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Free Up Time for the Devs!
Randie_Reigns
Posts: 59 Member
Sims 4 is a game that was created to run smoothly on many types of devices. This may be why we have so many new players starting with Sims 4, but I don't think that's it. I think most of them are players who were not around when the first games came out, or didn't own a computer at the time. Now nearly every household has a computer. In the 2000's, computers were more of a luxury than a necessity and of course any one just finding the game will choose the newest version over an older. That's just common sense.
I think its great that the community is growing and that this game includes many types of gamers as well as many types of people. But, you are leaving a couple of large groups of players out.
1. The serious gamers. The ones who pay big bucks for our gaming rigs and live for high detailed games.
2. The die-hard fans that have been with the game since Sims 1 or 2.
By leaving us out, you are leaving out a huge amount of players you are trying to include and you are losing a lot of possible sales.
I have some ideas on how the next generation of Sims could fix this.
I read and watch a lot in the community. I have also played with coding and I am an artist. I have also played Sims since Sims 2. I know deadlines make devs cut things they don't want to leave out. They can't do everything! This is their job. Not just their passion. As players, we need to understand this!
Yes, Sims 4 is dumbed down and seriously lacking the challenge and details that older games had. Only those inside the studios know what has changed on that side that led to this craziness. But Sims 4 is still good. It brought a lot of good things to the table. With a few tweaks, fixes, and revolutionary additions, the next generation of Sims could be a game that we would want to keep buying content for even if the game lasts 15-20 years.
What would you give up in the game to have more detailed gameplay if dev time is the issue?
How about worlds/neighborhoods, premade sims, and lore? Now, before you get mad, hear me out. There are tons of builders/storytellers in the community and we have the gallery, which is an amazing feature. What if instead of these things being created by the devs and included in the game, they code a true world creator with reasonable sized maps that can be designed from the roads to the sims? The talented community could create anything and everything and upload it to the gallery. You can bet that eventually every world and every version of lore would be created, so nothing would truly be left out and everyone could have exactly what they want, rather they prefer older sims lore or completely new sims that have nothing to do with the lore that came with the games. They could even have the Game Changers or other known players create the most popular worlds of the past and either include them in game or put them on a special page in the gallery. Do you realize how much time that would free up for other jobs?
Now what is the best way to play these player created maps? Well, I am thinking back on my Yoworld days. (Yoworld is an online social game with home decorating and character dress up that was fun, but was destroyed because, well other people could play with us.) There was a way to connect properties to each other and this was a FB game, so doing it on a regular pc game can be done. We should keep the neighborhoods instead of going back to worlds. This would allow us to create our own towns. We could have a hidden object/arrow that can be placed on roads, lakes, oceans, ect in the world creator. Or even have predefined places that the devs decide. Either way would be fine. We could then click on this arrow and choose from a list of neighborhoods we have downloaded and connect them to that spot.
In game, going to this point would trigger the loading screen that takes us to the new place. This would allow neighborhoods to be open and it would more than likely reduce the lag and crash issues we had in Sims 3. I honestly believe the worlds were too large in 3 and that may have contributed to the loading problem. Smaller neighborhoods in size are better, but I think we can handle more than what we have in 4 with todays technology. And don't limit us too much with these neighborhoods devs, just make different sized maps, nothing on the scale of 3, because some computers can handle more than others. (And please, no set dressing! It just irritates us!) We as players will be able to figure out what works for our machines and what doesn't. I believe this would satisfy more players than any of our current games ever have. It has the ability to include every type of player and every type of gamer and device. If you're going to include all platforms, you have to give options for all of them. Even consoles come with different specs.
It would be nice if we could have a feature connected to the maps that allows us to ban certain sims from entering those towns. This way we can stop those out of place sims from showing up in towns that make no sense for them to be there. Of course we would need a way for some to come for vacation for any tourist spots we may have in the future. And who wouldn't mind a vampire sneaking into a neighboring town to feed in the night? It would make this feature even better.
With the current way the world works, (Less Content for More Money) we need to prioritize what is most important. Gameplay and creation. Many of us have created sims and we have created homes. We take a long time doing that. Let's turn this part over to the players and give the coders more time to work on the gameplay features.
We know the content they give us to work with will be beautiful. All the games are gorgeous. Except hair. Guys, come on. Let's update that to something close to Alpha CC. I'm pretty sure the hair styles are a universal dislike. LOL.
I know this is a long post, but ideas take a lot of words. There are many more I wanted to add here, but I'm going to leave it here and maybe post others beneath it. If you like the idea and think it would help the next gen, or just have another idea that would make this better, comment below. To make change you have to make some noise sometimes.
I think its great that the community is growing and that this game includes many types of gamers as well as many types of people. But, you are leaving a couple of large groups of players out.
1. The serious gamers. The ones who pay big bucks for our gaming rigs and live for high detailed games.
2. The die-hard fans that have been with the game since Sims 1 or 2.
By leaving us out, you are leaving out a huge amount of players you are trying to include and you are losing a lot of possible sales.
I have some ideas on how the next generation of Sims could fix this.
I read and watch a lot in the community. I have also played with coding and I am an artist. I have also played Sims since Sims 2. I know deadlines make devs cut things they don't want to leave out. They can't do everything! This is their job. Not just their passion. As players, we need to understand this!
Yes, Sims 4 is dumbed down and seriously lacking the challenge and details that older games had. Only those inside the studios know what has changed on that side that led to this craziness. But Sims 4 is still good. It brought a lot of good things to the table. With a few tweaks, fixes, and revolutionary additions, the next generation of Sims could be a game that we would want to keep buying content for even if the game lasts 15-20 years.
