I do think we might be getting ahead of ourselves here. The ideas and things you're hoping for are really wonderful ideas, but don't expect to see most of them in this pack. Look at the track record this game's packs have had so far with minimal content, and really obvious stuff that we couldn't imagine not being there, being left out. Look at Outdoor Retreat, I imagine the amount of new content will be the same as that. I'd really love for everyone's ideas to appear in the pack but I just don't see even half of them happening.
Hope it brings back picnic baskets. They'll come in handy in tombs.
Having a picnic doesn't really sound something you would do when in the middle of exploring some ancient tomb. Or even in the middle of a jungle exploration.
You're stuck in a tomb for hours and you need food.
You're stuck in a tomb with deadly traps and skeletons, and instead of getting out and just eating fast you make a picnic on the floor? Seems a bit silly to me.
Hope it brings back picnic baskets. They'll come in handy in tombs.
Having a picnic doesn't really sound something you would do when in the middle of exploring some ancient tomb. Or even in the middle of a jungle exploration.
You're stuck in a tomb for hours and you need food.
You're stuck in a tomb with deadly traps and instead of getting out and just eating fast you make a picnic on the floor? Seems a bit silly to me.
Maybe it will be like that Looney Tunes cartoon about the sheep dog guarding sheep from the coyote and just as the dog is about to pulverize the coyote, a whistle blows for their lunch break and the both sit down and have a nice lunch together. Then, the whistle blows again and they pick up where they left off. Your adventurer is about to be attacked by the mummy(?) or skeleton, when they stop for a picnic and after it's over, they start where they left off.
Has anyone used the cursed lot trait on a restaurant lot?
Update: I downloaded a restaurant from the gallery, and used the Cursed, Gremlins and Grody Lot Traits... nothing very exciting happened.
Then I remembered, I don't think fires can start on community lots, I tried months ago to get a fire to start by using fireworks, but nothing happened. So, I don't think there's any benefit - unless there's a broken electronic item and someone tried to repair it, I can't see this being very enjoyable on community lots.
Has anyone used the cursed lot trait on a restaurant lot?
Update: I downloaded a restaurant from the gallery, and used the Cursed, Gremlins and Grody Lot Traits... nothing very exciting happened.
Then I remembered, I don't think fires can start on community lots, I tried months ago to get a fire to start by using fireworks, but nothing happened. So, I don't think there's any benefit - unless there's a broken electronic item and someone tried to repair it, I can't see this being very enjoyable on community lots.
But you might get more sims made sick from food poisoning or die from puffer fish.
Has anyone used the cursed lot trait on a restaurant lot?
Update: I downloaded a restaurant from the gallery, and used the Cursed, Gremlins and Grody Lot Traits... nothing very exciting happened.
Then I remembered, I don't think fires can start on community lots, I tried months ago to get a fire to start by using fireworks, but nothing happened. So, I don't think there's any benefit - unless there's a broken electronic item and someone tried to repair it, I can't see this being very enjoyable on community lots.
But you might get more sims made sick from food poisoning or die from puffer fish.
> @DeservedCriticism said:
> I will say I am happy this is the theme.
>
> Why? To me this'll be a "final" pack of sorts for me. I think an Adventure pack as a concept is a great gameplay-oriented and gameplay-focused pack, but I also think chances are good that this pack will fail. It might fail due to the overly happy and positive tone of the game, it might fail due to logistics issues and only being able to provide so much for one Game Pack, it might fail for another reason entirely such as engine limitations or bugs. Or it might succeed.
>
> If it succeeds, I see that as evidence that at least the Game Pack team remembers what "gameplay" means and can actually listen to fans instead of just packaging up whatever makes the most profit. That for me would be reason enough to at least keep tabs on what they produce and release.
>
> If it fails...? I think that speaks volumes about the Sims 4: where a good idea can still fail horribly just because it lacks funding or was subjected to the same "I'm-so-happy-my-lips-are-clipping-through-my-eyeballs" tone of the game simply because the people in charge weren't willing to compromise the tone of the base game (which many of us absolutely loathe) even when it absolutely makes sense to to fit the theme of a pack.
>
> I'm happy because if this fails for the reasons I've laid out, that's the final nail in the coffin for me and I definitely feel like I can part ways with the Sims and never look back. If a theme such as this can fail and lack gameplay or interesting drama, that means basically anything can, no pack concept is safe and this game truly is the world champion at providing disappointment. Yeah, for me it'd be time to move on and just play something else. It's the best closure I could ask for since I cannot think of a pack concept that would make the problems with Sims 4 more blatant. And if it succeeds, that's awesome too. Sort of a "win"-win even if the pack fails, tbh.
