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Developer: Wake up call Sim structure needs Major overhaul!
Bookworkgirl
Posts: 129 Member
I wrote this in the hopes that the developer see its needs change and needs to embrace the community more and be more open to their early development to survive! Like early access and seeing what features work and what does not!
Have a look at indie games like cities skyline most of the features are in the base game and anything else with DLC can be added for additional features. Additional DLC will cost 14.99 but you do not need this to enjoy the game! The base game has most of the features and this is what the sim should be.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/255710/Cities_Skylines/
Even hardcore simulation sport games worth $60US which is far more demanding then the sim has everything in the base game! 100+ cars and tracks all in the base game! Why isn't the sim looking at this perfectly working model that will attract more fans cause it means fans do not need to pay 100+US just for additional dlc. There can still be DLC but it should be done in another way instead of what it is today like pets, toddlers, etc. All these should be base features.
Even massive online worlds has everything in it and any additional stuff does not take away from the main base game! Some really good MMO do not have fees either for playing online on their servers. Look at Ark survival and its very popular!
I do hope the developer will take notice and want to know more! Cause there is a better way to do this and still have DLC and making almost every sim fan happy just like what cities skyline has done.
I wish they would look into this and see why it works and that they won't get bankrupt but gain more popularity!
I could give you more examples with even indie developer having a major success!
You don't need to stake your DLC with high prices to win fans or to make a profit!
I think its time for a change and to move away from the costly way of doing DLC in the past and see how successful developer have done it and many of us can give lots of examples! It can be done better it can be dramatically improved!
If the sim world is to survive the competitors which are coming and implementing sim like features in their game. Then the developer will need to be as efficient as they are in their marketing schemes and other major advantages they are doing that the sim developer are not.
Thank you for reading! And I wish the developer will want to see this happen too! Just as passionate just as committed! That is how the ultimate sim is made! Or else as I said the competitor will beat you to it! I can already name a few that is starting to look like the sims!
Sim 4 deluxe has only 612 players in the last 30 days
All peak was in dec 2012 with 5000 players
Games like Elder scroll V skyrim has 26,000 players at the moment and all time peak was 90,000
So the sim can do more to draw in more fans!
Have a look at indie games like cities skyline most of the features are in the base game and anything else with DLC can be added for additional features. Additional DLC will cost 14.99 but you do not need this to enjoy the game! The base game has most of the features and this is what the sim should be.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/255710/Cities_Skylines/
Even hardcore simulation sport games worth $60US which is far more demanding then the sim has everything in the base game! 100+ cars and tracks all in the base game! Why isn't the sim looking at this perfectly working model that will attract more fans cause it means fans do not need to pay 100+US just for additional dlc. There can still be DLC but it should be done in another way instead of what it is today like pets, toddlers, etc. All these should be base features.
Even massive online worlds has everything in it and any additional stuff does not take away from the main base game! Some really good MMO do not have fees either for playing online on their servers. Look at Ark survival and its very popular!
I do hope the developer will take notice and want to know more! Cause there is a better way to do this and still have DLC and making almost every sim fan happy just like what cities skyline has done.
I wish they would look into this and see why it works and that they won't get bankrupt but gain more popularity!
I could give you more examples with even indie developer having a major success!
You don't need to stake your DLC with high prices to win fans or to make a profit!
I think its time for a change and to move away from the costly way of doing DLC in the past and see how successful developer have done it and many of us can give lots of examples! It can be done better it can be dramatically improved!
If the sim world is to survive the competitors which are coming and implementing sim like features in their game. Then the developer will need to be as efficient as they are in their marketing schemes and other major advantages they are doing that the sim developer are not.
Thank you for reading! And I wish the developer will want to see this happen too!
Just as passionate just as committed! That is how the ultimate sim is made! Or else as I said the competitor will beat you to it! I can already name a few that is starting to look like the sims!Sim 4 deluxe has only 612 players in the last 30 days
All peak was in dec 2012 with 5000 players
Games like Elder scroll V skyrim has 26,000 players at the moment and all time peak was 90,000
So the sim can do more to draw in more fans!
