They can learn from both 3 and 4 that they need to steer back in the direction of Sims 2.
Not in terms of worlds or graphics, I hope. I'm not going back to those old graphics.
Of course not graphics. That wouldn't make sense anyway. Graphics are actually the least of my concerns.
But as far as world, I don't actually care if there are loading screens or not. I don't care if it's open or not. I care about a game that's actually focused on gameplay and that gameplay's first priority needs to be on those Sims, because the rest is worth nothing if the Sims continue to be a shadow of what they used to be and devoid of personality.
The game seriously needs to get its soul back. It had a great formula and as soon as they started straying from that formula, things got messy. We haven't had a truly quality game since Sims 2. They keep trying to experiment and change things up and now we have a game that still barely has real gameplay, and which hardly even resembles the roots it came from. Sims 3 was tinkered around with so much, they left it a hot mess to either be abandoned by those who literally couldn't even play it, or modded by a member of the community with extensive workarounds. And this is after charging players a fortune by nickel and diming Sim points, forcing people to overspend to get stuff from an overpriced store that was shoved in our faces every time we entered the game.
Enough is enough. Bring the actual Sims back in a real AAA game with focus. It has been spread too thin by trying to be too many different things to too many different people, which just results in most of its features feeling incomplete and unsatisfying. Sorry to say it, but it's true. Maybe it's just time to have two games that go in different directions.
Finish off Sims 4 properly and fix all remaining bugs for those that can't or don't want to go any further.
Learning from all Sims games to make the Options wider so that players can take or leave whatever they feel doesn't suit them, from sex, zombies, werwolves, witches, horses to fairies for instance!
A Sims 3 Open World might be more viable in this iteration but those small cul de sacs and neighbourhoods should be available too. It's nice to see your house next door as in Sims 4. It's more like my UK suburbs.
Learn from Sims 4 that a lot of people want their own local type backgrounds. Was it Sims 1 that gave you the option of changing the background from desert, icy to green when making a new world? (can't remember)!
Bring terrain tools from Sims3 with added enhancements from 4 to make water and rivers deeper and deep diveable.
Make a good basic pack from the start. Both Sims 3 and 4 didn't go far enough.
and finally.
Set the specifications high from the start and be honest about it. Have we ever had this?
Make it a game worthwhile saving and buying a suitable PC, Mac or laptop for.
Hopefully that super machine I saw with a Terabyte SSD costing well over £2000 might be affordable by the time Sims 5 comes out, even with 2 Terabytes!
I'd love to see something new. Not just a remake of the best of the best. Gradual aging with accompanying height changes. A banking system that allow sims to have their own individual funds. Cooking that requires sims to have all the ingredients required for a recipe. Milk, eggs, sugar, cocoa for a chocolate cake. And shelf stable ingredients that have to purchased. An education system that allows your sim to teach in an open classroom and interact with students. Grass that grows and has to be cut. The ability to wear as many clothing layers as you want. Weather and pets in base game.
I agree with fixing TS4 as much as possible before moving on to TS5. They left TS3 a buggy, untuned mess. Yesterday, I loaded up my first ever save file that's 7 generations, and they live in the Landgraab manor with two horses. The lag was insane, and I already have NRaas, a 7th generation i7, and a GTX 1070. Not to mention that awful EP toggle patch that often turns my EPs off without me touching anything, and sometimes my EPs don't even show up as installed. And even when my EPs are turned on, the game still loads without them. Frustrating is an understatement.
I still like TS3, and TS4 has its fair share of bugs, but TS4 is still way less of a hassle to boot up and play
Don't manhandle the urchin. He's not for sale. FIND YOUR OWN! - Xenon the Antiquarian, Dragon Age II
Race Against the Clock: Can your elder sim turn back the clock before their time runs out?
native camera switch from third person to first person direct real keyboard/gamepad sims control (and switch to mouse control) interactive mini games,quick time events, for more fun OpenWorld realistic graphichs how in sims 2, these cartoon/comic style in sims 4 sucks better tasks,quests,collection system better interaction dialog system or/and search feature in interaction dialogs more gameplay possibilities vehicles helicopter,cars,boats,bus Ride a Horse,zombie,servo sims (removed) Farming feature and and and..... there is no nonstop from ideas. the sims team should not try to develop a online multiplayer feature because it is to complex! and would definitely fail.
> @crowbarx5 said: > I'd love to see something new > > native camera switch from third person to first person > direct real keyboard/gamepad sims control (and switch to mouse control) > interactive mini games,quick time events, for more fun > OpenWorld > realistic graphichs how in sims 2, these cartoon/comic style in sims 4 s.u.c.k > better tasks,quests,collection system > better interaction dialog system or/and search feature in interaction dialogs > more gameplay possibilities > vehicles helicopter,cars,boats,bus > Ride a Horse,zombie,servo sims (removed) > Farming feature > and and and..... there is no nonstop from ideas. > the sims team should not try to develop a online multiplayer feature because it is to complex! and would definitely fail. >
We should also be asking what the Sims team can be learning from Sims 1 and Sims 2. For one,I'd LOVE to have the multi-purpose community lots from S1 back-these S4 lots don't really belong in any Sims game. I'd also like land lines back...firemen and burglars need to make a comeback...we need Nancy the Newspaper Girl back...we need pets like birds,fish and reptiles...it would be nice if S5 could have all these things.
