You mean like when people were cancelling their pre-orders after they found out that so many things were cut from The Sims 4 and the Gurus said that things like pools, ghosts and toddlers would quickly be added to the game?
Pools and ghosts were added within 2 months. That is fast.
I wonder how long it would take you to animate, code and implement a life stage? A year is nothing in the game development world.
Pools added yes, Ghost and Family Tree added NO
Broken things are not counted.
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
And a guru saying there is nothing about 4 that limits the ability to do seasons doesn't mean that there will be, nor how they will be implemented if they are. Or how many seasons. Just that they can 'do seasons'.
That's true but one of my biggest concerns has always been that in the end the engine could be a limiting factor for seasons. Allegedly it's not which is good, isn't it?
I wouldn't take an offhand twitter comment as gospel though either. If beards, bears, and a lounge chair animation are too hard and too costly to do in this engine, well, I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to take those guru comments out of context then sure.
/shrug If thinking when they said making a bear would be too costly or that they don't have the tech to be able to easily do beards means that simple things are too hard and/or too costly for the engine is taking things out of context, then so be it. Until they really start to add on to the game with something other than new parties and a few objects I'm not seeing a ton of evidence to discredit that viewpoint.
a few objects?
are you forgetting:
pools
ghosts
half walls
locking doors
basements
genealogy
newcrest
new careers
all for free while working on other content, packs, and providing countless bug fixes.
And yes, you are taking those quotes out of context. The team couldn't justify the cost and work of animating a four-legged creature for a game pack that would provide nothing more than background noise. Animals are best saved for a pets EP.
To be fair most of those should have been in the base game though.
I just want to know one thing. Don't the gurus feel how the game became that low in standards? Don't they see the type of questions they are asked? All the questions have fear, doubt and mistrust to them.
I mean asking that pets would be an object is a hint to the baby object!
Someone now needs to ask them if the pets will be costumes only like the bear. lol
People doubting things or not having any optimism about this game. Are they happy with what they made? Do they see the response?
That is what would worry me too as a developer. People are scared of how low the expectations are for a game that was release in 2014. What is worse is that we know the sims can go a long way since we have seen it in TS2 and TS3.
And a guru saying there is nothing about 4 that limits the ability to do seasons doesn't mean that there will be, nor how they will be implemented if they are. Or how many seasons. Just that they can 'do seasons'.
That's true but one of my biggest concerns has always been that in the end the engine could be a limiting factor for seasons. Allegedly it's not which is good, isn't it?
I wouldn't take an offhand twitter comment as gospel though either. If beards, bears, and a lounge chair animation are too hard and too costly to do in this engine, well, I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to take those guru comments out of context then sure.
/shrug If thinking when they said making a bear would be too costly or that they don't have the tech to be able to easily do beards means that simple things are too hard and/or too costly for the engine is taking things out of context, then so be it. Until they really start to add on to the game with something other than new parties and a few objects I'm not seeing a ton of evidence to discredit that viewpoint.
a few objects?
are you forgetting:
pools
ghosts
half walls
locking doors
basements
genealogy
newcrest
new careers
all for free while working on other content, packs, and providing countless bug fixes.
And yes, you are taking those quotes out of context. The team couldn't justify the cost and work of animating a four-legged creature for a game pack that would provide nothing more than background noise. Animals are best saved for a pets EP.
Out of that list the only thing that really added something "new" that couldn't be done with already existing assests and mechanics in the base game was pools and genealogy, and the family trees are pretty well plum'ed up. When we are talking Seasons, we are talking about adding on new functionality to the base game engine. This isn't something we've seen them be able to do yet. The new careers when you look at how they work are little more than a new party type, same UI and mechanics, its just a party for 1. Locking doors is a few minutes of script work, half walls is, well, just half a wall, etc., etc.
And the fact they "couldn't justify" adding in real bears isn't exactly something that is a defense, or something that casts a good light on them. All it says to me is there was no passion or desire to really make that EP a quality experience. They were fine with just half pluming it and adding a bear costume. I don't know how that could be seen in anyway a good thing.
To be fair most of those should have been in the base game though.
I hear you. Point is, the devs made good on those 'promises' so I'm baffled as to why people "know" toddlers aren't coming and how culling will never get fixed.
And a guru saying there is nothing about 4 that limits the ability to do seasons doesn't mean that there will be, nor how they will be implemented if they are. Or how many seasons. Just that they can 'do seasons'.
That's true but one of my biggest concerns has always been that in the end the engine could be a limiting factor for seasons. Allegedly it's not which is good, isn't it?
I wouldn't take an offhand twitter comment as gospel though either. If beards, bears, and a lounge chair animation are too hard and too costly to do in this engine, well, I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to take those guru comments out of context then sure.
/shrug If thinking when they said making a bear would be too costly or that they don't have the tech to be able to easily do beards means that simple things are too hard and/or too costly for the engine is taking things out of context, then so be it. Until they really start to add on to the game with something other than new parties and a few objects I'm not seeing a ton of evidence to discredit that viewpoint.
a few objects?
are you forgetting:
pools
ghosts
half walls
locking doors
basements
genealogy
newcrest
new careers
all for free while working on other content, packs, and providing countless bug fixes.
And yes, you are taking those quotes out of context. The team couldn't justify the cost and work of animating a four-legged creature for a game pack that would provide nothing more than background noise. Animals are best saved for a pets EP.
Out of that list the only thing that really added something "new" that couldn't be done with already existing assests and mechanics in the base game was pools and genealogy, and the family trees are pretty well plum'ed up. When we are talking Seasons, we are talking about adding on new functionality to the base game engine. This isn't something we've seen them be able to do yet. The new careers when you look at how they work are little more than a new party type, same UI and mechanics, its just a party for 1. Locking doors is a few minutes of script work, half walls is, well, just half a wall, etc., etc.
