It's Patch Day! Today we release our latest update which adds Customizable Pronouns to The Sims 4, click
here to read the patch notes.
May 27th - It's time for our Friday Highlights! You can check them out
here!
The Midnight Chìc and Little Campers Kits are here! Click
here to join the screenshot thread for Little Campers and
here for Midnight Chìc's. :)
Morale is Rock Bottom? How do you feel about the state of the Sims
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I'm playing Gearbox's Tiny Tina's Wonderlands right now which I actually pre-ordered! Something I hadn't done in YEARS! It is SO MUCH FUN and hardly has any bugs from Day 1!!!
There's also been a lot of other simulation/survival games that while not quite life simulation games are still pretty fun. The key thing is to expand your interests. Try other genres of video games and you might end up liking these others so that you're not as upset about the plight of The Sims series or so dependent on it that you buy its packs even though you really don't want to. You no longer need to settle for it when you have other options!
This. All of this. I'm ready for Unreal Engine 5 to make Sims 5's foundation solid.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very concerned about the creative direction of VP of Franchise Creative at the Sims. I'm concerned about what creative decisions she will make for the Sims 5. But I can be reassured that at least the base will be functioning well since it's on the backs of Unreal Engine 5. Allegedly.
Do you mean that Sims 5 will use Unreal's Engine as the actual game engine?
I've seen mentioned in job postings for certain job criteria about needing experience or has experience shipping games with Unreal Engine, but I can't recall that it mentioned it was for "The Sims". I thought Maxis was making another new IP and just assumed it would be for that.
Also, it was my understanding, that even for Sims 4 they did all prototyping in Unreal and just ported it over to the engine they created, but I could have misunderstood.
I humbly ask that the Team focuses on fixing what's broken in the Sims4 overall, first, then worry about what should come next. God-willing, I'll still be here.
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Any game made with the Unreal Engine needs to share 5% of all profits with Epic Games once the game earns over $1 million. I think those folks are not considering just how much 5% is for a Sims game. That would be 5% of all profits, from every EP, GP, and any other type of pack or content, not just base game. It's a massive amount of money. Sorry, this is EA we are talking about...I just can't see them being willing to part with that kind of money.
That said, EA has taken a shift in the past few years where they have used Unreal Engine for a few other games....so...maybe it will happen. We'll see.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
"Every child matters. If we fail our children, we are bound to fail our present, our future, faith, cultures, and civilizations as well."
Even if it stays single player, what's to keep EA from making the game ever more tailored to ever younger audiences to gain ever more potential players to amass ever more revenue? As long as we remain Pavlovian sheep gobbling up every bit of broken mess they throw at us, what's the motivation to change regardless of version.
At this point, The Sims has been a buggy mess for a very long time. I dip in and out and play when there's a new pack I like the sound of, but I'm not expecting things to get better because, well, if Maxis/EA were capable of doing better software development, they probably would have figured it out by now. So I accept that status quo is probably the best we're going to get, and make my play and purchase decisions accordingly.
I see your point of view but at the end of the day the engine is beginning to really show its age a lot of people want to move on to something new and different and that's Sims5. Did you really expect Sims 4 to last forever? Remember it came out in 2014 that's 8 (9 in september) years ago now.
Besides the occasional times my brother would let me play with him, I've never been super into videogames and computers. I feel like I'm one of the only people in my generation that technology doesn't come naturally to. But I've been playing sims 4 for the last year or so and I've fallen in love with it. I'm amazed every day by what people can create and the incredible options we have to modify the world, characters, and lives. It's all new to me and it's all amazing.
However, I also think I've seen the ways that videogame design and user-friendliness have improved and evolved since I was a kid, and am kind of surprised by all the simple things in sims that just don't make sense. Maybe it's because I don't find computer systems intuitive, but I'm constantly questioning why so many of the basics are difficult to understand and deal with when there's been so much improvement in other parts of the game. A couple of specifics I've thought of today:
- Why can't we add filters/have a "favorites" folder for the item databases so we can easily access favorite items and colors and create styles for characters and homes?
- Why wouldn't you be able to use the eyedropper tool on terrain paint?
- Why wouldn't we have an option to turn off the camera auto-adjusting for floor levels?
- Why would "Off-the-grid" items be their own category rather than a filter?
- Why can't you filter/sort items by characteristics like environment, water consumption and comfort scores?
- Why wouldn't appliances and upgrades show actual, understandable information about how they affect bills?
Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if one or more of those have obvious solutions, but I think the fact that I'm not sure and wouldn't know how to find out speaks volumes about the user-friendliness of the system. I feel like I'm constantly coming across simple but confusing things about the entire designing side of the game. And of course I'm saying this as someone with no understanding of programming... but I've done some work with databases and fully believe it has more to do with the organization than the capabilities of the program. The information is all there since it affects sims' environment, moods, bills, etc., it's just a matter of what does and doesn't get shown and how it's laid out. Most online stores, even, are organized in ways and have search/filter options that just intuitively make so much more sense.
I understand why they focus on new content since that's what brings in money. But I also think Sims is wasting a huge opportunity to be seen as an entity that listens to its players and actually responds to their thoughts. In a way that makes me think of Eric Barone/concernedape and Stardew Valley. The fact that I look up simple issues and find unaddressed forum posts from years ago seems kind of crazy. Sure, I've seen that mods can do just about anything to the game, but I know I get frustrated and overwhelmed with them and wouldn't be surprised if many people do. I'm much more likely to stick with a game if I don't have to jerry-rig it every time I play. And more players = more $$$, so win-win.
This ended up being way longer than I had intended... But clearly I'm passionate about it lol.
At this point, I will not be subscribing to or buying Sims 5. Which is sad because Sims was my most beloved franchise for 20yrs.
Repose en paix mamie tu va me manquer :
1923-2016 mamie
(She/her)
This. The Sims is literally a multimillion franchise. Billion, even.
And in theory, that means the team should have PLENTY of resources and creative freedom to do what they want with it, with as much time as they need, right? At least that's how it should work in a world that makes any sense.
EA needs to loosen up a bit, give them a better budget and resources, more wiggle room, and also stop focusing so much on increasing the profits. The latest pack was clearly a rushed disaster that needed multiple patches to even function, so they should focus more on letting the team actually produce a quality game.
The money is right there, EA. Use it. Stop being such dumb, corporate dragons about it. Put those billions to good use. Sims money should go towards improving The Sims. It's only logical.
There's a reason the team had the Villainy branch in University give your sim an advantage in business and economics.
they/them
Not only have the recent kits had rather limited appeal for me in terms of the appearance of the items but the Wedding Stories pack didn't even work properly. If it wasn't for some of the incredible CC and Mods, I'm not sure I'd be playing the game at all any more.
True, I am assuming the Unreal Engine 5 development as we only know the prototyping in Unreal. Mass Effect 5 is also looking to hire talent in Unreal Engine 5...I'm seeing the focus a lot.
It really would be a shame if they prototype something in such a powerful and reliable engine only to make a new engine for the real game.
Repose en paix mamie tu va me manquer :
1923-2016 mamie
I do not understand how your post is related to your poll response. As your post is about misleading marketing, then that would be a reason to trust EA less, not more. Instead, you voted that you are "an unwavering supporter of EA and the Sims."
Repose en paix mamie tu va me manquer :
1923-2016 mamie
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