First of all thank you for this opportunity to voice our opinion and to listen to us. I am a long time simmer who started out when sims 1 had just 1 expansion. I like a mix of family gameplay and occult elements. I have a feeling with recent patches that you are listening to us. I like many of the recent updates like bunk beds, the return of the relax on bed option, more skintones, the soon to come haircolors,...
Here are my suggestions/feedback:
Hair colour swatches vs sliders : First of all I would like to say I am really happy we are getting more haircolors. I am wondering however why you chose to add additional color swatches and not sliders like you did for skintones and make up. My reasoning is the following: hair colors, just like skintones, come in a big variety in the real world, way more than can be done by swatches alone. Finding the correct haircolors can also help simmers to recreate themselves or their family. Could you please elaborate why you went for swatches instead of sliders.
Updating existing packs? : a while ago (early 2020?) you had a poll where you asked us which packs we would like to see updated. But there hasn't been any news on that. Are you still considering this? Could you please tell us? Even if the answer is no, I would prefer to know it instead of hoping for something that is not happening.
Importance of options : with so many packs it is important to give players option to toggle certain features. Have all features from all packs active at the same time can be a bit much. Some of the options in this game are well handled like the option to disable fame global and at an individual level. Another good option is to choose if we want to do laundry at a lot based level by placing the objects of the pack. I hoped bust the dust had followed the same way of activating the game play mechanism. For snowy escape you handled this perfectly for the take of shoes sign, which can be set by lot, but missed the opportunity to allow school uniforms outside of mt. Komorebi. It is always nice if we can use options (in the options menu or on the lot) to set the game to our personal preference.
Don't restrict gameplay to one world : the best packs are those whose features can be used in most worlds. Of course this is not possible for everything but it would be nice to see this available when possible. The most obvious example is swimming in oceans. In the ideal scenario this would have been patched in for existing worlds (even if this were only for newly started saves) however I am happy to see the feature is implemented in discover university and snowy escape. Another example is the rock climbing walls from snowy escape. Of course the mountain can only be done in the world that comes with the pack. But it would have been helpful to give us access to the rock objects in the debug catalogue so we could have sims practice in other worlds, for example in granite falls.
No Fake buildings between playable lots : The most recent worlds all follow the trend to add tons of decorative fake buildings in between lots. This can be seen in discover university, eco lifestyle and snowy escape. I understand this helps to create a certain atmosphere but it also severly limits the creativity for building new homes. With so many fake buildings, we have to match to not look totally out of place. There is little room for imagining this is anywhere else. Another downside is that these neighbourhoods take long to navigate through and seem empty because the sims are scattered around a big area.
Size does matter : this version of the sims has a few very large objects. Instead of including yet another set of chairs or the same kids drawing table over and over, it would be nice if you could offer smaller versions of those gigantic objects. This would be especially useful for tiny homes or apartments. To be more precise I am talking about the telescope, microscope, piano, cupcake machine, cauldrons and doll houses. I don't mind having big versions, but I would like for those big versions to not be our only option.
Integration between packs : for people who own several packs, it is always nice to see more integration between packs. For example tying the mountain climbing skill to the wall in fitness stuff. Another great example is the clubs which are updated for newer skills. It would be nice if the calendar could also receive new traditions. For example a tradition to watch a movie or to go to do something wellness related (massage, sauna,.. from spa day)
control over situational outfits: I understand the need for these if you want to create a specific setting, but it can be really frustrated because we have no control over them what so ever. Would it be possible to allow us to set them. For example on a dresser, or by shift clicking a sim with testingcheats? That way we can at least change them if we don't like them. Alternatively there could be an option to turn them off per category.
Patching in features from packs : for the most part, I have come to accept you occasionally do this. But for me it is important that the original pack still has some value. Get to work still has plenty to offer, even without the photography skill. Outdoor retreat still has a vacation world and the herbalism skill to offer after rental lots being patched in the base game. Perfect patio on the other hand feels kind of empty with no unique gameplay feature of its own. If I am allowed to make one suggestion on this topic it would be to patch in the baking skill into the base game. The current baking recipes obviously should stay with the pack, but that way all the birthday cakes could finally be set to baking instead of cooking.
roadmap: Please give us a roadmap for the rest of the year. It is nice to know what is coming. I am currently holding of of paranormal because I might need it for a bundle feature. But maybe I am needlessly waiting.
All in all, I really enjoy the game and look forward to what is to come.
1. [b]The memory system[/b]. Why isn't the memory system isn't available to console players? Can the memory system be improved to capture life changing events/general events autonomously? Can it be incorporated into the sentiments system? 2. [b]Sentiments[/b]. Will there be more sentiments? Will the sentiments be tuned in the future. I've been having a problem with toddlers having strong and long-lasting negative feelings towards caregivers over minute incidents. 3. [b]Life stages[/b]. Will any depth or nuance be added to the Baby, Child, Teen, and Elder life stages? They need more things to do with each other. [b]Children[/b] make up games and socialize and play together all the time, so the base game should have interactions like play tag, play hopscotch, play Miss Mary Mack. Same for teenagers. [b]Teenagers[/b] are still children and need more child like like activities as well as more unique social interactions and relationships to have with one another. [b]Elders[/b] need more content aimed at them, more clothes, and less negative moodlets, not everyone is near death from going on a jog as a senior. [b]Babies[/b] need more diapers, clothes, cribs, and decor as well as an update that will allow them to look more like their parents and no longer tied to the crib. 4. [b]Chance cards[/b]. When will more cards be added as well as an option to disable them? They become repetitive and disruptive without variety. 5. [b]Family Tree[/b]. The family tree needs more detail and to recognize more family members. In game sims will not recognize their own family the bigger the tree grows.
Sul Sul, The main thing I have wondered since The Sims 4 came out is.... why when you create a new family can you only create an acquaintance, parent sibling or spouse... I want to be able to create an aunt that is caring for her niece and nephew... I want to be able to do that without having to create the niece and nephews parent first.. Can you please explain why you have not done this yet? And is it possible for you to do in a future update?
Dear developers! Our Discord server really likes Sims 4. However, we find that some things have been considered well but not implemented well. For example, that the children quickly spread chaos, the dust comes way too quickly or the Sims quickly develop habits that annoy you as a player. We think the graphics are appropriate, we like the look of the game. The townies' clothing is sometimes quite inappropriate. An open world or freely selectable plots of land would certainly please us (and horses, farming, fairies). Greetings from Germany from the "Sims4-Suchtis".
1. We NEED burglars back. While this also means brining back law enforcement (which I know can be hot button these days), the Burglars have been iconic since the start of the Sims. It's a travesty that they're no longer in the game.
2. We need the sliders that were implemented for makeup to be implemented for hair and skin tone. It would take a lot less effort off of the team if we had more personalized control over the colors of these assets, since it wouldn't require the team to release huge batches of hair colors and skin tones if we could make the colors we want ourselves.
3. We need more CAS and BB that isn't super modern and contemporary. We have tons of geometric furniture, tons of crop tops, tons of just contemporary clothing. It's next to impossible to create Sims who feel like they're from another generation, notably elders, because there's just not a lot to support that. The clothes that do exist are minimal and there's not a lot of variance, and there's not a ton of options for furniture.
4. In that same vein, men's CAS stuff is next to non-existent and extremely lacking in packs that come out. It's always dominated by women's CAS stuff. While the playerbase may be leaning towards having more females, that shouldn't be a reason why the game is constantly lacking in men's CAS stuff. They still make up a good portion of Sims in the game. Also, we need body hair in the game. Humans have it, males notably moreso than females, so it's weird that the Sims are all hairless mole-rats without CC.
5. Packs need more interconnectivity. The little boost to Medium Skill in Paranormal if your Sim was a Caster was nice. The dogs/cats being able to operate as familiars in Realm of Magic was nice. There just needs to be more stuff like this. Something that springs to mind was the squandered Singing skill, that really should have had some kind of space carved out for it in Get Famous. Singers are some of the largest celebrities in our world, so it felt REALLY WEIRD that that skill was more of a footnote than a focus in the fame pack.
6. We need more unique traits and we need more aspirations. Some of the Aspiration categories are just pitiful, and some of them haven't had had additions since the base game. There's so much opportunity here that's being squandered. Traits, likewise aren't really diverse. Most traits seem to instead get added to the aspiration store, which is kind of dull.
7. We need more empty worlds, preferably with different themes.
8. Do more polls for future content. I feel like the Knitting, Paranormal, Eco Living, and Laundry day, which spawned off of earlier polls, did really well and had fun content. I think this makes the community happier getting what we've asked for, and helps Maxis sell products that they know the consumers want. It's the best and easiest way to avoid a situation like what happened with Journey to Batuu.
Most important for me is the lack of testing prior to pack release *QUALITY CONTROL* Each time a pack is released more bugs and glitches appear in the game. I know you are now working on "laundry list" but packs should be tested more prior to the packs being released so the issues are minimised. In some points the game is unplayable due to the amount of bugs in the game. It's frustrating, big examples: big bugs in the eco lifestyle pack, bust the dust pack, paranormal staff pack etc. The quality control of new pack releases at this time is unacceptable specially when prices of packs are so high.
