> @Palabra said:
> (Quote)
>
> Truth.
>
> I think TS5 should deliver one or two revolutionary leaps forward right at base game. Do you remember how exciting TS2's life stages were? Do you remember how impressive TS3's open worlds were? TS5 should launch with something new and impressive that really expands the franchise. I'm not talking tweaks or improvements; I'm talking new features.
>
> Some possible groundbreaking new features might include, but certainly are not limited to, the following:
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> Culture
> In past expansions, hints of culture have been slowly and painstakingly baked into pre-built worlds by way of name choices, clothing, architectural styles, etc. Of course, with story progression, each location slowly begins to lose that unique flavor as names and clothes are randomized. Whether we decide to call the base geographic location a neighborhood, town, or world, that base geographic location should have a culture. Certain names, clothing styles, hairstyles, transportation types, etc., should be weighted so as to appear more often. Automatically spawned children and sims should be programmed to recycle/recombine names from their ancestors and/or from other sims in the location. Each location should have unique foods, maybe one or two unique careers, a unique few mood buffs, a unique lot type or two, some unique holidays or traditions, and maybe this base geographic location could have neighborhood/town/world-level traits, just like the lot traits we have now. Future packs could expand on this base game concept by offering more cultures to explore, but the rudimentary system should be in place with the base game. It's much harder to implement a culture system later, retrofitting existing locations from the base game and other packs, than it is to include it from go.
>
> Of course, culture would require quite a robust base game. At least basic climate controls (is it a snowy world? a desert one?) would be required. Perhaps we could get new climate/weather types as appropriate for new locations. Have an Island Themed pack? Why not add hurricanes as a weather type? Rainforest location? Happy monsoon season! Wintry north? Brrr. Break out the snowboots, hot chocolate, and snowstorms. Perhaps, just as it is tradition for most new packs to provide a related supernatural life state, most new packs could provide region-related animals. Think camels for the desert, or dolphins for the seaside, wild horses or antelope for grasslands, alligators for swamps, or adorable reindeer or dogsled dogs for snowy worlds, or maybe pigeons for urban concrete jungles. Build the ability for pets from base, but then add a wider diversity of animals in as needed for each expansion. Players would need to be able to toggle on or off quite a lot of options, but a culture system would also lend itself well to an eventual Create-a-World pack, allowing players to craft their own cultures and create their own locations.
>
>
> Consequences
> We've already seen hints, in the conservationist career and the Strangerville mission, that EA/Maxis can incorporate wide-reaching consequences into the game in response to player actions. TS3's Into the Future pack also showed us how actions undertaken in the present might influence the future. Introducing this ability in some expansions and not others, however, leads to a strangely lop-sided world in which some sims' actions matter more than others. Why does the conservationist wield more power than the political top dog? Careers, quests (like Strangerville), etc. should matter. TS5 should incorporate a cascade effect of consequences so that criminals commit crimes and, say, property values decrease. Politicians and business leaders make decisions and strikes and demonstrations follow. Scientists create new technologies - with environmental side effects. Actions, in short, have consequences.
>
> This concept can play out on the small stage, as well. We can see some version of this in the current Reputation metric. Fights, temper tantrums, leaving the toilet seat up, etc. - a sim's actions can influence the opinions of other sims in ways that are deeper and longer lasting than a temporary mood buff.
>
> Expanding on this idea, then, could be packs like Crime and Punishment - supporting a new network of connected actions, each with consequences, as well as new careers as lawyers, criminals, and police. One can easily imagine government themed packs, military packs (secret agents? average enlisted soldiers? intelligence branch?), science themed packs, or even supernatural themed packs that, with a system of consequences already in place, would greatly expand on that base game capability.
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> I was going to call this mutability, but I think Consequences has a bit of a nicer ring to it. Story progression would matter a lot. Imagine a world in which tombs remained explored or plundered, environments remained wrecked by evil giant plant spores, and criminals actually went punished... or not... depending upon your sim's actions.
