Totally prefer the Open World. In fact just about every game I play has open worlds and I have no issues with it. I love Sims 3 and I have never gotten a Ghost town affect in that game. I see way more Sims running around in Sims 3 than I do in Sims 4 to be honest. So I have no idea what your issues are with Sims 3 OP - but my experience with Sims 3 is just the opposite of yours.
My only complaint with Sims 3 is it isn't 64 bit, as I would love for Maxis to make it 64 bit and take advantage of all my pc offers (8 core 4.5 ghz with 16 gig gaming ram). By the way I use no mods at all in Sims 3 - nor do I have any of the issues you mention.
I just know one thing - Sims 4 feels like a step back in time - instead of the game following Sims 3.... sort of very much dumbed down compared to most games of today. More like an app...
ETA - Actually Open world is not what causes lag in Sims 3 - the issues causing lag can be repaired by fixing the Maxis game worlds - that is the only cause of lag in Sims 3 if one has the pc to play the game. I avoid the Maxis created worlds until I have a version with all the routing fixed and all the hole in the routing grid repaired - or don't play those worlds. If tourists or animals fall in the holes in the routing the game plunges into a sort of freeze trying it's darnest to unstick the Sim or animals that has fell into a hole - and people get what they call lag - but technically Sims 3 really does not lag. You play the game on a well made world - like one of Rflongs where she has worked long and hard to perfect the routing in her worlds - no matter how big the world - as long as you have a pc capable of playing her bigger worlds - there is never any lag at all. So saying it is a problem with open world or CASt or any of that is wrong. It is not true.
Actually you name me any big game out there since 2014 that cost as much as Sims 4's base game did when it came out that is not open world. Can you imagine the Witcher, Titanfall, Star Wars, WOW, Fallout 4, Mass Effect, or any of the racing games done in a closed world? Absurd. In 2016 we should not even have any game of this genre in a closed world especially with the parent company EA - moving into VR. The Sims has to get with the program and get back on to the open world route.
Post edited by Writin_Reg on
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
I HATED the open worlds in Sims 3. There's no point in playing a game when it takes 15 minutes to boot up and then runs like a snail in molasses. I much prefer the current system where there are more loading screens, but significantly less loading time.
Perhaps your computer doesn't meet the recommended specs for the Sims 3? But you have Sims 4 now, so it's a moot point.
I HATED the open worlds in Sims 3. There's no point in playing a game when it takes 15 minutes to boot up and then runs like a snail in molasses. I much prefer the current system where there are more loading screens, but significantly less loading time.
Perhaps your computer doesn't meet the recommended specs for the Sims 3? But you have Sims 4 now, so it's a moot point.
That's it. Even when I had a bottom range laptop I never had these issues but if you do it because your computer can't run the game. Not the game's fault it doesn't run on a calculator. It's like calling GTA terrible because your hardware can't run the game.
I HATED the open worlds in Sims 3. There's no point in playing a game when it takes 15 minutes to boot up and then runs like a snail in molasses. I much prefer the current system where there are more loading screens, but significantly less loading time.
Perhaps your computer doesn't meet the recommended specs for the Sims 3? But you have Sims 4 now, so it's a moot point.
That's it. Even when I had a bottom range laptop I never had these issues but if you do it because your computer can't run the game. Not the game's fault it doesn't run on a calculator. It's like calling GTA terrible because your hardware can't run the game.
"Doesn't run on a calculator"
Frankly, the whole excuse about open world causing lag is old and tired, like the computer some people are trying to run the game on. I know, because I was one of those people at one time.
I really thought when TS4 came out that it would have 'open neighborhoods' - like they would split up what used to be a whole world in TS3 into sections that were open. I could have lived with that. But it was intended to have an online component, so lot loading became a thing again. I know they tried to simulate more openness with the open areas in each 'hood but they're still so small and have nothing in them to speak of except maybe a grill or a few plants. So they ended up being a waste of space, IMO.
