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Moonwood Mills Discussion Thread

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    GrumpyGlowfishGrumpyGlowfish Posts: 2,208 Member
    edited June 2022
    @Darkshadow608 To clarify: I wasn't asking if we could somehow add more lots ourselves, but why the developers don't just put a few more empty ones in the worlds for us to build on before releasing the packs. But yeah, I definitely miss the feature you mentioned. I never played TS3, but TS2 already had it, and it would be the solution to all our lot problems in TS4. Not just their numbers, but also their sizes... :'(
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    Atreya33Atreya33 Posts: 4,430 Member
    Who knows if the premade wolf packs even occupy any of the lots. Maybe they're just NPCs in Moonwood Mill, similar to the sages of the Magic Realm, and technically homeless until you move them in with your own sims. It would even make sense for them to live in the wild, given that they're werewolves.

    But besides that, I still wish the world had more lots. The old "it's a GP, and other occults didn't get bigger worlds" argument doesn't fly with me because I was never happy with those being so small either, although I guess Vampires can be forgiven because it was the first GP to even introduce a residential world. We've been conditioned to think of five lots as an acceptable standard when it should be the bare minimum. I'm not a game designer, so maybe someone could enlighten me, but is adding just a few more lots really that difficult and/or time-consuming? They might as well leave them empty for us to build on if they don't want to do it themselves, most of the pre-built houses suck anyway, but it would make it so much easier for players to build up the societies they want in a given world without having to resettle half of their families to other too small worlds, going completely without public lots, or both.

    I sorely miss the Sims 3 feature of choosing a lot, which ever size you like, and placing it anywhere you like on the map.

    The way the neighborhoods are set up, it'll never work for sims 4, in my opinion.

    This wasn't only in sims 3. Even Sims 2 back in 2004 allowed us to add lots of whatever size we wanted to, as long as it touched a road. I also miss that flexibility.

    The new world isn't completely my style, I would have preferred a neighbourhood without background buildings. I think I will play in it once and then see how werewolves can fit into other worlds as well.
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    Amapola76Amapola76 Posts: 1,908 Member
    Who knows if the premade wolf packs even occupy any of the lots. Maybe they're just NPCs in Moonwood Mill, similar to the sages of the Magic Realm, and technically homeless until you move them in with your own sims. It would even make sense for them to live in the wild, given that they're werewolves.

    But besides that, I still wish the world had more lots. The old "it's a GP, and other occults didn't get bigger worlds" argument doesn't fly with me because I was never happy with those being so small either, although I guess Vampires can be forgiven because it was the first GP to even introduce a residential world. We've been conditioned to think of five lots as an acceptable standard when it should be the bare minimum. I'm not a game designer, so maybe someone could enlighten me, but is adding just a few more lots really that difficult and/or time-consuming? They might as well leave them empty for us to build on if they don't want to do it themselves, most of the pre-built houses suck anyway, but it would make it so much easier for players to build up the societies they want in a given world without having to resettle half of their families to other too small worlds, going completely without public lots, or both.

    I sorely miss the Sims 3 feature of choosing a lot, which ever size you like, and placing it anywhere you like on the map.

    The way the neighborhoods are set up, it'll never work for sims 4, in my opinion.

    I couldn't agree more!

    Inevitably when I have brought this up in the past, someone will say, "We have plenty of lots, I don't even use all of mine," and... yes, we do have a fair number of lots, and I haven't used all of mine, either. But I have very specific things in mind, for very specific sims or very specific community lots, and often the existing lots just don't work for me at all. I mean the lots themselves, even after you bulldoze, are the wrong size or shape or in the wrong setting. There are some that I will never use.

    I wouldn't even mind if there were certain restrictions on adding lots: like, you can only have X number of lots per world, or only X number of squares per world or neighborhood (e.g., you can either have two 20x20 lots, or only one 40x20, etc.)., but you can delete existing lots, and they can only go on flat and open areas, etc. In most places, even just adding one or two very small lots per world would completely change the game for me by really freeing up my storytelling abilities.

