I can't really say how I think TS4 is doing, whether Uphill or Downhill. All I know is that for me, I'd rather play TS3 at this point. Maybe I'll change my mind down the road. We'll see. My only criteria is "which is more fun to play?". Right now, it's TS3 for me.
Thinking back before S4 was released & when bombs dropped left & right about what was cut out (including a life stage). I was still supportive & looking forward to sims 4 & even had the high hope's thinking I am sure they will bring back these certain thing's, but here we are 2016 & still no confirmation on the tots, cars etc,etc...I stayed so positive to this point & even bought the day spa, romantic garden, but I can't anymore...I just feel like I'm not playing sims. This is my own feeling though, but in S2 & S3 I loved my sims & had a little pixel connection with them lol! in this game I don't
@mirta000 Lag I even never had (I'm not a CC person so I guess that's what always has saved me from that). I wonder if you maybe confuse lag and freezing; freezing I did have, before I bought a suitable computer for the game and some of the worlds (three to be precisely) are known for causing problems. So no sir, luck doesn't have anything to do with it I think they are perfectly capable of delivering this game with a well functioning open world because most of the worlds are like that for me (let me count..., that means 20 worlds without issues). The proof for me is that a modder managed to turn an unplayable, borked world (Bridgeport) that wouldn't save anymore after about 15 simdays, into a completely flawless experience. Which means that it is possible. I go for possibilities, not for doom-mongering.
But, on the other hand, I now have a good computer, and only the base game with no CC or mods and it runs like trash.
that's kind of it. The Sims 3 just didn't go well with so many systems! Currently I can run it with World Adventures, Late Night, Generations, Seasons and University at aprox 20-30 FPS. That is my limit. My old Laptop could run The sims 3 great until an update for Late Night made it not run on that machine at all T_T, my boyfriend's PC is more powerful than mine, but for The Sims 3 he could at most run the base. So many simmers on so many systems just ran it so poorly!
And that's kind of my fear. I fear that if EA attempts open world again, the problem with the game not running on majority of systems will come up again.
I honestly don't think open world was the issue per se (re: S3), unless you were a rotational player. Rotational play requires one to think outside the box (WAY outside the box) in S3. The real issue was poor coding, developers not anticipating how people were going to play their game, and EA pushing content, disallowing the time required to hunt down and correct issues. There are a good number of us simmers that push the game in directions it simply wasn't meant to go (myself included).
I've successfully broken each of the games, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Doing so has allowed me to discover and learn how to fix issues and to learn what to do and what not to do. For example, in both S3 and 4, having too much inventory, over-cluttering lots, and not using 'Save As' can do more harm than good. Killing all the premades in 1 causes quite the humorous scenario rendering the lot you did such an act on unplayable. Deleting sims, moving them between neighbourhoods, and letting them die with urns in their inventories in Sims 2 destroys your game. The list goes on for all of them. I'm just using a fraction of my own scenarios. There are many more.
I sympathize with you about S3 lagging on your computer. That was one of the reasons I didn't like it in the beginning, but I quickly learned that lag had a lot to do with what world I was playing and exactly what I was doing in those worlds. I made several mistakes, but I've also made several mistakes with 4, 2, and 1.
I've mentioned before that I don't feel using one game's fail is a good example of shielding another game's fail. I don't feel it's a good excuse. If you like it, that's great, but saying you like it because x did this and y doesn't... it says to me that you're either willing to jump through more hoops for y than you were for x, or that maybe your playsttyle really does suit y more than it did with x.
Oh, but the issues with each... I have run into so many from each of them. Every single one.
I had dates get stuck in 1, major pool-ups waiting for vehicles, lots that went out of control with NPCs spawning at an alarming rate with no end in sight.
I had the jump bug in 2, lots that took forever to load, worlds and lots that crashed my game completely.
I had duplicating sims in 3, invisible sims, save errors, and routing issues.
I had complete saves obliterated in 4. inventory bugs, stuck sims, Lag too, and new issues arising every month.
Maybe I'm wrong, but tbh, I can't help but feel all you're really saying is that you're willing to put up with the flaws of one game over another's is because it simply meets your needs or suits your tastes more or better. That's it. I also don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think it's great that you like S4. I wish I could have enjoyed it more too, but my breaking point was met with too many monthly hiccups. I guess my tolerance level is less than yours. But for the issues, I just can't close my eyes and swing my finger around anymore. I've ran into more issues with games made from EA than I have from any other company. Maybe I'm the lucky one there. Maybe I just pick better games for the most part, but I don't feel any of the sims games as a separate entity are the problem.
Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
@mirta000 Lag I even never had (I'm not a CC person so I guess that's what always has saved me from that). I wonder if you maybe confuse lag and freezing; freezing I did have, before I bought a suitable computer for the game and some of the worlds (three to be precisely) are known for causing problems. So no sir, luck doesn't have anything to do with it I think they are perfectly capable of delivering this game with a well functioning open world because most of the worlds are like that for me (let me count..., that means 20 worlds without issues). The proof for me is that a modder managed to turn an unplayable, borked world (Bridgeport) that wouldn't save anymore after about 15 simdays, into a completely flawless experience. Which means that it is possible. I go for possibilities, not for doom-mongering.
freezing I experienced too, but I mean genuine lag. 30-20FPS is really low for me.
