Sims 4 has amazing graphics. They will look great even after multiple years, but the clunky game needs to be rewritten (yes, from scratch pretty much), if it wants to be remembered as the best Sims game so far (and yes, it is a possibility).This all comes down to the Sims 4 obviously being rushed out. The code was incomplete and lacked many essential features (that now literally every player yearns desperately for), yet it was released. Now devs can’t implement cars, swimming in lakes, story progression, smart sims & other necessities without rewriting the code.Now that Sims 4 is selling better than ever, I hope EA realizes that Sims 4 is actually worth investing in and gives it the budget it deserved from the beginning. If the code was rewritten the life span of sims 4 would grow vastly, because people wouldn’t need to get sims 5 to be what sims 4 wanted to be - yet failed.This wouldn’t lead to any lower incomes to EA due to several reasons. First of all, there’s the fact that many simmers still haven’t bought sims 4 as they wait for Sims 5 to arrive with proper base coding. These players won’t buy Sims 4, not even after the 3 years of promised content, if the game lacks the features they require. After 3 years they might not even buy the Sims 5, as they may have forgotten the whole game during the 7+ years of wait for a proper Sims game.Another great income related reason to rewrite the code is that players will be more willing to spend money on dlc as they know what the game won’t die off soon. Also, more years of dlc to Sims 4 with proper code could mean that Sims 4 could end up with loads of dlc, way more than the previous titles, which isn’t a bad thing at all. Sims 4 could grow it’s playerbase vastly if it had plethora of content for all types of players. In addition, the players that buy all dlc no matter what would still buy all the dlc, even more happily so, because the game would be the best Sims title ever.Last but not least, rewriting Sims 4 is way cheaper than developing Sims 5. Sims 4 already has a lot of amazing assets that can be reused (such as graphics, sounds, dlc and plans). In a nutshell, give Sims 4 the budget it requires to rewrite the game for more $$$ and happier players. The developers for sure already know what needs to be implemented in the new code.

I wish I shared your enthusiasm. The developers have also confirmed that they intend to double this iteration's lifespan (Grant revealed that he sees at least another 3 years for The Sims 4 - sadly in my opinion).The developers are not going to be able to rewrite the code. They can make small fixes and slightly larger additions as they release more packs and updates but they're not going to be able to change what The Sims 4 is at its core. EA will also continue to give The Sims 4 smaller budgets than previous iterations. The Sims 4 base game obviously launched with a bunch of missing features and while some of the biggest ones have been added back, there are still a great number missing and some that are never coming back (Create A Style and Open World, confirmed by the developers).Every expansion pack has also had limited features compared to previous comparable ones. EA / Maxis have tried to distract away from this by introducing one big new feature so the missing content is less obvious. Get to Work has elements of Open for Business and Ambitions but lacks Open for Business's restaurants, home businesses and ticket machines while also only including 3 professions as opposed to the 7 (plus self-employed careers) that were added for Ambitions. They distracted people by bringing back businesses after their absence from The Sims 3 while also combining it with active professions but the active professions essentially recycled the system used for group outings, parties and dates.Get Together added the very welcome and nicely customisable clubs but barely added anything extra barring a café, DJ set and a few basic bar games. Compare that to the bowling alleys, hot tubs, celebrity systems, cars, pool tables and various instruments that were released in similar themed packs.City Living gave us a greater number of outfits to showcase diversity, which was great, but with more limited festivals than The Sims 3: Seasons and basically a bunch of nice aesthetics. Apartments were more limited than they've ever been than any previous Sims game confined to one world and elevators are not functional items that we're able to use in Build Mode anymore for the first time since elevators were introduced in the series.Cats and Dogs again tried to distract us with its aesthetically pleasing looking pets and great number of breeds and more accessible pet customisation but cut horses, the ability for kids to walk dogs, the ability to control or even view your pets' needs, the ability for pets to sleep on beds and couldn't even bring back pet houses for the My First Pet's Stuff because they wanted to focus their resources on creating cheaper content by re-skinning existing objects in the game. Not to mention the complete lack of small pets, which we probably won't get any beyond fish and rodents now (all previous iterations have always had birds and reptiles). This is due to the whole release fiasco with My First Pet Stuff.And while people are delighted that Seasons is bringing much need atmosphere into the game, there are still cut corners here with them being unable to use the resources to include hail, sunburn, tanning or snow-depth, things which have been included in every other seasons pack from before (sun-tanning and sunburn was introduced in The Sims 2: Seasons and was also available in The Sims 2: Bon Voyage). We won't see these return but they'll try to distract us by including custom holidays (a great much appreciated feature by the way but one which uses a similar system to the club system and tries to distract us from the cut corners in other parts of the game).I believe that The Sims 4 is a very limited game, given a much lower budget by EA than previous games in the franchise because EA knows that there's no other game in the vein of The Sims in the market and the fans feel compelled to buy and defend it, as they have no other choice. This is why they can release a lower budget game and release content in a piecemeal way. The developers will try to fix what they can, defend their inability to fix or introduce certain features by momentarily distracting the fans with a shiny new feature until the next one comes along.I'm not saying people are lying if they enjoy the game and The Sims 4 has introduced some very nice features, that I hope will see carried forward. It's certainly the most intuitive when it comes to customising characters, building and online features (but one of the least intuitive in terms of actual gameplay - by a long shot - in my opinion).I can only hope that EA are seeing the more negative reception to The Sims 4 and are prepared to put the resources back into Maxis so they can release a proper triple AA game and not repeat the same mistakes they made with this game and Sim City. A longer lifespan will allow those who enjoy The Sims 4 to invest more time in a game they've poured so much time into buying content for while those of us who are bitterly disappointed with The Sims 4 can hope the extra development time for The Sims 5 will bring some spark back to the series.

