Dear Sims Community and EA Sims Team,ProblemIf you choose to develop a car pack, I want to state something that may get some upvotes: we don't just want cars, we also want it to feel like the sims are "driving" in some way.BackgroundThere was a survey on if we'd want a cars pack or a dentist pack etc. Discussed by Pixelade (the Youtuber). And I'm submitting a request related to the car pack. Proposed solutionWhile we know requesting to be able to actually drive would be a lot on the game (and your dev team), I wanted to propose an alternate idea for your team to consider.Driving loading screen animationCould we replace the green plumbob loader (when driving) with an animation where the sim that is driving's hands are on the wheel, in first person, and the wheel is moving a bit left to right, and the world they're driving from is moving (bonus if the person has seasons and it also shows the season as they drive—or time of day/night etc would be cool). You don't have to render the houses that are in our game, but that would be soooo coool too. We'd love that! You could just render default houses etc to make it feel like we're in those worlds. This should be optional to turn off in 'game options' in case some players don't want this, but I personally, would love it, it would make me feel those Sims 3 vibes as if there were an open world. We'd still like to see the location the sim leaves, before the loading screen appears; my sims pulling out of the driveway, zooming out of the lot.You could also show text at the bottom of the screen, maybe something that says "Leaving: Willow creek, going to, windenberg...." as text at the bottom with the plumbobRelated to the plumbob, you can still keep that somewhere (we're attached to it but it does not have to be the focus of the animation)Frosting the windshields or showing rain when it rains, would be soooo coool for us—if the user has seasonsYou could customize the dash of the car we see so it relates to the vehicle's interiorYou could show other sims in the town driving past (think on the other side of the road)— bonus, with the cars they actually have!!!If you are planning to do motorcycles, this would also be cool to do with as well—although, you should most likely limit motorcycling in bad weather etc.One of my larger reason for this entire request is, that the loading screen is a bit dragging, we've seen it for a while, and we think this would boost user's delight/retention to actually show something a bit more entertaining as we're playing. My sister is a UX designer (who has assisted in writing this haha), and there's a law of UX , the Doherty Threshold, that states that if a loading screen takes over 400ms you should probably create an animation that's engaging to the user. Additionally, I think this is a happy medium for the pack. Since completely developing out driving would be a large effort. You could essentially solve two problems this way.Other ideas for the packOut of scope for this request but feel free to also consider some other ideas I've got brewing for this pack!You have. a traveling with modal we use to go places, could we have some sort of driving modal, where, when you select the car, it's A very similar modal but we get choose the vehicle, and who is riding with us. And where we're going.You might want to consider driving tests/BMVs. etc. for teens. Maybe there's a space to go for this for teens to learn and work within the cones etc. THIS WOULD BE SOOOO CUTE!Maybe if other sims drive to work etc, and you don't want to fully dev out everything and use this loading screen idea, you can do the modal stories you've done before, where we get choices, like someone got a ticket, etc, or just got pulled over. HAHA and how they drive well is based on how the user responds.Another idea is, having a driving record or something, tying it to the get to work pack with the police would be hilarious. We know the target audience is kids so you can keep it light, while also, a lot of your audience is legacy users who used to play sims 1, we're now in our 30s and would find this wildly entertaining. Thank you!Feel free to reach out to me personally to discuss more game ideas if you'd like! I'm super excited for this pack and would love to give real time user feedback. I play so much I should probably start streaming.Sincerely,Ashley Lanese

New Traveler

20 days ago

Sims 4 Cars Pack Loading Screen Animation

Dear Sims Community and EA Sims Team,

Problem
If you choose to develop a car pack, I want to state something that may get some upvotes: we don't just want cars, we also want it to feel like the sims are "driving" in some way.

Background
There was a survey on if we'd want a cars pack or a dentist pack etc. Discussed by Pixelade (the Youtuber). And I'm submitting a request related to the car pack.

Proposed solution
While we know requesting to be able to actually drive would be a lot on the game (and your dev team), I wanted to propose an alternate idea for your team to consider.

Driving loading screen animation
Could we replace the green plumbob loader (when driving) with an animation where the sim that is driving's hands are on the wheel, in first person, and the wheel is moving a bit left to right, and the world they're driving from is moving (bonus if the person has seasons and it also shows the season as they drive—or time of day/night etc would be cool). You don't have to render the houses that are in our game, but that would be soooo coool too. We'd love that! You could just render default houses etc to make it feel like we're in those worlds. This should be optional to turn off in 'game options' in case some players don't want this, but I personally, would love it, it would make me feel those Sims 3 vibes as if there were an open world. We'd still like to see the location the sim leaves, before the loading screen appears; my sims pulling out of the driveway, zooming out of the lot.

You could also show text at the bottom of the screen, maybe something that says "Leaving: Willow creek, going to, windenberg...." as text at the bottom with the plumbob
Related to the plumbob, you can still keep that somewhere (we're attached to it but it does not have to be the focus of the animation)
Frosting the windshields or showing rain when it rains, would be soooo coool for us—if the user has seasons
You could customize the dash of the car we see so it relates to the vehicle's interior
You could show other sims in the town driving past (think on the other side of the road)— bonus, with the cars they actually have!!!
If you are planning to do motorcycles, this would also be cool to do with as well—although, you should most likely limit motorcycling in bad weather etc.

One of my larger reason for this entire request is, that the loading screen is a bit dragging, we've seen it for a while, and we think this would boost user's delight/retention to actually show something a bit more entertaining as we're playing. My sister is a UX designer (who has assisted in writing this haha), and there's a law of UX , the Doherty Threshold, that states that if a loading screen takes over 400ms you should probably create an animation that's engaging to the user. Additionally, I think this is a happy medium for the pack. Since completely developing out driving would be a large effort. You could essentially solve two problems this way.

Other ideas for the pack
Out of scope for this request but feel free to also consider some other ideas I've got brewing for this pack!

You have. a traveling with modal we use to go places, could we have some sort of driving modal, where, when you select the car, it's A very similar modal but we get choose the vehicle, and who is riding with us. And where we're going.
You might want to consider driving tests/BMVs. etc. for teens. Maybe there's a space to go for this for teens to learn and work within the cones etc. THIS WOULD BE SOOOO CUTE!
Maybe if other sims drive to work etc, and you don't want to fully dev out everything and use this loading screen idea, you can do the modal stories you've done before, where we get choices, like someone got a ticket, etc, or just got pulled over. HAHA and how they drive well is based on how the user responds.
Another idea is, having a driving record or something, tying it to the get to work pack with the police would be hilarious. We know the target audience is kids so you can keep it light, while also, a lot of your audience is legacy users who used to play sims 1, we're now in our 30s and would find this wildly entertaining.

Thank you!
Feel free to reach out to me personally to discuss more game ideas if you'd like! I'm super excited for this pack and would love to give real time user feedback. I play so much I should probably start streaming.

Sincerely,
Ashley Lanese