Expansion concept - Time Goes On [plus screenshots]

I don't know if my gameplay style would suit the progression of decades - I don't always play generationally, and I often ignore the outside world for a long time in my Sim games, so multiple decades might pass before I realise, oh wait lol. Plus the style of the Sims 4 may not be capable of changing town backdrops rotationally (especially places like San Myshuno).

I do like the idea of eras, and maybe towns set in different decades - a 50's suburb town, with maybe a career or two specific to that town, as well as 50's decor/tech restrictions, a diner, and a malt shop. And a swingin' 60's town, and 70's and 80's. That way each generation can move into the next town when you see fit, or for me, I'd probably have my sims living in the 50's permanently just because I am too lazy to move them haha.

Interesting concept! I like the idea, but I think it's quite unfeasible to operate well within TS4 game coding. I imagine we'd have to do all the new generational changes on public lots ourselves...

I love this idea! It would work well for a separate game, I think.

I actually really love this idea. I think it would be interesting to see the town and sims change over time. It probably wouldn't work for the sims 4 but I would be happy if they just released a decades pack sorta like they did with the sims 3 but with more than just three decades included.

Its quite cool idea, but would be hard to implement in SIms 4. Maybe in SIsm 5? I can see TS5 being realeased with 3 basic time periods: a past one, a present day one, and a future one. Each expansion pack would focus on adding a new time period or 2 to fit between those ones, expanding them. Lets follow previous The Sims packs to imagine how this would work:
- The Sims 5 (comes with the Roaring Twenties, the present Decade, and a Into the Future decade). In the release, those periods would be larger, as they are few. But the devs would tweak the time "size" after releasing mroe and more DLC.
- University/University Life comes with a 60's theme. I dont know why, but I usually imagine the revolutionaries of the 60s as young adults.
- Vacation/Bon Voyage/World Adventures/Outdoor Retreat/Jungle Adventures would probably be game packs, so... Lets say, they add a Vacation/Outdoor Retreat, it doesnt have much technology to indicate if its past/present/ future. Some of those vacation spots could easily be made neutral. The other ones that have a more cultura environment like World Adventures/Bon Voyage/Jungle Adventures would be seen as racist if made neutral, like if those cultures dont evolve. So, in this case, each game pack would come with an individual cultural vacation spot like in Jungle Adventure, but it should have at least a past/present/future alternatives.
- Open For Business/Ambitions/Get to Work: Some jobs were not always present in our society. The Science Lab, as an example, would be more modern, as well as a Tattoo artist job. But, i could see the Tattoo artist job opening up the possibilities for the 80's punk culture. Maybe they could add more than one decade. Hospitals have been jobs for a long time, it can be the first one, after unlocking it, it would be present in all of the later decades, but later decades jobs would be avaiable in the past decades.
- Apartment Life/Late Night/City Living: Apartments buildings have existed from the ancient home to NYC era, but apartment buildings as we know are from the 1930s onwards. Most know as skyscrapers.
- Unleashed/Pets/Cats & Dogs: our pets have been with uss since the caveman era, they could use that expansion pack to fill any gaps they wanted.
- House Party/Nightlife/Late Night/Get Together: Not sure how it would be done, as we had parties since we were living in the jungle. They could use that expansion pack to fill any gaps they wanted.
- There are more expansion packs/stuff packs/game packs, but i tried to tlak briefly abotu how i think your idea could work as Sims 5. The supernatural/occult packs could be used to fill the more classic decades/eras. Vampires for the gothic era, witches in a medieval era, fairies as roman/greek/ancient era, the mermaids in the discoveries era alongside pirates...

Would be amazing to see a game like that! @jooxis

I love this idea. It seems a bit too much for Sims 4 to handle though.

When you think about it though this could be a serious concept in the future for older Simmers going into retirement homes to reminisce and recreate their old lives or help other inmates with memory loss. Special old house setups are actually made for older people with memory loss and do work well.

I could see it with VR as well, possibly with Sims 6, 7, 8. I'd go for that. Much better than having to sit and listen to old music hall songs when you are of Beatles, '80's and upwards generations!

That would be so cool! I really wish they would do that!

I like it, but I feel like it'd take a lot of stuff pack stuff, build mode etc. Like sure retro looks good, but functionality wise,there's some issues. I get annoyed ordering books from the bookshelf and not the pc. I wouldn't want to give up ease just to look cool. I could just sepia tone it and call it a day.

But if there's a retro steampunk tablet and town that'd work for me.

I've shared this idea but you illustrated it much better! Though I don't see it being added to TS4 I think it would be a game changer for TS5 and bring in a lot more gamers to the franchise. This would also be the greatest cash cow the developers could ask for because they could expand the game in a whole new way adding new time eras especially if combined with the expected expansion packs that always sell (they could add a near future with androids to a university pack, an old west/Victorian era could be added with an expansion focusing on farming/animals, a 70s/80s era would be great for a careers expansion, a 50's/60's era for a road trip style expansion pack, a European backpacking expansion with a renaissance time era, they could evan add an ancient era for Rome and Egypt and Mesopatania, or a dystopia future that your sims can attempt to survive) They would reach a larger audience of consumers if they branch out from just a modern day-to-day life simulation and this would make the game special enough to compete with the tops games that are coming out.

I like this idea it would be great if it was player controlled and not forced but this is Sims 4 picking our own weather for our worlds seems to much to ask. This is one major issue I have with Sims 4 nothing ever changes there is no option to tell anything but modern stories no newspapers forced cell phones no landlines using cash registers in retail not even a option even the Grim Reaper has a tablet instead of a scroll...