I don't understand why you even play in the first place if you "loathe" the tone of the base game. 1) The issue isn't the developers, it's the fans who want sims3 2.0 and can't understand from a business perspective, that would be plum. Why rehash the exact same thing all over again and make people pay for it multiple times? 2) I understand the series as a whole has done that on some level, but the point of the sims 4 was to start over and push it into a different direction than in the past, but the fans are so vocal and absolutely obnoxious (that I honestly hate even reading comments or threads because of how ridiculous they are), that they couldn't even let the developers make the game into what they originally intended and has just become a fan service to please those who can't handle the fact they wanted to change it up. 3) If they want a game like the sims 3, then play The Sims 3! it's not that hard people
1. Would it really be bad practise from a business perspective? I thought a sequel that is a rehash but a big bad boy that is dominating the previous processor is the deal that works. It's titlted "The Sims 4", but with the lacklusted and flawed content it doesn't feel like one, but more of a THE SIMS 1.5 (and even some peep take it much more worse than the very first game, giving the dishonored title 'The Sims 0.5"). I'm not sure how I would feel about GTA 5 If it we're back to very GTA1 first game's roots. Chances are - disappointed.
2. Oh, how unfortunate of those Developers. We sure know that they're aware we can read their minds and get what their direction of the game is from their subtle invisible hints that sends us the signal of "Hey! TS4 is coming. We're starting all over... sooooo forget about thinking that this game is gonna be ground breaking. We're just fooling you with the ironic name we gave to it that makes it sound like it's a sequel and not a spin-off mobile-alike game. The Sims 4. Amirite? Very groundbreaking from TS3! Did we say that it is called TS4? We'll repeat that and just make sure you know, even though it looks obviously skeptical." Would have we really known that the whole point/vision of the game from the very start. Never, ever, in my life, I have heard a confirmation from a developer/CEO that they wanted to start all over in this iteration.
3. Well holy molly. Who's the admin of this forum that adds technical changes to the forum. It's the time to eradicate the FEEDBACK section! In seriousness. If people would really want to return back to the buggy, ended-in-development-and-bug-fixing game, which isn't plausible for some people would have just simply stopped there without giving feedback and return to that darn finished game by now to relive the whole TS3 experience. I don't think "stop nagging and return to TS3" isn't gonna help you or them, since you're not partaking in the discussion/feedback/debate and just want to avoid it for your own personal selflish sake. It shouldn't be hard to just phase through the complain and not take it personal either. And not all people just want it to be identical copy of TS3. They also give their inputs not just for rehashing things, but as well alongside they're suggesting new additions to the game that didn't exist in previous titles of the franchise.
> @DeservedCriticism said:
> I will say I am happy this is the theme.
>
> Why? To me this'll be a "final" pack of sorts for me. I think an Adventure pack as a concept is a great gameplay-oriented and gameplay-focused pack, but I also think chances are good that this pack will fail. It might fail due to the overly happy and positive tone of the game, it might fail due to logistics issues and only being able to provide so much for one Game Pack, it might fail for another reason entirely such as engine limitations or bugs. Or it might succeed.
>
> If it succeeds, I see that as evidence that at least the Game Pack team remembers what "gameplay" means and can actually listen to fans instead of just packaging up whatever makes the most profit. That for me would be reason enough to at least keep tabs on what they produce and release.
>
> If it fails...? I think that speaks volumes about the Sims 4: where a good idea can still fail horribly just because it lacks funding or was subjected to the same "I'm-so-happy-my-lips-are-clipping-through-my-eyeballs" tone of the game simply because the people in charge weren't willing to compromise the tone of the base game (which many of us absolutely loathe) even when it absolutely makes sense to to fit the theme of a pack.
>
> I'm happy because if this fails for the reasons I've laid out, that's the final nail in the coffin for me and I definitely feel like I can part ways with the Sims and never look back. If a theme such as this can fail and lack gameplay or interesting drama, that means basically anything can, no pack concept is safe and this game truly is the world champion at providing disappointment. Yeah, for me it'd be time to move on and just play something else. It's the best closure I could ask for since I cannot think of a pack concept that would make the problems with Sims 4 more blatant. And if it succeeds, that's awesome too. Sort of a "win"-win even if the pack fails, tbh.
I don't understand why you even play in the first place if you "loathe" the tone of the base game. The issue isn't the developers, it's the fans who want sims3 2.0 and can't understand from a business perspective, that would be plum. Why rehash the exact same thing all over again and make people pay for it multiple times? I understand the series as a whole has done that on some level, but the point of the sims 4 was to start over and push it into a different direction than in the past, but the fans are so vocal and absolutely obnoxious (that I honestly hate even reading comments or threads because of how ridiculous they are), that they couldn't even let the developers make the game into what they originally intended and has just become a fan service to please those who can't handle the fact they wanted to change it up. If they want a game like the sims 3, then play The Sims 3! it's not that hard people
I just take issue with where you said but fans are so vocal and absolutely obnoxious that they couldn't even let the developers make the game into what they originally intended. LOL It was intended to be a MMO, or some sort of tablet game with Co Op features or tablet MMO. Thank goodness they woke up before it's release and decided (EA) they better pull that plug after what happened over at Sim City. Customers of this series had been telling them for years, no more online MMO for The Sims ever since TSO, however that didn't stop them from trying to repeat that mistake, and it was such a mistake it has cost this game plenty in resources, time lost making something not enough people wanted, and just about tarnished this series.