    The Sims has always been big on "play your way," and in this iteration, it seems like that's much more true for CAS than it is for other aspects of the game. I think the art team is just very proud of their backdrops, and rightfully so, they look quite lovely for the most part, but they've put so much emphasis on the background setting that it really restricts us to playing their way, not our way. Even just something as simple as placing flora and fauna in the neighborhoods. Just let me put some danged lemon trees dotted around the landscape in Tartosa, I promise you it will neither kill my computer nor completely destroy your artistic vision.
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    Behappy1stBehappy1st Posts: 711 Member
    Amapola76 wrote: »
    Who knows if the premade wolf packs even occupy any of the lots. Maybe they're just NPCs in Moonwood Mill, similar to the sages of the Magic Realm, and technically homeless until you move them in with your own sims. It would even make sense for them to live in the wild, given that they're werewolves.

    But besides that, I still wish the world had more lots. The old "it's a GP, and other occults didn't get bigger worlds" argument doesn't fly with me because I was never happy with those being so small either, although I guess Vampires can be forgiven because it was the first GP to even introduce a residential world. We've been conditioned to think of five lots as an acceptable standard when it should be the bare minimum. I'm not a game designer, so maybe someone could enlighten me, but is adding just a few more lots really that difficult and/or time-consuming? They might as well leave them empty for us to build on if they don't want to do it themselves, most of the pre-built houses suck anyway, but it would make it so much easier for players to build up the societies they want in a given world without having to resettle half of their families to other too small worlds, going completely without public lots, or both.

    I sorely miss the Sims 3 feature of choosing a lot, which ever size you like, and placing it anywhere you like on the map.

    The way the neighborhoods are set up, it'll never work for sims 4, in my opinion.

    I couldn't agree more!

    Inevitably when I have brought this up in the past, someone will say, "We have plenty of lots, I don't even use all of mine," and... yes, we do have a fair number of lots, and I haven't used all of mine, either. But I have very specific things in mind, for very specific sims or very specific community lots, and often the existing lots just don't work for me at all. I mean the lots themselves, even after you bulldoze, are the wrong size or shape or in the wrong setting. There are some that I will never use.

    I wouldn't even mind if there were certain restrictions on adding lots: like, you can only have X number of lots per world, or only X number of squares per world or neighborhood (e.g., you can either have two 20x20 lots, or only one 40x20, etc.)., but you can delete existing lots, and they can only go on flat and open areas, etc. In most places, even just adding one or two very small lots per world would completely change the game for me by really freeing up my storytelling abilities.

    The Sims has always been big on "play your way," and in this iteration, it seems like that's much more true for CAS than it is for other aspects of the game. I think the art team is just very proud of their backdrops, and rightfully so, they look quite lovely for the most part, but they've put so much emphasis on the background setting that it really restricts us to playing their way, not our way. Even just something as simple as placing flora and fauna in the neighborhoods. Just let me put some danged lemon trees dotted around the landscape in Tartosa, I promise you it will neither kill my computer nor completely destroy your artistic vision.

    i wish when they make worlds instead of putting in fake buildings they left the lot empty. They can decorate the way they want the world, just don't put in any buildings. Let us put in the buildings.
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    Behappy1stBehappy1st Posts: 711 Member
    ? in vampires you have to ask to be changed. How is it going to work with werewolves? Maybe you can only get bit if you go there. So if you don't want your sim to be a werewolf don't go there. Or maybe they can put an item down and any neighborhood you put one in will have the werewolves showing up and a chance for a bite. What do you think?
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    Tanja1986Tanja1986 Posts: 1,237 Member
    Behappy1st wrote: »
    ? in vampires you have to ask to be changed. How is it going to work with werewolves? Maybe you can only get bit if you go there. So if you don't want your sim to be a werewolf don't go there. Or maybe they can put an item down and any neighborhood you put one in will have the werewolves showing up and a chance for a bite. What do you think?

