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Eco awareness: The cheap Story Progression substitute?
Godleyjeans
Posts: 336 Member
The more we find out about the new Eco expansion, the more it feels like a knock off for what we really want, or what some of us want, myself included.
Sulani, Stranger Ville and Eco's new world all have the same thing, world progression, environmental awareness, it's own little storyline which changes on how your sims live, without your sims themselves living around it.
Like with everything else, this is a cheap stand-in for what the game NEEDS, Somehow eco went from an idea for a stuff pack to an expansion! None of us would've minded it as a game pack because then it would've made sense, more than a stuff pack but not enough to be a full-blown DLC, because it isn't! No hate to the Staff or whoever runs the content team because I'm looking forward to this new content, it looks amazing and my sims story will be so much better because of the content style (I'm doing a gta v household story and I need dumpster diving for Trevor), but what grinds my gears is the blatant disregard of Story Progression and how instead of just throwing it into an update with the whole "EXCITING BASE GAME CONTENT COMING SOON", they've stuck it on a survey board leaving story makers biting their fingernails, scared that it'll be lost to something else when such a feature can easily be added via an update, with the same toggles as Eco is confirmed to be having, so if someone doesn't want it, they can turn it off, but if they do want it, they can have it on and their sims' lives can be up to the game to decide.
Have all of my threads recently been about SP? Yes.
Will I ever stop talking about it? Probably not, because as a veteran simmer whose favorite of the series was obviously sims 3, it's painful to have gone from such a leap to this burning pile of leaves covered in horse muck that's being sold to us as the newer gen, the best of the sims, the evolution that somehow makes sims 1 and 2, even better than it was before! REGARDLESS OF THE AMOUNT OF PC'S IT'S SYSTEM DESTROYED.
We have pets, seasons, toddlers, quite a few feature's we've been asking for since release, I will happily throw down my sword if Story Progression and improved babies make it into the game because all this simmer wants, is realism and the ability to treat my sims as people, because the sims are meant to be people, virtual creatures based on us, and ironically, the early 2000s got it better than the latest version has in its 7 years of life!
Throughout the sims 4, I have braved every wave, every expansion/rumor/piece of news with the hope something missed on released was getting added to the game, right now, the most I can see my sims life getting is a ladder and some rocking chairs, and dumpster diving for Trevor, that's it, when back in the day, every pack was mindblowing as we went from seasons to pets to aliens, to werewolves to fairies and so much more, nowadays, I'm excited about a ladder and fearful of a survey having something I've loved for so long getting smudged over for more trees or a cute hairstyle.
Yes, they can't confirm anything because of rules/contracts or even fully take on board our requests but as I keep saying, a simple reply with "Maybe" or "It's possible" or "It's likely" or "If simmers want it enough",
Because this simmer wants Story Progression so much, story progression and improved babies, I don't need open worlds or cars or even a ladder (Tho it's nice, I wanna build an attic for Trevor to hide in when Michael's angry at him), yes obviously I don't at all speak for anyone apart from myself! But from a simmer whose constantly afraid of something good getting ignored, please, add Story progression, add it so our worlds aren't one crumbling society constantly needing our intervention to stay alive.
I cannot keep bouncing from house to house, forcing people together when the game could easily matchmake for me and surprise us with adorable/strange couple pairings! I need to know If Bob Pancakes finds himself a better partner if he has the choice! I NEED TO KNOW!
Sulani, Stranger Ville and Eco's new world all have the same thing, world progression, environmental awareness, it's own little storyline which changes on how your sims live, without your sims themselves living around it.
Like with everything else, this is a cheap stand-in for what the game NEEDS, Somehow eco went from an idea for a stuff pack to an expansion! None of us would've minded it as a game pack because then it would've made sense, more than a stuff pack but not enough to be a full-blown DLC, because it isn't! No hate to the Staff or whoever runs the content team because I'm looking forward to this new content, it looks amazing and my sims story will be so much better because of the content style (I'm doing a gta v household story and I need dumpster diving for Trevor), but what grinds my gears is the blatant disregard of Story Progression and how instead of just throwing it into an update with the whole "EXCITING BASE GAME CONTENT COMING SOON", they've stuck it on a survey board leaving story makers biting their fingernails, scared that it'll be lost to something else when such a feature can easily be added via an update, with the same toggles as Eco is confirmed to be having, so if someone doesn't want it, they can turn it off, but if they do want it, they can have it on and their sims' lives can be up to the game to decide.