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>
> Eras
> One of the perennial popular play styles, one that is highly dependent upon DLC, is a through-the-eras type of gameplay in which simmers start in the stone ages, or maybe in the medieval era, or maybe in the 1950s... and then, generation by generation, advance the the town (or, at least, the family home) until they get to the current era. This idea would rely upon the previous two ideas in order to work. In TS3's Into the Future, we saw how fun it can be to alter the timeline. Why not build in some sort of passage-of-time system from the get-go? Think of the potential for themed clothes packs, EA! This idea would require some way to mark the passage of time, perhaps something similar to the calendar from Seasons, and a way to cycle fashions in and out of style so that townie sims and npcs spawn looking right. Stuff packs could be sold for multiple eras, and players could toggle various options on and off. In an era of luddites? No fancy looms allowed! Err, or cell phones. Did your sims make good, responsible decisions in previous generations? Well, lucky you, the environment is healthy! Were your grandparents less than responsible? Well... enjoy the green gunk around your volcano. We can already do this, but we should do it from the beginning, in a purposeful way.
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> Combined with Culture and Consequences, this idea lends itself to innumerable packs, mostly stuff packs. Medieval stuff, Jazz Age stuff, Future Stuff, etc. Why limit it to stuff, though? Maybe the Medieval pack comes with new/different careers (blacksmith? courtier? plague doctor) technology (blacksmith's forge, sword), and skills (fencing, jousting), new diseases, new animals (plague rats? wolves? work horse?), a new supernatural type (werewolves?). Imagine an opulent 18th century pack complete with pirates, parrots, lots of wigs, and a watermelon decapitation machine. Ancient Rome? Bask in the delights of ancient technologies like... showers, soap dispensers, pneumatic doors, heated floors and baths (of course, those were largely public baths), and... honestly, it took us until the 1800s to get most of this stuff! Pre-history? No problem! Island Living showed us how to go off-grid!
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>
> I apologize for the length of this post. It is by no means exhaustive. My point is that I'd like to see a different approach to content. Instead of the same old packs we're used to, I'd like for most of that to be available as a base game and then expanded upon in later packs. I'd also like to see a rotation of packs we're used to and new ideas. For example: Seasons (expands on weather, holidays, and plants), Ancient Worlds (maybe gives us Egypt, Rome, and Atlantis to explore), Pets (expands on base game cats and dogs, maybe lets us be vets or ranchers), Crime and Punishment (expands on the consequences system to give us awesome criminals, police, lawyers, and consequences that we see in game), Zombie Attack (a Strangerville-like mission pack with consequences for the whole world) and so on.
>
> To accomplish all of this, the base game should have a few things to start:* Rudimentary weather/seasons & calendar
> * Animals (just cats and dogs, and maybe one or two variants of wild animals to start, but enough to make adding on easier later)
> * Active careers with far-reaching consequences (no teachers, doctors, etc. to start, unless they want to include university in the base game)
> * A robust, smooth U.I. with plenty of player-controlled toggles, including ways to group and sort objects.
> * A good system by which to control passage of time and lifespans. It still takes sims 30 mins to pee. Included therein is a solid aging system. I'd prefer gradual aging to sudden, and I definitely think Middle Age needs to be added between Adult and Elder.
> * Although Create-a-World can be released later, the base game should be developed with modding/editing in mind.
>
>
> Other things I'd like to see:* A more open world, with the ability to toggle back and forth between multiple sims in multiple locations.
> * Create-a-Style
> * Trait sliders. Lots of other people in this thread have commented on what a good idea those would be. I agree!
> * Apartments and/or roommates. I'd love to be able to rent a place from the get-go, and I'd also love to be able to move sims into my house (even spouses or kids) and NOT control them, but have to deal with their A.I.-generated craziness.
>
>
> I know this has been long, so thanks for listening to my ideas! :)
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
You formulated what i have in my head but could not get out into words.
You're breathtaking!!
