It all sounds really appealing, but the video speaks in general terms with no real specifics. I'm very skeptical EA will put in the budget enough time and money to do a quality job of it anyway.
Imo, the way Sims has produced starting with Sims 4 has changed and for me not in an good way, but an cheesy way.
Post edited by Goldmoldar on
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They always stated it clearly from the beginning when they were showing it at Gamescom for the first time even - it was designed to not follow the time line of past 3 series and had no end date until they were feasibly wanting to end it. It is not need on their part to end it - so they won't. Only players have the need by asking for stuff that was in previous games - so devs always have the things they wanted for the game as well - and they see no feasible reason to end it - seeing it constantly grows now. If you ask me that is how studios grow and Maxis keeps growing - the fan base is growing every year up 35 percent than each year before - why would they ever stop.
35% more tries of The Sims 4 does not translate to 35% more fans. As I stated a few times before, The Sims 4 is on basic Origin access for 3.99£ a month with 180 other games. There's no reason not to try it or not play around in it if you have the access. Heck I even downloaded the infamous simcity on the access as simply, why not?
Interesting statistics would be how many people from the access actually bought the game and stuff for the game after trying it. But it's not a statistic that they will present.
It is a lot easier to say that your game is doing well by presenting the freemium statistics rather than actual sales.
Personally I do think there is going to be a Sims 5 too - but it is going by way of the Atlas program the heads saw all their games going - and will be online - there's lots of talk about AR (not VR - but AR) the cloud and unlimited storage - that will be Sims 5 - and like they have two mobile Sims games that are also going no where but to Firemonkeys studio with some of the Sims mobile folks going there as well - I think Sims 4 will keep producing - but Sims 5 will be the new Sims Online and both will be made. That grows the fan base especially with the younger people and a good number of game changers too that fuel online games - as I ventured around on various places younger simmers go (thanks in part to my own younger simmers granddaughters, nieces and nephew (ages 14 - 26) and where they and their friends go - and it is true - they are crying out for online - AR, VR - and all sorts of things I am not interested in at all but they are dying to get. Many as I said are already simmers but not as dedicated as many of us vet types are just for online connection to games - so many of them play online MMO's etc - while chatting about wanting their sims to go online. They firmly believe it will be like other online is now not the horror Sims online was previously and are really interest in AR more than VR from what I can see.
MMOs in general is a declining genre mostly filled with the older generation. Hecewhy a lot went a lot more casual as time went on, as their main consumer base grew up, got kids and now lack time. So I don't think that that's a good idea if they choose this as a direction. Now local multiplayer is something Sims had before and could feasibly make work considering that the Prison Architect one works like a charm, but I would not choose that as a main selling feature.
They always stated it clearly from the beginning when they were showing it at Gamescom for the first time even - it was designed to not follow the time line of past 3 series and had no end date until they were feasibly wanting to end it. It is not need on their part to end it - so they won't. Only players have the need by asking for stuff that was in previous games - so devs always have the things they wanted for the game as well - and they see no feasible reason to end it - seeing it constantly grows now. If you ask me that is how studios grow and Maxis keeps growing - the fan base is growing every year up 35 percent than each year before - why would they ever stop.
35% more tries of The Sims 4 does not translate to 35% more fans. As I stated a few times before, The Sims 4 is on basic Origin access for 3.99£ a month with 180 other games. There's no reason not to try it or not play around in it if you have the access. Heck I even downloaded the infamous simcity on the access as simply, why not?
Interesting statistics would be how many people from the access actually bought the game and stuff for the game after trying it. But it's not a statistic that they will present.
It is a lot easier to say that your game is doing well by presenting the freemium statistics rather than actual sales.
Personally I do think there is going to be a Sims 5 too - but it is going by way of the Atlas program the heads saw all their games going - and will be online - there's lots of talk about AR (not VR - but AR) the cloud and unlimited storage - that will be Sims 5 - and like they have two mobile Sims games that are also going no where but to Firemonkeys studio with some of the Sims mobile folks going there as well - I think Sims 4 will keep producing - but Sims 5 will be the new Sims Online and both will be made. That grows the fan base especially with the younger people and a good number of game changers too that fuel online games - as I ventured around on various places younger simmers go (thanks in part to my own younger simmers granddaughters, nieces and nephew (ages 14 - 26) and where they and their friends go - and it is true - they are crying out for online - AR, VR - and all sorts of things I am not interested in at all but they are dying to get. Many as I said are already simmers but not as dedicated as many of us vet types are just for online connection to games - so many of them play online MMO's etc - while chatting about wanting their sims to go online. They firmly believe it will be like other online is now not the horror Sims online was previously and are really interest in AR more than VR from what I can see.
MMOs in general is a declining genre mostly filled with the older generation. Hecewhy a lot went a lot more casual as time went on, as their main consumer base grew up, got kids and now lack time. So I don't think that that's a good idea if they choose this as a direction. Now local multiplayer is something Sims had before and could feasibly make work considering that the Prison Architect one works like a charm, but I would not choose that as a main selling feature.
I dislike MMOs even if it is good because once service is cut the game is gone unless they give the player the ability to LAN play.
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I'm pretty sure you can add your own color swatches with Sims 4 Studio, I think it takes like 5 minutes maybe? Sim supply did it by making his own white shelf, if I remember correctly.
The fact that theres no single one official tool from EA to The Sims 4 is also questionable. The Sims 4 Studio was made by fans not EA/Maxis
I didn't realize it wasn't released by EA/Maxis, I've never actually messed around with it only heard about it from CC creators and Sims supply. I just kind of figured it was because they had tools like that in the past.
in terms of leaving the lot, I wish they had gone the route of sims 2 where time stopped, versus sims 3 where time keeps moving. This is the main reason I hope that they dont give us a university pack yet, doing the active careers I barely keep my sims I'm not playing alive, think about a whole sim-week long semester and having time continue to march forward between your university sim and your family if I play an active career I spend more time on loading screens than actually playing just to keep the stay at home dad taking care of the toddlers.
This type of play keeping time moving when off your home lot was fine in 3 because of the open world - if something was really wrong (like a plate blocking the dad from getting the toddler food) it was easy to focus back on him without a 3 min loading screen. But in sims 4 and somethings wrong when I'm on an active career I have to sit through a 3-5 min loading screen get dad to deal with child, switch control to Dr.Mom another 3-5 min loading screen do-while loop for as long as there is an issue with the kid. Active careers aren't even fun for me because I sit through hours of load screens and it takes me 8 real-time hours to actually play an active career since I'm switching control so often and this is with autonomy ON.
To be fair in the sims 3, when a sim went off to college, time stopped for the sims back at home as it did when traveling to France, China or Egypt in World Adventures. So if anything they could try to do it that way if making a university pack.
