Forum Discussion

kaze_____90's avatar
3 years ago

Feedback (wish?) for lots

Hello, first of all, i'd like to apologize for my english, is not my first language, so forgive me.

I play the sims from the day one, and, i don't mean the sims 4, but, the entire saga, i pratically grow up with this series, buy every copy (even on console) and i can see it change and evolving during decades, and the sims 4 is a really great game, superior in everything to its predecessor, but one thing, for one thing, the sims 3 is superior to sims 4, and is the global immersion, in sims 3 you can literally go everywhere in the neighborhood, without any sort of loading, you want to visit another house, and go to a community lot and return to home, you can do it without any sort of iterruption and loading, in the sims 4 this is not possible, and ok, like devs says when the base game (years ago) was realsed, is because have a "free world" like sims 3 it would have been heavy on the game's performance, and ok, i accept it and the game is not good, is amazing, but everytime i play, the sensation the scenarios give me, is an empty world, and if you want to see some life, you are forced to go in a community lot, yes i know, what you think, even in the sims 3 you need to go on community lots to see some life, well no, in sims 3 you can see life everywhere, by passing form house to house, and of course in community lots, in real time, in sims 4 well, is not possible, so i think one thing (i don't know if anyone suggested this feedback, over 300 page to see are a little bit much), why don't create, an expansion, a stuff pack or whatever you want, adding the multiple lot tipe, after the mini house, the hunted house, the lot challenges, why don't insert in the game the possibility for a lot to not to be specific for only one thing, but for different things, i made an example, we create a 4 floors building, and in the first floor we have a bar, or a library, a cafeteria, in short, whaterver you want, in second and third floor we have a rental apartament (like in San Myshuno) and in the fourth floor a residential "house", with every residential place (the house and apartaments) filled with their own family, the commercial (if you want it) with their employee and visitors, the possibilty to give each "area" it's lot trait (this can be complicated but not impossible), and with the possibility to visit without any sort of loading the different "areas" of the buildings, and again, in city living this is not possible, because every apartament count as a different lot (even are in the same building), but in this case we talk about a single lot divided in "sub-lots", and yes, i know is something difficult to do, and i don't expect something like this can be used everywhere (maybe limited to specific sized lots) but c'mon, we talk about Maxis, and EA, where some of the best devs of the world work, something like this can be amazing, and would seriously give players a chance to build themselves theire own sims world, a living world.

10 Replies

  • PugLove888's avatar
    PugLove888
    Hero (Retired)
    3 years ago

    @kaze_____90 , i"m not an EA employee, I"m just a volunteer, but I do like your idea! 🙂 In fact, I know a lot of people want something similar even if it was just for a combination of residential and retail stores in one lot.  For example, many people in real life have a store or restaurant and live above it.  But you can't really do that very well in The Sims 4 -- the best you can do is try to fake it, but your bills still would go to your actual home, and any children you have would be sent to the actual home after school, and not to the store you are trying to have them live in.  

    I know @SheriGR has made some stores with living quarters in them.💖  But until EA allows a lot to have more than one lot type assigned to it, this is just a make-shift solution. 

    The closest that I can think of to having multiple business on one lot in The Sims 4 is either the food stalls and sale tables in the center of the neighborhood in the City Living EP, and the various magic shops in the Magic Realm in the Realm of Magic EP.  Still that isn't quite the same as you suggested. 🙁

    Since you have played The Sims 2, you will remember how you could turn any house into a retail store or restaurant with the Open for Business EP! That saved so much trouble to be able to live on the same lot as your business! And that pack was soooo much fun! 😄

  • @kaze_____90  I love your thoughts as it is a dream of mine as well to have a business and home combo. I have built lots (and put a couple of them in the gallery) which I used extensively as a combination lot. I also play with large households, and combining running the large household and a business well is a great challenge. Having said all of that, it would be so wonderful if it didn't have to be done in a 'workaround' manner, as @PugLove888 mentioned. 


