If Britechester was designed to be British, that explains the canal boats that frequently pass by my sims house 🤣.
I don’t know how well traveled all the dev’s are. I’m sure it’s probably easier to make a place that you are familiar with. And if they are like most of us in the U. S. many have lived in dorms in the states.
I think they said they travel on location when they build a world, to get pictures and inspiration. They did that for Batuu.
What, did they travel to Naboo or Tatooine or something?
Where is the Star Wars theme park?
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida.
I think that's where they visited and based the pack on but I could be wrong.
My bet is Batuu West at Disneyland since it's only about 6-ish hours from the Bay Area.
Which i still haven't gone to. Closest i got was seeing the Spires as I drove by on my way to Star Wars Celebration Anaheim last May.
If Britechester was designed to be British, that explains the canal boats that frequently pass by my sims house 🤣.
I don’t know how well traveled all the dev’s are. I’m sure it’s probably easier to make a place that you are familiar with. And if they are like most of us in the U. S. many have lived in dorms in the states.
I think they said they travel on location when they build a world, to get pictures and inspiration. They did that for Batuu.
What, did they travel to Naboo or Tatooine or something?
Where is the Star Wars theme park?
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida.
I think that's where they visited and based the pack on but I could be wrong.
Yes, the Disney park not Tatooine. Batuu is a copy of the park.
So I had the virtual visit to the theme park for the price of a game pack on sale? No need to fly thousands of km to see it and no getting in line because of the crowds. That's a good deal to me.
I also think it is very unlikely for me to ever visit San Francisco. Does San Seqouia come close? All I can think of for San Francisco is townhouses/rowhouses and the bridge.
So I had the virtual visit to the theme park for the price of a game pack on sale? No need to fly thousands of km to see it and no getting in line because of the crowds. That's a good deal to me.
I also think it is very unlikely for me to ever visit San Francisco. Does San Seqouia come close? All I can think of for San Francisco is townhouses/rowhouses and the bridge.
As a former Oakland (city right next to SF) resident, a little yes but mostly no. San Francisco is a bustling world class city. What is being shown here are suburbs that are north of the city across the bridge, as well as some components from other suburban areas such as Gilroy, Redwood City, etc, upscale Berkley, etc.
The "Wharf" area is like a ghostly, extremely scaled down version of an SF neighborhood called Dogpatch.
I was super excited for this world and very disappointed when I saw the pictures. However, it's become clear to me that they focused on gameplay for this pack and because of that I'm not too upset about it. It isn't gamebreaking. The game changers are able to actually play with it, unlike MWS and it's beautiful Tartosa.
Ooooh, that's a really nice lot! You'll have to let us know how it goes once you play-test it!
I actually downloaded that lot years ago, when it first showed up in my gallery, because it is so DEAD ON and I was really homesick. It's a great lot but you definitely have to do quite a lot of door locking to play it as a residential. If you play it as a restaurant you have to delete the counters, desks, etc elsewhere because the sims WILL sit all over the place.
I also think it is very unlikely for me to ever visit San Francisco. Does San Seqouia come close? All I can think of for San Francisco is townhouses/rowhouses and the bridge.
I lived in the Bay Area for a while. San Sequoia resembles the whitest and wealthiest areas located just north and south of the Golden Gate Bridge: Marin County, Sausalito, the Marina district, plus Golden Gardens Park.
They avoided the historically black and Latino neighborhoods (Hunters Point, the Mission district, Oakland) as well as the bustling business areas that get scary at night.
Part of that is surely due to the decision to have few lots far apart from each other. In the Bay Area, a house with lots of space around it = money.
But it makes you wonder, if they could do non-super-rich city neighborhoods amazingly in City Living, why not do at least one of the neighborhoods that way in this pack?
Edit: @jennieeffin sorry didn't mean to ignore you, didn't see your comment till after I posted. and yeah I agree!
Ooooh, that's a really nice lot! You'll have to let us know how it goes once you play-test it!
I actually downloaded that lot years ago, when it first showed up in my gallery, because it is so DEAD ON and I was really homesick. It's a great lot but you definitely have to do quite a lot of door locking to play it as a residential. If you play it as a restaurant you have to delete the counters, desks, etc elsewhere because the sims WILL sit all over the place.
I was playing with the idea of making it a retail lot (maybe an art gallery, but with maker space objects and possibly photography objects as well), and then using the apartments as AirBnB type spaces for my sims who visit from other worlds.
