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Game balance vs Fun. Maxis has failed at both.

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  • CAPTAIN_NXR7CAPTAIN_NXR7 Posts: 4,451 Member

    Because thats how they feel. Its for the same reason people say Sims 4 is the best game in the iteration and the best game of all time.

    I don’t necessarily agree with that statement.

    1. When saying: “everybody” or “no one asked for that” a person refers to folks other than themselves.
    2. When saying: “sims 4 is the best game” a person usually refers to themselves. It’s their opinion. It’s how they feel.

    You can put “in my opinion” in front of the nr 2. statement and it should make sense. (In my opinion the sims 4 is THE best game).
    You can’t really place “in my opinion” before the nr 1. statement and expect it to make sense: “In my opinion no one asked for that.”
    What do you mean in your opinion? We need to have a look at statistics instead. A person’s opinion shouldn’t have anything to do with others unless they clearly include a specific group who was already in agreement with that person prior to their statement:

    “Me and me 5 golf buddies thinks The Sims 3 is the absolute bees knees.” (Because they told me).
    I don’t play golf, but you get the gist.

    If someone said: “Everybody thinks that The Sims 4 is the best game evah !!” ye can be sure as a pair of enormous Clown Shoes that a bunch of folks who don’t agree with that statement will let this person know with all their passion that they’re certainly not “Everybody”.

    Just like some of the “No ones” and “Nobodies” will do.

    In that regard we’re all dancing the same Jiggedy Jig. ☺️
  • elanorbretonelanorbreton Posts: 14,518 Member
    Mstybl95 wrote: »
    You and I play pretty similarly. I, however, have found myself having to mod the game more and more the longer I play. Not for features, but for bugs that break immersion and totally tick me off enough that I have to shut down the game and find a mod or make one myself.

    Now don't get me wrong, I like the game enough that I'm playing it nearly everyday, but there are things that do need improvement. I think a lot of playstyle were left behind and it's frustrating. Like for me, a family player who absolutely loves children, the game is seriously lacking in that department. And people's frustration manifest in different ways, but I think most people are really just trying to wave their hands and get anyone to listen. I don't always agree with everything, but I do empathize with players who want to get what they're missing.
    Perhaps I should have mentioned that I do use a few mods, but I was mostly commenting on the 'easiness' of the game and how it doesn't have to be that way.

    With so many different people and different viewpoints, it is impossible for them to make a game that suits everyone. It will have features that some people like and some do not, so I am happy to adjust a feature I'm not happy with by using a mod because I know that other people will be happy with that feature.

    For bugs, we should not have to rely on mods long-term and I continue to hope that most of the bugs will eventually be fixed by EA. We know that they are working on them, it's just frustrating that some of them take an awful long time to fix. Or get fixed and then broken again with a later patch. It would be interesting to find out how many people they employ to fix bugs compared to how many people they employ to make new content.
  • StrawberryYogurtStrawberryYogurt Posts: 2,799 Member
    edited April 2021

    Because thats how they feel. Its for the same reason people say Sims 4 is the best game in the iteration and the best game of all time.

    I don’t necessarily agree with that statement.

    1. When saying: “everybody” or “no one asked for that” a person refers to folks other than themselves.
    2. When saying: “sims 4 is the best game” a person usually refers to themselves. It’s their opinion. It’s how they feel.

    I disagree.

    I feel they are equal, theyre doing the same thing. Its assumed already there are some who are an exception. It should already be implied there would be exceptions. The writer knows that too. You shouldnt need to argue that. You could say vanilla is the best ice cream flavor and people would still reply chocolate is better.

    I could say open world is the best neighborhood system and still people would assume I meant everyone must feel that way, and would reply to me saying open neighborhood is better, open world is too laggy etc.

    You could change sentence 2 and say "TS4 is my favorite game" and it would tell your audience you arent speaking for them. But saying that it is the best is telling them the others arent as good. Or you could assume they are saying what they feel (because its obviously only an opinion) and ignore it, or you could agrue it isnt the best game and why.
    The Sims has currently lost its identity. Bring it back for TS5

    FixedCoarseFawn-max-1mb.gif

    Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member

    Because thats how they feel. Its for the same reason people say Sims 4 is the best game in the iteration and the best game of all time.