Couple of things I would like to see: > More family gameplay (toddlers, kids and elders are so unappreciated in this game) > Better and bigger focus on story progression > Enabling more control for the game, certain things I should have more control for without using cheats (transferring money between households, pets etc) > Option for sims to own multiple houses or apartments
Hello Sims Team, I am sure others have suggested some of the following I am going to suggest, but just in case here are some things that I have been wanting to discuss. <3
Gallery updates that would really help others connect with those in the gallery are...
The ability to get a notification of when someone replies to your comment on one of their uploads (and maybe an extendable replies to comments area)
A separate tab for when people you follow upload/like creations and from a comment or like on your own creations
A few of the lots have tress that block the view of houses built on them in the thumbnail picture. Could we maybe either be able to take pictures of the house from other angels? (like an option from front, back, left, or right?)
A deletion of cc sims that somehow (from years ago) managed to bypass the cc tag (ex the top uploads for fairies in households are mostly cc fairies and they don't have a cc tag on them)
The ability to see all outfits of an uploaded sim (I have downloaded sims in the past for townies in my game and they ended up only having an everyday outfit and the rest of the outfits were randomized)
That is it for gallery but I did have a question about Sparkd. For those who placed in storyteller, stylist, and/or builder, what are the plans for them? Are there any plans for a future season? And there was mention of special events for Sparkd winners? Is there any update on that? Sorry for the questions, I am one of those who placed and I am excited about that still lol.
One last suggestion is can we bring back community events? I never got to play it but I know there was an event to unlock plant sims at one point. That would be fun to do again? I did do the kindness event which was a lot of fun.
Thanks for letting us be open to you all.
This is not a suggestion but a praise that the sims gurus and team in general have been awesome about keeping their players informed about what is going on with the game. That is something most games do not offer so it is really nice! Have a great day!
Hi everyone, I'd like to defend the rotational game, although the game engine isn't properly planned to such a way of playing. But if I couldn't follow the lives of each and every one of my original household's heirs, this game wouldn't have any sense for me. Besides, I am a super fan of Star Wars: Journey to Batuu. Yet, it's frustrating that the bug about the masks has been fixed just for new saves, and not for our old dynasties. Complaints aside, I've never given up playing since The Sims were launched in 2000. I love it.
Please unlock apartments/let us build our own apartments in any world. The only reason apartments are useful is to save on space/have multiple families in a single lot. Right now they’re a disaster, limited to Myshuno. They might as well not exist.
Please actually test your content before you put it on market, paying for broken /glitchy content is depressing and unethical on your part.
Please fix bunk beds you were so proud to tease us about. Are we a joke to you?
Thank you for your hard work. We know you work hard, but at times, it seems as though this work is misplaced and put into features that the majority of players don't want (ex. Journey to Batuu). We're one of the few fan bases that tells its creators our ideas, writes essays, takes survey after survey, however, the most requested features (open world, story progression, etc.) never come to light. It's been made so easy to fulfill these needs. I can assure you if all future efforts were modeled off a lag-free, graphically-improved Sims 3, 99% of players would be just fine. We aren't asking for much, we're just asking for a solid, replay-able game, just as Sims 3 was (with better peformance). Even more of us would be willing to purchase the packs! Please take our advice constructively, and better fulfill you player'a requests, not because it's good for PR, but it will actually be better for business in the end.
Sul Sul The Sims Team! Thanks you all for your hard work and inspiration! <3 For me, The Sims remains the best game ever! But I have some questions about future content. There are some more I need in my game. Will we see…? (if it’s possible) :) 1. more romantic interactions in the sims 4? Like slow dances, more options of proposals and wedding parties, new kisses and hugs, romantic photos, new relationship statuses, first love, blind dating, romantic walk holding hands and so on. 2. more family interactions and events? 3. more photo poses, frames and styles: polaroid photos (like in real life), photo booth (like in the sims 3), purikura (Japanese), photo albums (like in the sims 2), cameras (sims 3)? 4. more fashion-related content? Modals, fashion shows, designers, more interesting and improved photo shoots. 5. more parties like bachelorette/ bachelor party, funerals, teen party, prom night, new weddings, masquerade ball. 6. new worlds like Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Venezia (or just Italy), Bangkok, Seoul, India, Marseille or something else. 7. Hotel business? amusement park business? Malls? 8. New wedding and birthday cake recipes, decorations and interactions? 9. K-pop music groups, music bands, singers, dancers? film-directors, improved actors (new events, new films, new animations), commercial shoot, filming music videos 10. New sports and improved ones, sport events, basketball match, tennis, badminton, racing, bicycle races, hockey, volleyball, sailing sport, surfing 11. imaginary friends, paparazzi career, drive-in movie theater. Thank you a lot for your attention and being open to the conversation! Have a great day! ;)
Problems with the Sims 4
1: Emotions and emotional animations
Emotions were heralded as the most revolutionary thing to happen to The Sims series since its introduction. Yet since day 1 we've been able to
turn them off. What's the point of having them at all when every new pack gives you 10 different options to override emotional states? Emotions are unimpactful, uninspired and extremely easy to control to the point where if someone dies you just need to take an inspirational shower.
The emotional animations are really really bad. When they have no emotional state Sims look normal.
But when they are confident they look like a serial killer. Angry, cartoonish angry. Sad, like they want to jump off a building.
Flirty like someone who should be in jail. I don't know if you've realized Sims team but The Sims Community likes realism.
Let me demonstrate. What have Sims players been asking for from the very beginning?
Not sleeping pods. Not Neighborhood plans. Not dancing skeletons. They have been asking for: Cars
Pools
Toddlers
Terrain tool
Spiral Staircases
Laundry
Knitting
Pets
The Only exceptions are Occults. Because players love Occults. But this is where we start to get into the next issue.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2: The Sims Team is extremely slow to fix issues and does not listen to the community
The Only time issues are ever addressed, or when new features are added is when the community is at Maxis throat ready to tear down the castle and behead the king. Why does it take so long for you to just acknowledge the simplest of issues? Why has it taken you over 7 years to ask us for saved games to try and figure out what is causing simulation lag?
In section 1 I mentioned players love realism with Occults as the exception. But after the longest running game in Sims history we have the least amount of Occults ever. We have the least realistic Sims ever with missing features but what does the team decide to spend their time on? 19 Stuff packs. Which again, just hammers home the fact that The Sims team has become tone deaf to the community.
Not only that but a large part of the community which have been stigmatized their entire lives had to wait until 2020 for a barely adequate representation of their skin tone and culture.
The game is still missing features base game should have shipped with. But again what is Maxis more focused on? Kits.
People hate kits. And I mean it. They hate it. Because quite frankly Maxis is more focused on releasing new "Bite sized content" than fixing issues within the game and the community because people will buy it anyway right? No. We are done. As a fan of the series since 2002, owning almost every game Maxis has ever produced, I can tell you right now I am ready to walk away. Because of how Tone Deaf Maxis has become.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3: The Sims 4 is not balanced. At all
In every other Sims game you had to work to get what you wanted. You had to start from nothing and earn everything, overcoming hurdles, navigating issues and problems and creating a story for your Sims that gave them character. TS4's focus on character currently relies on Emotions. Which again since day 1 we have been able to disable with a single painting or trophy. Relies on repetitive gameplay due to the lack of objects and interactions. Tiny worlds that amplify all issues. Interactions that are extremely dull. Seriously. In Sims 3 I chose my social interactions with a purpose. In Sims 4 I've stopped caring. Why should I bother asking to learn about their traits when within 5 hours we can become best friends and learn all of each others traits. Social interactions have become meaningless.
The game is also extremely easy. Turning off core gameplay has become the defining feature of TS4. Emotions? Override them.
Money? Dust will make sure you never have to work a day in your life.
Death? Only temporary don't worry. Here are 9 different ways to bring you Sims back to life that are extremely easy, take no effort to obtain. And if that's still too hard, here are items that automatically activate upon death. No more level 10 gardening for Death Flowers, just buy them.
Friends? Don't worry just have your Sim talk to one person, walk away to get coffee and by the time you get back they will be friends without you having to do anything.
We are not asking for a Dark Souls game, we are asking for a SIMS game. Currently not only is Sims 4 a Sandbox where everything is given to you without any negative consequences, the Simulation part of the Sims 4 has been broken for years. In essence the Sims 4 today is a Sandbox disguised as a Simulation game that can't Simulate.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4: EA does not respect you. At all
We know, regardless of whether or not you want to admit it that EA is 90% of the problem facing Sims 4. They do not respect Maxis. They don't care about the content released. They care about their bottom line and whether The Sims can continue to make shareholders money. And the result of that is not only a game that was meant to be a small online multiplayer Sims game for PC pivoting to the 4th game in the series after the SimCity disaster. But also things like Kits. Content splitting between multiple packs. The highest prices we've ever had to pay for packs in the entire series history. For all TS3 packs on day one of release you would have payed less than $350. TS4 is bordering on $1000. And for what? what do we get out of it? New gameplay, with items that disable the new gameplay.
I don't know if you've noticed but The Sims 4 is all you have left. My Sims is dead. SimCity is dead. Spore is dead. Spin off games are dead. The Sims 4 is currently the only game that Maxis makes. And yet despite that you still refuse to acknowledge issues, fix problems and to just be honest? The Sims 4 is currently the ONLY thing standing between Maxis becoming the next Visceral Games.
