Forum Discussion

Rising Traveler

6 years ago

The Sims 4 lacks story and depth

After playing Realm of Magic for an interminable amount of time, I have finally been able to piece together what was wrong with the pack and why it left me with such a despondent outlook on the Sims 4 as a whole. Realm of Magic was an uppercut to the jaw that forcefully pulled me from this dreamlike state that I was unaware I was in. It allowed me to look beyond the façade of the Sims 4 as a whole.

While the issues I am going to present span more than just this pack, I truly believe that this pack highlights them so blindly that it should be impossible to miss them. However, unless you actually look into the issues, you are unlikely to ever see them.

Moving on.

Saying that the game lacks story and depth seems a bit old. Currently, the franchise reads like an old and bitter uncle or aunt that is almost done with life and has no substance to keep it going.

As of now, there are no story elements in place or anything to add individuality to your Sims. They have no likes or dislikes, no fears or goals, nothing that can be built around them and sued to define their path. They are nothing more than expressionless puppets. The Sims have no personality, no depth, and nothing about them that makes them interesting. People who do story content are forced to make artificial plots and fabricate likes and dislikes because there is nothing in the game that allows this.

Sure, the Sims have this hidden sexual (that is going to get filtered, I am certain) preference, but I have lost count on how many times my supposedly straight as an arrow, three kids and a wife at home Sim has gone off the deep end and started flirting with a male bartender for no reason other than it looks fun. This destroys storytelling and is, in every sense of the word, silly. Why can I not set their gender preference? Alongside things that they find attractive and unattractive?

You can replace them with likes and dislikes as to not offend the delicate youth for using words like ‘hate’ or ‘turn-offs/turn-ons’. Why can I not make a Sim that absolutely loves pizza and would prefer to eat it over, I do not know, vegetables? You have this moodlet system in place that looks like it would be absolutely perfect for this, but you neglected it completely. Why can my Sim not be upset they were forced to eat vegetables for dinner? Why can they not find another Sim attractive because they like brown hair, blue eyes, and slightly larger Sims?

Even with the new pack, perhaps a Sim has an attraction to spellcasters and has a relationship (whether friendly or romantically) boost when finding out they are a spellcaster.

I really want to talking about Realm of Magic right now, but it will have to wait.

There are three lifestates in this game that are completely neglected. If you can list them before you read on, you win a medal.

- Babies
- Children
- Elders

I was tempted to add toddlers to the mix, but they actually have quite the list of content for them and are often given things frequently.

I am going to gloss over babies as there have been many threads on them that could make them interesting. I do not want to repeat easily accessible information and offer incorrect or bad suggestions because I have no idea how to change them to make them actually fit into the game.

Children

I am livid they were completely neglected in Realm of Magic gameplay-wise and with clothing and décor. There is no excuse why they cannot do magic when one of the largest magical worlds of this generation was based around children going to a magical school and casting magic. You pulled a lot from Harry Potter and took away the core of it without remorse. Even the spells are suspiciously similar to the ones used in Harry Potter. I mean, Repairio from Realm of Magic and Reparo from Harry Potter.

However, I have already publically posted my rage on the fact that children were neglected from this pack and, thankfully, I am on PC and can use mods to fix it. I just feel for the people on console who get the pack and realise that they cannot explore this pack on anything other than teenager and above.

I wish someone could tell me why they were locked out of magic. I wish someone could tell me why they get nothing in 95% of the packs and the few packs that are targeted towards children and are unlikely to be used outside of certain conditions.

I was designing a boys’ bedroom yesterday and realised how little in the way of décor children actually have.

Elders

Ah, yes, the forgotten age where there is nothing for elders to do as all the content in the game will kill them. I honestly feel like they are destined to just sit in the back and die quietly while everyone else (except for those listed above) has fun.

Send out your elderly Sim for a jog? Dead. Exercise? Dead. Drink some coffee? Dead.

It sucks because there is so much potential for elderly Sims and nothing of it is utilised at all for some unknown reason.

Family Stuff

I am not a huge family player, to be honest. I am a builder, then a killer, then an experimenter, then a torturer, then a creator, then a Sim designer, then a completionist, then a family player.

Case in point, even I somehow notice how little family stuff is created and made the main focus of the packs. It seems like everything that is released is targeted at young adults. Aliens, vampires, famous people, mermaids, and now spellcasters. However, with university being teased, that is another for young adults – unless, of course, they revamp schooling in general for children and teenagers.

