@drake_mccarty It doesn't make sense to me, at all... Why they aren't selling World Packs like we had in Sims 3 then?
I am absolutely happy that they aren't doing that for Sims 4. Worlds were a ridiculous 30 bucks for Sims 3 if you wanted the gameplay items.
As opposed to TS4? Where you get very few gameplay items and tiny uneditable worlds? And cost more? Lol!
I'd rather have TS3 where you can create worlds. We have hundreds more worlds besides the ones EA made. All for FREE.
My problem with that is, you can only pick one world to play in at a time. There is no change in environment and households for rotational play. I can't handle being tied to only one world, no matter how big it is, even Sims 2 had more freedom than that in both world connections and rotational play.
So while I can't stand that we can't edit the Sims 4 worlds, (another thing that even Sims 2 offered,) I'd much rather have the flexibility of being able to access all worlds from all DLC in a current save and keep expanding, rather than have to make a choice with every new world to give up invested gameplay in order to switch to a new one, or start completely over with a new save just to use it. It doesn't work with my play style at all.
@drake_mccarty It doesn't make sense to me, at all... Why they aren't selling World Packs like we had in Sims 3 then?
I am absolutely happy that they aren't doing that for Sims 4. Worlds were a ridiculous 30 bucks for Sims 3 if you wanted the gameplay items.
As opposed to TS4? Where you get very few gameplay items and tiny uneditable worlds? And cost more? Lol!
I'd rather have TS3 where you can create worlds. We have hundreds more worlds besides the ones EA made. All for FREE.
I personally think most of TS4 packs are a better value. Stuff packs used to be 20 bucks in Sims 3 and didn't even include new gameplay items. Sims 4 has 10 dollar stuff packs and includes new gameplay. I think Sims 4's methods are a much better way to deliver content. While Sims 3 had some expansions that included more content I am overall satisfied minus a few gripes here and there with Sims 4 content. It was absolutely heinous how so much Sims 3 content was on the outrageously priced Sims 3 store and it usually was buggy and underwhelming. I am not a Sims 3 hater by any means. I still play it sometimes. It's just that besides their expansion packs for the game, The Sims 3 had criminally overpriced store items and paltry stuff packs.
First of all, in TS3 all items in its EPs, SPs and the Sims 3 Store are customizable - you can change their colors, patterns and textures so much so that you can make them look like entirely new items. Can you say the same thing about TS4's items? Nope. This is why TS4 stuff packs are cheaper. You can only do so much with the items in those stuff packs. In order to have a wider range of colors for an item, you'll have to wait: either for EA to sell those items to you in another color (basically buying the same item again) so it's NOT really cheaper and NOT better value, or have a modder do it for you, or you'll have to do it yourself outside of the game.
You're also not right about the prices in the Sims 3 Store. I'm not rich, but I was able to buy 97% of the store so far (I just need a few clothes left) and I didn't pay thousands of dollars. Every TS3 simmer knows that everything there, including worlds, including venues and sets, goes on sale to as much as 60 to 70%. That's why there is a long running thread in the TS3 Section that keeps track of the Daily Deals. There's also Make-A-Deal that gives up to 45% discount on items that you don't have. Even the points themselves go on sale at times. Also, there are some items there that are free, including a whole world, Riverview. I would have thought that a free world would probably be shoddy and badly made, but it isn't and has turned out to be one of my most favorite worlds and has some of my most favorite townies!
Also in the TS3 section, there often are giveaways and gifting.
As for claiming that the items are buggy and underwhelming - well that's not true either. Most of the Sims 3 Store items are pretty useful and work great. If I do come across a glitch, it is easily fixed. I haven't come across any of my items where I wasn't able to use their functionality.
Another thing that I like about the Sims 3 Store is that you can choose exactly what you want to buy. Do you want to buy a whole set of furniture? You can do that! Want just a specific chair? Go right ahead! You can't do that with TS4 stuff packs - no choice at all, just like with everything else in the game.
Overall the Sims 3 Store is doing well, or EAxis would have closed it down. A lot of people like it and for me personally, I haven't been disappointed with anything I bought there. I really hope EAxis will open a Sims 5 Store when the time comes.
Stuff packs for TS3 can also be bought on sale too. They don't go on sale as much as TS4, but they do go on sale guaranteed during the summer sales and Christmas sales. I like them, but not nearly as much as I do the Sims 3 Store, but I always load all of them anywy. Each stuff pack has something useful for all my TS3 scenarios/challenges/stories and has some things that the Sims 3 Store doesn't have, such as adding new songs to the radio stations.
So yeah, TS3 has a lot of great things going for it. Items for it are of high quality and work as they should whether from EPs, SPs or the Sims 3 Store. Also all items are customizable which make them of greater value then their TS4 counterparts. A much bigger bang for your buck!
@drake_mccarty Hm, good point... I remember hearing that its harder for them in Sims 4. But its always someone making assumptions that the worlds are small because they harder to make, when they obviously are smaller because a save file would never be able to run 20/30 worlds at the same time, even mroe when the worlds are bigger! Honestly, to me, the neighborhoods itself are more detailed and well decorated than Sims 3 worlds, and maybe thats one of the reasons that explain why the worlds would take longer to make. Besides the size I like them that way, they feel more real than just a bunch of trees and roads with themed houses and rabbit holes here and there, but I think they could figure out a way to make it easier in Sims 5 than it is in Sims 4. Anyway, they have the staff.
@Simburian@LiELF I wish they would give us at least something like Sims 2, and a way to add/remove worlds from our save files. They have that excuse that the worlds are smaller cuz save files wouldn't be able to handle too much information at once, but its just bs... They don't have to force all worlds to be joined together by default. They can make us pick one and later add the others if we wished. Than they could add a bunch of other empty worlds like the Newcrest one like we had that empty maps in sims 2. We could add Bluewater Village, the 3 university neighborhoods, and the 3 vacation destination and the downtown as subneighborhoods.
Like @LiELF it was annoying to have to give up all of our progress to play another world, and the story progression/culling messed up the rotational players a lot. I hope they add SP, cuz i like to play with it turned on in Sims 3 sometimes, but I hope they add a whole toggle screen to customize what we want. I f I want half-SP, cool. If I wanted full-SP, cool. If I wanted half-rotational, cool. If I wanted full-rotational, cool. You could toggle whatever you wanted, from aging to getting jobs, divorcing or not, etc...
@KaitlinMarie Maybe you wouldn't be making worlds, but I doubt you would never download a fanmade world from the gallery.
@ClarionOfJoy friend... I don't know why you're talking about the Store from today like if it was the same thing in the past, when I was mentioning how the Store used to work back when Sims 3 was being released. They didn't have discounts or sales, we didn't even had the option to gift people (I think they added that after Showtime was released). And, sometimes obejcts like the Lady Ravendancer Book of Spells wouldn't work for a long time, I still have to download mod fixes to make some of the store objects to work. Maybe today, 11 years after Sims 3 was released, 7 years after Sims 3 ended its life cycle, the Store is cheaper, has sales and they finally fixed the glitched/buggy objects, but I'm talking about those games... Sims 1/2/3/4... and comparing them during their life cycles and how we, as players and consumers, were treated. I don't care about something I can't play on my modern computer, and I don't want the same bad experiences I had previously. But, I also don't want the devs to give up on extremely fun features like open world and CASt jsut because they don't sit to think about it long enough to figure out a better way to introduce them in a game without being laggy and broken.
@drake_mccarty It doesn't make sense to me, at all... Why they aren't selling World Packs like we had in Sims 3 then?
I am absolutely happy that they aren't doing that for Sims 4. Worlds were a ridiculous 30 bucks for Sims 3 if you wanted the gameplay items.
As opposed to TS4? Where you get very few gameplay items and tiny uneditable worlds? And cost more? Lol!
I'd rather have TS3 where you can create worlds. We have hundreds more worlds besides the ones EA made. All for FREE.
My problem with that is, you can only pick one world to play in at a time. There is no change in environment and households for rotational play. I can't handle being tied to only one world, no matter how big it is, even Sims 2 had more freedom than that in both world connections and rotational play.
So while I can't stand that we can't edit the Sims 4 worlds, (another thing that even Sims 2 offered,) I'd much rather have the flexibility of being able to access all worlds from all DLC in a current save and keep expanding, rather than have to make a choice with every new world to give up invested gameplay in order to switch to a new one, or start completely over with a new save just to use it. It doesn't work with my play style at all.
That's not true what you wrote either. You CAN travel AND have rotational play in TS3, but I'm glad you brought it up so other readers can know about them:
Travel Between Worlds in TS3
When Twallan, was looking through the TS3 code, he discovered that the dev who wrote the traveling feature to go to the three worlds in World Adventures EP also made it so that other worlds can be added. So Twallen wrote the NRAAS Traveler mod to make that available. Now TS3 sims can go, not only to those three worlds, but to all the others as well!