    I don’t necessarily agree with that statement.

    1. When saying: “everybody” or “no one asked for that” a person refers to folks other than themselves.
    2. When saying: “sims 4 is the best game” a person usually refers to themselves. It’s their opinion. It’s how they feel.

    I disagree.

    I feel they are equal, theyre doing the same thing.

    You could change sentence 2 and say "TS4 is my favorite game" and it would tell your audience you arent speaking for them.

    @StrawberryYogurt Absolutely agree with this. They do the same thing for me as well. When you say "The Sims 4 is the best game out of all" You are implying that it is generally speaking the best game. It is a generalization and yeah it's not necessarily the truth just as the "nobody asked for this" isn't the complete truth.
    You can simply say The Sims 4 is my favorite game and that's that.

    But I really think we should focus more on the meaning behind what's said and not on the words themselves. It's very counterproductive for a conversation to make such a fuss out of someone's incorrect wording and expressing of an opinion. You all know what the OP is trying to say, they just said it in a not so correct way. Let's move on and talk about what he means not the words he chose.
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • logionlogion Posts: 4,712 Member
    edited April 2021
    Saying that everyone agrees with something or telling other people how they should feel never ends well...now back to the topic.
    So by now with the release of the new kits and dust bunnies, I think everyone can agree TS4 is utterly broken in 2 ways.
    • 1: The game is laughably. And I mean hilariously unbalanced.
      With the right lot traits and a simplistic amount of work from the player, you can get $100,000 .. in 2 days...for doing nothing.
    • 2: EA and Maxis are more focused on bringing in new content no one asked for, neglecting good content,
      refusing to fix broken content (Hello Dine Out) and are more focused on stretching upcoming content through multiple packs to charge more. Eg why wasn't the Dust mechanic included in Laundry day? Why wasn't My First Pet stuff included in Pets ect ect.
    The Future
    Maxis producers have said there are many more years of TS4 to come. So will the game improve? No.
    With the introduction of kits it proves Maxis has no backbone. They are entirely at the mercy of EA with no say in what content they want to create. Is Maxis and its current employees capable of creating the best Sims game ever made right now? HeIl yes. There is absolutely no doubt about it.
    1. I think one issue is that some people want the game to be more of a sandbox/dollhouse while there are other people that want the game to be more like a game. You can see the difference when you compare the Paranormal Pack to Bust the Dust for example. I also think that the game design of the sims4 is focused more on shorter play sessions, faster rewards and less long-term goals. This makes the game more accessible for many people, I think this has led to them having a fast growing number of unique players (which they often mention during their conferences), but it also makes people feeling that the game is too easy.

    2. There is too much focus on making packs, I agree. They have short development times because they want to keep players returning to the game. The packs that we are getting feels too stretched out in terms of content. If you would look at player numbers for the sims4 on a graph over time then I think it would be a line that goes very much up and down all the time, up when they release new content, and down when there is nothing being released.

    The future:
    EA doesn't have the best history as you mentioned and they are very much driven by their shareholders so we will see... But I'm not all doom and gloom when it comes to the sims future, the sims4 have been a massive success for them, Maxis have expanded their studios, they hire new people, they recently hired a new senior game designer, her first tweet was that she have been playing sims games since 2000, so since the first sims game. The chief studios officer Laura Miele said in a recent interview that they are going to let studios have more creative control, so they will decide less what the studios want to release. And we still see Maxis improving the game from time to time, like the small trait overhaul and the recent bunk beds.
  • AntwerpoAntwerpo Posts: 90 Member
    Not sure if I agree with the OP. What I notice a lot with the global sims community that it is very conservatie about how the game evolves. I can agree that not everything iameplaywise is how it should be. Just picked up the sims. Played 1 and 2 but not obsessively and I'm very impressed how this game has evolved.

    I don't buy packs because there is nothing to do or get bored but just the opposite. I buy packs because they allow me to do more.
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    Antwerpo wrote: »
    Not sure if I agree with the OP. What I notice a lot with the global sims community that it is very conservatie about how the game evolves. I can agree that not everything iameplaywise is how it should be.