At the end of the day, everything is aimed for young adults and adults and whenever is left is thinly spread to the other ages, with disregard for babies and elders, who have actually gotten nothing at all since the game launched.

You have this emotions system that was the selling point for the Sims 4 and then you release pack after pack neglecting family-based emotions. Elders could get bad moodlets due to not seeing their family, happy moodlets when they do, et cetera. There is so much untapped potential because you are busy selling half-finished packs.

I am going back to Realm of Magic and how nothing was tied into it. There is no depth and no baseline for a story or even gameplay experience besides the standard two hours of content for $30.

Where are the good and evil interactions? There is a literal evil trait and nothing comes from that. My goals of having an evil and rising dark lord spellcaster is shattered as there is nothing. I am not talking about brutal torture spells that cause discomfort and pain, I am talking about spells that cause annoyance and such. Think of making another Sim your thrall, making them embarrass themselves, making them fight with other people, make them love you, make them talk to their friends positively about you. Then we flip it and there are no ‘good’ spells. Nothing to heal the sick, make people happy, cure sadness, remove curses from wayward spellcasters, create an aura of happiness.

There is so much missed potential from magic alone that looking deeper at the interactions for families is just silly. A parent not teaching their child about magic, using magic to play with their toddlers, using magic to help look after the toddlers, using magic to create toys for their children and then animate them to play with. There is nothing for elders to ease their aching bones and remove the tiredness from them. Where is the family aspect?

Then we delve deeper and realise that no one cares that spellcasters exist. Like, hello? Mermaids, too. You ask them if they are a mermaid and they are just chill about it. And because there is no memory system, being deceived adds no value to the game at all, so everything relating to that is pointless. Someone is literally casting magic in front of everyone and no one cares? You hit it right with aliens. It felt deceptive to see someone you love turn into an alien.

I wish I knew why family play was neglected in favour of the single young adult Sim. There is no variety in the game and it sucks. It actually does.

If you desire to add your own opinion, please do. Just make sure that it remains respectful and you provide reasoning behind your post.

astridentanja
6 years ago
Sure, the Sims have this hidden sexual (that is going to get filtered, I am certain) preference, but I have lost count on how many times my supposedly straight as an arrow, three kids and a wife at home Sim has gone off the deep end and started flirting with a male bartender for no reason other than it looks fun.

They actually don’t. They had in the predecessors, they don’t in Sims 4. They’re all bisexual and fancy anyone as long as they’re flirty.

(I fully agree with your post by the way)
fruitsbasket100
New Vanguard
6 years ago
Fully agree with your post OP.
bubbajoe62
6 years ago
"NoTalent;d-966558" wrote:
I was designing a boys’ bedroom yesterday and realised how little in the way of décor children actually have.

This. I posted elsewhere that they put out a Kids room pack and included NOT ONE item tagged as clutter.
And everything else. Everyone in this thread Is. Absolutely. Correct.

I was looking forward to this pack and the minute I saw the spell book I was like, oh no.
EA: "wow we put so much effort into a brand new UI".
Me: "yeah and 95% of it is perks and scientist stuff". It's the talking toilet all over again. I'm sure they spent months on it and I used it once, meanwhile I don't have basic stuff that I would use over and over.
OldeSimsFan
New Traveler
6 years ago
Fully agree with you all, so much so my game is still in July/August mode. EA may believe in the old (P.T.Barnum, I believe) maxim of 'there's a sucker born every minute', but I don't intend to be one of them. TS2 was the last of the good versions, is all this one can never be.
WrathfulAgony
6 years ago
"MidnightAura;c-17251386" wrote:
I agree with the original post. If it’s true that children and toddlers get so little because no one plays with them then I think that’s silly. Give them (and elders) more content and people would play with them.

I can’t fully blame all the poor decisions at EA’s door. EA won’t be telling Maxis to leave children out of say ROM. I doubt it’s EA that’s telling them to give players the millionth toilet and collection in the game. I cannot speak my opinion of EA for fear of banning but we know some decisions are on the devs. Looking at you Grant, taking away the dog houses because HE thought they cruel.