"Bada su the gorn bada su the brawn bada bady oda aba donk donk donk gerbits gerbits vo gerbits".
in terms of leaving the lot, I wish they had gone the route of sims 2 where time stopped, versus sims 3 where time keeps moving. This is the main reason I hope that they dont give us a university pack yet, doing the active careers I barely keep my sims I'm not playing alive, think about a whole sim-week long semester and having time continue to march forward between your university sim and your family if I play an active career I spend more time on loading screens than actually playing just to keep the stay at home dad taking care of the toddlers.
This type of play keeping time moving when off your home lot was fine in 3 because of the open world - if something was really wrong (like a plate blocking the dad from getting the toddler food) it was easy to focus back on him without a 3 min loading screen. But in sims 4 and somethings wrong when I'm on an active career I have to sit through a 3-5 min loading screen get dad to deal with child, switch control to Dr.Mom another 3-5 min loading screen do-while loop for as long as there is an issue with the kid. Active careers aren't even fun for me because I sit through hours of load screens and it takes me 8 real-time hours to actually play an active career since I'm switching control so often and this is with autonomy ON.
To be fair in the sims 3, when a sim went off to college, time stopped for the sims back at home as it did when traveling to France, China or Egypt in World Adventures. So if anything they could try to do it that way if making a university pack.
This game is going to get so complicated if it goes on for several years more that there'll have to be some way to play so that it doesn't get bogged down and lags again even though it might speed up a bit in the beginning on only 64bit machines.
StrangerVille has started going in that direction as the illness doesn't travel to other worlds though you can still use the objects that come with it.
I'm pretty sure you can add your own color swatches with Sims 4 Studio, I think it takes like 5 minutes maybe? Sim supply did it by making his own white shelf, if I remember correctly.
The fact that theres no single one official tool from EA to The Sims 4 is also questionable. The Sims 4 Studio was made by fans not EA/Maxis
I didn't realize it wasn't released by EA/Maxis, I've never actually messed around with it only heard about it from CC creators and Sims supply. I just kind of figured it was because they had tools like that in the past.
It does make one scratch their head as the whole thing about creativity has always been that Maxis would help players by offering tools built into the games, and or that came along with a base. This time it's like no, these are our marbles and you can't have any. lol They like to say how helpful the devs have been to help support modders, yes, they have been, but still I do wonder why they clutch close to chest any tools that would help average creators to also mess around and explore things as the others gave them in a base.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
I'm pretty sure you can add your own color swatches with Sims 4 Studio, I think it takes like 5 minutes maybe? Sim supply did it by making his own white shelf, if I remember correctly.
The fact that theres no single one official tool from EA to The Sims 4 is also questionable. The Sims 4 Studio was made by fans not EA/Maxis
I didn't realize it wasn't released by EA/Maxis, I've never actually messed around with it only heard about it from CC creators and Sims supply. I just kind of figured it was because they had tools like that in the past.
It does make one scratch their head as the whole thing about creativity has always been that Maxis would help players by offering tools built into the games, and or that came along with a base. This time it's like no, these are our marbles and you can't have any. lol They like to say how helpful the devs have been to help support modders, yes, they have been, but still I do wonder why they clutch close to chest any tools that would help average creators to also mess around and explore things as the others gave them in a base.
Because those tools probably aren’t user friendly for the developers which means they aren’t in any releasable state for the public. This game was built differently than the other games, it’s not like they have amazing tools that are being kept from us they probably have fewer tools at their disposal than before.
The only proprietary software EA released for Sims 3 was the pattern maker and that wasn’t that advanced. CAW was leased software, and not even the full version the developers used.
For Sims 2 you had a few tools, but those were generally not for creating content. Body shop and homecrafter were packaging tools. You created what you wanted in external software like blender, milkshape, paint, photoshop, gimp, etc and just imported the imagine/model into the program to package it into a format recognized by the game.
Sims 4 was probably never intended to have CC in the first place since it was designed as an online game. Maxis went out of their way to provide an entire mod framework on day 1 which has served as a pretty excellent basis for CC creation and modding. In this case I think it’s more they did what they could, because releasing proprietary tools that don’t exist really isn’t an option.
I'm pretty sure you can add your own color swatches with Sims 4 Studio, I think it takes like 5 minutes maybe? Sim supply did it by making his own white shelf, if I remember correctly.
The fact that theres no single one official tool from EA to The Sims 4 is also questionable. The Sims 4 Studio was made by fans not EA/Maxis
I didn't realize it wasn't released by EA/Maxis, I've never actually messed around with it only heard about it from CC creators and Sims supply. I just kind of figured it was because they had tools like that in the past.
It does make one scratch their head as the whole thing about creativity has always been that Maxis would help players by offering tools built into the games, and or that came along with a base. This time it's like no, these are our marbles and you can't have any. lol They like to say how helpful the devs have been to help support modders, yes, they have been, but still I do wonder why they clutch close to chest any tools that would help average creators to also mess around and explore things as the others gave them in a base.
That has a lot to do with the tools they use - THEY did not make so they cannot very much give us those tools unless they have at least some kind of partnership with the tool makers. EA has been working on future tools that will not just work for the Sims but many of their other Triple A games. Hence Origin and access/subscription service. Hence making their own Cloud service or partner with someone doing it. 5 G service world wide - which is coming but which right now require users to have the internet that can connect with that service - worldwide. What's more get a way to make it affordable and desirable. It's an ever evolving world worldwide. A lot more is involved than just making you an offline service. Also a service that has access to your game that can allow techs to fix broken games - HQ is just the beginning of getting us all in the tech circle to make that a reality. Allowing access to all your devices for all these services and your game. Why they absolutely need players connected - but the fact remains unless this service is worldwide and systems players have access with all their most used devices - it still would not work except for the machines having capabilities to use these services, mean at least getting the masses on the higher end systems (hence dropping 32 bit equipment in everything). Hence programs EA is building, and investing in and developing in with highly trained people hence EA having 1000 well trained people working from the ground up in these services, building a better tomorrow for gamers everywhere. It is not just for the Sims but all their main games and new games they add to their service. What's more these program are being developed and have been being developed for the road ahead in many cases for years now -
If you do not keep up with what is going on technology wise (well outside of just games) I can see why you cannot see the future and where things are heading.
But if you have been keeping up - you could allow your self to be amazed. Don't think about even 10 -15 years ago - even that is obsolete - otherwise you cannot even begin to imagine what's ahead - what's more what has been in development - serious development for 7-10 years now and is a reality - that goes beyond just us and our games - but EA and many other big companies like EA, Microsoft, etc, etc are working on and doing. You only have to think back to something as simple as your phones - what was phone like 10-15 years ago compared to what and where they are now. 15 years ago - most of us could not even think of every one being mesmerized by phones. But look around you.
"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 don’t see EA going back to proper rotational play. I don’t consider what the sims 4 has as rotational play either though. It’s like a poor man version of it. I know the sims 2 rotational style wasn’t for everyone but at least in 2, if I leave a house at 6pm Monday Winter, when I return it’s still that time and nothing has changed. Literally nothing.