They can learn from both 3 and 4 that they need to steer back in the direction of Sims 2.
Not in terms of worlds or graphics, I hope. I'm not going back to those old graphics.
Of course not graphics. That wouldn't make sense anyway. Graphics are actually the least of my concerns.
But as far as world, I don't actually care if there are loading screens or not. I don't care if it's open or not. I care about a game that's actually focused on gameplay and that gameplay's first priority needs to be on those Sims, because the rest is worth nothing if the Sims continue to be a shadow of what they used to be and devoid of personality.
The game seriously needs to get its soul back. It had a great formula and as soon as they started straying from that formula, things got messy. We haven't had a truly quality game since Sims 2. They keep trying to experiment and change things up and now we have a game that still barely has real gameplay, and which hardly even resembles the roots it came from. Sims 3 was tinkered around with so much, they left it a hot mess to either be abandoned by those who literally couldn't even play it, or modded by a member of the community with extensive workarounds. And this is after charging players a fortune by nickel and diming Sim points, forcing people to overspend to get stuff from an overpriced store that was shoved in our faces every time we entered the game.
Enough is enough. Bring the actual Sims back in a real AAA game with focus. It has been spread too thin by trying to be too many different things to too many different people, which just results in most of its features feeling incomplete and unsatisfying. Sorry to say it, but it's true. Maybe it's just time to have two games that go in different directions.
Oh no, no, I don't mean the loading screens, although I'm so done with them too, I meant the worlds that look completely empty and devoid of life and buildings. I know people don't like the worlds having so much dead background space in the games but... at least it makes the world feel alive.
We should also be asking what the Sims team can be learning from Sims 1 and Sims 2. For one,I'd LOVE to have the multi-purpose community lots from S1 back-these S4 lots don't really belong in any Sims game. I'd also like land lines back...firemen and burglars need to make a comeback...we need Nancy the Newspaper Girl back...we need pets like birds,fish and reptiles...it would be nice if S5 could have all these things.
I understand why they switched to all cell phones, but I have been missing land lines. I've built a few houses from the 80's recently and even though it's a little thing, I miss putting that phone on the wall where it belongs.
And things like the newspaper girl and burglars, I wouldn't have thought I'd miss, but I do.
Single player will always be king. If you're going to make online multiplayer, it should be a side feature
Honestly they shouldn't even be spending any budget on that. I want the main game to be a good sims experience and not a Habbo knockoff. Don't want online touching the sims at all.
I want multiplayer so badly, but it should work more like Minecraft than like any MMO or co-op situation. People can just host their game and open it up for people to join - with the user responsible for setting permissions or not.
I'd love for my roommate and I to be able to play in the same save simultaneously together - either cooperating towards a shared goal or competing and setting each-other's sims on fire.
If they have to sacrfice a robust game for it, I'm against it (and what they had planned for Sim 4 looked... bad. And everything "multiplayer" they've done with facebook games and mobile games also hasn't been good), but in theory if done well I really would love it.
ETA: I think the problem with most approaches to Sims as a multiplayer game is they assume sims are player characters instead of assets/another tool in the sandbox. If you approach multiplayer with a mode of "the sims represent the player", you're already messing it up. The sims, like the walls, the decor, the pets, the weather, are an in-game tool. I, the god-king of the universe, am a first-person player from the heavens. If we go with that sandbox minecraft analogy, the sims are more analogous to the sheep or the blocks than they are to the player. Which means that, honestly, both "players" should be able to interact with the sims (and, if a sim is left uncontrolled, take control of them) by default. And it should only work differently if the players set up rules/protections before opening up their game to host.
This EA account is shared between two longtime roommates. The one most likely to be writing here is me, the taller of the roommates, whose opinions do not always represent the opinions of the shorter roommate.
ETA: I think the problem with most approaches to Sims as a multiplayer game is they assume sims are player characters instead of assets/another tool in the sandbox. If you approach multiplayer with a mode of "the sims represent the player", you're already messing it up.
But... that's the whole point. To play AS the Sim you are controlling. Turning them into sheep to be messed with or controlled by whomever is playing would be like stepping backwards into SimCity.
I would like to see babies line in the sims 2..... that aren’t just an object, I’m not sure, but I think we could change their clothes too. I also want to see cribs and changing tables and such too. I also want to be able to give babies a bath in the sink or a baby bath. I believe in sims 3 you could take either babies or toddlers off the lot in a stroller.
I want toddlers and babies to be able to sleep in a crib. Toddlers should also be able to sleep in s toddler bed
I like the multi tasking in the sims 4, ( like watching tv while eating) but I think the multi tasking takes too much time tasking.... please speed it up.... it doesn’t take longer to eat while watching tv in real life.
I want to see many plants like in the sims 4.
I want to see memories like in the sims 2
I want to see likes and dislikes back.
Also please bring back, the cuddling and spooning in bed, being able to relax and read in bed, and watching tv in bed, not just sitting on it.
I like the handyman table in sims 4 and the florist table, but I also liked the florist set up in the sims 2.
I liked that you could have a shop to sell things in your home in the sims 2.... I want that brought back.