I also think a large part of the issue is the game has changed. It’s less of a life simulator and more a platform for social and political issues. Or to quote Sim Guru Frost “A safe space where we can all learn and grow”. Its a game terrified of offending anyone, so much so we have “snow pals”

Which of course ties in nicely with lack of depth. A game with depth is dull. If my characters don’t care about the choices they make and their environment- why should I? It will never not frustrate me to watch two sims get in a fight and then laugh and joke afterwards. I shouldn’t be fighting my game to make less than positive choices. In fact I shouldn’t have to miss consequences and negative choices. The game masquerades as a life simulator but yet only portrays a utopia life style where everyone is rich and only good things happen. Where is the fun in that? Why should people have to use mods to make the game fun? Sims 3 needs mods to help it run, sims 4 needs mods to make it fun.

The family play is superficial. If you want siblings to hate each other you have to force it, again and again and again. It’s literally a grind. And the game will fight you every step of the way. Grant once made a remark along the lines of “Its not the story we wanted to tell” in relation to the sims 4. But that to me, seems incredibly wrong. We should play the game to tell our stories not have stories forced on us and not have the game try and over. For example the decisions like making sims be super friendly after they have been fighting or indeed making your heterosexual sims gay or vice versa. We should have control of that. It’s ridiculous we haven’t.

For me the Sims 4 legacy is style over substance. It will never change.

Heh, this post is speaking my language. Even pulled out the Grant with the doghouses point. That's my thing. :smiley:
HaveYouSeenSean
Rising Traveler
6 years ago
Oh my word, quoting everyone in one response is going to be a headache. Well, I have never shied away from a challenge. Let us hope there is no character limit on the forums.

Edit: There is a character limit. :|

Cynna
Spoiler
"Cynna;c-17251170" wrote:
I think that the reason that EA leaves out kids and toddlers is simply that it's easier (and cheaper). That's it. It's just easier. The other four life stages are basically the same creature. Teens, YAs, Adults, and Elders are all the same. They share the same animations and the same clothes. Children and toddlers do not.

As for RoM, the spells are the most unimaginative. As a player who doesn't like occults, the trailer piqued my interest. However, after seeing the spells, I didn't care anymore. Temporary curses, the inability to curse other Sims, no good vs. evil...

Meh.

I think you are correct with what you have said. I never really looked at the fact that teenagers, young adults, adults, and elders all share clothing and some animations (I am certain elders have a few unique ones) and now I am just shocked.

Easier and requires less effort, which means they can pump out more half-finished content for the masses.

As someone who loves magic – I am talking about frothing at the mouth over anything with magic – I was quite excited when they announced it. I started making some Sims that would be great for storytelling. I made a good Sim that would aim to ‘defeat’ the evil one. Now, it is rare for me to every actually make any sort of story as that is not my real goal or playstyle, but I was keen.

Vampires and magic. With the vampire pack being amazing and knocking out all other iterations, I was in high hopes and determined it would be good. I mean, they were releasing gamepacks so that they could focus more on that pack and not cramming smaller things into one massive pack. I mean, like Bridgeport from Sims 3.

I was wrong.

Anyway, the magic is so lazily done. The traits are bland and boring, and it feels like they decided on keeping the spells as neutral as possible. I mean, I have yet to see an NPC cast magic autonomously, so there is no excuse for them to add in a few more powerful spells. I got all the spells in two in-game days while working a brand-new job and getting promoted.

Trashmagic
Spoiler
"Trashmagic;c-17251192" wrote:
"Cynna;c-17251170" wrote:
I think that the reason that EA leaves out kids and toddlers is simply that it's easier (and cheaper). That's it. It's just easier. The other four life stages are basically the same creature. Teens, YAs, Adults, and Elders are all the same. They share the same animations and the same clothes. Children and toddlers do not.

I agree with you here but you would think that having 4 life stages share clothes/animations/everything would leave more of a budget for kids and toddlers. In the older games most of the life stages were separate. Of course none of us know what this budget is but I don't really understand why kids and toddlers were left out. Makes no sense.

You would think so, in all honesty. Every life stage should get something with each expansion. Whether a hair, clothing, or an object. Hell, I would even take a few new traits over getting nothing.

Delete
Spoiler
"Delete;c-17251209" wrote:
I agree that elders and babies are really bland and basically useless and you basically just have to wait until they age up , I never really touch them and do agree they a heck ton of work. But as for story telling script mods could add interesting features like attraction systems and turn ons and offs (for people not for food and things. It would be really awesome if my sim could have a favourite colour or something) There's also a mod for memory systems and sicknesses that can be deadly and a ton of other stuff that can spice up the game a whole lot. I know this should mainly be EA's responsibility to make their game interesting but you've gotta make do with what you have sometimes : /

Oh, of course! I currently have a few mods installed that add an attractive system, a gender preference system, and then have a fee outdated ones that expanded on life and such. However, people on consoles cannot use mods like we can on PC. Then, you hit a stage where the game ends up like Sykrim and everyone just uses mods and the game is left in this state of constant incompleteness.

