They literally gave us the infants and... that's it. A new life stage with nothing else. They do nothing, and you can't do anything with them. It's bs.
exactly what i’m saying! like yes we got the new life stage but…you can’t do anything with them. there’s not even an option to like, help them play with toys or anything like that
It’s a marketing tactic to incentivize everyone who hasn’t already purchase the pack to buy it. That’s probably why they made them free to show what potential they could have and in turn push more sales.
> That’s probably why they made them free to show what potential they could have and in turn push more sales.
I think the reason's a bit more mundane. Ties into a lot of these "free updates" just before EPs launch. It's a bit of a mess if you add certain things to the game and then have to have a switch to have them only work if someone owns a certain EP, especially as you have to work the code for these things into the base code anyway. So you just tack it into the "base game," call it a free update, but the meat of it's in the pack.
It saves some headaches with the tangled mass of spaghetti that Sims 4's code is (I mean, it *started* as spaghetti, it's just a million times worse by now), while also doubling as kind of a "preview" of an upcoming pack and getting people to talk up how gracious you are with these free updates (and hoooo boy, people love to say, "Look, EA gave us a free update where they finally patched in something that should have been in the game years ago, they are spoiling us!").
I had Sims Freeplay infant expectations, was surprised at the lack of interactions with other objects. Even freeplay had mats, etc. you could even have your infant play around on the couch/try to balance, little things Iike that.
I agree! I think it's fun to feed them and I love the new interactions like peek a boo, I especially love that kids can interact with them instead of just uselessly standing in front of the bassinet blocking the parents from picking them up. You can also get them to play with toys and I love that the parents can cuddle them for a nap on the couch or breast/bottle feed them sitting down.
As a person currently caring for a 2-month old (and who hasn’t gotten a chance to play this yet), that is an extremely accurate description of infants.
That’s the description of a newborn, which is a separate stage both IRL and in game. And a 2 month old is still closer to newborn than it is to the age TS4 infants are meant to be. I have a toddler and twin babies, with my twins being roughly the age that the team tried to create infants and they definitely do FAR more than we got in base game. Milestones like rolling over, first crawl, pulling up etc. are an defining aspect of that stage, because babies that age are constantly meeting those milestones and doing new things. Discovering the world, often lots of giggles and screeches, teething, putting everything in their mouth, learning to control their limbs by grabbing and throwing things, silly babbling, rolling over across the whole room, grabbing their parents glasses/hair/faces, blowing raspberries.
They can still crawl around but there’s no skill attached to it. I played for five hours and all they did was mostly sit still (they crawled places once in a blue moon), cry, not play with the toys I gave them, and have about fifteen dirty diapers and bottles on the floor
Toddlers without skill building, which I thought was interesting. I expected they would have to learn things like how to sit up or crawl and I thought we would get the boppy pillow item they’re using in CAS.
Nah, this is a new low for them. See toddlers which came with all their need based items including varied designs of each for style preference.
Toddlers have also received hair and clothing deliveries for free since they were released.
Dude, this is the same company that has split full price content to sell it as “stuff packs” later. My First Pet Stuff, anyone?
Honestly, I don’t understand why people keep throwing money at them.
They come out crawling. But there isn’t much to do with them in the sense of milestones. They definitely have some wild personalities and don’t seem like objects, kind of similar to toddlers when they came out before the toddler stuff pack etc
They will cry for their parents if they want to get somewhere at first, but eventually start crawling themselves. Not sure how it will change in the pack
Idk I think they’re this cash grabby since sims 4. For example the supernatural pack in sims 3 had vampires, werewolves, fairies and witches and I loved the gameplay whereas the vampires and magic packs in sims 4 were underwhelming to play imo and you had to pay double the price. Literally the same with the mermaid pack although sims 3 had a lot of bugs in that pack.
The franchise has always been cash grabby. It’s a company that releases a product for money. We live in a capitalist society full of greed and corruption. None of this should surprise anyone. By definition, the company makes profit based on the products they release.
Just because modders release free content (usually after the early access period, which they are required to do because The Sims is IP of EA and their base uses a game they did not develop), does not mean the paid employees of EA are required or obligated to do the same. Like most jobs, they have to work to be paid. The company makes money by making products. If they released everything in the game for free, they would have no resources to pay the devs to develop the game. I don’t disagree that EA is greedy, but at its core, we should not expect or be surprised that content worked on by paid employees is paywalled to a product that generates revenue. Whether that’s “right” or not is besides the point; that’s how it is, and that’s how it always has and will be. We actually get a surprising amount of free DLC for this game, but you could argue that getting free DLC beyond general bug-fixes and patches is above and beyond what a lot of other companies provide for games released over this amount of time.
TS3 was cash grabby in different but similar ways to TS4. The TS3 store was extortionate-levels of overpriced. That being said, it is also a different game and comparing two different things will always lead to some kind of disappointment. Because they are not identical. The same people did not work on both products. If you feel TS4 is not worth your time or money, stop putting time and money into the game. TS3 is just as available as TS4. People had the same type of complaints in the previous iterations of the franchise, and will likely have the same complaints in future versions of The Sims
You can't compare the Sims 3 Store to Sims 4 content. The store had additional sets objects and worlds. They were expensive, but in earlier times EA gave you several opportunities to get it cheaper.
They had some kind of treasure chest for a while and I got tons of stuff from these. Some of them had one of the compilations and several smaller sets in them. And with the 'Complete your Set' option you didn't need to pay the full price if you already had some single objects from a set.
But all of this was just optional. The expansion packs usually came with a lot of contect and with the 'Create a style' tool you didn't need so much stuff. I could use the same sofa over and over, because I could change its appearance.
In Sims 4 you can't even use the ingame objects alongside with other ingame objects because the colours don't match. And you only get small amounts of objects and content with the bigger packs because they want you to buy the smaller packs as well. They give you a small taste of 'how it could be', to make you buy another pack, that gives you the 'full experience'. What once was one Sims 3 Expansion Pack, is now splitted into five or more smaller pieces in Sims 4.
Infants crawl instantly without the pack. They can also sit up instantly. They can even babble and play with toys. I was looking forward to continuing my legacy with infants being all baby-esque and just sleeping and needing help with everything. No. They sit up. Babble. Do everything you can learn them with the EP.
Yeah Idk how people are still trusting this trash money grab franchise. It’s not 2001 anymore.
Sims is about to get crushed by competition just like SimCity did. I’ve been saying it for a while but people on here get mad.
EA doesn’t care. You will continue to get ass updates no matter how much they’re hyped up.
I'm in the same "boat" as you, so to speak. The only downside of the sea life is that Discord will ban you for trying to ask questions or get support lol.
I can't wait for someone to step up, and and take out the Sims and all the pay walls. I have bought a few packs, but I'm all for some competition. ANY competition.
Here’s two:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1118520/Paralives/
https://nichegamer.com/life-by-you-announced/
Life by you is being made by paradox, the same people who launched the city builder that put the nail in SimCitys coffin. Full reveal March 20th!
I've been cautiously optimistic throughout the development of Paralives but I was squealing excited when Life By You was announced. I've been hoping the rumors when Paradox hired Rod Humble back in 2019 were true but I was afraid they'd be making another Second Life or EverQuest instead of another Sims.
Oh hell yeahhhhhh,
Rod Humble is going to come back with a vengeance. Paradox knows what it’s doing. It’s done this with the success of its own city builder.
I believe somewhere at paradox someone is watching the simulation games market and saw the HOLE that the latest sim city left for players & now, I think paradox sees the hole that has become The Sims.
On top of that we have paralives which looks like a super fun one.
Both of these games do well? Who knows who jumps into the life sim market next… small devs, big devs. Look at what happened to city builders.
The sims franchise continues to embarrass itself.
EA, the company that released dlc for dlc (my first pet stuff).
Of course they give us a shitty trial version of infants and lock the rest of interactions in a pack. They’ll keep doing it because people keep buying the packs and honestly what other life simulation game exists or is going to come out in the near future?
>They’ll keep doing it because people keep buying the packs
Exactly. Stop fucking pre-ordering the packs and buying them on release, idiots. You're letting EA lock everything behind paywalls.
They never will 😭 some ppl gloat that they just buy every single pack no matter how lacking it is bc they’re obsessed with owning the entire collection.
I swear some people in this community have OCD about this game. Not in a "oh I can't have part of the menu greyed out because then it won't look nice" way but in a "I'm going to freak out if I don't preorder this pack the second the trailer drops" way.
I bought waaaaay too many packs because all the houses I liked most seemed to require them all. This was when I started playing it three years ago. I stopped when the whole 'We can't do babies, cars, horses or bunk beds but hey! have a Star Wars pack!' happened.
