Just curious as to what you think the flaws of Sims 3 were and what you would fix/add in Sims 4.

Gonna start it off by saying I'd put in step-by-step stairs building. Drag the stair tool in side view to determine length and height of each stair, then drag from top view to determine starting and ending point for staircase like you do with walls, with other mouse motions to determine curve of stairs if needed for spiral staircases.

Also, I'd like to see much better AI. Right now, the Sims feel like...well...idiots. I don't know if it's a bug or what, but the system for choosing what they need to do seems broken. Lots of times I've witnessed Sims watching TV all night long until they passed out on the floor, or sat reading a book until they were an hour away from starving to death. It doesn't make any sense that entertainment sometimes takes priority over the basest of biological needs (er, you could say "What about that Korean guy who played Starcraft and died from exhaustion" but that's an extreme exception, isn't it?)

I'd also like to see more natural interactions between Sims. People can be as close as direct family members, but they ignore each other most of the time and exist in their own little worlds, with none of them really wondering about what's going on in the rest of the house. In real life, sometimes I check up on family members to see what they're up to, or I'll say hi to everyone in the house when I come home. In The Sims 3, people just enter the house, stand around for a minute or two, then immediately go on to do something else like playing games or guitar like they're living all on their own. And nobody really reacts to the Sim coming home, either. It's like outside of their own cravings, Sims don't actually have a clue as to what's going on around them, and they don't even really think about it (unless your sim has the neurotic trait and is always worried about appliances...)

I'd also like to see way more options in regards to traits, or whatever general idea they had for traits. It seems incredibly limiting to have three or four traits if the goal is to simulate something resembling human beings. When children are growing up, they already have many different personality traits by the time they're toddlers, and they're always picking up new ones (or sometimes losing them! A cranky, mean toddler becomes nicer and more polite.) And there's always a positive and negative side to our personality traits. Sims 3 traits give a general overview, but never a "why." For example: Why is someone nice? Are they nice because they enjoy making other people feel good? Or are they nice because they enjoy it when people give respect? Or perhaps they're nice because there are people who will punish them for being mean, so how would that sim react in a situation without consequences?

Anyway, there's a lot more I'd like to say, but I have a feeling my post would become much too big, and the topic isn't all about me because other people would probably like to say something too

So what do you guys think? What would you change or add?

edit: hm, just realized there's a sticky topic that already kinda does what this topic does. wonder if the premise "what would you do for sims 4" is different enough from "what do you like and not like about sims 3"?

I'll probably add some new things on Story Progression, because the vanilla one sucks. And I'd like to have bigger neighborhood, and it must be seamless.

What I want for sims 4 has very little to do with what I like and don't like about sims 3, since I would hope and fully expect it's not just an edited version of the same game :O

I want a brand new engine featuring real-world physics (none of the silly footprint/grid/slot system! Where you can put an object depends on its shape, size and material), real water (wadable and swimmable, flows, and makes things wet), real fabric and hair and boob dynamics (as in they move when sims move... OK I don't care about the boobs but I put that in for my straight male friends ), layerable clothing, continuous aging for sims, continuous wear for objects, continuous growth for plants, and so on.

And lest anybody claim this is unrealistic... there are games available right now that do each of those things, though perhaps not all together I expected at least some of this would be in TS3, in fact :/

How about an open Universe. Instead of an open town like in "3", there would be an open Universe that would allow you to drive or fly between towns or continents (no loading screens).

It would be 3D

It would be capable of utilizing up to 8GB (or more) of memory to make use of newer computers

It would spread out across 2 monitors

It would release with an SDK that would be updated by EA for each EP

CAW would allow placement of new towns within the open Universe (possible problem - the Universe might be finite and only allow a few towns to be placed)

Pets would come with the base game

Household could have 100 people in them if you want

Lots could be re-sized after placement, even if there is a family living in it or even active.

And the biggest thing - families from Sims3 could be imported into Sims4 via a special utility that would allow you to update them to match the new format (whatever that may be).

I could go on... but I'll stop for now.

I would very much like an update to the neglected age groups: babies, toddlers and elders. And I would like Story Progression to be synced with the aging of your playable Sims. And...ummmm....I don't know....new stuff

I don't think the goal was to simulate human beings. The Sim's has never really been a "Life simulator" it's more a virtual dollshouse. The traits system is just meant to give Sim's... well I'm not sure of the right word, personality maybe?