One word in reaction to the title: no. Please start developing Sims 5 right now if you haven't already. Take all the time you need and make it good.

No.TS5 needs to happen eventually.It needs to be made without the mistakes that were made in previous versions.TS4 can not be fixed, as many of the problems are caused at root.

Sims 4 has already has been said to have at least 3 more years by that time I'll be ready for Sims 5. The only thing that could change my mind and want to make Sims 4 last even longer is if they can give us the basics such as CAW, unleashed babies, preteens and cars... tired of not having such simple things this far in.

"Lauri_Anton;d-945695" wrote:Sims 4 has amazing graphics. They will look great even after multiple years, but the clunky game needs to be rewritten (yes, from scratch pretty much), if it wants to be remembered as the best Sims game so far (and yes, it is a possibility).This all comes down to the Sims 4 obviously being rushed out. The code was incomplete and lacked many essential features (that now literally every player yearns desperately for), yet it was released. Now devs can’t implement cars, swimming in lakes, story progression, smart sims & other necessities without rewriting the code.Now that Sims 4 is selling better than ever, I hope EA realizes that Sims 4 is actually worth investing in and gives it the budget it deserved from the beginning. If the code was rewritten the life span of sims 4 would grow vastly, because people wouldn’t need to get sims 5 to be what sims 4 wanted to be - yet failed.This wouldn’t lead to any lower incomes to EA due to several reasons. First of all, there’s the fact that many simmers still haven’t bought sims 4 as they wait for Sims 5 to arrive with proper base coding. These players won’t buy Sims 4, not even after the 3 years of promised content, if the game lacks the features they require. After 3 years they might not even buy the Sims 5, as they may have forgotten the whole game during the 7+ years of wait for a proper Sims game.Another great income related reason to rewrite the code is that players will be more willing to spend money on dlc as they know what the game won’t die off soon. Also, more years of dlc to Sims 4 with proper code could mean that Sims 4 could end up with loads of dlc, way more than the previous titles, which isn’t a bad thing at all. Sims 4 could grow it’s playerbase vastly if it had plethora of content for all types of players. In addition, the players that buy all dlc no matter what would still buy all the dlc, even more happily so, because the game would be the best Sims title ever.Last but not least, rewriting Sims 4 is way cheaper than developing Sims 5. Sims 4 already has a lot of amazing assets that can be reused (such as graphics, sounds, dlc and plans). In a nutshell, give Sims 4 the budget it requires to rewrite the game for more $$$ and happier players. The developers for sure already know what needs to be implemented in the new code.First thing: Its impossible for them to rewrite the base game code.But, I've been arguing about this for some time now. Sims 2 used a bunch of content from Sims 1 Era (from Sims 1, Sims 1 console, Sims: Bustin out...). Most of those things were objects that they ported for the game. Want a proof? Do you remember the 2x2 table that the Newbies had in their house? You can easily find it in Sims 2.A huge amount of games are maded using its predecessor. Those sports games that have a new iteration released every year are the ones that most use this tool to