May I remind you that it took until Sims 3 University.. In the final year of the Sims 3's life cycle for Maxis' name to appear on the cover of the box. To appear in credits on the Sims 3 Website and for your logo to be shown on the intro video. EA does not respect Maxis. All EA is concerned with is if Sims can make borderline Fifa money.
I don't know if you realize this Sims team. But Sims 4 is currently the 2nd highest earning franchise for EA behind FIFA. To date Sims 4 has made over $1.23 Billion on Origin alone. Never mind Amazon, Ebay sales, physical sales. Console sales, Steam sales Microsoft Store sales. The Sims 4 has made the most money in the franchises history. But if you've been using that as a benchmark for success I'm sorry to say it no wonder the game has turned out the way it has.
Again TS4 has made the most money in the franchises history. But honestly we haven't noticed
Because quite frankly, where has that money gone? It most certainly has not been invested in the game. It has not been invested in Maxis, in fact you've been downsized.. 3 Times since Emeryville. It has not gone into new technology. It hasn't even gone into QA testing. We know every pack released is either released in a broken state that may be fixed at some point (some have never even been playable DineOut). Or its extremely unbalanced like Bust the Dust still is after 2 patches.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I honestly do not have any hope for the future of the Series any more. I've put over 10,000 hours into Sims 3 alone let alone every other Maxis game. And the only hope I have left currently for Maxis is for you to either buy your own independence to self publish what you want and not your parent companies shareholders. Or for Microsoft to Purchase Maxis. Other than that if TS5 is more of the same you will be the next Visceral Games. And that alone should be enough to keep you up at night.
The Sims team has gone from "We will make the best Sims game ever!" to
"We will make the best Sims game we can". And that massive shift in mentality due to internal mismanagement and EA's greed has resulted in one of the most polarizing sequels in any franchises history.
Hi I just wanna know if we are gonna have more instruments in the future because I’m little done playing piano,violon ang guitar btw can we gonna have a real electric guitar,if we’re gonna have new free worlds and are there a difference between patch and pack love y’all your game is so amazing byye (sorry for my bad english)🤎
Honestly I'm a little confused about what this forum is asking for but I do have some things I'd like to add.
Family gameplay and all around togetherness is really lacking. There is not enough closeness. The interactions between a husband and wife as far as romance, affection, and being a loving couple is not too much different from them interacting with anyone else other than a few interactions. The same with siblings, bestfriends, extended family members, and non-married couples. All the sims are just static and the same. A family outing is always more imaginative vs being an actual part of the game. I'd like to see more ways implemented that allow sims to play out the closeness. A family picnic, holding toddlers hands, couples holding hands, kids playing tag, parents teaching their children things (like flying a kite, riding a bike, how to swim, how to cook, etc.), meaningful interactions with people that the sims are close with. I don't really know how to explain it. I'd just love to see sims naturally gravitating, interacting, and reacting to people that mean something to them instead of them reacting to their close loved ones the same way as they do to a random townie walking by.
The babies....I've seen it posted many times about better babies and I'll only add that it's a missed opportunity and needs to be updated. Aside from the poor neglected little babies, all the life stages need improvements. Toddlers should be able to interact with more objects and sims in more meaningful ways. Children, the poor things, they are so isolated and forgotten. There's so much that children should be able to do with other children aside from video games and doll houses. Right now they are pretty boring and anyone who has children knows they are very imaginative social creatures. Teens-Elders, the fact that there is barely a difference between 4 very different life stages is problematic We need some distinction and improvements for all of them.
Then there's the other various issues or rather my own personal dislikes. I think it's pretty obvious that I am a family player and eating together or lack there of is really annoying. It has definitely gotten better but such a simple thing that actually allows the "togetherness" that I yearn for is still a problem. The bugs in general are pretty terrible but I do know that they are issues that the team continuously works on. I hope that lag and the weird choice to lower the game resolution despite your own personal settings based on your computer is taken just as seriously. One thing (lol one) that is not an issue but is just more of an annoyance is the lack of new dance moves. A lot of my sims frequently go to clubs, parties, bars, etc. and omg those SAME dance moves my oh my!! It would be great if we could get some more dance moves including people ACTUALLY dancing together (oh how I miss the ability to slow dance). Also as mentioned several times by my fellow simmers, we need cross pack compatibility. Let's be honest, the packs individually are just not strong enough to hold their own. Simply integrating it all could help so much. Then there's my wish list, cars (TS2 style is perfectly fine), bands, places to go together (carnival, real vacations, movies, even more rabbit holes if that's what it takes), wants/fears, memories, zodiac signs, more traits.....I'll stop there.
I have been playing The Sims series for 20 years at this point and would love to see my favorite game regain its former glory. I know everything I've posted is not going to be implemented but I can't help but hope! Thank you Sims Team for giving us the opportunity to communicate in this way.
Hello creators of the Sims! I want to ask you three things: 1.create a stuff pack about thieves like the Sims 3 who could steal items inside your home. 2. Create a stuff pack on baby and baby strollers. 3. Put the kits for free for a limited time. (Last thing you can put for 24 hours the Sims 4 life on the island for free, please) I hope my message will make us curious ❤️❤️
Thanks for taking the time to read all of these awesome posts. Now for my own thoughts... First, I need to bring up the glitchy/unfinished so-called "Old Packs" - they may have been released a while ago, even years, but are they not still for sale? Customers are paying for them currently and will continue to do so, and therefore they're improvement and fixes should - without question - be a PRIORITY on your part.
I know Sim Lag is an issue you are looking into, so I won't beat a dead horse. However, along the same lines, the Action Queue never seems to work properly. Some actions consistently budge in front of others, and the multitasking often fails by making the multiple actions take2-3 times longer than normal. Likewise, some actions just take too long. Eating, even a Quick Meal, is the epitome of this problem. When my Sim is preparing for work or school, eating quickly is impossible. They're late or they're starving. Why can't they simply eat their meal like a normal person?
In the same vein, Sims 4 Pets are not an enjoyable feature of the game. Because they are not controllable like a Sim, interacting with them requires way too many processes. For example:
1) Dog whines. 2) Player has to notice. 3) Sim has to ask "What's wrong?" 4) Dog has thought bubble of "Potty Need" 5) Player has to notice. 6) Sim has to ask "Ask to Go Potty" 7) Dog goes outside and pees.
This is ridiculous. (And this is a scenario in a normal home, not an apartment!) If I could control the Dog, I would go out to pee by myself. Either Pets need to be controllable characters, or they need to be more intuitive or independent. It's clunky and not much fun.
Even though there is (oddly) no burglar in the Sims 4, random Sims seem awfully good at breaking into and entering my Sim's home and then won't go, even once Asked to Leave or Sent Home.
And speaking of Random Townies... I have a story: Recently, I spent months emptying an entire world save of people and buildings so that I could go on a "real estate shopping spree" through the gallery. I filled my entire save with AMAZING creations from fellow Simmers. I had the best time. Once the world was built, I began curating my populace. I hand-made families and downloaded some. I wanted my new save to feel personal to me. It was great, I picked traits, played with genetics, added pets, crafted lineages, stories, etc. Time came to move them into the detailed homes I'd specifically reserved for them. I quickly hit the 150 Sim Max. OK. If they all couldn't be Played Households, at least the rest of them could be seen walking around town and filling jobs around the maps. Or so I thought. I deleted the pack-specific townies and kept the OG households (like Pancakes and Goth), and Did Not move them into any homes. I finally start playing my Curated Save. Guess what!? Bella Goth, Eliza Pancakes and COUNTLESS (new) RANDOMLY GENERATED TOWNIES are populating my Save. My hand-made Unplayed Households (the ones with no homes) are nowhere to be seen in-world. Why? (If there's a solution, please tell me.) I made these Sims so that I wouldn't have a game crowded with those hideous (and horrifically named) Randomly Generated Townies. Why doesn't the game spawn My Premade Sims?
Plus Bella (for others its Nancy Landgraab or Judith Ward) keeps showing up EVERYWHERE. It's like she's stalking me. It's no longer funny after the first 10 times. That problem needs looked at for sure.
My premade, Unplayed Sims should be able to fill jobs, and not just to Cater a Party. They should be able to have a job manning a Food Stall or working at the Spa, you know?
Sims all feel the same, like copies. The traits (though recently improved - thanks) aren't enough to make Sims feel unique or like individuals. When I started playing my new Curated Save, even though I hand-picked traits and gave them jobs and skills, I quickly felt let down by how shallow the gameplay itself felt. Sure my World Edit was beautiful looking and thoughtfully made, but the Sims seemed so lifeless that I stopped playing it. The Sims need to be more unique. A simple Attraction System or even just Preferences/Favorites would improve things. Sims 3 had the ability to choose a Sim's Favorite Color/Music/Food, and I believe it was Sims 2 that had Romantic Preferences such as Hair Color, Body Type, Hygiene Level and Outfit Choice. Can any of this be implemented? It'd be a vast improvement in making Sims feel like they have Actual Personalities.
