I wish we could turn townie generation off. I play with the pre mades and am happy with the npcs that are in everyone’s files, but I don’t care for the game to always generate new townies.
Would be great to be able to switch off
Was hoping it would be bigger. They probably made it small for the people that play on toasters. People really need to get a new PC or upgrade them if they want to play PC games. I used to play on a very low-end PC, but I recently bought a high-end one to be able to play without lagging.
Sometimes it’s the cost of computers and it takes time to save. I’m saving up for a new computer.
More power = more Sims! 🥳🎉🎉🎉
I hope you get it soon! It really is a huge difference playing on a good PC. My comment was probably a bit too harsh, but I just feel like they could do more if they didn't keep low-end PCs in mind. It just feels like it's holding the game back.
I completely agree with this as why should I suffer because I am prepared to pay out for a performance PC? Do other game companies downgrade the game just because players can't or won't upgrade their PC's? I only ask because I don't understand how game companies work in general around this area?
I play both Sims 4 and the Truck Simulator games, both long runners (Sims 4 came out in 2014; Euro Truck Simulator 2 came out in 2012 and American Truck Simulator in 2016.)
On the Sims 4 forums, people complain that EA is doing too much to keep system requirements low and not enough to take advantage of new hardware to make their gameworld bigger or update graphics or fix bugs or whatever.
On the Truck Sim forums, people whinge that SCS Software isn't doing enough to keep system requirements low and that "I shouldn't have to buy a new computer to play a game I bought 9 years ago", because SCS has added everything from full DirectX 11 support (that's how old the game is—at launch it supported DX9!) to SSAO and HDR lighting effects to a massive amount of map DLC (ETS2 was basically Germany and the UK when it launched and is just about all of Europe now, while ATS started with just California and now has 9 western states with two more coming as confirmed/announced DLC.)
The moral of the story is that you're guaranteed to anger someone whenever you have to deal with a super long-running game that's active many years after you launch it (heck, look at World of Warcraft, which came out in 2004 and which Blizzard has to keep current so it doesn't feel and look like a relic today compared to other MMO games). Keep it accessible and people complain about the technical restraints. Keep up with developments in tech and game design and older players feel left behind or like they have to buy a new computer. You're pretty much boned either way.
(he/him)
And remember this above all. Our Roman gods are watching. Make sure they are not ashamed!
My NBA site, Pace and Space
Keep it accessible and people complain about the technical restraints. Keep up with developments in tech and game design and older players feel left behind or like they have to buy a new computer. You're pretty much boned either way.
@ACruelButLovingGod One is more common that the other though. I rarely see anybody complain about a game being more demanding but looking great. There are dozens of triple-A games coming out everyday and run on the most modern hardware and rarely does anyone ever complain. Other communities apprieciate and crave the technological evolution and graphical progress. Take GTA, Final Fantasy, Cyberpunk and some of the most popular games nowadays, the communities want them to look good and don't mind the hardware requirements as much.
The thing with the Sims 4, is not that it runs on lower end PCs. It runs on ancient PCs by 2021 standards. Really ancient. And when someone complains then people are like "I shouldn't need to have a monster PC to play the Sims". But nobody is saying the Sims 4 should need a monster PC. All people are asking for is to move on from the ancient technology. It's not either this or that there should be a middle way to do it. Find the balance between modern hardware and optimization for some older machines.
@SimmerGeorge Oh, there's absolutely a balance to be struck. I have an upper-midrange gaming PC I bought in February of 2020, and I'm generally in the camp of "long runners need to evolve with changing times."
I think that EA has always viewed the Sims franchise as being a game for non-"gamers" (in the sense of the "PC Gaming Master Race" enthusiasts who buy dedicated hardware for the hobby.) My old laptop—a 2016-issue laptop I bought for work and paid $500 for that just happened to play some fairly low-end games and ran Sims 4 just fine—is an example of EA's idea of its customer base for Sims.
In their eyes, the success of the franchise depends on having as large an installed userbase as humanly possible. If it runs on absolutely everything, then more people can buy it. That's a strategy, coherently executed, and it's made them gobs of money, so to expect them to change a fundamental philosophical decision like that simply isn't going to do anything.
And, of course, you can't please everyone because accessibility and higher-end hardware support are effectively mutually exclusive. Any decision to please one end of the market will, by definition, alienate the other end.
(he/him)
And remember this above all. Our Roman gods are watching. Make sure they are not ashamed!
