I would LOVE it if they got rid of the loading screen while going somewhere in the neighborhood or going to work/school/etc.
I loved the open neighborhood concept in TS3 but I feel like they are going back to TS2 with the loading screen. Let's go forward not backwards with the game!
Read carefully, because I'm not asking for 'open World'. I'm just asking for removal of waiting screen in a neighborhood; or should I say, 'open Neighborhood'
I really hope Maxis start considering to improve Sims4 gameplay by removing the waiting screen (at least in a neighborhood) starting with Get Together (and not after 5 years of fans ranting). As of now, it's really is a handicap how we should look at that plumbob waiting screen each time we want to visit a lot just next to our current lot. It becomes really horrible especially in a retail neighborhood like Magnolia Promenade. The other shop looks abandoned and the only vibrant lot is the lot where my active Sim is. There's not even a lot of Sim to fill up the emptiness of Magnolia Promenade streets and parks and harbor and the whole neighborhood becoming more & more like a deserted residential neighborhood (as opposed to a retail neighborhood). There's not even a 'Create a Neighborhood' option for us to fix some of the visible error.
Perhaps this is how they are doing it: introducing a 64x64 lot and put all the houses in one giant lot. If that's the case, then what I'm afraid of is that the crowd system will only flock to one corner while the rest is completely deserted. Say there is a house with one radio, a house with one DJ booth, and a house with one television on different location of that big lot; people will only visit the house with a DJ booth because it is more exciting for the Sims, the rest of the houses is neglected, and here we see the abandoned neighborhood syndrome again. Probably the club system will fix this, but still... Magnolia Promenade will always be the weird Dystopian abandoned Magnolia Promenade with no improvement in seamless lot-to-lot moving and no crowd improvement.
I love the full-of-life neatly packed world of the medieval timber-brick houses like Colmar, Riquewihr, Nurenberg. It would be really nice to begin the implementation of no waiting screen in this EP, so we can have a more vibrant Magnolia Promenade.
READ THIS GURU!!!!!! and don't make us watch that white plumbob waiting screen for 5 another years.
I had a theory. (Disclaimer: I know nothing about coding or how games work inside my computer) This theory seems (to me) to "imitate" an open neighborhood. This could be kind of confusing so bare with me. What if ,to access the lot next door, you still had to click on the lot when the little car icon that comes up, the way it does now. When you do, the new lot begins to load and continues to load as your sim is running to the next lot. When the played sim leaves the current lot, it becomes inactive is no longer loaded. (like now when looking at the next door lot). In theory, by the time your sim gets to the next lot, its loaded. If im not mistaken, most loading times on better computers are not long at all. With some additional "style" coding, like sims entering and exiting unloaded lots, it could imitate an open neighborhood.
It would probably require higher specs, and should be optional for people like me who have crappy computers. Again, I have no coding experience, but it seems to me, since the outsides of all the other lots are already loaded, it could work.
I love video games because of the things that I could never do in real life... For instance, in the sims you can get a job and a house.
Origin ID: Mainmanvs100
First question in my mind is, how do you handle the lot editing aspect? If I'm not mistaken, public lots can be edited. That means you've not only got to load build information for every lot in the "open neighborhood" area, but you have to load it such a way that it can be edited, without mucking up the data of other nearby lots.
So maybe you allow only one lot to be edited at a time still. But then what do you do with the other lots while the first one is being edited? You have to cross them off the "allowable" editing list temporarily, but they still have to be loaded, or it defeats the point of no loading screens. You go to edit Lot A and Lot B kicks your sims out. That would be weird. So it'd have to keep them all loaded while you edit, while somehow restricting access to more than one at a time.
Or could allow them all to be edited at the same time, but that's probably impossible with how it's coded. Then we're taking about loading and writing everything in the area. Even if it is possible, it'd probably be major stress on machines to process.
Or you could simply disallow editing completely while the game is in Play mode (playing a household) but this poses the problem of making people go to a loading screen every time they want to tweak a lot.
We really need an open neighborhood. Not because of the loading screens, but because we need more lively worlds. Going to a lot and seeing that the surrounding buildings are completely empty and no sims are doing anything at all ruins the immersion completely.