I honestly don't think open world was the issue per se (re: S3), unless you were a rotational player. Rotational play requires one to think outside the box (WAY outside the box) in S3. The real issue was poor coding, developers not anticipating how people were going to play their game, and EA pushing content, disallowing the time required to hunt down and correct issues. There are a good number of us simmers that push the game in directions it simply wasn't meant to go (myself included).
I've successfully broken each of the games, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Doing so has allowed me to discover and learn how to fix issues and to learn what to do and what not to do. For example, in both S3 and 4, having too much inventory, over-cluttering lots, and not using 'Save As' can do more harm than good. Killing all the premades in 1 causes quite the humorous scenario rendering the lot you did such an act on unplayable. Deleting sims, moving them between neighbourhoods, and letting them die with urns in their inventories in Sims 2 destroys your game. The list goes on for all of them. I'm just using a fraction of my own scenarios. There are many more.
I sympathize with you about S3 lagging on your computer. That was one of the reasons I didn't like it in the beginning, but I quickly learned that lag had a lot to do with what world I was playing and exactly what I was doing in those worlds. I made several mistakes, but I've also made several mistakes with 4, 2, and 1.
I've mentioned before that I don't feel using one game's fail is a good example of shielding another game's fail. I don't feel it's a good excuse. If you like it, that's great, but saying you like it because x did this and y doesn't... it says to me that you're either willing to jump through more hoops for y than you were for x, or that maybe your playsttyle really does suit y more than it did with x.
Oh, but the issues with each... I have run into so many from each of them. Every single one.
I had dates get stuck in 1, major pool-ups waiting for vehicles, lots that went out of control with NPCs spawning at an alarming rate with no end in sight.
I had the jump bug in 2, lots that took forever to load, worlds and lots that crashed my game completely.
I had duplicating sims in 3, invisible sims, save errors, and routing issues.
I had complete saves obliterated in 4. inventory bugs, stuck sims, Lag too, and new issues arising every month.
Maybe I'm wrong, but tbh, I can't help but feel all you're really saying is that you're willing to put up with the flaws of one game over another's is because it simply meets your needs or suits your tastes more or better. That's it. I also don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think it's great that you like S4. I wish I could have enjoyed it more too, but my breaking point was met with too many monthly hiccups. I guess my tolerance level is less than yours. But for the issues, I just can't close my eyes and swing my finger around anymore. I've ran into more issues with games made from EA than I have from any other company. Maybe I'm the lucky one there. Maybe I just pick better games for the most part, but I don't feel any of the sims games as a separate entity are the problem.
for me I didn't have to jump trough any hoops for The sims 4. I would say that I'm lucky, but I'm generally seeing more simmers running this game better than The sims 3. In here at most for me text messages have corrupted during an install of an extra SP, GP, or EP, but that simply included manually adding the language folder back into the game files. For The Sims 3, launcher updating did not work for me at all I had to manually patch all patches one by one. Some patches made the game not runnable on certain systems of mine at all. Certain patches made me unable to launch the game trough the launcher. As for bugs, I had sim genetics completely not working in 3 with only duplicates being born (I'm half thinking that that is intentional), I had cars pile up and never disappear, I had World Adventures stop giving me quests entirely, I had constant freeze ups, I had constant lag. I do not have to jump trough hoops for The Sims 4. I had for 3.
"or that maybe your playsttyle really does suit y more than it did with x."
Yes. This is exactly true. Like I said, all sims iterations are far removed from each other. They cover different playstyles. X is not Y and will not be Y. I do not know will The Sims 5 suit me at all or not. But that is exactly how it goes. Some simmers will always get left out by an iteration.
@mirta000 Lag I even never had (I'm not a CC person so I guess that's what always has saved me from that). I wonder if you maybe confuse lag and freezing; freezing I did have, before I bought a suitable computer for the game and some of the worlds (three to be precisely) are known for causing problems. So no sir, luck doesn't have anything to do with it I think they are perfectly capable of delivering this game with a well functioning open world because most of the worlds are like that for me (let me count..., that means 20 worlds without issues). The proof for me is that a modder managed to turn an unplayable, borked world (Bridgeport) that wouldn't save anymore after about 15 simdays, into a completely flawless experience. Which means that it is possible. I go for possibilities, not for doom-mongering.
freezing I experienced too, but I mean genuine lag. 30-20FPS is really low for me.
And now I still don't know, nor do I see much of a difference (but I'm watching this on a wonky iPad). Isn't lag the phenomenon that time continues while your sim is just standing there doing nothing, trapped in some command you gave him which he will perform 30 sim minutes later? Also, does fps have a connection with open world?
