I hope these improvements are tied to the EP. Those who buy all the packs should get some perks for the full money they've laid out over the years. I'm looking forward to seeing changes in my Sims as I'm not one who makes stories up about single ones; playing them rotationally.
It's now a 64bit game not 32bit so really not the same game anymore.
Sure. The whole point of an expansion pack is to expand the game in a meaningful way. The personality overhaul will add new depth to the game and enhance game play which is what an expansion should do.
Should it really cost $40 though? We were promised better personalities with the base game. Shouldn't it be free for everyone if it will really change our sims personalities?
I think it's okay that we pay for new features. The scandal is that paid features are broken for months or years.
But these are paid features that should have been in the base game. Were we not told how complex are sims personalities would be when the game was first released? And how did that turn out?
The fact that we have to spend $40 to flesh out our sims personalities is ridiculous.
If the base game wasn't so bare bones, this wouldn't be a problem.
Because what if I don't like snow or mountains? What if someone feels forced to buy this EP because this one features is actually implemented really well and fixes a lot of what they don't like about TS? Do they then pay for it anyway, even though they'll never use the world as such, or continue playing with lacking personalities while others don't?
Isn't this pretty much every EP GP and SP that ever comes out. I personally have not loved 100% of the aspects of every pack. Sometime I have bought them for that 1 thing that I really wanted. For example, I wanted aliens but I don't care about active careers so I bought Get to Work. EA is a company. There goal is to make money. It makes great business sense to include a variety of different things in each pack that might appeal to different people to increase who wants to buy it. Those who wanted winter sports, Asian themes, or personality overhauls may be 3 separate and distinct groups of people so it increases their pool of people who are willing to buy it.
It just seems like people are always forgetting EA is a business. There goal is only to make money. To do that they try and create things that will appeal to the largest group of people so that people will buy it. A personality overhaul is something people have been asking for. I am going to assume it took a good deal of work to develop. I doubt they will give it away for free--
Isn't this pretty much every EP GP and SP that ever comes out. I personally have not loved 100% of the aspects of every pack. Sometime I have bought them for that 1 thing that I really wanted. For example, I wanted aliens but I don't care about active careers so I bought Get to Work. EA is a company. There goal is to make money. It makes great business sense to include a variety of different things in each pack that might appeal to different people to increase who wants to buy it. Those who wanted winter sports, Asian themes, or personality overhauls may be 3 separate and distinct groups of people so it increases their pool of people who are willing to buy it.
It just seems like people are always forgetting EA is a business. There goal is only to make money. To do that they try and create things that will appeal to the largest group of people so that people will buy it. A personality overhaul is something people have been asking for. I am going to assume it took a good deal of work to develop. I doubt they will give it away for free--
Except that we were told that Sims personalities would be complex in the base game, and that was $60. And their personalities were shallow!
So now we have to spend $40 to make our sims' personalities more complex?...Something seems fishy.
It may make them money, but it doesn't seem very ethical to me. Which is why EA has such a poor reputation.
I think it's okay that we pay for new features. The scandal is that paid features are broken for months or years.
But these are paid features that should have been in the base game. Were we not told how complex are sims personalities would be when the game was first released? And how did that turn out?
The fact that we have to spend $40 to flesh out our sims personalities is ridiculous.
If the base game wasn't so bare bones, this wouldn't be a problem.
I agree that the basegame was barebone in many aspects, but the personalities (emotions, traits, whims) were not especially less fleshed out than in previous iterations. I'm playing TS3 with great fun at the moment and think it's vastly superior in regard to worlds, actions, goals and freedom, but the social aspect was always better in TS4.
If the personality additions are tied to the pack, I think it's possibly because they actually do change your Sims' behaviors (as the write-up claims) with a hidden system, and I've seen some other players say they don't want that, they like the Sims the way they are now. If a big change like this were to be patched in after six years, Maxis could have another horde of angry players on their backs. Many people who are already invested in the game are comfortable with the mechanics, so to suddenly change that on them could be disruptive. The majority of the player base isn't on the Forums or stalking the game on social media, so I suppose it would be risky.
But personally, I was hoping we'd get it patched into the foundation of the game so it can be expanded on in the future. Unless it's based on the Myers and Briggs Sixteen Personalities psychology, which I suspect it might be, in which case that's all there is to that theory and it's a pretty solid one.