I want to have to buy clothes like in the sims 2. That made going shopping fun. I also would like to be able to buy each piece, pants, tops, single outfits, jewelry, glasses, hats etc. and be able to get them out of a dresser, hat box, jewelry box etc. it just makes it more fun to put clothes together each time. I also want a grocery store for my sims. Not all garden and/or fish. I want a theatre too.
I want create a style back, like in the sims 3. I want to be able to mix and match colors and designs. For beds, sofa’s, toys, clothes, etc.
I want children to be able to play tag, cops and robbers and things like that without toys... bring back group volleyball too.
There should be a transportation system from the beginning of sims 5
Please bring back newspapers, and house phones, and make sims buy cell phones.as well.
I like to have collectibles like in the Sims 3 and 4. It would however be nice it we could make lots ourselves that have collectibles, so we could make our own dig sites.
I hated rabbit holes in the sims 3
I really like active careers in the sims 4. Every career should have an option for the sim to go actively to work at a work place.
I like sims 4 build mode, but I wish we could make our own ponds without cheating.
Oh, I also love the club idea in the sims 4.
I’m sure there is more that I want in each
Of the sims titles but this is all I can think of now.
-Optimization of the game and it's performance. TS3 had terrible optimization, ran 32-bit only meaning it could only use limited resources to load all the textures and models in its open world. TS4 has a much better optimization, but took a huge step backwards with the loading screens for EACH lot, not even each neighborhood fully loads.
-They can learn from TS1 and TS2 on how the sims used to have more personality, how players need to lose control to feel like they need to do something (burglars, depression from not having their wants taken care of, good and bad memories that make sims unique).
-Streamlined Aspirations: Instead of Outdoor person being the ultimate aspiration of a sim... which doesn't make sense at all, I think the TS2 Aspirations of Romance, Family, Wealth, Knowledge, Pleasure can include all the TS4 aspirations into ones that are more human and logical. For example: the outdoor aspiration of gathering or whatever could fit into the larger Knowledge aspiration.
-They can't keep capitalizing on basic things that should be in the base game, such as weather/pets and the essential lifestages. I hope they learn from that going into the future iteration. Are they willing to wait a year or two to release weather, when almost all AAA games come out with weather patterns in their open-world games?
Playing onIntel Core i7-5960X 16 core CPU - 32 GB DDR4 Ram - GTX 980 Ti
I hope they've learned that it is best to scrap and start over even if it means the game is delayed instead of building a game that was initially intended to be played online.
I also hope they've learned that earlier iterations were much better and improving on what was working is a good place to start.
Simming for 19 years! Family Tree Playing Mod & CC Free
Just as an example, in IL, the team is so busy adding flower petals, sparkles and shooting flames, they don't even bother with the more realistic details such as taking down the boat sails or tethering the boat. I'm not a sailor, but I don't think that I've ever seen one leave the boat with sails full up. Nor do they leave the boat untethered so that it can sail off without them.
The developers may not think that those kinds of details matter but, for players like me, they do. Just as opening cabinets matters, as does being able to take babies anywhere in the house, being able to cuddle in bed with an S.O., or actually touching objects in order to interact with them. TS4 Sims, in particular, all appear to be telekinetic. They're already witches!
Please don't obfuscate or straight up lie to your paying customers! Exhibit A: the cursed lounge chair. Why do the Sims in lounge chairs look like they're dead? Or, perhaps, they've been hit with a blow dart?
Allegedly, the developers needed five years to work on the lounge chair's multitasking. However, once the lounge chair finally arrived, it had no multitasking at all. To me, there are two options there. Either the team is incapable of the programming that is required or all of the excuses were a crock. As I know that the team has been capable of some incredible things in the past, I tend to believe the latter. Which is a shame, because your customers are not stupid. We remember.
The next thing is that Sims almost never have active interactions together. Sims only participate in activities that require them to sit, stand, or kneel in one place. Anything else, it's every Sim for themselves: dancing, skating, boating, 'aqua zips', you name it. Do all Sims have the Loner trait?
More than ever, Sims in TS4 seem isolated and detached. They can't even speak together unless they're standing so far away from each other. They even walk away from each other, mid-conversation, to find a seat. If TS3 Sims were mostly disinterested, TS4 Sims are like magnets that are actively repelling each other.
Speaking of which: the team could learn that TS3 and TS4 have moved too far away from genuine affection and intimacy between Sims. Where are the additional interactions such as cuddling in bed, making out while standing up, goosing, or even teens giving each other noogies? Why is there still no attraction system? Why do pairs of Sims feel exactly the same about each other? There's no unrequited love, no rebuffed friendship -- there are no nuanced relationships, period.
As well, since TS2, there has been a marked difference in romantic interactions. What's going on there? All games in the Sims series have been rated, Teen. So, what's the real deal with the sanitized intimacy between Sims? Is it too difficult to animate (read: expensive)? Do we need to buy a future romantic pack that will finally provide all of those basic things? I don't understand.
All in all, beginning with TS3, the series seems to have lost the plot. Don't get me wrong, I loved TS3 due to its open world and many, many activities. However, it was easy to see that, compared to TS2, the focus had shifted from the Sims themselves to the stuff -- lots and lots of stuff. In TS4, that obsession with stuff instead of substance has accelerated and expanded. The Sims -- how they interact with each other and with the objects in their world -- have become an afterthought.
