Do you prefer open world or open lots?

I hate having to abandon some of my sims if I want to follow other sims somewhere. The open world of the Sims 3 needed optimization and a lot of gameplay improvements, but I’d rather get to play all my sims than have to pick.

"ClarionOfJoy;c-17520664" wrote:

"Felicity1169;c-17520140" wrote:
I don't mind loading screens, they are in my case faster and less laggy than your sim driving everywhere, and I really was not a huge fan of Rabbitholes for 90% of the community spaces in the Sims 3. In the future, I think it will be completely open with both lots and worlds. But we aren't there yet, even most open-world RPGs have loading screens between buildings.

90% of the community spaces??? Most of the community lots are ACTIVE: gym, pool, library, parks, beaches, clubs, cafes and the entire world is interactive. Also ALL the rabbit holes careers and stores can be turned into active ones. It wouldn't be good if ALL the rabbit holes were active all at once. I tried playing TWO active careers for a family with three children and that was exhausting!11 It would be better if all the rabbit holes have an active mode toggle like they currently do in TS3 with Zerbu's mod.

Also I love for my sims driving from one place to another because it adds to the immersion and flow of gameplay. It's annoying to have to stop just for a loading screen even if it loads fast. Not good for hunting down zombies in a zombie apocalypse and you can't shoot down any that are even in the next lot whereas in an open world, you can from as many lots away as your gun site allows. And I just love driving through the world, it is really breath-taking! One of the reason why TS4 gameplay is abysmal is because there isn't enough immersion and flow to it. What's worse is that it's players keep making excuses for it so that devs don't have to try too hard. That just results in making more people giving up on it and why more people are buying TS3 and playing that instead.

I think we're talking non-modded games and I like to exaggerate numbers it'smy favoriteform of humor...
You do you than, you like cars, I think they're annoying and laggy. And I'm not making excuses, most video games I've ever played have loading screens when you enter buildings or new area, the Sims just does it when entering a lot rather than a door.

As much as I loved the TS3, the open world just took too long to get to places. Would like open lots as I hate the loading screen every time I go next door.

"ClarionOfJoy;c-17520870" wrote:

"Felicity1169;c-17520836" wrote:

"ClarionOfJoy;c-17520664" wrote:

"Felicity1169;c-17520140" wrote:
I don't mind loading screens, they are in my case faster and less laggy than your sim driving everywhere, and I really was not a huge fan of Rabbitholes for 90% of the community spaces in the Sims 3. In the future, I think it will be completely open with both lots and worlds. But we aren't there yet, even most open-world RPGs have loading screens between buildings.

90% of the community spaces??? Most of the community lots are ACTIVE: gym, pool, library, parks, beaches, clubs, cafes and the entire world is interactive. Also ALL the rabbit holes careers and stores can be turned into active ones. It wouldn't be good if ALL the rabbit holes were active all at once. I tried playing TWO active careers for a family with three children and that was exhausting!11 It would be better if all the rabbit holes have an active mode toggle like they currently do in TS3 with Zerbu's mod.

Also I love for my sims driving from one place to another because it adds to the immersion and flow of gameplay. It's annoying to have to stop just for a loading screen even if it loads fast. Not good for hunting down zombies in a zombie apocalypse and you can't shoot down any that are even in the next lot whereas in an open world, you can from as many lots away as your gun site allows. And I just love driving through the world, it is really breath-taking! One of the reason why TS4 gameplay is abysmal is because there isn't enough immersion and flow to it. What's worse is that it's players keep making excuses for it so that devs don't have to try too hard. That just results in making more people giving up on it and why more people are buying TS3 and playing that instead.

I think we're talking non-modded games and I like to exaggerate numbers it'smy favoriteform of humor...
You do you than, you like cars, I think they're annoying and laggy. And I'm not making excuses, most video games I've ever played have loading screens when you enter buildings or new area, the Sims just does it when entering a lot rather than a door.

TS4 players talk about non-modded games only when they talk about TS3, but TS4 NEEDs mods for live game mode to work properly. That's worse than TS3! Because with TS3, the gameplay is intact and works well. You would basically need just two mods to keep it running well, but everything else works.