    I personally hope the bites happen autonomically because I am trying to build my new Sims story around that idea. Vampires can bite others in groups when those activities are being allowed on meetings. However with the werewolves rage and fury as well as the idea that they promoted a hunting wolf biting Avelina, I sure hope bites are a thing. If not I hope modders will free the wolves as that is something I also liked about Vampires, being able to bite autonomically.
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    Chaotic_MoiraChaotic_Moira Posts: 482 Member
    But besides that, I still wish the world had more lots. The old "it's a GP, and other occults didn't get bigger worlds" argument doesn't fly with me because I was never happy with those being so small either, although I guess Vampires can be forgiven because it was the first GP to even introduce a residential world. We've been conditioned to think of five lots as an acceptable standard when it should be the bare minimum. I'm not a game designer, so maybe someone could enlighten me, but is adding just a few more lots really that difficult and/or time-consuming? They might as well leave them empty for us to build on if they don't want to do it themselves, most of the pre-built houses suck anyway, but it would make it so much easier for players to build up the societies they want in a given world without having to resettle half of their families to other too small worlds, going completely without public lots, or both.



    I have wondered the same thing before. Why do they make the world small, and why can't we add lots like we have been doing in past sims games for so long? I am not a game developer, so I can only guess, and I wonder if anyone has better insight on this. But I have pondered if it may have something to do with how they designed 4 with an open neighborhood but closed lots. So in order to place a lot in Sims 2, there was no neighborhood, so no problem, then in Sims 3, everything was open, so easy again. Plus the games used to be designed with creating your world in mind from the start. But in 4, the neighborhood isn't even actually fully open. It is a neighborhood with one open lot. I think you are actually loading the neighborhood with that lot as a playable extension. So each lot is really the neighborhood, with a different extension attached. If so, I am guessing it takes longer to actually make a lot, because they have to rework the neighborhood for each lot.

    This is just a theory obviously. I think most people know by now that Sims 4 was initially made to be an online game, and they scrapped that towards the end. So it doesn't help that the game wasn't made with editing the world in mind like past games. If they hadn't gone that annoying route in the first place we probably would have had the ability to place lots and edit the world.


    So yeah, I just assume that placing a lot is more involved than in past games which is why they don't do as many on a game pack, and the only way they could allow us to do it in game would be to redesign the whole system.If it doesn't have something to do with being more time consuming than it would be extremely disappointing.

    It bugs me when people say we have plenty of lots now with multiple worlds. That may be so if what you play is sims who all live in the city or suburbia. But lots without paved roads, or even NO roads are extremely limited.

    Features I'd like brought back from the dead.
    | Picture in Picture mode | Custom Paintings | Preset scenarios for resident sims | Placing my own lots |
    | Saving my own Buy Mode collections! | Saving an outfit in CAS | CaSt. Smaller is ok | Open World |
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    Behappy1stBehappy1st Posts: 711 Member
    Tanja1986 wrote: »
    Behappy1st wrote: »
    ? in vampires you have to ask to be changed. How is it going to work with werewolves? Maybe you can only get bit if you go there. So if you don't want your sim to be a werewolf don't go there. Or maybe they can put an item down and any neighborhood you put one in will have the werewolves showing up and a chance for a bite. What do you think?

    I personally hope the bites happen autonomically because I am trying to build my new Sims story around that idea. Vampires can bite others in groups when those activities are being allowed on meetings. However with the werewolves rage and fury as well as the idea that they promoted a hunting wolf biting Avelina, I sure hope bites are a thing. If not I hope modders will free the wolves as that is something I also liked about Vampires, being able to bite autonomically.

