Every Sims 4 world (apart from base game worlds) have a problem and it's ruining the game! Socials - linktr.ee/Satc... BUSINESS CONTACT ONLY: satchonsims@gmail.com Support me! www.amazon.co....
Sims worlds remind me of the Truman show. They are empty and dead until your sim shows up, then there's a brief moment of lag and the game spawns 10 or so horribly dressed townies in their location.
Exactly this! It's like you're the star actor arriving to the movie set and the director yells, "Places everyone!" and all the Sims do that stupid run and disperse to look "busy". It breaks the immersion every time.
Actually it also depends where and what time of day you go especially if you have the pack that gives you club group activities, cause if you go to a lot or place where a club group meets around a certain time, the members of that club group show up, like if you go to a Nightclub in evening or night the party club group will show up, also your own made Sims that have interests in those certain activities might show up, or if you visit a certain park around the afternoon, the play club group of kids show up, or if you add your sim and some of their friends to a certain club group, if your sim and their friends go someplace or to visit another friend, the whole entire club group would show up, and I actually had to use a mod to stop this automatic club gathering from happening cause of you send your sim and their friends over to your friend's house, you don't want the entire club for different activities showing up as well, if you're just gonna hang out with friends.
If was supposed to be an online game, it makes more sense. Our sims were supposed to be surrounded by other people’s sims doing things and interacting with each instead of the npc sims. The mistake was not revamping the whole thing when they changed directions. They went for the cash grab and gaslighting.
I feel the main issue are the loading screens. Why do I need to go visit a water fountain in a park if I can just place one in my home and avoid 2 loading screens, ya know?
I think you're being too generous, its not just the sims 4 coding they could make it work if they really wanted to. They're just lazy, you can get mods that add more NPC's in highschool so i cannot imagine why they cannot do it. They're just adding monkey bars randomly everywhere and calling it a day.
100%, they’re gonna have limits with the game for sure bc it’s so clearly built on a broken system- but look at what modders manage to achieve with that same broken system!! There’s so many mods out there that completely overhaul the game and change it in the most amazing ways. EA are capable of doing everything modders do, and they have far more time money and resources to do it. They just don’t want to.
This exactly, but all it takes is another option in gameplay settings added. We already have one for maximum sims in a save file, why not maximum sims on a lot? Then the potato PC havers will still have their stable, ghost town of a game lol @ladyaofpineapple5000
This! I understand we could never be free of loading screens in the sims 4, but I'd love semi-open worlds. You can move around your entire neighborhood freely, and I feel that'd give us, or at least me, more motivation to use community lots instead of barely living my sims house because what's the point of going to a cafe if I can't just visit the library real quick without a loading screen
@@lizziehepworth4500 This is why they took away the stir crazy debuff they had in The Sims 3. They fully expect us to stay at home all the time, only occasionally visiting things like the magic realm or the city living festivals.
The very first time i ever played the sims 4, the thing that really took me out of the game was the fact that if your sim goes to the park, there are only like 5 different interactions for them on the whole lot. The parks in the sims 3 were a hub of activity and there was always so much to do. Def a step down.
I think the Sims 2 had it spot it on, lots of things to do, plenty of sims in lots you visited. Their FreeTime expansion went hard with things to do, so I just edited old lots (Nightlife's downtown was icredible!) and added the new things in, then townies would use them autonomously and it all feel very alive.
@@iamnotjack.whydidichange In Sims 3, whenever you get to a place, other sims arrive, sometimes two or three different households. And there are many households in each world, so you can also see people going about their day, to and from work/school, etc. It's never as empty as TS4
@@eugeniabarsukova Im sorry but no. Yeah, you can see people going on about their day. But some places were EMPTY. Sometimes I would go to a "hot spot" and there was no one there. Even if a couple sims arrive later, I already expect the place to be full of sims, if its called hot spot. We tend to see sims3 with pink shades on, but the truth is it had a lot of problems and Im sick of people who sugarcoat it because of nostalgia. Even concerts. It was sad. You were like a star singer and there was only like 10 sims there if you were lucky barely paying any attention
@@iamnotjack.whydidichange I literally played it today, so it's not nostalgia at all. I agree with what you say about concerts, but with the entire town present on top of the singer doing stuff it would lag like hell. However, I regularly play in one part of town and see a protest far away, or a family playing at the beach when I'm not there, sims driving past me in their cars, going shopping and so on. It never feels dead, and every sim has a purpose.
"They like to give us what we want, but not in the way we want it..." Nailed it. That's been the consistent problem with Sims 4. It always feels counterintuitive. I also much prefer the condensed, smaller neighborhoods. Open world was always too much to navigate for me anyway though, and I hate rabbit hole lots.
It definitely feels that way at this point, they give us "what the community asked for" but there's literally no way they really think they're doing it right. Infants are particularly egregious, they really said "here are the worst parts of babies and toddlers mashed into one glitchy mess, that's what you guys asked for right" it's so frustrating
The sims 4 should honestly be renamed Stay-At-Home simulator because there's absolutely no incentive to leave your lot, which is one of the reasons i get so bored and constantly go off playing the game 🙄😪
You have to really use your imagination to add more fun to this game, I love playing as a escape from the real world but I play on x box and sometimes the sims just chill out and do nothing even when told, still enjoy it and play.
It's also very weird, in my opinion, that even though there is so much space in the worlds, when your Sim follows a career where you can join them at work, you are transferred in a place that doesn't exist on the sims' maps.
The sims team really achieved someyimg with San Myshuno. The districts felt big, even though only a small portion of it was accessable. And the fake sims that they have wondering around the inaccessible make it actually feel like a bustling city! Whereas with San Sequoia barely anywhere was accessable, and it felt empty. They should have stuck wih the concept of fake, low res sims
My Sim is currently in the Actor career. Every time he goes to work, Judith Ward is there... As a figurant. She's a celebrity, and apparently an actor, but never have any actual acting role.
I think they just need to make the worlds more interactive, regardless of the size. I'm fine with rabbit holes like For Rent and Cottage Living brought with the shops. More spawnables in ALL worlds. Various food stalls and seating. Maybe a fire pit and picnic tables. I love the areas that have "wild" gardens planted that sims can interact with. In an ideal world there would be more sims walking around and doing things but at this point I don't think that's gong to change without mods. Wouldn't it be nice to have an official setting that allows for more sims per lot if your computer could manage?
Yes, the key is interactivity. Actually even with collectibles, fishing spots, grills, some food stalls, .. it's still pretty boring. Can't they put something more interactive other than those? Tired of the bars too, aren't there something more interactive to do
100% worlds are so empty and bland. Zero reason to leave my home lot really. The only feature i would beg for at this point is to be able to edit the neighbourhoods and place objects myself.
You can get the T.O.O.L mod to do this if you didn’t already know about it (to place things in the actual world outside of the lots) ☺️ it looks kinda complicated so I haven’t had the time to sit down and install and play with it yet but it makes the world look so much more alive
@@SideCharacter12303 TOOL can kinda be a pain when you just want to play and if it was just a set part of build mode in game to have the freedom to world edit, It would just make things easier.
@@TheDawnofVanlife that's how I feel. I have TOOL but I'd rather it just be a feature. TOOL can be confusing and a lot of effort to make intricate areas off-lot. Also, consoles don't have access to this so they miss out.
I feel like a good compromise would be if they had made the individual neighborhoods open, like for example that willow creek starter neighborhood, rather than having to load into each lot to see ur neighbors, it would be open from the moment u load into ur own lot, so you could see what other sims are doing in their homes/outside of them and it'd feel more alive, plus you would be more inclined to visit ur neighbors cuz they're right there and you don't have to load in. This works with smaller neighborhoods, the bigger ones would maybe have issues so if they focused on smaller ones then it could work.
It seems like that's how Life By You is going to be. I wish it was that was with the Sims. Why do I need a loading screen to visit my best friend next door?
Seriously. Exploring the world is so shallow and boring, there’s no reason to do it. I got cottage living and even Henford-on-Bagley gets boring after like half an hour. There’s nothing there. One “park” area that just consists of a lonely set of monkey bars lol. I try to explore the worlds but it’s boring as hell.
@@SideCharacter12303 That "park" technically also has that one, tiny set of plastic blocks for toddlers who by design never spawn in to community lots! :')
I’ve always felt like neighborhoods should be open. I’m perfectly fine with loading screens but there’s literally no reason that a lot 2 feet away from me should be stuck through a loading screen. A loading screen to get to the other side of town, fine, but especially with the for rent pack, loading screens are so unnecessary. Or make it so more sims walk around the worlds. I understand that it’s probably impossible because the groundwork for the game sucks so bad, but it’s a dream I have. I wanted to play high school years recently and have my sim go through highschool to adulthood. She’s a cheerleader but every cheer competition was empty, no one comes to watch, there’s no opposing team, your team is the only one competing. They always scream “COME TRY THE NIGHT MARKET, COME TO THE CHEER COMPETITIONS” but no one ever shows up and it’s empty as usual. And don’t even get me started on the Pier. I don’t understand why they didn’t just code these things similar to those annoying and ugly city living festivals, those are always packed for me. But I agree I wouldn’t mind more loading screens if it meant SOMETHING was going on ANYTHING
The Sims basically created ghost towns with Growing Together and For Rent. I refuse to buy For Rent but I’m annoyed about Growing Together. I really wish they made the splash pad area a park to travel to and the pier in Copperdale could have been set as a “generic” lot type we could travel to. I don’t mind Crestnut Ridge because I’m from the area it’s inspired by and the deadness of it is realistic😂 I think these area’s would work better if they had festivals like City Living though because the CL festivals aren’t on lots you can travel to but they still generate lots of Sims.