After attempting to play TS4 for months I have to say that it made me realize how much I love the open worlds in TS3. But I'm not sure it really matters for this game anyway, at least for me, as unfortunately there are just too many other things about TS4 that I highly dislike so I'm not sure that alone would have saved it for me.
@Rukola_Schaaf I agree with everything you said. I have also run into disappointment when an NPC wasn't available, but then I wouldn't have liked it much if I wanted to send my sim to a club and there was no mixologist either, so it's a trade-off. The whole thing with sims not wanting to come over sometime is also irritating but I wouldn't be at all surprised if that wasn't programmed that way to make the game 'harder' since so many people complained about it being too easy in other respects.
The Sims
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand basket?!
Without the open world, you can't play your whole household simultaneously unless they all travel to the same venue every time someone leaves the lot, and to me rotational play within a family just breaks the game. I have not successfully or satisfactorily played any family in TS4. My game play never expands past a couple. But the design of the current game iteration cannot be changed, so there really is no point beating a dead horse. We are more likely to get the infamous T or some nod to CASt.
The lack of CASt is more irritating than the lack of open world. I can resign myself to a single or childless sim, but my OCD does not get along well with the Devs' inability to match color pallets so you can mix and match furniture, wall paper and carpets with a pleasing outcome. That really pains me.
The open world aspect is something I missed greatly when I played sims 4.
I love taking screenshots, living my sims lives with them and the open world makes that so much more fun.
If you have the NRAAS mod tagger you can put sim tags on so you can see where everyone is and what they are doing which I really like. If invite someone over I can see them on their route. I can see who's going home, who's going to work, who's hanging out at a bar or the park.
The open world gives me freedom to look and go wherever I want - I can control multiple family members all the time even if they are at opposite ends of the world.
As you can tell I really, really love the open world and there are no downsides to it for me what so ever ^^ x
Positives
1. No loading
2. The world's are beautiful
3. You can make dungeons for sims and trap them there MW u ah ah. (Le WHAT? Call me naive but I have no idea what this is all about)
4. Almost completely customizable.
Downsides
1. Responsible for ghost towns for most players (Agree its optimization, as well as poor programming. But now it should be something that could be worked around, and can be to a certain point with mods)
2. Npc Sims like bartenders would always be at work and never available (Well, this is akin to TS4 having sims available or working that shouldn't be available or working. You either make ALL the sims playable or you have service sims that aren't AS avaiable as townies)
3. Responsible for routing issues and lag (Again, poor optimization IMO. At this point in time I would HOPE they would have been able to ameliorate routing)
4. Unnecessary hours spent commuting. (I teleport everywhere. Super easy "cheat" but it IS realistic, if you want to go that way which some people do. So there IS a choice within the base game. Some want the realism of choosing a home based on location to work and venues like real life. Others want the possibility of HUGE lots in the middle of nowhere with little to NO commute time. IRL this isn't available, in game it is.. if you want to "cheat" )
5. Id have to call sims multiple times because they'd never show up, when they did they'd be super tired and leave almost instantly. (Again something that happens when OTHER sims are also living their own lives. They could be completely unencumbered but this would mean that they also weren't doing things in the background. I would think that at this point in time the dev's could manage a 'date schedule' or 'meeting schedule' in which the player could choose a time to meet their "friend" that works for both... as it is IRL)
6. Things like diving are limited to one world. (EA world I suppose. There are custom worlds that have dive lots etc. hence the beauty of CAW)
This is the problem, most all of these "issues" should have been, would be, solvable at this point in time. However, for whatever reason TS4 did not follow or PUSH the boundaries of what has been set at this point. <shrug>
Open world wasn't the issue. OPTIMIZATION and performance was. Something that probably could have been ironed out at some point in game development.
Also for #4 - long commuting times. OP I don't get why this is even an issue for people, I really don't. I don't think driving around the world is that big a deal. And I often change the camera view so I can see the road my sim is traveling on, sort of more like first person driving, and the time goes by in a flash. But I don't think it takes all that long anyway.