And the fact they "couldn't justify" adding in real bears isn't exactly something that is a defense, or something that casts a good light on them. All it says to me is there was no passion or desire to really make that EP a quality experience. They were fine with just half pluming it and adding a bear costume. I don't know how that could be seen in anyway a good thing.
Do you have any idea how much time and effort goes into creating and animating animals for a game like the sims? Now think about what a bear would be in outdoor retreat. Basically all it would be is background noise. Talk about wasting resources.
I like the bear costumes! I've seen much more fun with those in Simmers' screenshots - entire bear families, even! - than I imagine I'd have seen if there was just a bear we could look at while we were hiking.
EA CREATOR NETWORK MEMBER — Want to be notified of patches, new Broken Mods threads, and urgent Sims 4 news? Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/luthienrising.
And a guru saying there is nothing about 4 that limits the ability to do seasons doesn't mean that there will be, nor how they will be implemented if they are. Or how many seasons. Just that they can 'do seasons'.
That's true but one of my biggest concerns has always been that in the end the engine could be a limiting factor for seasons. Allegedly it's not which is good, isn't it?
I wouldn't take an offhand twitter comment as gospel though either. If beards, bears, and a lounge chair animation are too hard and too costly to do in this engine, well, I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to take those guru comments out of context then sure.
/shrug If thinking when they said making a bear would be too costly or that they don't have the tech to be able to easily do beards means that simple things are too hard and/or too costly for the engine is taking things out of context, then so be it. Until they really start to add on to the game with something other than new parties and a few objects I'm not seeing a ton of evidence to discredit that viewpoint.
Eeeh... Well idk the going to work feature is pretty impresive. I would have done it with every job so it would be cooler , but they did a neat job even though it didn't impress me that much. Mostly because I wanted the retail aspect to be better since thats what i enjoyed most about the sims 2 OFB. However for those who like the job asprct they did a good job, not great, but good.
Get together also has a lot of cool features other than parties. The groups are much better and I look forward to to creating cliques especially cause I can't really do family play im ts4 so I just do rotational. I actually think get together would be amazing if they had added a supernatural into it.
Maybe I'm just in a good mood cause a guru actually shared informatiom, but i believe they can improve at least when it comes to EPs. Stuff Packs are ok too, but they meed to come with more stuff. I feel like they have less objects than stuff packs in ts2 and ts3. To me the best sps are the ones for the sims 2. Such as: family fun stuff, teen stuff and H&M stuff
I did forget about the retail aspects of GTW. Mostly because I haven't used them much. That seems pretty new. Not sure how good it actually is, haven't heard many positives about it, but I suppose it still fits the bill of being new functionality.
I like the bear costumes! I've seen much more fun with those in Simmers' screenshots - entire bear families, even! - than I imagine I'd have seen if there was just a bear we could look at while we were hiking.
Oh please dont tell the gurus this or next summer your pets EP will be all cats and dogs costumes!
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
To be fair most of those should have been in the base game though.
I hear you. Point is, the devs made good on those 'promises' so I'm baffled as to why people "know" toddlers aren't coming and how culling will never get fixed.
The main problem with toddlers is the silence. Toddlers were said to be in the game and it has been over a year and they haven't even adressed the problem. They released two game packs, two expansion packs and several patches, but non solves the toddlers issue. One of the game packs should have been about family play and toddlers. A generations EPs would be a slap in the face cause its way too early for that and its not the idea to make EPs to replace features that should be in the base game of a game worthy of 2014.
I like the bear costumes! I've seen much more fun with those in Simmers' screenshots - entire bear families, even! - than I imagine I'd have seen if there was just a bear we could look at while we were hiking.
Oh please dont tell the gurus this or next summer your pets EP will be all cats and dogs costumes!
You know what? I think they're actually smart enough to understand when costumes are okay as a solution and when they aren't.
EA CREATOR NETWORK MEMBER — Want to be notified of patches, new Broken Mods threads, and urgent Sims 4 news? Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/luthienrising.
We've only had one single Expansion Pack so far. We are yet to see what the game is capable of doing. The "limitations" of the game are yet to be tested. I can understand the fear of the developers making a plum Seasons EP but there's no need to complain about something that hasn't happened yet.
And a guru saying there is nothing about 4 that limits the ability to do seasons doesn't mean that there will be, nor how they will be implemented if they are. Or how many seasons. Just that they can 'do seasons'.
That's true but one of my biggest concerns has always been that in the end the engine could be a limiting factor for seasons. Allegedly it's not which is good, isn't it?
I wouldn't take an offhand twitter comment as gospel though either. If beards, bears, and a lounge chair animation are too hard and too costly to do in this engine, well, I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to take those guru comments out of context then sure.
/shrug If thinking when they said making a bear would be too costly or that they don't have the tech to be able to easily do beards means that simple things are too hard and/or too costly for the engine is taking things out of context, then so be it. Until they really start to add on to the game with something other than new parties and a few objects I'm not seeing a ton of evidence to discredit that viewpoint.
a few objects?
are you forgetting:
pools
ghosts
half walls
locking doors
basements
genealogy
newcrest
new careers
all for free while working on other content, packs, and providing countless bug fixes.
And yes, you are taking those quotes out of context. The team couldn't justify the cost and work of animating a four-legged creature for a game pack that would provide nothing more than background noise. Animals are best saved for a pets EP.
