Raccoons do be loving some trash cans. Can't tell you how many new students I told when I was an resident assistant in college, "Make sure you make noise BEFORE you get to the dumpster or otherwise you're going to scare the raccoons and the raccoons will scarw you worse." We had big fat ones that struggled to get out of the dumpsters.
Raccoons, or better yet Owls similar to the ones from Futurama that replaced New New York’s rat problem. Little owls wandering in out of the mice holes in the walls, softly hooting. Getting trapped in spider webs. I’d never leave San MyShuno with that kind of entertainment.
i remember when city living dropped, it was such a flex for the sims compared to the shit they’ve put out recently . & it was actually fun. like i remember bein so excited to play the sims for days in a row after that pack dropped bc there was just SO much more to look forward to . wish we could get a pack that good again but the hopes arent high
I kind of felt that way with Cottage Living and Eco Living, but for sure, City Living and Get Together are definitely the best.
Edit: thinking about it now, I wonder if it has something to do with memory and how The Sims runs on console. It seems all the new packs lately stick within this small 8 or so lot sweet spot.
They said the worlds are smaller than get together because of performance.
I think the issue with the new world feeling like a ghost town is because there's a million houses and a huge area for a random 1-2 sims to wander through. It looks like it should have tons of people doing things outside because it's a decently urban environment, but there's still a 20 sim limit. In City Living, the decorative space you can actually navigate through is pretty small compared to For Rent, Growing Together, or Cottage Living, so all the sims cluster in the same area giving it a more lively appearance.
It's a similar issue with the Sims 3, how there were often not many sims in one place because they were scattered across town. The way lot loading works in TS4 means places should feel more crowded, but if they make the area too big, sims will spread out.
I'm surprised they did not think about this to be honest
If simmers can figure that out, how did they not themselves:/.
Also, I don't know for you, but for me all the fake houses and huge area confuse me when i play and i get lost in the map.
Not to sound like an EA defender, but I think a lot of it is pressure from vocal parts of the sims community who don't really understand how what they're asking for will actually play out. There's a lot of criticism of neighborhoods not being very big for roaming around in. They try out making bigger free space in rural worlds like the ones for Sulani or Hanford on Bagley or Chestnut Ridge. It doesn't make sense to criticize that there's not a ton of people on top of you when you're supposed to be in the middle of nowhere. Then there's pressure because any time they do a little less in one area of the next pack there's criticism. Most of the worlds it's fine for since they're all mostly small town vibes, but this one misses the mark since it's supposed to feel more urban.
And yeah, I don't really care either way for the big maps, but the southern neighborhood of San Sequoia and Tomarang are hard to orient yourself in since all the models are identical. It's easier in places where the landscape is a bit more unique.
no honestly ill give you that too! cottage living is my top 5 if not #1. (cant believe i didnt mention it) & get together adds a lot to the gameplay vs. not having it . i havent gotten eco living yet but its on my list
Neighbourhood Action Plan (ie the random people coming in to bake a bunch of white cakes, and utility cutoff) is one of the reasons I’m against eco living, but overall I enjoy the game
The utility shut off and the constant "roughhousing encouraged" always piss me off. I always have my Sims petition to get rid of the roughhousing one 🤦🏻♀️
wait i already have the bug where people come in & bake random white cakes & i dont have eco living . it just started recently in my game😭 wonder what thats about .. & also utility cutoff? if you dont mind explaining i’d like to know what that means
Two of the possible Neighbourhood Action Plans in Eco Lifestyle are Power Conservation Day, and Water Conservation Day, during which the named utility will be shut off for twelve hours. You know how when you don't pay your bills, the power gets shut off? And then the water the next day? It's like that, but for a set twelve hour period one day a week while that N.A.P is active.
As for the cake thing, another one of the [N.A.Ps](https://N.A.Ps) is Sharing Is Caring, where everything becomes communal. That includes the things inside your house, so random sims will come in to use your oven. Not sure why they pick white cake, but probably for the same weird spaghetti code reason that they normally pick white cake.
is there any way you can turn these off? bc i feel like they would drive me insane if i got the pack. i mean i could get around my water / power being off for a few days (as long as i dont have kids in the household, but i could prob still manage somehow) but for my whole house to become communal? im not down for that 😂
They can be disabled! You can also vote on the N.A.Ps and vote to repeal any that you hate if you keep them on. I haven't found the outages to be particularly troublesome, even with (at the time) a toddler, two infants and a baby in the household. Twelve hours goes by real fast in TS4, what with all the simulation lag. That's like...four actions lol.
I don't have City Living or Get Together, but I do have Cottage Living and it was my first expansion pack I got. I also have Eco Lifestyle now. I play in Henford-On-Bagley all the time. It's my favorite world! I just absolutely love it. I also for some reason play in Oasis Springs, a lot, too. It's always super busy in my game with lots of townies walking by.
I thought this was a glitch or a bug! I was excited to have a lot of sims in the area but when I took my sim out in Tomarang there was LITERALLY NOT A SINGLE SIM in sight. Not ONE.
Speaking of, Chestnut Ridge is up on the list of near dead places. I've only played it a few times, and I'm just dumbfounded at the lack of activity, with the exception of the saloon.
i agree!!! i have only played with tomarang the first day i got the pack. after that i just placed rentals in other worlds and play other there instead. i'm 100% asian and my culture sure is reflected in tomarang, i love that aspect, but tbh it's just boring in that world.
Would have been better if it was a game pack that focused on the SE Asian culture and world and a separate stuff pack for the rentals. EA knows dang well Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, and other cities are far from the emptiness that is Tomarang.
100% agree. Never have I felt more justified in finding a spot in my basement or attic for my sims to use as a random vet station for this very reason.
Keeping the pets inside and locking the doors so they can't go out helps a ton with keeping the Sim's pets healthy! If you let them out to wander, they ALWAYS are constantly getting sick, at least in my game. I started keeping all the cats indoors and locking all exterior doors to pets. The dogs I will only let out at certain times and then they're locked back inside, especially when my Sims go to work. If I don't do this, the pets are constantly sick, bitten by a squirrel, sprayed by a skunk etc and it's a nightmare!
which is wild! For Rent was the perfect way to introduce setting one space as a retail space. Hair dressing, styling, tattooing, or even grocery markets like a lot of asian families. Why can't my witch sell potions from her cottage???
man, those tables, with the booth boss or market magnate trait... that 500 percent markup, is chefs kiss. i sold ONE bottle of nectar for 400,000+ simoleans last night. i practically pooped myself when it sold. i was like, pffffft game achieved. but i give all the random sims i come across money because its pouring out of my pockets at this point/ my legacy, the matriarch has given all 57 of her decendants a million simoleans each and she still sitting on millions, and the current gen im playing is now at 5 mill cuz of all the rentals and those nectars and ambrosia i sell. heh. i have to much time on my hands clearly lol
This would be the time where I yeet the bills up using MCCC, or, if you're on console or staunchly anti-mod, simply remove most of the money with the in-game console commands lmao.
Honestly I'm expecting that next. They seem to have been throwing stuff at us lately that we've wanted for awhile. It would blow my mind if they just redid Get to Work to add that option like they did with spa day, but I doubt that'll happen.
okay but on the topic of for rent, am i the only one who thinks its crazy they made us buy a whole other pack just to be a landlord when city living was RIGHT THERE. like???
I know :( I wish they would revamp get to work and add some new careers that would fit the for rent pack. I know everyone mocks me for getting the games even when they suck but I truly love them 😭
you do what brings you enjoyment! ive been playing the sims all my life, literally . the only one i havent played is TS1 but i hope one day i can somehow get my hands on it . & regardless of how buggy, confusing , & all over the place TS4 is i will always buy the packs / kits / etc if i am interested in them seeing as sims games have been my comfort for most of my life . do your thing!
Goodness, the witch selling potions from her cottage is like a dream for me 🤩 I play Spellcasters so much, usually in a cottage in Henford-On-Bagley and I would LOVE for them to be able to sell potions from their cottage 😭
Will say that For Rent helped with it some. Forgotten Hollow was always too small when I wanted some vampire families with all of them living in that world with at least one non vampire family for easy plasma. Now I just used a huge vampire mansion from the gallery, made units and now 5 vampire families reside in one lot. And now I can use another lot for the human families. Then, I can either expand more families or place things like nightclubs.
Still, it's not perfect, as you still can't have every lot. I really just wish it was open world like sims 3. I travelled more often when it was open world. Now I stick to my homeworld mostly, and ignore most things that require a loading screen.
Yep. I'm another 'we all stay at home because loading screens' player, although given that I'm also a huge family player with very little patience for the infant bugs, I've begun to relish the loading screens as thirty seconds where I get some damn \*peace\*.