If anyone from EA reads this, please know: what you can learn from TS3 and TS4 is that you're better than this. You've already proven that you're better than this. Please stop resting on your laurels and provide the games that your consumer base knows that you're capable of providing. We're waiting for your brilliance and attention to detail to show themselves again.
Finally, to anyone who has gotten this far: thanks for reading!
They(eaxis) should make the base game more fuller than the previous games, not cutting even more contents and then sell it later on as a dlc, other games rarely doing something like this, usually the next iterations are more fuller, longer and has even more content than the previous and they also sell NEW content as dlc later on, like Resident Evil series.
Rather than cut out some features completely, compromise and meet halfway. The best thing about Sims 3 was it's customization - we had fully open worlds and colors and pattern choices we could choose anything we wanted. Unfortunately due to the stress this put on the game's performance, it was also the worst thing.
So when Sims 4 came along, what happened? They gave us smaller worlds (even if all worlds are interconnected now...different than Sims3), no open world/neighborhoods at all, and no ability to choose any colors or patterns other than what EA decided for us.
Sims 5 should meet halfway. Slightly larger worlds than 4 but no where near as large as 3. Open neighborhoods, 5-10 lots apiece, not the 100+ you could have in Sims 3. At least give us a color palette we can choose some basic colors on our own - if we want a room to have everything blue, so be it rather than 9 out of 12 things having a blue tinge and the other 3 sticking out like a sore thumb.
Include the basics - things they think aren't basics were proven to be with Sims 3. While they added pools and basements on their own rather quickly, it took two years to get toddlers. Babies are still treated more like objects than Sims. make sure all those stages of life have actual character.
I'd like to say also add basic pets and weather to the base game, but those are probably the packs that have sold the best - as such what they've "learned" from Sims 3 and 4 is to NOT include them in the base game as we'll buy them anyways.
It's kind of sad that I have to point out that anything I say is only just my opinion and may be a different one from someone else.
ETA: I think the problem with most approaches to Sims as a multiplayer game is they assume sims are player characters instead of assets/another tool in the sandbox. If you approach multiplayer with a mode of "the sims represent the player", you're already messing it up.
But... that's the whole point. To play AS the Sim you are controlling. Turning them into sheep to be messed with or controlled by whomever is playing would be like stepping backwards into SimCity.
I mean this as a mechanical distinction, not a philosophical one. You make choices for them, but they are not a direct representation of the player or a character for the player to inhabit, because it isn't a first/third-person shooter or RPG or even traditional sandbox game. You can choose to play in a role-playing fashion or in a mad god-king one by choice, but mechanically the sims are kind of sheep to be messed with. That's why you can play as more than one of them at a time, jumping between them at will, abandoning them for an entirely different household, forcing them to do awesome or awful things at your discretion.
In Sims Mobile and other multiplayer iterations, it takes too much of a "this is Your Sim who is an Avatar For You" approach, which is always going to be a bit wonky because that's only one way to play the game, and leaving out the mechanics for the other ways to approach the game ultimately stifles the experience.
I want sims to remain a storytelling/life-sim experience. I don't want it to go all lemmings/sim-city. But what sets it apart from every other game that might call itself a life-sim (Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons/Animal Crossing/BitLife/Etc) is that there's no one "character" in the game who is meant to be the player. The player plays from an omniscient third-person perspective. Every multiplayer attempt I've seen eliminates that player perspective, or at least whittles it down. And it is mechanically removed enough, for me, to no longer feel like the experience I want from a Sims game.
If done right, Sims multiplayer could be amazing, but it would take incredible care to do right. I want it, because it could recreate the fun of Minecraft but in a completely different genre of sandbox, but I have no faith in EA to understand it or deliver it.
This EA account is shared between two longtime roommates. The one most likely to be writing here is me, the taller of the roommates, whose opinions do not always represent the opinions of the shorter roommate.
ETA: I think the problem with most approaches to Sims as a multiplayer game is they assume sims are player characters instead of assets/another tool in the sandbox. If you approach multiplayer with a mode of "the sims represent the player", you're already messing it up.
But... that's the whole point. To play AS the Sim you are controlling. Turning them into sheep to be messed with or controlled by whomever is playing would be like stepping backwards into SimCity.
I mean this as a mechanical distinction, not a philosophical one. You make choices for them, but they are not a direct representation of the player or a character for the player to inhabit, because it isn't a first/third-person shooter or RPG or even traditional sandbox game. You can choose to play in a role-playing fashion or in a mad god-king one by choice, but mechanically the sims are kind of sheep to be messed with. That's why you can play as more than one of them at a time, jumping between them at will, abandoning them for an entirely different household, forcing them to do awesome or awful things at your discretion.
In Sims Mobile and other multiplayer iterations, it takes too much of a "this is Your Sim who is an Avatar For You" approach, which is always going to be a bit wonky because that's only one way to play the game, and leaving out the mechanics for the other ways to approach the game ultimately stifles the experience.
I want sims to remain a storytelling/life-sim experience. I don't want it to go all lemmings/sim-city. But what sets it apart from every other game that might call itself a life-sim (Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons/Animal Crossing/BitLife/Etc) is that there's no one "character" in the game who is meant to be the player. The player plays from an omniscient third-person perspective. Every multiplayer attempt I've seen eliminates that player perspective, or at least whittles it down. And it is mechanically removed enough, for me, to no longer feel like the experience I want from a Sims game.