Personally I don't see why some people on here try and purposely keep a bad game alive in hopes that "ts5 could be better" if a game was great but has gone downhill then it deserves to end imo, I'm an avid sims fan, I have almost every expansion pack and basically spent my teens playing the sims (like all us cool kids do ofc) but ea HAVE the funds to keep making a game great, like they have the advertising power to do so as well and if they were really that interested in ts4 being great then they would've done it but seems to me they're pumping their money into games that have less issues
I think the sims franchise went downhill in over promising in ts3 and under delivering (like with spore) I loved the feel and look of ts3 but the game breaking bugs they never fixed just makes it totally useless, something can look perfect but if it doesn't work it might as well be thrown away, I'm not saying ts4 is that bad, they've done a great job with the stabilisation of the game (currently I haven't had any game breaking bugs) though there are a lot of bugs still left over that seem to still be around but from my p.o.v they seem more interested in pumping out more games than fixing the bugs in the existing ones, they're minor bugs but the detail is in the small aspects that make the final product look better, I've only ever had major bugs with the sims franchise, I've never had to deal with major bugs from any othe game, especially nothing major.
I loved the franchise, but a franchise that doesn't shape up and listen to the people paying gets shut down, that's just fact and as much of a loyal fan I am to the series, I def won't purchase anymore until the existing things are fixed, I'd rather see a franchise that's just taking the mic. End than "hope it's next series will get better" which seems to be some peoples logic in just putting up with it
@mirta000 Lag I even never had (I'm not a CC person so I guess that's what always has saved me from that). I wonder if you maybe confuse lag and freezing; freezing I did have, before I bought a suitable computer for the game and some of the worlds (three to be precisely) are known for causing problems. So no sir, luck doesn't have anything to do with it I think they are perfectly capable of delivering this game with a well functioning open world because most of the worlds are like that for me (let me count..., that means 20 worlds without issues). The proof for me is that a modder managed to turn an unplayable, borked world (Bridgeport) that wouldn't save anymore after about 15 simdays, into a completely flawless experience. Which means that it is possible. I go for possibilities, not for doom-mongering.
freezing I experienced too, but I mean genuine lag. 30-20FPS is really low for me.
And now I still don't know, nor do I see much of a difference (but I'm watching this on a wonky iPad). Isn't lag the phenomenon that time continues while your sim is just standing there doing nothing, trapped in some command you gave him which he will perform 30 sim minutes later? Also, does fps have a connection with open world?
In the past, lag was definined by any phenomenon affecting Real time in the game. It could be defined as stuttering and micro freezes with or without continuing time. It could be affected by playing online and watching someone you just shot take forever to die (because they're lagging on their end). Maybe the definition has changed. I don't really know.
FPS isn't normally the cause for lag. FPS (frames per second: related to video and rendering), if not managed properly, can affect the overall performance of your video card. In 'worst-case' scenarios, it can completely destroy your video card if it's unnecessarily high. I suppose it could inadvertently cause lag if your card is over-heating though.
Personally, I'd rather have the first type of lag. S3 did have an issue with FPS destroying video cards in its early stages. I don't recall exactly, but I think there was a bit of finger-pointing between EA and nVidia. I could be wrong, but I believe this issue was fixed.
Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
But, on the other hand, I now have a good computer, and only the base game with no CC or mods and it runs like trash.
that's kind of it. The Sims 3 just didn't go well with so many systems! Currently I can run it with World Adventures, Late Night, Generations, Seasons and University at aprox 20-30 FPS. That is my limit. My old Laptop could run The sims 3 great until an update for Late Night made it not run on that machine at all T_T, my boyfriend's PC is more powerful than mine, but for The Sims 3 he could at most run the base. So many simmers on so many systems just ran it so poorly!
And that's kind of my fear. I fear that if EA attempts open world again, the problem with the game not running on majority of systems will come up again.
I honestly don't think open world was the issue per se (re: S3), unless you were a rotational player. Rotational play requires one to think outside the box (WAY outside the box) in S3. The real issue was poor coding, developers not anticipating how people were going to play their game, and EA pushing content, disallowing the time required to hunt down and correct issues. There are a good number of us simmers that push the game in directions it simply wasn't meant to go (myself included).
I've successfully broken each of the games, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Doing so has allowed me to discover and learn how to fix issues and to learn what to do and what not to do. For example, in both S3 and 4, having too much inventory, over-cluttering lots, and not using 'Save As' can do more harm than good. Killing all the premades in 1 causes quite the humorous scenario rendering the lot you did such an act on unplayable. Deleting sims, moving them between neighbourhoods, and letting them die with urns in their inventories in Sims 2 destroys your game. The list goes on for all of them. I'm just using a fraction of my own scenarios. There are many more.
I sympathize with you about S3 lagging on your computer. That was one of the reasons I didn't like it in the beginning, but I quickly learned that lag had a lot to do with what world I was playing and exactly what I was doing in those worlds. I made several mistakes, but I've also made several mistakes with 4, 2, and 1.
I've mentioned before that I don't feel using one game's fail is a good example of shielding another game's fail. I don't feel it's a good excuse. If you like it, that's great, but saying you like it because x did this and y doesn't... it says to me that you're either willing to jump through more hoops for y than you were for x, or that maybe your playsttyle really does suit y more than it did with x.