I suspect there will still be personality issues because, yes, the foundation isn't solid. The traits are still meager and flaccid, there is still no Fear emotion or Worry or Anxiety so there is no completion to emotions, and enemy/rival behaviors hardly exist. Without the basics of core behaviors, it's hard to build a system on top of it that brings the needed changes, but I won't say it's impossible. Sims 2 added personality in packs just fine.
All in all, I think it's a good start. Properly changing Sim behaviors is going to be a long process that I don't think can be done in one swift move. So it will be important for us to leave feedback on this system and let them know what works, what doesn't, and where we think they should go from here. The fact that we are getting a system shows that they are invested in our requests and interests and it's possible that they have been working on this for a while. To me, this is a major turning point and will require both positive and negative detailed feedback because this might influence how the devs move forward with related content and it could potentially bring the long-awaited changes in the game for the better.
Very good point, it's possible that they want to try it out first because they don't know how well it is going to be received.
I mean, they did an overhaul of how sims react to the environment and someone over at maxis thought it was a great idea that your sim is going to do a yawning animation if their environment score is low and a "aha!" animation if their environment score is high, every time they receive the environment buff,
who knows what "bright ideas" Maxis would do with a personality overhaul. Maybe they will add tons of idle animations with this overhaul.
At least let them be new...If it's just more recycled content I'll likely not buy it.
I have a feeling that they were forced to make this long requested sit behind a paywall in response due to financial difficulties posed by COVID + a slew of packs that were regarded as flops by their player base.
"Financial difficulties" as in "EA won't give Maxis a proper budget". Because EA is literally swimming in money. Maybe not Blizzard / Activision money, but a very very very large amount of money for the game industry; they are basically the Google of games, while Blizzard is Facebook and Valve is Twitter.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but the description is pretty clear:
"The Sims 4 Snowy Escape also introduces Lifestyles and Sentiments features..."
It's a feature of the pack, not of the game overall.
I'm not trying to be negative, but the statement speaks for itself...
Good thing I don't hate the idea of the pack.
But it will be a wait and see deal for me. I never want a repeat of Eco Lifestyle NAPs.
It will be my Birthday Present to myself (it's Nov 4th) but I honestly say the personality system is the only thing interesting. I don't care for winter, I don't care for winter sports other than hockey and never been into Japanese culture (ESPECIALLY since weabos makes it all so cringy). Not hating on it, just saying I am not particularly into it in any way just like I'm not thought one way or another about it (far more interested in Chinese culture myself).
The only activity that looks fun is the climbing to me. The whole pack is just a solid 5 on a scale to 10 for me.
I think it's okay that we pay for new features. The scandal is that paid features are broken for months or years.
But these are paid features that should have been in the base game. Were we not told how complex are sims personalities would be when the game was first released? And how did that turn out?
The fact that we have to spend $40 to flesh out our sims personalities is ridiculous.
If the base game wasn't so bare bones, this wouldn't be a problem.
I agree that the basegame was barebone in many aspects, but the personalities (emotions, traits, whims) were not especially less fleshed out than in previous iterations. I'm playing TS3 with great fun at the moment and think it's vastly superior in regard to worlds, actions, goals and freedom, but the social aspect was always better in TS4.
whims are barely updated. traits are just play pretend, your sims couldn't care less about them. they now behave according to their emotions rather than their memories, personalities, relationships, traits, etc. ts4 is in special need to get a personalities (and AI) overhaul. all sims do the same, have the same animations, and feel like clones. there's no uniqueness anymore. i don't see how ea think they can afford to put essential features in packs after giving the most shallow base game ever promoted with misleading marketing. remember when devs said ts4 had the smartest sims ever?
well of course they can afford it. they have convinced their players to lower their expectations and that now every single feature will have its own pack.
I think it's okay that we pay for new features. The scandal is that paid features are broken for months or years.
But these are paid features that should have been in the base game. Were we not told how complex are sims personalities would be when the game was first released? And how did that turn out?
The fact that we have to spend $40 to flesh out our sims personalities is ridiculous.
If the base game wasn't so bare bones, this wouldn't be a problem.