    I don't think it's "conservative" to expect more from a game. So I disagree with you on that. I also think the game has evolved way too little compared to the previous games. I mean look at the evolution from 1 to 2 or from 2 to 3. The Sims 4 barely made any steps forward, it was mostly removed and watered-down content and still is.
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • eternalrainneternalrainn Posts: 373 Member
    Mstybl95 wrote: »
    You and I play pretty similarly. I, however, have found myself having to mod the game more and more the longer I play. Not for features, but for bugs that break immersion and totally tick me off enough that I have to shut down the game and find a mod or make one myself.

    Now don't get me wrong, I like the game enough that I'm playing it nearly everyday, but there are things that do need improvement. I think a lot of playstyle were left behind and it's frustrating. Like for me, a family player who absolutely loves children, the game is seriously lacking in that department. And people's frustration manifest in different ways, but I think most people are really just trying to wave their hands and get anyone to listen. I don't always agree with everything, but I do empathize with players who want to get what they're missing.

    With so many different people and different viewpoints, it is impossible for them to make a game that suits everyone. It will have features that some people like and some do not, so I am happy to adjust a feature I'm not happy with by using a mod because I know that other people will be happy with that feature.

    For bugs, we should not have to rely on mods long-term and I continue to hope that most of the bugs will eventually be fixed by EA. We know that they are working on them, it's just frustrating that some of them take an awful long time to fix. Or get fixed and then broken again with a later patch. It would be interesting to find out how many people they employ to fix bugs compared to how many people they employ to make new content.

    Agree 100%. I always find there's an equal amount of people on the other side that don't want a certain feature that the requesting side wants. You'll never make everyone happy. I do agree with you about bug fixes though, there shouldn't be people still experiencing bugs and glitches (especially in paid content) like Dine Out 5 years later.
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    LittleFox2 wrote: »

    Nor is it counterproductive or a “fuss” when someone states the obvious fact.


    @LittleFox2 I just think it kind of misses the point. I'm pretty sure the OP knows that not 100% of the people in this world have the same opinion. Like I said I understood it as a way of expression not as something literal. And you know the OP makes several points that are not related to this yet we are still talking about th "none asked for" and "everybody" phrases like they were the most important thing mentioned in their post.
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • NationalPokedexNationalPokedex Posts: 829 Member
    edited April 2021
    As one of a few people who commented to the OP to be careful of General statements, I’ll say the reason I even thought to mention it to them is because once people start to use those phrases (and tie that up with the fact that it’s a critique of TS4 which can lead to very messy discussions around here), their arguments tend to become more invalidated and/or derailed. Which is what’s happening here.
    Post edited by NationalPokedex on
  • StrawberryYogurtStrawberryYogurt Posts: 2,799 Member
    edited April 2021
    LittleFox2 wrote: »
    “Everybody” is a word that is used to refer to all the people in a group. “No one asked for that” is a clear statement that means no one wanted that. It is as clear as day.

    @StrawberryYogurt I disagree with what you stated because how words are used in a sentence denote the meaning.
    Every example you gave clearly does not refer to all people—why—because you did not include the word "everybody."

    I dont have to include "everybody" in the statement. Its implied. There's more than one person on the planet. If i say blue is the best color thats impling everyone sees it that way. Its stated as an absolute fact, but we know its an opinion.

    Blue is the best color = Everyone knows blue is the best color. (Its a given this is their opinion)

    Blue is my favorite color = I think blue is the best color.( they made a point to personally say its their opinion)

    If you say blue is the best color, people will respond: why do you feel that way? Instead of how do you know that is true? Because they know it is an opinion.

    💙
    The Sims has currently lost its identity. Bring it back for TS5

    FixedCoarseFawn-max-1mb.gif

    Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.
  • CelSimsCelSims Posts: 2,270 Member
    I know I know I know that saying these lines "None asked for this" and "everyone thinks" is the perfect way to trigger people in these forums and I do agree that of course it is not the truth. There is no way that 100% of all people agree on one thing or want the same thing and even the people who say these things know that.
    Then WHY they keep saying it? If they KNOW it triggers people.
    For me, I always see red when someone uses in their personal opinion the words everyone, everybody , nobody or no one. It feels like someone is putting their words in my mouth.

