Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
Let's Discuss "Sims 5" Project: 06 NEW GAME MODES
Karon
Posts: 2,332 Member
Good morning, good afternoon and good night, or good whatever-time-is-it.
I decided to start a project called Let's Discuss "Sims 5". Each week i'll be choosing an aspect of the game for us to talk about, share our ideas and fears, to help the producers to come up with a better game that suits most of us. And, I've been on this forum long enough to realize that some people get defensive over Sims 4 when it comes to talking about TS5. My intention with this project is not to encourage EA Games or the Gurus to stop producing new content to Sims 4. Actually, I agree that the game still needs lots of content before we can carry on to a new iteration. The poin of this project is: we have to talk about Sims 5 before its too late and the base game is released, or the producers will not be able to implement our ideas in the game.
This is a list of the discussions we had so far:
01 WORLDS/NEIGHBORHOODS/MAPS
02 PERSONALITIES, TRAITS, FAVORITES AND ZODIAC
03 ART STYLE
04 CUSTOMIZATION TOOLS
05 Premade Families + Storytelling Tools
06 NEW GAME MODES
After this short presentation of the project, this week's topic is:
06 NEW GAME MODES
This weeks theme is "Game Modes". Since the first game of the franchise we have always had the same and unique freeplay game mode. Sims 3 mixed freeplay with an RPG aspect, while most of the console games before The Sims 4 had a Mission game mode. The Sims Medieval then choose to focus solely on the RPG aspect.Also, during Sims 2 life cycle we had a trilogy series called Stories were we had a freeplay mode and a story mode were we could play the lives of premade sims. We are living in an era were games like The Walking Dead and Life is Strange that have a RPG/episodic series are mainstream. We should point as well The Sims Online, which had only the Online feature, and The Sims 4, which was previously and attempt to be a online game, feature which was abandoned after the failure of the last game of the SimCity franchise. Would you like new game modes as a side feature (without affecting the classical form that we always freeplayed the series)? There are other game modes that you would like to see introduced in the series? Should they ever try to introduce online again? What about the Story mode aspect? Would you like to be able to create and share your own stories, and be able to play premade stories and other players stories?
Post edited by Karon on
3
Comments
When you start The Sims 5 you'll go into "New Game". When you click it, you're pointed to choose between 3 States (or Worlds) to play in. Or you can create a brand new one.
Sims 5 follows The Sims 2 tradition, and you have Europa (an european setting), Sedona (an desert setting) and Simvalley (a american setting).
Let's say you select Simvalley as your State. Dont worry, the other 2 States (Europa and Sedona) will be set as Vacation Spots in your save file.
When the game loads you are able to see the beautiful and extensive Simvalley. Its even bigger than Sims 3 worlds, but don't worry.
Your game will not lag, cuz each State (or World) is divided into 25 sections called Neighborhoods.
Each neighborhood is bigger than Sims 4 neighborhoods, but not bigger than a Sims 2 neighborhood. They have the same size as Sims 2 neighborhoods.
The one in the middle is the only pre-built one. Its Sunset Valley, but it looks different. 25 years have passed and a lot has changed.
You can see that between the neighborhood name and the description there is a "definition term". Its written "Downtown".
Downtown doesnt mean it has a nightlife like it had in Sims 2. All States (or worlds) must have a downtown where your sims can go buy groceries, visit the town hall and other stuff.
You notice that between the other 24 neighborhoods, 4 or more of them have a padlock symbol. You can edit or visit. Why?!
Those locked neighborhoods will be unlocked in future DLC's and Packs.
You probably have:
a "Big City" neighborhood full of skyscrapers, apartments, and condos.
a "Studio Town" neighborhood for your sims with dreams of becoming stars.
a "University" neighborhood for your young adults.
a "Shopping District" to open your business.
or other ideas our beloved devs come up with.
When you start your game you notice that after 25 years Sunset Valley still suffers of rabbit holes. But thats not forever.
Each rabbit hole lots will be prepared to be replaced automatically in the future gamepacks with active carrers lots (they will not be off-neighborhood lots like in SIms 4).