And my and others obnoxious voices, have helped them see the light to give you pools, toddlers, great Game Packs like Vampires, Dine Out, return of Nannies, Butlers, half walls, and so much more that was not intended to be added to this game. All from very vocal feedback. EP teams don't seem to listen as much as some others and thus you have backdrops instead of apartments, which don't have any bugrlars, firemen, or ambulance services. You really expect me to believe Sims can live in a big city and there isn't any crime, health accidents, or homeless? C'mon, voices are what have made this series great for more than sixteen years, and it is when they get inside their own bubbles and start believing their own ideas are best when they get in trouble. TS4 Olympus project, which had to be pulled, is proof enough.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
> @DeservedCriticism said:
> I will say I am happy this is the theme.
>
> Why? To me this'll be a "final" pack of sorts for me. I think an Adventure pack as a concept is a great gameplay-oriented and gameplay-focused pack, but I also think chances are good that this pack will fail. It might fail due to the overly happy and positive tone of the game, it might fail due to logistics issues and only being able to provide so much for one Game Pack, it might fail for another reason entirely such as engine limitations or bugs. Or it might succeed.
>
> If it succeeds, I see that as evidence that at least the Game Pack team remembers what "gameplay" means and can actually listen to fans instead of just packaging up whatever makes the most profit. That for me would be reason enough to at least keep tabs on what they produce and release.
>
> If it fails...? I think that speaks volumes about the Sims 4: where a good idea can still fail horribly just because it lacks funding or was subjected to the same "I'm-so-happy-my-lips-are-clipping-through-my-eyeballs" tone of the game simply because the people in charge weren't willing to compromise the tone of the base game (which many of us absolutely loathe) even when it absolutely makes sense to to fit the theme of a pack.
>
> I'm happy because if this fails for the reasons I've laid out, that's the final nail in the coffin for me and I definitely feel like I can part ways with the Sims and never look back. If a theme such as this can fail and lack gameplay or interesting drama, that means basically anything can, no pack concept is safe and this game truly is the world champion at providing disappointment. Yeah, for me it'd be time to move on and just play something else. It's the best closure I could ask for since I cannot think of a pack concept that would make the problems with Sims 4 more blatant. And if it succeeds, that's awesome too. Sort of a "win"-win even if the pack fails, tbh.
I don't understand why you even play in the first place if you "loathe" the tone of the base game. The issue isn't the developers, it's the fans who want sims3 2.0 and can't understand from a business perspective, that would be plum. Why rehash the exact same thing all over again and make people pay for it multiple times? I understand the series as a whole has done that on some level, but the point of the sims 4 was to start over and push it into a different direction than in the past, but the fans are so vocal and absolutely obnoxious (that I honestly hate even reading comments or threads because of how ridiculous they are), that they couldn't even let the developers make the game into what they originally intended and has just become a fan service to please those who can't handle the fact they wanted to change it up. If they want a game like the sims 3, then play The Sims 3! it's not that hard people
I just take issue with where you said but fans are so vocal and absolutely obnoxious that they couldn't even let the developers make the game into what they originally intended. LOL It was intended to be a MMO, or some sort of tablet game with Co Op features or tablet MMO. Thank goodness they woke up before it's release and decided (EA) they better pull that plug after what happened over at Sim City. Customers of this series had been telling them for years, no more online MMO for The Sims ever since TSO, however that didn't stop them from trying to repeat that mistake, and it was such a mistake it has cost this game plenty in resources, time lost making something not enough people wanted, and just about tarnished this series.
And my and others obnoxious voices, have helped them see the light to give you pools, toddlers, great Game Packs like Vampires, Dine Out, return of Nannies, Butlers, half walls, and so much more that was not intended to be added to this game. All from very vocal feedback. EP teams don't seem to listen as much as some others and thus you have backdrops instead of apartments, which don't have any bugrlars, firemen, or ambulance services. You really expect me to believe Sims can live in a big city and there isn't any crime, health accidents, or homeless? C'mon, voices are what have made this series great for more than sixteen years, and it is when they get inside their own bubbles and start believing their own ideas are best when they get in trouble. TS4 Olympus project, which had to be pulled, is proof enough.
I can imagine you also take issue in the fact they literally accuse you of wanting a game like Sims 3 Maybe this simmer loves MMO and they are very unhappy with toddlers? It’s a very strange post indeed.
To summarize, the Simmers cannot agree on whether or not they like Sims 4 or hate the plum out of it, or why.
Some hate it for one reason, others for the other, some like it for one reason, others for the other.
Can we just agree to disagree, let each other play the game the way they want? play games that are fun (too, although that is proven to be subjective) either instead of or alongside Sims 4?
With that in Mind, may I suggest we split hopes and expectations from now on into two categories instead of using them as synonyms?
No one hopes this pack is terrible (except those who are looking for an excuse to leave the game for good when they could at any time) but that doesn't mean nobody expects it to be.
