Create-a-Style is really missed
I really miss create a style. :'( The pattern choices and colors in the game, so far, are lacking. :'( This is the BASE game and I realize that. The fact that Sims 3 had this tool, and this game ...
Forum Discussion
CASt is one of the main things that I miss from TS3. (Much bigger than toddlers for me, but yeah -- to each his/her own.)
That said, it really is something they need to design into the game from the start. Yes, even for "just a color wheel." The problem being, even "just a color wheel" gets complicated once you start dealing with items that have patterns or just more than one color on them, in general.
Assuming that the item is not monotone (one single, solid color), then you have to have some sort of mask layer included in that item to indicate which areas get colored when you recolor it. A blouse with white lace trim would have to specify that only the colored portion and not the white lace changes when you use your color wheel. That sort of thing. So really, even just recoloring tends to require mask layers that essentially define the pattern(s) in the texture so the game knows where the color goes/which color(s) change.
So the big problem is that all of the existing clothes already in the game, packs and expansions would ALL need to be tweaked to add this additional data, which is a lot of tweaking. And of course, all CC that's ever been made for the game would likewise also need to be redone, which would make for a lot of unhappy CC creators/users.
The only way I could see CASt coming back to TS4 would be if they basically 'grandfathered' all of the existing clothing and just made new clothing going forward recolorable. That should be possible, but it would obviously be less than ideal. (IE, existing clothing would remain as-is and not be recolorable, while new clothing made with the new system could be recolored.)
All in all, I'm just hoping they really get the idea and make CASt a part of The Sims 5. (Along with a bunch of other things they left out, like open world, terrain editing, CAW and such.)
That said, it really is something they need to design into the game from the start. Yes, even for "just a color wheel." The problem being, even "just a color wheel" gets complicated once you start dealing with items that have patterns or just more than one color on them, in general.
Assuming that the item is not monotone (one single, solid color), then you have to have some sort of mask layer included in that item to indicate which areas get colored when you recolor it. A blouse with white lace trim would have to specify that only the colored portion and not the white lace changes when you use your color wheel. That sort of thing. So really, even just recoloring tends to require mask layers that essentially define the pattern(s) in the texture so the game knows where the color goes/which color(s) change.
So the big problem is that all of the existing clothes already in the game, packs and expansions would ALL need to be tweaked to add this additional data, which is a lot of tweaking. And of course, all CC that's ever been made for the game would likewise also need to be redone, which would make for a lot of unhappy CC creators/users.
The only way I could see CASt coming back to TS4 would be if they basically 'grandfathered' all of the existing clothing and just made new clothing going forward recolorable. That should be possible, but it would obviously be less than ideal. (IE, existing clothing would remain as-is and not be recolorable, while new clothing made with the new system could be recolored.)
All in all, I'm just hoping they really get the idea and make CASt a part of The Sims 5. (Along with a bunch of other things they left out, like open world, terrain editing, CAW and such.)
