"JoAnne65;c-16776665" wrote:
The point here is that they said they couldn’t do it or that it was a deliberate choice to not do it. Now it turns out to be possible after all and they present what they explained away earlier with enthousiasm. And that enthousiasm should convince me it’s perfectly fine Sims 4 needs so many years, when the earlier games managed to deliver the very same thing right away. I’m not saying others shouldn’t be convinced by that, it’s just that I’m not. Quite the contrary.
Very few things are literally impossible when it comes to computing. More things are difficult, possibly more difficult to implement than is worthwhile. I'm not going to argue that employees of a company showing enthusiasm about a new tool proves anything, but I will also say that making terrain editing work and getting it to work properly are things that would understandably take a lot of time to get right. And when it comes to meaningful terrain manipulation (public space around lots, and the unreachable backdrops around that), you raise even more problems and I understand not wanting to muck with those too hard. Both on the programming side, and on the balancing side. (How much should I be allowed to mess with hidden lot portals, collectible spawn points, and dropping powerful objects before completely throw off those activities?)
I don’t understand the question you’re asking me, sorry..? I don’t find Sims 4’s tools versatile at all, I find the tools we got in the earlier games much more versatile. I find Sims 4 very limited and restricted, forcing me to play the game the way the creators want me to play it. While I play Sims 3 completely the way I want to and I take it the same goes for Sims 2 fans. I don’t see what tools Sims 4 gives you to fine tune your game, maybe you can give me an example. I can give tools that do that in turn: CASt, the ability to adjust worlds, 11 EP’s stuffed with gameplay I can use in multiple ways (like a roommate system that enables me to create an apartment building). All I can think of for Sims 4 in this respect is the club system, but at the end of the day that system will always have the same result: sims doing something autonomously you set them up to do and you sit back and watch it. It’s not a system I miss in Sims 3, I’m fine with the setting up a party system where I can invite sims who will come over and behave according to their skills, traits and feelings towards other sims (flirting with them, talking to them or insulting/start fights with them). Add some music and everything I need from a party is there. They can even dance together.
Clubs. Holidays. Vampires being a memorable case where even people who don't like TS4 tend to agree that they're the best implementation.
Personalities are less robust in TS4, no disagreement there. I really do hope that tech monkeys are working on bringing that segment of the game up to date, so they can enthuse about the improvements later.
But to take a TS3 vs. TS4 comparison, TS3 holidays are more detailed than TS4 ones, but also a lot more locked in while TS4 traditions are much more modular, easily added to, and easily mixed in a make-your-own sort of deal. Neither is objectively better or worse. But I do think that comparing "toys" (the TS3 style, where there's a lot more discrete stuff) to the "tools" (TS4, with a smaller number of things but a stronger emphasis on adding your own twist) could be a better point to start from. Because while there are many individual toys that I might not care much for - cars would still be a nightmare to add to TS4, for instance - I still think it's better to look at the overall philosophy vs. focusing on specific elements from past games.
