lol.
So what frustrated me in TS3 was that my game crashes all the time, that's why I never even thought of downloaded any mods and/or CC. But that's fine because honestly, TS3 can be played without CC or mods. It just crashes ever so often. Now TS4 I don't crash that much, but man it's jam packed with bugs and glitches.
A quick history of my Sims 4 experience, I got the game when it launched, got bored after a few weeks, stopped playing for 2 or 3 years and then just got back a few months ago. Now, I have all the EP/GP/SP, and boy this game has been plagued with bugs and glitches that neither Maxis nor EA cares about. Because it seems to me from reading through The Sims's, EA's and reddit's forums, these bugs and glitches have been known and reported by multiple players and yet they still are occurring. Yes, I have played this game without CC or mods at all, and I still have experienced these bugs. So I no, I will not disable my CC or mods, just so to test if a CC or mod is causing the issue. This game is unplayable without CC or mod, let's face it TS4 is crap without 3rd party resources. And no, it's not my PC, I play other games as well, I don't experience them or if they do, and the game's company has a fix, they are fixed.
GTW professions are bugged, unless if they programmed to have the nurses and staff on the medicine career to just endlessly with each other or to patients? Is that what these NPCs are suppose to do, sim gurus? Or that the clues in the detective career, not match who the suspect is? Or that you cannot complete the 2nd level of the Music Aspiration, the only "fix" for that is a cheat. (That fix actually made me laugh, like 🐸🐸🐸🐸??!?? Your fix is a cheat?!?! Are you sh*tting me right now?) What got me irked today though, is when I go to the spa I built for San Myshuno and take a yoga class, everyone is in a static form, while the time keeps running. I logged off game, and tried it again-- again, my sim and everyone else freezes!!!
I'm done. I have reported several of these bugs and glitches as well, but honestly, what's the point, if these have been reported before by several people, I do not understand why they have not been addressed yet?! It's been 2 years since GTW launched, and you still have the same issues. This game is a JOKE!!! A complete JOKE!!! Don't ever tell me to lower down the settings on my game, my PC is fine, I play max settings on my MMO games and other RPG, and I have no problems whatsoever, not only that my PC may not be alienware, but I know for a fact, that my specs exceeds your minimum requirements. If this joke of a developer (Maxis) and company (EA) was really wanted to fix these bugs and glitches they would have done this a long time ago, but well... I guess they do not have any intentions of fixing their broken game. They just want to hype it, stream it and avoid the bugs and glitches that come along with it, and then screw everyone after people buy their crap.
And yeah, I know I have been brutal in this thread. I'm frustrated because I want to love TS4, but I can't. For one, it's already a boring game, empty af. If you add the bugs and glitches, it makes the game unplayable. So after that freezing glitch I got, I closed my game, and will be playing another game instead. I may just uninstall Origin from my system, it's a waste of digital space in my PC if I can't play TS4. I don't want to waste my money anymore on this god forsaken game.
Just a thought, how is it that TS2, that was on a game engine some 10 years ago (?), able to have a complete game at launch (with toddlers, 3 premade worlds (neighborhoods) and a long list of other worlds you can readily customize and add to your already existing worlds or start from scratch with those, world/neighborhood maps that aren't 2D, etc) and with very few bugs and glitches (if they were I remember they were fixed after a new patch/expansion pack was released)? And yet TS4, on a modern tech, have bugs and glitches galore, without any fix at all-- I swear, it feels like if they fix one thing, they break another. I think it's time to give up The Sims game. It was fun being a part and a fan of the game. But when developers like Maxis and companies like EA turn a good game and crap on it, it's not even worth it anymore. I feel sorry for Will Wright, his vision for The Sims was amazing. Time to move along (again), I guess. See you simmers. Enjoy your game-- IF you can.
PS: I posted this under Discussion, because I am not reporting a bug or a glitch, I am ranting about why they aren't being addressed.
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I don't want to come down on those who do the work and pour their hearts into it, but if I had to guess, the percentage of the overall budget for work on this version is quite probably a good bit less relative to what was allowed for TS 2 which was quite a ways earlier in the lifespan of this franchise.
Just a guess, of course, but one based on where the gaming biz has been heading for quite some time, including but not limited to EA's other games which generate greater sales receipts but due to their complexity, require a much more substantial development budget.
