Horses? No. Stop.

Taquanda · August 2017

Hey everyone,

I just have to share with all of you my opinion. I am SO triggered. I myself have been pretty sceptical about TS4 in the past on these forums. I didn't even want toddlers to begin with, but hanging around here made me want them too. I got really annoyed by the fact that EA seemed to just ignore all of us and our wishes. Guess what? They gave us toddlers. The ecstasy lasted for about a week, then new people started making threads called "We've got toddlers, next pets?". Creating pets probably took EA a HUGE amount of time. Just imagine all the programming, animating etc. and guess what? They gave us pets.

Now people are whining that there are no horses in this pack. Now come on. They gave us toddles, and now cats and dogs which are considered the two most common pets. Why would there be horses in a pet pack? I never understood the addition of horses in TS3, but in TS3 you had a better use of them because there was an open world.

Do you want to hang out on your lot and have a random horse walking around? Why do random horses make sense? The first thing I did after installing TS3 was switching off stray horses, because why is that even a thing? I don't imagine anyone in real life would like to sit on their couch watching tv and having a horse next to them on their couch. It. Just. Makes. No. Sense.

Of course, we can all wish what we want. But please. The devs just showed us quadrupeds are possible and there might even be a "farm animal" pack in which horses would make much more sense. Let's not take the HUGE amount of work the devs put in ANY game for granted. Just imagine how hard it is for them? They are trying to focus on more content but instead we are all whining.

Please stop the "I'm not getting this because there are no horses" nonsense. Because we all know you're getting it anyway. Because cats and dogs are friggin' cute.

Amen.

btw: it's so funny how on the Facebook posts about this pack, the people who ask "where are the horses" 7 out of 10 time have profile pictures with horses. Ugh.

Dannydanbo · August 2017

Grant said they had to create five different animals, puppies, small dogs, big dogs, kittens and cats. Each one of those had to be made to interact with each other and each different sim type, toddler, kid, teen, adult. etc. That's a huge amount of work. I'm more than happy with Cats & Dogs and no horses. As you said, they may come in a future pack.

jackjack_k · August 2017

@Dannydanbo wrote: »

Grant said they had to create five different animals, puppies, small dogs, big dogs, kittens and cats. Each one of those had to be made to interact with each other and each different sim type, toddler, kid, teen, adult. etc. That's a huge amount of work. I'm more than happy with Cats & Dogs and no horses. As you said, they may come in a future pack.

Plus they had to make them from scratch.

The Sims 2 recycled them from Urbz, The Sims 3 recycled them from The Sims 2.

And EA probably gave them the same budget.

Misa_wants_Pepsi · August 2017

I think a lot of it is also just people not wanted to feel like they're getting less. I for one loved the horses and unicorns in sims 3. And if they make a farm pack with them, yeah I'm probably going to buy it. But because the title is "Cats & Dogs" and not "pets," people are worried about getting less than there money's worth. We don't even know if we are getting small pets or not. Or Foxes and raccoons (though I heard they are playable.) Yes. Making a Video game, coding, doing all that is hard work. It isn't that people are ungratful and whinny, they want to feel like they're 40$ is worth it. I think if this was a Game pack, people would be more forgiving. And then there are those who don't want to be nickled and dimed and have to pay for 3 packs (if they do multiple pet packs.) Espeacially since past iterations had these things in one pack. (sims 1 had cats and dogs and birds.) It all boils down to "does it feel like I'm paying for less content?"

Loanet · August 2017

Maybe we'll get a zoo pack, rather than farming?

jackjack_k · August 2017

@Misa_wants_Pepsi wrote: »

I think a lot of it is also just people not wanted to feel like they're getting less. I for one loved the horses and unicorns in sims 3. And if they make a farm pack with them, yeah I'm probably going to buy it. But because the title is "Cats & Dogs" and not "pets," people are worried about getting less than there money's worth. We don't even know if we are getting small pets or not. Or Foxes and raccoons (though I heard they are playable.) Yes. Making a Video game, coding, doing all that is hard work. It isn't that people are ungratful and whinny, they want to feel like they're 40$ is worth it. I think if this was a Game pack, people would be more forgiving. And then there are those who don't want to be nickled and dimed and have to pay for 3 packs (if they do multiple pet packs.) Espeacially since past iterations had these things in one pack. (sims 1 had cats and dogs and birds.) It all boils down to "does it feel like I'm paying for less content?"

