Worlds are getting smaller

I like the lake and the fair pier. I am disappointed that there is no bar or much space for business lots. Hope the lake is swimmable and that we can use jetskis on it. A bubble tea shop is not enough entertainment for teens.

Agreed. Small worlds (and the tendency of the devs to give their pre-made sims and buildings the biggest lots on the map more often than not, so players can't have fun building on them instead) have been plaguing this game since launch. We don't even have a simple, TS2-esque Create-A-World where we can pick a base map, a terrain type, and maybe a sky box to add our own blank worlds to the game! Every new world, we either get very few lots or our choice of starting lot is heavily restricted because of how the devs decided to allocate pre-built houses and empty lots in the worlds. We don't even get a "Clear Worlds" button or the option after creating a sim for a new save to decide whether or not to clear residential lots of buildings and sims.

The devs really want players to interact with their characters and their stories in TS4, and being able to build up our own casts, worlds, and plotlines is kind of an afterthought. This isn't just evident in world design, but the choices they made for the aspirations in the "Werewolves" GP too. All of the aspirations after the initial Werewolf Initiate aspiration that involve actually staying a werewolf revolve around the devs' two werewolf packs and Greg. They want so badly for players to center their attention on the world, characters, and lore they wove that they didn't even think that someone might want to form their own pack, or have a lone wolf that's also super chill. Using werewolf powers isn't even included as a GP-specific addition to the Get Together club system! And don't even get me started on the female werewolf beast form customization issue! No option for a real bust, having to push the hip and waist sliders to their limits to give them any curves...What were they thinking?! Didn't they even stop to think that maybe people WANT a female werewolf to look good in a smokin'-hot evening gown in werewolf form?! If they're not afraid of anti-LGBTQ+ backlash, they shouldn't get squeamish about anti-furry backlash...

The point is, the limited building space in worlds is a symptom of a bigger problem in TS4, and that's the dev team trying to get players to play their stories in their worlds with their characters and their lore instead of allowing players to build up their own. The Sims has always been about player freedom and player choice. With TS4, it's like they have a bunch of people working on this game who would rather be working on a narrative-focused game with a set world and cast of characters and a definitive beginning, middle, and end than an open-ended, player-driven experience. This series is always best when it gives us systems and a blank canvas to explore them on, not when it tries to tell the player a story the devs already made up for them.

The leaked map had 6 residential lots (4 occupied), not 3. Others have also pointed out the possibility that at least one of the residential lots (such as the highlighted one that appears to have the curved walls) may have been built by whoever leaked the map, and might have been empty originally.

I think I need to see the world better before I can pass judgement, I’d like to have more than the 12 lots but if the neighborhood is well made with off-lot activities (we know about the amusement pier, still need to see about things like swimmable water, collectibles, food stands, seasons objects, that abandoned cabin in the trailer etc) then I don’t mind as much.

"Loanet;c-18144922" wrote:
The lake won't be swimmable. We'll be lucky to get more than two fishing spots.

I’m not so sure, the neighborhood on the left looks like it has a beach area.

Worlds have been small for a long time now, I'm pretty sure it's related to their budget, I don't think it has anything to do with game performance.

I have sims I want to play but all the lots are taken in the worlds that I want to play them in and I don't really want to create a new game so it's difficult to play these worlds when you have many sims in your save.

Copperdale seems pretty okay though. 12 lots is not too bad.

tbh I wish they scaled down the worlds themselves so there was less sim walking from place A to B
and less useless shell buildings

like with this new map all I would really visit besides my sims house is carnival pier and the school
yet those places are like opposite edges of map and if you live in the mining part its gonna take forever to go to either

"Simmingal;c-18144951" wrote:
tbh I wish they scaled down the worlds themselves so there was less sim walking from place A to B
and less useless shell buildings

like with this new map all I would really visit besides my sims house is carnival pier and the school
yet those places are like opposite edges of map and if you live in the mining part its gonna take forever to go to either

Are there different loading times based on where your sim is traveling to? ?

I don't know why people always get the impression that the sims was about total freedom and ts4 is suddently restricting players. Sure ts4 has more building limitations due to the foundation but the gameplay limitations were always there. It's a "video game" and there were always elements in every sims game that were restricted or forced you in a certain direction. The devs made it and at the end of the day it is their game and partly their vision of how certain things should work. They have that right. No game has "100% total freedom" infact ts4 has the most gameplay freedom of all the sims game. Ts3 forces a lot of things players might not want and that's normal for a game. the devs now try their best to take a lot into consideration so players have plenty of freedom. At the end of it all It's impossible to please everyone no matter what and there are limitations that can't be bypassed.

In terms of the world I don't think they are getting smaller and I've really been liking the worlds a lot lately. Glad they are moving away from the repeated suburbs which never fit any of my sims.
I believe at some point the devs confirmed that we will no longer get Windenburg size worlds with tons of lots because the game will go on for a long time and performance and everything has to be taken into consideration. Could also be budget as mentioned by logion.

I'm okay with the sizes we get and I think they are decent. I love to have a variety of world types so I would rather have a bunch of small ones with varying themes more than a few big ones. I almost never even play in Windenburg. I also like how they are trying to make the environments feel more interactive. I think if anything we are upgrading.

Has it been confirmed the lake is not swimmable? We get swimming lakes almost all the time now. It's no big deal if it's not. I would like it for my mermaid though.

"simgirl1010;c-18144957" wrote:

"Simmingal;c-18144951" wrote:
tbh I wish they scaled down the worlds themselves so there was less sim walking from place A to B
and less useless shell buildings

like with this new map all I would really visit besides my sims house is carnival pier and the school
yet those places are like opposite edges of map and if you live in the mining part its gonna take forever to go to either

Are there different loading times based on where your sim is traveling to? ?

I mean no but its like say the carnival pier and school/sports area were near to each other
you could then visit it all at the same time by going to school lot because sports and carnival are off lot

which you can't really do with bigger world cause they're different neighborhoods
therefore you can't say have your family visit carnival while your teens at school or something

and then within the neighborhoods theres just so much empty space for nothing but walking really for idk what reason
and the lots are all spread out so you don't really get proper community vibe anywhere

like idk sure the loading screens are the same
but it just feels so separated that i don't think id ever end up going to that mining part of town

I agree. I feel more and more restricted by EA. Worlds are smaller, full of fake houses in the middle of the gameplay area and the lots have weird placement or not matching to the world (for example they are not connected to the roads). I feel I'm forced to play someone's else story instead of my own. I would really have no problem if worlds had more empty lots instead of rabbit-hole or not functional set dressing. I totally don't understand for example why HoB has only one empty lot when the farming is the main feature in the pack. What if I don't want to play premade sims or destroy premade houses?

"Sthenastia;c-18145002" wrote:
I agree. I feel more and more restricted by EA. Worlds are smaller, full of fake houses in the middle of the gameplay area and the lots have weird placement or not matching to the world (for example they are not connected to the roads). I feel I'm forced to play someone's else story instead of my own. I would really have no problem if worlds had more empty lots instead of rabbit-hole or not functional set dressing. I totally don't understand for example why HoB has only one empty lot when the farming is the main feature in the pack. What if I don't want to play premade sims or destroy premade houses?

There's also the issue of no playable lots in the village center which is really annoying, if you want to make a business lot you have to build it on the outskirt of the village because village center is full of rabbit hole type buildings or buildings with no functionality.