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Thoughts on open world?

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  • cactusjuicecactusjuice Posts: 573 Member
    edited January 2017
    I agree at first I thought I could live without the open world and give the Sims 4 take on Sims 2 vanishing act a try, but the loading screens destroy the game for me. Open World advanced and broadened the game for me in building and game play. And that's a major feature loss that prevents me from reinstalling the Sims 4
  • DragonCat159DragonCat159 Posts: 1,896 Member
    edited January 2017
    Like how somebody somewhere on the forums said it:

    (Along the lines of) "It's ok If a GOOD game has a loading screen. With TS2, you're left to anticipate by questioning yourself "what will happen next?!". While with the sims 4, you're left still annoyed and disappointing by the game, while with a thought of "Arghh! This game sucks so much. At least they could have made it (semi-)world.)""

    That's exactly accuralety how I see. I totally relate to that ^^^
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  • HappySimmer3HappySimmer3 Posts: 6,699 Member
    @DragonCat159 that's a great point. If the game was lots of fun to play, I think there would be many more players willing to overlook that one of their favorite features had been removed.

    Unfortunately this game removed a whole lot of features. Happy to see that a missing life stage was recently added back in but there's still a lot missing for a lot of people, and open world is at the top of the list for many. I hope they rethink the design if they ever make another version of this game and add some form of it back in.
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  • LatinaBunnyLatinaBunny Posts: 4,666 Member
    edited January 2017
    Depends on how it's programmed. If the game had animations and other details, proper routing, and populated lots, then I would be more accepting of another sims game with open world.

    But at the moment, I wouldn't mind semi-open world or open neighborhoods.

    ETA: If Sims 4 was still incomplete, and Sims 5 had fully open world, I would be very skeptical about going through another sims installment. I don't trust the devs to do Open World again, and I am not interested in spending money just for a game to get abandoned. :disappointed:
    Post edited by LatinaBunny on
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  • TiffanyLea007TiffanyLea007 Posts: 1,068 Member
    I think it is the loading screens that is making me be on the fence about the game. Yeah they added toddlers. Thank You for that. But I am still questioning, "should I buy the game now, just because toddlers are added?" The is so much that I dislike about the game. I don't know I may go about and buy the base. I want to support the game, I really do. But at the same time I would rather see it end and have the Sims 5. I loved the open world of the Sims 3.
  • CandydCandyd Posts: 1,261 Member
    @TiffanyLea007 I'd say that if you have a feeling that you may be disappointed, then TS4 is probably not for you. Or at least wait another sale like last Black Friday sale... But even then, I think our intuition is much more often right than not. For me, it's almost always been right, including about my (not very good) opinion of TS4. I pretty much knew about how I'd feel about it long before I bought it.
  • StrawberryYogurtStrawberryYogurt Posts: 2,799 Member
    Unpopular opinion: I dont want open world. I dont really mind loading screens, im not that impatient. None or semi open world is fine.
    The Sims has currently lost its identity. Bring it back for TS5

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  • ohmyohmyohmyohmy Posts: 614 Member
    lots of open world games have loading screens so they don't bother me at all. I don't miss watching my sims disappear into buildings while I sit back and imagine what they're doing so yeah I don't miss the open world at all. :)
  • 1need4kaffee1need4kaffee Posts: 486 Member
    Loading screens, while mildly annoying, are not the issue for me. I want my entire sim family to be independently active without being attached at the hip and forced to remain on the same lot together. And I want to be able to switch between them and see them continuing their actions. In TS4 you can only play one sim at a time and all the others go sit in a closet and do nothing (and still manage to screw up their relationships).

    If I am playing Tim, and he is on Saxsim at a party, and I switch to Gina, who is at the hospital delivering a baby, I could care less if there was a loading screen as long as Tim and Gina are both doing what they are supposed to instead of popping home to go in the closet.
  • SimTrippySimTrippy Posts: 7,651 Member
    Loading screens, while mildly annoying, are not the issue for me. I want my entire sim family to be independently active without being attached at the hip and forced to remain on the same lot together. And I want to be able to switch between them and see them continuing their actions. In TS4 you can only play one sim at a time and all the others go sit in a closet and do nothing (and still manage to screw up their relationships).

    If I am playing Tim, and he is on Saxsim at a party, and I switch to Gina, who is at the hospital delivering a baby, I could care less if there was a loading screen as long as Tim and Gina are both doing what they are supposed to instead of popping home to go in the closet.