Out of that list the only thing that really added something "new" that couldn't be done with already existing assests and mechanics in the base game was pools and genealogy, and the family trees are pretty well plum'ed up. When we are talking Seasons, we are talking about adding on new functionality to the base game engine. This isn't something we've seen them be able to do yet. The new careers when you look at how they work are little more than a new party type, same UI and mechanics, its just a party for 1. Locking doors is a few minutes of script work, half walls is, well, just half a wall, etc., etc.
And the fact they "couldn't justify" adding in real bears isn't exactly something that is a defense, or something that casts a good light on them. All it says to me is there was no passion or desire to really make that EP a quality experience. They were fine with just half pluming it and adding a bear costume. I don't know how that could be seen in anyway a good thing.
Do you have any idea how much time and effort goes into creating and animating animals for a game like the sims? Now think about what a bear would be in outdoor retreat. Basically all it would be is background noise. Talk about wasting resources.
I don't think it would be wasting resources. Claire the bear from the sims 1 would subtly go into your sims house and steal stuff and she had very interesting features. She was a surprise element and I happen to miss that in the sims franchise. It was silly and unexpected. So if i the sims 1 made in 2000 made a cool bear for the game i don't see why a game in 2014 can't do the same.
I like the bear costumes! I've seen much more fun with those in Simmers' screenshots - entire bear families, even! - than I imagine I'd have seen if there was just a bear we could look at while we were hiking.
Oh please dont tell the gurus this or next summer your pets EP will be all cats and dogs costumes!
You know what? I think they're actually smart enough to understand when costumes are okay as a solution and when they aren't.
Its not about understanding. Its all about cost and profit.
If there was understanding in the subject they would have not released a game about sims with messed up life stages.
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
To be fair most of those should have been in the base game though.
I hear you. Point is, the devs made good on those 'promises' so I'm baffled as to why people "know" toddlers aren't coming and how culling will never get fixed.
The main problem with toddlers is the silence. Toddlers were said to be in the game and it has been over a year and they haven't even addressed the problem. They released two game packs, two expansion packs and several patches, but non solves the toddlers issue. One of the game packs should have been about family play and toddlers. A generations EPs would be a slap in the face cause its way too early for that and its not the idea to make EPs to replace features that should be in the base game of a game worthy of 2014.
I'm confident that they have a team working on toddlers that separate from the stuff pack / game pack team. I would bet money on it. I wouldn't let the flow of DLC worry you. Toddlers are a huge job. Its going to take some time.
As far as the silence is concerned. I don't like it either, but I know they will say something when they can.
And a guru saying there is nothing about 4 that limits the ability to do seasons doesn't mean that there will be, nor how they will be implemented if they are. Or how many seasons. Just that they can 'do seasons'.
That's true but one of my biggest concerns has always been that in the end the engine could be a limiting factor for seasons. Allegedly it's not which is good, isn't it?
I wouldn't take an offhand twitter comment as gospel though either. If beards, bears, and a lounge chair animation are too hard and too costly to do in this engine, well, I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to take those guru comments out of context then sure.
/shrug If thinking when they said making a bear would be too costly or that they don't have the tech to be able to easily do beards means that simple things are too hard and/or too costly for the engine is taking things out of context, then so be it. Until they really start to add on to the game with something other than new parties and a few objects I'm not seeing a ton of evidence to discredit that viewpoint.
a few objects?
are you forgetting:
pools
ghosts
half walls
locking doors
basements
genealogy
newcrest
new careers
all for free while working on other content, packs, and providing countless bug fixes.
And yes, you are taking those quotes out of context. The team couldn't justify the cost and work of animating a four-legged creature for a game pack that would provide nothing more than background noise. Animals are best saved for a pets EP.
Out of that list the only thing that really added something "new" that couldn't be done with already existing assests and mechanics in the base game was pools and genealogy, and the family trees are pretty well plum'ed up. When we are talking Seasons, we are talking about adding on new functionality to the base game engine. This isn't something we've seen them be able to do yet. The new careers when you look at how they work are little more than a new party type, same UI and mechanics, its just a party for 1. Locking doors is a few minutes of script work, half walls is, well, just half a wall, etc., etc.
And the fact they "couldn't justify" adding in real bears isn't exactly something that is a defense, or something that casts a good light on them. All it says to me is there was no passion or desire to really make that EP a quality experience. They were fine with just half pluming it and adding a bear costume. I don't know how that could be seen in anyway a good thing.
Do you have any idea how much time and effort goes into creating and animating animals for a game like the sims? Now think about what a bear would be in outdoor retreat. Basically all it would be is background noise. Talk about wasting resources.
I don't think it would be wasting resources. Claire the bear from the sims 1 would subtly go into your sims house and steal stuff and she had very interesting features. She was a surprise element and I happen to miss that in the sims franchise. It was silly and unexpected. So if i the sims 1 made in 2000 made a cool bear for the game i don't see why a game in 2014 can't do the same.
correct
Thats the thing missing in this game. Do you also remember when you played the Caliente Sisters in TS2? The first fixed up scenario was the burglar that comes then the police man coming?
Do you remember Mrs. Crumplebottom and how she was the romance police in public?
TS4 has pre made sims but those premade sims completely lack a background story. Even functioning NPCs in TS4 are non existent
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
And a guru saying there is nothing about 4 that limits the ability to do seasons doesn't mean that there will be, nor how they will be implemented if they are. Or how many seasons. Just that they can 'do seasons'.
That's true but one of my biggest concerns has always been that in the end the engine could be a limiting factor for seasons. Allegedly it's not which is good, isn't it?
I wouldn't take an offhand twitter comment as gospel though either. If beards, bears, and a lounge chair animation are too hard and too costly to do in this engine, well, I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to take those guru comments out of context then sure.
