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EA, Please Leave Out Story Progression, Post Your Bad Experiences
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My wish list for future SP would include more robust population expansion so that the town gets filled out and stays that way (not so much immigration as reproduction). I would love something akin to NRAAS's mod but it wouldn't need to have that level of detail. I wind up turning personalities off and setting all the stories to just friends/family/romantic interests, because I don't need news on every sim, and I don't really care about sims playing certain roles in the town. I also feel like I have to fight the mod when it comes to romance because it seems like as soon as a sim ages up to a teenager, he or she is immediately assigned a partner, and it continues from there as they age, leaving my sims to have to play the bad guy and break people up if they want a date. :P
On a slightly separate note, please, please build something like Overwatch into the Sims 4 so that messes such as stuck sims, homeless sims, stuck pets, orphan cars, etc. get cleaned up and save file corruption is minimized. I'd love to think that these things wouldn't be issues in the next game, but they're probably pretty tough to prevent regardless of the game engine, and if that's the case, just clean them up or let us do it via an option.
So EA just let the story progression take care of two things:
1. Remove especially elder sims from the neighborhood to make space for new younger sims.
2. Let new children be born as a result of random pregnancies.
They never neither wanted nor expected us to focus on the story progression.
But they have become wiser now and know that they just have to find another way for the Sims 4.
The idea of being able to lock households out of story progression I read above, is actually a really good idea. It all depends on how you play, so there have to be options.
Renée
But then there was a time when I wouldn't care too much for some spares and would still love to see them get married, have children, etc and progress on their own, if I was enjoying another household and didn't want to stop playing them to go age up the spares.
Story progression has its pros and cons.
It's great that Sims around our current house hold move out, move, get married, have kids, and then up and move, get divorced, break up, etc.. but I definitely think they need to advance it in the department of "OPTIONS" we should have as the player.
Like the occults. We have complete control over them. In story progression, we should have options to check on/off if we don't want certain families to get married to townies, or maybe an option to allow Townies only to marry townies, or something to keep from our Sims that we create getting married to others.. because I'm always having that issue.
It doesn't have to be what I stated above, I would just like more options. Right now all we have is to op-out of it. Well, I mean.. EA's version of Story Progression.
I'd like Maxis' version of Story Progression, if it's a feature.. to have more options. :P
Agreed
And if possible, I would also like lots of individual on/off switches, like "gain skills" on/off, "get promoted" on/off, "babies" on/off, "child/teen relationships" on/off - the way that NRASS works, but I wouldn't mind if it was a bit simpler. There is a lot to NRASS, it can be a little scary.
Also, possibly an easier way to switch between houses, and without them losing relationships, inventories, jobs etc. If I could right-click or shift-click a sim and say 'make active', that would be cool.
On the "legacy player" idea that was mentioned a couple pages back -
I am a legacy player. It is my main way of playing TS3 and TS2. I love having generations and generations of sims living, dying, marrying and moving on. When a sim marries and moves out of the home, I generally leave them be and focus on the household. But if there was an easy way to 'monitor' them - to set them on a career path or on a family path, and to check in on them every now and then, I would enjoy that a lot.
My focus however is generally on the single household - the legacy home, and I LOVE having story progression driving the rest of the town for me. The more options I could have to drive it, the better. Unfortunately the TS3 SP doesn't do enough - there are no new sims for my kids to marry and nothing interesting happens to them, which is why (despite the severe lag it causes), I use NRASS.
Occasionally I will set up a story scenario where I want to switch between multiple houses and play different sims. I would like to be able to mark those houses as "DO NOT TOUCH" to SP :P
So for me, a good SP would boil down to two things:
1. Options, options, options. The more the better (with a friendly interface, of course XD)
2. The ability to mark out houses and turn off SP for them in particular.
That would do it
My story progression does these things without mods? Even on resorts you can see townies getting married.
Please understand, aging has nothing to do with the TS3 SP. The game will age your townies whether SP is on or off. So, those that want to keep this feature (SP) have stated they like other Sims in the town aging..I do too, if they aren't important to the game I am playing.
However, let me say it again, aging up has nothing to do with TS3's SP.
If it did the neighbor's adult kid would move out into their own home when they reached the age of YA..it is (aging) a separate control feature.
However, they also don't have anywhere to move to now do they? In TB, there are very few homes your Sim can buy, and even less 'vacant' spaces. And if you do your the ingame CAW feature you aren't going to find 'good land' around the areas but develop routhing issues.
So, the game puts other Sims (immigrants) into overcrowded <(sometimes) houses.
Babies aren't really born in TS3's SP since the patch that stopped single males from having babies...(2009) as I have already stated.