I guess the pie can only be cut into so many slices.
a sim of mine is stuck in the detective career with the bug of the description not matching any sim on the lot AT ALL
it's currently already the third quite significant bug now
1. nightclub random clothing instead of the assigned
2. every sim watching only kids TV channel
3. GTW detective career, description not matching any suspect
Oh, and they drop their queue (and the laundry) every time their mood changes too (which is a lot in the house because I have a room for every mood). Don't get me started on Sims picking up the toddlers for no reason when they are starving, kids blocking the baby crib so the adults can't feed them, and adults NEVER automatically changing the baby diapers.
It's really quite a fun dampener when your Sims basically never do what you want them to do.
The constant freezing always makes me rage so much. My Sims are just standing there, like 6 hours just standing and doing nothing!!! Sometimes when I'm at a public location all the Sims in that location just freeze up for several hours. And this has been there from the beginning and there still isn't a fix for it. It totally makes the game unplayable imo. And it incredible breaking the immersion. There already is a lack of time in this game but this just makes it way worse. And it is not a performance issue and I never play with CC.
Sims just walking through everything and clipping in other Sims is freaking annoying. I liked in TS3 that Sims would have to take a step to the side to let another Sim through. Now they just pretend like nobody is standing there.
These are the two most noticeable bugs for me, but there are of course many many more. I just hope that they get fixed someday, but it will probably never happen.
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The only way I've found to stop the freezing is to go to options a few times until they start moving again.
2. Adults watching kids tv all the time. What makes this worse is Kids TV causes multiple births. Two of my Sim couples had triplets. I have never ever had triplets this this game.
3. fix the detective career already. It is one of my favorites and I am tired of it being broken. OMG It has been broken for so long now and I don't understand why it has not been addressed.
Trust me when I tell you that as an always free will off player, I experience most of the same bugs.
Don't forget, free will off means the player has to direct the Sim to perform an action, most every action and the response lag has become insane over the last few months for me as well.
I'll add that as messy as TS3 could get, I never had anywhere near the amount of issues with Sims under my control as I do with TS4.
They fixed the detective career, did they not? I mean, I only had one issue when I did it, and had no problem getting my Sim to the top (I did have to exit without saving once because it took me to a lot with nothing to do and I had no option of leaving).
Even a quick glance at the EA financial statements shows that the dominant income stream is war and sports. We are pretty much petty cash to the suits that call the shots. The devs may be as keen on the game as we are, but said suits care only about profits, so any development $ is divvied up accordingly.
I'm about fed up now. With the vet career it's so painful trying to get through the day . I'm done with the bugs and glitches. To me it seems like the more packs you have the more plum you deal with and I'm done... I can't do it any more. Even with the mods I have to do things the game should already do (mccc and polarbearsims personality please mods) it's just not enough for me to keep wanting to play and I'm so fed up and done with dealing with it.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
Lucky you... I honestly wish I could just get through the Vet career with no issues. Some days are decent other days its a disaster.
Toddlers are bugged, place a high chair and it will soon become apparent. Ditto reading to them. My niece has the game on console and pretty much every bug the pc has the console has.
I don't have many bugs but I have enough to put me off playing for long periods. We have two gaming rigs that far exceed the specifications and we still see bugs and when the same bugs carry over to console you know it's not your game or your pc but rather the sims 4.
I find the bugs and glitches annoying as well.
There are a few reasons as to why I think they permeate. My first hunch is senior management. Budget cuts, downsizing, etc. Their teams are being mismanaged and perhaps aren't being given enough incentive to put in the extra elbow grease. Grant Rodiek recently did an interview in December about the crunch-less work environment on TS4, and that they see crunching - as in having to do last minute work, maybe even working overtime, due to falling behind schedule - as a sign of failure. I think that's understandable and a great initiative, but then you need to make sure that you have the man power to do the work. And if you do, perhaps they aren't being compensated enough to motivate them. Again, I feel like this goes back to management. Whoever is hiring them needs to be clear about the vision and the product. If EA is fine with this many bugs/glitches in a game, I feel that they may benefit from shifting their perspective of crunching from "failure" to "motivation"; motivation to do better and be better for the future. Crunching is almost a necessity in my humble opinion. But every company is different.