Granted, you cannot finish the Sims, but you know. It just sucks patch after patch, pack after pack, they are still remaining to their ways of making this a young adult simulator.

nerdfashion
Spoiler
"nerdfashion;c-17251225" wrote:
I think that most of the games problems come from EA, not Maxis. EA dictates the deadlines, what they produce, and who the target demographic should be (this is just speculation, I am not 100% sure), and from what I've heard Maxis has produced incredible depth and family gameplay in the past. But I think EA has tried to take complete control over this multi-million dollar franchise and mostly succeeded. The issue about lack of family gameplay has shown in all four games, but I guess it's just the most prominent in this iteration of the series.

I dare assume that you are correct. EA has this reputation for milking and then killing games with no remorse. I am not on the ‘EA hate train’, though, and I do know that they can do some good for games, but they have a cursed touch and time and time again it shows with every project or company they acquire.

And I think you are right. It was never the main focus in any Sims game, but in the Sims 4, you can just see the fact that they have decided to just not care about it as much.

Going through the DLC released, the last six or seven packs have had content aimed at teens, young adults, and adults. Seasons (June 22, 2018) and Parenthood (May 30, 2017) were the last packs to give children anything and I dare say that most of Parenthood was aimed at teenagers.

kaylin205
Spoiler
"kaylin205;c-17251291" wrote:
The most family gameplay I've seen out of the iterations is from sims 2. They had everything you could hope for in that one. Which is the main reason why it has been a favorite for many people, including me. Some of the gurus don't believe in family playstyle and don't want it in the game. Which is why they haven't added anything for this, and most likely won't. If they did they would need to do an overhaul on all of those life stages. More time = less money

Think about it this way, almost everything revolves around technology and self absorbed humans that do not interact with each other. Hints why the sims are always on the computer or their cell phones not interacting. It feels like they where programmed to be zombies.

Now the bottom line comes to... modernizing the game, spending as little money making everything as possible, and most importantly getting new players.

I would love an update of Sims 3 with more modern graphics and controls. I did not have a computer back then, but the few hours I played it at a friend’s house on the weekends were some of the best. I kind of miss that.

Sk8rblaze
Spoiler
"Sk8rblaze;c-17251335" wrote:
"kaylin205;c-17251291" wrote:
The most family gameplay I've seen out of the iterations is from sims 2. They had everything you could hope for in that one. Which is the main reason why it has been a favorite for many people, including me. Some of the gurus don't believe in family playstyle and don't want it in the game. Which is why they haven't added anything for this, and most likely won't. If they did they would need to do an overhaul on all of those life stages. More time = less money

Think about it this way, almost everything revolves around technology and self absorbed humans that do not interact with each other. Hints why the sims are always on the computer or their cell phones not interacting. It feels like they where programmed to be zombies.

Now the bottom line comes to... modernizing the game, spending as little money making everything as possible, and most importantly getting new players.

To me, it makes the most sense to have The Sims designed around legacy/family gameplay, over, say, collecting character figurines from the flop MySims over and over again. Really, who thought that would be remotely fun to do?

The game is fun and appealing when it feels like what you do matters. And, in The Sims, that is when we not only reach small term and long term goals, but when they last longer than one generation. The Sims 2 is often praised as the best Sims game because, aside from all of its advancements, it had actual game design. Every single pack you add to the game is open-ended and molds perfectly within the life simulation genre. There was none of this "oh, we just want to experiment with this pack" mess of The Sims 4, like what we see with the hand-holding, boring gameplay of Strangerville. Experiments belong in development, not in release.

As for your last statement, I'd say it's true. The goal with The Sims 4 seems to be getting more and more players on board through shiny/flashy objects with meaningless animations, like the entirety of Island Living.

Hah! See, I am on the same page. This game comes across more of a family-based game where you build a lasting legacy and then work up from almost nothing. Behind the young adult content, this game has nothing going for it if you cut out all that content. It has made no advancements to anything that it promised.

Island Living was a complete travesty that was nothing more than a flashy show of animations, effects, and limited gameplay. Well, you already said that. The world was pretty, but it had nothing else going for it.