If done right, Sims multiplayer could be amazing, but it would take incredible care to do right. I want it, because it could recreate the fun of Minecraft but in a completely different genre of sandbox, but I have no faith in EA to understand it or deliver it.
Ok, I see where you are coming from. I personally don't want anything to do with multiplayer. I never even tried using any of the online features that came with Showtime except the gift giving. But, properly implemented, and with a toggle to have the option off or on, I can see how it could add to the game for those that want it.
ETA: I think the problem with most approaches to Sims as a multiplayer game is they assume sims are player characters instead of assets/another tool in the sandbox. If you approach multiplayer with a mode of "the sims represent the player", you're already messing it up.
But... that's the whole point. To play AS the Sim you are controlling. Turning them into sheep to be messed with or controlled by whomever is playing would be like stepping backwards into SimCity.
I mean this as a mechanical distinction, not a philosophical one. You make choices for them, but they are not a direct representation of the player or a character for the player to inhabit, because it isn't a first/third-person shooter or RPG or even traditional sandbox game. You can choose to play in a role-playing fashion or in a mad god-king one by choice, but mechanically the sims are kind of sheep to be messed with. That's why you can play as more than one of them at a time, jumping between them at will, abandoning them for an entirely different household, forcing them to do awesome or awful things at your discretion.
In Sims Mobile and other multiplayer iterations, it takes too much of a "this is Your Sim who is an Avatar For You" approach, which is always going to be a bit wonky because that's only one way to play the game, and leaving out the mechanics for the other ways to approach the game ultimately stifles the experience.
I want sims to remain a storytelling/life-sim experience. I don't want it to go all lemmings/sim-city. But what sets it apart from every other game that might call itself a life-sim (Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons/Animal Crossing/BitLife/Etc) is that there's no one "character" in the game who is meant to be the player. The player plays from an omniscient third-person perspective. Every multiplayer attempt I've seen eliminates that player perspective, or at least whittles it down. And it is mechanically removed enough, for me, to no longer feel like the experience I want from a Sims game.
If done right, Sims multiplayer could be amazing, but it would take incredible care to do right. I want it, because it could recreate the fun of Minecraft but in a completely different genre of sandbox, but I have no faith in EA to understand it or deliver it.
Ok, I see where you are coming from. I personally don't want anything to do with multiplayer. I never even tried using any of the online features that came with Showtime except the gift giving. But, properly implemented, and with a toggle to have the option off or on, I can see how it could add to the game for those that want it.
Oh for SURE. I would want the default experience to be single player. I would absolutely never want the game to be mandatory online play or even default multiplayer with an option to turn that off. Default should be single player all the way. It’d just be nice if hosting your game for your friends to hop in with you was an option.
This EA account is shared between two longtime roommates. The one most likely to be writing here is me, the taller of the roommates, whose opinions do not always represent the opinions of the shorter roommate.
Just as an example, in IL, the team is so busy adding flower petals, sparkles and shooting flames, they don't even bother with the more realistic details such as taking down the boat sails or tethering the boat. I'm not a sailor, but I don't think that I've ever seen one leave the boat with sails full up. Nor do they leave the boat untethered so that it can sail off without them.
The developers may not think that those kinds of details matter but, for players like me, they do. Just as opening cabinets matters, as does being able to take babies anywhere in the house, being able to cuddle in bed with an S.O., or actually touching objects in order to interact with them. TS4 Sims, in particular, all appear to be telekinetic. They're already witches!
Please don't obfuscate or straight up lie to your paying customers! Exhibit A: the cursed lounge chair. Why do the Sims in lounge chairs look like they're dead? Or, perhaps, they've been hit with a blow dart?
Allegedly, the developers needed five years to work on the lounge chair's multitasking. However, once the lounge chair finally arrived, it had no multitasking at all. To me, there are two options there. Either the team is incapable of the programming that is required or all of the excuses were a crock. As I know that the team has been capable of some incredible things in the past, I tend to believe the latter. Which is a shame, because your customers are not stupid. We remember.
The next thing is that Sims almost never have active interactions together. Sims only participate in activities that require them to sit, stand, or kneel in one place. Anything else, it's every Sim for themselves: dancing, skating, boating, 'aqua zips', you name it. Do all Sims have the Loner trait?
More than ever, Sims in TS4 seem isolated and detached. They can't even speak together unless they're standing so far away from each other. They even walk away from each other, mid-conversation, to find a seat. If TS3 Sims were mostly disinterested, TS4 Sims are like magnets that are actively repelling each other.
Speaking of which: the team could learn that TS3 and TS4 have moved too far away from genuine affection and intimacy between Sims. Where are the additional interactions such as cuddling in bed, making out while standing up, goosing, or even teens giving each other noogies? Why is there still no attraction system? Why do pairs of Sims feel exactly the same about each other? There's no unrequited love, no rebuffed friendship -- there are no nuanced relationships, period.
As well, since TS2, there has been a marked difference in romantic interactions. What's going on there? All games in the Sims series have been rated, Teen. So, what's the real deal with the sanitized intimacy between Sims? Is it too difficult to animate (read: expensive)? Do we need to buy a future romantic pack that will finally provide all of those basic things? I don't understand.