The game is filled with immigrants...not babies..when a new Sim is needed. Nor is it filled with kids/teens....just another YA in most cases.
The randomness to which household it moves out is not known to me..I'm sure the the modder knows..but I don't, so if I do leave it own..it always moves out a Sim that may have been a friend of my Sim, and or a family member, or a Sim I wanted to be in a romantic relationship.
The statement..turn it off..problem solved..is a cop out. OFF isn't really OFF in this game...and the player again risks a ghost town since Off would mean no new YA's move in to take the place of families that shouldn't have moved..and all grow to be old (a separate feature) eventually...so, Sorry, Off isn't really an option then is it?
Someone stated SP has nothing to do with Sims showing up on community lots..beg to differ...some of us know if we turn off SP, we have more Sims own our community lots...I'm sure a modder might disagree...however, it's true none the less.
*Multi saves..hello, if I save one household under a name and then switch households...(that is how I play btw..switching houses) and save the game under another name...then I'm not playing the same game people.
How is that helpful other than not causing some glitches I shouldn't have to start with?....
Version 1 Sally gets married has a kid...
Version 2 Sally's kid gets married...but if I switch back to version 1 then Sally's kid hasn't grown up yet.. :roll:
sorry having different versions of 'a' game inorder not to crash and or avoid SP is really a bad reason for me to even want to keep SP...
Simmers shouldn't have to play with multi saves...hello...lay that at the feet of EA, not mine...and each save is a different version..and though I understand this way does stop many lag/freezing/crashes...it isn't fair to the person that likes to jump from lot to lot..for whatever their reasons are. It doesn't matter if they play legacy or not...all that matters is TS3 took away the freedom to play their way.
And a mod that alerts me everytims something happens in game is too much like TS3 in it's entirety of bothersome texts, popups and interruptions.
Why in the world would I want a mod in my game that does exactly that..bother me with popups. No thanks..nor do I want the 'lag' it causes..EA should have thought things through..and since we know they are probably focusing on the 'expressive' Sim this time..please..leave out SP it isn't necessary EA...Sims don't do what you said they would do..and it only makes me mad when it doesn't work correctly and or if it moves out Sims I wanted to keep in my worlds..and it causes the game not to send enough Sims to community lots..and it has nothing to do with the town aging...I don't need EA to play my game for me..I can do that myself.
"facepalm" removing story progression completely is the exact same thing as turning it off. story progression is supposed to manage sims moving and everything. how would removing something mean sims would automatically start moving between households and stuff? REMOVING IT IS EXACTLY THE SAME AS TURNING IT OFF.
so fix it so that households around town actually have a life, make babies,grow up and die. I have plenty of elderly townies dying all the time but never hear of new babys.
Also I loved in ts2 how when you moved there was a group of townies waiting to meet you. Bring that back please.
I think adding new family titles would help in SP too. (ex-husband,step father, step sister,niece,widowed)
Houses start to fall apart over time needs to be added for all houses.
Townies need to be living in proper sized houses for their family size. Maybe townies could renovate their houses.
Twitter @Snaffles1301
OP, we need a more advanced SP, not leave it out. If you want to play Sims 2 style, then you need to play Sims 2. Sims 3 is an open neighborhood, therefore, needs to be managed. Twallan does have an option to play Sims 2 style, I know it keeps everyone from aging except for the family you are playing, I'm not sure of how it affects SP.
Edited for various reasons.
I hope TS4 doesn't have SP, period..because as many of you have stated over and over it is 'horrible' and you wouldn't even still be playing TS3 'If' it weren't for Twallan's mods. Isn't that a little selfish of you guys? Instead of that know it is horrible and hasn't worked propertly since day one. Really? We are selfish?
I don't think so, some of you want players to turn it off and shut up or get the mod..which we don't want..and or stop whining and go play TS2. Sorry, but I think it is others that are selfish because they want to force on other players features that limit their style of game play..inorder to keep a mod they like. Really?
ETA: The Aging on/off toggle has absolutely nothing to do with the SP toggle/features..(some stated they like SP because the townies age up with their Sims). It is not a feature of SP>..it is separate..so to me SP is useless...since it it total fail anyway...and you all know that because if you didn't know it you wouldn't keep the mod installed. And in all truth it is you guys that are selfish and want to keep features that more than likely will not work correctly in TS4, either.
If you think EA learns lessons...sorry wrong..they didn't learn from TS2 to TS3 if you move a Sim from one world/hood to the next they lose relationships, now did they. This is why I hope SP isn't in the next game..it's a waste of programming...and it shouldn't be there just so players can keep mods that actually make it work ..but lags the game.