    And as you said yourself, the "vocal minority". There are players who never visit here, or twitter, or any other online platform.. how do we know how they feel? They may love the game or hate it, or having mixed feelings.

    I think what @SimmerGeorge is saying is that the people who make these statements know that from a literal standpoint. So, LITERALLY they know it's not everyone or no one. It's a way to illustrate that ENOUGH people feel that way. This is what he explains in the rest of his post. @SimmerGeorge can correct me if I've misunderstood him too.

    Except the words 'no one' are very often preceded by the word 'literally' when these players are posting. It really gets my goat too.
  • greydonngreydonn Posts: 715 Member
    Posting what you think about a game and posting your assumptions and opinions about other players/forum members are completely different things.
    • Gen 25: Xanthe! >:)
    • She/Her.
  • elanorbretonelanorbreton Posts: 14,518 Member
    So by now with the release of the new kits and dust bunnies, I think everyone can agree TS4 is utterly broken in 2 ways.
    • 1: The game is laughably. And I mean hilariously unbalanced.
      With the right lot traits and a simplistic amount of work from the player, you can get $100,000 .. in 2 days...for doing nothing.
    • 2: EA and Maxis are more focused on bringing in new content no one asked for, neglecting good content,
      refusing to fix broken content (Hello Dine Out) and are more focused on stretching upcoming content through multiple packs to charge more. Eg why wasn't the Dust mechanic included in Laundry day? Why wasn't My First Pet stuff included in Pets ect ect.
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    At this point people aren't buying new content because its fun, they are buying new content because they are so bored of what already exists.
    Again, due to Maxis philosophy of continuing to create barebones content that is unbalanced and then stretching said content over 2-3 different packs.
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Well, I gave my opinions on page 1 for item 1 and page 2 for item 2 :)

    But I certainly don't buy new content because I am bored. I buy it cos I want even moar fun, roar! And as for the bolded part, well, they can't include everything in a pack as they are limited with the extent of content allowed.
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    edited April 2021
    But I certainly don't buy new content because I am bored. I buy it cos I want even moar fun, roar! And as for the bolded part, well, they can't include everything in a pack as they are limited with the extent of content allowed.

    @elanorbreton It's great that you don't of course. However, some people speaking of so-called "content droughts" can be understood in 2 ways. 1. People want more fun even though they are having fun 2.People are bored and are hoping for something new to make them less bored. I have seen enough of both teams to say both of these things exist and there are a lot of people who are actually bored, as well as people who feel like they are not having "enough" fun.

    But I was surprised to hear the term "content-drought" for a game that has had the most DLC in the series. It makes you wonder where that is coming from and if there is more to it than wanting more fun.
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    And as for the bolded part, well, they can't include everything in a pack as they are limited with the extent of content allowed.

    @elanorbreton To explain that one I would say there are tons of people who are actually wondering why the Sims team has such a limited budget and staff. They are making a ridiculous amount of money and they have shown in previous games that they actually have a budget for more animations and features. So it does make people wonder why all of a sudden 40$ packs are recycling so much content. They have more than enough money to be more customer-friendly and add more features.
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • greydonngreydonn Posts: 715 Member
    Alright, so...

    Starting at the beginning, I don't see how kits have an effect on how the game is broken. OP goes on to state that in 2 days, your sims could generate 100,000 dollars from doing nothing. I don't see how that would be possible, even with how the dust bunnies were behaving before, especially in a fresh game. Dust bunnies didn't accumulate that easily or give that kind of money, even in my household that was outrageously infested with the little creatures, and while they did pop up a heck of a lot quicker before the update, that was patched.

    Even if they did populate that quickly, 100,000 sim buckeroos? I get it, Omiscan Trophies and all, but how common were those?

    I think a bigger problem is that it has a lot to do with luck, not effort, but the effort in this kit was meant to be spent on getting rid of the bust bunnies anyway lol.