Other Games:

I play other games as well. Right now I have Borderlands 1 & 2, The Saboteur, The Witcher and Shadowrun: Dragonfall installed. The reason why loading screens aren't anywhere near as annoying as it is in TS4 (and even TS2) is because there is SO MUCH to do, so much gameplay in each of these games before you're slammed with a loading screen. Maps in both Borderlands 1 & 2 are HUGE and open world. The only time I see a loading screen is when I go to the next map. The Saboteur takes place in one massive open world - 1940's ???? occupied France (and one little piece of Germany). Yes, players will see a loading screen entering some of the buildings (not all buildings are accessible), but most of the action is outside, so loading screens are not much problem there either. It's the same thing in The Witcher and Shadowrun: Dragonfall.

In a closed world life simulation game, the gameplay is spread out more with fewer things to do in each lot. So of course people are going to end up facing more loading screens just to get the same amount of things to do and gameplay than other games just mentioned. That's why an open world system is much better like in TS3. It encourages people to use the entire world and not confine their sims to visiting as few lots as possible like what happens in TS4 and TS2.


The Edge That Open World Has Over Open Lots - Even Without Cars!

In terms of traveling, maybe you didn't play TS3 enough, but didn't you know? You can also just teleport from one place to another if you didn't want to travel by any type of transportation. And there are many ways to do it. Here's the easiest way: Ctl+Shift+C, type testingcheatsenabled true (you only need to do this once for your entire playing session) and then Shift+Click on the place where you want your sim anywhere in the world and *poof!* - they pop up there! And still no loading screen!!!

That's why open world is so much better than open lots! TS5 needs be open world!

I didn't want to argue over something that's clearly a preference with no bearing on the other's game play but you continuously have this defensive attitude when it comes to the Sims 3. I love the Sims 3 too and I'm not talking exclusively Sims 4 vs Sims 3. I never once mentioned 4 in my posts. This isn't even about which game is better (though Sims 1 is my fave). I'm saying I prefer the closed worlds with open lots. Every other Sim game besides 3 was closed world and I am talking about unmodded for both. You say the Sims 3 works well but go on to say it still needs mods too. Neither game is perfect.

Also again I played a lot of the Sims 3, I have 600+hours on the Sims 3. Just because you like the travelling portion, I do not, and I will not remember to use a cheat code ever time or put Llama stations on every lot. It's a preference. You really need to not argue everytime someone says they don't like an aspect of a game you like.

I can't even speak on the loading times from your examples because I've never played any of them. They aren't the type of game I play at all. I don't play any FPS, I primarily play fantasy RPGs like Zelda and Dragon Age and Simulation like Harvest Moon. Having a brief loading screen for a second to ever a building doesn't break my immersion...

You still have load times in the Sims 3 by the way it really comes down to if you want it all at the beginning or shorter ones during gameplay. If you don't mind me asking how long does it take for you families to load in the sims 3? Mine range from 5 minutes for a new save to an hour (I timed it at exactly 53 minutes last time) for my legacy challenge file even after repairing it. So really in my case I'd rather just open the game and play and deal with load times as I go than wait to play a game.

TS4 players talk about non-modded games only when they talk about TS3, but TS4 NEEDs mods for live game mode to work properly. That's worse than TS3! Because with TS3, the gameplay is intact and works well. You would basically need just two mods to keep it running well, but everything else works.

I play Sims 4 not modded a lot, it's still 100x better than Sims 3 to me...

I haven't played The Sims 3 but from watching gameplay on it i can't say i'd enjoy watching the sims for hours just roaming about the whole world it takes some time already with Open Lots for them to get from 1 thing to the next so i think it's better, i really don't mind the Load Screen between Lots because it on Base Game it loads super quick and i can just press M to quickly switch between Lots no problem, it's definitely better functionality wise to only have the Lot you're on Loaded rather than the whole game at once, but it still feels like i have freedom to run around.

"ClarionOfJoy;c-17517136" wrote:

"StrawberryYogurt;c-17514514" wrote:
I like open lot/neighborhood so much better. Open world looks pretty but the lots are so dead. With open neighborhood or lot theres so many more people and the world feels alive.

Also, an open world has dynamic towns and has story progression. Every townie has their own careers, wishes and traits that govern where they go. So they don't always go to the same places your sims go, like in a closed world where townies don't have real profiles with careers, wishes and traits.

I dont use mods and dont want to rely on placing my house near hotspots.

Do traits really affect what lots townies or nonactive sims go to? Like I dont know if a book lover sim usually visits a library it seems at random in TS3 (besides their work schedule).

Honestly I just like the open lot system better. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯.

