There is no comparison here. Lucky Palms was outrageously priced for an empty world and a few casino items and if I remember the gold version was an outrageous 30 bucks! Meanwhile, Strangerville is a whole game play pack for 20. There is no arguing which one is more overpriced. Anyone saying otherwise is wearing rose-colored glasses.
A whole lot of nothing you mean. A story you can finish in less than 2 hours. 3 new gameplay objects. 70 BB objects (not counting BuyDebug) with 30 of those being deco only. A reskinned desktop PC that they try to pass as a laptop. No new skills, only 1 trait and aspiration and 1 new WFH career with 5 new interactions.
I believe BOTH are overpriced. But at least Lucky Palms was a much better deal for the world you were getting (one of the best looking worlds with some of the best premade lots). StrangerVille barely has any features and a tiny world for a similar price.
I wonder if there is someone on the Sims 3 forum who goes out of their way to defend the Sims 4’s “honour” and tell people how much better it is than 3. No? Just here? Lucky us
~I just like lifestates. Is that too much to ask for?~
Ive been trying to figure out the comparison for a few days now, i know what OP is trying to say but the sims 3 & sims 4 are actually kind of different, one is open world which is why more detail was needed, sims 4 is semi-open which is why less attention to detail was added, i think the devs are trying to give you more play style than for you to be focused on the world, even though the world is usually a big deal for many, im more interested in my gameplay which is why i prefer more attention to gameplay detail such as animations, more interaction etc.
The comparison per se isnt a good one, if you were to compare lets say, sims2,3 and 4s pets then i'd have given a good argument and probably agreed with whatever was said but again you cant really compare sims 3 worlds with sims 4 worlds, they are different entirely.
There is no comparison here. Lucky Palms was outrageously priced for an empty world and a few casino items and if I remember the gold version was an outrageous 30 bucks! Meanwhile, Strangerville is a whole game play pack for 20. There is no arguing which one is more overpriced. Anyone saying otherwise is wearing rose-colored glasses.
There is no comparsion but If I was to choose I would still choose Lucky Palms as I can manipulate the world and you can't with SV. The only thing EA/Maxis can do is give items so yes you probably gain more in content but featurewise you lose but again there is no comparsion.
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A whole lot of nothing you mean. A story you can finish in less than 2 hours. 3 new gameplay objects. 70 BB objects (not counting BuyDebug) with 30 of those being deco only. A reskinned desktop PC that they try to pass as a laptop. No new skills, only 1 trait and aspiration and 1 new WFH career with 5 new interactions.
I believe BOTH are overpriced. But at least Lucky Palms was a much better deal for the world you were getting (one of the best looking worlds with some of the best premade lots). StrangerVille barely has any features and a tiny world for a similar price.
No. I guess I view worth by how much I am charged vs what we get. We all have different opinions. I just thought the store model of selling DLC for Sims 3 was outrageously overpriced for the content we received.
Value is all rather subjective though. I purchased the gold version simply for the premium content. Other than a quick look over I never played in Lucky Palms. Never used the casino build. I've been playing in Strangerville since the pack released and have several ideas for renovating that will incorporate the world into my regular gameplay. Dollar to dollar Lucky Palms is probably the better buy for the money but in terms of money spent vs benefit gained Strangerville wins. For me. Lucky Palms could be free and I'd still prefer Strangerville.
There is no comparison here. Lucky Palms was outrageously priced for an empty world and a few casino items and if I remember the gold version was an outrageous 30 bucks! Meanwhile, Strangerville is a whole game play pack for 20. There is no arguing which one is more overpriced. Anyone saying otherwise is wearing rose-colored glasses.
There is no comparsion but If I was to choose I would still choose Lucky Palms as I can manipulate the world and you can't with SV. The only thing EA/Maxis can do is give items so yes you probably gain more in content but featurewise you lose but again there is no comparsion.
I do agree that I would love to manipulate the worlds in Sims 4.
Ive been trying to figure out the comparison for a few days now, i know what OP is trying to say but the sims 3 & sims 4 are actually kind of different, one is open world which is why more detail was needed, sims 4 is semi-open which is why less attention to detail was added, i think the devs are trying to give you more play style than for you to be focused on the world, even though the world is usually a big deal for many, im more interested in my gameplay which is why i prefer more attention to gameplay detail such as animations, more interaction etc.
The comparison per se isnt a good one, if you were to compare lets say, sims2,3 and 4s pets then i'd have given a good argument and probably agreed with whatever was said but again you cant really compare sims 3 worlds with sims 4 worlds, they are different entirely.
I totally agree that I would rather a gameplay-enriched pack with no world any day such as Seasons.
There is no comparison here. Lucky Palms was outrageously priced for an empty world and a few casino items and if I remember the gold version was an outrageous 30 bucks! Meanwhile, Strangerville is a whole game play pack for 20. There is no arguing which one is more overpriced. Anyone saying otherwise is wearing rose-colored glasses.
There is no comparsion but If I was to choose I would still choose Lucky Palms as I can manipulate the world and you can't with SV. The only thing EA/Maxis can do is give items so yes you probably gain more in content but featurewise you lose but again there is no comparsion.
I do agree that I would love to manipulate the worlds in Sims 4.
For me if I was able to do that I feel Sims 4 would be nearly complete.
