The Future of the Sims

I tried it out at launch, and it was about what I expected. If I recall, you had an energy bar that would be used up when completing actions, real-time quests to unlock things, standard Simoleons and a premium currency, and microtransactions. The formula was very similar to The Sims FreePlay, just with a face lift. Even then, many of the game's assets were still based on The Sims 4.

Project Rene marks the 3rd instalment of a social mobile game built on the Sims franchise. I have no reason to believe that Rene will turn out any differently to that of FreePlay and The Sims Mobile. I suspect that it will have a similar lifespan to the latter as well, and I don't think there will be a market for it.

This fixation that the developers seem to have with mobile and multiplayer is something that I find annoying, and a waste of time. When the idea of multiplayer and the Sims is brought up, I often think about the one multiplayer feature that is often overlooked, but could be a great addition to something like The Sims 4 if done correctly. Co-op.

It blows my mind how ignored co-op modes are in games that would be a perfect fit for it. I do believe it could work well, for preserving single-player for those that want it, as well as scratching the itch for those that like the idea of inviting a few friends to join them. I believe inZOI is getting multiplayer support. Time will tell how that turns out, but I'll be watching the development closely. If they get it right, then it could be a very appealing feature for many players.

I went 1 yr and a half, then i purchased for rent. Now my game bugged out and i can no longer play. I regret it deeply as i am forced to toggle it out unitl they fix it ! After toggle for rent off, seems to be bugging less but i dont have the patience nor the time to do further testing, i bought myself an xbox. So im tapping out. Until they fix for rent. Please... pretty please with lots and lots of sugar !

So sorry! It would be a total nightmare in my universe! Can I ask whetheer you DLed rentable lots from the gallery? Or if you recategorized a former rentable lot to some other category? Or did you push recommended limits regarding number of rentable units pr game?

Lol Google translation :

"The Heart of It All : You" is translated in french as "The Heart of the problem : You"

TY i bought it end of november and by x-mas my game was toast. I only had the opportunity to download and use 1 5plex from the gallery, which i re uploaded once i edited it. And i transformed 2 of mine townhouses i had (a 3 and a 4plex so 3 res rentals total). Put in all the electric boxes and water heaters. The first thing that made me worry is the fact when you fix a trouble as a landlord it dont register, note that it is while landlord events was toggle OFF. Then my sims started stuttering and the game started to go tilt. Thats when i wrapped up and backtracked my game to where it was before i bought rent. And so it took me two weeks to salvage my work, and even w a new game i still cant play ! 

Now even w rent toggled off, by games crashes every 15 minutes or so. I have started a new game and was going to re install without for rent. But i aint gonna bother, i lost 2 weeks already and i have only a few weeks of gaming time left. This is the final blow for me. I wont even be able to play the 42 news sims i worked on ! This game is finished, well i am finished w it. 

I have already wrapped up my new sims in a new game for if this game works in the future i might try it again next year.

I never had problems with For Rent, but I never DLed from the gallery and I think I never recategorized lots that were originally Residential Rental. I read somewhere that one (maybe there are more) problem is that each rentable section can have tags, and if the lot is recategorized hose tags won't be removed and will make the lot cause huge problems in the game. I do not jb ow if this was ever fixed, but if possible, you could try getting rid of the lot you originally DLed from the gallery. It might have carried some invisible unit tags, as you can't know whether the builder switced categories or maybe deleted one rentable unit without removing those tags first, before uploading it. If s/he did, you might have DLed the corrupted lot that now harmed your game. I have no idea if it will even be possible to delete the lot, but it might be worth the try? Just keep your current save safe by backing up your files before doing any testing.

I like the idea of the For Rent concept, although I play on rotation and never tried the Landlord stuiff in detail. It's good to have the option of multiple households per lot, though, and the world is quite pretty :) 

I'm glad to know that Project Rene is a separate multiplayer game. I wasn't keen on what I was seeing, so that's a relief for me. I imagine that the mobile teams are probably going to be on that, so I doubt that's going to take away much from development of Sims 4. 

It sounds to me like EA is terrified to let Sims 4 go in order to bring on the next gen game. They've accumulated more players than ever before and that's gotta be a lot of money to risk, knowing how reluctant players are to give up so much content (and money spent). However, I'm sure they're well aware of the fast escalation of bugs and crashes so they can't very well rush more packs into the game at the rate they've been going. I'd say they're stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place and may not even really know how best to move forward.

They did say a few months ago that they're going to be focusing a lot on bug fixes for a while so content will be slowed down a lot, which I think is the absolutely right thing to do. They can keep releasing kits because those are just superficial content (though it looks like they're running out of ideas - I think they should dive into more niche stuff and less "trendy" for a change. Stop trying to please a majority and get really creative and have fun with them.)

As for the Project X rumors, we'll have to wait and see. If what we heard is true, I do like the idea of it being somewhat compatible with Sims 4 so we can import some current dlc, but I don't like the open neighborhood concept unless it's done in a way that doesn't change rotational play at all, which is my whole play style. I love to have a lot of households in one save so they can meet each other and interact, and I don't like when the game uses them at random or changes their situation outfits. Townies, fine, but don't touch my own households (unless they're in a career or business and I see them working appropriately around the game when I'm playing other Sims.)Open neighborhoods might mean more rabbit holes too, which I just don't like. I also feel that if Project X has to use a similar engine as Sims 4, that we'll still be stuck with static worlds and won't be able to edit our neighborhoods or move lots around like we could in past Sims games and I miss that creative feature SO much. The worlds of Sims 4 are gorgeous, but there are always things I want to change to suit my game better and I can't. Please, PLEASE let us be able to do this in the next game!

Anyway, that's my two cents for now. Will be interesting to see how this all unfolds. 

That's the problem with running a business, you have to put up with customers. 🤪

So long as I can continue playing the game my way, using my own Core Values, I'm a happy camper with this news. Also, for those who are hankering for the multiplayer version, I was also very happy to see they are pursing it, but it is a separate version of the game.  So I don't have to sweat it out or feel left out of the loop. Yay!

Maybe you're right about not wanting to let Sims 4 go, but I think it may be that they don't have an idea for making the next generation a distinct experience. When Sims 2 came out, it was a massive upgrade compared to the Sims, just looking at the base game. There were all sorts of new core features that made Sims 2 a more complex experience. When Sims 3 came out, open world and story progression made a huge difference. For those who liked those features, it revolutionized the game. The Sims 4, on the other hand, wasn't a revolution. I like multi-tasking, but it's a QOL improvement that allowed us to do things we could already do more efficiently, not a whole new way to play. It's main advantage over Sims 3 is that it wasn't crashing all the time. There are a number of efficiencies that the team could implement if they wrote a new base for a Sims 5, but I can't think of something they would add that would be revolutionary.