My Husband saw the trailer when I was watching it and he legit thought it was a Youtube ad for a kids tv show.

Apart from the animals, there doesn’t appear to be a lot new here. Cooking has been done to death, ditto gardening. Festivals have also been milked repeatedly. (Pardon the pun)

What kills me about the picnic basket is that they pick a feature that:

1) Adds nothing new. Honestly, you can already drag food to your inventory and transport it to a public location that way. Like it's a nice aesthetic to have the basket, but this isn't even a new feature, in terms of what's currently available.

2) Is stupidly likely to glitch out. Musical chairs is a thing, as is eating slow as hell. Including this feature will just remind players that Sims dunno how to sit still and that they have to take 30 minutes to contemplate the meaning of life after every bite. Like if you know your product has flaws, typically you try and steer your audience AWAY from the flaws. AOE2 famously has less-exciting water battles so most maps are on land. Sims 4? "Yo our eating and sitting mechanics don't work, let's base more features on those."

Honestly curious how the thing even works, because it's plenty possible for the picnic basket to be comparatively tedious to dragging the food to your inventory, in which case, no one will bother. (think Scrubaroo or whatever the cleaning spell is from the Witches pack: no point using it on dishes cause washing them normally is faster unless you have like one single plate)

The fact that the picnic basket can’t be used in the ground is ridiculous. It’s like the laptop all over again.

The laptop is a joke. It's just a reskinned desktop with live dragging enabled. They should feel ashamed of themselves.

I'm trying to think of ONE object they reintroduced that was as good or BETTER than in previous games and I honestly can't think of one.
- Lounge chairs are far worse. Even though multitasking is such a big thing in 4, you can't do anything while relaxing on a lounge chair. You can't even read like in Sims 3.
- Cash registers are pretty much decorative. They were FAAAAAAAR better in TS2 (kinda mediocre in 3, to be fair).
- Swings are worse than in TS2 and TS3. They are no longer modular objects.

Agreed wholeheartedly. However, there is a widespread "I don't want to make my own story!" attitude among Sims 4 players (or maybe it only appears widespread) and this crowd will probably welcome the basket, because taking food to places in their sims' inventories would be "faking" picnics.



I was under the impression that the quicker eating change a couple of patches ago WAS their way to steer the audience away from the product's flaws.
Musical chairs had become far worse than ever before. For example when I made my sims sit down and told them to take a serving from the table into their inventories and then click that serving from inside the inventory, they always brought it out and ate it while staying on the seats they were sitting on. But that workaround broke at some point and, well, EA's way of fixing stuff is taking the glitchy stuff away (see children plan mannequins and hiking with toddlers). So they cut the eating time down in the hopes that the sims would be finished before Musical Chairs would kick in and therefore we wouldn't get to see the problem anymore.
In practise I still see their musical chairs, but I also don't see my sims eat anymore, what had been a major source of enjoyment for rl glutton me. Their fix is a lose-lose for me.

I also found weird, in my experience Sims, putting their home made/served food in their inventory.

Absolutely. This is just a totally made up world for a game. I have lived in IL, RI, MA, KY, and California and have been many other places. USA burbs are nothing like that. And here in CA some of the new builds are so close I thought they were apartments driving by. And let's not even get into the prices.

That is one thing I have always loved about Sims. My Sims can live in totally amazing homes in wonderful locations. Color me jealous of pixels. Pretty pathetic! LOL

No sweat, I got this. I made a list of things Sims 4 did better than it's predecessors and I've been keeping careful track for a while now. I'll copy paste the list here:

Features Sims 4 did better than previous Sims titles:

-Vampires

I usually avoid conversations about how everything looks American or whatever, but sometimes the record needs to be set straight.

The game is made in CA, my backyard is not littered with Joshua Trees. For those that don't know, Joshua Trees are a endangered species of yucca plant ( Yucca brevifolia) in CA which come with hefty fines and possible jail time if they are dug up, chopped down, ect... Just as not all houses have clapboard siding; mine doesn't. Not far from me is a house that is round rather than box. In another place I lived, there is a house that is shaped like a igloo. I also know people that have lived in that 'igloo'.

TS4 is a video game. Just because Maxis puts something in the game, that stuff does not equate to 'representing' all of the Banana Republic.

Not sure why you are calling the US and/or CA a Banana Republic, but it is very true many Sims worlds are not accurate in representing real places no matter where they are. And California is so large and diverse picking one area would be an attempt to be just that area, for example, as would be the case for most places in the world. And if yuccas are in the world, that would be representing only a tiny portion of here. Very tiny compared to all.