Post edited by Goldmoldar on
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For me if I was able to do that I feel Sims 4 would be complete.
Never mind the broken AI in 4, the emotion system which overrides individual personalities, the lack of complex systems such as chemistry/attraction, the lack of story progression or any feature to make worlds feel less static, and the immense number of bugs which make the game unplayable at times (Simulation Lag for example). The problems with 4 run much deeper than the lack of tools to customize worlds.
For me if I was able to do that I feel Sims 4 would be complete.
Never mind the broken AI in 4, the emotion system which overrides individual personalities, the lack of complex systems such as chemistry/attraction, the lack of story progression or any feature to make worlds feel less static, and the immense number of bugs which make the game unplayable at times (Simulation Lag for example). The problems with 4 run much deeper than the lack of tools to customize worlds.
It would be nearly complete as i want to manipulate the areas in the game. Yeah some of the systems do need fixing and Imo it may not get that but if I can get close to having nearly most of the features I will take it. Space is an issue with me for in Sims 4 you really have to make some hard choices when you want to do an story your way. I do not like moving families into another neighborhood for it breaks the mold. By EA/Maxis only giving neighborhoods in paid packs it is going to get quite expensive sooner or later. By me manipulating the neighborhoods I can create more space.
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For me if I was able to do that I feel Sims 4 would be complete.
Never mind the broken AI in 4, the emotion system which overrides individual personalities, the lack of complex systems such as chemistry/attraction, the lack of story progression or any feature to make worlds feel less static, and the immense number of bugs which make the game unplayable at times (Simulation Lag for example). The problems with 4 run much deeper than the lack of tools to customize worlds.
Good god. You are like a broken record. Day after day.....
Price varied depending on the SimPoint bundle you bought, but as I stated before, it was NEVER a 100 SimPoint = 1 USD conversion rate.
Yeah I can't get behind this reasoning. Your basically telling ppl that if they spent more money overall, potentally over $100 USD, then it ends up being a better. As true as that is most ppl aren't able to fork over $100 at once and then there are the ppl who may only want the world and nothing else from the store. Those points just sit there and ends up being money wasted. Maybe for you this is fine as you are able to give up that much money at once and find a lot of things on the store to spend it all on but it's not for everyone.
Just checked origin and to see a world purchase as a "better deal" you need to spend $40 in which case you get 5000 points. So pay the price of an EP. The next bundles are $80 and $160 USD to really start seeing "a deal".
The only thing of value out of Lucky Palms was the wishing well. I loved my evil well child, even after she killed most of Lucky Palms... but she wasn't $30 good.
So in terms of value versus value, Strangerville for $20 is the better deal for me because almost all of the Strangerville assets are of use to me.
And seriously, you think this dress from LP is better than this one from StrangerVille? I mean if you do, that's fine, but you will definitely be happier in TS3 where you pay $30 and get 1 dress and 1 tuxedo as your CAS assets. Me personally, I'll stick with Strangerville, since its $20 price tag netted me 40 CAS assets. While Strangerville didn't have much for kids, it has a lot more than Lucky Palms did, which was zero items.
I have more lots than I know what to do with in TS4. The last thing I want is a gigantic world with more LOTS! We're not stuck in one world in TS4. We can travel between worlds at the drop of a load screen, so we don't need the amount of lots in a world that we needed in TS3. You can't compare the two games in this way, because they function in entirely different ways when it comes to worlds.
In fact, lets just put the CAS and buy/build mode assets out here for people to see too, since we're comparing apples to oranges.
Lucky Palms (Please note you have to buy the GOLD version to get the first 12 items)
Strangerville
As I said in a previous post, in TS4 we are not restricted to living or visiting just one world. We can go ANYWHERE. Go visit your relatives or friends in any world spanning multiple climates. TS4 worlds do not need to be gigantic, nor should they be. It's not a logical comparison. Lucky Palms has more lots, yes, but it fails in CAS and buy/build. Unlike you, I'm going to be fair to the game I'm criticizing, by saying Lucky Palms didn't need to have a lot of CAS and buy/build options... you know why? It's because we had CasT in TS3, so we didn't NEED as many clothing options and furniture options because we could customize basic model styles to express our creativity. Also, Lucky Palms was a "world" pack, so their focus was on the world. I should hope it has more lots than say... a GAME pack. Until Vampires debuted, Game Packs did not even include worlds where sims could live permanently.
Anyway, we don't have CasT in TS4, but we have plenty of lots to live on across a pleasant spread of climates, so that means we need CAS, buy/build mode assets, careers, (insert shameless selfish plug for new life states), and intractable items. We received all of that with this game pack except for my selfish life state plug. LOL
There are plenty of things to criticize TS4 for, but a lack of lots in a game pack is just not one of them.
@Ceres_Meiriona
I have to agree about your comment on cas. One of my main issues with ts3 was it's horrendous cas and extreme lack of assets for kids and toddlers. Ts4 by far has way better cas for men and women and though it is still lacking for kids and toddlers it still offers more for them then ts3 did. If you wanted stuff for them in ts3 you had to really rely on the store or cc and for the former I still didn't see much that I cared for.
