I feel it was a step in the false direction to get rid of the comfort motive and replace it with happy moodlets for decoration and seating.
You've hit upon something here - the moodlets themselves weren't a bad idea, and sometimes they can be fun or interesting, but they get smothered by decoration moodlets. My Sim will come home from work 'Angry', but the moment she steps in the house, her 'anger' moodlet is pushed to the back by pictures and nice furniture. There are certain interactions we can choose when a Sim is in a particular mood, but they're not available because the decoration is overwhelming.
That's one reason toddlers are so much fun to play - they aren't affected by most of the aesthetic moodlets. An angry toddler is likely stay angry for a bit, unless you do something to either distract her or difuse the anger.
That’s indeed how it should work. And it’s a shame it only works like that for toddlers.
I feel it was a step in the false direction to get rid of the comfort motive and replace it with happy moodlets for decoration and seating.
You've hit upon something here - the moodlets themselves weren't a bad idea, and sometimes they can be fun or interesting, but they get smothered by decoration moodlets. My Sim will come home from work 'Angry', but the moment she steps in the house, her 'anger' moodlet is pushed to the back by pictures and nice furniture. There are certain interactions we can choose when a Sim is in a particular mood, but they're not available because the decoration is overwhelming.
That's one reason toddlers are so much fun to play - they aren't affected by most of the aesthetic moodlets. An angry toddler is likely stay angry for a bit, unless you do something to either distract her or difuse the anger.
That’s indeed how it should work. And it’s a shame it only works like that for toddlers.
That's exactly why most who love the toddlers know they are more fleshed out than the other ages. We all thought they were the best toddlers so far, but maybe because they were more like the older games, and were not ruled by decorations and not happy, happy, the differences of the toddler to the adult is stunning. But that is also how it is in the older games. Maybe that's why those who wanted them so much were so happy about them, because they behave like Sims in the older games. Maybe Maxis should think about why so many have that mod installed that removes all the decor moodlets, and instead of a Sim always being happy the games says they are Fine. I guess they missed that part of why so many have that mod installed. Because it removes the core feature of TS4, the decor mood emitters and puts the Sim back to the state of any Sim in the older games. I wish they would think about why so many use it.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
I feel it was a step in the false direction to get rid of the comfort motive and replace it with happy moodlets for decoration and seating.
You've hit upon something here - the moodlets themselves weren't a bad idea, and sometimes they can be fun or interesting, but they get smothered by decoration moodlets. My Sim will come home from work 'Angry', but the moment she steps in the house, her 'anger' moodlet is pushed to the back by pictures and nice furniture. There are certain interactions we can choose when a Sim is in a particular mood, but they're not available because the decoration is overwhelming.
That's one reason toddlers are so much fun to play - they aren't affected by most of the aesthetic moodlets. An angry toddler is likely stay angry for a bit, unless you do something to either distract her or difuse the anger.
That’s indeed how it should work. And it’s a shame it only works like that for toddlers.
That's exactly why most who love the toddlers know they are more fleshed out than the other ages. We all thought they were the best toddlers so far, but maybe because they were more like the older games, and were not ruled by decorations and not happy, happy, the differences of the toddler to the adult is stunning. But that is also how it is in the older games. Maybe that's why those who wanted them so much were so happy about them, because they behave like Sims in the older games. Maybe Maxis should think about why so many have that mod installed that removes all the decor moodlets, and instead of a Sim always being happy the games says they are Fine. I guess they missed that part of why so many have that mod installed. Because it removes the core feature of TS4, the decor mood emitters and puts the Sim back to the state of any Sim in the older games. I wish they would think about why so many use it.
I remember starting up my Sims 4 game after toddlers had been released (and this was right after I had decided to drop the game for good) and I loved them. Because they were so cute and spot on and really interacted with their parents and I wasn’t used to that in Sims 4. But after a while I realized that though toddlers were fleshed out, their parents still were not and that only had become more noticeable for me. I’m not playing the game with a focus on toddlers, never will. The kids are important for me (though genetics play a huge part in that for me and I don’t like how genetics work in Sims 4), but never the focus. The (young) adults are.
I feel it was a step in the false direction to get rid of the comfort motive and replace it with happy moodlets for decoration and seating.
You've hit upon something here - the moodlets themselves weren't a bad idea, and sometimes they can be fun or interesting, but they get smothered by decoration moodlets. My Sim will come home from work 'Angry', but the moment she steps in the house, her 'anger' moodlet is pushed to the back by pictures and nice furniture. There are certain interactions we can choose when a Sim is in a particular mood, but they're not available because the decoration is overwhelming.
That's one reason toddlers are so much fun to play - they aren't affected by most of the aesthetic moodlets. An angry toddler is likely stay angry for a bit, unless you do something to either distract her or difuse the anger.
That’s indeed how it should work. And it’s a shame it only works like that for toddlers.
That's exactly why most who love the toddlers know they are more fleshed out than the other ages. We all thought they were the best toddlers so far, but maybe because they were more like the older games, and were not ruled by decorations and not happy, happy, the differences of the toddler to the adult is stunning. But that is also how it is in the older games. Maybe that's why those who wanted them so much were so happy about them, because they behave like Sims in the older games. Maybe Maxis should think about why so many have that mod installed that removes all the decor moodlets, and instead of a Sim always being happy the games says they are Fine. I guess they missed that part of why so many have that mod installed. Because it removes the core feature of TS4, the decor mood emitters and puts the Sim back to the state of any Sim in the older games. I wish they would think about why so many use it.
I remember starting up my Sims 4 game after toddlers had been released (and this was right after I had decided to drop the game for good) and I loved them. Because they were so cute and spot on and really interacted with their parents and I wasn’t used to that in Sims 4. But after a while I realized that though toddlers were fleshed out, their parents still were not and that only had become more noticeable for me. I’m not playing the game with a focus on toddlers, never will. The kids are important for me (though genetics play a huge part in that for me and I don’t like how genetics work in Sims 4), but never the focus. The (young) adults are.
I agree. It's why I can't play it much now, if ever again. Because the differences in how fleshed out toddlers are makes all other Sims stark and even more noticable they don't have any personality. We already knew that, but with a toddler in the home it's more evident than before. It's like putting a new silk purse next to a rucksack. lol Don't get me started on TS4 nonexistant genetics. My black couple magically had a white baby that magically turned black later when a kid. Gallery Sims- oh, look how much my Sim child looks like the mother...no, sorry, it's the same default child in my game, too. lol
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
I'm afraid it's too late to patch comfort in as a need but I seriously think EA should patch out the happy environment moodlets (and maybe also the make it so that all the other positive environment moodlets have to be activated to be used like it already is with some of the other objects).
I'm playing like that with mods since quite a while and it is so much more fun to actually experience different moods in the game.
If they absolutely want to keept the environment moodlets they could make it so we can switch them on/off or give us an option to toggle those off in settings (like we can switch of thunderstorms/rain).
Now now EA, don't be stinking up our lovely lavender bath with your shopping fart. - My TS4 mods - Gallery ID: 83bienchen
The video makes great points. It is at least an attempt to give some real definition to why the Sims 4 seems "shallow," which can be hard to pin down.
My own experience for hitting the road on Sims 4 and where I wanted to see things play out differently is beef with how few unique ways to play, interact with the world, environment, and other sims.