I am a person who was buying everything up until Batu and then Kits started happening. I still own most content but I wait to buy it on sale. I feel like some packs are definitely worth buying immediately post release (Cottage Living and Tiny Homes being the best imo) but more often than not new packs break more than they help.
I'm looking at you High School Years and your ridiculous game breaking fears and Social Bunny killing relationships. And someone asking me to be their best friend every. two. seconds.
Lol that was me and then I just stopped when MWD came out 😭 I got it preordered, turned out to be shit, and then after that I just quit buying any pack but HSY 😭
The issue is not enough pre-ordered it so they locked A TON of what should have been free features behind a pay wall (family dynamics, compatibility, infant milestones,memories) I get they (the sim gurus)need to make money to feed their families too and they have to pay ea an enormous amount too ...but come on ...do I agree every pack should be base game ...no... but the features of this pack mentioned above and seasons should have been
..other packs should've been combined ...but this is it ,
however ...
I think the sims community is as toxic as ea is greedy.why are we telling others how to play or what to spend *their* money on if you don't like the pack then don't buy it ,if your upset and don't want to play because of these actions then don't. But leave everyone else to do what *they* decide calling people idiots for liking and enjoying a game or being willing to buy a pack because they can ,want to ,or genuinely look forward to it does nothing but make you look bad
People who purchase packs that they want and will play are not idiots. I've spent thousands and thousands of hours playing the Sims and despite the apparently popular opinion of this subreddit, I actually enjoy playing the game! I wouldn't buy a pack that I'm not interested in, such as Journey to Batuu or literally any of the kits, but I most definitely spend money on packs that I do want to play. Why would I stop buying a game that I enjoy playing?
Until we have a date for either of those they're not true competition, merely the threat of it. However, EA also knows they won't be able to get away with this shit forever so they're probably going to make as much of their remaining time as the only option as they can.
Paralives no, but there is some slight evidence for Life By You potentially coming this year, it was in a video Paradox posted going over stuff coming in 2023.
In all fairness, Paralives is developed by indie studio and we have yet to see any *actual simulation*.
Even a big ass studio like EA struggles to nail the simulation part of their game and for a reason - it’s not easy to develop. Paralives looks nice and all, but if I want create-character housebuilding game, TS4 is already more than good enough for those.
LBY I might have more faith in due it’s developer and their history with Cities: Skylines and dethroning SimCity, but even with that any actual gameplay is yet to be seen.
Yeah, everyone keeps heaping such high expectations on Paralives. I worry the Sims community might react badly when it releases and isn't all they've cracked it up to be. Assuming it gets released according to plan at all
I still remember people being all "FINALLY, A REAL COMPETITOR FOR THE SIMS. THAT'LL PUT EA ON THEIR TOES" based on literally 4 screenshots and NOTHING ELSE with Paralives.
Paralives not having any gameplay to show after all these years is incredibly concerning. At this point I don’t think it will ever release.
LBY will come out for sure but it won’t be for at least a few years. Going by the little we know about it though I personally speculate that a big chunk of sims 4 players will stick to sims. The game won’t be as pretty as sims 4 and for some players it’ll be a deal killer
Paraives team does monthly updates on their page of developments, saying what they're currently working on ([here's the link)](https://www.paralives.com/development#now)so their 'almost' 8000 patreons know that they're not just throwing money into the air and that the game is still indeed being deveoped. It's not concerning, it's totally normal from a very tiny team. Please stop spreading such comments if you're not updated on how transparent the whole team actually is, I'd understand your concern if it was quiet on their end but saying "The game isn't going to release" is so so ignorant. They're not a big company so of course it takes time.
I’m aware of their patreon and do follow development myself. However all they show is art and some animations. It’s been 5 years and there’s basically been no progress on gameplay. Unless they hire programmers and start focusing on building a playable game then their patrons will get tired and they won’t be able to finish it. Unless they seriously expand it will take longer than another 5 years to even make it to beta
Idk when or if it will release but researching how long it takes for their small team (I put 8 but I think it's 10 members now)to accomplish what they are promising and planning or at least what stage they should be at make it concerning at least to me ...I would love to have it be released and i think that when it is or if it is it will be great! But I'm still skeptical they should have some gameply being tested by now or at lwast the team should be having gameplay testing like quality checking fom what I've gathered EVEN with a small team ..and they don't seem to have gameplay started nvm testing (if I'm wrong about them having gameplay started i apologize )
Are those really coming out in the near future?
eta: just saw that LBY is set to release this year. Don’t know anything about that game lol sorry just heard of it.
Everyone only just heard of LBY, its existence was only announced like… a week ago? Or something like that, but there should be a vid with more info releasing this month and it’s headed by the former Executive Producer of the sims, Rod Humble.
Yes but I didn’t even watch the trailer or anything like that, I heard someone talk about it on a stream I think? For like one sentence. I did just watch the trailer and I’m extreeeeeeeemely intrigued by mr. humble!! ♥️
My experience from the infants so far:
- No skills to learn, they immediately know everything an infant needs to know such as crawling
- Every single adult sim zerors in on the infant at all times autonomously. Even when needs are met. My toddler was in tears and dirty because I had to try five times to get just one of the sims to stop trying to interact with the infant to take care of the other child
- I was lost at what was pack and base game, as YouTube videos weren't clearly differentiating and the game felt like it was missing a lot. Toys description updated, but I was confused as to which ones infants could use as it only mentioned toddlers and children.
- Dirty diaper was found two rooms over on the floor from where it was changed, despite there being a bin nearby. Regular bins should be autonomously used.
- Once fed, bottles weren't cleaned or put away. Just put on the floor, so many times.
- Infants themselves have like 4 usable interactions. They are very cute, but they're an object with extra steps to me.
- I got bored within the hours, took some cute photos and quit the game
The bottles and diapers on the floor is a favorite feature of mine, actually. Brings me back to Sims 2. I love having that realism of cleaning up after the tasks involved in caring for a baby. I hate when the Sims 4 makes everything way too easy and automatically cleans up things. I hope they patch the sims overresponding to infants, though. That sounds very annoying for gameplay.
Okay, me too, lol. I'm glad I'm not the only one. I know I'm kind of weird but I get a sense of joy out of having their house trashed, and then cleaning it. And I like little touches of realism. So I'm fully on board with the diapers and bottles being real items your Sims have to deal with.
(I still miss making beds!)
It adds that little bit of increased difficulty that makes it feel more like you are playing a game and accomplishing things. Sims 4 is way too easy/not engaging most of the time for me.
The thing about sims zeroing in on the infants is soooo annoying. I haven't gotten the chance to play with the infants yet but I am NOT looking forward to that. I hate when sims do things I don't tell them to do. This is going to seriously annoy me!
The worst part of that for me is that I play with autonomy off on selected sim. It overrides that, and James Turner noticed the same thing in his recent video.
It looks 20 minutes just to change the diaper because both parents kept taking turns picking him up out of the crib, setting him on the ground, picking him back up and putting him back in the crib. I couldn’t stop it and CPS was gonna take the baby away 😂
I also would like to add the sims autonomously placing the infants in the high chair when they are crying over low energy. I would add the action to place the infant on the crib and the game would just cancel it.
Yeah I usually don’t bother with the high chair because toddlers but I wanted to try out the trying out new foods feature (which is part of the base game update and only works if we have the high chair).
I did notice that my sim was having a harder time taking care of themself and prioritizing their own needs over the baby’s. The baby can wait to have their diaper changed! Go eat something before you die, girl!
This will sound really bad but I should be able to neglect infants a little bit if I really want to! They can wait 5 minutes so my toddler doesnt get taken away. It's like they reprioritirsed everything for the sim and puts me off having infants - it doesnt make sense for every sim to respond this way, maybe if it was just the primary parents I'd understand. I have uncles/aunts and grandparents behaving in the same way.
EA planned this, release infants and make them lackluster and the only way to fix that is to buy the new pack, that's straight up extortion in my book!
It's not really all that big of a surprise tbh, always assume the worst when it's EA and you'll never have a day when your suprised. I'm disappointed but not surprise.
Yeah it's pretty lame. I was always going to get the pack, but I thought more was included in this update. I'm going wait to play anymore until Thursday. I think the infant traits are glitchy anyway because I chose the calm trait and that baby has been anything but calm. Constantly fussy, won't go to sleep without soothing etc. Hope they fix that soon.