@Ceres_Meiriona Half the BB stuff in StrangerVille is deco only, and tons of small clutter stuff. The only decent content are the Build items (doors, windows and fences) and some CAS items. The rest are just decorative or very specific in theme. How many times are you going to use all those deco science objects? And then there's all the repeats. All those masks and toys could've been ONE object with different swatches, but just like they did with rodent cages, they separate the items in order to INFLATE the number of content you get. In reality if it's the SAME MESH it shouldn't be separate items. And then all those decals LMAO... I guess some people may find a use for them, but in terms of value, they are FLAT objects (2-polygon mesh) with basic textures. And can we talk about that floor that has no swatches whatsoever? It looks like you're getting a lot, but appearances are deceiving.
TS4 we are not restricted to living or visiting just one world.
You aren't restricted to living or visiting one world in TS3 either. You can travel to China, France, Egypt or Oasis Landing. You can buy homes and live there, and in the case of the future world you don't EVER have to go back home. With NRaas Traveler, you can travel to any world at any time. Though I understand if you don't want to count it, as you need a mod to enable that functionality.
Do you understand that if people don't buy every piece of DLC they have a ridiculously low amount of lots, right? I think WC, OS and Newcrest all three combined have 57 lots. You are "forced" to buy more packs in order not to run out of space. In contrast, you didn't need to buy any world in The Sims 3. You could add your own lots on routable terrain, or use the Create-A-World tool to create your own, or download any of the thousands of FREE worlds made by fans, sometimes doing a better job than in EA. Talk about freedom...
@VentusMatt I agree EA CAS content is much better in The Sims 4. Though the lack of Create-A-Style makes it really hard to combine things and have the exact color I want. CASt was a game changer for many, much better than anything creators could give me in terms of content. I prefer to have three basic pieces and CASt rather than 100 good pieces and no CASt. At the end of the day I can always download more content and use CASt, but with The Sims 4 I'm stuck using the colors and designs EA or any content creator decided, instead of what I want. You're free to disagree, but the freedom of CASt is worth any tradeoff I have to make in terms of amount and quality of content. Besides, University Life, Late Night and Showtime added amazing outfits for male and female Sims, and Generations added really cool clothes for all ages. It wasn't like all Sims 3 CAS content was awful, though I agree the base game has awful clothes (still CASt makes it worth it, in my opinion).
At the end of the day, both of you value more the amount of content that EA gives you, rather than powerful tools to turn ANY content into whatever you want. I rather have Create-A-Style and less content (though in the case of BB, there's actually more and better content for TS3; TS4 is full of clutter, deco and decals, and modern furniture) than more content with the 20 or less swatches EA has decided I should use.
What's revolutionary about TS3 is that for the first time the way everything looks is yours to decide. Do you want to to turn a beautiful couch into a piece of old furnite? Just use one of the many rustic patterns (some of the metal ones are great). Now we're back at settling with swatches and it's even worse than in The Sims 2, since you can't mix and match two swatches and colors aren't standardized like they were in 2 EPs (MALM, LACK, AL Wood, etc).
The heavy decor and clutter items in the ts4 is mostly due to players complaining that there wasn't enough decor and clutter in ts3.
I do agree that CASt should of been carried into ts4 but on a smaller scale. No need for over 100+ textures all they need is the color wheel. Since the only real issue with CASt was all the textures.
And I wouldn't say that I value more content over powerful creative systems but more that I want content that I actual like and want to use and ts3 even with CASt didn't offer me much content that I personally liked so going from maybe 40 pieces max I liked to a plethora of pieces the lack of CASt doesn't bother me that much.
Edit: Changed number cause I feel like I low balled the number and 40 sounds more accurate.
Since the only real issue with CASt was all the textures.
No, the real issue weren't the textures but the fact TS3 was a 32-bit application. Engineers decided to offset the RAM limit by making the game use your hard drive as virtual memory (cache files), sinces hard drive are 50 times slower than RAM, it's easy to see why Create-A-Style lagged so much. Getting a faster drive, or an SSD which is only 10 times slower than RAM, helps a lot, but the ideal solution would be not to make the application 32-bit only so it can use as much RAM as it needs (and you have) and doesn't need to cache to your hard drive.
And I wouldn't say that I value more content over powerful creative systems but more that I want content that I actual like and want to use and ts3 even with CASt didn't offer me much content that I personally liked so going from maybe 40 pieces max I liked to a plethora of pieces the lack of CASt doesn't bother me that much.
But you do value content over powerful creative systems. If you didn't like what the game had to offer, you could always buy things on the Store (clothes were fairly cheap, around 50 SimPoints the piece), download CC or make your own. And with each mesh you download or buy, you could do ANYTHING you wanted in terms of textures and colors. The Create-A-Syle tool has infinitely more value than any amount of content that you may like (and as always this is highly subjective, TS4 is full of clothes I'll never use because they have hideous patterns, especially City Living stuff). Create-A-Style as a tool is versatile and powerful enough to make up for any lack of content / or content you may not like.
In fact, lets just put the CAS and buy/build mode assets out here for people to see too, since we're comparing apples to oranges.
