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To all the world builders, are you as unhappy as family players?
barbaraluv86
Posts: 131 Member
If anything, the sims 4 completely cut you guys off with the quickness and yet I'm not seeing as much uproar as the family players have made after almost two years. So what are your thoughts on The sims 4? And do you still trust Maxis enough to bring back CAW, terrain tools, different split foundations, etc back for the sims 5? (if there would be a sims 5)
The Sims 4 HSY is a flop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC507zfqN50
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC507zfqN50
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And No. I feel it will get as much attention as toddlers. No offence, but family players aren't the only ones picking sand out of their eyes.
I have some awesome 'slums' in S2. I build in both 2 and 3. I know she preferred 3, but I prefer 2. I'm not a huge fan of the tool for 3. I like that I can layout the groundwork for 2 and then do the rest in the game. CAW is a bit clunky in comparison. It's easy enough to use, but way more clunky.
I would love to see samples of your slums sometime even if privately. Cool seeing how other Simmers create worlds.
If there is a Sims 5 and open world, CAW, terrain tools, create-a-style and all the life stages and the rest of it come back...? Well, I don't trust Maxis "vision" enough for that to happen. I get the sense they all are happy with what they've given us in Sims 4 and despite all the feedback, they still have no sense of why some simmers don't like it nor do they care.
But I'm not *just* a world builder, I'm also a player. I accept that I probably have to abandon any hope of getting something like CAW for TS4. I'm ok with this now, because I love the game and would rather they focus on adding more expansion packs like Seasons, Farming, Apartments, Superstar, etc. At this point, more gameplay content is more appealing than a CAW tool.
If I get the world building bug I can go back and use the brilliant tool from TS3 that has a TON of great world objects. Recently I've been wanting to make both the map from Stardew Valley with all the characters, and also a recreation of The Urbz.
If you use mods, there are quite a few which change the background, I think I saw some at Mod the Sims.
*wanders off to look*
This one removes the city backdrop (for History players, I think): http://modthesims.info/d/563293
This one has different cities like Rio: http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=562837
Bakie has quite few to choose from. I hope that's helpful. Of course, an in-game editor would be fab!
I’m not sure if I’d use CAW in TS4 for the same purpose, because everything looks too plastic to make me enjoy landscaping, but I’d surely like the possibility of creating my own worlds and downloading ones created by other players. I don’t want to be limited to EA worlds, especially given that there aren’t many of them in the game and I’ve seen people complaining about running out of space (it hasn’t happen for me because I don’t really play TS4, I gave it two tries, I’ll probably give it some more, but I can’t imagine myself playing it as much as older iterations, it’s just not a game for me). A CAW tool would solve that problem.
One of my biggest disappointments in the game is the lack of in-game world editing. I’d like to put more and/or different size lots, definitely more plants, decorations, and I’d rebuild those barbecue areas.
As for build mode, I don’t like it. Sure, it does have some nice features like different wall heights, but it’s too restricted and full of inconveniences. I miss CASt, I really liked transforming useless furniture/wallpaper/whatever to something nice and stylish, I liked infinite possibilities of customising my buildings, I liked being able to match everything I wanted... In TS4 if something matches with respect to colour it doesn’t with respect to style and the other way around, it’s pretty annoying and I’m not really tempted to download a huge amount of recolours.
One of the aforementioned inconveniences is how using the shift key while painting walls works – it was very convenient and logical in older games, but in TS4 it’s pretty messy really, and I’m basically forced to avoid it in most cases, to not let it mess anything up. It shouldn’t depend on what the game treats as a room, it should depend on already placed wall coverings like it used to in the past. And why on earth can’t I use those wall coverings with vertical stripes like I want instead of being restricted to corners? They don’t even work properly when I have a fancily shaped building.