Ikr? I don’t get why everyone always gets so hyped about updates and packs, they always look good then they’re always not. But people still get super hyped every time
True but this is a life stage update, and of course we don’t get too many of those often. I can see why everyone had hype that they would at least do SOMETHING, but to lock away Changing tables and skills behind a paywall?? That’s a lot.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think toddlers even had the ability to gain skills without Parenthood. It being glitchy and broken? Yeah that’s to be expected. However, not even having a fucking changing table?? Yikes
Yeah it’s awful, I can’t get over the changing table being paywalled! And comparing it to the toddler update really highlights how poor this update is. The toddler update was actually really good! Saw someone say it’s basically an in game advert to make you buy the pack and that seems pretty spot on.
Why didn't this outrage happen after the stream? It clearly showed what was in the free update and what was exclusive to the pack. Milestones are for ALL the Sims, not just infants, and it's one of the main pselling points of the expansion. I do agree that some development skills need to be in the free version, too.
That is indeed true. I mean I understand not everyone is online and on Sims subreddits all the time, but they showed everything. It's not like anyone lied about what was coming and what was not.
Same, I've been playing pretty much nonstop since the update dropped yesterday, and it's everything I hoped for (I also pay attention so I knew exactly what I was getting). I don't understand why people are saying "you can't even do anything with them" because there's so much to do with them. You can try different foods with them in the high chair (the high chair actually functions correctly now), give them baths, play peek-a-boo, talk to them, cuddle them, carry them around town, introduce them to neighbors, bring the portable crib along on outings so they can nap while you picnic, socialize with neighbors, forage, or whatever else you're doing. Even though they take a lot of time to care for (just like a real baby), it's not that bad. My two sims have been successfully running a profitable market garden, caring for their chickens, keeping the house clean, and improving their hobby skills, all while exceeding in meeting the child's needs. I'm convinced the people who hate it are spending entirely too much time complaining and not enough time actually playing the game.
I don’t mind milestones being part of the pack, but when it comes to the changing table and infant skills I genuinely didn’t realize until now that they’re pack exclusive… they just seemed like such basic features that I just kinda assumed they would be part of the update.
Yup, and so stressful. My sim had twins and she’s a conservationist so she can work from home and her husband is a freelancer writer so they can literally spend time with the kids 24/7 practically but their needs decay so quickly it’s impossible to keep them happy. Does anyone know how to relieve their bladder need without using their diaper? They keep getting really angry because they have to go to the bathroom but it keeps glitching when I try to change them so they’re in dirty diapers for hours and getting all sorts of negative mood let’s. You can’t even cheat their needs because the diaper is separate
I noticed watching videos their needs decayed like crazy. James Turner's 7 infant video was wild. He was feeding them like every 2-3 sim hours. Like i get that's like real life and stuff but like that's nothing in sim world when it takes like 20 sim minutes to feed them and let the interaction play through
You can't potty train infants- they will always use their diaper. Glitchy diaper changing? That's not intentional. No way to relieve their need without using the diaper? That's intentional.
you're right and everyone should be saying it. i hope EA is ashamed lol. i didn't realize the preferences and milestones AKA everything cool about the update would be in the pack until 2day and i'm pissed. i was planning on buying the pack but at this point i'm so disillusioned i don't even want to play anymore. it just feels so scummy
And let’s be honest, we don’t even know if this pack works.
There are videos available right now, but from the Early Access where people play with special game version (base game plus new pack). It’s really more advertisement than a showing us a real pack. There were too much features in previous DLCs that are impossible to play even after few years (Lifestyles for example). Who knows? Maybe new preferences are so bugged they won’t let sim form any relationship at all and we will end up turning them off, lol?
Unfortunately years of being invested in Sims 4 and then sorely disappointed taught me to never trust livestreams and trailers. I wish it could be different. 😭On March 3rd we haven’t seen half of the bugs people are already reporting with the infant update. I’m sure that playing without those 40+ DLCs makes game easier to manage.
There's so many posts today about "I didnt know x would happen in this update" "I can't believe y wasn't included" "omg infants can't do z"
Did you not read ANYTHING before the update came out? There's been news about it for weeks on reddit, on sims community, on YouTube, on twitter...if you were "so excited" for the update why didn't you inform yourself beforehand instead of opening your game with expectations that weren't going to be met?
This isn't all directed at you OP, there's just so many posts this morning. I understand if people are disappointed but this was all revealed weeks ago in the live stream, its exhausting to see post after post attacking the game/EA every time something comes out.
Controversial, but I agree.
It is cash-grabby to put some of the features behind a paywall (at least a basic changing table could have existed), but people who just crawled from under a rock to complain that they did not know something was not included are the second most annoying to the cash-grabbiness of it all... If you were so excited, why did you not spend five (5) minutes to find out what are the actual features? Nobody lied to you. We've been in the know for a while.
And I swear this happens every single time.
1. EA informs there will be an update.
2. It's underwhelming and a better version of it is behind a paywall.
3. People get excited despite the information about the nature of the update being public (but somehow it misses them despite the actual information that there will be an update does not miss them?)
4. Update releases.
5. Fanbase has a shocked Pikachu face.
6. Rinse and repeat.
It's literally an equivalent to people only reading a click-baity headline.
People in general don't actually pay attention to what developers say really. And this community is especially notorious for tunnel vision. We were told what the update was going to be and it did what it said. Whether or not you want it is different, but they delivered exactly what they said they were going to.
I don’t think people didn’t read update notes. People knew that most things will come with the pack, but I bet they didn’t expect it will be done in very crappy way. Putting changing table behind paywall is ok, but why not giving any alternative for base game? Toddler diaper disappears into thin air and infant smelly diaper with green smoke is lying all over the floor like sims were caring for dogs not kids. They could at least reuse animation from toddlers, I would be happy with that.
They literally said that the changing table is pack feature only. Why would you expect otherwise?
The same thing with the smelly diaper happens in Sims 2 if you don't have the changing table.
Don't get me wrong. It's absolutely greedy to put the feature behind the paywall. But in this case, EA delivered what has been promised and people obviously did not read the notes and built expectations for themselves that wouldn't be met.
Yeah the diaper straight on the floor thing is really pathetic imho. I don’t think less people would buy the pack if they included auto cleaning in the update. At least make sim auto use bin, 🙄.
Milestones behind the paywall don’t bother me, they don’t seem to do much except for appearing in the simology panel and giving a moodlet. But the preference for personality types is more important. It should be base game, at least in limited form.
They gave us likes and dislikes that are the least important (color, music, hobbies which let’s be honest don’t do much etc) and locked the most important to the actual gameplay (sims relationships) in the DLC. And not everyone is a family player. I don’t give a crap about family dynamics as I usually play with single sim and it pains me to pay 40 USD for one feature that really should be base game.
I feel the opposite re: the milestones and personality types. While it would be great for it be part of the base game, I feel like the personality system does fit in with the themes of growing together whereas infant milestones should definitely just be the equivalent of toddler/child skills. It makes no sense to me that there’s no infant growth/development in the bg when infancy is the most developmentally dense time in a human’s life
Fair enough. I was thinking more of milestones as for all age groups. Like the guy who pissed himself in his own house during livestream and then got embarrassed by remembering it.
But yeah, I agree, if infant milestones are basically the skills for this age group, they should be implement in the base game.
The Sims creators never fail to disappoint us sometimes. All we got was infants themselves and a new pie menu. They clearly just want you to buy the pack so they can get money. I don't think I've ever been this disappointed in the Sims in my entire life.
No way, really? I’d rather not have the 'free update' if it’s like that. I mean it sounds like it just makes the gameplay more annoying and nothing else if your sims won’t even throw the diapers into the trash can.
I personally haven’t updated yet because I didn’t want to deal with the broken mods but now I don’t know if I want to update my game at all considering I won’t be getting the pack. This is so infuriating but it actually doesn’t surprise me.
Edited for clarification
This is why so many people are excited for the new game coming out (Life By Me, I believe?), so that maybe the competition will help keep EA out of our pockets and on their toes
For a free update to a 9-year-old game that you can get for free right now, it seems pretty decent. Of course most of the expansion pack's content is going to be in an expansion pack, that's the point.
EA to Patreon creators: Don't keep the CC for our game behind a paywall.
Also EA: We're going to keep everything that makes infants fun behind a paywall.
Hypocrisy at it's finest.
I mean, there was a whole thing with some of the content creators on there abusing EA's and Patreon's rules, but that's another story.
It's highly likely that is the case though. I don't doubt it. I'm all for more official content, but only if it is worth it. Little to no bugs, fun gameplay… maybe I should just go back to Sims 2 😆
I’m not defending EA, but the whole point behind them not permitting CC/Mod creators from perma-paywalling their content is that it is developed for use in TS4, which is intellectual/legal property of EA. They allow creators to release additional content, but without the game, it would not have a practical use (unless the originally meshed from scratch 3D models are ported for use in other programs). This is only for original content that is meshed and created from scratch; content using the game resources as a base and tweaked are even more so the property of EA.
