strangetomato | Discussion: TS4 Conversation Post

I did hear about that! But they're planning on putting them in with an expansion. Of course they are. /shakes head.

Yeah, that's such a bad idea. People are always clamoring for more EP-based content in the basegame, like weather, so taking something that we've had since TS2 out to save it for a later EP is a terrible idea. I guess the pools are similar, but that bothers me less. This is just the height of stinginess. Lots of people have wanted more baby and toddler content for years, so now they'll dazzle us with an EP that we need to buy to even have toddlers? Sorry, but that doesn't work, EA!

I suspect we'll have either more 'active' babies and it'll jump from Baby to child as we had with TS1. It just... So many conflicting feelings with TS4. I love the CAS, I love the cartoonish styles that everyone seems to hate on and the soft, vibrant world and even the aspiration-trait system appeals to me, but then they toss these backpedals out that just... ugh...

It makes me concerned with what will come in the future. One of the things I am all about with TS2 is the open world feel of just roaming and exploring and my horses. I love my animal babies and the horses was an awesome addition for me. I fear that with all the backpedaling we're seeing, that they'll nix that, too.

I'm just so deeply 'meh' with all this. They give me something I'm excited about then yank two things I LIKED about TS3 away, left and right.

That is another thing I am really fond of with this. I don't build. Never have. It frustrates me and also the placement of the houses on the lot and going "Woops, I have no room for anything else!" so that build mode is one of the many things I am all about. I just... I'm honestly not sure if all of the good is enough to outweigh these aggravating things. Maybe it'll feel better once they start adding expansions in to fill out these 'missing things'.

Sadly, while I do love TS3 immensely, the crashing and the need for the mods does aggravate me as well as the immense amount of sliders required to make decent looking Sims. I use Twallan mods and it does make my gameplay worthwhile but I do agree with you that we shouldn't have to have them to play it.

So it's sort of an odd trade off. I was excited for the CAS because "God, hey! No piles of sliders" but there's a lot of downsides, too, that are making me just disappointed as Hell. That build mode just amazes me! It's incredible, but no pools, toddlers, CAST and open world? I just... I'm feeling very on the side you're on. Wait and see how it all shakes out. I may wait for an expansion to see if they backpedal with that, too.

Edited 2014-06-25 23:44 (UTC)

Well... I'm mostly a TS2 player. TS3 wasn't cutting it for me, and I figured that one mods giant mods folder was enough for my poor old PC, so TS3 was uninstalled and left to fester in my Amazon downloads library.

I loved the TS4 aesthetic, and practically drooled at the CAS customization, but this recent news involving a lack of toddlers and pools isn't warming me up to the game.

Overall, as tempting as that customization is, I've postponed pre-ordering until post-release. Plus, it'll take a while for mods/cc to be created -- and I don't really play vanilla games, as proven my my bloated cc files in the TS2 downloads folder. And I'm happy enough with my TS2 game (having just purchased most of the EP's). There's still a lot of that game left to explore and enjoy, for me.

TL;DR: Wish I could be optimistic, but I've embraced soul-crushing pessimism.

I was sold the minute I saw what the game looks like. I'm so happy they are going back to the cartoony look, because that is what makes TS2 so amazing for me. Of course, TS4 won't be a replacement for TS2, but the game suits my style, which I am very excited about!

And, of course, I am very very happy about Grim Reaper. He is my favourite part of The Sims, and I think his new design is fantastic! :D

There isn't really anything I can think of that puts me off about the game yet. I'm sort of waiting to play it first before making judgements and deciding that this or that which is missing or done poorly makes the game worse. Some of the stuff I've read sounds a bit odd (like the toddler thing), but, once again, I'm waiting to see how these things effect the game before dissing any of it.

My only concern is the system requirements. They claim they will make it more accessible, but their terms of accessible and mine might not be on the same page. And as a dirt poor student, I'd be very unhappy if I have to wait bazillion years before I can afford a computer that can cope with The Sims 4. I've still not fully experienced and enjoyed The Sims 3 for this reason, and it's frustrating that the next game is already being released before I had the chance to actually get anywhere with it. I don't want to experience that with The Sims 4 again. Nope.

