The purpose of Newcrest was?

"stilljustme2;14218255" wrote:

"Mstybl95;14216904" wrote:
I get what you are all saying...but my reason is based squarely on my game. I share with an 8 year old who plays more often than me. So when I do go back into the game, I find she has messed with my saves and templates. So I end up starting over a lot with saves in huge letters: DO NOT TOUCH! LOL

But in reality, I have always found it hard to ignore blank space. I know it is there and I have to fill it in because it's empty. So I dislike it because I can't ignore it and just play when I know it is there. Which means I have to go out of my way to build it each time. I do not use random lots from the gallery or maxis. Every lot in every hood has always been mine. And sometimes they need adjusting, which means more work before play. So what I would have preferred was for them to plop down some lots so that it would be usable space while I figure out what I want to build there.

I'm not saying any of you should feel like this, but that's my opinion and why I dislike it.

Maybe you could teach your daughter not to play with items that aren't hers -- make a save that's for her and give it her name, and then let her go to town on that one without your interference. Never too early to teach a child about respecting personal space and other people's stuff. You could also make a save of your template and store it somewhere else on your computer, then when the time comes to play move that copy back into your Saves folder and voila! template's un-messed with. (You can do that with other saves as well -- just when you're moving the save back in you have to let the computer know to replace the old version with the new one.)

But there were so many beautiful builds on the Gallery that people were begging for more space to add those to their worlds. Plus, with the plans to add venue types (retail in GTW, spas in Spa Day, etc.) there was going to be a need for more lots for people to customize their worlds, hence Newcrest was born. That's the main reason for Newcrest -- so we don't have to bulldoze any houses in Willow Creek or Oasis Springs to add in new venues.

In my current save and in my template, I've set up Magnolia Promenade (GTW neighborhood) as an entertainment district, with a lounge, a nightclub, a bar and an ice cream stand (which I'll probably move to Oasis Springs and replace with a cafe after GT releases). I was then able to bulldoze the lounge and bar in Oasis Springs and the nightclub in Willow Creek. On the site of the nightclub I have a community garden (which may be moved to the neighborhood where the Goths live), where the bar was in Oasis Springs I have one of the spas that came with Spa Day, and the lounge lot is vacant (I may do something retail there, I haven't decided yet). I also took out the museum in Willow Creek and put in a community pool (it's zoned as a park), and built my own museum for Oasis Springs. I still have gyms in both worlds but I'm thinking of replacing the one in Oasis Springs with something else.

It's hard with the way they set up loading the game this time around. She usually plays once in a while and just clicks the giant play button, which I don't blame her for. It's confusing. So on the rare occasion that I do play, my game is the one that loads when that giant play button is clicked. I have told her how to load her game properly, but the issue is, neither of us plays very often and she mostly forgets about my tantrum by the time she gets back to it. But thanks for your parenting advice. I'll keep it in mind.

I filled Newcrest with amazing houses from the gallery (the ones recommended by Maxis). I love my Newcrest.

For building challenges!!

"luthienrising;14218205" wrote:

"drake_mccarty;14218189" wrote:

"lovebypondside;14217209" wrote:

"drake_mccarty;14217194" wrote:

I'm not against blank worlds, I wouldn't pay for one, but if they were to produce another for free I have no qualms with that.

I do wish they would have gotten a little more creative though, it's a little disappointing that every location in Newcrest is an revision of willow creek neighborhoods. I guess that's just one of the downsides to the way they make worlds now.

Oh yes, I agree. I wouldn't want to pay for a blank world.

I get what you mean about wishing it looked different. I would have liked a different style, but to be fair, Newcrest has some differences in the backdrop being more city-like, and I just noticed yesterday for the first time that there's a golf course lol. And also, it was free. But, I feel you.

I just don't think that was a sufficient solution. It's smaller than the base game worlds, and it's also structurally the same.

I think it would be more beneficial for the team to develop a world creator. That way players play a role in creating new neighborhoods, however that would undoubtedly take potential money that Maxis would otherwise charge players for. As gracious as some people believe the team is, it's all about profits. The Sims 4 is far beyond a best seller, so they are going to capitalize on areas that only they can provide. Like worlds.