Just like the lack of likes/dislikes, there is a lack of jealousy. Real jealousy. A married spouse who gets cheated on should feel hurt, sad, angry - betrayed. The current reactions in the Sims 4 is quite lackluster. On the topic of Romance, Marriage Anniversary Parties don't exist? Married Sims should reject Romantic advances from those who are not their spouse. They should feel bad for flirting with other Sims, and flirt more with their partner. There is no feeling of LOYALTY in the Sims 4 relationships, which feels very odd. Family playing is not as fun as it has been in past Sims iterations.
Babies are OBJECTS in the Sims 4 (and yet you can't even carry them around in your inventory like you can a family-sized platter of hotdogs apparently). They should be able to be taken out in a stroller, like Sims 3, or shown off to friends and family, carried in the arms of the parents, maybe learn to crawl, maybe Child and Teens could have more interaction with them in and out of the bassinet. Why no cribs, btw? Cribs are normal. Bassinets aren't as common as cribs are in real life. Babies seem to be ignored.
Kids. Can they do homework together? Can their Teen siblings help with homework? Enough. Art. Tables. Already. Give them a new activity. A school bus should pick them up and drop them off! They just leave the front door and disappear into thin air. It sounds like a nightmare for the parent, honestly. Kids seem forgotten.
Teens are basically no different than Young Adults. They look, sound, and basically behave the same way. Where is their First Love experience? Prom? Highschool Graduation?? Sneaking out. Zits that happen autonomously and aren't just stuck in CAS. Learning to drive a CAR. (Oh yeah, those things we see driving around every world? We needed those 7 years ago.) Teens aren't teenagers anymore.
Elders need more stuff to do. Elder Sims need a Bingo Night at the very least. Elder specific clothing, hobbies, actions. Grandma's house could have a Happy or Nostalgic Moodlet, Grandpa could have a Specialty Recipe, or they could give Grandparent Advice to their Adult Children or Grandkids. Grandparents should be able to raise their Grandkids in the absence of the Parents. Just some ideas to make Elders less boring and more of a feature.
I really love the Sims, I've been addicted ever since the first game came out. And I've spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on (apparently) untested/unfinished Sims 4 packs, which is why I expect these packs to be fine tuned. If players like me, who have supported the Sims 4 with their hard-earned money and time and thoughtfulness, are left holding the bag, you can't expect us to be there for Sims 5.
Okay, I've written enough. There is more, but I'd just be repeating what others have stated. I hope you read this all the way through, and if you did, thank you.
And thanks for the haircolours update we will be getting. Like many I have asked for dark blonde hair in these forums, and it is good to see that now it is really happening!
I feel like there are some features already in the game, that could be polished or expanded for a more enjoyable gameplay.
- The keyboard controls (arrow keys) to rotate the camera: When you press ctrl/cmnd you get to rotate the angle of the camera, but only vertically, it would be great if this worked horizontally as well. As a mouseless laptop player this is vital. The way it currently works you have to use a different set of keys to completely rotate the camera. It feels so illogical to have the function only work for the up/down keys, but not for the right/left.
- Genetics: specially with City Living installed the generated townies are very culturally diverse, which is great! But the genetics seem completely random. I think it would be a nice improvement if skin, eye and hair color (and names) were generated in more realistic combinations more often.
- Also I think it would be very helpful if each hairstyle got a texture tag, so afro hair, wavy hair and straight hair can be filtered (both for the realistic genetics in townie generation, as in CAS). Rather than filtering by hair length, filtering by hair texture would be much more meaningful to me. Afro textured hairstyles are already super under-represented, at least make it easier to find them by giving them a filter.
- More subcategories in buy mode/ decorations section. There are so many different decorations and many items could actually be found in multiple different categories (clutter/statues and other), that it gets really hard to find stuff and I think a lot of lovely objects are overlooked because of this. It would be great if certain types of items would be grouped together better. Like parasols, fountains, room dividers etc.
And I think it would be great if there was a section for decorative/non-functional cabinets and shelves in the surfaces section.
And then there is the issue of random outfits. Wether they are newly spawned townies, unnecessary situation outfits, or premade sims' hot & cold weather outfits, the randomly generated outfits are simply awful. The results are so weird, and you see them so often, that it completely ruins the feeling that the sims walking around in them are people with personalities. It is extremely immersion breaking.
I've given up on the idea that random outfits as a whole will be fixed. So what would be the next best thing is to actually make it easier for us to edit them in CAS. Honestly sometimes I spend so much time editing townies, it feels like I'm hardly getting to the actual game, it feels like a drag. These are my thoughts of fixing that:
- Predesigned outfits are a great feature to help give townies quick makeovers. But there aren't enough outfits in there for so many townies, so a way to add more outfits would be great. It would be wonderful if there was a way to save and share those outfits.
- Actually it would be great if the townie outfits were selected from the predesigned styled outfits automatically, so they don't look so random anymore.
- Another improvement would be if glasses, makeup and piercings could be assigned and removed for every outfit at once. If a sim is wearing regular glasses in one outfit, it is very likely you'll want them to wear them in the other outfits too.
- Additionally, but this might be a personal preference, I would love all the CAS accessory categories to be accessible from the clothing/body section of the menu instead of the face part. I think it's like that when you let a sim plan new outfits. With all the randomly generated townie outfits you often have to remove completely out of place piercings and hats, and the constant zooming in and out, switching between head/body is just another thing that makes editing sims in CAS extra unpleasant. Specially if you're on your 20th townie edit of the day.
- filter cas parts on the likeliness of them being used. For example at the moment all the alien and other crazy eyeshadows are located at the top of the makeup section. But 90% of the time you'll be wanting to use the more standard type of make up, and you have to scroll past the crazy stuff all the time. Just not a smooth workflow. (same for piercings in the earrings section)
- Isn't it possible that those style tags that are used the CAS filtering system can be applied when new sims are generated, so a townie only wears clothes from one tag? And it would be great to expand on that. Link certain character traits to clothing styles.
Lastly I think packs should be integrated better together. For example cats and dogs should be walking around in every neighborhood. And plants should grow automatically in the Outdoor Retreat world, herbalism became useless since the Seasons update.
And old packs deserve more attention to be fixed. I am not talking about bugs. I am talking about features that impact storytelling, that actually work the way they are meant to, but that just don't make sense.
For example eco lifestyle:
It is such a let down that bad eco footprints are basically impossible to occur. It takes away so much meaning from the pack, that in practice, the game will have a neutral or healthy eco footprint whatever you do. Then what is any of the content of the pack even for?
And there's many things like this. Like when I want my sim to go dumpster diving, but the dumpster is always already in use by some random rich sim who lives in a giant mansion. That sim would not even be seen around the dumpster, let alone search through it! Why are there any sims in those abandoned community places at all? They are usually so crowded that I can't even do what I came there to do.
It seems to me that more attention needs to be given to looking at what message these kinds of details create. It is so important for storytelling and the believability of the game, which should be top focus for a life simulator. They make my sims life feel like a computer generated mess rather than a story. The random townies are the same. How can the player believe the Sims world is a little world of its own, if they are constantly faced with the obvious computer generated randomness? It's just such a shame that these little loose ends have such a big impact on the quality of the gameplay experience.
I hope I wrote this in an understandable way, if not I am happy to explain.
Thank you for listening to us!
Thank you for providing this opportunity to express what I feel about the game and the wishes I would like to see in the future update. As a builder, most of the suggestions in the following are about the build mode. Well, I really wish the build mode can be improved.
[b]1. About the worlds: [/b]Can we have another new world like Newcrest? Or can we have a larger world like Windenburg? The game is for 64-bit system, so I think it’s time to have a larger world now. Also, PLEASE IMPROVE THE WORLD Magnolia Promenade! This tiny community should not as a “new world”.
[b]2. About the lot size: [/b]Please add more tiny lots, large lots even huge lots in the worlds. It’s very interesting to build tiny home in 15×10 lots, and it matches with tiny home. In addition, I’m fascinated about SatiSim’s and Fantasims’ medieval architectures. The lot size in the recent game seems not large enough. If we can have some huge lots like 100×100, it will be awesome!
[b]3. Please separate the wall high for 2 independent buildings. [/b]Now, we can set the foundation high for different building. Can we also set a different wall high for independent buildings when they are in the same level?
[b]4. Extra levels for houses.[/b] I really wish to have 2 more levels because 4 levels are not enough in some cases. For example, I want to build some New York townhouses, but they look weird with only 4 levels. Yes, I can add a 4-level basement, but I prefer to build all the levels on the ground in this case. [b]Please, 2 more levels please![/b] I wish I can finish the townhouse block perfectly.
[b]5. Stair fences customization.[/b] I wish we can put rather the left stair fences or the right one by holding the Shift key. The other suggestions like adding more roof colors, putting vines on the roof, adding more chimneys in the game are also in my wish list, but they are the icing on the cake.
Thank you for keeping develop such an amazing game. The build mode brings me tons of fun. I love the platform update so so much. Well done sims team! I will be very grateful if you guys can improve the worlds and build mode. Thank you for reading this long comment and have a great day!
It's been the case that many people who played The Sims prior to The Sims 4 prefer older generations of the game. Has the sims team considered making a remastered Sims 3? That would be a great way to keep traditional players engaged in the community.
