I'm almost tempted to change my original reply to this thread, but I won't. But if I did change my answer it would be my biggest gripe about TS4 would be it's community.
Complaints for 8 years and still they keep buying. Why should EA/Maxis do anything when they make billions (true) off of TS4 when the community keeps buying more content knowing it's not going to work as it should, it's going to be very buggy and it's not what they actually wanted or implemented in a way they wanted?
EA has nothing to learn here as someone stated. They know the community will buy the next pack, kit, stuff pack, EP or GP. And still hope that EA will change. Really, if the game isn't what you wanted it's no one's fault but the buyer. If you are still buying you shouldn't be complaining. Because you know TS4's reputation eight years later and can depend on it's reputation to be less than you expected, less than perfect and less than fun.
Everyone went along with EA/Maxis changing TS4 into a sitcom (instead of a life simulator), a questy game (linear play rather than sandbox) , and or later a Simself game (Identity rules)...it's been all over the map. It's been a Simself game for the past four years, it's been catering to specific group of people for the past four or five years, it's made billions because of that catering. If the game isn't living up to a sterling reputation of great gameplay, in depth personality and needs mods or no one would touch it what does that say? That the community is the problem not EA.
Everybody by now knows Maxis using reused animations, recolors and reuses previous assets...they don't spend that much on reused items and animations. Everybody knows the DLC is only tested with a base game and not all other EPs etc. Everybody knows the gurus add what they want not necessarily what the community as a whole wanted, and or they spend time on text instead of simualtion....and yet they make billions. If it's that bad, stop buying as I did. Because it's just a waste to complain if you bought it anyway.
This. This so much. After continuous disappointment you have to realize that the likelihood of improvement is slim, if at all. A new trailer gets released and you get hype and excitement. People hope the developers don't mess it up like other content and that it'll be good. That it'll be different. Sometimes it is, but most of the time it's not. The game is bad and needs lots of fixing and yet they'll buy the next thing that comes out. Maybe not at launch, but down the line when the price drops and people have created mods to make it better and do what the developers should have done.
It's like a cycle.
The developers release a trailer for new content-->hype, speculation, discussion builds up around it-->People buy it and it's not what they wanted. Maybe it's lackluster, buggy, etc-->Complaining about the state of the game and wishing the devs will fix and improve it-->new trailer is released-->hype, speculation, discussion builds up around it-->People buy it and it's not what they wanted.
My biggest gripe about this game is the lack of gameplay. I remember hearing that Sims 4 was supposed to be a multiplayer/online game. I think the reason everything is so rushed and incomplete is that they are trying to convert an online game to an offline game. This is why they may be saying that there will be many more years of content.
I have wanted to love this game and all of its packs but the lack of actual gameplay has just left such a sour taste in my mouth. I will give them one more chance when I purchase Werewolves and eventually get a better laptop to play on. But if, after that, the gameplay lacks what I love about Sims 2, that will be the game I stick with until I see the next version.
I forgot one. I wonder if they will ever learn from the MFPS (My First Pet Stuff) fiasco they created where you have to own Cats and Dogs just to access some content from MFPS. I HOPE they never pull that stunt again.
Kits and Gameplay the most gameplay we have in a pack is seasons, highschool expansion should had in class gameplay it's high school where's the school game play??? we only have one gameplay kit and that's bust the dust and that's when kits were first introduced. Kits I stopped getting kits after the one with the peacock and tiger designs after that I was done especially when they were collabing with other people no offense to the people I just didn't like the style. I didn't get the children's clothing and I wasn't going to get desert deluxe but since it's free what the heck. But kits and Gameplay.
> @haisin said: > There's not enough cross pack compatibility.
I do definetelly agree. There are several things that should be updated in packs to ensure pack compability: - If you have Werewolf Packs and Jungle Adventure, you should be able to find werewolf relics as a human with high Archaeology skill. - Get Famous brought up fame and City Living brought up singing skill, but there is no Singer Career. I expected Get Famous to include more career options than just acting. Sims 1 Superstar had musician, model and act career (well you were all of them at the same time tho), but Sims 3 did it great. - Professorial reward trait only include base game skills. Why cant I write skill book on Vampire Lore or Herbalism Skill, for example?
As said in Cinebar's post "TS4 was never about 'you rule'. No, it's very much the devs game. If you read all the above posts, it's blatantly obvious it's their game and not ours to do with whatever we can imagine." This right here is very true as what I create is somewhat controlled by EA/Maxis I can go down the features that gave me more control, but the list is long, and I do not have the time to list them all. Yes, it is all about politics, gender issues and art (More on looks and not how the game plays or what it offers as far as features goes). It is not bad but it is not something I get peps over as I did with previous versions releases and it seems like EA/Maxis support for the game is not like the past, it seems more forced or half stepping. They cut out features that was once free for the customer to use and then turned it around to use it get more profits by using it in packs (Neighborhoods or worlds) and we still can create our own neighborhoods or lay down lots and have limited editing on the lots. I am waiting for more info to see where EA/Maxis is going with Sims 5 now that was announced, and I will not make the same mistake I made buying Sims 4.
