"Schweighsr;12991668" wrote:
We have to remember that it takes 18 to 24 months to create an EP. Just because they are released every six months does not mean that is how long it takes to make them. So EA planned the first EP long before the fans even knew everything that would be left out of TS4. When they planned the first EP they did not know that fans would be so upset that the toddler stage was dropped, so it is possible (maybe even likely) that the first EP has nothing to do with family play. Rumors are that it is a business-oriented EP (but who knows if those rumors are true?)
There is the possibility that they did intend to have all age groups in the game, as they originally stated, and Toddlers couldn't be completed in time for the release so they were pushed off into the first EP. I don't think that it is *likely*, but it is *possible* (for one thing adding a new age state messes with core game coding, so I *personally* don't think that EA would write code just to rewrite it a few months later). Frankly, I believe Grant meant it when he said "things change" and that one of those changes was the elimination of the toddler stage.
I am a pessimist - I think that we won't see toddlers again until TS5 - if they even make a TS5. But I would love EA to prove me wrong.
The one thing that gives me hope is that there were reports that when modders started taking apart the code in order to start creating mods and CC, they found some coding framework for toddlers. (I remember the posts were on the old forums, not sure where they are here.) So it's very possible that like with pools and ghosts, they simply ran out of time to implement them properly. So it's possible the base game coding is already in there, just needing some expansion and tweaking to have it go live. Which would mean rather than an EP, they could be patched in the way ghosts were patched in (yet ghosts still have their glitches -- I had a grave I had to delete when I went back into game and it was a nameless gravestone (it was the mom of the two kids living with my baby daddy Sim, but I'd already sent her spirit to the netherworld after giving them one more night with her). I was moving the family anyway to a larger house and wouldn't have wanted the grave there for the new residents; would probably lower the real estate value. :|
