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Has TS4 development taken a noticeable downturn in 2019?

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  • ChazzzyChazzzy Posts: 7,166 Member
    Writin_Reg wrote: »
    Chazzzy wrote: »
    Did they actually say Island Living was supposed to be a Game Pack?

    Wonder what they added after that point to make it qualify (in their minds) as an Expansion Pack.

    I think players said that - not Maxis seeing Maxis said we had one gme pack, one ep, and one sp coming tells me it was always designed to be a ep - as they had Moschino sp, Realm of Magic GP, and Island living being worked on slotted for each of those packs. It did not change what it was designed to be from what I can see - the world alone tells you that.

    Yea the first thing I noticed was that the new world has so many lots! That felt like an EP feature to me.
  • Writin_RegWritin_Reg Posts: 28,907 Member
    Chazzzy wrote: »
    Writin_Reg wrote: »
    Chazzzy wrote: »
    Did they actually say Island Living was supposed to be a Game Pack?

    Wonder what they added after that point to make it qualify (in their minds) as an Expansion Pack.

    I think players said that - not Maxis seeing Maxis said we had one gme pack, one ep, and one sp coming tells me it was always designed to be a ep - as they had Moschino sp, Realm of Magic GP, and Island living being worked on slotted for each of those packs. It did not change what it was designed to be from what I can see - the world alone tells you that.

    Yea the first thing I noticed was that the new world has so many lots! That felt like an EP feature to me.

    The size of the world and the amount of work that went into it, the land, and the water even is much more expansive and detailed than any gp has ever been.

    "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.....

  • SharoniaSharonia Posts: 4,853 Member
    edited July 2019
    The only thing that really bothers me right now with regards to development is the amount bugs they are releasing packs with. Shouldn't these things be thoroughly tested before being sold to people? If I'm paying £34.99 for a pack I don't expect my game to be so buggy that I feel I can't even play certain elements of it until they decide to release a fix patch two or three months later. Restaurants are a complete mess right now. They were one of my favourite places to have my sims visit but now I'm avoiding them. Mermaids can't do the conservation career properly.

    To me this is unacceptable. Maybe start doing some testing of products before selling them.
  • SindocatSindocat Posts: 5,622 Member
    The downward spiral was noticed by me starting with the "gender update". From there it just seems to be more and more pandering and less about significant gameplay features.

    The gender update (along with the inclusion of toddlers) is a large part of what persuaded me to move on from TS3. I was intentionally waiting out the "content drought" of early release (I like expansion content, but I am picky - variety is good), but seeing Maxis recognize the real-life complexity of gender, as lived by many people, was heartening and sparked my interest in the latest iteration of the game.

    Playing with my sister riding copilot this week (a way we spend time together, at her request), she looked over at me as we were close to wrapping our evening's play and said, "Personally, I am not at all disappointed in The Sims 4". She has a longer history with the franchise, mostly having played TS2, but I am inclined to concur.

    Sulani is lovely, and if I am taking my time before diving in to IL, I certainly intend to. I am also enjoying my Sims' Freelancer careers. I can take or leave Moschino, but such partnerships are old hat for The Sims. I am looking forward to learning more about Realms of Magic.

    Downturn? Hardly. This game is alive and kicking.
  • MindsimscreateMindsimscreate Posts: 414 Member
    I’ve written about this many times very much in depth so I’ll simplify it here. From the end of 2015 to the end of 2017 sims 4 was in it’s prime. We got Vampires, Parenthood, City Living, Get Together, Cats & Dogs, etc... there was basically something for everyone and the game was doing really well. Well, 2018 starts and ver since it’s been basic. Quite boring. Especially now with the redesign (that blue is seriously disgusting) ts4 is just not looking good anymore. Also, keep in mind this is just MY OPINION AND MY WAY OF THINKING ABOUT IT. I think it’s only gotten worse from Jan 2018 - present (July 2019)
  • cheescaekscheescaeks Posts: 902 Member
    i voted yes but with a HUGE asterisk.