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How certain things came out way later than the base game in updates, or in packs. I remember I got Sims 4 right after it was released. I was so disappointed in everything that seemed to be missing (stuff that was in Sims 3, like going places with your sims), that I didn’t come back to the game for 2 years.
There's is a few things that I wish they add and to me it would make it better, first off I'm going to have perhaps a very unpopular opinion I don't care for cars that much, my sims can still travel everywhere, if they add them in properly meaning no cars driving indoors of course, I'd welcome it, anyways let me get into this
I miss burglars, police and social services, they brought unpredictability to the game and social services, police brought consciences and burglars was the classic villain of the franchise
Customizable lifespans- I feel long is too long for every life stage but the normal is too short for every life stage, it would be great it we could Customize this to our liking
Customizable vacation worlds and more holiday worlds- I would personally love sulani and the Japanese themed world to be vacation worlds only, which follows by what else I'd like from the game hotels, I would like hotels to be able to be placed everywhere but actually having more vacation worlds aswell
Memory scrapbook- this is just for us, we could look back in our sims life's
Better family trees- I would like family trees to also include extended family members
We need more traits perhaps another trait slot and of course more aspirations
Add food preferences to likes and dislikes
Add romance relationships, friends relationships and enemies for townies in neighbourhood stories and marriage
An early days pack- I think we are already getting this, adding more gameplay to baby-child
An optional walking stick
Adult sims could experience midlife crisis triggered by certain traits they may have for example self-absorbed sims will dislike getting old
I would also like imaginary friends, children playing tag with other kids and more playground equipment and dressing up box
Toddlers getting a lot trait that brings Toddlers and their parents to the lot, so your sims could socialize with the parents and your Toddlers could socialize with other Toddlers
Daycare career track
Showtime pack- could bring back bands, magicians, acrobats and stage preformances
To me that's what the sims 4 is missing and would love to return
Hi ! I played The Sims 4 from the beginning and i couldn't figger out why i liked to play the Sims 2 (and 1) so much more and why it is different. I think one of the things that are important is... the size of the sims and the furniture etc. are different. On the Sims 2 i could play and see my whole house and the sims way better. The lighting was breighter too. Now i need to zoooom in, to play.
If i want to take care of a toddler it takes min. 1,5 hour. Making breakfast and stuff tooo. The timemanagement is not realistic. The time goes by so fast and that is the reason that playing the game feels different. Like in a rush. It is not my computer because i played it on different computers over the past years. I used some timemanagement MOD and i was so happy! The time was normal like in the Sims 2. But i don't like to use these mods anymore because it makes the game glitch sometimes.
So what could make the game better: - More realistic sizes of the homes and sims. - More realistic timemanagement (no mods). - Better lighting (no mods). The houses look so cold.. you need to put bright spots everywhere and that is one of the reasons the game loses this nice warm feeling you get from the Sims 2 homes. - Stop giving the sims 100 options to talk about. Chill.
PS. try to zoom your screen from how you would play the Sims 2. Your sims and furniture on the sims 4 will look small... It is different.
@StrawberryYogurt I agree 100% I played the sims for the first time back on the original Xbox 2003, I don't even know which one it was 1 or 2 I'm guessing. Me and my girlfriend loved it and played it a lot, but I don't remember details about how the gameplay or sims where. So almost 20 years later I get back into the sims with sims 4 on Xbox one, and it grew on me. I agree that the traits you give your sims don't have much effect on their behavior, it more or less adds social interaction options and determines what mood certain actions will give you. Besides that, I would like to mention some of the bugs/issues that irk me the most because I've only been playing sims 4 for a couple months and haven't been playing much over the years so I don't know what I've been missing. 1. The long load times you have to endure when you travel or load up the game. 2. I'm rich and have nothing to spend the money on, I've customized my mansion to the max basically. 3. Right now, insulting seems to be a big bug and I hate it, I'm trying to build up friendships with other sims, I leave that area to check on another sim, come back and there in the middle of insulting another sim, which would make some sense if one sim was in a bad mood. It's so annoying. 4. As people on here have mentioned the worlds are like set dressing and there's not much to do at all especially the world that comes with cottage living, though cottage living is not a bad expansion Imo. 5. I just recently bought a chicken coup, and the chickens live such a short life, you can't possibly build your relationship bar up high with them. 6. This is actually big to me, household inventory needs the option to sell stacks of stuff, rather than one by one. Having large inventories, fridges and bookshelves causes lag and larger bills I have read.
In conclusion I still love the game and play a lot. There are a lot of features I like, and they keep bringing me back for more. But EA could do a better job in many different areas of the game, I think.
1) Overcluttered interaction menu. Looking at any letsplay videos it can be seen how players struggle with finding needed options there scrolling over and over again for ages.
Definitely need some grouping/cleaning like taking away vampire chat options or wedding chat options from sims who has nothing to do with them. Sims 3 chat had a neat feature where all special chat options coming from traits or careers were grouped into separate menu. I feel like at this stage Sims 4 desperately need this.