In sims 4 when I rotate, it’s several days later, the pets are stinking, starving and sick, my sims always seem to have a same sex love interest regardless of their sexuality and my unemployed sims seem to be bar tenders or massage therapists. They also may have gained skills that don’t suit them I.e my lazy sim will have got several points of fitness or the weirdest one was my evil sim had a good reputation and lots of friends!
And if you want to play sims 3 style you are in trouble as without any story progression your town literally becomes a ghost town within a few generations. The game is trying to be everything and not doing any play style justice.
For those who love playing rotational I hope they’ll reintroduce it in a future game, but for a player like me having to play rotational to keep a community evolving would be a drag. I just don’t play that way. I wonder how hard it would be for them to create a game where you can really set things like that. From completely rotational Sims 1/2 style to full SP NRaas style. I think it would be worth it to invest in that to be honest, because simmers feel very strong about this, regardless what playing style they prefer. I think they underestimated that when they created Sims 3, but to fully return to rotational would underestimate how players like me feel about that.
I'm pretty sure you can add your own color swatches with Sims 4 Studio, I think it takes like 5 minutes maybe? Sim supply did it by making his own white shelf, if I remember correctly.
The fact that theres no single one official tool from EA to The Sims 4 is also questionable. The Sims 4 Studio was made by fans not EA/Maxis
I didn't realize it wasn't released by EA/Maxis, I've never actually messed around with it only heard about it from CC creators and Sims supply. I just kind of figured it was because they had tools like that in the past.
It does make one scratch their head as the whole thing about creativity has always been that Maxis would help players by offering tools built into the games, and or that came along with a base. This time it's like no, these are our marbles and you can't have any. lol They like to say how helpful the devs have been to help support modders, yes, they have been, but still I do wonder why they clutch close to chest any tools that would help average creators to also mess around and explore things as the others gave them in a base.
That has a lot to do with the tools they use - THEY did not make so they cannot very much give us those tools unless they have at least some kind of partnership with the tool makers. EA has been working on future tools that will not just work for the Sims but many of their other Triple A games. Hence Origin and access/subscription service. Hence making their own Cloud service or partner with someone doing it. 5 G service world wide - which is coming but which right now require users to have the internet that can connect with that service - worldwide. What's more get a way to make it affordable and desirable. It's an ever evolving world worldwide. A lot more is involved than just making you an offline service. Also a service that has access to your game that can allow techs to fix broken games - HQ is just the beginning of getting us all in the tech circle to make that a reality. Allowing access to all your devices for all these services and your game. Why they absolutely need players connected - but the fact remains unless this service is worldwide and systems players have access with all their most used devices - it still would not work except for the machines having capabilities to use these services, mean at least getting the masses on the higher end systems (hence dropping 32 bit equipment in everything). Hence programs EA is building, and investing in and developing in with highly trained people hence EA having 1000 well trained people working from the ground up in these services, building a better tomorrow for gamers everywhere. It is not just for the Sims but all their main games and new games they add to their service. What's more these program are being developed and have been being developed for the road ahead in many cases for years now -
If you do not keep up with what is going on technology wise (well outside of just games) I can see why you cannot see the future and where things are heading.
But if you have been keeping up - you could allow your self to be amazed. Don't think about even 10 -15 years ago - even that is obsolete - otherwise you cannot even begin to imagine what's ahead - what's more what has been in development - serious development for 7-10 years now and is a reality - that goes beyond just us and our games - but EA and many other big companies like EA, Microsoft, etc, etc are working on and doing. You only have to think back to something as simple as your phones - what was phone like 10-15 years ago compared to what and where they are now. 15 years ago - most of us could not even think of every one being mesmerized by phones. But look around you.
Of course I keep up with what's going on. And because I do know what is really happening, that's why I say no to FaceBook, Google Play, Google Anything, Alexis or anything. There is more going on than a 'free' service. And my answer to all that is No thank you, I'm none of their business.
ETA: I didn't mean for this to sound so snarky, but rereading it, it comes off as snarky. Sorry about that. I hurt my hand this week so I was a bit grumpy (more than usual). Considering phones, I don't need a tracking service, and if you have noticed phones have made people so dependant on phones they can't leave the house without one. It has become their god, depending on it every second to keep them safe, watch out for them, protect them, and to keep all the info they don't want to retain in their heads on their phone. Sure, it has some advantages, but freedom isn't one of them. You know Albert Einstein said one time there was no need to retain information you could easily look up somewhere else (something like that) and the man couldn't tie his shoes. Brain, (common sense) if you don't use it, you lose it. Just my off topic personal opinions. But hope you didn't think I was being snarky.
Post edited by Cinebar on
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
Of course I keep up with what's going on. And because I do know what is really happening, that's why I say no to FaceBook, Google Play, Google Anything, Alexis or anything. There is more going on than a 'free' service. And my answer to all that is No thank you, I'm none of their business.
I'm with you on that opinion, Cinebar. Technology is an amazing thing, I'm not going to say it isn't cause that wouldn't be true. But the way "they" are basically trying to force this technology upon everyone does not strike me as a "kind gesture" or as something they're doing "for the better." Maybe for their better, lol (low effort for more money sound familiar?), but certainly not ours, the consumers. I'm not into letting any sort of big companies/corporations have access into all of my devices, all of my games. That doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I already feel like my phone literally reads my mind, I mean I'll think about something, could be anything, I won't say a single whisper about it, and the very next ad I see is exactly what I was thinking about... yeah I'm not into that.
I know I'm late to this particular point, but it annoys me when people justify the return to the flawed swatch system. Especially when it's something like "oh I don't like too much choice". Really? Just because you didn't use something doesn't mean it's no big deal when it gets left out. Then there's the claims that we can't have a colour wheel because it lags the game. No, a colour wheel is not the same as CASt. CASt had to load lots of patterns. Whenever you use the wheel to colour hair in TS3, there is no lag at all. There is no performance reason why we can't have a colour wheel.
The fact is, the current selection of swatches is lacking. There's no light brown/dark blonde colour for hair. There's three blondes, one of which is a bright yellow. And it's not like we have a complex genetics system to make up for it ala TS2. If the selection was better I might accept it more, but the range is very limited. Saints Row 2, a 10 year old game, had no colour wheel but many, many more colours available. If you want to recreate sims from previous games (and I do, because they are characters who matter to me) it's necessary to use CC. "Oh but if you're using CC, what's the issue?" The issue is, now we have to deal with swatches again, CC is split into meshes and recolours. And now, all the creators demand you can't include the mesh. And these creators are very prone to flouncing and deleting everything. Not to mention, if you want a consistent custom colour, you'd better hope there's a lot of people who've used that particular palette, or you'll be limited to using just one style. This is an issue that was resolved in TS3 (and in TS2, people were less bothered over including meshes).
We're at a point now where people are highly praising the developers for including ONE recolour in a patch, when this is a problem that never should have existed. TS4 CAS is good in a lot of ways but this seriously holds it back. Like everything else in TS4, it has a caveat. Anything good we get in this game is offset by losing something else.