Lucky Palms (Please note you have to buy the GOLD version to get the first 12 items)
Strangerville
As I said in a previous post, in TS4 we are not restricted to living or visiting just one world. We can go ANYWHERE. Go visit your relatives or friends in any world spanning multiple climates. TS4 worlds do not need to be gigantic, nor should they be. It's not a logical comparison. Lucky Palms has more lots, yes, but it fails in CAS and buy/build. Unlike you, I'm going to be fair to the game I'm criticizing, by saying Lucky Palms didn't need to have a lot of CAS and buy/build options... you know why? It's because we had CasT in TS3, so we didn't NEED as many clothing options and furniture options because we could customize basic model styles to express our creativity. Also, Lucky Palms was a "world" pack, so their focus was on the world. I should hope it has more lots than say... a GAME pack. Until Vampires debuted, Game Packs did not even include worlds where sims could live permanently.
Anyway, we don't have CasT in TS4, but we have plenty of lots to live on across a pleasant spread of climates, so that means we need CAS, buy/build mode assets, careers, (insert shameless selfish plug for new life states), and intractable items. We received all of that with this game pack except for my selfish life state plug. LOL
There are plenty of things to criticize TS4 for, but a lack of lots in a game pack is just not one of them.
Everything is open for criticism even the amounts of lots, I do like the interconnectivity of neighborhoods but there is an reason EA/Maxis chose this because there is no possiblity of adding lots or even editing them. I always wanted this feature in Sims 3 but it is an older version that is not in developmental status. Also in certain situations I have to restrict my story if it requires me to stay in one neighborhood and not spread it out. The lots are all static meaning no matter what you put on those lots it is still the same ole same ole and you can't even expand the lots if the house bigger than the lot and you must cut something to make it fit. There is always room for criticism even with lots and Imo editing of lots with neighborhood interconnectivity would have worked well. also, I would expect an lot of items as that is all that Sims 4 can offer me beyond features but that not necessairly an bad thing depending on how you look at it also SV cannot be manipulated as you could with Lucky Palms and just like I did with SV buy gettting at an lower price ($4.99) I done the same with Luck Palms and buy nothing at regular price and I enjoyed the fact I could expand Luck Palms and you can't do that with SV.
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@Ceres_Meiriona Half the BB stuff in StrangerVille is deco only, and tons of small clutter stuff. The only decent content are the Build items (doors, windows and fences) and some CAS items. The rest are just decorative or very specific in theme. How many times are you going to use all those deco science objects? And then there's all the repeats. All those masks and toys could've been ONE object with different swatches, but just like they did with rodent cages, they separate the items in order to INFLATE the number of content you get. In reality if it's the SAME MESH it shouldn't be separate items. And then all those decals LMAO... I guess some people may find a use for them, but in terms of value, they are FLAT objects (2-polygon mesh) with basic textures. And can we talk about that floor that has no swatches whatsoever? It looks like you're getting a lot, but appearances are deceiving.
You mean the only decent deco for YOU. That's 100% opinion, and not a fair criticism of the pack. I am a sci-fi and high fantasy player, so I will use them a lot. You know what I won't use, those windows and doors. However, you won't see me throwing biased shade on those items, because someone does like them somewhere, and they will be useful assets for that person. Their inclusion did not diminish the pack for me, even though I will not be making use of them. Deco items help us to set the setting for our stories. They are not the most important thing in the game, but they are useful props and help storytellers set the stage for their stories.
As for inflated items that make it look like you're getting "more", Lucky Palms is sporting 4 recolors of the same darn cactus. Your bias is glaringly bright.
TS4 we are not restricted to living or visiting just one world.
You aren't restricted to living or visiting one world in TS3 either. You can travel to China, France, Egypt or Oasis Landing. You can buy homes and live there, and in the case of the future world you don't EVER have to go back home. With NRaas Traveler, you can travel to any world at any time. Though I understand if you don't want to count it, as you need a mod to enable that functionality.
Do you understand that if people don't buy every piece of DLC they have a ridiculously low amount of lots, right? I think WC, OS and Newcrest all three combined have 57 lots. You are "forced" to buy more packs in order not to run out of space. In contrast, you didn't need to buy any world in The Sims 3. You could add your own lots on routable terrain, or use the Create-A-World tool to create your own, or download any of the thousands of FREE worlds made by fans, sometimes doing a better job than in EA. Talk about freedom...
So basically you're tossing out the "there is a mod for that" blanket fix that I have heard people say from TS1 all the way through to TS4. While mods are great and mod creators are the unsung heroes of any sims iteration, that is never an acceptable answer. Also, vacation worlds don't count! I can stay in vacation worlds as long as I want in TS4, as well, but that is not the same as what I was referring to in my original post, and you know it. You cannot move fluidly between worlds without Mods in TS3, you can only visit vacation worlds, so when setting up a world in TS3 the devs had to make sure you could fit everything you could ever possibly need in one setting. In TS4 you can move fluidly between both, WITHOUT mods, so the devs do not need to focus on worlds with a massive lot count. I mean no disrespect to modders, either, when I say mods don't count. There are mods that fix many of the issues plaguing TS4 for simmers, and while that is awesome of the creators to do, I still feel it is the Sims Team's responsibility to deliver those features to the player base in a supported version. Modding away TS3's flaws but shining on a spotlight on anything you dislike about TS4, is not a fair comparison.