I own all the packs (bc I'm a sucker and EA knows it) but i agree. Except the pier; just like the high school and auditorium (or Windenburg's Bluffs, Chalet, and Ruins), the pier could have been an "unchangeable" lot, where it always has to be "The Pier". You can change the name and even the layout (from manage worlds or with cheats) but the lot type is stationary. There was no reason for them not to do that, honestly.
@@boston_octopus_442 The American Southwest, which is New Mexico, Arizona, and West Texas. It’s different from Strangerville and Oasis Springs though because those two don’t take inspiration from Texas. It’s mostly noticeable in the Sims through vegetation because the Saguaro cacti are most notably in Arizona. The cacti in Chestnut Ridge are from a broader region of the Southwest.
I am not sure if this would work in the sims but in other open world games I have played, you have npcs that have assigned positions/activities. Like for example you will have people that will be working around one street, stopping in front of a shop maybe, they will have like 2 voice lines assigned and they will just spend the whole day walking around that one particular street. Then, when in game night comes, they will leave and respawn again in the morning. Sometimes these npcs are interactable, but usually they are not. I think they make the game feel a lot more alive, especially because it is the same npcs so you get the feeling they actually live nearby and aren’t some randomly generated townie. In games like this there are usually also settings for crowd density, so if your pc isn’t that strong, you can turn down the setting and then you will not have them appear. Sometimes these npcs give you some special collectables or quests which could be also fun in the sims I think. But even if they were not interactable and were just existing in the world, I think it would be nice, even if it meant you wouldn’t be able to interact with them as with regular sims or add them to your household.
oh yes, this. like in those rpg games. do the devs or team leads never played/made rpg games? i mean yeah this is not rpg game, but there are something they can take from there. feels like the devs are more focusing on asset designing or trailer making only
I was 19 when the sims came out, and I was OBSESSED! I played nonstop in between college classes and work. The whimsical towns and weird townies, great music, outrageous carpet swatches. Even when sims 2 came out, I still played the original for like 3 or 4 more years. Got sims 2 in 2oo8 and I was also OBSESSED! Going to the grocery store, being pregnant, cute cut scenes, and having storylines was everything. I played that for years after sims 3 came out. I started playing sims 3 in 2013, and omg, my whole world was flipped upside down. It was SO fun becoming a celebrity and selling out arenas while my sims kids were on scavenger hunts, and my sims husband was visiting festivals. Taking care of wants and fears. They were so interesting with their traits and quirks. I just started playing the sims 4 in 2023, and what a shock to my sims loving brain. The sims are so aggravating just randomly dancing and doing workouts. Why donu need to learn cooking, gourmet, baking, and mixology?? I wanted to love sims 4 but I feel like I hate it. I keep hoping for something cool to happen that i just dont know about, but it has nothing to offer but cool builds and pretty people. So I went back to playing sims 2 and 3. I'm glad it was free but I still feel cheated. I do love watching your videos, though, and a few other youtube builders, but this game sux, and it really makes me sad as an OG simmer.
I feel you! I loved the Sims - from the very start - but when Sims 4 came out - I played it for a couple of days and then just left it alone, it was sooo boring! And it still is, even with all the packs. And I refuse to have to have MODS for it to be interesting.
I'd love more loading screens to get populated lots too. Loading screens aren't that long for me so I don't mind them.. No point of the "open area's" when its a dead town.
Lilaimsie also said such though, so year, everybody see it. In sims 3 all these huge open spaces were full of insects, flowers, minerals, pounds and so on so interact with
We can pack a lot of world into a 64x64 lot. Each lot can be it's own world, with restaurants, bars, nightclubs, apartments... but without a mod (LittleMSSam) , those business won't be inaction. "NPC pad item" that can select what type of NPC to spawn and where for particular businesses. A simple placeable item like that could really bring some life to community lot builds. A way to make sub-lots on a lot would also enhance interactive builds. Not sure if the 64x64 is the biggest lot they can put in the game, but, bigger lots would also be good too if sub-lots where available.
@iamnotjack.whydidichange I loved TS3 so much! I still do, the same with TS2, which I still play to this day even though I own TS4 with several expansion packs... I used to think I was just getting "old" to play these games but no, TS4 is just a painful reminder of what wasted potential means 🥲
I agree. I wish the world's were smaller and they had loadable lots for main streets and stuff. Kind of like the sims 1 sub hoods. My TS3 world was a tiny manufacturing island with tourism and it looked jam packed with only 80 sims living in the world.
The Sims 3 'empty lot' problem was a mix of not enough Sims in your world and also depending on their job/life stage/traits would determine where they would go if ever leaving their house.
I 100 percent agree with you. Set dressing is not worth the price tag. I typically create my own lot spaces and play almost entirely on them anyway. I don't bother "exploring" because there is nothing to explore.
thank god this one doesnt need friendships to get promoted..... cuz if it wasnt for mods or the terrible welcome wagon, it's really hard to know people
I wanna build my own wee town there, but it’s overwhelming 😆 and I hate how empty it is! Like all the sims 4 worlds are empty, but they could’ve placed some stuff around the world outside of the available lots like you’ll find in others (for example a little kids park area with the monkey bars or a communal garden). I wanna download the tool mod before I go into newcrest so I can fix that 😂
With Paralives im going to support it day 1 for sure but im not holding in unreal expectations I think after launch it will develop into something incredible so I won't be judging it from launch
Inzoi is too detailed. You will be overwhelmed. Also that means need hi-end PC. Which not everyone have that. Like maybe the minimum RAM is 32GB. And, based from the look, it gonna be like segs simulator. Like really. Some ppl gonna make seggs mod for inzoi obviously. It's gonna be like semi realistic seggs simulator.. Not focus on the gameplay. Paralives in other hand, it's so cute. The graphics. It's one of the two best sims game so far. The other one is life by you. But it's ugly. BUT it's like sims3. Ugly graphics, but with so many features. And dont forget about the mods that will come
Inzoi looks pretty but it seems very shallow. I know there are other life stages but what Gameplay have I seen? It's shallow and tbh it looks like a Kpop idol/Stan simulator which doesent appeal to me. Things could change of course but this is a gam that is expected to release this year. I'm not seeing anything groundbreaking in Gameplay. After 30 mins I'll be bored.
If i could I would put entertainers in the parks. Like a hulu hoop dancer in Tomarang. And you can watch the hula hoop dancer, tip them, or join them if you have a hula hoop in your inventory. And then i would make it a skill of course. I've seen these dancers in real life and its so cool to see in the park.
The next game really needs to have an open world BUT with a sense of accomplishment for players who like to explore the map. I feel like we need to settle with the idea that Sims 4 will always have closed off neighbourhoods, all we can hope for is that they've maybe listening to the criticisms and are willing to address that for the sequel.
1:38 But why? What about S4 keeps it from having S3 gameplay? If it's a graphics problem, then EA needs to go back to S3 style graphics. S4 literally went backwards with their gameplay and pretty much everything else.
@39Edon_ I just will never understand why they went backwards in the first place. At this point, after all the BS, I don't think EA ever considered continuing S3 style gameplay and just making S4 better than S3... They should just rename S4 to Sims $$$.
They rushed the release of the base game too prematurely and the code has been broken because of it. The game should have stayed in development for another 2-4 years
@@silenceofthepams Well, that is not surprising at all. Isn't that the norm for AAA Devs now? Rush to make a deadline, collect all that preorder money, and let the customers be the game testers? It's literally IKEA for gaming.
I don’t hate loading screens but it bothers me so much that sims will spawn WITH me whenever I visit a lot. For example, I want to find sims DOING things when I spawn at a café, the way it is irl. It’s so weird that everyone (including the staff!) just spawns outside when I visit and then starts going in. What a weird choice. I wonder if it would’ve been that much harder to code sims to spawn mid-action.
I honestly wouldn’t have an issue with open neighborhoods/districts as opposed to open worlds if they were actually OPEN meaning once you got to a neighborhood, you could go in any building you wanted in that neighborhood without a loading screen and anyone in that neighborhood at least was living their life around you. Like for real, not just generated walk-bys. Actual simulation.
I do love me the horribly dressed townies though. I spend alot of time at random lots with my sim seeing the horribly dressed townies and resigning their outfits around the most ridiculous accessory they're wearing
Totally agree with this. I never visit the cinema in I think San sequioa, or the pier in Copperdale, for example. But I would if they were loading screens , which would make sims spawn on the spot and make it look more bustling.