I agree that the basegame was barebone in many aspects, but the personalities (emotions, traits, whims) were not especially less fleshed out than in previous iterations. I'm playing TS3 with great fun at the moment and think it's vastly superior in regard to worlds, actions, goals and freedom, but the social aspect was always better in TS4.
whims are barely updated. traits are just play pretend, your sims couldn't care less about them. they now behave according to their emotions rather than their memories, personalities, relationships, traits, etc. ts4 is in special need to get a personalities (and AI) overhaul. all sims do the same, have the same animations, and feel like clones. there's no uniqueness anymore. i don't see how ea think they can afford to put essential features in packs after giving the most shallow base game ever promoted with misleading marketing. remember when devs said ts4 had the smartest sims ever?
well of course they can afford it. they have convinced their players to lower their expectations and that now every single feature will have its own pack.
All true, but at least for TS3 I can say that the Sims were even more cloned and robotic (but could do fantastic things).
I think it's okay that we pay for new features. The scandal is that paid features are broken for months or years.
But these are paid features that should have been in the base game. Were we not told how complex are sims personalities would be when the game was first released? And how did that turn out?
The fact that we have to spend $40 to flesh out our sims personalities is ridiculous.
If the base game wasn't so bare bones, this wouldn't be a problem.
I agree that the basegame was barebone in many aspects, but the personalities (emotions, traits, whims) were not especially less fleshed out than in previous iterations. I'm playing TS3 with great fun at the moment and think it's vastly superior in regard to worlds, actions, goals and freedom, but the social aspect was always better in TS4.
Have you rewatched the old trailers lately? They make tons of promises that just never manifested. "Weirder and Smarter". "Stay Weird".
The emotion system never worked, managed to be over-active yet barely impact anything. The perks are meaningless from a personality standpoint: "Oh you're unflirty! That means you probably won't woohoo that Sim you just met until after 8 hours of flirting instead of 6") and whims were so pointless the default setting is now to hide them.
The Sims 2 had a FAR more impactful personality System, for example.
Hard to guess. Lot traits were a big point of City Living, right? Yet a decent set of them was patched. OTG upgrades were split between patched (bills update, some ways to get water without EL) and the expansion. Likewise, Snowy Retreat mentions build mode updates - and those are 100% to be in the patch.
It sounds like their finally going to fix personality’s but their putting in a snowy mountain resort pack? That makes literally no sense. Does that mean the lifestyles are only going to be snowy mountain related?
This is definitely something that needs to be a pre-patch update...
Maybe somebody messed up and put it listed in the EP features...
It literally makes no sense for this to be a core feature for this EP.
I think it's okay that we pay for new features. The scandal is that paid features are broken for months or years.
But these are paid features that should have been in the base game. Were we not told how complex are sims personalities would be when the game was first released? And how did that turn out?
The fact that we have to spend $40 to flesh out our sims personalities is ridiculous.
If the base game wasn't so bare bones, this wouldn't be a problem.
I agree that the basegame was barebone in many aspects, but the personalities (emotions, traits, whims) were not especially less fleshed out than in previous iterations. I'm playing TS3 with great fun at the moment and think it's vastly superior in regard to worlds, actions, goals and freedom, but the social aspect was always better in TS4.
whims are barely updated. traits are just play pretend, your sims couldn't care less about them. they now behave according to their emotions rather than their memories, personalities, relationships, traits, etc. ts4 is in special need to get a personalities (and AI) overhaul. all sims do the same, have the same animations, and feel like clones. there's no uniqueness anymore. i don't see how ea think they can afford to put essential features in packs after giving the most shallow base game ever promoted with misleading marketing. remember when devs said ts4 had the smartest sims ever?
well of course they can afford it. they have convinced their players to lower their expectations and that now every single feature will have its own pack.
All true, but at least for TS3 I can say that the Sims were even more cloned and robotic (but could do fantastic things).
i don't know about ts3 cuz i've haven't played it much but still felt like they're better done.
i was taking as reference the sims 2 & the sims 1.
It sounds like their finally going to fix personality’s but their putting in a snowy mountain resort pack? That makes literally no sense. Does that mean the lifestyles are only going to be snowy mountain related?
This is definitely something that needs to be a pre-patch update...