    i do not think any of the things added in this year are super horrible and never should've been made. i DO however feel like their priorities aren't straight, we want stuff in the game that still hasn't been added in even though they were core features of other games. im talking about npcs like burglars and fireman, im talking about cars, im talking about babies that aren't objects, im talking about a personality overhaul like traits that should be added in cas under likes and dislikes (like stormchaser? why do i have to have points to make my sim like storms? i certainly didn't buy something from the trait store to make myself like storms. they're neat, i like them. put them in likes not a trait store UGGHHH).

    they have the budget. they consistently show they have budgets somewhere allocated to all this work they eventually showed up this year. but why has it been, CONSTANTLY, for stuff people never requested?

    i don't mind having it, but could they please sprinkle in some stuff we requested among the newer features.
  • vcosleyvcosley Posts: 880 Member
    Every time there is a update my game won't start. Origin won't load. I have no cc and my computer is dedicated to the sims only. There has been more updates than sims 2 and 3 put together. All I do is build when it's working. I haven't played in over a year.
  • MindsimscreateMindsimscreate Posts: 414 Member
    People, try and keep your opinions opinions instead of facts. For example, it's a fact that The Sims 4 is unlikely to end anytime soon. It's an opinion that a Farming Pack needs to come out. Now, let's put this same thing on the thread. If you were to say say, " ... And IL is not worth $40. Fact." Or something like that, you would be incorrect. I think that IL is worth $40 if you enjoy everything in it, and I do. So, you should say "... because if you ask me, IL is not worth $40..." or something similar. See? Just a little bit of re-phrasing can make things a lot more accurate.

    Like @Writin_Reg said, many (probably most) of us base our opinions off of facts so It’s hard to separate them.
  • MindsimscreateMindsimscreate Posts: 414 Member
    Chazzzy wrote: »
    Did they actually say Island Living was supposed to be a Game Pack?

    Wonder what they added after that point to make it qualify (in their minds) as an Expansion Pack.


    Some sources have shown what the cover was gonna look like as a game pack. I think they just decided to give it the Expansion Pack title by dazzling up the world a bit and charging us double price.
  • cheescaekscheescaeks Posts: 902 Member
    vcosley wrote: »
    Every time there is a update my game won't start. Origin won't load. I have no cc and my computer is dedicated to the sims only. There has been more updates than sims 2 and 3 put together. All I do is build when it's working. I haven't played in over a year.

    if origin isn't loading then i think there's something wrong with your computer i think you're probably missing something that helps launch origin. do you get an error code when you try and launch origin? my brother had this happen and he had to download something online something involving C++ i thiiiiiink off the top of my head.

    that's not normal and definitely isn't a bug on the sims end, it sounds like something involving your computer itself.
  • Writin_RegWritin_Reg Posts: 28,907 Member
    edited July 2019
    Sharonia wrote: »
    The only thing that really bothers me right now with regards to development is the amount bugs they are releasing packs with. Shouldn't these things be thoroughly tested before being sold to people? If I'm paying £34.99 for a pack I don't expect my game to be so buggy that I feel I can't even play certain elements of it until they decide to release a fix patch two or three months later. Restaurants are a complete mess right now. They were one of my favourite places to have my sims visit but now I'm avoiding them. Mermaids can't do the conservation career properly.

    To me this is unacceptable. Maybe start doing some testing of products before selling them.

    Everything is tested - I have even tested games for Maxis, and EA employs hundreds of testers there at EA Campus to test everything as well - so don't buy into the stuff people here say but bugs is a big troublespot for ALL games - especially games that contain a lot of new play being added constantly as well as lots of expansions, and user content like the Sims do. The base game and each new pack is thoroughly tested and the trouble usually comes in players games that have a lot of packs and content that does not always react well with the new play pack as some programming in the new pack may not work well as it should with other packs. Perhaps if EA had the game made with all packs installed some of these things might have been discovered sooner - but the game with all packs installed is not used as developers work on the new packs as it would be impossible to properly test and try out things on machines with all the packs installed seeing not everyone buys all the packs - so usually the game goes out being tested on the base game and new pack running great - the problem happens between the new packs and variants of other packs on the individual players machines.