I played the happy/inspired happy/focused, etc, sim. Been there, done that. It gets boring fast. Eventually just looking at all that smiling made my face hurt and listing to that chime over and over made me want to flip the bird. In The Sims 3, sure, I'd do the same few repetitive things (from a long list of options) to get my mood up for the day, but they were definitive and made the character unique, and there was a whole world to interact with, with unique characters that were just as fun to watch as get to know. In the Sims 4, just the same few things over and over until you die. So, I thought, I'll play a melancholy sim. I'll pick traits, spruce up my place, and live my life interacting with people and objects to be as freaking sad as possible, and build some lucrative career out of my misery.
No.
I picked traits so I could be sad, but sadness is not very complicated. I saw that I could check the obituaries as a consequence of being sad, so I assumed this would be a daily task I could perform to gear my mood up for work or a task, which I found hilarious. But, no. I could just check them, to no consequence, no effect, nothing at all but killing time that kills the mood.
There were other objects in the world I assumed would contribute to a sad emotion, such as "sadnum," (I assumed it would make me sad by the name, unless I am mistaken, in the vein of "romantium,") but no, all metals give a boost to "confidence," regardless of their name.
I couldn't even eat or upgrade my toilet without becoming so ecstatic that any hope at of having a successful career with the sad emotion went down the toilet.
The only thing left to do was lock myself up in a room with a handful of my own sad paintings and paint. Not upgrade my home. Have nothing to spend that hard earned cash on. No unique clothes ore wares, no way to choose the color scheme in my home. No way to benefit from decoration besides my own sad paintings. And no way to interact with the world as a melancholy sim. Nothing. Nothing at all. Can paint yourself blue creating the same sad pictures over and over and there is nowhere to go from there. Continuous monotony.
Any variety in the emotions from the happy/inspired, happy/energetic, happy/focused is seen as detrimental. While there should be things that are detrimental, of course, there is a severe lack of ways to live life. A real lack of flavor. That leaves a lack of depth and humor, and lack of interesting interactions between sims of different stripes. Carl is right. Overwhelmingly, all sims seem the same.
So, to spice up the Sims 4 for my liking, I would like to live live in different ways. I would love to play as a sims that is truly sad, or angry, as a total life choice, with benefits and detriments, that is way more fleshed out and immersive.
With the risk of making this post overlong, I am also a player that did not like loading screens. I was in the middle of playing the Sims 4 for the first time when I upgraded computers. My Sims 3 games took forever to load, but when they did, that was it. So, when I got a new computer I expected that those pesky Sims 4 loading screens would pass by in a matter of seconds. No. I got absolutely no performance boost or reduction in loading screen time for The Sims 4 when I got a pretty swanky new machine, while my Sims 3 games loaded up in seconds and ran gloriously.
That pesky Sims 4 loading screen gets longer and longer the more you put into you home. Simply having one of each regular plant (not the alien ones) was enough to make the loading screen unreasonably long. Don't get me wrong, I like going out and looking for plants and crystals and setting them up in my place, but geez. Going out the the bar and going home became a nightmare. I spent more time on loading screens than playing.
Since my social interactions and activities out in the world were pretty lame and I saw the same handful of boring people everywhere I went, I decided to become my homeward bound and make my house a sanctuary. I thought, I'll just do all I can from home. My stuff, career, plants, collectibles, friends. I'll bring them all here. That's ok for a while, but it's boring. It gets done pretty quick. Careers and whims were no better. Nowhere to go. Loading screens all over the place. A dead end of monotonous game play on every career real fast, with whims completed, so no choice but to keep changing careers in order to keep playing. I get so bored and get so much done by the time I'm designing and decorating my second home, after upgrading from the starter home, that I quit. Every time. After a very short time, the Sims 4 to me becomes a monotonous prison of eating (the same old thing so I don't get fat even when I watch the hunger bar and stop eating as soon as it is filled), sleeping, and going to the bathroom. I can't even get through the welcome wagon anymore.
To add, for the lack of depth and shallowness, which I definitely noticed when trying to get out of the ideal career mood/happy lane, there is no reason more depth could not have been added to the Sims 4, even it it's current state.
In the Sims 3, if I took the "daredevil" trait I could interact with objects in ways other sims could not (play with fire.) I could interact with other sims in ways other sims could not (watch this.) I could get a career boost in some careers, and I could do "extreme" versions of regular tasks. Sure, an "extreme shower" is just a shower, but it changed things up. It gave some color and flavor to the game. Same goes for something like the "brooding" trait. The list of variations for each trait is actually quite long, and when you couple that with many unique sims and an open world, things get interesting, and the game has huge replay value in spite of certain repetitions, which should be fun rather than a chore.
There is no reason the Sims 4 could not have added a bit more depth at this level. There are remarkably few variations in how you can interact with people, objects, or complete tasks depending on your traits. For instance, when I tried to play a melancholy sim by focusing on the "sad" emotion, there was no benefit to it. When I played my piano, or listened to music, or any other thing, there was absolutely no variation in how the sim REACTED to things vs every other sim. Traits meant nothing at all in this respect. I still got happy, sad, inspired, angry, etc, in the exact same cookie cutter fashion no matter what. That sad mood was one tiny blue dot in a sea of other colored dots, with absolutely no reaction to those emotions or emotional stimuli that varied from sim to sim. It would be much more interesting if Sims with certain traits act and react in specific ways to their environment and social interactions. It would give some variety and depth, and seeing as it is so well done in the Sims 3, it's near total absence in the Sims 4 makes the game seem like kind of a drag.
In the Sims 3, even if you took traits that would seem detrimental in the Sims 4 scope, you could forge a life for yourself and still live it to the fullest. You could be brooding, hot headed, etc, and you could produce unique paintings, do unique things, complete tasks in a unique way, and have unique social interactions. You would also find certain interactions, traits, and activities unpalatable, which really shaped a life with some shape and some lines to play within for a certain lifestyle and personality. In the Sims 4, this could have been present with the emotion system, but it's lacking. If you pick traits like "sad" or "angry" they are practically detrimental and drowned in a generic world unless you make one unique dish or paint one unique emotional painting.
In the Sims 4, I started the music career. I lived at subsistence wages. Playing for tips was not worth my time. I made extra money painting, which made me filthy rich, while my music career stagnated into an unfulfilling drag that would never go anywhere. The sweet piano was uncomfortable. Grims Goulish Guitar really had no outlet for the rocker life. The loading screens were long, repetitive, and nauseating. So I attempted to made a raging pad where I'd invite the townies to party and show off my musical prowess. To no avail. Patrons merely stood around, sad down, rarely interacted, nobody hooked up, nobody really did anything at all, and sims lit on fire. A lot. Over and over. And went home.
To contrast, in the Sims 3 I could take multiple career tracks in the music career, play multiple instruments, start a band, articulate any of these with many traits, and interact with many interesting sims. For instance, I moved to Aurora Skies for a career in music. After spending a ridiculous amount of time designing the perfect button up plaid shirt and knit beanie (which cannot be done in the Sims 4 because you cannot customize a thing,) and fuming that I could not sleep in my toque and had to pick a different hair style (I never take my toque off), I had to pick up some cash. I would never get my band off the ground at home alone. I had to get out there. So, I joined the music career. Probably doing dumb stuff like hang posters. I started to party. I bought my first guitar. I sucked at first, then started to shred. But, I found the music career was not for me. Too limiting. I was my own sim. I met people at work and at parties, played on the road, and eventually started a band. I poached the talent from the music agency and had a guitar player and drummer. One last band member to go, so I recruited the girlfriend of a local artist who showed at least some primitive musical ability to play the keys. That's when things started to slide. We were pretty good. I started to date the guitar player (not a good idea, dating within the band.) I never thought to invite band members girlfriends and boyfriends to practice, seeing as I had kind of a shallow, one track mind with no goals in life besides the next gig and dumping every penny into my Rock Town 3000, and you know how girlfriends and boyfriends are at practice. But, one day the drummer cheated with the keyboard player, who betrayed their artist boyfriend who was stuck at home in the basement toiling at the easel with his glorious long blond hair, right at practice (is he available now? Hmmm...) Drummers. Feelings were hurt. Things were never the same. The guitar player evidently had greater feelings for me than I did for him, because he asked me to move in with him. I declined. No way was I going to give up my great pad with a studio I toiled long and hard to pay for. No way was I going to be looking after another sim with my focus on my band. No way was I going to have someone eating my food, leaving dirty dishes all over the place, and filthing up my washroom. We had a huge falling out. The band broke up. I started sculpting and talking to unicorns.