Maybe somebody messed up and put it listed in the EP features...
It literally makes no sense for this to be a core feature for this EP.
Of course it makes sense, haven't you understood yet? They literally decided to make a package to bring together everything that should be in Seasons, City Living, Spa Pack, Fitness Stuff and base game to have the presumption that this is worth the value of an expansion and that it is clearly expanding its game, the sims 4 the generation of, "let's leave it to put it later so they can pay more"
Another detail that really bothered me is the lack of hotels and the fact that the world is a residential hybrid and holidays that clearly understand that we will not be able to transform other worlds into holiday worlds, it was something that I really wanted and clearly was left so for the modders fix what they don't want to fix.
Not to be a Debbie Downer, but the description is pretty clear:
"The Sims 4 Snowy Escape also introduces Lifestyles and Sentiments features..."
It's a feature of the pack, not of the game overall.
I'm not trying to be negative, but the statement speaks for itself...
Good thing I don't hate the idea of the pack.
But it will be a wait and see deal for me. I never want a repeat of Eco Lifestyle NAPs.
It will be my Birthday Present to myself (it's Nov 4th) but I honestly say the personality system is the only thing interesting. I don't care for winter, I don't care for winter sports other than hockey and never been into Japanese culture (ESPECIALLY since weabos makes it all so cringy). Not hating on it, just saying I am not particularly into it in any way just like I'm not thought one way or another about it (far more interested in Chinese culture myself).
The only activity that looks fun is the climbing to me. The whole pack is just a solid 5 on a scale to 10 for me.
I feel the need to response to this but yes, im never one drawn to a japanese culture thanks to those weaboos. so the japanese stuff in this pack does not intrigue me.
Considering it's a sim universe, should they just mix chinese, korean and japanese into single city? but that might receive backlash, but I know a game who did it and loved by the community and It's Guild Wars. the game mixed those three cultures into one named Canthan.
I think it's okay that we pay for new features. The scandal is that paid features are broken for months or years.
But these are paid features that should have been in the base game. Were we not told how complex are sims personalities would be when the game was first released? And how did that turn out?
The fact that we have to spend $40 to flesh out our sims personalities is ridiculous.
If the base game wasn't so bare bones, this wouldn't be a problem.
I agree that the basegame was barebone in many aspects, but the personalities (emotions, traits, whims) were not especially less fleshed out than in previous iterations. I'm playing TS3 with great fun at the moment and think it's vastly superior in regard to worlds, actions, goals and freedom, but the social aspect was always better in TS4.
whims are barely updated. traits are just play pretend, your sims couldn't care less about them. they now behave according to their emotions rather than their memories, personalities, relationships, traits, etc. ts4 is in special need to get a personalities (and AI) overhaul. all sims do the same, have the same animations, and feel like clones. there's no uniqueness anymore. i don't see how ea think they can afford to put essential features in packs after giving the most shallow base game ever promoted with misleading marketing. remember when devs said ts4 had the smartest sims ever?
well of course they can afford it. they have convinced their players to lower their expectations and that now every single feature will have its own pack.
All true, but at least for TS3 I can say that the Sims were even more cloned and robotic (but could do fantastic things).
@alanmichael1 At least in the Sims 3 the vegeterian Sims didn't eat meat automatically. Sorry not sorry.
Also the Sims 2 personalities were much more fleshed out. Maybe you need to go back and check them out again.
Comments
It's now a 64bit game not 32bit so really not the same game anymore.
Should it really cost $40 though? We were promised better personalities with the base game. Shouldn't it be free for everyone if it will really change our sims personalities?
Good thing I don't hate the idea of the pack.
But it will be a wait and see deal for me. I never want a repeat of Eco Lifestyle NAPs.
Yeah, I thought of memories too, when I heard about Sentiments. I'm psyched for both.
But these are paid features that should have been in the base game. Were we not told how complex are sims personalities would be when the game was first released? And how did that turn out?
The fact that we have to spend $40 to flesh out our sims personalities is ridiculous.
If the base game wasn't so bare bones, this wouldn't be a problem.
That doesn't mean they can't patch elements of it into the base game. They've done this before. We'll just have to wait and see.
@Dianesims It is listed as one of the four main features of the pack so I doubt it.