Yeah, we need to have a SOLID "vibrant" world concept for Sims 4. But first of all, Maxis, EA, whoever the super mismanaged developer of the game needs to remove the hideous culling system. This culling gone so bad, not only it culled the Sim, it also culled its relationship now with Get Together?! what the 🐸🐸🐸🐸? Don't tell me it's Ms. R behind this again.
We really need an open neighborhood. Not because of the loading screens, but because we need more lively worlds. Going to a lot and seeing that the surrounding buildings are completely empty and no sims are doing anything at all ruins the immersion completely.
Yeah, we need to have a SOLID "vibrant" world concept for Sims 4. But first of all, Maxis, EA, whoever the super mismanaged developer of the game needs to remove the hideous culling system. This culling gone so bad, not only it culled the Sim, it also culled its relationship now with Get Together?! what the 🐸🐸🐸🐸? Don't tell me it's Ms. R behind this again.
There is a story progression mod with a no culling setting for both sims and ghosts
We really need an open neighborhood. Not because of the loading screens, but because we need more lively worlds. Going to a lot and seeing that the surrounding buildings are completely empty and no sims are doing anything at all ruins the immersion completely.
Yeah, we need to have a SOLID "vibrant" world concept for Sims 4. But first of all, Maxis, EA, whoever the super mismanaged developer of the game needs to remove the hideous culling system. This culling gone so bad, not only it culled the Sim, it also culled its relationship now with Get Together?! what the 🐸🐸🐸🐸? Don't tell me it's Ms. R behind this again.
There is a story progression mod with a no culling setting for both sims and ghosts
I know! but they should make it available in the game and not as a mod.
The Sims4 is slowly becoming a more solid game. There's still a lot of weaknesses in their game system. The build mode has immense flaw: the black shadow on the ceiling, the void, the foundation; the missing toddlers, the missing teenages! the terraforming tools so many things need to be done now!
We really need an open neighborhood. Not because of the loading screens, but because we need more lively worlds. Going to a lot and seeing that the surrounding buildings are completely empty and no sims are doing anything at all ruins the immersion completely.
Yeah, we need to have a SOLID "vibrant" world concept for Sims 4. But first of all, Maxis, EA, whoever the super mismanaged developer of the game needs to remove the hideous culling system. This culling gone so bad, not only it culled the Sim, it also culled its relationship now with Get Together?! what the 🐸🐸🐸🐸? Don't tell me it's Ms. R behind this again.
There is a story progression mod with a no culling setting for both sims and ghosts
I know! but they should make it available in the game and not as a mod.
The Sims4 is slowly becoming a more solid game. There's still a lot of weaknesses in their game system. The build mode has immense flaw: the black shadow on the ceiling, the void, the foundation; the missing toddlers, the missing teenages! the terraforming tools so many things need to be done now!
And the fact its unplayable for me! Since the last update my sims wont even do anything in game and they wont move or anything when I make them, so I am resorting to playing on ts3
I would really enjoy seeing an open neighbourhood and other sims active around their own houses and out in the streets. And I agree that it is unrealistic to only see active sims on one active lot while all the others in the area are empty and abandoned looking.
It would especially be fun if we saw sims cutting their grass, or doing their gardening and seeing the kids out on the roads playing skip rope or hopscotch or riding bikes.
I don't know how it would end up affecting the sim generation though. Currently it is max 20 sims for a single lot. I know without the more sims on lots mod I only get about 14 or 15 sims to that one lot. How many sims live in a single neighbourhood? Or how would the sims spread out in the retail areas to the bars vs the gym vs the library, etc.? would that mean that there would only be about 5 at the club because the rest are out somewhere else in the neighbourhood?
They would have to up the sim number for the area by a fair bit, and then how will that affect performance for some? I tested the more sims mod and had no issues with about 50 sims at my nightclub and it certainly felt a lot more realistic. But over a long time, I don't know how it will affect my game.
You guys might not know this, but the minimum requirements for Sims 4 is so low that hardware made 10 YEARS AGO meet it. I have never seen a major release with those kinds of minimum requirements EVER. So no, it's just not possible to do much of the stuff you expect of a modern game because everything has to be able to run on a computer from the distant past, and yes, 10 years is a lifetime in the tech world.