Oh, but the issues with each... I have run into so many from each of them. Every single one.
I had dates get stuck in 1, major pool-ups waiting for vehicles, lots that went out of control with NPCs spawning at an alarming rate with no end in sight.
I had the jump bug in 2, lots that took forever to load, worlds and lots that crashed my game completely.
I had duplicating sims in 3, invisible sims, save errors, and routing issues.
I had complete saves obliterated in 4. inventory bugs, stuck sims, Lag too, and new issues arising every month.
Maybe I'm wrong, but tbh, I can't help but feel all you're really saying is that you're willing to put up with the flaws of one game over another's is because it simply meets your needs or suits your tastes more or better. That's it. I also don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think it's great that you like S4. I wish I could have enjoyed it more too, but my breaking point was met with too many monthly hiccups. I guess my tolerance level is less than yours. But for the issues, I just can't close my eyes and swing my finger around anymore. I've ran into more issues with games made from EA than I have from any other company. Maybe I'm the lucky one there. Maybe I just pick better games for the most part, but I don't feel any of the sims games as a separate entity are the problem.
@kremesch73 this is a wonderful post. Thank you for taking the time to articulate your experiences. I really appreciated reading them-despite as sad as certain themes you covered made me.
And now I still don't know, nor do I see much of a difference (but I'm watching this on a wonky iPad). Isn't lag the phenomenon that time continues while your sim is just standing there doing nothing, trapped in some command you gave him which he will perform 30 sim minutes later? Also, does fps have a connection with open world?
put this video at 720p (HD, else youtube won't show the video in 60 FPS). Look at the comparisons. When you're used to 60+ FPS gaming, 30 FPS feels very uncomfortable. When the framerate dips below 30 the stutter just feels so bad. And yes, frames per second are lower the worse the game runs. And how does it connect to the open world? Well the open world is much harder for a game to run than a closed one. The smaller the level the easier it is to run it. If you have big levels in games, you normally "cheat" the render by going "do not load this part of the map if the player is not looking" or "add fog effects to hide the view distance", etc.
And now I still don't know, nor do I see much of a difference (but I'm watching this on a wonky iPad). Isn't lag the phenomenon that time continues while your sim is just standing there doing nothing, trapped in some command you gave him which he will perform 30 sim minutes later? Also, does fps have a connection with open world?
put this video at 720p (HD, else youtube won't show the video in 60 FPS). Look at the comparisons. When you're used to 60+ FPS gaming, 30 FPS feels very uncomfortable. When the framerate dips below 30 the stutter just feels so bad. And yes, frames per second are lower the worse the game runs. And how does it connect to the open world? Well the open world is much harder for a game to run than a closed one. The smaller the level the easier it is to run it. If you have big levels in games, you normally "cheat" the render by going "do not load this part of the map if the player is not looking" or "add fog effects to hide the view distance", etc.
In this scenario, FPS dropping is a symptom; not a cause. It's not related to the size of the world. It's related to how the program handles it.
Lag and FPS behaving erratically is always a symptom and should never be viewed as a cause. The cause is always in the programming or specs not meeting the requirements.
@sparkfairy1 it's always a pleasure to hear from you. I probably wouldn't have even viewed this thread if it weren't for you mentioning me to begin with. I appreciate it.
I just don't feel like anything I have to say makes any difference these days. I feel I'm too old school and my expectations are too high for today's crowd. I commend you for what you do.
Post edited by kremesch73 on
Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
In this scenario, FPS dropping is a symptom; not a cause. It's not related to the size of the world. It's related to how the program handles it.
Lag and FPS behaving erratically is always a symptom and should never be viewed as a cause. The cause is always in the programming or specs not meeting the requirements.
@sparkfairy1 it's always a pleasure to hear from you. I probably wouldn't have even viewed this thread if it weren't for you mentioning me to begin with. I appreciate it.
I just don't feel like anything I have to say makes any difference these days. I feel I'm too old school and my expectations are too high for today's crowd. I commend you for what you do.
you seem to be under the opinion that if you write clean code, no lag will appear no matter how big the game world is. Unfortunately this is not true.
And lag on The Sims 3 would happen to me on systems way over the requirement to run it. Once again, different systems will handle the same program differently and just how much you can fix of this depends on how much resources you have to test it on the weirdest of combinations of hardware and software.
In this scenario, FPS dropping is a symptom; not a cause. It's not related to the size of the world. It's related to how the program handles it.
Lag and FPS behaving erratically is always a symptom and should never be viewed as a cause. The cause is always in the programming or specs not meeting the requirements.
@sparkfairy1 it's always a pleasure to hear from you. I probably wouldn't have even viewed this thread if it weren't for you mentioning me to begin with. I appreciate it.
I just don't feel like anything I have to say makes any difference these days. I feel I'm too old school and my expectations are too high for today's crowd. I commend you for what you do.
you seem to be under the opinion that if you write clean code, no lag will appear no matter how big the game world is. Unfortunately this is not true.
