3 years ago
Free Up Time for the Devs!
Sims 4 is a game that was created to run smoothly on many types of devices. This may be why we have so many new players starting with Sims 4, but I don't think that's it. I think most of them are players who were not around when the first games came out, or didn't own a computer at the time. Now nearly every household has a computer. In the 2000's, computers were more of a luxury than a necessity and of course any one just finding the game will choose the newest version over an older. That's just common sense.
I think its great that the community is growing and that this game includes many types of gamers as well as many types of people. But, you are leaving a couple of large groups of players out.
1. The serious gamers. The ones who pay big bucks for our gaming rigs and live for high detailed games.
2. The die-hard fans that have been with the game since Sims 1 or 2.
By leaving us out, you are leaving out a huge amount of players you are trying to include and you are losing a lot of possible sales.
I have some ideas on how the next generation of Sims could fix this.
I read and watch a lot in the community. I have also played with coding and I am an artist. I have also played Sims since Sims 2. I know deadlines make devs cut things they don't want to leave out. They can't do everything! This is their job. Not just their passion. As players, we need to understand this!
Yes, Sims 4 is dumbed down and seriously lacking the challenge and details that older games had. Only those inside the studios know what has changed on that side that led to this craziness. But Sims 4 is still good. It brought a lot of good things to the table. With a few tweaks, fixes, and revolutionary additions, the next generation of Sims could be a game that we would want to keep buying content for even if the game lasts 15-20 years.
What would you give up in the game to have more detailed gameplay if dev time is the issue?
How about worlds/neighborhoods, premade sims, and lore? Now, before you get mad, hear me out. There are tons of builders/storytellers in the community and we have the gallery, which is an amazing feature. What if instead of these things being created by the devs and included in the game, they code a true world creator with reasonable sized maps that can be designed from the roads to the sims? The talented community could create anything and everything and upload it to the gallery. You can bet that eventually every world and every version of lore would be created, so nothing would truly be left out and everyone could have exactly what they want, rather they prefer older sims lore or completely new sims that have nothing to do with the lore that came with the games. They could even have the Game Changers or other known players create the most popular worlds of the past and either include them in game or put them on a special page in the gallery. Do you realize how much time that would free up for other jobs?
Now what is the best way to play these player created maps? Well, I am thinking back on my Yoworld days. (Yoworld is an online social game with home decorating and character dress up that was fun, but was destroyed because, well other people could play with us.) There was a way to connect properties to each other and this was a FB game, so doing it on a regular pc game can be done. We should keep the neighborhoods instead of going back to worlds. This would allow us to create our own towns. We could have a hidden object/arrow that can be placed on roads, lakes, oceans, ect in the world creator. Or even have predefined places that the devs decide. Either way would be fine. We could then click on this arrow and choose from a list of neighborhoods we have downloaded and connect them to that spot.
In game, going to this point would trigger the loading screen that takes us to the new place. This would allow neighborhoods to be open and it would more than likely reduce the lag and crash issues we had in Sims 3. I honestly believe the worlds were too large in 3 and that may have contributed to the loading problem. Smaller neighborhoods in size are better, but I think we can handle more than what we have in 4 with todays technology. And don't limit us too much with these neighborhoods devs, just make different sized maps, nothing on the scale of 3, because some computers can handle more than others. (And please, no set dressing! It just irritates us!) We as players will be able to figure out what works for our machines and what doesn't. I believe this would satisfy more players than any of our current games ever have. It has the ability to include every type of player and every type of gamer and device. If you're going to include all platforms, you have to give options for all of them. Even consoles come with different specs.
It would be nice if we could have a feature connected to the maps that allows us to ban certain sims from entering those towns. This way we can stop those out of place sims from showing up in towns that make no sense for them to be there. Of course we would need a way for some to come for vacation for any tourist spots we may have in the future. And who wouldn't mind a vampire sneaking into a neighboring town to feed in the night? It would make this feature even better.
With the current way the world works, (Less Content for More Money) we need to prioritize what is most important. Gameplay and creation. Many of us have created sims and we have created homes. We take a long time doing that. Let's turn this part over to the players and give the coders more time to work on the gameplay features.
We know the content they give us to work with will be beautiful. All the games are gorgeous. Except hair. Guys, come on. Let's update that to something close to Alpha CC. I'm pretty sure the hair styles are a universal dislike. LOL.