    Well ... that does kind of happen though. If you play a sim and have club gathering at their home, then switch to another sim who's in that club, that sim will indeed be at the others' sim home. Sometimes they never leave lol. I get your point though, but if you play 2 or more sims in rotation every time you play, they'll be pretty much where you left them earlier. But you're right that they're not *really* doing anything while there.
  • JestinaJestina Posts: 1,609 Member
    I could probably tolerate the TS4 world if they had tried to implement some sort of story progression.
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited January 2017
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    lots of open world games have loading screens so they don't bother me at all. I don't miss watching my sims disappear into buildings while I sit back and imagine what they're doing so yeah I don't miss the open world at all. :)
    Are rabbitholes a necessity, inevitably linked to an open world? Do Skyrim and GTA have rabbitholes? If not, what's your point in relation to the open world?

    I mind less about loading screens than I mind about:
    • fake backdrops (no real map like in Sims 2; that house across the bridge is just a façade)
    • tiny neighborhoods with loading screens between lots
    • no way to customize the 'world'
    • the fact that when my sim is talking to her neighbour in his garden and then crosses the street to her own house, the neighbour is gone
    • teleporting instead of travelling
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  • nickibitswardnickibitsward Posts: 3,115 Member
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    lots of open world games have loading screens so they don't bother me at all. I don't miss watching my sims disappear into buildings while I sit back and imagine what they're doing so yeah I don't miss the open world at all. :)

    I don't like seeing my Sims go "poof" off screen.
  • FelicityFelicity Posts: 4,979 Member
    I way prefer an open world. However, I could live with a closed world if they made it possible to have your off-lot sims do meaningful things.

    For instance: Send your school-aged kid to the library and have them be able to do homework/extra credit there with a speed bonus (I used to do that in Sims 3). Have your writer sim (or whatever) stay and home and work on their book while your other sim is out partying at the night club. Or leave your one sim working on a rocket while the other goes to visit the neighbor. I really dislike that you can't do that.

    As it is, since you can't direct your off lot sims to do anything meaningful, I always feel like my sims either can't leave their lot or have to do everything as a family.

    I remember one time I tried to send my parent sims off to granite falls for a holiday, but it quickly became just frustrating as I saw the teen sims do nothing but turn orange. That is just not fun. If I could have just directed them to "do homework" "play on computer" and such, it would have been fine.

    I wish I knew if they felt this was a problem or if it's just something they feel is a non-issue. I'd love to know if it's something they're planning on adjusting. Last I heard from a guru about this, it was working as intended, but that was back in 2014.
  • FelicityFelicity Posts: 4,979 Member
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    lots of open world games have loading screens so they don't bother me at all. I don't miss watching my sims disappear into buildings while I sit back and imagine what they're doing so yeah I don't miss the open world at all. :)

    How is it different from watching your sims poof off the screen where you then have to imagine what they're doing? Except you know they're not doing anything because the choices for them are so limited. In Sims 4, the entire world except for the active lot is basically a huge rabbit hole, except you can't even direct your sims to do anything meaningful and there's not a building.
  • ohmyohmyohmyohmy Posts: 614 Member
    Felicity wrote: »
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    lots of open world games have loading screens so they don't bother me at all. I don't miss watching my sims disappear into buildings while I sit back and imagine what they're doing so yeah I don't miss the open world at all. :)

    How is it different from watching your sims poof off the screen where you then have to imagine what they're doing? Except you know they're not doing anything because the choices for them are so limited. In Sims 4, the entire world except for the active lot is basically a huge rabbit hole, except you can't even direct your sims to do anything meaningful and there's not a building.

    It's different because the lots that I feel like I should be able to see in & that are necessary to my gameplay; movie theater, spa, restaurant, bookstore were all closed off. I don't care about rabbitholes for things like.. hiking, helicopter rides, jobs but when it comes to buildings then it's a no for me. The world in Sims 3 was open sure but it was full of nothing but endless rabbitholes & it felt very fake/unfinished.
  • FelicityFelicity Posts: 4,979 Member
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    Felicity wrote: »
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    lots of open world games have loading screens so they don't bother me at all. I don't miss watching my sims disappear into buildings while I sit back and imagine what they're doing so yeah I don't miss the open world at all. :)

    How is it different from watching your sims poof off the screen where you then have to imagine what they're doing? Except you know they're not doing anything because the choices for them are so limited. In Sims 4, the entire world except for the active lot is basically a huge rabbit hole, except you can't even direct your sims to do anything meaningful and there's not a building.

    It's different because the lots that I feel like I should be able to see in & that are necessary to my gameplay; movie theater, spa, restaurant, bookstore were all closed off. I don't care about rabbitholes for things like.. hiking, helicopter rides, jobs but when it comes to buildings then it's a no for me. The world in Sims 3 was open sure but it was full of nothing but endless rabbitholes & it felt very fake/unfinished.

    While I agree that a restaurant that worked better than the store restaurant would have been nice for Sims 3, and the movie theatre was also lacking a bit (though the whatchamacallit that allowed you to set access to various venues was a nice touch), and I was able to build a bookstore and grocery store with the registers that came with the sims 3 World Adventures -- these weren't the limitations of an open world. An open world can easily have open venues.