    Moving on to point two, yes, please fix Dine Out for the love of everything. It's just...ugh. But beyond that I just don't agree. Save Journey To Batuu, which was probably more to do with business arrangements and whatever then what they actually wanted to release, I don't know of any packs that No One wanted. Even My First Pet Stuff had it's crowd, namely uh...me, but other people too! :p

    The dust mechanic doesn't fit into Laundry because dust isn't laundry. They're both cleaning, but it wasn't Cleaning Day pack. Besides, it could easily be said that they just didn't have the idea for it then. What are they gonna do, invent a time machine! We'll never get our bugs fixed that way.

    My First Pet Stuff...okay, I liked the pack, but I can't argue against the complaints, it could've easily been put into Cats and Dogs. I wonder if they have a reason beyond Money $$ for not doing so, but I doubt it. I hardly use the pieces from the stuff pack anyway, because I'm scared of my sims dying from rodent related diseases. nasty.

    Emotions are bad-ish, I can admit that, I'd love a tuning. I'd also appreciate a wants and fears system, or another set of Whims more closely related to how they were done in Sims 3. Thing is though, the way the system works is fine for the way I play. I like telling a story to myself as I play, so I want to be in charge of the consequences.

    Side note, what were the consequences in Sims 3? I can't remember any of the top of my head, it's been a couple weeks since I've played.

    Now, at the point below the emotion section, is where I gotta call you false. I buy new packs because it's exciting, but I don't head first right off the back, because I'm still going through the storyline I have. To this day I haven't had a Sim max out Snowboarding, or even live in Mt. Komorebi, but I do plan to. I'm just not there yet. :)

    When I'm bored, I just play a different game, which is why I haven't played Sims 3 in a couple weeks lol. Or, I'll load up a new game, or make sims, or build. Variety is the spice of life or whatever it is they call it.

    New packs are shiny and nice, but the other packs I got haven't lost their glimmer yet. Except that one camping one but I blame my vampire family on that.

    Onto The Future (fanfare plays), I think you're wrong there as well. The game has been improving- Sentiments, Lifestyles, Trait Improvements, and whatever that weird extra trait thing means. Skintones, the makeup sliders (oh god the makeup sliders), I'm hopeful for a hair slider too.

    In my opinion, the game has been improving, and I think it will continue to do so, or at least I hope.

    (I also don't know how kits=no backbone, but uh, we probably don't want to turn this thread offtopic again into a kit v kit debate)
    • Gen 25: Xanthe! >:)
    • She/Her.
  • greydonngreydonn Posts: 715 Member
    edited April 2021
    Well, Final Fantasy XIV is also an MMORPG (yeah?), so it only makes sense for it to have more searches, as people will be looking up guides for how to pick the right class, class builds, different storyline parts they may have missed, tips and tricks, speculation, yada yada yada. Different games, you know? Sims 4 is only going to get searches when a pack comes out, or if there's some big controversy, otherwise people are probably content just playing the game.

    Unless I've confused my Final Fantasy games. I was looking into it with my family last month.

    nvm the post was deleted. ignore this but I'll keep up just incase.
    • Gen 25: Xanthe! >:)
    • She/Her.
  • OEII1001OEII1001 Posts: 3,682 Member
    And in this article you can see that the Sims 4 reached a peak of 10 active million players, not 35 million in June 2020 which was already a lot for the Sims 4. So I don't think it has increased by 25 million active players since then, especially cause its Google trending graph is falling.

    Here: https://gamerant.com/sims-4-10-million-players/

    Shows actual active player number.

    Does it? The article doesn't cite any actual statistics, which I'm going to need eventually if you expect me to consider your position in a serious manner.
  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    edited April 2021
    OEII1001 wrote: »
    Life to date, The Sims 4TM has more than 30 million players across all platforms; daily, weekly, and monthly active player totals reached record highs for a first quarter.

    @OEII1001 Yes "Life to date". If you read this correctly you will see it states more than 30 million life to date and that active players have reached record highs. Two different things. There is even a ";" sign to seperate.

    Case closed.
    Where's my Sims 5 squad at?
  • OEII1001OEII1001 Posts: 3,682 Member
    OEII1001 wrote: »
    Life to date, The Sims 4TM has more than 30 million players across all platforms; daily, weekly, and monthly active player totals reached record highs for a first quarter.