I did something similar in Sulani. I took the large empty lot with the particularly gorgeous views, and turned it into an Artist Colony. Technically it's a retail lot, but the art gallery is in one main building on one side of the lot, and on the other side, there are Tahitian-style huts extending out over the water. There's also a small spa area. The rest of the property has yoga mats and an abundant supply of easels. My artsy sims like to go here for a few days to paint and rejuvenate. It's currently unowned, but my local Sulani artist is saving her money to buy it and display her paintings. Once she does, guests will either pay her simoleans or buy a certain number of her paintings to "pay" for the vacation.
Maybe for this lot I could create a wealthy but bohemian San Sequioa socialite who dabbles in painting, but mostly sells other people's art, and sponsors "artists in residence." (Aka, the temporary visitors.)
Ooooh, that's a really nice lot! You'll have to let us know how it goes once you play-test it!
I actually downloaded that lot years ago, when it first showed up in my gallery, because it is so DEAD ON and I was really homesick. It's a great lot but you definitely have to do quite a lot of door locking to play it as a residential. If you play it as a restaurant you have to delete the counters, desks, etc elsewhere because the sims WILL sit all over the place.
I was playing with the idea of making it a retail lot (maybe an art gallery, but with maker space objects and possibly photography objects as well), and then using the apartments as AirBnB type spaces for my sims who visit from other worlds.
I did something similar in Sulani. I took the large empty lot with the particularly gorgeous views, and turned it into an Artist Colony. Technically it's a retail lot, but the art gallery is in one main building on one side of the lot, and on the other side, there are Tahitian-style huts extending out over the water. There's also a small spa area. The rest of the property has yoga mats and an abundant supply of easels. My artsy sims like to go here for a few days to paint and rejuvenate. It's currently unowned, but my local Sulani artist is saving her money to buy it and display her paintings. Once she does, guests will either pay her simoleans or buy a certain number of her paintings to "pay" for the vacation.
Maybe for this lot I could create a wealthy but bohemian San Sequioa socialite who dabbles in painting, but mostly sells other people's art, and sponsors "artists in residence." (Aka, the temporary visitors.)
I think retail, or a bar, or a cafe (changing the restaurant a little bit) would all work really well and I love the rental idea. I've played it as a bar myself, when I turned Magnolia Promenade into an "I'm really homesick for SF" mini-world.
I play in a realistic style so if someone leaves their "region" they HAVE to spend the night somewhere, they can't just pop over to Henford from Del Sol Valley without spending the night, so do I often set up restaurants or bars or cafes with "Hotels" attached.
I would for the sims team to one day give us multifuntion lots (even just a two function lot). It would make this kind of gameplay so much more realistic.
After watching some early access videos I couldn't be more convinced that the world is pretty bad. It looks good but it's empty. The neighborhoods are huge, the lots are too far apart from each other and the activities (cinema, trail and splash pads), the only fishing areas are on the lakes (seems weird for a waterfront world), no sea swimming (only one swimming point in one lake), almost no functional seats in the world, only kids' playthings outside the lots are one pirate ship in the suburbs and one monkey bars near the splash pad.
The downtown area feels the emptiest of all three with all neighborhood attractions very far from each other. Oh! And by attractions I mean: the cinema, that one food cart tucked behind some shells without a single bench or table nearby and that lonesome piano. There's no fishing spots in the downtown area.
I just wish the world was smaller and had like actual gameplay stuff: children playgrounds, fishing spots, BBQs, outdoor sitting areas. I also believe that, after MWS, instead of putting that lonesome food cart, they should have put it inside one of the shells like that wedding cake place in Tartosa.
I think we’ve had so many worlds where the world itself has been a huge feature of the pack that this is just kinda uninspiring. I also think Brindleton Bay and even the super popular Windenburg would get criticised these days for not having much unique things to do.
I think sims worlds have advanced with Komorebi and Sulani and Henford-on-Bagley and the willow creek type of world with nothing you can’t really do anywhere else just isn’t enough to excite most people anymore. It should at least look really unique and cool if it’s just set dressing and to me, this one doesn’t stand out. Tartosa didn’t have too much to do either but it looked really cool and different.
I will move my sims there but I’m already thinking about where/when to move them out 😂. Rest of the pack looks great though!
