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Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 10th Dec 2017 at 9:11 PM
Can anyone answer some questions about the current state of the game?
Howdy everyone! I've been playing the sims games since the sims 1. It was at its peak in the Sims 3, I adored that game and all the things I could do with it and the freedom I had. The Sims 4 basically killed my love for the franchise even though I REALLY wanted to love it. It's been a couple of years and I'm feeling the itch to play, but I have some questions before I drop any more money on expansion packs.

1) Are you able to control all sims at once yet, or can you still only control sims in one section at a time and have to abandon all the other ones when you zone?

2) Do the professions added by the first expansion pack carry over after you quit yet? I remember getting to the top of the science career, making a huge lab, and then not being able to use it as soon as I retired.

3) Is there a lot to DO in this game now? Like, compared to the sims 3. In the sims 3 there were so many professions and places to visit, you could travel explore etc.

4) Is there weather?

5) What's the most fun part of the game currently?

6) What annoys you about the game currently?

7) Please someone tell me there's a good story progression mod that compares to Twallan's from the sims 3. I absolutely will not play the game without story progression, the SP in the base sims 4 was pathetic.
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Field Researcher
#2 Old 10th Dec 2017 at 9:29 PM
Current state of the game: UNPLAYABLE BULLSHIT. Save your money, trust me, I wish I had.

There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. -Aristotle
Scholar
#3 Old 10th Dec 2017 at 10:45 PM
1. No
2 No
3 Depends if you put your mind into it
4 No
5 performance and multitasking
6 Many many bugs in the game
7 mccc mod
Forum Resident
#4 Old 10th Dec 2017 at 10:59 PM
1) I don't really understand that question. You can control one Sim at a time if that's what you mean. It's the same concept like the other games.
2) What do you mean by "carry over"? Carry over to the next/other Sim? If so then no.
3) Personally I would answer that with a big "NO". In my opinion it doesn't even come close to the content of TS3, like one TS3 EP had more content than most TS4 EP combined.
4) No.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 10th Dec 2017 at 11:51 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Howabominable
3) Is there a lot to DO in this game now? Like, compared to the sims 3. In the sims 3 there were so many professions and places to visit, you could travel explore etc.

That's kinda broad question. By "a lot", how much do you expect and what is 'enough' and not "too/under much" ?
Field Researcher
#6 Old 11th Dec 2017 at 1:28 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Howabominable
Howdy everyone! I've been playing the sims games since the sims 1. It was at its peak in the Sims 3, I adored that game and all the things I could do with it and the freedom I had. The Sims 4 basically killed my love for the franchise even though I REALLY wanted to love it. It's been a couple of years and I'm feeling the itch to play, but I have some questions before I drop any more money on expansion packs.

1) Are you able to control all sims at once yet, or can you still only control sims in one section at a time and have to abandon all the other ones when you zone?

2) Do the professions added by the first expansion pack carry over after you quit yet? I remember getting to the top of the science career, making a huge lab, and then not being able to use it as soon as I retired.

3) Is there a lot to DO in this game now? Like, compared to the sims 3. In the sims 3 there were so many professions and places to visit, you could travel explore etc.

4) Is there weather?

5) What's the most fun part of the game currently?

6) What annoys you about the game currently?

7) Please someone tell me there's a good story progression mod that compares to Twallan's from the sims 3. I absolutely will not play the game without story progression, the SP in the base sims 4 was pathetic.


1) Do you mean if for example you have a family of 4 and send two to a community lot can you control the two you any playing? No. It gives you options like work on x skill or socialise with but my sims never ever do it. And when my sims who have been out come back if it's silly o clock in the morning the whole household will be awake.

2) I'm not sure.

3) compared to sims 3? Absolutely not. Most of the fun activities are missing still or hiding behind a pay wall aka a stuff pack.

4) Nope

5) At a push... toddlers. But they cannot make the game. I like the game casually.

6) It's been almost four years and the game is still a paddling pool for depth compared to its predecessors. Still lacks consequences that isn't a moodlet. Bugs.