/shrug If thinking when they said making a bear would be too costly or that they don't have the tech to be able to easily do beards means that simple things are too hard and/or too costly for the engine is taking things out of context, then so be it. Until they really start to add on to the game with something other than new parties and a few objects I'm not seeing a ton of evidence to discredit that viewpoint.
a few objects?
are you forgetting:
pools
ghosts
half walls
locking doors
basements
genealogy
newcrest
new careers
all for free while working on other content, packs, and providing countless bug fixes.
And yes, you are taking those quotes out of context. The team couldn't justify the cost and work of animating a four-legged creature for a game pack that would provide nothing more than background noise. Animals are best saved for a pets EP.
Out of that list the only thing that really added something "new" that couldn't be done with already existing assests and mechanics in the base game was pools and genealogy, and the family trees are pretty well plum'ed up. When we are talking Seasons, we are talking about adding on new functionality to the base game engine. This isn't something we've seen them be able to do yet. The new careers when you look at how they work are little more than a new party type, same UI and mechanics, its just a party for 1. Locking doors is a few minutes of script work, half walls is, well, just half a wall, etc., etc.
And the fact they "couldn't justify" adding in real bears isn't exactly something that is a defense, or something that casts a good light on them. All it says to me is there was no passion or desire to really make that EP a quality experience. They were fine with just half pluming it and adding a bear costume. I don't know how that could be seen in anyway a good thing.
Do you have any idea how much time and effort goes into creating and animating animals for a game like the sims? Now think about what a bear would be in outdoor retreat. Basically all it would be is background noise. Talk about wasting resources.
I don't think it would be wasting resources. Claire the bear from the sims 1 would subtly go into your sims house and steal stuff and she had very interesting features. She was a surprise element and I happen to miss that in the sims franchise. It was silly and unexpected. So if i the sims 1 made in 2000 made a cool bear for the game i don't see why a game in 2014 can't do the same.
Clair the bear was essentially a costume. Creating a bear walking an all fours simply to contribute to a woodsy atmosphere would be a waste.
To be fair most of those should have been in the base game though.
I hear you. Point is, the devs made good on those 'promises' so I'm baffled as to why people "know" toddlers aren't coming and how culling will never get fixed.
The main problem with toddlers is the silence. Toddlers were said to be in the game and it has been over a year and they haven't even addressed the problem. They released two game packs, two expansion packs and several patches, but non solves the toddlers issue. One of the game packs should have been about family play and toddlers. A generations EPs would be a slap in the face cause its way too early for that and its not the idea to make EPs to replace features that should be in the base game of a game worthy of 2014.
I'm confident that they have a team working on toddlers that separate from the stuff pack / game pack team. I would bet money on it. I wouldn't let the flow of DLC worry you. Toddlers are a huge job. Its going to take some time.
As far as the silence is concerned. I don't like it either, but I know they will say something when they can.
It is such a deal breaker for so many simmers that its actually stupid not to share the information. And culling should have been fixed already. For family players the game is pretty unplayable.
And a guru saying there is nothing about 4 that limits the ability to do seasons doesn't mean that there will be, nor how they will be implemented if they are. Or how many seasons. Just that they can 'do seasons'.
That's true but one of my biggest concerns has always been that in the end the engine could be a limiting factor for seasons. Allegedly it's not which is good, isn't it?
I wouldn't take an offhand twitter comment as gospel though either. If beards, bears, and a lounge chair animation are too hard and too costly to do in this engine, well, I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to take those guru comments out of context then sure.
/shrug If thinking when they said making a bear would be too costly or that they don't have the tech to be able to easily do beards means that simple things are too hard and/or too costly for the engine is taking things out of context, then so be it. Until they really start to add on to the game with something other than new parties and a few objects I'm not seeing a ton of evidence to discredit that viewpoint.
Eeeh... Well idk the going to work feature is pretty impresive. I would have done it with every job so it would be cooler , but they did a neat job even though it didn't impress me that much. Mostly because I wanted the retail aspect to be better since thats what i enjoyed most about the sims 2 OFB. However for those who like the job asprct they did a good job, not great, but good.
Get together also has a lot of cool features other than parties. The groups are much better and I look forward to to creating cliques especially cause I can't really do family play im ts4 so I just do rotational. I actually think get together would be amazing if they had added a supernatural into it.
Maybe I'm just in a good mood cause a guru actually shared informatiom, but i believe they can improve at least when it comes to EPs. Stuff Packs are ok too, but they meed to come with more stuff. I feel like they have less objects than stuff packs in ts2 and ts3. To me the best sps are the ones for the sims 2. Such as: family fun stuff, teen stuff and H&M stuff
I did forget about the retail aspects of GTW. Mostly because I haven't used them much. That seems pretty new. Not sure how good it actually is, haven't heard many positives about it, but I suppose it still fits the bill of being new functionality.
It is ok in ts4. I use it quite a lot , but it was better in ts2. In ts2 sims could create toys, flower arrangements and i believe you could also make more technological objects. In ts4 you pretty much sell stuff that its already in the base game so there isnt any new unique objects to sell. Hopefully stuff packs, game packs and expansion packs will add that to the game. So far in fhe sims 4 sims can carve pumpkings and build stuff out of wood. I would like to see more of that. I like it when sims build stuff that isn't in the catalogue.
I like the bear costumes! I've seen much more fun with those in Simmers' screenshots - entire bear families, even! - than I imagine I'd have seen if there was just a bear we could look at while we were hiking.
Oh please dont tell the gurus this or next summer your pets EP will be all cats and dogs costumes!
You know what? I think they're actually smart enough to understand when costumes are okay as a solution and when they aren't.
Its not about understanding. Its all about cost and profit.
If there was understanding in the subject they would have not released a game about sims with messed up life stages.