Really love this idea! I've been very happy about the improvements in hairstyles and skin tones, as well as the gender options that are currently available. Especially the latter is already so much better than what we usually get in games, and it really helps to make me feel more included. However, I think that there could be some improvements made. For one, it is currently impossible for male sims to have breasts, and for female sims to have a beard. I'm not sure how doable it is, but that is something I would really love to see. And further, I would very much like to be able to choose between more pronouns, and potentially even have sims that use more than just one pronoun. Especially since the nonbinary pride flag is already in the game, it would be great to be able to have a sim use they/them pronouns.
Lifestyles and traits - First, lifestyles need some fine tuning. My Sim shouldn’t become a workaholic just because they actually go to work. Some traits seem like they would make better lifestyles, freegan for example. Are there any plans to review traits and possibly change some of them to lifestyles? Are there any plans to add more traits (and slots for traits)?
The general game play in the sims 4 is bland. I started playing with sims 1 and loved the chaos that could be created. Is it possible to add an option for, I don’t know, a chaos mode? The game just needs more unpredictability.
Every sim acts the same. Traits bring a little variability but not enough. When fixes were put in for variability we got weird fixes like my goofball sims now constantly pranking and breaking their own toilet. Are there any plans to bring more variability back to the sims and the game in general?
Comments
Could we please have a photography ambition or trait? Thank you
First of all thank you for this opportunity to voice our opinion and to listen to us. I am a long time simmer who started out when sims 1 had just 1 expansion. I like a mix of family gameplay and occult elements. I have a feeling with recent patches that you are listening to us. I like many of the recent updates like bunk beds, the return of the relax on bed option, more skintones, the soon to come haircolors,...
Here are my suggestions/feedback:
Hair colour swatches vs sliders : First of all I would like to say I am really happy we are getting more haircolors. I am wondering however why you chose to add additional color swatches and not sliders like you did for skintones and make up. My reasoning is the following: hair colors, just like skintones, come in a big variety in the real world, way more than can be done by swatches alone. Finding the correct haircolors can also help simmers to recreate themselves or their family. Could you please elaborate why you went for swatches instead of sliders.
Updating existing packs? : a while ago (early 2020?) you had a poll where you asked us which packs we would like to see updated. But there hasn't been any news on that. Are you still considering this? Could you please tell us? Even if the answer is no, I would prefer to know it instead of hoping for something that is not happening.
Importance of options : with so many packs it is important to give players option to toggle certain features. Have all features from all packs active at the same time can be a bit much. Some of the options in this game are well handled like the option to disable fame global and at an individual level. Another good option is to choose if we want to do laundry at a lot based level by placing the objects of the pack. I hoped bust the dust had followed the same way of activating the game play mechanism. For snowy escape you handled this perfectly for the take of shoes sign, which can be set by lot, but missed the opportunity to allow school uniforms outside of mt. Komorebi. It is always nice if we can use options (in the options menu or on the lot) to set the game to our personal preference.
Don't restrict gameplay to one world : the best packs are those whose features can be used in most worlds. Of course this is not possible for everything but it would be nice to see this available when possible. The most obvious example is swimming in oceans. In the ideal scenario this would have been patched in for existing worlds (even if this were only for newly started saves) however I am happy to see the feature is implemented in discover university and snowy escape. Another example is the rock climbing walls from snowy escape. Of course the mountain can only be done in the world that comes with the pack. But it would have been helpful to give us access to the rock objects in the debug catalogue so we could have sims practice in other worlds, for example in granite falls.
No Fake buildings between playable lots : The most recent worlds all follow the trend to add tons of decorative fake buildings in between lots. This can be seen in discover university, eco lifestyle and snowy escape. I understand this helps to create a certain atmosphere but it also severly limits the creativity for building new homes. With so many fake buildings, we have to match to not look totally out of place. There is little room for imagining this is anywhere else. Another downside is that these neighbourhoods take long to navigate through and seem empty because the sims are scattered around a big area.
Size does matter : this version of the sims has a few very large objects. Instead of including yet another set of chairs or the same kids drawing table over and over, it would be nice if you could offer smaller versions of those gigantic objects. This would be especially useful for tiny homes or apartments. To be more precise I am talking about the telescope, microscope, piano, cupcake machine, cauldrons and doll houses. I don't mind having big versions, but I would like for those big versions to not be our only option.
Integration between packs : for people who own several packs, it is always nice to see more integration between packs. For example tying the mountain climbing skill to the wall in fitness stuff. Another great example is the clubs which are updated for newer skills. It would be nice if the calendar could also receive new traditions. For example a tradition to watch a movie or to go to do something wellness related (massage, sauna,.. from spa day)
control over situational outfits: I understand the need for these if you want to create a specific setting, but it can be really frustrated because we have no control over them what so ever. Would it be possible to allow us to set them. For example on a dresser, or by shift clicking a sim with testingcheats? That way we can at least change them if we don't like them. Alternatively there could be an option to turn them off per category.
Patching in features from packs : for the most part, I have come to accept you occasionally do this. But for me it is important that the original pack still has some value. Get to work still has plenty to offer, even without the photography skill. Outdoor retreat still has a vacation world and the herbalism skill to offer after rental lots being patched in the base game. Perfect patio on the other hand feels kind of empty with no unique gameplay feature of its own. If I am allowed to make one suggestion on this topic it would be to patch in the baking skill into the base game. The current baking recipes obviously should stay with the pack, but that way all the birthday cakes could finally be set to baking instead of cooking.
roadmap: Please give us a roadmap for the rest of the year. It is nice to know what is coming. I am currently holding of of paranormal because I might need it for a bundle feature. But maybe I am needlessly waiting.
All in all, I really enjoy the game and look forward to what is to come.
2. [b]Sentiments[/b]. Will there be more sentiments? Will the sentiments be tuned in the future. I've been having a problem with toddlers having strong and long-lasting negative feelings towards caregivers over minute incidents.
3. [b]Life stages[/b]. Will any depth or nuance be added to the Baby, Child, Teen, and Elder life stages? They need more things to do with each other. [b]Children[/b] make up games and socialize and play together all the time, so the base game should have interactions like play tag, play hopscotch, play Miss Mary Mack. Same for teenagers. [b]Teenagers[/b] are still children and need more child like like activities as well as more unique social interactions and relationships to have with one another. [b]Elders[/b] need more content aimed at them, more clothes, and less negative moodlets, not everyone is near death from going on a jog as a senior. [b]Babies[/b] need more diapers, clothes, cribs, and decor as well as an update that will allow them to look more like their parents and no longer tied to the crib.
4. [b]Chance cards[/b]. When will more cards be added as well as an option to disable them? They become repetitive and disruptive without variety.
5. [b]Family Tree[/b]. The family tree needs more detail and to recognize more family members. In game sims will not recognize their own family the bigger the tree grows.
It's just one thing.........please....I've been patiently waiting, but am irritated now.
The main thing I have wondered since The Sims 4 came out is.... why when you create a new family can you only create an acquaintance, parent sibling or spouse... I want to be able to create an aunt that is caring for her niece and nephew... I want to be able to do that without having to create the niece and nephews parent first.. Can you please explain why you have not done this yet? And is it possible for you to do in a future update?
Our Discord server really likes Sims 4. However, we find that some things have been considered well but not implemented well. For example, that the children quickly spread chaos, the dust comes way too quickly or the Sims quickly develop habits that annoy you as a player.
We think the graphics are appropriate, we like the look of the game. The townies' clothing is sometimes quite inappropriate. An open world or freely selectable plots of land would certainly please us (and horses, farming, fairies). Greetings from Germany from the "Sims4-Suchtis".
2. We need the sliders that were implemented for makeup to be implemented for hair and skin tone. It would take a lot less effort off of the team if we had more personalized control over the colors of these assets, since it wouldn't require the team to release huge batches of hair colors and skin tones if we could make the colors we want ourselves.
3. We need more CAS and BB that isn't super modern and contemporary. We have tons of geometric furniture, tons of crop tops, tons of just contemporary clothing. It's next to impossible to create Sims who feel like they're from another generation, notably elders, because there's just not a lot to support that. The clothes that do exist are minimal and there's not a lot of variance, and there's not a ton of options for furniture.
4. In that same vein, men's CAS stuff is next to non-existent and extremely lacking in packs that come out. It's always dominated by women's CAS stuff. While the playerbase may be leaning towards having more females, that shouldn't be a reason why the game is constantly lacking in men's CAS stuff. They still make up a good portion of Sims in the game. Also, we need body hair in the game. Humans have it, males notably moreso than females, so it's weird that the Sims are all hairless mole-rats without CC.
5. Packs need more interconnectivity. The little boost to Medium Skill in Paranormal if your Sim was a Caster was nice. The dogs/cats being able to operate as familiars in Realm of Magic was nice. There just needs to be more stuff like this. Something that springs to mind was the squandered Singing skill, that really should have had some kind of space carved out for it in Get Famous. Singers are some of the largest celebrities in our world, so it felt REALLY WEIRD that that skill was more of a footnote than a focus in the fame pack.
6. We need more unique traits and we need more aspirations. Some of the Aspiration categories are just pitiful, and some of them haven't had had additions since the base game. There's so much opportunity here that's being squandered. Traits, likewise aren't really diverse. Most traits seem to instead get added to the aspiration store, which is kind of dull.