    Even if devs had a machine with all the packs in it - it still does not mean a bug would not rear its ugly head because some bugs do not always activate right away and some bugs do not activate at all in properly set and tweaked pcs which is usually the case of company pcs compared to pcs of various users. I know myself - as one that has a well tweaked and powerful pc it makes a difference - as I rarely get most bugs in my game that tons of players report. So just a better configured or tweaked desk top can make all the difference in the world. EA could never test a game using every kind of pc out there - so because of that fact alone - bugs in testing will be missed because some times some bugs only happen on some machines and not all of them. That is a fact, not an excuse.
    Post edited by Writin_Reg on

    "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.....

  • TechbiltTechbilt Posts: 258 Member
    I said yes but I think the developmental downturn with sims games actually started getting noticeably worse about in the middle of sims 3 and has only gotten drastically worse with sims 4. I love the sims 3 in all its glory but I still feel like sims 4 has a lot more it needs before it can compete with 2 or 3.
  • alanmichael1alanmichael1 Posts: 5,384 Member
    Too early to say. IL is lacking, but SV is one of my favourite packs ever.
  • tadeoalonso2tadeoalonso2 Posts: 35 Member
    @Chazzzy
    Sulani has many lots?
    Sulani has 14, Windenburg has 27, San Myshuno has 30. If you're trying to excuse them saying 'The game engine won't handle it if you add a lot more, so that's why its smaller' they all cost 40 dollars, if they are only capable of adding an underwhelming amount of lots with each EP then they should lower the price
  • ChazzzyChazzzy Posts: 7,166 Member
    edited July 2019
    @Chazzzy
    Sulani has many lots?
    Sulani has 14, Windenburg has 27, San Myshuno has 30. If you're trying to excuse them saying 'The game engine won't handle it if you add a lot more, so that's why its smaller' they all cost 40 dollars, if they are only capable of adding an underwhelming amount of lots with each EP then they should lower the price

    I compared it to the new world from Get Famous. It has more lots than Del Sol Valley, which is an improvement as far as I’m concerned.
  • logionlogion Posts: 4,712 Member
    Writin_Reg wrote: »
    Sharonia wrote: »
    The only thing that really bothers me right now with regards to development is the amount bugs they are releasing packs with. Shouldn't these things be thoroughly tested before being sold to people? If I'm paying £34.99 for a pack I don't expect my game to be so buggy that I feel I can't even play certain elements of it until they decide to release a fix patch two or three months later. Restaurants are a complete mess right now. They were one of my favourite places to have my sims visit but now I'm avoiding them. Mermaids can't do the conservation career properly.

    To me this is unacceptable. Maybe start doing some testing of products before selling them.

    Everything is tested - I have even tested games for Maxis, and EA employs hundreds of testers there at EA Campus to test everything as well - so don't buy into the stuff people here say but bugs is a big troublespot for ALL games - especially games that contain a lot of new play being added constantly as well as lots of expansions, and user content like the Sims do. The base game and each new pack is thoroughly tested and the trouble usually comes in players games that have a lot of packs and content that does not always react well with the new play pack as some programming in the new pack may not work well as it should with other packs. Perhaps if EA had the game made with all packs installed some of these things might have been discovered sooner - but the game with all packs installed is not used as developers work on the new packs as it would be impossible to properly test and try out things on machines with all the packs installed seeing not everyone buys all the packs - so usually the game goes out being tested on the base game and new pack running great - the problem happens between the new packs and variants of other packs on the individual players machines.

    Even if devs had a machine with all the packs in it - it still does not mean a big would rear its ugly head because some bugs do not always activate right away and some bugs do not activate at all in properly set and tweaked pcs which is usually the case of company pcs compared to pcs of various users. I know myself - as one that has a well tweaked and powerful pc it makes a difference - as I rarely get most bugs in my game that tons of players report. So just a better configured or tweaked desk top can make all the difference in the world. EA could never test a game using every kind of pc out there - so because of that fact alone - bugs in testing will be missed because some times some bugs only happen on some machines and not all of them. That is a fact, not an excuse.

