A busy next 6 months for future DLC

"Lustianicia;c-16745180" wrote:
Sims 3 had a similar trend towards the end of its run. We started seeing multiple packs being released closer together as the era came to an end. I still remember the excitement when 'Supernatural' and 'Seasons' were announced to be released only a month apart.

The gurus have recently confirmed at least one more DLC being released in 2018. My guess is it's either going to be a stuff pack or game pack. I highly doubt we'll be seeing another expansion pack be released this year... but who knows? Seasons was definitely a big surprise. I mean, I figured that was going to be the next expansion pack, but I thought they would be releasing it towards the end of 2018.

It's been awhile since a game or stuff pack has been released, so I think one of those will be next. I'm personally hoping for a game pack that revolves around magic and witches. Just in time for Halloween!

Edit: I apologize if I didn't quite answer correctly to this thread... it's like 6am where I live and I haven't gotten any sleep. lol So, if my comment seems out of place and/or nothing but rambling, please don't mind me... xD

I was not following the time of that announcement. A bit off topic, but how did you guys manage the excitement at that time? Two EP announced and being released? That is something I hope to happen to The Sims 4. I think Supernatural was developed by the 2nd EP Team.

Did you see this on SimsVIP?

https://simsvip.com/2018/09/23/cnns-great-big-story-currently-filming-the-sims-4/


Looks like the next Patch might be a big one?

"Dannydanbo;c-16745344" wrote:
Voice actors probably aren't told in what context their work will be used, patch, SP, GP or EP. Plus, unless they are sims players too, they probably don't know the ins and outs of the game releases like we do. The term patch or game pack would not mean anything to them even if they were told that their work would be a part of it.

That is so wrong. Voice actors are briefed on what they are making and work closely with the studio that hired them to produce what they are wanting.

"TS1299;c-16745308" wrote:

Multi Level foundation has nothing to do with the world being flat. It just that they integrated the foundation to the whole building rather than per piece. We are told that Terrain tools are possible. Different type chairs are being research. Where did you get the information about that on the engine? That the floor is the same as 2nd floor, etc.?

Many CC creators have discussed the engine and its limitations over the years. I cannot link each and every one because many of the past threads and blogs have been deleted. However, Luumia’s explanation about how the game treats terrain is pretty straightforward:

“Previous Sims games used math to generate a layer of snow on top of the existing ground and they could do this because the ground was dynamic i.e. the engine allowed terraforming.
This isn’t possible in TS4 because the engine only recognizes the ground as “routable set dressing” i.e. a flat ground that Sims can only walk on. The neighbourhoods in TS4 are kinda like separate model cities. Everything is “glued” together in a very specific way and to change certain things would be impossible or too costly for the team.”

His full post: luumiasims.com/post/174416347089/do-you-have-any-comments-on-the-lack-of-snow-depth

Regarding the floor levels - because the engine cannot distinguish differences in height the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors are all considered to be on the same plane. Technically, stairs are just another object that happen to have a walking animation. The sims are not really ascending or descending to the next level. It would not look very pleasant if sims simply snapped to a different level, which is why we still have stairs. Without the underlying code that uses mathematical calculations to determine height and depth, enabling multilevel foundations or terrain tools become extremely difficult. Although they said these things were possible, they also said that possible does not mean they actually have the time or resources to make them happen. Grant himself has said that terrain tools and different stair types are not high on the priority list due to the animation and production costs compared to the profits they would see in return for that kind of investment.

"Dannydanbo;c-16745881" wrote:

"drake_mccarty;c-16745351" wrote:

"Dannydanbo;c-16745344" wrote:
Voice actors probably aren't told in what context their work will be used, patch, SP, GP or EP. Plus, unless they are sims players too, they probably don't know the ins and outs of the game releases like we do. The term patch or game pack would not mean anything to them even if they were told that their work would be a part of it.

That is so wrong. Voice actors are briefed on what they are making and work closely with the studio that hired them to produce what they are wanting.

They might be given an idea, like pirates or romance so they can create the proper sounds and inflections, bu I doubt they are given enough info to piece together a theme or when it will drop. Being briefed is hardly the same as being well informed.

The voice actors who provide sounds for TS4 are under NDA just like every other EA employee, and all the Game Changers. Literally nothing is preventing Maxis from giving them that information because they can’t talk about it anyway.

Do they get fully briefed on info such as themes and drop dates? Judging on the comments from the voice actor we’re discussing, I would say yeah it looks like they do. Guess that’s just part of working on the game.

Well, Sims4 is not Sims3 so we shouldn't draw comparisons between how content was released back then to how it is being released now. We shouldn't read anything into the fact EA released a game pack, a stuff pack and an expansion all within a short six months either. And I have lost count on how many patches and updates have been released this year. The next update will be like the third or fourth since Seasons dropped, I believe. And each one of them managed to bork a lot of my bug-fixing mods so I am in no big rush to go through that again.