My NBA site, Pace and Space
To tell you the truth, my prefrance with world size is huge, i think im in the majority, i normally move my sims into a world and don't leave it, I place libraries and clubs from the gallary if the world dosen't have any of those. I like a few small worlds too! I like the thought of a close nit block with 3 or 4 families that are all inter related or good friends. (For example Glimmerbrook) but when an EXPANTION PACK ($40!!!!) comes out that is just another small world I start to get kinda upset, I would rather just have one giant world, (like 20 lots) and never really change worlds than have lots and lots (get it) of tiny worlds and change just to go the the library. A pack like farming (cottage life) I personally am ok with the worlds being small if it means that there are big residantial lots, I want to start a big farm on a big lot. It makes sense for a country world to not have that many lots. That being said I am not going to pay $40 for less than 12 lots.
I think the world that upset me the most was Del sol valley. It just seemed wrong to have such a small world that was inspired LA
Agreed. In Del Sol Valley I really want to have a bunch of commercial venues - two lounges (one for each celeb lot trait), a nightclub, a gym, a museum, etc.. Also having no small lots in the cheap area is weird and makes it hard to build (I ended up doing a trailer park and fake apartments) as big houses seem out of place.
For Henford-on-Bagley I just need a pub, a library and maybe a couple others (a cafe, community space and/or vet is what I'm currently thinking). Way less commercial lots needed so I have a bit more space for residential lots. I still would have liked 2/3 extra lots, but for a rural world I can make do with this. I'm not super happy but I'm not as annoyed as I was for Del Sol Valley.
I feel I am in the minority of not liking how big windenburg is and some of the other earlier worlds (not including the get to work one). I play rotational and have 1 main save I’ve been playing for 3 years now and I have loads of empty lots in the 3 basegame worlds, windenburg and brindleton bay. I just don’t have enough sims to fill them all.
Heck I'm retired but I still don't have enough time to fill every lot in one save. But I would be fine with more lots as obviously there are people who do. Maybe I will try that next winter and see how I do. Now that they are loosening our restrictions my plans are to get the heck out of my apartment and see the real world again.
I feel like its been forever.
"Every child matters. If we fail our children, we are bound to fail our present, our future, faith, cultures, and civilizations as well."
I feel I am in the minority of not liking how big windenburg is and some of the other earlier worlds (not including the get to work one). I play rotational and have 1 main save I’ve been playing for 3 years now and I have loads of empty lots in the 3 basegame worlds, windenburg and brindleton bay. I just don’t have enough sims to fill them all.
I'm like you. I have 80 sims in my one save and they make up 30 residential households. This includes the one household I play with 6 sims. In Windenberg I have 4 residential lots and 6 community lots which include The Bluffs, the Von Haunt Estate, and the Ancient Ruins. I can understand the demand for more lots but I prefer a smaller close-knit game play experience where my sim family knows and is friends with most of the other sims in my game. I also don't experience many of the reported bugs.
I feel I am in the minority of not liking how big windenburg is and some of the other earlier worlds (not including the get to work one). I play rotational and have 1 main save I’ve been playing for 3 years now and I have loads of empty lots in the 3 basegame worlds, windenburg and brindleton bay. I just don’t have enough sims to fill them all.
I too have plenty of empty lots. What I tend to do is limit couples to one child so generations of the same family can all live under one roof (three bedrooms needed for grandparents, parents and child).
I feel I am in the minority of not liking how big windenburg is and some of the other earlier worlds (not including the get to work one). I play rotational and have 1 main save I’ve been playing for 3 years now and I have loads of empty lots in the 3 basegame worlds, windenburg and brindleton bay. I just don’t have enough sims to fill them all.
I'm like you. I have 80 sims in my one save and they make up 30 residential households. This includes the one household I play with 6 sims. In Windenberg I have 4 residential lots and 6 community lots which include The Bluffs, the Von Haunt Estate, and the Ancient Ruins. I can understand the demand for more lots but I prefer a smaller close-knit game play experience where my sim family knows and is friends with most of the other sims in my game. I also don't experience many of the reported bugs.
My biggest extended sim family is like this. So much so that I've jokingly dubbed Newcrest "Markovgorod" because Markov is the male-line surname of descendents from the original sim, Dmitry Markov. Of the original family and his seven extended offspring (four children, two grandchildren, one great-grandchild), six of them live in Newcrest, with one in a San Myshuno penthouse and the last in a house in Britechester's central neighborhood while he earns enough money to build a bigger and better house in the same neighborhood as most of the rest of his extended family. And that still leaves another 8 lots to build on after that.