    In one lot (combined vet clinic/home) I even ran tests on managing to get the vets I hired to rent from the home the family 'lived in' (be roommates - though I managed the household from the vet lot for all of their needs, aside from them spawning at the home after work or school... I just had to 'summon' them to the vet lot.). I made notes about what worked and what didn't in that situation:

    Spoiler
    Overall notes on gameplay: I tested the home/vet clinic combo lot by having the Sims 'own' a separate small home (where children who go to school and Sims that return home from work turn up) and I play from the clinic as if it was their home, opening the clinic when I wanted to. When a household Sim leaves the lot and turns up at the 'home', I simply click the lightning bolt on them to have them come to the clinic lot. I was able to assign them beds. They tended the animals, would work in the vet clinic if I have them, plus I could hire vets and run the vet clinic as normal (for cats & dogs). It was built in Henford-on-Bagley. My Sims did all of the Country Living stuff on the lot, including the crops, farm animals, plus having fox, rabbits (stump) and birds (tree) on the lot. All of those functions worked fine. A few things to note:
    • You cannot add functioning laundry aspects to the lot. It breaks.
    • You cannot add a butler.
    • You cannot ban vampires, though they also did not bother me.
    • You can advertise for roommates (after you add sufficient beds for all family members and roommates on the 'home' lot (I used a blocked basement room to put a bunch of beds on, then added a bunk to the regular bedroom of the waterfall cottage in game), but they will not answer the ad on the clinic lot. I assume they went to the home. I was able to place the ad (after adding extra the beds to the other 'home') and ask Sims that came to the clinic lot (for other reasons), or other acquaintances, to be a roommate while the add was active. In my test I actually had both of the vets I hired living in the (waterfall) home, paying rent as roommates. I was receiving over $3000 each time for rent.
    • I could hire a maid and gardener. However, at first they came to the clinic and after I visited the home they stopped coming to the clinic. They were still hired though. If I fired and rehired they did not come to the clinic lot. I assumed they had started going to the home. This would help for a maid, though, as they will make sure the renters don't destroy the home. I kept the maid.

    I have run several retail stores in this manner as well. I did have one case where I had to deal with situation where mom was pregnant and 'living' on the retail lot in this manner. Notes on how to manage that, as far as my experiment went:

    Spoiler
    My Sim was pregnant and 'living' in this workaround manner (owning a home they 'technically' lived in but running them from the retail lot - see details on this in the other spoiler tag). Once my family's twin infants were born mom was forced to give birth in the hospital (I tried twice, this is how it works automatically. I normally do a home birth, but it just wouldn't work that way on the retail lot.) The babies teleported to their other small home they 'technically' lived in. (They must own property to own a retail store so my family has a 2nd home they technically live in.) So... The parents went to the other lot/home and aged the babies to toddlers so they could travel to the retail lot with the parents (babies cannot travel to the retail lot, but as toddlers they can). I was later given the tip that you can drag your baby (crib with baby in it) to your inventory, then go to the retail lot and drag the baby back out of inventory into a waiting bassinet in the retail lot? I never tried it, though. Also, note that a toddler and adults (unemployed) will stay on a retail lot for you to play them from there - and run the retail store when you have it opened.

    Just make careful use of door locking to protect the family's privacy or customers will make you crazy going through the home area. I did try having my Sim household live in the large penthouse (City Living) and run a restaurant out of it, and I thought it was going fine until they started glitching out, so that was the only time I combined a home and restaurant.

    Have fun experimenting, and you have my "XP" that I, too, would love to see combined owned business/home options to be part of the game and user-friendly (by design) in their respective packs. 🙌

  • If EA expanded on the lot types then there would be so many more possibilities, but right now the lot type restrictions limit the sort of combinations that players can make. As an example, I once tried to make a big multi-purpose lot but most of what I added got ignored by inactive sims since the objects didn't fit into the lot type I had selected. I wanted the main function to be a gym while also having a place for my sim to live, plus a club type area where sims could relax after their workouts or possibly just go straight there instead of doing anything with the gym side. Since I made the lot type a gym, almost every object for the club side was ignored. If I tried setting the lot type to something like a nightclub, bar or lounge then the gym side was ignored.