All in all, beginning with TS3, the series seems to have lost the plot. Don't get me wrong, I loved TS3 due to its open world and many, many activities. However, it was easy to see that, compared to TS2, the focus had shifted from the Sims themselves to the stuff -- lots and lots of stuff. In TS4, that obsession with stuff instead of substance has accelerated and expanded. The Sims -- how they interact with each other and with the objects in their world -- have become an afterthought.
If anyone from EA reads this, please know: what you can learn from TS3 and TS4 is that you're better than this. You've already proven that you're better than this. Please stop resting on your laurels and provide the games that your consumer base knows that you're capable of providing. We're waiting for your brilliance and attention to detail to show themselves again.
Finally, to anyone who has gotten this far: thanks for reading!
Did I write this? lol No, but you must have read my mind I won't add anything to what you said. You pretty much covered it.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
Comments
Of course not graphics. That wouldn't make sense anyway. Graphics are actually the least of my concerns.
But as far as world, I don't actually care if there are loading screens or not. I don't care if it's open or not. I care about a game that's actually focused on gameplay and that gameplay's first priority needs to be on those Sims, because the rest is worth nothing if the Sims continue to be a shadow of what they used to be and devoid of personality.
The game seriously needs to get its soul back. It had a great formula and as soon as they started straying from that formula, things got messy. We haven't had a truly quality game since Sims 2. They keep trying to experiment and change things up and now we have a game that still barely has real gameplay, and which hardly even resembles the roots it came from. Sims 3 was tinkered around with so much, they left it a hot mess to either be abandoned by those who literally couldn't even play it, or modded by a member of the community with extensive workarounds. And this is after charging players a fortune by nickel and diming Sim points, forcing people to overspend to get stuff from an overpriced store that was shoved in our faces every time we entered the game.
Enough is enough. Bring the actual Sims back in a real AAA game with focus. It has been spread too thin by trying to be too many different things to too many different people, which just results in most of its features feeling incomplete and unsatisfying. Sorry to say it, but it's true. Maybe it's just time to have two games that go in different directions.
Finish off Sims 4 properly and fix all remaining bugs for those that can't or don't want to go any further.
Learning from all Sims games to make the Options wider so that players can take or leave whatever they feel doesn't suit them, from sex, zombies, werwolves, witches, horses to fairies for instance!
A Sims 3 Open World might be more viable in this iteration but those small cul de sacs and neighbourhoods should be available too. It's nice to see your house next door as in Sims 4. It's more like my UK suburbs.
Learn from Sims 4 that a lot of people want their own local type backgrounds. Was it Sims 1 that gave you the option of changing the background from desert, icy to green when making a new world? (can't remember)!
Bring terrain tools from Sims3 with added enhancements from 4 to make water and rivers deeper and deep diveable.
Make a good basic pack from the start. Both Sims 3 and 4 didn't go far enough.
and finally.
Set the specifications high from the start and be honest about it. Have we ever had this?
Make it a game worthwhile saving and buying a suitable PC, Mac or laptop for.
Hopefully that super machine I saw with a Terabyte SSD costing well over £2000 might be affordable by the time Sims 5 comes out, even with 2 Terabytes!
I still like TS3, and TS4 has its fair share of bugs, but TS4 is still way less of a hassle to boot up and play
Race Against the Clock: Can your elder sim turn back the clock before their time runs out?
native camera switch from third person to first person
direct real keyboard/gamepad sims control (and switch to mouse control)
interactive mini games,quick time events, for more fun
OpenWorld
realistic graphichs how in sims 2, these cartoon/comic style in sims 4 sucks
better tasks,quests,collection system
better interaction dialog system or/and search feature in interaction dialogs
more gameplay possibilities
vehicles helicopter,cars,boats,bus
Ride a Horse,zombie,servo sims (removed)
Farming feature
and and and..... there is no nonstop from ideas.
the sims team should not try to develop a online multiplayer feature because it is to complex! and would definitely fail.
> I'd love to see something new
>
> native camera switch from third person to first person
> direct real keyboard/gamepad sims control (and switch to mouse control)
> interactive mini games,quick time events, for more fun
> OpenWorld
> realistic graphichs how in sims 2, these cartoon/comic style in sims 4 s.u.c.k
> better tasks,quests,collection system
> better interaction dialog system or/and search feature in interaction dialogs
> more gameplay possibilities
> vehicles helicopter,cars,boats,bus
> Ride a Horse,zombie,servo sims (removed)
> Farming feature
> and and and..... there is no nonstop from ideas.
> the sims team should not try to develop a online multiplayer feature because it is to complex! and would definitely fail.
>
Oh no, no, I don't mean the loading screens, although I'm so done with them too, I meant the worlds that look completely empty and devoid of life and buildings. I know people don't like the worlds having so much dead background space in the games but... at least it makes the world feel alive.
I understand why they switched to all cell phones, but I have been missing land lines. I've built a few houses from the 80's recently and even though it's a little thing, I miss putting that phone on the wall where it belongs.
And things like the newspaper girl and burglars, I wouldn't have thought I'd miss, but I do.
I want multiplayer so badly, but it should work more like Minecraft than like any MMO or co-op situation. People can just host their game and open it up for people to join - with the user responsible for setting permissions or not.