They already said this will NEVER happen. The game engine of Olympus is limited and it is only based on one lot loading.
Ok...you need to stop. You are starting to really annoy me with that "Olympus" and "engine" 🐸🐸🐸🐸.
Do you know what a game engine is? Did you ever used one? Like Unreal Engine?
Well let me tell you something in a very, very abbreviated way, I can use the same engine to make an open world and a world that is loading screen based. Ok?
It's just the way the world is set up, it has nothing to do with your acclaimed "limitations".
Of course the two have different cons and pros in terms of developing and playing.
It is limited. Get over it.
The limited part is the world's loading screen, yes, but the neighborhood's loading screen is not limited. They can do it. @luthienrising says that the trade off is related with the activity happening in the neighborhood. That's a stupid excuse! Look at Magnolia Promenade!! I suspect if the trade off is that then I would see more Sims flocking in the retail area, BUT THAT"S NOT HAPPEN, the activity happening in Magnolia Promenade neighborhood is null! So that really is another stupido excuse from Maxis.
IMO, they can return to Sims3 style of loading the area while playing the game ONLY for the neighborhood. That will be a great improvement for the overall gameplay, other than the crowd system which seems to be really limited in a 2015 game.
The world does not have loading screen. You can access the world map anytime, it is the individual lots that have loading screen.
The game was built like that. This was Olympus project and the team decided to do the game on its engine so that they can speed up the release of TS4. There are limitations and this is one of the limitations we know. I hope there are no more limitations (that we dont know) that might spoil the game.
I'm not annoyed by the loading screens so far, but yes I would have loved open neighborhoods provided the lots would be busy as they are now. Right now when a lot is loaded around 20 sims are sent to that lot to make it look busy so when it is open neighborhood I guess each lot might have 5 sims instead, the sims will be spread over the different lots of that hood.
I don't believe that the engine is incapable of doing that, seriously. I really hate when they use the engine excuse. Cannot do height slider because of the "engine"? look NOW, a fan is making them for free with no price tag! And it actually works! What else?? Cough cough City Skyline - SimsCity! What's next? some fans actually making a Create a Style? Maxis NEEDS to work HARDER and don't use anymore of those engine excuse.
ps: I'm not asking for all CAS of course. But Maxis, please work harder for us
Well yes, we got a height slider mod but we just proved maxis right, there are too many issues with it and it wouldn't be worth the amount of resources to add it in such a late stage of development.
They already said this will NEVER happen. The game engine of Olympus is limited and it is only based on one lot loading.
Ok...you need to stop. You are starting to really annoy me with that "Olympus" and "engine" 🐸🐸🐸🐸.
Do you know what a game engine is? Did you ever used one? Like Unreal Engine?
Well let me tell you something in a very, very abbreviated way, I can use the same engine to make an open world and a world that is loading screen based. Ok?
It's just the way the world is set up, it has nothing to do with your acclaimed "limitations".
Of course the two have different cons and pros in terms of developing and playing.
It is limited. Get over it.
The limited part is the world's loading screen, yes, but the neighborhood's loading screen is not limited. They can do it. @luthienrising says that the trade off is related with the activity happening in the neighborhood. That's a stupid excuse! Look at Magnolia Promenade!! I suspect if the trade off is that then I would see more Sims flocking in the retail area, BUT THAT"S NOT HAPPEN, the activity happening in Magnolia Promenade neighborhood is null! So that really is another stupido excuse from Maxis.
IMO, they can return to Sims3 style of loading the area while playing the game ONLY for the neighborhood. That will be a great improvement for the overall gameplay, other than the crowd system which seems to be really limited in a 2015 game.
The world does not have loading screen. You can access the world map anytime, it is the individual lots that have loading screen.
The game was built like that. This was Olympus project and the team decided to do the game on its engine so that they can speed up the release of TS4. There are limitations and this is one of the limitations we know. I hope there are no more limitations (that we dont know) that might spoil the game.
I'm not annoyed by the loading screens so far, but yes I would have loved open neighborhoods provided the lots would be busy as they are now. Right now when a lot is loaded around 20 sims are sent to that lot to make it look busy so when it is open neighborhood I guess each lot might have 5 sims instead, the sims will be spread over the different lots of that hood.