7. We need more empty worlds, preferably with different themes.
8. Do more polls for future content. I feel like the Knitting, Paranormal, Eco Living, and Laundry day, which spawned off of earlier polls, did really well and had fun content. I think this makes the community happier getting what we've asked for, and helps Maxis sell products that they know the consumers want. It's the best and easiest way to avoid a situation like what happened with Journey to Batuu.
Each time a pack is released more bugs and glitches appear in the game. I know you are now working on "laundry list" but packs should be tested more prior to the packs being released so the issues are minimised. In some points the game is unplayable due to the amount of bugs in the game. It's frustrating, big examples: big bugs in the eco lifestyle pack, bust the dust pack, paranormal staff pack etc. The quality control of new pack releases at this time is unacceptable specially when prices of packs are so high.
Couple of things I would like to see:
> More family gameplay (toddlers, kids and elders are so unappreciated in this game)
> Better and bigger focus on story progression
> Enabling more control for the game, certain things I should have more control for without using cheats (transferring money between households, pets etc)
> Option for sims to own multiple houses or apartments
Gallery updates that would really help others connect with those in the gallery are...
The ability to get a notification of when someone replies to your comment on one of their uploads (and maybe an extendable replies to comments area)
A separate tab for when people you follow upload/like creations and from a comment or like on your own creations
A few of the lots have tress that block the view of houses built on them in the thumbnail picture. Could we maybe either be able to take pictures of the house from other angels? (like an option from front, back, left, or right?)
A deletion of cc sims that somehow (from years ago) managed to bypass the cc tag (ex the top uploads for fairies in households are mostly cc fairies and they don't have a cc tag on them)
The ability to see all outfits of an uploaded sim (I have downloaded sims in the past for townies in my game and they ended up only having an everyday outfit and the rest of the outfits were randomized)
That is it for gallery but I did have a question about Sparkd. For those who placed in storyteller, stylist, and/or builder, what are the plans for them? Are there any plans for a future season? And there was mention of special events for Sparkd winners? Is there any update on that? Sorry for the questions, I am one of those who placed and I am excited about that still lol.
One last suggestion is can we bring back community events? I never got to play it but I know there was an event to unlock plant sims at one point. That would be fun to do again? I did do the kindness event which was a lot of fun.
Thanks for letting us be open to you all.
This is not a suggestion but a praise that the sims gurus and team in general have been awesome about keeping their players informed about what is going on with the game. That is something most games do not offer so it is really nice! Have a great day!
I'd like to defend the rotational game, although the game engine isn't properly planned to such a way of playing. But if I couldn't follow the lives of each and every one of my original household's heirs, this game wouldn't have any sense for me.
Besides, I am a super fan of Star Wars: Journey to Batuu. Yet, it's frustrating that the bug about the masks has been fixed just for new saves, and not for our old dynasties.
Complaints aside, I've never given up playing since The Sims were launched in 2000. I love it.
Please unlock apartments/let us build our own apartments in any world. The only reason apartments are useful is to save on space/have multiple families in a single lot. Right now they’re a disaster, limited to Myshuno. They might as well not exist.
Please actually test your content before you put it on market, paying for broken /glitchy content is depressing and unethical on your part.
Please fix bunk beds you were so proud to tease us about. Are we a joke to you?
Please fix babies.
Thank you for your hard work. We know you work hard, but at times, it seems as though this work is misplaced and put into features that the majority of players don't want (ex. Journey to Batuu). We're one of the few fan bases that tells its creators our ideas, writes essays, takes survey after survey, however, the most requested features (open world, story progression, etc.) never come to light. It's been made so easy to fulfill these needs. I can assure you if all future efforts were modeled off a lag-free, graphically-improved Sims 3, 99% of players would be just fine. We aren't asking for much, we're just asking for a solid, replay-able game, just as Sims 3 was (with better peformance). Even more of us would be willing to purchase the packs! Please take our advice constructively, and better fulfill you player'a requests, not because it's good for PR, but it will actually be better for business in the end.
But I have some questions about future content. There are some more I need in my game.
Will we see…? (if it’s possible) :)
1. more romantic interactions in the sims 4? Like slow dances, more options of proposals and wedding parties, new kisses and hugs, romantic photos, new relationship statuses, first love, blind dating, romantic walk holding hands and so on.
2. more family interactions and events?
3. more photo poses, frames and styles: polaroid photos (like in real life), photo booth (like in the sims 3), purikura (Japanese), photo albums (like in the sims 2), cameras (sims 3)?
4. more fashion-related content? Modals, fashion shows, designers, more interesting and improved photo shoots.
5. more parties like bachelorette/ bachelor party, funerals, teen party, prom night, new weddings, masquerade ball.
6. new worlds like Rio de Janeiro, Miami, Venezia (or just Italy), Bangkok, Seoul, India, Marseille or something else.
7. Hotel business? amusement park business? Malls?
8. New wedding and birthday cake recipes, decorations and interactions?
9. K-pop music groups, music bands, singers, dancers? film-directors, improved actors (new events, new films, new animations), commercial shoot, filming music videos
10. New sports and improved ones, sport events, basketball match, tennis, badminton, racing, bicycle races, hockey, volleyball, sailing sport, surfing
11. imaginary friends, paparazzi career, drive-in movie theater.
Thank you a lot for your attention and being open to the conversation! Have a great day! ;)
1: Emotions and emotional animations
Emotions were heralded as the most revolutionary thing to happen to The Sims series since its introduction. Yet since day 1 we've been able to
turn them off. What's the point of having them at all when every new pack gives you 10 different options to override emotional states? Emotions are unimpactful, uninspired and extremely easy to control to the point where if someone dies you just need to take an inspirational shower.
The emotional animations are really really bad. When they have no emotional state Sims look normal.
But when they are confident they look like a serial killer. Angry, cartoonish angry. Sad, like they want to jump off a building.
Flirty like someone who should be in jail. I don't know if you've realized Sims team but The Sims Community likes realism.
Let me demonstrate. What have Sims players been asking for from the very beginning?
Not sleeping pods. Not Neighborhood plans. Not dancing skeletons. They have been asking for:
Cars
Pools
Toddlers
Terrain tool
Spiral Staircases
Laundry
Knitting
Pets
The Only exceptions are Occults. Because players love Occults. But this is where we start to get into the next issue.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2: The Sims Team is extremely slow to fix issues and does not listen to the community
The Only time issues are ever addressed, or when new features are added is when the community is at Maxis throat ready to tear down the castle and behead the king. Why does it take so long for you to just acknowledge the simplest of issues? Why has it taken you over 7 years to ask us for saved games to try and figure out what is causing simulation lag?
In section 1 I mentioned players love realism with Occults as the exception. But after the longest running game in Sims history we have the least amount of Occults ever. We have the least realistic Sims ever with missing features but what does the team decide to spend their time on? 19 Stuff packs. Which again, just hammers home the fact that The Sims team has become tone deaf to the community.
Not only that but a large part of the community which have been stigmatized their entire lives had to wait until 2020 for a barely adequate representation of their skin tone and culture.
The game is still missing features base game should have shipped with. But again what is Maxis more focused on? Kits.
People hate kits. And I mean it. They hate it. Because quite frankly Maxis is more focused on releasing new "Bite sized content" than fixing issues within the game and the community because people will buy it anyway right? No. We are done. As a fan of the series since 2002, owning almost every game Maxis has ever produced, I can tell you right now I am ready to walk away. Because of how Tone Deaf Maxis has become.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3: The Sims 4 is not balanced. At all
In every other Sims game you had to work to get what you wanted. You had to start from nothing and earn everything, overcoming hurdles, navigating issues and problems and creating a story for your Sims that gave them character. TS4's focus on character currently relies on Emotions. Which again since day 1 we have been able to disable with a single painting or trophy. Relies on repetitive gameplay due to the lack of objects and interactions. Tiny worlds that amplify all issues. Interactions that are extremely dull. Seriously. In Sims 3 I chose my social interactions with a purpose. In Sims 4 I've stopped caring. Why should I bother asking to learn about their traits when within 5 hours we can become best friends and learn all of each others traits. Social interactions have become meaningless.
The game is also extremely easy. Turning off core gameplay has become the defining feature of TS4. Emotions? Override them.
Money? Dust will make sure you never have to work a day in your life.
Death? Only temporary don't worry. Here are 9 different ways to bring you Sims back to life that are extremely easy, take no effort to obtain. And if that's still too hard, here are items that automatically activate upon death. No more level 10 gardening for Death Flowers, just buy them.
Friends? Don't worry just have your Sim talk to one person, walk away to get coffee and by the time you get back they will be friends without you having to do anything.
We are not asking for a Dark Souls game, we are asking for a SIMS game. Currently not only is Sims 4 a Sandbox where everything is given to you without any negative consequences, the Simulation part of the Sims 4 has been broken for years. In essence the Sims 4 today is a Sandbox disguised as a Simulation game that can't Simulate.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4: EA does not respect you. At all
We know, regardless of whether or not you want to admit it that EA is 90% of the problem facing Sims 4. They do not respect Maxis. They don't care about the content released. They care about their bottom line and whether The Sims can continue to make shareholders money. And the result of that is not only a game that was meant to be a small online multiplayer Sims game for PC pivoting to the 4th game in the series after the SimCity disaster. But also things like Kits. Content splitting between multiple packs. The highest prices we've ever had to pay for packs in the entire series history. For all TS3 packs on day one of release you would have payed less than $350. TS4 is bordering on $1000. And for what? what do we get out of it? New gameplay, with items that disable the new gameplay.