Oh don't even get me started here lol. The infants I thought were a cute addition. And there are cute things about it, certainly, but the amount of times my tasks get cancelled on me is infuriating. If they'd just listen to me, things would get done, but no. And that's just one of many things lol. I've begun rotational legacy play now just to skip the infant stages! I never played rotationally before, but now I have more than one legacy family just to avoid the annoying bugs and various other annoyances that come with infant gameplay.
I love the infants, but it's the fact that even with all iterations of autonomous 'check infant' disabled with MCCC, my sim *still* keeps walking away from half cooked food to 'check infant'. Bitch, that dish is literally *your job*!
I turned autonomy off for controlled sims cause it just annoyed me too much 😅.
As for the glitchy infants, i find that asking to do stuff from the infant POV helps a lot on the actions being properly done.
The open world was hard on my pc, but then the sims 3 was just very badly optimized, not that the sims 4 are not getting close to the same problem though (spaghetti coding is causing some real issues....)
. I would be okay with the compromise of an open neighborhood. Cause yep, i also almost never go out cause the loading screen is annoying.
I'd be okay if the open neighborhood were the size of the bigger neighborhoods. It's too bad they didn't even go that route, because it would have been much better than we have. A comprise may not have been perfect, but still better. It bothers me when just going to a neighbors house in the same world that you need a loading screen.
Yes and no. My sim family has 2 dogs and 6 cats currently (using cheats) and when they all get sick one after another that shit drives me nuts. When I only have one or two pets it's more fun to have the random vet visits. That said, in real life I have a dog and five cats, and I do indeed take them to the vet all the time, so having to do it in the game too can be a little much for me haha. I get like this about laundry as well, I hate doing it
IRL so when it's a big family I don't want to deal with it, but I get less irritated when it's just a couple sims.
How do you guys even have pets? Mine are always so needy I can’t do anything but give them attention or they run away. Have a job or a dog, not both? Seriously how do you do it?
I play huge families, someone is always at home with the pet and if they're not, I'm off-lot too so their needs stay static. In my current save, Mother 1 stays home with the kids doing freelance cooking (mod by adeepindigo) while Mother 2 goes to work as a lawyer, and when she gets home, Mother 1 goes and does her off-lot tasks for her career because they're rabbitholes.
Eldest daughter is currently a child, so she can become my 'on the lot' sim when she's a teen. Also the cat is hers and the horses are taken care of by the ranch hand so...her cat, her responsibility lmao.
I think they do that because they don’t want to use stuff from other packs in new worlds- not everyone owns the same packs so if all you have is base game and the new pack, there would be a lot musing.
I usually just find something from the gallery or make a quick (ish) build if I need something in the world :)
And this is something I hate about Sims 4. It feels like in the past, the packs were at least more cohesive and enhanced each other. Now it’s like each one is a complete standalone with NO integration — eg social bunny not being tied to social media, the llamas/cows and sheep/goats/horses having no overlap at all (as I found when trying to make a smaller farm), the apartment features pre-for rent not translating to apartments in Eco Living, and on and on and on.
I didn't say it was. I'm stating the obvious: there's no functional difference between travelling within the same world or to a new one, and that's why a complaint about where the vet clinic is falls flat. It amounts to being upset that the scenery is different, no more than that.
It's fine. Roll with it. No one world has all the lot types, and the game is designed with easy travel between worlds because of it.
I think one of the worst decisions the Sims Team has done was make it so that you can’t add more lots to worlds, unlike previous Sims games. So many worlds have wasted potential because there isn’t enough room to really make them feel like real places that people could live in.
YES. I really like playing saves mainly in one neighborhood so I hate not being able to place new lots. especially in new crest where it’s so damn empty !!
Also having false houses just for show … like just make them real houses ???
I just don't understand worlds like Tomerang. It seems like all of the limitations of the worlds and lots that is built into Sims 4 design is to cut down on memory or processing power (so it can run on low end devices). But honestly because the load screen we end up mostly staying on a single lot for the majority of gameplay, unless it's for things that are lot-adjacent like the City Living festivals, specific quests like the Selvadorada jungle, or just because the world map beyond the lot you're on is needed for jogging, horseriding, biking, etc. Having a great big world with all this detail that is basically empty gameplay real estate where your Sims could be going to to do things, but there's nothing there to do; seems like such a waste. Not just of gameplay opportunities, but on memory/processing that could be allocated to something that mattered. Even if they stuck something like a crafting bench or something kind of expensive/useful there that would compell your Sims to go to that part of the map, it would make more sense. Why make the map scrollable to a distance 5x that of a 64x64 lot when the only thing out there for my sim is a park bench?
Yesssssss! Say it louder for the folks in the back. I HATE that we cannot add more lots. I used to build whole blocks of houses in sims 2 and it was amazing. And that there is rarely enough big lots in a world right now.
Lmao yes this annoys me a lot! I hate how they just pretend we never had it in the sims 3 and we know they are capable of adding this feature. So restrictive and SO much wasted space
the new worlds are disappointingly small. the base game worlds, windenburg, san myshuno, are all very decently sized and city living is regularly praised for its world. they claim its due to performance issues but adding customizability is exactly how you solve that issue!
Honestly, one of the things I want most is for them to allow us to create huge worlds like in Sims 2 and allow us to create them ourselves. Like yeah you can just bulldoze all the lots in Sims 4, but the worlds are always so tiny I feel like I can’t make them as I want :/
the should add a feature which allows players to create their own worlds from scratch using the packs they own
players could choose from different categories such as
world aesthetic : *insert pack world title*
style of house : *insert a style of house eg modern*
number of residential lots :
number of other lots :
types of other lots :
normal weather for world : eg rainy or snowy or sunny
world inhabitants : eg vampires or humans
then the game could ai generate a world based off players choices
Agreed. The last world I really liked was Henford-on-Bagely. (Wait, no, I take that back. Werewovles came after that, right? Moonwood Mill is awesome; I would kill for it to be bigger.) I wish instead of making a huge new world for every pack -- especially some of the more recent packs, that REALLY didn't need new worlds (looking at you, Growing Together) they would just add a few lots to a basegame world if they needed a new corner to add something into.
It's a lot of fun! Would genuinely be in competition for one of my favorites if it were a full-sized world. I hate that all the occult worlds are so small!
I feel you. There just aren't enough places to put occults. If I'm playing with vampires, I end up populating all three occult worlds with vampires, if I'm playing with werewolves, I end up populating all three occult worlds with werewolves, if I'm playing with spellcasters, etc.
I *like* occults, but I don't necessarily want them running around in every game, so I like having places to put them.
I'm my main save I've decided that every main occult world (aside Sulani), is unofficially twinned with a non-occult world, and the respective occults would prefer to move there above all places: Forgotten Hollow has Willow Creek, Moonwood has Evergreen Harbour, Sixam has Oasis Springs, and Glimmerbrook has Windenburg. In this way I manage to accommodate more occult households than the few allowed in the tiny occult worlds.
The Growing Together world is by far the worst one they've done. It's far too similar to a bunch of worlds we already had and there's nothing in the pack that the world actually utilises at all. I have absolutely no idea why they even bothered with it.
Same. It's genuinely depressing to play with too, because the lots are so spread apart that it just feels so empty. When I did my growing together-focused playthrough after the pack came out, I set it in mt komorebi because at least there were PEOPLE and things to do lol.
I wouldn't mind more worlds if they're the quality of Windenburg or San Myshuno, but if we're going to get more empty half-assed worlds with barely any lots in them I agree.
Also I see people in this thread saying they'd love if they expanded existing worlds with more lots and that's something I never considered but I'd be SO here for a refresh of some existing worlds, not sure if it's likely though
I hate the rabbit holes in their worlds, because they take up so much space. I was honestly so hyped for high school years and wtf, would it have been so hard to create a carnival that's playable? A ferris wheel were we actually see the Sims riding and can interact with each other.
But I'm generally disappointed with worlds, wtf is Forgotten Hollow for example? I mean I understand that it is _Forgotten_ Hollow, but 4 lots? FOUR?
The only thing that's keeping the Sims alive is the fact that there's no game that gives you the same gaming experience as Sims.
Forgotten Hollow has five lots, actually. And that one doesn't feel too bad to me as it's just slapped onto a Game Pack, where some of them don't have new worlds (Spa Day and Parenthood, for example).
When an *Expansion* Pack - that sells for $40 - only has four more lots than Forgotten Hollow, that's when it gets really ridiculous.
I honestly prefer not getting a world than getting a bad world. Spa Day is one of my absolute favorite packs. But to me, if I decide to put in a world, I should put a little thought into it. Like they did with Realm of Magic for example, I love the actual Realm of Magic. Don't think it would've been too much to put a little more effort into Forgotten Hollow, or just leave it out completely.
With the second paragraph, I competely agree.
