I see that every new pack has a huge problems with fake houses. Ok... that decorations makes area more detailed and nice, but there are no activities for our Sims or no Sims in general. Mirage Park in Del Sol Valley is empty but as I see, Evergreen Harbor is dead with just several lots for a huge area. Unfortunately Snowy Escape looks worse for me because there are no Sims around the railway station for example. EA please do not that. Make some fake lots functional and make some of that rabbitholes to make the neighborhood more attractive, functional and alive.

Yes. I'm secretly hoping that they update the lower neighborhood with 2 or 3 rabbit holes before release, since they said they're still tweaking things about the pack. But that probably won't be the case..

The fake houses actually make everything confusing, it wasnt an issue in Willow Creek, Oasis Spring or Windenburg because there are only few of them and most of them are far from the playable areas, ever since Del Sol Valley they get really really close and some are in the middle of the playable space.

I'd like to see a few lots added to the lower neighborhood (although they'd probably have to be patched in after release.) Give me a library, some small apartments, and a blank lot.

I do slightly prefer lots being close the each other and the neighbourhood a tiny bit smaller. On the other hand I love what they did in Port Promise (EL) and I also like Mirage Park (GF) but the playable lots are close to each other in the latter actually. I have really mixed feelings about Grims Quarry (EL), there's a ton of fake houses and I always feel lost which way to go in that neighbourhood, but then I just love the quarry there. The town center neighbourhood in Snowy Escape does seem a bit empty and lots sparsely placed. I guess I don't have very clear opinion on this. I like the feel of space in some neighbourhoods, even it if means some deco builds, but some of them could be done better.

Yea I wonder if rabbit holes would solve some of this. Or buildings you can use in minor ways. I love evergreen harbor but the distant lots and nothing to do in between makes it ghost towny and I don't like that. I want places to look like it's thriving. Only get a few walk by sims here and there.One thing I think may help is more off lot activities?I used the tool mod in oasis springs to place basketball courts and other activities outside the lots and it really feels more alive. Npcs are outside playing basket ball, grilling and other activities. I love that.

Neighborhoods with tones of fake buildings looks dead...

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JackOnYourBack
Seasoned Ace
7 hours ago
I so agree.
It is also more frustrating and noticeable in my opinion as the newer worlds have all these "quests" and stuff to make you go around the world and find stuff. Which just highlight all the fake stuff placed everywhere in the middle of the world map, around your house etc. So you end up clicking it to see what it is. Or very nice houses in the L&D that are just fake and you get disappointed because you wished your sim could live there.
I use L&D as an example because it is so annoying finding the "festivals" (which is so underwhelming on itself - must all packs have festivals?) when your sim get spawn in randomly and you have so swish around the screen until you find a random little gathering with nothing interesting.
I also think it is strange how they lean so much on these quests in the worlds, I mean they can be interesting but it feels more like the way we have events now, water down and just a to-do list.
Compared to the events in the beginning like the positivity, musical festivals, skull and plant sim quests. They were super fun and engaging, because things happened and the world reacted, there was gameplay.
The events we have now are just to complete a text adventure - talk to this sim, click on the computer, travel to Willow Creek, talk to this sim, click on the bookshelf, talk to this sim - now you have unlocked some potions and a locked DRESS because you don't own the pack. Lovely. Don't get me wrong, some of the rewards are cool. But the more events we have, the more useless we get, like potions and money, and more things locked behind packs we get. Gameplay I can understand, but a dress?
Also, on topic, the useless "quest" sims every new world come with? What happened to just normal townies? Don't they know by now we hate the NPC spawn in the game, so why make the game have more random roles to fill? Especially the immportal ones, Father Winter being immortal makes sense, but why Crumplebottom? Are we supposed to play with aging off in every save ever?
I like the older worlds more, and it is almost 100% only because the worlds don't have lots of fake stuff in the middle of the real ones playable lots, most fake stuff is around the play area, not in the middle and/or spread out. Like in Willow Creek, the fake **bleep** is around it so it does not bother me as much because it is not as noticable like in newer worlds where about 80% of what you try to interact with is fake. And as mentioned by others, dead because no sims walk around there - which granted I can understand. Why would you?
Sthenastia
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
I bought Snowy Escape some weeks ago on sale. Mt. Komorebi is a total disappointment. The number of fake textures is extremally huge! Fake shops, restaurants, apartments, houses, train station... whole world is fake. Only a couple of things are usable per neighborhood. It is sooooo sad. I can not belive that The Sims 1 could have more lots (around 40) in neighborhood but TS4 can not. Mt. Komorebi is an another world with wasted potential.
chickenow
5 years ago
"izecson;c-17711637" wrote:
The Main offender is one of the neighborhood in Eco Lifestyle world, I have spent too many times getting lost trying to find another active lot nearby or the nap board due to too many fake buildings.

Completely agree with this. I really thought/hopes that this part of Evergreen Harbour could have significantly utilised the tiny lot pack feature. To have literally one active lot available amongst 8-10 other houses on a street is a major flaw and only adds to this "empty set design" feeling. That the trailer suggests more can be added is also a massive down point in my eyes.

