What can the sims team learn from 3 & 4?

Honestly? To me it doesn't seem that hard.

Sims 4 got a lot right. CAS and build more are, I think, the best they've ever been in terms of being able to use them as tools and play with them. So truthfully all I would need the team to do to create the perfect game is to bring in the CAS and build mode of 4, but open up more lots at once. It doesn't have to be an open world concept like 3, but perhaps have 4-5 lots loaded at a time might be the happy medium.

Also, I feel like for them to recapture the magic of the sims they need to create more sandbox like options, with both positive and negative consequences that can vary and change with each unique personality of the the sim. That, to me, would be lasting and engaging game play. Personalities need to be way more impactful in the outside world of the sims than just changing their moods. Avoid rabbithole options if they can.

That being said, please keep the moods! I like those too. I think I'm just the "I want it all" type of simmer :lol:

Oh, and the gallery!! One HUNDRED percent keep the gallery. That thing is a LIFEsaver.

"PlayerSinger2010;c-17149017" wrote:

"LiELF;c-17148943" wrote:
They can learn from both 3 and 4 that they need to steer back in the direction of Sims 2.

Not in terms of worlds or graphics, I hope. I'm not going back to those old graphics.

Of course not graphics. That wouldn't make sense anyway. Graphics are actually the least of my concerns.

But as far as world, I don't actually care if there are loading screens or not. I don't care if it's open or not. I care about a game that's actually focused on gameplay and that gameplay's first priority needs to be on those Sims, because the rest is worth nothing if the Sims continue to be a shadow of what they used to be and devoid of personality.

The game seriously needs to get its soul back. It had a great formula and as soon as they started straying from that formula, things got messy. We haven't had a truly quality game since Sims 2. They keep trying to experiment and change things up and now we have a game that still barely has real gameplay, and which hardly even resembles the roots it came from. Sims 3 was tinkered around with so much, they left it a hot mess to either be abandoned by those who literally couldn't even play it, or modded by a member of the community with extensive workarounds. And this is after charging players a fortune by nickel and diming Sim points, forcing people to overspend to get stuff from an overpriced store that was shoved in our faces every time we entered the game.

Enough is enough. Bring the actual Sims back in a real AAA game with focus. It has been spread too thin by trying to be too many different things to too many different people, which just results in most of its features feeling incomplete and unsatisfying. Sorry to say it, but it's true. Maybe it's just time to have two games that go in different directions.

Before they do this....

Finish off Sims 4 properly and fix all remaining bugs for those that can't or don't want to go any further.

Learning from all Sims games to make the Options wider so that players can take or leave whatever they feel doesn't suit them, from sex, zombies, werwolves, witches, horses to fairies for instance!

A Sims 3 Open World might be more viable in this iteration but those small cul de sacs and neighbourhoods should be available too. It's nice to see your house next door as in Sims 4. It's more like my UK suburbs.

Learn from Sims 4 that a lot of people want their own local type backgrounds. Was it Sims 1 that gave you the option of changing the background from desert, icy to green when making a new world? (can't remember)!

Bring terrain tools from Sims3 with added enhancements from 4 to make water and rivers deeper and deep diveable.

Make a good basic pack from the start. Both Sims 3 and 4 didn't go far enough.

and finally.

Set the specifications high from the start and be honest about it. Have we ever had this?

Make it a game worthwhile saving and buying a suitable PC, Mac or laptop for.

Hopefully that super machine I saw with a Terabyte SSD costing well over £2000 might be affordable by the time Sims 5 comes out, even with 2 Terabytes! :)

I'd love to see something new. Not just a remake of the best of the best. Gradual aging with accompanying height changes. A banking system that allow sims to have their own individual funds. Cooking that requires sims to have all the ingredients required for a recipe. Milk, eggs, sugar, cocoa for a chocolate cake. And shelf stable ingredients that have to purchased. An education system that allows your sim to teach in an open classroom and interact with students. Grass that grows and has to be cut. The ability to wear as many clothing layers as you want. Weather and pets in base game.

I agree with fixing TS4 as much as possible before moving on to TS5. They left TS3 a buggy, untuned mess. Yesterday, I loaded up my first ever save file that's 7 generations, and they live in the Landgraab manor with two horses. The lag was insane, and I already have NRaas, a 7th generation i7, and a GTX 1070. Not to mention that awful EP toggle patch that often turns my EPs off without me touching anything, and sometimes my EPs don't even show up as installed. And even when my EPs are turned on, the game still loads without them. Frustrating is an understatement.

