These options appeal to me more than the last. But not sure whether I believe this one either...still includes things we already have, unless these are just really old surveys.
Again, they all sound terrible. The only reassuring thing on the list is that they bother to ask for what occults we want, implying PERHAPS we can go back to getting an occult life state per expansion.
Hate to sound like a broken record but at the end of the day the focus needs to be gameplay. I hated Pets in Sims 3 because aside from horses, the cats and dogs really had little to no purpose, no game aspect to them and no sense of progression. They were just...there. They existed for immersive, simulation purposes. Sims 1 however...? I enjoyed the pets there, probably because there were high demands for them if you wanted to win those competitions. Sims 2 was similar; they had jobs to do and this gave them some depth.
Or take vacations for example. Again I enjoyed vacations in Sims 1 because there were those ticket things you could save up. I had a goal, I had something to work towards, I had a sense of progress. Compare that to Sims 4 with Outdoor Retreat, and that thing is really more or less a brief getaway from regular gameplay that I never revisit after doing the aspiration, which can always be done in one trip. That place has nothing to offer beyond the aspiration.
When I look at the winter one and the love life one, NOTHING on the list is interesting. Playing in the snow is not a selling point. It's extra fluff to immerse the player and state "yep, this is winter," but you don't explicitly send your sim on vacation with the goal of watching them play in the snow. You need some kind of game-orientated goal to keep it interesting. Some might answer and say "I might go on vacation for storytelling purposes though!!" Here's the thing: if you're bored going on that vacation, you'll avoid telling such a story like the plague. Stories need to be interesting and captivating events in a Sim's life, not brief one-offs that are quickly forgotten and never revisited.
The other two...? Entrepreneur and Fashion....? Two problems. One is that in Sims 3, the home designer and fashion careers were, in my experience, quite buggy. It wasn't that the functions bugged out, but rather the very nature of those careers encouraged file bloat, which contributed heavily to lag. I would rather not revisit such a feature unless that's ironed out, and no, given the current state of the game, I don't trust them to iron it out. Second issue is....honestly, where's the pivotal, game-changing difference between running a bakery, running a restaurant, running a water park or running a café? In Sims 2, you had different businesses that were interesting solely because they had dependency on skill badges. A florist was different from a robotics shop, which was different from a toy store. The goal/reward was not "omg now I get to sell flowers instead of robots!" No, the goal/reward was the benefits of mastering those skills. The skills were half the selling point of Open For Business, and they synergized excellently with the retail system. Eventually, any store is going to become monotonous and same-y. GTW stores do this, Dine Out restaurants do this. After you've reached peak efficiency with those, there's nothing new or interesting that'll happen, so you...well, stop playing them. Sims 2 with Open for Business...? Even after you grew tired of your business, the skills remained. You had new benefits via the skills that changed your gameplay forever. Hell, one of the skills unlocked a new life state. Even if you revisited the shops, they were far more interactive too.
At the end of the day we just need new experiences and new gameplay. The problem with all these surveys, should they be legit, is that they all fall into the same old trap Sims 4 has been falling into for ages: they focus TOO heavily on simulating life rather than being a game. Yes ok, cafés exist in real life, but I'll survive if my sim can't run a café. Prioritize what sounds fun to play over what mimics real life, THEN after you have a fun gameplay concept that hasn't been done before, then tie it into simulating life. (or not. I mean Vampires is popular as hell) But if the gameplay is just boring because 90% of the features are functionally identical with a new coat of paint, then I simply stop playing and find a new game to play.
I like the idea of Fashion Forward.
But I just can't stand the Winter Vacation one.
Seasons shouldn't be split like this.
@SimGuruDrake
May you at least confirm if those surveys are official or not please?
Thank you!
The survey takers agreed not to share the info prior to taking them, so I doubt you would get any official confirmation. None of this was supposed to be made public if it is real.
yeah that person who sent that screenshot lie cause that survey was sent out February 10th and that what i try to tell sims community but you know you cant tell them nothing when they trying to post a story
Uh, just because you didn't receive the same survey doesn't mean the others are lying. It could mean you simply received a different survey. One is generic, the other lists details regarding possible packs. Similar to the other leaked surveys we've seen in the past.
Something tells me they're going to split up seasons like that whether or not the community likes the idea.
I for one am not in favor of splitting up the seasons like that.