I'd love for my roommate and I to be able to play in the same save simultaneously together - either cooperating towards a shared goal or competing and setting each-other's sims on fire.
If they have to sacrfice a robust game for it, I'm against it (and what they had planned for Sim 4 looked... bad. And everything "multiplayer" they've done with facebook games and mobile games also hasn't been good), but in theory if done well I really would love it.
ETA: I think the problem with most approaches to Sims as a multiplayer game is they assume sims are player characters instead of assets/another tool in the sandbox. If you approach multiplayer with a mode of "the sims represent the player", you're already messing it up. The sims, like the walls, the decor, the pets, the weather, are an in-game tool. I, the god-king of the universe, am a first-person player from the heavens. If we go with that sandbox minecraft analogy, the sims are more analogous to the sheep or the blocks than they are to the player. Which means that, honestly, both "players" should be able to interact with the sims (and, if a sim is left uncontrolled, take control of them) by default. And it should only work differently if the players set up rules/protections before opening up their game to host.
This EA account is shared between two longtime roommates. The one most likely to be writing here is me, the taller of the roommates, whose opinions do not always represent the opinions of the shorter roommate.
But... that's the whole point. To play AS the Sim you are controlling. Turning them into sheep to be messed with or controlled by whomever is playing would be like stepping backwards into SimCity.
I want toddlers and babies to be able to sleep in a crib. Toddlers should also be able to sleep in s toddler bed
I like the multi tasking in the sims 4, ( like watching tv while eating) but I think the multi tasking takes too much time tasking.... please speed it up.... it doesn’t take longer to eat while watching tv in real life.
I want to see many plants like in the sims 4.
I want to see memories like in the sims 2
I want to see likes and dislikes back.
Also please bring back, the cuddling and spooning in bed, being able to relax and read in bed, and watching tv in bed, not just sitting on it.
I like the handyman table in sims 4 and the florist table, but I also liked the florist set up in the sims 2.
I liked that you could have a shop to sell things in your home in the sims 2.... I want that brought back.
I want to have to buy clothes like in the sims 2. That made going shopping fun. I also would like to be able to buy each piece, pants, tops, single outfits, jewelry, glasses, hats etc. and be able to get them out of a dresser, hat box, jewelry box etc. it just makes it more fun to put clothes together each time. I also want a grocery store for my sims. Not all garden and/or fish. I want a theatre too.
I want create a style back, like in the sims 3. I want to be able to mix and match colors and designs. For beds, sofa’s, toys, clothes, etc.
I want children to be able to play tag, cops and robbers and things like that without toys... bring back group volleyball too.
There should be a transportation system from the beginning of sims 5
Please bring back newspapers, and house phones, and make sims buy cell phones.as well.
I like to have collectibles like in the Sims 3 and 4. It would however be nice it we could make lots ourselves that have collectibles, so we could make our own dig sites.
I hated rabbit holes in the sims 3
I really like active careers in the sims 4. Every career should have an option for the sim to go actively to work at a work place.
I like sims 4 build mode, but I wish we could make our own ponds without cheating.
Oh, I also love the club idea in the sims 4.
I’m sure there is more that I want in each
Of the sims titles but this is all I can think of now.
-They can learn from TS1 and TS2 on how the sims used to have more personality, how players need to lose control to feel like they need to do something (burglars, depression from not having their wants taken care of, good and bad memories that make sims unique).
-Streamlined Aspirations: Instead of Outdoor person being the ultimate aspiration of a sim... which doesn't make sense at all, I think the TS2 Aspirations of Romance, Family, Wealth, Knowledge, Pleasure can include all the TS4 aspirations into ones that are more human and logical. For example: the outdoor aspiration of gathering or whatever could fit into the larger Knowledge aspiration.
-They can't keep capitalizing on basic things that should be in the base game, such as weather/pets and the essential lifestages. I hope they learn from that going into the future iteration. Are they willing to wait a year or two to release weather, when almost all AAA games come out with weather patterns in their open-world games?
I also hope they've learned that earlier iterations were much better and improving on what was working is a good place to start.
Family Tree
Playing Mod & CC Free
FGS, don't forget the details!!!!
Just as an example, in IL, the team is so busy adding flower petals, sparkles and shooting flames, they don't even bother with the more realistic details such as taking down the boat sails or tethering the boat. I'm not a sailor, but I don't think that I've ever seen one leave the boat with sails full up. Nor do they leave the boat untethered so that it can sail off without them.
The developers may not think that those kinds of details matter but, for players like me, they do. Just as opening cabinets matters, as does being able to take babies anywhere in the house, being able to cuddle in bed with an S.O., or actually touching objects in order to interact with them. TS4 Sims, in particular, all appear to be telekinetic. They're already witches!
Please don't obfuscate or straight up lie to your paying customers! Exhibit A: the cursed lounge chair. Why do the Sims in lounge chairs look like they're dead? Or, perhaps, they've been hit with a blow dart?
Allegedly, the developers needed five years to work on the lounge chair's multitasking. However, once the lounge chair finally arrived, it had no multitasking at all. To me, there are two options there. Either the team is incapable of the programming that is required or all of the excuses were a crock. As I know that the team has been capable of some incredible things in the past, I tend to believe the latter. Which is a shame, because your customers are not stupid. We remember.