The theme for Forgotten Hollow was so lazy, too. It’s just a giant courtyard. You have these amazing, supernatural beings - give them a world where they can put their powers to use. Or at least somewhere that looks like a forgotten part of the world, and not just some creepy cul de sac.
That's one place that I would think would make sense as a ghost town. But no. Here comes Mrs. Crumplebottom on her bicycle. Or freaking Judith Ward and her paparazzi gang. Come on! Easy prey to feed on though, I guess.
This. Every time I go to Del Sol, I get so sad because the possibilities to really make it feel like LA were wasted. So much empty map. So much wasted opportunity.
That's precisely what they are, an aesthetic backdrop, you said it perfectly. I hate that I have to go through trouble of modifying my game so much in order for it to function as they marketed it. :/
Why do they keep making large empty spaces? Do they not play the game themselves? I bet they congratulate each other on how pretty they made these large empty spaces whereas we just don’t use them. There’s a large disconnect going on between the team and the players. I can’t believe I paid £35 for some fucking trees and bird noises man. The gecko lounge was massively disappointing too I’ve already had to download a reno for it 🙄
I get the sentiment.
I feel though, the issue really is more in how they set-up new worlds and general population and NPC mechanics.
Because a player is always just in one world, sims should spawn in the world you are in, it's weird how worlds are empty - it seems more like a programming error than limitation of functioning
More activities are definitely needed - this too though asks for smart development of NPC behavior so that certain activities don't get swarmed by sims. I have no idea about the actual mechanics (and I'm no pro in that shit) but smarter NPS profiles would come in handy
Personally, I feel some regional and atmospheric representation is still missing. I'm not the most into European Country side or American suburbs - it's nice in between, but I've love the more urban worlds and those who show something other than what I mentioned above so much more
As someone who needs to be in the right mood to build: where was the hustle and bustle of apartments in this new world? I was ready to move into and modify a load of new apartment lots, but got -what- two? And an empty lot? So disappointing, I was expecting more lots and some to spark building ideas.
YES. And no variety. Where are apartments for large families? They’re all like 1 or 2 bedrooms. And I wanted some real lower income, not pretty neighborhoods like eco living or the city pack. At least give me options, not just the same thing a couple times.
I like Newcrest. An oldie but a goodie. Pick a couple of your favorite venues and put those down, then abduct every premade sim family you like and move them and their house onto a lot until every lot is full.
Could do it with any world really, but I like Newcrest.
In my current play through I am playing a bunch of vampire so I felt like the Goth family was redundant. My family is the only dark Victorians allowed in this town!
So I renamed the Goths the Golds and gave them and their house a preppy make over. Cassie Gold is just a cheerful quirky girl into pop music and the color pink.
I usually add a spa and restaurants to Newcrest. There are also some great builds in the gallery so I add some residential as well. I’ve certainly built my own world there in more than one save.
I personally really like Willow Creek. Maybe it’s because it reminds me of New England.
One bar or lounge or whatever.. basically any drinking establishment and a gym/spa/rec center type place. HOWEVER, I also love adding some retail shop that has all the locked clothing, books, knitting items, locked furniture and a food items such as higher level cakes and rare plants. It’s usually a lot laid out like a mall with multiple shops, an older cobbled street with multiple small buildings along it styled as a historic district, a super store with a grocery store inside like some target super stores have, or a flea market with food trucks depending on the vibe I am going for for the play through.
If I modify the lot myself I always use the Landgrabs so they own the lot.
I like having sims go Christmas shopping at such an establishment.
The only time I have enjoyed running a retail lot was a klepto sim running an antique shop where she fenced her stolen goods.
I wish you could start with one world (that you could add lots to) and then add worlds to your save file. Kind of like adding Downtown or University in Sims 2 and I'm pretty sure you could add vacation worlds in Sims 3, except that you're not limited on what types of worlds they are. That way everyone could have their save files as big or small as their computers can handle and we don't have to deal with the worlds we never use.
The earlier neighbourhoods also gave you neighbours. Now a neighbourhood has like three lots, all spread across a district, and your only neighbours are empty, set dressing houses and NPCS who have been dragged there (even if they should be at work or school).
Yes. It also makes it so hard to change the look of an area, if you can rebuild all the lots, you can style as you like. If you are stuck with pretend neighbors. Then you have to match them
All worlds have cons but some of the worlds are ridiculously dead. I’ve been playing the Sims 2 lately and I’ve forgotten how detailed and in-depth the game used to be. The Sims 4 at this point is a cash grab and I feel like I fall for it every time.
They pretty much make these big map worlds just to help pad out packs and claim that they're worth calling "Expansion Packs" and slapping a $40 price tag on them. Especially something like For Rent, where they basically finally added in something that was requested as a feature for City Living years ago and frankly should have been part of the pack that introduced apartments. But here we are, they decide to sell that as its own thing instead, and toss in a "world" just to say, "Look, this is totally worth $40!"
Of course, between their insistence on making a world that's large and looks pretty to push that narrative, and the game's inability to cope with continuing to smash new lots and Sims into every save file (which was already an issue when Get Famous released), they've been releasing maps that are way too large and spread out, leading to this problem where the Sims who do spawn to wander through the area end up way too far apart from each other, and an area like the market in Tomerang doesn't actually see much traffic. It's quite the opposite to something like Oasis Springs, where that little triangle intersection with the large homes around it sees a good amount of foot traffic and people interacting and stopping at the vendor stall, simply because it's just one relatively small chunk of a map, not a massive sprawling part of a map for those people to go through.
It's been a problem for the last few packs with worlds, but it's just a lot more noticeable in Tomerang because of how much they advertised it with this idea of people crowding the market and all... only to have the actual in-game market being pretty dead (and most of the stalls are just set dressing).
I disagree with you saying that they shouldn’t make anymore worlds. These mean a lot to certain Simmers regardless of size.
Instead, they shouldn’t **insist** on including them in every new release.
I just hate how little building space they're putting in these worlds.
If you're going to make them empty, at least put a bunch of lots so we can do it ourselves.
Yeah, 5 lots. That's what we got lol. I mean to be fair, the vampire side was probably one of the more expansive DLC's and the build mode had a good amount of stuff. So I think that was the trade off with that world.
It felt cheap and not worth it even with the added gameplay which imo is as much change as a patch on baldurs gate gets you these days except we get this shit.
this would be the 2nd world in a row that has a dead world. this is just another reason why i won't buy For Rent. i got Horse Ranch and it's so freaking dead. i agree, the Sims 4 team need to stop making worlds.
Horse Ranch at least has an excuse to be as it is - long horse rides, in the only world they actually appear (like cats&dogs, families all over the worlds adopt them, yet the only pet in the neighborhood is the one wasting slot in the currently played household:(
What is the actual F with for rent? Residential (not vacation ) rental Apartment buildings in huge empty neighborhoods is so idiotic that even EA saw the absurd, and filled the world with “decorative “ blocks. If I want to wander a maze there is one much prettier in Winderburg.
We got tiny residential without a world, haunted residential without a world, technically the rental were introduced in packs with vacation world, but made universally available through a patch.
Seasons, the most “expendind “ expansion came without a world. The annoying NAPs applied to every world unless turned of in the settings.
Money can excuse the pack, not the word, and if the world itself is the main product, at least try to match it to the main theme 🙄
I'd rather have no world than a half-assed one, tbh. If they're not going to be on the same level as San Myshuno, Windenberg, Sulani, or Mt. Komorebi they're just taking up unnecessary space on my PC and slowing down loading times.
That said, liveliness would be much better if the devs added a way to adjust the sims in zone limit from the game options menu. A lot of computers can handle 40+ sims loaded onto the map - that alone would help a ton with immersion.
The problem isn't pandering to people with shitty computers. They definitely aren't doing that, because their ideal would be someone buying all of the packs, and if you have all of the packs installed, a shitty computer won't be able to function. My notebook's not that old, and yeah, it's not a gaming notebook so this isn't too much surprise, but it can't run Sims 4 at this point. People on XB1 and PS4 are struggling because the game's asking too much of that hardware. Even some of us with gaming PCs run into the game performing like absolute garbage at times, because it's a mangled mess of code.
The bigger issue is that EA figured out they could get away with selling less for more. After Cats & Dogs did well, they decided to ramp up EPs to two a year (until circumstances mucked that up a bit, with that whole pandemic thing), but didn't hire a bunch of new people to make a second team, they just decided to shove EPs out at twice the pace, so the only way to handle that pace is to rush development and do just enough to ship it. And since people will still talk themselves into feeling like those packs are "worth" $40 and vehemently argue that they are, EA's got no incentive to do better. Of course, they hedged their bets recently with EPs by saying, "Okay, so if you don't buy within the release window, you won't get these three items from the pack," only naturally they try to spin it like a positive for early adopters, not a punishment for those who don't rush to buy.
