Suggestions for improving historical gameplay

"JAL;d-1011858" wrote:
We're not a major group of players who play historical gameplay, and I just recently started myself, but we are still fairly many, who play in a vast array of ways. So how could the experience of the game be improved? I am not a programmer, and I don't know if everything I suggest here is even possible, but some is, and some would even make EA money, so I'm hoping someone picks up a few of these things at least.

• CAS and BB Kits to fit different time periods. This is the easy one, and EA has opened the door with the medieval build-kit. What we also need is a buy-kit (or stuff pack) with functional off the grid objects, things like toys, sinks, toilets, tubs and stoves that work while still looking medieval. And of course a CAS-kit to go along with it. Other suggestions would be art deco bb kit + the roaring twenties cas kit, art nouveau BB + Edwardian CAS, vintage swimsuit kit, CAS-kits for each of the decades in the 20th century along with bb-kits for some (we have plenty of mid-century modern furniture after all).
  
• The ability to turn off and on CAS-items for random. This would be an improvement for everyone, that with a shift-click be able to turn off and on clothes, accessories or hairstyles for random generation on NPCs. It would definitely help historical gameplay, but also just random gameplay where I could disable the CAS I hate from showing up on random NPC sims. (To be fair I'd love more options than this, like hiding and unhiding CAS, disabling it for certain age groups or genders or certain worlds.)
  
• Introduction of landline phones and newspapers. We are plenty of people who miss these, even among players who never play historical gameplay.
  
• The ability to turn off the mobile phones and laptops. This would work in combination with the above. A simple toggle on and off for the phones and laptops for everyone in game, including NPCs. This would also help with the technophobe lifestyle so that my sim isn't constantly tense about all the present technology because he or she has a phone they never use in a house with no other technology.
  
• The ability to turn off and on drive bys by cars. This would help with immersion.
  
• The ability to turn off certain functions on computers, say for instance videogames, in live mode on any computer by shift clicking it. Including computers on community lots. This would also help for other players by freeing up computers in libraries or university commons so you can actually use them for studying rather than them constantly being occupied by some random NPC playing video games.
  

I'm sure there are many more ways to make historical gameplay better and more immersive, but these are some of the things that I've noticed and thought of when playing historical myself. What do you wish for?

One of the major impediments to historically accurate gameplay, is the excess of modern world items, buildings, and animated objects. Unless a feature is added to the game to remove or substitute world objects, it will always be necessary for PC gamers to modify the game with hiders and default replacements. Frankly, Windenberg is a world with a historical design already in place. And modders have implemented a lot of targeted mods to better emphasize this, such as map replacements and re - shade tools. A feature to alter world objects freely would be most welcomed.

Expansions like Horse Ranch and Cottage Living provide a lot of rustic buildbuy items and allow interactions via the community board and interactive shells. This is a great feature, and it helps maintain the rustic appeal of those worlds. However, these types of features should be made compatible with other worlds to make them more suitable for historical gameplay. On the other hand, the movie theatre interactive shell in San Sequoia is an example of a modern version of this concept. Making interactive shells interchangeable would be nice. Then you could remove the modern ones and add more of the historical ones.

The off the grid lot challenge allows you to disable technological devices as well as computer and phone UI interactions that require electricity. But what would be even better, is a feature that would allow the world itself to be made off the grid compatible. That way you don't see NPCs walking down the street playing games on their cell phone.