"I think the way the Sims 4 has done kids is really amazing and I played them far more than any other life stage. "
Same here, I adore TS4 kids.
I adore how natural family meals look in TS4, sims can do every social interaction sitting down that they can do standing up. If I want child sim to beg for toys while having a meal, I can. Kids can play on their tablets and talk to other sims and if I want an adult to scold them for it I can lol.
I really love that aspect too. I would say My favorite pack would be Parenthood. I really just enjoy family play in general so anything they add dealing with family place works great from my story telling in my game.
"Bada su the gorn bada su the brawn bada bady oda aba donk donk donk gerbits gerbits vo gerbits".
Nope, it's there since the base game. I was referring only to the base game. I had kids use the tablet in the base game then choose 'lecture' interaction. Sims couldn't even socialize at the dinner table in TS3 base game and even though I like the socializing at the table in TS2, the animations are always the same and you can't choose which interaction you want. Much prefer TS4 way.
As one who always says Sims 4 is my favorite by far, I decided that it has been quite a long time since I've played Sims 2. Maybe I am forgetting something that made it appealing so I decided to spend a few hours playing that one again today. It was... Okay. I like the game and there's some things about it I like but I just can't seem to get into that one. I have all of the packs for it but the user interface, the graphics, and the way Sims interact with each other make it really hard for me to enjoy in live mode and I get bored of it quickly. It's a nice game and definitely just a matter of taste for me but Sims 4 remains my favorite
Nope, it's there since the base game. I was referring only to the base game. I had kids use the tablet in the base game then choose 'lecture' interaction. Sims couldn't even socialize at the dinner table in TS3 base game and even though I like the socializing at the table in TS2, the animations are always the same and you can't choose which interaction you want. Much prefer TS4 way.
The lecture interaction you're referring to isn't as in-depth as what interactions you would use as discipline in Parenthood. It was there but it was a basic interaction. With parenthood it influences your child and teen sims to where they can gain character values from said lecture.
As far as the same animations if you look at the sims 4, in a whole, there are a lot of interactions that can be considered as recycled. But then again maybe that's just me. 🤷
"Bada su the gorn bada su the brawn bada bady oda aba donk donk donk gerbits gerbits vo gerbits".
a basic interaction. With parenthood it influences your child and teen sims to where they can gain character values from said lecture.
As far as the same animations if you look at the sims 4, in a whole, there are a lot of interactions that can be considered as recycled. But then again maybe that's just me. 🤷
The sims 4 has so many recycled animations. From memory:
Share photos is the same as share selvodoradan photos which is also the same as show off teen selfie.
Hug is the same as friendly hug or whatever it’s called.
Selvadorean greeting is the same autonomous kiss on the cheek sims perform
Teaching toddlers to say please and thank you and teaching them empathy or whatever it’s called is the same animation, different name.
And no doubt many more. Whims recycle all the time. Click away “buy bee box” and watch as it re appears instantly regardless of a sims traits but simply down to the season.
But to be honest recycling features is a big thing in the sims 4. Look at how many times the children’s art table has been recycled, look at how many systems have been re used, restaurants, the vet clinic, retail, assists get recycled, skill tress get recycled. Quite how they are going to stretch the game many years I’m not sure. There’s only so many times you can recycle features that don’t work properly and call it new.
@ApparentlyAwesome I already gave my reasons for loving Sims 4 the most, I have several but the graphics are the most important to me but I don't mind adding in my gameplay style. Mostly I played large families with lots of kids. I'm doing the 100 baby challenge, but my other families have many as well.. I'll play families that have six kids and then use a foster-care care mod to bring in more. I think the way the Sims 4 has done kids is really amazing and I played them far more than any other life stage. Well kids, babies and toddlers anyways.
I do have another save file that is a rotational play style, not all of my Sims in the rotational file have can't say as I've been trying to Branch out and try all the different careers, but most of them do LOL! And many have 5- 7 babies and toddlers haha. I always tell myself that I will stop with one or two kids but then I never do LOL!