For some reason, I remember when the sims 4 was being spoken about, they said they’d be coming away from rabbit holes because of the open world aspect being taken away!? I could be wrong but I swear they said that🤔🤔 and we’ve had nothing but rabbit holes in packs!🤣
When I was growing up, a computer game consisted of a single disc that had a definitive start and end (E.g. Barbie Horse adventure, or whatever it was called). As computer games became more advanced, you had sand box modes. Which was revolutionary at the time. These sand box games ALSO came with structured game play (Think Zoo Tycoon Complete collection, one of the best games of all time IMO). The Sims 3 (which is where I started in the franchise) did both structured and sandbox game play, which was a great mix. Sims 4 never appealed to me. It appeared to be 100% sanbox, and the only way it looked fun/cool was if it had a ton of mods and cc, which would break my poor laptop. I fell into the Sims 4 trap when my old laptop got ruined and I couldn't access what I'd already bought. In my opinion, the Sims 4 has the following functions: 1. A cash cow for EA who market micro-transactions as DLC. 2. A way for EA to study us players to better exploit us in the future. The Sims 4 introduced a whole population of players that wouldn't normally engage in online gameplay, to the online world. They have full access to the way we play to study us, which makes me uneasy at best... So, why do I play Sims 4 if I think all this? I was mesmerized by youtubers that would use the Sims 4 to create watchable series. When I couldn't access SIms 3 anymore, I thought, I might as well get the SIms 4 (I didn't realize the "functions" of the SIms 4 yet.) And while I have a love/hate relationship with the Sims 4, I do enjoy the sandbox side of it sometimes. It gets overwhelming, though, as I literally have to set up EVERYTHING! And then when you get in to game play, there are so many immersion breaking things that make me sign out. One big example for me is mermaids all over Sulani. To me, that should be secret and hidden. The shouldn't just be swimming all over the place. It breaks the idea that mermaids are magical and mysterious. Same with aliens. I want to "discover" aliens, not see them walking all over the place. So many other examples. But anyway. Sorry for the long response, just had to get this off my chest. lol. Enjoy your vids, Satch! You're one of those youtubers that keep me enthralled.
@@Rowanlafolle1965 - One thing I’ve noticed from looking up how to fix certain bugs is that not everyone experiences bugs at the same time, which is even more weird imo.
10:19 Jeez, see all these worlds I don't have, and how they function reminds me of school lunch and getting cheap slop on my tray with EA being the annoyed lunch lady.
shoutout to modders for fixing a major issue here: allowing worlds to generate more townies and have a higher capacity of sims on any active lot! it only really works if you have a good pc though otherwise it causes a lot of lag between interactions and animations... the simulation just cant keep up when there's too much going on at once :( its a real shame because there is so much squandered potential!!
Anything would be possible if they converted the game into a dx12 one. It needs to be able to use your CPU more efficently than it can under dx9. If they did this it would be possible having all lots open and loaded with simulation in a neighborhood. The real limiting factor has always been the API, it is cheap and ancient by this point. I honestly think the sims team lack talent at this point and are out of touch. An engine can be modified and upgraded for what is needed but they always throw some bullshit bullshit xcuse because most simmers don’t know shit about the technical aspect behind the game. As i said, the API is the limiting factor and a team that either lack talent or is lazy.
@@IsidorTheNordicGuy It would take less work to make a new game built using dx12 than it would take to port the game to dx12. They'd have to rewrite pretty much everything from the ground up to make it work.
I think if you have more sims that you've made in a save file, the worlds look more busy cause you always see your other sims walking and neighbors are more likely to visit you if your sim knows them, but it takes making and playing a lot of different households in the same save, but to properly do that you either have to play with aging off, or use MCCC to set the life stage lengths longer. Also clubs and times of day do affect the amount of Sims that hang out at different community places depending on when you visit a lot in that area.
Id love if there are more activities and meaningful buildings. Like, I really love that strike activitiy in front of town hall in Sims 3, you know? Or maybe make that every friday night, juat flood the certain places to be crowded like at City Living festivals? It would be a lot meaningful. But eh EA is kinda moving on to that new Project Renee or sth and just grab whatever they could from Sims 4 before leaving it dry
yeah, it's so fun for the 'devs' because they're the one who get to edit and build the world.. really, they only think from their point of views.. dunno if they really know the users' point of view..
@@second_second_ and thats a serious problem, if they actually played the game, you know as a game, and LISTENED to what the players of the game have been saying since the beginning, then they would know.... that they don't... yeah
Main issue is how much processing power must be allocated for active lot vs the open world. By having a much more lively open world while also simulating a very crowded active community lot will screw up the framerate to a crawl. And not to mention breaking the AI even further. Spawn a hundred Sims in the lot and see how the game just breaks.
That’s because of DX9, an engine can be modified and upgraded to what it needs. They have to convert the game to run on dx12 so the engine can then be upgraded to support more complex simulation, higher performance and an even spread on the CPU cores. DX9 has always been the limiting factor when it comes to sumilation games. I have no idea why in the world they built a sims game on such an ancient API in 2014….. either cheap, lazy or just lacking in talent. The sims team is not looking good these days.
I love exploring in all kinds of games, but indeed these worlds are too lifeless to make exploring enjoyable... I would much rather have smaller worlds that feel more alive and I was hoping For Rent and/or Crystal Creations would do that, but it didn't really and now I don't want to get my hopes up anymore :(
I always wondered why at a sims house/lot visit, all sims are attracted to some item like a radio, but in the world there is nothing like that. Why would you not want to brows a market stall in a area that has them? Why is there no attraction "marker" in the world? This would gather the spawned in sims to the points of interest within the game? But knowing the developers These kind of "attraction markers" would be done in such a way that no sims will stay on the lot within that world 😂 so maybe never mind. 😂😂
The worst lot is San Myshuno Central Park. It's one of the largest lots in the whole game and it's always EMPTY for me. Sims spawn AROUND the park but never come inside without mods. I had to use 2 mods to make it functional. One to increase the number of sims on a lot from EA's cap of 20, and another to change to venue from a locked "Central Park" to a generic lot or a lounge so sims autonomously interact with the stuff inside the park. It's clear to me they don't play test lots before release.
This gave me the idea that it would be cool to have a theme park expansion pack, where your Sim can ride numerous rides and with cross pack compatibility with get to work or something that allows you to manage your own theme park.
After not playing since TS4 launched, I just installed TS3 and all the packs and...this was an issue in TS3 too. The TS3 worlds have lots of collectibles and they're pretty, but you wind up at lots alone, or with 1 other sim. It's the same kind of issue, the game can only support so many sims at 1 place at a time. And with the open world, and everyone going about an actual routine, there weren't always sims available to show up where your sims go. Because of this, it makes sene that they were going in the multiplayer direction with TS4 (which would fix this problem, tilhink GTA online) before Sim City bombed. I've never gone to a bar/club/whatever in TS4 where nobody shows up, but I have in TS3. If they included more rabbit holes in TS4 (or gave us a way to make our own), and could turn up the number of sims that populate an area based on your computer specs, it would be a lot better. And I agree, if the areas that are supposed to be "bustling and busy", like the carnival were separate lots, I think the game could push out more sims to actually make it busy.
Also when you arrive somewhere there is NOBODY. And suddenly other sims appear. My friend and I refer to this when we go into an empty store and it suddenly gets crowded xD
I don't think it's a "why don't they spawn more sims in" kinda problem. Whenever I'm in that big city "world" (san myshuno?) hanging out in an apartment, as soon as I leave my sim alone they always run out to talk to a random unknown person they couldn't have seen. It's like they're telepathic or something? I'm surprised no random sims come running into my apartment honestly. The other sims don't have lives, they're not coming into town to do something, they're just there as a backdrop because you're there. More sims would only exacerbate this problem. When you go to a club they all spawn in to go to the club so they know what to do, but when you're just walking around the other sims are struggling to find a purpose. With more sims you'd immediately see groups of people just standing around not really having anything to do, no motivation or drive as to why they're there. We're so used to seeing people dynamics in the real world, we'd notice it was wrong immediately. I think the lack of sims is an attempt to hide a deeper issue - they never planned a bunch of important systems because the game wasn't supposed to work like this. It's not just performance. The sims don't have their own lives, they aren't headed anywhere. They won't and can't spend the time to fix this with an update or DLC.
I'm actually okay with the number of sims walking around neighborhoods. What I am missing is interesting activities and points of interest that are clickable and provide some form of gameplay, not just ones that are there only to look at. The worlds in the sims 4 are gorgeous, but I don't want to just span my camera and look at them, I need a reason for my sims to actually explore and go to different spots.
I agree that making the worlds smaller to make them busier would be a good thing. But one thing I don't hear anyone talking about is that in the Sims 3, once you choose a world, you are trapped there until you start a new game. I started with the Sims 4 and the loading screens were a small price to pay to be able to go to any world. I then chose to play sims 3 and couldn't wait to travel in between worlds, and was very confused when I couldn't. Sure there are no loading screens and you can go all over the one world you chose, but that's it. I can't go to another world to see what is different there. I guess there were mods that allowed it, but you were stuck in that one open world. Maybe it's just me, but I'd much rather sit through a loading screen to take my sims to new worlds to see what they offer rather then be trapped. Maybe it's because I played the games in the wrong order, but I don't get the nostalgia for open worlds when that is all you get.
They reinvented the wheel with The Sims 4. I mean they changed too much when they didn't have to. The Sims 3 only needed a slight graphic update, maybe a couple new features but not completely changing so many things especially when the changes are down grades. The dead worlds annoy me too. I also hate how nobody shows up unless my sim is on a lot, then they show up in droves like wtf I don't got the celebrity pack lol
I don't even need a bunch of real sims - the city living ones in inaccessible areas work well. Recent worlds have almost NO harvestable or fishing spots (even when there's water). I actually scour and explore these big spaces looking for a particular plant in season for example, for a recipe or special quest. The only 'secret' worlds are from the base game and first couple of packs. Agree the night market should be its own lot.
