I wrote this in the general forums and thought it belonged in here instead--TS4's way of cutting corners is what's getting it into trouble.This time, if they had at the onset of the game released basegame WITH a Create A World tool (or even released the tool short after) then instead of using up budget and resources making worlds for us, they could have dedicated that to debugging and adding new game play and content. We could have made our own worlds. And for those of us who suck at building, there's many capable and willing builders who would have undoubtedly created gorgeous worlds and put them up for download in the gallery. They said the tool was underused in ts3, but there's no need for everyone to be a building when we can all reap the benefits of CAW through the gallery.It would save money in the long run and attracted more ts2 and ts3 simmers to invest in ts4.But of course, since we can't make our own worlds then: a large chunk of the budget is used up by making worlds leading to empty feeling packs (not much new gameplay) not as many people buy the game so the budget shrinks. simmers are restricted to ONLY playing the vision of the gurus, since the worlds they like is what we get we have to wait on them to add lots to the game, so we run out of room to build quickly we can't tailor worlds for our machines so people with low-end computers get lag in complex worlds and people with high-end computers are unnecessarily restrictedNo one wins in this scenario. Expansions are empty of gameplay. Worlds are tiny. Simmers are restricted. Computers lag. Simmers are dissatisfied by the game, and the gurus hear nothing but complaints while juggling building and coding new game play. Even EA loses since not as many people buy the game.Everyone loses.

I get tired of their telemetry. lol I used CAW in TS3 for myself but never shared my worlds, so how do they know since 99% of all the time I never played while online, and I never let that dang launcher connect to internet, it was blocked. I'm smart enough to know they call home even if the game isn't being played but anytime my pc is connected to internet, but also smart enough to know how to block those hidden things from dialing out or sending any sort of message. So, their telemetry has to be skewed. :p

I totally agree. I didn't use CAW myself in TS2 or TS4, but that was because I used to only play with a single world in previous iterations. In TS4, I wouldn't need the new world we get with most EPs, I hardly have to time to fill them with builds I like (I'm very picky with that) so they end up unused and I end up frustrated because of the half empty worlds.The creation of new worlds takes up an incredible amount of resscources that could easily spend with expanding the actual game play. With CAW, those players who like a lot of different worls could download custom created ones, choose the size and amount to their liking and players with lower end computers could maybe even delete some of the EA premade worlds and play with some of them. For instance, I heard of many people not playing in Oasis Springs at all, or not liking New Crest or Magnolian Promenade.I never looked at it that way before (as I don't need CAW, so thanks a lot for opening my eyes to the extend of this issue, @DreamaDove . I hope EA will notice it, too, and react accordingly.

I absolutely agree. I continually used to make worlds in CAW for myself and used them often. Very often! I absolutely loved being able to create my own environments for my sims and so miss this tool. The players imaginations used to be allowed to run free! Sims 4 is so restricted as it is, even though developers work hard to provide stuff for the players. However, no matter how much they add to the game, (necessarily restricted by developers' time) to offer tools which would allow players to expand their own creativity within the game would be amazing and I'm sure would gain many more players' votes.

Myself, I wish they still left in the ability to texture our own clothes and such. Like that flower print? Put it on a skirt. Like that cheetah texture? Put it on a rug. I personally feel the 10 or so choices in colors for things is rather restrictive, and wish we could be as creative as we were in Sims3. Honestly it wouldn't matter if they even gave us just 1 choice of color if we could retexture things like we could before. :/I also get how they probably had to make the loading screens so there's no point in having transportation anymore, but it'd still be nice to get a car and make a garage. Guess the best we can do now is buy a toy car and make it bigger and just pretend. I heard tho we might be able to edit the terrain again like we could before in sims 3 when I agonized over a underground garage for my fallout shelter styled home.