Besides that though I really enjoy the stranger Ville and jungle Adventure probably most out of what's available. I don't play occult stuff and vampires is the only pack I don't own and have no intention of buying. I do have a couple of celebrities, but again they are raising kids lol! I don't enjoy building in this game, so I love the gallery feature where I can have other people build for me and download the perfect houses. I do enjoy changing the color of the items in the home LOL! And I like my sims houses to be pretty minimalistic and clutter-free.
I do often cheat my Sims needs although not in the challenges, because I prefer to focus on storylines and I feel like when their needs are constantly getting in the way it feels more like a time management game rather than and more imaginative creative game. I like to recreate stories that I have written with my Sims, and I find that the Sims 4 personalities are perfect for that because there's a lot of room for imagination as to how they are feeling and thinking. I also like that the cas is so beautiful and for the most part I can recreate the same as the way I imagined my characters in my stories. I was unable to do that Sims 2. Hope that helps answer some of your questions.
I see that even preferring different iterations we still have some similarities which is something I think we forget sometimes and also why I like knowing what others like or love about the game, whichever may be their preference. I play (unintentionally) large families too! I always start off with the best intentions (a smaller household) and just end up with a circus of crazy sims I can't let go of. All but 2 of the sims in my signature were supposed to be townies that became friends but I grew attached and played them rotationally. They were supposed to have some kids, no more than 3 or 4 with one exception of a couple having 5 kids due to their lifetime wishes but one couple became pregnant with another baby during one of my "quick play" saves and I grew attached and another ended up having twins and I grew attached, so when I finally get them settled in a world I've either built or edited then I'll play out their stories like I want.
What really ruined me was that I started liking the names I was coming up with for their kids and wanted to use them and when I started pre-planning their kids in CAS I grew attached to some of them and decided to keep them so now all but one household has more than 5 kids. And I had to force myself to stop and close the game when I got to them because I realized how out of control it got. It all happened so fast (fast being about 16 accumulative hours of me playing in CAS) and then I loaded up the game the next day and the same thing happened when creating the pets so it's over 12 beings in all but one of the households and I regret but don't regret not adding another kid to their household so I may just do it anyway and they'll have 11 total life states in the end. And of course I had already built their houses for them to move into once they got more settled and established so the houses had to be remodeled. I still have one house left, two if I decide to add to the other family.
One of the things I had hoped they'd change when they announced Sims 4 was that we players could decide what the limits of households are because it'd be one less thing to use a mod for but maybe in 5 should it come to be. I couldn't play with large households like I wanted to when 3 was the current Sims game because I needed mods but I knew I'd forget to uninstall when time to update so I waited. And I cheat sometimes too! Sometimes for needs but, and this is another option I wish they'd give us players so we wouldn't need a mod for it, sometimes I don't want to start with my sim at the bottom with practically nothing. Sometimes I want to start in the middle or when they're at the top. And being able to edit their skills, job level, amount of money, relationship levels, and even the number of days in their current age before moving them in would be great for that, especially if you're someone who makes townies or when creating a family with two people in the same life stage.
We have differences too, naturally. Like I love occult sims, I prefer sims from the previous games because their personalities and expressions to me are more realistic and modest, and I like building even though it's time consuming because I'm a perfectionist. But there's definitely common ground, something I think that can easily be forgotten about these days in the series. We're not going to agree on everything but like I said before, asking why and trying to gain a better understanding isn't us trying to attack or set up someone, it's just simmers trying to understand simmers and have a conversation.
Nope, it's there since the base game. I was referring only to the base game. I had kids use the tablet in the base game then choose 'lecture' interaction. Sims couldn't even socialize at the dinner table in TS3 base game and even though I like the socializing at the table in TS2, the animations are always the same and you can't choose which interaction you want. Much prefer TS4 way.
Pretty sure they can. Unless it came in an EP but I don't think so. They can even have 3 people conversations which you couldn't in TS2 unless it was from the phone.
a basic interaction. With parenthood it influences your child and teen sims to where they can gain character values from said lecture.
As far as the same animations if you look at the sims 4, in a whole, there are a lot of interactions that can be considered as recycled. But then again maybe that's just me. 🤷
The sims 4 has so many recycled animations. From memory:
Share photos is the same as share selvodoradan photos which is also the same as show off teen selfie.
Hug is the same as friendly hug or whatever it’s called.
