I'm worried about open worlds

I want open worlds - they play nice for me. Miss them a lot.

"JoAnne65;c-16710980" wrote:
I'm worried about posts like this. Not because I want open world in Sims 4, that will never happen anyway, but because it sends a message to EA that it's perfectly ok to never invest in something awesome like an open world in any Sims game ever again. I can't protest against that strongly enough.

• Travelling took time? Completely comparable to loading screens (I tested this) with one difference: you can follow your sim instead of staring at an empty loading screen. And if you play more than one sim you don't even have to wait, you can play with one till the other has arrived.
  https://i.imgur.com/Ko7EERi.png
  
• Routing issues? Yup, but nothing that can't be taken care of properly in a next iteration (just take NRaas mods as an example and go from there).
  
• Loading screens in Sims 3 last so long that you have to read a book to kill time? There are no loading screens. There is one at the beginning and that one lasts a couple of minutes for Sims 3 players now, thanks to improved computers (in my case 4, I timed it).
  
• Sims 3 is exactly as buggy as Sims 4 appears to be (just take a look around here) and the most absorbing and awesome to play, with or without mods (I've done both). I feel that open world plays a huge part in that because it draws you into a world that comes closest to a real world and approaches a real world experience the best.
  
• Don't worry. Sims 4 will always have its tiny uncustomizable neighborhoods based world system with loading screens everywhere and uncontrollable sims in your active family constantly, doing absolutely nothing as time passes by. And no transportation but instant teleportation. Enjoy it while playing Sims 4, I pray they'll come to their senses when creating a Sims 5.
  

Erm...yes for that one loading screen I *DID* need a book. It took ages to load a neighborhood or vacation world. NRaas never fixed the steady game breaking that the open world tended to cause me, I tried. I tried a LOT. What uncontrollable sims in an active family and what do you mean doing nothing? That doesn't happen...at least not in my game.

"rjssim;c-16712191" wrote:
I don't really care for an open world myself, but I think an open neighborhood would be nice.

I wouldn't mind that myself but that may not happen as open worlds will not happen as it may still need an engine overhaul to do it.

"TheGoodOldGamer;c-16713313" wrote:
I wouldn't mind open neighborhoods (like being able to visit neighbors without loading), but I don't think the Sims is really made for whole open worlds. Mainly because it's a simulator (the Sims themselves all have actions and stuff to be doing the entire time, and that's needless processing power you're not seeing on 98% of the world), and because most buildings and lots can be edited on a whim instead of static like in other open world games like Skyrim or whatever.

One lot and an area to explore like we have now, or a few lots in the case of an open neighborhood, is better all around, both in terms of game performance, care for the PC it's running on (so GPUs don't burn out like they apparently did with Sims 3), and probably a number of other technical things to consider, like updated graphics and such.

Say what you want to about the varying art styles, that's a matter of preference, but the Sims themselves have become more intricate and less like sprites in every iteration, and that's all a factor too.

Anyways, this is all imo. People like to say Sims 3 shows open world can be done in the series. I say it shows why it shouldn't. I'm glad it happened, for that reason, to learn from it and all that, but I don't think it should happen again. Certainly not until the tech running the simulation gets infinitely better, or it's common for PCs to have like 20 CPUs or something.

I disagree for open world can happen if it is tweaked and also with technology moving at an rapid pace I rather not be stuck in the twilight zone and also I never had an problem with open world and maybe others unless it was an developer error which did happen a lot. I had seven gaming systems at the time Sims 3 came out(down to 5 and one gaming laptop) and not one gave me an fit unless I run into an error caused by developers programming. Not everybody got the same experience for different reasons and you get what you put in. Not all systems are equal being Windows systems can be configured in many configurations what you run may be different from what I run. Sims require an lot of processing for various reasons such as the AI system which is not perfect and requires constant tweaking especially when they write code within code talking about EPs and other packs which need additional processing. I am sorry but I must say Sims 4 for me is not an path I would have taken for it lost so much creativity in the process and as far as graphical prowess goes one should not mismatch an system, in the long run it is not beneficial and an program should scale up or down and not be one size fits all. Maintenance and caring for an computer system is part of owning one especially if you want to it to last long.

"Treebrooke;d-947611" wrote:
Ok I know this isn't going to be popular but I REALLY REALLY REALLY do NOT want an open world. In the sims 3 it was amazing but it killed the game. Almost immediately crashes and routing issues became far too common and the amount of time it took to get ANYWHERE was insane. As the game progressed it would steadily become unplayable and I would need to start an entirely new game within a generation or two. Now I would love to be able to take boats out on the water, to go anywhere in town, and to do anything at all but the thing is I DON'T want it at the cost of my ability to play the game. I think there are more important things to have added and I don't mind the loading screens - they're faster than in sims 2 or sims 3, I have no need to pick up a book or just go and do something for half an hour or more while I wait. What I would love instead is a customisable world. I want to delete the toilets, decorate the areas around my lot, and improve the neighborhoods my sims can wander around in however I want to. What I don't want is a world that progressively makes it to where I can't play the game as time goes on. The sims 3 was the buggiest game in the series as well as the most boring to play without mods. I feel that the open world was part of that as it needed more time spent on it. I don't want my Sims 4 to break - it's my favorite and I love it.