After having terribly boring Stuff Packs and lacking EP's, it's only natural to expect anything announced as terrible from the get-go, but SP's, EP's and GP's have different teams, and they have yet to release a single terrible GP.
And while the themes of the GP's are certainly not for everyone, the Content there was always high quality and gave a larger Impact on Gameplay than any EP in Sims 4 so far.
Again, just my opinion. Please don't rip my head off for it.
I am excited about the skeleton. I don't know how it's gonna function, but that is going to spawn some great CC for Halloween!
Seriously? Are we really this delusional? Yeah, let's blame the consumers instead of the people actually producing the content. Actually that sounds exactly like something EA would say. Please stop trying to earn brownie points, you're only doing yourself a disservice.
> @DeservedCriticism said:
> I will say I am happy this is the theme.
>
> Why? To me this'll be a "final" pack of sorts for me. I think an Adventure pack as a concept is a great gameplay-oriented and gameplay-focused pack, but I also think chances are good that this pack will fail. It might fail due to the overly happy and positive tone of the game, it might fail due to logistics issues and only being able to provide so much for one Game Pack, it might fail for another reason entirely such as engine limitations or bugs. Or it might succeed.
>
> If it succeeds, I see that as evidence that at least the Game Pack team remembers what "gameplay" means and can actually listen to fans instead of just packaging up whatever makes the most profit. That for me would be reason enough to at least keep tabs on what they produce and release.
>
> If it fails...? I think that speaks volumes about the Sims 4: where a good idea can still fail horribly just because it lacks funding or was subjected to the same "I'm-so-happy-my-lips-are-clipping-through-my-eyeballs" tone of the game simply because the people in charge weren't willing to compromise the tone of the base game (which many of us absolutely loathe) even when it absolutely makes sense to to fit the theme of a pack.
>
> I'm happy because if this fails for the reasons I've laid out, that's the final nail in the coffin for me and I definitely feel like I can part ways with the Sims and never look back. If a theme such as this can fail and lack gameplay or interesting drama, that means basically anything can, no pack concept is safe and this game truly is the world champion at providing disappointment. Yeah, for me it'd be time to move on and just play something else. It's the best closure I could ask for since I cannot think of a pack concept that would make the problems with Sims 4 more blatant. And if it succeeds, that's awesome too. Sort of a "win"-win even if the pack fails, tbh.
I don't understand why you even play in the first place if you "loathe" the tone of the base game. The issue isn't the developers, it's the fans who want sims3 2.0 and can't understand from a business perspective, that would be plum. Why rehash the exact same thing all over again and make people pay for it multiple times? I understand the series as a whole has done that on some level, but the point of the sims 4 was to start over and push it into a different direction than in the past, but the fans are so vocal and absolutely obnoxious (that I honestly hate even reading comments or threads because of how ridiculous they are), that they couldn't even let the developers make the game into what they originally intended and has just become a fan service to please those who can't handle the fact they wanted to change it up. If they want a game like the sims 3, then play The Sims 3! it's not that hard people
You have no idea how business works, at all. EA doesn’t “make” anyone pay for anything, to be completely honest the fact EA sold the same themes over and over is a sign that people were willing to buy those things repeatedly.
It’s that same consumer freedom that also put EA and Maxis in a pickle - regardless of how much they wanted to “change it up” they were at the mercy of their existing customer base. Clearly they were making choices for The Sims 4 that their players did not like, and when you flat out fail your market you’re going to lose that market. Remember SimCity? That’s probably the best example of how to completely kill off an entire franchise and lose a huge chunk of paying customers - why? Because they, they being MAXIS, decided they wanted to “change it up“ for no reason other than ‘because it’s our vision’ — does that sound familiar? I distinctly remember the Guru’s repeatedly regurgitating that same ‘vision’ sentiment when asked why they built a game that fell flat against the expectations of longtime players.
If "changing things up" was inherently a bad thing, Game devs would have realized long ago and we would still play games that have a resolution of just a few pixels and only have black and green.
Now that I think about it, space invaders, the original one, is still seen as one of the best games ever created...
Change is the only means for a medium to evolve, and if a medium doesn't evolve, doesn't adapt to new situations or new technology, it quickly dies. Think about how Theater is becoming more and more of a niche sort of medium since Movies came along. Or how a lot of people were afraid books would go extinct when Ebooks appeared.
If an attempted change is an improvement or making matters worse is something a game developer cannot know beforehand.
When they have an idea that, using all information and data they have access to, most probably improve the game they are making, they will do that, and I think they should. Even and especially in a long-standing franchise that has a large fanbase from the predecessors of said game.
If it fails, you alienate a part of your fanbase, learn from your mistakes and make another game that undoes the unpopular changes and tries something else. If it succeeds, your fanbase grows. Then they push further in the direction the Franchise is going.
