With the game so bugged, where do you stand on new content?

I am fortunate not to have game breaking bugs and I have always bought only packs that interested me. As for supporting EA, well, no one else produces content for the SIMS. Until that happens EA is the only place to get said content. It isn't a matter of wanting to support them. When paralives comes out I will check them out, if they are at least as good I will give them support. I didn't abandon Bioware because EA took them over and I won't abandon Maxis or the Sims, it isn't about EA for me, but the games I love.

This game is fundamentally broken and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up (which we know will not happen at this point). I fully expect to hear more horror stories the next time a pack or kit with just a little bit of gameplay is added and releases another plethora of glitches. I've got 2 and 3 to keep me happy.

Not because the poll is dumb, but because I enjoyed the nerdy film quote. :smiley:

As for the game: I'm not patching. I'm not playing. I'm waiting for the mysterious stream in October that will, hopefully, give an idea of the direction that EA/Maxis plan to take the franchise. Though, at this point, the tea leaves seem to be pointing toward yet another freemium multiplayer offering that requires far less heavy-lifting than coding a convincing life simulator.

Instead of remaining King of the Hill of the life simulation genre, EA/Maxis appear to be set on joining the fast money crowd.

Most bugs I see are easy to fix. Reload or debug (the latter via testingcheats on). I often wonder if some bugs that people see, ones that even ruin their game, are due to not updating their graphics card drivers? or even not having a powerful gaming PC?
As to Sims wants that they get (xxx feels someone is controlling their life ...) why do they not do them when given full AI rein? No one is stopping them.

"Ilikebuilding;c-18186670" wrote:
I often wonder if some bugs that people see, ones that even ruin their game, are due to not updating their graphics card drivers? or even not having a powerful gaming PC?

(Just note this is a reply in general and is not necessarily directed at the quoted OP)

Well I'm currently running the Sims 4 on an Alienware Aurora R12 with Windows 11 Pro, 11th Gen Intel Core I9 11900kf @ 350 ghz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090, 64 gig of ram and dual 2TB SSD and 2TB HDD hard drives. I'm not actually sure how much more powerful my computer is supposed to be to run a game that should work without having to mod the living daylights out of it. Also my system is always kept up to date, and everything that has been recommended to fix issues with the game, I have tried umpteen times over.

I agree that people should absolutely check to make sure their drivers etc are up to date, and that they're not trying to run the game on a computer it's just not going to run properly on, but at the same time it is a bit of a pet peeve of mine when genuine concerns about game breaking bugs are met with, "well maybe you're computer just isn't powerful enough", "you need to update your drivers regularly", "have you tried *insert game fixing advice*". Because sometimes, just sometimes the answer to all of those things is, "Yes, yes I have, and I still struggle to play the game without needing mods for numerous things."

I want EA to be held accountable for fixing the stuff that needs to be fixed, and I think it is sometimes too easy to dismiss the not insignificant number of people experiencing multiple issues with the idea that they just need to update their drivers/get a better computer/repair their game (again)/clear their cache (again)/do a factory reset (again)/etc etc etc. As long as EA, as a company, can push responsibility back onto the consumer, they're not likely to give the sort of urgency to fixing various issues that is needed (imho).

The bugs don't bother me. In fact, with my current set-up in my save, bugs are common and very expected, simulation lag very common, and something I have to live with. That's the choice I made when I decided to slap mods all over it. However, some new features kinda suck but something like fears are just the result of badly tuned files and a simple parameter adjustment takes care of the issue.

"Ilikebuilding;c-18186670" wrote:
Most bugs I see are easy to fix. Reload or debug (the latter via testingcheats on). I often wonder if some bugs that people see, ones that even ruin their game, are due to not updating their graphics card drivers? or even not having a powerful gaming PC?

The thing is, we shouldn't need to "Reset Object" or "turn this off and then on" at this frequency to begin with. It shouldn't be up to the players to fix bugs and avoid the potential landmines. The game should be shipped in a state where that's the last resort scenario, not a regular occurrence.

By the way, the bugs that occur are usually not the computer's fault (it could be, but with bugs reporting on a wider scale that doesn't necessarily mean it). Sims 3 runs a lot worse on my rig than Sims 4, and that game is an older game; in fact, because Sims 3 is designed for 32 bit computers in mind, it's more prone to problems on modern computers because of that limitation more than anything.

I will only consider getting furniture and clothing packs. I'd really love it for them to just focus on bug fixes and enhancing what we have already. Nothing huge, just adding color swatches to things, little options like painting ceilings, etc etc. Even re-organizing the catalogue, some stuff just makes absolutely no sense.

It's these little things that go a long way for me at this point.
Although ngl if they release a pack with Fairies I'd play that through any bugs.. ?

I used to believe that if I really wanted a pack I would buy it regardless of the bugs. After High School years and Wedding Stories, my game got so frustrating to play. Even if the game was just optimized instead of new content I would regain faith in Maxis. I would consider a new kit if it was primarily a build mode update, for example adding more terrain tools, waterfall functionality in addition to ponds, terrain paints, and the ability to use terrain paints on mountains...

I want the game to be fixed so much more than new content.

Enough already! This game was a buggy swamp way back in the beginning and it has only gotten worse. Many serious bugs have been around for years, and nothing has been done. I have negative faith in EA. How could it be otherwise when they deliberately launch packs so broken as to be unplayable or nearly so (looking at you, MWS & HSY)?