make their games cheapear and quickier to produce.Sims 5 should start a new era in the game development for the sims franchise. Instead of restarting everything from 0 they could just port the game in a better/less bugged environment, rewrite the code correcting errors that can not be fixed during the life of the game, port objects/clothes and hairstyles to add a bigger variety of those instead of just recolouring the same objects for all the packs.This would make the game faster to produce, including more content in each pack, including less bugs, and many of us that are playing the game since forever would also feel more nostalgic while playing it. Sometimes a miss some objects, interactions and other things from previous games, and unfortunatelly i know that i will never have that in Sims 4 (like pretending throwing a stick for my dog like just to laugh of how cute he reacts to being fooled in sims 2).Imagine if Sims 4 Cats and Dogs were actually Sims 3: Pets, but including mroe content and being priced the same as we ever paid.Yes, they cant just rewrite the game and release that as a update for those who have bought it, but they can port the game for a better graphics and better developed game.They have to stop throwing the entire game to the trash and starting over again, this is extremely dumb.

Instead of sims 5, double sims 4’s life span

74 Replies

davina1221
Seasoned Ace
8 years ago
Personally, I hope they take S4 as far as they can for two reasons.

One, I don't want to feel cheated as the content in S4 is far below what we had in S3 and if you aren't going to improve on what was done before, then changes aren't really needed. IMO, and I am allowed one, I don't see Sims4 touching the content we had in S3 even in 3yrs. You have to count all content from all packs, store, and any freebees/special items from buying sim points and all of it together is outrageous. The biggest thing about S3 is that I wish they had added pigs ect. so that farming could be better. My hope for S4 will be that it continues past the 3 yrs. because we seem stuck getting one EP a year and that means only around 3 more EPs. That leaves out quite a bit. I do realize gamepacks will step in & I do like those a bunch because they are like mini EPs, but if they only cater to a style that part of the community likes, then it doesn't benefit those who like reality in their games. Life states for instance, I only would be interested in ghosts/grim being developed more and mermaids. We already have vampires, which is my only favorite, although I wish we had more stuff for them. Adding an item here and there in packs in the future would be really nice. If a simmer had them, then it would show up and if not would show up if they bought the pack. I really didn't get into the other supernaturals at all. S3 Supernatural was so jam packed that even if you didn't play supernaturals, you could find a bunch of content you did like. Basically, I just want S4 to be well rounded before they quit to go on. I cringe when anyone even mentions S5 and I'm glad that they have stated there will be 3+ years before all that. I want to feel like this game is well rounded enough to be worth buying in the first place. If many things aren't in place before they move on, it will feel like a half served game and I wouldn't want to move on for fear of S5 being partially there before they decide to move on to S6 ect. If I feel bad about buying S4, then I won't be in the mood to buy S5. For me, some of the things that would round out S4 would be:

