Pools are boring.

"astera00;c-16755854" wrote:
Pools definitely need some love. Having played Sims Freeplay before buying Sims 4, it was a real downgrade in terms of pool interactions, can you believe? In Freeplay, there are various water slides (curved and straight ones!), diving boards that comes with a diving hobby (the kind that looks like a plank), inflatable pool furniture, lifeguard chair, lounge chairs, more pools-specific interactions between sims including romantic ones and a vollyball net that you place in the pool where up to four sims can play vollyball! There are even towels that you lay on the side where you can sunbathe and relax.

The pool gets dirty if you don't clean it for a few days and sims refuse to swim in it if it isn't cleaned. Which makes for more immersive gameplay (haha, immersive :sweat: ) As this is a freemium game we're talking about, you can buy a pool-cleaning robot to do the task for you. Oh and I like how you can build an island in the middle of the pool that sims have to swim to.

So yes, remembering that I can get all this on Freeplay reminds me why some aspects of Sims 4 can feel a bit hollow at times and why I spend more time in CAS and build mode. I do prefer 4 a lot more overall, I mean the whole enjoyment in Sims comes from the creation aspect of it for me, but yeah I don't think a paid version of a game should have so much less than the free version sometimes.

This.

I do like that they can sit on the edge and talk or swim laps, and converse while swimming. The death is pretty shameless but it's probably my favorite as far as challenges go. Yeah, I'd like to see some equipment, less childish slides, floaties/floating furniture, games, synchronized swimming, and maybe even a WooHoo option. Hey, it could happen....

Actually, a part of me was hoping you could turn a pool into a skating ring come winter and just have your family skate on it without even leaving the house, but oh well. Maybe one day.


Pools were likely an 'afterthought' considering they were added in a patch, so I'm not sure we'll ever get anything new. Unless it's something out of another EP/SP. What I hate most is when you have a pool already and your sim is steady rolling a want for one. Like, really? You have the best pool in the neighborhood and still want more? They're greedy little rascals, I tell ya. >. >

Pools have always been boring actually - I still always liked the choice to have one in my game though. LOL.

I find swimming in the ocean boring too unless it comes with wind sailing, jetskiis, and diving equipment - then I like it.

The most boring thing of all is laying in the sun tanning. I will never for the life of me figure out why anyone like damaging their skin like that - never mind watch a sim do that for hours. To me there is no point but to look 50 when you are 30 years old from doing that kind of thing too much. Never mind the dangers. But really how is that fun and not boring in the sims. You might as well watch a sim take a nap on a couch. Real exciting! NOT.

TS2 pools had diving boards with several different animations, whether chickening out or different dive styles. Sims also had multiple swim styles, could float on back, and could swim all over the pool, not just laps. Marco Polo has already been noted.

It amazes me how greatly pools have been ignored since they were patched in all we have got is water colors and that hideous diving platform. We really need a normal diving board, pool slide and some games and new ways our sims cant interact in the pool so annoyed Seasons added nothing.

I wonder if pools and swimming actions might be overhauled altogether if a pack comes out with a seaside holiday world. Possibly that might come out in the future. Water tools were not included in the latest patch so maybe that is to come? It looks like terrain tools have been taken over by someone with great enthusiasm and ability judging from the Livestream.

I put a pool in the basement rec room of one home (the dogs loved it, as I mentioned before), but something that was kind-of cool is there was a thing that looks like a drain that actually produces bubbles (and it even looks slightly steamy when inside, which was cool to look at). Looks like it came with 'Get Together'. I may have enjoyed it more than the sims... though the little dogs enjoyed it better than any of us. ;)

"astera00;c-16785260" wrote:

"Rebelution76;c-16758274" wrote:

Actually, a part of me was hoping you could turn a pool into a skating ring come winter and just have your family skate on it without even leaving the house, but oh well. Maybe one day.

Umm, how should I break this to you? When you get the weather machine in Freeplay, you can do exactly that. Any body of water automatically freezes in the winter and you get to ice-skate on it :sweat_smile: The animations are good too.

WHY DOES FREEPLAY HAVE SO MANY FEATURES
WHY
WHAT IS THIS
WHAT IS THE SIMS 4 EVEN

Freeplay is your typical Skinner's box. It does have a lot of good features, including an open world and the ability to play all the Sims, but it's awful as well unless you really like the real time playing (with the ability to spend real world $$ to speed things up). But I don't like that mobile game model, and Freeplay doesn't even try to be subtle about the massive amount of money it's trying to make on basic gameplay. At least Fallout Shelter, which is pretty much the same thing, tries to be less obvious about it.

It wouldn't surprise me if Freeplay both cost less to maintain and makes more money than Sims 4. It's probably why they now have two mobile Sims games and are not worried about them competing against each other.

I think, though, what's most frustrating to me is so many of the small features were just base game in Sims 2 and Sims 3 yet we've been told for years that those features are too advanced for their game engine. If that's the case, they should have worked on a game engine that could handle those basic features.

"Writin_Reg;c-16788027" wrote:

"DreamaDove;c-16787689" wrote:

"astera00;c-16785260" wrote:

"Rebelution76;c-16758274" wrote:

Actually, a part of me was hoping you could turn a pool into a skating ring come winter and just have your family skate on it without even leaving the house, but oh well. Maybe one day.

Umm, how should I break this to you? When you get the weather machine in Freeplay, you can do exactly that. Any body of water automatically freezes in the winter and you get to ice-skate on it :sweat_smile: The animations are good too.

WHY DOES FREEPLAY HAVE SO MANY FEATURES
WHY
WHAT IS THIS
WHAT IS THE SIMS 4 EVEN

Learn the difference in a pc game and a mobile game - and you can answer your own question.

It is like comparing a cartoon version of a movie to a live action version of a movie. The mobile game is the cartoon version.

so the cartoon is better.
I can agree so far, yeah.

"Felicity;c-16787852" wrote:
Freeplay is your typical Skinner's box. It does have a lot of good features, including an open world and the ability to play all the Sims, but it's awful as well unless you really like the real time playing (with the ability to spend real world $$ to speed things up). But I don't like that mobile game model, and Freeplay doesn't even try to be subtle about the massive amount of money it's trying to make on basic gameplay. At least Fallout Shelter, which is pretty much the same thing, tries to be less obvious about it.

It wouldn't surprise me if Freeplay both cost less to maintain and makes more money than Sims 4. It's probably why they now have two mobile Sims games and are not worried about them competing against each other.

I think, though, what's most frustrating to me is so many of the small features were just base game in Sims 2 and Sims 3 yet we've been told for years that those features are too advanced for their game engine. If that's the case, they should have worked on a game engine that could handle those basic features.

Actually the engine this game has is too advanced. It is the same reason why Sims 1 played on any old pc but why it will not play on most Window 10 pcs because they are technically too advanced for that programming etc that was used for Sims 1. Yet go find yourself some 15 year old pc and get it up and running - and the game works like a charm.

I have many games that will not play on today most advanced systems without some kind of program to dumb down your system mainly because advanced technology does not communicate with old - outdated technology no matter how good you liked that play -