I still like TS3, and TS4 has its fair share of bugs, but TS4 is still way less of a hassle to boot up and play

We should also be asking what the Sims team can be learning from Sims 1 and Sims 2. For one,I'd LOVE to have the multi-purpose community lots from S1 back-these S4 lots don't really belong in any Sims game. I'd also like land lines back...firemen and burglars need to make a comeback...we need Nancy the Newspaper Girl back...we need pets like birds,fish and reptiles...it would be nice if S5 could have all these things.

"Lady_Ballora;c-17149955" wrote:
We should also be asking what the Sims team can be learning from Sims 1 and Sims 2. For one,I'd LOVE to have the multi-purpose community lots from S1 back-these S4 lots don't really belong in any Sims game. I'd also like land lines back...firemen and burglars need to make a comeback...we need Nancy the Newspaper Girl back...we need pets like birds,fish and reptiles...it would be nice if S5 could have all these things.

I understand why they switched to all cell phones, but I have been missing land lines. I've built a few houses from the 80's recently and even though it's a little thing, I miss putting that phone on the wall where it belongs.
And things like the newspaper girl and burglars, I wouldn't have thought I'd miss, but I do.

"Ivyeyed;c-17150989" wrote:

ETA: I think the problem with most approaches to Sims as a multiplayer game is they assume sims are player characters instead of assets/another tool in the sandbox. If you approach multiplayer with a mode of "the sims represent the player", you're already messing it up.

But... that's the whole point. To play AS the Sim you are controlling. Turning them into sheep to be messed with or controlled by whomever is playing would be like stepping backwards into SimCity.

I would like to see babies line in the sims 2..... that aren’t just an object, I’m not sure, but I think we could change their clothes too. I also want to see cribs and changing tables and such too. I also want to be able to give babies a bath in the sink or a baby bath. I believe in sims 3 you could take either babies or toddlers off the lot in a stroller.

I want toddlers and babies to be able to sleep in a crib. Toddlers should also be able to sleep in s toddler bed

I like the multi tasking in the sims 4, ( like watching tv while eating) but I think the multi tasking takes too much time tasking.... please speed it up.... it doesn’t take longer to eat while watching tv in real life.

I want to see many plants like in the sims 4.

I want to see memories like in the sims 2

I want to see likes and dislikes back.

Also please bring back, the cuddling and spooning in bed, being able to relax and read in bed, and watching tv in bed, not just sitting on it.

I like the handyman table in sims 4 and the florist table, but I also liked the florist set up in the sims 2.

I liked that you could have a shop to sell things in your home in the sims 2.... I want that brought back.

I want to have to buy clothes like in the sims 2. That made going shopping fun. I also would like to be able to buy each piece, pants, tops, single outfits, jewelry, glasses, hats etc. and be able to get them out of a dresser, hat box, jewelry box etc. it just makes it more fun to put clothes together each time. I also want a grocery store for my sims. Not all garden and/or fish. I want a theatre too.

I want create a style back, like in the sims 3. I want to be able to mix and match colors and designs. For beds, sofa’s, toys, clothes, etc.

I want children to be able to play tag, cops and robbers and things like that without toys... bring back group volleyball too.

There should be a transportation system from the beginning of sims 5

Please bring back newspapers, and house phones, and make sims buy cell phones.as well.

I like to have collectibles like in the Sims 3 and 4. It would however be nice it we could make lots ourselves that have collectibles, so we could make our own dig sites.

I hated rabbit holes in the sims 3

I really like active careers in the sims 4. Every career should have an option for the sim to go actively to work at a work place.

I like sims 4 build mode, but I wish we could make our own ponds without cheating.

Oh, I also love the club idea in the sims 4.

I’m sure there is more that I want in each
Of the sims titles but this is all I can think of now.

-Optimization of the game and it's performance. TS3 had terrible optimization, ran 32-bit only meaning it could only use limited resources to load all the textures and models in its open world. TS4 has a much better optimization, but took a huge step backwards with the loading screens for EACH lot, not even each neighborhood fully loads.

-They can learn from TS1 and TS2 on how the sims used to have more personality, how players need to lose control to feel like they need to do something (burglars, depression from not having their wants taken care of, good and bad memories that make sims unique).

-Streamlined Aspirations: Instead of Outdoor person being the ultimate aspiration of a sim... which doesn't make sense at all, I think the TS2 Aspirations of Romance, Family, Wealth, Knowledge, Pleasure can include all the TS4 aspirations into ones that are more human and logical. For example: the outdoor aspiration of gathering or whatever could fit into the larger Knowledge aspiration.

-They can't keep capitalizing on basic things that should be in the base game, such as weather/pets and the essential lifestages. I hope they learn from that going into the future iteration. Are they willing to wait a year or two to release weather, when almost all AAA games come out with weather patterns in their open-world games?