I think you fail to realize how varied the Sims player base is. I have literally never filled all of the lots in my Sims 4 game. Up until Strangerville released, I was rotating between two saves. One where my sims only utilized the lots of Magnolia Promenade and Midnight Hollow, and the other was in San Myshuno. Literally all the other lots in the other worlds were bulldozed and blank, because I did not need nor want them. The only thing I left were the parks, which were remodeled for specific scenarios like weddings. From my perspective, we are drowning in lots but need more environmental diversity, which Strangerville gave us. A dusty worn out town in the middle of no where was a refreshing change of pace from the overly beautiful settings of other worlds. No one is forced to buy anything. I could use that same argument against Lucky Palms. If you want an evil well child or a sprawling desert city, you are FORCED to buy Lucky Palms! Even worse, if you want the casino and evil well child, you have to buy a HIGHER PRICED version of the content! :gasp: At least TS4 didn't release Strangerville and offer the story and new interactable objects in a "gold" edition for $10 more.
It sounds like you have an extreme bias for massive amounts of lots and an open world. Which is ok! There is nothing wrong with that. TS4, though, will never have massive amounts of lots in one world nor an open world. That is not how it is designed. It's like asking an orange to be sweet like an apple. Just go get an apple if that is what you are after.
At the end of the day, both of you value more the amount of content that EA gives you, rather than powerful tools to turn ANY content into whatever you want. I rather have Create-A-Style and less content (though in the case of BB, there's actually more and better content for TS3; TS4 is full of clutter, deco and decals, and modern furniture) than more content with the 20 or less swatches EA has decided I should use.
E'ghads you make presumptions! I liked CasT, and do in fact miss it, but I do not miss how terribly optimized it was, which is a developer flaw with TS3, just as TS4 has its own developer flaws. Currently we have two choices, have CasT and a poorly optimized game, or ditch CasT and have a well optimized game. Obviously, I chose to ditch CasT. In a perfect world, we should be able to have both, but that is not the game they made, and CasT will never be implemented in TS4. Again, it's like asking an orange to taste like an apple. They're different fruits, and you either like them or you don't, and you can appreciate them for what they are, or you can rant about those darn oranges not tasting like apples until you pass out from exhaustion.
My point in showcasing the items was an attempt to explain that TS3 and TS4 are two different games with different features, focuses, and needs. Certain aspects cannot be fairly compared. It's clear you don't want to hear that, though, you just want to vent your disappointment that TS4 is not TS3.
TS3 allows you to model the world and environment of your dreams.
TS4 allows you to model the sim of your dreams.
CAS is powerful in TS4, and at the end of the day, simmers stayed or moved onto the version that gave them what they most wanted in a sims game. For me, that was being able to model a sim, as I was not a world creator. For other simmers, it's the world, and thus they stayed with TS3. For TS2 players, it's an authentic and genuine sim personality with attention to small details. There is no right or wrong choice here, just different features and options. Would it be nice if we didn't have to choose? Heck yes! That is not the reality of the situation, though.
@Goldmoldar
I honestly would have no issue with someone saying, "I want more lots in Strangerville." What I take issue with, is these tiring TS3 versus TS4 comparisons. The two games are vastly different and hinge around different features and both have their weak links. I do want to be able to customize the world around me in TS4 more and the objects too. While I can shape incredibly unique sims in TS4, the world and build tools still need improving. I'm not saying TS4 is perfect, it's not anywhere close, but I am saying a Lucky Palms versus StrangerVille comparison is a plumbob way to try to make a valid criticism.
Sorry I should of clarified more but by textures I meant the loading of the textures. Even though I used CASt a lot in ts3 i always dreaded using it because of how much time it took just to load all the textures so I'd much rather go without the texture option for just a simple color wheel.
When it comes to the lack of CASt in ts4 the fact that it offers me more content that I like makes it's absence negligible and since in ts3 I didn't like much of what was offered to me CASt was more important and impactful when making my sim or builds. I also wouldn't say that I prefer content over creative systems as the focus has been about CASt and not other systems/features. So for you to assume that I value content quantity over creative systems in general feels rather presumptuous.
This made me laugh. The number of lots are worth nothing in TS3, given that you can place as many lots as you want to. I could use the Create-A-World tool and make a blank world with 200 lots in like half an hour. Now pay me $40 for this world instead cause it has more lots than any store worlds so clearly it’s a better world than any of them.
While Sims 4 has its downfalls, I don't think this is a very fair comparison. Yes, there were more lots, but many of them were rabbit holes which just made me downright sad. I want to see my sims every moment, and it bothered me that not all lots were playable.
The store was incredibly overpriced...last time I had added it up at the time all those years ago, it was over $1400 for all the DLC, not to mention the prices of EPs and SPs, which didn't even have extra gameplay unlike stuff packs of today (hot tub, movies, buffet table, butler, etc).
Even though the Sims 3 loads the entire world at once, the load times were crazy. I would go up to the kitchen, get a drink and a snack, go back to the pc, and still wait for the thing to load (I have a new pc now, but then I had average specs for Sims 3). Everytime I wanted to go to another world, again, loading. Now I get a little blip loading screen and voila, I'm in any world I want. The update gave us plenty of room on the neighborhood icon screen, so there are hopefully way more to come.
I did some math, I might be off a lot or two, but right now there are 161 buildable lots in the Sims 4 if you own all of the current DLC, 174 if you count Outdoor Retreat and Jungle Adventure. It's not too bad when you think of it.