    In Sims 4, everyone not on the active lot is in a rabbit hole, but you can't even make them do anything worthwhile. It really stinks that in order to have a date night with your sims parents, for instance, the kids either do absolutely nothing, or they go with the parents. I really dislike that a lot.
  • FelicityFelicity Posts: 4,979 Member
    A serious limitation to the Sims 4 closed world is that you literally cannot have a workaholic married to a party animal type and have it make sense. Either your workaholic won't be getting much work done as you drag them to the lot your party animal wants to go to, or your party animal will just be hanging out at home, cooling their heels.

    How difficult could it be, really, to allow for sims off lot to actually continue doing their activities so others can leave the lot? I know one thing people do is to just focus on one sim at a time and switch off, but to me, that's just so game breaking. Why would my rocket building sim hang around the house doing nothing at all while her boyfriend went to the club because he got bored waiting around for her?
  • ohmyohmyohmyohmy Posts: 614 Member
    Felicity wrote: »
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    Felicity wrote: »
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    lots of open world games have loading screens so they don't bother me at all. I don't miss watching my sims disappear into buildings while I sit back and imagine what they're doing so yeah I don't miss the open world at all. :)

    How is it different from watching your sims poof off the screen where you then have to imagine what they're doing? Except you know they're not doing anything because the choices for them are so limited. In Sims 4, the entire world except for the active lot is basically a huge rabbit hole, except you can't even direct your sims to do anything meaningful and there's not a building.

    It's different because the lots that I feel like I should be able to see in & that are necessary to my gameplay; movie theater, spa, restaurant, bookstore were all closed off. I don't care about rabbitholes for things like.. hiking, helicopter rides, jobs but when it comes to buildings then it's a no for me. The world in Sims 3 was open sure but it was full of nothing but endless rabbitholes & it felt very fake/unfinished.

    While I agree that a restaurant that worked better than the store restaurant would have been nice for Sims 3, and the movie theatre was also lacking a bit (though the whatchamacallit that allowed you to set access to various venues was a nice touch), and I was able to build a bookstore and grocery store with the registers that came with the sims 3 World Adventures -- these weren't the limitations of an open world. An open world can easily have open venues.

    In Sims 4, everyone not on the active lot is in a rabbit hole, but you can't even make them do anything worthwhile. It really stinks that in order to have a date night with your sims parents, for instance, the kids either do absolutely nothing, or they go with the parents. I really dislike that a lot.

    OK, I see & understand your point. :) what bothers you doesn't really bother me because it doesn't bug me that townies/premades that aren't on active lots are in rabbit holes. I watch sims walk across the street and interact with each other & I also see sims jogging/peforming/attending festivals so that brings me personally a lot more immersion & makes the world feel much more alive than it did for me in TS3 when I watched townies/premades/my sims disappear into the bistro but I can see how it would bother someone who enjoyed TS3 despite the rabbit holes. :)
  • FelicityFelicity Posts: 4,979 Member
    edited January 2017
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    Felicity wrote: »
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    Felicity wrote: »
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    lots of open world games have loading screens so they don't bother me at all. I don't miss watching my sims disappear into buildings while I sit back and imagine what they're doing so yeah I don't miss the open world at all. :)

    How is it different from watching your sims poof off the screen where you then have to imagine what they're doing? Except you know they're not doing anything because the choices for them are so limited. In Sims 4, the entire world except for the active lot is basically a huge rabbit hole, except you can't even direct your sims to do anything meaningful and there's not a building.

    It's different because the lots that I feel like I should be able to see in & that are necessary to my gameplay; movie theater, spa, restaurant, bookstore were all closed off. I don't care about rabbitholes for things like.. hiking, helicopter rides, jobs but when it comes to buildings then it's a no for me. The world in Sims 3 was open sure but it was full of nothing but endless rabbitholes & it felt very fake/unfinished.

    While I agree that a restaurant that worked better than the store restaurant would have been nice for Sims 3, and the movie theatre was also lacking a bit (though the whatchamacallit that allowed you to set access to various venues was a nice touch), and I was able to build a bookstore and grocery store with the registers that came with the sims 3 World Adventures -- these weren't the limitations of an open world. An open world can easily have open venues.

    In Sims 4, everyone not on the active lot is in a rabbit hole, but you can't even make them do anything worthwhile. It really stinks that in order to have a date night with your sims parents, for instance, the kids either do absolutely nothing, or they go with the parents. I really dislike that a lot.