So that's how I play now. TS3 worlds are not only 100% open world, but I can play as many worlds in one game story/challenge. Your sims, each in their lifetime, can go to as many worlds as you wish. They can buy property, they can work in any of them, and change their hometowns - their relationships with people in the old one are retained. This works really well for legacy families with long family trees.
I really love this mod and TS3 because when you travel to each different world, you don't meet the same sims like you would in TS4. Each world has its own unique sims that you can build relationships with. And because each world has so many more things to see and do, unlike in TS4's tiny worlds which only have a few lots each, you can stay in each world for much longer to really explore those worlds. Between TS3 and TS4, TS3 is so much better in terms of inter-worlds play!
Rotational play is also possible in TS3 using the NRAAS Story Progression mod. I also think it's even better than any other iteration for this because you can configure it exactly the way you want. Don't want your inactive sims cheating on their spouses will you're not playing them? Don't want your single sims getting love interests without your blessing? Don't want them changing jobs? Don't want them skilling up? Etc.? You can set all these things and more! That way, when you come back to those sets of sims, nothing has changed. They will have just kept working and doing routine things that won't give you an unpleasant surprise.
In an indirect way, this is important if your active sims have a store because they will have customers that have a steady income to continue buying your sims' wares.
So yeah, none of what you're saying is true. We do have those features in TS3 and are much better than in TS4. Yes, they are mods, but they are only accessing what is already in TS3 and not adding new features.
If readers have any other questions, you can post them to the TS3 section here in this forum, or at the NRAAS forum.
@drake_mccarty It doesn't make sense to me, at all... Why they aren't selling World Packs like we had in Sims 3 then?
I am absolutely happy that they aren't doing that for Sims 4. Worlds were a ridiculous 30 bucks for Sims 3 if you wanted the gameplay items.
As opposed to TS4? Where you get very few gameplay items and tiny uneditable worlds? And cost more? Lol!
I'd rather have TS3 where you can create worlds. We have hundreds more worlds besides the ones EA made. All for FREE.
My problem with that is, you can only pick one world to play in at a time. There is no change in environment and households for rotational play. I can't handle being tied to only one world, no matter how big it is, even Sims 2 had more freedom than that in both world connections and rotational play.
So while I can't stand that we can't edit the Sims 4 worlds, (another thing that even Sims 2 offered,) I'd much rather have the flexibility of being able to access all worlds from all DLC in a current save and keep expanding, rather than have to make a choice with every new world to give up invested gameplay in order to switch to a new one, or start completely over with a new save just to use it. It doesn't work with my play style at all.
That's not true what you wrote either. You CAN travel AND have rotational play in TS3, but I'm glad you brought it up so other readers can know about them:
Travel Between Worlds in TS3
When Twallan, was looking through the TS3 code, he discovered that the dev who wrote the traveling feature to go to the three worlds in World Adventures EP also made it so that other worlds can be added. So Twallen wrote the NRAAS Traveler mod to make that available. Now TS3 sims can go, not only to those three worlds, but to all the others as well!
So that's how I play now. TS3 worlds are not only 100% open world, but I can play as many worlds in one game story/challenge. Your sims, each in their lifetime, can go to as many worlds as you wish. They can buy property, they can work in any of them, and change their hometowns - their relationships with people in the old one are retained. This works really well for legacy families with long family trees.
I really love this mod and TS3 because when you travel to each different world, you don't meet the same sims like you would in TS4. Each world has its own unique sims that you can build relationships with. And because each world has so many more things to see and do, unlike in TS4's tiny worlds which only have a few lots each, you can stay in each world for much longer to really explore those worlds. Between TS3 and TS4, TS3 is so much better in terms of inter-worlds play!
Rotational play is also possible in TS3 using the NRAAS Story Progression mod. I also think it's even better than any other iteration for this because you can configure it exactly the way you want. Don't want your inactive sims cheating on their spouses will you're not playing them? Don't want your single sims getting love interests without your blessing? Don't want them changing jobs? Don't want them skilling up? Etc.? You can set all these things and more! That way, when you come back to those sets of sims, nothing has changed. They will have just kept working and doing routine things that won't give you an unpleasant surprise.
In an indirect way, this is important if your active sims have a store because they will have customers that have a steady income to continue buying your sims' wares.
So yeah, none of what you're saying is true. We do have those features in TS3 and are much better than in TS4. Yes, they are mods, but they are only accessing what is already in TS3 and not adding new features.
If readers have any other questions, you can post them to the TS3 section here in this forum, or at the NRAAS forum.
@ClarionOfJoy those are mods, and thats not how the game was intended to be played. Not everyone uses mods and the game should've been released with rotational players in mind TOO since thats how everyone was playing The Sims during Sims 1/2.
@Karon world building is done from “scratch” for every world they make. That means every single piece has to be modeled, textured, positioned, etc. Sims 3 had an automated base for this that meant the terrain, textures, water, sky, etc was all built-in and could be manipulated in real time (this is what CAW was adapted from) which meant worlds could be made a lot faster and easier.
Worlds are more decorated in 4, that’s more to do with the condensed nature of each little district. Sims 3 had areas of high detail like that, but a much larger map so obviously it’s not going to be packed with decorations at every step.
As for staff, I’m not saying they don’t have employees. I’m saying they don’t have employees to make worlds. Maxis has an abundance of producers, and VFX artists. A concept artist vented on Twitter before release about the first one, and Graham (a producer) told players about the second one on MTS. Reading that tweet by Grant, I could probably come up with several ways to explain how that’s true but also how it’s being shared in a misleading way. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter how many people they have on payroll, they aren’t doing a fantastic job with who they have.
@ClarionOfJoy friend... I don't know why you're talking about the Store from today like if it was the same thing in the past, when I was mentioning how the Store used to work back when Sims 3 was being released. They didn't have discounts or sales, we didn't even had the option to gift people (I think they added that after Showtime was released). And, sometimes obejcts like the Lady Ravendancer Book of Spells wouldn't work for a long time, I still have to download mod fixes to make some of the store objects to work. Maybe today, 11 years after Sims 3 was released, 7 years after Sims 3 ended its life cycle, the Store is cheaper, has sales and they finally fixed the glitched/buggy objects, but I'm talking about those games... Sims 1/2/3/4... and comparing them during their life cycles and how we, as players and consumers, were treated. I don't care about something I can't play on my modern computer, and I don't want the same bad experiences I had previously. But, I also don't want the devs to give up on extremely fun features like open world and CASt jsut because they don't sit to think about it long enough to figure out a better way to introduce them in a game without being laggy and broken.
I feel sorry for you that you have to actually put down the other iterations to try to make TS4 look half-way decent, but that game is still pretty awful even in comparison to how things were back in the previous iterations' days.
Item Fixes Link
That link you showed me only showed a few things that needed fixing in comparison to the entire inventory of store items sold. Most of those that needed fixing were objects that were decrappified by the simmer (not by EAxis) which broke those items when processed. Otherwise the Sims 3 Store objects that weren't decrappified by the simmer still worked.
Also the list of fixes for actual store items is actually very short, most of which were aesthetic fixes or additions (those items that were originally unCAStable made CAStable for example), and not gameplay or functional fixes. So this is a none issue.
EA and Past The Sims Iterations
EAxis treated it's customers for the past iterations a whole lot better than how they're treating their TS4 customers now. All the packs for previous iterations were jam-packed full of features and great items. They didn't break them down into separate EPs and GPs. You actually ended up getting more in the EPs for less money in TS1 - TS3. TS4 simmers pay more for them separately with less content in each pack.
Devs were also much more excited about their work in TS1 - TS3. When you bought the latest EP or SP, a flyer would be included telling you what pack is already coming up next. The trailers also were amazing, showing a lot of new features. People also got a lot of neat, unique items if they pre-ordered too! When a TS3 simmer gets the pack, they still discover new wonderful features not mentioned in the trailers. The packs are so great that it keeps them busy until the next pack comes out. Even now when all the packs are finished, people are still playing all those games!
Now? The devs barely communicate with TS4 simmers who are left guessing what's going to happen next. The packs themselves aren't very well done, all of them missing features that people were hoping and expecting. As a result people get bored of them so quickly. I also hate how EAxis deceives their customers trying to make a pack look promising when they're actually lack-lustre. I get sad reading about how disappointed people are with the TS4 packs, especially in the later ones, once they pay their money and play these packs.
So yeah, ask any TS1, TS2 and TS3 simmers how they were treated by EAxis back in those days and they'll tell you: "MUCH, much better than with TS4 now."