I don't believe that the engine is incapable of doing that, seriously. I really hate when they use the engine excuse. Cannot do height slider because of the "engine"? look NOW, a fan is making them for free with no price tag! And it actually works! What else?? Cough cough City Skyline - SimsCity! What's next? some fans actually making a Create a Style? Maxis NEEDS to work HARDER and don't use anymore of those engine excuse.
ps: I'm not asking for all CAS of course. But Maxis, please work harder for us
Well yes, we got a height slider mod but we just proved maxis right, there are too many issues with it and it wouldn't be worth the amount of resources to add it in such a late stage of development.
They don't need resources if their management is fine. I think they just don't focus enough on Sims4 development, maybe they're focusing more on profit, or on online gaming, or perhaps APPS?? Who knows what Rachel's planning to do.
People have been asking for this since release day; producers already said it's not gonna happen.
Here's the quote from SimguruMax (again) explaining why:
"Loading screens: this was done primarily to accomodate multitasking. We build a highly complex graph of all the objects in the world and their connectivity (you can see our GDC talk about this online). Doing searches over this graph is computationally-intensive and proportional to the size of the graph. This is one of the main reasons that you cannot go to your neighbor's house without a loading screen - we couldn't afford to have their entire house and your entire house loaded at once. Keep in mind that people can create some huge houses with dozens and dozens of chairs and tables and stuff like that which all involve a bunch of nodes (different slot types for carryables, etc.)."
"We've been attributing the state of The Sims 4 to greed but I think it's time to give sheer incompetence another look."
-Honeywell
Sims 4 is a limited and failed game, with an incompetent management, meant for 10 years old hardware. Open neighborhood and no culling is too hard, too expansive.
People have been asking for this since release day; producers already said it's not gonna happen.
Here's the quote from SimguruMax (again) explaining why:
"Loading screens: this was done primarily to accomodate multitasking. We build a highly complex graph of all the objects in the world and their connectivity (you can see our GDC talk about this online). Doing searches over this graph is computationally-intensive and proportional to the size of the graph. This is one of the main reasons that you cannot go to your neighbor's house without a loading screen - we couldn't afford to have their entire house and your entire house loaded at once. Keep in mind that people can create some huge houses with dozens and dozens of chairs and tables and stuff like that which all involve a bunch of nodes (different slot types for carryables, etc.)."
Which is total BS since there has been multitasking in the game since TS2 and for being 10 years old, they sure we're capable of creating an actual simulation game with multitasking. On top of that, this new multitasking is subpar. Instead of doing things simultaneously, they have one action go for a certain amount of time, then trigger another for a certain amount of time, then another, and repeat. So they watch TV, stop, take a bite, stop, talk, stop, watch TV, stop, etc. Illusions, illusions. In TS2, they continued watching TV while they cuddled and talked. In TS4 they can either watch TV and talk or cuddle...not all 3. And when they are using the TV to skill, they don't continue while a different task like eating is being performed. The skill stops increasing until they go back to the watching TV.
I had a theory. (Disclaimer: I know nothing about coding or how games work inside my computer) This theory seems (to me) to "imitate" an open neighborhood. This could be kind of confusing so bare with me. What if ,to access the lot next door, you still had to click on the lot when the little car icon that comes up, the way it does now. When you do, the new lot begins to load and continues to load as your sim is running to the next lot. When the played sim leaves the current lot, it becomes inactive is no longer loaded. (like now when looking at the next door lot). In theory, by the time your sim gets to the next lot, its loaded. If im not mistaken, most loading times on better computers are not long at all. With some additional "style" coding, like sims entering and exiting unloaded lots, it could imitate an open neighborhood.
It would probably require higher specs, and should be optional for people like me who have crappy computers. Again, I have no coding experience, but it seems to me, since the outsides of all the other lots are already loaded, it could work.
This is how TS3 was coded. The lot next door wasn't loaded unless you actually went there to visit. It was like a rabbitholes that could still be used by inhabitants, but you couldn't see inside of it without ringing the doorbell first.
I think it might be the 10 time for me to say this, but YES to open nieghborhoods! We can use a bit more life in our neighborhoods. Id like to see my neighbor walk to th trashcan outside of their house and not just jogging and socializing in front of my house to walk off the lot eventually.