Since this is the first time we've had a Pets pack that doesn't recycle Pets from previous games, we might be paying for less content, but more workmanship.

Like, we previously paid for recycled content and a few small pets, and horses. Now we're paying for brand new content.

As someone who played Urbz, The Sims 2 & The Sims 3, I've become really bored with Pets over the years because they are always. the. same. After 10 years, it was predictable.

This is the first time that I'm excited because we'll actually get some new Pets, with brand new animations, AI etc. I'm excited that Cats roam around the house like a full on cat (like climb furniture, bench tops, tops of fridges etc) rather than just the usual.

Misa_wants_Pepsi · August 2017

jackjack_k wrote: »

we might be paying for less content, but more workmanship.

I think this perfectly discribes the sims 4. It feels like we have gotten less, but we have gotten some great things as well. This was the best iteration of Toddlers, and Vampires. The Parenthood pack actually really feels like you are effecting your childrens lives. I wouldn't mind paying for a small pets pack if they flesh the birds and bunnies out to be ACTUAL PETS. I mean I did love my crow buddy in the sims 3, but all you did was feed it, play with it, and taught it some words. They don't have to be household memebers, just more active, more alive. Not only can you teach your bird to talk, it can pick up some saying from you. (maybe you have a happy sim who sings and the bird sings, or and angry sim and the birb curses. Maybe put your hamster in a gerbal ball and have it run around.

SparklePlumley · August 2017

I think many people want quantity over quality, and they dont think about exactly what quality and quantity are. It shows how many youngsters play ts4. Imho the want for quality over quantity, comes with maturity.

halloweenchild · August 2017

SparklePlumley wrote: »

I think many people want quantity over quality, and they dont think about exactly what quality and quantity are. It shows how many youngsters play ts4. Imho the want for quality over quantity, comes with maturity.

I can't agree with you more on that one.

Amber0922 · August 2017

SparklePlumley wrote: »

I think many people want quantity over quality, and they dont think about exactly what quality and quantity are. It shows how many youngsters play ts4. Imho the want for quality over quantity, comes with maturity.

Exactly. All I hear from the Sims community is "More! More! More!" I am completely happy with C&D if the quality is above average. They want all of this extra stuff and animals and abilities. Imho, it slowed down my TS3 game even with a high grade gaming computer. It was too much junk.

Namaya92 · August 2017

Ohh come on. You guys all act like EA is some 15 year old insecure girl that spent ages on creating some stuff and then gets bashed all over the place. They are a billion dollar company. They make a HUGE amount of profit thanks to everyone who buys their games. They aren't a charity company that gives us these games for free. We have to pay for them. Big amounts of money even (way too much if you ask me). Of course people have the right to be disappointed or to criticize a new expansion if it's not even remotely on the level of what they delivered in the past. When a movie sequel comes out, everyone expects it to be at least as good as the original. If it's bad, then they get bad reviews. Same counts for games wether it's sims or Mass Effect or Dragon Age or Call of Duty. EA has enough backbone to deal with criticism they really don't need a bunch of white knights to defend their cashgrab expansions. All they care about is wether you are going to spend your money on it eventually or not.