In the Sims 4, people literally do nothing. Just rinse, repeat, nowhere to go, and not enough interaction to make it interesting. Due to the lack of depth in action and reaction, and variety in the traits and environment those funny situations that happened all the time in the Sims 3 that kept me playing are totally absent.
Everything lights on fire in the Sims 4. It is literally stupid. You cannot feasibly, to my knowledge, be smart about fire and practice any kind of fire safety other than being in a good mood, and to some extent not leaving things unattended. I wanted to burn that incense stick. I really did. I removed the carpeting. I put the stick in the middle of the room on a table by itself. Everything still lit on fire. I placed a non combustible surface around my fire place (some fine tile), but, to no avail. In the Sims 3, I could practice some reasonable fire safety, be smart about fire, and come out relatively unscathed unless a guest got into some mischief. I could design, place objects, upgrade objects, or use my lifetime happiness points to make my home fireproof. In the Sims 4, stuff and people lights on fire. All the time. A lot of fire. Not really funny or interesting in any way. Just repetitive and annoying.
For instance, in the Sims 3 I started the singer profession. I got the call to do a sing-a-gram while in the middle of cooking some bad quality mac and cheese. Out the door I went. Left the mac and cheese on the stove. Stove started on fire. Came home to find my kitchen ruined. Couldn't afford a new stove for ages on my pay and lived on yogurt and orange juice. It was hilarious. It had some context. In the Sims 4, fire has little to no context, and happens repetitively, all the time, stupidly so, to little or no effect except annoyance. I don't know if the atmospheric composition is different in the Sims 4 than the Sims 3, but geez, do things ever light on fire a lot.
Carl is right about the game growing linearly but not getting any modification to game play. If you look at the wiki page for each trait in the Sims 3, you'll see a pretty long list of ways the trait modifies the original game play. This is in addition to, or in modification of a pretty decent and in depth game with lots to do. Some traits had as few as 5 changes, and some as high as 18. I did not look at them all. And these lists are only direct changes. They do not list how all traits stack, interact, modify each other, or effect skills, such as being able to paint a unique style of painting, or succeed in a particular genre of writing. This is additional. On top of that, if you average something like a dozen changes PER trait, your sims can have 5-7 traits! If you multiply that, that's a lot of changes! Both for your play style, benefits and downsides in the environment, social interaction, and career. All the sims in the world have that many differences by the traits they have, too, and there are a lot of traits! In addition, there are changes based on skills, on career, on your degree, in 3 social groups, celebrity, and many life states, which again combine with the huge number of unique factors for EACH trait, let alone 5-7 of them. Put that into an open world with many sims with 5 traits each, and all the other factors like life state and social group, and it's fantastic. It's complex and interesting. It has depth. It's immersive, funny, fun to play, and highly replayable. All these factors knocking heads in the open world lead to fun games again and again. The Sims 4 does none of this. I simply did the same boring things again and again to get in the mood for work, and social interactions were very boring. That immersive, in depth glow I expected from the Sims was totally missing. What the Sims 3 lacked in complexity in actual game play (we all know how to eat and go to the bathroom) it more than made up for in the complexity of the game itself - the nuts and bolts behind those traits, life states, and social groups was complex enough to make a game where you click to do basic life functions again an again a joy to play. The ability to truly customize your create a sim and building experience, to quite a degree of difficulty if you wanted to, always added depth where it was needed. The Sims 4 doesn't really have this. There isn't the depth to traits there was before. The emotional states are shallow and few. There is no way to customize objects or clothing. Social interactions are boring to do and watch, in a small world where nothing unfolds out of that chaos of so many traits and states with so many factors that the Sims 3 has.
It's hard to explain that particular joy you feel when something truly hilarious, clever, and true to life comes out of all those traits and factors bumping into each other in that open world. The lady in the pink pick up truck. The day Tom Wordy showed up to the party a werewolf. The day the Murphy Bed killed Tiberius before classes even started. Scouring Bridgeport for the perfect date only to find out they're a burglar. The way the butler kept quitting until I got a 🐸🐸🐸🐸 cat. Playing for tips and being everybody's best friend without knowing a thing about them. Putting a stereo out for the zombies. Being so hungry you eat spoiled pumpkin pie. Getting pranked or scared in public and peeing yourself so your reputation goes down the drain. When the drummer cheats with the keyboard player, or your horse eats your newspaper and digs up an onion while stamping to the stereo, and your klepto spouse comes home from work with a street light in their inventory (I wish I'd waited to learn that last trait before putting a ring on it, but I'm not going to change you.)
That clumsy, loser, hot-headed, socially awkward, inappropriate mayor really has a different effect on the game from the charismatic, family oriented, good, workaholic, ambitious mayor. It's an open world, with many differences applied through each trait, life state, job, and social group. In the background is a wonderful chaos that yields some really fun results. The words that came to mind when I played The Sims 4 were vapid, void, and shallow. There really isn't the depth of intricacy to the traits and how things work to give the in depth feeling the Sims 3 had.
Also, I do not like to play sadistically. When I play the Sims 4 I find there is nothing much to do but apply my own afflictions to other sims due to the lack of social depth. Nothing happens. The sims never do anything. However, I don't like playing like this. I find it gross. I don't actually like a world where no one hooks up or does anything but eat and gab, unless I make them, and I don't want to do the job the game should do on it's own. I like the Sims 3 world where sims develop their own relationships, and I take part in a world, rather than constantly breaking that sort of fourth wall, making me make moves I wish were already there in a functioning and interesting world, rather than an empty thing for me to click at. Gone are the days of summoning meteors for money, committing arson again and again on the front lawn as a witch for insurance, and having the repo man take the mail box. And man, I miss shopping. I get so bummed when everything just comes in the mail instantly. Another loss on opportunities for meaningful interaction with sims and the world. And fake dating profiles or being asked on a first date... to a graveyard. Funny things. Instead, there are the same three sims on a conveyor belt sidewalk that show up to every lot I go, no matter how far I go from home. Creeps. Stalkers. I can't make new friends!
In the Sims 4, unless I sit through a whack of loading screens, my Sim either works from home or I watch an empty home as they walk out the door and reappear after a speed through. There isn't really anything interesting about jobs. No commute. No nothing. In the Sims 3, the sheer glut of jobs, traits, and ways to make money made for some interesting combinations. It's almost limitless. The detective that uses their experience to write mystery novels (the Castle), the down on their luck private investigator that hacks the slot machines for extra cash, the graveyard keeper that wanders around picking up rocks to sell for money, the fisherman that paints the scenic outdoors, the criminal that loots the antiquities of ancient Egypt.... the list is almost unlimited, and adds so much more than just looking at an empty house or loading screen.