I'm pretty sure you can add your own color swatches with Sims 4 Studio, I think it takes like 5 minutes maybe? Sim supply did it by making his own white shelf, if I remember correctly.
The fact that theres no single one official tool from EA to The Sims 4 is also questionable. The Sims 4 Studio was made by fans not EA/Maxis
I didn't realize it wasn't released by EA/Maxis, I've never actually messed around with it only heard about it from CC creators and Sims supply. I just kind of figured it was because they had tools like that in the past.
It does make one scratch their head as the whole thing about creativity has always been that Maxis would help players by offering tools built into the games, and or that came along with a base. This time it's like no, these are our marbles and you can't have any. lol They like to say how helpful the devs have been to help support modders, yes, they have been, but still I do wonder why they clutch close to chest any tools that would help average creators to also mess around and explore things as the others gave them in a base.
That has a lot to do with the tools they use - THEY did not make so they cannot very much give us those tools unless they have at least some kind of partnership with the tool makers. EA has been working on future tools that will not just work for the Sims but many of their other Triple A games. Hence Origin and access/subscription service. Hence making their own Cloud service or partner with someone doing it. 5 G service world wide - which is coming but which right now require users to have the internet that can connect with that service - worldwide. What's more get a way to make it affordable and desirable. It's an ever evolving world worldwide. A lot more is involved than just making you an offline service. Also a service that has access to your game that can allow techs to fix broken games - HQ is just the beginning of getting us all in the tech circle to make that a reality. Allowing access to all your devices for all these services and your game. Why they absolutely need players connected - but the fact remains unless this service is worldwide and systems players have access with all their most used devices - it still would not work except for the machines having capabilities to use these services, mean at least getting the masses on the higher end systems (hence dropping 32 bit equipment in everything). Hence programs EA is building, and investing in and developing in with highly trained people hence EA having 1000 well trained people working from the ground up in these services, building a better tomorrow for gamers everywhere. It is not just for the Sims but all their main games and new games they add to their service. What's more these program are being developed and have been being developed for the road ahead in many cases for years now -
If you do not keep up with what is going on technology wise (well outside of just games) I can see why you cannot see the future and where things are heading.
But if you have been keeping up - you could allow your self to be amazed. Don't think about even 10 -15 years ago - even that is obsolete - otherwise you cannot even begin to imagine what's ahead - what's more what has been in development - serious development for 7-10 years now and is a reality - that goes beyond just us and our games - but EA and many other big companies like EA, Microsoft, etc, etc are working on and doing. You only have to think back to something as simple as your phones - what was phone like 10-15 years ago compared to what and where they are now. 15 years ago - most of us could not even think of every one being mesmerized by phones. But look around you.
Of course I keep up with what's going on. And because I do know what is really happening, that's why I say no to FaceBook, Google Play, Google Anything, Alexis or anything. There is more going on than a 'free' service. And my answer to all that is No thank you, I'm none of their business.
ETA: I didn't mean for this to sound so snarky, but rereading it, it comes off as snarky. Sorry about that. I hurt my hand this week so I was a bit grumpy (more than usual). Considering phones, I don't need a tracking service, and if you have noticed phones have made people so dependant on phones they can't leave the house without one. It has become their god, depending on it every second to keep them safe, watch out for them, protect them, and to keep all the info they don't want to retain in their heads on their phone. Sure, it has some advantages, but freedom isn't one of them. You know Albert Einstein said one time there was no need to retain information you could easily look up somewhere else (something like that) and the man couldn't tie his shoes. Brain, (common sense) if you don't use it, you lose it. Just my off topic personal opinions. But hope you didn't think I was being snarky.
Amen to that I refuse to put anything on Facebook or any Social media site for that matter as I see FB is always in the news over hacked accounts and everything else. Social media is not being used as it should be used these days. Nothing is private on these sites even if they say it is.
Omen by HP Intel®️ Core™️ i9- 12900K W/ RGB Liquid Cooler 32GB Nvidia RTX 3080 10Gb ASUS Ultra-Wide 34" Curved Monitor. Omen By HP Intel® Core™ i7-12800HX 32 GB Nvidia 3070 Ti 8 GB 17.3 Screen
I know I'm late to this particular point, but it annoys me when people justify the return to the flawed swatch system. Especially when it's something like "oh I don't like too much choice". Really? Just because you didn't use something doesn't mean it's no big deal when it gets left out. Then there's the claims that we can't have a colour wheel because it lags the game. No, a colour wheel is not the same as CASt. CASt had to load lots of patterns. Whenever you use the wheel to colour hair in TS3, there is no lag at all. There is no performance reason why we can't have a colour wheel.
The fact is, the current selection of swatches is lacking. There's no light brown/dark blonde colour for hair. There's three blondes, one of which is a bright yellow. And it's not like we have a complex genetics system to make up for it ala TS2. If the selection was better I might accept it more, but the range is very limited. Saints Row 2, a 10 year old game, had no colour wheel but many, many more colours available. If you want to recreate sims from previous games (and I do, because they are characters who matter to me) it's necessary to use CC. "Oh but if you're using CC, what's the issue?" The issue is, now we have to deal with swatches again, CC is split into meshes and recolours. And now, all the creators demand you can't include the mesh. And these creators are very prone to flouncing and deleting everything. Not to mention, if you want a consistent custom colour, you'd better hope there's a lot of people who've used that particular palette, or you'll be limited to using just one style. This is an issue that was resolved in TS3 (and in TS2, people were less bothered over including meshes).
We're at a point now where people are highly praising the developers for including ONE recolour in a patch, when this is a problem that never should have existed. TS4 CAS is good in a lot of ways but this seriously holds it back. Like everything else in TS4, it has a caveat. Anything good we get in this game is offset by losing something else.
So true, I couldn't agree more. Your post really hits it on the head for me as to why I dislike 4 so much. The things they did give me that I liked almost always seem to come with drawbacks, buggy gameplay, or become broken and unfixed.
I know I'm late to this particular point, but it annoys me when people justify the return to the flawed swatch system. Especially when it's something like "oh I don't like too much choice". Really? Just because you didn't use something doesn't mean it's no big deal when it gets left out. Then there's the claims that we can't have a colour wheel because it lags the game. No, a colour wheel is not the same as CASt. CASt had to load lots of patterns. Whenever you use the wheel to colour hair in TS3, there is no lag at all. There is no performance reason why we can't have a colour wheel.
The fact is, the current selection of swatches is lacking. There's no light brown/dark blonde colour for hair. There's three blondes, one of which is a bright yellow. And it's not like we have a complex genetics system to make up for it ala TS2. If the selection was better I might accept it more, but the range is very limited. Saints Row 2, a 10 year old game, had no colour wheel but many, many more colours available. If you want to recreate sims from previous games (and I do, because they are characters who matter to me) it's necessary to use CC. "Oh but if you're using CC, what's the issue?" The issue is, now we have to deal with swatches again, CC is split into meshes and recolours. And now, all the creators demand you can't include the mesh. And these creators are very prone to flouncing and deleting everything. Not to mention, if you want a consistent custom colour, you'd better hope there's a lot of people who've used that particular palette, or you'll be limited to using just one style. This is an issue that was resolved in TS3 (and in TS2, people were less bothered over including meshes).