2) Consistency. New features are initiated and dropped like new shiny toys child got bored with.
- Likes/dislikes still missing a great portion of activities. Decoration styles were changed several times already and have little in common with categories introduced in Home Decorator. Sims still doing autonomously things they hate constantly getting stressed about them, so autonomy for likes/dislikes also isn't getting fixed.
- Promised townies overhaul... I don't want even to start this. Apparently it's way much more important how two certain families look instead the fact that families have no implied relationships, no preset sentiments, no body hair settings, horrific random hot/cold outfits, no preset likes/dislikes including those for Decor and Fashion, how about preset lifestyles for those with expansion. Instead of tones of Caliente/Goth sketches that's what normal overhaul would look like.
- When neighborhood stories were implemented it was promised it's only the first step in introducing this feature. And more steps for improving it will come along. Have you ever heard about any new additions or improvement to it ever since? Sims can have babies autonomously but still can't form couples autonomously meaning after first generation the save will still die out without manual arrangement of 2nd generation of NPC couples.
- Swimmable water in base game? Or Windenburg or Brindleton Bay anyone? How many years since we were told they are working on this?
- Recent wants/fears update. Fears logic is very flawed in many cases leading to countless annoyances. Wants are very limited and repetitive especially music ones. And not only this feature was dropped without any discussion prior to it, it continue to exist without any follow up from the team side and bug/annoyances fixing. Also absolutely no feedback on wants/fears for other packs.
3) Integration. A lot about it is said above so I won't add more.
4) NPC management. NPCs were a big disaster in all sims games actually. And they are as bad in Sims 4. But some pretty obvious things I feel could be stopped.
- NPCs like Father Winter or Sages being pushed to different roles like showing in Uni campus events or even simple bypassers in Oasis Spring. Aren't there any other mechanics to fill these roles?
- Star NPCs control. I do understand some players want to see their stars every where but for those who suppose Judith Ward won't come for groceries into a low 24/7 car stop shop it can be implemented through "no stars" lot trait easily.
- Outfits which are so bad the team has to pretend it's not a bug but feature (I'm looking at you trendy shoppers). Many different suggestions were already made on how to tame random outfit generation craziness, but we still have clown NPCs everywhere and even generated on purpose.
5) Routing.
- Why when I order my sim to go and talk to someone they stand and wait for other part of the talk to come to them. Leading to such things as vendors closing their stalls/other NPC dropping their assignments to come to chat. If my sim is initiating the talk it's him who need to go and start it not the involved part.
- Why can't sims just stand and talk? If there are any seats in the vicinity they won't talk without occupying them first. Which leads to musical chairs, annoying routing up/down stairs for no reason and so on.
- Why sims are so prone to chat standing back to back not face to face?
- Why proper sinks usage is still such a problem?
- Do we still believe hugging or greeting each other in other ways before each conversation is a good feature especially in terms of routing?
- Bicycles need to be left outside. Living rooms are not a good place to stop bicycle rides.
- Constant task dropping.
I'm absolutely sure that with a good coat of polish for 1, 4 and 5 issues alone the game would be very enjoyable to play. These are things laying in the game foundation and making it even not more interesting but more usable and reasonable overall.
My biggest gripe about this game is the lack of gameplay. I remember hearing that Sims 4 was supposed to be a multiplayer/online game. I think the reason everything is so rushed and incomplete is that they are trying to convert an online game to an offline game. This is why they may be saying that there will be many more years of content.
I have wanted to love this game and all of its packs but the lack of actual gameplay has just left such a sour taste in my mouth. I will give them one more chance when I purchase Werewolves and eventually get a better laptop to play on. But if, after that, the gameplay lacks what I love about Sims 2, that will be the game I stick with until I see the next version.
I forgot one. I wonder if they will ever learn from the MFPS (My First Pet Stuff) fiasco they created where you have to own Cats and Dogs just to access some content from MFPS. I HOPE they never pull that stunt again.
I don't know why they done that, I would of preferred a pack that just brought more animals if they really had to separate it, but nope you shouldn't have to buy a pack to get all the content from another, they could of added birds, fishes could of been updated to be like a pet instead of just decor, Rabbits and guinea-pigs, in different colours and types aswell, of course horses
I agree with a lot of the above. As much as I appreciate the LGBTQ+ inclusivity, it's lacking. You can't select "neither/gender neutral" as a clothing preference. You HAVE to be "male" or "female" as a gender. Asexuality isn't really accommodated. Etc.
Disabilities are a fact of life and they aren't in the game. Where are the wheelchair users, the blind people, the deaf people? They exist and deserve to be in the game.
As a Jewish person, my biggest gripe is how much of the game, even with customizable holidays, forces you to live like a white christian person from the USA. it's annoying af.
you can't say your game is for "everyone" when you mean "able bodied white goyische americans". like, that's not everyone. ffs.
