List of things The Sims needs to survive the 2020s

The open worlds and option to edit worlds!! What does CASt mean? Also, I totally miss the memories from Sims 2 and I would love to have that without downloading a mod for it. The option for more traits too!

@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).

I'm sorry, I'm a bit lost. Is this for the sims 5 or sims 4? I don't want cats and dogs to be on the base game of sims 4, I payed for that??? And it's offline already.

Edit: ok, I realized it says 2020s not just 2020

Forget the life stages.

What The Sims needs is gradual ageing.

Instead of being a Young Adult or an Adult or an Elder, a Sim should be 24, or 34, or 64. They should grow taller, learn to walk, get zits at 13, have their voices break at 14, get a bad back at 50 and start getting worse posture in their 70s.