7) Mc command is great for story progression.
Test Subject
#7 Old 11th Dec 2017 at 5:26 AM
The only thing it has going for it over Sims 3 is a better CAS engine (looking past the removal of create-a-style since modders are constantly releasing retextures etc.) and MUCH less frequent crashes.
Sims 3 would inevitably tear itself apart once you hit somewhere around the 4th generation and would become a slow, constantly crashing mess but in my 7+ generations on the Sims 4 I'm yet to experience a single crash yet
Field Researcher
#8 Old 11th Dec 2017 at 9:32 PM
Quote: Originally posted by spiralqq
The only thing it has going for it over Sims 3 is a better CAS engine (looking past the removal of create-a-style since modders are constantly releasing retextures etc.) and MUCH less frequent crashes.
Sims 3 would inevitably tear itself apart once you hit somewhere around the 4th generation and would become a slow, constantly crashing mess but in my 7+ generations on the Sims 4 I'm yet to experience a single crash yet


I've never had an issue wih TS3 crashing after several generations. I still play TS3 to this day. Better computers, Higher specs lead to long play times. As far as TS4 goes... too buggy, EA Staff refuses to fix existing problems and the little content provided in all the Game packs, Stuff packs, and Expansions packs are too little for the what they charge. Most of the stuff in all those GP, SP, and EP are re-colors of what is already in the game with like 3 new chairs... and that's pretty much it.

To the OP,

TS4 has not improved on a scale that I would recommend you spending any money on it. The one small improvement made was the addition of Toddlers...which was a free patch. Other than that. I do not recommend.

I too am a long time fan of the game and have played since the very first Sims game. This is by far the worst version of this game. I regret any money spent on it, and gave up on it long ago. In-fact...I uninstalled it. I went back to playing TS3 and have not looked back. I have gone onto the official forums from time to time to see if the game has improved any for them....but it hasn't. There are a ton of threads asking for EA to add this or that, or to just make the game better. Most find it boring.

I would say, if you have a good computer... stick with TS3 and wait it out. Maybe EA will learn from mistakes (doubtful) but I am hoping for another company to come out with a Sims game that we all want and deserve.
Lab Assistant
#9 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 4:30 AM Last edited by GrumpySuzy : 12th Dec 2017 at 4:42 AM.
1) Are you able to control all sims at once yet, or can you still only control sims in one section at a time and have to abandon all the other ones when you zone?
You cannot see other sims in different zones due to the lack of Open World, but you you have limited control over them by using this mod: http://littlemssam.de/more-away-actions/ it adds controls of Sleep, Singing, Baking, DJ, Dancing, Pipe Organ, Bowling, Parenting, Climbing, Do Homework, all Toddler Skills...

2) Do the professions added by the first expansion pack carry over after you quit yet? I remember getting to the top of the science career, making a huge lab, and then not being able to use it as soon as I retired.
Again, modders save the day, you can use coolspear mod to let scientist or non-scientist to have access to career equipment, but I recommend to download all of their other career mods anyway http://simsasylum.com/tfm/index.php...work-from-home/

3) Is there a lot to DO in this game now? Like, compared to the sims 3. In the sims 3 there were so many professions and places to visit, you could travel explore etc.

There are more to explore now due to the addition of some more worlds and there are custom careers for you to download too, but because of the lack of Open World and Create-A-World, it cannot compare to The Sims 3.

4) Is there weather?

Not yet...but everything hints at the next year Expansion could be it.

5) What's the most fun part of the game currently?

Pets, Toddlers (so cute)...for me...and dressing up townies in CC, I notice that there are so much more 3D content for TS4 compared to TS3 (when I still played it), probably due to cheaper graphic card? and the next-gen creators on Simblr, TSR...so talented and dedicated. For example, CC hairs used to be mainly NewSea and Peggy, but now its so much more diverse... Thanks to Patreon and other supporting systems, modders/creators can invest more of their time into creating more content for the game, there are exclusive stuffs of course, but their free stuffs are also amazing.

6) What annoys you about the game currently?

Just like you, I found it very hard to transition from TS3 to TS4, I could only play it this year due to the increase in content but the lack of Create-A-Style, Open World, Create-A-World still bugs me immensely.

7) Please someone tell me there's a good story progression mod that compares to Twallan's from the sims 3. I absolutely will not play the game without story progression, the SP in the base sims 4 was pathetic.