It's almost impossible for a Sims game to accurately represent a real-life location. This is The Sims, after all, not Assassin's Creed.

What matters is that they capture the essence of the place they're trying to recreate. The problem is that The Sims 4 puts LOOKS above all else, even functionality. So you'll end with excessively detailed, ridiculously small locations. There's honestly no need to put that much work on set-dressing. I'm sure most people would prefer them to make larger worlds even if they're less detailed.

My beef with their worlds are they're all very samesy. Half of them are just very green places with somewhat different surroundings. Where's the mountain regions? Cold regions? Swampy wetlands? I mean, if we didn't get them at this point, I don't think they're ever coming. And unlike the previous games we're unable to make our own world to correct their lack of variety. Sad times, y'all.

I wonder if it's possible to add a custom World or overwrite a world, though...

Nobody is asking them to do that or maybe they are and this is why these dumb conversations continue to happen. I don't recall this being a issue TS2 or TS3, but said conversations happen way too often with TS4. If I played TS4 and even if there was a world creator tool, I still wouldn't be able to make my 'neighborhood' as there are far too many things missing from the game as there is agriculture in my area. I'll take it a step further and say that I couldn't make my own personal property, there are too many things missing as well, especially at the moment.

We're currently clearing out a so-called 'native' trees from our property. How black cherry trees became native and have not landed on the invasive species list I will never know. They are choking out the maples trees, oak trees, ect... The only way to get rid of them is to pull them up when they're small enough to do that or cut them down. Between the stupid cherry trees and all the other brush, dead trees that the cherry trees have killed off, and misc crap that has been pulled out from behind our fence, (i.e- ancient blueberry bushes the former owner planted) we have brush piles taller than I am; I'm 5'2.

Team Maxis even on their wildest of days would never put a animation in TS4 of somebody cutting down a tree, never mind allow a object that looks like a pretend brush pile that is taller than their adult sims. I have a 10 yard dumpster sitting in my driveway to help get rid of part of said crap. There are no driveways in TS4 because there are no cars, just as there are no roll off dumpsters. Whatever doesn't fit in the dumpster, my go-to tree company is going to come out and chip up whatever is left of the mess. I get to keep all the mulch which my plants and my wallet will appreciate. Also, the only time any of the trees on my property have pink on them is when the Weeping Cherry tree flowers in the spring. My dwarf Japanese Maple turns red in fall, not barbie pink.

I could waste my time and invent some hyperbole story about how Maxis has issues with land management and must have something against people that do since there is no such thing is TS4, but it would be more constructive for me to put boots, a sweatshirt and some gloves on and start breaking down the brush piles that are taller than I am so they can be loaded into the dumpster. The sooner that happens, the sooner the dumpster goes away. I paid to rent it for two weeks, it is not staying for 2 weeks.

Maybe some day Maxis will come up with a career for TS4 that involves grunt work instead of simply allowing sims to get rich from their pet dust bunnies, but that isn't likely to happen. If anybody wants to tell me how things are in my world, they are welcome to come and help out and see how it really is. It is nothing like any La-La Land Maxis invents / creates.

I think by now we can all agree that Sims 4 was quickly slapped together just to have something out there to grab the bucks. From the beginning it was never intended to be a great successor - not even a good successor - to Sims 3. It was simply to say "hey, we got a new Sims game" and grab the money (thus making EA investors happy). The team don't fix, add, rebuild or reassess anything of it because it was like an old car someone buys just to get to work - not to refurbish or turn into something classic. And when they do fix, add, rebuild or reassess anything, it's just to keep it running.

As I have said many a time I think 4 is in a different ballpark with different players to a large degree from the prior versions. I think the prior versions attracted a more mature, less head in the clouds player, who totally understood that this is a game and will never be a close match to real life places or many real life situations. Other than one person who I remember back when who wanted to recreate his house and was even wanting CC makers to make a stove and fridge and so on to match the ones in his place. Needless to say, nobody did as that was pretty much ridiculous .

I have seen some posts over the years about what people want in 4 and some are so far in lala land that I shake my head. This is a game and therefore has limitations as to what can be done. But some do not seem to get that.

- - - -

And regarding the game being slapped together and rushed, we all know the story that they changed horses mid-stream and did have to rush to make a set deadline. Shortcuts were taken. Things not done. We know the story/history all about that.

We all know what happened and that the game was released in an unfinished state. What I don't understand is why they haven't at least TRIED to make the game seem more than a building simulator / shameless cash grab. The Vampires Game Pack showed they clearly CAN produce something good when they give a d-mn, the question is why are those times so rare? I just don't get it.

They don’t have to try. The former CM, not Kate, the one before her, once said they KNOW they are guaranteed your money. Weather it’s by preorder, day of release, or down the line in a sale. I think that attitude is kinda arrogant. But I’ve also saw many people complain about features in a pack and in the same breath say they are still buying it anyway. As long as people whine whilst owning up their wallets there is no incentive for EA to improve.

This goes for most video games, tbh.

Thankfully, unlike those other video games, The Sims can mostly have mods to fix their awful or simple mistakes. Though most of us should just stick with our previous games. With how simple TS4 is to mod, there's no reason to buy TS5 unless they radically change things. So... I hope people keep their wallets closed if TS5 rolls around without worthwhile changes.

Perhaps like DeservedCriticism puts it - developers lack creativity or talent (like most of them) to slap something that works with concept design, and then there's less incentive/desire to focus on making the game enjoyable/interactive oppose to do their work for a paycheck and the game to make a buck. Ppl who do give a damn either get fired or leave on their accords.

Sadly, they have to do what management tells them to do and leaving is not easy. Especially if you have Bay Area mortgage payments, maybe a kid or 2 in college, etc. It ain't easy. Totally have experienced that in corporate jobs where people are pretty trapped.

It's not just the management at fault. Sure, you are limited to creating things what you are told, but often times their execution on features are questionable that developers themselve should be accountable of not thinking outside the box or incorporating with what resource they have to work with. I don't think they are told by management to "make sure the object is oversized" or "don't make mermaids like vampires": and etc. Or how everything should be emotion and moodlet based or not offer an interesting feature that makes the game interesting. It's not just the type of niche objects/content is picked and prioritize is made, but how developers show their creativity in creating stuff to what they're limited/demanded to create. Somebody here complained how the picnic basket serves the same function/purpose/advantage as already existing object in the game. Why not could they have used their own minds and include a special tiny feature that makes it distinct? Should we really put the blame on just Management team? I don't think they're responsible for very specific things like that or EA for not using creativity. If sack lunches already cover that usage and inventory exist. Little, trivial things also take part of the game's quality. As deservedcriticism addressed, so many features reward the player with either just a moodlet or cash. Unless of course maybe I'm shaming the developers that strictly follow what they're told and prohibited to put any slight changes from their own favor, then I can give them slack.

I'm sure management doesn't play the game - at least not on a regular basis. Their kids probably don't even play it. Hence, management doesn't know what's working and what's not. And though they should, they probably don't feel it's their job to care - unless of course sales go down or too much of the playing/paying public complains. Then they say things like "We hear ya".

I agree with you SneakyWingPhoenix - it aint' all management's fault. But it should be. The workers are not bees. They have minds of their own. Evidently in many ways they don't care either.

Yeah. I don't think the management told devs to create witches spell in ROM OP walking cheats without penalties/backfires with a potion of lvl 1 that refills all needs of a Sim. Management team doesn't call all dips for flawed game designs. It's also in the hands of developers to make sure how in consumer shoes would play the game they take decision for. Much like how barista is told to use spoil milk by a boss when there's a fresh one available. The boss isn't looking, so why do use the bad production over good one and not improvised on the bland coffee when there are special seasoning at your disposable? Do what you do is best for your customer despite the conditions your in.

I have no idea what large corporations you all have worked for, but upper management in Sims probably knows very little about the game and does not play it. But odds are middle management controls very, very, very much and does not leave much to the discretion of the people actually who have to fulfill those requirements. And in some corporations middle management wants little to no input from people under them. The company culture is do what you are told to do and we do not want to hear any dissent.

And the company will claim to want quality, but really just wants production. So when things are shoddy does not really care. So for Sims management does not say do things poorly or we want bugs, but we want deadlines to be met, and so they look the other way about the problems. Which is wrong, of course. The company cares about the bottom line, period. As long as what they are doing is profitable, they continue as is.

I know. I have worked for places like that.

At a sufficiently large corporation, upper management is essentially mythological, referenced only in the occasional company email and newsletter.

And yes, chances are they do not have a background in game dev, as management at large corporate scales is all about finance (mostly share prices) and law.