Of course you obviously think so, so one solution would be teleporting as mentioned or another solution is to cheat up more money and get your sims one of the expensive cars; they go 10 times faster than the cheap cars - because the point was to gain money and improve your sims' lives with better objects. Just like how the cheap beds are crappy to sleep in, and the more expensive beds gave more energy, etc.
The Sims
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand basket?!
I think I agree with the folks who would like a semi-open world. I think that would have been a good marriage of the two things people like most about both types of world.
Yes, I like and enjoy Sims 4. The world will not end because of this. Get over it.
I think I agree with the folks who would like a semi-open world. I think that would have been a good marriage of the two things people like most about both types of world.
Let us not forget the ability to customize those worlds. Are we a small group? I'm not sure, but if we are: Are the individuals who take advantage of those who love to customize a small group?
Please. Give us back the ability to create in the next game, if there is one. It benefits more than just those who create.
Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
Open world doesn't fit into the Sims for me, it brings nothing positive and a bunch of negative. Open world is like if movies had all the scenes happening all at once, with all characters on stage, it just doesn't work when there's a lot of characters.
Personally I hope in TS5 they make semi-open worlds. I think neighborhoods should be open, with your neighbors doing stuff (having parties, BBQs, kids, etc), each neighborhood having its own school (some good, some bad, depending on the neighborhood itself) and mayor + city hall and all that stuff. It'd be nice if neighborhoods were sometimes upscale, sometimes a bit more grungy, which would give the rags to riches stuff more power lol. But I wouldn't mind if there was a loading screen to go to other neighborhoods further away, especially if the loading screen features you driving along a street in your car or something of the sort. Idk for me that would be open-worldly enough but without having the issue of having to load massive worlds all at once and keep them running for hours without severe routing issues and all else that made TS3 the poorly optimized gem that it was. I think that would give both sides what they want and allow for a better implementation of story progression ...
- Semi-open world: aka, as if your neighborhood was one big apartment, so you could, let's say load the lot that you knock onto your neighbor's (which is next-door/not far away) after taking a visit to there.
- To live up it to its literal name, "open world", so how about more lots than just a rough number of 10?
- And with that ^, convert some ts3 rabbit holes into non-rabbit holes (eg. townhall, school, warehouse), and expand onto that with other content packs (cinema with movie hangout sp, GTW base game careers shifting into active one with their buildings, having Dine out turn culinary career into active, ect.).
Open world doesn't fit into the Sims for me, it brings nothing positive and a bunch of negative. Open world is like if movies had all the scenes happening all at once, with all characters on stage, it just doesn't work when there's a lot of characters.
But Sims4 is like a movie that has a "film loading" screen every time it cuts to another scene
I didn't have much lag issues with open world (except IP).
I had routing issues (in Island Paradise especially, of course), and the whole ghost/empty community lots issues. It's frustrating to have a happening hangout with just 2, maybe 3, other sims there.
If that's open world will always be like in the Sims series, then I don't want it.
I like Sims 4's semi-open worlds (but with Sims 2's apartment system), so I would accept semi-open in Sims 5. Otherwise, I would be really cautious about another open world Sims game.
ETA: I also missed a lot of depth and details from Sims 2 (including bathing babies in sinks and toddlers in bathubs, etc). I also missed having a fully functional home business, other businesses, restaurants, bakeries, etc, without having to buy store content and using mods.
An open world in Sims5 wouldn't be anything as "buggy" as 3 was way back then. S4 wouldn't have been either if they had actually invested their time into an actual pc game, rather than quickly backtracking on Olympus...