The price of the game itself (especially here in Australia) is silly in my opinion, but I am prepared to pay for it - I do understand that these things have budgets and they do also want to get some profit. And all those people who worked their butts off to produce this game for us also have families to feed, so the price of the game is not going to put me off.

Overall, I am very excited and cannot wait until the game is released!

The game looks good, and the sims are way prettier than their TS3 counterparts. I'm disappointed about lack of toddlers and lack of pools, especially the pools.

Not pre-ordering the game though. I never have time to sim anymore, having simmed for the first time in over six months last night. Ahh, parenthood.

Still,I hope some time will become available so I can try out ts4.

Nice to see you post here. It has been way too long. I hope you are well. I have a tumblr, but I don't go there often. Pianissamma. Cheers.

Ah LJ. <3 The latest news does make me lose some faith in the game, the way the whole thing was handled and how they were so evasive about it. I can only hope the babies will take on more aspects of toddlers and they'll be sort of combined. :/

I don't see what the pool thing could be besides money leeching. All I can say is the EP they include it in better have vacations AND seasons AND beaches.

On a more positive note, I really like the basegame clothes that we've seen and the CAS workings.

I'm not feeling very positive about TS4, especially after today's news about toddlers missing, and quite truthfully that really irks me because I so wanted a new Sims game to get excited about.

I own everything for TS2 and I loved how it was to look forward to new expansions and stuff packs. Sims 3 came out and I was "Eh..." I never liked the pudding looks and held off buying the game for a few weeks until my friends that were playing convinced me I should give it a try. I should have saved my money. Even with defaults in the look of the TS3 sims never wowed me and I despised the story progression. The base game patch came out and I just never bothered to install it and never played the game again. Sims 2 was so much better, in my opinion. But even with all my S3 dislike I was envious when people were posting about the new content- I missed that and had hoped TS4 would give me that again. Sigh...

I like the look of the new game. The cartoony look, even the plastic hair, reminds me of some of the TV shows my kids watch and it grows on you with repeated exposure. The clothes look nice, the create a sim controls look awesome, and what we've seen of the hoods and the way they work appeals to me. I'm a little worried about the build mode because I like being able to build one wall at a time, but I figured it would be good after the learning curve was taken into consideration. I've been concerned about the computer specs since I play on a laptop and can't switch out stuff like my graphics card and this continues to me a big worry since they still haven't locked them down, something I find riduculous when they are planning on releasing the game in just a few months. The fact that they are still working in the game is not a positive thing for me- I don't like being an unpaid beta tester and feel there is no way they can properly test the game with the time they have left, but I was willing to cut them some slack. I've got other concerns, but overall I was happy. Not pre-order happy, but on the side of the fence that was leaning toward buying the game.

Npw this... The missing toddler thing really bugs me. I play a generational game and those little rugrats are important to that. And the idea that they are going to be a baby one second and then "Boom!" they are kids is just too weird for me. I hear everybody saying, but they can add them in an expansion pack and my thought is "I'm paying how much for this base game and they don't even have all the age groups???" Personally I don't like EA enough to want to give them extra money for something that should have been included in the first place. The lack of the toddlers just pushed home how the production team is scrambling to finish in time and that corporate EA doesn't care about giving us a complete or non-buggy game, not when they already have our money in their pocket and can get us to buy expansions and store content to make up for the stuff they aren't giving us originally.

Edited 2014-06-26 05:35 (UTC)

This might very well be a dealbreaker for me. Because it also shows that they've probably paid very, very little attention to family interactions in general, breastfeeding and "make face" aside. I was waiting on toddler information to preorder, now it looks like I'll be a dirty pirate instead.

Since they are not including toddlers in the base game I won't be buying it until that is resolved and it better be resolved in some amazing manner. My husband was going to get it for my birthday, as while i wasn't wild about some of the things, I could cope with them, but no toddlers is a deal breaker for me so I told him not to bother, I think I will get Skyrim instead.