We're at a point now where people are highly praising the developers for including ONE recolour in a patch, when this is a problem that never should have existed. TS4 CAS is good in a lot of ways but this seriously holds it back. Like everything else in TS4, it has a caveat. Anything good we get in this game is offset by losing something else.
I agree with this post and I feel having less choices is not better than having more and Sims 4 has much less as with less your creativity is limited and the "You Rule" has less of an effect.
Omen by HP Intel®️ Core™️ i9- 12900K W/ RGB Liquid Cooler 32GB Nvidia RTX 3080 10Gb ASUS Ultra-Wide 34" Curved Monitor. Omen By HP Intel® Core™ i7-12800HX 32 GB Nvidia 3070 Ti 8 GB 17.3 Screen
I know I'm late to this particular point, but it annoys me when people justify the return to the flawed swatch system. Especially when it's something like "oh I don't like too much choice". Really? Just because you didn't use something doesn't mean it's no big deal when it gets left out. Then there's the claims that we can't have a colour wheel because it lags the game. No, a colour wheel is not the same as CASt. CASt had to load lots of patterns. Whenever you use the wheel to colour hair in TS3, there is no lag at all. There is no performance reason why we can't have a colour wheel.
The fact is, the current selection of swatches is lacking. There's no light brown/dark blonde colour for hair. There's three blondes, one of which is a bright yellow. And it's not like we have a complex genetics system to make up for it ala TS2. If the selection was better I might accept it more, but the range is very limited. Saints Row 2, a 10 year old game, had no colour wheel but many, many more colours available. If you want to recreate sims from previous games (and I do, because they are characters who matter to me) it's necessary to use CC. "Oh but if you're using CC, what's the issue?" The issue is, now we have to deal with swatches again, CC is split into meshes and recolours. And now, all the creators demand you can't include the mesh. And these creators are very prone to flouncing and deleting everything. Not to mention, if you want a consistent custom colour, you'd better hope there's a lot of people who've used that particular palette, or you'll be limited to using just one style. This is an issue that was resolved in TS3 (and in TS2, people were less bothered over including meshes).
We're at a point now where people are highly praising the developers for including ONE recolour in a patch, when this is a problem that never should have existed. TS4 CAS is good in a lot of ways but this seriously holds it back. Like everything else in TS4, it has a caveat. Anything good we get in this game is offset by losing something else.
I agree with everything you say. One side note: CASt doesn’t cause lag in your game either. There’s lag sometimes in CAS or building/buying mode, but not in live mode. There is the rendering that can take time in Sims 3 (and I believe that’s connected to the CASt system, because most surfaces have three layers instead of one), but it doesn’t matter if a surface has a preset colour/pattern or a custom made one.
I know I'm late to this particular point, but it annoys me when people justify the return to the flawed swatch system. Especially when it's something like "oh I don't like too much choice". Really? Just because you didn't use something doesn't mean it's no big deal when it gets left out. Then there's the claims that we can't have a colour wheel because it lags the game. No, a colour wheel is not the same as CASt. CASt had to load lots of patterns. Whenever you use the wheel to colour hair in TS3, there is no lag at all. There is no performance reason why we can't have a colour wheel.
The fact is, the current selection of swatches is lacking. There's no light brown/dark blonde colour for hair. There's three blondes, one of which is a bright yellow. And it's not like we have a complex genetics system to make up for it ala TS2. If the selection was better I might accept it more, but the range is very limited. Saints Row 2, a 10 year old game, had no colour wheel but many, many more colours available. If you want to recreate sims from previous games (and I do, because they are characters who matter to me) it's necessary to use CC. "Oh but if you're using CC, what's the issue?" The issue is, now we have to deal with swatches again, CC is split into meshes and recolours. And now, all the creators demand you can't include the mesh. And these creators are very prone to flouncing and deleting everything. Not to mention, if you want a consistent custom colour, you'd better hope there's a lot of people who've used that particular palette, or you'll be limited to using just one style. This is an issue that was resolved in TS3 (and in TS2, people were less bothered over including meshes).
We're at a point now where people are highly praising the developers for including ONE recolour in a patch, when this is a problem that never should have existed. TS4 CAS is good in a lot of ways but this seriously holds it back. Like everything else in TS4, it has a caveat. Anything good we get in this game is offset by losing something else.
I agree with everything you say. One side note: CASt doesn’t cause lag in your game either. There’s lag sometimes in CAS or building/buying mode, but not in live mode. There is the rendering that can take time in Sims 3 (and I believe that’s connected to the CASt system, because most surfaces have three layers instead of one), but it doesn’t matter if a surface has a preset colour/pattern or a custom made one.
Yes it does. I don’t know why you mentioned live mode because you can’t even access CASt in that mode. Where you can use it, it’s VERY laggy. I have an excellent machine and the game stutters when loading lots of patterns.
Rendering is a completely separate issue, and isn’t lag. That’s just how long it takes your machine to load an object and it’s textures. You do not enter into the editor and the game does not load any unused patterns. Live mode lag has other causes.
I love Sims 3, and I learned to live with it’s issues a long time ago. CASt does absolutely cause lag in the game, the note that it doesn’t cause it in live mode doesn’t make sense. All I’m trying to say.
I know I'm late to this particular point, but it annoys me when people justify the return to the flawed swatch system. Especially when it's something like "oh I don't like too much choice". Really? Just because you didn't use something doesn't mean it's no big deal when it gets left out. Then there's the claims that we can't have a colour wheel because it lags the game. No, a colour wheel is not the same as CASt. CASt had to load lots of patterns. Whenever you use the wheel to colour hair in TS3, there is no lag at all. There is no performance reason why we can't have a colour wheel.
The fact is, the current selection of swatches is lacking. There's no light brown/dark blonde colour for hair. There's three blondes, one of which is a bright yellow. And it's not like we have a complex genetics system to make up for it ala TS2. If the selection was better I might accept it more, but the range is very limited. Saints Row 2, a 10 year old game, had no colour wheel but many, many more colours available. If you want to recreate sims from previous games (and I do, because they are characters who matter to me) it's necessary to use CC. "Oh but if you're using CC, what's the issue?" The issue is, now we have to deal with swatches again, CC is split into meshes and recolours. And now, all the creators demand you can't include the mesh. And these creators are very prone to flouncing and deleting everything. Not to mention, if you want a consistent custom colour, you'd better hope there's a lot of people who've used that particular palette, or you'll be limited to using just one style. This is an issue that was resolved in TS3 (and in TS2, people were less bothered over including meshes).
We're at a point now where people are highly praising the developers for including ONE recolour in a patch, when this is a problem that never should have existed. TS4 CAS is good in a lot of ways but this seriously holds it back. Like everything else in TS4, it has a caveat. Anything good we get in this game is offset by losing something else.
