Summary of Past Sims Basegame vs TS4 Basegame

A lot of people arguing in the Sims 4’s defense is just... ridiculous. No, you can’t turn around the argument for what 3 doesn’t have and 4 does. 4 should have what was previously offered to us for free in the games that came before it, build off of it and improve on it. A sequel shouldn’t be missing the features that made the games before it so great. Enough said.

"KatNip;c-17659060" wrote:
A lot of people arguing in the Sims 4’s defense is just... ridiculous. No, you can’t turn around the argument for what 3 doesn’t have and 4 does. 4 should have what was previously offered to us for free in the games that came before it, build off of it and improve on it. A sequel shouldn’t be missing the features that made the games before it so great. Enough said.

To me it is an improvement because the majority of removed features were things that I disliked and wished weren't in the game. I don't argue one is better than the other, because different people like different things. Sims 3 is better for some and Sims 4 better for others (including myself). (For reference: I've played all of them, been playing almost 20 years, as I was an adult when the first one game out... but they others were kinda meh for me until Sims 4 and now I have trouble enjoying them when I go back to them to "give them one more chance" (I try every few months haha.))

But yeah, for me they took out the bad parts of Sims 2/3 (other than a few things) and replaced them with better stuff. The only thing I do miss is the animations of Sims 2, those were definitely superior to SIms 4 ones, but animations don't make the game for me. The deep personalities and the attraction system of earlier games are a real turn off and ruin the game play for me, causing quick boredom haha! I'm very thankfull Sims 4 has done away with that stuff. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they add it back in one day, and if they do I may have to stop playing haha. Unless it comes with a toggle off or is a lot milder.

It's really hard for me to believe anyone was asking Maxis to please, omg, remove (leave out) tag, marymack, cops and robbers, jump rope, play catch,etc. etc. all for a minime kid who does nothing (in base) except sit around and talk to adults all day. It's like asking Maxis to please leave out cuddling in bed, relaxing on bed while watching TV, leave out encourage, leave out aspirations, leave out traits, leave out first kiss, first date, leave out memories, all for just a set of work tasks on a check list. Which btw reuses and reuses the same three things, exercise/jogging/workout, painting, and the Sim pc.

If anyone really was asking for kids not to have any personality at all then have heart in TS5 they probably won't even be in the game and might as well not be in TS4, as lackluster as they are, however, if they come in TS5 they may just be a face on a 3D body that no one controls or hardly ever sees like in The Sims Medieval, just a decoration.

"Cinebar;c-17659463" wrote:
It's really hard for me to believe anyone was asking Maxis to please, omg, remove (leave out) tag, marymack, cops and robbers, jump rope, play catch,etc. etc. all for a minime kid who does nothing (in base) except sit around and talk to adults all day. It's like asking Maxis to please leave out cuddling in bed, relaxing on bed while watching TV, leave out encourage, leave out aspirations, leave out traits, leave out first kiss, first date, leave out memories, all for just a set of work tasks on a check list. Which btw reuses and reuses the same three things, exercise/jogging/workout, painting, and the Sim pc.

If anyone really was asking for kids not to have any personality at all then have heart in TS5 they probably won't even be in the game and might as well not be in TS4, as lackluster as they are, however, if they come in TS5 they may just be a face on a 3D body that no one controls or hardly ever sees like in The Sims Medieval, just a decoration.

I never asked Maxis anything. They can create the game they want and I'll just buy, not buy as I want but I'd never ask them to change it for me. of course when they ask for opinions or ideas I'll comment etc, but I'm not gonna go out of my way to ask them to remove even the things I hate most.

things like jump rope, catch, yes I'd love to have it back. They were fantastic.

But they are less important to me than NOT Having robbers (I hated them), attractions, deeper personalities, colour wheel, zodiacs, lifetime wishes, cut scenes (It took me 17 years of playing to ever join a forum or know that forums etc existed and I had no idea cut scenes could be turned off, or even that things like mods/cc existed, It'd never occurted to me to look online about a game I enjoyed rather than just play it). Having those things gone improves the game far more than having jump rope and tag removed makes it worse. My kids just do other stuff but it doesn't really affect the core of the game much.

My kids rarely talk to adults, maybe cuz I have more kids than adults, they are always playing together with the puppet shows, bubbles, don't wake the llama, chess, dollhouses, make sandcastles, swim etc.. My adults are usually busy writing novels or at work and the kids just do things with their friends.

Kids and Tots are my fav game stages to play, and the more for them the better. I would LOve more for them to do even though there's already a lot. I would NOT love deeper personalities for them, but more toys and activities, yes!