You dont need to worry about loading screens. All houses within that neighborhood will be loaded. The other neighborhoods will only be loaded if you're playing in it.
Lets say that you're playing with Bob and Betty Newbie. Betty is at home in Sunset Valley, taking care of little Brandi. Bob is a Firefighter and he's called to put out a fire in the neighborhood of Bluewater Village.
The game will pause once Bob reaches Sunset Valley's border, the cursor will turn into a loading symbol and will unpause the game when Bluewater Village is loaded.
Both Sunset Valley and Bluewater Village will remain loaded at the same time as long as you have a sim in both of them, making thus possible for active carrers to work like in sims 3 where you can switch to any family member even if one of them are in the active carrers.
Simvalley was used to exemplify those things, but everything that was pointed here would be applied for both Europa and Sedona, as well to new official States or your custom created States.
You can travel to the other States as they are set as Vacation Spots, but you can move to them at anytime without losing progress/relationships... etc.
The DLC's would focus more on expanding those 3 premade States/Worlds, but new States would be added focusing in different architectures, cultures and settings.
You would have an Oceanic State, Swamp/Bayou State, Asian State, Egyptian State, and more types. Each state will have its own versions of the premade "neighborhoods", so... don't worry. Bluewater Village is made for Simvalley. Sedona, Europa and each new State will have its own shopping district. You just need to be sure to have the Dlc's that unlock them for you.
Custom States/Neighborhoods
When creating a custom State you can choose the sky dome, terrain, climate and vegetation. You can choose to create you own neighborhoods or pick a premade one from a list containing all the premade neighborhoods from the other States.
When creating a custom Neighborhood you can place decoration, vegetations, you can paint the terrain, raise or low the terrain, place roads and lots. The Sims 5 is all about customization.
Here is how it would look:
> My solution would be:
>
> When you start The Sims 5 you'll go into "New Game". When you click it, you're pointed to choose between 3 States (or Worlds) to play in. Or you can create a brand new one.
> Sims 5 follows The Sims 2 tradition, and you have Europa (an european setting), Sedona (an desert setting) and Simvalley (a american setting).
> Let's say you select Simvalley as your State. Dont worry, the other 2 States (Europa and Sedona) will be set as Vacation Spots in your save file.
> When the game loads you are able to see the beautiful and extensive Simvalley. Its even bigger than Sims 3 worlds, but don't worry.
> Your game will not lag, cuz each State (or World) is divided into 25 sections called Neighborhoods.
> Each neighborhood is bigger than Sims 4 neighborhoods, but not bigger than a Sims 2 neighborhood. They have the same size as Sims 2 neighborhoods.
> The one in the middle is the only pre-built one. Its Sunset Valley, but it looks different. 25 years have passed and a lot has changed.
> You can see that between the neighborhood name and the description there is a "definition term". Its written "Downtown".
> Downtown doesnt mean it has a nightlife like it had in Sims 2. All States (or worlds) must have a downtown where your sims can go buy groceries, visit the town hall and other stuff.
> You notice that between the other 24 neighborhoods, 4 or more of them have a padlock symbol. You can edit or visit. Why?!
> Those locked neighborhoods will be unlocked in future DLC's and Packs.
> You probably have:
> a "Big City" neighborhood full of skyscrapers, apartments, and condos.
> a "Studio Town" neighborhood for your sims with dreams of becoming stars.
> a "University" neighborhood for your young adults.
> a "Shopping District" to open your business.
> or other ideas our beloved devs come up with.
>
> When you start your game you notice that after 25 years Sunset Valley still suffers of rabbit holes. But thats not forever.
> Each rabbit hole lots will be prepared to be replaced automatically in the future gamepacks with active carrers lots (they will not be off-neighborhood lots like in SIms 4).
> You dont need to worry about loading screens. All houses within that neighborhood will be loaded. The other neighborhoods will only be loaded if you're playing in it.
> Lets say that you're playing with Bob and Betty Newbie. Betty is at home in Sunset Valley, taking care of little Brandi. Bob is a Firefighter and he's called to put out a fire in the neighborhood of Bluewater Village.
