The sims 4 is almost unplayable for me at this point. I play for like 30 minutes and then just turn it off. (a real contrast to the hours of fun I have with the sims 3) For me, it's lack of open world is the main problem. Other things seem fixable with EPs or are just minor annoyances that don't really destroy the game. But in this version, I can only play one sim (i can't seem to get used to having roommates gray-out/vanish constantly).

I have looked around to see if an open world mod is being considered by anybody. I just wanted to see what people's thoughts about it were on this forum? Has anyone heard of this type of mod being started or even considered?

Do you all think a mod like this would be too difficult to design? I am not experienced at modding, but as the game is so awful for me at the moment, if I can't find an open world mod at some point, and I discover that it would be possible to do, I would probably try to design one myself (definitely not saying I can, obviously, but would if I could)

I was thinking a smaller type of open world scenario would still improve things, like a mod that allows your sim to travel to a public venue, but to keep their house also active while they're gone. This means that you could play two sims in a house and still play both of them while one sim goes out, and the other sim stays controllable and active at home. Or a mod that makes the one active area bigger?

Any thoughts?

There's a current feedback thread on worlds in the main EA forum that you may want to take part in.

Other than that, mods cannot add basic game mechanics (like what is being loaded) -- some comments on what would be feasible are e.g. here: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/dis...omment_12476143

A mod for the "greyed out roommates" thing is already available (if I understand correctly what you mean by that) over at Simlogical, it's by Fogity and has something with "menu" in the name. That is not technically related to worlds though. I dunno what you mean by "vanishing", can you post in WCIF (= Where Can I Find) please with a bit more detail on what you're looking for?

I say Open World as you describe it, playing two Neighborhoods at the same time if this is what you mean, is impossible. The Neighborhoods are completely different maps, it is like two different .world maps in Sims3. Open Neighborhood, all houses open in the single Neighborhood map you are standing in right now is completely doable IMO. I haven't actually done it myself yet though, if I had you'd probably know about it, lol. But I have my thoughts concerning the matter.

So, to give a proper overview over this we have to divide it up into many smaller parts and consider them separately and from that we can look at them as a whole (you pretty much did this already, but I will do it again anyway while I do my analysis).

A) First we constrain ourselves to just look at one loaded neighborhood. Here we have two things we could try to do.
1) Expand the neighborhood with larger area and more lots.
This involves editing a world file and editing a UI file. I will go in depth on these later.
2) Enable multiple houses to be loaded at the same time.
This could either be the easiest thing to do, or it could be (practically) impossible to do. It depends a lot on how much power is given to python (or the UI) when it comes to loading lots.

B) Lets now say we can look at multiple neighborhoods. Here we could have multiple approaches.
1) Merge all neighborhoods into one big world.
Same with the previous number 1 this involves world editing. Again, later. But if that is done we can go back to A.
2) Load multiple lots at the same time, but only focus at one at a time (Instant switching between sims).
This would both require access to functions to load worlds and lots, but also requires that the game is built in such a way that it is possible to have multiple worlds and lots loaded at the same time.

Here is my judgement on how doable these four approaches are:
A-1) Definitely possible, but it could be very complicated and is a very ambitious task.
A-2) This is either a bit hard but doable or impossible.
B-1) Same as A-1, but even more ambitious and might require sacrifices in order to complete. Also worth noting is that the neighborhoods are much farther apart geographically then they appear on the map.
B-2) This is likely impossible, but there could be a chance that it would be possible. But do not count on it.

But there is also special little case, a mix between A-2 and B-2. Here we have multiple lots in memory but only one in focus and only one loaded neighborhood. This could be a possible scenario but I deem it likely is not for the same reasons as B-2.

Now to what I have promised earlier, world editing.
So for Sims 3 we got the CAW tool, now we do not have such a tool meaning all things that tool did (that is relevant) either has to be done manually or a tool has to be created to handle it. I have no particular experience with Sims 3 worlds or have looked at the Sims 4 files so I can not make any judgement on how hard it is to create such a tool or other tool that get's the work done. It involves editing terrain, information about where sims can walk, light data, and many more things. Creating the tools for this is a very ambitious task in itself as well is actually using them to edit the worlds. In addition to this the UI has to be edited to allow the new lots to be selected in the game which is a big task in itself (here there could be non-sims resources that could be utilized). Though maybe you could circumvent editing the UI by instead trying to merge the world files for each neighborhood, this would likely be even harder to do. Worth noting is that changing the UI to add more lots is not confirmed to be possible.

To conclude this rather long analysis I say this:
The first step is to see if you can get multiple houses to be loaded at the same time as that could be possible. If that doesn't work then you should gather a large team of modders and toolmakers and have a go at editing the world files. It is a very ambitious project, but at least it is possible.

Thanks so much for the replies, it has really shed light on this for me.

It sounds so difficult to create such a mod, either to expand an active lot or create multiple active lots. I would probably just screw it up if I tried anything like that lol but one can dream. It would just be nice to truly enjoy a similar open world gameplay in this new version to the sims 3.

So when are you guys going to create this new mod? Shimrod? lol jk no pressure! (again, one can dream)

Fogity, I thought your A2 or B2 options sounded the best. I'm so curious if it's possible... The other option of merging all neighborhoods into one large world sounds exhausting, but still a better option than leaving the game the way it is imo.

Plasticbox thanks for letting me know about that mod by Fogity, I’ll look for it! I guess ”vanishing sims” wasn’t the best description, I think I’m just missing playing severals sims in different locations at once. I had never played the sims 2, so when I got the sims 4 I was shocked when I started a multi-sim house and couldn’t click on and play my suddenly grayed-out second sim (or see their needs) when my other sim left the house. I was like, where did she go? lol Then it hit me... oh, this really is just one small neighborhood at a time, and nothing else.

Anyway, thanks again for all your replies and ideas.

When people talk about "open world" in TS4, I assume what they mean is Fogity's A2: no more lot loading within a neighborhood.

That would be the criterion for me to feel like I was playing in an open world... and I would be really shocked (happily shocked, but shocked!) if it could be done via a mod.

SimGuruModSquad more or less confirmed months ago that larger lots and more lots per hood, and larger hoods and more hoods per "world" (town), would be possible in principle; they just imposed the limits they did for performance reasons, but there are no hard coded restrictions. He did NOT say that about lot loading.

not from mod. whole game code be changed only EA do it.

it not game code must change only EA/maxis do it

Please keep this thread on topic on what aspects of "open world" (however one defines that) are / might be moddable, and how. For chatting about your dislikes, please use the Discussion forums.

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