Farming- pigs, cows, goats, chickens, farm equipment, farming job, market to sell animals/goods, farm crops, hay
Schools R Us - focusing on schools not drinking & partying- we have enough of that already(actual places/jobs)- daycare, pre-school, grade school, high school, college in setting like stores hood
Missing stuff like supermarkets, largest lot possible, shower woohoo
CAS- fixing vampires where you can turn any bin sim into one at any time without doing anything but click, like in S3
CAS- fiancée & boy/girl friend added to relationships
CAS- body hair, belly ring/chain, piercings,
Grim- more interactions- marry/have babies with Grim, loads more goth stuff
Ghosts- funeral, wills, headstones(ragged to expensive), urns(cheap to rich), service/or just for family quicky for those who don't like it, possibly the afterlife that was in the survey
JOBS- babysitting, house builder, stylist, interior decorator, farmer, smaller jobs like pizza place/factory/grocery store
If cars are possible- the main classics, junkers, regular, and one or so expensive. Bikes, 4 wheelers, tricycles for toddlers, strollers
Infants- freed, clothes- blanket, onesies, full outfits, diaper only, dressed up, themed like bunny outfit, santa suit, pea suit, goth outfit, ect.- passy(round & square)-mat and all stuff from S3& S2
Toddlers- blankie, passy(round & square), big baby doll, large truck, riders for outside, more toys, indoor ride on vehicle
stuff- Hammock, space saver beds/appliances, outhouse, porch swing
places- casino, beach/under water opened, Island paradise- boats & house boats, cruise ship, more places to travel to
buildings- farmers market to sell animals/crops, adoption agency, thrift store, potion shop -if we ever get stuff like that
hood with only large lots 64x64 ect. for farming or super rich sims
More pets- a pack for Lg. standing aquarium that sims can swim in like S1?, more aquariums/ability to put fish in, fish varieties
More pets continued- rabbits, ferrets, potbelly, snakes(new death), spiders(new death), collecting insects
Old days- well, antiques, chores- sweeping, moping, making beds, canning
Out doors- Campers, sleeping bags, table top grills & hot plates to cook on for camping or poor sims
Water- floaties & boats for toddlers, waterfall other S3 pool stuff ect., floats for sims
More playground equipment- all we had before, merry-go round, tire swing,
exercise equip.- chin-up bar, mini trampoline, stepper, fitness flyer, mountain climber, stationary bike- fitness S3 & S4 lacks equip.
New to sims- woohoo blanket for floor, fur rug
Afterthoughts- fantasy creatures- unicorn, dragon, Pegasus. Preteens.

I'm probably forgetting something, but that is the gist. Bolds are the ones I really want. :p <3

The second reason, is that after reading this thread, I don't see myself buying Sims5. Open world is huge for me & if they already said no open worlds in the future, then it is a huge step back. Being in WA and being able to see the whole map and decide what you wanted to do or where people are ect. was huge. Being able to micro manage a whole house with ques is also part of that. I'm assuming we will never be able to do that again if we aren't on the lot. Some don't need that for their play styles and that is their opinion and they can still play that way in an open world, but I can't play the way that feels awesome without the open world. I will say that opening up huge spaces like in jungle adventure & the camping world was really nice. If they only could add in the immediate houses or if two houses around you could be open that would be better than a window for every house. If S5 is just more of the same and no open world then I don't see a use for it for me as a simmer. I already have S4, why would I want another game that I can't load up ques for the fam no matter where I am nor have an open world. If it is like what we have, then there is no draw for me. I'm not interested in world builder, because I don't think I can do it. CASt was really nice and I used it, but it wouldn't be enough to draw me either. I will say that all main colors should be accounted for in clothes and shoes. When black and white isn't present, then something is wrong.

Personally, I like S3 the best. I didn't have mods & cc plus I run it on suitable computer so the not working thing isn't an issue. Those 3 are the reasons I think many had problems running the game. The first 2 were avoidable. I took my cc out just before supernatural and run all games & the complete store without problems. I felt like I controlled "my world". Plus, there is no getting around the huge amount of content & jobs available. I miss babysitting, interior decorator, stylist the most. I miss the huge lots and the ability to make my town look any way I want to. I miss collecting insects, going to the potion shop to load up on supplies. I miss buildings.