    I can understand that some bugs like autonomy and simulation lag are difficult to find, test and solve, however it was pretty obvious that no one played a restaurant after the June 18th Patch as you will discover pretty immediately that other sims are taking your food.

    I am not asking for them to test everything but some bugs are really obvious to discover, and it is frustrating to see them reported over on Answer HQ with the original post going back multiple years.

    I feel that they are not prioritizing bug fixes enough, and that is what I think others are feeling as well.
  • simfriend1968simfriend1968 Posts: 578 Member
    All we have had so far this year is Strangerville and Island Living, so really it is too soon to tell what 2019 will be like. However, I rather liked Strangerville, both the story and the military career (which we were missing). I really, really like the most recent EP, Island Living: it has my favourite world (currently). I love the ocean and the way it has been implemented (with visible fish and lots of space to sail around), and the Conservationist career and its impact on the world, (just today I spotted bioluminescent algae in Ohan’ali town, which surprised me because I thought it only appeared in Mua Pel’am). I also love the OTG lot trait in this setting and the new ways to play (especially with families and poor sims) that it has created. Even mermaids are well done in my view, with unique interactions and animations.

    Prior to this year, in 2018, we had Get Famous, a decent EP with an active career (movie acting) that I have wanted back since TS1 days and a really good fame and reputation system. Previous packs that year, Seasons and Jungle Adventures, were, in my opinion, among the best of the series (along with the earlier Vampires, another favourite of mine). All of these give me a lot of hope for the future and at the moment I am perfectly content playing in Sulani.

    Are there elements I wish were present already? Sure, but that has always been true. In our household, we didn’t get TS2 until after Bon Voyage came out (and then we got most of the packs on sale) because we were still happily (and ignorantly) playing TS1. Likewise we continued playing TS2 throughout the lifespan of TS3 and only bought TS3 around the time World Adventures was released. With TS4, I was initially disgusted by the lack of the colour wheel, open world, ghosts, pools, and toddlers (the last one bothered me the most). I planned to give it a pass and just continue with TS3. But eventually I tried it out during a free weekend and liked it more than I thought I would, and then ended up buying it at a reduced price with Outdoor Retreat. In general, I would suggest that it is a good idea to get these games on sale because they have always been very expensive.

    In my humble opinion, TS4 does some things really well which makes it difficult to go back to earlier versions (even though I still play them from time to time out of nostalgia). I love the multi-tasking ability and the ability for sims to socialize in big groups in this game. These are definitely advances over previous versions of the sims. I also like that sims now have emotions, (although I think fear should have been one of the core feelings), even if they do interfere a bit with a sim’s traits and how they are expressed. Toddlers are also, to me, better than previous iterations (although I agree they should have been present from the start).

    CAS and the Build/Buy tools are also better, more flexible and easier to use, than ever before. Love that gender is now so flexible and customizable. The clothing assets and the object catalogue are more attractive too. So I think TS4 has many good things about it and a lot of life in it yet. They have also given us some nice freebies over the years, nicer than in the past (I am speaking of all of the holiday stuff each year, with its international flavour, the pride stuff, as well as the fun activities like the Day of the Dead and the Easter Egg/ Growfruit challenges).

    Hopefully in the next few years we will continue to get some of the gameplay we have enjoyed in previous versions, like memories, interests/ hobbies, cars, university, more kids’ clubs or activities, burglars (both NPCs and the active ability to be a burglar), firefighters (ditto —NPCs and an active career), ghost hunters, wine making, and many more elements. Even if we don’t get everything I want and think we should have, though, I am well satisfied with the game right now, in 2019.
  • So_MoneySo_Money Posts: 2,536 Member
    edited July 2019
    No. TS4’s development has been mired in ambition-less mediocrity from the start. It’s hard to take a downturn when the bar has been set so low.
  • SikoahGraceSikoahGrace Posts: 1,399 Member
    Writin_Reg wrote: »
    No - after playing all the Sims series games over the last 20 years this game seems to create the same excitement and anticipation with each new ep all the previous ones did - just that folks now a days tire of things a lot quicker than they use to. I think its the fact todays players are much harder to please long term than past players were and if a game is not wowing them 24/7 they find fault with it to easy especially when something in a new pack is different than previous versions. People compare the games as if they are all part of just the same game - and are more inclined to see what they think is missing than what it contains.