Before Sims 4 was announced, there were complaints about bugs, glitches, performance issues and such in Sims 3. Those cannot be avoided completely, but the main causes of the performance problems (Lag, Crashes...) were CAST and the open world. Long loading times were also an issue. 15 Minutes plus for me, just to get to the main menu, then another 5 - 10 minutes to load the savegame. 20 - 30 minutes just to enter the game. No sir, not for me. Rather playing Sims 4.
With such things, they tried to fix that in Sims 4, and they did!
I can play Sims 4 on my laptop with the graphics options all the way to the top and no issue whatsoever, while Sims 3 lags and takes ages to load even on minimal settings.
Could they have done that better? Perhaps. I don't know how such things work.
Does that excuse poor decisions like no Toddlers, no Pools and such? Of course not! But they do know what we are happy about and what we are upset about, and they do what they can to solve those problems with the money and time and release schedules dictated by the company. Remember, the Dev-Team and the Management are not the same people. The same way in a Bank the one at the Desk is not the director and the director is not the accountant and the accountant is not the man who cleans the floor and the man who cleans the floor is not the security guard. Things would be really different if they were just some small Indie developer where there is only that small group of people who do everything.
For the Developers, Sims 4 is something they put years of their lives into to create and maintain. And I think they want their work to be good and successful. After all, they spent time, money and effort to create all that and their SimGurus, who actually are developers and team members who create the content, get all the hate and the blame if something goes wrong, even if the reason is funding or schedule issues they have to work with and cannot influence since that comes from the publisher.
And if you have limited funds and resources, a set date at which the content you produce is released, and want to maintain a certain quality, you just produce less content to be able to focus your resources.
If you want to produce more, you spend less time and resources on each individual part which results in lower quality.
They have to balance that out, and once they committed to a certain quality-quantity ratio, they cannot make too noticeable changes.
For the Company, the Sims is one of many Money generators. They pay the Dev's to make and maintain that Generator and to make it keep generating money. And in order to make the greatest possible profit out of it, they invest as much as necessary but as little as possible in it.
Anf that income from that Generator sinks and slightly higher investment can't change that, that money generator will be left alone and the investments will be spent on more promiseing candidates.
If "changing things up" was inherently a bad thing, Game devs would have realized long ago and we would still play games that have a resolution of just a few pixels and only have black and green.
Now that I think about it, space invaders, the original one, is still seen as one of the best games ever created...
Change is the only means for a medium to evolve, and if a medium doesn't evolve, doesn't adapt to new situations or new technology, it quickly dies. Think about how Theater is becoming more and more of a niche sort of medium since Movies came along. Or how a lot of people were afraid books would go extinct when Ebooks appeared.
If an attempted change is an improvement or making matters worse is something a game developer cannot know beforehand.
When they have an idea that, using all information and data they have access to, most probably improve the game they are making, they will do that, and I think they should. Even and especially in a long-standing franchise that has a large fanbase from the predecessors of said game.
If it fails, you alienate a part of your fanbase, learn from your mistakes and make another game that undoes the unpopular changes and tries something else. If it succeeds, your fanbase grows. Then they push further in the direction the Franchise is going.
Before Sims 4 was announced, there were complaints about bugs, glitches, performance issues and such in Sims 3. Those cannot be avoided completely, but the main causes of the performance problems (Lag, Crashes...) were CAST and the open world. Long loading times were also an issue. 15 Minutes plus for me, just to get to the main menu, then another 5 - 10 minutes to load the savegame. 20 - 30 minutes just to enter the game. No sir, not for me. Rather playing Sims 4.
With such things, they tried to fix that in Sims 4, and they did!
I can play Sims 4 on my laptop with the graphics options all the way to the top and no issue whatsoever, while Sims 3 lags and takes ages to load even on minimal settings.
Could they have done that better? Perhaps. I don't know how such things work.
Does that excuse poor decisions like no Toddlers, no Pools and such? Of course not! But they do know what we are happy about and what we are upset about, and they do what they can to solve those problems with the money and time and release schedules dictated by the company. Remember, the Dev-Team and the Management are not the same people. The same way in a Bank the one at the Desk is not the director and the director is not the accountant and the accountant is not the man who cleans the floor and the man who cleans the floor is not the security guard. Things would be really different if they were just some small Indie developer where there is only that small group of people who do everything.
For the Developers, Sims 4 is something they put years of their lives into to create and maintain. And I think they want their work to be good and successful. After all, they spent time, money and effort to create all that and their SimGurus, who actually are developers and team members who create the content, get all the hate and the blame if something goes wrong, even if the reason is funding or schedule issues they have to work with and cannot influence since that comes from the publisher.
And if you have limited funds and resources, a set date at which the content you produce is released, and want to maintain a certain quality, you just produce less content to be able to focus your resources.
If you want to produce more, you spend less time and resources on each individual part which results in lower quality.
They have to balance that out, and once they committed to a certain quality-quantity ratio, they cannot make too noticeable changes.
For the Company, the Sims is one of many Money generators. They pay the Dev's to make and maintain that Generator and to make it keep generating money. And in order to make the greatest possible profit out of it, they invest as much as necessary but as little as possible in it.