Open world, to me, gives you so much freedom! I personally hate loading screens, always have and always will. It's 2020. It should be a must IMO. I can live without them since we have to, but for things such as in actual neighbourhoods, it should be an open world at least, and for apartments.

If the open world isn't a thing for The Sims 5 - I'll be disappointed.

I don't know if anyone has ever messed around with the tab option, but if you tab and then go to a neighbours house, all the furniture is already there and loaded in!

Open world is like really being in control. Without an open world, a potential Sims5 would be a carbon copy of Sims4 and useless to make. I would rather add to the Sims4 for 10 years than start over in another closed off world. That is a quantum leap backwards from Sims3. There's nothing they could do for the Sims5 that would be worth starting over unless open world was part of it. Also, they should up all specs and make a fantastic game instead of holding back for machines that aren't gaming computers.

Why open world:

1. I could micro manage all Sims in my household, you can only control one in Sims4. I felt like I controlled my game in Sims3, but the Sims4 game limitations control me and my game. I've seen my kids play all kinds of games in huge places and they don't have loading screens.

2. I could look and zoom and see all Sims in that world and have my Sims go there. I didn't just know what my sim was doing, but all the Sims in the whole world.

3. I could see cars drive. It made the game feel real. I would take drive time over a loading screen any day. Many simmers have commented that they don't care for cars in Sims4 because we don't have open world and can't see them or go anywhere.

4. We have larger worlds in Sims3, because maybe Sims4 is so unstable that we can't have them? I had total immersion in Sims3, but loading screens stopped that in Sims4. I cringe when I see how small Sims4 hoods are. All our worlds were huge in Sims3. A few of the Sims4 worlds are 1/4 or less of the size of Sims3. We can't even have several 60x60 lots with lots of other lots.

5. Can't even walk in another yard or place of business without a loading screen. Talk about breaking the mood.

6. No making your own world and placing lots. That was power, although I will say roofs, being able to place smaller lots in a larger one

7. Collecting is different. We can't collect crawling things on the ground or flying insects. No gems on the ground. Not sure if closed world causes issues with that or not.

I don't think open world has as much to do with limitations as a rushed Sims4 and having to change it last minute because of Sim City failure and people not wanting shared gaming. Also there was the 32 bit holding it back. We can't even make bin Sims in CAS supernaturals without a bunch of steps instead a click in Sims3.

Not all, but some will talk about Sims3 performance when answering this question, but in many cases, that's not the Sims3's fault. Many had problems and lag due to having computers that were 32 bit or not good enough for heavy gaming.
Many had cc that was bad due to downloading bad content. Many used mods. Sometimes all of that extra stuff probably lagged the game on cheaper computers. I don't have to guess, I know. My computer stopped a couple weeks before Sims3 Supernatural came out. I bought a reasonably priced gaming computer. I feared what any cc would do to my game with Supernatural coming out and was tired of stick babies, so I went vanilla. I think I only had a complete freeze/mess up 3 times since Sims3 supernatural came out many, many years ago till now and I still play it. After seeing the huge difference vanilla made for that game, I don't think lag and problems were all due to open world, but in many cases, computers that didn't work for this type of game, bad cc, and mod interference. As a matter of fact, those 3 things were the first things that they asked for simmers who had problems. So many problems people had when new packs came out, I didn't have because I played vanilla. I didn't have lag in Island Paradise. This is with the whole store and all Sims3 games fully loaded. As a simmer said above, the computers people played on caused most of the issues.

Perhaps one answer is for EA to endorse their own reasonably priced gaming computer that has Sims3 open world in mind. This would be for those who wanted to make sure that they had a computer good enough to run it, while others could buy or keep their better ones. One problem with Sims3&4 was devs holding back because e 32 bit and low end computers. Endorsing their own computer would solve that and just as 32 bit went to legacy, if you don't have the specs for Sims5 then play 1-4 as legacy players are stopped where they are. PlayStation doesn't dumb down their games because they make the unit and everyone is on the same playing field, I think any future Sims5 should do the same. If you don't have the specs, then you become a legacy player just as when you bought computer programs long ago and they told the player which systems it would play on.

Not sure why rabbit holes are mentioned when voting open world or not. Sims4 is full of rabbit holes jobs. Babysitter for instance. They could've chosen to open all the jobs in the Sims3. Open world didn't cause them not to open jobs, they just didn't open them. Closed world doesn't mean more Sims, lot traits that tell Sims to show up does. A Sims5 open world could have lot traits telling Sims to show up just as easily. They just never thought of it when they made Sims3.