Thanks for the opportunity to give feedback directly to the team.
While I have been (and still am) always very critical about the state of The Sims 4, it is never a personal attack on any developer on the team.
I think I can speak for everyone when I say that by being very critical and sometimes also really mad over some choices made in the design of content in The Sims 4, really only shows how passionate we are about the game and we want it to get it to a point where we can say that it is a true Sims game and the best it can be.
I hope the team takes all of our feedback very serious and puts all the effort in it to do something with all the feedback the community gives you.
Here my 50 cents:
More personality
Sims still feel very much the same and it's really hard to connect to your Sims because they are all the same, act the same, do the same things etc. I really loved the Sims 3 trait system, because it made the Sims really unique. I actually really had to think which traits I was going to give that Sim, because I knew that said Sim would behave to their traits accordingly and was unique compared to Sims with different traits, and would make different choices in life compared to Sims with other traits.
Please, please, please. Tweak the emotion system.
There are so many objects and interactions which alter your Sims emotions that the whole system became very unstable. For example when my Sim experiences the death of a family member or a friend, as long as I have a nicely decorated bathroom they will be fine. I think one way to ''fix'' the issue is to retune all the causes which give emotion buffs. I think sadness because the loss of a loved one should not give you a +3 sad buff or whatever, but instead should just overrule every other buff for a certain period of time, regardless of how nice my home is (for example). Same goes for finding out you're pregnant, that also should have a much bigger impact on your Sims' emotions for a certain amount of time and should not be so easily overwritten by other buffs. Key moments in a Sims' life (Pregnancy, Giving birth, Death, Being cheated on, being fired, getting a new job, getting promoted, getting married, divorced etc. Should be really impactful things on a Sims life and should overrule ANY other minor buff for a certain amount of time. By minor buffs I mean (for example) if my Sim gets microwaved food and ''it's cold in the middle'. That should just be a very minor buff and should never ever overrule key moment buffs in a Sims life. So does the ''nicely decorated'' buff shouldn't have any significant impact/overrule key moments in a Sims life.
I also think that Teenagers really should be smaller.
It just feels so wrong (to me) now that basically every Sim has the same height and I really don't like it. Yes, teenagers are sometimes even taller than adults, but this is a game, not real life. The reason why I vouch for teenagers to be a bit shorter is because I think it gives the world more ''soul''. It just makes it look better and more accurate and I think that it can contribute to the ''growth'' aspect in a Sims' life. Which I think also contributes to the attachment we can get to our Sims'. Seeing them grow from a tiny baby to a toddler, to a child, to a teen (with a proper height) gives a sense of ''growth'' and connection.
Babies are Sims too!
I know this is not the place to ask for content but to give feedback, so here I go: Free the babies please. Babies are Sims too, not objects! If you couldn't guess by now: I am a family player and having ''real babies'' with real personalities (cry baby, quiet baby etc). Bald babies, babies with some hair, different outfits, toys etc. Again adds to the whole aspect of getting connected to your Sims' and their growth from cradle to grave.
Story progression
Sims outside of my household are basically doing nothing. They are just ''walking around'' and there is no progress in their lives at all. I wish we could have Story Progression back: Sims getting married, divorced, having kids, getting jobs etc. It makes the world around us so much more alive.
Get rid of the loadingscreens within already loaded districts, please.
This will be a tricky one, I know, and it's probably a very technical hurdle, but here we go: Please, can we get rid of the loadingscreens within loaded ''districts''? It really bothers me to this day that in order to visit my neighbour I have to go through a loadingscreen every time? It makes me not wanna travel at all. Even if the loadingscreens are not that long, it breaks immersion. Like I mentioned: it's probably not easy to get rid of them, and it will be a technical hurdle maybe, but please consider it and try.
I am totally fine with loadingscreens between different worlds and different districts, but already loaded districts shouldn't have loadingscreens in them. Houses are basically already loaded and the furniture is also loaded, so why the loadingscreens?
If we ever get story progression back I vouch for loadingscreens within loaded districts to be removed. I think seeing your neighbours going about their day (going to work, coming home, gardening in their yard, kids playing in the backyard etc), makes the game feel much more alive and enjoyable. At this moment the lots around our household are dead, and I really don't like that.
Add snow depth to Seasons
Seasons is a Great pack, I have always loved it in every game, but I still don't like that there is no Snow depth. It is possible, because Snowy Escape has that too (in certain areas) so I think updating Seasons to have actual snow depth is a much appreciated thing. It is the only thing I would really change about Seasons. I just don't like that it looks like a layer of paint painted over our roofs and street. Snow having more ''levels'' to them would add more to the atmosphere. Seeing a layer snow laying on top of your roof and streets would make Winter more enjoyable. I think Snowy Escape has proven us that it doesn't look ''not good'' when there is actual Snow Depth. One of the reasons we got for lacking snow depth is that it didn't look right. Yet I think in Snowy Escape it does look good. Please consider adding it! :)
More transparency about content that is being worked on!
A bit more transparency about content that is being worked on.
I know, I know, the community is huge and we all want different things, but there are quite a few requests that have been made over and over and over the (almost) 7 years of The Sims 4 by now. (Cars, Freed Babies, Burglars etc.) I can only speak for myself, but always hearing the same thing such as ''we hear you'' - ''we know you want it'' - ''we would love to have it in the game to'' - ''it takes time''. Is really, really frustrating.
I don't think the community expects a solid date when a requested feature is going to be released, but what I would love to know is that certain features are in fact on the table right now and actually being worked on. It is really draining and depressing to not know IF something is coming at all. I think being more open about the things that are being worked on when it comes to the really big requests (such as Cars for example) will calm the community down because we know you are working on something. It's much better than to stay in the dark and seeing the years go by without our requests being fulfilled. It's really frustrating and comes accross like you don't care what we say, because we keep basically -begging- for requested features for years. Getting a ''we know you want it'' - ''we would love to have it too'' - ''we hear you'' feels like a slap in the face.
I wish in the future you can become more open about things like this. I think it will only do the community good.
More testing before releasing packs into the wild!
Please do more testing before releasing packs into the wild.
Over the past years or two, I noticed the quality control going downhill fast. Packs release with tons of (game breaking) bugs and there are also a lot of bugs from years ago which are basically abandoned and never seem to get fixed.
Some of the bugs seem very easily to spot when there is actually more playtesting going on with every pack installed before release. Fix the bugs before release of a new pack. I know bugs are never 100% gone or unavoidable, but now it looks like packs have to be released ASAP and it shows when it comes to quality.
- More content in (especially Expansion) packs!
With the Sims 4 it looks like (and I actually compared packs from previous series, so I can say it's the case) there is way less content in packs compared to previous generations of The Sims. Packs feel extremely ''shallow'' and lack replay value.
Maybe this is because of having only one studio left to work on EP's, but in my opininon I'd rather have ONE very good and content-rich Expansion Pack a year compared to having 2 very shallow and mediocre lacking replay value packs a year.
There are probably some things I am not mentioning/forgot about here, but I'm sure other Simmers will bring up more points.
Thanks for reading.
EA Staff (Retired)