https://youtu.be/SKzjiiox0Fk?t=495In this video from 2019, SimguruLindsday talks about the trend of TS4 worlds getting increasingly smaller over time. She explains that it’s a mixture of prioritization and performance concerns. She says they ‘of course want to make the worlds as big as possible', but ‘we’re trying to balance that with what we know we may wanna do down the line so that we don’t sort of do too much of it upfront and then make the game kinda just fall apart.’I think it’s interesting to think about the future of the world sizes. Does she mean that the team would ship some smaller worlds with a couple of EPS and GPS, so that a particular pack in the future can have a larger world again?Even though I think the world sizes are often way too small, I kind of hope that’s true. For example: if the Sims team knew that there’d be a farming expansion coming up that would need larger lots for farms and farmland, they could knowingly size down the worlds of, say, Glimmerbrook and Evergreen Harbor to save space for the pack that would come after that. I wonder if we’ll ever get a 20+ lot world again. What do you think? I think it’d be unfair to sell smaller worlds for the same prices. There’d have to be huge gameplay features with every pack to make up for that.

It may also come down to how many hours of work can be used to make each pack. One team designs the gameplay, another creates objects and CAS items, another builds worlds. There's somebody counting up all the hours needed to do those things and decides what's too much.When you think about ROM, Glimmerbrook may have been small because they had to spend a lot of time creating The Magic Realm. But why Willow Springs has 3 empty lots and Evergreen Harbor has... none, I have no idea. I don't see how a few empty lots could ruin the game.

For the most part, I have been content with world sizes except Del Sol Valley. That was a huge disappointment to make a world inspired by Los Angeles to only have 6 residential lots that are all absolutely huge. Del Sol Valley should have apartments for the struggling actor gameplay.

Every new pack, game, stuff or expansion, adds more to the game that the games engine is now almost too frail to cope with.I personally stopped updating and buying anything new just after ROM was released.The entire system is poorly thought out and coded. Copy and paste style of coding is not doing the franchise any favours. Simply adding hacknee'd old animations, barely adequate for use is not helping at all.Maxis has lost their way.

"shorty943p;c-17581508" wrote:Every new pack, game, stuff or expansion, adds more to the game that the games engine is now almost too frail to cope with.I personally stopped updating and buying anything new just after ROM was released.The entire system is poorly thought out and coded. Copy and paste style of coding is not doing the franchise any favours. Simply adding hacknee'd old animations, barely adequate for use is not helping at all.Maxis has lost their way.not sure what you mean by this. I have every single DLC...all of them...and I do not have any lag or anything slowing down my game.

While I would prefer bigger worlds, I could be more forgiving if I had more of the biggest size of lots available.To be honest, the response makes me assume they are making smaller worlds to pump out more packs with them instead of aiming to make larger ones later.

The Future of World Sizes | EA Forums

47 Replies

FarleyGranger
6 years ago
It may also come down to how many hours of work can be used to make each pack. One team designs the gameplay, another creates objects and CAS items, another builds worlds. There's somebody counting up all the hours needed to do those things and decides what's too much.

When you think about ROM, Glimmerbrook may have been small because they had to spend a lot of time creating The Magic Realm.

But why Willow Springs has 3 empty lots and Evergreen Harbor has... none, I have no idea. I don't see how a few empty lots could ruin the game.
AaronRulz78
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
For the most part, I have been content with world sizes except Del Sol Valley. That was a huge disappointment to make a world inspired by Los Angeles to only have 6 residential lots that are all absolutely huge. Del Sol Valley should have apartments for the struggling actor gameplay.
shorty943p
Seasoned Veteran
6 years ago
Every new pack, game, stuff or expansion, adds more to the game that the games engine is now almost too frail to cope with.
I personally stopped updating and buying anything new just after ROM was released.
The entire system is poorly thought out and coded.
Copy and paste style of coding is not doing the franchise any favours.
Simply adding hacknee'd old animations, barely adequate for use is not helping at all.

Maxis has lost their way.
AaronRulz78
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
"shorty943p;c-17581508" wrote:
Every new pack, game, stuff or expansion, adds more to the game that the games engine is now almost too frail to cope with.
I personally stopped updating and buying anything new just after ROM was released.
The entire system is poorly thought out and coded.
Copy and paste style of coding is not doing the franchise any favours.
Simply adding hacknee'd old animations, barely adequate for use is not helping at all.

Maxis has lost their way.

not sure what you mean by this. I have every single DLC...all of them...and I do not have any lag or anything slowing down my game.
Bluebell23456
6 years ago
While I would prefer bigger worlds, I could be more forgiving if I had more of the biggest size of lots available.

To be honest, the response makes me assume they are making smaller worlds to pump out more packs with them instead of aiming to make larger ones later.
logionX
Legend
6 years ago
Maybe, I guess it will depend on for how long they plan to make packs for the sims4. I guess they don't want to make too many lots. Maybe they have more people available that can make the lots sometimes as well, depending on what they need to work on.

I think the game engine should be able to handle larger worlds, the question remains if Maxis wants to do it... I would imagine that it would require a bit more work than usual.
Sthenastia
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
I see that sometimes SimsGurus are posting on forum so maybe it is time to ask them about worlds because every day someone is creating new topic about this. As i said a lot of times the most of worlds are too small for me. Especially Del Sol Valley should be updated as soon as possible because this world is unplayable. Just one free lot for superstar, expensive starter and one too huge empty lot which not match with small fake houses around.

I want to belive that @SimGuruNinja for example will explain us why are the worlds so small.
imahulazombie
6 years ago
"SimGuruNinja;c-17583218" wrote:
We make worlds as big as we can each time with all various computers and specs in mind! We strive to balance performance and size. (Oversimplified answer)

could worlds like forgotten hollow be open? like being able to go to all the houses without loading screens? since the world is entirely viewable already.

i used to play on a terrible laptop but forgotten hollow was really smooth on high graphics, would be lovely to have small worlds like this one but open

hopefully i may get an answer :)
Sthenastia
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
"SimGuruNinja;c-17583218" wrote:
We make worlds as big as we can each time with all various computers and specs in mind! We strive to balance performance and size. (Oversimplified answer)

We understand this, but is it possible to make current worlds bigger in future? Computers and consoles are stronger now than in 2014 or 2018.
SimmerGeorge
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago
"SimGuruNinja;c-17583218" wrote:
We make worlds as big as we can each time with all various computers and specs in mind! We strive to balance performance and size. (Oversimplified answer)

@SimGuruNinja You shouldn't have to compromise for people playing on laptops from 2009. Any decent computer from 2014-15 should do fine with bigger worlds.