I know (for whatever reason) they can't have more than 5 lots but have they ever expanded on the reasoning behind this? Is it really just because of computer space issues?
Sthenastia
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
The biggest problem in City Living is lack of space for community lots, small number of apartments, no possibility to build our own apartments and very bad Uptown. Standard skyscrapers could be much more better.
drake_mccarty
5 years ago
"Chicklet453681;c-17738166" wrote:
I think it all boils down to what they said about San Myshuno and allowing players to build apartments ..... it would ruin "their vision" for the world. I think that's what the reasoning is for all small worlds (as in very few buildable lots), The Gurus are are very, very proud of their worlds but it's all set dressing, it leaves very little for player creativity.

Per SimGuruEugi:
If we had allowed the creation of apartment buildings from Build/Buy, we would not have been able to achieve the look we were going for. For instance, B/B limits construction to five floors, but you want buildings to look like they have many more than that, so you can look over the city skyline.

^^^^^ this! When talking about city living the producers basically outed themselves about only caring about visuals. This guys quote, grant’s gloating about going over budget on the ‘world’ decorations, him justifying not animating elevators because stairs exist, like just a whole long list. CL is still one of the worst expansions in my opinion.
drake_mccarty
5 years ago
"TS1299;c-17737370" wrote:
Why is it the Windenburg has 7 Lots Per Neighborhood and still does not lag? I still don't understand this 5 lots per world thing.

WB has so many lots because they couldn’t release another low lot world. People were mad enough that the base game only came with like 40 lots, they were mad that the first EP added a 4 lot world and they weren’t that happy that the “new” world was just a slimmed down clone of willow creek (newcrest).

Back then EA wasn’t handing this game out for free or $5 so they didn’t have all these people willing to lower the bar for nice visual effects so they had to actually try.
Barbie430
5 years ago
"Chicklet453681;c-17738166" wrote:
I think it all boils down to what they said about San Myshuno and allowing players to build apartments ..... it would ruin "their vision" for the world. I think that's what the reasoning is for all small worlds (as in very few buildable lots), The Gurus are are very, very proud of their worlds but it's all set dressing, it leaves very little for player creativity.

Per SimGuruEugi:
If we had allowed the creation of apartment buildings from Build/Buy, we would not have been able to achieve the look we were going for. For instance, B/B limits construction to five floors, but you want buildings to look like they have many more than that, so you can look over the city skyline.

What happed to the days of the player getting to decide the look they are going for? I miss them dearly.
crocobaura
Legend
5 years ago
"Chicklet453681;c-17738166" wrote:
I think it all boils down to what they said about San Myshuno and allowing players to build apartments ..... it would ruin "their vision" for the world. I think that's what the reasoning is for all small worlds (as in very few buildable lots), The Gurus are are very, very proud of their worlds but it's all set dressing, it leaves very little for player creativity.

Per SimGuruEugi:
If we had allowed the creation of apartment buildings from Build/Buy, we would not have been able to achieve the look we were going for. For instance, B/B limits construction to five floors, but you want buildings to look like they have many more than that, so you can look over the city skyline.

I think the apartments are more the result of how the worlds are made and whatever reason prevents us from plopping down our own lots like we could do in previous sims game, is also preventing us from setting up apartments and re-defining their boundaries. Maybe the lack of lots would have been less of a problem if at least it would have been possible to add various things to a lot and have them function properly like in TS2 community lots. I would not need separate lots for a cafe and a museum if I could have both on the same lot. It doesn't even make sense that we need a separate lot type just to have the barista show up to tend a coffee cart. Our sims can tend them but they aren't paid for it so why would we bother to ted the stupid coffee carts? Same thing with the food stands.
Chicklet45368
Seasoned Ace
5 years ago
I think it all boils down to what they said about San Myshuno and allowing players to build apartments ..... it would ruin "their vision" for the world. I think that's what the reasoning is for all small worlds (as in very few buildable lots), The Gurus are are very, very proud of their worlds but it's all set dressing, it leaves very little for player creativity.

Per SimGuruEugi:
If we had allowed the creation of apartment buildings from Build/Buy, we would not have been able to achieve the look we were going for. For instance, B/B limits construction to five floors, but you want buildings to look like they have many more than that, so you can look over the city skyline.
crocobaura
Legend
5 years ago
"EliasVersace;c-17737858" wrote:
"TS1299;c-17737370" wrote:
Why is it the Windenburg has 7 Lots Per Neighborhood and still does not lag? I still don't understand this 5 lots per world thing.

I think they've said at some point that the problem is the accumulation of lots as the game gets bulkier. So the higher the lot and Sims count, the slower the game may become? I also don't really get it because every neighborhood is closed off and is locked behind a loading screen.

The game only loads one neighbourhood at a time and you can set a limit to the number of sims inhabiting your neighbourhoods, so I don't see how more than 5 lots in one neighbourhood would impact performance. The most annoying thing about the 5 lots per neighbourhood is that there's not much space to actually create some community lots to go with it.