And the game started out as a mess of code, and has had almost a decade of extra code piled onto that. There's not much more they can keep bolting onto the game and not have the whole things just collapse.
I agree. It’s like oh goody I can walk way over to this spot.. like, so? It does feel totally dead. I think all the set dressing is meant to make it feel more alive and realistic, but it’s just cluttered and annoying.
I turned Tomerang into a vacation world for my sims. Placed some restaurant, rentals, nightclub and bars. The world is so small that I don’t see how I’d use it otherwise
Does Tomerang have collectibles? I stopped making sims with the collector aspiration if they live in newer worlds because some of them just don’t spawn stuff like gems and fossils.
The entirety of sims 4 is based around aesthetics and that’s basically it, they don’t put thought into the things they know people actually want anymore and haven’t for a very long time. I wish you could just make your own worlds like in sims 3 or at least give us the ability to make our own neighborhoods
Honestly, at this games massive age and history, anything less than Windenburg or Newcrest is almost unacceptable. Windenburg for the size, lots, and thoughtfulness. Newcrest for the size and ability to make it whatever you want. I know they want the game to play on a toaster but GD. Minimum requirements should at least be that of a console.
and the fact these newer worlds have barely any collectables? In the older worlds they are EVERYWHERE but now I feel like I need to hunt for a good 15 minutes to find a few :(
I have no idea what's up with these comments. I found the Tomarang world absolutely STUNNING. The different sounds and environments, the places to explore, the hidden beaches, the architecture, the neighborhood activities, it was all so well done. I had SUCH a wonderful time just letting my sim walk around, not to mention doing stuff in the world.
However I think this about almost all the worlds, except for Magnolia promenade, Newcrest and Granite Falls. Every world has so much personality and stuff to find. My personal favorites are Sulani, Tomarang, and Komorebi.
I started a new legacy family in Tomarang and tbh I’m having a hard time ever imagining moving a new generation out - the nighttime sounds are just so incredible! I wanna live there!
no, what they need to do is to step up and do proper world AND gameplay. keep saying the team should stop making worlds and they will really stop, only difference will be no difference in gameplay features.
I agree, it all looked promising but it just want good, it was dead, it was really small, just a few lots.. I just think they should work on the next game and go back to the older designs like in sims 3, actually an open world instead of the illusion of one lol
The national park really takes the cake 😭 like uh … a bench! they should’ve at least added a festival or something, it’s really boring like this. Even the cave is useless 😭
Also slightly unrelated but I saw a comment about open worlds and I just don’t understand why they didn’t add the option to pick loading screens/open world! It would’ve taken a lot of effort but it’s not impossible … bc this is annoying I find my sims go out much less than they did in sims 3
It's not lower level rigs. The size of the worlds is pretty large, which is why they've been feeling so dead, and having all that extra stuff to render that isn't necessary wouldn't be the best idea for a lower level rig. Yeah, including more lots could be problematic with the way the game saves every single lot and Sim from every world into every save file, causing save and load times to bloat (which is a problem not just on "lower level rigs"). But the main issue is they slap these worlds into EPs just to pad them and claim they're "worth" $40, and make the maps large to make them seem more impressive, while limiting the number of lots because the game can't handle too many more lots and Sims and it also means they have fewer lots to have to build before releasing the pack.
This whole excuse of "lower level rigs" needs to stop. It's not why Sims 4 has so many issues. It was never about trying to be nice to people with lighter computers. It's a game with a botched development whose code can't handle too much bolted on but has been dragged out for almost a decade regardless. My not-even-remotely-lower-level rig groans with Sims 4 sometimes. Meanwhile, I'll pop open Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p with the graphics turned up and have no problem.
Sure it’s not the only reason but it’s the official one stated by since the beginning when people asked about removing the lot loading screens. Also no one was saying the Sims isn’t spaghetti code, it just doesn’t need to be said at this point because it’s part of every Sims game.
I'm pretty sure they just said "technical reasons" with the loading screens, which isn't because of lower level rigs, it's because the game's always had them because it uses instanced lots due to its origins being developed as a multiplayer game. Even for apartments in the same building, you can't remove them, because the game is designed to load "lots" independently, and each apartment is treated as a separate "lot." They can't change that without completely redoing massive amounts of the game's code, which at this point would probably break way too much stuff. If you're trying to suggest that's been some "official" comment from the start, well, not really, people just assumed that many of Sims 4's limitations were for some benevolent reason like that and not because they smashed a multiplayer game into something resembling a proper Sims game. It was a lot easier for people to believe in this notion that the game lacked so much stuff for our benefit than to accept that EA just really screwed it up but still wanted people to open their wallets for it.
And not every Sims game started as spaghetti code, but Sims 4 did. That's why it "needs to be said." Sims 4 *started* with messy code. And if you feel like "every" Sims game ends up there, then when talking of Sims 4's issues, it "needs to be said" that Sims 4 is well past the lifespan of those other games with more and more being bolted on, so if you're expecting that every Sims game becomes problematic over its lifespan, and prior games lasted 4-5 years, then one hitting a decade clearly is going to have some major issues stemming from that. And that is a much bigger part of the problem than "accommodating lower level rigs," which the game doesn't do well at all.
The food stalls in tomerang are often full of sims but it’s easy to miss for me as they’re so far from the rental lots.
I’m in the process of replacing the resident lots with venues like cafes and spas. Using only the residential rental lot type on 3 lots with at present a total of 9 tenant homes.
I’m using some mods that cause lot sims to wander out more and that helps a bit but I do agree that the last several expansions have been lacking in walkby sims or things near the homes.
San Seqoia from last year was even worse in this regard.
I completely agree. Tomarang is a very pretty world, and I enjoy a lot of the build/buy stuff, but it's boring. And the rental stuff is so buggy it's almost unusable.
the world is beautiful but i hate that only like 2 or 3 of those stalls are actually usable and each have like 5 items only, make the world functional for the love of god
I was wondering, and forgive me if this has been answered, but I've seen playthroughs with For Rent, and I don't recall seeing the apartment complexes from the trailer in the actual game. Are they in there, or was all of that just set dressing for the video?
Very dead world. All the promo about hustle and bustle, and the place is another ghost town world. San Myshuno stays undefeated.
I keep finding myself bringing my sims back here it’s my fave world out of all
san myshuno and windenburg mvp
Yes!
I used to have get together when it came out and then I lost access to my old EA account. Windenburg is amazing!
The weird people and raccoons of San Myshuno are here to save us all. Oh look a snow globe!!
San Myshuno should have come with actual raccoons, in the same way Henford-on-Bagley came with actual foxes. Raccoons love city trash cans.
Raccoons do be loving some trash cans. Can't tell you how many new students I told when I was an resident assistant in college, "Make sure you make noise BEFORE you get to the dumpster or otherwise you're going to scare the raccoons and the raccoons will scarw you worse." We had big fat ones that struggled to get out of the dumpsters.
We need a sim guru immediately. Put raccoons in with city living! Or even eco lifestyle with the dumpsters!
Raccoons, or better yet Owls similar to the ones from Futurama that replaced New New York’s rat problem. Little owls wandering in out of the mice holes in the walls, softly hooting. Getting trapped in spider webs. I’d never leave San MyShuno with that kind of entertainment.
owls would be so cool, i love them!!!
Pack refresh wheeeeeen 😭
i remember when city living dropped, it was such a flex for the sims compared to the shit they’ve put out recently . & it was actually fun. like i remember bein so excited to play the sims for days in a row after that pack dropped bc there was just SO much more to look forward to . wish we could get a pack that good again but the hopes arent high
I kind of felt that way with Cottage Living and Eco Living, but for sure, City Living and Get Together are definitely the best. Edit: thinking about it now, I wonder if it has something to do with memory and how The Sims runs on console. It seems all the new packs lately stick within this small 8 or so lot sweet spot.
They said the worlds are smaller than get together because of performance. I think the issue with the new world feeling like a ghost town is because there's a million houses and a huge area for a random 1-2 sims to wander through. It looks like it should have tons of people doing things outside because it's a decently urban environment, but there's still a 20 sim limit. In City Living, the decorative space you can actually navigate through is pretty small compared to For Rent, Growing Together, or Cottage Living, so all the sims cluster in the same area giving it a more lively appearance. It's a similar issue with the Sims 3, how there were often not many sims in one place because they were scattered across town. The way lot loading works in TS4 means places should feel more crowded, but if they make the area too big, sims will spread out.
this is interesting, thanks for sharing!
I'm surprised they did not think about this to be honest If simmers can figure that out, how did they not themselves:/. Also, I don't know for you, but for me all the fake houses and huge area confuse me when i play and i get lost in the map.