    Thats what I hope to. I.m just worried they will make it like vampires. I never use mods so I have every finger crossed.
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    GoldmoldarGoldmoldar Posts: 11,966 Member
    Who knows if the premade wolf packs even occupy any of the lots. Maybe they're just NPCs in Moonwood Mill, similar to the sages of the Magic Realm, and technically homeless until you move them in with your own sims. It would even make sense for them to live in the wild, given that they're werewolves.

    But besides that, I still wish the world had more lots. The old "it's a GP, and other occults didn't get bigger worlds" argument doesn't fly with me because I was never happy with those being so small either, although I guess Vampires can be forgiven because it was the first GP to even introduce a residential world. We've been conditioned to think of five lots as an acceptable standard when it should be the bare minimum. I'm not a game designer, so maybe someone could enlighten me, but is adding just a few more lots really that difficult and/or time-consuming? They might as well leave them empty for us to build on if they don't want to do it themselves, most of the pre-built houses suck anyway, but it would make it so much easier for players to build up the societies they want in a given world without having to resettle half of their families to other too small worlds, going completely without public lots, or both.

    I sorely miss the Sims 3 feature of choosing a lot, which ever size you like, and placing it anywhere you like on the map.

    The way the neighborhoods are set up, it'll never work for sims 4, in my opinion.
    I agree it is too late in the game even though it would have been better done just at the beginning of development, to do it now no telling how many errors will occur and would it be worth it. The only thing one can do is go with what you got as those editing tools that were in Sims 3 was never going to be free in Sims 4 or even offered Imo as they saw a potential to make money if they sold neighborhoods in packs going forward and the customer needing space will buy what they put out. The only free neighborhood they given us was back in 2015.

    Omen by HP Intel®️ Core™️ i9- 12900K W/ RGB Liquid Cooler 32GB Nvidia RTX 3080 10Gb ASUS Ultra-Wide 34" Curved Monitor. Omen By HP Intel® Core™ i7-12800HX 32 GB Nvidia 3070 Ti 8 GB 17.3 Screen
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    GoldmoldarGoldmoldar Posts: 11,966 Member
    But besides that, I still wish the world had more lots. The old "it's a GP, and other occults didn't get bigger worlds" argument doesn't fly with me because I was never happy with those being so small either, although I guess Vampires can be forgiven because it was the first GP to even introduce a residential world. We've been conditioned to think of five lots as an acceptable standard when it should be the bare minimum. I'm not a game designer, so maybe someone could enlighten me, but is adding just a few more lots really that difficult and/or time-consuming? They might as well leave them empty for us to build on if they don't want to do it themselves, most of the pre-built houses suck anyway, but it would make it so much easier for players to build up the societies they want in a given world without having to resettle half of their families to other too small worlds, going completely without public lots, or both.



    I have wondered the same thing before. Why do they make the world small, and why can't we add lots like we have been doing in past sims games for so long? I am not a game developer, so I can only guess, and I wonder if anyone has better insight on this. But I have pondered if it may have something to do with how they designed 4 with an open neighborhood but closed lots. So in order to place a lot in Sims 2, there was no neighborhood, so no problem, then in Sims 3, everything was open, so easy again. Plus the games used to be designed with creating your world in mind from the start. But in 4, the neighborhood isn't even actually fully open. It is a neighborhood with one open lot. I think you are actually loading the neighborhood with that lot as a playable extension. So each lot is really the neighborhood, with a different extension attached. If so, I am guessing it takes longer to actually make a lot, because they have to rework the neighborhood for each lot.

    This is just a theory obviously. I think most people know by now that Sims 4 was initially made to be an online game, and they scrapped that towards the end. So it doesn't help that the game wasn't made with editing the world in mind like past games. If they hadn't gone that annoying route in the first place we probably would have had the ability to place lots and edit the world.


    So yeah, I just assume that placing a lot is more involved than in past games which is why they don't do as many on a game pack, and the only way they could allow us to do it in game would be to redesign the whole system.If it doesn't have something to do with being more time consuming than it would be extremely disappointing.