I suspect your pc or laptop (TS3 should never be played on a laptop) wasn't up to par. Because even on my old (at the time it was new, lol) AMD X1300 video card and 2.5 AMD processors, I didn't crash, freeze, or burn. I think I added up to five EPs, and I know loads of store stuff, before I decided I needed an upgrade (which by that time the video card was very old) to a better pc for TS2 and TS3.

Open world features would allow TS4 to not have to go through a loading screen as soon as your Sim gets right next to the front door, but simply ring the bell. But TS4 can't handle open world, it's not built for that and they aren't going to go back and change it because it would have to render too much and keep up with all Sims so, you have nothing to worry about for TS4.

ETA: TS3, to me was not the most boring game in the series. That would be TS4. :p I didn't use mods in either game, and you know, I like both for many different reasons, and I dislike both for many reasons. But to say TS3 is the worst for bugs, might be a strech, TS4 isn't that far behind on the bug issues. In fact it may bypass TS3 in that area.

ETA: It is my opinion and sounds more logicial that open world doesn't cause empty community lots but that is caused by lot designation and story progression. If it's 2:00 A.M. in TS3 and closing time of course the game isn't going to spawn fourteen more Sims to show up and it near closing time. Nor is it going to send a Sim who has no interest in that type of lot..(traits and story progression). The gym was always full in my game.

"Treebrooke;c-16713814" wrote:

"JoAnne65;c-16710980" wrote:
I'm worried about posts like this. Not because I want open world in Sims 4, that will never happen anyway, but because it sends a message to EA that it's perfectly ok to never invest in something awesome like an open world in any Sims game ever again. I can't protest against that strongly enough.

• Travelling took time? Completely comparable to loading screens (I tested this) with one difference: you can follow your sim instead of staring at an empty loading screen. And if you play more than one sim you don't even have to wait, you can play with one till the other has arrived.
  https://i.imgur.com/Ko7EERi.png
  
• Routing issues? Yup, but nothing that can't be taken care of properly in a next iteration (just take NRaas mods as an example and go from there).
  
• Loading screens in Sims 3 last so long that you have to read a book to kill time? There are no loading screens. There is one at the beginning and that one lasts a couple of minutes for Sims 3 players now, thanks to improved computers (in my case 4, I timed it).
  
• Sims 3 is exactly as buggy as Sims 4 appears to be (just take a look around here) and the most absorbing and awesome to play, with or without mods (I've done both). I feel that open world plays a huge part in that because it draws you into a world that comes closest to a real world and approaches a real world experience the best.
  
• Don't worry. Sims 4 will always have its tiny uncustomizable neighborhoods based world system with loading screens everywhere and uncontrollable sims in your active family constantly, doing absolutely nothing as time passes by. And no transportation but instant teleportation. Enjoy it while playing Sims 4, I pray they'll come to their senses when creating a Sims 5.
  

Erm...yes for that one loading screen I *DID* need a book. It took ages to load a neighborhood or vacation world. NRaas never fixed the steady game breaking that the open world tended to cause me, I tried. I tried a LOT. What uncontrollable sims in an active family and what do you mean doing nothing? That doesn't happen...at least not in my game.

It does happen in your game. It happens in everyone's game. That is how TS4 was designed.

"uncontrollable sims in active family" means that if you take one or two Sims to another lot, you lose control of the other Sims who were left behind. Those Sims are stuck behind a loading screen where time is being lost.

If the player wants to spend the day fishing with one member of the household, that is a day lost in the lives of all of the other Sims that were left behind. Unless the player has aging off, that is time that is irretrievably lost.

What makes it even more vexing is that, those uncontrolled Sims won't continue doing what the player told them to do. Inevitably, when the player returns to the lot, nothing that the player directed those Sims to do will have gotten done. No homework, no dishes, no cooking, no sleeping. Nothing.

At least, in TS2, there was a kind of time warp where Sims returned to the home lot at the exact time that they left. In that manner, the Sims that remained at home still got to live out their day, so to speak. With TS4, it's simply lost.

In TS3, time was never lost because the player typically had control over all Sims, in real-time, unless the player sent one of them to a rabbit holes such as school or work.

TS4 is woefully deficient in comparison to how the last two games were able to handle in-game time and player control.

"TheGoodOldGamer;c-16713313" wrote:
I wouldn't mind open neighborhoods (like being able to visit neighbors without loading), but I don't think the Sims is really made for whole open worlds. Mainly because it's a simulator (the Sims themselves all have actions and stuff to be doing the entire time, and that's needless processing power you're not seeing on 98% of the world), and because most buildings and lots can be edited on a whim instead of static like in other open world games like Skyrim or whatever.