TS3 and Computers
I'm not sure why you can't play TS3 on your more powerful computer, when everyone else playing TS3 can. I mean just look in the TS3 section of this forum at all the people who are able to make it work on their computers, lol! So it's more a reflection on you rather than on the game.
Plus back in the day, it's not like everyone couldn't get TS3 to work on their computers like you're making it sound. As demanding as TS3 can be with power, you can still have a computer with 4gb RAM and integrated Intel graphics card and still have it run well. And it only needs a few mods minimum: NRAAS MasterController and Overwatch. You can even use a less powerful computer as long as you reduce the resolution of the game and lower the graphics quality. Either way, the good AI and gameplay is still there which are the most important things for an actual life sim game.
TS4 though isn't so great because a lot of the gameplay is broken - sims don't do as they should and you need a ton of mods just to get them to do what they should. It's more of a very expensive dress-up doll and lot building game - which isn't really necessary since there are dress up doll and building apps that go for much cheaper. It's not much a of story telling program either, because in the other iterations, they have more options for setting up the stories, like editing the worlds and lots to fit the stories better. You just can't do that with TS4.
So yeah, I think EAxis treated TS1 - TS3 customers MUCH better than TS4 customers now in the content and communication they had with us. Plus the older iterations just had better and higher quality stuff than TS4 does.
So if anyone is fed up with TS4, they don't need to despair, just go back to or try TS3, TS2 and/or TS1 (if you can get those). You'll get a much better experience with those and you'll have the TS1 - TS3 communities here to help you if you need it!
We are probably NEVER going to get a create a world tool for this mess of a game, so no, a ''CAW Game Pack'' is 10000% a no.
I agree however with the Sims 5 maybe we will get create a world back.
Unless they have total contempt for their players it shouldn’t even be a question. This game won’t support it because of how it was originally designed, there is no excuse for the next one. They know what players have wanted for the past 20 years, let alone the past 5 with this game. Failure to deliver is not acceptable from a AAA developer making the biggest PC franchise in the world.
@drake_mccarty It doesn't make sense to me, at all... Why they aren't selling World Packs like we had in Sims 3 then?
I am absolutely happy that they aren't doing that for Sims 4. Worlds were a ridiculous 30 bucks for Sims 3 if you wanted the gameplay items.
As opposed to TS4? Where you get very few gameplay items and tiny uneditable worlds? And cost more? Lol!
I'd rather have TS3 where you can create worlds. We have hundreds more worlds besides the ones EA made. All for FREE.
My problem with that is, you can only pick one world to play in at a time. There is no change in environment and households for rotational play. I can't handle being tied to only one world, no matter how big it is, even Sims 2 had more freedom than that in both world connections and rotational play.
So while I can't stand that we can't edit the Sims 4 worlds, (another thing that even Sims 2 offered,) I'd much rather have the flexibility of being able to access all worlds from all DLC in a current save and keep expanding, rather than have to make a choice with every new world to give up invested gameplay in order to switch to a new one, or start completely over with a new save just to use it. It doesn't work with my play style at all.
That's not true what you wrote either. You CAN travel AND have rotational play in TS3, but I'm glad you brought it up so other readers can know about them:
Travel Between Worlds in TS3
When Twallan, was looking through the TS3 code, he discovered that the dev who wrote the traveling feature to go to the three worlds in World Adventures EP also made it so that other worlds can be added. So Twallen wrote the NRAAS Traveler mod to make that available. Now TS3 sims can go, not only to those three worlds, but to all the others as well!
So that's how I play now. TS3 worlds are not only 100% open world, but I can play as many worlds in one game story/challenge. Your sims, each in their lifetime, can go to as many worlds as you wish. They can buy property, they can work in any of them, and change their hometowns - their relationships with people in the old one are retained. This works really well for legacy families with long family trees.
I really love this mod and TS3 because when you travel to each different world, you don't meet the same sims like you would in TS4. Each world has its own unique sims that you can build relationships with. And because each world has so many more things to see and do, unlike in TS4's tiny worlds which only have a few lots each, you can stay in each world for much longer to really explore those worlds. Between TS3 and TS4, TS3 is so much better in terms of inter-worlds play!
Rotational play is also possible in TS3 using the NRAAS Story Progression mod. I also think it's even better than any other iteration for this because you can configure it exactly the way you want. Don't want your inactive sims cheating on their spouses will you're not playing them? Don't want your single sims getting love interests without your blessing? Don't want them changing jobs? Don't want them skilling up? Etc.? You can set all these things and more! That way, when you come back to those sets of sims, nothing has changed. They will have just kept working and doing routine things that won't give you an unpleasant surprise.
In an indirect way, this is important if your active sims have a store because they will have customers that have a steady income to continue buying your sims' wares.
So yeah, none of what you're saying is true. We do have those features in TS3 and are much better than in TS4. Yes, they are mods, but they are only accessing what is already in TS3 and not adding new features.
If readers have any other questions, you can post them to the TS3 section here in this forum, or at the NRAAS forum.
@ClarionOfJoy those are mods, and thats not how the game was intended to be played. Not everyone uses mods and the game should've been released with rotational players in mind TOO since thats how everyone was playing The Sims during Sims 1/2.
Lol, tell that to TS4! That game NEEDs a ton of mods just to make the sims and other stuff work as they should. Because without them, that game is just a game-breaking mess!
Rotational play may have come later to TS3, but now that it's here, why dwell on the past? It's even better on TS3 because you can better manage both active and inactive sims. Plus no time disparities which I hated in TS1/TS2!
@ClarionOfJoy I'm not saying Sims 4 is better when I've been really vocal on this forum on how SIms 4 is the worst Sims game. Sims 3 had cool things, but its not the best for me. I played more Sims 3 than any other game, but Sims 2 was WAY better than any of them. Whatever. This discussion is tiring me, I'm not here to compare the games. I'm here to share that I'm feeling like we are getting Create a World this year and that I would love it. And, if you like so much to talk about mods, Deaderpool's MCCC can be as detailed as NRASS is, its just more simple. I can control both active and inactive sims if I want. You should try that. And, we had mods for sims 2 to fix the time issue when returning from community lots to your home lot, the only thing is that you would play the day all over again until your sim arrives at home, which can be useful when you have more than 1 sim in your household. This way I could play more than one character's day instead of abadoning someone.
BUT... AGAIN. I hope this conversation is over. If you want to keep going, I hope its to share what would you want in a Create-A-World Game Pack. Maybe a Manage Story system, where you can toggle whatever you want to customize your story progression/rotational play?
@ClarionOfJoy I'm not saying Sims 4 is better when I've been really vocal on this forum on how SIms 4 is the worst Sims game. Sims 3 had cool things, but its not the best for me. I played more Sims 3 than any other game, but Sims 2 was WAY better than any of them. Whatever. This discussion is tiring me, I'm not here to compare the games. I'm here to share that I'm feeling like we are getting Create a World this year and that I would love it. And, if you like so much to talk about mods, Deaderpool's MCCC can be as detailed as NRASS is, its just more simple. I can control both active and inactive sims if I want. You should try that. And, we had mods for sims 2 to fix the time issue when returning from community lots to your home lot, the only thing is that you would play the day all over again until your sim arrives at home, which can be useful when you have more than 1 sim in your household. This way I could play more than one character's day instead of abadoning someone.
BUT... AGAIN. I hope this conversation is over. If you want to keep going, I hope its to share what would you want in a Create-A-World Game Pack. Maybe a Manage Story system, where you can toggle whatever you want to customize your story progression/rotational play?
I'm just clearing up some information that may be misunderstood about TS3 and discourage people from even trying it and so miss out on a wonderful game.
I've already tried TS4 and since I'm an open world live game player that plays the entire map, it really doesn't do it for me when I'm faced with so many loading screens. I still like TS2 a lot now and back in the day when there was no open world, I did love TS2. When TS2's Apartment Life EP was released, I would lay down the biggest lot possible, create a little town and cram as many sims into the lot as my poor CPU can handle. It was like a mini-TS3 world with no loading screens! So can you imagine my surprise and delight when TS3 came out and it was 100% open world? OMG!
I don't like TS4 and I've basically given up on it getting better. But I do try to vote in the polls to ask for a lot of the things TS4 simmers want. Why? Because it would be nice if they got some of the things the older iterations have that made them so enjoyable. I really do feel that people who played TS4 have truly missed out and this is partly why I like encouraging them to try out TS3 (and TS2 if EAxis ever decides to re-release it).
It would be nice if they give TS4 a CAW and/or Story Progression pack but it should be FREE just like it was for TS3. And it should work well and not cause more bugs.
@drake_mccarty It doesn't make sense to me, at all... Why they aren't selling World Packs like we had in Sims 3 then?
I am absolutely happy that they aren't doing that for Sims 4. Worlds were a ridiculous 30 bucks for Sims 3 if you wanted the gameplay items.