MidnightAura · August 2017

I love horses. I have one.
I'm slightly disappointed at no horses but in all honesty I wasn't expecting it. Without an open world it would be pointless and I wasn't a fan of stray horses either. I am hopeful for a farm pack.

jackjack_k · August 2017

@Namaya92 wrote: »

Ohh come on. You guys all act like EA is some 15 year old insecure girl that spent ages on creating some stuff and then gets bashed all over the place. They are a billion dollar company. They make a HUGE amount of profit thanks to everyone who buys their games. They aren't a charity company that gives us these games for free. We have to pay for them. Big amounts of money even (way too much if you ask me). Of course people have the right to be disappointed or to criticize a new expansion if it's not even remotely on the level of what they delivered in the past. When a movie sequel comes out, everyone expects it to be at least as good as the original. If it's bad, then they get bad reviews. Same counts for games wether it's sims or Mass Effect or Dragon Age or Call of Duty. EA has enough backbone to deal with criticism they really don't need a bunch of white knights to defend their cashgrab expansions. All they care about is wether you are going to spend your money on it eventually or not.

People forget to separate EA and Maxis. EA control the budget. Maxis are the ones that have to make do with what they get.
SimGuruGrant confirmed that they get the same budget for an EP no matter what kind it is, back with City Living (he was working on Pets at the time as well).

Previously, they chose to recycle content in order to add new content (more small animals, horses). While the community would have loved the same Cats & Dogs for a 4th time (as they are the same in Urbz, TS2 & TS3) + TS3 horses, and maybe additional Pets, they outcome probably would have been poor and predictable.

Cats, for example, sound like they've had a major overhaul compared to their Sims 3 days. And you can see how good the AI is for Pets in the trailer.

The work this time went to rebuilding Cats and Dogs from the ground up. Previously they took whatever they had from the previous game, and added a few things more.

Combine brand new Pets, with a brand new Career the level of Dine Out (which was a GP itself) and then how incredible the world looks (it literally looks like they spent huge amounts of time on it) and THEN with how much CAS + BB (I've literally seen like 6 female hairs alone).

It's a good sized EP. People just don't know that previously Cats & Dogs in The Sims were recycled.

Namaya92 · August 2017

@jackjack_k I completely agree with you on that. My disappointment is completely directed towards EA not towards the developers. EA does rake in a lot of profits off their backs though. Anyways I won't go into detail too much about this because posts that contain this kind of criticism have been known to be deleted here. I actually posted a rant about EA on my tumblr today. I won't link it here but there's a link to my tumblr in my sig if you want to check it out. It's exactly like you said: my suspicion is that they simply didn't get enough budget to create decent content. You and I are actually on the same level in this matter.

Sims 3 was nowhere near a recyclement of Sims 2 though. It's so much more than Sims 2 in many ways. I can't say the same about Sims 4 compared to Sims 3. It's a step backwards (and probably because of budget cuts) no matter how you look at it.

vickyloo · August 2017

I can certainly see why some people are upset and think we are getting less than before BUT, we don't fully know what's in the pack or what future packs will be released! Also people are totally forgetting we have a new career in with the pack and probably loads of new skills, collectibles etc. Yes i liked the horses and would like to have them in my game but, is that going to stop me buying cats and dogs nope as with all the extras we are getting plus more stuff that we don't know about yet, Maxis have given us what we have asked for maybe not fully for some people but it's a start right? Also the bottom line is if your not happy with the pack no one is forcing you to buy it, watch some let's plays when it comes out and then decide.

jackjack_k · August 2017

@Namaya92 wrote: »

@jackjack_k I completely agree with you on that. My disappointment is completely directed towards EA not towards the developers. EA does rake in a lot of profits off their backs though. Anyways I won't go into detail too much about this because posts that contain this kind of criticism have been known to be deleted here. I actually posted a rant about EA on my tumblr today. I won't link it here but there's a link to my tumblr in my sig if you want to check it out. It's exactly like you said: my suspicion is that they simply didn't get enough budget to create decent content. You and I are actually on the same level in this matter.

Sims 3 was nowhere near a recyclement of Sims 2 though. It's so much more than Sims 2 in many ways. I can't say the same about Sims 4 compared to Sims 3. It's a step backwards (and probably because of budget cuts) no matter how you look at it.