    Society in general today are not the same kind of people they were 15-20 years ago and seem much harder to please than in the past over almost anything. They are much more attuned to the world in general than they used to be thanks to world wide internet - and I'd say a lot smarter overall in wanting more bang for their buck in todays world. Years ago people took what they got and found it acceptable - todays world wants better and more as they are better aware and smarter than people 20 years ago were.

    What she said. No use in repeating that much of my opinion. Aslo, I fell that (unpopular opinon) TS4 is supposed to be a different game than previous ones with similar attributes. I don't want another Sims 2/3 with updated graphics. I get that I have to wait and see what I get in the future. I also understand what I want and what I get are two different things. It's fair to be disappointed I just don't care to be disappointed. I personally choose to be happy with what I have paid for. I don't feel as if I am "surprised" by what they have to offer in the EP's, GPs, and SPs. They kind of just lay it all out there. Also, if you don't preorder and read/watch what people say about it then you really know about what you are getting. I mean you tubers put the gameplay and the objects in real time on their channels. Sooo...no. I don't feel as if it has gone down hill. (Unpopular, possible offensive opinion to some people in coming) I feel that people are expecting to be let down and so they are.
  • LiesSimLiesSim Posts: 358 Member
    Simpkin wrote: »
    Nope. People just get more entitled and selfish.

    Why on earth would you call expecting quality in return for paying money selfish/entitled? What kind of logic is this?
    The Sims is a product, people pay money for this product, they deserve quality in return. A lot of people have been playing since previous installments. It's quite clear that the product has gotten worse instead of people getting more selfish. A paying customer has every right to demand value for the money they're spending.
  • GrynnGrynn Posts: 260 Member
    edited July 2019
    So_Money wrote: »
    No. TS4’s development has been mired in ambition-less mediocrity from the start. It’s hard to take a downturn when the bar has been set so low.

    Yes, and the Cities: Skylines of life simulators has been announced recently and boy does it feel like a true The Sims 3 successor.

    Nobody remembers Simcity exists anymore, if EA doesn't catch up soon enough the same might happen to this franchise.
  • ironknight35ironknight35 Posts: 3,751 Member
    I didn't like TS4 very much when it released, but I love it now. I feel that it has gotten much better.
    He/Him
  • filipomelfilipomel Posts: 1,693 Member
    I don't think development has taken a downturn, it just seems like a weird year so far. Strangerville was a weird pack, followed by Island Living and a bunch of free content patches in between. The second half of the year I expect to be much stronger since that's when the holidays come around.
  • PegasysPegasys Posts: 1,135 Member
    edited July 2019
    I voted no, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been disappointed with things that have been released this year. I liked StrangerVille, but that was a surprise and I didn't have big expectations for it. However, like many others I was disappointed with the lack of gameplay in Island Living. It's basically like two steps forward, one and a half steps lurching backward.

    Overall, they've been adding a lot of interesting things to the game, and some things people have been asking for. I enjoy playing the game much of the time. Nonetheless, there are still very vital gaps that need closing to make the game truly fulfilling.
  • ElaineenicoleeElaineenicolee Posts: 95 Member
    edited July 2019
    I do feel generally happy with the content released this year. There has been an effort to fix prior bugs, which adding door colors was. And I have really enjoyed Island Living, even though I feel it should have been a Gamepack.

    Yes, the sims NEEDS to listen to it’s consumer base more and give us more value for the expensive game we’re playing. But I can’t say 2019 was an awful year so far. At least, it doesn’t feel worse than 2018.
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