So true. Will not hold my breath waiting for it to happen. Sigh! LOL

TSM sims were perfect in CaS, but still suffered a bit from the split between the CaS and in-game lighting models that TS3's engine had.

Still, a huge improvement on TS3 sims, and I wonder why they didn't go back and improve TS3's sims.

Not really. The Sims Medieval's engine is a modified version of The Sims 3 engine up to Late Night (heck, there's still remnants of Late Night's data in TSM files, such as bouncers). The rendering engine was updated to allow more sophisticated lighting and other techniques such as subsurface scattering. Routing was also improved, but having a more condensed world truly makes a difference (the Medieval world also has superb routing, I don't think I ever had to reset a single Sim for getting stuck in the terrain). Other than that, it's essentially the same thing (take/add some minor features).

The Sims Medieval just works better because it doesn't push the engine the way TS3 does. The world is smaller, there are less Sims, no story progression, etc.

Ironically, the same lesson can be applied to TS3.

Experiencing lag? Just play in a smaller world with fewer sims, and disable all NPCs you don't need.

What world is this? I like it.

It's an edited version of (done by me and I take no credit for some of the lots used or the original world) Marburry by Safstute - http://www.beautysims.de/forum/file.../1006-marburry/

I honestly never had an issue with TS3. When I finally became a member of the Sims forums I started to see people talk about how they disliked 3. I used to play on my cousin's old desktop and it ran fine with a lot of CC that I downloaded at the time. He has now since gifted me his little collection of Sims 3 disks (Yay) and I've been happily playing since.

I don't want to say I think TS4 is the downfall because there are things I do like about it despite everything going on, but I do want to blame EA for how things have become overall in the sims franchise. EA used to actually be a great company but it seems greed took over and its shown in ALL of the games they pin their name on and the gaming companies underneath them. Back to the Sims 3. I remember being shocked about the things I would hear about pertaining to 3 because I actually enjoyed the break from rotational play and the open-world along with its customization.

Currently, I do use some mods but its not a necessity because I've played fine in the past without them but I do like what they add. Love the Master Controller and Story Progression Mod from Nraas. I notice it did fix the issues I had with EA's story progression and how I'd end up with a world full of elders. I also have a lighting mod that looks amazing in-game. I just cannot get rid of it now lol. There are a few others but it's not so much like I do do a Skin default replacement as well as eyes and teeth. Other than that I'm good. In fact, I still want to buy some packs I don't have like Pets and maybe some stuff packs but I honestly feel like what I have is enough.

Whereas with the later I have all but 4 or 5 packs and I still feel like a lot is missing. It just shows over the years from The Sims 1 to The Sims 4 how things have changed in a sense of quality and care.

Gaming as a hobby is expensive, and seems to be getting more pricey. I was having this discussion with my son yesterday who is also a gamer. I'm mainly a PC Sims fan but dabbled in my time in a few others (like Zoo Tycoon). I also play Switch (Smash Bro) with him. Anyhow, I have seen the industry change and what you got for your money in Sims go downhill. We used to buy discs to keep forever and get a nice booklet about the EP and the options and new things in the EP. Now you download it from a digital site and have to either play it to find out what is going on or Youtube on guides you dig out yourself. I think that we have sacrificed quality in life for convenience. The DLC hook in Switch keeps my son buying "new characters" at 5 bucks a pop to "get new interactions." So pertinent to this thread, it's not just a change in The Sims, but in gaming which has happened overtime. What I object to is spending $40 for an EP(not that I would) and the blasted game still doesn't work right or the interactions are "meh" at best.

Compared to other hobbies like movies, books, music, etc. I feel like gaming is the cheapest when taking into account the average price per hour of "entertainment." You only need to spend 600-800 USD every 5 years for a mid-range gaming PC (+ some extra for replacing broken components) and you can get games for the price of a movie ticket or less, and each game has hours of entertainment value. I recently bought Fallout New Vegas for 3 USD on Steam and I played over 30 hours in 2 weeks. The amount of value I'm getting from my money is insane.

Of course, if you want to be at the forefront of everything, and play in Ultra Setting, 4K resolution, 144 FPS on a high refresh gaming monitor, etc. that's really going to cost you a lot in hardware and games are also going to be more expensive because you'll be buying 60-80 USD games and probably spending even more in DLC or Season Passes, etc. But I imagine only a small fraction of gamers do this.

Yup. I learned a long time ago that you basically gain nothing from buying games early from an entertainment standpoint. I mean, people say that it isn't the same if you don't buy it on release when the hype is biggest, but hype ≠ a good game. That may not translate to online gaming, but that's a different ecosystem altogether anyway. Otherwise, it's going to be the exact same game when you buy it, with more content than it had at release and most likely in better shape overall from patches being released. Plus you save so much money by having a bit of restraint and waiting for sales.