While I generally think it's fine that the world is playing second fiddle to the gameplay in this pack, I can't help thinking that even a few very small tweaks could have made the world feel so much more alive without breaking the bank (in terms of either time or money). Just off the top of my head, while I like the piano in Anchorpoint Wharf, it would surely have been easy to plop down 2 or three easels out in the world in that neighborhood as well. Also, there were several areas across the world that had a picnic table but no grill. Then there's just the one fishing/swimming spot in Gilbert Gardens; I can almost understand not having one in Anchorpoint Wharf, but it would have been a natural fit to at least have one more in Hopewell Hills.
And harvestables... don't get me started on Harvestables. Not a single one anywhere that I can find in the world. Now that we have the simple living challenge... and we all know that it's an incredibly popular lot challenge that many people use... it seems inexcusable to me to not have at least a handful of harvestables in each predominantly residential neighborhood.
It's not just about our sims having more to do; these are features that draw in townies/non-played sims as well, and make the worlds feel more alive. Three easels, two grills, one more fishing spot, and maybe five harvestable plants: that's all it would have taken across the entire world to make things feel vastly more alive and interesting, and it would have taken... half an hour? maybe an hour of dev time, tops, to just chuck in those existing assets into an open space.
Mind you, that's not even touching the issue of all the shell buildings, but that is a much longer conversation and one that I don't think will ever change. But adding just a few wee assets to the world seems like a perfectly modest and reasonable ask for future packs.
One of my favorite builders already came through with a lot that looks like something I actually remember seeing when I lived SF, specifically the Outer Sunset.
I'm so confused. They wanted to make the game easier for those with low-end specs, so they cut down on lots. But the world is so vast and filled to the brim with decorative set pieces. I get that lots might contribute to the issues on a bigger scale, but why have so much inaccessible real estate?
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
I'm so confused. They wanted to make the game easier for those with low-end specs, so they cut down on lots. But the world is so vast and filled to the brim with decorative set pieces. I get that lots might contribute to the issues on a bigger scale, but why have so much inaccessible real estate?
this
I don't really understand why they make the areas so big,vast and so full of shells and so devoid of any gameplay items
aren't all these decorations and long view distances hard on low specs too?
why not just make small area with less shells and due to smaller size less decorations needed
and smaller view distance and then the 2 gameplay items you have in it are so much easier to find and use
and everything makes lot more sense and world is hundred times more lively since the lots next to yours actually are lots
why do we have to have these worlds of deception that actually are not useable at all
also I am not even gonna start about how they have these lovely pier houses
and we couldn't even have one or two lots on a pier or some type of activity there
like why would you do that to our poor souls
For those wondering why we get such a big area if it's empty I believe it's to ride bikes around and give it more of an open world feel. I get no one likes shells but if that's what they need to do for technical reasons I'd rather have a smooth running game and big open area to either roam in or place my own objects with TOOL.
I also use a skating mod, and a skateboard mod.
I have my sims ride around the big area together all the time. And if they are staying in a rental in a world they are vacationing in they stop and take pictures. Point is I find it much more useful to have a big area to roam in rather then a tiny single street sims can barely move around in just because people don't want shells. It's what I love most about the new worlds, all of the free roaming area!
And having more lots would absolutely cause game issues if people filled those lots up to the max. I once turned newcrest into a cyber city and filled every lot to the max with stuff. Plus used TOOL to put some stuff outside lots. For the first time ever my game became literally unplayable. The lag was so intense every time I tried to play in that world it was crazy. It became obvious to me that the game is not just loading the one lot you're playing on even though it's not open world.
And yes I know it's up to the individual to guage how much their PC can handle but we all know that's now how things go in reality. People will max out all 25 lots in the world and the complaints will start rolling in.
@Babykittyjade Yeah but i just wish we didn't go too far to either extreme
and i feel this is going bit too much into the big world no use category
also personally i am very much okay with the lot counts
thats not the issue for me at all
(i actually rather prefer to not have tons of lots since we only have so many venue types really)
its just the feeling that the main parts of the neighborhood are just shells and nothing more
What annoys me is that the featured shells are set in a better environment. We can only compromise on not-so-good locations to build our lots and lack the sim autonomy and gameplay interactions with that beautiful scene, which they create and hope we reach.