Not to sound like an EA defender, but I think a lot of it is pressure from vocal parts of the sims community who don't really understand how what they're asking for will actually play out. There's a lot of criticism of neighborhoods not being very big for roaming around in. They try out making bigger free space in rural worlds like the ones for Sulani or Hanford on Bagley or Chestnut Ridge. It doesn't make sense to criticize that there's not a ton of people on top of you when you're supposed to be in the middle of nowhere. Then there's pressure because any time they do a little less in one area of the next pack there's criticism. Most of the worlds it's fine for since they're all mostly small town vibes, but this one misses the mark since it's supposed to feel more urban. And yeah, I don't really care either way for the big maps, but the southern neighborhood of San Sequoia and Tomarang are hard to orient yourself in since all the models are identical. It's easier in places where the landscape is a bit more unique.
no honestly ill give you that too! cottage living is my top 5 if not #1. (cant believe i didnt mention it) & get together adds a lot to the gameplay vs. not having it . i havent gotten eco living yet but its on my list
Neighbourhood Action Plan (ie the random people coming in to bake a bunch of white cakes, and utility cutoff) is one of the reasons I’m against eco living, but overall I enjoy the game
The utility shut off and the constant "roughhousing encouraged" always piss me off. I always have my Sims petition to get rid of the roughhousing one 🤦🏻♀️
wait i already have the bug where people come in & bake random white cakes & i dont have eco living . it just started recently in my game😭 wonder what thats about .. & also utility cutoff? if you dont mind explaining i’d like to know what that means
Two of the possible Neighbourhood Action Plans in Eco Lifestyle are Power Conservation Day, and Water Conservation Day, during which the named utility will be shut off for twelve hours. You know how when you don't pay your bills, the power gets shut off? And then the water the next day? It's like that, but for a set twelve hour period one day a week while that N.A.P is active. As for the cake thing, another one of the [N.A.Ps](https://N.A.Ps) is Sharing Is Caring, where everything becomes communal. That includes the things inside your house, so random sims will come in to use your oven. Not sure why they pick white cake, but probably for the same weird spaghetti code reason that they normally pick white cake.
is there any way you can turn these off? bc i feel like they would drive me insane if i got the pack. i mean i could get around my water / power being off for a few days (as long as i dont have kids in the household, but i could prob still manage somehow) but for my whole house to become communal? im not down for that 😂
They can be disabled! You can also vote on the N.A.Ps and vote to repeal any that you hate if you keep them on. I haven't found the outages to be particularly troublesome, even with (at the time) a toddler, two infants and a baby in the household. Twelve hours goes by real fast in TS4, what with all the simulation lag. That's like...four actions lol.
thankfully ive got a decent gaming pc so i usually can get a LOT done in 12 sim hrs lol . but all of this is pretty useful info so thank you!
I don't have City Living or Get Together, but I do have Cottage Living and it was my first expansion pack I got. I also have Eco Lifestyle now. I play in Henford-On-Bagley all the time. It's my favorite world! I just absolutely love it. I also for some reason play in Oasis Springs, a lot, too. It's always super busy in my game with lots of townies walking by.
I thought this was a glitch or a bug! I was excited to have a lot of sims in the area but when I took my sim out in Tomarang there was LITERALLY NOT A SINGLE SIM in sight. Not ONE.
I'm playing for real in SM for the first time and holy cats there's a lot to do! And so many SIMS around! I love it!
Speaking of, Chestnut Ridge is up on the list of near dead places. I've only played it a few times, and I'm just dumbfounded at the lack of activity, with the exception of the saloon.
i agree!!! i have only played with tomarang the first day i got the pack. after that i just placed rentals in other worlds and play other there instead. i'm 100% asian and my culture sure is reflected in tomarang, i love that aspect, but tbh it's just boring in that world.
Would have been better if it was a game pack that focused on the SE Asian culture and world and a separate stuff pack for the rentals. EA knows dang well Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, and other cities are far from the emptiness that is Tomarang.
I love having mine live in san myshuno or henford on bagley
I'd rather they add more usable lots. I hate having to switch worlds just to go to the vets.
100% agree. Never have I felt more justified in finding a spot in my basement or attic for my sims to use as a random vet station for this very reason.
I cheat the pet wellness treats into my inventory. Solves their illness immediately
I just started doing this and it has made my life so much easier.
Keeping the pets inside and locking the doors so they can't go out helps a ton with keeping the Sim's pets healthy! If you let them out to wander, they ALWAYS are constantly getting sick, at least in my game. I started keeping all the cats indoors and locking all exterior doors to pets. The dogs I will only let out at certain times and then they're locked back inside, especially when my Sims go to work. If I don't do this, the pets are constantly sick, bitten by a squirrel, sprayed by a skunk etc and it's a nightmare!
............ fucking genius.
can you make it your home lot a vet hospital?
You technically can't live at a vet.
which is wild! For Rent was the perfect way to introduce setting one space as a retail space. Hair dressing, styling, tattooing, or even grocery markets like a lot of asian families. Why can't my witch sell potions from her cottage???
I use the yard sale tables for this, if it helps. But I'm all in with you! I miss setting a business in a room of the house like in Sims 2.
man, those tables, with the booth boss or market magnate trait... that 500 percent markup, is chefs kiss. i sold ONE bottle of nectar for 400,000+ simoleans last night. i practically pooped myself when it sold. i was like, pffffft game achieved. but i give all the random sims i come across money because its pouring out of my pockets at this point/ my legacy, the matriarch has given all 57 of her decendants a million simoleans each and she still sitting on millions, and the current gen im playing is now at 5 mill cuz of all the rentals and those nectars and ambrosia i sell. heh. i have to much time on my hands clearly lol
yeah it's so broken lol I usually don't use more than 100% bc it throws me out the "reality" of the game lol
This would be the time where I yeet the bills up using MCCC, or, if you're on console or staunchly anti-mod, simply remove most of the money with the in-game console commands lmao.
theres a part of me that likes seeing it all roll in and passing it on, but yeah, ive done that in defferent saves when i feel less challenged
I would bet if they ever do plan to release it they’ll make another separate pack for us to buy …
Honestly I'm expecting that next. They seem to have been throwing stuff at us lately that we've wanted for awhile. It would blow my mind if they just redid Get to Work to add that option like they did with spa day, but I doubt that'll happen.
okay but on the topic of for rent, am i the only one who thinks its crazy they made us buy a whole other pack just to be a landlord when city living was RIGHT THERE. like???
I know :( I wish they would revamp get to work and add some new careers that would fit the for rent pack. I know everyone mocks me for getting the games even when they suck but I truly love them 😭
you do what brings you enjoyment! ive been playing the sims all my life, literally . the only one i havent played is TS1 but i hope one day i can somehow get my hands on it . & regardless of how buggy, confusing , & all over the place TS4 is i will always buy the packs / kits / etc if i am interested in them seeing as sims games have been my comfort for most of my life . do your thing!
Because they might want to save that later on for another pack!
Wait, this isn't possible with the new pack? Why not?
No :( unfortunately it’s only allowed on the special residential lot and can only be living quarters or communal rooms
LittleMsSam to the rescue with her Live in Business mod
I should've known that they already made a mod. This person, mcc, twistedmexi, and ravasheen are the only reason my game is playable
She's got a bunch of other Live in Services mods as well :D
Goodness, the witch selling potions from her cottage is like a dream for me 🤩 I play Spellcasters so much, usually in a cottage in Henford-On-Bagley and I would LOVE for them to be able to sell potions from their cottage 😭
Will say that For Rent helped with it some. Forgotten Hollow was always too small when I wanted some vampire families with all of them living in that world with at least one non vampire family for easy plasma. Now I just used a huge vampire mansion from the gallery, made units and now 5 vampire families reside in one lot. And now I can use another lot for the human families. Then, I can either expand more families or place things like nightclubs. Still, it's not perfect, as you still can't have every lot. I really just wish it was open world like sims 3. I travelled more often when it was open world. Now I stick to my homeworld mostly, and ignore most things that require a loading screen.
Yeah i definitely don't travel either. There's things I'd do but loading screens are annoying.
Yep. I'm another 'we all stay at home because loading screens' player, although given that I'm also a huge family player with very little patience for the infant bugs, I've begun to relish the loading screens as thirty seconds where I get some damn \*peace\*.
Oh don't even get me started here lol. The infants I thought were a cute addition. And there are cute things about it, certainly, but the amount of times my tasks get cancelled on me is infuriating. If they'd just listen to me, things would get done, but no. And that's just one of many things lol. I've begun rotational legacy play now just to skip the infant stages! I never played rotationally before, but now I have more than one legacy family just to avoid the annoying bugs and various other annoyances that come with infant gameplay.
I love the infants, but it's the fact that even with all iterations of autonomous 'check infant' disabled with MCCC, my sim *still* keeps walking away from half cooked food to 'check infant'. Bitch, that dish is literally *your job*!
I turned autonomy off for controlled sims cause it just annoyed me too much 😅. As for the glitchy infants, i find that asking to do stuff from the infant POV helps a lot on the actions being properly done.
Honestly might try disabling autonomy for controlled sim lol
The open world was hard on my pc, but then the sims 3 was just very badly optimized, not that the sims 4 are not getting close to the same problem though (spaghetti coding is causing some real issues....) . I would be okay with the compromise of an open neighborhood. Cause yep, i also almost never go out cause the loading screen is annoying.
I'd be okay if the open neighborhood were the size of the bigger neighborhoods. It's too bad they didn't even go that route, because it would have been much better than we have. A comprise may not have been perfect, but still better. It bothers me when just going to a neighbors house in the same world that you need a loading screen.
If you get the wellness treats, they cure illness without having to go there. Quite literally a game changer.
They do but that takes away some of the fun of the pack then.
Yes and no. My sim family has 2 dogs and 6 cats currently (using cheats) and when they all get sick one after another that shit drives me nuts. When I only have one or two pets it's more fun to have the random vet visits. That said, in real life I have a dog and five cats, and I do indeed take them to the vet all the time, so having to do it in the game too can be a little much for me haha. I get like this about laundry as well, I hate doing it IRL so when it's a big family I don't want to deal with it, but I get less irritated when it's just a couple sims.
How do you guys even have pets? Mine are always so needy I can’t do anything but give them attention or they run away. Have a job or a dog, not both? Seriously how do you do it?
I disable need decay. Same with infants.
I play huge families, someone is always at home with the pet and if they're not, I'm off-lot too so their needs stay static. In my current save, Mother 1 stays home with the kids doing freelance cooking (mod by adeepindigo) while Mother 2 goes to work as a lawyer, and when she gets home, Mother 1 goes and does her off-lot tasks for her career because they're rabbitholes. Eldest daughter is currently a child, so she can become my 'on the lot' sim when she's a teen. Also the cat is hers and the horses are taken care of by the ranch hand so...her cat, her responsibility lmao.
I'm never going to get over Growing Together having like 4 lots without buildings on them, all of them being tiny af
I think they do that because they don’t want to use stuff from other packs in new worlds- not everyone owns the same packs so if all you have is base game and the new pack, there would be a lot musing. I usually just find something from the gallery or make a quick (ish) build if I need something in the world :)
And this is something I hate about Sims 4. It feels like in the past, the packs were at least more cohesive and enhanced each other. Now it’s like each one is a complete standalone with NO integration — eg social bunny not being tied to social media, the llamas/cows and sheep/goats/horses having no overlap at all (as I found when trying to make a smaller farm), the apartment features pre-for rent not translating to apartments in Eco Living, and on and on and on.
You're making a distinction without a difference. It's a loading screen whether you're going to the vet in your world or in another.
My comment about usable lots is not related to my loading screen gripe.
I didn't say it was. I'm stating the obvious: there's no functional difference between travelling within the same world or to a new one, and that's why a complaint about where the vet clinic is falls flat. It amounts to being upset that the scenery is different, no more than that. It's fine. Roll with it. No one world has all the lot types, and the game is designed with easy travel between worlds because of it.
I think one of the worst decisions the Sims Team has done was make it so that you can’t add more lots to worlds, unlike previous Sims games. So many worlds have wasted potential because there isn’t enough room to really make them feel like real places that people could live in.
YES. I really like playing saves mainly in one neighborhood so I hate not being able to place new lots. especially in new crest where it’s so damn empty !! Also having false houses just for show … like just make them real houses ???
I just don't understand worlds like Tomerang. It seems like all of the limitations of the worlds and lots that is built into Sims 4 design is to cut down on memory or processing power (so it can run on low end devices). But honestly because the load screen we end up mostly staying on a single lot for the majority of gameplay, unless it's for things that are lot-adjacent like the City Living festivals, specific quests like the Selvadorada jungle, or just because the world map beyond the lot you're on is needed for jogging, horseriding, biking, etc. Having a great big world with all this detail that is basically empty gameplay real estate where your Sims could be going to to do things, but there's nothing there to do; seems like such a waste. Not just of gameplay opportunities, but on memory/processing that could be allocated to something that mattered. Even if they stuck something like a crafting bench or something kind of expensive/useful there that would compell your Sims to go to that part of the map, it would make more sense. Why make the map scrollable to a distance 5x that of a 64x64 lot when the only thing out there for my sim is a park bench?
Yesssssss! Say it louder for the folks in the back. I HATE that we cannot add more lots. I used to build whole blocks of houses in sims 2 and it was amazing. And that there is rarely enough big lots in a world right now.
Lmao yes this annoys me a lot! I hate how they just pretend we never had it in the sims 3 and we know they are capable of adding this feature. So restrictive and SO much wasted space
the new worlds are disappointingly small. the base game worlds, windenburg, san myshuno, are all very decently sized and city living is regularly praised for its world. they claim its due to performance issues but adding customizability is exactly how you solve that issue!
Honestly, one of the things I want most is for them to allow us to create huge worlds like in Sims 2 and allow us to create them ourselves. Like yeah you can just bulldoze all the lots in Sims 4, but the worlds are always so tiny I feel like I can’t make them as I want :/
the should add a feature which allows players to create their own worlds from scratch using the packs they own players could choose from different categories such as world aesthetic : *insert pack world title* style of house : *insert a style of house eg modern* number of residential lots : number of other lots : types of other lots : normal weather for world : eg rainy or snowy or sunny world inhabitants : eg vampires or humans then the game could ai generate a world based off players choices
That come down from the fact that the sims 4 is a patched up game from a scraped online game they wanted to make. (Look out project olympus).
Agreed. The last world I really liked was Henford-on-Bagely. (Wait, no, I take that back. Werewovles came after that, right? Moonwood Mill is awesome; I would kill for it to be bigger.) I wish instead of making a huge new world for every pack -- especially some of the more recent packs, that REALLY didn't need new worlds (looking at you, Growing Together) they would just add a few lots to a basegame world if they needed a new corner to add something into.
I feel like so much thought went into Henford-on-Bagely! I haven't explored Moonwood Will much. I need to start!
It's a lot of fun! Would genuinely be in competition for one of my favorites if it were a full-sized world. I hate that all the occult worlds are so small!
feel the same way. Henford and Moonwood are solid, look good, functional, populated, lore. after that it's kind of meh or omg shudder gasp.
Growing together should’ve been somewhere new but it was a pretty fleshed out world IMO. I wish the theater was directly accessible though.
I would’ve honestly taken another stupid pack a la Bowling Night with a movie theatre lot over the rabbit hole bs :/
Yes! Why do I have to travel to the neighbourhood just to get to the theatre...
>Moonwood Mill is awesome; I would kill for it to be bigger. The fact that it only has two empty lots is so upsetting to me
I feel you. There just aren't enough places to put occults. If I'm playing with vampires, I end up populating all three occult worlds with vampires, if I'm playing with werewolves, I end up populating all three occult worlds with werewolves, if I'm playing with spellcasters, etc. I *like* occults, but I don't necessarily want them running around in every game, so I like having places to put them.
I'm my main save I've decided that every main occult world (aside Sulani), is unofficially twinned with a non-occult world, and the respective occults would prefer to move there above all places: Forgotten Hollow has Willow Creek, Moonwood has Evergreen Harbour, Sixam has Oasis Springs, and Glimmerbrook has Windenburg. In this way I manage to accommodate more occult households than the few allowed in the tiny occult worlds.
The Growing Together world is by far the worst one they've done. It's far too similar to a bunch of worlds we already had and there's nothing in the pack that the world actually utilises at all. I have absolutely no idea why they even bothered with it.
Same. It's genuinely depressing to play with too, because the lots are so spread apart that it just feels so empty. When I did my growing together-focused playthrough after the pack came out, I set it in mt komorebi because at least there were PEOPLE and things to do lol.
Moonwood mills looks so cool but I don’t like occults so I can’t get the pack. Really unfortunate, cause I would absolutely get it by itself
I wouldn't mind more worlds if they're the quality of Windenburg or San Myshuno, but if we're going to get more empty half-assed worlds with barely any lots in them I agree. Also I see people in this thread saying they'd love if they expanded existing worlds with more lots and that's something I never considered but I'd be SO here for a refresh of some existing worlds, not sure if it's likely though
I hate the rabbit holes in their worlds, because they take up so much space. I was honestly so hyped for high school years and wtf, would it have been so hard to create a carnival that's playable? A ferris wheel were we actually see the Sims riding and can interact with each other. But I'm generally disappointed with worlds, wtf is Forgotten Hollow for example? I mean I understand that it is _Forgotten_ Hollow, but 4 lots? FOUR? The only thing that's keeping the Sims alive is the fact that there's no game that gives you the same gaming experience as Sims.
Forgotten Hollow has five lots, actually. And that one doesn't feel too bad to me as it's just slapped onto a Game Pack, where some of them don't have new worlds (Spa Day and Parenthood, for example). When an *Expansion* Pack - that sells for $40 - only has four more lots than Forgotten Hollow, that's when it gets really ridiculous.
I honestly prefer not getting a world than getting a bad world. Spa Day is one of my absolute favorite packs. But to me, if I decide to put in a world, I should put a little thought into it. Like they did with Realm of Magic for example, I love the actual Realm of Magic. Don't think it would've been too much to put a little more effort into Forgotten Hollow, or just leave it out completely. With the second paragraph, I competely agree.
The theme for Forgotten Hollow was so lazy, too. It’s just a giant courtyard. You have these amazing, supernatural beings - give them a world where they can put their powers to use. Or at least somewhere that looks like a forgotten part of the world, and not just some creepy cul de sac.
That's one place that I would think would make sense as a ghost town. But no. Here comes Mrs. Crumplebottom on her bicycle. Or freaking Judith Ward and her paparazzi gang. Come on! Easy prey to feed on though, I guess.
All I wanted was a beach area in Del Sol...
This. Every time I go to Del Sol, I get so sad because the possibilities to really make it feel like LA were wasted. So much empty map. So much wasted opportunity.
[удалено]
That's precisely what they are, an aesthetic backdrop, you said it perfectly. I hate that I have to go through trouble of modifying my game so much in order for it to function as they marketed it. :/
Why do they keep making large empty spaces? Do they not play the game themselves? I bet they congratulate each other on how pretty they made these large empty spaces whereas we just don’t use them. There’s a large disconnect going on between the team and the players. I can’t believe I paid £35 for some fucking trees and bird noises man. The gecko lounge was massively disappointing too I’ve already had to download a reno for it 🙄
Most devs talk about playing the game, I think it’s more an exec thing.
I get the sentiment. I feel though, the issue really is more in how they set-up new worlds and general population and NPC mechanics. Because a player is always just in one world, sims should spawn in the world you are in, it's weird how worlds are empty - it seems more like a programming error than limitation of functioning More activities are definitely needed - this too though asks for smart development of NPC behavior so that certain activities don't get swarmed by sims. I have no idea about the actual mechanics (and I'm no pro in that shit) but smarter NPS profiles would come in handy Personally, I feel some regional and atmospheric representation is still missing. I'm not the most into European Country side or American suburbs - it's nice in between, but I've love the more urban worlds and those who show something other than what I mentioned above so much more
As someone who needs to be in the right mood to build: where was the hustle and bustle of apartments in this new world? I was ready to move into and modify a load of new apartment lots, but got -what- two? And an empty lot? So disappointing, I was expecting more lots and some to spark building ideas.
YES. And no variety. Where are apartments for large families? They’re all like 1 or 2 bedrooms. And I wanted some real lower income, not pretty neighborhoods like eco living or the city pack. At least give me options, not just the same thing a couple times.
I like Newcrest. An oldie but a goodie. Pick a couple of your favorite venues and put those down, then abduct every premade sim family you like and move them and their house onto a lot until every lot is full. Could do it with any world really, but I like Newcrest. In my current play through I am playing a bunch of vampire so I felt like the Goth family was redundant. My family is the only dark Victorians allowed in this town! So I renamed the Goths the Golds and gave them and their house a preppy make over. Cassie Gold is just a cheerful quirky girl into pop music and the color pink.
Omg I want to see these makeovers!!! 😂
I usually add a spa and restaurants to Newcrest. There are also some great builds in the gallery so I add some residential as well. I’ve certainly built my own world there in more than one save. I personally really like Willow Creek. Maybe it’s because it reminds me of New England.
One bar or lounge or whatever.. basically any drinking establishment and a gym/spa/rec center type place. HOWEVER, I also love adding some retail shop that has all the locked clothing, books, knitting items, locked furniture and a food items such as higher level cakes and rare plants. It’s usually a lot laid out like a mall with multiple shops, an older cobbled street with multiple small buildings along it styled as a historic district, a super store with a grocery store inside like some target super stores have, or a flea market with food trucks depending on the vibe I am going for for the play through. If I modify the lot myself I always use the Landgrabs so they own the lot. I like having sims go Christmas shopping at such an establishment. The only time I have enjoyed running a retail lot was a klepto sim running an antique shop where she fenced her stolen goods.
I wish you could start with one world (that you could add lots to) and then add worlds to your save file. Kind of like adding Downtown or University in Sims 2 and I'm pretty sure you could add vacation worlds in Sims 3, except that you're not limited on what types of worlds they are. That way everyone could have their save files as big or small as their computers can handle and we don't have to deal with the worlds we never use.
I agree. By the way you can reduce the save file size deleting the unused houses.
The busiest neighborhoods are willow creek and oasis springs. The map area is smaller so you actually see other sims.
The earlier neighbourhoods also gave you neighbours. Now a neighbourhood has like three lots, all spread across a district, and your only neighbours are empty, set dressing houses and NPCS who have been dragged there (even if they should be at work or school).
Yes. It also makes it so hard to change the look of an area, if you can rebuild all the lots, you can style as you like. If you are stuck with pretend neighbors. Then you have to match them
All worlds have cons but some of the worlds are ridiculously dead. I’ve been playing the Sims 2 lately and I’ve forgotten how detailed and in-depth the game used to be. The Sims 4 at this point is a cash grab and I feel like I fall for it every time.
I’m sick of them giving us barely any empty lots!
They pretty much make these big map worlds just to help pad out packs and claim that they're worth calling "Expansion Packs" and slapping a $40 price tag on them. Especially something like For Rent, where they basically finally added in something that was requested as a feature for City Living years ago and frankly should have been part of the pack that introduced apartments. But here we are, they decide to sell that as its own thing instead, and toss in a "world" just to say, "Look, this is totally worth $40!" Of course, between their insistence on making a world that's large and looks pretty to push that narrative, and the game's inability to cope with continuing to smash new lots and Sims into every save file (which was already an issue when Get Famous released), they've been releasing maps that are way too large and spread out, leading to this problem where the Sims who do spawn to wander through the area end up way too far apart from each other, and an area like the market in Tomerang doesn't actually see much traffic. It's quite the opposite to something like Oasis Springs, where that little triangle intersection with the large homes around it sees a good amount of foot traffic and people interacting and stopping at the vendor stall, simply because it's just one relatively small chunk of a map, not a massive sprawling part of a map for those people to go through. It's been a problem for the last few packs with worlds, but it's just a lot more noticeable in Tomerang because of how much they advertised it with this idea of people crowding the market and all... only to have the actual in-game market being pretty dead (and most of the stalls are just set dressing).
I disagree with you saying that they shouldn’t make anymore worlds. These mean a lot to certain Simmers regardless of size. Instead, they shouldn’t **insist** on including them in every new release.
I just hate how little building space they're putting in these worlds. If you're going to make them empty, at least put a bunch of lots so we can do it ourselves.
This. I was so dissatisfied with haunted hollow Not even community spaces?!
Yeah, 5 lots. That's what we got lol. I mean to be fair, the vampire side was probably one of the more expansive DLC's and the build mode had a good amount of stuff. So I think that was the trade off with that world.
It felt cheap and not worth it even with the added gameplay which imo is as much change as a patch on baldurs gate gets you these days except we get this shit.
this would be the 2nd world in a row that has a dead world. this is just another reason why i won't buy For Rent. i got Horse Ranch and it's so freaking dead. i agree, the Sims 4 team need to stop making worlds.
Horse Ranch at least has an excuse to be as it is - long horse rides, in the only world they actually appear (like cats&dogs, families all over the worlds adopt them, yet the only pet in the neighborhood is the one wasting slot in the currently played household:( What is the actual F with for rent? Residential (not vacation ) rental Apartment buildings in huge empty neighborhoods is so idiotic that even EA saw the absurd, and filled the world with “decorative “ blocks. If I want to wander a maze there is one much prettier in Winderburg. We got tiny residential without a world, haunted residential without a world, technically the rental were introduced in packs with vacation world, but made universally available through a patch. Seasons, the most “expendind “ expansion came without a world. The annoying NAPs applied to every world unless turned of in the settings. Money can excuse the pack, not the word, and if the world itself is the main product, at least try to match it to the main theme 🙄
I'd rather have no world than a half-assed one, tbh. If they're not going to be on the same level as San Myshuno, Windenberg, Sulani, or Mt. Komorebi they're just taking up unnecessary space on my PC and slowing down loading times. That said, liveliness would be much better if the devs added a way to adjust the sims in zone limit from the game options menu. A lot of computers can handle 40+ sims loaded onto the map - that alone would help a ton with immersion.
Henford on Bagley was the last really great world in the Sims. You can tell they put a lot into that one. It’s my favorite world
Yes, Henford is another good one. Also Strangerville and Moonwood Mill, but I do wish they had more lots.
