More lots

[SqueamishNerd]

In a lot of the worlds we can see decoration houses, and often they even look like some of the playable houses that are already in the neighbourhood. I think they should make those decoration houses into actual lots, I guess it wouldn’t be too much work (compared to a lot if other things people want them to add) to do that.

[PugLove888]

@AndyZhang2896, like @SheriGR  said, I don't know how many of your ideas would be feasible.  But I do know that a lot of people have stated that they had wished that both Brindleton Bay (Cats & Dogs EP) and Del Sol Valley (Get Famous EP) had had beaches that were usable! This was wished for even before Island Living, and of course after it! 

And you're right, apartments would be the hardest.  San Myshuno is distinct because of the apartments there, so adding them elsewhere makes City Living not as unique. 

And you are also right in that most people Download houses from the Gallery or build there own to replace the Maxis-made ones they don't' like.  Mostly I just change the colors of the furniture , walls, and floors, and ad some clutter.  But there are even people on You Tube who demonstrate how they improve the original Maxis houses! 

Love the picture!  Can you tell us where this is ...the color of the water and the style of the houses remind me of Florida. 

[AndyZhang2896]

@SqueamishNerd  Yeah, I think that is what @SheriGR mean, turning the faux houses into actual editable lots.

@PugLove888 What @SheriGR say probably true, altering existing editable lots may mess up that lots, so this means 20x20 national park in Del Sol Valley can't be enlarged. But I think adding new lots to existing world won't do much harm. Every existing house will stay the same with new lots added around them. But I'm not a programmer and I don't know if that is possible. It's more possible to add totally new world with empty lots like Newcrest tho, than fixing the existing world as you guys said.

I took it from Google and yes, it says it's on Florida!

[PugLove888]

@AndyZhang2896, yes, I'm not a programmer either, but like you said, I think sometimes it is easier to just start anew and make a separate town/neighborhood/world, than it would be to alter an existing one.  That way you at least don't have to worry about messing up any existing lots, and you can also get more lots with a new town as well! :eahigh_file:  I don't know if our assumptions are correct about this, but either way it would be nice to have more lots. 

Thanks for telling us about the picture!   I've only been to Florida twice, once to Orlando and once to the Keys... This pic especially reminded me of the Keys and driving from them through Miami and to Ft. Lauderdale!  The Florida Keys are wonderful! 

[SqueamishNerd]

Here’s an interview with SimGuruLyndsay where they talk a little about why they worlds are so small. It’s basically because of performance, because they don’t want it to become what TS3 became (they even say that they don’t recommend having all the TS3 packs installed at once), and they want it to be possible to add more content down the line without problems with the performance.

https://youtu.be/SKzjiiox0Fk

[AndyZhang2896]

@SqueamishNerd  I ever heard that. A small world for the sake of performance, but somehow I find this illogical. They should have improved the performance instead of minimizing the world. I think that excuse is just too bad. I can't imagine all of the future packs have less content, fewer lots, reduced quality for the sake of performance.

They have made the world not open, and that's okay. Many say TS3 is unplayable because of open-world (I can't relate because I'm a new sims player and didn't own TS3 EP). And now a smaller world? color wheel is gone. What's next? 

I think TS4 need to do a survey, to see their demography, what computer specification majority have. It's good that TS4 can run on lower specs computer, many people can play it, but that good thing doesn't come without a price (smaller worlds, less content, etc).

[SqueamishNerd]

Well, TS4 is 5 years old now, and when they started to develop it they had to make the game work smoothly on computers at that time, and they also wanted to have the possibility to add new content for at least 5 years (TS1 had updates for 5 years, TS2 had updates for 5 years, TS3 had updates for 5 years), they didn’t want it to become what TS3 became, so they simplified it a lot. A bit sad that we couldn’t have as big worlds, colour wheels etc, but now we actually have several worlds instead of just one. The worlds are smaller, but there are more of them.

Though I hope they can update the existing worlds to become bigger.

Also, I hope they’ll update the maps, I want more detailed maps, so that it’s easier to see which lot is the closest (or even the right neighbourhood in some cases) to where I want to go.

[AndyZhang2896]

@SqueamishNerdIn TS3, can you travel from Sunset Valley to another world (let's say, Isla Paradiso)? I never have EP in TS3 so I don't know.
If can't, then I prefer TS4 over TS3 even at the cost of open-world. It will be pretty boring living in Isla Paradiso forever and if wanted to live in another world, need to start a completely new game. Big nope.

I hope they update the map too. I want to see a more lively Starlight Boulevard. The one we have now feel so bland and dead. The Pinnacles also looks flat, and bare without tree, but when we enter into the live mode, The Pinnacles isn't flat, Bailey-Moon Manor is on lower terrain than Chateau Peak, the surrounding also full of trees and beautiful. I don't think updating maps will put a weight in the game especially it's a 2 dimension image.

Another interesting thing to add is the map will change depending on the season (this mean TS4 Team need to create 4 maps for each world). And would be better again if the maps also look different depending on the weather (rain, sunny, thunderstorm, blizzard, etc), this means far more maps for a single world.

Oh, and we will know immediately what the weather is from the map without going into live mode!

[SqueamishNerd]

@AndyZhang2896 I’ve never played any EPs for TS3 either, but according to what I can find on Google and what SimGuruGraham said in an interview just before TS4 was released (he said that in TS4 it would be the first time ever where you could travel between worlds) it’s not possible to travel between worlds in TS3. In TS3, if a household is moved to another world they will lose all relationships with the world they moved from. There are different locations, that are more or less like worlds, that you can visit, in all TS games, such as the university neighbourhood in TS2 and the Magical World in TS1, but you can’t go from for example Strangetown to Belladonna Cove in TS2.

The seasonal maps may be implementable, but I would think that weather maps would be very hard to implement. But it’s an interesting idea.

Btw, the worst map in TS4 is Newcrest. That map is pretty much just green with a pond in the middle, but when you visit it’s beautiful.

[AndyZhang2896]

@SqueamishNerd I see, so TS4 is actually better, I thought in TS3 people can travel from a world to another world. It a big sacrifice to make it open world but can't travel between worlds. I do hope in TS4 at least there's no loading screen when visiting a neighbor in the same neighborhood (for examples, visiting Garden Essence from Bargain End, or visiting apartment neighbor).

Yup, weather maps are harder to implement, and there's a lot of weather.
Hope seasonal maps will be considered by TS4 team.