As opposed to TS4? Where you get very few gameplay items and tiny uneditable worlds? And cost more? Lol!
I'd rather have TS3 where you can create worlds. We have hundreds more worlds besides the ones EA made. All for FREE.
My problem with that is, you can only pick one world to play in at a time. There is no change in environment and households for rotational play. I can't handle being tied to only one world, no matter how big it is, even Sims 2 had more freedom than that in both world connections and rotational play.
So while I can't stand that we can't edit the Sims 4 worlds, (another thing that even Sims 2 offered,) I'd much rather have the flexibility of being able to access all worlds from all DLC in a current save and keep expanding, rather than have to make a choice with every new world to give up invested gameplay in order to switch to a new one, or start completely over with a new save just to use it. It doesn't work with my play style at all.
That's not true what you wrote either. You CAN travel AND have rotational play in TS3, but I'm glad you brought it up so other readers can know about them:
Travel Between Worlds in TS3
When Twallan, was looking through the TS3 code, he discovered that the dev who wrote the traveling feature to go to the three worlds in World Adventures EP also made it so that other worlds can be added. So Twallen wrote the NRAAS Traveler mod to make that available. Now TS3 sims can go, not only to those three worlds, but to all the others as well!
So that's how I play now. TS3 worlds are not only 100% open world, but I can play as many worlds in one game story/challenge. Your sims, each in their lifetime, can go to as many worlds as you wish. They can buy property, they can work in any of them, and change their hometowns - their relationships with people in the old one are retained. This works really well for legacy families with long family trees.
I really love this mod and TS3 because when you travel to each different world, you don't meet the same sims like you would in TS4. Each world has its own unique sims that you can build relationships with. And because each world has so many more things to see and do, unlike in TS4's tiny worlds which only have a few lots each, you can stay in each world for much longer to really explore those worlds. Between TS3 and TS4, TS3 is so much better in terms of inter-worlds play!
Rotational play is also possible in TS3 using the NRAAS Story Progression mod. I also think it's even better than any other iteration for this because you can configure it exactly the way you want. Don't want your inactive sims cheating on their spouses will you're not playing them? Don't want your single sims getting love interests without your blessing? Don't want them changing jobs? Don't want them skilling up? Etc.? You can set all these things and more! That way, when you come back to those sets of sims, nothing has changed. They will have just kept working and doing routine things that won't give you an unpleasant surprise.
In an indirect way, this is important if your active sims have a store because they will have customers that have a steady income to continue buying your sims' wares.
So yeah, none of what you're saying is true. We do have those features in TS3 and are much better than in TS4. Yes, they are mods, but they are only accessing what is already in TS3 and not adding new features.
If readers have any other questions, you can post them to the TS3 section here in this forum, or at the NRAAS forum.
@ClarionOfJoy those are mods, and thats not how the game was intended to be played. Not everyone uses mods and the game should've been released with rotational players in mind TOO since thats how everyone was playing The Sims during Sims 1/2.
Lol, tell that to TS4! That game NEEDs a ton of mods just to make the sims and other stuff work as they should. Because without them, that game is just a game-breaking mess!
Rotational play may have come later to TS3, but now that it's here, why dwell on the past? It's even better on TS3 because you can better manage both active and inactive sims. Plus no time disparities which I hated in TS1/TS2!
Both Sims 3 and Sims 4 need mods to play properly. That's the problem. It's been a steady decline of quality that's just getting worse. Someone may enjoy either or both of these games, but it doesn't negate that they both have their own fair share of issues.
I only know my experience with Sims 3 completely without mods or CC and honestly, I just don't like the game enough to deal with the intricacies of using a mod to try to get satisfactory gameplay. Too many other factors like rabbit holes, Sim art style, freaky facial animations and
odd movements, bugs and performance stutters... just kill it for me. It's too bad because I want to like it, I do really like a lot of the EP concepts, but it feels to me like it has its own areas of shallowness where it took some steps backward from Sims 2. It's just not my game, and that's okay. There are plenty of others who love it.
I think it's a little dishonest to say that Sims 3 delivers travel between worlds and acceptable rotational play when mods are required for them. I mean, that would equate to me trying to claim that the Sims 4 emotions system is balanced and well-portrayed because the Meaningful Life mod changes how it works, or that an intricate Story Progression totally exists because MC Command can create it. And don't get me wrong - I have the utmost respect for modders because they have actually saved these games where EA failed. But when actually comparing iterations and what they can or cannot do or how they perform, it's much more forthright to stick to the official game creation as it was released and be candid about its execution.
But as for the original topic of this thread, I would love to see some kind of world creator for Sims 4. I'm not quite sure how that would work, but I have actually seen a mod that could change the distant backdrops, so maybe it could be partially possible. Even if we could just have semi-blank copies of the existing worlds where we could change up certain things like backdrops and public areas but the roads and active lot areas had to stay the same, I think it could be interesting, as long as we could add/remove lots and change the sizes of them.
Both Sims 3 and Sims 4 need mods to play properly. That's the problem. It's been a steady decline of quality that's just getting worse. Someone may enjoy either or both of these games, but it doesn't negate that they both have their own fair share of issues.
I only know my experience with Sims 3 completely without mods or CC and honestly, I just don't like the game enough to deal with the intricacies of using a mod to try to get satisfactory gameplay. Too many other factors like rabbit holes, Sim art style, freaky facial animations and
odd movements, bugs and performance stutters... just kill it for me. It's too bad because I want to like it, I do really like a lot of the EP concepts, but it feels to me like it has its own areas of shallowness where it took some steps backward from Sims 2. It's just not my game, and that's okay. There are plenty of others who love it.
Well that's mere opinion and not completely factual. Not enough to discourage other people from playing the game, sorry. I wouldn't lump TS3 in with TS4 when it comes to a decline in quality. I understood TS3 doesn't have the same details of TS2 because the computers of that time were limited. Fine details or open world system? So the TS3 devs concentrated on its open world system and keeping track of everything in the world in real time: not just your active sims, but that of every townie and service NPC, environment and other mechanisms.
In that sense, TS3 does have higher details that TS2 didn't have because not only did it have a lot of the details of TS2, but it was also open world. TS2's chance cards aren't just text that you read and then make a decision - they actually play out in the TS3 games - the world reacts to your decisions and actions in those situations! So for a first effort, what the devs did in TS3 was pretty amazing! And though it did have bugs, they were fixable, not game breaking - the strong gameplay and AI are still there. That's the most important thing.
Rabbitholes, this is one of the TS3 hating talking points that's pretty silly. In an open world system where everything runs in real time, that is actually useful when you're playing a household with more than one sim. Also because it's open world, it makes sense for sims to go somewhere for work. I actually like that they have the appropriate buildings to disappear into. It's much better and more immersive than just disappearing out of your home lot like in TS2 and TS4, right?
I also love that the devs had introduced items that help create active lot versions of some of the rabbitholes such as grocery store, book store, diner/bistro, theater, etc. but of course you wouldn't want to mention that.
So when you say that the gameplay is shallow in TS3, it just appears more like you haven't really played it. If anyone wants to know about true TS3 gameplay, ask simmers in the TS3 section who actually play it more than a passing glance. Also check out the Let's Play videos on YouTube. One of my favorites is Robbaz. His TS3 playthroughs are so funny, lol!
Here are two of my favorite episodes of his 🐸🐸🐸🐸 Brothers series centered around how a zombie apocalypse started and how they defeated it!
I think it's a little dishonest to say that Sims 3 delivers travel between worlds and acceptable rotational play when mods are required for them. I mean, that would equate to me trying to claim that the Sims 4 emotions system is balanced and well-portrayed because the Meaningful Life mod changes how it works, or that an intricate Story Progression totally exists because MC Command can create it. And don't get me wrong - I have the utmost respect for modders because they have actually saved these games where EA failed. But when actually comparing iterations and what they can or cannot do or how they perform, it's much more forthright to stick to the official game creation as it was released and be candid about its execution.
I'm not being dishonest in that I'm not out to deceive people into thinking TS3 is such a horrible game that people shouldn't try it, right? I'm not claiming things about it that aren't true, right?
Worlds
If you want to go into vanilla game worlds TS3 still outshines them both. One TS3 world can hold so many lots that you can divide it up into several districts that can mimic different worlds like those in TS4 or TS2. All without any loading screens! There are actual fan made worlds like that so there's no real need to go world hopping like you would have to in the other games. That's the power and flexibility of TS3 - and neither TS2 or TS4 have that ability.
Rotational
In terms of rotational play in TS3, technically, you can still play this way without mods that control outcomes - it's just that things can get pretty unpredictable - which isn't actually a bad thing! One time I wanted my active sim to have a romantic relationship with Connor Frio. Connor is a loner type, so is harder to get (and is cute). He's the brother of Jared Frio who, normally, is Claire Ursine's current or ex-boyfriend. But what happens? The game seems to know I'm trying to hook my sim up with Connor, so at the beginning of the game, Connor and Claire are already dating.
