Sims 4

[Audiophile]

Call me crazy, gullible, whatever but I have high hopes for this game right now. What cinched that opinion for me is the "SimGuru's" AKA the devs of the game spent some time on the official forums answering questions and just posting. One of them was pretty honest about what happened and when asked about fixing the "family" interactions and so on, if they have plans for that, he replied "yes". For example, someone asked if family trees are going to return. The Guru replied that they are indeed on their to-do list.

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/12583398/#Comment_12583398

 

Explanations about the lack of open-world, etc.

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/12583944/#Comment_12583944

It's a quote train so I'll just quote the relevant reply:

Sorry the game wasn't for you and hopefully you'll come back. We made the decision to do the worlds and loading like we did for two key reasons:

1. The game performs much better with distinct lots and we're able to put much better art and game code for each lot. We can do more with them. In the open world, everything has to run all the time and both visuals and game content suffer.

2. In The Sims 3, we didn't like how players had to uproot their families when we made new worlds. That felt unfair. Now, you can travel and move to other worlds quickly without having to fundamentally change your household. In the same way I live in San Francisco and work in Redwood City, Sims can do the same.Hope that helps understand our reasons.

 

Again, hope to see you back. Thanks for your opinion and for supporting us.

 

The routing system was implemented agnostic of any high level designs. On Sims 3 we had to fundamentally alter our routing code midway and it meant we never quite got it right. The team that came in to fix it were able to start The Sims 4 from the beginning and implement the routing code we wanted. Yes, every now and then you'll see Sims clipping. But, you'll also find Sims route FAR more reliably, more realistically, and you can do all sorts of crazy situations with huge numbers of Sims with far fewer route fails.

Everything in development is really a compromise or trade off. We always try to make the decision that leads to the best overall experience, works for the most people on lots of machines, and will deliver fun to you guys. Again, feel free to disagree.

We can't please everyone (though we try!). Hopefully the game will make you happier in the future as we continue to support it.

 

 

There was a lot more because numerous Guru's interacted today and made many responses. I can be cynical and say it's just for show but they delivered on most of what they said in the past.

 

I think I'll be positive instead. I think a lot of players appreciate this level of openness from the devs and interaction.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Audiophile

[Wayne Daniels]

Edit: Look what the wife bought home for me, not sure why I need a game guide for The Sims but it's still cool to read

Edited September 5, 2014 by gta_aus

[Geralt of Rivia]

Hey, I mean, if you don't want it...

 

lol.

[Wayne Daniels]

Nahh actually it's pretty awesome.

[OysterBarron]

Edit: Look what the wife bought home for me, not sure why I need a game guide for The Sims but it's still cool to read

Hope you bitch slapped her back into the kitchen for only getting you the limited edition

[Wayne Daniels]

Wouldn't it be good if our sim could take a piss while showering?

[OysterBarron]

I hope they can at least piss themselves still as I'm not giving my Sims such luxurys like a toilet or shower!

[Fireman]

Now it's a year wait-time for mods.

 

Then it's time to play, yay.

[Audiophile]

I think this is a very good idea:

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/779362/ask-simguru-grant-a-9-10-daily-chat/p1

 

Again, the SimGuru's are the devs of the game. I think it's great they started an open-dialouge with their fans in terms of suggestions, reports of bugs/glitches for the game.

[OysterBarron]

Seems ok to me haven't really missed anything yet that's supposedly missing?

 

I had to give in and give my dood a shower as he just wouldn't do anything after a while! He still aint getting no toilet he doesn't need one if he has perfectly good underwear!

Edited September 5, 2014 by OysterBarron

[theNGclan]

I absolutely love how people are falling for the "engine can't handle it/too difficult" excuse for this game. It'd the exact same core from TS2. A core that has been around for over a decade. Even TS3 used the same core. So the gimping of the series is unacceptable unless they plan to make his a continuously expanding game as per usually.

 

Cash hogging at it's finest.

[Geralt of Rivia]

What do you mean by core?

 

I mean, they said they're running a whole new engine. If you can disprove that, I'd welcome it.

[Audiophile]

They're running a whole new engine.

 

I love how people who know nothing about the game, haven't played it, likely know nothing about game development on this scale, act like they do in fact have all the answers and have reached some genius conclusion.

 

Yeah, no.

 

I'm not attacking you in particular, just overall have heard this 69 times by now.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Audiophile

[trip]

I do like the fact that you can read while taking a sh*t and then continue reading the book when you are done in the bathroom.

 

I want to follow my standard MO and just play guitar in the park for tips while my [future] wife slaves at a career.

 

Can I play guitar for tips? I can't remember what I read a few months back on that.

[Coin]

They're running a whole new engine.

 

I love how people who know nothing about the game, haven't played it, likely know nothing about game development on this scale, act like they do in fact have all the answers and have reached some genius conclusion.

 

Yeah, no.

 

I'm not attacking you in particular, just overall have heard this 69 times by now.

 

This.

 

So far quite happy with what I've experienced and none of the missing things have really been noticed in gameplay as of yet.

[Geralt of Rivia]

Just bought the game. Apparently Visa didn't like it, because they called to confirm I made the purchase lol.

 

It's downloading while I play Madden.

[Raavi]

Had a go at it today. As someone whom's last real experience of the Sims was The Sims 2 DS anno 2005, which my teenage self thoroughly enjoyed (couldn't get enough of those aliens!). I must say I'm impressed, not the biggest fan of the load times, but aside from that I love it. It's aesthetically marvellous, I was able to in fine detail construct the home I should've gone for instead of my current one and have myself, or at least a pretty close representation of myself & co live in it and get wrapped up in all kinds of adventures, from the mundane to the insane. Yes I know this is what the sims is, but for someone relatively new to the latest adaptions of the franchise such as myself it along with the sheer amount of content the game offers, is pretty pleasing. Colour me a happy customer.

