To all the world builders, are you as unhappy as family players?

The creativity has been taken out of this game, it is now designed for players 8 and up. I was so excited for Get to Work...I thought we would be able to build our own prisons and hospitals, but there it was all laid out for us, no creativity at all, linear gameplay as well. Its like building my restaurants, I thought they would be giving us more room to build at the very least and also the ability to have our sim be the chef. So many disappointments, really thinking of going back to sims 2 or 3, the possibilities were endless.

I don't know that I miss CAW as a whole. I never got into full blown "world building" but I definitely miss, intensely, CASt, being able to place your own lots, having generic backgrounds that allow me to bulldoze everything and replace it in the style I want, being able to sculpt terrain with hills and valleys and so on. I miss ALL those tools desperately and there are times I just go back to 3 due to it but I doubt EA/Maxis cares. I don't think I'm in their target market anymore so if I play it great and if not great on their end. Also, I haven't hammered away at it as much as Toddlers have been mostly because I felt like I knew it wasn't going to be there from the start and it wasn't essentially promised they would be in the future as I think toddlers were.

That said everything added to 4 that I enjoy is balanced by something that was removed from the game so that my general feeling toward the game is neutral. I like it- blah- I don't love it. I'm mostly very much on the fence about the game as a whole and could ultimately fall either way. Like a lot of people I'm hinging on the upcoming EP and what it brings. It's the third one. It's taken an entire year and will be more than two years into the game. I feel like I ought to start loving it or spend money on something else. (Shurg) It is what it is.

"Hermai;15099444" wrote:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I think @kremesch73 closed the discussion

Look at all things people can do with that game. Look at all those scenarios. This game was made over a decade ago.


Meanwhile, in TS4, we can't do anything, because it won't match the premade fake houses they put there. It's like the neighbourhood is meant to be stuck in time forever.

The Sims 3 allowed for the same level of creativity and even more, even if the tools were a bit more complicated. I couldn't use Create a World, it never worked for me.
But you know what, I never needed, because the community made awesome worlds that I could change and edit and build from ground up to my hearts content.

Creative tools are not only good for those who build; they are good at those inapt to build too.
The lack of world editing tools is actually the factor that sealed this game's fate for me. Much more than toddlers. I find ludicrous that they've gone all way back to 2000 by making this game completely void of editing tools. Actually, The Sims 1 had terrain tools, so yeah, that's very bad.

TS4 lost even to TS1 in this department

*drop da mic*

Yeah. Missing those tools is a huge killer for me. Ever since I was able to build in S2, it has been the biggest attraction to me. Gameplay mattered too, as did having all the lifestages to make it a rich experience. But the immersion I feel in 2 and 3 just isn't there in 4. Those backdrops and the inablity to edit the community areas destroyed my ability to play in a world that has a theme, and I love themes. I love the desolation and the darkness I feel when I play in some of my S2 worlds. I love the sunny beaches and the faraway islands, as well as the run-down worlds. Even 1 makes me happier and offers more building options than 4. It's also a lot more fun to play. I love building in 1 as well.

In 1 and 2, we had only 2 main lot types: Community and Residential. It offered so many possibilities to the style of the lot and the gameplay offered by the game. Back in those days, I could create a super mall or a simple mom-and-pop shop tailored to specific needs. I could have a bar and restaurant combined. I could even add a grocery store to make it more unique. I could run a home business in S2. I could have a mall that catered to every type of shop I could imagine, and it would all function as expected.

I could have a coffee shop, a clothing store, a jewelery store, a magazine shop, a restaurant, a small library, a candy store (s1), a pool, a park, a bar, etc, all within one lot and everything would function as expected. Sims could and would use all the lot had to offer. I didn't need to set the venue or Communty lot to a 'type.' All I needed to do was set the lot to 'Community.' It would behave as one and was capable of being everything I wanted it to be. This lended itself well to gameplay in so many ways. Granted, I prefer to make small specialty lots because they feel more special and load faster, but the possibilities were endless and most of my small shops are a combination of 2 or more 'types.'

