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Make Family-Switching Simpler
bonobotheory
Posts: 233 New Member
Switching households is a chore. Well, somewhere between a chore and a downright pain in the ***. In The Sims and The Sims 2, it was a simple matter of returning to the neighborhood view, selecting the new household, then confirming the selection. In The Sims 3, I have to go to the main menu, select Edit Neighborhood, choose whether or not I want to save the game, click the Change Active Household button, confirm it twice (seriously, what the hell?), click the Choose Household button (even though I already told the game I was going to be choosing a new household), select the household I want to play, and finally confirm it. It's so obtuse, there are some players who still don't realize that you can switch households.
Suggestion: Let players change the active household from the neighborhood view. Clicking on a house should bring up the option to go to the house with your Sim, or to switch that household to the active household. Then, two confirmations (one for "are you sure?" and one for "this will erase wishes, are you sure you're sure?" won't be a big deal.
Just a few small fixes in this area would go a long way toward improving the whole-neighborhood style of play that made The Sims and The Sims 2 so much fun.
Suggestion: Let players change the active household from the neighborhood view. Clicking on a house should bring up the option to go to the house with your Sim, or to switch that household to the active household. Then, two confirmations (one for "are you sure?" and one for "this will erase wishes, are you sure you're sure?" won't be a big deal.
Just a few small fixes in this area would go a long way toward improving the whole-neighborhood style of play that made The Sims and The Sims 2 so much fun.
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Comments
I think if EA changed it now, I'd just get confused again.
The Genesis Challenge (Sims 4)
If it were made easier to switch between families, you'd still be able to focus on one family if that's how you like to play. It wouldn't switch at random, or without your permission - only when you wanted it to.
If you didn't want to switch, you just wouldn't switch. Unless you have some weird medical condition where your hands don't obey your brain, and they click on things you don't want to be clicking on, you probably wouldn't even notice the change.
Ahaha, I just have to say that I really do do this sometimes! I have some mild nervous tics that mostly involve finger twitches. Heaven help me if I ever have to use a gun! ^^;
But on a more serious note, the family-switching thing does seem to be bothering quite a number of people. I guess the consequences of changing households are so dire that all the hoops you have to go through are not entirely inappropriate, but...well, the consequences never should have been dire in the first place. I don't understand why the developers chose to alter the multiple-simultaneous-saved-families aspect that people loved so much in the previous games.
And yes, the navigation through buttons and screens to go into and out of Sims' lives really is a hassle as you say.
I got that vibe from the game as well, and that made it even worse. Every time I had to click to confirm, it's like they were desperately trying to talk me out of playing the game the way I wanted to play it:
You know, you probably shouldn't do that. Are you sure? *clicks Yes*
We're serious. Don't change the active household. *clicks Yes again*
Okay, we'll let you, but it's really not a good idea. *clicks Yes yet again*
Are you sure? We didn't put much effort into that part of the game. *click*
It's kinda screwy. Don't say we didn't warn you. *click*
We're only allowing you to switch households because we... *click*
Hey, wait a... *click*
But... *click*
*click*
*click click clickclickclick*
Dear EA, I want to change the active family. Every time I try to do it, I really, truly, sincerely want to change it. Stop asking.