    @OEII1001 Yes "Life to date". If you read this correctly you will see it states 35 million life to date and that active players have reached record highs. Two different things. There is even a ";" sign to seperate.

    Case closed.

    If I may be so bold, I still am wondering how many active players the game has. We haven't satisfied that question with all of this posturing.
  • SimsILikeSimsSimsILikeSims Posts: 1,634 Member
    So by now with the release of the new kits and dust bunnies, I think everyone can agree TS4 is utterly broken in 2 ways.
    • 1: The game is laughably. And I mean hilariously unbalanced.
      With the right lot traits and a simplistic amount of work from the player, you can get $100,000 .. in 2 days...for doing nothing.
    • 2: EA and Maxis are more focused on bringing in new content no one asked for, neglecting good content,
      refusing to fix broken content (Hello Dine Out) and are more focused on stretching upcoming content through multiple packs to charge more. Eg why wasn't the Dust mechanic included in Laundry day? Why wasn't My First Pet stuff included in Pets ect ect.
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Keep in mind in pervious games, yes you could earn a lot of money if you actually tried.
    [snip example]
    I understand the need to breathe new life into Sims by adding new features and content we have never seen before.
    But when the core of the game (emotions) have become more of a temporary inconvenience that you can entirely solve by toggling
    a single painting or watching tv for 30 in game minutes, it just shows that the foundation of The Sims 4 has been compromised.

    At this point people aren't buying new content because its fun, they are buying new content because they are so bored of what already exists.
    Again, due to Maxis philosophy of continuing to create barebones content that is unbalanced and then stretching said content over 2-3 different packs.
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    The Future
    Maxis producers have said there are many more years of TS4 to come. So will the game improve? No.
    With the introduction of kits it proves Maxis has no backbone. They are entirely at the mercy of EA with no say in what content they want to create. Is Maxis and its current employees capable of creating the best Sims game ever made right now? HeIl yes. There is absolutely no doubt about it.

    However, are they currently capable of producing an amazing Sims game while being subject to EA. No. And that is the sad truth.
    What we have seen from the Sims Team over these past 5 years, has shown us that under EA, Maxis is a shell of its former self.
    The only hope I have left for the Sims as a Franchise and Maxis as a company is for them to self publish or for Microsoft to purchase the studio.

    Until Maxis is free from EA, the future of the series and company is dark.
    EA is exhausting Maxis the same way it has done to every other studio it has purchased.

    The day Maxis fully turns into the next:
    • DreamWorks Interactive
    • Visceral Games
    • Pandemic Studios
    • Westwood Studios
    • And currently BioWare
    Will be a sad one.

    Yes, that would be very sad. But what the game REALLY needs not to be so unbalanced, is a DIFFICULTY LEVEL selector. Every good game has one. The Sims never needed one before, mostly because there WAS no "I've never played this game before" level of difficulty, and it was understood in Sims 1 and Sims 2 that nobody HAD ever before played anything quite like it.

    However, now a large number of fans (including myself) have played The Sims games since Sims 1 or Sims 2 came out. Also, this is why people came up with fan challenges beginning with Sims 1, about 2 or 3 years in (around the time of House Party or Vacation). You can also always play without any cheats to increase the difficulty, or with as many cheats as you like to decrease the difficulty.

    The steps above that you mentioned to get lots of money are NOT obvious to players who have not read all the cheat and hint guides. If you want to nerf the ability to make lots of money quickly in the game by using a sequence of predictable steps, note that it will cause problems for those actually playing fan-made live-mode challenges, or those who do not want to use ANY cheats in their game and do not have any mods that affect gameplay in any way.

    So...what we REALLY need is a difficulty switch. Very easy, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Very Hard. Different players have different needs when it comes to challenging their abilities to the extent that they can play the game and enjoy it instead of feeling like it is a game for little kids.

    The game tutorial is an example of Very Easy mode. Lots of hand-holding. Tells you literally how to do everything (except cheat). Having your characters thrive and survive while you are away from keyboard in the other room for more than 5 minutes but less than an hour: Also very easy mode.

