How are you feeling about the sims 4 and its current state ?

I feel like I'm not going to spend more money on it until I see wants and fears improved and more bug fixes.

I haven't played my game after I unfortunately updated it with the HSY patch. I heard it could be better now, but I haven't had time to play now and don't want to spend my freetime testing whether my game works or not, so I guess I'm having a Sims 4 break. I enjoyed my game fine before this patch. I'm worried about the bugs and incomplete wants and fears.

For the future I'm waiting for bug fixes, features that are already in the game (such as wants and fears, lifestyles etc) to be improved and fixed, overall pack integration and pack refreshes. The game could be much better if more effort was put in the already existing features.

I'd especially love to see mermaid refresh (that gives mermaids more to do and special animations or features), kids (and toddlers) to be able to use magic/be touched by magic, games for kids and childish sims, swimmable waters in old worlds and like more to do and stuff to interact with outside lots in neighbourhoods.

I only discovered TS4 at the start of the pandemic, and have not played any previous Sims game. Right away, I got hooked and had soon bought all the packs. Since then, I've played TS4 more than any other game and have continued buying all the packs. Being able to build houses, style sims and create stories just really appealed to me, especially since I found the game when looking for interior design software. So I think that's why the extremely lacklustre so-called gameplay didn't bother me so much at first, but I've grown increasingly frustrated with how this game often feels like an animated, prettified, poorly structured spreadsheet. Pixel graphic games by single developers on Steam can do it better if you look only at the core gameplay mechanics.

At this point, I really feel Maxis are forced to add to a game they are no longer interested in and that really can't support all the addons. Because TS4 has a large customer base ready to pay for content with minimal gameplay - an attractive proposal for EA as gameplay development is much more unpredictable. And yet still, the game breaks, over and over, because the foundation was clearly built to support an entirely different sort of game. With this recent update, I can no longer play as my game keeps resetting progress randomly. And what is a game where you can make no progress? Useless, that's what.

What I really want next:

I'm ready for a good sized music and bands pack.

I'm still waiting for more clothing for male sims. I mean long pants that are not high waters or cropped in any way, no bell bottoms, flairs, droopy drawers or ripped up. I want slim leg, straight leg, dress slacks, jeans, casual dress. I want suits, causal dress, shirts tucked in. I want hip, elegant, casual dressy, casual and masculine styles without slobbiness.

I'm so over bell bottoms, flairs, droopy drawers, cropped and high water pants, super low rise pants, half untucked shirts and those weird wide cropped sleeves for male and female sims. I'd also like to find tops and bottoms that go together, some of the color combos are hard to pair or don't match anything.

I'm just a bit underwhelmed by what they choose not to do for some of their packs.
Like High School Years. I do feel the pack has added something useful to the teen life-stage to make teens feel more like teens, but these oversights?:

-The game seems to prioritize random homeless townies over sims that live in the worlds.
-You can't set school uniforms for everyday and active wear.
-There is no jogging way-points that make use of the track behind the school.
-The bleachers are not usable for hangout spots, and most of the school property is just set dressing.
-You can't form groups and clubs at the school, not even during after school hours.
-You can't cancel Wants without buying a potion, and so far, they seem to make the game more annoying than fun.
-Sneak out feature only usable when invited out, and not integrated with Parenthood game play.
-Career Day event has little to do with learning about possible careers for your sims, what they need for those careers, nor has integration with Discover University.
-Small worlds, Copperdale could use another section with five more lots.
-Also beautiful worlds that are just set dressing with nothing interesting happening in these between spaces.
-Bugs, bugs, bugs

Thankfully modders are stepping in with solutions.

There are still a few more things I want for the game like Bands, a modeling career, Hotels/Casinos/B&B, Burglars, and Fairies,
but I also want the game to end so I can fully mod it, and even make mods myself, without them being constantly broken by monthly patches.

I love the game, when it works. The recent deluge of bugs has dampened my desire to play it though. As for what I want next, not really sure. I have all I think of as must haves, so anything else is just icing on the cake, but if it continues with the massive bugs each time, I am ready for it to be done.

I'm kind of devastated, actually. I have not updated the last patch, which had things I specifically asked for, because suddenly the devs decided that Sims needed to use their phones more obsessively. This will completely nuke my enjoyment of the game. I hated the phone use before and it literally had me on the edge of my patience as it was, but this bomb that was dropped has done it in for me and I'm really upset about it. I've wanted a way to turn phones off for almost 8 years now. I hate it in real life and I hate it in my game.

Like many people, I play The Sims to escape real life. I like to create my own weird world, full of Occults and Gods and strange people and a mix of eras and timelines. I rarely use any of the tech gameplay, and computers are usually locked up, only put in game for brief use or not used at all. But I could never do that with phones because the game wasn't designed with options for it. It was always a race to cancel a phone action before a Sim could gain a new phone-related skill and it was frustrating. But I dealt with it because I love the Occults so much and they have been my favorite of any of the Sims series. But all these years later, after getting so much awesome content that I love, after just dropping Werewolves that I was ridiculously excited for and only got to play twice, the game has become something I don't want to play. I just don't want phone tech like that. I don't care how trivial that might sound to some people, it absolutely bothers me. Even if limited to teens, it would bother me, I love playing teens. And I haven't use mods in years because I barely have time to play my game as it is, I don't have time to take them out and update every single month. Plus, mods can be unreliable.

So my game just sits there, not updated, and I don't even know if I want to play offline because the Gallery is one of my favorite things. I can't build very well and I usually browse for the awesome builds other people make, to put in my game. At this point, I'm just trying to decide if I'm done for good or not. Sims 4 has finally chosen its path and its players and that's just not me.