I was so annoyed! How to get rid of her? Well, I can try to rub her out (actually, I can just delete her but I'm thinking the game will just hook Connor up with someone else, lol). So I load up the gun mod, and give her a pistol. I send her to Claire's house to do the evil deed. So while I'm there, I have my sim take out her gun. While she's aiming at Claire, Claire is making these loving motions and talking to her stomach. I'm thinking, "What the heck is Claire doing?!??" Then it dawns me. Oh. My. Gosh! She's PREGNANT!!!! I had my sim do some talking interactions with Claire, and yes INDEED she is pregnant! I don't have my sims ever shoot parents. So I quietly took the gun away from my active sim. *Sigh* I ended up putting her together with some other sim, lol!
Another time, I wanted my male sim to start a relationship with another sim that I made. I had already placed her in the world, but by the time my male sim met her, she was already in a lesbian relationship with her neighbor across the street, lol! It took a lot of work, but my male sim and her did end up together and made uniting them more special than if there wasn't an obstacle to begin with.
So yeah, you CAN play rotationally in TS3 without mods. If you do it that way, the game will make things very, very interesting for you, throwing a lot of surprise situations at you that can actually help create stories you otherwise wouldn't have thought of.
But as for the original topic of this thread, I would love to see some kind of world creator for Sims 4. I'm not quite sure how that would work, but I have actually seen a mod that could change the distant backdrops, so maybe it could be partially possible. Even if we could just have semi-blank copies of the existing worlds where we could change up certain things like backdrops and public areas but the roads and active lot areas had to stay the same, I think it could be interesting, as long as we could add/remove lots and change the sizes of them.
*Shrug* Yeah, I agree. Anything to help make TS4 more customizable would be great.
In terms of rotational play in TS3, technically, you can still play this way without mods that control outcomes - it's just that things can get pretty unpredictable - which isn't actually a bad thing! One time I wanted my active sim to have a romantic relationship with Connor Frio. Connor is a loner type, so is harder to get (and is cute). He's the brother of Jared Frio who, normally, is Claire Ursine's current or ex-boyfriend. But what happens? The game seems to know I'm trying to hook my sim up with Connor, so at the beginning of the game, Connor and Claire are already dating.
I was so annoyed! How to get rid of her? Well, I can try to rub her out (actually, I can just delete her but I'm thinking the game will just hook Connor up with someone else, lol). So I load up the gun mod, and give her a pistol. I send her to Claire's house to do the evil deed. So while I'm there, I have my sim take out her gun. While she's aiming at Claire, Claire is making these loving motions and talking to her stomach. I'm thinking, "What the heck is Claire doing?!??" Then it dawns me. Oh. My. Gosh! She's PREGNANT!!!! I had my sim do some talking interactions with Claire, and yes INDEED she is pregnant! I don't have my sims ever shoot parents. So I quietly took the gun away from my active sim. *Sigh* I ended up putting her together with some other sim, lol!
Another time, I wanted my male sim to start a relationship with another sim that I made. I had already placed her in the world, but by the time my male sim met her, she was already in a lesbian relationship with her neighbor across the street, lol! It took a lot of work, but my male sim and her did end up together and made uniting them more special than if there wasn't an obstacle to begin with.
So yeah, you CAN play rotationally in TS3 without mods. If you do it that way, the game will make things very, very interesting for you, throwing a lot of surprise situations at you that can actually help create stories you otherwise wouldn't have thought of.
Addendum to Rotational Play in Sims 3
You know, I totally forgot about this since I almost always keep story progression on in TS3 whether through the NRAAS mod or through EA's own, but if you want complete control of an entire TS3 world where nothing happens unless by your hand and decision, don't install the mod and turn off EA's story progression!
When there is absolutely no story progression in TS3, no sims anywhere in the world will find boyfriends/girlfriends, get married, have children, won't change jobs, won't get jobs. No skills levelling up either. Nothing. They will do things according to their traits. So if a sims is athletic for example, you'll find them at the gym working out, attending games at the stadium, playing at the parks or beaches. If they're hungry they'll go to the diner or bistro or have a picnic at the park or beach. Etc.
That will give you complete control like in TS2, but that means having to manage ALL of them to make sure the world's population doesn't die out. Turning off aging and manually age up each of them individually helps with this. Also, if you feel a specific world has too many sims, you can just delete a number households until the population is something you feel you can manage.
So yes, you can absolutely do rotational play in TS3 just like you can in TS2.
I would like to be able to (re)place different lots in existing worlds. And also CAW but a lot easier than CAW was for TS3. I've tried it, but it took me too long to figure it out back then.
@ClarionOfJoy
Thanks for all of those ts3 tips, I will use them!! Lol@ nearly shooting the pregnant gf 😂
I recently brought all that ts3 packs after giving the game a test run to see if I like it. I fell in love.
As a strict TS4 player I have so many interesting comparisons I'm excited to share but I'll wait to make my own thread since I don't want to derail this topic any farther. I still play ts4 too because I'm deeply attached to my family and story I have going on there. But ts3 is on another level😱😱😱
To the OP I honestly don't believe we will ever get CAW for ts4 just because of the way it's made. But what I'm desperately hoping for is a way to atleast edit basic things outside of our lots. I'm trying to create an apocalyptic world and the lots look great but the beautiful suburb surrounding every neighborhood kills it. I want to atleast edit roads,plants,streetlights... anything! 😆
@ClarionOfJoy I think you're being a little too defensive, honestly. Why would you think I'm trying to deter people from playing Sims 3? It seems more to me like you're trying to avoid admitting to Sims 3's flaws by brushing off my reasons as "just your opinion". Of course I'm stating my opinion, and that's what you are doing as well. I'm sorry you felt you had to go through all of that effort, but I'm just not changing my mind. I know my personal experience and no matter how much you argue against it, it's still valid and I'm still not going to enjoy the game. I just don't think the trade-offs from Sims 2 were worth it. It's not how I play.
Also, Sims 2 had a hell of a lot more depth than you're giving it credit for. Sims 3 wasn't the first game to have layers of repercussions in behaviors in the gameplay. But I'm not going to make an essay on it, it's off topic.
Bottom line is, the Sims 3 does have flaws. It does. Yes, there are mods and workarounds. Each player has to decide for themself if it's worth it to play. Same for Sims 4. That's the beauty of choice. But you can't go around trying to silence people because their experiences aren't what you want to hear. I could go into all kinds of ugly detail as to why I don't like the game, but what good would that do? It's not going to change your mind and I honestly don't need to. Sims 3 was designed for gameplay that doesn't suit my needs. It suits yours, and that's great! My opinion shouldn't influence your (or anyone else's) enjoyment.
But you can't gatekeep people's opinions just because you don't like them. It's kind of hypocritical when you want to speak freely about your own opinions of Sims 4's flaws but won't allow someone else the same courtesy to speak about Sims 3's.
@Babykittyjade tag me in your post, I would lvoe to know your first impressions/comparison of the games.
@ListentoToppDogg would be cool if it was free like Sims 3, detailed like Sims 3 but easier than Sims 3. But I don't think they can manage to do that in SIms 4, so I'd rather pay for it. Being a paid DLC would be better in some points, as they would be able to create new deco objects with different themes to be exclusive to the CAW. I would like 3 different styles. They could add fake houses, plants, benches, public bathrooms, lights, and so on an so forth theme around classic japanese architecture, art deco architecture and maybe a world from sims 3's architecture... Monte Vista was a pretty one, but I think Sunlit Tides was a fan favorite.
I doubt there's ever going to be a CAW for Sims 4 because Sims 4's "worlds" aren't really worlds. Each lot is a basically a "stage" with everything being backdrops.
I don't think it'll be coming in Sims 4, but I could be wrong. I prefer them to make the worlds for me though, I'm not a builder, so I wouldn't be interested haha. That said, if it does come out, I don't mind either as long as it doesn't decrease the quality of other worlds that come premade in packs aready
@ListentoToppDogg would be cool if it was free like Sims 3, detailed like Sims 3 but easier than Sims 3. But I don't think they can manage to do that in SIms 4, so I'd rather pay for it. Being a paid DLC would be better in some points, as they would be able to create new deco objects with different themes to be exclusive to the CAW.
@ListentoToppDogg they never updated CAW properly like they updated Sims 3, thats why I want to pay for it. To have them be forced to give it a minimum ammount of attention.