I don't know if you've noticed but The Sims 4 is all you have left. My Sims is dead. SimCity is dead. Spore is dead. Spin off games are dead. The Sims 4 is currently the only game that Maxis makes. And yet despite that you still refuse to acknowledge issues, fix problems and to just be honest? The Sims 4 is currently the ONLY thing standing between Maxis becoming the next Visceral Games.
May I remind you that it took until Sims 3 University.. In the final year of the Sims 3's life cycle for Maxis' name to appear on the cover of the box. To appear in credits on the Sims 3 Website and for your logo to be shown on the intro video. EA does not respect Maxis. All EA is concerned with is if Sims can make borderline Fifa money.
I don't know if you realize this Sims team. But Sims 4 is currently the 2nd highest earning franchise for EA behind FIFA. To date Sims 4 has made over $1.23 Billion on Origin alone. Never mind Amazon, Ebay sales, physical sales. Console sales, Steam sales Microsoft Store sales. The Sims 4 has made the most money in the franchises history. But if you've been using that as a benchmark for success I'm sorry to say it no wonder the game has turned out the way it has.
Again TS4 has made the most money in the franchises history. But honestly we haven't noticed
Because quite frankly, where has that money gone? It most certainly has not been invested in the game. It has not been invested in Maxis, in fact you've been downsized.. 3 Times since Emeryville. It has not gone into new technology. It hasn't even gone into QA testing. We know every pack released is either released in a broken state that may be fixed at some point (some have never even been playable DineOut). Or its extremely unbalanced like Bust the Dust still is after 2 patches.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I honestly do not have any hope for the future of the Series any more. I've put over 10,000 hours into Sims 3 alone let alone every other Maxis game. And the only hope I have left currently for Maxis is for you to either buy your own independence to self publish what you want and not your parent companies shareholders. Or for Microsoft to Purchase Maxis. Other than that if TS5 is more of the same you will be the next Visceral Games. And that alone should be enough to keep you up at night.
The Sims team has gone from "We will make the best Sims game ever!" to
"We will make the best Sims game we can". And that massive shift in mentality due to internal mismanagement and EA's greed has resulted in one of the most polarizing sequels in any franchises history.
Family gameplay and all around togetherness is really lacking. There is not enough closeness. The interactions between a husband and wife as far as romance, affection, and being a loving couple is not too much different from them interacting with anyone else other than a few interactions. The same with siblings, bestfriends, extended family members, and non-married couples. All the sims are just static and the same. A family outing is always more imaginative vs being an actual part of the game. I'd like to see more ways implemented that allow sims to play out the closeness. A family picnic, holding toddlers hands, couples holding hands, kids playing tag, parents teaching their children things (like flying a kite, riding a bike, how to swim, how to cook, etc.), meaningful interactions with people that the sims are close with. I don't really know how to explain it. I'd just love to see sims naturally gravitating, interacting, and reacting to people that mean something to them instead of them reacting to their close loved ones the same way as they do to a random townie walking by.
The babies....I've seen it posted many times about better babies and I'll only add that it's a missed opportunity and needs to be updated. Aside from the poor neglected little babies, all the life stages need improvements. Toddlers should be able to interact with more objects and sims in more meaningful ways. Children, the poor things, they are so isolated and forgotten. There's so much that children should be able to do with other children aside from video games and doll houses. Right now they are pretty boring and anyone who has children knows they are very imaginative social creatures. Teens-Elders, the fact that there is barely a difference between 4 very different life stages is problematic We need some distinction and improvements for all of them.
Then there's the other various issues or rather my own personal dislikes. I think it's pretty obvious that I am a family player and eating together or lack there of is really annoying. It has definitely gotten better but such a simple thing that actually allows the "togetherness" that I yearn for is still a problem. The bugs in general are pretty terrible but I do know that they are issues that the team continuously works on. I hope that lag and the weird choice to lower the game resolution despite your own personal settings based on your computer is taken just as seriously. One thing (lol one) that is not an issue but is just more of an annoyance is the lack of new dance moves. A lot of my sims frequently go to clubs, parties, bars, etc. and omg those SAME dance moves my oh my!! It would be great if we could get some more dance moves including people ACTUALLY dancing together (oh how I miss the ability to slow dance). Also as mentioned several times by my fellow simmers, we need cross pack compatibility. Let's be honest, the packs individually are just not strong enough to hold their own. Simply integrating it all could help so much. Then there's my wish list, cars (TS2 style is perfectly fine), bands, places to go together (carnival, real vacations, movies, even more rabbit holes if that's what it takes), wants/fears, memories, zodiac signs, more traits.....I'll stop there.
I have been playing The Sims series for 20 years at this point and would love to see my favorite game regain its former glory. I know everything I've posted is not going to be implemented but I can't help but hope! Thank you Sims Team for giving us the opportunity to communicate in this way.
Thanks for taking the time to read all of these awesome posts. Now for my own thoughts... First, I need to bring up the glitchy/unfinished so-called "Old Packs" - they may have been released a while ago, even years, but are they not still for sale? Customers are paying for them currently and will continue to do so, and therefore they're improvement and fixes should - without question - be a PRIORITY on your part.
I know Sim Lag is an issue you are looking into, so I won't beat a dead horse. However, along the same lines, the Action Queue never seems to work properly. Some actions consistently budge in front of others, and the multitasking often fails by making the multiple actions take2-3 times longer than normal. Likewise, some actions just take too long. Eating, even a Quick Meal, is the epitome of this problem. When my Sim is preparing for work or school, eating quickly is impossible. They're late or they're starving. Why can't they simply eat their meal like a normal person?
In the same vein, Sims 4 Pets are not an enjoyable feature of the game. Because they are not controllable like a Sim, interacting with them requires way too many processes. For example:
1) Dog whines.
2) Player has to notice.
3) Sim has to ask "What's wrong?"
4) Dog has thought bubble of "Potty Need"
5) Player has to notice.
6) Sim has to ask "Ask to Go Potty"
7) Dog goes outside and pees.
This is ridiculous. (And this is a scenario in a normal home, not an apartment!) If I could control the Dog, I would go out to pee by myself. Either Pets need to be controllable characters, or they need to be more intuitive or independent. It's clunky and not much fun.
Even though there is (oddly) no burglar in the Sims 4, random Sims seem awfully good at breaking into and entering my Sim's home and then won't go, even once Asked to Leave or Sent Home.
And speaking of Random Townies... I have a story: Recently, I spent months emptying an entire world save of people and buildings so that I could go on a "real estate shopping spree" through the gallery. I filled my entire save with AMAZING creations from fellow Simmers. I had the best time. Once the world was built, I began curating my populace. I hand-made families and downloaded some. I wanted my new save to feel personal to me. It was great, I picked traits, played with genetics, added pets, crafted lineages, stories, etc. Time came to move them into the detailed homes I'd specifically reserved for them. I quickly hit the 150 Sim Max. OK. If they all couldn't be Played Households, at least the rest of them could be seen walking around town and filling jobs around the maps. Or so I thought. I deleted the pack-specific townies and kept the OG households (like Pancakes and Goth), and Did Not move them into any homes. I finally start playing my Curated Save. Guess what!? Bella Goth, Eliza Pancakes and COUNTLESS (new) RANDOMLY GENERATED TOWNIES are populating my Save. My hand-made Unplayed Households (the ones with no homes) are nowhere to be seen in-world. Why? (If there's a solution, please tell me.) I made these Sims so that I wouldn't have a game crowded with those hideous (and horrifically named) Randomly Generated Townies. Why doesn't the game spawn My Premade Sims?
Plus Bella (for others its Nancy Landgraab or Judith Ward) keeps showing up EVERYWHERE. It's like she's stalking me. It's no longer funny after the first 10 times. That problem needs looked at for sure.
My premade, Unplayed Sims should be able to fill jobs, and not just to Cater a Party. They should be able to have a job manning a Food Stall or working at the Spa, you know?
Sims all feel the same, like copies. The traits (though recently improved - thanks) aren't enough to make Sims feel unique or like individuals. When I started playing my new Curated Save, even though I hand-picked traits and gave them jobs and skills, I quickly felt let down by how shallow the gameplay itself felt. Sure my World Edit was beautiful looking and thoughtfully made, but the Sims seemed so lifeless that I stopped playing it. The Sims need to be more unique. A simple Attraction System or even just Preferences/Favorites would improve things. Sims 3 had the ability to choose a Sim's Favorite Color/Music/Food, and I believe it was Sims 2 that had Romantic Preferences such as Hair Color, Body Type, Hygiene Level and Outfit Choice. Can any of this be implemented? It'd be a vast improvement in making Sims feel like they have Actual Personalities.
Just like the lack of likes/dislikes, there is a lack of jealousy. Real jealousy. A married spouse who gets cheated on should feel hurt, sad, angry - betrayed. The current reactions in the Sims 4 is quite lackluster. On the topic of Romance, Marriage Anniversary Parties don't exist? Married Sims should reject Romantic advances from those who are not their spouse. They should feel bad for flirting with other Sims, and flirt more with their partner. There is no feeling of LOYALTY in the Sims 4 relationships, which feels very odd. Family playing is not as fun as it has been in past Sims iterations.