I’ve been making lots of townies to fill the worlds out and using mc command center to allow more sims on a lot!! Helps SOO much and makes my game so much more entertaining
I think the problem is that The Sims target demographic is basically casual players who, if lucky, have a decent non-gaming laptop at hand so EA doesn't even bother to ramp up what's possible. Imagine the performance boost this game would get if it could use half of the hardware of a decent gaming pc. If Sims 3 had a 64 bit client and full access to like 16 gigs of RAM and above most of it's performance problems would be gone. And this is with fully customizable open worlds...
Whatever world that you choose to play in, the sims 4, is a great game etc, but you need to use your imagination for a decent amount of fun, we can always hope that one day it might improve, we do need more venues, activities, fun filled content please!
@@angelaallen6092 yeah and you can actually improve them with mods such as T.O.O.L which lets you transfer objects from other lots to world space and they stay there even if you load into another lot. Can get janky fast but it's manageable
Someone should make mods for each world to make them more interactable. Even if they're just rabbit holes, I think it would add a lot more to the game. Or even just a mod to add more townies roaming around the world when you load into one.
The Sims 4 is a big ghost town, I hope someone makes a mood for it cause it’s incredible how EA never thought about this, so I hope some simmer make something!
It very weird to me, since the jungle adventure temples always got a lot of NPCs doing stuff. But then normal lots or areas are empty. I don't know why this is since it makes less sense for them to be in the temple than at a night market
Could you make a video talking about how it could be having a nice world in life simulators (not just the sims) like... I feel that having that places crowded wouldn't be enough... maybe if they could program random events happening along the week, like some % of car accidents, % more people going outside and partying on weekends, Street sweepers, people going to work on Mondays etc.
I think this is why I like Strangerville and San Myshuno. Strangerville seems to have the illusion of being mysterious but still have plenty of sims bustling around while being a quiet small town. San Myshuno for the same reason, it feels somewhat alive but I would’ve expected more for it
Besides coding itself, the horrendous loading screens and the terrible lag (whether you have mods in or not, on a computer that runs actually ambitious games)... They can't even bother adding in rabbit holes!? Sims 3 towns had so many, yet it was still enjoyable. Also, lore in the sims 4 is barely executed... There's never an actual story. Sadly, there's also a huge issue with bugs. Sims going through walls isn't even the worst one... The randomly generated townies should have limitations or not be generated altogether with the click on the options menu. Seriously. When you have about 300 sims, including townies of your own, you want THEM to be appearing around!
I've been playing in San Sequoia and when I load into a community lot, almost no townies show up. Maybe they are lost walking around the neighborhood. There's a 64x64 lot and 3 sims show up.
Okay to play devils advocate, I like to play with TOOL mod and the space lets me build it up how I like. Then with the get together clubs it’s pretty easy to direct them to use those objects. It looks very lively and fun with 8 more sims messing around in the town.
I tried playing today and my character and random stuff would become invisible. It saddens me how frustratingly bad it is. Why would I buy more when they can't even get the stuff I have already paid for work?
What i wanted or meant was "bigger world = more lots", and something to click on or do on those non-editable spaces. Sims 4 doesn't have rpg-like walking (the ASWD button or moving the sim with left right top down arrows), so these beautiful spaces became useless
I don’t use all the worlds most of the time. Because it’s overwhelming for me. I tent to stick to the first three (unless I’m testing out a new pack). All I want is the ability to create my own world, put my own lots anywhere I want and then just delete the worlds I don’t play. This is what I used to do with Sims 2. Make my own map on SimCity, import it, and then place lots, add in my own NPCs, and just play the one bit world. I wish they would just update sims 2 so it works on my computer.
One of your best video reviews yet Satch! I nodded my head in agreement at every point you made (except at 9:54 when you said it was 2pm 😂) I miss the little Easter eggs and hidden extra gameplay moments we randomly came across in Sims 1 to 3. I don't care for open worlds, or cars, if it means we could have immersive gameplay. TS4 lacks the passion and quirky Maxis sense of humour of the previous generations, and I miss that!
The randomly generated townies is a huge problem for me but nobody else seems to care as much. It SCREAMS broken game to have NPCs spawning dressed like absolute idiots constantly. I feel like it gets a pass because TS4 can be a silly game, but the fact that we need mods to fix it… It drives me nuts that it is just comes as a forced feature with the game, no matter how you like to play the game, you will have absolute horrendous specimens walking around that you can never empathise with or want to befriend. Makes no sense.
I know this isn't useful for console players, but on PC I am pretty sure there is a setting with MC Command Center of where you can control how many sims spawn near your lot. I think uping the sims spawn rate would fix the ghost town. From a code perspective, I am surprised there isn't a part of the script that does a check for age and traits when loading townies to then decide what they do. Where children and teens hangout at the park, while adults and elders sit on benches and do some gardening or painting.
The irony is that the initial reasons EA provided for the smaller closed worlds was that this would allow appropriate resourcing for a livelier, more populated area. This was compared to The Sims 3 which admittedly had an AWESOME open world but the engine sometimes struggled to populate where your sims are (e.g. nightclubs) with sims. But here we are, small limited worlds with a disappointingly small number of things to do.
The reason why Sims 4 is terrible is because the Sims 4 base game is supposed to be boring so you feel like buying the packs to make the game fun and the packs are there to cover up for the emptiness of the base game it's maybe a cash grab to budget for the making of future sims games
For me, the big problem with the Sims 4 worlds is their little or no customization. Yes we can change the houses but all that decoration is still in the background. Willow Creek is clearly based on New Orleans and we cannot modify it in any way. In The Sims 2 the worlds were small but at least you could choose the layout of the lots and be able to turn Pleasantview into "Las Vegas" if you wanted. So when you see someone playing TS4 you already know where they "live" even though the house is completely different, taking a lot of life away from the game.
That's one thing I hate about Cottage Living. I love so many things about it, but, except for selling stuff for 10% profit during the Finchwick Fairs, I never stay for the fair itself. Sure, I've had oversized crops that might win, or llamas or whatever, but there is NOTHING to do there while you're waiting to see if you won! You can drink or eat at the bar, window shop or maybe socialize for like 8 hours while you wait. Not worth it! Not even a food stall. I feel like it should have carnival rides or games or SOMETHING to do while you wait!
This is why I’m so excited that other simulation games are set to come out in a few years. I’m hoping that the Sims becomes the “MySpace” of simulation games. Paralives looks like it’s gonna be a lot of fun to interact with. InZoi looks like it would be so much fun for realistic game play. And others just to give EA some competition. The team at EA has been a monopoly over simulation games for over two almost 3 decades. And genuinely would not be what it is If not for the dedicated fan base that is constantly making mods that make this game fun to play. The game isn’t even joyful on this own. I’m so glad new creators are shaking things up.
the sims4 uses space so inefficiently. they could trade all that big empty space for having more sims walking around or something and it’s so annoying looking around the entire area trying to find one tiny strawberry bush, and then your sim has to run 20 miles to get to it.
Imagine being an employee working on this game - going to work, seeing those coworkers smoking on the balcony, talking about a chance card for the entertainer career all day ...
Sims worlds remind me of the Truman show. They are empty and dead until your sim shows up, then there's a brief moment of lag and the game spawns 10 or so horribly dressed townies in their location.
Exactly this! It's like you're the star actor arriving to the movie set and the director yells, "Places everyone!" and all the Sims do that stupid run and disperse to look "busy". It breaks the immersion every time.
lol yesssss omg
Actually it also depends where and what time of day you go especially if you have the pack that gives you club group activities, cause if you go to a lot or place where a club group meets around a certain time, the members of that club group show up, like if you go to a Nightclub in evening or night the party club group will show up, also your own made Sims that have interests in those certain activities might show up, or if you visit a certain park around the afternoon, the play club group of kids show up, or if you add your sim and some of their friends to a certain club group, if your sim and their friends go someplace or to visit another friend, the whole entire club group would show up, and I actually had to use a mod to stop this automatic club gathering from happening cause of you send your sim and their friends over to your friend's house, you don't want the entire club for different activities showing up as well, if you're just gonna hang out with friends.
City living seems to generate the most sims for me
Ironically that's basically how it used to work in TS1 and 2, and community lots were always packed. They couldn't even manage that properly in TS4 😩
If was supposed to be an online game, it makes more sense. Our sims were supposed to be surrounded by other people’s sims doing things and interacting with each instead of the npc sims. The mistake was not revamping the whole thing when they changed directions. They went for the cash grab and gaslighting.
That would have meant investing more money. A thing that a poverty-stricken company like EA cannot afford, of course...
@@benn87 They are are not poverty stricken lol XD they have billions of dollars.
@@RedRoseSeptember22 it's called sarcasm 😅
@@synthellaart1587👍
Imagine the timeline where sims 4 wasn’t an online cash grab game and they actually made it properly
I feel the main issue are the loading screens.
Why do I need to go visit a water fountain in a park if I can just place one in my home and avoid 2 loading screens, ya know?
Why should I go to my neighbors? There's a fucking loading screen!
Yeah, I feel you man.
Ikr. Why even go to a bowling alley? Just build one in your house
I think you're being too generous, its not just the sims 4 coding they could make it work if they really wanted to. They're just lazy, you can get mods that add more NPC's in highschool so i cannot imagine why they cannot do it. They're just adding monkey bars randomly everywhere and calling it a day.