Strangerville pretty much sums up the Sims 4 as a whole: An experiment.
HaveYouSeenSean
Rising Traveler
6 years ago
Scobre
Spoiler
"Scobre;c-17251338" wrote:
You hit so many points in the head for me as well. It gets to a point that there are only so many stories about YA you can tell that the boredom sets in. I agree about the game needing depth and variety in so many areas and I feel something that started to get lost with the Sims 3 and then further with the Sims 4. Whether Sims gains all these things that made the game feel like the Sims only time will tell, but who knows if competition will come in to provide that for players in the meantime. I don't think the Sims 4 will be able to deliver it all in its lifetime and honestly something that has a higher chance of happening with a more modern engine and technology with the Sims 5.

Exactly! It seems like they have forgotten that you can tell a story with a toddler, child, or elder. Babis are nothing more than an object that requires fixing every few in-game hours and offers absolutely nothing of interest. Toddlers are still buggy and cause a headache trying to make them work. Children are accessories like famous people have for a show in pictures. Elders are literally designed to be killed and/or forgotten.

Honestly, even the pack made for children had objects you would hardly ever use.

I do not have high hopes for the Sims 5. I have been burned from Sims 4 so much that it will take something ground-breaking (like what that new simulation game is doing) to make me ever consider dropping $60 for the base game and then $550 in DLC.

MaggieMarley
Spoiler
"MaggieMarley;c-17251352" wrote:
"kaylin205;c-17251291" wrote:
The most family gameplay I've seen out of the iterations is from sims 2. They had everything you could hope for in that one. Which is the main reason why it has been a favorite for many people, including me. Some of the gurus don't believe in family playstyle and don't want it in the game. Which is why they haven't added anything for this, and most likely won't. If they did they would need to do an overhaul on all of those life stages. More time = less money

Think about it this way, almost everything revolves around technology and self absorbed humans that do not interact with each other. Hints why the sims are always on the computer or their cell phones not interacting. It feels like they where programmed to be zombies.

Now the bottom line comes to... modernizing the game, spending as little money making everything as possible, and most importantly getting new players.

I don’t understand. Why not?

Because, from what I gather, they are more focused on living out their missed youth doing crazy antics and playing single family Sims rather than having children or creating any sort of story or personal content.

The fact that they have yet to realise that, besides a select few question *cough* mods, a lot of mods based around family are downloaded in large numbers.

MidnightAura
Spoiler
"MidnightAura;c-17251386" wrote:
I agree with the original post. If it’s true that children and toddlers get so little because no one plays with them then I think that’s silly. Give them (and elders) more content and people would play with them.

I can’t fully blame all the poor decisions at EA’s door. EA won’t be telling Maxis to leave children out of say ROM. I doubt it’s EA that’s telling them to give players the millionth toilet and collection in the game. I cannot speak my opinion of EA for fear of banning but we know some decisions are on the devs. Looking at you Grant, taking away the dog houses because HE thought they cruel.

I also think a large part of the issue is the game has changed. It’s less of a life simulator and more a platform for social and political issues. Or to quote Sim Guru Frost “A safe space where we can all learn and grow”. Its a game terrified of offending anyone, so much so we have “snow pals”

Which of course ties in nicely with lack of depth. A game with depth is dull. If my characters don’t care about the choices they make and their environment- why should I? It will never not frustrate me to watch two sims get in a fight and then laugh and joke afterwards. I shouldn’t be fighting my game to make less than positive choices. In fact I shouldn’t have to miss consequences and negative choices. The game masquerades as a life simulator but yet only portrays a utopia life style where everyone is rich and only good things happen. Where is the fun in that? Why should people have to use mods to make the game fun? Sims 3 needs mods to help it run, sims 4 needs mods to make it fun.

The family play is superficial. If you want siblings to hate each other you have to force it, again and again and again. It’s literally a grind. And the game will fight you every step of the way. Grant once made a remark along the lines of “Its not the story we wanted to tell” in relation to the sims 4. But that to me, seems incredibly wrong. We should play the game to tell our stories not have stories forced on us and not have the game try and over. For example the decisions like making sims be super friendly after they have been fighting or indeed making your heterosexual sims gay or vice versa. We should have control of that. It’s ridiculous we haven’t.

For me the Sims 4 legacy is style over substance. It will never change.

Oh my God, your post left me shaking. It seems like you said what I was trying to in less words.