And lag on The Sims 3 would happen to me on systems way over the requirement to run it. Once again, different systems will handle the same program differently and just how much you can fix of this depends on how much resources you have to test it on the weirdest of combinations of hardware and software.
Great way to excuse poor programming. Back in the day, it was so much harder to excuse it.
Glitches will always exist. It's the nature of the game. The extent of it though. There is negligence/profit. Or not.
Edit: I'm not blaming you, despite that's how you're making it sound.
This is why I rarely comment here anymore. Logic has been overtaken by sensitivity.
Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
Great way to excuse poor programming. Back in the day, it was so much harder to excuse it.
Glitches will always exist. It's the nature of the game. The extent of it though. There is negligence/profit. Or not.
no, I mean it. Do you really think you can have a large world that runs well on as many machines as possible, with complex AI that is supposed to all have their schedules and story progression? Even if its just numbers when you're not watching, there's a thing as too many numbers.
Great way to excuse poor programming. Back in the day, it was so much harder to excuse it.
Glitches will always exist. It's the nature of the game. The extent of it though. There is negligence/profit. Or not.
no, I mean it. Do you really think you can have a large world that runs well on as many machines as possible, with complex AI that is supposed to all have their schedules and story progression? Even if its just numbers when you're not watching, there's a thing as too many numbers.
Yes. There is a thing as too many numbers. That is why companies should take more time to overcome it and quit lying about specs.
Do I think even sims 4 can run on my grandmother's computer? No.
If you can't program it to run on 'said' computer. Don't say that it does. Or fix it so it does what you say it can do on 'said' computer!
Edit: quit making excuses for them.
Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
Yes. There is a thing as too many numbers. That is why companies should take more time to overcome it and quit lying about specs.
Do I think even sims 4 can run on my grandmother's computer? No.
If you can't program it to run on 'said' computer. Don't say that it does. Or fix it so it does what you say it can do on 'said' computer!
they're not lying though. On the exact specs as it states on the cover it could probably run perfectly! Problem is, specs higher are not the exact specs. And there are so many GPU, CPU, operating system combos, coupled together with what every user runs in the background (for example while I game I tend to not ever close my browser. Mostly because when I'm done gaming I go back to my browser, check the forums, facebook, do some work. I also never switch off skype or discord. My memory usage is probably higher than a user that isn't doing that because of it, but pretty much every game I ran with it, handled my background processes just fine. However imagine one that needs my browser to cough up some memory back, but the browser refuses to. How is a developer supposed to predict that this could happen?) that even despite being well over minimum specs your system can just refuse to run a program. On this machine, both The sims 2 and The Sims 4 run high FPS, no lag, perfectly fine (with some lighting errors on The Sims 2 and some shadows instead staying as squares, but nonetheless fine for a no longer supported game), for The Sims 1 I need an emulator, despite some people managing to get it to run on Windows 10, but it just doesn't on my system and The Sims 3 lags.
OP, I think (and probably wrong) that this PC game is the last of the PC games. You have to take into account your critical thinking of where the company is going as a whole (toward mobile for the most part) and where Maxis is now..they went mobile, too, when they merged with mobile or created Maxis mobile or whatever. I know what I mean but not explaining it very well. And that information is out here all over. I think TS4 is probably the last PC version.
ETA: Here's your proof of where this series is probably headed eventually.
Yes. There is a thing as too many numbers. That is why companies should take more time to overcome it and quit lying about specs.
Do I think even sims 4 can run on my grandmother's computer? No.
If you can't program it to run on 'said' computer. Don't say that it does. Or fix it so it does what you say it can do on 'said' computer!
they're not lying though. On the exact specs as it states on the cover it could probably run perfectly! Problem is, specs higher are not the exact specs. And there are so many GPU, CPU, operating system combos, coupled together with what every user runs in the background (for example while I game I tend to not ever close my browser. Mostly because when I'm done gaming I go back to my browser, check the forums, facebook, do some work. I also never switch off skype or discord. My memory usage is probably higher than a user that isn't doing that because of it, but pretty much every game I ran with it, handled my background processes just fine. However imagine one that needs my browser to cough up some memory back, but the browser refuses to. How is a developer supposed to predict that this could happen?) that even despite being well over minimum specs your system can just refuse to run a program. On this machine, both The sims 2 and The Sims 4 run high FPS, no lag, perfectly fine (with some lighting errors on The Sims 2 and some shadows instead staying as squares, but nonetheless fine for a no longer supported game), for The Sims 1 I need an emulator, despite some people managing to get it to run on Windows 10, but it just doesn't on my system and The Sims 3 lags.
Well, you've basically made a great argument for developers to quit designing games made for PC. I can't possibly argue with that.
Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
They're gaining new fans but I think they should still try to appease old timer fans..ya'know..they're BASE fanbase....
Idk what's going on with the slow news and lack of toddlers and stuff but hopefully things pick up.
