@JHardeman2 , I agree that more organization is needed in the game, from the bookshelves (like you wisely suggested), to more organized social interactions (especially the Friendly Socials) to more organization in the personal inventory. While we have gotten a slightly more organized inventory about a year ago, they missed some obvious filters that would greatly help! And yes, trunk storage options like you suggest would be helpful!
I do not work for EA -- I only volunteer to help other players. So I have no idea if or when EA would make any of the changes you suggest , for the most part.🤔 The one thing I know they won't change is making the game an Open World like TS3 because they have stated that this will never be able to be done in TS4 due to the fact that TS4 uses a completely different engine than that of TS3! And they decided not to have an open world because TS3's open world caused a crazy amount of lagging , stoppage, and outright crashing in many people's computers, especially those on the lower end. My computer that I used for TS3 was supposed to be middle of the road, and the game was almost unplayable the last year before TS4 was released, and had lagging problems early on. While many other people didn't have these problems, enough of them did for EA to decide to switch to semi-open worlds for TS4, which was a huge relief for me and others who had similar problems. 😅 So I was actually happy that the world wasn't an open one! 😃
For the most part the loading screens to go to another place in TS4 usually only last 10-30 seconds (although if I'm playing while online and have a bunch of tabs open or one tab open that runs a lot of ads, then the loading screens can take up to about 2 minutes, but if I forget to close those tabs and find this happening, I just then go and close those tabs or go offline and the problem is solved!🙌 And that has only happened a couple of times for me.) So, it usually only takes me 10-30 seconds to for a loading screen, as opposed to with TS3 just to drive, bike or walk to another location would take 20 to 30 min of stopping and starting animations and lagging, and longer if my game crashed and I had to reboot my game which would take close to an hour! So I will always prefer multiple short loading screens to this any day! 🤨🥳
I will add that within the last year, because I have all the packs installed, my loading screens are a little bit longer. But still they are far better for me than my TS3 experience, which showed problems early on for me, but with TS4 I only started having a little bit of problems after 6 years!!!!! But I do understand that some people didn't have my experience with TS3 and for those that didn't have these kinds of problems, a loading screen is annoying. You are probably one of those people. 😉 On the flip side there are some people with lower end computers that used to not have many problems but now are having a hard time. But TS4 has about to have its 7th birthday this year, so it has been having a much better time resisting lags even though it has gone on for several years longer with new packs and DLC than TS3 ever had. I do hope that the next version of the Sims only goes on for 5 years because that seems about the sweet spot for most people, giving them enough time to enjoy the game but not so long that it starts having serious problems. (While for TS3 I started having problems after a year, if TS4 had only gone on with new content for 5 years, I would never have loading screens taking more than 30 seconds other than the few times I was online with either too many tabs open or one tab with a lot of ads running on it at the same time
As for the "limitations and sparsity" without an open world , I found that TS3's open world was very sparse ... oh it was very large and looked appealing at first, but once I tried to do anything in the open world that required Sims that weren't from my household traveling with me, I found that huge world to be extremely shallow. ☹️ This was especially noticeable for my Sim who worked the late shift at work, leaving their only socializations to occur late at night. If they lived alone or if their other household members had normal schedules , then they would have to seek social interactions elsewhere. I would pend long periods of time searching for other Sims to interact with, scouring the map with the game paused. I would find one or two other Sims out (most were in bed, I assume) and by the time my Sim got there the other Sim would be leaving! 😠😞😢 While this was especially happening at night, it also happened often enough in the day time for it to aggravate me. 😞 There would be more Sims milling about, but by the time I got there they would all be gone or about to leave so that you couldn't interact with them. Contrast to TS4, I never have had that problem. Day or Night! Even if I go to a lot like a park that is initially empty, with a a few Sim-minutes there are several other Sims there! 🙌
But if they could not have the game lag, grind to a halt, or crash, and if they can make it to where when you arrive at a destination other Sims would be there or arrive shortly thereafter, then I would love an open world in a future game like The Sims 5 ! 🤞😀 Until then I like the TS4 model better for these situations! 😇
I do agree that the amount of bugs is frustrating.😞 They have made efforts to fix a lot of the bugs in the game, more so than they used to! 🙌❤️ However, this is the main reason that I think the game should not have gone on getting new content beyond 5 years. As we get more and more content the game has a harder time doing what it is supposed to as each pack is supposed to work with all the other packs. Some bugs are merely cosmetic, but others really hurt the gaming experience, so they should really focus on those.
Yes, I agree that it really would have been nice to have knitted toys that toddlers and children could cuddle and play with💗 , as opposed to just decorations! ☹️ But since this was a Stuff Pack I'm not too upset. As for the pack not having any knitted pet clothes, that is 100% our fault since EA/Maxis offered several knitted clothing items for both dogs and cats, but we didn't vote for them. I heard several people online state that they didn't want to vote for them because even though they really wanted them in the game, they didn't think it would be fair for those who didn't have the Cats & Dogs EP already to fully enjoy the Nifty Knitting pack. It would have been like My First Pet Stuff all over again requiring you to have the Cats & Dogs EP in order to fully enjoy everything that the Nifty Knitting SP had to offer! So it is totally understandable why not enough people voted for pet clothing in the Nifty Knitting pack! But EA/Maxis did give us the choice to have these items if we wanted.
I could be mistaken but I think the smaller sized lots is due to the same reason that Maxis pre-built houses can only have so many items in them -- this is to help people with lower-end computers! In the last few packs they have even collaborated with several popular Game Changers known for their Building skills in the game. I've seen their videos on You Tube explaining how they made their decisions in building for the last few packs and they all said that they were given a restricted list of how many items they could use for this reason, as well as sticking only to items from the new pack and the base game! 😉 I think I have heard something similar regarding the size of the lots, but I might be wrong. 😊
I think the reason that the Club System from Get Together and the Doctor career from Get to Work are the way they are instead of the way you suggested is because these are the first EPs to have been made. There was some talk from players about hoping that instead of getting a new pack that we could just have some improvements to existing packs, especially these early ones where a lot of now obvious opportunities were missed. I don't know if they will be willing to do that though. Still, it would be great if they did! 🥳🤞
I also have always wanted to be able to make a "town cemetery" and your idea of having a caretaker is a great idea! 💡😀 I also wish they would revamp the grieving in the game to make it more realistic, and allow for funerals if we want. It seems disrespectful to me when I Sim dies and the other Sims can't pay their respects! 😢
I love your daycare idea! This would be great for those who love playing with toddlers!🥰
I just wanted to say even though I don't agree with you on everything, I want to thank you for presenting your ideas and complaints in a polite, kind, mature, and thoughtful manner, instead of just ranting! The world needs more people like you! 😇💗