Post edited by Bookworkgirl on
4
Comments
Other simulation has surpass its complexity and not true with recommended specs but i will only discuss if the developer is interested to know more! You and many here will be shockingly surprise what is possible and you don't need a powerful i7 to run it either.
As I mentioned in my first post there is this hardcore simulation games that cost only $60 as its new and its complexity is extreme and does not require 40US add on! Its also open development.
But I and others can give others as the sim is not a simulation and not that complex either compared to other games like cities skyline.
This is true to a degree, however, I think TS4 has done far too much downgrading to try and keep the game within low recommended specs (that is, if you think that is the reason for it, rather than TS4 itself being remnants of an online game they tried to quickly recycle into a full-fledged Sims game).
IMHO, the only 'complex' innovation that TS4 has given to this franchise is multitasking, which has come with a plethora of nuances and bugs along with us. Simulation wise, the game is a horror. It's the only Sims game which has as many issues with it, and failure to maintain a working time control system. My game stutters in simulation, and I actually need to pause it so it can catch up. Things happen as I pause my game, I restart my game and find my Sims have magically moved positions from where I've left them, and we have the some of the least intelligent NPC Sims in the series.
The Sims SHOULD be more complex than any other simulation game, but I think right now, it just isn't. To have an entire team push out object pack after object pack rather than focus on improving the lackluster expansions/game packs is pretty lame of EA.
Try playing Dwarf Fortress, then come back here and say that.
Really, then wonder why TS3 sold so much? it was a prosessor hog and it did extremely well even though they had to upgrade to play it.
Also, Skyrim doesn't make a lot of sense as a comparison. Skyrim only ever had, what, 3-4 DLC packs released after six years?
The Sims follows a model of continuing to expand until it's time for the next iteration (assuming such an iteration will happen). This requires ongoing budget and dev resources, which can't be magically generated with the flick of a magical wand. The ongoing cost (if you want to buy all DLC) is because they're making so much of it and they need to justify the budget to keep creating.
People ask for more stuff to be base game features... I mean, don't we all wish for that? But that's not a reason to change the DLC model. Even if they pack more into base game in the future, they still have to cover the costs if they want to expand on the game after release.
Games that are "free" and continue to put out nothing but free add-on content always have a catch (seriously, if there is an exception to this, I will be floored). They're able to be "free" by using microtransaction setups, typically, that charge people for premium services or upgrades (and these premiums are pressured on the player as something they should want to have, often in the form of status symbols). I've never heard of a game that is 100% free in every way and continues to develop content for free after release (again, free meaning no catch). Maybe there are some indie devs doing this with a Patreon thing or something? But on the scale of The Sims? It wouldn't be a business at that point. It'd be youtube, but for games.
From the stuff I've read, TS4 is doing really well right now and has done really well throughout most of its life.
I also don't really understand how this is an accurate statement, but maybe it explains the disconnect: Isn't that exactly what the sims is? "Most of the features are in base game and anything else with DLC can be added for additional features"?
I know there have always been complaints about TS4 base game being too sparse. And proportionally, considering the sheer amount of DLC that gets made in a Sims game lifecycle, the DLC may at some point outweigh base game in size.
But some of it's super subjective too. People saying things like, "There's nothing to do in base game" because they find the features that do exist to be boring. So what's stopping me from playing cities skyline and saying that its base game is empty and boring, and I need the DLC to have fun?
Setting the correct prices is a very complicated and complex job for EA's marketing experts and it is a whole science how to do it. If the prices become too high then sales numbers go down so much that it won't pay off at all. But setting the prices too low is an equally serious mistake because then the profit goes down without any real compensation in getting higher sales numbers anyway.
So all big companies have experts who only study the market and and analyzes it with only this purpose. Therefore I also don't doubt that EA's new policy about mainly releasing very cheap SPs and GPs that still only cost half of the price of the earlier 2 yearly EPs is a result of such analyzes which must have shown that young teens no longer are able to get the expensive EPs as birthday presents and Christmas presents like they did earlier when all the expansions were sold on discs in boxes and not just as digital downloads.