Selvadorean greeting is the same autonomous kiss on the cheek sims perform
Teaching toddlers to say please and thank you and teaching them empathy or whatever it’s called is the same animation, different name.
And no doubt many more. Whims recycle all the time. Click away “buy bee box” and watch as it re appears instantly regardless of a sims traits but simply down to the season.
But to be honest recycling features is a big thing in the sims 4. Look at how many times the children’s art table has been recycled, look at how many systems have been re used, restaurants, the vet clinic, retail, assists get recycled, skill tress get recycled. Quite how they are going to stretch the game many years I’m not sure. There’s only so many times you can recycle features that don’t work properly and call it new.
This is one of the things that really bothers me in TS4. They recycle so many animations and call them different because the interactions have different names
Hey, I understand TS4 is quite entertaining and has it's moments. I had some fun with what I did purchase for TS4. I have been trying to ask the simple question why does this game get Eight years compared to the older games? I'm sorry, I'm not seeing that it's any more special than any of the others. They all have great things in them, they all have problems in some areas, and they all cost us a ton of money. But for some reason TS4 is supposed to be the be all, end all to get three more years (total of eight?) before they even think about ending it. I'm just not seeing it. TS1 players had many more wishes to fill, so did TS2, and TS3 but I can't quite see TS4 as so special and above them all that it even deserved the past five years. The problem to me is, it's not about how special it is or if it's any better than the others, but why the heck they are dragging this out for enternity, piecmealing content we knew was going to come anyway. If I look at it in that frame of mind, I can't really see much they added (new ideas) that is so new and special (in packs) that I would have wished for any of it. Such as groups (which is a fail often in some cases), and what else is really new? Not much but we waited years to get anything similar to the other games, while they worked on these so called new ideas. I'm sorry, but I don't see it's been worth it to just throw the other games under the bus (they often put down their own older games) to say how great TS4 has been when in reality it hasn't been all that special.
I think it comes down to money, and instead of focusing on the long term the goal with EA seems to be short term profit, even if they'd make more money by ensuring quality. If they were doing big, new and fresh things we've never seen before and focused on achieving better quality all around instead of using words like 'new' for things we've already had and telling us we have to sacrifice important feature A for important feature B while also telling us it's better than the previous games then I could see a couple of extra years. While I do understand more time for them to basically play catch up and I get this game is missing a lot of things for some players, even more than the previous ones, and all the things with Olympus and a new engine, my issue is that EA and Maxis should've known that 1. while we simmers may love sharing things about our gameplay with each other, we tend to be pretty selfish when it comes to playing the game and don't like others playing in our personal sandbox and 2. they should've delayed release and taken more time to put out a solid base game. For some of us problems stemming from the base game ruins parts of the game as a whole and depending on what it is ruined for someone nothing's going to change much enjoyment wise until it's fixed.
If they had delayed I think there'd be University, vacations and most of things some players are looking for by the 5 year mark. But I'm sure they thought along the lines of release now, fix later (if ever) and that they could get away with it all the while still making money. This article isn't related to Sims 4 but I feel like if you replaced Anthem with Sims 4 and BioWare with Maxis, this part in particular comes close to summing up the thought process to me.
EA's blunder here is that it didn't take an honest look at the state of Anthem back in February and give BioWare what it needed: more time to test and develop it.
Or, more likely, EA and BioWare leadership did take an honest look at Anthem, and decided it was best to release it anyway with the end of EA's fiscal year looming. It then let the developers at BioWare take the heat while they beat it into a better shape post-launch.
“Reading the reviews is like reading a laundry list of concerns that developers brought up with senior leadership,” a source who worked on Anthem told Kotaku. The problems were known. What else but more time could have addressed them?
They're still trying to get Sims 4 in shape but they're still milking it too. Beyond them trying to make things right and shape up the game, I don't see any special reason either. Especially if in the end they're just going to do what they did before and leave this game in the dust, fixing nothing else and while telling us the next one will be great.