OK just had to pop in here. I have read my comments on the first page that I wrote few months back and I came back to say that today I am even more convinced that the game engine is very weak. Why? the indication is the new relationship culling system.
Every EP added means something has to be culled. The engine is very weak and cannot tolerate significant additions. The gurus and EA have proved it for us with the latest addition of the culling.
This makes the future of the game and packs very uncertain and gloomy. It will mean that the EPs either have to be half baked or underwhelming!
It is sad that the game has potential but it might never reach to it. I would really love to have open neighborhoods and also culling to be removed but I don't think it will happen. Actually I am more certain that only the opposite of what we players want will happen.
See this thread is few months old and OP is talking about the sims culling, but today we have one more form added. As if we never complained, and as if they were never listening! They just don't care.
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
One more thing I have to add, the game is closed right now and they introduce all these culling mechanics! Can you imagine if they open the neighborhoods what kind of culling they will do?
They will go harsher on culling and the game will become just like a soap opera where all characters keep disappearing one after another.
Everything I post is an opinion here and I think every post of others is as well.
> @Glic2003 said: > People have been asking for this since release day; producers already said it's not gonna happen. > > Here's the quote from SimguruMax (again) explaining why: > > "Loading screens: this was done primarily to accomodate multitasking. We build a highly complex graph of all the objects in the world and their connectivity (you can see our GDC talk about this online). Doing searches over this graph is computationally-intensive and proportional to the size of the graph. This is one of the main reasons that you cannot go to your neighbor's house without a loading screen - we couldn't afford to have their entire house and your entire house loaded at once. Keep in mind that people can create some huge houses with dozens and dozens of chairs and tables and stuff like that which all involve a bunch of nodes (different slot types for carryables, etc.)."
This explanation somewhat confuses me because when I look through the windows of my neighbours' homes, all the furniture is rendered inside. Even in the Sims 3, you couldn't see inside your neighbours' houses until your own Sim walked up to the front door and rang the bell (if the neighbour was inside to answer). I don't understand why they couldn't implement that sort of thing this time around.
> @Glic2003 said:
> People have been asking for this since release day; producers already said it's not gonna happen.
>
> Here's the quote from SimguruMax (again) explaining why:
>
> "Loading screens: this was done primarily to accomodate multitasking. We build a highly complex graph of all the objects in the world and their connectivity (you can see our GDC talk about this online). Doing searches over this graph is computationally-intensive and proportional to the size of the graph. This is one of the main reasons that you cannot go to your neighbor's house without a loading screen - we couldn't afford to have their entire house and your entire house loaded at once. Keep in mind that people can create some huge houses with dozens and dozens of chairs and tables and stuff like that which all involve a bunch of nodes (different slot types for carryables, etc.)."
This explanation somewhat confuses me because when I look through the windows of my neighbours' homes, all the furniture is rendered inside. Even in the Sims 3, you couldn't see inside your neighbours' houses until your own Sim walked up to the front door and rang the bell (if the neighbour was inside to answer). I don't understand why they couldn't implement that sort of thing this time around.
The furniture will render if you look in, but a lot of other calculations are made when you load a lot: all the rest of the lot is loaded, and the surrounding neighbourhood is reloaded (judging that by the fact that the load time doesn't become longer if you're coming from a different neigbhourhood), and calculations are made about which Sims are on the lot and in the surrounding area, and what they are doing (presumably this is the reason load times increase with population - or they have when I've tracked this, at least).
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.
Unfortunately the discussion is like whipping a dead horse. Sims 4 if I'm not mistaken was intended to be an online game. Like it or not the game engine is not capable of an open world or neighborhoods. The game plays like something written for online or a phone. That is exactly why sims 4 is the way it is. That's why there is culling. All they are doing is releasing slapped together updates and EP's in an attempt to try to make it somewhat playable. I admit I am still playing the base game with the addition of perfect patio stuff (I wanted the hot tubs). No way am I going to pay $30-$40 for a EP that adds minimal features and more bugs. The game was never written to do what they are trying to make it do. Look at the minimal specs as mentioned earlier. You would have a hard time running Sims 3 with those specs. I would say you gotta make the best of it for now and/or go back to playing Sims 3 like I did.
