@king_of_simcity7, @logion
I just watched a couple grayStillPlays "forced 100 sims" videos, and while the game seems to render and animate them just fine, it was clearly not meant for that many sims:
Sims freezing, autonomy bugged (or just lacking? Sims die on their own in a couple days before gray even try to kill them), ball of death...
So yeah, on the bright side, overcrowded places look definitely possible. On the dim side, it's not sure EA deem it worth. After all, sims4 household are still limited to 8 sims, and the only possible justification is to coax the player into a given playstyle. You can't even recreate 7th Heaven.
I can understand EA POV though. You don't need more than 20 Sims to fake a crowd, even if badly. And at 20 sims top,
- the player mostly has enough people to interact with, and can still greet each if he wishes so.
- you don't waste resources by generating triple the amount of sims you'll ever interact with in a Sim's day
- you don't have to implement crowd behaviors
The last point is an important one. You don't behave the same alone at home with your honey bum, at home with 6 guests, in a busy street with a couple tens of people or in a packed in small concert room closing in 100 people. Sims behave the same no matter what, they won't think about hitting the bathroom or the dinner room before hanging out (though inactive's motive are cheated to simulate it) for an extended amount of time, they will hang out at the exist of a cinema even if it blocks the other still inside... As for pathing and colliding, except in very spacious houses, Sims2 and 3 were struggling right from the 6 guests part, I don't know about TS4 but the limit seems to be at most between the couple tens and the concert room.
So even if there will always be mods allowing to set free from the limit, and even if the game will run, I guess EA still has to put the work for autonomy (and story progression) and the pathing to not glitch and break appart. And it's debatable whether it worth putting the developpement time to fledge that many more sims that the player can meaningfully interact with. I think it's worth it but they'll probably have a debate if they're not already settled on pursuing on their current path (<= 8 per household and medium sized parties at community lots, mostly only ever one at once in town).