> The game will pause once Bob reaches Sunset Valley's border, the cursor will turn into a loading symbol and will unpause the game when Bluewater Village is loaded.
> Both Sunset Valley and Bluewater Village will remain loaded at the same time as long as you have a sim in both of them, making thus possible for active carrers to work like in sims 3 where you can switch to any family member even if one of them are in the active carrers.
>
> Simvalley was used to exemplify those things, but everything that was pointed here would be applied for both Europa and Sedona, as well to new official States or your custom created States.
> You can travel to the other States as they are set as Vacation Spots, but you can move to them at anytime without losing progress/relationships... etc.
> The DLC's would focus more on expanding those 3 premade States/Worlds, but new States would be added focusing in different architectures, cultures and settings.
> You would have an Oceanic State, Swamp/Bayou State, Asian State, Egyptian State, and more types. Each state will have its own versions of the premade "neighborhoods", so... don't worry. Bluewater Village is made for Simvalley. Sedona, Europa and each new State will have its own shopping district. You just need to be sure to have the Dlc's that unlock them for you.
>
> Custom States/Neighborhoods
> When creating a custom State you can choose the sky dome, terrain, climate and vegetation. You can choose to create you own neighborhoods or pick a premade one from a list containing all the premade neighborhoods from the other States.
> When creating a custom Neighborhood you can place decoration, vegetations, you can paint the terrain, raise or low the terrain, place roads and lots. The Sims 5 is all about customization.
>
> Here is how it would look:
This would be neat! I love it, i love it, i love it!
What struck me, in particular, is the novel idea of activating multiple neighborhoods at once, depending on if a Sim in the household is there. It's an interesting compromise between open world and what TS4 gives players today. That would solve a problem which, to me, is one of TS4's greatest issues -- only one Sim can be controlled at a time. If that Sim has an open career, all other Sims are neglected and the time spent with that Sim is forever lost to all of the others.
@Karon, nice thinking out of the box.
I've had a similar idea to your grid map, though smaller, 9 squares, but with what you've shown here, I can see that a compromise of maybe 16 squares, not too many, nor too few, would be the more likely, 'realistic' option.
I also really like your idea of other states/countries, being able to be used as destinations.
If you mean a 'centre of town' type location, then yes, each and every square on your map should have one. The entire map should not have one alone.
It would make sense for each state/country to have a major city, with high-rise buildings. Around it would be it's suburbs, perhaps one being a high density one, with smaller apartment buildings, perhaps just four stories, and then at least two other suburbs, with typical for the region style suburban homes. The city would then expand with your ideas of a studio town, university and shopping district.
Outside of the city could be a rural area (or two), a seaside/lakeside/riverside touristy town, a 'wilderness' area, a snobby rich estate.
New areas could be added as dlc, just snap them onto your map, and expand your sims world.
Smaller open neighbourhoods might work, not the sprawling mess of ts3. Smaller more like the neighbourhoods of ts4, 6-8 lots fully open at a time, might work. We're talking about a game that won't be released for several years yet, so thinking of it being able to run on an 'average' computer now, should be about the same as a low end one in the future.
Then again, maybe there should be a sims 5 'lite' version. A low end pc can run a 5 lot neighbour hood, while a high end one runs a 20 or 30 lot one. Have a toggle to switch on/off the loading screen between the extra lots.
Yes, i agree. I was thinking about that when i came up with the idea of having multiple neighborhoods loaded at once. It would kinda work like Sims 3 worlds were you can drag your screen to a point where you want you sim to go, but separating them in "blocks" or "neighborhoods" would help the game run faster. Many simmers consider active careers better in Sims 3 cuz they could check the other members of the family at the same time.
Thank you @Cynna, i am happy that you understand. If you have any ideas that would complement mine, or a brand new idea that differs from mine, feel free to share with us!
Oh, you are welcome. I am glad you decided to join this conversation, you have brilliant and unique ideas for the game, and i really wanted to see what you had to share with us.