    So here's my idea that will make multi-purpose lots possible, simply allow for multiple lot types to be selected. Obviously having too many could break things, especially seeing as how EA can struggle at times with basic concepts lol, but I'd say no more than 4 lot types at once which could potentially produce something like the example that @kaze_____90 gave. Heck even just 2 lot types at once could be nice.

  • EA_Solaire's avatar
    EA_Solaire
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    3 years ago

    Hey there @kaze_____90,

    Super great suggestion, thanks for taking your time to write this up!

    Building is my favorite part of The Sims, and I personally have always wanted an All-in-One type of lot like this so we could create our own little mini-communities. I'll be sure to get this feedback sent on up! 🙂 

  • xochiquetzl_xkvn's avatar
    xochiquetzl_xkvn
    Seasoned Ace
    3 years ago

    Yeah, I "cheat" the system sometimes. I have "businesses" that I don't open that are my conservationist's home base for work, and our off-site collectable storage (my game got pretty laggy with everything on lot), etc. I've also had a family "living" over a vet clinic, their official residential lot is a tiny house but they don't actually go there and eat and sleep over the vet clinic. You just have to bring the kids there after school with the little lightning arrows, bring the spouse home after work with the lightning arrows, etc. (The advantage of this is that they have a designated "tot training tiny lot." I find toddlers stressful and love giving them tiny home benefits to skill them up faster!)

    I also often don't move in Realm of Magic sages if my Sims marry them and instead have them move in as "roommates" so as not to break them. I've also seen people on YouTube, etc., build "apartments" or "duplexes" and use the roommate system to fill the other units and just lock the doors accordingly.

    That said, you can live over a business/restaurant/cafe/vet clinic by owning an empty lot that's your "residential lot," but you can't have roommates on a non-residential lot.

    In short: seconding the request for a "mixed use" lot where I can have a cafe/bakery/vet, live over it, and maybe even have a roommate!

  • simsplayer818's avatar
    simsplayer818
    Hero
    3 years ago

    I agree with you. For example I've just tried to make University dorms more interesting and the lot requirements were so restrictive I couldn't do anything I wanted to do so I get exactly what you mean. It would be great to be able to have multi use lots especially because it's not an open world it's a pain having to travel just to go into every single lot. The Generic option for lots hasn't worked well in my game as NPC Sims won't go there and I don't know why but they remain deserted if I've designated it as a Generic lot.

    There are so many rules and restrictions. I don't know if it's the same on PC (probably not) but I'm on console.

    In the university dorms I wanted to add a nice big kitchen and vending machines, entertainment area plus living quarters in the dorms but one dorm couldn't be edited and the one that I did edit just caused confusion for the NPC Sims for some reason. The same thing happened when I built an ice rink with a cafe area and a bowling rink with a bar and entertainment area, NPC Sims won't use it for some weird reason. 

    I have made some lots that combine stores and living areas plus craft spaces though and they've worked. I add an apartment or if there is space, a little house next to it. I've also made a large library/internet cafe with an outdoor art space. I've tried to add a vet's office to a ranch with a dog rescue shelter and training area and that only half worked. The vet office was deserted.

    One lot that is ideal is in Island Living. There is one right above the road at the top left of the screen. It's big enough to add a retail store and a house with a garden and pool. I've called my store The Cavern and used the Island Living rock wall styles and stone flooring on an underground store. I've fenced off the house and locked the gate and had no problems with shoppers getting into the house. So it's a weekend retreat for my Sim family as well as a retail store.

    The front street in Willow Creek is another good space to redevelop with retail lots with living spaces added. I've added an art gallery with a retail space plus small cottage on a larger lot there and it worked.

  • xochiquetzl_xkvn's avatar
    xochiquetzl_xkvn
    Seasoned Ace
    3 years ago

    @simsplayer818 

    Oh, man, so, I've never lived in the dorms before and was going to try it (I've moved all my uni-aged Sims into a household together and will have them apply and attend and live in university housing together when their rotational time comes), and I was thinking that Zoomer's was going to be a blessing, but I never even THOUGHT of the Snowy Escape vending machines! That's GENIUS!