Something tells me they're going to split up seasons like that whether or not the community likes the idea.
I for one am not in favor of splitting up the seasons like that.
I'm guessing they don't have much choice. With the static backgrounds its probably just an issue of not being able to do seasons in the existing worlds.
At the end of the day we just need new experiences and new gameplay. The problem with all these surveys, should they be legit, is that they all fall into the same old trap Sims 4 has been falling into for ages: they focus TOO heavily on simulating life rather than being a game. Yes ok, cafés exist in real life, but I'll survive if my sim can't run a café. Prioritize what sounds fun to play over what mimics real life, THEN after you have a fun gameplay concept that hasn't been done before, then tie it into simulating life. (or not. I mean Vampires is popular as plum) But if the gameplay is just boring because 90% of the features are functionally identical with a new coat of paint, then I simply stop playing and find a new game to play.
Absolutely. We need new GAMEPLAY. I agree that a lot of the things from both surveys are rather uninteresting to me as it seems like just more of what we already have with a fresh coat of paint. Whatever they decide to theme the packs around I don't much care so long as it offers something completely new to do with my sims.
Something tells me they're going to split up seasons like that whether or not the community likes the idea.
I for one am not in favor of splitting up the seasons like that.
I don't think they will be splitting up seasons. We don't even know if this servery is real or not. Also it didn' talk about having it snow in every single world. Just in one world that you can visit. going to a new vacation spot and season are two different things all together.
At the end of the day we just need new experiences and new gameplay. The problem with all these surveys, should they be legit, is that they all fall into the same old trap Sims 4 has been falling into for ages: they focus TOO heavily on simulating life rather than being a game. Yes ok, cafés exist in real life, but I'll survive if my sim can't run a café. Prioritize what sounds fun to play over what mimics real life, THEN after you have a fun gameplay concept that hasn't been done before, then tie it into simulating life. (or not. I mean Vampires is popular as plum) But if the gameplay is just boring because 90% of the features are functionally identical with a new coat of paint, then I simply stop playing and find a new game to play.
Absolutely. We need new GAMEPLAY. I agree that a lot of the things from both surveys are rather uninteresting to me as it seems like just more of what we already have with a fresh coat of paint. Whatever they decide to theme the packs around I don't much care so long as it offers something completely new to do with my sims.
There's a really easy way too highlight the problem, too:
Let's say I loaded up Sims 2, made an entrepreneur of some kind, ran a business until it reached maximum efficiency, then I sold the business and sent you a copy of my save file. Then let's say I did the exact same with Sims 4, and again sent you the save file.
The difference...?
In Sims 2, you'll see clear evidence my sim was a business owner even if I sell the business. He'll have skill badges to show for his work, so even without the business, you'd enjoy being able to build Servo or start a new business really quickly and easily or make Snapdragon bouquets or whatever. In Sims 4...? You won't notice a thing. I'll have a meaningless unlock like a Chef's hat or "my first dollar," but aside from that, my sim will be functionally identical to a sim that never ran the business.
That's the problem. Every expansion needs to both offer an experience and a long-term reward, which is that I've in some way improved or changed my sim's abilities for having gone through the experience. Sims 2 Open for Business was wildly popular because both the experience of running the business was interesting, and the end pay-off was worthwhile. Every day you'd see small improvements as your cashier got faster or you got better at persuading, so every day you felt small improvements and small rewards. By the end of it, so long as you participated in your business or did one of the 3(?) crafting skills, you had a useful skill under your belt for the future.
But Sims 4...? Dine out fails because while it is a game and an experience, it lacks a reward. It means all we do is play through it once, get bored, and then we lack motivation to play it again until we're in the mood to play that type of "minigame." Spa day and Get Together fail because while the Wellness skill maxed out or a club with all the perks is a reward (in the most minimalist way possible), the experience to achieve those was very simple, quick and bland. I could load up the game right now and have those rewards on a new sim within 3 in-game days, which just isn't the same as working for it. Working for it means not every sim can achieve it, thus those rewards help make my sims unique.
Vampires...? That's been a success because the moment I send someone my game file with vampires, they can immediately see my path and my rewards via the powers. Every sim is unique, and their "stats menu" so to speak tells a story of it's own, just like with Open for Business. This is exactly what future gameplay content needs to do, cause this is a sign of good development.