The 'big update' and the 'lots of fun stuff' coming our way just as Fall becomes official hints that this update will be all about the newest occult state being added to the game. I suspect this will be witches and warlocks. I hope we have a choice about having them in the game since this update is not optional. If they are not optional my game will be on vacation until a modder creates a mod to prevent them from spawning. This is my personal opinion and is not intended to upset the folks wanting witches in their game. I am more inclined to want the bugs and glitches eradicated before new gameplay is added. This has been a problem since Sims2 when old bugs were not taken care of and expansions and stuff packs were added with new bugs and glitches. Sims3 was the same and it was a buggy, laggy mess at the end of its run requiring a ton of mods to make it playable. At least the gurus have confirmed this update will contain some bug fixes along with new content. It gives me hope I will be able to delete a few mods.



I don't see EA releasing a game pack before the big sales push for the holiday season. I am leaning toward an expansion being released in mid to late November. An expansion being released just before the holidays makes sense on a fiscal level. So that means we will have an update with new gameplay elements being available sometime in October then the pre-expansion update in early November that will include new gameplay for Simmers who do not want the next expansion or will wait to purchase the expansion when it goes on sale. My favorite game update was the one where the new lighting was introduced. I believe that was released just before Dine Out. And let's not forget the new glass roofs in the pre-Seasons update. So if this newest update adds witches to the game I am sure there will be things in it I will use and enjoy. And if my assumptions on what is coming are correct we are looking at having some interesting content coming our way.
.

I would love 2 EPs a year but if not possible I would be happy with more GPs in place of SPs.

"Paigeisin5;c-16749540" wrote:
The 'big update' and the 'lots of fun stuff' coming our way just as Fall becomes official hints that this update will be all about the newest occult state being added to the game. I suspect this will be witches and warlocks. I hope we have a choice about having them in the game since this update is not optional. If they are not optional my game will be on vacation until a modder creates a mod to prevent them from spawning.

I can't imagine they'd put in new occult states in as a update since they know that not everyone plays with them. I feel like they'd put those in a pack just like how Aliens and Vampires are linked to packs.

"davina1221;c-16744619" wrote:

"icmnfrsh;c-16741777" wrote:
A return to the 2 EPs a year model would be good news to me. Sims 3 kind of went overboard with releasing EPs just a few weeks apart, and by the end the whole game was pretty unstable. Although Sims 4 has a lot of issues as well, but so far it doesn't crash as often.

I kind of liked all the content. I wish they would go back to three a year. Not sure about the unstability of S3. I think that had many factors including mods, cc, type of computers, and what was downloaded from the community that had bad stuff in the cc. Many players complaining had mods, cc, or had downloaded something from the S3gallery that had bad cc in it. I do remember some that played vanilla mention some things, but mostly it was those other issues that caused problems in the Sims3. I eliminated this when I went vanilla. I have an Asus gaming computer and I play all games and the whole store. There isn't any instability at all for me. I have only had my game mess up 3 times since Sims3 Supernatural came out. I laid down a lot of black tiles to make a driveway of sorts and I think it created some type of blue screen error. I was on the high end of the singing career living in a trailer and I had to get creative and change some things, but got it worked out. Third one, I can't remember. Of course there was routing issues in WA, but not enough to ruin it for me.

I would've loved to have had the cc/mods everyone else did, but thoughts/inability of updating and babies that looked like lines didn't make me happy. Thus the change to vanilla to take out bad stuff downloaded from the S3gallery. After vanilla, I never had a crash in S3 except the time I laid the black tiles and in S4, I've never had a crash. I really believe non-EA content and the computer used has the most to do with it. I also ran everything on my cheap HP laptop for content in S3 up to 2012, when I was pregnant on the couch for 8mnts. Not sure it could run it now, but it did then and was a lifesaver. Not an expert, just sharing my experience of a huge multitude of gameplaying in Vanilla mode on an Asus computer. Can't say on other computers.

Personally, I hope it is very busy. I'm not happy completely with S4, but things not seen before and the content released lately has improved and expanded gameplay. I feel University, Farming, infant release, cemeteries, and many other things could give us some options for gameplay. Certainly, if nothing else, we did have tons of options for S3 play and that makes it very fun to play. :)

If you look at GPs as being mini-EPs with a specific focus (and many players think that GPs are better for that focus) then we're getting plenty of new content each year.

I never used CC in Sims 3, and I only downloaded from builders I trusted to not use CC in their builds. I did use mods but most of them (like Twallan's suite from NRaas) were to prevent crashes and save corruption; I used Overwatch to control things like spawning cars in Late Night, and Master Controller to turn off the flawed memory system that contributed to save bloat.

If maintained properly, mods should not break the game, especially tuning mods which use the same code that the devs write, just changing a few values to make things easier (or harder). I use mods that make tasks like writing, programming and painting faster because my Sims ain't got time to waste. B) Script mods, like UI Cheats Extension and MCCC can be a bit trickier but again, if the mod developers stay on top of them and update every patch, there should be no hiccups. I can count the number of crashes I've had on one hand, and most of them are due to my own errors like trying to do too many actions too quickly, not because of outdated mods.

I like Gamepacks because they're like mini EPs.