Anf that income from that Generator sinks and slightly higher investment can't change that, that money generator will be left alone and the investments will be spent on more promiseing candidates.
The only problem open world delivers are routing issues (often caused by rushing the game; Bridgeport for example appears to be a mess in that department). And routing issues result into freezing. This can be solved by resetsim * or making adjustments to the world that solve the routing error (Shang Simla for instance will become a nightmare after a couple of weeks; turn two lots - mind you, lots, not even the open world itself - into no visitors allowed and replace a door by a gate and freezing is over). NRaas mods proved there is a system possible to catch the errors and improve performance. Lag (game/time continues but won’t follow the player’s instruction immediately) is something that is mainly caused by too much CC. CASt doesn’t cause freezing nor lag, just some extra time rendering on low end computers. And as for loading screens: 4 minutes for me from putting the disk in to starting to play (highest settings, all packs installed and a fair though decent amount of cc/mods). After that: no more loading.
So you see, there simply are no excuses. Nobody plays this game on a (pre) 2009 computer anymore.
Oh, p.s., as if Sims 4 doesn’t have bugs and glitches.
I never said it was perfect.
What I think is that the Devs did the best they could with what they got.
Did you see how I wrote that bugs and glitches cannot be avoided completely?
Also, the routing issues were not the only things caused by the open world.
There was an issue with simulating too many households in the background simultaneously.
Tweaking the Open World to be more performance friendly and less... whatever. But not including it at all was the easier solution.
I'm not saying that to give an excuse. Just as an explanation. I would love them bringing back Open world at least partially, in a way that existing neighborhoods would be open like the worlds were in Sims 3. I have no clue if that is possible or even probable.
And you can probably run Crysis with your Computer.
I never said it was perfect.
What I think is that the Devs did the best they could with what they got.
Did you see how I wrote that bugs and glitches cannot be avoided completely?
Also, the routing issues were not the only things caused by the open world.
There was an issue with simulating too many households in the background simultaneously.
Tweaking the Open World to be more performance friendly and less... whatever. But not including it at all was the easier solution.
I'm not saying that to give an excuse. Just as an explanation. I would love them bringing back Open world at least partially, in a way that existing neighborhoods would be open like the worlds were in Sims 3. I have no clue if that is possible or even probable.
And you can probably run Crysis with your Computer.
I have no interest in Crysis, just in Sims And though I thought I was being Speedy Gonzalez with my PC, I've learned for a lot of people it's even faster. Computers clearly are improving. Apart from the fact that I didn't care back in the day when starting the game took 11 minutes. I folded the laundry or played an app game while waiting and then I was in. No more loading screens and no more waiting. Bugs and glitches indeed can't be avoided (I guess), but it genuinely surprises me they seem to be as much of a problem in this version as they were in Sims 3. Which refutes the idea getting rid of open world was a necessity (let alone CASt, that never caused any problem at all).
I never said it was perfect.
What I think is that the Devs did the best they could with what they got.
Did you see how I wrote that bugs and glitches cannot be avoided completely?
Also, the routing issues were not the only things caused by the open world.
There was an issue with simulating too many households in the background simultaneously.
Tweaking the Open World to be more performance friendly and less... whatever. But not including it at all was the easier solution.
I'm not saying that to give an excuse. Just as an explanation. I would love them bringing back Open world at least partially, in a way that existing neighborhoods would be open like the worlds were in Sims 3. I have no clue if that is possible or even probable.
And you can probably run Crysis with your Computer.
I have no interest in Crysis, just in Sims And though I thought I was being Speedy Gonzalez with my PC, I've learned for a lot of people it's even faster. Computers clearly are improving. Apart from the fact that I didn't care back in the day when starting the game took 11 minutes. I folded the laundry or played an app game while waiting and then I was in. No more loading screens and no more waiting. Bugs and glitches indeed can't be avoided (I guess), but it genuinely surprises me they seem to be as much of a problem in this version as they were in Sims 3. Which refutes the idea getting rid of open world was a necessity (let alone CASt, that never caused any problem at all).
@Dannydanbo this description from Laundry Day makes reference to Mayan culture. (Mayan calendar) Maybe it's a hint for the upcoming Game Pack being Mayan themed?
@Dannydanbo this description from Laundry Day makes reference to Mayan culture. (Mayan calendar) Maybe it's a hint for the upcoming Game Pack being Mayan themed?
@Dannydanbo this description from Laundry Day makes reference to Mayan culture. (Mayan calendar) Maybe it's a hint for the upcoming Game Pack being Mayan themed?
Ooh awesome! Thanks for pointing it out, I didn't notice that. & Hmm.. I wonder if that is a date we should look out for (obviously not the year) lol Maybe some exciting news or an EP will come out that day (I hope)
@Dannydanbo this description from Laundry Day makes reference to Mayan culture. (Mayan calendar) Maybe it's a hint for the upcoming Game Pack being Mayan themed?
It's also an allusion to that 2012 Mayan calendar doomsday thing. Even then I thought it was ridiculous.
