Ocean swimming

"Dannydanbo;c-17088641" wrote:
We've all seen how they make movies by using GREEN SCREENS. If you think of the map (minus the lots) as a green screen with a world projected onto it, you can see why sims can't swim in oceans. They would need to replace the flat oceans with no depth with areas that look like oceans that do have depth.

The water object is flat, but the underlying terrain is lower than the surface. It isn’t green screened into the world its a world prop that has no functions besides animation.

"Dannydanbo;c-17088808" wrote:
The point is that none of the previous worlds were designed to have swimming in the ocean. Could they change that and make it so swimming off the coast of Windenburg Island or Brindleton Bay is a possibility? Sure. But the real question is would it be smart given the time and money issues it would entail. They have said that anything is possible given enough time and money. But those are in short supply.

Well we have 2 or 3 plus more years of content so its possible they ll update the other worlds to be swimmable but I seriously doubt they will.

Also more gurus have been moved to The Sims 4 from Freeplay and Mobile so things can get done faster now

"Dannydanbo;c-17088808" wrote:
The point is that none of the previous worlds were designed to have swimming in the ocean. Could they change that and make it so swimming off the coast of Windenburg Island or Brindleton Bay is a possibility? Sure. But the real question is would it be smart given the time and money issues it would entail. They have said that anything is possible given enough time and money. But those are in short supply.

I don’t think either one of us are in a position to really say what the “smart” thing to do would be. I personally believe a lot of Sims 4’s money and time issues stem from a poorly staffed studio - top heavy with too many managers and not enough of the roles that actually produce content. Anyone with a producer label is a manager, and there are WAY too many for this one studio.

Penny pinching hasn’t worked out well for Sims 4 this far. If money is still a major problem after 5 years and all kinds of producers telling us this game is doing so well then there’s a serious problem. Maxis needs to cut off the fat and that means getting rid of managers.

Lets say it WOULD break all saves if they added ocean swimming to every world...then don't. Just have it in the new world. I'm fine with that. I just MUST HAVE OCEAN SWIMMING!!

"Lizzychicago;c-17088863" wrote:
Lets say it WOULD break all saves if they added ocean swimming to every world...then don't. Just have it in the new world. I'm fine with that. I just MUST HAVE OCEAN SWIMMING!!

I"d rather they have ocean swimming in the Tropical World cause that makes it unique. I"m also for the option of having ocean swimming in a future world. I would however like to be able to swim in those lakes especially the one with the waterfall in Granite Falls though. That would be my exception.

"drake_mccarty;c-17088700" wrote:

"Cinebar;c-17088568" wrote:
OP, people have confused two different discussions into one subject. To my knowledge they have never said it would break saves that was about a different thing, like moving trees, trash cans, benches etc. or whatever is placed in a common space. One guru explained they don't like to do that since it could break all our saves. That sounds reasonable. Usable objects being added or moved by gurus and patched into your game is what they were talking about early on when they used to hold those discussions.

The other discussion was specifically about swimming in water in TS4 (lakes, oceans etc. in existing worlds) they explained they would have to build an entire new texture for a world like WB. It's all FX. FX is something Sims can't use, touch, enter etc.

Other game worlds are built with above and below sea levels in their terrains. From the get go. When they are designing a game. Even if you never did dig a hole in TS1, it's terrain (world) had a sea level. Later, when they released the ablity to dig ponds in the world view you would see the 'water'. But still Sims couldn't roam the world but it had a sea level. Those ponds were not objects, either.

It's more complicated than I can relate today, with my limited knowledge. All I know is they said no they would probably never patch in swimming into existing worlds, it would be almost impossile since that is all FX. And you have to wonder if it would be cost effective to do that for every world, (since terrain tools were a pet project and not all that useful yet) why they would even try to alter every terrain into a brand new terrain for every world when people will buy a pack where it's limited to a new world. They have nothing to lose by just building one world where this can happen and not wasting time or money trying to satisfy those who would like to see swimming in bodies of water in all the worlds. It's probably never going to happen.

It’s not as complicated as you make it out to be. It’s also nowhere close to being impossible. Not saying it’s going to happen, because this game is developed on a shoestring budget, but if they wanted to make water usable in existing worlds they totally could. It would be costlier because of the way they chose to design the worlds, but it’s not like it would break anyone’s save game.

Also***** they can edit the objects in the worlds. They have done it several times. That won’t break anyone’s game either.

I don't know, I'm just repeating what I read from those gurus who built the worlds. I think they need engineers, but most of those have left. It was guru Daniel who said (if I remember correctly) they would have to build all new terrains for each world. I assume because none of them come equipped with a built in sea level from the beginning (stuff engineers do?) and it was gurus who boasted this game wouldn't need as many engineers as the past games, because they had built this amazing engine.... As I said, I don't think they would spend the money or hire anymore engineers or if they think they should even need them anymore, since they boasted they didn't need them like in past games. My opinion, I think they do. lol But what do I know? Only the excuses they tell us> Too hard, too expensive.

"Dannydanbo;c-17088641" wrote:
We've all seen how they make movies by using GREEN SCREENS. If you think of the map (minus the lots) as a green screen with a world projected onto it, you can see why sims can't swim in oceans. They would need to replace the flat oceans with no depth with areas that look like oceans that do have depth.

Anyone think of how they could get over this problem? I can only think of an all sea world with boats or entirely undersea world with Sims living in bubble homes!