Another perfect example of a pack that can be totally part of a FULL decent generations EP.
Where it would get less attention and be half done. I'm totally digging GPs in general, and hope that they continue.
I don't buy that excuse, sorry. We got very well done EP's in the past series, so the gamepack excuse doesn't always mean they have to do everything in a gamepack in order to make it good.
Love Life sounds like a downgrade from Find Love. Where is the dating app? I've always liked online dating in TS3: Seasons & would definitely want something similar to return in TS4.
Something tells me they're going to split up seasons like that whether or not the community likes the idea.
I for one am not in favor of splitting up the seasons like that.
I don't think they will be splitting up seasons. We don't even know if this servery is real or not. Also it didn' talk about having it snow in every single world. Just in one world that you can visit. going to a new vacation spot and season are two different things all together.
This survey is no more or less credible than the last surveys that got put out. Still, my point being they've put out about a survey related to particular seasons (Summer to be exact) long ago that otherwise suggests that they would split up seasons into packs so they can "focus on the core aspect of that pack and serve as a foundation for the others". The fact that they haven't changed up the formula for a seasons pack gives me the impression that they want to deliver seasons individually per season.
Bowling as its own stuff pack makes it evident that they would rather split content up that way so they can really put a lot of focus into that particular gameplay. I'd see bowling in some sort of hobby/freetime-esque pack that included more sports-related gameplay items if they wanted to focus on quantity over quality.
Hmm...I still think the summer vacation one sounded more "island paradise" and less seasons, and this might be a similar case Altho it makes me nervous nonetheless.
It seems like a lot of it is focusing on restricted things to do at certain locations. You can only go surfing at the place with a designated interactive ocean, you can only snowboard at designated interactive snow mountain, etc etc
That still allows plenty of stuff to put in a seasons pack; just due to the limitations to the game would have to reserve special areas for certain activities. Hence splitting it up like granite falls. Only problem is that it should be a game pack. Not expansion pack.
Still mildly cautious, but I do like these contents in theory but the way they're splitting it up and making them more pricier than they should be in these alleged "leaks" makes me nervous.
Vampires worked cause it was fleshed out and focused and the price was relatively worth what was being put out. If the two seasonal vacation spots are just vacation area game packs for nerds who want beach & sun or snowy mountain area 24/7 while still having general seasonal weather in the main season expansion packs and these turn out to be just game packs. Imo, it could work.
But if seasons is legit split up into 2+ packs of any kind...yeah, no. Noooope.
Something tells me they're going to split up seasons like that whether or not the community likes the idea.
I for one am not in favor of splitting up the seasons like that.
I don't think they will be splitting up seasons. We don't even know if this servery is real or not. Also it didn' talk about having it snow in every single world. Just in one world that you can visit. going to a new vacation spot and season are two different things all together.
This survey is no more or less credible than the last surveys that got put out. Still, my point being they've put out about a survey related to particular seasons (Summer to be exact) long ago that otherwise suggests that they would split up seasons into packs so they can "focus on the core aspect of that pack and serve as a foundation for the others". The fact that they haven't changed up the formula for a seasons pack gives me the impression that they want to deliver seasons individually per season.
Bowling as its own stuff pack makes it evident that they would rather split content up that way so they can really put a lot of focus into that particular gameplay. I'd see bowling in some sort of hobby/freetime-esque pack that included more sports-related gameplay items if they wanted to focus on quantity over quality.
I don't think I can agree with this. Seasons has always been an EP. I don't think they are changing that. They have yet to change any of the past EP's into game packs or stuff packs. You can try to argue about vampires but vampires were always released on their own.
@LadyJester - when were vampires released in their own packs before TS4?
No I mean they were released in other EPs. Like in the sims 3 they were released in Late night and then later on they got an "upgrade" kind of with supernatural.
@LadyJester - when were vampires released in their own packs before TS4?
No I mean they were released in other EPs. Like in the sims 3 they were released in Later night and then later on they got an "upgrade" kind of with supernatural.
That's what I thought you meant. You beat me before I could edit my post.
Vampires weren't the only focus of Late Night though. I don't think they've ever split up the game so much like they are now.
@LadyJester - when were vampires released in their own packs before TS4?
No I mean they were released in other EPs. Like in the sims 3 they were released in Later night and then later on they got an "upgrade" kind of with supernatural.