Don't manhandle the urchin. He's not for sale. FIND YOUR OWN! - Xenon the Antiquarian, Dragon Age II
Race Against the Clock: Can your elder sim turn back the clock before their time runs out?
Comments
Oh my god...
Omg
You're stuck in a tomb with deadly traps and skeletons, and instead of getting out and just eating fast you make a picnic on the floor? Seems a bit silly to me.
Maybe it will be like that Looney Tunes cartoon about the sheep dog guarding sheep from the coyote and just as the dog is about to pulverize the coyote, a whistle blows for their lunch break and the both sit down and have a nice lunch together. Then, the whistle blows again and they pick up where they left off. Your adventurer is about to be attacked by the mummy(?) or skeleton, when they stop for a picnic and after it's over, they start where they left off.
Update: I downloaded a restaurant from the gallery, and used the Cursed, Gremlins and Grody Lot Traits... nothing very exciting happened.
Then I remembered, I don't think fires can start on community lots, I tried months ago to get a fire to start by using fireworks, but nothing happened. So, I don't think there's any benefit - unless there's a broken electronic item and someone tried to repair it, I can't see this being very enjoyable on community lots.
But you might get more sims made sick from food poisoning or die from puffer fish.
That's true!
2. Oh, how unfortunate of those Developers. We sure know that they're aware we can read their minds and get what their direction of the game is from their subtle invisible hints that sends us the signal of "Hey! TS4 is coming. We're starting all over... sooooo forget about thinking that this game is gonna be ground breaking. We're just fooling you with the ironic name we gave to it that makes it sound like it's a sequel and not a spin-off mobile-alike game. The Sims 4. Amirite? Very groundbreaking from TS3! Did we say that it is called TS4? We'll repeat that and just make sure you know, even though it looks obviously skeptical." Would have we really known that the whole point/vision of the game from the very start. Never, ever, in my life, I have heard a confirmation from a developer/CEO that they wanted to start all over in this iteration.
3. Well holy molly. Who's the admin of this forum that adds technical changes to the forum. It's the time to eradicate the FEEDBACK section! In seriousness. If people would really want to return back to the buggy, ended-in-development-and-bug-fixing game, which isn't plausible for some people would have just simply stopped there without giving feedback and return to that darn finished game by now to relive the whole TS3 experience. I don't think "stop nagging and return to TS3" isn't gonna help you or them, since you're not partaking in the discussion/feedback/debate and just want to avoid it for your own personal selflish sake. It shouldn't be hard to just phase through the complain and not take it personal either. And not all people just want it to be identical copy of TS3. They also give their inputs not just for rehashing things, but as well alongside they're suggesting new additions to the game that didn't exist in previous titles of the franchise.
I just take issue with where you said but fans are so vocal and absolutely obnoxious that they couldn't even let the developers make the game into what they originally intended. LOL It was intended to be a MMO, or some sort of tablet game with Co Op features or tablet MMO. Thank goodness they woke up before it's release and decided (EA) they better pull that plug after what happened over at Sim City. Customers of this series had been telling them for years, no more online MMO for The Sims ever since TSO, however that didn't stop them from trying to repeat that mistake, and it was such a mistake it has cost this game plenty in resources, time lost making something not enough people wanted, and just about tarnished this series.
And my and others obnoxious voices, have helped them see the light to give you pools, toddlers, great Game Packs like Vampires, Dine Out, return of Nannies, Butlers, half walls, and so much more that was not intended to be added to this game. All from very vocal feedback. EP teams don't seem to listen as much as some others and thus you have backdrops instead of apartments, which don't have any bugrlars, firemen, or ambulance services. You really expect me to believe Sims can live in a big city and there isn't any crime, health accidents, or homeless? C'mon, voices are what have made this series great for more than sixteen years, and it is when they get inside their own bubbles and start believing their own ideas are best when they get in trouble. TS4 Olympus project, which had to be pulled, is proof enough.
Some hate it for one reason, others for the other, some like it for one reason, others for the other.
Can we just agree to disagree, let each other play the game the way they want? play games that are fun (too, although that is proven to be subjective) either instead of or alongside Sims 4?
With that in Mind, may I suggest we split hopes and expectations from now on into two categories instead of using them as synonyms?
No one hopes this pack is terrible (except those who are looking for an excuse to leave the game for good when they could at any time) but that doesn't mean nobody expects it to be.
After having terribly boring Stuff Packs and lacking EP's, it's only natural to expect anything announced as terrible from the get-go, but SP's, EP's and GP's have different teams, and they have yet to release a single terrible GP.
And while the themes of the GP's are certainly not for everyone, the Content there was always high quality and gave a larger Impact on Gameplay than any EP in Sims 4 so far.
Again, just my opinion. Please don't rip my head off for it.
I am excited about the skeleton. I don't know how it's gonna function, but that is going to spawn some great CC for Halloween!
I concur.