Well, my idea was that some of the squares would be locked for EA's only usage. But as a simmer i have understood that many of us would liek to be able to expand the worlds by ourselves. I am not sure of how many would be necessary for EA to expand in DLC'S, but i know that the number has to be enough to suit also those who want to edit their maps. Maybe 9 is enough, maybe 16... IDK. Its up to the producers to decide, however I would want more than less. ahaha
Yep, i was thinking about correcting the error of incoherence that some sims hate about... lets say... Windenburg sims (europe) wandering around Willow Creek (USA) like if it was next door.
Yep, "centre of town. But i think you misunderstood what i was trying to say. Maybe cuz i used the definition "state" to describe the whole entirety of the map. Lets say that Bridgeport is part of one of those maps. Bridgeport would consist about the the high rises portions, while the other side of the bridge where the famous and rich sims have their mansions, that would be a separate neighborhood in the vicinity. Twinbrook could be divided in the "centre of town", the "Bayou area"... etc... Not all of the squares would need the same town centre lots, like library, museum, town hall... Only those who are far from the others, otherwise your sim would suffer from the same problem from sims 3 where we spent half of the day seeing them travelling to their destinations to go work.
Edit.: If you take a look at the map i made, you can see that Four Corners is far away from the other neighborhoods. Thus, it would need a town centre.
Yes, each state in the real worl has some kind of major city. Some are big bustling cities like New York, made only of tall buildings. While some of them would have smaller buildings, although still being considered major buildings. Maybe this would even let the producers free to release more than one DLC focused in that type of city. In Sims 2 we have the "Downtown" neighborhood and "Belladonna Cove' which are very different. Sims 3 we have "Bridgeport" and "Roaring Heights". Maybe one pack could focus more in a nightlife/urban aspect, while the other would focus on the apartment life aspect of high-rise cities.
I think that Sims 2 has the perfect size, idk. But i wouldnt be as mad as i am in Sims 4 if we have the ability to edit and add roads/lots wherever we want, whenever we want. haha
Yes, i forgot about that. They should add a toggle for us to tell the game if we want it to pre-load the lots within the neighborhoods/states or if we want loading screens to make the game run smoothly.
I think having all those locked areas would cause a riot, with people moaning about the future cost to unlock them before they really settle in to playing the game. It also ties the devs into having to fill all the tiles or face backlash later if they don't. Maybe approach it a bit differently in having the initial towns already placed and allowing players to place their own new DLC towns wherever they want on the grid - keeping in mind that players might want to rearrange this layout later when more packs come. This makes each continent more personalised.
Regarding world tiles, I'd also consider a hex-grid, for less abrupt town borders.
Placeable towns would have a buffer zone (similar to the outer tiles on lots where walls/fences can't be placed) around the edge to allow for automating seamless placement: When placing a new town onto one of the world tiles a town onto the continental map roads (plus rivers, railways etc) would auto-connect to the other tiles for continuity, but this should be customisable in a world editing mode.
But, maybe they could, instead of locking the areas, do like they did with the lots thaat came with Sims 3 Ambitions where they asked if we wanted the game to auto-place where they belonged or if we wanted to place them freely.
The biggest problem i was thing when i created this "locked" areas idea, was that the neighborhoods would use an especific landscape that if placed elsewhere would break the world landscape. Not break in the sense of corruption, but the aesthetics. You know?! haha
oh, maybe you are right. haha i am just too worried about cohesiveness haha
hmmm, i have never seen a simulation game that uses hex-grid instead of square-grids, but that would be quite interesting. Know that you are talking about the buffer zone (which i find quite smart of you), maybe we could even share our own customized town maps in the Sims 5 Gallery. And, yes, everything should be customizable.
You said "railways", and know i can only think that they could add railwais and subways for us to travel faster between neighborhoods. haha This game can be great if they do those things!
I'm not opposed to the way sums 4 world's are set up. My only suggestion for future Sim games is to at least make each neighborhood open. That way you don't have the loading screen from lot to lot in the same hood.
I know I am an egoist, but I think TS5 should not focus on low end PCs. The game is so insanely expensive that playing it on cheap equipment is a contradiction per se. Players who don't want to or can't buy at least a middle class computer have two mobile versions to choose from.