I feel like you hit the nail on the head with the first paragraph. There is no content for these life stages, so they mostly go unplayed or forgotten. The fact that it has been five years and we still do not have bunk beds, trampolines, or other games that children play is a travesty. The fact there is almost nothing for children to do expect collect voidcritter cards, collect MySims(?), and level basic skills on the same objects time and time again should speak volumes.

Then we have elders who could do so much more with almost zero effort. I mean, retirement homes that is a secret world (like the magic HQ) where they can go to live with other people there age where they can rent a room (like an apartment in City Living). There is so much more they could do and it would breathe so much life into them. Their last moments on earth should be relaxing and not stressful. Have them knit a blanket for a grandchild and give that child a memory or attachment to the blanket. I still have the blanket my Nan made for me and a treasure it. It is wool and wool causes me sensory issues, but it sits on the end of my bed.

I have no idea how dog kennels are considered cruel. My mum’s dog loves his kennel and will often run into it and make you chase him. If they did not want to be in a kennel, they would not go in one willingly. Dogs are not stupid. Sheesh!

Oh, God. You are right. This game has become a safe space where the Sims team is trying so hard to be like J.K Rowling and be inclusive of everyone and everything. They seem to forget that they were inclusive and diverse long before anyone else.

Oh, good, I am not the only person infuriated by how quick Sims forget things. Like, this guy just beat you up! Why are you flirting with him!? This Sim was an alien and deceived you! Why are you laughing with her? I miss memories. If they fought someone, they should be reluctant to be friendly with them.

Ah, yes, the siblings hating each other. I set their relationship as low as it could go and within the span of an in-game day, they were best friends. They even had conflicting traits. Sibling rivalry is a real thing. My sister and I have always been close, so I can relate, but my friend and his brother constantly butt heads – even all these years later.

It seems like storytelling and individually in Sims has to take a backseat so people are not offended. It is already common. I changed Morgyn and was essentially abused for changing the Sim to fit my game.

I do not want to play a single young adult Sim. I want to play a family and see how all of them grow and adapt to everyday events.

Maybe in the Sims 9.

Sigy05
Spoiler
"Sigzy05;c-17251456" wrote:
"MidnightAura;c-17251386" wrote:
I agree with the original post. If it’s true that children and toddlers get so little because no one plays with them then I think that’s silly. Give them (and elders) more content and people would play with them.

I can’t fully blame all the poor decisions at EA’s door. EA won’t be telling Maxis to leave children out of say ROM. I doubt it’s EA that’s telling them to give players the millionth toilet and collection in the game. I cannot speak my opinion of EA for fear of banning but we know some decisions are on the devs. Looking at you Grant, taking away the dog houses because HE thought they cruel.

I also think a large part of the issue is the game has changed. It’s less of a life simulator and more a platform for social and political issues. Or to quote Sim Guru Frost “A safe space where we can all learn and grow”. Its a game terrified of offending anyone, so much so we have “snow pals”

Which of course ties in nicely with lack of depth. A game with depth is dull. If my characters don’t care about the choices they make and their environment- why should I? It will never not frustrate me to watch two sims get in a fight and then laugh and joke afterwards. I shouldn’t be fighting my game to make less than positive choices. In fact I shouldn’t have to miss consequences and negative choices. The game masquerades as a life simulator but yet only portrays a utopia life style where everyone is rich and only good things happen. Where is the fun in that? Why should people have to use mods to make the game fun? Sims 3 needs mods to help it run, sims 4 needs mods to make it fun.

The family play is superficial. If you want siblings to hate each other you have to force it, again and again and again. It’s literally a grind. And the game will fight you every step of the way. Grant once made a remark along the lines of “Its not the story we wanted to tell” in relation to the sims 4. But that to me, seems incredibly wrong. We should play the game to tell our stories not have stories forced on us and not have the game try and over. For example the decisions like making sims be super friendly after they have been fighting or indeed making your heterosexual sims gay or vice versa. We should have control of that. It’s ridiculous we haven’t.

For me the Sims 4 legacy is style over substance. It will never change.

Some of the producers only see numbers and telemetry in front of them. Hence why they only care about the YA's.

I agree. A lot of them see that a lot of people play young adults and that is all they want to release. I guess, in every sense, it is insanely profitable.