Seriously? Are we really this delusional? Yeah, let's blame the consumers instead of the people actually producing the content. Actually that sounds exactly like something EA would say. Please stop trying to earn brownie points, you're only doing yourself a disservice.
Back to the topic please
You have no idea how business works, at all. EA doesn’t “make” anyone pay for anything, to be completely honest the fact EA sold the same themes over and over is a sign that people were willing to buy those things repeatedly.
It’s that same consumer freedom that also put EA and Maxis in a pickle - regardless of how much they wanted to “change it up” they were at the mercy of their existing customer base. Clearly they were making choices for The Sims 4 that their players did not like, and when you flat out fail your market you’re going to lose that market. Remember SimCity? That’s probably the best example of how to completely kill off an entire franchise and lose a huge chunk of paying customers - why? Because they, they being MAXIS, decided they wanted to “change it up“ for no reason other than ‘because it’s our vision’ — does that sound familiar? I distinctly remember the Guru’s repeatedly regurgitating that same ‘vision’ sentiment when asked why they built a game that fell flat against the expectations of longtime players.
Now that I think about it, space invaders, the original one, is still seen as one of the best games ever created...
Change is the only means for a medium to evolve, and if a medium doesn't evolve, doesn't adapt to new situations or new technology, it quickly dies. Think about how Theater is becoming more and more of a niche sort of medium since Movies came along. Or how a lot of people were afraid books would go extinct when Ebooks appeared.
If an attempted change is an improvement or making matters worse is something a game developer cannot know beforehand.
When they have an idea that, using all information and data they have access to, most probably improve the game they are making, they will do that, and I think they should. Even and especially in a long-standing franchise that has a large fanbase from the predecessors of said game.
If it fails, you alienate a part of your fanbase, learn from your mistakes and make another game that undoes the unpopular changes and tries something else. If it succeeds, your fanbase grows. Then they push further in the direction the Franchise is going.
Before Sims 4 was announced, there were complaints about bugs, glitches, performance issues and such in Sims 3. Those cannot be avoided completely, but the main causes of the performance problems (Lag, Crashes...) were CAST and the open world. Long loading times were also an issue. 15 Minutes plus for me, just to get to the main menu, then another 5 - 10 minutes to load the savegame. 20 - 30 minutes just to enter the game. No sir, not for me. Rather playing Sims 4.
With such things, they tried to fix that in Sims 4, and they did!
I can play Sims 4 on my laptop with the graphics options all the way to the top and no issue whatsoever, while Sims 3 lags and takes ages to load even on minimal settings.
Could they have done that better? Perhaps. I don't know how such things work.
Does that excuse poor decisions like no Toddlers, no Pools and such? Of course not! But they do know what we are happy about and what we are upset about, and they do what they can to solve those problems with the money and time and release schedules dictated by the company. Remember, the Dev-Team and the Management are not the same people. The same way in a Bank the one at the Desk is not the director and the director is not the accountant and the accountant is not the man who cleans the floor and the man who cleans the floor is not the security guard. Things would be really different if they were just some small Indie developer where there is only that small group of people who do everything.
For the Developers, Sims 4 is something they put years of their lives into to create and maintain. And I think they want their work to be good and successful. After all, they spent time, money and effort to create all that and their SimGurus, who actually are developers and team members who create the content, get all the hate and the blame if something goes wrong, even if the reason is funding or schedule issues they have to work with and cannot influence since that comes from the publisher.
And if you have limited funds and resources, a set date at which the content you produce is released, and want to maintain a certain quality, you just produce less content to be able to focus your resources.
If you want to produce more, you spend less time and resources on each individual part which results in lower quality.
They have to balance that out, and once they committed to a certain quality-quantity ratio, they cannot make too noticeable changes.
For the Company, the Sims is one of many Money generators. They pay the Dev's to make and maintain that Generator and to make it keep generating money. And in order to make the greatest possible profit out of it, they invest as much as necessary but as little as possible in it.
Anf that income from that Generator sinks and slightly higher investment can't change that, that money generator will be left alone and the investments will be spent on more promiseing candidates.
So you see, there simply are no excuses. Nobody plays this game on a (pre) 2009 computer anymore.
Oh, p.s., as if Sims 4 doesn’t have bugs and glitches.
What I think is that the Devs did the best they could with what they got.
Did you see how I wrote that bugs and glitches cannot be avoided completely?
Also, the routing issues were not the only things caused by the open world.
There was an issue with simulating too many households in the background simultaneously.
Tweaking the Open World to be more performance friendly and less... whatever. But not including it at all was the easier solution.
I'm not saying that to give an excuse. Just as an explanation. I would love them bringing back Open world at least partially, in a way that existing neighborhoods would be open like the worlds were in Sims 3. I have no clue if that is possible or even probable.
And you can probably run Crysis with your Computer.
I loved the open world of TS3
Could be, could be.
Ooh awesome! Thanks for pointing it out, I didn't notice that.
It's also an allusion to that 2012 Mayan calendar doomsday thing.
Race Against the Clock: Can your elder sim turn back the clock before their time runs out?