For Rent Negative thread

"SimplyJen;c-18327931" wrote:

"crocobaura;c-18327917" wrote:

"RapidRabidRabbit;c-18327896" wrote:

"crocobaura;c-18327657" wrote:

"RapidRabidRabbit;c-18327642" wrote:

"crocobaura;c-18327582" wrote:

"RapidRabidRabbit;c-18327568" wrote:

"haneul;c-18327525" wrote:


I don't think the game is catering to "potato laptops" with the loading screens. I think this is a misconception. Even though TS4 works on lower-end computers which is good, the playing experience seems to center higher-end ones. For example, loading screens only appear for a few seconds on high-end gaming computers so they're not that big of a deal even with all packs and tons of mods/CC. However, for slower computers, I think it takes 30 seconds to a few minutes to travel between lots, which is probably annoying... It would be great if there weren't any loading screens and the game let us play with 50 Sims on a lot, etc. but many of the people concerned about this seem to be those with slow loading times. If it takes a long time to load lots, it's also likely that the computer might struggle with processing multiple units on a single lot if we were able to view them all at once. TS4 simulates a lot of different stuff in the background and it's not that easy of a game to run if there are 50+ Sims on a lot with a bunch of interactive objects.

Tons of toggles add complexity to the game and complicate listed system requirements, so there's probably reluctance to add a bunch of toggles in the option menu. Instead, they made the game easy to mod and more advanced users can use mods to increase household size or the number of Sims allowed on a lot.

I just hope that this pack isn't buggy.

I think even the presence of the loading screens, however short, are kind of immersion breaking. They’re super jarring when you just want to visit your neighbor for instance. But even aside from that, they limit gameplay. If I want a sim to say hi to their neighbors, I can only load one lot. I can’t have some sims socialize at home, and then others greet their neighbors. I essentially have to choose only one sim to follow and let the rest of the household meander offscreen.

What if I want my teen sims to hangout at their friend’s house, while also having their parents work on skills, and the children socialize with a different household? In Sims 3 and Sims 2 Apartment Life, I could focus both on having certain sims socialize in different houses/apartments, while also focusing on developing other sims at home.

And I don’t think optional toggles would up the system requirements. They just have to list the minimum requirements, and these optional toggles are optional and not necessary so the system requirements wouldn’t be any more intensive than they are now. Have a certain default, and then if players want, they can up the default settings to match their system. Meanwhile, other players who can’t handle it can just keep their systems at the default minimum requirements without any hassle.

You certainly couldn't load multiple apartments at the same time in TS2. If you wanted to see your neighbours you had to either visit them or meet them in the shared space. As for TS4, it's possible to call your neighbours and friends to come over and visit you on your lot or some community lot, and you can also hang out with them in shared neighbourhood space. You don't need to go visit them on their lot if you don't want to deal with loading screens. Also, you often see and meet your neighbours in the street outside your house if you only want to say hi to them and many times they come and visit on their own. As for checking on several sims at the same time on different lots, that just isn't fun or easily doable, that's why TS3 enthusiasts loved the rabbithole buildings, because they could just send their sims there and get them out of the active lot while pretending they are doing something. In TS4 you can get pretty much a similar experience to TS3 if you try to make full use of the neighbourhood space, especially if you choose to play in a neighbourhood that offers plenty of activities with food stands, playgrounds and festivals.

I think what I was imagining and hoping for was like TS2’s apartment system where units that weren’t your’s were blacked out and not loaded, and only loaded once you knocked on their door. That way you save resources by only rendering your own active unit, but also avoid loading screens when you want to visit neighbors.

And I’d argue it is fun to check in on multiple sims on multiple lots. That’s why a lot of players loved TS3 Ambitions, they could follow their sims at work, and then when that got boring they could focus on the rest of the household. I myself used to have my household everywhere, with teen sims hanging out at parks, parent sims cooking meals at home, etc. A lot of people actually hated the rabbit holes in TS3. It just makes for smoother gameplay to send a sim somewhere without loading screens.

We don't know what the loading screens will be like and we'll need to wait for the livestream to find out. I will argue that rabbitholes are not gameplay, it's just a system to park your unneeded sims that are getting in the way of playing and are completely useless when you tend to play single sims. Depending on neighbourhood you're playing in TS4, you can still send your sim out there out of the house to do something else, while you focus on other sims cooking on their home lot. There is nothing you can achieve on another's sims home lot that you can't do on your own lot and just being able to check in on them once in a while on a whim doesn't make-up for the fact that your neighbourhoods and community lots are overall devoid of sims and many of the said community lots are in fact rabbitholes. Yes, you will need to load a community lot in order to play in it in TS4, but then you get a fully playable lot full of sims instead of just a rabbithole and in my opinion that's a plus. You can even earn money in several ways in self-employed type careers, without leaving your lot and neighbourhood if you want active type careers, so you only load other lots because you want to not because you have to.

I agree that rabbit holes aren’t really gameplay, but I’m saying TS3’s open world was amazing because you could have sims on multiple active lots at the same time. Everything that is a rabbit hole in TS3 is still a rabbit hole in TS4, so it’s not like TS4 has improved on anything. Bars, parks, hangouts, festivals, nectaries, etc. are all active lots in TS3. I can have one sim buying stuff at the consignment store, another checking out the festival, and then one at a bar. You just can’t do that in TS4.

A lot of people like TS3 because they can load multiple active lots at once, something that’s impossible in TS4.

And even the argument against rabbit holes equally applies to TS4 as it does TS3. TS4 has just as many rabbit holes (most careers, elementary school, movie theaters, etc).

The only problem with TS3 active lots, was that they were empty. You went to the park, it was empty, you went to the bar, it was also empty, all the so called active lots were empty or almost empty with just a cashier or a bartender tending to the lot. And sometimes they were closed too. I said it before that this type of open neighbourhood is useless and not fun to me. If I want my sims to drink alone, they can do so at home. I take my sims to community lots to raise their fun and to socialize and meet and befriend other sims, and to busk for tips and sell their merchandise, how are they going to do that if there is no one else on the lots? I also get to see what my other sims are getting up to when I am not actively playing them and I may incorporate some event into their storyline next time I play them.

Not enough sims, too many community lots, and a weak CPU was usually why community lots were empty. TS3 gadges the amount of sims to push onto lots by CPU power. When patches stopped, the game could no longer properly detect new hardware. It's supposed to default to ultra but sometimes it doesn't and you have to manually adjust info via game files.

This was an issue since basegame. Even at the rabbithole bistro there were no other sims beside my own. And sometimes they came on a lot and left after 5 minutes in game time, you barely had time to greet them. Anyway, I prefer TS4 because now there are 20 sims on a lot when I visit instead of 20 sims spread out over the entire neighbourhood that I never get to meet.