    An example of Easy mode: One or two characters per household, use as many cheats as you want, as much custom content, and as many mods as you want, but characters do not do well if the game is running unpaused on medium or fast speed for more than 10 minutes.

    An example of Medium mode: One or two cheats per game save. At least one challenge or competition ongoing. Three to six characters per game. No more than 2 or 3 mods (which is generally a good idea anyway to help your game work correctly). Custom content optional.

    Hard or Very Hard mode: Players who have put in more than 2500 hours in Sims 3 or Sims 4 can decide for themselves how specifically the game could be made more difficult. (Just saying "This is not challenging enough!" does not help developers fix this issue.)

    As a casual player who also holds down a full time job, and has been working overtime for the last 2 months, I prefer medium or less levels of challenge, especially since I have not even logged more than 2500 hours in Sims 4. When Sims 3 was in active development, I had a lot more spare time, so had more time to play it, and same with Sims 2. However, with each game, the more custom content I use, the longer of course, it takes my computer to load the game.
    I have been playing The Sims since 2001, when Livin Large came out. My avatar deliberately looks like Chris Roomies from TS1.
  • GoldmoldarGoldmoldar Posts: 11,966 Member
    edited April 2021
    And as for the bolded part, well, they can't include everything in a pack as they are limited with the extent of content allowed.

    @elanorbreton To explain that one I would say there are tons of people who are actually wondering why the Sims team has such a limited budget and staff. They are making a ridiculous amount of money and they have shown in previous games that they actually have a budget for more animations and features. So it does make people wonder why all of a sudden 40$ packs are recycling so much content. They have more than enough money to be more customer-friendly and add more features.

    Some people on this forum assume that EA/Maxis has an limited budget and yet not one on here sees their Excel Spreadsheet to even assume that is the case. This has been the case since Sims 4 came into existence always speaking for EA/Maxis and how much funds they have. and this is all pure speculation. I agree with your point on if Sims 4 is supposely selling well it should have more money for it's projects. Since most speculate on how much money EA/Maxis makes I am going to make my own. EA/Maxis has the money it is just they know some players will spend money regardless of what Sims 4 offers so they they allocate less to the budget and more into their bank. Do I care how those people who support EA/Maxis, I would have to say no because it is all about me just like those players that support EA/Maxis feel it is about them and it is all about what I want and Sims 4 just does not have the juice. Sims series can go just like the Sims Cities franchise went which by the way was much older than the Sims series and EA/Maxis disrespected it. The way I see it let the ones who enjoy Sims 4 have at it for EA/Maxis is not hearing the noise. So I am spending my cash somewhere else and do not sweat the small stuff.
    Post edited by Goldmoldar on
    Omen by HP Intel®️ Core™️ i9- 12900K W/ RGB Liquid Cooler 32GB Nvidia RTX 3080 10Gb ASUS Ultra-Wide 34" Curved Monitor. Omen By HP Intel® Core™ i7-12800HX 32 GB Nvidia 3070 Ti 8 GB 17.3 Screen
  • Ersa_MiddletonErsa_Middleton Posts: 697 Member
    Yeah I'm so not on the EA/Maxis bash boat anymore. I found that I get easily influenced by stuff like this and I don't like that.

  • Sk8rblazeSk8rblaze Posts: 7,570 Member
    So by now with the release of the new kits and dust bunnies, I think everyone can agree TS4 is utterly broken in 2 ways.
    • 1: The game is laughably. And I mean hilariously unbalanced.
      With the right lot traits and a simplistic amount of work from the player, you can get $100,000 .. in 2 days...for doing nothing.
    • 2: EA and Maxis are more focused on bringing in new content no one asked for, neglecting good content,
      refusing to fix broken content (Hello Dine Out) and are more focused on stretching upcoming content through multiple packs to charge more. Eg why wasn't the Dust mechanic included in Laundry day? Why wasn't My First Pet stuff included in Pets ect ect.
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Keep in mind in pervious games, yes you could earn a lot of money if you actually tried.
    [snip example]
    I understand the need to breathe new life into Sims by adding new features and content we have never seen before.
    But when the core of the game (emotions) have become more of a temporary inconvenience that you can entirely solve by toggling
    a single painting or watching tv for 30 in game minutes, it just shows that the foundation of The Sims 4 has been compromised.

