5 years ago

Too many "fake" houses.

I get the reason why they've been putting fake houses in newer worlds as they seem to be limited to 5-6 lots in each neighborhood (also, why is it so limited in newer worlds? In Windenburg and San Myshuno some of the neighbourhoods have up to 8 lots but all of the newer neighbourhoods are restricted to 6 at a maximum) but I wish they wouldn't use these fake houses. It just feels like set dressing and makes the worlds feel dead to me, rather than making it feel bigger and more full it makes it feel empty. It just feels like a ghost town and emphasises how few lots there are.

For example in this Eco Lifestyle neighborhood there's two usable houses and one usable apartment complex and that's it, yet there's 20 fake houses. So this means for every genuine house, there's 6.6 fake houses. See below, the circled lots are the only useable space in the entire area. (excluding the community space)

https://i.imgur.com/o1fFGDH.png

That means that only 13% of the neighborhood is actually usable. In my opinion it just emphasises the flaws with the Sims 4 and all the restrictions, when there's so few usable houses it doesn't feel like a community anymore it just feels like a couple houses in the middle of a ghost town. I think it'd be much better if the neighborhood was smaller, but it was full of real houses because all of this set dressing is only a bad thing in my opinion. If you're gonna give us fake house, atleast make them rabbithole lots so we can get some use out of them because this just makes it feel dead.

"Onverser;c-17725422" wrote:
Update 15/11/2020:

Very disappointed to see this exact same issue come back up in Snowy Escape. Counted them (not very accurately) but there's around 66 buildings in this neighborhood, 5 are usable. I think that's an even worse ratio than the Eco Lifestyle one. The entire top area is pretty much entirely set dressing with one actual house in the whole area

https://i.imgur.com/Yyl6hHi.png

I'm interested to see what other people think on this - Do you like the fake houses or hate them?

feedback

ElDimentio
5 years ago
"crocobaura;c-17552992" wrote:
Is all that neighbourhood space even routable? In other packs they used to make these fake buildings outside of the playable space, but lately they've been building them right under our sim's noses. At least this time is houses and not what looks like shopping streets and fun activities like the golfing course in Newcrest.

My hope/theory is that they're adding these houses in the playable area because they're working on an update to allow us to turn them into playable lots eventually.

It's the only explanation I can think of. Otherwise it's silly to have the playable lots in a neighborhood so far apart from each other with useless lots in between.
Sthenastia
New Spectator
5 years ago
Oh thats true! Some districts are too empty and too "ghosty" due to plenty fake houses. Mirage Park in Del Dol Valley is one of the worst areas. We have only 3 too big lots in neighborhood with small empty houses. As I see in EL (I do not have it still) EA has made the same mistake. Whats more, because of fact that some distrists have fake houses which is biult in one style, it is hard to create something different. Some worlds really need to be changed. Especially Del Sol Valley, San Myshuno and Britechester.
MrGiggleTickle
Seasoned Newcomer
5 years ago
What really irks me is the fact that....You know we're not getting a Create a World tool simply because EA knows that "A new neighborhood" is enough to get 99% of Sims players to buy a new pack just because we're so starved for interesting neighborhoods that some people actually bought Eco Living JUST for the neighborhood itself. Then when we actually get those neighborhoods.....it's like 3-4 lots you can use....so now your thirst for a new neighborhood just gets more severe and the next thing you know you're pre-ordering "Sims 4 Tap Dancing Stuff" because EA puts "Including a new neighborhood" as one of its features the second its announced.

Boy, create a world would be a great feature to have right about now, but unfortunately it'll cut into profits soooooooooo......
logionX
Seasoned Hotshot
5 years ago
The zones that we have gotten lately are very big and empty with a lot of fake houses and the lots that are usable are often very far apart from each other. Sims spawn at the end of the map and walk to the other side which makes the world seem so deserted.

I like the smaller zones better like the Spice Market in San Myshuno where sims spawn and walk into the middle area and often gather around there and then the sims do different things like visit the market stalls, play basketball, watch musicians or watch the artwork. The place feels alive.

If they are only gonna have three lots in each neighborhood then at least put them closer together and make the zones smaller with less fake houses and have more sims spawn and gather somewhere. They are spawning and gathering around the voting board but that is so far away from some of the houses.
HaveYouSeenSean
Rising Traveler
5 years ago
"Ekmidenisi;c-17552974" wrote:
I wouldn't be surprised if the reason is because all the whiny players with crummy computers/laptops complain that the game is laggy enough as it is because although they will spend £400+ on the game, they refuse to spend more than £400 on the laptop that runs it.

So to make the game accessible to these people, they have to tone down the content.

The same as how EA houses are underfurnished to help with loading times

The EA houses are underfurnished so that players actually decorate them and make them their own.
SimmerGeorge
5 years ago
"NoTalent;c-17554561" wrote:

The EA houses are underfurnished so that players actually decorate them and make them their own.

@NoTalent no girl they don't forget toilets and create unplayable areas and broken houses just so "you can make them your own". If it was like that they could release the game with no houses and sims so we can make it "our own"
Bearpal64
5 years ago
"suzanna13;c-17553127" wrote:
I have mixed feelings on fake houses. I wish more of them were playable but I also think the neighbourhoods would be pretty bare looking without them. I think what bothers me more is not seeing sims who live in playable houses out in their yards or even on the streets. I am so tired of seeing sims from different "worlds" out jogging in my sims neighbourhood.

☝️ This

It's really sad that I know my neighborhood is alive because I see Sims out jogging and gathering in community areas endlessly BBQing and filling picnic tables with food (sigh) but at the same time I KNOW where some of them live, I know that they have gardens and chairs outside and pools. If you zoom in to a home in free cam (I think) you can see all the furniture inside. It's like the game came so close to having this feature where neighborhood at least we're going to be "open" but they had to disable it. Static furniture is different than objects and Sims having gameplay and animations that need to be processed I guess.

I'm happy that Sims mull about here and there and do stuff within the neighborhoods/world's it does make it feel alive, but the main thing is as the world's get more spread out and filled with fake houses they are actually defeating the purpose and in turn creating ghost towns.
SimmerGeorge
5 years ago
My problem with the whole "sims gathering in community areas" thing is that many Sims from worlds like Glimmerbrook and Sulani seem to gather in the most random places.

What are so many Sulanian Villagers doing in San Myshuno in the middle of summer?

Same goes for Glimmerbrook. I see sages from the magical realm randomly walking around my house in Willow Creek. Wtf?.
Movotti
New Spectator
5 years ago
The number of usable lots, vs fake ones, needs to be a toggleable thing.

If your game seems laggy, toggle down the number of usable lots, and the others become set dressing, if your pc can handle more, toggle it up, and have a higher percentage of usable lots.

A neighbourhood with 20 lots? On a low setting, 4-5 would be usable. On a mid setting 8 or so would be usable, on a high setting 12-15 could be usable, and on a super high setting, all of them could be used.
Onverser
5 years ago
"SimmerGeorge;c-17554655" wrote:
My problem with the whole "sims gathering in community areas" thing is that many Sims from worlds like Glimmerbrook and Sulani seem to gather in the most random places.

What are so many Sulanian Villagers doing in San Myshuno in the middle of summer?

Same goes for Glimmerbrook. I see sages from the magical realm randomly walking around my house in Willow Creek. ?????.

Yeah 100% agree. They need to revamp the townies/sims in community lots system. There needs to be more of a focus on spawning sims who are actually from that world, and more of a focus on spawning the sims already in the game rather than creating townies. Ie when I'm in Willow Creek I want to see Eliza and Bob at the park, not Glimmerbrook spellcasters and sulani townies