And here we go again... learning skills. In the Sims 3, there are tons of different ways to learn skills, so the game doesn't get boring play through after play through. I can do the deed, take a class, go to university, read a book, listen to a tab cast, watch tv, even talk to a freaking dragon. I can't say I really wanted to repeat a career in the Sims 4 because the path was always the same, short, and boring. Nor did I want to stick with a career because game play just sort of stagnated. I have to play the Sims 3 for a heck of a long time before I get bored, but the Sims 4 runs out of things to do pretty fast. On top of that were tons of other skills in the Sims 3 that were not necessarily part of a career, like festival activities, consignment store reputation, etc.
Things I do like about the Sims 4 is gardening, cooking, and to some degree building, but it pretty much ends there, and is bogged down with so many other problems. Pretty much everything I liked about the Sims 4 was something I wished I could see in the Sims 3, like unique plants, or new objects like the bubble bar.
I usually don't post much, seeing as I can be quite a rantasaurus rex, but Carl hit the nail on the head. Somebody gets it.
@Simsalot99 that was a long but satisfying read. I love hearing about all those sims 3 scenarios! Has me cracking up. There is nothing left to say I think you covered everything lol
But yes the townies really bore me. If and when they finally show up on a lot they just stand around, chat, walk by over and over. I feel like they have no lives, no direction in life, no nothing. Just empty shells filling a role. It kinda bothers me but there's nothing I can do about it so I make the best of it.
I honestly believe sims 4 is only fun long term for people who have a big imagination because there are so many missing pieces you have to fill in yourself. The stories don't write themselves.
That's interesting, because I kind of find a good Sims game to be more Finnegan's Wake than mobile app. I find there is too little in the Sims 4 for my imagination to do much work and I become quickly disinterested, while when I play the Sims 3 I find almost unlimited opportunities to elaborate on what's going on. I don't really like to be the author of the story, but I do like to take part in one and sim in a world where the effect I have isn't so much me at my computer as my sim having an effect in the world. So, I typically play 3 instead of 4.
Well, here's one for the road that I didn't have time for the other day. Then I'll get out of your hair. Cars. Carl mentioned cars. Cars were mentioned as expensive items to be able to spend cash on. I suppose they would be. In the Sims 4, cars wouldn't really have anywhere to go. When it's off the work, it's off into the void. There are no roads that actually go somewhere, let alone work. I don't think you'd be able to back out of the driveway with the steady stream of senior citizens and Marcus Flexes, anyway. Cars could sit and look pretty, like most of my sims do, and off into the void, only to return a short time later.
When I played the Sims 3, my car was more than a car. It was my friend (it's in my friends list.) If I had a garage band I might get a Rock Town 3000. For another Sim the Rock Town 3000 would be an big gas guzzler and I'd opt for something more clean and modern. Bikes, scooters, broomsticks, a solid gold Sim Mobile (can't get much more greedy than that.) With a custom paint job and a variety of styles for various income levels and lifestyles, vehicles added something unique to the life each sim. From taking a cab home from a party, to getting stuck in the rain on a broomstick, or heading off to work early to be on time in your argyle Jalopy (oi), they connected you to the environment. Whether a pink pickup truck or a scooter, you could choose something that suited how far you were from what you wanted to do, and how you wanted to live. You could be green and economical and choose a bike, or deck your 8 car garage out with the most expensive cars and put up a security gate. You might even ride your horse. All of these things, while unique, connected sims to their environment. They actually went somewhere. There were roads and a way there and time passed when going to work or a store, and many things to do, and transportation from a cab or carpool or something more personalized got you there. Always. There was something to do and look at other than an empty house or loading screen. Instead of going off into the void and returning, after a long night of ghost hunting I could stop and buy a couple lottery tickets at the grocery store and eat at the 24 hour diner on the way home before collapsing into bed. I could go to the bookstore, eat, go to a park, the gym, take in some music or a movie, you name it, after coming out of the rabbit hole before heading home. Vehicles did all these things. They connected sims to the open world environment. They were present everywhere you went, because they got you there. From going out to a stakeout in a Big Lemon, biking to the gym, or heading out to forge some art on The Beast. Finding parking lots crowded with Jalopies, UFO's parked in obscure island locations, selling the Bwan Speedster to get through university (you know the one... don't lie), and getting half a dozen 85k sports cars and a bbq for being a celebrity. But they still got you where you were GOING.
Cars won't fix the Sims 4. They won't bring any of that back. There isn't really anywhere to actually go. There are no roads. There is nowhere to stop along the way. Just loading screens to go to a new location and an off to work void. The speed you get there, if you get there in style doesn't matter. You could still amass some wealth, but with the size of the lots I would be skeptical of where to put them.
Given that most careers are at home or have you staring at your empty home for a while in the Sims 4, I found that something I missed was the variety of things going on at home that was present in the Sims 3. I played many Sims 3 games working from home, but they were never boring. The plethora of magical gnomes, which did some pretty interesting things (Bucktooth Butternut, Sgnomeman Bittertrotter, Abracadabra, Evil Mr. Gnome, Gnome of the Darned, the Troglodyte gnome posing in front of technology with his club raised), people passing by or peeping in my windows (from vicious gossip to hearing the chime that someone got a crush on my sim and wanted to get to know them better,) zombies (kicking the gnomes,) wild animals, and aliens ringing the doorbell in the middle of the night all gave some activity, and even opportunities to socialize (you know, when you put the bowl of cat food down beside the garbage can so you can pet the racoon.) I seldom have my sims watch tv, but I almost always put a tv down for the gnomes. There really was a lot going on (even weather wise), more if you did things like garden or plant herbs, which gave you even more ways to interact with the environment. And unless you didn't bother to talk to even one person, the sim would regularly be invited to parties - no loading screen required.
And while there were many careers from home in the Sims 3, as there are some in the Sims 4, in the Sims 3 you could choose if you sold a painting off the easel, or sold your gardening, etc, through your inventory, or head out to the consignment store, sell them at the grocery store, etc. You could even use the rugs if you wanted to. There was the choice to get out and do more than look at the four walls all the time, even for careers that were from home. So, instead of selling the the next painting at home and starting all over again as in the Sims 4, you had the chance to make a little extra money by putting in a little extra effort by using the consignment store. You could build a reputation at the store, build a relationship with the employee (who holds your financial well being in their hands,) meet other sims there, irresponsibly go drop your first consignment payday for your less than masterful paintings on a tattoo on the way home and not make your 22 simoleons bills that week and have the repo man take your alarm system so you get robbed later in the week (keep the good stuff at the back of the house.)
So, home life in the Sims 3 could be a flurry of activity, even if you lived alone. You could welcome it and even place objects to enhance it, or shake your fist at it and kick and sell the gnomes, shutter the windows, build a big fence, and put up a privacy gate. There were also opportunities to bring your at home careers out into the world to make extra cash, socialize, and do things - or not. You could be a total and complete shut if if you wanted, or get out there, and it gave some variety to the game play, along with traits (some traits have a sim like to stay home and not be around people and be very uncomfortable in a crowded place or meeting someone new, while others will have your sim soak up the sunshine on the commute and adore socializing while quickly tiring of being alone at home. These factors alone can totally change what it's like to have your sim crawl out the door after staying up several nights painting for a trip to the consignment store. Whether it's liberating or anxiety laden for this sim to take the extra step out into public to sell their wares vs be in the comfort of their home in their element. Introverts and extroverts.) When I play the Sims 4, it's paint, sell, paint sell. No reason to move until the sim needs their motives filled, which is pretty repetitive. I think a more interesting home life is something that could have been present more in the Sims 4, even without needing to go out to do something (and sit through a loading screen.) For me, the home life is pretty uneventful unless people come over and leave glasses of water lying around all over the place for me to clean up, which makes me kind of mad at all my friends so I wish they would stop coming over.