- The sense of an actual map; meaning that loose, 'floating' neighborhoods for me don't work
- All sims in the player's household must be controllable at all times
- Travelling! I want roads and I want all kinds of conveyance
- I'd love the ability to travel through all the worlds, the way NRaas traveller and Sims 4 enable but I want sims to really belong to certain areas (where they live); I don't like to meet the very same sims everywhere
- I'd also want themed worlds, both cultural and geographically
- I want neighborhoods to be open the way it works in Sims 3
@alanmichael1 Agreed!
ETA: bookmarked, curious about any other ideas you may have for this franchise.
@alanmichael1 Once upon a time, I was a kid with a medium computer and only had money to buy the The Sims 2 base game. I gathered my money for a long time to be able to get the DLC's. There are people who have computers, but who do not have the money to buy thousands of DLC'S, especially when many simmers are children who need to turn to their parents to buy the game. Some parents don't want to expend their money in a game.
But, as I said, it was back in The Sims 2 time, which wasnt made foccusing in low-end pcs. They even released the "Stories" versions for those who had laptops and low-end pcs. I think TS5 should be designed to run on the computers of its era, not the ones from the past. But they should also make it possible that some people can play it in low-end pcs by changing the graphics inside the Options or something.
@JoAnne65 I am also not a fan of the fake neighborhood maps. THey really seem like something out of Sims 1. I would also love the sims to belong to the worlds they are walking by... Maybe they could implement cultures to the game, kinda like when we travel to Selvadorada/Shang Simla/Champs Les Sims/Al Simhara... But all worlds would have different habits, gestures and foods...
I would like to call more people to share their ideas: @Minai @Shinzen @Goldmoldar @OEII1001 @Sigzy05 @hyrulerose @Metaphasic @So_Money @KirbySkywalker @February11 @Bluegayle @SimChessack @CK213 @luimistelija @DeKay @ami123 @elanorbreton @Huiiie_07 @IceyJ @FreezerBunnyCowplant @xxRitaaaaaaxx @Dannydanbo @Jordan061102 @filipomel @tapphaus @Lem @bunny-🐸🐸🐸🐸 @ManakoHime @Horrorgirl6 @Sjofn @jcp011c2 @Themrsg4422 @PlayerSinger2010
I really liked the open feel of sims 3. Being able to get in a car and watch it drive somewhere was cool. Having said that, I’d rather have a smooth runnng game. If you can do both, that’s what I want.
I also think the worlds should be renamed towns. In sims 4, when you start a new game, all the “worlds” exist anew, and beside each other. You can travel to them, which means they aren’t separate worlds but towns. The terminology is a little confusing to the newcomer.
The towns do need to be bigger, if possible. I get that certain ones, like the vampire one, are supposed to be like a Burrough. But being so little, it feels like you’re a goldfish in a bowl. Especially if your sim goes for a jog and hits the glass wall, turning back.
Here’s my solution. Create a single world, with roads and town-lots. Then make medium sized towns and let the simmers assemble their own world by dropping towns onto the town-lots. The loading screen between towns would show your sim driving to the new location. Likewise, traveling within a town will invoke a loading screen showing them actually travel.
This would go a HUGE way towards maintaining the illusion of continuity without compromising gameplay and can built on the existing foundation.
Thank you for your time.
Hold SHIFT while using the FRIEZE tool to apply it to a single wall, and not an entire room!
** SailorCeti's Builds **
If you download one of my builds, by all means, leave me a message and tell me what you did and did not like about it.
I think that the worlds are too far apart geographically to be on one page together; Windenburg, based on Germany, being beside San Myshuno, based on New York, or heck, even on the same page, would ruin the immersion for me. It'd just look odd. So in that sense, I don't support a map like what you were suggesting. In my own mind, they're across an ocean or body of water.
Same with Forgotten Hollow; it's stuck in the mountains, probably close to Windenburg. I don't think there's anything wrong with how the maps work currently in the Sims 4.