I like the trim/cornice tool (I don’t remember its proper name, I hope it’s obvious what I mean), but then again, it’s pretty inconvenient – why can’t I draw it like a wall or a fence? It’s the same as those wall coverings, using the cornices on a fancily shaped building is extremely tedious; it was supposed to be easy but it definitely isn’t.
And don’t even get me started on terrain tools... Why can’t I build a house on a hill, add a pond, and a nice bridge using constrainfloorelevation false? TS4 really is terrible with respect to customisation options, especially compared to TS3. It’s sad, because I believe customisation is one of the reasons that made The Sims so popular – everyone can adjust various aspects of the game to their liking/taste.
Pond & Sea Water Overhaul (TS2)
Simblr (my TS2 CC)
MTS Profile
I have used a couple of the skyline mods before though, they're neat.
I did use SimCity. I never played in the premade neighbourhoods. Found it quite fun and easy.
What I'm about to show you is all in one save. Every element is designed to go together and to compliment the other. Some are rather plain.
I built them all after FFVII. Only 2 of them are from PlasticBox, the rest are mine.
My main hood:
Midgar. Made to look like a small city
My subhoods:
The farmlands: PlasticBox made this one and I revamped it to my own. He did such a great job on the 'farm' look for it.
Gongaga. The homes are all designed with 'huts' in mind.
Kalm. Meant to have that 'old town feel'
Lower Junon. Another one made by Plasticbox. I also revamped this one, but felt he did a great job intregrating that 'fisherman' feel I was after.
Nibelheim. A more desolate location
North Corel. Tried to make all the homes look as best like tents as I could
Rocket Town. Kind of a backwoods location
Sector 2. One of my slums.
Sector 5. Another of my slums
Sector 7. Another slum
My downtowns:
Cosmo Canyon. My desert getaway. Most of the shops are like old local tribes
Gold Saucer: Meant to be like a large town based on an amusement park
Wall Market. A slum-based, back alley type location
My Universities:
Bone Village. A University local for gardeners, musicians, crafters, artists, and readers.
Fort Condor. A University for the mechanically inclined, fitness, and sports.
Junon. A military base/university for the strategic gamers, chefs for the barracks, and the scientifically inclined.
My Vacation spots:
Costa Del Sol. Always sunny on the beach
The forgotten Capital. Based on a hidden world of magic and romance with an almost mushroom-organic-fantasy look. Spring is always in the air.
Icicle Inn. That wonderful winter getaway for the family
Mideel. An island away from the rest of the world.
Temple of the Ancients. A great place to visit the ruins
Wutai. After all, who doesn't love the wonders of the far East?
These days, technology is there to 'make life easier' for us, so maybe EA thinks people now prefer an easy ride - easier to build, easier to look after your sims, easier to play. And no complex world tool to get to grips with. What they need to realise is that many people like a challenge. Whether this is a creative challenge to build complex worlds or homes, or a playing challenge to keep your sims alive and well, dumbing everything down just makes things more boring and less appealing. And the more tools and options they give us, the wider a variety of players it will attract.
Of course, it is probably likely that the game engine can't support these things even if EA wanted to give us the tools for it. I would be very surprised indeed if we end up with any kind of world editing ability for TS4.
Thanks. Sector 2 is my favourite due to the train-wreckage and all the witches and aliens that live there. I've nick-named it The Train-Wreck of a town. hehe. Some of my largest and most endearing families live there.
If you zoom in, you'll see the trains at the top right corner. One of my favourite decorations.
Yeah. I don't think it will be possible in 4 either. I feel like the design choices they made are rather limiting.
Building worlds may be complex. Those ones I posted above was a 2 year project. That's mostly because I also chose to build everything myself on top of that. But it was never a mandatory part of the game.
The option was there for those of us who like that sort of thing, and those who didn't never had to touch it.
The best part about it was it offered so many more options to those who found it daunting because we were able share what we created. I could never share my S2 worlds though. Doing so would require the recipient to download over 2Gs of CC.