Thank you @Simsalot99! I feel like the contributions of Sims 3 sometimes gets overlooked or downplayed, especially when those of us who still play any of the old games get told we're idealizing the game or games that we actually still play. We didn't imagine depth in the past games. We had it, so it shouldn't be too much to expect out of their current game or games they'll have in the future. I especially love the part about the complexity of the game itself. That's what I love about Sims 3 and what made me fall in love with the series.
I didn't even get 3 full minutes into Carl's video before I found myself nodding along and repeating the words 'yes' and 'exactly' over and over. I hope they take what he says into consideration and listen to other players who've been giving similar feedback. I've also seen a few other game changers talking about problems within the game and while it feels long overdue to have the players EA seems to look to the most say something about problems that have been spoken about since release it's better late than never. If nothing improves for The Sims 4 then at least maybe there will be a improvement with The Sims 5.
@ApparentlyAwesome I agree, and thank you :) I keep hoping the Sims 5 will be an improvement, too. I find it very hard to get a couple hundred hours into the Sims 4, but easy to get a couple thousand hours into the Sims 3. It has been years, and I still haven't gotten through absolutely everything, and still don't run short of ideas to try out in the game. I hope something comes along to build upon what is great about the Sims. I'm just not so sure the Sims 4 is the place where that's going to happen. The Sims 4 is what it is, and when I played it I didn't expect it to be the Sims 3, and I tried... a lot... but it just doesn't get there. The math of how much more complex traits alone were in the Sims 3 speaks for itself. No idealization required. More numbers, more complexity. Saying the Sims 4 is the most complex Sims ever is really, truly a lie. It was even marketed as more complex, with more complex emotions and relationships than ever before. Numbers don't lie, though, and the complexity compared to what was available before was pretty rinky. Being that is what sets the Sims 4 apart the most from previous titles is the LACK of complexity, marketing it as more complex is kind of weird.
Amazing video, thank you very much for linking it. Carl really put a name on a lots of issues that bug the Sims community. I kept exclaiming YES like every five minutes of his analysis!
@Simsalot99 - Thank you so much for your detailed comments! I've never really played The Sims 3 - only the base game for the couple of hours before I got tired of the open world and the unappealing (to me) visuals. Your enthusiastic comments made me want to buy TS3 and all its expansions right away! While I keep hearing that TS3 had a lot of issues as well, it seems that it was so much more complex and fun than TS4 currently is. (not that I don't have fun while playing TS4, it's just that it's a bit frustrating - it could be so much more than it actually is!)
Hi, @PoppyErstwhile . I kind of get the impression it takes a decent computer to be able to run the Sims 3 well, and that could have a factor in some peoples' opinion of preferring the Sims 4 over the Sims 3 (which is a little weird, seeing as a newer title should have higher requirements.) I have the privilege of having a good enough system and pretty monitor, and I actually prefer the Sims 3 graphics to the Sims 4, but after so many years I do find myself wishing that the Sims 3 graphics could be updated for modern times. On my old computer I could run the Sims 3 tine, but loading up a game was very slow. With a newer computer, games load up in seconds and look great. I expected the Sims 4 loading screens to go by in a second, like other games do (you know when you can't read the tip because the loading screen goes by too fast,) but it never changed. Always slow. That really bugged me.
The Sims 3 is certainly not bug free. But, I have found that after playing for a while the usual bugs are pretty easy to deal with and don't really impact my enjoyment of the game. The game has been around for a long time, so any bug is pretty solvable by checking online, and most of the bugs as usually the usual culprits which are pretty easy to deal with (like unroutable sims.) That said, if a system isn't good enough to run the Sims 3 well, what are really minor bugs that are easy to deal with could become deal breakers. That loading time and lag could really be an issue, and make the game not very fun to play. In that case, the Sims 4 would run better.
The bare basics of making the Sims 3 run well if your system is good enough is use ErrorTrap and Overwatch on games where you have lag occur due to a stuck or unroutable sim. Test by resetting all the sims. If it solves the problem, use ErrorTrap and Overwatch and the problem will be taken care of for you and your game will run smooth. I don't use ErrorTrap and Overwatch unless I need them, and judge from game to game, as I had one game (in many) where it actually caused a problem rather than solving it. Don't let your personal inventory get infinitely large. Store some of those extra items from adventuring and gardening in chests or something, or it can lead to lag (it takes a heck of a lot of items, but it happens.) Family inventory could be considered if lag persists. If playing Ilsa Paradiso, move all households out of houseboats and into empty houses you don't want for yourself to avoid lag. It only takes a few minutes. Don't put items from Grandma's Canning Station in your inventory. If your expensive boat disappears no need to be above cheating it back (as it's technically not cheating if it's a bug.) Knowing how to reset your sim with the console is a good idea in case of emergency. For me, it's smooth sailing if I do these things and I enjoy my games a lot. All of these things are minor and only take a moment.
@ApparentlyAwesome I agree, and thank you I keep hoping the Sims 5 will be an improvement, too. I find it very hard to get a couple hundred hours into the Sims 4, but easy to get a couple thousand hours into the Sims 3. It has been years, and I still haven't gotten through absolutely everything, and still don't run short of ideas to try out in the game. I hope something comes along to build upon what is great about the Sims. I'm just not so sure the Sims 4 is the place where that's going to happen. The Sims 4 is what it is, and when I played it I didn't expect it to be the Sims 3, and I tried... a lot... but it just doesn't get there. The math of how much more complex traits alone were in the Sims 3 speaks for itself. No idealization required. More numbers, more complexity. Saying the Sims 4 is the most complex Sims ever is really, truly a lie. It was even marketed as more complex, with more complex emotions and relationships than ever before. Numbers don't lie, though, and the complexity compared to what was available before was pretty rinky. Being that is what sets the Sims 4 apart the most from previous titles is the LACK of complexity, marketing it as more complex is kind of weird.
It's so easy for me to get lost in Sims 3 and the Sims in particular. Even in Sims 2 it takes a second to adjust but after that I'm drawn to those sims too. Sims 4 it has never been like that. They aren't the sims I created so much as the only sims the game offers. Sims 3 sims were often referred to as dull and robotic but the Sims 4 sims are the ones I feel that way about. It's like playing the same sim over and over through every pack, every new feature and it's no wonder that it has a replayabilty problem for some players. I feel like a lot of problems could be solved by simply improving their personalities and emotions.
Everyone talks about the dynamic personalities of Sims 2 so I don't have to go over that again, it's already well known, they're widely considered the best sims of The Sims series for a reason. But Sims 3 personalities get overlooked and like someone in The Sims 3 section said, they're more lively than they're given credit for. You have to play them and the more you play the more their personality shines through. I always thought it had this way of learning based on how the player plays the sim. In my current save I can clearly see how their traits mean something and how my influence shaped them and added to the sims they are. They really do come alive and grow as I play them and that's something I'd love to see improved going forward in this series along with some improvements based on some of the best things in The Sims 2 like interests, turn ons and turn offs, etc. The sims of the past were the better sims and my hope for Sims 4 was that they'd learn from them and make the sims even better.
I didn't play Sims 4 expecting it to be Sims 3 either and it's not like you, I or any other person who finds this game difficult to get into wants to hate it, I think it's the opposite actually, but I think it's too late for Sims 4 too. Even with the 64 bit focus now I still don't think much is going to change unless they aim to improve the base game. And not just by adding width without depth as Carl said.