Yeah a checklist would be dumb, it's why I don't like the lifetime wishes or sims 4 aspirations. I don't want to have any goals to work towards in the game. It's also why I cheat needs full all the time. Even the goal of "filling needs bar" seems too goal orietnated to me

As for Sims 5, if there are no kids I wouldn't get it haha. but i doubt I'd get it anyways. I already have sims 4 which I love and sims 2 and 3 which... welll, I don't love. THey are "meh, Okay" to me. Now that I have one I love I see no reason to buy another. The only way I would get it is if the game is all about the kids and tots, gradual aging etc. and even then it'd still have to be offline mostly, have the same closed worlds, no colour wheel, art style, and lack of personalities sims 4 has. but throw in sims 2 style animatons and some non-mutual relationships. PLUS I'd want to be able to transfer my save file over. Been playing the same household for 4 years and have no desire to start a new one. If it's exactly like that, I'd consider buying... if not... then not interested as it would't be better than what I already have so I'd just play 4 anyways

"SimAlexandria;c-17659299" wrote:

"KatNip;c-17659060" wrote:
A lot of people arguing in the Sims 4’s defense is just... ridiculous. No, you can’t turn around the argument for what 3 doesn’t have and 4 does. 4 should have what was previously offered to us for free in the games that came before it, build off of it and improve on it. A sequel shouldn’t be missing the features that made the games before it so great. Enough said.

To me it is an improvement because the majority of removed features were things that I disliked and wished weren't in the game. I don't argue one is better than the other, because different people like different things. Sims 3 is better for some and Sims 4 better for others (including myself). (For reference: I've played all of them, been playing almost 20 years, as I was an adult when the first one game out... but they others were kinda meh for me until Sims 4 and now I have trouble enjoying them when I go back to them to "give them one more chance" (I try every few months haha.))

But yeah, for me they took out the bad parts of Sims 2/3 (other than a few things) and replaced them with better stuff. The only thing I do miss is the animations of Sims 2, those were definitely superior to SIms 4 ones, but animations don't make the game for me. The deep personalities and the attraction system of earlier games are a real turn off and ruin the game play for me, causing quick boredom haha! I'm very thankfull Sims 4 has done away with that stuff. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they add it back in one day, and if they do I may have to stop playing haha. Unless it comes with a toggle off or is a lot milder.

Wow... that's why TS4 is so boring for me. I want to play with the sims and autonomy and sims' willfullness creates surprises in the game. I will be planning to marry off two sims and one of those sims will simply not be interested in the other and will fall for a townie instead--I loved that. Or when I tried to break up my sims and the one I instructed to break up, turned around, broke the fourth wall, and complained to me that he didn't want to break up... simply amazing. My TS4 sims thrive without any friends or partners whatsoever--once I complete whatever goal driven gameplay I'm focused on, the game is boring and I just shut it off. Later I create a new sim, new game and start a new goal... in TS1 and TS2, I was able to have legacies because I cared about the sims.

"nanashi-sims;c-17659709" wrote:


Wow... that's why TS4 is so boring for me. I want to play with the sims and autonomy and sims' willfullness creates surprises in the game. I will be planning to marry off two sims and one of those sims will simply not be interested in the other and will fall for a townie instead--I loved that. Or when I tried to break up my sims and the one I instructed to break up, turned around, broke the fourth wall, and complained to me that he didn't want to break up... simply amazing. My TS4 sims thrive without any friends or partners whatsoever--once I complete whatever goal driven gameplay I'm focused on, the game is boring and I just shut it off. Later I create a new sim, new game and start a new goal... in TS1 and TS2, I was able to have legacies because I cared about the sims.

Haha yes those are exactly the things I hated about the sims in earlier versions and made me not care about them. 4 is the only version I really care about them, I play the same 3 households (neighbours to each other and best friends) for over 2000 hours, aging mostly off, sometimes on super slow and I still love it lol! I don't play in a goal driven style though, so that might be why. I just play to relax, needs cheated to the max, and play to let them have relationships with each other etc... but in a micromanaged way (to a degree, I wouldn't want autonomy off but I wouldn't want them wandering off falling in love with a sim I didn't tell them too either). It's mostly about the kids and parenting for me though.

"bookish_sammy;c-17640204" wrote:
We also don't have hotels/lodges/resorts like we did in TS1, TS2, and TS3. The "vacations" we get to take in TS4 are so lame. The holidays are also super boring. I've said this on other threads, but I was hoping Sims 4 would combine all of the awesome features from previous games but have better graphics. We were shopping for the Rolls Royce of Sims games, but we got a Ford Pinto instead.

Did those come in the basegame? I honestly can't remember because it's been so long since I had "just" the basegame of any of the versions and I own all of the packs for TS2, TS3 and TS4 so sometimes it confuses me what exactly was basegame content.

That's what this list was comparing.

Holy cow! I never knew that! That's pretty interesting and can you set community lots with this traits too?

"Chicklet453681;c-17645102" wrote:
Holy cow! I never knew that! That's pretty interesting and can you set community lots with this traits too?

@Chicklet453681

You know, I rarely use community lots and haven't actually tried.
I tried to google it and the sims wiki says they are "residential lot traits" but I also found people talking about using the traits on community lots, so I can't be certain if they used a mod to do that or if you can just do it on your own without one. It's late now but if no one else knows I will boot up the game tomorrow and check haha!

There are 9 traits available in base game and 52 traits total if you have all the packs! (People make new ones with mods too though so you can make live in daycares etc).

The complete list of them and what they do is here: https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Lot_trait