One of the things I've read a number of times is that Sims 4 is more detailed or the most detailed and maybe it's just me, but I feel like all the games had their own details too depending on what one means by detailed. TS2 likely wins the gold though TS3 and TS4 have things going for them as well. It's just for every game the good details are sacrificed for other details and depending on the type of player you are the sacrifice may not even be worth it. I like the idea of having a detailed Sims game period. When improvements in one area have been made why in the next game are those improvements seemingly sacrificed for other improvements, sometimes never to be seen again, instead of having a well rounded game? If they were aiming to improve the life simulator with even more detail and work on expanding the sandbox I think an expanded timeframe could be a good thing but not with The Sims 4 or any of the previous games for that matter since those ships have sailed. Some details would have to be baked into a new game from the start.
Nope, it's there since the base game. I was referring only to the base game. I had kids use the tablet in the base game then choose 'lecture' interaction. Sims couldn't even socialize at the dinner table in TS3 base game and even though I like the socializing at the table in TS2, the animations are always the same and you can't choose which interaction you want. Much prefer TS4 way.
Pretty sure they can. Unless it came in an EP but I don't think so. They can even have 3 people conversations which you couldn't in TS2 unless it was from the phone.
They can. In Sims 2 you can change the conversation topic too. Hell you can even do that in the Sims 1.
Sims 3 Sims eat quickly I will say that but in sims 4 it can take a single sim an hour to eat cereal or have a shower and I think that's a tad excessive.
@Sigzy05 I played TS3 on the day it came out and remember that the sims could not talk at the dinner table, I posted on the forum back then, it was later patched in so that they could and it still looks unnatural to me compared to TS4.
@Noree_Doree What I meant is that you can't choose the interaction you want your sims in TS2 to talk about, you can choose the topic but it'll have the same animations.
@Sigzy05 I played TS3 on the day it came out and remember that the sims could not talk at the dinner table, I posted on the forum back then, it was later patched in so that they could and it still looks unnatural to me compared to TS4.
@Noree_DoreeWhat I meant is that you can't choose the interaction you want your sims in TS2 to talk about, you can choose the topic but it'll have the same animations.
Honestly that's not a big deal to me, as long as sims eat and don't take a full hour doing so.
@Noree_Doree What I meant is that you can't choose the interaction you want your sims in TS2 to talk about, you can choose the topic but it'll have the same animations.
Wait, how does that differ in 4? All conversational animations are kind of identical too.
@Noree_Doree What I meant is that you can't choose the interaction you want your sims in TS2 to talk about, you can choose the topic but it'll have the same animations.
Wait, how does that differ in 4? All conversational animations are kind of identical too.
Exactly. They recycle animations all the time in the Sims 4.
Yes, use the tablet and that sims can do every interaction standing up when they are sitting down. They can blow a kiss sitting down too.
Aaaw, feed a bite interaction, I want that in TS4.
@Sigzy05 I played TS3 on the day it came out and remember that the sims could not talk at the dinner table, I posted on the forum back then, it was later patched in so that they could and it still looks unnatural to me compared to TS4.
@Noree_Doree What I meant is that you can't choose the interaction you want your sims in TS2 to talk about, you can choose the topic but it'll have the same animations.
Of course you can choose the conversation topic at the table in TS2. (and TS3) Or while they are on the phone, or while they are standing talking to each other. Recycled animations aren't new. They've been doing this for twenty years. TS4 is no different. Have a Sim tell a joke, it's the same animations over and over in all the games. The problem to me is TS4 also uses the same animation of one type of topic for another. It's not quite like TS2 or TS3 where a joke animation is used but when discussing something else a different type of animation is used, like that silly mixing bowl animation while they are saying something, we see in both TS2 and TS3. However, TS4 animations may use the animation for topic A for topic B. Where as TS2 and 3 have an A and a B animation for topic A and topic B. I don't think many pay too much attention to these details because they are in a hurry to fill a skill or aspirations or whatever, or to get to the meat of whatever it is they want their Sim to do with the other Sim. But I pay attention and it's why I know TS4 recycles many animations for almost everything and possibly one animation for ten other type interactions.
ETA: Lack of animations in TS4...look at the Sim pc, the same animation for trolling the forums is used for writing a project for work. It's annoying to see the reuse of animations for such a distinction. But then look at the overplayed cooking animations, why does cooking get all the animation money? And so little spent on what's really important to detailed players. My fear is today's player wants to do away with the time it takes for a Sim to run through an animation when they can just cut to the chase and fill a skill or chore or tasks or aspiration. That's not what type of Simmer I am. I expect and demand animations or there is no point in a life simulator game.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
I prefer TS4 socialization, it looks more natural, like I've said, and it never feels the same to me. Toddlers can socialize at the table, too, they can't in the previous games.