    It bugs me when people say we have plenty of lots now with multiple worlds. That may be so if what you play is sims who all live in the city or suburbia. But lots without paved roads, or even NO roads are extremely limited.

    "It bugs me when people say we have plenty of lots now with multiple worlds. That may be so if what you play is sims who all live in the city or suburbia. But lots without paved roads, or even NO roads are extremely limited." The neighborhoods are small for a reason, and I agree how can you count all the lots in all the neighborhoods and combine them and say that a lot but for me that is not true as I must go to another neighborhood to access that lot and that may not be something I may not want to do as planning may not be done how I want it but it is how EA/Maxis wants me to do it. If they did not plan on giving us any tools at least give us some bigger neighborhoods as more is better than less all the time.
    Omen by HP Intel®️ Core™️ i9- 12900K W/ RGB Liquid Cooler 32GB Nvidia RTX 3080 10Gb ASUS Ultra-Wide 34" Curved Monitor. Omen By HP Intel® Core™ i7-12800HX 32 GB Nvidia 3070 Ti 8 GB 17.3 Screen
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    GrumpyGlowfishGrumpyGlowfish Posts: 2,208 Member
    edited June 2022
    I used to be one of the people who thought there were more than enough lots, back when I only played for fun and didn't really care where my sims lived as long as I liked it there. But that's because I was used to TS2, where sims couldn't go farther in the neighbourhood than the borders of their home lot, and it really didn't matter where that lot was because everywhere looked pretty much the same.

    Technically, I'm still not running out of space anytime soon, not even in my very crowded main save. But ever since I started giving every world a specific theme and making sure the venues, architecture and sims living there all matched said theme, I've been very frustrated with how small some worlds are, and the compromises I had to make because of it. So what if the island of Windenburg is barely populated and still has space for some of my vampires, if I want the majority of them to live in the world that was specifically designed for them? Okay then, so let's get rid of the vampire disco to make room for another home lot, but where else do I put the disco now??

    The struggle is real, people!
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    catloverplayercatloverplayer Posts: 93,395 Member
    Behappy1st wrote: »
    ? in vampires you have to ask to be changed. How is it going to work with werewolves? Maybe you can only get bit if you go there. So if you don't want your sim to be a werewolf don't go there. Or maybe they can put an item down and any neighborhood you put one in will have the werewolves showing up and a chance for a bite. What do you think?

    Even if you do get bit and become a werewolf there is an antidote.
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    Behappy1stBehappy1st Posts: 711 Member
    Behappy1st wrote: »
    ? in vampires you have to ask to be changed. How is it going to work with werewolves? Maybe you can only get bit if you go there. So if you don't want your sim to be a werewolf don't go there. Or maybe they can put an item down and any neighborhood you put one in will have the werewolves showing up and a chance for a bite. What do you think?

    Even if you do get bit and become a werewolf there is an antidote.

    I want to get bit. What I'm wondering is if we are going to have to ask like in vampires. I want to be walking along minding my own business when suddenly a creature jumps out of the darkness and bites me. Can we get bit in other worlds? I want to know so much. Hurry up tomorrow and get here so I can watch the livestream.
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    Tanja1986Tanja1986 Posts: 1,237 Member
    edited June 2022
    Behappy1st wrote: »
    I want to get bit. What I'm wondering is if we are going to have to ask like in vampires. I want to be walking along minding my own business when suddenly a creature jumps out of the darkness and bites me. Can we get bit in other worlds? I want to know so much. Hurry up tomorrow and get here so I can watch the livestream.