I know this is a long post, but ideas take a lot of words. There are many more I wanted to add here, but I'm going to leave it here and maybe post others beneath it. If you like the idea and think it would help the next gen, or just have another idea that would make this better, comment below. To make change you have to make some noise sometimes. :D
I think its great that the community is growing and that this game includes many types of gamers as well as many types of people. But, you are leaving a couple of large groups of players out.
1. The serious gamers. The ones who pay big bucks for our gaming rigs and live for high detailed games.
2. The die-hard fans that have been with the game since Sims 1 or 2.
By leaving us out, you are leaving out a huge amount of players you are trying to include and you are losing a lot of possible sales.
I have some ideas on how the next generation of Sims could fix this.
I read and watch a lot in the community. I have also played with coding and I am an artist. I have also played Sims since Sims 2. I know deadlines make devs cut things they don't want to leave out. They can't do everything! This is their job. Not just their passion. As players, we need to understand this!
Yes, Sims 4 is dumbed down and seriously lacking the challenge and details that older games had. Only those inside the studios know what has changed on that side that led to this craziness. But Sims 4 is still good. It brought a lot of good things to the table. With a few tweaks, fixes, and revolutionary additions, the next generation of Sims could be a game that we would want to keep buying content for even if the game lasts 15-20 years.
What would you give up in the game to have more detailed gameplay if dev time is the issue?
How about worlds/neighborhoods, premade sims, and lore? Now, before you get mad, hear me out. There are tons of builders/storytellers in the community and we have the gallery, which is an amazing feature. What if instead of these things being created by the devs and included in the game, they code a true world creator with reasonable sized maps that can be designed from the roads to the sims? The talented community could create anything and everything and upload it to the gallery. You can bet that eventually every world and every version of lore would be created, so nothing would truly be left out and everyone could have exactly what they want, rather they prefer older sims lore or completely new sims that have nothing to do with the lore that came with the games. They could even have the Game Changers or other known players create the most popular worlds of the past and either include them in game or put them on a special page in the gallery. Do you realize how much time that would free up for other jobs?
Now what is the best way to play these player created maps? Well, I am thinking back on my Yoworld days. (Yoworld is an online social game with home decorating and character dress up that was fun, but was destroyed because, well other people could play with us.) There was a way to connect properties to each other and this was a FB game, so doing it on a regular pc game can be done. We should keep the neighborhoods instead of going back to worlds. This would allow us to create our own towns. We could have a hidden object/arrow that can be placed on roads, lakes, oceans, ect in the world creator. Or even have predefined places that the devs decide. Either way would be fine. We could then click on this arrow and choose from a list of neighborhoods we have downloaded and connect them to that spot.
In game, going to this point would trigger the loading screen that takes us to the new place. This would allow neighborhoods to be open and it would more than likely reduce the lag and crash issues we had in Sims 3. I honestly believe the worlds were too large in 3 and that may have contributed to the loading problem. Smaller neighborhoods in size are better, but I think we can handle more than what we have in 4 with todays technology. And don't limit us too much with these neighborhoods devs, just make different sized maps, nothing on the scale of 3, because some computers can handle more than others. (And please, no set dressing! It just irritates us!) We as players will be able to figure out what works for our machines and what doesn't. I believe this would satisfy more players than any of our current games ever have. It has the ability to include every type of player and every type of gamer and device. If you're going to include all platforms, you have to give options for all of them. Even consoles come with different specs.
It would be nice if we could have a feature connected to the maps that allows us to ban certain sims from entering those towns. This way we can stop those out of place sims from showing up in towns that make no sense for them to be there. Of course we would need a way for some to come for vacation for any tourist spots we may have in the future. And who wouldn't mind a vampire sneaking into a neighboring town to feed in the night? It would make this feature even better.
With the current way the world works, (Less Content for More Money) we need to prioritize what is most important. Gameplay and creation. Many of us have created sims and we have created homes. We take a long time doing that. Let's turn this part over to the players and give the coders more time to work on the gameplay features.
We know the content they give us to work with will be beautiful. All the games are gorgeous. Except hair. Guys, come on. Let's update that to something close to Alpha CC. I'm pretty sure the hair styles are a universal dislike. LOL.
I know this is a long post, but ideas take a lot of words. There are many more I wanted to add here, but I'm going to leave it here and maybe post others beneath it. If you like the idea and think it would help the next gen, or just have another idea that would make this better, comment below. To make change you have to make some noise sometimes. :D