@Sigzy05 I played TS3 on the day it came out and remember that the sims could not talk at the dinner table, I posted on the forum back then, it was later patched in so that they could and it still looks unnatural to me compared to TS4.
@Noree_Doree What I meant is that you can't choose the interaction you want your sims in TS2 to talk about, you can choose the topic but it'll have the same animations.
Of course you can choose the conversation topic at the table in TS2. (and TS3) Or while they are on the phone, or while they are standing talking to each other. Recycled animations aren't new. They've been doing this for twenty years. TS4 is no different. Have a Sim tell a joke, it's the same animations over and over in all the games. The problem to me is TS4 also uses the same animation of one type of topic for another. It's not quite like TS2 or TS3 where a joke animation is used but when discussing something else a different type of animation is used, like that silly mixing bowl animation while they are saying something, we see in both TS2 and TS3. However, TS4 animations may use the animation for topic A for topic B. Where as TS2 and 3 have an A and a B animation for topic A and topic B. I don't think many pay too much attention to these details because they are in a hurry to fill a skill or aspirations or whatever, or to get to the meat of whatever it is they want their Sim to do with the other Sim. But I pay attention and it's why I know TS4 recycles many animations for almost everything and possibly one animation for ten other type interactions.
ETA: Lack of animations in TS4...look at the Sim pc, the same animation for trolling the forums is used for writing a project for work. It's annoying to see the reuse of animations for such a distinction. But then look at the overplayed cooking animations, why does cooking get all the animation money? And so little spent on what's really important to detailed players. My fear is today's player wants to do away with the time it takes for a Sim to run through an animation when they can just cut to the chase and fill a skill or chore or tasks or aspiration. That's not what type of Simmer I am. I expect and demand animations or there is no point in a life simulator game.
I am the same, I like to get there my own way. Part of the charm of the past iterations was to do the hard work and feel like you and your Sim have achieved something at the end. How many times did I work really hard to get a Sim married? Especially in Sims 1. Or get them a promotion. More money. Never used cheats much. I liked that feeling of accomplishment. Start with a small house, or worse, a vacant lot so I would have money to build four walls and maybe get a couple appliances and a bed, so my Sim could eat and sleep and slowly build it up over time. I ruled back then and I was able to play my way.
Now it's all instant gratification. Like planting my garden, which I admit I do with bedding plants for instant colour and not seeds. It seems to be like that now, some want the result, not the getting there.
I recently bought my nephew a better ipad so he could play a game he loved on it. The thing cost as much as a laptop. When I asked him how he was doing with the game he told me he'd stopped playing because it was too hard. He kept losing. He didn't have the patience.
Over time, for me, the Sims has been dumbed down and simplified. They're telling us how to play, you can't do this or have that. (I'm surprised there aren't levels, asking you to buy coins). For someone like me, who likes to edit the town, move things around, build community lots, there's nothing for me now. It's been a rather long, drawn-out, painstaking almost 5 years with no end in sight. I think that's the problem for me. No end in sight for Sims 4. No hope of something I might like. If it was a wonderful game with all the best of Sims 1,2 and 3 maybe I could see it. I see nothing ahead.
@Sigzy05 I played TS3 on the day it came out and remember that the sims could not talk at the dinner table, I posted on the forum back then, it was later patched in so that they could and it still looks unnatural to me compared to TS4.
@Noree_Doree What I meant is that you can't choose the interaction you want your sims in TS2 to talk about, you can choose the topic but it'll have the same animations.