What would you give up in the game to have more detailed gameplay if dev time is the issue?
How about worlds/neighborhoods, premade sims, and lore? Now, before you get mad, hear me out. There are tons of builders/storytellers in the community and we have the gallery, which is an amazing feature. What if instead of these things being created by the devs and included in the game, they code a true world creator with reasonable sized maps that can be designed from the roads to the sims? The talented community could create anything and everything and upload it to the gallery. You can bet that eventually every world and every version of lore would be created, so nothing would truly be left out and everyone could have exactly what they want, rather they prefer older sims lore or completely new sims that have nothing to do with the lore that came with the games. They could even have the Game Changers or other known players create the most popular worlds of the past and either include them in game or put them on a special page in the gallery. Do you realize how much time that would free up for other jobs?
Now what is the best way to play these player created maps? Well, I am thinking back on my Yoworld days. (Yoworld is an online social game with home decorating and character dress up that was fun, but was destroyed because, well other people could play with us.) There was a way to connect properties to each other and this was a FB game, so doing it on a regular pc game can be done. We should keep the neighborhoods instead of going back to worlds. This would allow us to create our own towns. We could have a hidden object/arrow that can be placed on roads, lakes, oceans, ect in the world creator. Or even have predefined places that the devs decide. Either way would be fine. We could then click on this arrow and choose from a list of neighborhoods we have downloaded and connect them to that spot.
In game, going to this point would trigger the loading screen that takes us to the new place. This would allow neighborhoods to be open and it would more than likely reduce the lag and crash issues we had in Sims 3. I honestly believe the worlds were too large in 3 and that may have contributed to the loading problem. Smaller neighborhoods in size are better, but I think we can handle more than what we have in 4 with todays technology. And don't limit us too much with these neighborhoods devs, just make different sized maps, nothing on the scale of 3, because some computers can handle more than others. (And please, no set dressing! It just irritates us!) We as players will be able to figure out what works for our machines and what doesn't. I believe this would satisfy more players than any of our current games ever have. It has the ability to include every type of player and every type of gamer and device. If you're going to include all platforms, you have to give options for all of them. Even consoles come with different specs.
It would be nice if we could have a feature connected to the maps that allows us to ban certain sims from entering those towns. This way we can stop those out of place sims from showing up in towns that make no sense for them to be there. Of course we would need a way for some to come for vacation for any tourist spots we may have in the future. And who wouldn't mind a vampire sneaking into a neighboring town to feed in the night? It would make this feature even better.
With the current way the world works, (Less Content for More Money) we need to prioritize what is most important. Gameplay and creation. Many of us have created sims and we have created homes. We take a long time doing that. Let's turn this part over to the players and give the coders more time to work on the gameplay features.
We know the content they give us to work with will be beautiful. All the games are gorgeous. Except hair. Guys, come on. Let's update that to something close to Alpha CC. I'm pretty sure the hair styles are a universal dislike. LOL.
I know this is a long post, but ideas take a lot of words. There are many more I wanted to add here, but I'm going to leave it here and maybe post others beneath it. If you like the idea and think it would help the next gen, or just have another idea that would make this better, comment below. To make change you have to make some noise sometimes.
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Comments
I am asking this as a player who doesn't care either way. I have read before that games with weather in base game perform better than games with weather in DLC. If this is truth, then I would gladly give up something we normally have in base for better performance. I know, I know. Most of us do not want to give up anything that was in older base games and pay for it later in a DLC. However, this is how business works. We can't have everything we want. We just can't.
I would gladly give up ghosts, or lot types like gyms and nightclubs. I would be fine with rabbit holes for doing some things until DLC's come out because if its fleshed out more, its worth more than just existing anyway.
I would rather have a game pack that focuses on just one venue or occult at a time instead of a lot. If it's done in great detail, its worth it. If its not, then please don't do this. Why just one at a time? Because everyone doesn't want everything! Some players may not want a hotel. They may like vampires, but not werewolves or mermaids. Plus, other countries are cracking down on the DLC. Mostly loot boxes - What I've understood from the articles I've read, it seems like the game creators may have to give a good reason why the DLC is necessary. This means items should be sold in DLC that is not something every player would want in the base game. This is a viable reason to sell something separate. If this is what the future holds, and I could be understanding wrong, then that means The Sims needs to make DLC content completely optional. Not necessary to get back gameplay we used to have. This should be things like occults, themed stuff packs and gameplay elements that would change the game for those who want that style of gameplay. This would keep simmers in other countries from being left out if these regulation cracks down on more than just loot boxes in the future.
Some players never leave their homes. Some don't want to own stores and and dinners and they are happy with rabbit holes. Some hate occults and only want normal sims. Some only play with occults. Some like ghosts floating around. I personally don't want a ghost sim constantly showing up in my house. I would prefer them to show up once in a while, or only have the ghosts of certain sims stick around. I mean seriously, why would a sim that died in a good mood with their lifetime wishes full-filled, haunt their family? Or at least give me a way to get rid of them with gameplay instead of having to cheat them away.
Weather should be part of the base game because it is in every day life. It is also something that many other games include now. Honestly, the base game of a life sim should have all the elements that we expect to see in real life, like having to buy groceries to eat, family, weather, work, CARS, ect. and elements that are more fantasy or player specific style of gameplay should come in DLC.