No Cinebar it's because you're saying to take out a feature completely yet you offer nothing in suggestion in replacing it. You want it removed yet other people came to tell you they like it and use it. So while you are saying that it alienates your playstyle, which i haven't caught on what it is yet. You haven't given any suggestions in this that satisfy both groups of players.
You know very well we aren't going back to a single lot system so how do you suggest this be done, in full detail where both groups are satisfied. No im not going to accept that's up to the dev. This is your suggestion to have it removed, and you're complaining that it affects your game. So it's you who needs to suggest how this should be solved for the open neighborhood. Because truly just removing it won't make the game better.
I like the idea of SP because it keeps me from having to constantly interfere with the other sims in the neighborhood and gives me more time to focus on my family.
Since there are sooo many ways to play the sims it is very difficult to make a game that will appease everyone.
So with that in mind I hope they make a slider for SP. For example:
0: No story progression
1: Some story progression (births, deaths, marriages, relationships etc all happen at a slower rate)
2: Moderate Story Progression (a step up from some story progression. More interactions between townies. More people on lots. People move out and people move in at a little bit faster rate etc.)
3:Story Progression (The town feels alive and things are constantly happening and changing. a much faster pace then the other two levels. Keeps the game interesting longer.)
I think this would keep a number of gamers happy because they can adjust SP. It definitely gives more control and I don't think it's asking a HUGE amount from the developers.
I think leaving out SP wouldn't be the best idea for the next installment of the sims. I think it would upset too many other gamers in the process. They instead should improve it so gamers like you, Cinebar, who want it out can have it disabled so you won't have to worry about it.
~Munnie
Personally, I like to play TS2 style. I don't want my other sims doing ANYTHING without me making it happen. Because of EA's story progression, I developed a fear of switching households. What if my sims moved or died or had kids I didn't want while I was playing another house?
So I use Nraas Story Progression and play TS2 style. I saw someone mentioning the annoying popups, but I just turn those off. If EA could make a story progression as detailed and with as much control, but easier to use that would be great.
This.
If turning it off isn't fixing the problems you're seeing with it, then removing it entirely wont either.
Which worked... to a certain point. I found that even with it off I was still getting random children and still finding that my sims were moving away within minutes of me swapping to another household.
After that I was so narked off with the whole thing that I got NRAAS' SP mod.
Now I personally have no issue with the IDEA of story progression, if I'm going to be stuck with the open world experience (personally, I'd prefer it if they did away with that all together, or made smaller 'hubs' for the open world, like a downtown area, multiple residential 'neighbourhoods' etc - but that's just me) then I want it to feel alive. My issue with story progression above all the intefering it did with my sims was that at the same time I felt as though nothing was happening. It seemed to LOVE messing about with my sims and ruining everything I was doing, but when it came to all the other sims they were still stuck in pepetual limbo.
I think ultimately it needs to do more and we as players need to have much more control over it.
Twitter @Snaffles1301
That'll be good, had the story progression have worked properly the game would have been constantly changing and would have felt more lively, they just need to let us have more control over what is and is not affected by story progression so that it doesn't just cater towards one particular play style.
Hmm, I certainly hoped they fixed this recently. I just created some sims I'd like to move into my neighborhood so that my main household can have special friends -- ones that are actually created by me, instead of the default townies.
I will be turning off Story Progression when I play TS3 again this week, and see how that goes. Just do experiments, see how everything goes.
For TS4, I really hope that they take more consideration with the SP and make it somewhat realistic...and yes, a bit more micro-managing. I don't like downloading mods too much, for fear of screwing something up. So if we can control a bit more here and there, that'd be fabulous.
What I love about Twallen's NRaas Story Progression mod, is that it seems to bring the town more to life. Sims are pushed to hunt collectibles and sell them at the consignment store or shop, they pursue jobs more suited to them. They are pushed to community lots to skill for their career if that suits their personality. There are tons of interesting options that can be added. The controls for supernaturals can be more finely tuned too. In short, this mod includes many options to tweak the Story Progression to the individual player. I can choose to have sims take either a male or female surname when they marry, or elder-younger surname for same sex marriage. I can tag a household to opt out of certain story progression options.
Mostly what I like about this mod is the level of control the options can give me to fine tune my game to control non played sims behaviours.
But..
The mod isn't perfect, it can slow the game down, I prefer to turn off the extra map tags (it feels like cheating), & restrict the stories to current families. I still find it hard to navigate through the options.
I bet there are lots of things I forgot to mention about why I have to play with Nraas Story Progression Mod
I did notice that EA seem to have implemented some sort of cleanup for the abandoned cars and boats since Island Paradise. Was very happy to see that.