OP, I think (and probably wrong) that this PC game is the last of the PC games. You have to take into account your critical thinking of where the company is going as a whole (toward mobile for the most part) and where Maxis is now..they went mobile, too, when they merged with mobile or created Maxis mobile or whatever. I know what I mean but not explaining it very well. And that information is out here all over. I think TS4 is probably the last PC version.
doubt it. While freeplay is rocking high downloads I don't think that high downloads necessarily bring in high profit. EA is focused on developing more unique PC IPs too (Unravel anyone)? But lets say that you're right. They really do go full mobile. Well then that leaves a highly profitable gap. And it might just be left there for a long while (a decade even!), but at some point, someone will go "hey guys? Remember that gap? Yes, that one, right over there! How about we fill it?". It happens to every simulator out there. There was a time when microsoft controlled plane simulator market, that time is long gone now. City simulator market also felt disappointing until Cities: Skylines came about. Rollercoaster tycoon is getting competition finally.
So I suppose, my advice is, don't worry about the future too much. What happens, happens, but the genre in itself won't die or be forgotten.
Well, you've basically made a great argument for developers to quit designing games made for PC. I can't possibly argue with that.
except that the platform is more profitable than the console market, due to easy access to products, no requirement of releasing with a box (that costs money to produce and requires you to predict how many boxes to produce beforehand) and no need to abide by the console holders rules (some MMOs for example, refuse to adapt for consoles, not because you can't play it on a gamepad, but because console companies charge a fee for updating your game).
Well, you've basically made a great argument for developers to quit designing games made for PC. I can't possibly argue with that.
except that the platform is more profitable than the console market, due to easy access to products, no requirement of releasing with a box (that costs money to produce and requires you to predict how many boxes to produce beforehand) and no need to abide by the console holders rules (some MMOs for example, refuse to adapt for consoles, not because you can't play it on a gamepad, but because console companies charge a fee for updating your game).
This could go in circles for the rest of the evening. I said way more than I intended. I just can't argue with certain people anymore. You're just too smart for me.
Dissatisfied with Sims 4 and hoping for a better Sims 5
She neither mentions addition nor removal she simply says she doesn't want her game to change based on what others want. Let's look at toddlers for instance how many players want this? Tons. Is it a removal? No. Does she want them? No, she said it'll change her game too much even when she can age them up and wont even affect traits.
"The problem arises when people B to D want to change The Sims 4 to something that they like, because they hate what it currently is."
And? Do you think EA cares what I want? Do you think they're going to run out and somehow cater to me? When we got aliens with Get To Work, it broke the games of those that did not want to play with supernaturals. I do not want toddlers. Someone else wants toddlers. Whichever side to cater to EA will decide. I like supernaturals. Some simmers do not. Whom to cater to? Once again up to EA. But you can not cater to everyone. And all of these fights on the forum are happening because you can not cater to everyone.
I disagree that it is not possible to have a game that can cover most of the playerbase's desires. It can be done.
Options in the game's settings are the way to go.
Rotational play could be possible in an open world which has story progression. You'd simply have a rotational play option in the game settings that would turn off ageing and story progression.
I believe that the majority of players would like an open world in 4 if it had none of the problems of the predecessor. Honestly, who thinks it is acceptable that we cannot control or even leave instructions for our played sims who are off the currently loaded lot? The best way to eliminate this, is an open world.
There could also be options to turn off specific supernatural life-states and the more quirky NPCs like the Tragic Clown.
I agree with you that the art style will never be able to satisfy everyone, but for most that is not a major problem with The Sims 4.
you would need a lot and I do mean A LOT of settings. Such an amount that I do not think EA could possibly do as it would have to be too precise.
As for rotational gameplay, I found The sims 4 a very nice in betweener between The sims 2 and The sims 3. I can have story progression and aging on, however I can make it so that it doesn't affect my households automatically. It does mean that I lovse relationships and such, however it beats complete time freeze like The Sims 2 had and not more than one household per savefile because it's almost impossible to have rotational play of The sims 3.
And I do agree that in a perfect world we would want to have open world from The sims 3 back. However it is not a perfect world and not only is it impossible to patch into an already existing game, but after The Sims 3 disaster I'm not confident that EA can do a lag free open world at all.
Oh I think they can. I witness they can everytime I play Sims 3 myself.
I think they can do it too. TS3 was just plagued by optimization issues, and horrible support for a wide range of graphics cards.
Comments
But literately no Improvement yet.
I honestly don't think open world was the issue per se (re: S3), unless you were a rotational player. Rotational play requires one to think outside the box (WAY outside the box) in S3. The real issue was poor coding, developers not anticipating how people were going to play their game, and EA pushing content, disallowing the time required to hunt down and correct issues. There are a good number of us simmers that push the game in directions it simply wasn't meant to go (myself included).
I've successfully broken each of the games, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Doing so has allowed me to discover and learn how to fix issues and to learn what to do and what not to do. For example, in both S3 and 4, having too much inventory, over-cluttering lots, and not using 'Save As' can do more harm than good. Killing all the premades in 1 causes quite the humorous scenario rendering the lot you did such an act on unplayable. Deleting sims, moving them between neighbourhoods, and letting them die with urns in their inventories in Sims 2 destroys your game. The list goes on for all of them. I'm just using a fraction of my own scenarios. There are many more.