I vehemently agree with both. That aside, if I had to choose one, even including the issues listed in those posts... it has to be:
Watered-Down Boring Content
This is the biggest problem with the game to me. It's absurd that the entirety of TS4 costs hundreds of dollars to get its "full" experience. For 40 bucks, I could buy an expansion pack in TS3 and get a ton of content that all plays together well and is interconnected with depth and surprises. The Sims 4 doesn't have that. Vampires was introduced in 2017, which was well received. In that expansion, they have an ability to create a burst of emotion to affect nearby Sims. Years later, a Fear emotion was finally patched into the game and... the devs apparently forgot that they have numerous things that can affect emotions, including Vampires, so they can't spread Fear through their powers. I have a mod to fix that.
Key sentences here. "The Sims 4 doesn't have that." "I have a mod to fix that." I think, for many of us, these sentences show up everywhere when criticizing the game.
Little story for you: In TS3, I was playing my Sim and really wanted to find a wife for him. So I looked through the map, found a Sim I thought was decent looking, went into CAS to pretty her up a bit, and decided to have him pursue her. I had him call, say hello, but she wasn't interested. She was with someone else. So I decided to see if he could steal her away. Numerous attempts to romance her online happened after that, all failing, so a couple of Sim days later, I found her on the street and made him go meet her.
She was creeped out when he said hello. I was surprised, I had no idea she would react that way. From playing TS4, I expected her to be all smiles and friendly. Somehow, she knew my Sim was practically stalking her, and it gave her a negative impression of my Sim, the conversation message on the top left said she thought my Sim was creepy. It made me feel bad, it made her feel more real because that's obviously how someone would react in real life to that kind of thing. Naturally, this has never happened in TS4. I don't feel like my Sims are as complex as their peers. They don't feel like simulated people, they just feel like mindless extras.
There is no complexity, no depth, no immersion (because a loading screen pulls you out of it every time you travel anywhere), not many ways to introduce some kind of critical thought, no challenge, no balance. Once your Sim finishes the aspiration about making a lot of money, your Sim doesn't ever have to work again. My Sim and his wife get over $400,000 weekly each. And I never look forward to it because I never need it. In TS3, I'm constantly wondering for ways to get more money and find myself looking forward to when his investments come in because money in that game helps me explore so much more of it. But in TS4, exploration isn't really a factor. It's hardly in the game.
TL:DR: I could keep going, comparing and contrasting, but an article I once saw put it perfectly.
The Sims 4's biggest problem is that The Sims 3 exists. And The Sims 2, respectively. If this game was the second game in the series, I'd think it was a step in the right direction. Sure, the DLC practices are scummy and pretty much have most Simmers hoping and praying that the next batch of content is good only to be let down most of the time. Like an addiction. But it'd be an example of what could be possible for the next game.
However, through TS2 and TS3, I assume most people imagined TS4 being a beautiful combination of those 2 games. Instead it became evidence that the series is going downhill and it's why I will most likely not be supporting TS5.
One of the biggest obstacles they face is so many people play this game differently. While all your comments are completely valid there’s someone else who wishes there was no CAS upon starting and they could just start as a premade and has played them all. And people who didn’t play any sim and just rebuilt all their houses.
This makes it hard to strike a balance that will please everyone. They would be criticised if the quality of the premades was low in a pack.
I’m somewhere in the middle. I like to make my own sims but have them interact with premades. I don’t really care about that premades lore or sexual orientation or sense of fashion, they’re whatever I imagine them to be but I do like seeing them around and the effort that goes into them and I’d not knowingly delete most of the premades. They’re much better window dressing than townies.
I will say though, with my wedding stories it seems like they put more time into the premades backstory and their trailers than they did the wedding gameplay of the kit and that’s when it becomes a problem. It’s fine for them to have a story but the game needs to function and be good first and foremost.
However, none of this is my biggest criticism. In the past years Maxis seems to cater and push for only one group of people who get a lot of attention and pandering. I know some would disagree with this, but if you aren't part of that community for whatever reason, then you may notice most big, huge updates aren't about gameplay but identity and sexuality.
From working with people in the roughly 18-25 age range, I think it's about more than just the people who are LGBTQ+, it's become a topic a lot of them are very engaged with the last few years. So I think that's probably where the interest is coming from, and that EA are on to something which now matters of a lot of players. It seems very likely when the next version of the sims is out it will also include the ability to create diverse sims from day one, and that in general we'll be taking their inclusion in things as more of a given by then, so what seems like a lot of attention today will be just normal in the end.
There is almost zero pushback from the game. Absolutely everything goes exactly to plan, there’s no spontaneity nothing happens that isn’t made to happen ever. I don’t believe those “I left my game open for ____ and here’s what happened” videos. Because nothing happened except you editing out the parts where you manipulated the chaos. You can leave it open for ages and absolutely nothing will happen except maybe a random pop up pausing it. The game is rated T for teen but it plays like K for kindergarten without mods.
There is almost zero pushback from the game. Absolutely everything goes exactly to plan, there’s no spontaneity nothing happens that isn’t made to happen ever. I don’t believe those “I left my game open for ____ and here’s what happened” videos. Because nothing happened except you editing out the parts where you manipulated the chaos. You can leave it open for ages and absolutely nothing will happen except maybe a random pop up pausing it. The game is rated T for teen but it plays like K for kindergarten without mods.