The cost comes from needing new meshes and animations. What do you imagine they would put the costumes on that's already in the game to make into cats and dogs?! The cost would be the same as making "actual" cats and dogs. And the profit would be less.
Re. the "messed-up" life stages, by which I presume you mean the absence of toddlers and teens being adult-height: We all know that only one extension of basegame release was given, and that that seriously compromised how much could be done. Cutting out two huge animation jobs plus the design of two separate sets of CAS for those would have made it possible to meet that deadline. Instead we got extensive animation of the life stages we did get. They've already indicated that they underestimated the passion around toddlers (clearly, people like me, aging up toddlers quickly in Sims 3 for five whole years, helped suggest that it was a relatively unimportant life stage to people). There've been indications in both coding and surveys that the situation will be remedied. Both those things suggest that they do, indeed, understand. Doesn't mean everything will end up exactly how every single Simmer wants it -- that's not actually possible, as we often want things that conflict. But it does suggest understanding.
EA CREATOR NETWORK MEMBER — Want to be notified of patches, new Broken Mods threads, and urgent Sims 4 news? Follow me at https://www.patreon.com/luthienrising.
And a guru saying there is nothing about 4 that limits the ability to do seasons doesn't mean that there will be, nor how they will be implemented if they are. Or how many seasons. Just that they can 'do seasons'.
That's true but one of my biggest concerns has always been that in the end the engine could be a limiting factor for seasons. Allegedly it's not which is good, isn't it?
I wouldn't take an offhand twitter comment as gospel though either. If beards, bears, and a lounge chair animation are too hard and too costly to do in this engine, well, I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to take those guru comments out of context then sure.
/shrug If thinking when they said making a bear would be too costly or that they don't have the tech to be able to easily do beards means that simple things are too hard and/or too costly for the engine is taking things out of context, then so be it. Until they really start to add on to the game with something other than new parties and a few objects I'm not seeing a ton of evidence to discredit that viewpoint.
a few objects?
are you forgetting:
pools
ghosts
half walls
locking doors
basements
genealogy
newcrest
new careers
all for free while working on other content, packs, and providing countless bug fixes.
And yes, you are taking those quotes out of context. The team couldn't justify the cost and work of animating a four-legged creature for a game pack that would provide nothing more than background noise. Animals are best saved for a pets EP.
Out of that list the only thing that really added something "new" that couldn't be done with already existing assests and mechanics in the base game was pools and genealogy, and the family trees are pretty well plum'ed up. When we are talking Seasons, we are talking about adding on new functionality to the base game engine. This isn't something we've seen them be able to do yet. The new careers when you look at how they work are little more than a new party type, same UI and mechanics, its just a party for 1. Locking doors is a few minutes of script work, half walls is, well, just half a wall, etc., etc.
And the fact they "couldn't justify" adding in real bears isn't exactly something that is a defense, or something that casts a good light on them. All it says to me is there was no passion or desire to really make that EP a quality experience. They were fine with just half pluming it and adding a bear costume. I don't know how that could be seen in anyway a good thing.
Do you have any idea how much time and effort goes into creating and animating animals for a game like the sims? Now think about what a bear would be in outdoor retreat. Basically all it would be is background noise. Talk about wasting resources.
I don't think it would be wasting resources. Claire the bear from the sims 1 would subtly go into your sims house and steal stuff and she had very interesting features. She was a surprise element and I happen to miss that in the sims franchise. It was silly and unexpected. So if i the sims 1 made in 2000 made a cool bear for the game i don't see why a game in 2014 can't do the same.
Clair the bear was essentially a costume. Creating a bear walking an all fours simply to contribute to a woodsy atmosphere would be a waste.
Claire the bear was an actual bear. My sim in the sims 4 can see a dude walking in a bear costume but it has the same purpose of a normal sim walking around in normal clothes. Claire the bear was anything but a normal sim she would even freak me out a bit cause even the music changed when she was around. The sims have lost that weirdness simce the sims 2. I enjoyed all the crazy special NPCs
And a guru saying there is nothing about 4 that limits the ability to do seasons doesn't mean that there will be, nor how they will be implemented if they are. Or how many seasons. Just that they can 'do seasons'.
That's true but one of my biggest concerns has always been that in the end the engine could be a limiting factor for seasons. Allegedly it's not which is good, isn't it?
I wouldn't take an offhand twitter comment as gospel though either. If beards, bears, and a lounge chair animation are too hard and too costly to do in this engine, well, I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to take those guru comments out of context then sure.
/shrug If thinking when they said making a bear would be too costly or that they don't have the tech to be able to easily do beards means that simple things are too hard and/or too costly for the engine is taking things out of context, then so be it. Until they really start to add on to the game with something other than new parties and a few objects I'm not seeing a ton of evidence to discredit that viewpoint.
a few objects?
are you forgetting:
pools
ghosts
half walls
locking doors
basements
genealogy
newcrest
new careers
all for free while working on other content, packs, and providing countless bug fixes.
And yes, you are taking those quotes out of context. The team couldn't justify the cost and work of animating a four-legged creature for a game pack that would provide nothing more than background noise. Animals are best saved for a pets EP.
Out of that list the only thing that really added something "new" that couldn't be done with already existing assests and mechanics in the base game was pools and genealogy, and the family trees are pretty well plum'ed up. When we are talking Seasons, we are talking about adding on new functionality to the base game engine. This isn't something we've seen them be able to do yet. The new careers when you look at how they work are little more than a new party type, same UI and mechanics, its just a party for 1. Locking doors is a few minutes of script work, half walls is, well, just half a wall, etc., etc.
