EatinOlives
Member
One of the biggest complaints of the Sims series is the fact that Maxis seems a little more than complacent to leave out features present in previous expansion packs. Of course, nobody really expected to have Sims 3 ship with every single feature and object count of Sims 2 + every expansion, but the single most integral and best additions to the Sims 2 were completely removed from 3. Expansion recycling is becoming a real problem, as is the removal of what many would consider basic features to the Sims gameplay experience are being removed.
Maxis' answer? Make this problem worse in Sims 4.
A few days ago news broke out that one of the most celebrated features of Sims 3, Create-a-Style, is nowhere to be seen in Sims 4. This was the feature that allowed players to replace any texture in any object in the game with any other texture. It allowed unprecedented flexibility and was one of the most advertised flagship features of Sims 3.
http://www.edenstyle.it/the-sims-4-interview-with-simguru-jill.html
Today comes more amazing news: one of the main life stages of the game, "Toddler", as well as pools, a feature present since the very beginning of the entire series (vanilla Sims 1), will be completely missing from the base game as well:
http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/26/5847212/the-sims-4-no-pools-toddlers-outrage
I should also add that Teenagers are confirmed to have the same exact height as adults. My inclination is to think that, since they're re-writing the Create-A-Sim engine, they couldn't be arsed to make an editable engine for the Toddler phase and a separate one for the Teenage phase. Gotta cut dem corners.
There is no reason for these omissions other than "we don't have time". And yet, the Sims 4's only claim to fame seems to be in Create-A-Sim, build mode, and an engine re-write (yes, one of the main selling points of the game is "this game won't run like shit this time, we promise"). The rest of the news we're hearing from the game is either in the form of minor gameplay tweaks, or news of what amazing ways Maxis has found to cut features out of the base game. And unlike the quote I've put above, we're not talking about features that were added through specialized expansions in the previous installments, we're talking about features present since the very beginning of the series.
But don't worry, I'm sure we can finally have pools 2 years from now when they release a Seasons expansion pack for the third time.
UDPATE:
I'm sad to learn that there are more missing features/downgrades.
And another lovely piece of information, as McNum kindly states:
I did a bit of research and yes, this is indeed true:
http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Knc1w2h3n4c5t/The_Sims_4_is_NOT_Open_World_-_Thoughts?
Please keep in mind this is 30 seconds for the vanilla game. Every single Sims game, all the way back to Sims 1, gets crippled with loading times and bugs as more expansion packs are released.
UPDATE 2:
More downgrades!
Story progression in Sims 3 was hit-and-miss. Well, mostly miss. It was supposed to have Sims move, age, develop families, relationships, and be dynamic in every possible way, from skills to career. The vanilla algorithms that Maxis used were very poorly written, with sims appearing and disappearing at random, family dynamics changing in the blink of an eye, and just general jank behavior from individual households. Thankfully, there are several mods that completely change the way these algorithms work, and essentially finished Maxis' job for them. However, Maxis seems to be uninterested in continuing this in Sims 4 in the same way that it worked in TS3. Courtesy of Capella:
And the latest entry, no store, work, or school lots. These were mostly introduced in TS3 as "rabbit hole" lots (lots with no interiors that you simply only see Sims go into and out of). However, there were plenty of store lots in The Sims 2, and one of the main features of TS2 was having to go out to the store to get groceries or get them delivered to you. It was basically a push to get you to use the community lots instead of holing your Sims up in their houses forever. Buuut...
UPDATE 3:
The list of careers has been released. Keep in mind that since there are NO rabbit holes, careers have essentially gone back to The Sims 1/2 in execution, where the sim simply disappears and everything about his/her career is done through text. In other words, it's dead easy to add dozens of careers, but we only have the following:
Additionally, there are no usable cars whatsoever. Only decoration, as the sims simply "walk" everywhere:
(I guess even the Sims know they live in neighborhoods so tiny that they know they can just walk everywhere)
Aquamarine has done a very nice summary of how neighborhoods work:
And as this preview posted by BassDragon, Create-A-Style is most definitely a missed feature by house building aficionados. The base game's objects frequently have incompetently done color matching between objects. In fact, there's no reason to believe any color matching between objects was done at all:
So at this point I'm going to make a nice tl;dr list and keep it updated at the end of this post:
tl;dr
Things Missing/Downgraded in TS4:
Maxis' answer? Make this problem worse in Sims 4.
A few days ago news broke out that one of the most celebrated features of Sims 3, Create-a-Style, is nowhere to be seen in Sims 4. This was the feature that allowed players to replace any texture in any object in the game with any other texture. It allowed unprecedented flexibility and was one of the most advertised flagship features of Sims 3.
http://www.edenstyle.it/the-sims-4-interview-with-simguru-jill.html
Today comes more amazing news: one of the main life stages of the game, "Toddler", as well as pools, a feature present since the very beginning of the entire series (vanilla Sims 1), will be completely missing from the base game as well:
http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/26/5847212/the-sims-4-no-pools-toddlers-outrage
I should also add that Teenagers are confirmed to have the same exact height as adults. My inclination is to think that, since they're re-writing the Create-A-Sim engine, they couldn't be arsed to make an editable engine for the Toddler phase and a separate one for the Teenage phase. Gotta cut dem corners.