The post-HSY apocalypse shocked me. It's been widely reported on by various news outlets as well. And it makes me wonder how things are at office right now. It really shouldn't have happened, like Sheepiling wrote. It's the first expansion pack I haven't bought and also the first time I rendered the game unplayable.

Bugs have always been a part of games. They can be annoying, very funny - they can be exploits - they can lead to speedruns. I don't mind bugs generally speaking. To emphasize it again, its part and parcel of enjoying a game - modern or old. But this is something else...

I am also feeling very discouraged and disappointed. I was very excited about the new gameplay and looking forward to trying it. Unfortunately, I did update my game, so am very afraid of playing now and ruining my saves. I only went in to my build save to finish a lot, so am hoping the bug didn't affect the game saves I actually play. I agree @ LiELF with your opinion about phone use. I was already annoyed with how obsessed Sims were with their phones and am not looking forward to seeing how bad it is now in game. It was hard enough before to make sure your sim followed through with actions because they get sidetracked by computer, phone, etc all the time and drop the action you give them. Becomes more difficult if playing more than one sim. I still want to play, and I want to be able to continue with my current gameplay and a new game to try out the new pack. But I am so worried my saves with be ruined as others have been with all the bugs. Hopefully they will fix them soon so we can all play again and maybe be able to enjoy it. My fingers are crossed that they will fix it soon, but I am worried about how future packs will be now, as this it the second time a pack was released with game breaking bugs. Don't think I will be buying a pack as soon as released anymore.

I have mixed feelings. I love the game most of the time, but I also want to scream in frustration with it at times. I love my stories and the sims in them. I love the game for giving me the tools and the connection to those things, but I curse it at times for holding me back from really telling the story the way I want to. I'm relieved that after a near miss with disaster because of this patch debacle my main save appears to have survived, magic intact. I'm also upset that others aren't going to be so lucky and are going to lose saves that have been years in the making. It's sad we have to go through all of this.

On the positive side, I really love the Werewolves pack. It shows that great content for this game is possible. The CAS items in that pack are on a whole other level, and they showed some of the creative flair we've been wanting. The quality of CAS items on the whole recently has been superb, but it's often lovely carbon copies of styles that have been done to death, crop tops, high water pants, etc. If only they would take that wonderful modeling skill and use it to make other types of clothing. I would also love to see them throw out all of the old makeup in CAS and turn those skills loose making gorgeous makeup. I still use cc for all makeup unless I'm creating a sim to upload to the gallery, and I really do apologize to them before I save because of how horrible the Maxis makeup is. Same can be said for heels and boots. The sneakers and gym shoes that have come with Throwback Fit Kit, Incheon Arrivals, Midnight Chic and others are so good I've pretty much tossed out all of my cc sneakers. I still have some so I don't always repeat the same item too often. Give us some good heels and a variety of boots. High heels, mid heels, strappy sandals, thigh high boots, knee highs, ankle boots, the whole shebang. They've shown they can make great shoes with the sneakers, do it with the rest now.

I've said many times, and I'll say it again, I'd love to have an active singing career and bands. I'd love to have a full jazz band with a singer out front. Standup comics, models, too. How is it with a fame system we only have one career that is synonymous with fame? While you're at it how about releasing some new gigs for actors. The same handful of roles over and over.

"LiELF;c-18165217" wrote:
I'm kind of devastated, actually. I have not updated the last patch, which had things I specifically asked for, because suddenly the devs decided that Sims needed to use their phones more obsessively. This will completely nuke my enjoyment of the game. I hated the phone use before and it literally had me on the edge of my patience as it was, but this bomb that was dropped has done it in for me and I'm really upset about it. I've wanted a way to turn phones off for almost 8 years now. I hate it in real life and I hate it in my game.

Like many people, I play The Sims to escape real life. I like to create my own weird world, full of Occults and Gods and strange people and a mix of eras and timelines. I rarely use any of the tech gameplay, and computers are usually locked up, only put in game for brief use or not used at all. But I could never do that with phones because the game wasn't designed with options for it. It was always a race to cancel a phone action before a Sim could gain a new phone-related skill and it was frustrating. But I dealt with it because I love the Occults so much and they have been my favorite of any of the Sims series. But all these years later, after getting so much awesome content that I love, after just dropping Werewolves that I was ridiculously excited for and only got to play twice, the game has become something I don't want to play. I just don't want phone tech like that. I don't care how trivial that might sound to some people, it absolutely bothers me. Even if limited to teens, it would bother me, I love playing teens. And I haven't use mods in years because I barely have time to play my game as it is, I don't have time to take them out and update every single month. Plus, mods can be unreliable.

So my game just sits there, not updated, and I don't even know if I want to play offline because the Gallery is one of my favorite things. I can't build very well and I usually browse for the awesome builds other people make, to put in my game. At this point, I'm just trying to decide if I'm done for good or not. Sims 4 has finally chosen its path and its players and that's just not me.

I play so often offline because I often skip a patch or two, and I can totally use the gallery. :)

You start your game offline. Then go into the gallery. By default you are disconnected to the gallery because you are playing offline. So you have to click on the gallery, then a popup will come up asking if you want to connect with the gallery. All you have to do is connect. I always have to cancel the first try and connect again because the first try never works for me. (Don't be afraid, because the game won't patch automatically ingame, if you connect to the gallery. In order to patch you have to exit the game and press "update".)

After connecting you can normally browse the gallery and download everything you want. The only exception is, you can't download anything that was put on the gallery with a patch you don't have, so basically the newest things.

But everything until then works perfectly fine. :)