I agree with everything you say. One side note: CASt doesn’t cause lag in your game either. There’s lag sometimes in CAS or building/buying mode, but not in live mode. There is the rendering that can take time in Sims 3 (and I believe that’s connected to the CASt system, because most surfaces have three layers instead of one), but it doesn’t matter if a surface has a preset colour/pattern or a custom made one.
Yes it does. I don’t know why you mentioned live mode because you can’t even access CASt in that mode. Where you can use it, it’s VERY laggy. I have an excellent machine and the game stutters when loading lots of patterns.
Rendering is a completely separate issue, and isn’t lag. That’s just how long it takes your machine to load an object and it’s textures. You do not enter into the editor and the game does not load any unused patterns. Live mode lag has other causes.
I love Sims 3, and I learned to live with it’s issues a long time ago. CASt does absolutely cause lag in the game, the note that it doesn’t cause it in live mode doesn’t make sense. All I’m trying to say.
Are you saying you have lag when in CASt? I haven't experienced that and I'm in there all the time, sometimes more than live mode. I often delete my patterns after I've finished my house or community lot knowing I probably won't use them again but I still keep quite a few and some favorites.
I really think any lag in TS3 for me is caused by the lack of a trash system that gets rid of all that unwanted tech stuff (over my head) that others say isn't necessary, and a trash system (clean up) would help TS3. I've seen other game developers who build games argue with past CMs to please address this with the developing team to try to implement one before TS3 ended. I also think my hard drive has a lot to do with how fast that game can write things and not bottle neck. Everything else is above par, my processors (for that game) are beyond what is required, my video card and my power supply and RAM. However, I must remember to get around to changing from a HDD to a SDD one day because yes my HDD is part of the problem for any slow down. I don't have a lot of 'lag' in CASt until I start saving my own recolors in there and I know the game when rendering that particular floor, dress, etc. has to load every pattern saved etc. even if not seen by my eye in live mode. Maxis really should stop saying any low end machine can actually play any of their games, it was never true.
I tried to go back to playing 3 years ago, but the game was unplayable due to the terrible amount of lag I was experiencing on my old machine. I haven't experienced any lag since I got a gaming machine back in November. The game does occasionally freeze up on me (usually if I'm playing ultraspeed when skilling up). So I always "save as" a lot to save my progress. I also edit town to remove all the public parking spaces to avoid a glut of unused cars in my game.
I would like to see CASt back in the game for 5, but I'm not holding my breath. As someone else has already said, not only did they not give us CASt for 4, but also gave us very few color choices for most things.
I tried to go back to playing 3 years ago, but the game was unplayable due to the terrible amount of lag I was experiencing on my old machine. I haven't experienced any lag since I got a gaming machine back in November. The game does occasionally freeze up on me (usually if I'm playing ultraspeed when skilling up). So I always "save as" a lot to save my progress. I also edit town to remove all the public parking spaces to avoid a glut of unused cars in my game.
I would like to see CASt back in the game for 5, but I'm not holding my breath. As someone else has already said, not only did they not give us CASt for 4, but also gave us very few color choices for most things.
Yes, and most those swatches in TS4 don't even match shades.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
@Cinebar Thanks for that link. I'm totally unfamiliar with what HDD and SDD is and that link explained it very well.
I don't even know what my desktop has, but I'm guessing probably HDD. It runs 3 really well though and is a huge improvement in game performance for me. Probably due to a lot more RAM (16) and a much better video card. My goodness, my video card is a beast in size compared to what they used to make back in the 90's lol.
I know I'm late to this particular point, but it annoys me when people justify the return to the flawed swatch system. Especially when it's something like "oh I don't like too much choice". Really? Just because you didn't use something doesn't mean it's no big deal when it gets left out. Then there's the claims that we can't have a colour wheel because it lags the game. No, a colour wheel is not the same as CASt. CASt had to load lots of patterns. Whenever you use the wheel to colour hair in TS3, there is no lag at all. There is no performance reason why we can't have a colour wheel.
The fact is, the current selection of swatches is lacking. There's no light brown/dark blonde colour for hair. There's three blondes, one of which is a bright yellow. And it's not like we have a complex genetics system to make up for it ala TS2. If the selection was better I might accept it more, but the range is very limited. Saints Row 2, a 10 year old game, had no colour wheel but many, many more colours available. If you want to recreate sims from previous games (and I do, because they are characters who matter to me) it's necessary to use CC. "Oh but if you're using CC, what's the issue?" The issue is, now we have to deal with swatches again, CC is split into meshes and recolours. And now, all the creators demand you can't include the mesh. And these creators are very prone to flouncing and deleting everything. Not to mention, if you want a consistent custom colour, you'd better hope there's a lot of people who've used that particular palette, or you'll be limited to using just one style. This is an issue that was resolved in TS3 (and in TS2, people were less bothered over including meshes).
We're at a point now where people are highly praising the developers for including ONE recolour in a patch, when this is a problem that never should have existed. TS4 CAS is good in a lot of ways but this seriously holds it back. Like everything else in TS4, it has a caveat. Anything good we get in this game is offset by losing something else.
I agree with everything you say. One side note: CASt doesn’t cause lag in your game either. There’s lag sometimes in CAS or building/buying mode, but not in live mode. There is the rendering that can take time in Sims 3 (and I believe that’s connected to the CASt system, because most surfaces have three layers instead of one), but it doesn’t matter if a surface has a preset colour/pattern or a custom made one.
Yes it does. I don’t know why you mentioned live mode because you can’t even access CASt in that mode. Where you can use it, it’s VERY laggy. I have an excellent machine and the game stutters when loading lots of patterns.
Rendering is a completely separate issue, and isn’t lag. That’s just how long it takes your machine to load an object and it’s textures. You do not enter into the editor and the game does not load any unused patterns. Live mode lag has other causes.
I love Sims 3, and I learned to live with it’s issues a long time ago. CASt does absolutely cause lag in the game, the note that it doesn’t cause it in live mode doesn’t make sense. All I’m trying to say.
Are you saying you have lag when in CASt? I haven't experienced that and I'm in there all the time, sometimes more than live mode. I often delete my patterns after I've finished my house or community lot knowing I probably won't use them again but I still keep quite a few and some favorites.
Only when the game is loading the patterns in the editor interface. Once a category has been completely loaded the game runs normal. On my desktop it can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 min depending on the category and how many patterns are included.
When I say lag I mean when performing non-CASt actions like rotating the camera or rotating a sim in CAS. While patterns are loading it stutters doing those things. CAS can be laggy in general in Sims 3 I thought assets took a long time to load thumbnails and the game lags when that’s happening too.
I know I'm late to this particular point, but it annoys me when people justify the return to the flawed swatch system. Especially when it's something like "oh I don't like too much choice". Really? Just because you didn't use something doesn't mean it's no big deal when it gets left out. Then there's the claims that we can't have a colour wheel because it lags the game. No, a colour wheel is not the same as CASt. CASt had to load lots of patterns. Whenever you use the wheel to colour hair in TS3, there is no lag at all. There is no performance reason why we can't have a colour wheel.