Just adding, this is the official blurb on it, hidden and offhand.

http://www.thesims.com/news/neighborhoods-weird-moments-and-more Down near the bottom, on no toddlers.

Edited 2014-06-26 12:49 (UTC)

But there's WEIRD AND WACKY STORIES to be told!!!!1

*grumpy cat >:(*

Hi it's good to hear from you.

My daughter anxiously waited to see what news came out from E3. First she saw the preview from Skylanders Trap Team and was all excited and can't wait for it to come out.

Then we saw the TS4 presentation... Could they have found a more boring woman to do it? It was like seeing a rehash for TS3. And then the woman states that TS4 will be a whole new universe, that there won't be any characters/families from the previous games. Now as crazy as the family stories where in TS3 it did make people ponder and giggle over how convoluted they were.

Anyway it did not impress me. I guess I'll have to see what people's opinions will be once it's released. But for now I'll just keep playing with my TS2.

I think they've said that there won't be any combining -- babies will just be babies, with no toddler traits. :(

... And now it looks like teens, adults, and elders will all be the same height. :/

With emotions!

I've read that about the 32-bit thing. It's a bit strange, I have to admit. My computer is 32-bit, but it is XP and since that is no longer supported by Microsoft, I have a feeling the game might not be supported on XP either. I need a new computer, mine is old and with XP out of date basically, it's probably in my best interests to get a new supported one. And the new one will probably be 64-bit.

I'm also a wait-n-see player, not just for system spec reasons, but also other features. I also have a bad history with pre-ordering, so I tend to stay away from it. It's just more feasible to wait before you spend a truckload of money on something you might not be fully satisfied with, even if there are things in TS4 that looks amazing and has me hooked. This also means I try not to negatively judge the game before playing it, even on the controversial things - like the removal of toddlers. Yeah, I find it bizarre and I'm angry that EA is taking this ploy to make more money, but honestly, I'm not surprised. EA has always tried to worm the money out of our pockets - that's business. They all do it, and they will never stop doing such infuriating things in hopes of pocketing the moolah. Rather than wasting energy on anger over this and just making myself miserable, I try to cut myself off from it (I don't have the power to fix our greedy capitalist world, so why get depressed over it?). Maybe the game will be okay without toddlers? I won't know until I play, since I can't experience the game fully just by looking at pictures and reading about it. Besides, I mostly play with adults and elders anyway, so the loss of toddlers is not that big to me. But it's still going to be weird!

Ah, Macs. I have a Mac as well, love it, but for gaming it's pretty useless. I'd be interested to see how they approach the Mac thing. Hopefully they have learned from their flop with TS3 and Cider, but then again, this is EA we are talking about.

I know the teen height is disappointing, but after looking at real teenagers nowadays I can see why they did it. Teens in Simland are meant to be from the 13-19 range. Yeah, at 13 you're probably shorter than your parents, but by 19 you're most likely at your full height. I'm not sure I like it, either, but I'm sure everything we don't like about TS4 will grow on us eventually.

What am I excited for in TS4? Create a Sim and the new genetics system. I also can't wait to see what sort of family dynamics we can set up in CAS. I know I have a weird family and even if I were to miniaturize it for CAS I still wouldn't be able to replicate it in any previous Sim game, I don't think. I wonder if we'll finally be able to link relatives more realistically now.

I don't play rotationally, really, but I don't mind that TS4 isn't a true open world. I really believe it will be easier on computers that way.

As for the breastfeeding and the cat sweater, I hadn't heard anything about either, but I'm interested in seeing this mysterious cat sweater. And where breastfeeding was confirmed.

I'm not worried about the Sim count or lot limit because they've said we can travel between worlds without creating a new save, which means the lot limit is really actually unlimited, they're just separated into easy to chew neighborhoods.

