bummer.
All my creations are CC free.
You know by now where this game is heading!
I mean could they just not teleport anywhere? I don't see the point in having elevators if no one can really use them
Well, technically TS4 doesn't have elevators as the doors don't open etc etc. They really are just "locations" that the game recognizes as points to spawn (read 'fade') in and out sims.
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
Like they model the rest of the city where it is for looks only. An illusion
The main purpose is you can take a picture of the sim standing in front of the elevator so it gives an illusion.
Sims 4 is catered to those who are into taking pictures only. It should be moved from game section to photography software section
“Instead of putting players in the role of Luke Skywalker, or Frodo Baggins, I'd rather put them in the role of George Lucas.”Will Wright.
What worries me is that the developers seem to LOVE the talking toilet (they highlight it in every livestream) and the stupid costumes (they literally crack up at their mere sight). So sadly this may be an indication of where the game is heading.