Of course you can choose the conversation topic at the table in TS2. (and TS3) Or while they are on the phone, or while they are standing talking to each other. Recycled animations aren't new. They've been doing this for twenty years. TS4 is no different. Have a Sim tell a joke, it's the same animations over and over in all the games. The problem to me is TS4 also uses the same animation of one type of topic for another. It's not quite like TS2 or TS3 where a joke animation is used but when discussing something else a different type of animation is used, like that silly mixing bowl animation while they are saying something, we see in both TS2 and TS3. However, TS4 animations may use the animation for topic A for topic B. Where as TS2 and 3 have an A and a B animation for topic A and topic B. I don't think many pay too much attention to these details because they are in a hurry to fill a skill or aspirations or whatever, or to get to the meat of whatever it is they want their Sim to do with the other Sim. But I pay attention and it's why I know TS4 recycles many animations for almost everything and possibly one animation for ten other type interactions.
ETA: Lack of animations in TS4...look at the Sim pc, the same animation for trolling the forums is used for writing a project for work. It's annoying to see the reuse of animations for such a distinction. But then look at the overplayed cooking animations, why does cooking get all the animation money? And so little spent on what's really important to detailed players. My fear is today's player wants to do away with the time it takes for a Sim to run through an animation when they can just cut to the chase and fill a skill or chore or tasks or aspiration. That's not what type of Simmer I am. I expect and demand animations or there is no point in a life simulator game.
I am the same, I like to get there my own way. Part of the charm of the past iterations was to do the hard work and feel like you and your Sim have achieved something at the end. How many times did I work really hard to get a Sim married? Especially in Sims 1. Or get them a promotion. More money. Never used cheats much. I liked that feeling of accomplishment. Start with a small house, or worse, a vacant lot so I would have money to build four walls and maybe get a couple appliances and a bed, so my Sim could eat and sleep and slowly build it up over time. I ruled back then and I was able to play my way.
Now it's all instant gratification. Like planting my garden, which I admit I do with bedding plants for instant colour and not seeds. It seems to be like that now, some want the result, not the getting there.
I recently bought my nephew a better ipad so he could play a game he loved on it. The thing cost as much as a laptop. When I asked him how he was doing with the game he told me he'd stopped playing because it was too hard. He kept losing. He didn't have the patience.
Over time, for me, the Sims has been dumbed down and simplified. They're telling us how to play, you can't do this or have that. (I'm surprised there aren't levels, asking you to buy coins). For someone like me, who likes to edit the town, move things around, build community lots, there's nothing for me now. It's been a rather long, drawn-out, painstaking almost 5 years with no end in sight. I think that's the problem for me. No end in sight for Sims 4. No hope of something I might like. If it was a wonderful game with all the best of Sims 1,2 and 3 maybe I could see it. I see nothing ahead.
Yes, it's pretty sad when half the community is turning cartwheels over one white shelf...the future. Or when there are so many excuses like it's o.k. if a tropical vacation pack doesn't include swimming in an ocean, or hotels, or anything you would expect and everyone says oh wow! this is great! it doesn't matter if it won't have those things, maybe we get those things later in another pack. Money+money+money+money. Not seeing how milked they are.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
Comments
I really love that aspect too. I would say My favorite pack would be Parenthood. I really just enjoy family play in general so anything they add dealing with family place works great from my story telling in my game.
Nope, it's there since the base game. I was referring only to the base game. I had kids use the tablet in the base game then choose 'lecture' interaction. Sims couldn't even socialize at the dinner table in TS3 base game and even though I like the socializing at the table in TS2, the animations are always the same and you can't choose which interaction you want. Much prefer TS4 way.
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The lecture interaction you're referring to isn't as in-depth as what interactions you would use as discipline in Parenthood. It was there but it was a basic interaction. With parenthood it influences your child and teen sims to where they can gain character values from said lecture.
As far as the same animations if you look at the sims 4, in a whole, there are a lot of interactions that can be considered as recycled. But then again maybe that's just me. 🤷
I see that even preferring different iterations we still have some similarities which is something I think we forget sometimes and also why I like knowing what others like or love about the game, whichever may be their preference. I play (unintentionally) large families too! I always start off with the best intentions (a smaller household) and just end up with a circus of crazy sims I can't let go of. All but 2 of the sims in my signature were supposed to be townies that became friends but I grew attached and played them rotationally. They were supposed to have some kids, no more than 3 or 4 with one exception of a couple having 5 kids due to their lifetime wishes but one couple became pregnant with another baby during one of my "quick play" saves and I grew attached and another ended up having twins and I grew attached, so when I finally get them settled in a world I've either built or edited then I'll play out their stories like I want.
