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Published 4 years ago
Version 1.0
Blog Post
There are three main issues I want to comment on:
1 The lack of quality control in packs
I have felt for a while now that there has been a lack of play testing in packs before release. Bugs that should have been obvious after minimal play were shipped upon released. Eco Living was released with a NAP that broke lots. The platform update broke routing for loft stairs. Dining Out restaurants still don’t function regularly, For a long time I optimistically gave the team the benefit of the doubt. These issues were unforeseen until a large audience found them. But the final nail in the coffin for me was the Bust the Dust kit. First of all, the concept of kits was met with bad reception from the community. We felt as though it was just another cash grab. But then the kits were released and it was worse than that. Pretty much all aspects of the kit were bugged. These bugs should have been caught in play testing, at least some of them. It took a month to release a patch to resolve some of the issues. I paid for completed content, not to be your play tester, and had to rely on the community to make free mods just to make my game playable again. That is unacceptable. All packs should be tested and tuned before release.
2 The level of challenge and depth in the current vanilla game
Vanilla gameplay lacks any sort of depth or challenge. First lets start with skills. Most skills can be maxed out in less than a week without even trying that hard. I’ve seen a Lets Play where someone became a master spellcaster in less than 48 hours in game. Mastering skills should be difficult. Romantic relationships all seem the same between ever sim couple. I remember one of the initial Sims 4 trailers that made it seem like rejection was likely and finding a soul mate would be hard. This is far from the truth. You can find a partner, get married, get divorced all in one night and then wake up and do it again the next day. There is no distinction in game play between teens, young adults and adults. In real life these are very different life stages with goals and priorities. Making money is laughably easy. You can literally do almost nothing and still make money. In fact, since dust bunnies reward you with copious amounts of money you can do nothing and get rich. One has to try to fail to actually be poor. The eco footprint features are backwards. I have seen people try to make their worlds polluted, putting every object possible to create pollution and their neighborhood gets greener. The opposite should be true. It should be hard to create a green world. Aspirations feel much more like tutorials than like goals. Up until recently traits have seemed like they have had a minor impact on character. With the variety of ways to extend life and resurrect even death itself feels like a joke. These are just some of the example of gameplay I can think of that demonstrate the lack of depth in the vanilla game. I feel like I need to rely on the modding community to make the game interesting or challenging.
3 Forgotten features
I feel like the only things that are getting updated in packs are CAS and build/buy items. We have had very few new traits or aspirations. Whims have gotten scrapped completely. There are only very few after school activities. You introduced soccer in university. It would have been the perfect opportunity to add after school sports. Yes, you create very pretty worlds, but I need game play. That’s what creates the longevity of the game. I would rather one expansion with lots of gameplay features than multiple packs that contain lots of items and little substance.
1 The lack of quality control in packs
I have felt for a while now that there has been a lack of play testing in packs before release. Bugs that should have been obvious after minimal play were shipped upon released. Eco Living was released with a NAP that broke lots. The platform update broke routing for loft stairs. Dining Out restaurants still don’t function regularly, For a long time I optimistically gave the team the benefit of the doubt. These issues were unforeseen until a large audience found them. But the final nail in the coffin for me was the Bust the Dust kit. First of all, the concept of kits was met with bad reception from the community. We felt as though it was just another cash grab. But then the kits were released and it was worse than that. Pretty much all aspects of the kit were bugged. These bugs should have been caught in play testing, at least some of them. It took a month to release a patch to resolve some of the issues. I paid for completed content, not to be your play tester, and had to rely on the community to make free mods just to make my game playable again. That is unacceptable. All packs should be tested and tuned before release.
2 The level of challenge and depth in the current vanilla game
Vanilla gameplay lacks any sort of depth or challenge. First lets start with skills. Most skills can be maxed out in less than a week without even trying that hard. I’ve seen a Lets Play where someone became a master spellcaster in less than 48 hours in game. Mastering skills should be difficult. Romantic relationships all seem the same between ever sim couple. I remember one of the initial Sims 4 trailers that made it seem like rejection was likely and finding a soul mate would be hard. This is far from the truth. You can find a partner, get married, get divorced all in one night and then wake up and do it again the next day. There is no distinction in game play between teens, young adults and adults. In real life these are very different life stages with goals and priorities. Making money is laughably easy. You can literally do almost nothing and still make money. In fact, since dust bunnies reward you with copious amounts of money you can do nothing and get rich. One has to try to fail to actually be poor. The eco footprint features are backwards. I have seen people try to make their worlds polluted, putting every object possible to create pollution and their neighborhood gets greener. The opposite should be true. It should be hard to create a green world. Aspirations feel much more like tutorials than like goals. Up until recently traits have seemed like they have had a minor impact on character. With the variety of ways to extend life and resurrect even death itself feels like a joke. These are just some of the example of gameplay I can think of that demonstrate the lack of depth in the vanilla game. I feel like I need to rely on the modding community to make the game interesting or challenging.
3 Forgotten features
I feel like the only things that are getting updated in packs are CAS and build/buy items. We have had very few new traits or aspirations. Whims have gotten scrapped completely. There are only very few after school activities. You introduced soccer in university. It would have been the perfect opportunity to add after school sports. Yes, you create very pretty worlds, but I need game play. That’s what creates the longevity of the game. I would rather one expansion with lots of gameplay features than multiple packs that contain lots of items and little substance.