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@AndyZhang2896, you stated, " They have made the world not open, and that's okay. Many say TS3 is unplayable because of open-world (I can't relate because I'm a new sims player and didn't own TS3 EP). And now a smaller world? color wheel is gone. What's next?"

What's next?🤔... The lack of an open world, the worlds being smaller, and the "color wheel" all being gone were all things that were missing from the beginning of TS4.  Its not as if TS4 had these things and then they were removed! 🤨 So there is no "next"  in that the game is how it is.🙂  They aren't' taking things from the game, but they have been adding things to the game that weren't' there in the beginning! :eahigh_file: There were no toddlers, pools, basements, repairmen, or  ghosts at the beginning. Many of these were added very soon after, with toddlers coming much later, but Toddlers in TS4 are much better than even the TS2 toddlers which is quite an accomplishment! 🤨🥳 They have more recently given us terrain manipulation, and have  just given us adjustable stairs .  😇

Minimizing the world is part of what went in to improving the performance.  And the "color wheel" was far more than a color wheel since it played with patterns too! :eahigh_file: It was called "Create A STyle" or CASt for short. It was truly magical... and truly problematic!  🤨  I loved CASt… I was addicted to it❤️.  As almost the only thing I liked better about TS3 over TS2, I relied heavy on it because I was so disappointed in TS3 for gameplay reasons.  TS3 had a lot of whistles and bells, but nothing worked as it should... the huge open world would be empty😢.... you would have to go to a public lot to complete a task for a wish your Sim had, or for their job and when you got there it would be empty.  You would wait and nobody would come.😬  Finally one or two would trickle in after several Sim hours, but your Sims would be exhausted and have to go home without accomplishing the task.😞 Then there were the many, many rabbit holes.  Most of what you drove your car to do , like eat at a restaurant or go to a store, were just rabbit holes.  There were a few venues like I mentioned above , but they were often empty especially late at night! Those were mostly parks. 

But back to CASt… since I used it soooo much, it got bigger and more bloated and since both CAS and Buy/Build Modes utilized CASt, it would take longer and longer and longer to load.  The more people added to it, the longer it took to load.  So, yes, this was partially my fault, but other people had the same experience.  The only people who didn't have problems with it are the people who hardly used it!  😃  I think by the end of TS3 it was taking 40 or so minutes to load CASt. 😮  

So, yes , I want the CASt back, but no, I don't want it back! It was marvelous 🥳and terrible!😢 Now, if TS3 had the gameplay that TS2 had, then I wouldn't' have spent as much time with CASt.  But I still would have had too much patterns and color combinations saved, just not nearly as many! 😳

I like the idea of a survey to see player's computer specs... but we see all the time here at AHQ people asking if their computer can run the Sims 4, and often it can't.  Doing a survey like this, while good, might just lead to an even less complicated game, which I don't think that is with either you @AndyZhang2896 , or @SqueamishNerd  would really want! 🤨

@SqueamishNerd, true when you said "TS4 is 5 years old now, and when they started to develop it they had to make the game work smoothly on computers at that time, and they also wanted to have the possibility to add new content for at least 5 years (TS1 had updates for 5 years, TS2 had updates for 5 years, TS3 had updates for 5 years), they didn’t want it to become what TS3 became, so they simplified it a lot."  But it was more than what TS3 became, because it had problems from the beginning, or at least a year into the game.  It was recommended by Sim Gurus that players not have all the packs loaded to play TS3 properly! 😮

But TS4 was designed to have a longer life by years compared to any previous version of the Sims.  We still have at least 2 years, possibly more left in TS4! Which might be why they are keeping each world small, since they can better see the trajectory that this game has than we can. 

But @SqueamishNerd , you are also right in that we have more worlds than there were in TS3!  But this is a complex issue becaseu in TS3 they did let you make your own worlds (I found it tricky to do it adequately ) and they also had really expensive worlds you could buy in the TS3 Store, which was horribly overpriced and nickel and dimed you to death with little to show for it. It was ridiculous! 😠 So, if you had all the packs for TS3 and all those worlds, you had less than TS4, but you could get a lot more worlds in the store and pay a ton more money!  It was awful. 😢 You couldn't play with all the packs, yet they overcharged you for more worlds so you can have more than what the packs gave you?  It was crazy! 

And yes, you are both right in that some worlds you could visit in TS3 but some you couldn't.🤨  Everyone could vacation in Isla Paradiso or in the World Adventures worlds of France, Egypt, and China, and the world the University was in, but those were designed to be temporary worlds.  Basically, it would be as if you lived in Oasis Springs in TS4, and you could travel to Granite Falls, Slevadora, and a University town, but could never go to Willow Creek, Brindleton Bay,  New Crest, Glimmerbrook, or San Mayshuno, etc. 😉