I love the community lots in this world, including the EA-built spray park and beach area, even though it can't be moved. It has a vibe of the suburbs and reminds me somewhat of Vancouver island Canada as far as style (Victoria etc.). The neighborhood and walking paths are laid out like many neighborhoods across Canada and the US. It feels authentic...similar to my suburban neighborhood in Alberta with the walking trails around neighborhood ponds, the nearby spray park, and the YMCA community center. It feels lived in and like a real place...and I can see why docks would be gated off and not open for the public to walk on them (much like RL). I found a spot where parents can dip infants' (yes, infants/not toddlers) toes in the water on the beach, which I am not sure works in other worlds. I also loved being on that same beach in a rainstorm and watching all the foliage blow in the wind as a family attempted to go to the beach and spray park and get rained out. However, I think I will look for some apartment builds/mods that would fit in this world too, and I've also added some small elementary schools and a clinic (also from mods). It seems to have an open-world feel, even with many transitions (which I always envisioned as a family driving between locations or taking transit versus walking). Even though the subway in the world is non-functional, it looks natural and gives that vibe. I think everyone has their preferences for different worlds...but I will say I was shocked when I saw some reviews put this world as "lackluster" as I was showing it off to my family, "look at these awesome graphics, and can you believe this is sims now?." I still haven't found out if the world has winter as I play 28-day seasons... in RL, cities such as San Francisco (and other coastal subtropical cities like Vancouver and Portland) can have snow...but not every year.
What I would like someday would be a user-friendly/EA-supported world builder for sims 4 so that we would be able to create worlds without being high-level programmers. Maybe something like Second Life uses for building in the world that allows for terraforming and object editing of regions. For a while, I was into renting regions in Second Life to build town replicas and would spend weeks making them...but virtual land is pricey, and I would love to have that building freedom offline.
Great pack (and stellar world), but I would love to have someday the freedom to customize my own.
btw beware there is quake zone lot challenge in gilbert gardens unhabited house lot
and yes it gets very annoying while trying to take care of your infant
and then your screen just goes wonk a wonk wonk out of nowhere
I had to turn it off because gosh I am just trying to learn how to play now game let's see about that when I actually need a challenge
@Babykittyjade Yeah but i just wish we didn't go too far to either extreme and i feel this is going bit too much into the big world no use category
also personally i am very much okay with the lot counts thats not the issue for me at all (i actually rather prefer to not have tons of lots since we only have so many venue types really)
its just the feeling that the main parts of the neighborhood are just shells and nothing more
I understand because I do not like shells myself. But with the way this game was designed there really is no good solution.
Should they make smaller worlds so there are less shells? People will complain.
More rabbit holes?= complaints.
Should they cluster the lots closer together?
This is something I would like but that means too much of the area leftover is 90% shell.
They try to balance it and make each area feel usable. Tiny map sizes like del sol are met with complaint as well.
What if they start putting more objects outside of lots like basketball courts, playground equipment etc. That = complaint from players for using pack items. If they use base game items only that= players either complaining that each world has the Same base game items over and over, or complaining that the items are messing up the look of their world. I remember how many complained about the ice skating rinks and modded it out.
Another thing to make it feel less ghost town would be sims you can't interact with doing things in the background around town or walking by to give it more a crowded city feel.
But then people would complain that the decor sims don't fit the world they are imagining.
They could eliminate "some" of the shells but I think an empty open plain world is even worse. It's what I didn't like about Henford. Feels like an empty lonely world lol.
All in all, sims 4 is a closed world game trying to keep everything balanced and running smooth. There is no real solution to this. Nor anything that could make all players happy.
Comments
My bet is Batuu West at Disneyland since it's only about 6-ish hours from the Bay Area.
Which i still haven't gone to. Closest i got was seeing the Spires as I drove by on my way to Star Wars Celebration Anaheim last May.
So I had the virtual visit to the theme park for the price of a game pack on sale? No need to fly thousands of km to see it and no getting in line because of the crowds. That's a good deal to me.
I also think it is very unlikely for me to ever visit San Francisco. Does San Seqouia come close? All I can think of for San Francisco is townhouses/rowhouses and the bridge.
As a former Oakland (city right next to SF) resident, a little yes but mostly no. San Francisco is a bustling world class city. What is being shown here are suburbs that are north of the city across the bridge, as well as some components from other suburban areas such as Gilroy, Redwood City, etc, upscale Berkley, etc.
The "Wharf" area is like a ghostly, extremely scaled down version of an SF neighborhood called Dogpatch.
I was super excited for this world and very disappointed when I saw the pictures. However, it's become clear to me that they focused on gameplay for this pack and because of that I'm not too upset about it. It isn't gamebreaking. The game changers are able to actually play with it, unlike MWS and it's beautiful Tartosa.