Babies are OBJECTS in the Sims 4 (and yet you can't even carry them around in your inventory like you can a family-sized platter of hotdogs apparently). They should be able to be taken out in a stroller, like Sims 3, or shown off to friends and family, carried in the arms of the parents, maybe learn to crawl, maybe Child and Teens could have more interaction with them in and out of the bassinet. Why no cribs, btw? Cribs are normal. Bassinets aren't as common as cribs are in real life. Babies seem to be ignored.
Kids. Can they do homework together? Can their Teen siblings help with homework? Enough. Art. Tables. Already. Give them a new activity. A school bus should pick them up and drop them off! They just leave the front door and disappear into thin air. It sounds like a nightmare for the parent, honestly. Kids seem forgotten.
Teens are basically no different than Young Adults. They look, sound, and basically behave the same way. Where is their First Love experience? Prom? Highschool Graduation?? Sneaking out. Zits that happen autonomously and aren't just stuck in CAS. Learning to drive a CAR. (Oh yeah, those things we see driving around every world? We needed those 7 years ago.) Teens aren't teenagers anymore.
Elders need more stuff to do. Elder Sims need a Bingo Night at the very least. Elder specific clothing, hobbies, actions. Grandma's house could have a Happy or Nostalgic Moodlet, Grandpa could have a Specialty Recipe, or they could give Grandparent Advice to their Adult Children or Grandkids. Grandparents should be able to raise their Grandkids in the absence of the Parents. Just some ideas to make Elders less boring and more of a feature.
I really love the Sims, I've been addicted ever since the first game came out. And I've spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on (apparently) untested/unfinished Sims 4 packs, which is why I expect these packs to be fine tuned. If players like me, who have supported the Sims 4 with their hard-earned money and time and thoughtfulness, are left holding the bag, you can't expect us to be there for Sims 5.
Okay, I've written enough. There is more, but I'd just be repeating what others have stated. I hope you read this all the way through, and if you did, thank you.
Sincerely,
Jacqueline
And thanks for the haircolours update we will be getting. Like many I have asked for dark blonde hair in these forums, and it is good to see that now it is really happening!
I feel like there are some features already in the game, that could be polished or expanded for a more enjoyable gameplay.
- The keyboard controls (arrow keys) to rotate the camera: When you press ctrl/cmnd you get to rotate the angle of the camera, but only vertically, it would be great if this worked horizontally as well. As a mouseless laptop player this is vital. The way it currently works you have to use a different set of keys to completely rotate the camera. It feels so illogical to have the function only work for the up/down keys, but not for the right/left.
- Genetics: specially with City Living installed the generated townies are very culturally diverse, which is great! But the genetics seem completely random. I think it would be a nice improvement if skin, eye and hair color (and names) were generated in more realistic combinations more often.
- Also I think it would be very helpful if each hairstyle got a texture tag, so afro hair, wavy hair and straight hair can be filtered (both for the realistic genetics in townie generation, as in CAS). Rather than filtering by hair length, filtering by hair texture would be much more meaningful to me. Afro textured hairstyles are already super under-represented, at least make it easier to find them by giving them a filter.
- More subcategories in buy mode/ decorations section. There are so many different decorations and many items could actually be found in multiple different categories (clutter/statues and other), that it gets really hard to find stuff and I think a lot of lovely objects are overlooked because of this. It would be great if certain types of items would be grouped together better. Like parasols, fountains, room dividers etc.
And I think it would be great if there was a section for decorative/non-functional cabinets and shelves in the surfaces section.
And then there is the issue of random outfits. Wether they are newly spawned townies, unnecessary situation outfits, or premade sims' hot & cold weather outfits, the randomly generated outfits are simply awful. The results are so weird, and you see them so often, that it completely ruins the feeling that the sims walking around in them are people with personalities. It is extremely immersion breaking.
I've given up on the idea that random outfits as a whole will be fixed. So what would be the next best thing is to actually make it easier for us to edit them in CAS. Honestly sometimes I spend so much time editing townies, it feels like I'm hardly getting to the actual game, it feels like a drag. These are my thoughts of fixing that:
- Predesigned outfits are a great feature to help give townies quick makeovers. But there aren't enough outfits in there for so many townies, so a way to add more outfits would be great. It would be wonderful if there was a way to save and share those outfits.
- Actually it would be great if the townie outfits were selected from the predesigned styled outfits automatically, so they don't look so random anymore.
- Another improvement would be if glasses, makeup and piercings could be assigned and removed for every outfit at once. If a sim is wearing regular glasses in one outfit, it is very likely you'll want them to wear them in the other outfits too.
- Additionally, but this might be a personal preference, I would love all the CAS accessory categories to be accessible from the clothing/body section of the menu instead of the face part. I think it's like that when you let a sim plan new outfits. With all the randomly generated townie outfits you often have to remove completely out of place piercings and hats, and the constant zooming in and out, switching between head/body is just another thing that makes editing sims in CAS extra unpleasant. Specially if you're on your 20th townie edit of the day.
- filter cas parts on the likeliness of them being used. For example at the moment all the alien and other crazy eyeshadows are located at the top of the makeup section. But 90% of the time you'll be wanting to use the more standard type of make up, and you have to scroll past the crazy stuff all the time. Just not a smooth workflow. (same for piercings in the earrings section)
- Isn't it possible that those style tags that are used the CAS filtering system can be applied when new sims are generated, so a townie only wears clothes from one tag? And it would be great to expand on that. Link certain character traits to clothing styles.
Lastly I think packs should be integrated better together. For example cats and dogs should be walking around in every neighborhood. And plants should grow automatically in the Outdoor Retreat world, herbalism became useless since the Seasons update.
And old packs deserve more attention to be fixed. I am not talking about bugs. I am talking about features that impact storytelling, that actually work the way they are meant to, but that just don't make sense.
For example eco lifestyle:
It is such a let down that bad eco footprints are basically impossible to occur. It takes away so much meaning from the pack, that in practice, the game will have a neutral or healthy eco footprint whatever you do. Then what is any of the content of the pack even for?
And there's many things like this. Like when I want my sim to go dumpster diving, but the dumpster is always already in use by some random rich sim who lives in a giant mansion. That sim would not even be seen around the dumpster, let alone search through it! Why are there any sims in those abandoned community places at all? They are usually so crowded that I can't even do what I came there to do.
It seems to me that more attention needs to be given to looking at what message these kinds of details create. It is so important for storytelling and the believability of the game, which should be top focus for a life simulator. They make my sims life feel like a computer generated mess rather than a story. The random townies are the same. How can the player believe the Sims world is a little world of its own, if they are constantly faced with the obvious computer generated randomness? It's just such a shame that these little loose ends have such a big impact on the quality of the gameplay experience.
I hope I wrote this in an understandable way, if not I am happy to explain.
Thank you for listening to us!
Thank you for providing this opportunity to express what I feel about the game and the wishes I would like to see in the future update. As a builder, most of the suggestions in the following are about the build mode. Well, I really wish the build mode can be improved.
[b]1. About the worlds: [/b]Can we have another new world like Newcrest? Or can we have a larger world like Windenburg? The game is for 64-bit system, so I think it’s time to have a larger world now. Also, PLEASE IMPROVE THE WORLD Magnolia Promenade! This tiny community should not as a “new world”.
[b]2. About the lot size: [/b]Please add more tiny lots, large lots even huge lots in the worlds. It’s very interesting to build tiny home in 15×10 lots, and it matches with tiny home. In addition, I’m fascinated about SatiSim’s and Fantasims’ medieval architectures. The lot size in the recent game seems not large enough. If we can have some huge lots like 100×100, it will be awesome!
[b]3. Please separate the wall high for 2 independent buildings. [/b]Now, we can set the foundation high for different building. Can we also set a different wall high for independent buildings when they are in the same level?
[b]4. Extra levels for houses.[/b] I really wish to have 2 more levels because 4 levels are not enough in some cases. For example, I want to build some New York townhouses, but they look weird with only 4 levels. Yes, I can add a 4-level basement, but I prefer to build all the levels on the ground in this case. [b]Please, 2 more levels please![/b] I wish I can finish the townhouse block perfectly.
[b]5. Stair fences customization.[/b] I wish we can put rather the left stair fences or the right one by holding the Shift key.
The other suggestions like adding more roof colors, putting vines on the roof, adding more chimneys in the game are also in my wish list, but they are the icing on the cake.
Thank you for keeping develop such an amazing game. The build mode brings me tons of fun. I love the platform update so so much. Well done sims team! I will be very grateful if you guys can improve the worlds and build mode. Thank you for reading this long comment and have a great day!
Why are there so few lots in the world? Some Sims 3 worlds had close to 100. Is this a compatibility issue?
The general game play in the sims 4 is bland. I started playing with sims 1 and loved the chaos that could be created. Is it possible to add an option for, I don’t know, a chaos mode? The game just needs more unpredictability.
Every sim acts the same. Traits bring a little variability but not enough. When fixes were put in for variability we got weird fixes like my goofball sims now constantly pranking and breaking their own toilet. Are there any plans to bring more variability back to the sims and the game in general?