I agree. In TS2, I've never played the pre-made worlds...even before I knew about the save corruption issues they have if you don't clean them up. I recently got TS3 to see what about that game people find so appealing (so far, I'm not particularly impressed...but I haven't gotten too far in my test saves yet because of school, so I'm reserving final judgement until I'm at least 50-100 hours into things) and downloaded CAW, but I'm still learning to use it properly. My main criticism of the TS3 CAW tool is that you don't get a decent preview of the map templates in the starting menu, just this weird grayscale thing that doesn't give you a good idea of what the land templates look like before you load them up, and it's difficult to discern the actual scale of the landmass when you do load it up in the program, so I can see why it might have been underused--it's not that intuitive. You really do need to read those tutorials to know how to use the thing. Better map template previews and some form of visual scaling element would have done wonders for TS3 CAW's intuitiveness and ease of use. Give me a bare chunk of land in the middle of a blue field of ocean, I have a hard time discerning how big that chunk of land is. Put a clump of trees or a strip of road down, then I can get a better picture of what I'm working with...and whoever had the "brilliant" idea of having those grayscale height maps instead of a decent picture of the landscape you're about to open up should be sent to bed without desert. No cake for that one.If TS4 had a world creation tool that was intuitive to use and well-designed on a visual level, that would definitely enhance the game enormously. But, they need to learn from the poor design decisions that make TS3's incarnation of the tool confusing and cumbersome to use for more visually-oriented people like me.

Everyone loses without a CAW tool

DreamaDove
6 years ago
"instantmagic;c-16861609" wrote:
I only wish for CAW tool when I see sparse playgrounds that maxis made with one monkey bar and one pirate ship. That's it??!! No swings no toddler stuff? Even if you have the expansion pack? I also miss the CAW tool because people used to create the most wonderful island worlds in TS3! I really miss those! Having 20 or so of my Sims living on an island was the best! Maxis please make an Island pack!! With the Sunlit Tides stuff! I miss the lifeguard career! The tiki huts, the surfboard machine, the grass skirts. I would be happy to pay for that EXP. Pack Island themed beach Sims! Similar to Gilligan's Island! Bring that back! Caw tool would be ok to fix some stuff, but I do not miss the horrendous loading time of Sims 3 maps. IMO

Yes! The playgrounds bother me so much! I tried placing a modded swingset in the spice market playground, but there was no room ;___; I need to move the monkey bars and the basketball hoop in order to place the swingsets! There's so many missed opportunities... most of the time leaving your lot is kinda pointless since there's nothing to do out there. There's 'playgrounds' in NC that are composed of 3 monkeybars... ugh. So plain, so boring, and so ugly.
Sazzmoo
6 years ago
"SimsLovinLycan;c-16861568" wrote:
@"Archieonic;c-16861534" wrote:
The way worlds work, I struggle to think of a way for them to implement a CAW style tool. Most things are just decorations, the road system is basically decorative, the lot system looks very basic and rudimentary. Granted it could be done, but I just can't see it in this iteration.

A modular system similar to TS2's could work well. In TS2, you choose a template for your neighborhood which includes roads and geological features, then you choose a terrain type (desert, lush, concrete or dirt). TS4's could allow for these choices, as well as choice of skybox, road style, neighborhood decorations, and secret location. Collectables would spawn in pre-determined spots on the map depending on the world template you choose, and the type of collectables that would spawn would be determined by the terrain type chosen (desert, lush, etc.). It could work quite well if the devs could find a way to implement a system like that. Meanwhile, a more in-depth CAW that would be a true improved successor to TS3's could be developed to launch with TS5...if they make a TS5.

while i never used the CAW tool (was too complicated for me and im not creative like that) i think it would be a great addition to sims 4. if it came with templates as mentioned above with preset examples to move around which then let me design or decorate id be all for it. might even pay for it if it was good and flexible enough.

as it stands i primarily play in willow springs as its pretty and i like the layout the most but my own neighborhood would be awesome
Lonewolf1044
Seasoned Spectator
6 years ago
CAW Tool to me is an important tool to have to complete and sandbox environment. You do not have to wait for EA/Maxis to release new neighborhoods and also alter what neighborhoods that are made by EA/Maxis. For w/o that it makes the game less creative and for me it is.
drakharis
6 years ago
I loved CAW in sims 2 and 3 it really added to the gameplay and allowed us to share our creativity :)
simwolf79
New Spectator
6 years ago
I respectfully disagree with the 'everyone' since personally I have no interest in CAW and would rather see that time and effort put into other content. So it may be more accurate to say that many people lose out.... but certainly not everyone.
FriendlySimmers
New Traveler
6 years ago
I disagree with the everyone part as well I have no interest as well in the create a world part and would rather see more content like furniture clothes different choice of appliances some retro content to create more retro style houses
Tremayne4260
Hero
6 years ago
While "everyone" may not use certain features that came in Sims 3, a fair number of players did and do. I loved that you could use Sim City 4 to create new worlds for Sims 2. I never did, but I did download a copy of "worlds" that were fun to play.