I love the style, except the hair seems a little plasticy. Reminds me of the hair on lego figures, but it's cool. I can live with it. It looks like we get a lot more hair and clothing options in this base game, which is exciting and promising.

I'm disappointed by the news of no toddlers or pools. I hope when they're added they don't charge us every cent we've got plus our first born child. For now I'll just make fake pools with their stupid fountain tool I guess. The toddler thing is a little harder to get over since there's no substitute and the transition from a wailing newborn to a perfectly functioning 5 year old is a little jarring. I'm sure we'll get used to these absences tho and if we can't, there'll be expansions to fix that eventually. I'm with Skell in that if they're going to put those things in an expansion it had better be a freaking brilliant all-in-one sort of deal.

Edited 2014-06-27 21:05 (UTC)

*finally finds time to post something*

I must say, all in all, I am rather excited for TS4. I mean, we don't know a lot about the actual gameplay, but I think we can all assume we know the majority of things that will be available (interactions, families, careers etc) and that is all we're going to get from a base game - it is just a base after all! I saw a message that said they are working on building a good foundation to add in new features, so hopefully we will see that work out as time progresses.

I am really excited to get hold of the new Build/Buy mode and CAS, they just look like an improvement on what we've had so far (I mean, moving a whole house in one go - why did it take them until the 4th version?!)

As for the latest toddler controversy, I can't say I'm affected by it too much. Whilst I like rotational and generational game-play, I have always hated toddlers just the tiniest amount and normally cannot wait until they're being scooped up and made to blow out their birthday candles. Not having that age in the game will just make me feel less guilty about skipping it like I normally do!

I can understand why lots of people aren't happy, but I imagine if they do add toddlers to the game at a later point, it will come in a free patch anyway (even if there is a relevant toddler/generational EP, which people have been asking for in every version of the Sims so maybe overall it'll be a good thing.) much like ocean swimming and basements and spiral staircases in TS3 - so I don't think it's *all about da moniez*. As for pools, I imagine it will be same deal, but again, I hardly use pools so I probably won't miss them too much!

As for the DLC argument that I keep seeing; they're a business. They make it - if you like it, buy it. You're not really entitled to it for free just because you own the base game! If you don't want to part with your cash, go without or just find some other way to get it... ;)

Overall, I'm just trying to not be negative (unlike seemingly everyone over at MTS!) I know some stuff will be missing, I know some stuff will be new. If I enjoy playing the game in September then I'll be happy that I'd paid for it.

Edited 2014-06-27 21:20 (UTC)

I keep thinking about how little sense it all makes. They've finally added breastfeeding! :D ... but taken away... TODDLERS?! Why care about making one better and more realistic, while removing the other entirely?

I'm trying my best not to take it too personally, but when you're a stay at home parent to a baby and a toddler (and before long, two toddlers), it's hard not to feel a little put off by having your day to day life experience completely left out of a life simulator. It's just a game, I know, but way to make me feel like my story doesn't matter at all, EA!

That is true -- women reach their maximum height pretty early during puberty, IIRC.

Mostly I'm worried about not being able to tell teens apart from adults when I want a Sim to go find a date/potential spouse. :D I play TS2 now and I can't really tell young adults from adults because of the height similarities. I mean, I *should* be able to tell from their clothing but I guess that doesn't work for me. :)

Oh I totally see and understand that. Perhaps there will be an 'Ask age' or 'What do you do?' Interaction to give us the skinny on their age group easily. I can totally see getting mixed up if there's no difference in height- I know it's already hard to tell the difference between young adults and adults in TS3. Looking for wrinkles isn't the most reliable thing in game xp

This is the first I've heard of no toddlers, and I'm very disappointed. I wonder why they chose to do that? For me the toddler life stage was really the thing that made the Sims a generational game, probably because it was the hardest stage. I also dislike the blonde colour too! Why do they insist on that straw colour? Why not go for a shade closer to Volatile? But let's hope we can default it. Otherwise, I love the look. It's cartoony with room for differentiation. No more pudding.

Discussion: TS4 Conversation Post

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject