Increased budgets for packs?
Maybe I'm just not looking at this right, but Laundry Stuff literally had 4 unique Gameplay items (if we include Washers and Dryers as the same item) and probably has the biggest system we've seen i...
Forum Discussion
"jackjack_k;c-16334814" wrote:"@DeservedCriticism;c-16330713" wrote:
I'd say no, because:
1) The animations for interacting with washers and dryers are noticeably choppy. It tends to look like the person playing has suddenly suffered from a frame drop, when in actuality it's just the animation skipping frames to save on cash.
2) The textures of recent packs have been lacking. Toddler ball pit and the front of the washer/dryer as examples.
3) Recycled assets. This upcoming GP is built off a system from Outdoor Retreat and recycles a merchant's table from City Living, as well as recycling a food stall from City Living. This is also the first time a washer and dryer have practically looked identical.
There's still evidence of cutting corners and a small budget. I just think the GP team has been the smartest about working around those limitations to make functional, fleshed-out systems despite it all. The SP team is content to just give us things, the EP team tries to tackle big features like Pets even when the budget simply isn't there, but the GP is the one that figures out they can - for example - use existing assets to basically build an entire parenting system where children gain traits based on their placement on a simple -100 to +100 scale.
The Game Pack team seem to follow more of The Sims 2 EP take. A lot of the Sims 2 EP's take a lot of features from each others packs, and reuse systems to their advantage (eg. Apartment Life reuses a lot of tech from University, OFB basically is a new tool, but a lot of OFB was reusing existing Community venues and re-purposing them, Bon Voyage reuses different gameplay from other packs eg. Room Service being restaurant gameplay ).
The EP team seem to only ever make new content and they obviously don't have a big budget to make a lot. The EP team shouldn't be hesitant to reuse existing content in new ways. No one seems angry that the GP are reusing the food stalls, OR animations and the market tables.
For example, Cats & Dogs could have reused Parenthood's system for Pets, where Pets could have positively or negative learned behaviors etc. but instead they give us a notification after scolding them 3 times saying "they'll stop doing that now".
They could have even used Vampires "power system" but for learnt tricks and things that different animals can work towards, but then make the player choose a weakness for their pet (eg. being scared of random appliances, constant barking, always pees/poops inside) with tricks like "hunts for collectibles for your Sim" "earns more at training grounds" etc.
C&D is clearly a result of poor budget, but I feel like SimGuruGrant (who calls all the shots for EPs from what I understand) seems to be more focused on the world detail and focusing on entirely new stuff. Which is bad when if they can't afford a new system, they can't at least reuse an old one. They just make a basic one instead.
The GP team seem to reuse systems and assets differently, without it feeling like your paying for the same thing twice.
People say "the EP and GP team are the same!!!! they just have different packs" but its clear whoever is in charge of GP's know how to regulate a budget better.
Whoever is in charge with EP's, doesn't realize its better to repurpose old tech if it offers better game play, rather than building a new system that's actually worse.
It’s not always bad to develop new systems and new things, just like it’s not always bad to reuse existing things. I mean if you are going to refresh an existing system the bare minimum you should do is make it feel different - which the new GP seems to do.
Refreshed things should always be side things, like in the new GP the market/bar/etc is all side stuff. The main theme is exploring the jungle which seems to be exactly where they put the time and effort. Which is great.
IMO the most obnoxious reuses of things came in CL where all of the new things used to sell the pack were assembled from existing things.
I do agree that the EP team focuses way too much on the environment. A few decorative walk-ways and a decorative landscape might look good, and might accent a trailer very nicely, but if the actual contents of the pack aren’t the main focus it’s more or less a waste of effort IMO.