One lot and an area to explore like we have now, or a few lots in the case of an open neighborhood, is better all around, both in terms of game performance, care for the PC it's running on (so GPUs don't burn out like they apparently did with Sims 3), and probably a number of other technical things to consider, like updated graphics and such.

Say what you want to about the varying art styles, that's a matter of preference, but the Sims themselves have become more intricate and less like sprites in every iteration, and that's all a factor too.

Anyways, this is all imo. People like to say Sims 3 shows open world can be done in the series. I say it shows why it shouldn't. I'm glad it happened, for that reason, to learn from it and all that, but I don't think it should happen again. Certainly not until the tech running the simulation gets infinitely better, or it's common for PCs to have like 20 CPUs or something.

Ok, I’ll say what I want: what on earth do you mean by that ;) Sims in 4 are far from intricate, they’re in fact very one dimensional. If they’re angry they’re angry with everyone and everything they meet, where a sim in Sims 3 will cross the street to the park when my sim is walking around there and he cheated on her because she just has to tell him what she thinks of him. Mind you, she leaves everybody else on that lot in peace, she will only confront him. And sims in 2 are more intricate than sims in 3 people tell me, still that game came first.

"Treebrooke;c-16713814" wrote:

"JoAnne65;c-16710980" wrote:
I'm worried about posts like this. Not because I want open world in Sims 4, that will never happen anyway, but because it sends a message to EA that it's perfectly ok to never invest in something awesome like an open world in any Sims game ever again. I can't protest against that strongly enough.

• Travelling took time? Completely comparable to loading screens (I tested this) with one difference: you can follow your sim instead of staring at an empty loading screen. And if you play more than one sim you don't even have to wait, you can play with one till the other has arrived.
  https://i.imgur.com/Ko7EERi.png
  
• Routing issues? Yup, but nothing that can't be taken care of properly in a next iteration (just take NRaas mods as an example and go from there).
  
• Loading screens in Sims 3 last so long that you have to read a book to kill time? There are no loading screens. There is one at the beginning and that one lasts a couple of minutes for Sims 3 players now, thanks to improved computers (in my case 4, I timed it).
  
• Sims 3 is exactly as buggy as Sims 4 appears to be (just take a look around here) and the most absorbing and awesome to play, with or without mods (I've done both). I feel that open world plays a huge part in that because it draws you into a world that comes closest to a real world and approaches a real world experience the best.
  
• Don't worry. Sims 4 will always have its tiny uncustomizable neighborhoods based world system with loading screens everywhere and uncontrollable sims in your active family constantly, doing absolutely nothing as time passes by. And no transportation but instant teleportation. Enjoy it while playing Sims 4, I pray they'll come to their senses when creating a Sims 5.
  

Erm...yes for that one loading screen I *DID* need a book. It took ages to load a neighborhood or vacation world. NRaas never fixed the steady game breaking that the open world tended to cause me, I tried. I tried a LOT. What uncontrollable sims in an active family and what do you mean doing nothing? That doesn't happen...at least not in my game.

That’s sad (I used to fold my laundry on my previous computer waiting) but not related to open world where you hit a loading screen wherever you go.

What I mean is, that when I play a household of four sims and I follow one, the rest is elsewhere and they are doing nothing. You can’t control them and you can’t order them to make their homework or go to bed or play the guitar, nothing. The day goes by and they’re just hanging there. With an open world I can follow one sim and order the rest to work on skills or look for gems or do their homework, I can give them a series of tasks and they’ll do it. And when they’re done they’ll choose something to do on their own. And in Sims 2 you couldn’t control a sim that stayed at home, but at least you could replay that day.

ETA: oops, sorry @Cynna , didn’t notice you’d answered as well ;)

I don't think an open world is actually feasible at this point that would mean patching every pack not to mention the base game and I just don't see them doing that. I loved the open world of TS3 but I feel like they closed it for a reason and we just have to accept that.

However, I would be interested in the open neighborhood concept. There's no real reason why I'd have to see a loading screen when I'm only visiting a friend next door or for the game to switch screens if there's an event going on that's being hosted 2 doors down. I've never understood why they allowed the neighborhood to feel open but have to load every time you visited a new lot in the area.

I just have to say the only world that really caused me problems was the infamous Isla Paradiso. All the other worlds worked fine even when I had a truly terrible refurbished computer with no graphics card (my graphics were crap and the pets all looked like bashed up piñatas but the worlds worked fine). I still play TS3 extensively too, Sunset Valley and all the worlds (except Hell Hole Paradiso) run with no problems whatsoever. So I think it's less of a question of tech (because the tech is there) and more of what the developers are willing to do. An open world isn't like toddlers and pools, they may just not be interested in putting forth the effort to make create it.

Has anyone wondered why there is only one game like this?
Why did not other companies do anything similar to Sims?
The reason is easy to understand. Making such a game is a risky biznes. There is no possibility that this game would be flawless and meet the excessive requirements of players often with weak computers. If the reality was different, we would have a lot of games of this type.
I'm just praying that EA, so often insulted by dissatisfied players , will be not give up and will be keeping doing what it does.
And that there will be Sims5, with open world or without.