I agree, but The Sims 3 could be "more" because they had The Sims 2 engine to start with and then added on more to each.

The Sims 4 is a great engine, and you can see the work and passion they have put into the game, but yeah, you can tell the limitations come from the budget itself. When you see the devs on twitter answer questions like "What are the chances of Color Wheels outside of Pets?" with "We focused 100% on CAP" you can tell they know that certain decisions seem odd, but they it was either add a feature to the best they could, or not bother.

Like with Apartments, they probably had the choice to make really good apartments with extra gameplay, but for SM only, or make run of the mill, single household only apartments if they made it so you could add them anywhere.

The budget doesn't allow for both. Also, things like CAP, show that the engine *can* do things and is flexible (people on here say it's a crap one) but it's whether they have the money to put towards it. I reckon if EA funded a color wheel for hair, we'd have one asap.

When you see that they argued between Non Playable and Playable Pets for months, that's a clear sign to me they couldn't afford both play styles.

JoAnne65 · August 2017

So you basically started a topic just to bash an opinion. Swell.

Namaya92 · August 2017

@jackjack_k yeah it just makes me sad that EA won't even allow for a slight budget increase so that they can do much more with the game. I mean you can always see how far they could really go with their engine by the CC and mods that are out there. It's not like the developers aren't capable of creating the same kind of stuff. They just have limited money and freedom. There will always be a marketing director from EA out there saying 'You need to do it like this because we saw it in this really popular mobile game that is making a ton of money so we want it like that' (just a very simple example). When you are bound to a publishing company especially a really big one like EA or Ubisoft (also not very fond of that one lol), you don't have as much freedom as you have when you are for example Frontier Developments and don't have to answer to anyone but yourself.

jackjack_k · August 2017

@Namaya92 wrote: »

@jackjack_k yeah it just makes me sad that EA won't even allow for a slight budget increase so that they can do much more with the game. I mean you can always see how far they could really go with their engine by the CC and mods that are out there. It's not like the developers aren't capable of creating the same kind of stuff. They just have limited money and freedom. There will always be a marketing director from EA out there saying 'You need to do it like this because we saw it in this really popular mobile game that is making a ton of money so we want it like that' (just a very simple example). When you are bound to a publishing company especially a really big one like EA or Ubisoft (also not very fond of that one lol), you don't have as much freedom as you have when you are for example Frontier Developments and don't have to answer to anyone but yourself.

I almost wonder if The Sims 5 will use an expanded Sims 4 engine. It would be interesting to see The Sims 4 with more of a budget.

I remember even The Sims 2 base game had budget cuts (like Weather and Cars) but they also cut scenery like you saw in The Sims Bustin Out/Sims Urbz, and half heartedly added it back in with Uni (2D sprites woohoo).

I almost wonder if The Sims 5 does reuse the Sims 4, if it will be more what people expected with The Sims 4. Perhaps more Open Areas, more customisation, Toddlers etc from the start.

It's interesting to think about.

Namaya92 · August 2017

@jackjack_k I don't know. They'd have to change a lot about the Sims 4 engine. I honestly don't believe there will be a Sims 5 like sims as we know it. I think they either might go towards an online gaming direction or focus more on the mobile market because it's more profitable and costs less money. I can see Maxis leaving EA if something like that were to happen though. For me, Sims 5 should at least have an adjustable world again and preferably no loading screens. As in: we should be able to move around lots on the map, to adjust sizes of lots etc. There should be a CAW tool as well. I don't know if that's possible with the current Sims 4 engine.

Horrorgirl6 · August 2017

Namaya92 wrote: »

@jackjack_k I don't know. They'd have to change a lot about the Sims 4 engine. I honestly don't believe there will be a Sims 5 like sims as we know it. I think they either might go towards an online gaming direction or focus more on the mobile market because it's more profitable and costs less money. I can see Maxis leaving EA if something like that were to happen though. For me, Sims 5 should at least have an adjustable world again and preferably no loading screens. As in: we should be able to move around lots on the map, to adjust sizes of lots etc. There should be a CAW tool as well. I don't know if that's possible with the current Sims 4 engine.