So yeah, it's worth it to me personally to wait for sales and fully patched/GOTY releases.

It's funny that you mention TS2 couches, it's something I always think about when I have to decorate a livingroom in 3 and 4. In 2 and even in 1 they actually looked comfortable and "plushy" whereas couches in 3 and especially 4 looks hard and blocky. However in 2 and 3 there was more of a confusing mix between both low poly and high poly objects - 4 is more consistent in its style. The first time I played 4 I was struck by how the graphics looked like a polished version of the 2011 Zelda game "Skyward Sword". A game that looks nice, but it was for Wii and came out three years before 4. Again, I don't mind the cartoony style, but that can be achieved without losing that much detail. I liked that there were objects in 3 and (especially) 2 that looked more "used". And, it goes without saying, that CASt really made the objects in 3 so much more diverse. A small detail like adding a more rusty pattern to a metal object gave an entirely different feel to it.

But, to go back and answer the original question of the thread, then yes, I would say that for me personally, I do view TS3 more favorable now. Something about the limitations in TS4 just makes it feel more like a mobile app game than an actual computer game. The traits are so few that it would be better to skip them and instead have the personality points like in 1 and 2. I love that there's so many different traits in 3!

99 traits altogether with all EPs.

There's this article by Ray Mazza, one of the designers that has worked on different Sims games, that explains how traits came to be in TS3 and why they wanted to try something different from personality points from the first two games.

Here it is for anyone interested. https://www.raymazza.com/post/desig...s-in-the-sims-3

Damn, see, I didn't even realize that there were so many of them, and most of them from basegame, too. And then it doesn't matter that some of them are so highly specific (like hydrophobic or light sleeper) because since you can have 5 of them it's easy to create a wide range of different personalities.

Not to mention that you have cases like going to University and being rewarded with up to 2 extra traits, for a combined total of 7.

They really should have done something similar for DU for TS4. That would have been the perfect time to include extra trait slots.

I have an excel of my family somewhere and think I have used all if not almost all of the traits. Tried to use ones not used before each time there was a new generation.

All my sims have a minimum of 8 traits. My household sims have up to 10 each. I don't suffer with error 12, but, as I'm sure you are aware, everyone runs their game differently.

There was some complaints about Ts3, but on balance, it had the depth to counter performance issues. If it was reviewed today, with all content and patches, it would deserve a high score.

:lovestruc

My TS3 complaints are all about the technical side of the game. Not gameplay as much. It is obviously not perfect gameplay wise and I probably got used to many of the weird glitches and inconsistencies. I could also easily name TS2 and even TS4 things that I would like to see in TS3. But overall, this installment in the sims franchise works best for me.

Everyone plays favorites. I usually play favorites with TS3 because it has more customizable features both while playing vanilla and with mods and it's become quite an expansive open world concept, that you could spend years with all the worlds and EP\SPs installed and still not be finished (trust me, I am still working on it.)

First of all, mods saved this game. I guess almost all of us have at least the basic Twallan suite and most have, like me, quite a few more mods. I reinstalled the game some months ago (on a SSD drive - highly recommended, BTW) but it never occurred to me to try it without them, as I did (but only for an hour or so) with TS2.

As for gameplay, I never managed to make TS3 as exciting as TS2. The fault lies with me because, from the very start, I am used to playing it as a one family/dynasty game, unlike TS2 which I play with a dozen (or so) families. It is, however, still the most beautiful of all Sims games and I bitterly miss CAS when I play TS2.

So, to finally give the answer: I no more see it as a downfall, as I did at the beginning, but as a pleasant alternative, as a holiday away from all the shenanigans of my TS2 Sims.

Mods save most games. Have you guys seen that Red Dead Redemption 2 mod that makes Arthur really small? There was absolutely nothing wrong with the vanilla game until that mod came along and now it sucks. Thus, by installling it and having a protagonist 25% his normal size but with full-sized guns and a flying horse, the game's saved again.

TS3 is exactly the same. It was great until Ambitions came out and you could blow up other people's stuff with exposives. Then it sucked. But that feature made it great again. And that's not even a mod. I'm just using that as an example because TS3 only seems to have genuinely useful mods that are genuinely useful, but nowhere near as cool as 18-inch Arthur and his dual-wielded shotguns. ErrorTrap? MasterController? Yeah, cool. Whatever. I'll pretend it's super useful but I'll also take it for granted, thank you.

I think I had about 180 mods in 2 to fix/change things like the tour guide spawning and whatever. I can play 3 very happily with about 6 Nraas ones. I have maybe 20 others at the most which do not use or they no longer work so they are not even in my game now. If I have my error trap and overwatch in and a few others I am fine in 3.

I love the sims 3 but as every newer version , it lacks a lot of gameplay and a lot of things from ts2 could be easily added.