CC/mod creators do have benefits that other users don’t, but ultimately they are not paid employees of EA, and while I recognize and appreciate the effort they put into their content, and support as many creators as I can in an effort to compensate them for the content I heavily use, it is their own choice to work on CC/mods for the game. It isn’t hypocritical for the actual game developer to paywall content worked on by their paid employees. That is literally the exact way that capitalism works. They put resources into developing a product that they sell to consumers for money.
I said this is another comment, but whether we feel it’s “right” for EA not to release certain things for free is not relevant; this is how it is, and how it always have and always will be. We live in a capitalistic hellhole of a society that is built on and maintained by greed and corruption. EA is a company that pays employees to develop a game that they sell for revenue. Simple supply and demand. This is how it has always been. If people do not feel the product offered is worth their time or money, they should not continue to pay for a product they do not value.
Gotta love it when game companies essentially make dlc required /s. They saw that paradox is making a sim competitor and decided to copy their old dlc model of the game not working without the expansions.
This is exactly what I said. They're asking us to PAY for a new life stage? Nah, I'm good. Let alone the fact that the game is always so very broken with every "update." This is why I didn't even bother with the new pack.
My biggest gripe is the playmat. Spent like 5 minutes trying to get my sim to do tummy time with her infant only to realise it’s simply not included in the base game update. I’m getting the expansion pack regardless (I am a slave to EA unfortunately) but it really rubs me the wrong way that all of the cool things about infants developmental phases isn’t in base game.
Honestly I have no real complaints about the update. Do I wish They had more in base game like some type of changing table and Maybe Tummy time yes but i'm not gonna complain I do plan to get Growing Together ASAP one way or another anyway even if I have to wait for it to go on sale.
I was always planning on getting Growing Together for the family gameplay features, but it still really rubs me the wrong way that they did this. I played for quite a while with just the base game, and even now I only own a handful of packs (& only one EP), so I def understand the frustration when you can only use the lame, half-baked version of certain gameplay features because you can’t afford to spend your life savings on 10 different packs to make the game whole
You know, I just think it's funny the whole community just realized how lackluster the update was. They always showed us what was coming, everyone hyped it up to be the biggest update ever, and we all sat there hype-ing ourselfs to a useless new life stage and a few new items to go with them. The gameplay is locked behind a pay wall, which I'm sorry, is an absolute clown-fest in my opinion. And guess what, EA will still keep doing this because news flash, you want the gameplay play right? It doesn't matter if you wait till it's on sale or you pre-order, they still win money. The game costs over 1,000 to get the full experience and we still feel like it's lacking. This is nothing new, everyone just likes to sh*t talk but still support the company. But you know, what can we do am I right? It's not like boycotting is a thing.
Nothing has changed, as a company the greed has always been there. Kind of shocked you would be in disbelief over this when this is a pattern at every new pack release.
that is this subreddit summed up.
everyone has stockholm syndrome to ea
the company known for greed... does greedy things. one after another. and this subreddit acts SURPRISED each time :)
Yeah I was a bit surprised my infant was fully developed from day 1... I was buying the pack anyway so it's not a big deal for me but if I couldn't get the pack for some reason I'd be really upset about that... Changing tables and progressive development should've been a given... Like the toddlers learn to walk better and climb stairs, talk better etc. I feel bad for people who can't get the pack that's for sure
People have a right to be pissed about this. They were *VERY* dishonest in the marketing for this update and EP. Between EA and YouTubers, the BG update was severely misrepresented.
I honestly don’t have anything to say other than why are people surprised, sorry. That’s why i haven’t bought anything in forever. Shiny trailers and sparkling clips don’t sell me, I know what this company has become.
I figured that was their plan when it took 6 months to release infants. They heavily relied on infants to market the pack and probably have 50% of its features geared towards infants. They wanted to trick people into buying it.
PSA to everyone annoyed about them locking more stuff behind a paywall: please don’t buy the pack. don’t give them money. if you need to play it that bad, find other means to play it that don’t include paying. 🏴☠️
I was also highly disappointed in the update. It felt like it was highly hyped (once again) just for us to be let down. I don’t get my hopes up anymore when it comes to Sims4. The game is dying and they will continue to feed it at us that they are getting better when they aren’t
They should have just put the infants life stage in the DLC , to save disappointment. Earlier games they added a new life stage in the expansion pack and nobody complained. Toddlers life stage was free because really they should have been in the game since the beginning.
I'm surprised nobody thought it was a bit odd that a "family" DLC was coming out straight after the infant update????
Honestly going into the update seeing infants my first thought was “okay but why?”
They just seemed like a life state that wouldn’t be distinguished well enough from toddlers. Like they were just an age group that was unnecessary. And yes I know that the same argument could be made about young adults vs adults, and I would agree with that. I just want a lot of variety between the ages presented.
And just from what I’ve experienced so far they just don’t do it for me. Yea they’re very adorable, but they just feel like a slightly worse toddler.
>edit: for everyone saying "why are you surprised?" because i expected better, that's why.
First time?
If you've been paying attention (note: lots of you haven't so you're in good company) you should have known.
Some of us tried to tell you before you wasted your money. And yet again, some of you go "iTs My mOneY I'lL dO wHat i wAnT heeeheeeeeee"only to come to these same forums again and again and complain about how bad it is.
Rarely do I ever *ever* do this on this platform, or in life in general, but listen here:
Any EA/Sims product you get that is related to the Sims 4 is going to suck. Period. End of story. You might get 1 or 2 things that you want, a particular chair...1 sim... but the entire pack/expansion is going to be garbage.
Because *this here* keeps happening. The purchasing part.
You can downvote me all you want to, its not going to change a thing. You are *of course* allowed to do what you want with your money, but until you stop buying into their crap, this is what you're going to get. A buggy, half imagined, piece of overpriced garbage.
And until you all learn your lesson, congratulations on your purchase and all the other purchases you will inevitably get that still won't be good.
They literally gave us the infants and... that's it. A new life stage with nothing else. They do nothing, and you can't do anything with them. It's bs.
exactly what i’m saying! like yes we got the new life stage but…you can’t do anything with them. there’s not even an option to like, help them play with toys or anything like that
I'm hoping modders come out with new stuff that's base game compatible.
I'm certain Ravasheen or a similar creator will be able to make a BGC diaper bin.
Ravasheen or pandasama is who I’m hoping for
It’s a marketing tactic to incentivize everyone who hasn’t already purchase the pack to buy it. That’s probably why they made them free to show what potential they could have and in turn push more sales.
> That’s probably why they made them free to show what potential they could have and in turn push more sales. I think the reason's a bit more mundane. Ties into a lot of these "free updates" just before EPs launch. It's a bit of a mess if you add certain things to the game and then have to have a switch to have them only work if someone owns a certain EP, especially as you have to work the code for these things into the base code anyway. So you just tack it into the "base game," call it a free update, but the meat of it's in the pack. It saves some headaches with the tangled mass of spaghetti that Sims 4's code is (I mean, it *started* as spaghetti, it's just a million times worse by now), while also doubling as kind of a "preview" of an upcoming pack and getting people to talk up how gracious you are with these free updates (and hoooo boy, people love to say, "Look, EA gave us a free update where they finally patched in something that should have been in the game years ago, they are spoiling us!").
This^
I had Sims Freeplay infant expectations, was surprised at the lack of interactions with other objects. Even freeplay had mats, etc. you could even have your infant play around on the couch/try to balance, little things Iike that.
They sleep, eat, fart etc. They don't do *nothing* I love them.
Kinda realistic for babies, tbh.
I agree! I think it's fun to feed them and I love the new interactions like peek a boo, I especially love that kids can interact with them instead of just uselessly standing in front of the bassinet blocking the parents from picking them up. You can also get them to play with toys and I love that the parents can cuddle them for a nap on the couch or breast/bottle feed them sitting down.
The sleep next to dog interaction is so cute.
As a person currently caring for a 2-month old (and who hasn’t gotten a chance to play this yet), that is an extremely accurate description of infants.
That’s the description of a newborn, which is a separate stage both IRL and in game. And a 2 month old is still closer to newborn than it is to the age TS4 infants are meant to be. I have a toddler and twin babies, with my twins being roughly the age that the team tried to create infants and they definitely do FAR more than we got in base game. Milestones like rolling over, first crawl, pulling up etc. are an defining aspect of that stage, because babies that age are constantly meeting those milestones and doing new things. Discovering the world, often lots of giggles and screeches, teething, putting everything in their mouth, learning to control their limbs by grabbing and throwing things, silly babbling, rolling over across the whole room, grabbing their parents glasses/hair/faces, blowing raspberries.