[Audiophile]

Yeah, the build mode is really quite something.

 

Can't wait for them to expand the game and give us more content to play around with. I was on the official forum today asking the dev a few questions, they are aware of many of the bugs and are currently working on them. The rest they made notes of. They also made notes of possible features people would want or changes. Devs will be posting in a thread every weekday for an hour.

 

They are working on adding back pools, for sure.

[Wayne Daniels]

Seems ok to me haven't really missed anything yet that's supposedly missing?

 

I had to give in and give my dood a shower as he just wouldn't do anything after a while! He still aint getting no toilet he doesn't need one if he has perfectly good underwear!

Wow you were serious...you're so mean

[theNGclan]

They're running a whole new engine.

 

I love how people who know nothing about the game, haven't played it, likely know nothing about game development on this scale, act like they do in fact have all the answers and have reached some genius conclusion.

 

Yeah, no.

 

I'm not attacking you in particular, just overall have heard this 69 times by now.

Then explain to me why it's using Sims 2 Package derivatives then? Or the same exact AI extensions? Or the left over calls from TS2? Or the Plumbob mesh from TS2?

Edited September 6, 2014 by theNGclan

[Audiophile]

I don't need to explain because I am not the one who developed the game. I am in no position to explain anything, neither are you. It's the same thing they have always used, that's always how mods have worked in the game. That's just how they do it. They can reuse something and still have an entirely new engine.

 

They said it's a new engine. It performs like a new engine. Why would they lie and say it's a new engine when it isn't? Even they aren't that dumb.

Edited September 6, 2014 by Audiophile

[Spider-Vice]

Maybe because they wanted to keep it as versatile as possible without the developers needing to learn new ways of doing things? It's possible to bring natives, functions, and what not from the previous engine to the new engine. And using The Sims 2's plumbbob mesh means nothing, it's the same thing as Rockstar reusing models from GTA SA on IV (for example), and one runs in Renderware and the other in RAGE.

 

At the very least it's a very upgraded engine, but I really don't see a reason to lie about something the average Joe wouldn't understand.

 

----------------

So, I've played the game and my experience thus far is very positive. I haven't delved too deep into it yet, but it plays much better than The Sims 3 and the emotions mechanic is just amazing. I love how your Sims can react differently to the same interactions depending on their emotions, and how two Sims can share an emotion if, for example, they both flirt with each other and get embarassed, which makes further flirty interactions very difficult. I will have to explore the rest of the mechanics though, such as building a family and having babies and stuff like that. So far, I'm liking what I see, besides the occasional bug or two.

[Smaher...]

I have to say, the character creation is very tip-top.

[Gnocchi Flip Flops]

Can somebody give me the run around? Why is this game getting so much hate? I know nothing about it.

[Smaher...]

Can somebody give me the run around? Why is this game getting so much hate? I know nothing about it.

I haven't seen any hate on this game. Don't see a reason to why it'd receive it. I think it's a superb game.

[Geralt of Rivia]

It's getting so much hate because people are looking at it through a spreadsheet instead of through gameplay/experience.

[Audiophile]

It's getting so much hate because people are looking at it through a spreadsheet instead of through gameplay/experience.

 

Yup. The people who have actually played it and gave it a real chance/delved deeper have all enjoyed it.

 

I'm days into the game and I am still finding new things. I think I am having more fun with this base game than I have had with any other in the series.

 

They also released a patch today, it fixed the "demon" baby bug some people were having.

[OysterBarron]

I don't need to explain because I am not the one who developed the game. I am in no position to explain anything, neither are you. It's the same thing they have always used, that's always how mods have worked in the game. That's just how they do it. They can reuse something and still have an entirely new engine.

 

They said it's a new engine. It performs like a new engine. Why would they lie and say it's a new engine when it isn't? Even they aren't that dumb.

 

It's entirely possible the engine was changed and they reused original assets. The dayz standalone devs recently swapped out there entire game engine for a more refined one. To the average player the game looks exactly the same as they reused all the old graphics assets.

[El Dildo]

 

Can somebody give me the run around? Why is this game getting so much hate? I know nothing about it.

I haven't seen any hate on this game. Don't see a reason to why it'd receive it. I think it's a superb game.

It's getting so much hate because people are looking at it through a spreadsheet instead of through gameplay/experience.

 

you guys seem to be missing the point. people aren't necessarily upset with the game itself; it's the way EA develops the game.

it's the opposite way that every other video game is developed; The Sims gives you features and then takes them away just so you're forced to pay for them again (and again, and again).

 

it's one of the most gross and indefensible money-grabbing schemes I've ever come across in the world of video games. you can choose to ignore it - like many people will do - and start the whole process over again. the waiting process, I mean. waiting for EA to release the items you should have had all along. waiting to pay for content that was standard in the previous generation. it's just bullsh*t.

 

I'm not saying that The Sims 4 is a bad game or that people should hate it.

it looks great. the visuals are gorgeous, the art direction is slick, the gameplay is solid. I'm sure The Sims 4 is wonderful as long as you're willing to forget that The Sims 1, 2, and 3 ever existed.

[Wayne Daniels]

I want to follow my standard MO and just play guitar in the park for tips while my [future] wife slaves at a career.

 

Actually that's not a bad idea...I usually hate playing more than one Sim in one household, but I can send a roommate off to work and my main guy can work on his Violin skill.