The worlds may be small, but even playing rotationally (besides all those Markovs, I've got tons of other sim family lines and one-off ascended NPCs, a total of about 20-25 households or so), I've only really filled up the basegame worlds. Entire stretches of DLC worldspace are mainly used for their community lots rather than developed as hubs for residential storytelling.
Maybe folks who play this game even more than I do (and I've got 800+ hours in it according to Origin) can fill up that worldspace...?!
(he/him)
And remember this above all. Our Roman gods are watching. Make sure they are not ashamed!
My NBA site, Pace and Space
Just curious, to those people who say they have 'empty' lots - do you mean they are empty of sims or empty of any buildings too? @simgirl1010@calaprfy (and anyone else this applies to).
I do have empty houses in my game (usually the more expensive ones, waiting endlessly for my sims to get rich lol) but I don't think I would like looking around areas of the world with no builds on.
I have a feeling that the open street areas are going to be vast and maze-like, so while the lots are moderate in number (it's only a village, after all), the world itself will be large.
I like to have a good immersion and choice of gameplay. For example I want to have some celebrities with a different careers and fame trait. Also I want to have some casual families in a world inspired by Los Agneles for example. It would be nice if I could add more commerital lots as restaurants, clubs, spas ect but currently I have small Del Sol Valley where I only have one empty, ridiculously huge, mismatching lot, also big starter and one free, ugly masnion for celebrity. And that's all. What is worse, because we have DSV, there is no possibility to anolther similar world. Britechester is also hard to work. I need to build or download some spaces sor students in another worlds because Britechester is small but if I could, I would put more students and families into that world. In our new world - HoB situation will be the same. My farmers should go the Windenburg, San Myshuno or another immersion breaking world to hang out.
Just curious, to those people who say they have 'empty' lots - do you mean they are empty of sims or empty of any buildings too? @simgirl1010@calaprfy (and anyone else this applies to).
I do have empty houses in my game (usually the more expensive ones, waiting endlessly for my sims to get rich lol) but I don't think I would like looking around areas of the world with no builds on.
@elanorbreton Empty of sims. All original lots remain intact and empty lots have been filled. But I'm considering learning to build using styled rooms as it's a headache looking for suitable builds in the gallery. I just want something I can knock up quickly and customised to the occupants I have in mind.
I feel I am in the minority of not liking how big windenburg is and some of the other earlier worlds (not including the get to work one). I play rotational and have 1 main save I’ve been playing for 3 years now and I have loads of empty lots in the 3 basegame worlds, windenburg and brindleton bay. I just don’t have enough sims to fill them all.
I'm like you. I have 80 sims in my one save and they make up 30 residential households. This includes the one household I play with 6 sims. In Windenberg I have 4 residential lots and 6 community lots which include The Bluffs, the Von Haunt Estate, and the Ancient Ruins. I can understand the demand for more lots but I prefer a smaller close-knit game play experience where my sim family knows and is friends with most of the other sims in my game. I also don't experience many of the reported bugs.
It’s good to read other players have 80 Sims limit. I would like 99 as it jumps from 80 to 150.
This year I’ve added three extra worlds. Filling them all is difficult. I’ve had to build more community lots and ‘bulldoze’ Oasis Springs and two Willow Creek neighbourhoods to populate the other worlds.
The moral of the story is that you're guaranteed to anger someone whenever you have to deal with a super long-running game that's active many years after you launch it (heck, look at World of Warcraft, which came out in 2004 and which Blizzard has to keep current so it doesn't feel and look like a relic today compared to other MMO games). Keep it accessible and people complain about the technical restraints. Keep up with developments in tech and game design and older players feel left behind or like they have to buy a new computer. You're pretty much boned either way.
Sorry, but the moral of the story is that games SHOULD NOT run for so long. This Games-As-A-Live-Service model may work for MMOs like WoW, but it's a terrible idea for single-player games. They should be released, expanded for a few years, and then move on to a new version.
I don't believe should be made to buy the same basic stuff such as weather over and over either. A basic weather system should be part of the base game like it's part of MOST games nowadays. Just because The Sims has been doing something for years, it doesn't mean it's a good thing.
If they keep up, they're going to end up killing the franchise, especially if competition comes out such as Paralives or whatever game Paradox is developing with Rod Humble.
Just curious, to those people who say they have 'empty' lots - do you mean they are empty of sims or empty of any buildings too? @simgirl1010@calaprfy (and anyone else this applies to).
I do have empty houses in my game (usually the more expensive ones, waiting endlessly for my sims to get rich lol) but I don't think I would like looking around areas of the world with no builds on.