I will just download lots to fill it out the way I know it, starting with this one: https://catsaar.tumblr.com/post/650811747888988160/frisco-bay-a-san-francisco-inspired-neighborhood
Ooooh, that's a really nice lot! You'll have to let us know how it goes once you play-test it!
I actually downloaded that lot years ago, when it first showed up in my gallery, because it is so DEAD ON and I was really homesick. It's a great lot but you definitely have to do quite a lot of door locking to play it as a residential. If you play it as a restaurant you have to delete the counters, desks, etc elsewhere because the sims WILL sit all over the place.
I lived in the Bay Area for a while. San Sequoia resembles the whitest and wealthiest areas located just north and south of the Golden Gate Bridge: Marin County, Sausalito, the Marina district, plus Golden Gardens Park.
They avoided the historically black and Latino neighborhoods (Hunters Point, the Mission district, Oakland) as well as the bustling business areas that get scary at night.
Part of that is surely due to the decision to have few lots far apart from each other. In the Bay Area, a house with lots of space around it = money.
But it makes you wonder, if they could do non-super-rich city neighborhoods amazingly in City Living, why not do at least one of the neighborhoods that way in this pack?
Edit: @jennieeffin sorry didn't mean to ignore you, didn't see your comment till after I posted. and yeah I agree!
I was playing with the idea of making it a retail lot (maybe an art gallery, but with maker space objects and possibly photography objects as well), and then using the apartments as AirBnB type spaces for my sims who visit from other worlds.
I did something similar in Sulani. I took the large empty lot with the particularly gorgeous views, and turned it into an Artist Colony. Technically it's a retail lot, but the art gallery is in one main building on one side of the lot, and on the other side, there are Tahitian-style huts extending out over the water. There's also a small spa area. The rest of the property has yoga mats and an abundant supply of easels. My artsy sims like to go here for a few days to paint and rejuvenate. It's currently unowned, but my local Sulani artist is saving her money to buy it and display her paintings. Once she does, guests will either pay her simoleans or buy a certain number of her paintings to "pay" for the vacation.
Maybe for this lot I could create a wealthy but bohemian San Sequioa socialite who dabbles in painting, but mostly sells other people's art, and sponsors "artists in residence." (Aka, the temporary visitors.)
I think retail, or a bar, or a cafe (changing the restaurant a little bit) would all work really well and I love the rental idea. I've played it as a bar myself, when I turned Magnolia Promenade into an "I'm really homesick for SF" mini-world.
I play in a realistic style so if someone leaves their "region" they HAVE to spend the night somewhere, they can't just pop over to Henford from Del Sol Valley without spending the night, so do I often set up restaurants or bars or cafes with "Hotels" attached.
I would for the sims team to one day give us multifuntion lots (even just a two function lot). It would make this kind of gameplay so much more realistic.
The downtown area feels the emptiest of all three with all neighborhood attractions very far from each other. Oh! And by attractions I mean: the cinema, that one food cart tucked behind some shells without a single bench or table nearby and that lonesome piano. There's no fishing spots in the downtown area.
I just wish the world was smaller and had like actual gameplay stuff: children playgrounds, fishing spots, BBQs, outdoor sitting areas. I also believe that, after MWS, instead of putting that lonesome food cart, they should have put it inside one of the shells like that wedding cake place in Tartosa.
I think sims worlds have advanced with Komorebi and Sulani and Henford-on-Bagley and the willow creek type of world with nothing you can’t really do anywhere else just isn’t enough to excite most people anymore. It should at least look really unique and cool if it’s just set dressing and to me, this one doesn’t stand out. Tartosa didn’t have too much to do either but it looked really cool and different.
I will move my sims there but I’m already thinking about where/when to move them out 😂. Rest of the pack looks great though!
And harvestables... don't get me started on Harvestables. Not a single one anywhere that I can find in the world. Now that we have the simple living challenge... and we all know that it's an incredibly popular lot challenge that many people use... it seems inexcusable to me to not have at least a handful of harvestables in each predominantly residential neighborhood.
It's not just about our sims having more to do; these are features that draw in townies/non-played sims as well, and make the worlds feel more alive. Three easels, two grills, one more fishing spot, and maybe five harvestable plants: that's all it would have taken across the entire world to make things feel vastly more alive and interesting, and it would have taken... half an hour? maybe an hour of dev time, tops, to just chuck in those existing assets into an open space.