    I want to get bitten too, I did not like that in Vampires my Sims had to ask to be turned. Had to grab mods in order for this to happen autonomously. However if Vampires are added to a club and they have all the abilities activated and they meet, then they would go around a bite Sims. With the mod I have there is a chance of risky bite and you could become a vampire. I wish that what they showed in the trailer is NOT just a marketing scheme but that the wolves actually do hunt and bite Sims if they come along one. My deep desire still is that Greg is a lone evil werewolf who will bite my Sim. That would be my perfect story for my Sim I created.
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    Amapola76Amapola76 Posts: 1,908 Member
    We have a few different threads devoted to discussing the Werewolf pack. Could we please keep this one focused on the world discussion, as noted in the thread title, Moonwood Mills Discussion?
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    ironknight35ironknight35 Posts: 3,751 Member
    Tanja1986 wrote: »
    Behappy1st wrote: »
    ? in vampires you have to ask to be changed. How is it going to work with werewolves? Maybe you can only get bit if you go there. So if you don't want your sim to be a werewolf don't go there. Or maybe they can put an item down and any neighborhood you put one in will have the werewolves showing up and a chance for a bite. What do you think?

    I personally hope the bites happen autonomically because I am trying to build my new Sims story around that idea. Vampires can bite others in groups when those activities are being allowed on meetings. However with the werewolves rage and fury as well as the idea that they promoted a hunting wolf biting Avelina, I sure hope bites are a thing. If not I hope modders will free the wolves as that is something I also liked about Vampires, being able to bite autonomically.

    That would be awesome, but I'd be very surprised if they added it.
    He/Him
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    CelSimsCelSims Posts: 2,270 Member
    Hoping the stream tomorrow informs us of the lot sizes so I can begin obsessively building.
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    AncientMuseAncientMuse Posts: 1,062 Member
    edited June 2022
    The struggle is real, people!

    Yes. Yes it dang well is!

    I can survive with Moonwood Mill having just five lots (I'll take what I can get), but it will get filled up very quickly because I don't play with just one household. I create many households and play with many households... and each household is themed to go with my themed worlds/neighbourhoods.

    There's plenty of generic cities/towns/suburbs with paved roads, which is great for generic family players, but not so great for anyone who wants to play a variety of themes or occults.

    I keep holding out hope that one day they'll make more blank worlds for us to build and live in, to our heart's content. World's with various types of themes and/or ecosystems (desert, forest, coastal, mountainous, tropical, spooky, swampy, wasteland, industrial, downtown, etc).

    In the meantime, I guess Henford-On-Bagley will have to suffice as a Moonwood Mill overflow? *shrug*
    My Gallery ID: AncientMuse2
    "Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." ~ Mark Twain
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    IsharellIsharell Posts: 1,158 Member
    This new world looks really great from what I've seen. I'm looking forward to exploring the new buildings, and the gritty look of everything is something I've been wishing for. I hope it's not as gloomy as Forgotten Hollow, and I hope there is an empty lot or two so I can build my own scruffy looking shacks.
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    QuaayQuaay Posts: 557 Member
    I can't wait to see more of the world, especially excited about the lake! I hope there is a lot close to it. I hope it's an actual big lake and not just a pond. I love how it sparkles at night. I wish there was a dilapidated old rowboat we could use to cross it but I won't get my hopes up for that. I'm grateful it's swimmable at least :)
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    HimRumiHimRumi Posts: 1,444 Member
    I'm a little disappointed there's only 5 lots. But I am looking forward to the new gameplay and Werewolves. I wish the world was as big as Windenburg. I don't think we'll ever get a huge world again like Windenburg, sadly.
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    catloverplayercatloverplayer Posts: 93,395 Member
    Today we find out more about Moonwood Mills in the Livestream. They're going to be showing off the world.
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    crocobauracrocobaura Posts: 7,385 Member
    Today we find out more about Moonwood Mills in the Livestream. They're going to be showing off the world.

    Can't wait to find out more about the world, the lots and the debug and BB stuff. Wonder if sims can chop wood or maybe all that logging is just décor stuff.
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    PeralPeral Posts: 873 Member
    I hope the developers had fun doing this pack and that they have been superb!
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    SimmingalSimmingal Posts: 8,965 Member
    I hope they show the world screen today so I can start scheming
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