@ClarionOfJoy I think you're being a little too defensive, honestly. Why would you think I'm trying to deter people from playing Sims 3? It seems more to me like you're trying to avoid admitting to Sims 3's flaws by brushing off my reasons as "just your opinion". Of course I'm stating my opinion, and that's what you are doing as well. I'm sorry you felt you had to go through all of that effort, but I'm just not changing my mind. I know my personal experience and no matter how much you argue against it, it's still valid and I'm still not going to enjoy the game. I just don't think the trade-offs from Sims 2 were worth it. It's not how I play.
Also, Sims 2 had a hell of a lot more depth than you're giving it credit for. Sims 3 wasn't the first game to have layers of repercussions in behaviors in the gameplay. But I'm not going to make an essay on it, it's off topic.
Bottom line is, the Sims 3 does have flaws. It does. Yes, there are mods and workarounds. Each player has to decide for themself if it's worth it to play. Same for Sims 4. That's the beauty of choice. But you can't go around trying to silence people because their experiences aren't what you want to hear. I could go into all kinds of ugly detail as to why I don't like the game, but what good would that do? It's not going to change your mind and I honestly don't need to. Sims 3 was designed for gameplay that doesn't suit my needs. It suits yours, and that's great! My opinion shouldn't influence your (or anyone else's) enjoyment.
But you can't gatekeep people's opinions just because you don't like them. It's kind of hypocritical when you want to speak freely about your own opinions of Sims 4's flaws but won't allow someone else the same courtesy to speak about Sims 3's.
Lol, I'm not being defensive! I LOVE talking about TS3 and correcting inaccurate information that's being liberally dispersed about it. I know that there are TS4 players who actively try to put it down to make TS4 appear better so that people who don't know might be fooled into buying that inferior game. I honestly would rather have people use their hard-earned money and buy TS3 which is a much better game and will give them more entertainment than TS4 ever can.
Also, I'm not trying to change your mind. I know other people read these posts and read your inaccurate claims about TS3 - so these posts are really for them.
I also used to love TS2 during it's run, but when I started playing TS3, it got demoted to second place and TS3 became my number one. I didn't go over the depth of TS2 because there are enough players around extolling its virtues (but none of imperfections). Besides, its not being sold anymore. If it was though, I would recommend it as it is definitely a superior closed-world game over TS4. Heck, even TS1 is better than TS4! Even the sims in that iteration did what they're suppose to do!
I just think you're the one being defensive. No where in my posts did I ever try to silence you. I DID however correct any claims that you made about TS3 that were inaccurate. That's all.
Comments
My problem with that is, you can only pick one world to play in at a time. There is no change in environment and households for rotational play. I can't handle being tied to only one world, no matter how big it is, even Sims 2 had more freedom than that in both world connections and rotational play.
So while I can't stand that we can't edit the Sims 4 worlds, (another thing that even Sims 2 offered,) I'd much rather have the flexibility of being able to access all worlds from all DLC in a current save and keep expanding, rather than have to make a choice with every new world to give up invested gameplay in order to switch to a new one, or start completely over with a new save just to use it. It doesn't work with my play style at all.
First of all, in TS3 all items in its EPs, SPs and the Sims 3 Store are customizable - you can change their colors, patterns and textures so much so that you can make them look like entirely new items. Can you say the same thing about TS4's items? Nope. This is why TS4 stuff packs are cheaper. You can only do so much with the items in those stuff packs. In order to have a wider range of colors for an item, you'll have to wait: either for EA to sell those items to you in another color (basically buying the same item again) so it's NOT really cheaper and NOT better value, or have a modder do it for you, or you'll have to do it yourself outside of the game.
You're also not right about the prices in the Sims 3 Store. I'm not rich, but I was able to buy 97% of the store so far (I just need a few clothes left) and I didn't pay thousands of dollars. Every TS3 simmer knows that everything there, including worlds, including venues and sets, goes on sale to as much as 60 to 70%. That's why there is a long running thread in the TS3 Section that keeps track of the Daily Deals. There's also Make-A-Deal that gives up to 45% discount on items that you don't have. Even the points themselves go on sale at times. Also, there are some items there that are free, including a whole world, Riverview. I would have thought that a free world would probably be shoddy and badly made, but it isn't and has turned out to be one of my most favorite worlds and has some of my most favorite townies!
Also in the TS3 section, there often are giveaways and gifting.
As for claiming that the items are buggy and underwhelming - well that's not true either. Most of the Sims 3 Store items are pretty useful and work great. If I do come across a glitch, it is easily fixed. I haven't come across any of my items where I wasn't able to use their functionality.
Another thing that I like about the Sims 3 Store is that you can choose exactly what you want to buy. Do you want to buy a whole set of furniture? You can do that! Want just a specific chair? Go right ahead! You can't do that with TS4 stuff packs - no choice at all, just like with everything else in the game.
Overall the Sims 3 Store is doing well, or EAxis would have closed it down. A lot of people like it and for me personally, I haven't been disappointed with anything I bought there. I really hope EAxis will open a Sims 5 Store when the time comes.
Stuff packs for TS3 can also be bought on sale too. They don't go on sale as much as TS4, but they do go on sale guaranteed during the summer sales and Christmas sales. I like them, but not nearly as much as I do the Sims 3 Store, but I always load all of them anywy. Each stuff pack has something useful for all my TS3 scenarios/challenges/stories and has some things that the Sims 3 Store doesn't have, such as adding new songs to the radio stations.
So yeah, TS3 has a lot of great things going for it. Items for it are of high quality and work as they should whether from EPs, SPs or the Sims 3 Store. Also all items are customizable which make them of greater value then their TS4 counterparts. A much bigger bang for your buck!
@Simburian @LiELF I wish they would give us at least something like Sims 2, and a way to add/remove worlds from our save files. They have that excuse that the worlds are smaller cuz save files wouldn't be able to handle too much information at once, but its just bs... They don't have to force all worlds to be joined together by default. They can make us pick one and later add the others if we wished. Than they could add a bunch of other empty worlds like the Newcrest one like we had that empty maps in sims 2. We could add Bluewater Village, the 3 university neighborhoods, and the 3 vacation destination and the downtown as subneighborhoods.
Like @LiELF it was annoying to have to give up all of our progress to play another world, and the story progression/culling messed up the rotational players a lot. I hope they add SP, cuz i like to play with it turned on in Sims 3 sometimes, but I hope they add a whole toggle screen to customize what we want. I f I want half-SP, cool. If I wanted full-SP, cool. If I wanted half-rotational, cool. If I wanted full-rotational, cool. You could toggle whatever you wanted, from aging to getting jobs, divorcing or not, etc...
@KaitlinMarie Maybe you wouldn't be making worlds, but I doubt you would never download a fanmade world from the gallery.
@ClarionOfJoy friend... I don't know why you're talking about the Store from today like if it was the same thing in the past, when I was mentioning how the Store used to work back when Sims 3 was being released. They didn't have discounts or sales, we didn't even had the option to gift people (I think they added that after Showtime was released). And, sometimes obejcts like the Lady Ravendancer Book of Spells wouldn't work for a long time, I still have to download mod fixes to make some of the store objects to work. Maybe today, 11 years after Sims 3 was released, 7 years after Sims 3 ended its life cycle, the Store is cheaper, has sales and they finally fixed the glitched/buggy objects, but I'm talking about those games... Sims 1/2/3/4... and comparing them during their life cycles and how we, as players and consumers, were treated. I don't care about something I can't play on my modern computer, and I don't want the same bad experiences I had previously. But, I also don't want the devs to give up on extremely fun features like open world and CASt jsut because they don't sit to think about it long enough to figure out a better way to introduce them in a game without being laggy and broken.
Here is the proof that the obejcts from the Store didn't work properly: http://moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,21330.0.html
That's not true what you wrote either. You CAN travel AND have rotational play in TS3, but I'm glad you brought it up so other readers can know about them:
Travel Between Worlds in TS3
When Twallan, was looking through the TS3 code, he discovered that the dev who wrote the traveling feature to go to the three worlds in World Adventures EP also made it so that other worlds can be added. So Twallen wrote the NRAAS Traveler mod to make that available. Now TS3 sims can go, not only to those three worlds, but to all the others as well!
So that's how I play now. TS3 worlds are not only 100% open world, but I can play as many worlds in one game story/challenge. Your sims, each in their lifetime, can go to as many worlds as you wish. They can buy property, they can work in any of them, and change their hometowns - their relationships with people in the old one are retained. This works really well for legacy families with long family trees.
I really love this mod and TS3 because when you travel to each different world, you don't meet the same sims like you would in TS4. Each world has its own unique sims that you can build relationships with. And because each world has so many more things to see and do, unlike in TS4's tiny worlds which only have a few lots each, you can stay in each world for much longer to really explore those worlds. Between TS3 and TS4, TS3 is so much better in terms of inter-worlds play!