I hope they do patch something, even if it's a smaller version of the Sentiments and Lifestyles system.
Hoping some clarification from the devs comes soon!
Except that we were told that Sims personalities would be complex in the base game, and that was $60. And their personalities were shallow!
So now we have to spend $40 to make our sims' personalities more complex?...Something seems fishy.
It may make them money, but it doesn't seem very ethical to me. Which is why EA has such a poor reputation.
I agree that the basegame was barebone in many aspects, but the personalities (emotions, traits, whims) were not especially less fleshed out than in previous iterations. I'm playing TS3 with great fun at the moment and think it's vastly superior in regard to worlds, actions, goals and freedom, but the social aspect was always better in TS4.
At least let them be new...If it's just more recycled content I'll likely not buy it.
"Financial difficulties" as in "EA won't give Maxis a proper budget". Because EA is literally swimming in money. Maybe not Blizzard / Activision money, but a very very very large amount of money for the game industry; they are basically the Google of games, while Blizzard is Facebook and Valve is Twitter.
It will be my Birthday Present to myself (it's Nov 4th) but I honestly say the personality system is the only thing interesting. I don't care for winter, I don't care for winter sports other than hockey and never been into Japanese culture (ESPECIALLY since weabos makes it all so cringy). Not hating on it, just saying I am not particularly into it in any way just like I'm not thought one way or another about it (far more interested in Chinese culture myself).
The only activity that looks fun is the climbing to me. The whole pack is just a solid 5 on a scale to 10 for me.
whims are barely updated. traits are just play pretend, your sims couldn't care less about them. they now behave according to their emotions rather than their memories, personalities, relationships, traits, etc. ts4 is in special need to get a personalities (and AI) overhaul. all sims do the same, have the same animations, and feel like clones. there's no uniqueness anymore. i don't see how ea think they can afford to put essential features in packs after giving the most shallow base game ever promoted with misleading marketing. remember when devs said ts4 had the smartest sims ever?
well of course they can afford it. they have convinced their players to lower their expectations and that now every single feature will have its own pack.
All true, but at least for TS3 I can say that the Sims were even more cloned and robotic (but could do fantastic things).
Have you rewatched the old trailers lately? They make tons of promises that just never manifested. "Weirder and Smarter". "Stay Weird".
The emotion system never worked, managed to be over-active yet barely impact anything. The perks are meaningless from a personality standpoint: "Oh you're unflirty! That means you probably won't woohoo that Sim you just met until after 8 hours of flirting instead of 6") and whims were so pointless the default setting is now to hide them.
The Sims 2 had a FAR more impactful personality System, for example.
I also like wandering the hills.
It sounds like their finally going to fix personality’s but their putting in a snowy mountain resort pack? That makes literally no sense. Does that mean the lifestyles are only going to be snowy mountain related?
This is definitely something that needs to be a pre-patch update...
Maybe somebody messed up and put it listed in the EP features...
It literally makes no sense for this to be a core feature for this EP.
i don't know about ts3 cuz i've haven't played it much but still felt like they're better done.
i was taking as reference the sims 2 & the sims 1.
Of course it makes sense, haven't you understood yet? They literally decided to make a package to bring together everything that should be in Seasons, City Living, Spa Pack, Fitness Stuff and base game to have the presumption that this is worth the value of an expansion and that it is clearly expanding its game, the sims 4 the generation of, "let's leave it to put it later so they can pay more"
Another detail that really bothered me is the lack of hotels and the fact that the world is a residential hybrid and holidays that clearly understand that we will not be able to transform other worlds into holiday worlds, it was something that I really wanted and clearly was left so for the modders fix what they don't want to fix.
I feel the need to response to this but yes, im never one drawn to a japanese culture thanks to those weaboos. so the japanese stuff in this pack does not intrigue me.
Considering it's a sim universe, should they just mix chinese, korean and japanese into single city? but that might receive backlash, but I know a game who did it and loved by the community and It's Guild Wars. the game mixed those three cultures into one named Canthan.
@alanmichael1 At least in the Sims 3 the vegeterian Sims didn't eat meat automatically. Sorry not sorry.
Also the Sims 2 personalities were much more fleshed out. Maybe you need to go back and check them out again.