Comments
Empty world? 96 lots and over 100 Sims. Where's the emptiness? In your mind only...
Price varied depending on the SimPoint bundle you bought, but as I stated before, it was NEVER a 100 SimPoint = 1 USD conversion rate.
A whole lot of nothing you mean. A story you can finish in less than 2 hours. 3 new gameplay objects. 70 BB objects (not counting BuyDebug) with 30 of those being deco only. A reskinned desktop PC that they try to pass as a laptop. No new skills, only 1 trait and aspiration and 1 new WFH career with 5 new interactions.
I believe BOTH are overpriced. But at least Lucky Palms was a much better deal for the world you were getting (one of the best looking worlds with some of the best premade lots). StrangerVille barely has any features and a tiny world for a similar price.
Anyone who disagrees with you is wrong, right?
The comparison per se isnt a good one, if you were to compare lets say, sims2,3 and 4s pets then i'd have given a good argument and probably agreed with whatever was said but again you cant really compare sims 3 worlds with sims 4 worlds, they are different entirely.
Legacy Challenge
There is no comparsion but If I was to choose I would still choose Lucky Palms as I can manipulate the world and you can't with SV. The only thing EA/Maxis can do is give items so yes you probably gain more in content but featurewise you lose but again there is no comparsion.
No. I guess I view worth by how much I am charged vs what we get. We all have different opinions. I just thought the store model of selling DLC for Sims 3 was outrageously overpriced for the content we received.
I do agree that I would love to manipulate the worlds in Sims 4.
I totally agree that I would rather a gameplay-enriched pack with no world any day such as Seasons.
For me if I was able to do that I feel Sims 4 would be nearly complete.
Never mind the broken AI in 4, the emotion system which overrides individual personalities, the lack of complex systems such as chemistry/attraction, the lack of story progression or any feature to make worlds feel less static, and the immense number of bugs which make the game unplayable at times (Simulation Lag for example). The problems with 4 run much deeper than the lack of tools to customize worlds.
It would be nearly complete as i want to manipulate the areas in the game. Yeah some of the systems do need fixing and Imo it may not get that but if I can get close to having nearly most of the features I will take it. Space is an issue with me for in Sims 4 you really have to make some hard choices when you want to do an story your way. I do not like moving families into another neighborhood for it breaks the mold. By EA/Maxis only giving neighborhoods in paid packs it is going to get quite expensive sooner or later. By me manipulating the neighborhoods I can create more space.
Good god. You are like a broken record. Day after day.....
Yeah I can't get behind this reasoning. Your basically telling ppl that if they spent more money overall, potentally over $100 USD, then it ends up being a better. As true as that is most ppl aren't able to fork over $100 at once and then there are the ppl who may only want the world and nothing else from the store. Those points just sit there and ends up being money wasted. Maybe for you this is fine as you are able to give up that much money at once and find a lot of things on the store to spend it all on but it's not for everyone.
Just checked origin and to see a world purchase as a "better deal" you need to spend $40 in which case you get 5000 points. So pay the price of an EP. The next bundles are $80 and $160 USD to really start seeing "a deal".
So in terms of value versus value, Strangerville for $20 is the better deal for me because almost all of the Strangerville assets are of use to me.
And seriously, you think this dress from LP is better than this one from StrangerVille? I mean if you do, that's fine, but you will definitely be happier in TS3 where you pay $30 and get 1 dress and 1 tuxedo as your CAS assets. Me personally, I'll stick with Strangerville, since its $20 price tag netted me 40 CAS assets. While Strangerville didn't have much for kids, it has a lot more than Lucky Palms did, which was zero items.
I have more lots than I know what to do with in TS4. The last thing I want is a gigantic world with more LOTS! We're not stuck in one world in TS4. We can travel between worlds at the drop of a load screen, so we don't need the amount of lots in a world that we needed in TS3. You can't compare the two games in this way, because they function in entirely different ways when it comes to worlds.
Lucky Palms (Please note you have to buy the GOLD version to get the first 12 items)
Strangerville
As I said in a previous post, in TS4 we are not restricted to living or visiting just one world. We can go ANYWHERE. Go visit your relatives or friends in any world spanning multiple climates. TS4 worlds do not need to be gigantic, nor should they be. It's not a logical comparison. Lucky Palms has more lots, yes, but it fails in CAS and buy/build. Unlike you, I'm going to be fair to the game I'm criticizing, by saying Lucky Palms didn't need to have a lot of CAS and buy/build options... you know why? It's because we had CasT in TS3, so we didn't NEED as many clothing options and furniture options because we could customize basic model styles to express our creativity. Also, Lucky Palms was a "world" pack, so their focus was on the world. I should hope it has more lots than say... a GAME pack. Until Vampires debuted, Game Packs did not even include worlds where sims could live permanently.
Anyway, we don't have CasT in TS4, but we have plenty of lots to live on across a pleasant spread of climates, so that means we need CAS, buy/build mode assets, careers, (insert shameless selfish plug for new life states), and intractable items. We received all of that with this game pack except for my selfish life state plug. LOL
There are plenty of things to criticize TS4 for, but a lack of lots in a game pack is just not one of them.