For readers interested in this great feature: NRAAS Traveler Mod FAQ
Rotational Play in TS3
Rotational play is also possible in TS3 using the NRAAS Story Progression mod. I also think it's even better than any other iteration for this because you can configure it exactly the way you want. Don't want your inactive sims cheating on their spouses will you're not playing them? Don't want your single sims getting love interests without your blessing? Don't want them changing jobs? Don't want them skilling up? Etc.? You can set all these things and more! That way, when you come back to those sets of sims, nothing has changed. They will have just kept working and doing routine things that won't give you an unpleasant surprise.
In an indirect way, this is important if your active sims have a store because they will have customers that have a steady income to continue buying your sims' wares.
For readers interested in this great feature: NRAAS Story Progression Mod - Rotational Play Settings
So yeah, none of what you're saying is true. We do have those features in TS3 and are much better than in TS4. Yes, they are mods, but they are only accessing what is already in TS3 and not adding new features.
If readers have any other questions, you can post them to the TS3 section here in this forum, or at the NRAAS forum.
@ClarionOfJoy those are mods, and thats not how the game was intended to be played. Not everyone uses mods and the game should've been released with rotational players in mind TOO since thats how everyone was playing The Sims during Sims 1/2.
Worlds are more decorated in 4, that’s more to do with the condensed nature of each little district. Sims 3 had areas of high detail like that, but a much larger map so obviously it’s not going to be packed with decorations at every step.
As for staff, I’m not saying they don’t have employees. I’m saying they don’t have employees to make worlds. Maxis has an abundance of producers, and VFX artists. A concept artist vented on Twitter before release about the first one, and Graham (a producer) told players about the second one on MTS. Reading that tweet by Grant, I could probably come up with several ways to explain how that’s true but also how it’s being shared in a misleading way. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter how many people they have on payroll, they aren’t doing a fantastic job with who they have.
I feel sorry for you that you have to actually put down the other iterations to try to make TS4 look half-way decent, but that game is still pretty awful even in comparison to how things were back in the previous iterations' days.
Item Fixes Link
That link you showed me only showed a few things that needed fixing in comparison to the entire inventory of store items sold. Most of those that needed fixing were objects that were decrappified by the simmer (not by EAxis) which broke those items when processed. Otherwise the Sims 3 Store objects that weren't decrappified by the simmer still worked.
Also the list of fixes for actual store items is actually very short, most of which were aesthetic fixes or additions (those items that were originally unCAStable made CAStable for example), and not gameplay or functional fixes. So this is a none issue.
EA and Past The Sims Iterations
EAxis treated it's customers for the past iterations a whole lot better than how they're treating their TS4 customers now. All the packs for previous iterations were jam-packed full of features and great items. They didn't break them down into separate EPs and GPs. You actually ended up getting more in the EPs for less money in TS1 - TS3. TS4 simmers pay more for them separately with less content in each pack.
Devs were also much more excited about their work in TS1 - TS3. When you bought the latest EP or SP, a flyer would be included telling you what pack is already coming up next. The trailers also were amazing, showing a lot of new features. People also got a lot of neat, unique items if they pre-ordered too! When a TS3 simmer gets the pack, they still discover new wonderful features not mentioned in the trailers. The packs are so great that it keeps them busy until the next pack comes out. Even now when all the packs are finished, people are still playing all those games!
Now? The devs barely communicate with TS4 simmers who are left guessing what's going to happen next. The packs themselves aren't very well done, all of them missing features that people were hoping and expecting. As a result people get bored of them so quickly. I also hate how EAxis deceives their customers trying to make a pack look promising when they're actually lack-lustre. I get sad reading about how disappointed people are with the TS4 packs, especially in the later ones, once they pay their money and play these packs.
So yeah, ask any TS1, TS2 and TS3 simmers how they were treated by EAxis back in those days and they'll tell you: "MUCH, much better than with TS4 now."
TS3 and Computers
I'm not sure why you can't play TS3 on your more powerful computer, when everyone else playing TS3 can. I mean just look in the TS3 section of this forum at all the people who are able to make it work on their computers, lol! So it's more a reflection on you rather than on the game.
Plus back in the day, it's not like everyone couldn't get TS3 to work on their computers like you're making it sound. As demanding as TS3 can be with power, you can still have a computer with 4gb RAM and integrated Intel graphics card and still have it run well. And it only needs a few mods minimum: NRAAS MasterController and Overwatch. You can even use a less powerful computer as long as you reduce the resolution of the game and lower the graphics quality. Either way, the good AI and gameplay is still there which are the most important things for an actual life sim game.
TS4 though isn't so great because a lot of the gameplay is broken - sims don't do as they should and you need a ton of mods just to get them to do what they should. It's more of a very expensive dress-up doll and lot building game - which isn't really necessary since there are dress up doll and building apps that go for much cheaper. It's not much a of story telling program either, because in the other iterations, they have more options for setting up the stories, like editing the worlds and lots to fit the stories better. You just can't do that with TS4.
So yeah, I think EAxis treated TS1 - TS3 customers MUCH better than TS4 customers now in the content and communication they had with us. Plus the older iterations just had better and higher quality stuff than TS4 does.
So if anyone is fed up with TS4, they don't need to despair, just go back to or try TS3, TS2 and/or TS1 (if you can get those). You'll get a much better experience with those and you'll have the TS1 - TS3 communities here to help you if you need it!
I agree however with the Sims 5 maybe we will get create a world back.
Unless they have total contempt for their players it shouldn’t even be a question. This game won’t support it because of how it was originally designed, there is no excuse for the next one. They know what players have wanted for the past 20 years, let alone the past 5 with this game. Failure to deliver is not acceptable from a AAA developer making the biggest PC franchise in the world.
Lol, tell that to TS4! That game NEEDs a ton of mods just to make the sims and other stuff work as they should. Because without them, that game is just a game-breaking mess!
Rotational play may have come later to TS3, but now that it's here, why dwell on the past? It's even better on TS3 because you can better manage both active and inactive sims. Plus no time disparities which I hated in TS1/TS2!
BUT... AGAIN. I hope this conversation is over. If you want to keep going, I hope its to share what would you want in a Create-A-World Game Pack. Maybe a Manage Story system, where you can toggle whatever you want to customize your story progression/rotational play?
I'm just clearing up some information that may be misunderstood about TS3 and discourage people from even trying it and so miss out on a wonderful game.
I've already tried TS4 and since I'm an open world live game player that plays the entire map, it really doesn't do it for me when I'm faced with so many loading screens. I still like TS2 a lot now and back in the day when there was no open world, I did love TS2. When TS2's Apartment Life EP was released, I would lay down the biggest lot possible, create a little town and cram as many sims into the lot as my poor CPU can handle. It was like a mini-TS3 world with no loading screens! So can you imagine my surprise and delight when TS3 came out and it was 100% open world? OMG!
I don't like TS4 and I've basically given up on it getting better. But I do try to vote in the polls to ask for a lot of the things TS4 simmers want. Why? Because it would be nice if they got some of the things the older iterations have that made them so enjoyable. I really do feel that people who played TS4 have truly missed out and this is partly why I like encouraging them to try out TS3 (and TS2 if EAxis ever decides to re-release it).
It would be nice if they give TS4 a CAW and/or Story Progression pack but it should be FREE just like it was for TS3. And it should work well and not cause more bugs.
Both Sims 3 and Sims 4 need mods to play properly. That's the problem. It's been a steady decline of quality that's just getting worse. Someone may enjoy either or both of these games, but it doesn't negate that they both have their own fair share of issues.
I only know my experience with Sims 3 completely without mods or CC and honestly, I just don't like the game enough to deal with the intricacies of using a mod to try to get satisfactory gameplay. Too many other factors like rabbit holes, Sim art style, freaky facial animations and
odd movements, bugs and performance stutters... just kill it for me. It's too bad because I want to like it, I do really like a lot of the EP concepts, but it feels to me like it has its own areas of shallowness where it took some steps backward from Sims 2. It's just not my game, and that's okay. There are plenty of others who love it.
I think it's a little dishonest to say that Sims 3 delivers travel between worlds and acceptable rotational play when mods are required for them. I mean, that would equate to me trying to claim that the Sims 4 emotions system is balanced and well-portrayed because the Meaningful Life mod changes how it works, or that an intricate Story Progression totally exists because MC Command can create it. And don't get me wrong - I have the utmost respect for modders because they have actually saved these games where EA failed. But when actually comparing iterations and what they can or cannot do or how they perform, it's much more forthright to stick to the official game creation as it was released and be candid about its execution.
But as for the original topic of this thread, I would love to see some kind of world creator for Sims 4. I'm not quite sure how that would work, but I have actually seen a mod that could change the distant backdrops, so maybe it could be partially possible. Even if we could just have semi-blank copies of the existing worlds where we could change up certain things like backdrops and public areas but the roads and active lot areas had to stay the same, I think it could be interesting, as long as we could add/remove lots and change the sizes of them.