    (And yes, on PC the dorms don't allow stoves unless you mod or cheat. I was going to have my culinary student make a lot of garden salad/caprese salad/sushi in the housing that has a kitchenette. I hear that's super-weird in other countries but in the US dorms are very "YOU MAY NOT COOK YOU'LL BURN DOWN THE DORM!!!" and people do things like make ramen noodles in the coffee maker, LOL.)

    I have a couple of generic lots. One is a graveyard. As near as I can tell the generic lot type is "this isn't residential; please don't move a Sim in here, it's supposed to be public but you don't officially have this lot type..." as one got set residential accidentally and the game moved a Sim in as if it was a house despite it not having any of the things a Sim would need to live there (like, no bed, no kitchen...). Neither of them is really intended to have a lot of visitors so it works, but I think the game just doesn't know what kind of visitors would be appropriate and so just doesn't spawn any?

    Er. I'm using a mod on the graveyard lot that does spawn mourners and I also gave it the spooky lot challenge in hopes that ghosts would spawn, but it would work as a graveyard without mourners without it. I've also seen people make their graveyards museums or parks to get around the "no Sims spawn" thing (fake tombstones count as sculptures so if you add some portraits and water damage to your mausoleum section that should do it); LilSimsie's graveyard on the gallery is a museum.

    But I digress.

    Yes, some larger lots would easily fit "multi use" type buildings. A lot of Sims worlds are very US suburban-feeling, but US cities like New York and European cities often have a shop/restaurant/cafe with apartments upstairs, or whatever.

  • simsplayer818's avatar
    simsplayer818
    Hero
    3 years ago
    @xochiquetzl_xkvn Tidal tower at Foxbury let me edit it but they were confused I'd removed a bedroom for the kitchen and entertainment area and they kept falling asleep all over looking for beds. It let me add microwaves and vending machines but it told me ovens weren't allowed. It must be a US college rule lol as it's not a UK college rule. The other dorms at Britechester were awful. It's a real dive and wouldn't allow me to edit it which is a shame as that old stone area is lovely. My Sim was so miserable I tried to transfer him but it crashed. He dropped out and reapplied to Foxbury instead.
    I tried to create a science park and set it as a generic lot, with an observatory and rocket building but no townies would go to that either.
    I really like to create interesting spaces but it is problematic. I mentioned on another thread, even street food stalls aren't manned when I hire staff. So creating food courts is out too. Those Snowy Escape vending machines come in really handy!!
  • xochiquetzl_xkvn's avatar
    xochiquetzl_xkvn
    Seasoned Ace
    3 years ago

    Yeah, no stove/oven is a US Uni thing, I know it's weird everywhere else! I think you can edit a dorm until someone lives in it? but could be mistaken. I just tried to fire up my game and edit it, but it wasn't letting me for some reason. Once they live there I think you can use bb.enablefreebuild but it will still tell you stoves aren't allowed. Everyone I knew in the US dorms had rules about "you may have a coffee pot in your room but may not have a hotplate/toaster oven/etc." So many stories of finding inventive ways to cook in the coffee pot!  😉

    It's a shame about the students getting confused, alas. ☹️

    I have a science park from the gallery that's set as a museum; you might be able to set yours up with some wall decorations (telescope prints?) and an easel and call it a museum. My science museum does spawn visitors! If you really don't want an easel you might be able to hide it in a closet, under the stairs, in the roof... it still counts. I plopped a cash register in a bush outside in one "retail lot" that I didn't intend to run as a retail lot so the game would stop nagging me about my venue being incomplete whenever I saved.  😉

    Yeah, I remember the food stall thread.  ☹️

  • simsplayer818's avatar
    simsplayer818
    Hero
    3 years ago
    @xochiquetzl_xkvn Thanks for that, I'll try that with my science park! I wanted a sensible place to put a rocket ship and observatory as I'm not keen on putting them in gardens and sometimes I want a trip to Sixam for some geodes!