100%, they’re gonna have limits with the game for sure bc it’s so clearly built on a broken system- but look at what modders manage to achieve with that same broken system!! There’s so many mods out there that completely overhaul the game and change it in the most amazing ways. EA are capable of doing everything modders do, and they have far more time money and resources to do it. They just don’t want to.
Exactly. Whenever there's a festival in City Living, places are bustling with people doing actual activities. It's clearly possible.
I swear it's because they are always catering to the potato PC club 😂😢
This exactly, but all it takes is another option in gameplay settings added. We already have one for maximum sims in a save file, why not maximum sims on a lot? Then the potato PC havers will still have their stable, ghost town of a game lol @ladyaofpineapple5000
@@ladyaofpineapple5000more like the potato-brain club lol
it's really sad that the neighbours are not open and we can't travel the lots freely. that would make the worlds less ghosty
This! I understand we could never be free of loading screens in the sims 4, but I'd love semi-open worlds. You can move around your entire neighborhood freely, and I feel that'd give us, or at least me, more motivation to use community lots instead of barely living my sims house because what's the point of going to a cafe if I can't just visit the library real quick without a loading screen
@@lizziehepworth4500 This is why they took away the stir crazy debuff they had in The Sims 3. They fully expect us to stay at home all the time, only occasionally visiting things like the magic realm or the city living festivals.
The very first time i ever played the sims 4, the thing that really took me out of the game was the fact that if your sim goes to the park, there are only like 5 different interactions for them on the whole lot. The parks in the sims 3 were a hub of activity and there was always so much to do. Def a step down.
Yeah, but they were emptier too. Because it was an open world, sims were more scattered and there were places with no one in it
I think the Sims 2 had it spot it on, lots of things to do, plenty of sims in lots you visited. Their FreeTime expansion went hard with things to do, so I just edited old lots (Nightlife's downtown was icredible!) and added the new things in, then townies would use them autonomously and it all feel very alive.
@@iamnotjack.whydidichange In Sims 3, whenever you get to a place, other sims arrive, sometimes two or three different households. And there are many households in each world, so you can also see people going about their day, to and from work/school, etc. It's never as empty as TS4
@@eugeniabarsukova Im sorry but no. Yeah, you can see people going on about their day. But some places were EMPTY. Sometimes I would go to a "hot spot" and there was no one there. Even if a couple sims arrive later, I already expect the place to be full of sims, if its called hot spot. We tend to see sims3 with pink shades on, but the truth is it had a lot of problems and Im sick of people who sugarcoat it because of nostalgia. Even concerts. It was sad. You were like a star singer and there was only like 10 sims there if you were lucky barely paying any attention
@@iamnotjack.whydidichange I literally played it today, so it's not nostalgia at all. I agree with what you say about concerts, but with the entire town present on top of the singer doing stuff it would lag like hell. However, I regularly play in one part of town and see a protest far away, or a family playing at the beach when I'm not there, sims driving past me in their cars, going shopping and so on. It never feels dead, and every sim has a purpose.
"They like to give us what we want, but not in the way we want it..." Nailed it. That's been the consistent problem with Sims 4. It always feels counterintuitive.
I also much prefer the condensed, smaller neighborhoods. Open world was always too much to navigate for me anyway though, and I hate rabbit hole lots.
It almost feels like intentional, malicious compliance at this point.
@@shigeminotoge4514 I know, right? I've always wondered if they're intentionally trolling us.
It definitely feels that way at this point, they give us "what the community asked for" but there's literally no way they really think they're doing it right. Infants are particularly egregious, they really said "here are the worst parts of babies and toddlers mashed into one glitchy mess, that's what you guys asked for right" it's so frustrating
The sims 4 should honestly be renamed Stay-At-Home simulator because there's absolutely no incentive to leave your lot, which is one of the reasons i get so bored and constantly go off playing the game 🙄😪
And yet they constantly advise you to "Get your Sims out!"
You have to really use your imagination to add more fun to this game, I love playing as a escape from the real world but I play on x box and sometimes the sims just chill out and do nothing even when told, still enjoy it and play.
This is kinda the thing I am sad about in the rent pack. I thought we’d be able to interact with our neighbors! But they just hide in their apartments
It's also very weird, in my opinion, that even though there is so much space in the worlds, when your Sim follows a career where you can join them at work, you are transferred in a place that doesn't exist on the sims' maps.
The sims team really achieved someyimg with San Myshuno. The districts felt big, even though only a small portion of it was accessable. And the fake sims that they have wondering around the inaccessible make it actually feel like a bustling city! Whereas with San Sequoia barely anywhere was accessable, and it felt empty. They should have stuck wih the concept of fake, low res sims
My Sim is currently in the Actor career. Every time he goes to work, Judith Ward is there... As a figurant. She's a celebrity, and apparently an actor, but never have any actual acting role.
My sim has had scenes with Judith. I’m pretty sure you have to be signed to her agency and choose more serious roles
I think they just need to make the worlds more interactive, regardless of the size. I'm fine with rabbit holes like For Rent and Cottage Living brought with the shops. More spawnables in ALL worlds. Various food stalls and seating. Maybe a fire pit and picnic tables. I love the areas that have "wild" gardens planted that sims can interact with. In an ideal world there would be more sims walking around and doing things but at this point I don't think that's gong to change without mods. Wouldn't it be nice to have an official setting that allows for more sims per lot if your computer could manage?
Yes, the key is interactivity.
Actually even with collectibles, fishing spots, grills, some food stalls, .. it's still pretty boring. Can't they put something more interactive other than those? Tired of the bars too, aren't there something more interactive to do
It’s just like you said SatchOnSims: Sims world are like your exes, pretty on the outside but dead and empty on the inside 🙂
You are somebody’s ex
100% worlds are so empty and bland. Zero reason to leave my home lot really.
The only feature i would beg for at this point is to be able to edit the neighbourhoods and place objects myself.
You can get the T.O.O.L mod to do this if you didn’t already know about it (to place things in the actual world outside of the lots) ☺️ it looks kinda complicated so I haven’t had the time to sit down and install and play with it yet but it makes the world look so much more alive
If it was like in The Sims 2, I totally agree!
@@SideCharacter12303 TOOL can kinda be a pain when you just want to play and if it was just a set part of build mode in game to have the freedom to world edit, It would just make things easier.
@@TheDawnofVanlife that's how I feel. I have TOOL but I'd rather it just be a feature. TOOL can be confusing and a lot of effort to make intricate areas off-lot.
Also, consoles don't have access to this so they miss out.
I’ve had get together for years and I didn’t recognize any of the spaces you showed in this video. That tells you how much use they’re getting.
I think they can make loading screens work if they replace it with an animation/Sims 2 style cutaway scene of your sims driving to their destination
I feel like a good compromise would be if they had made the individual neighborhoods open, like for example that willow creek starter neighborhood, rather than having to load into each lot to see ur neighbors, it would be open from the moment u load into ur own lot, so you could see what other sims are doing in their homes/outside of them and it'd feel more alive, plus you would be more inclined to visit ur neighbors cuz they're right there and you don't have to load in. This works with smaller neighborhoods, the bigger ones would maybe have issues so if they focused on smaller ones then it could work.
It seems like that's how Life By You is going to be. I wish it was that was with the Sims. Why do I need a loading screen to visit my best friend next door?
I have For Rent and I had no idea there's a market? Because there is no reason to explore, my sims only go around the world if they go jogging.
Seriously. Exploring the world is so shallow and boring, there’s no reason to do it. I got cottage living and even Henford-on-Bagley gets boring after like half an hour. There’s nothing there. One “park” area that just consists of a lonely set of monkey bars lol. I try to explore the worlds but it’s boring as hell.
@@SideCharacter12303 That "park" technically also has that one, tiny set of plastic blocks for toddlers who by design never spawn in to community lots! :')
I’ve always felt like neighborhoods should be open. I’m perfectly fine with loading screens but there’s literally no reason that a lot 2 feet away from me should be stuck through a loading screen. A loading screen to get to the other side of town, fine, but especially with the for rent pack, loading screens are so unnecessary. Or make it so more sims walk around the worlds. I understand that it’s probably impossible because the groundwork for the game sucks so bad, but it’s a dream I have. I wanted to play high school years recently and have my sim go through highschool to adulthood. She’s a cheerleader but every cheer competition was empty, no one comes to watch, there’s no opposing team, your team is the only one competing. They always scream “COME TRY THE NIGHT MARKET, COME TO THE CHEER COMPETITIONS” but no one ever shows up and it’s empty as usual. And don’t even get me started on the Pier. I don’t understand why they didn’t just code these things similar to those annoying and ugly city living festivals, those are always packed for me. But I agree I wouldn’t mind more loading screens if it meant SOMETHING was going on ANYTHING
The Sims basically created ghost towns with Growing Together and For Rent. I refuse to buy For Rent but I’m annoyed about Growing Together. I really wish they made the splash pad area a park to travel to and the pier in Copperdale could have been set as a “generic” lot type we could travel to. I don’t mind Crestnut Ridge because I’m from the area it’s inspired by and the deadness of it is realistic😂 I think these area’s would work better if they had festivals like City Living though because the CL festivals aren’t on lots you can travel to but they still generate lots of Sims.