Personally I hope in TS5 they make semi-open worlds. I think neighborhoods should be open, with your neighbors doing stuff (having parties, BBQs, kids, etc), each neighborhood having its own school (some good, some bad, depending on the neighborhood itself) and mayor + city hall and all that stuff. It'd be nice if neighborhoods were sometimes upscale, sometimes a bit more grungy, which would give the rags to riches stuff more power lol. But I wouldn't mind if there was a loading screen to go to other neighborhoods further away, especially if the loading screen features you driving along a street in your car or something of the sort. Idk for me that would be open-worldly enough but without having the issue of having to load massive worlds all at once and keep them running for hours without severe routing issues and all else that made TS3 the poorly optimized gem that it was. I think that would give both sides what they want and allow for a better implementation of story progression ...
If you take a 'world' and divide it into subdivisions each of which is open (which is my idea of a semi-open world), then personally I think it would be rather redundant to have a school and a court house in each subdivision. You could have different sections of a city like several residential areas, a 'dowtown' shopping and business district, etc. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to put commercial properties in any subdivision you wanted, of course. It would be neat to have a few small shops or hangouts for your sims to visit without a loading screen.
And yes I darn well do want customization back. In fact, TS4 is not a Sims game to me because they took that away. Dumbing down build mode and making CAS easy do not count as complete customization in my book. I want to have control of everything.
The Sims
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand basket?!
Open world doesn't fit into the Sims for me, it brings nothing positive and a bunch of negative. Open world is like if movies had all the scenes happening all at once, with all characters on stage, it just doesn't work when there's a lot of characters.
But Sims4 is like a movie that has a "film loading" screen every time it cuts to another scene
Yes, like a nice fade in/fade out when the scene is changing
They do for me. I'd rather have a coffee (or two or three) and wait for game to load and be done with it, rather than have 30 mins worth of cumulative loading in one quick game play
Also for #4 - long commuting times. OP I don't get why this is even an issue for people, I really don't. I don't think driving around the world is that big a deal. And I often change the camera view so I can see the road my sim is traveling on, sort of more like first person driving, and the time goes by in a flash. But I don't think it takes all that long anyway.
Of course you obviously think so, so one solution would be teleporting as mentioned or another solution is to cheat up more money and get your sims one of the expensive cars; they go 10 times faster than the cheap cars - because the point was to gain money and improve your sims' lives with better objects. Just like how the cheap beds are plum to sleep in, and the more expensive beds gave more energy, etc.
Well, in Island Paradiso, I have to micromanage my mermaids and other sims around the island, or they would end up taking the long way around and take forever (a whole day to get groceries, for example!) to get to their destination.
Traveling (and micromanaging the sims while doing so) is just tedious for me, so I usually end up using the teleportation cheat.
Ugh, such bad memories for me. I would probably use a teleportation cheat again if Sims 5 has open world again. (Well, if Sims 5 is any good and better at optimizing performance and had busy/lively worlds, open working restaurants, grocery stores, home buseinesses, bakeries, etc, and toddlers and all of the toddler/baby stuff from Sims 2, then I would play it.)
Comments
My only complaint with Sims 3 is it isn't 64 bit, as I would love for Maxis to make it 64 bit and take advantage of all my pc offers (8 core 4.5 ghz with 16 gig gaming ram). By the way I use no mods at all in Sims 3 - nor do I have any of the issues you mention.
I just know one thing - Sims 4 feels like a step back in time - instead of the game following Sims 3.... sort of very much dumbed down compared to most games of today. More like an app...
ETA - Actually Open world is not what causes lag in Sims 3 - the issues causing lag can be repaired by fixing the Maxis game worlds - that is the only cause of lag in Sims 3 if one has the pc to play the game. I avoid the Maxis created worlds until I have a version with all the routing fixed and all the hole in the routing grid repaired - or don't play those worlds. If tourists or animals fall in the holes in the routing the game plunges into a sort of freeze trying it's darnest to unstick the Sim or animals that has fell into a hole - and people get what they call lag - but technically Sims 3 really does not lag. You play the game on a well made world - like one of Rflongs where she has worked long and hard to perfect the routing in her worlds - no matter how big the world - as long as you have a pc capable of playing her bigger worlds - there is never any lag at all. So saying it is a problem with open world or CASt or any of that is wrong. It is not true.