I'll honestly never understand why they did away with this concept in 3 and made it even more restrictive in 4. I'm not against rabbit holes, per se, but if you look at the themes I've built my communities on, a static rabbit hole that can't be designed to fit a specific theme was also counter-productive to someone like myself. I make do, but I had seriously hoped this was an area that would have improved by now.

Instead, it feels like it went further than backwards.

Sims 4 may require 'imagination' to play it, but Sims 2 catered to my imagination in ways I've yet to see again.

Interesting thread.

There is one difference between CAW and Toddlers.

Toddlers are part of game play and could possibly come.

CAW is a 'build your own environment' tool that probably wont ever come in TS4 so mot builders just simply accept it.

:disappointed:

@kremesch73 - That settles it, I'm getting TS2 on the App store!

Mac players have always gotten the short end of the stick with world editing, so I've been feeling the pain of no CAW since TS3. But at least there were world editing tools, and the ability to nuke all the buildings and replace them with our own lots wherever we wanted. Though I have to admit that TS3 took so long to bulldoze and place new lots on my computer that I never had the patience to do that anyway. However, we got so many amazing worlds available on the Store, and each EP came with a great new world, so I never felt the same need to completely design a new world. I thought it was an incredible system in TS3 with having new worlds available on the Store - that way we could really pick and choose which worlds we wanted and which ones we weren't bothered with. (Lunar Lakes is still my all-time favourite.)

But TS4 has neither CAW nor the Store, so we are stuck with the precious few worlds there are. I think it's absolutely ridiculous that there aren't even blank world templates like in TS2, and no ability to place lots, so players are stuck with the lot sizes and numbers we have already designed for us. In TS2 I loved designing run-down Downtowns. I loved giving the houses addresses and making street plans and everything. My sister had one Sim who was notorious for getting married, having kids, then jumping ship to a brand new town where she could start the whole thing over again. It was always fun designing new worlds to match those themes. And don't even get me STARTED on our ability in TS2 (and TS3 with the Store worlds) to have multicultural worlds. It is so strange to me that there is NO Asian world or clothing in TS4 since that has been a staple since TS2. (Never played TS1 so can't speak for that.) Urban and rural play have also long been staples of the Sims games for handheld and console, with Bustin' Out and the Urbz, so it's a real shame that TS4 doesn't let us recreate these settings.

Well, I could fume about this for another hour but I'd better get to work... :sweat_smile:

@Terra you'll love it. Aspyr updated the graphics for modern machines for Mac too ;)

It looks great.

"kremesch73;15108670" wrote:
@Terra you'll love it. Aspyr updated the graphics for modern machines for Mac too ;)

It looks great.

Ooooh excellent. :) I'm excited - I think I'll get it for myself as a reward when my summer internship is over. :smiley:

I'm mostly a family player but i totally want CAW back, even if i'm bad at it. Because so many simmers create so many beautiful things, and i totally lack of place for my family that i just hope they bring it back, like that i'll can download world (maybe in the gallery ) for my game.

@noodlesandme Well said! :smiley:

I agree, The Sims was great for years but CAW was pretty much the cherry on the top! :smiley:

Boy, I sure do miss the fixed camera angles and isometric views in TS1! The lack of basements, only two story tall buildings, and roofs with no flat siding sure were a plus! Who needs half walls, curved decks, a build/buy mode search feature and filters anyway, am I right? :D

Oh! And don't even get me started on that stupid gallery they got these days. I mean, who didn't love having to recreate your favorite kitchen by scratch every single time back in the day. Being able to load in rooms, or delete them in a single key stroke, is so passe! Why, I cherish the hours I'd have to delete half the walls in a room, just to extend it a few spaces on the grid.

Gave you time to think, you know? ;) Gee whiz, those sure were the days.