I have to agree about your comment on cas. One of my main issues with ts3 was it's horrendous cas and extreme lack of assets for kids and toddlers. Ts4 by far has way better cas for men and women and though it is still lacking for kids and toddlers it still offers more for them then ts3 did. If you wanted stuff for them in ts3 you had to really rely on the store or cc and for the former I still didn't see much that I cared for.
You aren't restricted to living or visiting one world in TS3 either. You can travel to China, France, Egypt or Oasis Landing. You can buy homes and live there, and in the case of the future world you don't EVER have to go back home. With NRaas Traveler, you can travel to any world at any time. Though I understand if you don't want to count it, as you need a mod to enable that functionality.
Do you understand that if people don't buy every piece of DLC they have a ridiculously low amount of lots, right? I think WC, OS and Newcrest all three combined have 57 lots. You are "forced" to buy more packs in order not to run out of space. In contrast, you didn't need to buy any world in The Sims 3. You could add your own lots on routable terrain, or use the Create-A-World tool to create your own, or download any of the thousands of FREE worlds made by fans, sometimes doing a better job than in EA. Talk about freedom...
@VentusMatt I agree EA CAS content is much better in The Sims 4. Though the lack of Create-A-Style makes it really hard to combine things and have the exact color I want. CASt was a game changer for many, much better than anything creators could give me in terms of content. I prefer to have three basic pieces and CASt rather than 100 good pieces and no CASt. At the end of the day I can always download more content and use CASt, but with The Sims 4 I'm stuck using the colors and designs EA or any content creator decided, instead of what I want. You're free to disagree, but the freedom of CASt is worth any tradeoff I have to make in terms of amount and quality of content. Besides, University Life, Late Night and Showtime added amazing outfits for male and female Sims, and Generations added really cool clothes for all ages. It wasn't like all Sims 3 CAS content was awful, though I agree the base game has awful clothes (still CASt makes it worth it, in my opinion).
At the end of the day, both of you value more the amount of content that EA gives you, rather than powerful tools to turn ANY content into whatever you want. I rather have Create-A-Style and less content (though in the case of BB, there's actually more and better content for TS3; TS4 is full of clutter, deco and decals, and modern furniture) than more content with the 20 or less swatches EA has decided I should use.
What's revolutionary about TS3 is that for the first time the way everything looks is yours to decide. Do you want to to turn a beautiful couch into a piece of old furnite? Just use one of the many rustic patterns (some of the metal ones are great). Now we're back at settling with swatches and it's even worse than in The Sims 2, since you can't mix and match two swatches and colors aren't standardized like they were in 2 EPs (MALM, LACK, AL Wood, etc).
I do agree that CASt should of been carried into ts4 but on a smaller scale. No need for over 100+ textures all they need is the color wheel. Since the only real issue with CASt was all the textures.
And I wouldn't say that I value more content over powerful creative systems but more that I want content that I actual like and want to use and ts3 even with CASt didn't offer me much content that I personally liked so going from maybe 40 pieces max I liked to a plethora of pieces the lack of CASt doesn't bother me that much.
Edit: Changed number cause I feel like I low balled the number and 40 sounds more accurate.
No, the real issue weren't the textures but the fact TS3 was a 32-bit application. Engineers decided to offset the RAM limit by making the game use your hard drive as virtual memory (cache files), sinces hard drive are 50 times slower than RAM, it's easy to see why Create-A-Style lagged so much. Getting a faster drive, or an SSD which is only 10 times slower than RAM, helps a lot, but the ideal solution would be not to make the application 32-bit only so it can use as much RAM as it needs (and you have) and doesn't need to cache to your hard drive.
But you do value content over powerful creative systems. If you didn't like what the game had to offer, you could always buy things on the Store (clothes were fairly cheap, around 50 SimPoints the piece), download CC or make your own. And with each mesh you download or buy, you could do ANYTHING you wanted in terms of textures and colors. The Create-A-Syle tool has infinitely more value than any amount of content that you may like (and as always this is highly subjective, TS4 is full of clothes I'll never use because they have hideous patterns, especially City Living stuff). Create-A-Style as a tool is versatile and powerful enough to make up for any lack of content / or content you may not like.
Everything is open for criticism even the amounts of lots, I do like the interconnectivity of neighborhoods but there is an reason EA/Maxis chose this because there is no possiblity of adding lots or even editing them. I always wanted this feature in Sims 3 but it is an older version that is not in developmental status. Also in certain situations I have to restrict my story if it requires me to stay in one neighborhood and not spread it out. The lots are all static meaning no matter what you put on those lots it is still the same ole same ole and you can't even expand the lots if the house bigger than the lot and you must cut something to make it fit. There is always room for criticism even with lots and Imo editing of lots with neighborhood interconnectivity would have worked well. also, I would expect an lot of items as that is all that Sims 4 can offer me beyond features but that not necessairly an bad thing depending on how you look at it also SV cannot be manipulated as you could with Lucky Palms and just like I did with SV buy gettting at an lower price ($4.99) I done the same with Luck Palms and buy nothing at regular price and I enjoyed the fact I could expand Luck Palms and you can't do that with SV.
As for inflated items that make it look like you're getting "more", Lucky Palms is sporting 4 recolors of the same darn cactus. Your bias is glaringly bright.