People who are enjoying it as is I think will continue to enjoy it, but people who are always looking for the next bit of content not long after they just got the new content because the replay value isn't great to them or people who find they have a problem with the core of the game I think will always have a problem which is why they either look to the next pack coming down the pike or they continue playing the older games.
@Simsalot99 Lol, it’s almost creepy how every single thing you say I wholeheartedly agree with One additition: I notice I’m less bothered by bugs nowadays, probably because there are no updates for Sims 3 anymore. No patches and no new packs to break things.
But Sims 3 personalities get overlooked and like someone in The Sims 3 section said, they're more lively than they're given credit for. You have to play them and the more you play the more their personality shines through.
Exactly. They’re more subtle than in the other games but somehow I always grow more attached to them than I did to my sims in 2 and 4.
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That's exactly why most who love the toddlers know they are more fleshed out than the other ages. We all thought they were the best toddlers so far, but maybe because they were more like the older games, and were not ruled by decorations and not happy, happy, the differences of the toddler to the adult is stunning. But that is also how it is in the older games. Maybe that's why those who wanted them so much were so happy about them, because they behave like Sims in the older games. Maybe Maxis should think about why so many have that mod installed that removes all the decor moodlets, and instead of a Sim always being happy the games says they are Fine. I guess they missed that part of why so many have that mod installed. Because it removes the core feature of TS4, the decor mood emitters and puts the Sim back to the state of any Sim in the older games. I wish they would think about why so many use it.
I agree. It's why I can't play it much now, if ever again. Because the differences in how fleshed out toddlers are makes all other Sims stark and even more noticable they don't have any personality. We already knew that, but with a toddler in the home it's more evident than before. It's like putting a new silk purse next to a rucksack. lol Don't get me started on TS4 nonexistant genetics. My black couple magically had a white baby that magically turned black later when a kid. Gallery Sims- oh, look how much my Sim child looks like the mother...no, sorry, it's the same default child in my game, too. lol
I'm playing like that with mods since quite a while and it is so much more fun to actually experience different moods in the game.
If they absolutely want to keept the environment moodlets they could make it so we can switch them on/off or give us an option to toggle those off in settings (like we can switch of thunderstorms/rain).
My own experience for hitting the road on Sims 4 and where I wanted to see things play out differently is beef with how few unique ways to play, interact with the world, environment, and other sims.
I played the happy/inspired happy/focused, etc, sim. Been there, done that. It gets boring fast. Eventually just looking at all that smiling made my face hurt and listing to that chime over and over made me want to flip the bird. In The Sims 3, sure, I'd do the same few repetitive things (from a long list of options) to get my mood up for the day, but they were definitive and made the character unique, and there was a whole world to interact with, with unique characters that were just as fun to watch as get to know. In the Sims 4, just the same few things over and over until you die. So, I thought, I'll play a melancholy sim. I'll pick traits, spruce up my place, and live my life interacting with people and objects to be as freaking sad as possible, and build some lucrative career out of my misery.
No.
I picked traits so I could be sad, but sadness is not very complicated. I saw that I could check the obituaries as a consequence of being sad, so I assumed this would be a daily task I could perform to gear my mood up for work or a task, which I found hilarious. But, no. I could just check them, to no consequence, no effect, nothing at all but killing time that kills the mood.
There were other objects in the world I assumed would contribute to a sad emotion, such as "sadnum," (I assumed it would make me sad by the name, unless I am mistaken, in the vein of "romantium,") but no, all metals give a boost to "confidence," regardless of their name.
I couldn't even eat or upgrade my toilet without becoming so ecstatic that any hope at of having a successful career with the sad emotion went down the toilet.
The only thing left to do was lock myself up in a room with a handful of my own sad paintings and paint. Not upgrade my home. Have nothing to spend that hard earned cash on. No unique clothes ore wares, no way to choose the color scheme in my home. No way to benefit from decoration besides my own sad paintings. And no way to interact with the world as a melancholy sim. Nothing. Nothing at all. Can paint yourself blue creating the same sad pictures over and over and there is nowhere to go from there. Continuous monotony.
Any variety in the emotions from the happy/inspired, happy/energetic, happy/focused is seen as detrimental. While there should be things that are detrimental, of course, there is a severe lack of ways to live life. A real lack of flavor. That leaves a lack of depth and humor, and lack of interesting interactions between sims of different stripes. Carl is right. Overwhelmingly, all sims seem the same.
So, to spice up the Sims 4 for my liking, I would like to live live in different ways. I would love to play as a sims that is truly sad, or angry, as a total life choice, with benefits and detriments, that is way more fleshed out and immersive.
With the risk of making this post overlong, I am also a player that did not like loading screens. I was in the middle of playing the Sims 4 for the first time when I upgraded computers. My Sims 3 games took forever to load, but when they did, that was it. So, when I got a new computer I expected that those pesky Sims 4 loading screens would pass by in a matter of seconds. No. I got absolutely no performance boost or reduction in loading screen time for The Sims 4 when I got a pretty swanky new machine, while my Sims 3 games loaded up in seconds and ran gloriously.
That pesky Sims 4 loading screen gets longer and longer the more you put into you home. Simply having one of each regular plant (not the alien ones) was enough to make the loading screen unreasonably long. Don't get me wrong, I like going out and looking for plants and crystals and setting them up in my place, but geez. Going out the the bar and going home became a nightmare. I spent more time on loading screens than playing.
Since my social interactions and activities out in the world were pretty lame and I saw the same handful of boring people everywhere I went, I decided to become my homeward bound and make my house a sanctuary. I thought, I'll just do all I can from home. My stuff, career, plants, collectibles, friends. I'll bring them all here. That's ok for a while, but it's boring. It gets done pretty quick. Careers and whims were no better. Nowhere to go. Loading screens all over the place. A dead end of monotonous game play on every career real fast, with whims completed, so no choice but to keep changing careers in order to keep playing. I get so bored and get so much done by the time I'm designing and decorating my second home, after upgrading from the starter home, that I quit. Every time. After a very short time, the Sims 4 to me becomes a monotonous prison of eating (the same old thing so I don't get fat even when I watch the hunger bar and stop eating as soon as it is filled), sleeping, and going to the bathroom. I can't even get through the welcome wagon anymore.
In the Sims 3, if I took the "daredevil" trait I could interact with objects in ways other sims could not (play with fire.) I could interact with other sims in ways other sims could not (watch this.) I could get a career boost in some careers, and I could do "extreme" versions of regular tasks. Sure, an "extreme shower" is just a shower, but it changed things up. It gave some color and flavor to the game. Same goes for something like the "brooding" trait. The list of variations for each trait is actually quite long, and when you couple that with many unique sims and an open world, things get interesting, and the game has huge replay value in spite of certain repetitions, which should be fun rather than a chore.
There is no reason the Sims 4 could not have added a bit more depth at this level. There are remarkably few variations in how you can interact with people, objects, or complete tasks depending on your traits. For instance, when I tried to play a melancholy sim by focusing on the "sad" emotion, there was no benefit to it. When I played my piano, or listened to music, or any other thing, there was absolutely no variation in how the sim REACTED to things vs every other sim. Traits meant nothing at all in this respect. I still got happy, sad, inspired, angry, etc, in the exact same cookie cutter fashion no matter what. That sad mood was one tiny blue dot in a sea of other colored dots, with absolutely no reaction to those emotions or emotional stimuli that varied from sim to sim. It would be much more interesting if Sims with certain traits act and react in specific ways to their environment and social interactions. It would give some variety and depth, and seeing as it is so well done in the Sims 3, it's near total absence in the Sims 4 makes the game seem like kind of a drag.