I just want them to fix Story Progression... it is a fantastic idea, but the EA system is so badly implemented it's ridiculous. That was pretty much the one thing I really wanted in TS2, although I wasn't calling it that at the time obviously, and I get it, and they manage to bork it.

I'd also like Sim's to be a bit more autonomous. I mean, actively doing stuff that you wouldn't necessarily expect, rather than being guided by you. I like to sit and watch my Sim's, and then go with what they do, but it feels like you have to nudge them to get them to do anything interesting. Rarely does anything happen by itself. I know that goes against the grain of some people, who like to actively storytell, but I'm sure it could be toggled.

The ability to create completely custom content from inside the game. And growing hair. Aaanndd.....Llamas. Or....Alpacas.

Three things that come to mind, that I don't believe have been mentioned yet.

1) Lots could be any size, where performance is limited only by your PC.

2) Copy and paste lot objects, walls, and so on, and make it work between different lots too! The fact EA didn't implement this, I won't quite ever understand.

3) Most importantly, a 64-bit executable! For one thing, it would remove the 4GB RAM limitation, which is as much TS3 can use presently. The downside to this is that those with 32-bit PCs won't be able to run it, but the number of such PCs still in use continue to dwindle. In fact, I would like EA to make a 64-bit version of the TS3 executable, downloadable for anyone who bought the game. It would also offer some performance benefits as well, aside from the RAM limitation.

I'm very afraid of this myself. I don't have high hopes for the Sims 4, but.. i'm hoping!

I suspect it may be too difficult but on top of the growing hair that others have mentioned I would be incredibly happy with EA if Sims 4 had growing sims in it. Instead of the life stages where they change instantly from one to the the next I think it would be really nice to have them gradually age from baby to elders and to have different sims aging differently depending on their genes and how they live their sim life.

There really is no reason why this isn't possible. Sid Meier's Pirates! had the main charachter aging gradually over the course of a game way back in 2004.

Why is the title of this thread in the past tense?

Anyhow, the first few things that come to mind are:
-lots of new traits
-less rabbitholes
-better story progression
-more careers
-nightlife in the base game
-seasons in the base game
-apartments in the base game
-larger neighborhoods
-more community lot types

A lot of those are really vague, but that's good. Our friends at EA should be encouraged to use their imaginations, for once. Common sense would be nice too.

I think the reason that EA came up with 5 traits (for adults) is they've loosely based it upon Trait Theories of personality (link), one of which suggests that humans have five basic dimensions to their personality.

-I want to see a create-a-sim like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WhOTrc5554
-The option to travel/move between neighborhoods, like a sim-world instead of town.
-Height sliders
-Gradual aging

I'd make something like a game with TS3's graphics, but with both the features in TS2 and TS3. Now that would rock!

Complete removal of queue stomping and any other interaction that takes control away from the player.

I mean, yeah, that's a decent point, but the series does seem to have been trying to slowly edge towards simulating people. Things like wants and needs popping up in sims 2, lifetime goals, etc, shows that they're trying to more accurately represent how people go about their lives. I think they might be realizing that they've mostly got the whole "house" part of "dollhouse" down (except for a few big things like stairs and grid systems,) but there's this gap there where little people still need to be simulated.

I don't know if you've ever read the guide book to the first Sims game, but it has a foreward from Will Wright that talks about his goals going into development, and about the human psyche. And simulating people is really what I think Will himself must've been trying to do. And make it fun, of course, that's a given.

But right now I think The Sims has to go in some interesting AI directions if it wants to advance. So we have open towns, that's great. We've always kinda wanted to have that. Though to be honest I'm not sure anyone asked for the continuation of rabbit holes. However, now that we have societies of people interacting with each other, the beating-heart-in-the-sky of The Sims seems to be knocking out a "make the people better" rhythm. You can only go so far in a game about people simulation by not touching upon the people until all that's unfinished IS the people, and by then it's a "goofy stuff happening" simulation instead of what Will Wright probably set out to achieve in the Big Picture.