Both for me. And yes I have a few of those hardworking but not seeming to get anywhere sims as well. LOL
edited to say: I try to fill the empty spaces with homes/community lots from the gallery.
"Every child matters. If we fail our children, we are bound to fail our present, our future, faith, cultures, and civilizations as well."
Just curious, to those people who say they have 'empty' lots - do you mean they are empty of sims or empty of any buildings too? @simgirl1010@calaprfy (and anyone else this applies to).
I do have empty houses in my game (usually the more expensive ones, waiting endlessly for my sims to get rich lol) but I don't think I would like looking around areas of the world with no builds on.
@elanorbreton Empty of sims and building. I posted this earlier in the thread.
These are my empty lots.
I did have lots with empty houses but after the game started moving in the 'not in world' sims I bulldozed them all. I didn't even have the fill empty homes box checked. I'm going to try it again because I really do like the look of a well filled town.
Sorry, but the moral of the story is that games SHOULD NOT run for so long. This Games-As-A-Live-Service model may work for MMOs like WoW, but it's a terrible idea for single-player games. They should be released, expanded for a few years, and then move on to a new version.
@Naus Agree. Especially games that were not designed to. The Sims 4 is cracking and it's been showing for years now, even if people don't like to admit it.
How much better the experience could be compared to what we have now is honestly one of the saddest things ever. People are like I don't mind this I don't mind that, but you know if certain things weren't so limited, or badly executed it would be a better experience for everyone no question.
Comments
Would be great to be able to switch off
I play both Sims 4 and the Truck Simulator games, both long runners (Sims 4 came out in 2014; Euro Truck Simulator 2 came out in 2012 and American Truck Simulator in 2016.)
On the Sims 4 forums, people complain that EA is doing too much to keep system requirements low and not enough to take advantage of new hardware to make their gameworld bigger or update graphics or fix bugs or whatever.
On the Truck Sim forums, people whinge that SCS Software isn't doing enough to keep system requirements low and that "I shouldn't have to buy a new computer to play a game I bought 9 years ago", because SCS has added everything from full DirectX 11 support (that's how old the game is—at launch it supported DX9!) to SSAO and HDR lighting effects to a massive amount of map DLC (ETS2 was basically Germany and the UK when it launched and is just about all of Europe now, while ATS started with just California and now has 9 western states with two more coming as confirmed/announced DLC.)
The moral of the story is that you're guaranteed to anger someone whenever you have to deal with a super long-running game that's active many years after you launch it (heck, look at World of Warcraft, which came out in 2004 and which Blizzard has to keep current so it doesn't feel and look like a relic today compared to other MMO games). Keep it accessible and people complain about the technical restraints. Keep up with developments in tech and game design and older players feel left behind or like they have to buy a new computer. You're pretty much boned either way.
And remember this above all. Our Roman gods are watching. Make sure they are not ashamed!
My NBA site, Pace and Space
@ACruelButLovingGod One is more common that the other though. I rarely see anybody complain about a game being more demanding but looking great. There are dozens of triple-A games coming out everyday and run on the most modern hardware and rarely does anyone ever complain. Other communities apprieciate and crave the technological evolution and graphical progress. Take GTA, Final Fantasy, Cyberpunk and some of the most popular games nowadays, the communities want them to look good and don't mind the hardware requirements as much.
The thing with the Sims 4, is not that it runs on lower end PCs. It runs on ancient PCs by 2021 standards. Really ancient. And when someone complains then people are like "I shouldn't need to have a monster PC to play the Sims". But nobody is saying the Sims 4 should need a monster PC. All people are asking for is to move on from the ancient technology. It's not either this or that there should be a middle way to do it. Find the balance between modern hardware and optimization for some older machines.
I think that EA has always viewed the Sims franchise as being a game for non-"gamers" (in the sense of the "PC Gaming Master Race" enthusiasts who buy dedicated hardware for the hobby.) My old laptop—a 2016-issue laptop I bought for work and paid $500 for that just happened to play some fairly low-end games and ran Sims 4 just fine—is an example of EA's idea of its customer base for Sims.
In their eyes, the success of the franchise depends on having as large an installed userbase as humanly possible. If it runs on absolutely everything, then more people can buy it. That's a strategy, coherently executed, and it's made them gobs of money, so to expect them to change a fundamental philosophical decision like that simply isn't going to do anything.
And, of course, you can't please everyone because accessibility and higher-end hardware support are effectively mutually exclusive. Any decision to please one end of the market will, by definition, alienate the other end.