As far as being in a neighbourhood, I think that it should appear how it is now, with neighbourhoods separated. For example, when you buy a lot in Oasis springs, you can't scroll to see the whole Oasis Springs, all you see is your close neighbourhood. However, the only thing I'd support is not having a loading screen for houses right next to you. You can't see inside them as you play your current household, but if you go to visit and knock on the door, and the guests say "Come on in!" then the rest of the house loads, as it does now, but this time without a loading screen. You can visit and load the house.
That's all I'd want to see, because I don't think it'd be a strain on anybody's computer. Anything more would turn TS4 into the slow, crashy, huge save file game that I hated so much about TS3.
Keep in mind, the sims world isn’t ours. While certain towns may be based in reality, it isn’t earth.
If you read my solution above, you’d see the main addition would be to replace the loading screens with a visual of your sim traveling. This keeps the integrity of the closed towns, while maintaining the illusion of continuity between towns and / or lots.
That’s what missing.
Hold SHIFT while using the FRIEZE tool to apply it to a single wall, and not an entire room!
** SailorCeti's Builds **
If you download one of my builds, by all means, leave me a message and tell me what you did and did not like about it.
Geographically, architecturally, and climate-wise, it still doesn't make sense. By looking at the worlds you can see that Willow Creek is a flat area while Forgotten Hollow has drastic mountains, different trees, and a more gothic European influence. Both styles are so contrasting that it just wouldn't make sense in my eyes to be able to have them near each other. But that's just my idea, other simmers have different headcanons on what the world is like.
And I wasn't replying to your comment, so I'm sorry if it seems like I was replying to you when you asked if I read what you wrote; I was replying to how I was mentioned by Karon, so I read their original post to see what I was pinged for, which was to give my opinion on the discussion of open-worlds, so I gave my opinion in regards to what they said.
In regards to your opinion, while I agree adding the travelling animation might add to the immersion and make it feel like stuttered, that doesn't make sense to me either because in neighbourhoods, sometimes you have to walk there anyways, so it'd be look odd repeating an animation, and also it's hard for them to animate from a certain "starting" point; for example, if you go to a house from one end of the neighbourhood versus the other end; it's hard to differentiate. It also depends on where you're travelling from so imagine having to make animations to every single lot, from every single possible place, which is like 16+ lots per world (exluding Forgotten Hollow which has 5 lots).
That just seems like a lot of work and might be boring for some Simmers to see the animation every single time when they just want to visit someone next door, so I still support my idea of having the houses next to you immediately loaded and the houses far away would still have a loading screen.
The game actually already knows where your sim is and where it's going, the only thing it doesn't know is the geography between towns. That's all they'd need to add really.
So if you're travelling within a town, just show the same map that "Manage World" does, and animate a Taxi or something.
If you're travelling to another town, show the entire world map and animate some dotted lines or something.
Easy. Of course, I still say the towns themselves need to be a bit bigger. There's hardly any good lots to build on unless you evict somebody.
It's just a suggestion that keeps the closed world idea, but gives those who want the open world feel a little something. I've been a Microsoft Certified Developer since 2000, and I'm fairly certain that the vast majority of the code already exists to make this happen. I mean, isn't that better than looking at the same game tips we've been looking at for eternity?
Hold SHIFT while using the FRIEZE tool to apply it to a single wall, and not an entire room!
** SailorCeti's Builds **
If you download one of my builds, by all means, leave me a message and tell me what you did and did not like about it.
But I think in order to have open world possible without lag on a lower end computer is rather impossible unless you want really long loading times in the beginning and also no option to build you own lots.
I believe that The Sims game has always been a rather CPU heavy game since it is constantly loading our "custom lots" and the our "custom sims". Most other games don't have this. They have pre-made worlds that cannot be customized so the game doesn't have to render these places to a huge extent cuz it's already 'built into the engine'? If that makes sense? XD
So, if we really want the worlds to be advanced and be open world without rabbit holes, then they have to really up the specs for the game, unfortunately.
I think an open neighborhood would be the way to go. And then a loading screen will take place to load another district/neighborhood if our sims travel.
I agree and what you suggest is similar to what I suggested. Keep the closed towns, just make them a tad bigger, and instead of a loading screen, simulate travel between lots/towns. We'll always need rabbit holes. I really don't feel like micromanaging a sim at work anyway.