That is what should have be the base of TS4, being able to create a world all your own. It should have started off like that. The Sims started off by giving us a look inside all those little cities & towns we created with Sim City. That was the object of the game to build a thriving community. EA has left that vision in the cold.
The said the focus in TS4 would be the sims themselves and what we got are emotionless, empty -all the same- sims... with missing life stages!
This game is a joke and an insult to me. I've loved and played Sims games for over 15 years. TS4 just makes me sad.
I've never been so disappointed in a game.
Please Bring Back Toddlers, Realistic Teenagers and Create a World.
Make the Sims (4) Great Again<3
Look at all things people can do with that game. Look at all those scenarios. This game was made over a decade ago.
Meanwhile, in TS4, we can't do anything, because it won't match the premade fake houses they put there. It's like the neighbourhood is meant to be stuck in time forever.
The Sims 3 allowed for the same level of creativity and even more, even if the tools were a bit more complicated. I couldn't use Create a World, it never worked for me.
But you know what, I never needed, because the community made awesome worlds that I could change and edit and build from ground up to my hearts content.
Creative tools are not only good for those who build; they are good at those inapt to build too.
The lack of world editing tools is actually the factor that sealed this game's fate for me. Much more than toddlers. I find ludicrous that they've gone all way back to 2000 by making this game completely void of editing tools. Actually, The Sims 1 had terrain tools, so yeah, that's very bad.
TS4 lost even to TS1 in this department
*drop da mic*
That said everything added to 4 that I enjoy is balanced by something that was removed from the game so that my general feeling toward the game is neutral. I like it- blah- I don't love it. I'm mostly very much on the fence about the game as a whole and could ultimately fall either way. Like a lot of people I'm hinging on the upcoming EP and what it brings. It's the third one. It's taken an entire year and will be more than two years into the game. I feel like I ought to start loving it or spend money on something else. (Shurg) It is what it is.
Yeah. Missing those tools is a huge killer for me. Ever since I was able to build in S2, it has been the biggest attraction to me. Gameplay mattered too, as did having all the lifestages to make it a rich experience. But the immersion I feel in 2 and 3 just isn't there in 4. Those backdrops and the inablity to edit the community areas destroyed my ability to play in a world that has a theme, and I love themes. I love the desolation and the darkness I feel when I play in some of my S2 worlds. I love the sunny beaches and the faraway islands, as well as the run-down worlds. Even 1 makes me happier and offers more building options than 4. It's also a lot more fun to play. I love building in 1 as well.
In 1 and 2, we had only 2 main lot types: Community and Residential. It offered so many possibilities to the style of the lot and the gameplay offered by the game. Back in those days, I could create a super mall or a simple mom-and-pop shop tailored to specific needs. I could have a bar and restaurant combined. I could even add a grocery store to make it more unique. I could run a home business in S2. I could have a mall that catered to every type of shop I could imagine, and it would all function as expected.
I could have a coffee shop, a clothing store, a jewelery store, a magazine shop, a restaurant, a small library, a candy store (s1), a pool, a park, a bar, etc, all within one lot and everything would function as expected. Sims could and would use all the lot had to offer. I didn't need to set the venue or Communty lot to a 'type.' All I needed to do was set the lot to 'Community.' It would behave as one and was capable of being everything I wanted it to be. This lended itself well to gameplay in so many ways. Granted, I prefer to make small specialty lots because they feel more special and load faster, but the possibilities were endless and most of my small shops are a combination of 2 or more 'types.'
I'll honestly never understand why they did away with this concept in 3 and made it even more restrictive in 4. I'm not against rabbit holes, per se, but if you look at the themes I've built my communities on, a static rabbit hole that can't be designed to fit a specific theme was also counter-productive to someone like myself. I make do, but I had seriously hoped this was an area that would have improved by now.
Instead, it feels like it went further than backwards.
Sims 4 may require 'imagination' to play it, but Sims 2 catered to my imagination in ways I've yet to see again.