And remember this above all. Our Roman gods are watching. Make sure they are not ashamed!
My NBA site, Pace and Space
After reading what you wrote I definitely agree with this statement "You're pretty much boned either way"
Agreed. In Del Sol Valley I really want to have a bunch of commercial venues - two lounges (one for each celeb lot trait), a nightclub, a gym, a museum, etc.. Also having no small lots in the cheap area is weird and makes it hard to build (I ended up doing a trailer park and fake apartments) as big houses seem out of place.
For Henford-on-Bagley I just need a pub, a library and maybe a couple others (a cafe, community space and/or vet is what I'm currently thinking). Way less commercial lots needed so I have a bit more space for residential lots. I still would have liked 2/3 extra lots, but for a rural world I can make do with this. I'm not super happy but I'm not as annoyed as I was for Del Sol Valley.
I feel like its been forever.
AHQ Champion
I'm like you. I have 80 sims in my one save and they make up 30 residential households. This includes the one household I play with 6 sims. In Windenberg I have 4 residential lots and 6 community lots which include The Bluffs, the Von Haunt Estate, and the Ancient Ruins. I can understand the demand for more lots but I prefer a smaller close-knit game play experience where my sim family knows and is friends with most of the other sims in my game. I also don't experience many of the reported bugs.
I too have plenty of empty lots. What I tend to do is limit couples to one child so generations of the same family can all live under one roof (three bedrooms needed for grandparents, parents and child).
My biggest extended sim family is like this. So much so that I've jokingly dubbed Newcrest "Markovgorod" because Markov is the male-line surname of descendents from the original sim, Dmitry Markov. Of the original family and his seven extended offspring (four children, two grandchildren, one great-grandchild), six of them live in Newcrest, with one in a San Myshuno penthouse and the last in a house in Britechester's central neighborhood while he earns enough money to build a bigger and better house in the same neighborhood as most of the rest of his extended family. And that still leaves another 8 lots to build on after that.
The worlds may be small, but even playing rotationally (besides all those Markovs, I've got tons of other sim family lines and one-off ascended NPCs, a total of about 20-25 households or so), I've only really filled up the basegame worlds. Entire stretches of DLC worldspace are mainly used for their community lots rather than developed as hubs for residential storytelling.
Maybe folks who play this game even more than I do (and I've got 800+ hours in it according to Origin) can fill up that worldspace...?!
And remember this above all. Our Roman gods are watching. Make sure they are not ashamed!
My NBA site, Pace and Space
I do have empty houses in my game (usually the more expensive ones, waiting endlessly for my sims to get rich lol) but I don't think I would like looking around areas of the world with no builds on.
@elanorbreton Empty of sims. All original lots remain intact and empty lots have been filled. But I'm considering learning to build using styled rooms as it's a headache looking for suitable builds in the gallery. I just want something I can knock up quickly and customised to the occupants I have in mind.
It’s good to read other players have 80 Sims limit. I would like 99 as it jumps from 80 to 150.
This year I’ve added three extra worlds. Filling them all is difficult. I’ve had to build more community lots and ‘bulldoze’ Oasis Springs and two Willow Creek neighbourhoods to populate the other worlds.
Sorry, but the moral of the story is that games SHOULD NOT run for so long. This Games-As-A-Live-Service model may work for MMOs like WoW, but it's a terrible idea for single-player games. They should be released, expanded for a few years, and then move on to a new version.
I don't believe should be made to buy the same basic stuff such as weather over and over either. A basic weather system should be part of the base game like it's part of MOST games nowadays. Just because The Sims has been doing something for years, it doesn't mean it's a good thing.
If they keep up, they're going to end up killing the franchise, especially if competition comes out such as Paralives or whatever game Paradox is developing with Rod Humble.
Both for me. And yes I have a few of those hardworking but not seeming to get anywhere sims as well. LOL
edited to say: I try to fill the empty spaces with homes/community lots from the gallery.
AHQ Champion
@elanorbreton Empty of sims and building. I posted this earlier in the thread.
These are my empty lots.
I did have lots with empty houses but after the game started moving in the 'not in world' sims I bulldozed them all. I didn't even have the fill empty homes box checked. I'm going to try it again because I really do like the look of a well filled town.
@Naus Agree. Especially games that were not designed to. The Sims 4 is cracking and it's been showing for years now, even if people don't like to admit it.
How much better the experience could be compared to what we have now is honestly one of the saddest things ever. People are like I don't mind this I don't mind that, but you know if certain things weren't so limited, or badly executed it would be a better experience for everyone no question.