And the fact they "couldn't justify" adding in real bears isn't exactly something that is a defense, or something that casts a good light on them. All it says to me is there was no passion or desire to really make that EP a quality experience. They were fine with just half pluming it and adding a bear costume. I don't know how that could be seen in anyway a good thing.
Do you have any idea how much time and effort goes into creating and animating animals for a game like the sims? Now think about what a bear would be in outdoor retreat. Basically all it would be is background noise. Talk about wasting resources.
I don't think it would be wasting resources. Claire the bear from the sims 1 would subtly go into your sims house and steal stuff and she had very interesting features. She was a surprise element and I happen to miss that in the sims franchise. It was silly and unexpected. So if i the sims 1 made in 2000 made a cool bear for the game i don't see why a game in 2014 can't do the same.
Clair the bear was essentially a costume. Creating a bear walking an all fours simply to contribute to a woodsy atmosphere would be a waste.
Claire the bear was an actual bear. My sim in the sims 4 can see a dude walking in a bear costume but it has the same purpose of a normal sim walking around in normal clothes. Claire the bear was anything but a normal sim she would even freak me out a bit cause even the music changed when she was around. The sims have lost that weirdness simce the sims 2. I enjoyed all the crazy special NPCs
What I mean is, she walked upright, like a sim. Probably shared many animations with the sims.
And a guru saying there is nothing about 4 that limits the ability to do seasons doesn't mean that there will be, nor how they will be implemented if they are. Or how many seasons. Just that they can 'do seasons'.
That's true but one of my biggest concerns has always been that in the end the engine could be a limiting factor for seasons. Allegedly it's not which is good, isn't it?
I wouldn't take an offhand twitter comment as gospel though either. If beards, bears, and a lounge chair animation are too hard and too costly to do in this engine, well, I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to take those guru comments out of context then sure.
/shrug If thinking when they said making a bear would be too costly or that they don't have the tech to be able to easily do beards means that simple things are too hard and/or too costly for the engine is taking things out of context, then so be it. Until they really start to add on to the game with something other than new parties and a few objects I'm not seeing a ton of evidence to discredit that viewpoint.
a few objects?
are you forgetting:
pools
ghosts
half walls
locking doors
basements
genealogy
newcrest
new careers
all for free while working on other content, packs, and providing countless bug fixes.
And yes, you are taking those quotes out of context. The team couldn't justify the cost and work of animating a four-legged creature for a game pack that would provide nothing more than background noise. Animals are best saved for a pets EP.
Out of that list the only thing that really added something "new" that couldn't be done with already existing assests and mechanics in the base game was pools and genealogy, and the family trees are pretty well plum'ed up. When we are talking Seasons, we are talking about adding on new functionality to the base game engine. This isn't something we've seen them be able to do yet. The new careers when you look at how they work are little more than a new party type, same UI and mechanics, its just a party for 1. Locking doors is a few minutes of script work, half walls is, well, just half a wall, etc., etc.
And the fact they "couldn't justify" adding in real bears isn't exactly something that is a defense, or something that casts a good light on them. All it says to me is there was no passion or desire to really make that EP a quality experience. They were fine with just half pluming it and adding a bear costume. I don't know how that could be seen in anyway a good thing.
Do you have any idea how much time and effort goes into creating and animating animals for a game like the sims? Now think about what a bear would be in outdoor retreat. Basically all it would be is background noise. Talk about wasting resources.
I don't think it would be wasting resources. Claire the bear from the sims 1 would subtly go into your sims house and steal stuff and she had very interesting features. She was a surprise element and I happen to miss that in the sims franchise. It was silly and unexpected. So if i the sims 1 made in 2000 made a cool bear for the game i don't see why a game in 2014 can't do the same.
Clair the bear was essentially a costume. Creating a bear walking an all fours simply to contribute to a woodsy atmosphere would be a waste.
You call it a waste. I call it paying attention to detail. In the end, that's really been my biggest gripe about TS4, how the devs seem perfectly fine with only going halfway with everything. When I'm paying premium prices for a AAA title I expect them to not only not be okay with only going halfway, I want to see them going the extra mile and passionately fleshing out every detail in the world and experience they are creating. That passion is what is missing in TS4 and honestly the whole game to me feels like a cheap money grab.
For those that disagree and enjoy TS4, hey more power to you. I'm honestly glad you are enjoying the game. I just expected better from them.
@DecafHigh
You seem to have an odd definition of what is a new functionnality. Anything that comes with a good chunk of new game code and assets is a new functionnality : ghosts, aliens, retail, active careers, vacation, renting, classes, pools, basements, half-walls, genealogy, locking doors are all new functionnalities, and not just reused assets.
They have already added plenty of new functionalities, they have confirmed there is nothing that limits the ability to seasons, so it's just a matter of 'will they choose to do it' (considering the popularity of Seasons, that's a safe bet in my mind), and 'how will they do it', which is the most interesting question for me now, and the one where we can give our feedback/expectations.
I like the bear costumes! I've seen much more fun with those in Simmers' screenshots - entire bear families, even! - than I imagine I'd have seen if there was just a bear we could look at while we were hiking.
Oh please dont tell the gurus this or next summer your pets EP will be all cats and dogs costumes!
You know what? I think they're actually smart enough to understand when costumes are okay as a solution and when they aren't.
Its not about understanding. Its all about cost and profit.
If there was understanding in the subject they would have not released a game about sims with messed up life stages.
The cost comes from needing new meshes and animations. What do you imagine they would put the costumes on that's already in the game to make into cats and dogs?! The cost would be the same as making "actual" cats and dogs. And the profit would be less.