What really ruined me was that I started liking the names I was coming up with for their kids and wanted to use them and when I started pre-planning their kids in CAS I grew attached to some of them and decided to keep them so now all but one household has more than 5 kids. And I had to force myself to stop and close the game when I got to them because I realized how out of control it got. It all happened so fast (fast being about 16 accumulative hours of me playing in CAS)
One of the things I had hoped they'd change when they announced Sims 4 was that we players could decide what the limits of households are because it'd be one less thing to use a mod for but maybe in 5 should it come to be. I couldn't play with large households like I wanted to when 3 was the current Sims game because I needed mods but I knew I'd forget to uninstall when time to update so I waited. And I cheat sometimes too! Sometimes for needs but, and this is another option I wish they'd give us players so we wouldn't need a mod for it, sometimes I don't want to start with my sim at the bottom with practically nothing. Sometimes I want to start in the middle or when they're at the top. And being able to edit their skills, job level, amount of money, relationship levels, and even the number of days in their current age before moving them in would be great for that, especially if you're someone who makes townies or when creating a family with two people in the same life stage.
We have differences too, naturally. Like I love occult sims, I prefer sims from the previous games because their personalities and expressions to me are more realistic and modest, and I like building even though it's time consuming because I'm a perfectionist. But there's definitely common ground, something I think that can easily be forgotten about these days in the series. We're not going to agree on everything but like I said before, asking why and trying to gain a better understanding isn't us trying to attack or set up someone, it's just simmers trying to understand simmers and have a conversation.
Pretty sure they can. Unless it came in an EP but I don't think so. They can even have 3 people conversations which you couldn't in TS2 unless it was from the phone.
This is one of the things that really bothers me in TS4. They recycle so many animations and call them different because the interactions have different names
I think it comes down to money, and instead of focusing on the long term the goal with EA seems to be short term profit, even if they'd make more money by ensuring quality. If they were doing big, new and fresh things we've never seen before and focused on achieving better quality all around instead of using words like 'new' for things we've already had and telling us we have to sacrifice important feature A for important feature B while also telling us it's better than the previous games then I could see a couple of extra years. While I do understand more time for them to basically play catch up and I get this game is missing a lot of things for some players, even more than the previous ones, and all the things with Olympus and a new engine, my issue is that EA and Maxis should've known that 1. while we simmers may love sharing things about our gameplay with each other, we tend to be pretty selfish when it comes to playing the game and don't like others playing in our personal sandbox and 2. they should've delayed release and taken more time to put out a solid base game. For some of us problems stemming from the base game ruins parts of the game as a whole and depending on what it is ruined for someone nothing's going to change much enjoyment wise until it's fixed.
If they had delayed I think there'd be University, vacations and most of things some players are looking for by the 5 year mark. But I'm sure they thought along the lines of release now, fix later (if ever) and that they could get away with it all the while still making money. This article isn't related to Sims 4 but I feel like if you replaced Anthem with Sims 4 and BioWare with Maxis, this part in particular comes close to summing up the thought process to me.
They're still trying to get Sims 4 in shape but they're still milking it too. Beyond them trying to make things right and shape up the game, I don't see any special reason either. Especially if in the end they're just going to do what they did before and leave this game in the dust, fixing nothing else and while telling us the next one will be great.
One of the things I've read a number of times is that Sims 4 is more detailed or the most detailed and maybe it's just me, but I feel like all the games had their own details too depending on what one means by detailed. TS2 likely wins the gold though TS3 and TS4 have things going for them as well. It's just for every game the good details are sacrificed for other details and depending on the type of player you are the sacrifice may not even be worth it. I like the idea of having a detailed Sims game period. When improvements in one area have been made why in the next game are those improvements seemingly sacrificed for other improvements, sometimes never to be seen again, instead of having a well rounded game? If they were aiming to improve the life simulator with even more detail and work on expanding the sandbox I think an expanded timeframe could be a good thing but not with The Sims 4 or any of the previous games for that matter since those ships have sailed. Some details would have to be baked into a new game from the start.
They can. In Sims 2 you can change the conversation topic too. Hell you can even do that in the Sims 1.