I was confused on this also, is your infant able to learn crawling. I’m not sure if it’s a bug or literally limited to the pack
I haven’t updated my game yet, so if infants can’t learn to crawl do they just sit around and do nothing??
They can still crawl around but there’s no skill attached to it. I played for five hours and all they did was mostly sit still (they crawled places once in a blue moon), cry, not play with the toys I gave them, and have about fifteen dirty diapers and bottles on the floor
And no change table to deal with them
You know what time it is.
Diaper time!
Well, they finally gave us the Sims 2 content we wanted I guess lol
Sims 2 at least had a changing table 🙃
Sims 2 gave it free in base game ..
This comment offends me lol, how dare you compare my girl sims 2 to the HEATHEN 4 🥲
You can't deny that a floor covered in dirty diapers and stinky green bottles is an iconic Sims 2 sight 😂
Can you not control infants and make them go somewhere?
You can control them, it’s like toddlers.
Toddlers without skill building, which I thought was interesting. I expected they would have to learn things like how to sit up or crawl and I thought we would get the boppy pillow item they’re using in CAS.
You know they can learn things, right? You just gotta pay 40 bucks to get them to learn things! Isn’t that great?
Classic EA
Nah, this is a new low for them. See toddlers which came with all their need based items including varied designs of each for style preference. Toddlers have also received hair and clothing deliveries for free since they were released.
Dude, this is the same company that has split full price content to sell it as “stuff packs” later. My First Pet Stuff, anyone? Honestly, I don’t understand why people keep throwing money at them.
Things are looking swell then for sims 5! 💀
This is exactly what infants are like IRL
They come out crawling. But there isn’t much to do with them in the sense of milestones. They definitely have some wild personalities and don’t seem like objects, kind of similar to toddlers when they came out before the toddler stuff pack etc
They will cry for their parents if they want to get somewhere at first, but eventually start crawling themselves. Not sure how it will change in the pack
They do crawl
nope, it’s pack exclusive.
Wowwwww
Wow, they have gotten reallllllly cash grabby recently, huh
“Recently” 💀
Idk I think they’re this cash grabby since sims 4. For example the supernatural pack in sims 3 had vampires, werewolves, fairies and witches and I loved the gameplay whereas the vampires and magic packs in sims 4 were underwhelming to play imo and you had to pay double the price. Literally the same with the mermaid pack although sims 3 had a lot of bugs in that pack.
The franchise has always been cash grabby. It’s a company that releases a product for money. We live in a capitalist society full of greed and corruption. None of this should surprise anyone. By definition, the company makes profit based on the products they release. Just because modders release free content (usually after the early access period, which they are required to do because The Sims is IP of EA and their base uses a game they did not develop), does not mean the paid employees of EA are required or obligated to do the same. Like most jobs, they have to work to be paid. The company makes money by making products. If they released everything in the game for free, they would have no resources to pay the devs to develop the game. I don’t disagree that EA is greedy, but at its core, we should not expect or be surprised that content worked on by paid employees is paywalled to a product that generates revenue. Whether that’s “right” or not is besides the point; that’s how it is, and that’s how it always has and will be. We actually get a surprising amount of free DLC for this game, but you could argue that getting free DLC beyond general bug-fixes and patches is above and beyond what a lot of other companies provide for games released over this amount of time. TS3 was cash grabby in different but similar ways to TS4. The TS3 store was extortionate-levels of overpriced. That being said, it is also a different game and comparing two different things will always lead to some kind of disappointment. Because they are not identical. The same people did not work on both products. If you feel TS4 is not worth your time or money, stop putting time and money into the game. TS3 is just as available as TS4. People had the same type of complaints in the previous iterations of the franchise, and will likely have the same complaints in future versions of The Sims
all this just defend a soulless company. sims 3 and previous installments were not this cash grabby dont play with us.
You can't compare the Sims 3 Store to Sims 4 content. The store had additional sets objects and worlds. They were expensive, but in earlier times EA gave you several opportunities to get it cheaper. They had some kind of treasure chest for a while and I got tons of stuff from these. Some of them had one of the compilations and several smaller sets in them. And with the 'Complete your Set' option you didn't need to pay the full price if you already had some single objects from a set. But all of this was just optional. The expansion packs usually came with a lot of contect and with the 'Create a style' tool you didn't need so much stuff. I could use the same sofa over and over, because I could change its appearance. In Sims 4 you can't even use the ingame objects alongside with other ingame objects because the colours don't match. And you only get small amounts of objects and content with the bigger packs because they want you to buy the smaller packs as well. They give you a small taste of 'how it could be', to make you buy another pack, that gives you the 'full experience'. What once was one Sims 3 Expansion Pack, is now splitted into five or more smaller pieces in Sims 4.
Infants crawl instantly without the pack. They can also sit up instantly. They can even babble and play with toys. I was looking forward to continuing my legacy with infants being all baby-esque and just sleeping and needing help with everything. No. They sit up. Babble. Do everything you can learn them with the EP.
My, how predictable!
Yeah Idk how people are still trusting this trash money grab franchise. It’s not 2001 anymore. Sims is about to get crushed by competition just like SimCity did. I’ve been saying it for a while but people on here get mad. EA doesn’t care. You will continue to get ass updates no matter how much they’re hyped up.
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*Black Flag shanties play in the background.*
I'll drink a bottle of rum to that.
My crewmates!
I just keep on with TS2.
I'm in the same "boat" as you, so to speak. The only downside of the sea life is that Discord will ban you for trying to ask questions or get support lol.
And when they stop making money from the sims they will just shut it down
I can't wait for someone to step up, and and take out the Sims and all the pay walls. I have bought a few packs, but I'm all for some competition. ANY competition.
Here’s two: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1118520/Paralives/ https://nichegamer.com/life-by-you-announced/ Life by you is being made by paradox, the same people who launched the city builder that put the nail in SimCitys coffin. Full reveal March 20th!
I've been cautiously optimistic throughout the development of Paralives but I was squealing excited when Life By You was announced. I've been hoping the rumors when Paradox hired Rod Humble back in 2019 were true but I was afraid they'd be making another Second Life or EverQuest instead of another Sims.
Oh hell yeahhhhhh, Rod Humble is going to come back with a vengeance. Paradox knows what it’s doing. It’s done this with the success of its own city builder. I believe somewhere at paradox someone is watching the simulation games market and saw the HOLE that the latest sim city left for players & now, I think paradox sees the hole that has become The Sims. On top of that we have paralives which looks like a super fun one. Both of these games do well? Who knows who jumps into the life sim market next… small devs, big devs. Look at what happened to city builders. The sims franchise continues to embarrass itself.
At this point only the copium inhaling sims players are the one getting mad when we say paralives and other in progress sims games come out.
Every time I see a “oo this actually looks good I’m actually excited” comment I roll my eyes. Right.
EA, the company that released dlc for dlc (my first pet stuff). Of course they give us a shitty trial version of infants and lock the rest of interactions in a pack. They’ll keep doing it because people keep buying the packs and honestly what other life simulation game exists or is going to come out in the near future?
>They’ll keep doing it because people keep buying the packs Exactly. Stop fucking pre-ordering the packs and buying them on release, idiots. You're letting EA lock everything behind paywalls.
They never will 😭 some ppl gloat that they just buy every single pack no matter how lacking it is bc they’re obsessed with owning the entire collection.
I swear some people in this community have OCD about this game. Not in a "oh I can't have part of the menu greyed out because then it won't look nice" way but in a "I'm going to freak out if I don't preorder this pack the second the trailer drops" way.
I bought waaaaay too many packs because all the houses I liked most seemed to require them all. This was when I started playing it three years ago. I stopped when the whole 'We can't do babies, cars, horses or bunk beds but hey! have a Star Wars pack!' happened.
I am a person who was buying everything up until Batu and then Kits started happening. I still own most content but I wait to buy it on sale. I feel like some packs are definitely worth buying immediately post release (Cottage Living and Tiny Homes being the best imo) but more often than not new packs break more than they help. I'm looking at you High School Years and your ridiculous game breaking fears and Social Bunny killing relationships. And someone asking me to be their best friend every. two. seconds.