So basically you're tossing out the "there is a mod for that" blanket fix that I have heard people say from TS1 all the way through to TS4. While mods are great and mod creators are the unsung heroes of any sims iteration, that is never an acceptable answer. Also, vacation worlds don't count! I can stay in vacation worlds as long as I want in TS4, as well, but that is not the same as what I was referring to in my original post, and you know it. You cannot move fluidly between worlds without Mods in TS3, you can only visit vacation worlds, so when setting up a world in TS3 the devs had to make sure you could fit everything you could ever possibly need in one setting. In TS4 you can move fluidly between both, WITHOUT mods, so the devs do not need to focus on worlds with a massive lot count. I mean no disrespect to modders, either, when I say mods don't count. There are mods that fix many of the issues plaguing TS4 for simmers, and while that is awesome of the creators to do, I still feel it is the Sims Team's responsibility to deliver those features to the player base in a supported version. Modding away TS3's flaws but shining on a spotlight on anything you dislike about TS4, is not a fair comparison.
I think you fail to realize how varied the Sims player base is. I have literally never filled all of the lots in my Sims 4 game. Up until Strangerville released, I was rotating between two saves. One where my sims only utilized the lots of Magnolia Promenade and Midnight Hollow, and the other was in San Myshuno. Literally all the other lots in the other worlds were bulldozed and blank, because I did not need nor want them. The only thing I left were the parks, which were remodeled for specific scenarios like weddings. From my perspective, we are drowning in lots but need more environmental diversity, which Strangerville gave us. A dusty worn out town in the middle of no where was a refreshing change of pace from the overly beautiful settings of other worlds. No one is forced to buy anything. I could use that same argument against Lucky Palms. If you want an evil well child or a sprawling desert city, you are FORCED to buy Lucky Palms! Even worse, if you want the casino and evil well child, you have to buy a HIGHER PRICED version of the content! :gasp: At least TS4 didn't release Strangerville and offer the story and new interactable objects in a "gold" edition for $10 more.
It sounds like you have an extreme bias for massive amounts of lots and an open world. Which is ok! There is nothing wrong with that. TS4, though, will never have massive amounts of lots in one world nor an open world. That is not how it is designed. It's like asking an orange to be sweet like an apple. Just go get an apple if that is what you are after.
E'ghads you make presumptions! I liked CasT, and do in fact miss it, but I do not miss how terribly optimized it was, which is a developer flaw with TS3, just as TS4 has its own developer flaws. Currently we have two choices, have CasT and a poorly optimized game, or ditch CasT and have a well optimized game. Obviously, I chose to ditch CasT. In a perfect world, we should be able to have both, but that is not the game they made, and CasT will never be implemented in TS4. Again, it's like asking an orange to taste like an apple. They're different fruits, and you either like them or you don't, and you can appreciate them for what they are, or you can rant about those darn oranges not tasting like apples until you pass out from exhaustion.
My point in showcasing the items was an attempt to explain that TS3 and TS4 are two different games with different features, focuses, and needs. Certain aspects cannot be fairly compared. It's clear you don't want to hear that, though, you just want to vent your disappointment that TS4 is not TS3.
TS3 allows you to model the world and environment of your dreams.
TS4 allows you to model the sim of your dreams.
CAS is powerful in TS4, and at the end of the day, simmers stayed or moved onto the version that gave them what they most wanted in a sims game. For me, that was being able to model a sim, as I was not a world creator. For other simmers, it's the world, and thus they stayed with TS3. For TS2 players, it's an authentic and genuine sim personality with attention to small details. There is no right or wrong choice here, just different features and options. Would it be nice if we didn't have to choose? Heck yes! That is not the reality of the situation, though.
@Goldmoldar
I honestly would have no issue with someone saying, "I want more lots in Strangerville." What I take issue with, is these tiring TS3 versus TS4 comparisons. The two games are vastly different and hinge around different features and both have their weak links. I do want to be able to customize the world around me in TS4 more and the objects too. While I can shape incredibly unique sims in TS4, the world and build tools still need improving. I'm not saying TS4 is perfect, it's not anywhere close, but I am saying a Lucky Palms versus StrangerVille comparison is a plumbob way to try to make a valid criticism.
When it comes to the lack of CASt in ts4 the fact that it offers me more content that I like makes it's absence negligible and since in ts3 I didn't like much of what was offered to me CASt was more important and impactful when making my sim or builds. I also wouldn't say that I prefer content over creative systems as the focus has been about CASt and not other systems/features. So for you to assume that I value content quantity over creative systems in general feels rather presumptuous.
The store was incredibly overpriced...last time I had added it up at the time all those years ago, it was over $1400 for all the DLC, not to mention the prices of EPs and SPs, which didn't even have extra gameplay unlike stuff packs of today (hot tub, movies, buffet table, butler, etc).
Even though the Sims 3 loads the entire world at once, the load times were crazy. I would go up to the kitchen, get a drink and a snack, go back to the pc, and still wait for the thing to load (I have a new pc now, but then I had average specs for Sims 3). Everytime I wanted to go to another world, again, loading. Now I get a little blip loading screen and voila, I'm in any world I want. The update gave us plenty of room on the neighborhood icon screen, so there are hopefully way more to come.
I did some math, I might be off a lot or two, but right now there are 161 buildable lots in the Sims 4 if you own all of the current DLC, 174 if you count Outdoor Retreat and Jungle Adventure. It's not too bad when you think of it.
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