There is no reason for these omissions other than "we don't have time". And yet, the Sims 4's only claim to fame seems to be in Create-A-Sim, build mode, and an engine re-write (yes, one of the main selling points of the game is "this game won't run like shit this time, we promise"). The rest of the news we're hearing from the game is either in the form of minor gameplay tweaks, or news of what amazing ways Maxis has found to cut features out of the base game. And unlike the quote I've put above, we're not talking about features that were added through specialized expansions in the previous installments, we're talking about features present since the very beginning of the series.
But don't worry, I'm sure we can finally have pools 2 years from now when they release a Seasons expansion pack for the third time.
UDPATE:
I'm sad to learn that there are more missing features/downgrades.
It was also announced that the game will not have a 64bit client and will be limited to 4GB of RAM for the foreseeable future... Disappointing to say the least, considering the game will be around 5+ years...
http://simsvip.com/2014/06/26/the-sims-4-utilizes-a-32-bit-executable/
No 64bit client even though 80%+ of Steam users have support for 64bit....
http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
And another lovely piece of information, as McNum kindly states:
I did a bit of research and yes, this is indeed true:
http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Knc1w2h3n4c5t/The_Sims_4_is_NOT_Open_World_-_Thoughts?
Please keep in mind this is 30 seconds for the vanilla game. Every single Sims game, all the way back to Sims 1, gets crippled with loading times and bugs as more expansion packs are released.
UPDATE 2:
More downgrades!
Story progression in Sims 3 was hit-and-miss. Well, mostly miss. It was supposed to have Sims move, age, develop families, relationships, and be dynamic in every possible way, from skills to career. The vanilla algorithms that Maxis used were very poorly written, with sims appearing and disappearing at random, family dynamics changing in the blink of an eye, and just general jank behavior from individual households. Thankfully, there are several mods that completely change the way these algorithms work, and essentially finished Maxis' job for them. However, Maxis seems to be uninterested in continuing this in Sims 4 in the same way that it worked in TS3. Courtesy of Capella:
And the latest entry, no store, work, or school lots. These were mostly introduced in TS3 as "rabbit hole" lots (lots with no interiors that you simply only see Sims go into and out of). However, there were plenty of store lots in The Sims 2, and one of the main features of TS2 was having to go out to the store to get groceries or get them delivered to you. It was basically a push to get you to use the community lots instead of holing your Sims up in their houses forever. Buuut...
UPDATE 3:
The list of careers has been released. Keep in mind that since there are NO rabbit holes, careers have essentially gone back to The Sims 1/2 in execution, where the sim simply disappears and everything about his/her career is done through text. In other words, it's dead easy to add dozens of careers, but we only have the following:
Additionally, there are no usable cars whatsoever. Only decoration, as the sims simply "walk" everywhere:
(I guess even the Sims know they live in neighborhoods so tiny that they know they can just walk everywhere)
Aquamarine has done a very nice summary of how neighborhoods work:
In The Sims 4 there are two worlds: Willow Creek, and Oasis Springs.
Each world is separated into six neighborhoods.
Here is an example of one neighborhood:
Here is the park neighborhood:
And here is a neighborhood from Oasis Springs:
When you travel between each neighborhood, you encounter a loading screen.
After everything loads you enter a big area that makes you feel like you're in a big world.
However, only a tiny portion of the big area is playable:
The rest of that space is not nearby neighborhoods...it's just there for aesthetic purposes. If you try to go past the boundaries of the tiny red box the game won't let you go any further.
Any open spaces in that tiny red box are Public Spaces where Sims can roam freely.
The non-open spaces in that tiny red box are individual commercial lots or individual residential lots.
You encounter a loading screen when:
1) You go from Willow Creek to Oasis Springs (between worlds)
2) You go from neighborhood to neighborhood
3) You go from the public space in the neighborhood to an individual lot
4) You go between lots in a neighborhood
And as this preview posted by BassDragon, Create-A-Style is most definitely a missed feature by house building aficionados. The base game's objects frequently have incompetently done color matching between objects. In fact, there's no reason to believe any color matching between objects was done at all:
So at this point I'm going to make a nice tl;dr list and keep it updated at the end of this post:
tl;dr
Things Missing/Downgraded in TS4:
- No Create-A-Style (added in vanilla TS3)
- No Toddler life stage (added in vanilla TS2)
- No pools (there since vanilla TS1)
- No 64-bit client (not a "removal", but a complete lack of future proofing)
- No open world (added in vanilla TS3), small districts instead
- Heavily nerfed story progression (added in vanilla TS3)
- Loading times back: at least 30 seconds
- No terrain editing
- No Grocery Store lots (added in Vanilla TS2)
- No Work lots (added in Vanilla TS3)
- No School lots (added in Vanilla TS3)
- No Carpool (there since vanilla TS1)
- No usable cars (added in TS2 - Nightlife Exp, present in vanilla TS3)
- Object colors very poorly matched
- Very small neighborhoods, "Neighborhood View" is a single static image
- Two less careers than vanilla TS1
- Many "classic" careers missing: No Military, Law Enforcement, Medicine, Politics, Pro Athlete