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”
― Mark Twain
The thing I hate the most is my sim and their friend living in the same neighborhood. Because when I visit the friend, on the way home my Sim jogs all way to their house, stands outside, and I get a loading screen. How ridiculous is that?!!
The thing I hate the most is my sim and their friend living in the same neighborhood. Because when I visit the friend, on the way home my Sim jogs all way to their house, stands outside, and I get a loading screen. How ridiculous is that?!!
It's very ridiculous! My sim is literally in front of their house yet I have to sit through a loading screen just so they can go through the front door! Honestly it makes me not want to play the game. I can cope with not having a full open world but there has to be an open neighborhood at least! How is it okay for the 4th game in the series to go so far back in almost every way! There is so much potential being wasted right now, there is so much the game should have! It makes me so mad just thinking about it!
Comments
I loved the open neighborhood concept in TS3 but I feel like they are going back to TS2 with the loading screen. Let's go forward not backwards with the game!
I agree, especially since my waiting screens are terribly long! It is why I play more on TS3
It would probably require higher specs, and should be optional for people like me who have crappy computers. Again, I have no coding experience, but it seems to me, since the outsides of all the other lots are already loaded, it could work.
I love video games because of the things that I could never do in real life... For instance, in the sims you can get a job and a house.
Origin ID: Mainmanvs100
So maybe you allow only one lot to be edited at a time still. But then what do you do with the other lots while the first one is being edited? You have to cross them off the "allowable" editing list temporarily, but they still have to be loaded, or it defeats the point of no loading screens. You go to edit Lot A and Lot B kicks your sims out. That would be weird. So it'd have to keep them all loaded while you edit, while somehow restricting access to more than one at a time.
Or could allow them all to be edited at the same time, but that's probably impossible with how it's coded. Then we're taking about loading and writing everything in the area. Even if it is possible, it'd probably be major stress on machines to process.
Or you could simply disallow editing completely while the game is in Play mode (playing a household) but this poses the problem of making people go to a loading screen every time they want to tweak a lot.
Yeah, we need to have a SOLID "vibrant" world concept for Sims 4. But first of all, Maxis, EA, whoever the super mismanaged developer of the game needs to remove the hideous culling system. This culling gone so bad, not only it culled the Sim, it also culled its relationship now with Get Together?! what the 🐸🐸🐸🐸? Don't tell me it's Ms. R behind this again.
There is a story progression mod with a no culling setting for both sims and ghosts
I know! but they should make it available in the game and not as a mod.
The Sims4 is slowly becoming a more solid game. There's still a lot of weaknesses in their game system. The build mode has immense flaw: the black shadow on the ceiling, the void, the foundation; the missing toddlers, the missing teenages! the terraforming tools so many things need to be done now!
And the fact its unplayable for me! Since the last update my sims wont even do anything in game and they wont move or anything when I make them, so I am resorting to playing on ts3
It would especially be fun if we saw sims cutting their grass, or doing their gardening and seeing the kids out on the roads playing skip rope or hopscotch or riding bikes.
I don't know how it would end up affecting the sim generation though. Currently it is max 20 sims for a single lot. I know without the more sims on lots mod I only get about 14 or 15 sims to that one lot. How many sims live in a single neighbourhood? Or how would the sims spread out in the retail areas to the bars vs the gym vs the library, etc.? would that mean that there would only be about 5 at the club because the rest are out somewhere else in the neighbourhood?
They would have to up the sim number for the area by a fair bit, and then how will that affect performance for some? I tested the more sims mod and had no issues with about 50 sims at my nightclub and it certainly felt a lot more realistic. But over a long time, I don't know how it will affect my game.
You guys might not know this, but the minimum requirements for Sims 4 is so low that hardware made 10 YEARS AGO meet it. I have never seen a major release with those kinds of minimum requirements EVER. So no, it's just not possible to do much of the stuff you expect of a modern game because everything has to be able to run on a computer from the distant past, and yes, 10 years is a lifetime in the tech world.
Well yes, we got a height slider mod but we just proved maxis right, there are too many issues with it and it wouldn't be worth the amount of resources to add it in such a late stage of development.