Actually you name me any big game out there since 2014 that cost as much as Sims 4's base game did when it came out that is not open world. Can you imagine the Witcher, Titanfall, Star Wars, WOW, Fallout 4, Mass Effect, or any of the racing games done in a closed world? Absurd. In 2016 we should not even have any game of this genre in a closed world especially with the parent company EA - moving into VR. The Sims has to get with the program and get back on to the open world route.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
Perhaps your computer doesn't meet the recommended specs for the Sims 3? But you have Sims 4 now, so it's a moot point.
That's it. Even when I had a bottom range laptop I never had these issues but if you do it because your computer can't run the game. Not the game's fault it doesn't run on a calculator. It's like calling GTA terrible because your hardware can't run the game.
complete forum tutorial
Thank you @MDianaSanders for halloween-fying Golluma
"Doesn't run on a calculator"
Frankly, the whole excuse about open world causing lag is old and tired, like the computer some people are trying to run the game on. I know, because I was one of those people at one time.
After attempting to play TS4 for months I have to say that it made me realize how much I love the open worlds in TS3. But I'm not sure it really matters for this game anyway, at least for me, as unfortunately there are just too many other things about TS4 that I highly dislike so I'm not sure that alone would have saved it for me.
@Rukola_Schaaf I agree with everything you said. I have also run into disappointment when an NPC wasn't available, but then I wouldn't have liked it much if I wanted to send my sim to a club and there was no mixologist either, so it's a trade-off. The whole thing with sims not wanting to come over sometime is also irritating but I wouldn't be at all surprised if that wasn't programmed that way to make the game 'harder' since so many people complained about it being too easy in other respects.
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand basket?!
Without the open world, you can't play your whole household simultaneously unless they all travel to the same venue every time someone leaves the lot, and to me rotational play within a family just breaks the game. I have not successfully or satisfactorily played any family in TS4. My game play never expands past a couple. But the design of the current game iteration cannot be changed, so there really is no point beating a dead horse. We are more likely to get the infamous T or some nod to CASt.
The lack of CASt is more irritating than the lack of open world. I can resign myself to a single or childless sim, but my OCD does not get along well with the Devs' inability to match color pallets so you can mix and match furniture, wall paper and carpets with a pleasing outcome. That really pains me.
I love taking screenshots, living my sims lives with them and the open world makes that so much more fun.
If you have the NRAAS mod tagger you can put sim tags on so you can see where everyone is and what they are doing which I really like. If invite someone over I can see them on their route. I can see who's going home, who's going to work, who's hanging out at a bar or the park.
The open world gives me freedom to look and go wherever I want - I can control multiple family members all the time even if they are at opposite ends of the world.
As you can tell I really, really love the open world and there are no downsides to it for me what so ever ^^ x
1. No loading
2. The world's are beautiful
3. You can make dungeons for sims and trap them there MW u ah ah. (Le WHAT? Call me naive but I have no idea what this is all about)
4. Almost completely customizable.
Downsides
1. Responsible for ghost towns for most players (Agree its optimization, as well as poor programming. But now it should be something that could be worked around, and can be to a certain point with mods)
2. Npc Sims like bartenders would always be at work and never available (Well, this is akin to TS4 having sims available or working that shouldn't be available or working. You either make ALL the sims playable or you have service sims that aren't AS avaiable as townies)
3. Responsible for routing issues and lag (Again, poor optimization IMO. At this point in time I would HOPE they would have been able to ameliorate routing)
4. Unnecessary hours spent commuting. (I teleport everywhere. Super easy "cheat" but it IS realistic, if you want to go that way which some people do. So there IS a choice within the base game. Some want the realism of choosing a home based on location to work and venues like real life. Others want the possibility of HUGE lots in the middle of nowhere with little to NO commute time. IRL this isn't available, in game it is.. if you want to "cheat" )
5. Id have to call sims multiple times because they'd never show up, when they did they'd be super tired and leave almost instantly. (Again something that happens when OTHER sims are also living their own lives. They could be completely unencumbered but this would mean that they also weren't doing things in the background. I would think that at this point in time the dev's could manage a 'date schedule' or 'meeting schedule' in which the player could choose a time to meet their "friend" that works for both... as it is IRL)
6. Things like diving are limited to one world. (EA world I suppose. There are custom worlds that have dive lots etc. hence the beauty of CAW)
This is the problem, most all of these "issues" should have been, would be, solvable at this point in time. However, for whatever reason TS4 did not follow or PUSH the boundaries of what has been set at this point. <shrug>
Open world wasn't the issue. OPTIMIZATION and performance was. Something that probably could have been ironed out at some point in game development.