That's what I thought you meant. You beat me before I could edit my post.
Vampires weren't the only focus of Late Night though. I don't think they've ever split up the game so much like they are now.
Yeah I'm really not liking the way they have done packs this time around. As someone a few posts up mentioned do we want quantity or quality... Well we used to get both.
I will be furious if they sell each season on a game pack. Instead of having a fully fleshed out seasons EP, we have to pay $80 instead and get it gradually? I've always said that these new stuff packs and game packs are just another way for EA to milk their customers as much as possible. It is not any different from the store because by the end of this game's lifespan, we will spend more money getting all these packs than what we spent with TS3 altogether. Just give me EPs that are worth the $40! Sheesh.....
This is a mess... they have been so slow at releasing new content, not enough time in the world to create a GP for each season... this is pushing it too hard.
Anyway after seeing this and yesterday's survey it just sounds more and more fake
That one's interesting. But partly weird for some of those being EPs not GPs. I don't see how the first one could be an EP when there's already retail and restaurant management mechanics in the game, and neither of those was EP-scale (retail was at most half of that EP) and a lot of what's proposed as venues would use existing objects. Why would they not ask if you'd buy it as an EP *and* if you'd buy it as a GP? That can make a lot of difference.
ETA: I'd totally buy the fashion GP and, if it were a GP, the Winter Vacation one. For that to be EP-level, though, it would need to include a full world that I can live in, not just a neighbourhood for visiting. And also I would want to be able to have winter weather and basic snowplay in my other worlds too.
also ETA: Tickmarks from me for Super Hero/Super Villain, Farmer, and Astronaut! And I wouldn't turn down Model and Actor/Celebrity either. And tickmarks from me for Witches, Shapeshifters (!!!!!!!), Plant People, New Alien Species, and Fairies.
And ETA here only: Yeah, between this and the tropical one, I'm not thrilled with the hint that we might never get weather in our current worlds. I've been optimistic till now because there were earlier surveys that seemed to suggest that it's possible. There was a "Weather & Disasters" EP, and a "Seasons" EP, and phrasing on a "Winter Wonderland" GP that suggested that the weather could be added to existing worlds ("Add the winter season to your game to cover your neighborhood in a blanket of fresh snow!"). But this winter one doesn't suggest that at all.
I agree some are extremely weird @luthienrising . I read own a gallery in the survey, I literally own an art gallery in the game right now, my sim owns it and she sells her painting and since she mastered the painting skill she can now mentor sims. I can do everything that said in my current game.
@LadyJester - when were vampires released in their own packs before TS4?
No I mean they were released in other EPs. Like in the sims 3 they were released in Later night and then later on they got an "upgrade" kind of with supernatural.
That's what I thought you meant. You beat me before I could edit my post.
Vampires weren't the only focus of Late Night though. I don't think they've ever split up the game so much like they are now.
Yeah I'm really not liking the way they have done packs this time around. As someone a few posts up mentioned do we want quantity or quality... Well we used to get both.
I really like what they have done with vampires though. They are probably the best vampires in the entire sim series. The pack isn't that bad. IMO with that pack we got both quantity and quality.
Comments
The Tudor Legacy
Winter Vacation should be done as a gamepack not expansion.
Hate to sound like a broken record but at the end of the day the focus needs to be gameplay. I hated Pets in Sims 3 because aside from horses, the cats and dogs really had little to no purpose, no game aspect to them and no sense of progression. They were just...there. They existed for immersive, simulation purposes. Sims 1 however...? I enjoyed the pets there, probably because there were high demands for them if you wanted to win those competitions. Sims 2 was similar; they had jobs to do and this gave them some depth.
Or take vacations for example. Again I enjoyed vacations in Sims 1 because there were those ticket things you could save up. I had a goal, I had something to work towards, I had a sense of progress. Compare that to Sims 4 with Outdoor Retreat, and that thing is really more or less a brief getaway from regular gameplay that I never revisit after doing the aspiration, which can always be done in one trip. That place has nothing to offer beyond the aspiration.