Have all of my threads recently been about SP? Yes.
Will I ever stop talking about it? Probably not, because as a veteran simmer whose favorite of the series was obviously sims 3, it's painful to have gone from such a leap to this burning pile of leaves covered in horse muck that's being sold to us as the newer gen, the best of the sims, the evolution that somehow makes sims 1 and 2, even better than it was before! REGARDLESS OF THE AMOUNT OF PC'S IT'S SYSTEM DESTROYED.
We have pets, seasons, toddlers, quite a few feature's we've been asking for since release, I will happily throw down my sword if Story Progression and improved babies make it into the game because all this simmer wants, is realism and the ability to treat my sims as people, because the sims are meant to be people, virtual creatures based on us, and ironically, the early 2000s got it better than the latest version has in its 7 years of life!
Throughout the sims 4, I have braved every wave, every expansion/rumor/piece of news with the hope something missed on released was getting added to the game, right now, the most I can see my sims life getting is a ladder and some rocking chairs, and dumpster diving for Trevor, that's it, when back in the day, every pack was mindblowing as we went from seasons to pets to aliens, to werewolves to fairies and so much more, nowadays, I'm excited about a ladder and fearful of a survey having something I've loved for so long getting smudged over for more trees or a cute hairstyle.
Yes, they can't confirm anything because of rules/contracts or even fully take on board our requests but as I keep saying, a simple reply with "Maybe" or "It's possible" or "It's likely" or "If simmers want it enough",
Because this simmer wants Story Progression so much, story progression and improved babies, I don't need open worlds or cars or even a ladder (Tho it's nice, I wanna build an attic for Trevor to hide in when Michael's angry at him), yes obviously I don't at all speak for anyone apart from myself! But from a simmer whose constantly afraid of something good getting ignored, please, add Story progression, add it so our worlds aren't one crumbling society constantly needing our intervention to stay alive.
I cannot keep bouncing from house to house, forcing people together when the game could easily matchmake for me and surprise us with adorable/strange couple pairings! I need to know If Bob Pancakes finds himself a better partner if he has the choice! I NEED TO KNOW!
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Comments
Regardless, story progression is it's very own thing.
Whether you play The Sims 1, 2, or 3, one thing that is indisputable is the worlds are stagnant. You can make changes to lots, play rotationally all you’d like, or watch story progression unfold in your world, but one thing that holds true is that the environment itself stays the same.
Eco-Living is a move in the right direction to make worlds feel more realistic, allowing them to evolve through our Sim’s involvement. The concept of evolving worlds is something I really hope they continue to flesh out and implement in TS5. However, I think $40 for pollution/eco-features alone is too steep. The idea of an expansion about pollution just isn’t very appealing, either. I would’ve liked it better if the expansion focused on evolving worlds in numerous ways, aside from just pollution.
However, story progression did make more sense in Sims 3 because the game was initially designed to play one household per save.
But Sims 4 has a lot of rotational players now because it's better designed for it. Invasive story progression would screw up those games in a very huge way. The only reasonable option is to have it only affect NPCs and maybe households marked "unplayed", and have it be able to be switched completely off. Because, I get it, there are no new generations being created and the world's die out and it's no fun having to manually go into each household to create children.
But it's a slippery slope, because even Sims 3's progression doesn't completely turn off, and I don't want to see Sims 4 get tied into the same forced gameplay. As it is, even if it were programmed just for NPCs and townies, any of those Sims that a player was engaging with will be at risk of being whisked away into a nuclear family with Ganji Sakamoto, the senior pear. So there also would need to be some recognition of player Sims' relationships.
And my worst fear? Game bugs and how they would affect the game worlds and our Sims. I think I'd completely lose my mind if I had to wait for a fix for a story progression bug that takes control of my Sims when it shouldn't.