I own all the packs (bc I'm a sucker and EA knows it) but i agree. Except the pier; just like the high school and auditorium (or Windenburg's Bluffs, Chalet, and Ruins), the pier could have been an "unchangeable" lot, where it always has to be "The Pier". You can change the name and even the layout (from manage worlds or with cheats) but the lot type is stationary. There was no reason for them not to do that, honestly.
I'm curious - what area inspired Chestnut Ridge? "The West," or a particular town?
@@boston_octopus_442 The American Southwest, which is New Mexico, Arizona, and West Texas. It’s different from Strangerville and Oasis Springs though because those two don’t take inspiration from Texas. It’s mostly noticeable in the Sims through vegetation because the Saguaro cacti are most notably in Arizona. The cacti in Chestnut Ridge are from a broader region of the Southwest.
I am not sure if this would work in the sims but in other open world games I have played, you have npcs that have assigned positions/activities. Like for example you will have people that will be working around one street, stopping in front of a shop maybe, they will have like 2 voice lines assigned and they will just spend the whole day walking around that one particular street. Then, when in game night comes, they will leave and respawn again in the morning. Sometimes these npcs are interactable, but usually they are not. I think they make the game feel a lot more alive, especially because it is the same npcs so you get the feeling they actually live nearby and aren’t some randomly generated townie. In games like this there are usually also settings for crowd density, so if your pc isn’t that strong, you can turn down the setting and then you will not have them appear. Sometimes these npcs give you some special collectables or quests which could be also fun in the sims I think. But even if they were not interactable and were just existing in the world, I think it would be nice, even if it meant you wouldn’t be able to interact with them as with regular sims or add them to your household.
oh yes, this. like in those rpg games. do the devs or team leads never played/made rpg games? i mean yeah this is not rpg game, but there are something they can take from there. feels like the devs are more focusing on asset designing or trailer making only
I was 19 when the sims came out, and I was OBSESSED! I played nonstop in between college classes and work. The whimsical towns and weird townies, great music, outrageous carpet swatches. Even when sims 2 came out, I still played the original for like 3 or 4 more years. Got sims 2 in 2oo8 and I was also OBSESSED! Going to the grocery store, being pregnant, cute cut scenes, and having storylines was everything. I played that for years after sims 3 came out. I started playing sims 3 in 2013, and omg, my whole world was flipped upside down. It was SO fun becoming a celebrity and selling out arenas while my sims kids were on scavenger hunts, and my sims husband was visiting festivals. Taking care of wants and fears. They were so interesting with their traits and quirks. I just started playing the sims 4 in 2023, and what a shock to my sims loving brain. The sims are so aggravating just randomly dancing and doing workouts. Why donu need to learn cooking, gourmet, baking, and mixology?? I wanted to love sims 4 but I feel like I hate it. I keep hoping for something cool to happen that i just dont know about, but it has nothing to offer but cool builds and pretty people. So I went back to playing sims 2 and 3. I'm glad it was free but I still feel cheated. I do love watching your videos, though, and a few other youtube builders, but this game sux, and it really makes me sad as an OG simmer.
I feel you! I loved the Sims - from the very start - but when Sims 4 came out - I played it for a couple of days and then just left it alone, it was sooo boring! And it still is, even with all the packs. And I refuse to have to have MODS for it to be interesting.
I totally agree with you. S4 worlds are just pretty empty shells...
The pixelated sims in San Myshuno are my favourite😂
I always found them so weird lol.
We need more of them in others world😂
I'd love more loading screens to get populated lots too. Loading screens aren't that long for me so I don't mind them.. No point of the "open area's" when its a dead town.
You're basically describing the sims 2 lol
Lilaimsie also said such though, so year, everybody see it.
In sims 3 all these huge open spaces were full of insects, flowers, minerals, pounds and so on so interact with
We can pack a lot of world into a 64x64 lot. Each lot can be it's own world, with restaurants, bars, nightclubs, apartments... but without a mod (LittleMSSam) , those business won't be inaction. "NPC pad item" that can select what type of NPC to spawn and where for particular businesses. A simple placeable item like that could really bring some life to community lot builds. A way to make sub-lots on a lot would also enhance interactive builds. Not sure if the 64x64 is the biggest lot they can put in the game, but, bigger lots would also be good too if sub-lots where available.
They should have taken the sims2 approach.
I agree. Even the sims3 one was bad. And since there is already loading screens in 4, they should make whole use of them
@iamnotjack.whydidichange I loved TS3 so much! I still do, the same with TS2, which I still play to this day even though I own TS4 with several expansion packs... I used to think I was just getting "old" to play these games but no, TS4 is just a painful reminder of what wasted potential means 🥲
I agree. I wish the world's were smaller and they had loadable lots for main streets and stuff. Kind of like the sims 1 sub hoods. My TS3 world was a tiny manufacturing island with tourism and it looked jam packed with only 80 sims living in the world.
The Sims 3 'empty lot' problem was a mix of not enough Sims in your world and also depending on their job/life stage/traits would determine where they would go if ever leaving their house.
I 100 percent agree with you. Set dressing is not worth the price tag. I typically create my own lot spaces and play almost entirely on them anyway. I don't bother "exploring" because there is nothing to explore.
thank god this one doesnt need friendships to get promoted..... cuz if it wasnt for mods or the terrible welcome wagon, it's really hard to know people
They ditched open world to make the worlds less empty and now there's almost nobody in lots💀💀
ever since Newcrest became available, I've been 100% playing in that world, just because I want lots of lots available
I wanna build my own wee town there, but it’s overwhelming 😆 and I hate how empty it is! Like all the sims 4 worlds are empty, but they could’ve placed some stuff around the world outside of the available lots like you’ll find in others (for example a little kids park area with the monkey bars or a communal garden). I wanna download the tool mod before I go into newcrest so I can fix that 😂
We just need inzoi/paralives
I'm very excited for inZOI 😮
With Paralives im going to support it day 1 for sure but im not holding in unreal expectations I think after launch it will develop into something incredible so I won't be judging it from launch
Inzoi is too detailed. You will be overwhelmed. Also that means need hi-end PC. Which not everyone have that.
Like maybe the minimum RAM is 32GB.
And, based from the look, it gonna be like segs simulator. Like really. Some ppl gonna make seggs mod for inzoi obviously. It's gonna be like semi realistic seggs simulator.. Not focus on the gameplay.
Paralives in other hand, it's so cute. The graphics. It's one of the two best sims game so far.
The other one is life by you. But it's ugly. BUT it's like sims3. Ugly graphics, but with so many features. And dont forget about the mods that will come
Inzoi looks pretty but it seems very shallow. I know there are other life stages but what Gameplay have I seen? It's shallow and tbh it looks like a Kpop idol/Stan simulator which doesent appeal to me. Things could change of course but this is a gam that is expected to release this year. I'm not seeing anything groundbreaking in Gameplay. After 30 mins I'll be bored.
@@DBT1007 what makes you say it’s going to be a mature simulator?
If i could I would put entertainers in the parks. Like a hulu hoop dancer in Tomarang. And you can watch the hula hoop dancer, tip them, or join them if you have a hula hoop in your inventory. And then i would make it a skill of course. I've seen these dancers in real life and its so cool to see in the park.
The next game really needs to have an open world BUT with a sense of accomplishment for players who like to explore the map. I feel like we need to settle with the idea that Sims 4 will always have closed off neighbourhoods, all we can hope for is that they've maybe listening to the criticisms and are willing to address that for the sequel.
1:38 But why? What about S4 keeps it from having S3 gameplay? If it's a graphics problem, then EA needs to go back to S3 style graphics. S4 literally went backwards with their gameplay and pretty much everything else.
@39Edon_ I just will never understand why they went backwards in the first place. At this point, after all the BS, I don't think EA ever considered continuing S3 style gameplay and just making S4 better than S3... They should just rename S4 to Sims $$$.
They rushed the release of the base game too prematurely and the code has been broken because of it. The game should have stayed in development for another 2-4 years
@@silenceofthepams Well, that is not surprising at all. Isn't that the norm for AAA Devs now? Rush to make a deadline, collect all that preorder money, and let the customers be the game testers? It's literally IKEA for gaming.
I don’t hate loading screens but it bothers me so much that sims will spawn WITH me whenever I visit a lot. For example, I want to find sims DOING things when I spawn at a café, the way it is irl. It’s so weird that everyone (including the staff!) just spawns outside when I visit and then starts going in. What a weird choice. I wonder if it would’ve been that much harder to code sims to spawn mid-action.
I honestly wouldn’t have an issue with open neighborhoods/districts as opposed to open worlds if they were actually OPEN meaning once you got to a neighborhood, you could go in any building you wanted in that neighborhood without a loading screen and anyone in that neighborhood at least was living their life around you. Like for real, not just generated walk-bys. Actual simulation.
I do love me the horribly dressed townies though. I spend alot of time at random lots with my sim seeing the horribly dressed townies and resigning their outfits around the most ridiculous accessory they're wearing
Totally agree with this. I never visit the cinema in I think San sequioa, or the pier in Copperdale, for example. But I would if they were loading screens , which would make sims spawn on the spot and make it look more bustling.