Cinebar
Spoiler
"Cinebar;c-17251595" wrote:
On Origin the description of TS4 is 'shape their lives from cradle to adulthood'. Shouldn't that have said cradle to grave? I don't think it's a mistake, elders are just fluff and not even part of the description of TS4 on Origin and certainly not the grave since there is none in TS4 (graveyards) to honor the dead. That shows you right there elders were never intended to be part of the game if their own description of the Sim life doesn't even include them in the description nor mention grave (cradle to grave) like TS2 generational description did.

I do not think they would say grave in the description (for the Sims 4) as it would offend people. I would argue that adulthood includes elders, but it really does not. I never noticed this and this makes me depressed.

ListentoToppDogg
Spoiler
"ListentoToppDogg;c-17251612" wrote:
I totally disagree with you on toddlers, but agree on everything else. The lack of content for any lifestage that isn't a young adult, the lack of distinct personalities, the lack of any sort of family play, the lack of natural depth among the characters, all of those are reasons why I think TS4 is failing as a life simulator. Plumbella said this in a recent video, it's basically just a modern millennial simulator where you live up your young adult life partying hard, focusing only on yourself, while the other life stages are basically deemed irrelevant. Packs are just about adding more and more stuff (for young adults), and there's nothing to actually make the sims themselves more interesting. Emotional response to situations is also just wack, as sims can cheat on their partners in front of their family and they react like 'whatever'. Traits just add moodlets, whims literally only exist to advertise new pack content (and now even they seem to have been phased out), the gender settings do nothing to actually control who your sim has interest in, there's no substance and no depth to the characters.

Can you explain why you disagree with me on toddlers? Not doubting you or anything – I actually think you are right about it – I just want to educate myself and see some more opinions. Toddlers are one of my least played stages due to the bugs with them.

Millennial simulator. Nice. I think that sums it up completely.

Also, yeah, had my Sim cheat on her husband right in front of him and he was flirting with his wife three hours later like it never happened. I honestly cannot even remember if their relationship dropped.

Cinebar
Spoiler
"Cinebar;c-17251624" wrote:
"Trashmagic;c-17251192" wrote:
"Cynna;c-17251170" wrote:
I think that the reason that EA leaves out kids and toddlers is simply that it's easier (and cheaper). That's it. It's just easier. The other four life stages are basically the same creature. Teens, YAs, Adults, and Elders are all the same. They share the same animations and the same clothes. Children and toddlers do not.

I agree with you here but you would think that having 4 life stages share clothes/animations/everything would leave more of a budget for kids and toddlers. In the older games most of the life stages were separate. Of course none of us know what this budget is but I don't really understand why kids and toddlers were left out. Makes no sense.

It makes sense when you are given a budget and let's just pretend in was as small as $1000 (you can bet it's way, way past that amount for a GP) and all the money went toward a floating world. An an empty one at that. Because all the money and time went into the aura of what you see before you enter the world. Once you enter the world the money had to go toward a look of being in space, or just hanging in the air. That's not so hard if you don't add backdrops but special backdrops had to be created to make you think you are on the edge and can fall off and darkness or even stars around you.

That left no money for more lots in the livable world nor any money left to create potions not already in the buy reward panel, and just sit around and make up names of spells and curses no one can spell nor remember how to spell or what it was called by next week. Ten years from now no one will remember how to spell one of them. Made up spellings of activities doesn't do the game any good in my opinion. And a waste of money. They aren't even funny names like Bloatyhead in Theme Hospital. I will never remember what even one was named. Like I can remember the name of illnesses in that game. From twenty years ago.

Didn't leave much money for more animations or simulation nor whims to do magic or make a potion nor anything, ziltch. Animations are probably the most expensive thing to do other than a world. Maybe more. But if you spend it all on backdrops like CL and ROM and a few others you have very little left to build gameplay.

ETA: the programming of moodlets/buffs and mood potions are already in base game. You just have to implement it in a way to fit a new animation so money saved there by using the system the game is already built upon.

I agree that animations are the most costly and time-consuming part of any pack, but the fact four stages can share animation sets should help cut down on that cost as, from what I can see, there is no differences between teenagers, young adults, adults, and elders casting spells. Heck, even the potion brewing animations are the same.

Now, if elders got tired and rubbed their back, slouched a bit, or held their chest while casting I could argue that it could define the lack of content, but the animations are so standard that it kills me. I could go into Blender right now and create an animation for children casting in the span of two days. Granted, it would not align with anything in-game and would probably not even work right, the point is I could do it in two days without a degree in animation.