I can't control in Sims4. Sims cancel out my wishes with autonomy off. I can't que in things to do for all my sims and leave and they do what I want while my sim is gone like in S3. I can't instruct my sims to run in S4; I ran them a bunch in S3. Toddlers get out of the highchairs and adults(controlled sims and other sims) are obsessed with getting them out. Therefore, no time out in the highchair like in S3. Babies are stuck. There may be nice interactions, but they are still stuck which makes S3 babies more real to me. I play a little away from things so I can see things/most of the house as a whole; I don't zoom down and micro look at the sims, so they all look fine to me. I will say S4 has improvements. Finding/putting townies in CAS for one(huge for me as many of my sims dated/married sims that I just happened upon). Ability to take accessories off sims in CAS. Ability to place more than one lot & rooms to where you want them on a lot. Ease of getting in and out of game. Shortened times saving, getting out of CAS, and getting into game. The emotion parts really haven't meant much to my gameplay. Some like to see all that, but it doesn't really figure into my gameplay.

In other words, while S3 is my favorite, I hope they wear out S4 with content so that I feel like I got my money's worth. I don't see myself moving on with S5 if it isn't open world and if I do, they will either have a huge draw for me, which is unlikely, or I will wait a few years and pick it all up on major discounts. :)
davina1221
Seasoned Ace
8 years ago
"alanmichael1;c-16651656" wrote:
I find the game very satisfying at the moment and can live with some more packs, but I fear the whole thing will drown in bugs. On the other hand TS5 may be online plum for 7 years old children ...

Or more likely outdated computers.

"michelei;c-16650520" wrote:
No! No! No! It is my deepest desire that somewhere out there someone is working on Sims 5.

I saw these same remarks in S3 forums for years and we got, S4.

I read everything you wrote. I, like you, would like the open world when they make a new game and that will be the biggest factor that decides if I get S5. But my hope is that it is more than 3yrs. away so that S4 was worth buying/well rounded, so that they won't feel like limiting it to slow end computers, & will at least consider the upside to open world. They probably would never do it, but they could keep S4 going for the people who can't afford/won't upgrade & build S5 for the advancements of that year. I have an Asus that is very good, but by 3 yrs., I will buy new and lets face it, that is enough time to save up for one. Save $30 a month for 3+ years and basically, you have it.
MichaelUKingdon
8 years ago
"marcel21;c-16678380" wrote:
"Park;c-16677716" wrote:
"king_of_simcity7;c-16675165" wrote:
Doubling TS4's life would be a big loss for the series.

It cannot last forever

I agree with that. While "4" is a strange number to end a franchise, 20 is a perfectly even number.

Since "The Sims" was released February of 2000, for me and in my opinion, I think year 2020 would make sense as a good year for them to put the series to bed.

While Sims enjoys good sales and likely generates a pretty fair profit, it's a dated idea. Fun but "Where do we go from here?" VR? Holograms? a "Be in the room with your Sims!" sort of thing. (Semi joke) In any event, if there were to be a Sims 5 it would have to be a mind-blower.

After all the travails I have witness with this current version I can hardly see many willing to go out and start from scratch, and the initial release of any new version would be precisely that. A bare-bones base with plenty of "gaps" to be plugged by additional content sales. That's just how the gaming business goes.

Yet one must also keep in mind, they don't want to cook up a game so fabulous that their target audience can afford neither the game nor the equipment to play it on.

Speaking of costs and such, what I find most curious is the cost cutting and low budget afforded not only to the game but even here on the Forums, now managed by EA people who recently (31 July 18) had to make the hard decision, according to them, to "sunset" five Sims "Language Forums" and merge three others into the main forum. That does tend to sound like "trimming the fat" to me, not something one does with a series that has a long future.

Again, all this merely my opinion. One based on a gut feeling that this edition is the finale.

For all those who love the game and those to come I honestly hope to be wrong.

if it did go on to 20, a lot of us would be gone by then.

as in 6 feet under.

each series from 1/4 have took nearly 20 years now. so the sims going up to 20 would be a hell of a lot of years of simming before it reached 20 ;)
SarahEOlivier
8 years ago
Sims 5 could be a combination between Sims 3 and sims 4,but they definitely need to listen to the fans

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Instead of sims 5, double sims 4’s life span

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