My second hunch is that their QA team is lacking. How much of their process is automated? Do they have a solid team? Their tech must be up to date ... I mean, it's EA. At the same time, I have worked for companies that use outdated tech yet are big name international companies. The inability to evolve with the market is a sign that your company will not last. Of course the more control and equity that a company has in the market, the more likely it is that the process will be rather slow. But once you start seeing your company stocks falling and the consumer response largely unfavourable with the same mistakes and concerns being repeated over and over again, then it's really just a matter of time. I think EA executives should take the time to really examine their management and the teams that have been hired ... do I need to go through the list of titles that EA has failed? Clearly there is a problem, and it did not start with The Sims. The Sims was not a plagued franchise. It was very strong and had a lot of potential. It is still here after all. But it needs people that meet the criteria.
My third hunch ties into kinda everything as a whole ... I think the devs are being lead in a different direction, or they aren't really taking their jobs seriously enough. When you are working for a mammoth company, you don't always get to personalise your experience. In a compliance driven environment, you don't have the creative license to stray from the path and bring in something unique unless your direct manager/supervisor is on the same page and specifically looks for that environment. So it's easy to be discouraged and feel like you aren't as important, even though you are. At my work, my manager hired me specifically because I was a quirky out-of-the-box thinker that was willing to put in the work. And the entire team is like that from managers to specialists; from senior to junior. The company I work for has held a space in the market for over 200 years and is constantly changing in order to maintain that space and grow. The ability to build social and economic equity as a company is a sign that your company is growing and thriving. That only comes from going down the unconventional path and creating the change that you want in the market. It's great that EA's work environment is wonderful for its employees (according to them ... LOL), but I have a feeling that people at EA need to stop pounding the pavement and start to head down an unconventional path that will separate them from their past. This means putting in the extra work, learning more if you need to, trying new things, and creating something entirely unique, regardless if everyone has been doing it before or not . Who cares if you are a dev or producer that has been there for 15-20 yrs working on The Sims ... if you are static, you will sink. And if you are a new to the team, you should not be threatened by seniority. If there is a problem, you should be willing to fix it, regardless if you have been there 1 yr or 20 yrs.
Your product is only as good as the lowest standard that you're willing to tolerate. If EA is willing to tolerate the amount of bugs/glitches, giving users the impression that it is extremely unpolished, then that is the product they want people to buy and know. The devs shouldn't be expected to do all the work when their superiors aren't on the same track. But then again, maybe EA just isn't the right company for The Sims and it will just be destined to fail. I personally don't believe that, and I do think they have some great producers and devs working on The Sims ... it's just that it's up to them to create the change and the shift. To demand it, if their product is struggling. It shouldn't be up to the consumer to fix the game or to pay for their mistakes. I think EA knows this and is intentionally selling us these products to see how low they can go. The fact that the fans are loyal are great and everything, but it shouldn't be up to us to demand so much for EA to listen. Toddlers as it was was an example of how hard the community had to fight. And I think past press releases from EA with personnel stating that it's essentially up to the community to determine the fate of TS4 is completely and utterly a horrible message to send. The community will pay for a product as long as it's good. Most of us like myself have grown with the game and have reached an age where we know when a product is failing its customers. Regardless of EA's PR, lol. It's not entirely up to the consumer. I agree that the consumer has shared responsibility by giving their support to a product to ensure its success, but the vast majority of the responsibility lies upon the COMPANY. They need to fix these mistakes. If it means hiring more QA testers, Business Analysts, Developers, etc., then they should do that. Whatever it takes to ensure the success of the product because the product itself is not only representative of the company, but also the people working on it. If Sims 4 is horribly rated and the reception is mediocre like it has been, upon completion of the product then maybe some people will decide that they have to leave EA ... what happens when you go to another employer in the field, perhaps someone like Blizzard or Microsoft, and you put down that you were a lead producer on a failed product? Haha. It's just another hurdle that you have to overcome. If EA is willing to do that to its employees ... yikes.
Same. Other than the book of life, the other issue I only experienced was Simulation Lag, but then it got fixed when we bring our computer on a professional to clean it as it is constantly overheating. Now, everythings seems to be normal it seems.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/924539/features-that-needs-depth-and-ways-to-improve
There are documented bug fixes in some of the patches. As well, sometimes they fix things without documenting. Right this very moment, there's a bug with apartments that was introduced in the last patch.