What you liked
- I really like the multitasking system - it makes everything more fluent and alive.
- I love the emotion system, it opens up for so many different, fun and challenging possibilities - and once again it makes the Sims more alive.
- The "living" neighborhood / public areas - there's always someone to bump into somewhere and it's easy to make new acquaintances.
- Friends will occasionally come over to say hello - call you up to chat or otherwise try to interact with you more.
- Big events like weddings seem more meaningful and are actually worth the "trouble" to go through - all though there is a small problem if you decide to hold the wedding at a place without a kitchen (like a public lot). But that can obviously be mended by building it.
- The feeling of the game is really growing on me and I find it to be a true gem, even though I've been disappointed with some of the left-outs that's been discussed.
- Creating in this game is just fantastic. You can mold everything to your liking and create Sims and Houses of great beauty without it seeming like a chore.
What you didn't like
- 1) The removal of cars, bicycles and all other modes of transportation. It seems to me that all the efforts taken to ensure a certain immersion (living neighborhood, beautiful cityscapes, cars driving the roads) are destroyed by you teleporting everywhere. Nothing breaks the Fourth Wall more than a loading screen. Now, I do understand that there are good reasons for the loading screens - and I'm starting to get used to them, but adding "traffic" on the roads, and small car toys in the builder is a big middle finger to the player, when you can't actually get any of those for your Sims. It shows that you actually designed car models, big and small, yet decided to keep it out of the reach of the player.
- 2) This leads me into another thing that I had a small problem with, which I've made an entire thread about elsewhere. Locking up all of the menus while you are at work. I simply don't understand this design choice? It's not so bad when you've got an entire family on your hands - but if you start out with just one Sim (or if they work at the same time) - then all you can do while your Sim(s) are working is stare at your empty house. Thankfully someone told me about the fact that you can actually change how your Sims perform at work, as in S3, but it's hidden behind an Icon that's not at all intuitive (and unless I'm mistaken, never told about). In S3, you used to be able to look at skills, traits, needs - everything. You could plan ahead and see what skills you should train - or what needs to fulfill. This time around you made the performance have an effect on your needs - but you can't CHECK what needs are low when you're at work - and thus making performance decisions very tedious and difficult.
- 3) While the neighborhoods are being flooded with Sims and are more "alive" than ever - they are also more "dead" than ever. This becomes glaringly obvious when you try to visit your neighbor. Yes, neighbor. The neighborhoods are so small (and I understand this choice as well, don't get me wrong), that you barely have any neighbors at all. You only have 1 or 2 at MAXIMUM. All other houses are not occupied (I presume, because you need to be able to purchase bigger houses, when you can afford it?). But this system creates a serious problem. After making friends with your neighbor he will CONSTANTLY visit you. And I don't mean like once a day. He will visit you in the morning before work, while you are at work - and if you get home early enough - after work. It's like his only goal in life is to visit you and it's painful. Once in a while, I let him inside to use the bathroom and then send him packing, but he will eventually show up a few hours later- and just stand there until you either greet him or he gets tired. Even when you're working he's standing there for hours knocking on the door, like a dog begging for treats at the dinner table.
- 4) Foundations. While you don't have to demolish your entire house just to put up foundations anymore - you have to make a choice. Either you have foundations on EVERYTHING or nothing. If you choose to have foundations beneath your house - it will apply to your premade garden or your outdoor toolshed (not that I have one). This is disappointing, because it hints at the fact that you won't be able to ever make garages - and by extension, never get cars.
Suggestions:
- 1) My suggestion to issue number 1) is that you can simply add cars / bicycles at a later date, either through a patch or an expansion pack (as I'm sure you will). I know you can't comment on this so I won't bother asking. Adding cars, bicycles, school busses, and taxis are very important for creating the immersion that you've otherwise beautifully created through Sims and neighborhoods that are more alive. I realize that the loading screen has come to stay, so all you gotta do, is basically just making an animation of the Sim getting into the car - then driving towards the edge of the screen and *poof*. Whether you do it like in S3 where they place it down or like in S2 where they get into it by opening the door is a design decision I leave up to you.
- 2a) The solution for problem nr. 2 is pretty simple. Don't lock the menus while Sims are at work. It gives you something to look at - it opens up for planning - and it enables you to take advantage of the performance choices at work. If you can see your needs you can more easily make the decision to hang out with coworkers if your social relations are lacking.
- 2b) Another suggestion I'd like to add is making use of your fantastic emotion system and the multitask bar while at work. Basically the gist is this: Certain emotions yield certain buffs / debuffs at work - and / or give you different performance choices. As an example: If you are Flirty / Confident it will boost your performance if you suck up to the boss. If you're Energetic / Focused working hard shouldn't yield the same stress level- or if you're Inspired - it could enhance the chance % of opportunities. If you are Bored - watching SimTV or browsing SimBook (or some social network) could help that at the cost of job performance etc. - The opportunities here are endless!
- 3) I'm not sure what to do about this other than adding more houses (with neighbors in them) to the neighborhoods. Other than that, some AI tweaking would be in order - so that you don't see that one neighbor at your doorstep all the time. Give him a job or something.
EDIT: Getting rid of loading times when you go to your neighbors house! Its just silly that you can jog all the way to the end of the street, but you can't walk two feet to your neighbors house without facing a load screen. Please make the entire neigborhood available without loading (and by that I mean the four houses that exist in the surrounding area). This gets rid of the problem people have with the excessive loading - and it gives you the option to enable storytelling there - (which in turn should keep your neighbor from stalking you).
- 4) The only suggestion I can come up with here is keeping the foundation options as they are - but limiting foundations build to the selected building. Your building system is brilliant - with the option of selecting an entire building and moving it around - adding foundations only to that building shouldn't be that difficult.
Overall thoughts:
- The past two days have ironically been about as emotionally confusing as my Sims' lives. I've been overjoyed by some of the things you've done with the game and disappointed at others. Admittedly I was mostly disappointed in the beginning, because I couldn't get over the fact that so many features, which seemed to be core to the Sims Franchise, was omitted. But the game has been growing on me and overall it's been a fantastic experience. I'm once again hooked on another Sims game and I will undoubtedly keep on playing for a long time to come. I just hope that you will address these issues and that you take the feedback of the community seriously. When there is a public outcry, it's not because we hate you as a developer - but because we are seeing something that we love, turn into something that we don't.
EA Staff (Retired)