For some reason, I remember when the sims 4 was being spoken about, they said they’d be coming away from rabbit holes because of the open world aspect being taken away!? I could be wrong but I swear they said that🤔🤔 and we’ve had nothing but rabbit holes in packs!🤣
When I was growing up, a computer game consisted of a single disc that had a definitive start and end (E.g. Barbie Horse adventure, or whatever it was called). As computer games became more advanced, you had sand box modes. Which was revolutionary at the time. These sand box games ALSO came with structured game play (Think Zoo Tycoon Complete collection, one of the best games of all time IMO). The Sims 3 (which is where I started in the franchise) did both structured and sandbox game play, which was a great mix. Sims 4 never appealed to me. It appeared to be 100% sanbox, and the only way it looked fun/cool was if it had a ton of mods and cc, which would break my poor laptop. I fell into the Sims 4 trap when my old laptop got ruined and I couldn't access what I'd already bought.
In my opinion, the Sims 4 has the following functions:
1. A cash cow for EA who market micro-transactions as DLC.
2. A way for EA to study us players to better exploit us in the future. The Sims 4 introduced a whole population of players that wouldn't normally engage in online gameplay, to the online world. They have full access to the way we play to study us, which makes me uneasy at best...
So, why do I play Sims 4 if I think all this? I was mesmerized by youtubers that would use the Sims 4 to create watchable series. When I couldn't access SIms 3 anymore, I thought, I might as well get the SIms 4 (I didn't realize the "functions" of the SIms 4 yet.) And while I have a love/hate relationship with the Sims 4, I do enjoy the sandbox side of it sometimes. It gets overwhelming, though, as I literally have to set up EVERYTHING! And then when you get in to game play, there are so many immersion breaking things that make me sign out. One big example for me is mermaids all over Sulani. To me, that should be secret and hidden. The shouldn't just be swimming all over the place. It breaks the idea that mermaids are magical and mysterious. Same with aliens. I want to "discover" aliens, not see them walking all over the place.
So many other examples. But anyway. Sorry for the long response, just had to get this off my chest. lol.
Enjoy your vids, Satch! You're one of those youtubers that keep me enthralled.
Odd. I never see mermaids or aliens in the game, although I have played them. I thought they WERE a hidden thing...
@@Rowanlafolle1965 - One thing I’ve noticed from looking up how to fix certain bugs is that not everyone experiences bugs at the same time, which is even more weird imo.
10:19 Jeez, see all these worlds I don't have, and how they function reminds me of school lunch and getting cheap slop on my tray with EA being the annoyed lunch lady.
shoutout to modders for fixing a major issue here: allowing worlds to generate more townies and have a higher capacity of sims on any active lot! it only really works if you have a good pc though otherwise it causes a lot of lag between interactions and animations... the simulation just cant keep up when there's too much going on at once :( its a real shame because there is so much squandered potential!!
Anything would be possible if they converted the game into a dx12 one. It needs to be able to use your CPU more efficently than it can under dx9.
If they did this it would be possible having all lots open and loaded with simulation in a neighborhood. The real limiting factor has always been the API, it is cheap and ancient by this point. I honestly think the sims team lack talent at this point and are out of touch.
An engine can be modified and upgraded for what is needed but they always throw some bullshit bullshit xcuse because most simmers don’t know shit about the technical aspect behind the game.
As i said, the API is the limiting factor and a team that either lack talent or is lazy.
@@IsidorTheNordicGuy It would take less work to make a new game built using dx12 than it would take to port the game to dx12. They'd have to rewrite pretty much everything from the ground up to make it work.
I play Sims 1-3 so I have plenty of mods in Sims 2-3 to do what I like with my townies.
Sims 4 world feels like liminal spaces, like places you can relate and feel nostalgic, but at the same time, empty and soulless.
Huh. I didn't realize that. Cause I'm always going back to playing in worlds that are smaller, just so I can see more sims
I think if you have more sims that you've made in a save file, the worlds look more busy cause you always see your other sims walking and neighbors are more likely to visit you if your sim knows them, but it takes making and
playing a lot of different households in the same save, but to properly do that you either have to play with aging off, or use MCCC to set the life stage lengths longer. Also clubs and times of day do affect the amount of Sims that hang out at different community places depending on when you visit a lot in that area.
It doesn’t really matter whether you have 200 or 500 sims in the world. There is a 20 sim per zone limit. You will never see more than that.
Id love if there are more activities and meaningful buildings. Like, I really love that strike activitiy in front of town hall in Sims 3, you know?
Or maybe make that every friday night, juat flood the certain places to be crowded like at City Living festivals? It would be a lot meaningful.
But eh EA is kinda moving on to that new Project Renee or sth and just grab whatever they could from Sims 4 before leaving it dry
But in the words of the sims team "It's so pretty" and "It's so cool" and were so confused when we said so what? Its only a backdrop
yeah, it's so fun for the 'devs' because they're the one who get to edit and build the world.. really, they only think from their point of views.. dunno if they really know the users' point of view..
@@second_second_ and thats a serious problem, if they actually played the game, you know as a game, and LISTENED to what the players of the game have been saying since the beginning, then they would know.... that they don't... yeah
maybe they could add a lot trait that is "heavily populated" or something like that. it would be nice for city living too
Main issue is how much processing power must be allocated for active lot vs the open world. By having a much more lively open world while also simulating a very crowded active community lot will screw up the framerate to a crawl. And not to mention breaking the AI even further. Spawn a hundred Sims in the lot and see how the game just breaks.
That’s because of DX9, an engine can be modified and upgraded to what it needs. They have to convert the game to run on dx12 so the engine can then be upgraded to support more complex simulation, higher performance and an even spread on the CPU cores.
DX9 has always been the limiting factor when it comes to sumilation games.
I have no idea why in the world they built a sims game on such an ancient API in 2014….. either cheap, lazy or just lacking in talent. The sims team is not looking good these days.
@@IsidorTheNordicGuy "either cheap, lazy or just lacking in talent" - sounds like all of them..
I love exploring in all kinds of games, but indeed these worlds are too lifeless to make exploring enjoyable... I would much rather have smaller worlds that feel more alive and I was hoping For Rent and/or Crystal Creations would do that, but it didn't really and now I don't want to get my hopes up anymore :(
I always wondered why at a sims house/lot visit, all sims are attracted to some item like a radio, but in the world there is nothing like that.
Why would you not want to brows a market stall in a area that has them?
Why is there no attraction "marker" in the world? This would gather the spawned in sims to the points of interest within the game?
But knowing the developers These kind of "attraction markers" would be done in such a way that no sims will stay on the lot within that world 😂 so maybe never mind. 😂😂
EA needs to watch this video
The worst lot is San Myshuno Central Park. It's one of the largest lots in the whole game and it's always EMPTY for me. Sims spawn AROUND the park but never come inside without mods. I had to use 2 mods to make it functional. One to increase the number of sims on a lot from EA's cap of 20, and another to change to venue from a locked "Central Park" to a generic lot or a lounge so sims autonomously interact with the stuff inside the park. It's clear to me they don't play test lots before release.
This gave me the idea that it would be cool to have a theme park expansion pack, where your Sim can ride numerous rides and with cross pack compatibility with get to work or something that allows you to manage your own theme park.
After not playing since TS4 launched, I just installed TS3 and all the packs and...this was an issue in TS3 too. The TS3 worlds have lots of collectibles and they're pretty, but you wind up at lots alone, or with 1 other sim. It's the same kind of issue, the game can only support so many sims at 1 place at a time. And with the open world, and everyone going about an actual routine, there weren't always sims available to show up where your sims go. Because of this, it makes sene that they were going in the multiplayer direction with TS4 (which would fix this problem, tilhink GTA online) before Sim City bombed. I've never gone to a bar/club/whatever in TS4 where nobody shows up, but I have in TS3. If they included more rabbit holes in TS4 (or gave us a way to make our own), and could turn up the number of sims that populate an area based on your computer specs, it would be a lot better. And I agree, if the areas that are supposed to be "bustling and busy", like the carnival were separate lots, I think the game could push out more sims to actually make it busy.
Also when you arrive somewhere there is NOBODY. And suddenly other sims appear. My friend and I refer to this when we go into an empty store and it suddenly gets crowded xD
I don't think it's a "why don't they spawn more sims in" kinda problem. Whenever I'm in that big city "world" (san myshuno?) hanging out in an apartment, as soon as I leave my sim alone they always run out to talk to a random unknown person they couldn't have seen. It's like they're telepathic or something? I'm surprised no random sims come running into my apartment honestly.
The other sims don't have lives, they're not coming into town to do something, they're just there as a backdrop because you're there.
More sims would only exacerbate this problem. When you go to a club they all spawn in to go to the club so they know what to do, but when you're just walking around the other sims are struggling to find a purpose. With more sims you'd immediately see groups of people just standing around not really having anything to do, no motivation or drive as to why they're there. We're so used to seeing people dynamics in the real world, we'd notice it was wrong immediately.
I think the lack of sims is an attempt to hide a deeper issue - they never planned a bunch of important systems because the game wasn't supposed to work like this. It's not just performance. The sims don't have their own lives, they aren't headed anywhere.
They won't and can't spend the time to fix this with an update or DLC.
I'm actually okay with the number of sims walking around neighborhoods. What I am missing is interesting activities and points of interest that are clickable and provide some form of gameplay, not just ones that are there only to look at. The worlds in the sims 4 are gorgeous, but I don't want to just span my camera and look at them, I need a reason for my sims to actually explore and go to different spots.