I do miss the ability to allow the players to create new worlds for the game and the fact that the worlds are "small" compared to Sims 2 and 3.

Maybe it's something they might be working on, but can't tell us yet.
DreamaDove
6 years ago
"friendlysimmers;c-16881055" wrote:
I disagree with the everyone part as well I have no interest as well in the create a world part and would rather see more content like furniture clothes different choice of appliances some retro content to create more retro style houses

If you want more furniture and clothes, then this applies to you, too. My argument is that A LOT of resources are used up by the devs to create worlds since we can't create our own. If we had CAW, instead of making more worlds, the devs could devote themselves to other things: like more retro furniture and clothing.
DreamaDove
6 years ago
"simwolf;c-16880964" wrote:
I respectfully disagree with the 'everyone' since personally I have no interest in CAW and would rather see that time and effort put into other content. So it may be more accurate to say that many people lose out.... but certainly not everyone.

My argument is that many resources are used up making worlds that could be put to better use, so I agree with you. If we could make our own worlds, then the devs could make other content that you'd like to see.
OneAdorkableGirl
New Spectator
6 years ago
Agree 100%. I miss the worlds that they used to make. Examples: Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Windenburg. They had so many lots in those. Brindleton Bay also had a pretty good size, I suppose? Can't remember off the top of my head. Seasons we didn't get a new world.. so that slightly hurt us because we have to wait a year to get a new world. (But then again.. no world, and we got a TON of content, which I have really enjoyed) Then we get Del Sol Valley and it has like.. uhmm... 10 lots? Or something? :/ 11? Super small in comparison.

A CAW would be amazing, but then again, a lot of people do not like Custom Content. So, they probably wouldn't download other players worlds, which would lead Devs to still have to make worlds and... :( We'd end up with less resources for the packs.

What I am not liking as of late is how they're taking content we already have in the game and just slapping on a different coloring scheme. I download custom content. And I get that.. there are others that do not. So they need to give them more color options. But this just seems like a complete rip off and something that is turning me kind of away from the game a little bit.

It's why I won't buy My First Pet Stuff and Fitness Stuff. It's not worth 10 dollars to me. Even though, I do love the aquarium coffee table and the Hamster cage. Those are the only two items I want and they're not worth 5 dollars a piece; and I know it's on sale right now. But ... :/

Anyways, sorry to go off topic. I would love to see a CAW. And I would love it if the Devs would spend more resources on ACTUAL game play than on the worlds. Just give us a tool to add our own lots to it and let's call it a day. Back drops shouldn't use that many resources. I'd rather take more game play than a new world anyways. Just give us a tool so we can make our own. And maybe release some free worlds during patches. Every once in awhile. The packs have been so lack-luster. :( And this makes me so disappointed and I've never been disappointed previously. The only pack that I've truly enjoyed so far is Seasons. It's been the best pack so far. I haven't even touched Get Famous yet.. because I am just so worried that the content is going to be lack-luster.

However, if they want to make smaller worlds? But give us more content. Then GREAT! I would absolutely love that. But they definitely need something where either we can create our own worlds, or give us a free one here and there.. to give us some more lots if they're going to go smaller. Even if the free one is small, it's better than nothing. and we'd get fleshed out content. (Example: Vampires. AMAZING. Forgotten Hollow was a small world, but Vampires had some great content. Could have used maybe a little more(?) Perhaps. Maybe. But I love what they did with vampires and forgotten hollow is really a gorgeous and eerie world and I love what they did with it with the fog and flying bats).

So, if they want to do something like that (and heck, maybe they did that with Get Famous and that's why the world was so small) then I take back what I said and I'll definitely look into the game play before I decide to be fully worried and I'll admit I'm wrong for sure. D: I just love the game and I want us all to get a lot of the content we've been waiting for. (Ehem. Witches and University/ Burglars / FireFighter NPCS are just some that I am waiting for).. and if they could spend less on worlds and more on game play then maybe we can start seeing that amazing content we're all sitting here hoping for! ♥