In the Sims 3, even if you took traits that would seem detrimental in the Sims 4 scope, you could forge a life for yourself and still live it to the fullest. You could be brooding, hot headed, etc, and you could produce unique paintings, do unique things, complete tasks in a unique way, and have unique social interactions. You would also find certain interactions, traits, and activities unpalatable, which really shaped a life with some shape and some lines to play within for a certain lifestyle and personality. In the Sims 4, this could have been present with the emotion system, but it's lacking. If you pick traits like "sad" or "angry" they are practically detrimental and drowned in a generic world unless you make one unique dish or paint one unique emotional painting.
To contrast, in the Sims 3 I could take multiple career tracks in the music career, play multiple instruments, start a band, articulate any of these with many traits, and interact with many interesting sims. For instance, I moved to Aurora Skies for a career in music. After spending a ridiculous amount of time designing the perfect button up plaid shirt and knit beanie (which cannot be done in the Sims 4 because you cannot customize a thing,) and fuming that I could not sleep in my toque and had to pick a different hair style (I never take my toque off), I had to pick up some cash. I would never get my band off the ground at home alone. I had to get out there. So, I joined the music career. Probably doing dumb stuff like hang posters. I started to party. I bought my first guitar. I sucked at first, then started to shred. But, I found the music career was not for me. Too limiting. I was my own sim. I met people at work and at parties, played on the road, and eventually started a band. I poached the talent from the music agency and had a guitar player and drummer. One last band member to go, so I recruited the girlfriend of a local artist who showed at least some primitive musical ability to play the keys. That's when things started to slide. We were pretty good. I started to date the guitar player (not a good idea, dating within the band.) I never thought to invite band members girlfriends and boyfriends to practice, seeing as I had kind of a shallow, one track mind with no goals in life besides the next gig and dumping every penny into my Rock Town 3000, and you know how girlfriends and boyfriends are at practice. But, one day the drummer cheated with the keyboard player, who betrayed their artist boyfriend who was stuck at home in the basement toiling at the easel with his glorious long blond hair, right at practice (is he available now? Hmmm...) Drummers. Feelings were hurt. Things were never the same. The guitar player evidently had greater feelings for me than I did for him, because he asked me to move in with him. I declined. No way was I going to give up my great pad with a studio I toiled long and hard to pay for. No way was I going to be looking after another sim with my focus on my band. No way was I going to have someone eating my food, leaving dirty dishes all over the place, and filthing up my washroom. We had a huge falling out. The band broke up. I started sculpting and talking to unicorns.
In the Sims 4, people literally do nothing. Just rinse, repeat, nowhere to go, and not enough interaction to make it interesting. Due to the lack of depth in action and reaction, and variety in the traits and environment those funny situations that happened all the time in the Sims 3 that kept me playing are totally absent.
Everything lights on fire in the Sims 4. It is literally stupid. You cannot feasibly, to my knowledge, be smart about fire and practice any kind of fire safety other than being in a good mood, and to some extent not leaving things unattended. I wanted to burn that incense stick. I really did. I removed the carpeting. I put the stick in the middle of the room on a table by itself. Everything still lit on fire. I placed a non combustible surface around my fire place (some fine tile), but, to no avail. In the Sims 3, I could practice some reasonable fire safety, be smart about fire, and come out relatively unscathed unless a guest got into some mischief. I could design, place objects, upgrade objects, or use my lifetime happiness points to make my home fireproof. In the Sims 4, stuff and people lights on fire. All the time. A lot of fire. Not really funny or interesting in any way. Just repetitive and annoying.
For instance, in the Sims 3 I started the singer profession. I got the call to do a sing-a-gram while in the middle of cooking some bad quality mac and cheese. Out the door I went. Left the mac and cheese on the stove. Stove started on fire. Came home to find my kitchen ruined. Couldn't afford a new stove for ages on my pay and lived on yogurt and orange juice. It was hilarious. It had some context. In the Sims 4, fire has little to no context, and happens repetitively, all the time, stupidly so, to little or no effect except annoyance. I don't know if the atmospheric composition is different in the Sims 4 than the Sims 3, but geez, do things ever light on fire a lot.
It's hard to explain that particular joy you feel when something truly hilarious, clever, and true to life comes out of all those traits and factors bumping into each other in that open world. The lady in the pink pick up truck. The day Tom Wordy showed up to the party a werewolf. The day the Murphy Bed killed Tiberius before classes even started. Scouring Bridgeport for the perfect date only to find out they're a burglar. The way the butler kept quitting until I got a 🐸🐸🐸🐸 cat. Playing for tips and being everybody's best friend without knowing a thing about them. Putting a stereo out for the zombies. Being so hungry you eat spoiled pumpkin pie. Getting pranked or scared in public and peeing yourself so your reputation goes down the drain. When the drummer cheats with the keyboard player, or your horse eats your newspaper and digs up an onion while stamping to the stereo, and your klepto spouse comes home from work with a street light in their inventory (I wish I'd waited to learn that last trait before putting a ring on it, but I'm not going to change you.)
That clumsy, loser, hot-headed, socially awkward, inappropriate mayor really has a different effect on the game from the charismatic, family oriented, good, workaholic, ambitious mayor. It's an open world, with many differences applied through each trait, life state, job, and social group. In the background is a wonderful chaos that yields some really fun results. The words that came to mind when I played The Sims 4 were vapid, void, and shallow. There really isn't the depth of intricacy to the traits and how things work to give the in depth feeling the Sims 3 had.
Things I do like about the Sims 4 is gardening, cooking, and to some degree building, but it pretty much ends there, and is bogged down with so many other problems. Pretty much everything I liked about the Sims 4 was something I wished I could see in the Sims 3, like unique plants, or new objects like the bubble bar.
I usually don't post much, seeing as I can be quite a rantasaurus rex, but Carl hit the nail on the head. Somebody gets it.
But yes the townies really bore me. If and when they finally show up on a lot they just stand around, chat, walk by over and over. I feel like they have no lives, no direction in life, no nothing. Just empty shells filling a role. It kinda bothers me but there's nothing I can do about it so I make the best of it.
I honestly believe sims 4 is only fun long term for people who have a big imagination because there are so many missing pieces you have to fill in yourself. The stories don't write themselves.
When I played the Sims 3, my car was more than a car. It was my friend (it's in my friends list.) If I had a garage band I might get a Rock Town 3000. For another Sim the Rock Town 3000 would be an big gas guzzler and I'd opt for something more clean and modern. Bikes, scooters, broomsticks, a solid gold Sim Mobile (can't get much more greedy than that.) With a custom paint job and a variety of styles for various income levels and lifestyles, vehicles added something unique to the life each sim. From taking a cab home from a party, to getting stuck in the rain on a broomstick, or heading off to work early to be on time in your argyle Jalopy (oi), they connected you to the environment. Whether a pink pickup truck or a scooter, you could choose something that suited how far you were from what you wanted to do, and how you wanted to live. You could be green and economical and choose a bike, or deck your 8 car garage out with the most expensive cars and put up a security gate. You might even ride your horse. All of these things, while unique, connected sims to their environment. They actually went somewhere. There were roads and a way there and time passed when going to work or a store, and many things to do, and transportation from a cab or carpool or something more personalized got you there. Always. There was something to do and look at other than an empty house or loading screen. Instead of going off into the void and returning, after a long night of ghost hunting I could stop and buy a couple lottery tickets at the grocery store and eat at the 24 hour diner on the way home before collapsing into bed. I could go to the bookstore, eat, go to a park, the gym, take in some music or a movie, you name it, after coming out of the rabbit hole before heading home. Vehicles did all these things. They connected sims to the open world environment. They were present everywhere you went, because they got you there. From going out to a stakeout in a Big Lemon, biking to the gym, or heading out to forge some art on The Beast. Finding parking lots crowded with Jalopies, UFO's parked in obscure island locations, selling the Bwan Speedster to get through university (you know the one... don't lie), and getting half a dozen 85k sports cars and a bbq for being a celebrity. But they still got you where you were GOING.