I do sometimes have random stuff happen. The pancakes had a kid in my game and he aged up to have glowing red eyes (must be some cc I have?). It made me laugh and suits his personaality, so I kept him like that. I also had a sim whose mother in law just randomly, for no clear reason (she isn't a mean sim) decided she hated her and has been nothing but trouble. But truth is, these things rarely happen and I wish more would happen.
I am quite unhappy with the service. I bought the $7 new xmas house some weeks ago and it placed in on the market square instead on an empty house slot and now I see the house in the market square and cannot delete it. have been trying to contact people and reported the bug but have been ignored so far. Any advice?
There a lot of things I wish were different, but the biggest is that I wish it weren't so buggy that I can't play it extensively. It's fine for CAS and build mode, and even light playing. But when I get into marathon playing sessions it conks out in so many ways. That's first for me before gameplay issues and I don't think that's going to change with any future generation of Sims. There's just too much that can go wrong.
I want to see cross platform compatibility! I'm tired of buying all the same DLC on both PC and Xbox! This game is very expensive, why do I have to buy everything twice!
Come on please, I want like in ALL other sims games, to be able to read a book while lying on my bed. I want to be able to cuddle my partner in bed ! Get the burglar and I can buy an alarm. And take my car to work...
I'm gonna post this here because... well I can't start a new thread, (I've been a member for years and can't start a thread... oh well I'll probably make the 5 or so needed posts here) but this applies here: there's a lot of things that need polish that they don't go back and fix. This is especially true with expansion/dlc content (we at least get some base game updates). these aren't major gameplay overhauls, but would probably take time to tweak and fix: -They need to rehaul build/buy mode filters. If I sort by room and go to kitchen->decorations, I expect to see kitchen decorations and not... movie sets. Paintings/posters/wall decals are all in one category, I don't imagine houses being decorated with decals, yet I have to scroll through way too many of them to find framed paintings. there's so many kits and no individual kit filters, so having a bathroom kit with no bathroom filter is annoying. Some things I can search by text, but I don't think it's too reliable, like if I want to look at Pergolas/awnings, I have to search each one separately, and I miss any objects that don't have those tags or text associated with it. And sometimes I want items associated with specific hobbies, like if i want gardening equipment I would like a filter for that and easily find those watering can/gardening gloves item in the base game. And also the various furniture styles need to be fixed updated, there's some objects that have no style whatsoever. -there's build/buy mode issues that yes, I could address with moveobjects, but I would rather see fixed in normal gameplay (and using moveobjects has its own drawbacks). Items that I think should fit on a shelf are too big for some reason, and I think they need to add more Item slots(was there ever a point where bathroom sinks had slots for like the soap dispenser or toothbrushes) Also 1/4 tile objects and toilet stalls can't be placed near the edge of the wall, if its in the corner of a room a wall needs to extend outside the room to support it. meanwhile the laundry baskets from laundry day are slightly too large, so instead of just going into quarter tile mode and snapping a basket to a quarter tile near the wall, I have to do the alt-click thing to move it slightly out, which I guess is just a pet peeve but still gets me. -the opposite-gender clothing options have always been really sloppy. When it was first introduced in... 2016 was it? I thought the conversions were pretty rough but they would make all future clothing with all body types in mind... seven years and a bunch of expansions later and they're still messy. Most male clothing does not look good on feminine frames, the tops do not have enough vertices for breasts and most bottoms go weirdly concave in the crotch or have an errant vertex sticking out. For some reason shorts modify the exposed leg mesh just slightly, like a vertex sticks out at the knee, just enough that you notice. And the worst part is some of these lazy conversions are labeled feminine by default, so they show up on npcs and the like. Even though men fare better the textures always seem to mess up on the exposed skin, like the uv maps are skewed around the collarbone. I would think there would be custom content fixing all these issues but... well maybe I don't know where to look, can someone point me in the right direction? I could go on, I didn't even touch on gameplay issues or expansion content, which are thing that might need complete reimagining; just things that require someone sitting down and making some adjustments (as far as I know, in fact the clothing issue might require making custom masculine and feminine meshes for all clothing, which could be an issue). Also at this point it might be too late to make such requests, and I should just wait for the next sims game, but I thought I'd put this out there.
Comments
It's like a cycle.
The developers release a trailer for new content-->hype, speculation, discussion builds up around it-->People buy it and it's not what they wanted. Maybe it's lackluster, buggy, etc-->Complaining about the state of the game and wishing the devs will fix and improve it-->new trailer is released-->hype, speculation, discussion builds up around it-->People buy it and it's not what they wanted.
Latter, rinse, and repeat.
I forgot one. I wonder if they will ever learn from the MFPS (My First Pet Stuff) fiasco they created where you have to own Cats and Dogs just to access some content from MFPS. I HOPE they never pull that stunt again.
> There's not enough cross pack compatibility.