Suggestions for new town/world types though:
- Ski Lodge
- Lake sports (boats etc)
- Beach fronts
- Alien Homeworld (where they take you when abducted, if you choose to follow them and let the AI handle the ones still at home)
Venue Ideas:
- Sports arena (basketball, football, soccer, etc)
I'll think of more later.
Hold SHIFT while using the FRIEZE tool to apply it to a single wall, and not an entire room!
** SailorCeti's Builds **
If you download one of my builds, by all means, leave me a message and tell me what you did and did not like about it.
I do think 'world' is misleading. But I don't think watching my sims travel between them would actually do a whole lot for immersion. In Mass Effect they disguised loading with elevator rides, and all that did was make you feel like you were trapped in an elevator for eternity.
I'm of two minds on the open world thing. Using TS4's terminology I think I'd prefer neighborhoods be open (it feels silly that I need to go through a loading screen to go next door) but not necessarily the entire world. In TS3, I tended to buy a house near the things I'd use most, and didn't range out further afield super often (and I'd actually accidentally make my sims get the Stir Crazy moodlet more often than you'd think), so if I'm honest, I don't need a giant open world to roam around in. I just don't like loading screens when I decide I'm tired of the bar and want to go to the nightclub next door or whatever!
Perhaps the solution then is to have a town divided into blocks. Have one block fully loaded at a time. It's not likely your sims is going to RUN completely across town right? If your destination is in another block, then loading screen it. Does that sound reasonable? It shouldn't be too hard on most PC's these days.
Hold SHIFT while using the FRIEZE tool to apply it to a single wall, and not an entire room!
** SailorCeti's Builds **
If you download one of my builds, by all means, leave me a message and tell me what you did and did not like about it.
Actually, I read that they took inspiration from many places; New York, Vancouver, and yep, San Francisco, but they also looked towards Tokyo as well. I can see influences of all throughout the various neighbourhoods. For example, for the fashion district, they wrote " The Fashion District and Uptown are both inspired by the high-tech high rises of cities like Tokyo and Shanghai." so it's a lot of different places, I guess, but I see most people refer to it as being kinda New York-y on the forums while the arts district is more San Francisco.
Yeah, that's a fair point; now that you bring up that the animation could be done in the "manage world" screen, that'd be pretty neat! I was more saying no to like an actual animation of them running, haha. Plus, they have the airplane symbol in the bottom corner anyways, might as well make it a little animation, LOL.
But I agree, especially for places like Willow Creek and Forgotten Hollow, I still feel like there's not a lot of places to build, since either 40% of the lots are taken up by places like bars and museums while Forgotten Hollow is just super tiny (I wish they made it as big as Selvadorada...)
No loading screens, no interruption of game play, and just about all computers that can handle sims 4 now, could handle that!
Imagine:
Your sim just got home from work and needs to pee, shower and eat, so you queue that up. You know he's going to go hang out with a friend later. So you scroll to the lot, click "prepare for visit", then scroll back home and watch him do his stuff. Soon, you get a message in the notice tray that says "lot is ready for visit", then queue it up by clicking "visit" on the lot. As soon as he's done with his other tasks, he just walks over and knocks on the door, and goes in.
Hold SHIFT while using the FRIEZE tool to apply it to a single wall, and not an entire room!
** SailorCeti's Builds **
If you download one of my builds, by all means, leave me a message and tell me what you did and did not like about it.
The backdrops are aggressively San Franciscan, the city is nestled in the hills, there's a Bay Bridge and you can see Sim-Oakland across the way, dang it. Plus it's named San Myshuno. I mean yes, there's a mishmosh of different cities, but the San Francisco really screams through loudest to me (and I have lived and worked around both NYC and SF, I'm pretty familiar with both.
Mm, if I'm in the middle of an action when the load completes, would it just carry my sims off anyway? Or would it politely wait until the queue is cleared?
Re-read, I added something to better explain.
Hold SHIFT while using the FRIEZE tool to apply it to a single wall, and not an entire room!
** SailorCeti's Builds **
If you download one of my builds, by all means, leave me a message and tell me what you did and did not like about it.