Cars won't fix the Sims 4. They won't bring any of that back. There isn't really anywhere to actually go. There are no roads. There is nowhere to stop along the way. Just loading screens to go to a new location and an off to work void. The speed you get there, if you get there in style doesn't matter. You could still amass some wealth, but with the size of the lots I would be skeptical of where to put them.
And while there were many careers from home in the Sims 3, as there are some in the Sims 4, in the Sims 3 you could choose if you sold a painting off the easel, or sold your gardening, etc, through your inventory, or head out to the consignment store, sell them at the grocery store, etc. You could even use the rugs if you wanted to. There was the choice to get out and do more than look at the four walls all the time, even for careers that were from home. So, instead of selling the the next painting at home and starting all over again as in the Sims 4, you had the chance to make a little extra money by putting in a little extra effort by using the consignment store. You could build a reputation at the store, build a relationship with the employee (who holds your financial well being in their hands,) meet other sims there, irresponsibly go drop your first consignment payday for your less than masterful paintings on a tattoo on the way home and not make your 22 simoleons bills that week and have the repo man take your alarm system so you get robbed later in the week (keep the good stuff at the back of the house.)
So, home life in the Sims 3 could be a flurry of activity, even if you lived alone. You could welcome it and even place objects to enhance it, or shake your fist at it and kick and sell the gnomes, shutter the windows, build a big fence, and put up a privacy gate. There were also opportunities to bring your at home careers out into the world to make extra cash, socialize, and do things - or not. You could be a total and complete shut if if you wanted, or get out there, and it gave some variety to the game play, along with traits (some traits have a sim like to stay home and not be around people and be very uncomfortable in a crowded place or meeting someone new, while others will have your sim soak up the sunshine on the commute and adore socializing while quickly tiring of being alone at home. These factors alone can totally change what it's like to have your sim crawl out the door after staying up several nights painting for a trip to the consignment store. Whether it's liberating or anxiety laden for this sim to take the extra step out into public to sell their wares vs be in the comfort of their home in their element. Introverts and extroverts.) When I play the Sims 4, it's paint, sell, paint sell. No reason to move until the sim needs their motives filled, which is pretty repetitive. I think a more interesting home life is something that could have been present more in the Sims 4, even without needing to go out to do something (and sit through a loading screen.) For me, the home life is pretty uneventful unless people come over and leave glasses of water lying around all over the place for me to clean up, which makes me kind of mad at all my friends so I wish they would stop coming over.
I didn't even get 3 full minutes into Carl's video before I found myself nodding along and repeating the words 'yes' and 'exactly' over and over. I hope they take what he says into consideration and listen to other players who've been giving similar feedback. I've also seen a few other game changers talking about problems within the game and while it feels long overdue to have the players EA seems to look to the most say something about problems that have been spoken about since release it's better late than never. If nothing improves for The Sims 4 then at least maybe there will be a improvement with The Sims 5.
@Simsalot99 - Thank you so much for your detailed comments! I've never really played The Sims 3 - only the base game for the couple of hours before I got tired of the open world and the unappealing (to me) visuals. Your enthusiastic comments made me want to buy TS3 and all its expansions right away! While I keep hearing that TS3 had a lot of issues as well, it seems that it was so much more complex and fun than TS4 currently is. (not that I don't have fun while playing TS4, it's just that it's a bit frustrating - it could be so much more than it actually is!)
The Sims 3 is certainly not bug free. But, I have found that after playing for a while the usual bugs are pretty easy to deal with and don't really impact my enjoyment of the game. The game has been around for a long time, so any bug is pretty solvable by checking online, and most of the bugs as usually the usual culprits which are pretty easy to deal with (like unroutable sims.) That said, if a system isn't good enough to run the Sims 3 well, what are really minor bugs that are easy to deal with could become deal breakers. That loading time and lag could really be an issue, and make the game not very fun to play. In that case, the Sims 4 would run better.
The bare basics of making the Sims 3 run well if your system is good enough is use ErrorTrap and Overwatch on games where you have lag occur due to a stuck or unroutable sim. Test by resetting all the sims. If it solves the problem, use ErrorTrap and Overwatch and the problem will be taken care of for you and your game will run smooth. I don't use ErrorTrap and Overwatch unless I need them, and judge from game to game, as I had one game (in many) where it actually caused a problem rather than solving it. Don't let your personal inventory get infinitely large. Store some of those extra items from adventuring and gardening in chests or something, or it can lead to lag (it takes a heck of a lot of items, but it happens.) Family inventory could be considered if lag persists. If playing Ilsa Paradiso, move all households out of houseboats and into empty houses you don't want for yourself to avoid lag. It only takes a few minutes. Don't put items from Grandma's Canning Station in your inventory. If your expensive boat disappears no need to be above cheating it back (as it's technically not cheating if it's a bug.) Knowing how to reset your sim with the console is a good idea in case of emergency. For me, it's smooth sailing if I do these things and I enjoy my games a lot. All of these things are minor and only take a moment.
It's so easy for me to get lost in Sims 3 and the Sims in particular. Even in Sims 2 it takes a second to adjust but after that I'm drawn to those sims too. Sims 4 it has never been like that. They aren't the sims I created so much as the only sims the game offers. Sims 3 sims were often referred to as dull and robotic but the Sims 4 sims are the ones I feel that way about. It's like playing the same sim over and over through every pack, every new feature and it's no wonder that it has a replayabilty problem for some players. I feel like a lot of problems could be solved by simply improving their personalities and emotions.
Everyone talks about the dynamic personalities of Sims 2 so I don't have to go over that again, it's already well known, they're widely considered the best sims of The Sims series for a reason. But Sims 3 personalities get overlooked and like someone in The Sims 3 section said, they're more lively than they're given credit for. You have to play them and the more you play the more their personality shines through. I always thought it had this way of learning based on how the player plays the sim. In my current save I can clearly see how their traits mean something and how my influence shaped them and added to the sims they are. They really do come alive and grow as I play them and that's something I'd love to see improved going forward in this series along with some improvements based on some of the best things in The Sims 2 like interests, turn ons and turn offs, etc. The sims of the past were the better sims and my hope for Sims 4 was that they'd learn from them and make the sims even better.
I didn't play Sims 4 expecting it to be Sims 3 either and it's not like you, I or any other person who finds this game difficult to get into wants to hate it, I think it's the opposite actually, but I think it's too late for Sims 4 too. Even with the 64 bit focus now I still don't think much is going to change unless they aim to improve the base game. And not just by adding width without depth as Carl said.
People who are enjoying it as is I think will continue to enjoy it, but people who are always looking for the next bit of content not long after they just got the new content because the replay value isn't great to them or people who find they have a problem with the core of the game I think will always have a problem which is why they either look to the next pack coming down the pike or they continue playing the older games.