Re. the "messed-up" life stages, by which I presume you mean the absence of toddlers and teens being adult-height: We all know that only one extension of basegame release was given, and that that seriously compromised how much could be done. Cutting out two huge animation jobs plus the design of two separate sets of CAS for those would have made it possible to meet that deadline. Instead we got extensive animation of the life stages we did get. They've already indicated that they underestimated the passion around toddlers (clearly, people like me, aging up toddlers quickly in Sims 3 for five whole years, helped suggest that it was a relatively unimportant life stage to people). There've been indications in both coding and surveys that the situation will be remedied. Both those things suggest that they do, indeed, understand. Doesn't mean everything will end up exactly how every single Simmer wants it -- that's not actually possible, as we often want things that conflict. But it does suggest understanding.
Thats why I am saying it is all about costs and not understanding. First its about costs and profits.
Messed up life stages "Babies, toddlers and teens"
They all decided to take the shortcut, cut costs and rush the release of the game. Why? Would the world ended if the game was delayed? Would a disaster happen if the game was given more time to be fully developed? NO but all EA wanted was "Fast quick money"
EA was too hungry to delay the game and of course they did not care what would the players think of it. They did not even give copies to the reviewing sites so that they wont spread bad word of mouth.
Its all about making money.
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
And a guru saying there is nothing about 4 that limits the ability to do seasons doesn't mean that there will be, nor how they will be implemented if they are. Or how many seasons. Just that they can 'do seasons'.
That's true but one of my biggest concerns has always been that in the end the engine could be a limiting factor for seasons. Allegedly it's not which is good, isn't it?
I wouldn't take an offhand twitter comment as gospel though either. If beards, bears, and a lounge chair animation are too hard and too costly to do in this engine, well, I'll believe it when I see it.
If you want to take those guru comments out of context then sure.
/shrug If thinking when they said making a bear would be too costly or that they don't have the tech to be able to easily do beards means that simple things are too hard and/or too costly for the engine is taking things out of context, then so be it. Until they really start to add on to the game with something other than new parties and a few objects I'm not seeing a ton of evidence to discredit that viewpoint.
a few objects?
are you forgetting:
pools
ghosts
half walls
locking doors
basements
genealogy
newcrest
new careers
all for free while working on other content, packs, and providing countless bug fixes.
And yes, you are taking those quotes out of context. The team couldn't justify the cost and work of animating a four-legged creature for a game pack that would provide nothing more than background noise. Animals are best saved for a pets EP.
Out of that list the only thing that really added something "new" that couldn't be done with already existing assests and mechanics in the base game was pools and genealogy, and the family trees are pretty well plum'ed up. When we are talking Seasons, we are talking about adding on new functionality to the base game engine. This isn't something we've seen them be able to do yet. The new careers when you look at how they work are little more than a new party type, same UI and mechanics, its just a party for 1. Locking doors is a few minutes of script work, half walls is, well, just half a wall, etc., etc.
And the fact they "couldn't justify" adding in real bears isn't exactly something that is a defense, or something that casts a good light on them. All it says to me is there was no passion or desire to really make that EP a quality experience. They were fine with just half pluming it and adding a bear costume. I don't know how that could be seen in anyway a good thing.
Do you have any idea how much time and effort goes into creating and animating animals for a game like the sims? Now think about what a bear would be in outdoor retreat. Basically all it would be is background noise. Talk about wasting resources.
I don't think it would be wasting resources. Claire the bear from the sims 1 would subtly go into your sims house and steal stuff and she had very interesting features. She was a surprise element and I happen to miss that in the sims franchise. It was silly and unexpected. So if i the sims 1 made in 2000 made a cool bear for the game i don't see why a game in 2014 can't do the same.
Clair the bear was essentially a costume. Creating a bear walking an all fours simply to contribute to a woodsy atmosphere would be a waste.
You call it a waste. I call it paying attention to detail. In the end, that's really been my biggest gripe about TS4, how the devs seem perfectly fine with only going halfway with everything. When I'm paying premium prices for a AAA title I expect them to not only not be okay with only going halfway, I want to see them going the extra mile and passionately fleshing out every detail in the world and experience they are creating. That passion is what is missing in TS4 and honestly the whole game to me feels like a cheap money grab.
For those that disagree and enjoy TS4, hey more power to you. I'm honestly glad you are enjoying the game. I just expected better from them.
Honestly I think expecting the team to fully animate a real bear for the background of a vacation world in a game pack is unreasonable. Especially when you consider everything else the fans are asking them for asap. In a perfect world they would have limitless resources, budgets etc, but unfortunately game development doesn't work that way.
Had it been an expansion about animals, I'd agree with you.
Comments
Pools added yes, Ghost and Family Tree added NO
Broken things are not counted.
To be fair most of those should have been in the base game though.
That is what would worry me too as a developer. People are scared of how low the expectations are for a game that was release in 2014. What is worse is that we know the sims can go a long way since we have seen it in TS2 and TS3.
Out of that list the only thing that really added something "new" that couldn't be done with already existing assests and mechanics in the base game was pools and genealogy, and the family trees are pretty well plum'ed up. When we are talking Seasons, we are talking about adding on new functionality to the base game engine. This isn't something we've seen them be able to do yet. The new careers when you look at how they work are little more than a new party type, same UI and mechanics, its just a party for 1. Locking doors is a few minutes of script work, half walls is, well, just half a wall, etc., etc.
And the fact they "couldn't justify" adding in real bears isn't exactly something that is a defense, or something that casts a good light on them. All it says to me is there was no passion or desire to really make that EP a quality experience. They were fine with just half pluming it and adding a bear costume. I don't know how that could be seen in anyway a good thing.
I hear you. Point is, the devs made good on those 'promises' so I'm baffled as to why people "know" toddlers aren't coming and how culling will never get fixed.