Sims 3 Sims eat quickly I will say that but in sims 4 it can take a single sim an hour to eat cereal or have a shower and I think that's a tad excessive.
@Noree_Doree What I meant is that you can't choose the interaction you want your sims in TS2 to talk about, you can choose the topic but it'll have the same animations.
https://twitter.com/MarianaF53
Honestly that's not a big deal to me, as long as sims eat and don't take a full hour doing so.
Wait, how does that differ in 4? All conversational animations are kind of identical too.
Exactly. They recycle animations all the time in the Sims 4.
https://twitter.com/MarianaF53
Do you mean being able to use the tablet at the table? Because otherwise you can achieve about the same level of engagement and interaction in 2:
Heck, if you have Nightlife, you will also have pretty cute couples interactions:
Aaaw, feed a bite interaction, I want that in TS4.
https://twitter.com/MarianaF53
TS2 is still the best 🐸🐸🐸🐸 after all these years so much detail.
https://twitter.com/MarianaF53
Of course you can choose the conversation topic at the table in TS2. (and TS3) Or while they are on the phone, or while they are standing talking to each other. Recycled animations aren't new. They've been doing this for twenty years. TS4 is no different. Have a Sim tell a joke, it's the same animations over and over in all the games. The problem to me is TS4 also uses the same animation of one type of topic for another. It's not quite like TS2 or TS3 where a joke animation is used but when discussing something else a different type of animation is used, like that silly mixing bowl animation while they are saying something, we see in both TS2 and TS3. However, TS4 animations may use the animation for topic A for topic B. Where as TS2 and 3 have an A and a B animation for topic A and topic B. I don't think many pay too much attention to these details because they are in a hurry to fill a skill or aspirations or whatever, or to get to the meat of whatever it is they want their Sim to do with the other Sim. But I pay attention and it's why I know TS4 recycles many animations for almost everything and possibly one animation for ten other type interactions.
ETA: Lack of animations in TS4...look at the Sim pc, the same animation for trolling the forums is used for writing a project for work. It's annoying to see the reuse of animations for such a distinction. But then look at the overplayed cooking animations, why does cooking get all the animation money? And so little spent on what's really important to detailed players. My fear is today's player wants to do away with the time it takes for a Sim to run through an animation when they can just cut to the chase and fill a skill or chore or tasks or aspiration. That's not what type of Simmer I am. I expect and demand animations or there is no point in a life simulator game.
https://twitter.com/MarianaF53
https://twitter.com/MarianaF53
I am the same, I like to get there my own way. Part of the charm of the past iterations was to do the hard work and feel like you and your Sim have achieved something at the end. How many times did I work really hard to get a Sim married? Especially in Sims 1. Or get them a promotion. More money. Never used cheats much. I liked that feeling of accomplishment. Start with a small house, or worse, a vacant lot so I would have money to build four walls and maybe get a couple appliances and a bed, so my Sim could eat and sleep and slowly build it up over time. I ruled back then and I was able to play my way.
Now it's all instant gratification. Like planting my garden, which I admit I do with bedding plants for instant colour and not seeds. It seems to be like that now, some want the result, not the getting there.
I recently bought my nephew a better ipad so he could play a game he loved on it. The thing cost as much as a laptop. When I asked him how he was doing with the game he told me he'd stopped playing because it was too hard. He kept losing. He didn't have the patience.
Over time, for me, the Sims has been dumbed down and simplified. They're telling us how to play, you can't do this or have that. (I'm surprised there aren't levels, asking you to buy coins). For someone like me, who likes to edit the town, move things around, build community lots, there's nothing for me now. It's been a rather long, drawn-out, painstaking almost 5 years with no end in sight. I think that's the problem for me. No end in sight for Sims 4. No hope of something I might like. If it was a wonderful game with all the best of Sims 1,2 and 3 maybe I could see it. I see nothing ahead.
Yes, it's pretty sad when half the community is turning cartwheels over one white shelf...the future. Or when there are so many excuses like it's o.k. if a tropical vacation pack doesn't include swimming in an ocean, or hotels, or anything you would expect and everyone says oh wow! this is great! it doesn't matter if it won't have those things, maybe we get those things later in another pack. Money+money+money+money. Not seeing how milked they are.