I do definetelly agree. There are several things that should be updated in packs to ensure pack compability:
- If you have Werewolf Packs and Jungle Adventure, you should be able to find werewolf relics as a human with high Archaeology skill.
- Get Famous brought up fame and City Living brought up singing skill, but there is no Singer Career. I expected Get Famous to include more career options than just acting. Sims 1 Superstar had musician, model and act career (well you were all of them at the same time tho), but Sims 3 did it great.
- Professorial reward trait only include base game skills. Why cant I write skill book on Vampire Lore or Herbalism Skill, for example?
I miss burglars, police and social services, they brought unpredictability to the game and social services, police brought consciences and burglars was the classic villain of the franchise
Customizable lifespans- I feel long is too long for every life stage but the normal is too short for every life stage, it would be great it we could Customize this to our liking
Customizable vacation worlds and more holiday worlds- I would personally love sulani and the Japanese themed world to be vacation worlds only, which follows by what else I'd like from the game hotels, I would like hotels to be able to be placed everywhere but actually having more vacation worlds aswell
Memory scrapbook- this is just for us, we could look back in our sims life's
Better family trees- I would like family trees to also include extended family members
We need more traits perhaps another trait slot and of course more aspirations
Add food preferences to likes and dislikes
Add romance relationships, friends relationships and enemies for townies in neighbourhood stories and marriage
An early days pack- I think we are already getting this, adding more gameplay to baby-child
An optional walking stick
Adult sims could experience midlife crisis triggered by certain traits they may have for example self-absorbed sims will dislike getting old
I would also like imaginary friends, children playing tag with other kids and more playground equipment and dressing up box
Toddlers getting a lot trait that brings Toddlers and their parents to the lot, so your sims could socialize with the parents and your Toddlers could socialize with other Toddlers
Daycare career track
Showtime pack- could bring back bands, magicians, acrobats and stage preformances
To me that's what the sims 4 is missing and would love to return
I played The Sims 4 from the beginning and i couldn't figger out why i liked to play the Sims 2 (and 1) so much more and why it is different. I think one of the things that are important is... the size of the sims and the furniture etc. are different. On the Sims 2 i could play and see my whole house and the sims way better. The lighting was breighter too. Now i need to zoooom in, to play.
If i want to take care of a toddler it takes min. 1,5 hour. Making breakfast and stuff tooo. The timemanagement is not realistic. The time goes by so fast and that is the reason that playing the game feels different. Like in a rush.
It is not my computer because i played it on different computers over the past years.
I used some timemanagement MOD and i was so happy! The time was normal like in the Sims 2.
But i don't like to use these mods anymore because it makes the game glitch sometimes.
So what could make the game better:
- More realistic sizes of the homes and sims.
- More realistic timemanagement (no mods).
- Better lighting (no mods). The houses look so cold.. you need to put bright spots everywhere and that is one of the reasons the game loses this nice warm feeling you get from the Sims 2 homes.
- Stop giving the sims 100 options to talk about. Chill.
PS. try to zoom your screen from how you would play the Sims 2. Your sims and furniture on the sims 4 will look small... It is different.
1. The long load times you have to endure when you travel or load up the game.
2. I'm rich and have nothing to spend the money on, I've customized my mansion to the max basically.
3. Right now, insulting seems to be a big bug and I hate it, I'm trying to build up friendships with other sims, I leave that area to check on another sim, come back and there in the middle of insulting another sim, which would make some sense if one sim was in a bad mood. It's so annoying.
4. As people on here have mentioned the worlds are like set dressing and there's not much to do at all especially the world that comes with cottage living, though cottage living is not a bad expansion Imo.
5. I just recently bought a chicken coup, and the chickens live such a short life, you can't possibly build your relationship bar up high with them.
6. This is actually big to me, household inventory needs the option to sell stacks of stuff, rather than one by one. Having large inventories, fridges and bookshelves causes lag and larger bills I have read.
In conclusion I still love the game and play a lot. There are a lot of features I like, and they keep bringing me back for more. But EA could do a better job in many different areas of the game, I think.
Definitely need some grouping/cleaning like taking away vampire chat options or wedding chat options from sims who has nothing to do with them. Sims 3 chat had a neat feature where all special chat options coming from traits or careers were grouped into separate menu. I feel like at this stage Sims 4 desperately need this.
2) Consistency. New features are initiated and dropped like new shiny toys child got bored with.
- Likes/dislikes still missing a great portion of activities. Decoration styles were changed several times already and have little in common with categories introduced in Home Decorator. Sims still doing autonomously things they hate constantly getting stressed about them, so autonomy for likes/dislikes also isn't getting fixed.
- Promised townies overhaul... I don't want even to start this. Apparently it's way much more important how two certain families look instead the fact that families have no implied relationships, no preset sentiments, no body hair settings, horrific random hot/cold outfits, no preset likes/dislikes including those for Decor and Fashion, how about preset lifestyles for those with expansion. Instead of tones of Caliente/Goth sketches that's what normal overhaul would look like.
