Hoarders: The Problem with Build/Buy
A lot has changed in the last eleven years. With 99 different "dlcs" for the Sims 4 and the occasional game update or S4 express drop adding new items to the game, it should surprise no one that the amount of build/buy items as grown exponentially compared to the rudimentary collection the game shipped with back in 2014. While this prospect should be exciting for players looking to build everything from a tiny run down apartment to a sprawling 64x64 fairy town, instead I suspect it fills many with dread at the idea of having to once again scroll threw a build/buy catalogue that looks closer to an episode or hoarders than an organized system. The problem is simple, Sims 4 has grown beyond the rudimentary categories laid out over a decade ago by the original S4 team.
Over the years, there seem to have been some attempt to fix this by the S4 team with filters. You can now narrow your catalogue by style, color, and dlc. While this certainly helps, it leaves much to be desired. The style categories are few, and narrowing to by dlc leaves many items that could have been useful out of view. What the game really needs is thorough reorganization of its catalogue that better fits the needs of the game today, instead of the game 11 years ago. Doing so would not only make the game easier for seasoned builders, but encourage new players to try their hand at detailed, varied builds instead of just downloading something from the gallery because of how overwhelming and time-consuming starting a new build from scratch can be when you don't already know the catalogue. Below, you'll find some examples of some of the most egregious categories and some suggestions on how to solve them.
Low priority/randoms:
- Doors vs. Archways: Honestly, this idea should have been obvious from the beginning. Doors and archways should be separate categories. The Sims3 knew this. I have no idea why it changed for the S4. If you also wanted to give the ability to narrow doors down to doors that use only a single tile, I certainly would not complain.
- Outdoor Plants: Sorted by climate. This can be done by narrowing by relevant pack for each town, but that leaves base game plants out, not to mention that many packs plants work well in towns from other packs. Even if we could just get hot weather vs. cold weather/seasonal it would help a lot.
- Beds: beds separated into infant/toddler, single, and double beds.
- "Outdoor Activities": What even is this category? sort it. Kids play items, animal items, gardening items
- Seasonal: Christmas tree, spooky day stuff, kwanza candles, etc instead of mixing that in with the rest of the decor/lighting/activities
- sort out occult items into their own thing. I don't want to see vampire coffins, fairy houses, and spell caster items in with all the normal everyday stuff.
High Priority/Decor(Shudders in fear), is probably the tab most in need of an overhaul. Decor can make or break a build, taking it from a prison cell fulfilling only basic functions to a realistic home. You also should plan an hour per room to sort through the sea of items in the generic categories if you want a truly realistic build.
- Dilapidation: not a category, but it should be. Please, oh please, take your spiderwebs, wall cracks, water damage stains, dirty laundry, and garbage objects out of my pretty decor categories and put them into their own. In 97% of builds I want none of these items and hate having to scroll past the unnecessary amount of spider webs to get to the paintings I am actually interested in. In the last 3% builds, if I'm going to bother to put a spider web down, chances are I am also going to grab some of the trash items and a few water stains. Fixer-upper, anyone?
- wall decor: paintings should be in a different category then decals, different than posters, different than wall sculptures, different than signs etc. Also, sort out all the items clearly meant for a kids room or a commercial build into separate categories.
- rugs: see "wall decor." an actual rug vs a floor design/decal would be great thank you
- Plants: see the lighting category. Hanging/wall vs small table top vs huge floor size
- statues: should be just statues. Things like China cabinets, random decorative tables, etc should be separated out.
- clutter: sorted into Kitchen items, bathroom items, office items, living room items, bedroom items, kids room items, misc.
- Most importantly, keep these categories consistent. I constantly find objects that better fit in plants in the clutter category, or wall sculptures in the painting categories.
