Whenever I look around the worlds, I see so many buildings I'd love to explore or utilize, and every time, I curse the fact they're nothing but background decorations.
Strangerville
I mean, how cool would it be to visit and explore this military base? Imagine being able to actually
go there? Explore that entire area? You ask me, Military should've been made an active career.
So many buildings there that could serve as functional houses, or townhouses with apartments upstairs, and shops or bakeries underneath.
I'm struggling so much with the low number of lots that Strangerville has, while it looks like it could easily have so many...
Staying at a motel for visitors? Buying fuel, snacks, and maybe some other goods at the gas station? These are small things, but they would make the experience so much richer.
Del Sol Valley
Look at that massive supermarket, what if we could go in and shop there? You could even have it start with only a few shops, allowing players to fill it with theirs. And maybe each of the shops could even be owned by individual Sims, just like owning a retail lot.
This one looks interesting, is this some kind of hotel? Could rich Sims maybe rent a room there?
This building looks lovely too, I'd love to have an apartment there on the top floor, and maybe some shops or lounges on the first floor.
San Myshuno
Why can't we develop anything inside the many of Uptown's floors? Why can't we actually walk through all these glass walkways? And why can't we explore the park area at the bottom of Uptown? It certainly would be a great location for all of its rich residents to relax.
And this? Shops right underneath the deck? This would be such a great place to visit too.
And the Fashion District? It's located right on top of an entire supermarket, with the parking lot and a rail transit station and all that. Why can't we explore that?
You could even have some great DLC synergy there; Get Famous and City Living unlock the worlds that have supermarkets, Get to Work makes these supermarket explorable, and allows Sims to own their own shops there.
It's just all so irritating, to see what kind of game Sims 4 could have been.
Comments
Yes, we could do with some more lots in the game, but I am not sure all shell buildings could be open lots. I guess they could add some rabbit hole functionality to some of them, like say the hotel or the supermarket.
This definitely couldn't be the case for all of them, but I think we could definitely use some more freedom there in deciding which areas of the map are functional lots.
Sure, one day when and if it will be possible to place down our own lots like in previous games.
Nobody would have guessed the Sims 4 will be the Sims 2.5
Likewise, we could also have an option to convert the lots back into non-functional shells when we're not using them for anything, which would help prevent an excessive data/performance drain.
Looking back, splitting worlds into neighborhoods was a genuine improvement over Sims 3, but it was a wasted opportunity to not make these neighborhoods customizable.
Del Sol Valley: Photo 1, lots of room for every sort of community lot function in the game, including earlier versions. #2 Aging but still high end hotel, perfect for TS2 style rooms and suites for visitors and residents on the upper floors and amenities on the first. #3, what OP said, shops of all kinds on the lower floor, apartments above.
San Myshuno: Again, these should all be functional, at least to some degree. Even the Spice District has lots to offer. I live about an hour from Boston, so know what a city can offer in so many ways. Maybe 'Myshuno' is simlish for 'missed opportunity'.
What's really sad is that with TS2 most of what the OP is talking about can be done. The difference between a game made for simmers and a game with roots in online where all is a façade, a mere stage to chat with other players on but do nothing of substance.