They don't need resources if their management is fine. I think they just don't focus enough on Sims4 development, maybe they're focusing more on profit, or on online gaming, or perhaps APPS?? Who knows what Rachel's planning to do.
Here's the quote from SimguruMax (again) explaining why:
"Loading screens: this was done primarily to accomodate multitasking. We build a highly complex graph of all the objects in the world and their connectivity (you can see our GDC talk about this online). Doing searches over this graph is computationally-intensive and proportional to the size of the graph. This is one of the main reasons that you cannot go to your neighbor's house without a loading screen - we couldn't afford to have their entire house and your entire house loaded at once. Keep in mind that people can create some huge houses with dozens and dozens of chairs and tables and stuff like that which all involve a bunch of nodes (different slot types for carryables, etc.)."
"We've been attributing the state of The Sims 4 to greed but I think it's time to give sheer incompetence another look."
-Honeywell
Why?
Which is total BS since there has been multitasking in the game since TS2 and for being 10 years old, they sure we're capable of creating an actual simulation game with multitasking. On top of that, this new multitasking is subpar. Instead of doing things simultaneously, they have one action go for a certain amount of time, then trigger another for a certain amount of time, then another, and repeat. So they watch TV, stop, take a bite, stop, talk, stop, watch TV, stop, etc. Illusions, illusions. In TS2, they continued watching TV while they cuddled and talked. In TS4 they can either watch TV and talk or cuddle...not all 3. And when they are using the TV to skill, they don't continue while a different task like eating is being performed. The skill stops increasing until they go back to the watching TV.
This is how TS3 was coded. The lot next door wasn't loaded unless you actually went there to visit. It was like a rabbitholes that could still be used by inhabitants, but you couldn't see inside of it without ringing the doorbell first.
Every EP added means something has to be culled. The engine is very weak and cannot tolerate significant additions. The gurus and EA have proved it for us with the latest addition of the culling.
This makes the future of the game and packs very uncertain and gloomy. It will mean that the EPs either have to be half baked or underwhelming!
It is sad that the game has potential but it might never reach to it. I would really love to have open neighborhoods and also culling to be removed but I don't think it will happen. Actually I am more certain that only the opposite of what we players want will happen.
See this thread is few months old and OP is talking about the sims culling, but today we have one more form added. As if we never complained, and as if they were never listening! They just don't care.
They will go harsher on culling and the game will become just like a soap opera where all characters keep disappearing one after another.
> People have been asking for this since release day; producers already said it's not gonna happen.
>
> Here's the quote from SimguruMax (again) explaining why:
>
> "Loading screens: this was done primarily to accomodate multitasking. We build a highly complex graph of all the objects in the world and their connectivity (you can see our GDC talk about this online). Doing searches over this graph is computationally-intensive and proportional to the size of the graph. This is one of the main reasons that you cannot go to your neighbor's house without a loading screen - we couldn't afford to have their entire house and your entire house loaded at once. Keep in mind that people can create some huge houses with dozens and dozens of chairs and tables and stuff like that which all involve a bunch of nodes (different slot types for carryables, etc.)."
This explanation somewhat confuses me because when I look through the windows of my neighbours' homes, all the furniture is rendered inside. Even in the Sims 3, you couldn't see inside your neighbours' houses until your own Sim walked up to the front door and rang the bell (if the neighbour was inside to answer). I don't understand why they couldn't implement that sort of thing this time around.
The furniture will render if you look in, but a lot of other calculations are made when you load a lot: all the rest of the lot is loaded, and the surrounding neighbourhood is reloaded (judging that by the fact that the load time doesn't become longer if you're coming from a different neigbhourhood), and calculations are made about which Sims are on the lot and in the surrounding area, and what they are doing (presumably this is the reason load times increase with population - or they have when I've tracked this, at least).
― Mark Twain
It's very ridiculous! My sim is literally in front of their house yet I have to sit through a loading screen just so they can go through the front door! Honestly it makes me not want to play the game. I can cope with not having a full open world but there has to be an open neighborhood at least! How is it okay for the 4th game in the series to go so far back in almost every way! There is so much potential being wasted right now, there is so much the game should have! It makes me so mad just thinking about it!