I said it in another post:

They made the build/buy objects, then created the world, then created the Create-a-Sim content, then created potions, then added gameplay objects (like wands), then realised that this was a magic pack and sloppily added spells that are nothing more than renamed content from other packs.

JoAnne65
Spoiler
"JoAnne65;c-17251734" wrote:
Sure, the Sims have this hidden sexual (that is going to get filtered, I am certain) preference, but I have lost count on how many times my supposedly straight as an arrow, three kids and a wife at home Sim has gone off the deep end and started flirting with a male bartender for no reason other than it looks fun.

They actually don’t. They had in the predecessors, they don’t in Sims 4. They’re all bisexual and fancy anyone as long as they’re flirty.

(I fully agree with your post by the way)

Wait, really? Are you pulling my leg here? I assumed they all started out as bisexual but using romantic options on a certain gender flipped their balance and made them homosexual or heterosexual.

bubbajoe621
Spoiler
"bubbajoe621;c-17252168" wrote:
"NoTalent;d-966558" wrote:
I was designing a boys’ bedroom yesterday and realised how little in the way of décor children actually have.

This. I posted elsewhere that they put out a Kids room pack and included NOT ONE item tagged as clutter.

And everything else. Everyone in this thread Is. Absolutely. Correct.

I was looking forward to this pack and the minute I saw the spell book I was like, oh no.
EA: "wow we put so much effort into a brand new UI".
Me: "yeah and 95% of it is perks and scientist stuff". It's the talking toilet all over again. I'm sure they spent months on it and I used it once, meanwhile I don't have basic stuff that I would use over and over.

I feel like all the other posts in this thread did better at explaining the issues better than I did. I am a little upset (in a good way) about this.

Anyway, I used that talking toilet once and that was because it was already on a lot and I was intrigued. Of course, not intrigued enough to put it on my own lot.

But, yes, we got some floor clutter in Parenthood, but not all kids’ rooms are messy. Clutter that can go on shelves, desks, or somewhere would be fantastic over placing a line of books to fill up the shelves. Like, my child is not having nail polish or body wash in their bedroom! Where are the stuffed toys, the collectables (such as toy cars, toy soldiers, messy papers, snacks, or even a deck of cards?)

After making three bedrooms for children (due to no bunk beds), I realised just how frustrating it is – again! The first bedroom I was able to make work, but the second and third were cheap copies of the first with almost the same objects. I really could have copy and pasted the room and then changed swatches.

-

Thank you all for commenting! I am amazed that I am not the only person that feels this way. Sorry if I missed any of your posts. It took around twenty minutes to collect all the posts and then compile them.

Total editing time of this document is 104 minutes. Haha.
SEREFRAS
Seasoned Veteran
6 years ago
I hope they bring back bunk beds & the heart shape bed back. As well as, color wheels.
bubbajoe62
6 years ago
@NoTalent I appreciate your last post, even if I did scroll down to find my name LOL. I made a TL:dr in the Ideas Corner that almost no one read where I outlined ways they could make us really happy with very little effort but they seem to have forgotten what the word 'simulation' means.

Knowing business, I can tell from the results we're getting that their development process is highly bureaucratic with a lot of territorial posturing and and certain members of the staff have too much power as well as closed minds. Combining that with the weak game engine, I fear we're not likely to see a change any time soon unless there is some unexpected turnover.

Pretending to be a fly on the wall, I imagine one of their meetings where an intern pipes up and says they've done an efficiency analysis and can streamline the dev process to the point where Maxis can now include 50 build/buy items per stuff pack at the same cost of the old 30-35. Next one of the 3d modelers says, oh yeah, I had an extra 30 minutes so I made a counter version and a 2-tiled centered version of that one window, we could include that. The dude at the head of the table says, absolutely not. That would make all the previous packs (and my own job performance) look bad, I don't need that kind of aggravation.

I'm pretty sure that happens regularly.
timurjr96
6 years ago
"nerdfashion;c-17251225" wrote:
I think that most of the games problems come from EA, not Maxis. EA dictates the deadlines, what they produce, and who the target demographic should be (this is just speculation, I am not 100% sure), and from what I've heard Maxis has produced incredible depth and family gameplay in the past. But I think EA has tried to take complete control over this multi-million dollar franchise and mostly succeeded. The issue about lack of family gameplay has shown in all four games, but I guess it's just the most prominent in this iteration of the series.

I used to believe that and I was wrong, even SimGuruGrant said in his tweet, Maxis is EA. So it's probably Maxis' decisions as well.