When I look at the winter one and the love life one, NOTHING on the list is interesting. Playing in the snow is not a selling point. It's extra fluff to immerse the player and state "yep, this is winter," but you don't explicitly send your sim on vacation with the goal of watching them play in the snow. You need some kind of game-orientated goal to keep it interesting. Some might answer and say "I might go on vacation for storytelling purposes though!!" Here's the thing: if you're bored going on that vacation, you'll avoid telling such a story like the plague. Stories need to be interesting and captivating events in a Sim's life, not brief one-offs that are quickly forgotten and never revisited.
The other two...? Entrepreneur and Fashion....? Two problems. One is that in Sims 3, the home designer and fashion careers were, in my experience, quite buggy. It wasn't that the functions bugged out, but rather the very nature of those careers encouraged file bloat, which contributed heavily to lag. I would rather not revisit such a feature unless that's ironed out, and no, given the current state of the game, I don't trust them to iron it out. Second issue is....honestly, where's the pivotal, game-changing difference between running a bakery, running a restaurant, running a water park or running a café? In Sims 2, you had different businesses that were interesting solely because they had dependency on skill badges. A florist was different from a robotics shop, which was different from a toy store. The goal/reward was not "omg now I get to sell flowers instead of robots!" No, the goal/reward was the benefits of mastering those skills. The skills were half the selling point of Open For Business, and they synergized excellently with the retail system. Eventually, any store is going to become monotonous and same-y. GTW stores do this, Dine Out restaurants do this. After you've reached peak efficiency with those, there's nothing new or interesting that'll happen, so you...well, stop playing them. Sims 2 with Open for Business...? Even after you grew tired of your business, the skills remained. You had new benefits via the skills that changed your gameplay forever. Hell, one of the skills unlocked a new life state. Even if you revisited the shops, they were far more interactive too.
At the end of the day we just need new experiences and new gameplay. The problem with all these surveys, should they be legit, is that they all fall into the same old trap Sims 4 has been falling into for ages: they focus TOO heavily on simulating life rather than being a game. Yes ok, cafés exist in real life, but I'll survive if my sim can't run a café. Prioritize what sounds fun to play over what mimics real life, THEN after you have a fun gameplay concept that hasn't been done before, then tie it into simulating life. (or not. I mean Vampires is popular as hell) But if the gameplay is just boring because 90% of the features are functionally identical with a new coat of paint, then I simply stop playing and find a new game to play.
Where it would get less attention and be half done. I'm totally digging GPs in general, and hope that they continue.
The survey takers agreed not to share the info prior to taking them, so I doubt you would get any official confirmation. None of this was supposed to be made public if it is real.
Uh, just because you didn't receive the same survey doesn't mean the others are lying. It could mean you simply received a different survey. One is generic, the other lists details regarding possible packs. Similar to the other leaked surveys we've seen in the past.
I for one am not in favor of splitting up the seasons like that.
I'm guessing they don't have much choice. With the static backgrounds its probably just an issue of not being able to do seasons in the existing worlds.
Absolutely. We need new GAMEPLAY. I agree that a lot of the things from both surveys are rather uninteresting to me as it seems like just more of what we already have with a fresh coat of paint. Whatever they decide to theme the packs around I don't much care so long as it offers something completely new to do with my sims.
I don't think they will be splitting up seasons. We don't even know if this servery is real or not. Also it didn' talk about having it snow in every single world. Just in one world that you can visit. going to a new vacation spot and season are two different things all together.
There's a really easy way too highlight the problem, too:
Let's say I loaded up Sims 2, made an entrepreneur of some kind, ran a business until it reached maximum efficiency, then I sold the business and sent you a copy of my save file. Then let's say I did the exact same with Sims 4, and again sent you the save file.
The difference...?
In Sims 2, you'll see clear evidence my sim was a business owner even if I sell the business. He'll have skill badges to show for his work, so even without the business, you'd enjoy being able to build Servo or start a new business really quickly and easily or make Snapdragon bouquets or whatever. In Sims 4...? You won't notice a thing. I'll have a meaningless unlock like a Chef's hat or "my first dollar," but aside from that, my sim will be functionally identical to a sim that never ran the business.
That's the problem. Every expansion needs to both offer an experience and a long-term reward, which is that I've in some way improved or changed my sim's abilities for having gone through the experience. Sims 2 Open for Business was wildly popular because both the experience of running the business was interesting, and the end pay-off was worthwhile. Every day you'd see small improvements as your cashier got faster or you got better at persuading, so every day you felt small improvements and small rewards. By the end of it, so long as you participated in your business or did one of the 3(?) crafting skills, you had a useful skill under your belt for the future.