MC Command Center is the answer to Twallan, I have heard great stuffs from Wicked Whim too if you are into adult content, they are very well-maintained and updated, the two shining examples of community-driven, Patreon-supported successes. Their main releases are completely free. https://deaderpoolmc.tumblr.com/
Field Researcher
#10 Old 12th Dec 2017 at 12:46 PM Last edited by Silly Merricat : 12th Dec 2017 at 3:33 PM.
Since I was cruising through this site to pick up some mods and checking out these boards for my quarterly smh and lol, I figured I'd post some answers to your questions just to give a bit of perspective of someone who actually likes and plays the Sims 4 (a rare unicorn on these sad, bitter boards since most of us have fled to more fun pastures like reddit or tumblr) and provide some balance.

Quote:
1) Are you able to control all sims at once yet, or can you still only control sims in one section at a time and have to abandon all the other ones when you zone?


Nope. It's like the Sims 2 where you can only really control the sims on the current lot or area. That's part of the core of the game design most likely done for performance purposes after the laggy and unplayable mess the Sims 3 turned into, so if it's a deal breaker this is not the game for you.

Quote:
2) Do the professions added by the first expansion pack carry over after you quit yet? I remember getting to the top of the science career, making a huge lab, and then not being able to use it as soon as I retired.


I believe there's a mod that makes it possible for the science career objects to be used at home.

Quote:
3) Is there a lot to DO in this game now? Like, compared to the sims 3. In the sims 3 there were so many professions and places to visit, you could travel explore etc.


It depends on the kind of things that you like to do, I suspect. I'd really need more info about how you like to play.

There are the four active careers now with the vet one added for the pet expansion. Three more that you can work from home at in the City Living expansion. You can also make your own businesses which I'm digging pretty hard at the moment (so far, I've made a 7-Eleven and am in the middle of making a bridal shop/floral shop/photostudio). Can you explore the same way you could in the Sims 3? Not really, since there isn't an open world.

Does it have as much "content" as the Sims 3, no. But then again, the Sims 3 had a few great expansions like Generations and Ambitions. A bunch of expansions that had some great content but half of it was broken or buggy as hell like Late Night or the university one, some that were just dumb like showtime, and one that totally broke my game and was completely unplayable - Island Paradise. In comparison, overall I like the Sims 4 Expansions and game packs so much better.

4) Is there weather?

Not yet, (the sims team always seems to add this late in the series) but I suspect that's the expansion coming. I really miss it.

5) What's the most fun part of the game currently?

Ah well, there's a lot of really great things I love about the game and the list is too long, but just off the top of the head, I'm really liking the Parenthood game pack plus the free toddler free (toddlers are so much more entertaining than they were in previous games, for the first time ever I find them interesting enough to play). I love the slick and easy to use build mode. I'm not a builder, so out of four games this is the first time I've ever managed to make something like a row of shotgun homes. I love the CAS, don't miss the color wheel and all of the texture customization at all (especially since it made opening CAS a bitch in my game), and love the design of the sims themselves. Without the pudding faces or the dog ugly presets of Sims 2, it's so much easier to make interesting looking sims. The vampires are surprisingly fun, and much more fleshed out than in previous games. Multitasking is fantastic.

I also, really, really love how you can manage all of the households neighborhood wide so easily with the household management tools. As someone who plays in a loose rotation, neighborhood wide, it's so much easier now to edit townies and families than it's ever been. There's also the fantastic cc community which comes up with really great stuff - most of whom seem to have migrated over to tumblr now.

6) What annoys you about the game currently?

Some of the limitations with the businesses are mildly irritating. While using a tablet to check customers out works for upscale games, it breaks immersion in some of the lower scale businesses, like my 7-Eleven, where I really wish they'd just line up at the counter. I also wish that you could just have a home business. You can work around this by having their home be an empty lot, and just have them at the business all the time, but sometimes that gets annoying.

I also wish the game had more small lots, as I tend to use those more than the larger ones. I work around it by putting multiple houses on one lot sometimes and using door locks, which works ok most of the time, but would be better if they could just be on separate lots. I wish there were things that differentiated the older life stages from each other, since there's pretty much no difference between young adult and adults, and elders get nothing unique to do.

Strangely, what I thought would be a deal breaker for me, not having an open world, ended up not bothering me at all, strangely enough. I think they struck a decent balance between game functionality and giving the sim more than just the square their house is on to move around on.

7) Please someone tell me there's a good story progression mod that compares to Twallan's from the sims 3. I absolutely will not play the game without story progression, the SP in the base sims 4 was pathetic.

I believe MC Command center does this, although I'm not certain since I don't use it. As someone who plays rotationally, the last thing I want in my game is story progression, but it might be what you're looking for.
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