    OK, I see & understand your point. :) what bothers you doesn't really bother me because it doesn't bug me that townies/premades that aren't on active lots are in rabbit holes. I watch sims walk across the street and interact with each other & I also see sims jogging/peforming/attending festivals so that brings me personally a lot more immersion & makes the world feel much more alive than it did for me in TS3 when I watched townies/premades/my sims disappear into the bistro but I can see how it would bother someone who enjoyed TS3 despite the rabbit holes. :)

    I'm not talking about townies/premades. It's an issue I have with my families. When I play a single sim or an inseparable couple, it's no big deal. But once I add families or try to play an odd couple or even have a sim with a family dedicated to their work or hobby, I feel so limited because of this.

    It's why I prefer an open world. I'd love an open world with all open venues, but even a closed world with the ability to direct off-lot sims in the active household would make the game 10000x better for me. I really hate trying to send a kid alone to the park which suddenly launches the parents into a rabbithole where they can "take care of needs" even if one was writing a novel and the other was in a video game tournament just before the kid left.
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    lots of open world games have loading screens so they don't bother me at all. I don't miss watching my sims disappear into buildings while I sit back and imagine what they're doing so yeah I don't miss the open world at all. :)
    Are rabbitholes a necessity, inevitably linked to an open world? Do Skyrim and GTA have rabbitholes? If not, what's your point in relation to the open world?

    I mind less about loading screens than I mind about:
    • fake backdrops (no real map like in Sims 2; that house across the bridge is just a façade)
    • tiny neighborhoods with loading screens between lots
    • no way to customize the 'world'
    • the fact that when my sim is talking to her neighbour in his garden and then crosses the street to her own house, the neighbour is gone
    • teleporting instead of travelling
    Important edit after reading @Felicity 's post:
    • Off lot sims not doing anything

    This is really incomprehensible to me, considering the APP GAME does that better.
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  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited January 2017
    Felicity wrote: »
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    Felicity wrote: »
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    lots of open world games have loading screens so they don't bother me at all. I don't miss watching my sims disappear into buildings while I sit back and imagine what they're doing so yeah I don't miss the open world at all. :)

    How is it different from watching your sims poof off the screen where you then have to imagine what they're doing? Except you know they're not doing anything because the choices for them are so limited. In Sims 4, the entire world except for the active lot is basically a huge rabbit hole, except you can't even direct your sims to do anything meaningful and there's not a building.

    It's different because the lots that I feel like I should be able to see in & that are necessary to my gameplay; movie theater, spa, restaurant, bookstore were all closed off. I don't care about rabbitholes for things like.. hiking, helicopter rides, jobs but when it comes to buildings then it's a no for me. The world in Sims 3 was open sure but it was full of nothing but endless rabbitholes & it felt very fake/unfinished.

    While I agree that a restaurant that worked better than the store restaurant would have been nice for Sims 3, and the movie theatre was also lacking a bit (though the whatchamacallit that allowed you to set access to various venues was a nice touch), and I was able to build a bookstore and grocery store with the registers that came with the sims 3 World Adventures -- these weren't the limitations of an open world. An open world can easily have open venues.

    In Sims 4, everyone not on the active lot is in a rabbit hole, but you can't even make them do anything worthwhile. It really stinks that in order to have a date night with your sims parents, for instance, the kids either do absolutely nothing, or they go with the parents. I really dislike that a lot.
    And this is quite important to. The open world discussions always get poluted by people treating the concept as if it has to be the way it was in Sims 3. That's nonsense though.
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  • jusMehjusMeh Posts: 424 Member
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    Felicity wrote: »
    ohmyohmy wrote: »
    lots of open world games have loading screens so they don't bother me at all. I don't miss watching my sims disappear into buildings while I sit back and imagine what they're doing so yeah I don't miss the open world at all. :)

    How is it different from watching your sims poof off the screen where you then have to imagine what they're doing? Except you know they're not doing anything because the choices for them are so limited. In Sims 4, the entire world except for the active lot is basically a huge rabbit hole, except you can't even direct your sims to do anything meaningful and there's not a building.

    It's different because the lots that I feel like I should be able to see in & that are necessary to my gameplay; movie theater, spa, restaurant, bookstore were all closed off. I don't care about rabbitholes for things like.. hiking, helicopter rides, jobs but when it comes to buildings then it's a no for me. The world in Sims 3 was open sure but it was full of nothing but endless rabbitholes & it felt very fake/unfinished.

    No, not true at all. :/

  • GoldenBuffyGoldenBuffy Posts: 4,025 Member
    I miss open worlds in Sims 4, totally kills the immersion for me. It was released in 2014, there's no reason why the game shouldn't have been open world, minus the fact that it was originally designed to be an online game. I never had any problem with the open worlds in my Sims 3 game. My lots are active, I even have open work lots as well as schools. So I can see all my little simmies. My dream when/if we get Sims 5 is that we have the most detailed and interactive open world to date!!!!
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  • LatinaBunnyLatinaBunny Posts: 4,666 Member
    edited January 2017
    Glitched and got a Double post. I don't know how to delete the double posting?
    Post edited by LatinaBunny on
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