But Sims 4...? Dine out fails because while it is a game and an experience, it lacks a reward. It means all we do is play through it once, get bored, and then we lack motivation to play it again until we're in the mood to play that type of "minigame." Spa day and Get Together fail because while the Wellness skill maxed out or a club with all the perks is a reward (in the most minimalist way possible), the experience to achieve those was very simple, quick and bland. I could load up the game right now and have those rewards on a new sim within 3 in-game days, which just isn't the same as working for it. Working for it means not every sim can achieve it, thus those rewards help make my sims unique.
Vampires...? That's been a success because the moment I send someone my game file with vampires, they can immediately see my path and my rewards via the powers. Every sim is unique, and their "stats menu" so to speak tells a story of it's own, just like with Open for Business. This is exactly what future gameplay content needs to do, cause this is a sign of good development.
I don't buy that excuse, sorry. We got very well done EP's in the past series, so the gamepack excuse doesn't always mean they have to do everything in a gamepack in order to make it good.
The Sims 4 Ideas Corner
- 👕 [CAS] Male content | 💰 §1 Million Lifestyle | ♂️ Man lifestyle for The Sims | ♻️ Content from The Sims
- 🔨 [Build/Buy Mode] Ideas | 📱 Ideas from The Sims FreePlay | ✈️ Vacation : Gameplay update | 🥦 New meals
The Sims 4 General DiscussionThis survey is no more or less credible than the last surveys that got put out. Still, my point being they've put out about a survey related to particular seasons (Summer to be exact) long ago that otherwise suggests that they would split up seasons into packs so they can "focus on the core aspect of that pack and serve as a foundation for the others". The fact that they haven't changed up the formula for a seasons pack gives me the impression that they want to deliver seasons individually per season.
Bowling as its own stuff pack makes it evident that they would rather split content up that way so they can really put a lot of focus into that particular gameplay. I'd see bowling in some sort of hobby/freetime-esque pack that included more sports-related gameplay items if they wanted to focus on quantity over quality.
It seems like a lot of it is focusing on restricted things to do at certain locations. You can only go surfing at the place with a designated interactive ocean, you can only snowboard at designated interactive snow mountain, etc etc
That still allows plenty of stuff to put in a seasons pack; just due to the limitations to the game would have to reserve special areas for certain activities. Hence splitting it up like granite falls. Only problem is that it should be a game pack. Not expansion pack.
Still mildly cautious, but I do like these contents in theory but the way they're splitting it up and making them more pricier than they should be in these alleged "leaks" makes me nervous.
Vampires worked cause it was fleshed out and focused and the price was relatively worth what was being put out. If the two seasonal vacation spots are just vacation area game packs for nerds who want beach & sun or snowy mountain area 24/7 while still having general seasonal weather in the main season expansion packs and these turn out to be just game packs. Imo, it could work.
But if seasons is legit split up into 2+ packs of any kind...yeah, no. Noooope.
I don't think I can agree with this. Seasons has always been an EP. I don't think they are changing that. They have yet to change any of the past EP's into game packs or stuff packs. You can try to argue about vampires but vampires were always released on their own.
They've never been released on their own in a dedicated pack, that I can recall.
No I mean they were released in other EPs. Like in the sims 3 they were released in Late night and then later on they got an "upgrade" kind of with supernatural.
That's what I thought you meant. You beat me before I could edit my post.
Vampires weren't the only focus of Late Night though. I don't think they've ever split up the game so much like they are now.
Yeah I'm really not liking the way they have done packs this time around. As someone a few posts up mentioned do we want quantity or quality... Well we used to get both.
This is a mess... they have been so slow at releasing new content, not enough time in the world to create a GP for each season... this is pushing it too hard.
Anyway after seeing this and yesterday's survey it just sounds more and more fake
I agree some are extremely weird @luthienrising . I read own a gallery in the survey, I literally own an art gallery in the game right now, my sim owns it and she sells her painting and since she mastered the painting skill she can now mentor sims. I can do everything that said in my current game.
I really like what they have done with vampires though. They are probably the best vampires in the entire sim series. The pack isn't that bad. IMO with that pack we got both quantity and quality.