Well since sims 4 was Olympus engine. I think there not going to use this engine ever again. Its too limited,whic make sense because this is meant to be an online game. If we do get a sims 5, will either get new engines or go back to the old one.

BethanyShone · August 2017

When the game first came out I was a little unsure (maybe even disappointed), however I have grown to love The Sims 4. The worlds are beautiful, the sims themselves are unique and I am yet to be disappointed by an expansion. No matter what content is released I feel not everyone will be satisfied. I think people focus on what is missing from previous games rather than on what is new and different about this one. I was over the moon when I saw them announcing Cat & Dogs and I love the way it differs from previous games. The Create a Pet tool looks amazing and I can't wait to give the vet career a go. I did like horses in TS3 BUT they did get in the way sometimes and I don't think there would be much point having them in a closed world. I'm not too sad to see them go if it means we get more in depth cats and dogs.

Personally I like where the Sims series is going and I like that it won't be the exact same game over and over again. Sure there are some things I miss from previous games but they are still releasing content; there's still a chance things like horses may be added at a later date in their own pack. I just wish people would appreciate the game for what it is so far; you have to admit, it's come a LONG way since release.

ElenPink · August 2017

Facts!! Thank you for this!! In fact, I might make my own thread discussing something similar to this!!

I'm so happy I'm not the only one. Since day one people have been whining about Pets. There has been multiple threads about it, written by the same people, too. It's like some of you guys have nothing else to do with your time.

A thread asking what you want the next ep to be? Pets.

Patches come out? People whining about why pets weren't patched in. (??? Seriously?)

I unfortunately belong in the small community of not wanting what the majority wants, which includes seasons, pets, and laundry. I want new things. But sadly, most players just want the same things, even though they can easily go back to the sims 3 and play with their lovely animals and passive seasons there.

Lo and behold!! Pets was announced!! Everyone must be happy, right? WRONG.
Now they're complaining about pets not being controllable. Now they're asking for seasons (please people, be quiet about seasons for once), and horses not being included like op mentioned, and this and that. Like, are you kidding me?? The devs gave you what you wanted!! And you guys have the audacity to still whine as if the world revolves around you! No!!!

Be grateful for what you have! Coding is not easy!! I took one coding class and I can't believe how these devs are able to do these things!! It's hard!!

For goodness sakes, relax on the forums and let people who actually want new things (off the grid/farming) get a chance in the spot light!

ChristianSimFan · August 2017

I want horses, even if you can't ride them. I also want critters and farm animals, I'd be willing to pay more just to get them. But if ts4 never does implement horses I'll still more than likely keep buying the EPs, SPs, and GPs because I have ts3 as a backup that does have horses.

uo_aaronjd · August 2017

JoAnne65 wrote: »

So you basically started a topic just to bash an opinion. Swell.

You make it sound like its the first time its ever happened on these forums

Im extremly happy and grateful we are getting Cats and Dogs, cant wait! Looking forward to comparing them from their predecessors of Sims 2 and Sims 3 and exploreing Pets.....no we just need some weather.....

@ElenPink I understand where your coming from but unfortunatly theres more money in majoritys than minoritys...bit of a bugger that but keep up the good fight!

Dannydanbo · August 2017

Look at the improvement of Create A Pet. We can "paint" colors patterns, stripes, spots or whatever on our pets, even rainbows if we want. No more "pick a patch" of color and see if a spot on the tail looks good or not. The animal color wheel will make creating our pets so much more fun and easier than ever before. That alone, is such an improvement. Plus, I'm sure they added every possible breed they could find, even foxes and raccoons. Throw in the vet career and, for me, I'm definitely getting my moneys worth.

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Horses? No. Stop.

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