The fact is, the current selection of swatches is lacking. There's no light brown/dark blonde colour for hair. There's three blondes, one of which is a bright yellow. And it's not like we have a complex genetics system to make up for it ala TS2. If the selection was better I might accept it more, but the range is very limited. Saints Row 2, a 10 year old game, had no colour wheel but many, many more colours available. If you want to recreate sims from previous games (and I do, because they are characters who matter to me) it's necessary to use CC. "Oh but if you're using CC, what's the issue?" The issue is, now we have to deal with swatches again, CC is split into meshes and recolours. And now, all the creators demand you can't include the mesh. And these creators are very prone to flouncing and deleting everything. Not to mention, if you want a consistent custom colour, you'd better hope there's a lot of people who've used that particular palette, or you'll be limited to using just one style. This is an issue that was resolved in TS3 (and in TS2, people were less bothered over including meshes).
We're at a point now where people are highly praising the developers for including ONE recolour in a patch, when this is a problem that never should have existed. TS4 CAS is good in a lot of ways but this seriously holds it back. Like everything else in TS4, it has a caveat. Anything good we get in this game is offset by losing something else.
I agree with everything you say. One side note: CASt doesn’t cause lag in your game either. There’s lag sometimes in CAS or building/buying mode, but not in live mode. There is the rendering that can take time in Sims 3 (and I believe that’s connected to the CASt system, because most surfaces have three layers instead of one), but it doesn’t matter if a surface has a preset colour/pattern or a custom made one.
Yes it does. I don’t know why you mentioned live mode because you can’t even access CASt in that mode. Where you can use it, it’s VERY laggy. I have an excellent machine and the game stutters when loading lots of patterns.
Rendering is a completely separate issue, and isn’t lag. That’s just how long it takes your machine to load an object and it’s textures. You do not enter into the editor and the game does not load any unused patterns. Live mode lag has other causes.
I love Sims 3, and I learned to live with it’s issues a long time ago. CASt does absolutely cause lag in the game, the note that it doesn’t cause it in live mode doesn’t make sense. All I’m trying to say.
Are you saying you have lag when in CASt? I haven't experienced that and I'm in there all the time, sometimes more than live mode. I often delete my patterns after I've finished my house or community lot knowing I probably won't use them again but I still keep quite a few and some favorites.
Only when the game is loading the patterns in the editor interface. Once a category has been completely loaded the game runs normal. On my desktop it can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 min depending on the category and how many patterns are included.
When I say lag I mean when performing non-CASt actions like rotating the camera or rotating a sim in CAS. While patterns are loading it stutters doing those things. CAS can be laggy in general in Sims 3 I thought assets took a long time to load thumbnails and the game lags when that’s happening too.
I have a similar issue while in build/buy mode and using CASt where my game will lag or freeze but on3ce I got to live mode then back to build/buy it goes away. In live mode I don't experience any lag really. It's very rare. I also use Nraas overwatch in my game as well to clean up at 3am every night. I also use Mastercontroller and reset my town every 2-4 sim weeks just to make sure everything keeps running smoothly. I just find it sad that I have to use mods to keep a smooth game. I mean without mods my game is pretty smooth but over time it starts to lag. Then again the same can be said for the sims 4. A fresh unmodded game runs smoothly but once played for a when starts to act laggy.
"Bada su the gorn bada su the brawn bada bady oda aba donk donk donk gerbits gerbits vo gerbits".
Comments
Imo, the way Sims has produced starting with Sims 4 has changed and for me not in an good way, but an cheesy way.
35% more tries of The Sims 4 does not translate to 35% more fans. As I stated a few times before, The Sims 4 is on basic Origin access for 3.99£ a month with 180 other games. There's no reason not to try it or not play around in it if you have the access. Heck I even downloaded the infamous simcity on the access as simply, why not?
Interesting statistics would be how many people from the access actually bought the game and stuff for the game after trying it. But it's not a statistic that they will present.
It is a lot easier to say that your game is doing well by presenting the freemium statistics rather than actual sales.
MMOs in general is a declining genre mostly filled with the older generation. Hecewhy a lot went a lot more casual as time went on, as their main consumer base grew up, got kids and now lack time. So I don't think that that's a good idea if they choose this as a direction. Now local multiplayer is something Sims had before and could feasibly make work considering that the Prison Architect one works like a charm, but I would not choose that as a main selling feature.
I dislike MMOs even if it is good because once service is cut the game is gone unless they give the player the ability to LAN play.
I didn't realize it wasn't released by EA/Maxis, I've never actually messed around with it only heard about it from CC creators and Sims supply. I just kind of figured it was because they had tools like that in the past.
To be fair in the sims 3, when a sim went off to college, time stopped for the sims back at home as it did when traveling to France, China or Egypt in World Adventures. So if anything they could try to do it that way if making a university pack.
This game is going to get so complicated if it goes on for several years more that there'll have to be some way to play so that it doesn't get bogged down and lags again even though it might speed up a bit in the beginning on only 64bit machines.
StrangerVille has started going in that direction as the illness doesn't travel to other worlds though you can still use the objects that come with it.
It does make one scratch their head as the whole thing about creativity has always been that Maxis would help players by offering tools built into the games, and or that came along with a base. This time it's like no, these are our marbles and you can't have any. lol They like to say how helpful the devs have been to help support modders, yes, they have been, but still I do wonder why they clutch close to chest any tools that would help average creators to also mess around and explore things as the others gave them in a base.
Because those tools probably aren’t user friendly for the developers which means they aren’t in any releasable state for the public. This game was built differently than the other games, it’s not like they have amazing tools that are being kept from us they probably have fewer tools at their disposal than before.
The only proprietary software EA released for Sims 3 was the pattern maker and that wasn’t that advanced. CAW was leased software, and not even the full version the developers used.
For Sims 2 you had a few tools, but those were generally not for creating content. Body shop and homecrafter were packaging tools. You created what you wanted in external software like blender, milkshape, paint, photoshop, gimp, etc and just imported the imagine/model into the program to package it into a format recognized by the game.
Sims 4 was probably never intended to have CC in the first place since it was designed as an online game. Maxis went out of their way to provide an entire mod framework on day 1 which has served as a pretty excellent basis for CC creation and modding. In this case I think it’s more they did what they could, because releasing proprietary tools that don’t exist really isn’t an option.