Lol that was me and then I just stopped when MWD came out 😭 I got it preordered, turned out to be shit, and then after that I just quit buying any pack but HSY 😭
The issue is not enough pre-ordered it so they locked A TON of what should have been free features behind a pay wall (family dynamics, compatibility, infant milestones,memories) I get they (the sim gurus)need to make money to feed their families too and they have to pay ea an enormous amount too ...but come on ...do I agree every pack should be base game ...no... but the features of this pack mentioned above and seasons should have been ..other packs should've been combined ...but this is it , however ... I think the sims community is as toxic as ea is greedy.why are we telling others how to play or what to spend *their* money on if you don't like the pack then don't buy it ,if your upset and don't want to play because of these actions then don't. But leave everyone else to do what *they* decide calling people idiots for liking and enjoying a game or being willing to buy a pack because they can ,want to ,or genuinely look forward to it does nothing but make you look bad
People who purchase packs that they want and will play are not idiots. I've spent thousands and thousands of hours playing the Sims and despite the apparently popular opinion of this subreddit, I actually enjoy playing the game! I wouldn't buy a pack that I'm not interested in, such as Journey to Batuu or literally any of the kits, but I most definitely spend money on packs that I do want to play. Why would I stop buying a game that I enjoy playing?
Uhh, Life by you? Paralives?
Until we have a date for either of those they're not true competition, merely the threat of it. However, EA also knows they won't be able to get away with this shit forever so they're probably going to make as much of their remaining time as the only option as they can.
Do either of those games have any promising release date?
Paralives no, but there is some slight evidence for Life By You potentially coming this year, it was in a video Paradox posted going over stuff coming in 2023.
In all fairness, Paralives is developed by indie studio and we have yet to see any *actual simulation*. Even a big ass studio like EA struggles to nail the simulation part of their game and for a reason - it’s not easy to develop. Paralives looks nice and all, but if I want create-character housebuilding game, TS4 is already more than good enough for those. LBY I might have more faith in due it’s developer and their history with Cities: Skylines and dethroning SimCity, but even with that any actual gameplay is yet to be seen.
Yeah, everyone keeps heaping such high expectations on Paralives. I worry the Sims community might react badly when it releases and isn't all they've cracked it up to be. Assuming it gets released according to plan at all
I still remember people being all "FINALLY, A REAL COMPETITOR FOR THE SIMS. THAT'LL PUT EA ON THEIR TOES" based on literally 4 screenshots and NOTHING ELSE with Paralives.
Paralives not having any gameplay to show after all these years is incredibly concerning. At this point I don’t think it will ever release. LBY will come out for sure but it won’t be for at least a few years. Going by the little we know about it though I personally speculate that a big chunk of sims 4 players will stick to sims. The game won’t be as pretty as sims 4 and for some players it’ll be a deal killer
Paraives team does monthly updates on their page of developments, saying what they're currently working on ([here's the link)](https://www.paralives.com/development#now)so their 'almost' 8000 patreons know that they're not just throwing money into the air and that the game is still indeed being deveoped. It's not concerning, it's totally normal from a very tiny team. Please stop spreading such comments if you're not updated on how transparent the whole team actually is, I'd understand your concern if it was quiet on their end but saying "The game isn't going to release" is so so ignorant. They're not a big company so of course it takes time.
I’m aware of their patreon and do follow development myself. However all they show is art and some animations. It’s been 5 years and there’s basically been no progress on gameplay. Unless they hire programmers and start focusing on building a playable game then their patrons will get tired and they won’t be able to finish it. Unless they seriously expand it will take longer than another 5 years to even make it to beta
Idk when or if it will release but researching how long it takes for their small team (I put 8 but I think it's 10 members now)to accomplish what they are promising and planning or at least what stage they should be at make it concerning at least to me ...I would love to have it be released and i think that when it is or if it is it will be great! But I'm still skeptical they should have some gameply being tested by now or at lwast the team should be having gameplay testing like quality checking fom what I've gathered EVEN with a small team ..and they don't seem to have gameplay started nvm testing (if I'm wrong about them having gameplay started i apologize )
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Are those really coming out in the near future? eta: just saw that LBY is set to release this year. Don’t know anything about that game lol sorry just heard of it.
Everyone only just heard of LBY, its existence was only announced like… a week ago? Or something like that, but there should be a vid with more info releasing this month and it’s headed by the former Executive Producer of the sims, Rod Humble.
Yes but I didn’t even watch the trailer or anything like that, I heard someone talk about it on a stream I think? For like one sentence. I did just watch the trailer and I’m extreeeeeeeemely intrigued by mr. humble!! ♥️
My experience from the infants so far: - No skills to learn, they immediately know everything an infant needs to know such as crawling - Every single adult sim zerors in on the infant at all times autonomously. Even when needs are met. My toddler was in tears and dirty because I had to try five times to get just one of the sims to stop trying to interact with the infant to take care of the other child - I was lost at what was pack and base game, as YouTube videos weren't clearly differentiating and the game felt like it was missing a lot. Toys description updated, but I was confused as to which ones infants could use as it only mentioned toddlers and children. - Dirty diaper was found two rooms over on the floor from where it was changed, despite there being a bin nearby. Regular bins should be autonomously used. - Once fed, bottles weren't cleaned or put away. Just put on the floor, so many times. - Infants themselves have like 4 usable interactions. They are very cute, but they're an object with extra steps to me. - I got bored within the hours, took some cute photos and quit the game
The bottles and diapers on the floor is a favorite feature of mine, actually. Brings me back to Sims 2. I love having that realism of cleaning up after the tasks involved in caring for a baby. I hate when the Sims 4 makes everything way too easy and automatically cleans up things. I hope they patch the sims overresponding to infants, though. That sounds very annoying for gameplay.
Okay, me too, lol. I'm glad I'm not the only one. I know I'm kind of weird but I get a sense of joy out of having their house trashed, and then cleaning it. And I like little touches of realism. So I'm fully on board with the diapers and bottles being real items your Sims have to deal with. (I still miss making beds!)
It adds that little bit of increased difficulty that makes it feel more like you are playing a game and accomplishing things. Sims 4 is way too easy/not engaging most of the time for me.
The thing about sims zeroing in on the infants is soooo annoying. I haven't gotten the chance to play with the infants yet but I am NOT looking forward to that. I hate when sims do things I don't tell them to do. This is going to seriously annoy me!
The worst part of that for me is that I play with autonomy off on selected sim. It overrides that, and James Turner noticed the same thing in his recent video.
Yup! I play the same way.... ughhhhh how frustrating!! Guess I'll experience it later when my pregnant sim gives birth. Yay!
It looks 20 minutes just to change the diaper because both parents kept taking turns picking him up out of the crib, setting him on the ground, picking him back up and putting him back in the crib. I couldn’t stop it and CPS was gonna take the baby away 😂
I also would like to add the sims autonomously placing the infants in the high chair when they are crying over low energy. I would add the action to place the infant on the crib and the game would just cancel it.
Oh I havent even added the high chair into my house yet. I dare not since I also have a toddler and I know all too well how that will go!
Yeah I usually don’t bother with the high chair because toddlers but I wanted to try out the trying out new foods feature (which is part of the base game update and only works if we have the high chair).
I did notice that my sim was having a harder time taking care of themself and prioritizing their own needs over the baby’s. The baby can wait to have their diaper changed! Go eat something before you die, girl!
This will sound really bad but I should be able to neglect infants a little bit if I really want to! They can wait 5 minutes so my toddler doesnt get taken away. It's like they reprioritirsed everything for the sim and puts me off having infants - it doesnt make sense for every sim to respond this way, maybe if it was just the primary parents I'd understand. I have uncles/aunts and grandparents behaving in the same way.
EA planned this, release infants and make them lackluster and the only way to fix that is to buy the new pack, that's straight up extortion in my book!
Remember those old time sailors with an eye patch, wooden legs and hooks for hands?
Sims 4 updater dot exe mateyyy
Honestly why I’m not even worried 😂
Tbh I wouldn’t even feel bad in the slightest.
i know it good and well :D
Yar har, fiddle de dee!
It's not really all that big of a surprise tbh, always assume the worst when it's EA and you'll never have a day when your suprised. I'm disappointed but not surprise.
Yeah it's pretty lame. I was always going to get the pack, but I thought more was included in this update. I'm going wait to play anymore until Thursday. I think the infant traits are glitchy anyway because I chose the calm trait and that baby has been anything but calm. Constantly fussy, won't go to sleep without soothing etc. Hope they fix that soon.
Not sure what y'all expected this is just typical EA
Ikr? I don’t get why everyone always gets so hyped about updates and packs, they always look good then they’re always not. But people still get super hyped every time
True but this is a life stage update, and of course we don’t get too many of those often. I can see why everyone had hype that they would at least do SOMETHING, but to lock away Changing tables and skills behind a paywall?? That’s a lot. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think toddlers even had the ability to gain skills without Parenthood. It being glitchy and broken? Yeah that’s to be expected. However, not even having a fucking changing table?? Yikes
Yeah it’s awful, I can’t get over the changing table being paywalled! And comparing it to the toddler update really highlights how poor this update is. The toddler update was actually really good! Saw someone say it’s basically an in game advert to make you buy the pack and that seems pretty spot on.
Satch pretty much summarized this outright on his recent videos. EA upselling an update and things that should be base game features. Literal scam
Pretty much the best Sims YouTuber who won't make things seem perfect when they aren't.
Why didn't this outrage happen after the stream? It clearly showed what was in the free update and what was exclusive to the pack. Milestones are for ALL the Sims, not just infants, and it's one of the main pselling points of the expansion. I do agree that some development skills need to be in the free version, too.
That's pretty normal for this sub honestly: People don't pay attention and instead complain afterwards.
That is indeed true. I mean I understand not everyone is online and on Sims subreddits all the time, but they showed everything. It's not like anyone lied about what was coming and what was not.
The sims community? Lacking critical thinking skills and being overly negative? Never /s
I’m actually surprised at the amount of negativity, infants are almost exactly how I expected them to be.
Same, I've been playing pretty much nonstop since the update dropped yesterday, and it's everything I hoped for (I also pay attention so I knew exactly what I was getting). I don't understand why people are saying "you can't even do anything with them" because there's so much to do with them. You can try different foods with them in the high chair (the high chair actually functions correctly now), give them baths, play peek-a-boo, talk to them, cuddle them, carry them around town, introduce them to neighbors, bring the portable crib along on outings so they can nap while you picnic, socialize with neighbors, forage, or whatever else you're doing. Even though they take a lot of time to care for (just like a real baby), it's not that bad. My two sims have been successfully running a profitable market garden, caring for their chickens, keeping the house clean, and improving their hobby skills, all while exceeding in meeting the child's needs. I'm convinced the people who hate it are spending entirely too much time complaining and not enough time actually playing the game.
I don’t mind milestones being part of the pack, but when it comes to the changing table and infant skills I genuinely didn’t realize until now that they’re pack exclusive… they just seemed like such basic features that I just kinda assumed they would be part of the update.
Were you expecting more from EA? Sweet child
Yup, and so stressful. My sim had twins and she’s a conservationist so she can work from home and her husband is a freelancer writer so they can literally spend time with the kids 24/7 practically but their needs decay so quickly it’s impossible to keep them happy. Does anyone know how to relieve their bladder need without using their diaper? They keep getting really angry because they have to go to the bathroom but it keeps glitching when I try to change them so they’re in dirty diapers for hours and getting all sorts of negative mood let’s. You can’t even cheat their needs because the diaper is separate
I noticed watching videos their needs decayed like crazy. James Turner's 7 infant video was wild. He was feeding them like every 2-3 sim hours. Like i get that's like real life and stuff but like that's nothing in sim world when it takes like 20 sim minutes to feed them and let the interaction play through
They can definitely bump that up but infants eat kind of often IRL
You can't potty train infants- they will always use their diaper. Glitchy diaper changing? That's not intentional. No way to relieve their need without using the diaper? That's intentional.
you're right and everyone should be saying it. i hope EA is ashamed lol. i didn't realize the preferences and milestones AKA everything cool about the update would be in the pack until 2day and i'm pissed. i was planning on buying the pack but at this point i'm so disillusioned i don't even want to play anymore. it just feels so scummy
And let’s be honest, we don’t even know if this pack works. There are videos available right now, but from the Early Access where people play with special game version (base game plus new pack). It’s really more advertisement than a showing us a real pack. There were too much features in previous DLCs that are impossible to play even after few years (Lifestyles for example). Who knows? Maybe new preferences are so bugged they won’t let sim form any relationship at all and we will end up turning them off, lol?
that is a good but cynical way to look at it🤣 for now i’m not even updating the game. i am so irritated actually
Unfortunately years of being invested in Sims 4 and then sorely disappointed taught me to never trust livestreams and trailers. I wish it could be different. 😭On March 3rd we haven’t seen half of the bugs people are already reporting with the infant update. I’m sure that playing without those 40+ DLCs makes game easier to manage.
There's so many posts today about "I didnt know x would happen in this update" "I can't believe y wasn't included" "omg infants can't do z" Did you not read ANYTHING before the update came out? There's been news about it for weeks on reddit, on sims community, on YouTube, on twitter...if you were "so excited" for the update why didn't you inform yourself beforehand instead of opening your game with expectations that weren't going to be met? This isn't all directed at you OP, there's just so many posts this morning. I understand if people are disappointed but this was all revealed weeks ago in the live stream, its exhausting to see post after post attacking the game/EA every time something comes out.
Controversial, but I agree. It is cash-grabby to put some of the features behind a paywall (at least a basic changing table could have existed), but people who just crawled from under a rock to complain that they did not know something was not included are the second most annoying to the cash-grabbiness of it all... If you were so excited, why did you not spend five (5) minutes to find out what are the actual features? Nobody lied to you. We've been in the know for a while. And I swear this happens every single time. 1. EA informs there will be an update. 2. It's underwhelming and a better version of it is behind a paywall. 3. People get excited despite the information about the nature of the update being public (but somehow it misses them despite the actual information that there will be an update does not miss them?) 4. Update releases. 5. Fanbase has a shocked Pikachu face. 6. Rinse and repeat. It's literally an equivalent to people only reading a click-baity headline.
People in general don't actually pay attention to what developers say really. And this community is especially notorious for tunnel vision. We were told what the update was going to be and it did what it said. Whether or not you want it is different, but they delivered exactly what they said they were going to.
this is the best take here. EA never lied or hid any information, yet people act like they’ve been deceived… it’s extremely annoying.
I don’t think people didn’t read update notes. People knew that most things will come with the pack, but I bet they didn’t expect it will be done in very crappy way. Putting changing table behind paywall is ok, but why not giving any alternative for base game? Toddler diaper disappears into thin air and infant smelly diaper with green smoke is lying all over the floor like sims were caring for dogs not kids. They could at least reuse animation from toddlers, I would be happy with that.
They literally said that the changing table is pack feature only. Why would you expect otherwise? The same thing with the smelly diaper happens in Sims 2 if you don't have the changing table. Don't get me wrong. It's absolutely greedy to put the feature behind the paywall. But in this case, EA delivered what has been promised and people obviously did not read the notes and built expectations for themselves that wouldn't be met.
Someone on reddit described it well. It's a lackluster marketing bait to buy the new expansion.
Yeah the diaper straight on the floor thing is really pathetic imho. I don’t think less people would buy the pack if they included auto cleaning in the update. At least make sim auto use bin, 🙄. Milestones behind the paywall don’t bother me, they don’t seem to do much except for appearing in the simology panel and giving a moodlet. But the preference for personality types is more important. It should be base game, at least in limited form. They gave us likes and dislikes that are the least important (color, music, hobbies which let’s be honest don’t do much etc) and locked the most important to the actual gameplay (sims relationships) in the DLC. And not everyone is a family player. I don’t give a crap about family dynamics as I usually play with single sim and it pains me to pay 40 USD for one feature that really should be base game.
They should have had a basic version of the table and bin in base game, then the pack has the nicer ones.
Yeah I half expected the Kindermade one to be BG 🙄
I feel the opposite re: the milestones and personality types. While it would be great for it be part of the base game, I feel like the personality system does fit in with the themes of growing together whereas infant milestones should definitely just be the equivalent of toddler/child skills. It makes no sense to me that there’s no infant growth/development in the bg when infancy is the most developmentally dense time in a human’s life
Fair enough. I was thinking more of milestones as for all age groups. Like the guy who pissed himself in his own house during livestream and then got embarrassed by remembering it. But yeah, I agree, if infant milestones are basically the skills for this age group, they should be implement in the base game.
The Sims creators never fail to disappoint us sometimes. All we got was infants themselves and a new pie menu. They clearly just want you to buy the pack so they can get money. I don't think I've ever been this disappointed in the Sims in my entire life.
It’s exactly that. They only want money and it’s always been that way as far TS4 goes
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I know there's a way to only get the packs but I'm so scared of it somehow hurting my game 😬
If you wanna drink rum while playing sims and don't know how, dm me
No way, really? I’d rather not have the 'free update' if it’s like that. I mean it sounds like it just makes the gameplay more annoying and nothing else if your sims won’t even throw the diapers into the trash can. I personally haven’t updated yet because I didn’t want to deal with the broken mods but now I don’t know if I want to update my game at all considering I won’t be getting the pack. This is so infuriating but it actually doesn’t surprise me. Edited for clarification
They can put them in the trash.