Well that's mere opinion and not completely factual. Not enough to discourage other people from playing the game, sorry. I wouldn't lump TS3 in with TS4 when it comes to a decline in quality. I understood TS3 doesn't have the same details of TS2 because the computers of that time were limited. Fine details or open world system? So the TS3 devs concentrated on its open world system and keeping track of everything in the world in real time: not just your active sims, but that of every townie and service NPC, environment and other mechanisms.
In that sense, TS3 does have higher details that TS2 didn't have because not only did it have a lot of the details of TS2, but it was also open world. TS2's chance cards aren't just text that you read and then make a decision - they actually play out in the TS3 games - the world reacts to your decisions and actions in those situations! So for a first effort, what the devs did in TS3 was pretty amazing! And though it did have bugs, they were fixable, not game breaking - the strong gameplay and AI are still there. That's the most important thing.
Rabbitholes, this is one of the TS3 hating talking points that's pretty silly. In an open world system where everything runs in real time, that is actually useful when you're playing a household with more than one sim. Also because it's open world, it makes sense for sims to go somewhere for work. I actually like that they have the appropriate buildings to disappear into. It's much better and more immersive than just disappearing out of your home lot like in TS2 and TS4, right?
I also love that the devs had introduced items that help create active lot versions of some of the rabbitholes such as grocery store, book store, diner/bistro, theater, etc. but of course you wouldn't want to mention that.
So when you say that the gameplay is shallow in TS3, it just appears more like you haven't really played it. If anyone wants to know about true TS3 gameplay, ask simmers in the TS3 section who actually play it more than a passing glance. Also check out the Let's Play videos on YouTube. One of my favorites is Robbaz. His TS3 playthroughs are so funny, lol!
Here are two of my favorite episodes of his 🐸🐸🐸🐸 Brothers series centered around how a zombie apocalypse started and how they defeated it!
Sims 3 - 🐸🐸🐸🐸 Brothers #32 - Dawn of the Dead
I'm not being dishonest in that I'm not out to deceive people into thinking TS3 is such a horrible game that people shouldn't try it, right? I'm not claiming things about it that aren't true, right?
Worlds
If you want to go into vanilla game worlds TS3 still outshines them both. One TS3 world can hold so many lots that you can divide it up into several districts that can mimic different worlds like those in TS4 or TS2. All without any loading screens! There are actual fan made worlds like that so there's no real need to go world hopping like you would have to in the other games. That's the power and flexibility of TS3 - and neither TS2 or TS4 have that ability.
Rotational
In terms of rotational play in TS3, technically, you can still play this way without mods that control outcomes - it's just that things can get pretty unpredictable - which isn't actually a bad thing! One time I wanted my active sim to have a romantic relationship with Connor Frio. Connor is a loner type, so is harder to get (and is cute). He's the brother of Jared Frio who, normally, is Claire Ursine's current or ex-boyfriend. But what happens? The game seems to know I'm trying to hook my sim up with Connor, so at the beginning of the game, Connor and Claire are already dating.
I was so annoyed! How to get rid of her? Well, I can try to rub her out (actually, I can just delete her but I'm thinking the game will just hook Connor up with someone else, lol). So I load up the gun mod, and give her a pistol. I send her to Claire's house to do the evil deed. So while I'm there, I have my sim take out her gun. While she's aiming at Claire, Claire is making these loving motions and talking to her stomach. I'm thinking, "What the heck is Claire doing?!??" Then it dawns me. Oh. My. Gosh! She's PREGNANT!!!! I had my sim do some talking interactions with Claire, and yes INDEED she is pregnant! I don't have my sims ever shoot parents. So I quietly took the gun away from my active sim. *Sigh* I ended up putting her together with some other sim, lol!
Another time, I wanted my male sim to start a relationship with another sim that I made. I had already placed her in the world, but by the time my male sim met her, she was already in a lesbian relationship with her neighbor across the street, lol! It took a lot of work, but my male sim and her did end up together and made uniting them more special than if there wasn't an obstacle to begin with.
So yeah, you CAN play rotationally in TS3 without mods. If you do it that way, the game will make things very, very interesting for you, throwing a lot of surprise situations at you that can actually help create stories you otherwise wouldn't have thought of.
*Shrug* Yeah, I agree. Anything to help make TS4 more customizable would be great.
Addendum to Rotational Play in Sims 3
You know, I totally forgot about this since I almost always keep story progression on in TS3 whether through the NRAAS mod or through EA's own, but if you want complete control of an entire TS3 world where nothing happens unless by your hand and decision, don't install the mod and turn off EA's story progression!
When there is absolutely no story progression in TS3, no sims anywhere in the world will find boyfriends/girlfriends, get married, have children, won't change jobs, won't get jobs. No skills levelling up either. Nothing. They will do things according to their traits. So if a sims is athletic for example, you'll find them at the gym working out, attending games at the stadium, playing at the parks or beaches. If they're hungry they'll go to the diner or bistro or have a picnic at the park or beach. Etc.
That will give you complete control like in TS2, but that means having to manage ALL of them to make sure the world's population doesn't die out. Turning off aging and manually age up each of them individually helps with this. Also, if you feel a specific world has too many sims, you can just delete a number households until the population is something you feel you can manage.
So yes, you can absolutely do rotational play in TS3 just like you can in TS2.
Thanks for all of those ts3 tips, I will use them!! Lol@ nearly shooting the pregnant gf 😂
I recently brought all that ts3 packs after giving the game a test run to see if I like it. I fell in love.
As a strict TS4 player I have so many interesting comparisons I'm excited to share but I'll wait to make my own thread since I don't want to derail this topic any farther. I still play ts4 too because I'm deeply attached to my family and story I have going on there. But ts3 is on another level😱😱😱
To the OP I honestly don't believe we will ever get CAW for ts4 just because of the way it's made. But what I'm desperately hoping for is a way to atleast edit basic things outside of our lots. I'm trying to create an apocalyptic world and the lots look great but the beautiful suburb surrounding every neighborhood kills it. I want to atleast edit roads,plants,streetlights... anything! 😆
Also, Sims 2 had a hell of a lot more depth than you're giving it credit for. Sims 3 wasn't the first game to have layers of repercussions in behaviors in the gameplay. But I'm not going to make an essay on it, it's off topic.
Bottom line is, the Sims 3 does have flaws. It does. Yes, there are mods and workarounds. Each player has to decide for themself if it's worth it to play. Same for Sims 4. That's the beauty of choice. But you can't go around trying to silence people because their experiences aren't what you want to hear. I could go into all kinds of ugly detail as to why I don't like the game, but what good would that do? It's not going to change your mind and I honestly don't need to. Sims 3 was designed for gameplay that doesn't suit my needs. It suits yours, and that's great! My opinion shouldn't influence your (or anyone else's) enjoyment.
But you can't gatekeep people's opinions just because you don't like them. It's kind of hypocritical when you want to speak freely about your own opinions of Sims 4's flaws but won't allow someone else the same courtesy to speak about Sims 3's.
@ListentoToppDogg would be cool if it was free like Sims 3, detailed like Sims 3 but easier than Sims 3. But I don't think they can manage to do that in SIms 4, so I'd rather pay for it. Being a paid DLC would be better in some points, as they would be able to create new deco objects with different themes to be exclusive to the CAW. I would like 3 different styles. They could add fake houses, plants, benches, public bathrooms, lights, and so on an so forth theme around classic japanese architecture, art deco architecture and maybe a world from sims 3's architecture... Monte Vista was a pretty one, but I think Sunlit Tides was a fan favorite.
@Karon Why couldn't they do that as a BG patch?
Lol, I'm not being defensive! I LOVE talking about TS3 and correcting inaccurate information that's being liberally dispersed about it. I know that there are TS4 players who actively try to put it down to make TS4 appear better so that people who don't know might be fooled into buying that inferior game. I honestly would rather have people use their hard-earned money and buy TS3 which is a much better game and will give them more entertainment than TS4 ever can.
Also, I'm not trying to change your mind. I know other people read these posts and read your inaccurate claims about TS3 - so these posts are really for them.
I also used to love TS2 during it's run, but when I started playing TS3, it got demoted to second place and TS3 became my number one. I didn't go over the depth of TS2 because there are enough players around extolling its virtues (but none of imperfections). Besides, its not being sold anymore. If it was though, I would recommend it as it is definitely a superior closed-world game over TS4. Heck, even TS1 is better than TS4! Even the sims in that iteration did what they're suppose to do!
I just think you're the one being defensive. No where in my posts did I ever try to silence you. I DID however correct any claims that you made about TS3 that were inaccurate. That's all.