    At this point people aren't buying new content because its fun, they are buying new content because they are so bored of what already exists.
    Again, due to Maxis philosophy of continuing to create barebones content that is unbalanced and then stretching said content over 2-3 different packs.
    ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    The Future
    Maxis producers have said there are many more years of TS4 to come. So will the game improve? No.
    With the introduction of kits it proves Maxis has no backbone. They are entirely at the mercy of EA with no say in what content they want to create. Is Maxis and its current employees capable of creating the best Sims game ever made right now? HeIl yes. There is absolutely no doubt about it.

    However, are they currently capable of producing an amazing Sims game while being subject to EA. No. And that is the sad truth.
    What we have seen from the Sims Team over these past 5 years, has shown us that under EA, Maxis is a shell of its former self.
    The only hope I have left for the Sims as a Franchise and Maxis as a company is for them to self publish or for Microsoft to purchase the studio.

    Until Maxis is free from EA, the future of the series and company is dark.
    EA is exhausting Maxis the same way it has done to every other studio it has purchased.

    The day Maxis fully turns into the next:
    • DreamWorks Interactive
    • Visceral Games
    • Pandemic Studios
    • Westwood Studios
    • And currently BioWare
    Will be a sad one.

    Yes, that would be very sad. But what the game REALLY needs not to be so unbalanced, is a DIFFICULTY LEVEL selector. Every good game has one. The Sims never needed one before, mostly because there WAS no "I've never played this game before" level of difficulty, and it was understood in Sims 1 and Sims 2 that nobody HAD ever before played anything quite like it.

    However, now a large number of fans (including myself) have played The Sims games since Sims 1 or Sims 2 came out. Also, this is why people came up with fan challenges beginning with Sims 1, about 2 or 3 years in (around the time of House Party or Vacation). You can also always play without any cheats to increase the difficulty, or with as many cheats as you like to decrease the difficulty.

    The steps above that you mentioned to get lots of money are NOT obvious to players who have not read all the cheat and hint guides. If you want to nerf the ability to make lots of money quickly in the game by using a sequence of predictable steps, note that it will cause problems for those actually playing fan-made live-mode challenges, or those who do not want to use ANY cheats in their game and do not have any mods that affect gameplay in any way.

    So...what we REALLY need is a difficulty switch. Very easy, Easy, Medium, Hard, and Very Hard. Different players have different needs when it comes to challenging their abilities to the extent that they can play the game and enjoy it instead of feeling like it is a game for little kids.

    The game tutorial is an example of Very Easy mode. Lots of hand-holding. Tells you literally how to do everything (except cheat). Having your characters thrive and survive while you are away from keyboard in the other room for more than 5 minutes but less than an hour: Also very easy mode.

    An example of Easy mode: One or two characters per household, use as many cheats as you want, as much custom content, and as many mods as you want, but characters do not do well if the game is running unpaused on medium or fast speed for more than 10 minutes.

    An example of Medium mode: One or two cheats per game save. At least one challenge or competition ongoing. Three to six characters per game. No more than 2 or 3 mods (which is generally a good idea anyway to help your game work correctly). Custom content optional.

    Hard or Very Hard mode: Players who have put in more than 2500 hours in Sims 3 or Sims 4 can decide for themselves how specifically the game could be made more difficult. (Just saying "This is not challenging enough!" does not help developers fix this issue.)

    As a casual player who also holds down a full time job, and has been working overtime for the last 2 months, I prefer medium or less levels of challenge, especially since I have not even logged more than 2500 hours in Sims 4. When Sims 3 was in active development, I had a lot more spare time, so had more time to play it, and same with Sims 2. However, with each game, the more custom content I use, the longer of course, it takes my computer to load the game.

    I definitely support the idea of a difficulty mode! It would solve many problems for me if the "base" game mode were designed with more challenge, with options to make the game easier for those who prefer how it is in The Sims 4.

    I think having random events and spontaneity should be a part of the "base" difficulty too. I want to open my game and not know what to expect going to the park, gym, a restaurant, etc.
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