Not sufficient, perhaps, in the long run, but it was probably waaaaay sooner than they could get us another option, and that mattered. Many of us didn't want to way an extra year or whatever for a world creator that might never come.

The fact we still don't have a world building tool is an issue with the development team. For the past 2 games we have had a way to create our own neighborhoods either at launch, or shortly after. The fact we can't do that well over a year after the game launched says the developers honestly dont feel it's a priority.

I said before Newcrest was a temporary quick fix to a much larger issue. My guess is that there probably won't be a world builder, solely so Maxis can try and capture as many sales as they can. Creativity used to be a major part to The Sims, especially in The Sims 3 with CAW, but Maxis has removed the entire aspect of world building and left players who built worlds in the dark.

@Wholikesmypicture Hi, and congratulations on becoming a new member! This post is from 2015, and commenting on old posts (necroposting) is discouraged. It would be fun to talk about Newcrest--maybe you can start a new thread about this subject? :)

@rosemow

"theKetziel;14217004" wrote:
@Mstybl95 You should package your own lots.

I get what you mean about the gallery, It's way more satisfying building your own. So I like to do a build, then save it for future games. :)

I like to get to the point in my saves where every lot has a build I've done myself on it - it's tough to do that on a single playthrough though I find, so I like packaging them up and gathering a collection of my own. Then I can just fill up Newcrest with all my own creations! :)

I do have them all saved. I use the gallery as my own personal simming cloud.

However, as a builder, I usually redo everything so whenever I start a new game, I rethink what I had before and how to make it better. And I'm pretty meticulous in how I go about it. I have binders of drafts, house designs with exterior elevations and interior blueprints. Colored copies, sometimes I even go as far as starting up CAD. LoL. So sometimes it is daunting. I can be lazy, even if I am just filling it with my own lots.

"drake_mccarty;14217194" wrote:

I'm not against blank worlds, I wouldn't pay for one, but if they were to produce another for free I have no qualms with that.

I do wish they would have gotten a little more creative though, it's a little disappointing that every location in Newcrest is an revision of willow creek neighborhoods. I guess that's just one of the downsides to the way they make worlds now.

Oh yes, I agree. I wouldn't want to pay for a blank world.

I get what you mean about wishing it looked different. I would have liked a different style, but to be fair, Newcrest has some differences in the backdrop being more city-like, and I just noticed yesterday for the first time that there's a golf course lol. And also, it was free. But, I feel you.

"PHOEBESMOM601;14217183" wrote:
The thing that bothers me is that it's never really my own. If I don't want to build in the same style as the back drop I'm just out of luck. Sometimes I'd like to build in a different style and it looks strange and out of place.

I agree. I have kind of got around that by making things like factory conversions or green new construction. That way it stands out, but it looks like an up and coming neighborhood. But I agree, we are severely limited in what we can do. I've just let the notion of the world being mine go. But I miss all the things they took out, especially the neighborhood decorations we had previously.

"drake_mccarty;14218189" wrote:

I just don't think that was a sufficient solution. It's smaller than the base game worlds, and it's also structurally the same.

I think it would be more beneficial for the team to develop a world creator. That way players play a role in creating new neighborhoods, however that would undoubtedly take potential money that Maxis would otherwise charge players for. As gracious as some people believe the team is, it's all about profits. The Sims 4 is far beyond a best seller, so they are going to capitalize on areas that only they can provide. Like worlds.

I wasn't speaking really as to whether it was sufficient in terms of a long term space solution, just that I didn't mind being given an empty world. But, as to that, I haven't managed to run out of space just yet so it's been sufficient for me so far. I'm also not thinking along the lines of - they put Newcrest out and then went, "And now they have all the space they'll need forever." I kind of had assumed it was meant to be a "for now" solution.

I also agree it wouldn't suffice forever unless we're getting bigger worlds with EPs on a consistent basis. And even then, not everyone buys every EP and so those folks shouldn't be stuck without space for not having spent the money. So, you're probably right that CAW would save them the effort of having to put out a new empty world patch every year to keep space complaints under control.

I don't have any experience with CAW, but I've seen it used on YouTube, and it looked kind of way intimidatingly complicated. I'd still probably try it and wind up liking it if they put one out for TS4.

Newcrest is my favorite. That's where I put all my own sims that I am going to play, and I leave the other places for autogenerated or original sims