I sympathize with you about S3 lagging on your computer. That was one of the reasons I didn't like it in the beginning, but I quickly learned that lag had a lot to do with what world I was playing and exactly what I was doing in those worlds. I made several mistakes, but I've also made several mistakes with 4, 2, and 1.
I've mentioned before that I don't feel using one game's fail is a good example of shielding another game's fail. I don't feel it's a good excuse. If you like it, that's great, but saying you like it because x did this and y doesn't... it says to me that you're either willing to jump through more hoops for y than you were for x, or that maybe your playsttyle really does suit y more than it did with x.
Oh, but the issues with each... I have run into so many from each of them. Every single one.
I had dates get stuck in 1, major pool-ups waiting for vehicles, lots that went out of control with NPCs spawning at an alarming rate with no end in sight.
I had the jump bug in 2, lots that took forever to load, worlds and lots that crashed my game completely.
I had duplicating sims in 3, invisible sims, save errors, and routing issues.
I had complete saves obliterated in 4. inventory bugs, stuck sims, Lag too, and new issues arising every month.
Maybe I'm wrong, but tbh, I can't help but feel all you're really saying is that you're willing to put up with the flaws of one game over another's is because it simply meets your needs or suits your tastes more or better. That's it. I also don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think it's great that you like S4. I wish I could have enjoyed it more too, but my breaking point was met with too many monthly hiccups. I guess my tolerance level is less than yours. But for the issues, I just can't close my eyes and swing my finger around anymore. I've ran into more issues with games made from EA than I have from any other company. Maybe I'm the lucky one there. Maybe I just pick better games for the most part, but I don't feel any of the sims games as a separate entity are the problem.
freezing I experienced too, but I mean genuine lag. 30-20FPS is really low for me.
for me I didn't have to jump trough any hoops for The sims 4. I would say that I'm lucky, but I'm generally seeing more simmers running this game better than The sims 3. In here at most for me text messages have corrupted during an install of an extra SP, GP, or EP, but that simply included manually adding the language folder back into the game files. For The Sims 3, launcher updating did not work for me at all I had to manually patch all patches one by one. Some patches made the game not runnable on certain systems of mine at all. Certain patches made me unable to launch the game trough the launcher. As for bugs, I had sim genetics completely not working in 3 with only duplicates being born (I'm half thinking that that is intentional), I had cars pile up and never disappear, I had World Adventures stop giving me quests entirely, I had constant freeze ups, I had constant lag. I do not have to jump trough hoops for The Sims 4. I had for 3.
"or that maybe your playsttyle really does suit y more than it did with x."
Yes. This is exactly true. Like I said, all sims iterations are far removed from each other. They cover different playstyles. X is not Y and will not be Y. I do not know will The Sims 5 suit me at all or not. But that is exactly how it goes. Some simmers will always get left out by an iteration.
So I googled.
And now I still don't know, nor do I see much of a difference (but I'm watching this on a wonky iPad). Isn't lag the phenomenon that time continues while your sim is just standing there doing nothing, trapped in some command you gave him which he will perform 30 sim minutes later? Also, does fps have a connection with open world?
I think the sims franchise went downhill in over promising in ts3 and under delivering (like with spore) I loved the feel and look of ts3 but the game breaking bugs they never fixed just makes it totally useless, something can look perfect but if it doesn't work it might as well be thrown away, I'm not saying ts4 is that bad, they've done a great job with the stabilisation of the game (currently I haven't had any game breaking bugs) though there are a lot of bugs still left over that seem to still be around but from my p.o.v they seem more interested in pumping out more games than fixing the bugs in the existing ones, they're minor bugs but the detail is in the small aspects that make the final product look better, I've only ever had major bugs with the sims franchise, I've never had to deal with major bugs from any othe game, especially nothing major.
I loved the franchise, but a franchise that doesn't shape up and listen to the people paying gets shut down, that's just fact and as much of a loyal fan I am to the series, I def won't purchase anymore until the existing things are fixed, I'd rather see a franchise that's just taking the mic. End than "hope it's next series will get better" which seems to be some peoples logic in just putting up with it
In the past, lag was definined by any phenomenon affecting Real time in the game. It could be defined as stuttering and micro freezes with or without continuing time. It could be affected by playing online and watching someone you just shot take forever to die (because they're lagging on their end). Maybe the definition has changed. I don't really know.
FPS isn't normally the cause for lag. FPS (frames per second: related to video and rendering), if not managed properly, can affect the overall performance of your video card. In 'worst-case' scenarios, it can completely destroy your video card if it's unnecessarily high. I suppose it could inadvertently cause lag if your card is over-heating though.
Personally, I'd rather have the first type of lag. S3 did have an issue with FPS destroying video cards in its early stages. I don't recall exactly, but I think there was a bit of finger-pointing between EA and nVidia. I could be wrong, but I believe this issue was fixed.