Interesting. However, there do seem to be quite a few Sims 3-type traits that make up a human being, and only letting a sim have 5 is pretty unfair if you're trying to do something like add a family member into the game.

hm..well, yeah, a lot of you guys make great points. I'm starting to want some of those things... Especially a better body shop

aside from that, more and better interactions, and more ways to interact with the sim world. And of course, no (or very, very, very, few) loading screens :D

1) Smooth transitions between life stages. I'd much rather have people grow up and change appearances gradually gradually than go from toddler to 8 years old and fit-looking-20-something to geriatric with one spin.
2) I'd like to see more synergy and interactions between the traits. A Fun Loving Evil sim should have different ways of having fun than a Fun Loving Computer Nerd or a Fun Loving Childish sim.
3) EA should really know by now just how important modding is for the game, and build in an API for modders to hook into to make it easier to add/change things.

i think it would be cool to have an online visit world. Where your sim could leave it's designated town and vist a large world, ala costerboi size, hosted online that is accessible to everyone. Choose a server with a preferrred world on it and you can meet up with online friends and such. Since everything is hosted by EA(or a company of their choosing--I would say valve because their online features function pretty well), it takes the extra load off the players computer and offers smoother gameplay.

Hope EA takes all the wants of the TS2 lovers plus the features and different kinds of things to do in TS3, i.e. traits, moodlets, careers etc and puts them all in TS4.

From Sims 2:

-Simple easy gameplay
-More control
-More interactive and lively Sims (sometimes stupid or goofy or plain annoying and belligerent)
-Children who can smile
- Populated community lots, nightclubs even at 2am where Sims are indulging in a variety of histrionics
- Vacations where you can just have plain non goal-oriented fun

From Sims 3:
- Traits and Moodlets
- Ability to design everything according to your will
- More in-depth skills like gardening and Fishing etc
- More interesting jobs and professions and variety. Careers which don't become stagnant at lvl 10

All in all, the "Life Simulation" of Sims 2" and the variety of things in Sims 3 will make a perfect game for me.

I'd also wish for travelling between hoods via air or train, the ability to see teachers, students, policemen, thieves at their jobs, but I think people will need RAM and Hard Disk space in Terrabytes even to run the game at minimum settings.

I heard that he started out trying to make an architecture simulation game, people and their personalities were just an afterthought. Anyway, if EA tried to simulate people in TS3, I think they failed miserably. I am not too bothered by the aestethics because those things can be modded, but the sims fail to properly interract with each other and their environment and act like a comunity of people. They are just empty dolls that go about fulfilling goals and nothing more.

I don't know about making it a full "Life Simulator"....I feel like the Sims would lose that little charm they have. As complex as I'd love to make my little peanut-heads, it's the times they surprise me with the little things they do that makes the game for me...that and the cute dorky little tone the series used to have. Of course, that's just my opinion, and we all know not to listen to those.

Weather (made more realistic)! Seasons! Summer break! Holidays! Middle school, mass transit, the ability to go inside workplaces, strollers, hair growth, shopping...(All these within the base game, btw) lol Broken bones, banks? actually no...scratch banks.

Personally, I would like to see sims doing more activities, like actually gathering in groups and doing them, with animations and all, like playing tag and the dartboard here are some examples I have:

Sports: Basketball, Tennis, Surfing

Games: Bowling, Air Hokey

Creating a Club: Sims starting from children to elders can just create a club with another sim, just like forming a band, but you could give a name for it, and can later ask other sims to join the club. This would have the ability to create a custom uniform they all wear at gatherings (set as a new attire exclusive for members). They could have weekly meetings out in public places or at their houses (with rotation). Examples of such clubs could be "Alien League Club", "Everything Horror Club', "Film Enthusiasts Club", "Club Dancing Club", "Gardening Club" ... etc

Singing: Sims have a variable "vocals' quality" that is slightly affected by heredity (so that we can have rising star singers out of nowhere). It is between a trait and an inherited voice pitch. The town would have a recording studio, where a sim can go alone and record singles and name them just like books are written, and reaction to the song is random, but the quality of vocals affects greatly. 2 to 3 singers can record together, duets, featured artists, all can increase sales. The singer can even seek help from local town bands, and of course celebrity level affects reaction to songs.

And one final thought, sims can swim in ponds and oceans! but of course there is always a risk of getting bitten by a fish, and each fish bite has a different effect: Vampire Fish bites turn you into vampire if not treated (would explain how the 1st vampires appeared), death fish bites turn u into a living ghost, angel fish bites reduces age (and may give very positive moodlet), jelly fish bites get u sick, robot fish bites turn u into a simbot, red herring bite gives your sim a red dye color for a skin for a couple of days (makes the sim a preferred target for vampires), gold fish bite could cause sims, for a couple of days, to randomly sneeze gold pieces that can be sold for money, and ofcourse the sim could always die by a piranha or shark attack ! Also, it would be super great if mermaids where the new type of sim-creature :D

Ohellyea, but I guess we'll need some skills for that