That has a lot to do with the tools they use - THEY did not make so they cannot very much give us those tools unless they have at least some kind of partnership with the tool makers. EA has been working on future tools that will not just work for the Sims but many of their other Triple A games. Hence Origin and access/subscription service. Hence making their own Cloud service or partner with someone doing it. 5 G service world wide - which is coming but which right now require users to have the internet that can connect with that service - worldwide. What's more get a way to make it affordable and desirable. It's an ever evolving world worldwide. A lot more is involved than just making you an offline service. Also a service that has access to your game that can allow techs to fix broken games - HQ is just the beginning of getting us all in the tech circle to make that a reality. Allowing access to all your devices for all these services and your game. Why they absolutely need players connected - but the fact remains unless this service is worldwide and systems players have access with all their most used devices - it still would not work except for the machines having capabilities to use these services, mean at least getting the masses on the higher end systems (hence dropping 32 bit equipment in everything). Hence programs EA is building, and investing in and developing in with highly trained people hence EA having 1000 well trained people working from the ground up in these services, building a better tomorrow for gamers everywhere. It is not just for the Sims but all their main games and new games they add to their service. What's more these program are being developed and have been being developed for the road ahead in many cases for years now -
If you do not keep up with what is going on technology wise (well outside of just games) I can see why you cannot see the future and where things are heading.
But if you have been keeping up - you could allow your self to be amazed. Don't think about even 10 -15 years ago - even that is obsolete - otherwise you cannot even begin to imagine what's ahead - what's more what has been in development - serious development for 7-10 years now and is a reality - that goes beyond just us and our games - but EA and many other big companies like EA, Microsoft, etc, etc are working on and doing. You only have to think back to something as simple as your phones - what was phone like 10-15 years ago compared to what and where they are now. 15 years ago - most of us could not even think of every one being mesmerized by phones. But look around you.
"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.....
Of course I keep up with what's going on. And because I do know what is really happening, that's why I say no to FaceBook, Google Play, Google Anything, Alexis or anything. There is more going on than a 'free' service. And my answer to all that is No thank you, I'm none of their business.
ETA: I didn't mean for this to sound so snarky, but rereading it, it comes off as snarky. Sorry about that. I hurt my hand this week so I was a bit grumpy (more than usual). Considering phones, I don't need a tracking service, and if you have noticed phones have made people so dependant on phones they can't leave the house without one. It has become their god, depending on it every second to keep them safe, watch out for them, protect them, and to keep all the info they don't want to retain in their heads on their phone. Sure, it has some advantages, but freedom isn't one of them. You know Albert Einstein said one time there was no need to retain information you could easily look up somewhere else (something like that) and the man couldn't tie his shoes. Brain, (common sense) if you don't use it, you lose it. Just my off topic personal opinions. But hope you didn't think I was being snarky.
I'm with you on that opinion, Cinebar. Technology is an amazing thing, I'm not going to say it isn't cause that wouldn't be true. But the way "they" are basically trying to force this technology upon everyone does not strike me as a "kind gesture" or as something they're doing "for the better." Maybe for their better, lol (low effort for more money sound familiar?), but certainly not ours, the consumers. I'm not into letting any sort of big companies/corporations have access into all of my devices, all of my games. That doesn't sound like a good idea to me. I already feel like my phone literally reads my mind, I mean I'll think about something, could be anything, I won't say a single whisper about it, and the very next ad I see is exactly what I was thinking about... yeah I'm not into that.
The fact is, the current selection of swatches is lacking. There's no light brown/dark blonde colour for hair. There's three blondes, one of which is a bright yellow. And it's not like we have a complex genetics system to make up for it ala TS2. If the selection was better I might accept it more, but the range is very limited. Saints Row 2, a 10 year old game, had no colour wheel but many, many more colours available. If you want to recreate sims from previous games (and I do, because they are characters who matter to me) it's necessary to use CC. "Oh but if you're using CC, what's the issue?" The issue is, now we have to deal with swatches again, CC is split into meshes and recolours. And now, all the creators demand you can't include the mesh. And these creators are very prone to flouncing and deleting everything. Not to mention, if you want a consistent custom colour, you'd better hope there's a lot of people who've used that particular palette, or you'll be limited to using just one style. This is an issue that was resolved in TS3 (and in TS2, people were less bothered over including meshes).
We're at a point now where people are highly praising the developers for including ONE recolour in a patch, when this is a problem that never should have existed. TS4 CAS is good in a lot of ways but this seriously holds it back. Like everything else in TS4, it has a caveat. Anything good we get in this game is offset by losing something else.
Amen to that I refuse to put anything on Facebook or any Social media site for that matter as I see FB is always in the news over hacked accounts and everything else. Social media is not being used as it should be used these days. Nothing is private on these sites even if they say it is.
So true, I couldn't agree more. Your post really hits it on the head for me as to why I dislike 4 so much. The things they did give me that I liked almost always seem to come with drawbacks, buggy gameplay, or become broken and unfixed.
I agree with this post and I feel having less choices is not better than having more and Sims 4 has much less as with less your creativity is limited and the "You Rule" has less of an effect.
Yes it does. I don’t know why you mentioned live mode because you can’t even access CASt in that mode. Where you can use it, it’s VERY laggy. I have an excellent machine and the game stutters when loading lots of patterns.
Rendering is a completely separate issue, and isn’t lag. That’s just how long it takes your machine to load an object and it’s textures. You do not enter into the editor and the game does not load any unused patterns. Live mode lag has other causes.
I love Sims 3, and I learned to live with it’s issues a long time ago. CASt does absolutely cause lag in the game, the note that it doesn’t cause it in live mode doesn’t make sense. All I’m trying to say.
Are you saying you have lag when in CASt? I haven't experienced that and I'm in there all the time, sometimes more than live mode. I often delete my patterns after I've finished my house or community lot knowing I probably won't use them again but I still keep quite a few and some favorites.
https://windows101tricks.com/ssd-vs-hdd-which-is-better-for-you/
I would like to see CASt back in the game for 5, but I'm not holding my breath. As someone else has already said, not only did they not give us CASt for 4, but also gave us very few color choices for most things.
Yes, and most those swatches in TS4 don't even match shades.
I don't even know what my desktop has, but I'm guessing probably HDD. It runs 3 really well though and is a huge improvement in game performance for me. Probably due to a lot more RAM (16) and a much better video card. My goodness, my video card is a beast in size compared to what they used to make back in the 90's lol.
Only when the game is loading the patterns in the editor interface. Once a category has been completely loaded the game runs normal. On my desktop it can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 min depending on the category and how many patterns are included.
When I say lag I mean when performing non-CASt actions like rotating the camera or rotating a sim in CAS. While patterns are loading it stutters doing those things. CAS can be laggy in general in Sims 3 I thought assets took a long time to load thumbnails and the game lags when that’s happening too.
I have a similar issue while in build/buy mode and using CASt where my game will lag or freeze but on3ce I got to live mode then back to build/buy it goes away. In live mode I don't experience any lag really. It's very rare. I also use Nraas overwatch in my game as well to clean up at 3am every night. I also use Mastercontroller and reset my town every 2-4 sim weeks just to make sure everything keeps running smoothly. I just find it sad that I have to use mods to keep a smooth game. I mean without mods my game is pretty smooth but over time it starts to lag. Then again the same can be said for the sims 4. A fresh unmodded game runs smoothly but once played for a when starts to act laggy.