@kremesch73 this is a wonderful post. Thank you for taking the time to articulate your experiences. I really appreciated reading them-despite as sad as certain themes you covered made me.
https://twitter.com/sparkfairy1
it is uncomfortable to look at.
put this video at 720p (HD, else youtube won't show the video in 60 FPS). Look at the comparisons. When you're used to 60+ FPS gaming, 30 FPS feels very uncomfortable. When the framerate dips below 30 the stutter just feels so bad. And yes, frames per second are lower the worse the game runs. And how does it connect to the open world? Well the open world is much harder for a game to run than a closed one. The smaller the level the easier it is to run it. If you have big levels in games, you normally "cheat" the render by going "do not load this part of the map if the player is not looking" or "add fog effects to hide the view distance", etc.
In this scenario, FPS dropping is a symptom; not a cause. It's not related to the size of the world. It's related to how the program handles it.
Lag and FPS behaving erratically is always a symptom and should never be viewed as a cause. The cause is always in the programming or specs not meeting the requirements.
@sparkfairy1 it's always a pleasure to hear from you. I probably wouldn't have even viewed this thread if it weren't for you mentioning me to begin with. I appreciate it.
I just don't feel like anything I have to say makes any difference these days. I feel I'm too old school and my expectations are too high for today's crowd. I commend you for what you do.
you seem to be under the opinion that if you write clean code, no lag will appear no matter how big the game world is. Unfortunately this is not true.
And lag on The Sims 3 would happen to me on systems way over the requirement to run it. Once again, different systems will handle the same program differently and just how much you can fix of this depends on how much resources you have to test it on the weirdest of combinations of hardware and software.
Great way to excuse poor programming. Back in the day, it was so much harder to excuse it.
Glitches will always exist. It's the nature of the game. The extent of it though. There is negligence/profit. Or not.
Edit: I'm not blaming you, despite that's how you're making it sound.
This is why I rarely comment here anymore. Logic has been overtaken by sensitivity.
no, I mean it. Do you really think you can have a large world that runs well on as many machines as possible, with complex AI that is supposed to all have their schedules and story progression? Even if its just numbers when you're not watching, there's a thing as too many numbers.
Yes. There is a thing as too many numbers. That is why companies should take more time to overcome it and quit lying about specs.
Do I think even sims 4 can run on my grandmother's computer? No.
If you can't program it to run on 'said' computer. Don't say that it does. Or fix it so it does what you say it can do on 'said' computer!
Edit: quit making excuses for them.
they're not lying though. On the exact specs as it states on the cover it could probably run perfectly! Problem is, specs higher are not the exact specs. And there are so many GPU, CPU, operating system combos, coupled together with what every user runs in the background (for example while I game I tend to not ever close my browser. Mostly because when I'm done gaming I go back to my browser, check the forums, facebook, do some work. I also never switch off skype or discord. My memory usage is probably higher than a user that isn't doing that because of it, but pretty much every game I ran with it, handled my background processes just fine. However imagine one that needs my browser to cough up some memory back, but the browser refuses to. How is a developer supposed to predict that this could happen?) that even despite being well over minimum specs your system can just refuse to run a program. On this machine, both The sims 2 and The Sims 4 run high FPS, no lag, perfectly fine (with some lighting errors on The Sims 2 and some shadows instead staying as squares, but nonetheless fine for a no longer supported game), for The Sims 1 I need an emulator, despite some people managing to get it to run on Windows 10, but it just doesn't on my system and The Sims 3 lags.
ETA: Here's your proof of where this series is probably headed eventually.
http://arcadesushi.com/maxis-merging-with-ea-mobile/
Well, you've basically made a great argument for developers to quit designing games made for PC. I can't possibly argue with that.
They're gaining new fans but I think they should still try to appease old timer fans..ya'know..they're BASE fanbase....
Idk what's going on with the slow news and lack of toddlers and stuff but hopefully things pick up.
doubt it. While freeplay is rocking high downloads I don't think that high downloads necessarily bring in high profit. EA is focused on developing more unique PC IPs too (Unravel anyone)? But lets say that you're right. They really do go full mobile. Well then that leaves a highly profitable gap. And it might just be left there for a long while (a decade even!), but at some point, someone will go "hey guys? Remember that gap? Yes, that one, right over there! How about we fill it?". It happens to every simulator out there. There was a time when microsoft controlled plane simulator market, that time is long gone now. City simulator market also felt disappointing until Cities: Skylines came about. Rollercoaster tycoon is getting competition finally.
So I suppose, my advice is, don't worry about the future too much. What happens, happens, but the genre in itself won't die or be forgotten.
except that the platform is more profitable than the console market, due to easy access to products, no requirement of releasing with a box (that costs money to produce and requires you to predict how many boxes to produce beforehand) and no need to abide by the console holders rules (some MMOs for example, refuse to adapt for consoles, not because you can't play it on a gamepad, but because console companies charge a fee for updating your game).
This could go in circles for the rest of the evening. I said way more than I intended. I just can't argue with certain people anymore. You're just too smart for me.
I think they can do it too. TS3 was just plagued by optimization issues, and horrible support for a wide range of graphics cards.