Sims Four Live Mode is Lacking

I can play it for hours on end, I get a lot of enjoyment out of it, I'd actually say it's my favourite of the franchise and I've played pretty much since the beginning. *shrugs*

Collecting is boring
Gardening is boring
Jobs are boring
Going to bars and parties is boring
Becoming a couple and having kids is boring

I can't find anything in this game that keeps me playing.


I guess I should take that hint from S3 that nothing they added was ever going to make it good and say the same for 4. For me.

It's time for me to hang up my simmer hat. After almost 20 years.

It's boring because there's no drama, no challenge, no difficulty... Each sim plays the same, is almost never in any real danger, is always successful, never fails at something even if unskilled.

It's like Minecraft creative mode, fun to build in, but it's certainly not challenging.

I must agree on a certain level.
I, unlike most of the community, generally spend more time in live mode than in CAS. However, I do find it somewhat lacking. If there was story progression, and if your sims could actually have faults (And not go around like they're perfect all the time. I find it annoying how no matter what your sims traits are, they're still accepted by everyone), then maybe I would play a bit more. I play with mods now, and use MCCC as well as a variety of others, such as the playable pets mod (I was bored, so I decided to try and be a stray, which was a lot easier in TS3 as I discovered). I personally prefer TS3, but, as it was built on TS1 engine, I just can't play it anymore, without the game crashing as soon as I try to enter live mode. It bugs me a lot, as I think it's a far superior game, and, even when it lets me enter build mode, I save every 5 minutes or so in fear of it crashing, which ruins the experience a lot for me.

I have to agree. I feel like after a while it gets repetitive and boring. Thankfully I'm still enjoying seasons (for now) but how long will that last? To me it's been an endless cycle. You get a new pack enjoy it for sometime then the game becomes boring again. I do think there needs to be more drama, more conflict, and a bigchange in the way a sims personality works. I've given this game another chance after stopping playing for sometime (before seasons came out) and I still can't get full enjoyment out of it. I get more enjoyment out of ACNL lol and that's saying a lot considering it's more slow paced because it goes based on real time.

I believe TS4 is going exactly in the direction EA planned it to go. When they stated that they were changing direction of TS4 and making 13 year old girls their target group instead of the entire family, (and leave adults out of the equation) what did we expect the game to end up looking like? They have dumbed it down and simplified it so much that it’s all sunshine, rainbows and unicorns from here on out!

"Sk8rblaze;c-16608897" wrote:
It’s because it lacks design as an actual game.

The Sims was always a game (especially the first one) where you had to be very particular in how you strategized playing. Planning, budgeting, and the possibility of something randomly going wrong were constantly on your mind. It was truly designed as a strategic life simulation.

Now, it’s too focused on aesthetic. The developers literally call new objects that ONLY have new animations tied to them as new gameplay. How is gameplay watching my Sim do something that has little effect on the game itself?

Additionally, the systems in the game, such as collecting and gardening, feel useless because the designers seemingly don’t know how to make them interesting, fun, and relevant.

In another life simulation game, called Animal Crossing, collecting is one of the core parts of its gameplay. You donate whatever you collect to the museum or you can sell it for money, however, a completed section of the museum grants a very special golden version of the tool you used for collection (e.g golden net for bugs). In Stardew Valley, crafting is a core element of the game. And unlike The Sims 4, crafting in Stardew Valley actually has a purpose; crafting better gardening tools for instance makes gardening faster.

In The Sims 4, the design of things like collecting and such are so incredibly weak. Tell me why would I want to collect My Sims figurines or snow globes over and over in The Sims??? Why would I want to bother spending time collecting bugs when time flow in this game is so limiting, and my Sim would make more of a profit doing other things? Mind you — it goes further than this. I haven’t even delved into how poorly designed emotions, traits, whims, aspirations, etc. are.

This is what happens when you hire a base game producer that primarily designed Facebook games and not PC simulation or RPG games.

Ex. Act. Ly. I've been strictly a simmer for years, but currently I'm playing Animal Crossing and exactly what you say has crossed my mind. How come (and I'm in fact also looking at Sims 3 in that respect) I find things like collecting and fishing so addictive in AC and a bore in Sims. It's because in AC they found the perfect balance between making it rewarding (it's fun to walk through your museum and watch everything you collected over time and it's great to catch bugs/fish you know will make a lot of money), being not too hard and not too easy (I'm not ashamed of the trademark casual player, I am and proud/quite satisfied to be) and on top of that they added gameplay to the collecting/fishing itself. The action. Catching bugs or fish isn't based on luck, it's totally up to the player. Same with growing flowers and digging weeds. The way they've done it would perfectly fit and be fun in a Sims game.

I agree a lot with what your saying. Like we're getting all these packs and new gameplay, but does it actually make the game more fun? I don't feel like it does. However I bought Seasons yesterday and I have played like 10 hours in live mode ever since. It really adds a lot to the lives of the Sims and it gives you a sense of time
But before this pack I couldn't play at all. First there are so many bugs. The time not going right, Sims standing still, Sims walking through eachother, time management is very off, etc. I didn't have these problems with TS3. I could play in live mode for hours with only the base game in that iteration. Second I feel like for a fourth iteration the game misses many core elements. No vehicles, no regular NPC's, completely closed off worlds, no movie theatre, no shopping streets, no deep family ties, etc. I still don't feel like there is much to do outside of your lot, and I don't feel keen to go to another lot because I would be leaving other Sims behind. Idk I think that in the end when I have played all the Seasons I will be bored again. The game really has taken a few steps back in some areas where it should have taken ten steps forward.
I also don't really feel like The Sims Team wants to give us more options, better gameplay and needed bug fixes. They keep throwing packs at us and patches with stuff that should have already been in the game in the first place, which are also often riddled with bugs. But nothing of this actually fixes the core gameplay. I'm not surprised, but I don see myself being invested in live mode for another three years. That's why I spend most of my time building (which also needs way more attention).

What keeps me entertained is that I only play one family. I currently play a family consisting of parents, a teen, child, toddler, and dog. And that's the way I've played since Sims 2. Can't remember how I approached it in the first version. Repeating the same careers, aspirations, collections, maxing skills, etc, would seem extremely tedious. Even with a different sims with different traits. One of my sims just completed the business career, quit his job and is now focusing on his vet business. His wife just finished culinary, quit her job and is now working in the gardener career and will select the floral designer branch. He'll be working towards the botanist branch once his vet gets up and running. Once they complete their aspirations I select another that compliments the career they're working on. Sometimes I might even change their traits if I see it to be beneficial for the aspiration or career. The way I see it people can change over time so why not my sims. A sim that started out as a slob doesn't have to remain a slob. I still have lots of careers, aspirations, skills to get though but I can definitely see how it would be less stimulating for simmers playing multiple families.

Changing their traits won’t have any effect is my experience? I play an evil sim atm and apart from the occasional muhahaha I haven’t seen any other effect so far. Like getting whims to be mean to sims or things like that (which would be nice because she’s a vampire). Or scaring them autonomously. Don’t mind so far because the vampire gameplay in itself is awesome, but I have to fill in her being mean and evil myself.