- When neighborhood stories were implemented it was promised it's only the first step in introducing this feature. And more steps for improving it will come along. Have you ever heard about any new additions or improvement to it ever since? Sims can have babies autonomously but still can't form couples autonomously meaning after first generation the save will still die out without manual arrangement of 2nd generation of NPC couples.
- Swimmable water in base game? Or Windenburg or Brindleton Bay anyone? How many years since we were told they are working on this?
- Recent wants/fears update. Fears logic is very flawed in many cases leading to countless annoyances. Wants are very limited and repetitive especially music ones. And not only this feature was dropped without any discussion prior to it, it continue to exist without any follow up from the team side and bug/annoyances fixing. Also absolutely no feedback on wants/fears for other packs.
3) Integration. A lot about it is said above so I won't add more.
4) NPC management. NPCs were a big disaster in all sims games actually. And they are as bad in Sims 4. But some pretty obvious things I feel could be stopped.
- NPCs like Father Winter or Sages being pushed to different roles like showing in Uni campus events or even simple bypassers in Oasis Spring. Aren't there any other mechanics to fill these roles?
- Star NPCs control. I do understand some players want to see their stars every where but for those who suppose Judith Ward won't come for groceries into a low 24/7 car stop shop it can be implemented through "no stars" lot trait easily.
- Outfits which are so bad the team has to pretend it's not a bug but feature (I'm looking at you trendy shoppers). Many different suggestions were already made on how to tame random outfit generation craziness, but we still have clown NPCs everywhere and even generated on purpose.
5) Routing.
- Why when I order my sim to go and talk to someone they stand and wait for other part of the talk to come to them. Leading to such things as vendors closing their stalls/other NPC dropping their assignments to come to chat. If my sim is initiating the talk it's him who need to go and start it not the involved part.
- Why can't sims just stand and talk? If there are any seats in the vicinity they won't talk without occupying them first. Which leads to musical chairs, annoying routing up/down stairs for no reason and so on.
- Why sims are so prone to chat standing back to back not face to face?
- Why proper sinks usage is still such a problem?
- Do we still believe hugging or greeting each other in other ways before each conversation is a good feature especially in terms of routing?
- Bicycles need to be left outside. Living rooms are not a good place to stop bicycle rides.
- Constant task dropping.
I'm absolutely sure that with a good coat of polish for 1, 4 and 5 issues alone the game would be very enjoyable to play. These are things laying in the game foundation and making it even not more interesting but more usable and reasonable overall.
I don't know why they done that, I would of preferred a pack that just brought more animals if they really had to separate it, but nope you shouldn't have to buy a pack to get all the content from another, they could of added birds, fishes could of been updated to be like a pet instead of just decor, Rabbits and guinea-pigs, in different colours and types aswell, of course horses
Disabilities are a fact of life and they aren't in the game. Where are the wheelchair users, the blind people, the deaf people? They exist and deserve to be in the game.
As a Jewish person, my biggest gripe is how much of the game, even with customizable holidays, forces you to live like a white christian person from the USA. it's annoying af.
you can't say your game is for "everyone" when you mean "able bodied white goyische americans". like, that's not everyone. ffs.
OP's and Cinebar's posts
I vehemently agree with both. That aside, if I had to choose one, even including the issues listed in those posts... it has to be:
Watered-Down Boring Content
This is the biggest problem with the game to me. It's absurd that the entirety of TS4 costs hundreds of dollars to get its "full" experience. For 40 bucks, I could buy an expansion pack in TS3 and get a ton of content that all plays together well and is interconnected with depth and surprises. The Sims 4 doesn't have that. Vampires was introduced in 2017, which was well received. In that expansion, they have an ability to create a burst of emotion to affect nearby Sims. Years later, a Fear emotion was finally patched into the game and... the devs apparently forgot that they have numerous things that can affect emotions, including Vampires, so they can't spread Fear through their powers. I have a mod to fix that.
Key sentences here. "The Sims 4 doesn't have that." "I have a mod to fix that." I think, for many of us, these sentences show up everywhere when criticizing the game.
Little story for you: In TS3, I was playing my Sim and really wanted to find a wife for him. So I looked through the map, found a Sim I thought was decent looking, went into CAS to pretty her up a bit, and decided to have him pursue her. I had him call, say hello, but she wasn't interested. She was with someone else. So I decided to see if he could steal her away. Numerous attempts to romance her online happened after that, all failing, so a couple of Sim days later, I found her on the street and made him go meet her.
She was creeped out when he said hello. I was surprised, I had no idea she would react that way. From playing TS4, I expected her to be all smiles and friendly. Somehow, she knew my Sim was practically stalking her, and it gave her a negative impression of my Sim, the conversation message on the top left said she thought my Sim was creepy. It made me feel bad, it made her feel more real because that's obviously how someone would react in real life to that kind of thing. Naturally, this has never happened in TS4. I don't feel like my Sims are as complex as their peers. They don't feel like simulated people, they just feel like mindless extras.