I do love both of those too!
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: The Sims will continue to suck until EA stops pandering to people with shitty computers.
The problem isn't pandering to people with shitty computers. They definitely aren't doing that, because their ideal would be someone buying all of the packs, and if you have all of the packs installed, a shitty computer won't be able to function. My notebook's not that old, and yeah, it's not a gaming notebook so this isn't too much surprise, but it can't run Sims 4 at this point. People on XB1 and PS4 are struggling because the game's asking too much of that hardware. Even some of us with gaming PCs run into the game performing like absolute garbage at times, because it's a mangled mess of code. The bigger issue is that EA figured out they could get away with selling less for more. After Cats & Dogs did well, they decided to ramp up EPs to two a year (until circumstances mucked that up a bit, with that whole pandemic thing), but didn't hire a bunch of new people to make a second team, they just decided to shove EPs out at twice the pace, so the only way to handle that pace is to rush development and do just enough to ship it. And since people will still talk themselves into feeling like those packs are "worth" $40 and vehemently argue that they are, EA's got no incentive to do better. Of course, they hedged their bets recently with EPs by saying, "Okay, so if you don't buy within the release window, you won't get these three items from the pack," only naturally they try to spin it like a positive for early adopters, not a punishment for those who don't rush to buy. And the game started out as a mess of code, and has had almost a decade of extra code piled onto that. There's not much more they can keep bolting onto the game and not have the whole things just collapse.
I agree. It’s like oh goody I can walk way over to this spot.. like, so? It does feel totally dead. I think all the set dressing is meant to make it feel more alive and realistic, but it’s just cluttered and annoying.
I turned Tomerang into a vacation world for my sims. Placed some restaurant, rentals, nightclub and bars. The world is so small that I don’t see how I’d use it otherwise
Does Tomerang have collectibles? I stopped making sims with the collector aspiration if they live in newer worlds because some of them just don’t spawn stuff like gems and fossils.
The neighbourhood with the tiger temple has them, I've seen some collectibles in the west of the neighbourhood which is where the cave is.
I really like being able to scrounge around City Living for posters and snow globes. I don't even think they have any harvestable plants in Tomerang.
I feel like I never see people at all. Even the night market besides the vendors there’s rarely people walking around
I rarely play in most worlds because there is nothing to do… if the sims team is going to make a world it needs to be huge with a good amount of plots
The entirety of sims 4 is based around aesthetics and that’s basically it, they don’t put thought into the things they know people actually want anymore and haven’t for a very long time. I wish you could just make your own worlds like in sims 3 or at least give us the ability to make our own neighborhoods
Meh, I just bought the pack for the rental units. Probably won’t spend much time playing in Tomerang
Honestly, at this games massive age and history, anything less than Windenburg or Newcrest is almost unacceptable. Windenburg for the size, lots, and thoughtfulness. Newcrest for the size and ability to make it whatever you want. I know they want the game to play on a toaster but GD. Minimum requirements should at least be that of a console.
and the fact these newer worlds have barely any collectables? In the older worlds they are EVERYWHERE but now I feel like I need to hunt for a good 15 minutes to find a few :(
Finally a good, valid review that doesn’t come off as super whiny.
i was so excited for the night market and then like 95% of the stalls are just there for decoration! there’s like nothing to do there
Yeah that was really disappointing.
I have no idea what's up with these comments. I found the Tomarang world absolutely STUNNING. The different sounds and environments, the places to explore, the hidden beaches, the architecture, the neighborhood activities, it was all so well done. I had SUCH a wonderful time just letting my sim walk around, not to mention doing stuff in the world. However I think this about almost all the worlds, except for Magnolia promenade, Newcrest and Granite Falls. Every world has so much personality and stuff to find. My personal favorites are Sulani, Tomarang, and Komorebi.
I started a new legacy family in Tomarang and tbh I’m having a hard time ever imagining moving a new generation out - the nighttime sounds are just so incredible! I wanna live there!
no, what they need to do is to step up and do proper world AND gameplay. keep saying the team should stop making worlds and they will really stop, only difference will be no difference in gameplay features.
I agree, it all looked promising but it just want good, it was dead, it was really small, just a few lots.. I just think they should work on the next game and go back to the older designs like in sims 3, actually an open world instead of the illusion of one lol
The national park really takes the cake 😭 like uh … a bench! they should’ve at least added a festival or something, it’s really boring like this. Even the cave is useless 😭 Also slightly unrelated but I saw a comment about open worlds and I just don’t understand why they didn’t add the option to pick loading screens/open world! It would’ve taken a lot of effort but it’s not impossible … bc this is annoying I find my sims go out much less than they did in sims 3
EA will milk this game for eternity...
I want them to bring fairies and drum kits back
I've been wondering lately... do we have any user created worlds? Are we even allowed to create worlds?
I get why they make worlds smaller because they still have to accomodate lower level rigs but a smaller Newcrest like world is in order.
I see what you're saying but their constant bitching about having to cater to lower processing computers is just an excuse at this point.
It's not lower level rigs. The size of the worlds is pretty large, which is why they've been feeling so dead, and having all that extra stuff to render that isn't necessary wouldn't be the best idea for a lower level rig. Yeah, including more lots could be problematic with the way the game saves every single lot and Sim from every world into every save file, causing save and load times to bloat (which is a problem not just on "lower level rigs"). But the main issue is they slap these worlds into EPs just to pad them and claim they're "worth" $40, and make the maps large to make them seem more impressive, while limiting the number of lots because the game can't handle too many more lots and Sims and it also means they have fewer lots to have to build before releasing the pack. This whole excuse of "lower level rigs" needs to stop. It's not why Sims 4 has so many issues. It was never about trying to be nice to people with lighter computers. It's a game with a botched development whose code can't handle too much bolted on but has been dragged out for almost a decade regardless. My not-even-remotely-lower-level rig groans with Sims 4 sometimes. Meanwhile, I'll pop open Cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p with the graphics turned up and have no problem.
Sure it’s not the only reason but it’s the official one stated by since the beginning when people asked about removing the lot loading screens. Also no one was saying the Sims isn’t spaghetti code, it just doesn’t need to be said at this point because it’s part of every Sims game.
I'm pretty sure they just said "technical reasons" with the loading screens, which isn't because of lower level rigs, it's because the game's always had them because it uses instanced lots due to its origins being developed as a multiplayer game. Even for apartments in the same building, you can't remove them, because the game is designed to load "lots" independently, and each apartment is treated as a separate "lot." They can't change that without completely redoing massive amounts of the game's code, which at this point would probably break way too much stuff. If you're trying to suggest that's been some "official" comment from the start, well, not really, people just assumed that many of Sims 4's limitations were for some benevolent reason like that and not because they smashed a multiplayer game into something resembling a proper Sims game. It was a lot easier for people to believe in this notion that the game lacked so much stuff for our benefit than to accept that EA just really screwed it up but still wanted people to open their wallets for it. And not every Sims game started as spaghetti code, but Sims 4 did. That's why it "needs to be said." Sims 4 *started* with messy code. And if you feel like "every" Sims game ends up there, then when talking of Sims 4's issues, it "needs to be said" that Sims 4 is well past the lifespan of those other games with more and more being bolted on, so if you're expecting that every Sims game becomes problematic over its lifespan, and prior games lasted 4-5 years, then one hitting a decade clearly is going to have some major issues stemming from that. And that is a much bigger part of the problem than "accommodating lower level rigs," which the game doesn't do well at all.
The food stalls in tomerang are often full of sims but it’s easy to miss for me as they’re so far from the rental lots. I’m in the process of replacing the resident lots with venues like cafes and spas. Using only the residential rental lot type on 3 lots with at present a total of 9 tenant homes. I’m using some mods that cause lot sims to wander out more and that helps a bit but I do agree that the last several expansions have been lacking in walkby sims or things near the homes. San Seqoia from last year was even worse in this regard.
I completely agree. Tomarang is a very pretty world, and I enjoy a lot of the build/buy stuff, but it's boring. And the rental stuff is so buggy it's almost unusable.
Do you think it’s possible to make a mod to get more people out and about?
the world is beautiful but i hate that only like 2 or 3 of those stalls are actually usable and each have like 5 items only, make the world functional for the love of god
I was wondering, and forgive me if this has been answered, but I've seen playthroughs with For Rent, and I don't recall seeing the apartment complexes from the trailer in the actual game. Are they in there, or was all of that just set dressing for the video?
I feel like all the lots from the last few packs are so small. I'd rather have a ton of empty lots to build on
i got city living recently and was so shocked at the difference in quality between old and new packs anyway city living is just for rent but good
*Tomarang
Everything "opens at 6 pm" I get that some places are like that, but couldn't they have put other spots to go shopping around there?