100% this, when I first get a map I’ll poke around a bit to see how far my sim can go, but there is rarely a reason to go back again.
I agree that making the worlds smaller to make them busier would be a good thing. But one thing I don't hear anyone talking about is that in the Sims 3, once you choose a world, you are trapped there until you start a new game. I started with the Sims 4 and the loading screens were a small price to pay to be able to go to any world. I then chose to play sims 3 and couldn't wait to travel in between worlds, and was very confused when I couldn't. Sure there are no loading screens and you can go all over the one world you chose, but that's it. I can't go to another world to see what is different there. I guess there were mods that allowed it, but you were stuck in that one open world. Maybe it's just me, but I'd much rather sit through a loading screen to take my sims to new worlds to see what they offer rather then be trapped. Maybe it's because I played the games in the wrong order, but I don't get the nostalgia for open worlds when that is all you get.
They reinvented the wheel with The Sims 4. I mean they changed too much when they didn't have to. The Sims 3 only needed a slight graphic update, maybe a couple new features but not completely changing so many things especially when the changes are down grades.
The dead worlds annoy me too.
I also hate how nobody shows up unless my sim is on a lot, then they show up in droves like wtf I don't got the celebrity pack lol
I don't even need a bunch of real sims - the city living ones in inaccessible areas work well. Recent worlds have almost NO harvestable or fishing spots (even when there's water). I actually scour and explore these big spaces looking for a particular plant in season for example, for a recipe or special quest. The only 'secret' worlds are from the base game and first couple of packs. Agree the night market should be its own lot.
I’ve been making lots of townies to fill the worlds out and using mc command center to allow more sims on a lot!! Helps SOO much and makes my game so much more entertaining
I think the problem is that The Sims target demographic is basically casual players who, if lucky, have a decent non-gaming laptop at hand so EA doesn't even bother to ramp up what's possible. Imagine the performance boost this game would get if it could use half of the hardware of a decent gaming pc.
If Sims 3 had a 64 bit client and full access to like 16 gigs of RAM and above most of it's performance problems would be gone. And this is with fully customizable open worlds...
Whatever world that you choose to play in, the sims 4, is a great game etc, but you need to use your imagination for a decent amount of fun, we can always hope that one day it might improve, we do need more venues, activities, fun filled content please!
@@angelaallen6092 yeah and you can actually improve them with mods such as T.O.O.L which lets you transfer objects from other lots to world space and they stay there even if you load into another lot.
Can get janky fast but it's manageable
I completely agree - might as well have better gameplay and more loading screens any fun “lots” since we have so many anyway..
Someone should make mods for each world to make them more interactable. Even if they're just rabbit holes, I think it would add a lot more to the game. Or even just a mod to add more townies roaming around the world when you load into one.
The Sims 4 is a big ghost town, I hope someone makes a mood for it cause it’s incredible how EA never thought about this, so I hope some simmer make something!
It very weird to me, since the jungle adventure temples always got a lot of NPCs doing stuff. But then normal lots or areas are empty. I don't know why this is since it makes less sense for them to be in the temple than at a night market
Could you make a video talking about how it could be having a nice world in life simulators (not just the sims) like... I feel that having that places crowded wouldn't be enough... maybe if they could program random events happening along the week, like some % of car accidents, % more people going outside and partying on weekends, Street sweepers, people going to work on Mondays etc.
Badly performing game - thanks for your honesty
Tbh. It feels so isolated when you play without an open world.
I think this is why I like Strangerville and San Myshuno.
Strangerville seems to have the illusion of being mysterious but still have plenty of sims bustling around while being a quiet small town.
San Myshuno for the same reason, it feels somewhat alive but I would’ve expected more for it
Besides coding itself, the horrendous loading screens and the terrible lag (whether you have mods in or not, on a computer that runs actually ambitious games)... They can't even bother adding in rabbit holes!? Sims 3 towns had so many, yet it was still enjoyable. Also, lore in the sims 4 is barely executed... There's never an actual story. Sadly, there's also a huge issue with bugs. Sims going through walls isn't even the worst one... The randomly generated townies should have limitations or not be generated altogether with the click on the options menu. Seriously. When you have about 300 sims, including townies of your own, you want THEM to be appearing around!
I've been playing in San Sequoia and when I load into a community lot, almost no townies show up. Maybe they are lost walking around the neighborhood. There's a 64x64 lot and 3 sims show up.
Sims 4 was supposed to be more advanced and better than Sims 3 and the only thing they did was improve graphics. lol
It’s sad how good this game could’ve been.
Okay to play devils advocate, I like to play with TOOL mod and the space lets me build it up how I like.
Then with the get together clubs it’s pretty easy to direct them to use those objects. It looks very lively and fun with 8 more sims messing around in the town.
wish tool mod will be incorporated into the game officially. so everyone can use it
I tried playing today and my character and random stuff would become invisible. It saddens me how frustratingly bad it is. Why would I buy more when they can't even get the stuff I have already paid for work?
What i wanted or meant was "bigger world = more lots", and something to click on or do on those non-editable spaces. Sims 4 doesn't have rpg-like walking (the ASWD button or moving the sim with left right top down arrows), so these beautiful spaces became useless
I don’t use all the worlds most of the time. Because it’s overwhelming for me. I tent to stick to the first three (unless I’m testing out a new pack).
All I want is the ability to create my own world, put my own lots anywhere I want and then just delete the worlds I don’t play.
This is what I used to do with Sims 2. Make my own map on SimCity, import it, and then place lots, add in my own NPCs, and just play the one bit world.
I wish they would just update sims 2 so it works on my computer.
You have the same evil laugh as Juno Birch. A collab would be AMAZING!!
One of your best video reviews yet Satch! I nodded my head in agreement at every point you made (except at 9:54 when you said it was 2pm 😂) I miss the little Easter eggs and hidden extra gameplay moments we randomly came across in Sims 1 to 3. I don't care for open worlds, or cars, if it means we could have immersive gameplay. TS4 lacks the passion and quirky Maxis sense of humour of the previous generations, and I miss that!
I really wish they’d add some sort of clothing priority system for generating new sims so that they’re at least in normal outfits
The randomly generated townies is a huge problem for me but nobody else seems to care as much. It SCREAMS broken game to have NPCs spawning dressed like absolute idiots constantly. I feel like it gets a pass because TS4 can be a silly game, but the fact that we need mods to fix it… It drives me nuts that it is just comes as a forced feature with the game, no matter how you like to play the game, you will have absolute horrendous specimens walking around that you can never empathise with or want to befriend. Makes no sense.
I know this isn't useful for console players, but on PC I am pretty sure there is a setting with MC Command Center of where you can control how many sims spawn near your lot. I think uping the sims spawn rate would fix the ghost town. From a code perspective, I am surprised there isn't a part of the script that does a check for age and traits when loading townies to then decide what they do. Where children and teens hangout at the park, while adults and elders sit on benches and do some gardening or painting.
The irony is that the initial reasons EA provided for the smaller closed worlds was that this would allow appropriate resourcing for a livelier, more populated area. This was compared to The Sims 3 which admittedly had an AWESOME open world but the engine sometimes struggled to populate where your sims are (e.g. nightclubs) with sims. But here we are, small limited worlds with a disappointingly small number of things to do.
This is why my sims barely leave the house 😂
The reason why Sims 4 is terrible is because the Sims 4 base game is supposed to be boring so you feel like buying the packs to make the game fun and the packs are there to cover up for the emptiness of the base game it's maybe a cash grab to budget for the making of future sims games
For me, the big problem with the Sims 4 worlds is their little or no customization. Yes we can change the houses but all that decoration is still in the background. Willow Creek is clearly based on New Orleans and we cannot modify it in any way.
In The Sims 2 the worlds were small but at least you could choose the layout of the lots and be able to turn Pleasantview into "Las Vegas" if you wanted.
So when you see someone playing TS4 you already know where they "live" even though the house is completely different, taking a lot of life away from the game.
We need a decor sims to full fill the empty world😂
That's one thing I hate about Cottage Living. I love so many things about it, but, except for selling stuff for 10% profit during the Finchwick Fairs, I never stay for the fair itself. Sure, I've had oversized crops that might win, or llamas or whatever, but there is NOTHING to do there while you're waiting to see if you won! You can drink or eat at the bar, window shop or maybe socialize for like 8 hours while you wait. Not worth it! Not even a food stall. I feel like it should have carnival rides or games or SOMETHING to do while you wait!
so much for a "Fair"
This is why I’m so excited that other simulation games are set to come out in a few years. I’m hoping that the Sims becomes the “MySpace” of simulation games. Paralives looks like it’s gonna be a lot of fun to interact with. InZoi looks like it would be so much fun for realistic game play. And others just to give EA some competition. The team at EA has been a monopoly over simulation games for over two almost 3 decades. And genuinely would not be what it is If not for the dedicated fan base that is constantly making mods that make this game fun to play. The game isn’t even joyful on this own. I’m so glad new creators are shaking things up.
I remember they promoted the "lively" night market. That was just straight up lying.
the sims4 uses space so inefficiently. they could trade all that big empty space for having more sims walking around or something
and it’s so annoying looking around the entire area trying to find one tiny strawberry bush, and then your sim has to run 20 miles to get to it.
Imagine being an employee working on this game - going to work, seeing those coworkers smoking on the balcony, talking about a chance card for the entertainer career all day ...