Well, it's not even really about pollution unless we find out there is a dire consequence for leaving all worlds polluted. It's more about activisim for the Sim to do something like vote and form a group to clean it up. AKA SV 2.0 ideas thrown into an ecology pack. Very little has been said about how over years of pollution would this affect the gardens, the Sims, their heirs, the financial situations for more taxes etc. This ep has nothing to do with pollution actually and just more fluff for Sims to mark off a to do list (though not linear this time). ETA: Didn't mean to double quote but that glitch has been happening to me this week on this site. lol
Concerning 'story progression' it's a strong no from me, OP. The game naming the baby if I rotate away from that household and the Sims falling for some made up love interest (they have never even met when I played them) when I return is story progression enough for me. And two things I would like them to correct.
ETA: And you can know if Bob Pancakes likes someone else. All you have to do is play them. Then rotate several days away from Bob Pancakes to a different household. I can almost bet you when you return to Bob Pancakes he is in love with some old lady. Or one of the townies (males) with the wide hips the game loves to generate. It also won't matter if you wanted him to remain gay or straight the game loves to 'story progress' that and change your choice of sexual preferrence. It has quite enough annoying 'story progression'.
I think it could help those that want story progression some.. but it just feels like something more dynamic is coming. I like the idea of the environment getting better or worse depending on what my sim does or doesn't do even though I'm pretty set against story progression being thrust on me normally.
I always feel like if I set a change in motion as the player I'm pretty aware of it and will need to be okay with the outcome. I'm not going to scream if I decide to not turn off the impact and then there is some impact that wasn't completely foreseen by me if that makes sense. I still kind of know what I'm getting by choosing to play with it... and if I hate it well it seems I will have the option to turn it off per save so bad on me if I use it in a save I don't want to be affected in a way I didn't like. I plan on using it in a new save at first or in one of my saves that it makes sense to use it in to me especially since I want to know what it's like for everything to get dirtier first.
I do hope true story progression comes to this game for those that want it, who knows I might even want it for a different way to play as long as I have the ability to turn it off per save also.
One of the gurus said that the pollution thing can be turned off and I have a feeling that in order for pollution to be able to change other worlds the effects are tied to that community board you can place in every world (minus destination worlds and Strangerville).
In other words you place a community board in San Myshuno but don't put one in Willow Creek; San Myshuno will have the ability to be neutral, very clean or very dirty while Willow Creek stays the same even if you leave it because they have no community board to have a lot become a dumping ground or a community paradise ( because without the board you wouldn't be able to fix or mitigate trash piling up and vote with the community without it).
I'm actually hoping that the effects are not tied to the community board because then that means a lot in every world would have to be sacrificed to be a community lot in order for change to happen in all worlds and places like Del Sol Valley are tiny as is.
The gameplay trailer will tell all.
Let me also say I do love story progression, however not the default one from the sims 3 but how it's done with Nraas SP mod. If they added something like that I would be all over it or if It were something like the sims 2 and the attraction system with their own new spin on story progression that might suit 4 better as it's a closed world similar to 2.
You don't need to bounce from house to house, I use the cas.fulleditmode cheat and manage households for that.
I agree @LiELF . If they woud include a toggle to switch SP on/of for every individual household, maybe I would use it...
@Noree_Doree I never noticed huge differences when I rotated back to a household. Relationship culling can be a problem, but overall I have the feeling, that I can pick up where I left. Except for pets. They are always sick.
But even Sims 2 had its flaws with rotational gameplay. For instance, the Sims bought stuff when they appeared in a shop, and then they had it in their inventory. They even bought cats or dogs when I didn't play them. That was a little bit annoying, but also challenging.
Answering your question from my own rotational play, so not speaking for anyone else, I am comfortable with going into the settings. I turn the aging settings off or to "household only" a lot. I don't age my playables when I'm not there. Ok, recently, I did that accidentally, so now, when I switch households, I turn aging completely off for a few days to catch up. Generally, by correctly using the aging settings, everything is in synch.
I don't mind story progression for other people or in a different save but I don't want it forced on me. The game I'm playing now wouldn't work with story progression. No, I'm not just talking about the cult leader and the houses of his minions, though no, story progression wouldn't work there. Nothing happens without the dear leader. In my normal game, that would not work either.
I tend to find a stopping point before I switch. I don't really leave anything on a cliff-hanger for a household if I want to tie things up. My game is working for me though. Eventually, I might make more households unplayable in which case, maybe I'd have limited story progression. I prefer setting up my own game though rather than having everything randomized. I like the randomness to come from my own gameplay.