Mind you, that's not even touching the issue of all the shell buildings, but that is a much longer conversation and one that I don't think will ever change. But adding just a few wee assets to the world seems like a perfectly modest and reasonable ask for future packs.
https://alerionjkeee.tumblr.com/post/712063053610549248/san-sequoia-apartments
I have started blasting away all the lots in this sad little world. I plan on only having single family homes in Hopewell Hills
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
this
I don't really understand why they make the areas so big,vast and so full of shells and so devoid of any gameplay items
aren't all these decorations and long view distances hard on low specs too?
why not just make small area with less shells and due to smaller size less decorations needed
and smaller view distance and then the 2 gameplay items you have in it are so much easier to find and use
and everything makes lot more sense and world is hundred times more lively since the lots next to yours actually are lots
why do we have to have these worlds of deception that actually are not useable at all
also I am not even gonna start about how they have these lovely pier houses
and we couldn't even have one or two lots on a pier or some type of activity there
like why would you do that to our poor souls
🏡 Gallery 📖 Stories 🌍 World Project 🥔 MOD/CC Free
I also use a skating mod, and a skateboard mod.
I have my sims ride around the big area together all the time. And if they are staying in a rental in a world they are vacationing in they stop and take pictures. Point is I find it much more useful to have a big area to roam in rather then a tiny single street sims can barely move around in just because people don't want shells. It's what I love most about the new worlds, all of the free roaming area!
And having more lots would absolutely cause game issues if people filled those lots up to the max. I once turned newcrest into a cyber city and filled every lot to the max with stuff. Plus used TOOL to put some stuff outside lots. For the first time ever my game became literally unplayable. The lag was so intense every time I tried to play in that world it was crazy. It became obvious to me that the game is not just loading the one lot you're playing on even though it's not open world.
And yes I know it's up to the individual to guage how much their PC can handle but we all know that's now how things go in reality. People will max out all 25 lots in the world and the complaints will start rolling in.
and i feel this is going bit too much into the big world no use category
also personally i am very much okay with the lot counts
thats not the issue for me at all
(i actually rather prefer to not have tons of lots since we only have so many venue types really)
its just the feeling that the main parts of the neighborhood are just shells and nothing more
🏡 Gallery 📖 Stories 🌍 World Project 🥔 MOD/CC Free
What I would like someday would be a user-friendly/EA-supported world builder for sims 4 so that we would be able to create worlds without being high-level programmers. Maybe something like Second Life uses for building in the world that allows for terraforming and object editing of regions. For a while, I was into renting regions in Second Life to build town replicas and would spend weeks making them...but virtual land is pricey, and I would love to have that building freedom offline.
Great pack (and stellar world), but I would love to have someday the freedom to customize my own.
and yes it gets very annoying while trying to take care of your infant
and then your screen just goes wonk a wonk wonk out of nowhere
I had to turn it off because gosh I am just trying to learn how to play now game let's see about that when I actually need a challenge
🏡 Gallery 📖 Stories 🌍 World Project 🥔 MOD/CC Free
I understand because I do not like shells myself. But with the way this game was designed there really is no good solution.
Should they make smaller worlds so there are less shells? People will complain.
More rabbit holes?= complaints.
Should they cluster the lots closer together?
This is something I would like but that means too much of the area leftover is 90% shell.
They try to balance it and make each area feel usable. Tiny map sizes like del sol are met with complaint as well.
What if they start putting more objects outside of lots like basketball courts, playground equipment etc. That = complaint from players for using pack items. If they use base game items only that= players either complaining that each world has the Same base game items over and over, or complaining that the items are messing up the look of their world. I remember how many complained about the ice skating rinks and modded it out.
Another thing to make it feel less ghost town would be sims you can't interact with doing things in the background around town or walking by to give it more a crowded city feel.
But then people would complain that the decor sims don't fit the world they are imagining.
They could eliminate "some" of the shells but I think an empty open plain world is even worse. It's what I didn't like about Henford. Feels like an empty lonely world lol.
All in all, sims 4 is a closed world game trying to keep everything balanced and running smooth. There is no real solution to this. Nor anything that could make all players happy.
Hopewell Hills has green Eco-footprint
(and I just added it to Sims wiki)
I've noticed thunderstorms and generally warm weather even when it rains
Four Seasons Properties