Look What We Started- Simblr (MATURE CONTENT)
ISLAND END- Simblr (MATURE CONTENT, link is for scene list on sims.com)
Studio
Of course you obviously think so, so one solution would be teleporting as mentioned or another solution is to cheat up more money and get your sims one of the expensive cars; they go 10 times faster than the cheap cars - because the point was to gain money and improve your sims' lives with better objects. Just like how the cheap beds are crappy to sleep in, and the more expensive beds gave more energy, etc.
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand basket?!
Let us not forget the ability to customize those worlds. Are we a small group? I'm not sure, but if we are: Are the individuals who take advantage of those who love to customize a small group?
Please. Give us back the ability to create in the next game, if there is one. It benefits more than just those who create.
- To live up it to its literal name, "open world", so how about more lots than just a rough number of 10?
- And with that ^, convert some ts3 rabbit holes into non-rabbit holes (eg. townhall, school, warehouse), and expand onto that with other content packs (cinema with movie hangout sp, GTW base game careers shifting into active one with their buildings, having Dine out turn culinary career into active, ect.).
But Sims4 is like a movie that has a "film loading" screen every time it cuts to another scene
I had routing issues (in Island Paradise especially, of course), and the whole ghost/empty community lots issues. It's frustrating to have a happening hangout with just 2, maybe 3, other sims there.
If that's open world will always be like in the Sims series, then I don't want it.
I like Sims 4's semi-open worlds (but with Sims 2's apartment system), so I would accept semi-open in Sims 5. Otherwise, I would be really cautious about another open world Sims game.
ETA: I also missed a lot of depth and details from Sims 2 (including bathing babies in sinks and toddlers in bathubs, etc). I also missed having a fully functional home business, other businesses, restaurants, bakeries, etc, without having to buy store content and using mods.
(She/her)
If you take a 'world' and divide it into subdivisions each of which is open (which is my idea of a semi-open world), then personally I think it would be rather redundant to have a school and a court house in each subdivision. You could have different sections of a city like several residential areas, a 'dowtown' shopping and business district, etc. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to put commercial properties in any subdivision you wanted, of course. It would be neat to have a few small shops or hangouts for your sims to visit without a loading screen.
And yes I darn well do want customization back. In fact, TS4 is not a Sims game to me because they took that away. Dumbing down build mode and making CAS easy do not count as complete customization in my book. I want to have control of everything.
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand basket?!
Yes, like a nice fade in/fade out when the scene is changing
Loading screens don't break my immersion
Well, in Island Paradiso, I have to micromanage my mermaids and other sims around the island, or they would end up taking the long way around and take forever (a whole day to get groceries, for example!) to get to their destination.
Traveling (and micromanaging the sims while doing so) is just tedious for me, so I usually end up using the teleportation cheat.
Ugh, such bad memories for me. I would probably use a teleportation cheat again if Sims 5 has open world again. (Well, if Sims 5 is any good and better at optimizing performance and had busy/lively worlds, open working restaurants, grocery stores, home buseinesses, bakeries, etc, and toddlers and all of the toddler/baby stuff from Sims 2, then I would play it.)
(She/her)