Do you have any idea how much time and effort goes into creating and animating animals for a game like the sims? Now think about what a bear would be in outdoor retreat. Basically all it would be is background noise. Talk about wasting resources.
I did forget about the retail aspects of GTW. Mostly because I haven't used them much. That seems pretty new. Not sure how good it actually is, haven't heard many positives about it, but I suppose it still fits the bill of being new functionality.
Oh please dont tell the gurus this or next summer your pets EP will be all cats and dogs costumes!
The main problem with toddlers is the silence. Toddlers were said to be in the game and it has been over a year and they haven't even adressed the problem. They released two game packs, two expansion packs and several patches, but non solves the toddlers issue. One of the game packs should have been about family play and toddlers. A generations EPs would be a slap in the face cause its way too early for that and its not the idea to make EPs to replace features that should be in the base game of a game worthy of 2014.
You know what? I think they're actually smart enough to understand when costumes are okay as a solution and when they aren't.
I don't think it would be wasting resources. Claire the bear from the sims 1 would subtly go into your sims house and steal stuff and she had very interesting features. She was a surprise element and I happen to miss that in the sims franchise. It was silly and unexpected. So if i the sims 1 made in 2000 made a cool bear for the game i don't see why a game in 2014 can't do the same.
Its not about understanding. Its all about cost and profit.
If there was understanding in the subject they would have not released a game about sims with messed up life stages.
I'm confident that they have a team working on toddlers that separate from the stuff pack / game pack team. I would bet money on it. I wouldn't let the flow of DLC worry you. Toddlers are a huge job. Its going to take some time.
As far as the silence is concerned. I don't like it either, but I know they will say something when they can.
correct
Thats the thing missing in this game. Do you also remember when you played the Caliente Sisters in TS2? The first fixed up scenario was the burglar that comes then the police man coming?
Do you remember Mrs. Crumplebottom and how she was the romance police in public?
TS4 has pre made sims but those premade sims completely lack a background story. Even functioning NPCs in TS4 are non existent
Clair the bear was essentially a costume. Creating a bear walking an all fours simply to contribute to a woodsy atmosphere would be a waste.
It is such a deal breaker for so many simmers that its actually stupid not to share the information. And culling should have been fixed already. For family players the game is pretty unplayable.
It is ok in ts4. I use it quite a lot , but it was better in ts2. In ts2 sims could create toys, flower arrangements and i believe you could also make more technological objects. In ts4 you pretty much sell stuff that its already in the base game so there isnt any new unique objects to sell. Hopefully stuff packs, game packs and expansion packs will add that to the game. So far in fhe sims 4 sims can carve pumpkings and build stuff out of wood. I would like to see more of that. I like it when sims build stuff that isn't in the catalogue.
The cost comes from needing new meshes and animations. What do you imagine they would put the costumes on that's already in the game to make into cats and dogs?! The cost would be the same as making "actual" cats and dogs. And the profit would be less.
Re. the "messed-up" life stages, by which I presume you mean the absence of toddlers and teens being adult-height: We all know that only one extension of basegame release was given, and that that seriously compromised how much could be done. Cutting out two huge animation jobs plus the design of two separate sets of CAS for those would have made it possible to meet that deadline. Instead we got extensive animation of the life stages we did get. They've already indicated that they underestimated the passion around toddlers (clearly, people like me, aging up toddlers quickly in Sims 3 for five whole years, helped suggest that it was a relatively unimportant life stage to people). There've been indications in both coding and surveys that the situation will be remedied. Both those things suggest that they do, indeed, understand. Doesn't mean everything will end up exactly how every single Simmer wants it -- that's not actually possible, as we often want things that conflict. But it does suggest understanding.
Claire the bear was an actual bear. My sim in the sims 4 can see a dude walking in a bear costume but it has the same purpose of a normal sim walking around in normal clothes. Claire the bear was anything but a normal sim she would even freak me out a bit cause even the music changed when she was around. The sims have lost that weirdness simce the sims 2. I enjoyed all the crazy special NPCs
You call it a waste. I call it paying attention to detail. In the end, that's really been my biggest gripe about TS4, how the devs seem perfectly fine with only going halfway with everything. When I'm paying premium prices for a AAA title I expect them to not only not be okay with only going halfway, I want to see them going the extra mile and passionately fleshing out every detail in the world and experience they are creating. That passion is what is missing in TS4 and honestly the whole game to me feels like a cheap money grab.
For those that disagree and enjoy TS4, hey more power to you. I'm honestly glad you are enjoying the game. I just expected better from them.
You seem to have an odd definition of what is a new functionnality. Anything that comes with a good chunk of new game code and assets is a new functionnality : ghosts, aliens, retail, active careers, vacation, renting, classes, pools, basements, half-walls, genealogy, locking doors are all new functionnalities, and not just reused assets.
They have already added plenty of new functionalities, they have confirmed there is nothing that limits the ability to seasons, so it's just a matter of 'will they choose to do it' (considering the popularity of Seasons, that's a safe bet in my mind), and 'how will they do it', which is the most interesting question for me now, and the one where we can give our feedback/expectations.
Thats why I am saying it is all about costs and not understanding. First its about costs and profits.
Messed up life stages "Babies, toddlers and teens"
They all decided to take the shortcut, cut costs and rush the release of the game. Why? Would the world ended if the game was delayed? Would a disaster happen if the game was given more time to be fully developed? NO but all EA wanted was "Fast quick money"
EA was too hungry to delay the game and of course they did not care what would the players think of it. They did not even give copies to the reviewing sites so that they wont spread bad word of mouth.
Its all about making money.
Had it been an expansion about animals, I'd agree with you.