There is no complexity, no depth, no immersion (because a loading screen pulls you out of it every time you travel anywhere), not many ways to introduce some kind of critical thought, no challenge, no balance. Once your Sim finishes the aspiration about making a lot of money, your Sim doesn't ever have to work again. My Sim and his wife get over $400,000 weekly each. And I never look forward to it because I never need it. In TS3, I'm constantly wondering for ways to get more money and find myself looking forward to when his investments come in because money in that game helps me explore so much more of it. But in TS4, exploration isn't really a factor. It's hardly in the game.
TL:DR: I could keep going, comparing and contrasting, but an article I once saw put it perfectly.
The Sims 4's biggest problem is that The Sims 3 exists. And The Sims 2, respectively. If this game was the second game in the series, I'd think it was a step in the right direction. Sure, the DLC practices are scummy and pretty much have most Simmers hoping and praying that the next batch of content is good only to be let down most of the time. Like an addiction. But it'd be an example of what could be possible for the next game.
However, through TS2 and TS3, I assume most people imagined TS4 being a beautiful combination of those 2 games. Instead it became evidence that the series is going downhill and it's why I will most likely not be supporting TS5.
This makes it hard to strike a balance that will please everyone. They would be criticised if the quality of the premades was low in a pack.
I’m somewhere in the middle. I like to make my own sims but have them interact with premades. I don’t really care about that premades lore or sexual orientation or sense of fashion, they’re whatever I imagine them to be but I do like seeing them around and the effort that goes into them and I’d not knowingly delete most of the premades. They’re much better window dressing than townies.
I will say though, with my wedding stories it seems like they put more time into the premades backstory and their trailers than they did the wedding gameplay of the kit and that’s when it becomes a problem. It’s fine for them to have a story but the game needs to function and be good first and foremost.
From working with people in the roughly 18-25 age range, I think it's about more than just the people who are LGBTQ+, it's become a topic a lot of them are very engaged with the last few years. So I think that's probably where the interest is coming from, and that EA are on to something which now matters of a lot of players. It seems very likely when the next version of the sims is out it will also include the ability to create diverse sims from day one, and that in general we'll be taking their inclusion in things as more of a given by then, so what seems like a lot of attention today will be just normal in the end.
I do sometimes have random stuff happen. The pancakes had a kid in my game and he aged up to have glowing red eyes (must be some cc I have?). It made me laugh and suits his personaality, so I kept him like that. I also had a sim whose mother in law just randomly, for no clear reason (she isn't a mean sim) decided she hated her and has been nothing but trouble. But truth is, these things rarely happen and I wish more would happen.
Get the burglar and I can buy an alarm. And take my car to work...
-They need to rehaul build/buy mode filters. If I sort by room and go to kitchen->decorations, I expect to see kitchen decorations and not... movie sets. Paintings/posters/wall decals are all in one category, I don't imagine houses being decorated with decals, yet I have to scroll through way too many of them to find framed paintings. there's so many kits and no individual kit filters, so having a bathroom kit with no bathroom filter is annoying. Some things I can search by text, but I don't think it's too reliable, like if I want to look at Pergolas/awnings, I have to search each one separately, and I miss any objects that don't have those tags or text associated with it. And sometimes I want items associated with specific hobbies, like if i want gardening equipment I would like a filter for that and easily find those watering can/gardening gloves item in the base game. And also the various furniture styles need to be fixed updated, there's some objects that have no style whatsoever.
-there's build/buy mode issues that yes, I could address with moveobjects, but I would rather see fixed in normal gameplay (and using moveobjects has its own drawbacks). Items that I think should fit on a shelf are too big for some reason, and I think they need to add more Item slots(was there ever a point where bathroom sinks had slots for like the soap dispenser or toothbrushes) Also 1/4 tile objects and toilet stalls can't be placed near the edge of the wall, if its in the corner of a room a wall needs to extend outside the room to support it. meanwhile the laundry baskets from laundry day are slightly too large, so instead of just going into quarter tile mode and snapping a basket to a quarter tile near the wall, I have to do the alt-click thing to move it slightly out, which I guess is just a pet peeve but still gets me.
-the opposite-gender clothing options have always been really sloppy. When it was first introduced in... 2016 was it? I thought the conversions were pretty rough but they would make all future clothing with all body types in mind... seven years and a bunch of expansions later and they're still messy. Most male clothing does not look good on feminine frames, the tops do not have enough vertices for breasts and most bottoms go weirdly concave in the crotch or have an errant vertex sticking out. For some reason shorts modify the exposed leg mesh just slightly, like a vertex sticks out at the knee, just enough that you notice. And the worst part is some of these lazy conversions are labeled feminine by default, so they show up on npcs and the like. Even though men fare better the textures always seem to mess up on the exposed skin, like the uv maps are skewed around the collarbone. I would think there would be custom content fixing all these issues but... well maybe I don't know where to look, can someone point me in the right direction?
I could go on, I didn't even touch on gameplay issues or expansion content, which are thing that might need complete reimagining; just things that require someone sitting down and making some adjustments (as far as I know, in fact the clothing issue might require making custom masculine and feminine meshes for all clothing, which could be an issue). Also at this point it might be too late to make such requests, and I should just wait for the next sims game, but I thought I'd put this out there.