The next thing is that Sims almost never have active interactions together. Sims only participate in activities that require them to sit, stand, or kneel in one place. Anything else, it's every Sim for themselves: dancing, skating, boating, 'aqua zips', you name it. Do all Sims have the Loner trait?
More than ever, Sims in TS4 seem isolated and detached. They can't even speak together unless they're standing so far away from each other. They even walk away from each other, mid-conversation, to find a seat. If TS3 Sims were mostly disinterested, TS4 Sims are like magnets that are actively repelling each other.
Speaking of which: the team could learn that TS3 and TS4 have moved too far away from genuine affection and intimacy between Sims. Where are the additional interactions such as cuddling in bed, making out while standing up, goosing, or even teens giving each other noogies? Why is there still no attraction system? Why do pairs of Sims feel exactly the same about each other? There's no unrequited love, no rebuffed friendship -- there are no nuanced relationships, period.
As well, since TS2, there has been a marked difference in romantic interactions. What's going on there? All games in the Sims series have been rated, Teen. So, what's the real deal with the sanitized intimacy between Sims? Is it too difficult to animate (read: expensive)? Do we need to buy a future romantic pack that will finally provide all of those basic things? I don't understand.
All in all, beginning with TS3, the series seems to have lost the plot. Don't get me wrong, I loved TS3 due to its open world and many, many activities. However, it was easy to see that, compared to TS2, the focus had shifted from the Sims themselves to the stuff -- lots and lots of stuff. In TS4, that obsession with stuff instead of substance has accelerated and expanded. The Sims -- how they interact with each other and with the objects in their world -- have become an afterthought.
If anyone from EA reads this, please know: what you can learn from TS3 and TS4 is that you're better than this. You've already proven that you're better than this. Please stop resting on your laurels and provide the games that your consumer base knows that you're capable of providing. We're waiting for your brilliance and attention to detail to show themselves again.
Finally, to anyone who has gotten this far: thanks for reading!
So when Sims 4 came along, what happened? They gave us smaller worlds (even if all worlds are interconnected now...different than Sims3), no open world/neighborhoods at all, and no ability to choose any colors or patterns other than what EA decided for us.
Sims 5 should meet halfway. Slightly larger worlds than 4 but no where near as large as 3. Open neighborhoods, 5-10 lots apiece, not the 100+ you could have in Sims 3. At least give us a color palette we can choose some basic colors on our own - if we want a room to have everything blue, so be it rather than 9 out of 12 things having a blue tinge and the other 3 sticking out like a sore thumb.
Include the basics - things they think aren't basics were proven to be with Sims 3. While they added pools and basements on their own rather quickly, it took two years to get toddlers. Babies are still treated more like objects than Sims. make sure all those stages of life have actual character.
I'd like to say also add basic pets and weather to the base game, but those are probably the packs that have sold the best - as such what they've "learned" from Sims 3 and 4 is to NOT include them in the base game as we'll buy them anyways.
I mean this as a mechanical distinction, not a philosophical one. You make choices for them, but they are not a direct representation of the player or a character for the player to inhabit, because it isn't a first/third-person shooter or RPG or even traditional sandbox game. You can choose to play in a role-playing fashion or in a mad god-king one by choice, but mechanically the sims are kind of sheep to be messed with. That's why you can play as more than one of them at a time, jumping between them at will, abandoning them for an entirely different household, forcing them to do awesome or awful things at your discretion.
In Sims Mobile and other multiplayer iterations, it takes too much of a "this is Your Sim who is an Avatar For You" approach, which is always going to be a bit wonky because that's only one way to play the game, and leaving out the mechanics for the other ways to approach the game ultimately stifles the experience.
I want sims to remain a storytelling/life-sim experience. I don't want it to go all lemmings/sim-city. But what sets it apart from every other game that might call itself a life-sim (Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons/Animal Crossing/BitLife/Etc) is that there's no one "character" in the game who is meant to be the player. The player plays from an omniscient third-person perspective. Every multiplayer attempt I've seen eliminates that player perspective, or at least whittles it down. And it is mechanically removed enough, for me, to no longer feel like the experience I want from a Sims game.
If done right, Sims multiplayer could be amazing, but it would take incredible care to do right. I want it, because it could recreate the fun of Minecraft but in a completely different genre of sandbox, but I have no faith in EA to understand it or deliver it.
This EA account is shared between two longtime roommates. The one most likely to be writing here is me, the taller of the roommates, whose opinions do not always represent the opinions of the shorter roommate.
Ok, I see where you are coming from. I personally don't want anything to do with multiplayer. I never even tried using any of the online features that came with Showtime except the gift giving. But, properly implemented, and with a toggle to have the option off or on, I can see how it could add to the game for those that want it.
Oh for SURE. I would want the default experience to be single player. I would absolutely never want the game to be mandatory online play or even default multiplayer with an option to turn that off. Default should be single player all the way. It’d just be nice if hosting your game for your friends to hop in with you was an option.
This EA account is shared between two longtime roommates. The one most likely to be writing here is me, the taller of the roommates, whose opinions do not always represent the opinions of the shorter roommate.
Did I write this? lol No, but you must have read my mind I won't add anything to what you said. You pretty much covered it.