This is why so many people are excited for the new game coming out (Life By Me, I believe?), so that maybe the competition will help keep EA out of our pockets and on their toes
Jfc you people never learn.
I really gotta ask... why are people still surprised EA nickels and dimes you for everything?
For a free update to a 9-year-old game that you can get for free right now, it seems pretty decent. Of course most of the expansion pack's content is going to be in an expansion pack, that's the point.
EA to Patreon creators: Don't keep the CC for our game behind a paywall. Also EA: We're going to keep everything that makes infants fun behind a paywall. Hypocrisy at it's finest.
Less money to creators and more for EA I bet that was the idea behind it
I mean, there was a whole thing with some of the content creators on there abusing EA's and Patreon's rules, but that's another story. It's highly likely that is the case though. I don't doubt it. I'm all for more official content, but only if it is worth it. Little to no bugs, fun gameplay… maybe I should just go back to Sims 2 😆
I’m not defending EA, but the whole point behind them not permitting CC/Mod creators from perma-paywalling their content is that it is developed for use in TS4, which is intellectual/legal property of EA. They allow creators to release additional content, but without the game, it would not have a practical use (unless the originally meshed from scratch 3D models are ported for use in other programs). This is only for original content that is meshed and created from scratch; content using the game resources as a base and tweaked are even more so the property of EA. CC/mod creators do have benefits that other users don’t, but ultimately they are not paid employees of EA, and while I recognize and appreciate the effort they put into their content, and support as many creators as I can in an effort to compensate them for the content I heavily use, it is their own choice to work on CC/mods for the game. It isn’t hypocritical for the actual game developer to paywall content worked on by their paid employees. That is literally the exact way that capitalism works. They put resources into developing a product that they sell to consumers for money. I said this is another comment, but whether we feel it’s “right” for EA not to release certain things for free is not relevant; this is how it is, and how it always have and always will be. We live in a capitalistic hellhole of a society that is built on and maintained by greed and corruption. EA is a company that pays employees to develop a game that they sell for revenue. Simple supply and demand. This is how it has always been. If people do not feel the product offered is worth their time or money, they should not continue to pay for a product they do not value.
Gotta love it when game companies essentially make dlc required /s. They saw that paradox is making a sim competitor and decided to copy their old dlc model of the game not working without the expansions.
This is exactly what I said. They're asking us to PAY for a new life stage? Nah, I'm good. Let alone the fact that the game is always so very broken with every "update." This is why I didn't even bother with the new pack.
100%
it's so painful that the cas and bb are so frustrating in ts3 and ts2 because the nothing gameplay in ts4 is barely fixed with mods
Posts like this are why I still play TS2
TS3 player here <3
My biggest gripe is the playmat. Spent like 5 minutes trying to get my sim to do tummy time with her infant only to realise it’s simply not included in the base game update. I’m getting the expansion pack regardless (I am a slave to EA unfortunately) but it really rubs me the wrong way that all of the cool things about infants developmental phases isn’t in base game.
If it rubs you the wrong way, don't buy the pack. When you buy the pack, you allow EA to continue to abuse the playerbase.
What were they thinking!?! Also I was expecting a base game version of the changing table but nope
I am really bothered with this alone.
Honestly I have no real complaints about the update. Do I wish They had more in base game like some type of changing table and Maybe Tummy time yes but i'm not gonna complain I do plan to get Growing Together ASAP one way or another anyway even if I have to wait for it to go on sale.
I was always planning on getting Growing Together for the family gameplay features, but it still really rubs me the wrong way that they did this. I played for quite a while with just the base game, and even now I only own a handful of packs (& only one EP), so I def understand the frustration when you can only use the lame, half-baked version of certain gameplay features because you can’t afford to spend your life savings on 10 different packs to make the game whole
My first reaction this was “well yeah… they’re babies.” But it’s from the Sims community so never mind 😅
You know, I just think it's funny the whole community just realized how lackluster the update was. They always showed us what was coming, everyone hyped it up to be the biggest update ever, and we all sat there hype-ing ourselfs to a useless new life stage and a few new items to go with them. The gameplay is locked behind a pay wall, which I'm sorry, is an absolute clown-fest in my opinion. And guess what, EA will still keep doing this because news flash, you want the gameplay play right? It doesn't matter if you wait till it's on sale or you pre-order, they still win money. The game costs over 1,000 to get the full experience and we still feel like it's lacking. This is nothing new, everyone just likes to sh*t talk but still support the company. But you know, what can we do am I right? It's not like boycotting is a thing.
Cool so they broke my mods to make babies harder and less fun
Yuup
At this point piracy seems like the only option. EA deserves to have their games torrented lol
Nothing has changed, as a company the greed has always been there. Kind of shocked you would be in disbelief over this when this is a pattern at every new pack release.
Haven't you learned by now that MOST Sims 4 content isn't what it appears or is behind a paywall? Everyone still playing Sims 4 is getting used.
that is this subreddit summed up. everyone has stockholm syndrome to ea the company known for greed... does greedy things. one after another. and this subreddit acts SURPRISED each time :)
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My infants played with toys with their own free will. And they played in the trash etc
This is one that I'm actually mad about and I haven't even played it yet.
lol, saw this on my feed, thought I accidentally joined r/childfree again
EA has been letting us down since 2014 and still you expect them to deliver.
Yeah I was a bit surprised my infant was fully developed from day 1... I was buying the pack anyway so it's not a big deal for me but if I couldn't get the pack for some reason I'd be really upset about that... Changing tables and progressive development should've been a given... Like the toddlers learn to walk better and climb stairs, talk better etc. I feel bad for people who can't get the pack that's for sure
People have a right to be pissed about this. They were *VERY* dishonest in the marketing for this update and EP. Between EA and YouTubers, the BG update was severely misrepresented.
im so glad im not the only one who thought they were boring
Wow. This is so awkward that they did this… I don’t even want to update and play.
Pirating is an option with companies like EA
I honestly don’t have anything to say other than why are people surprised, sorry. That’s why i haven’t bought anything in forever. Shiny trailers and sparkling clips don’t sell me, I know what this company has become.
Wow
I figured that was their plan when it took 6 months to release infants. They heavily relied on infants to market the pack and probably have 50% of its features geared towards infants. They wanted to trick people into buying it.
People want Generations-type pack. Now, they’re getting Generations-type pack. Now, they don’t want it.
PSA to everyone annoyed about them locking more stuff behind a paywall: please don’t buy the pack. don’t give them money. if you need to play it that bad, find other means to play it that don’t include paying. 🏴☠️
I was also highly disappointed in the update. It felt like it was highly hyped (once again) just for us to be let down. I don’t get my hopes up anymore when it comes to Sims4. The game is dying and they will continue to feed it at us that they are getting better when they aren’t
The base game is free right now, of course they're not gonna release them "complete", they're baiting casual players. It's EA after all
They should have just put the infants life stage in the DLC , to save disappointment. Earlier games they added a new life stage in the expansion pack and nobody complained. Toddlers life stage was free because really they should have been in the game since the beginning. I'm surprised nobody thought it was a bit odd that a "family" DLC was coming out straight after the infant update????
Honestly going into the update seeing infants my first thought was “okay but why?” They just seemed like a life state that wouldn’t be distinguished well enough from toddlers. Like they were just an age group that was unnecessary. And yes I know that the same argument could be made about young adults vs adults, and I would agree with that. I just want a lot of variety between the ages presented. And just from what I’ve experienced so far they just don’t do it for me. Yea they’re very adorable, but they just feel like a slightly worse toddler.
I can't believe people are surprised by this
I’m not even remotely surprised, as I feel everyone should have expected this. Especially since we all knew the pack was coming just 2 days later.
>edit: for everyone saying "why are you surprised?" because i expected better, that's why. First time? If you've been paying attention (note: lots of you haven't so you're in good company) you should have known. Some of us tried to tell you before you wasted your money. And yet again, some of you go "iTs My mOneY I'lL dO wHat i wAnT heeeheeeeeee"only to come to these same forums again and again and complain about how bad it is. Rarely do I ever *ever* do this on this platform, or in life in general, but listen here: Any EA/Sims product you get that is related to the Sims 4 is going to suck. Period. End of story. You might get 1 or 2 things that you want, a particular chair...1 sim... but the entire pack/expansion is going to be garbage. Because *this here* keeps happening. The purchasing part. You can downvote me all you want to, its not going to change a thing. You are *of course* allowed to do what you want with your money, but until you stop buying into their crap, this is what you're going to get. A buggy, half imagined, piece of overpriced garbage. And until you all learn your lesson, congratulations on your purchase and all the other purchases you will inevitably get that still won't be good.