They should just be honest - they’re trying to get as much out of their paper-thin budgets as possible. It’s still a business, we’re not stupid.

I’m sure the budget for Snowy Escape must have been terrible because most of it was reused or repurposed assets. Considering that, you’d think they’d have added more to the pack, but no.

Into The Future reused a TON of gameplay objects from previous games and repurposed a lot of other assets, and still brought a lot of new content to the table, and that was made by a secondary studio.

Apartment Life followed a similar pattern - many things were reintroduce, or offered up in some other kind of way in previous packs, but they made the effort to include new content.

We don’t get the same love we used to. Hotels aside, we didn’t get even get Manga or Anime. What was the budget used for? Hiking?

*Judge-ly stares at the shaft box object, that has decorative doors and its purpose to transport Sims from one floor plan to another, which Gurus decide to name it the >_> *ding* e-le-va-tor*

I mean really. That object that eye-glaringly lacking animation and when in code wise literally dont need to be stacked pretty much telling of what kibd game TS4 is. It's so ahead of time, that in todays technology-advance world ppl can ride elevators without the doors opening. Neat

You're Sims walks/ghost through the lift's CLOSED doors and pretty much any rabbit hole without doors. Why do we accept this kind crap and don't make louder noise? What If a developer falls asleep, spills coffee over their programming and does "oops! Hehe. I accidentally removes the animation of Sims pulling covers and getting into beds. Too lazy or cuz time constrain can't recreate it so I'm gonna make a formal apology on twitter. Oh well! Luv ya." But hey, why does animation matter when it gets the job done (e.g, when you're Sim is instantly laying on the bed, sitting on a toilet, food poofs on the counter without prep in milisecond and Sims can now talk telepathically by just staring in each others eyes without moving their lips

Because half the damn simulation lag in the game is because the game takes ages to dredge up the required animation resource (or object resource seen when digging for gems) to play during the interaction. Maxis know their own game engine better than you think. Laziness is not the issue. More like walking on eggshells balancing out performance for their half-arsed, in-house game engine. Maxis devs are all about recycling older animations, or including none at all, because they would bring TS4 to a crippled simulation lag standstill if they gave it too many unique resources to have to try to fetch up, request per interaction, too often.

Or other things like that strongly assiosate with the culture like martial arts or/and comic making skill, so now you have to wait for another pack that shoehorns with formal guarantee to be in third theme orient pack. Kind weird formal didn't cross their minds but it's not like they're showing us that they look up past packs.

Come to think of it, my opinion on the pack's theming:

- The Japanese theme is refreshing, but not particularly explored beyond the surface aesthetics. Like Del Sol Valley, the world is too small to be a self-contained world, and misses some iconic elements of Japan.
- The attachment of the ski resort to the Japanese world limits it in some ways- particularly if you don't want to pretend that your sims are jetting across the world every time they want to ski.

As such, I think it would have been better if:

- The Japanese theme is a pack of its own- Maybe instead of the ski neighborhood, a dense Tokyo-esque urban environment could be introduced? Here, a deeper dive into Japanese culture could be done, with a specific Japanese sim trait, and more cultural activities (i.e. tea ceremonies, spring festivals, school activities, more neighborhood-specific schedules and behaviors). Again, I think there barely are enough lots to make the world currently work on its own, and I don't think there'll be any other Japanese-themed packs after this.
- The ski pack exists as a pack of its own, and includes a resort system. Like Get to Work, it's a pack that doesn't entirely limit itself to a world, but introduces ownable resorts, timeshares, and vacation rentals, as well as more ski-related activities (i.e. apres-ski activities, cross-country/snowshoeing as general winter activities). The ski resort exists in a single-neighborhood world like Magnolia Promenade, and is unthemed so that all theming can be done by the player.

Nobody has said that Maxis doesn't know their half-arsed, in-house game engine.  The game is already at a crippled stand still for many because of all the bugs.  Even EA's precious Yibs are now making noise because the lag and other problems are now affecting their games.  5 and half years late is better than never I suppose.  The things a person finds out when they allow YouTube to autoplay...

EA's bullshit about how everything they've done is so people that play on potatoes can still play was proven to be BS a long time ago.  When you have a world of sims doing stupid idle animations such as push ups and sit ups because the game is bottled necked with other things, this doesn't help with the lag problem.  It is no different than the crap that happens with TS3 if left unchecked.  A world filled with stuck pets and sims will cause lag all day long. Add in all the animations for vampires, fairies, ect... and things can turn into a even bigger hot mess in no time.

6 years in and TS4 sims are still playing musical chairs. When 6 year old bugs are now considered a feature rather than a bug,  I'm not interested in hearing about team Maxis isn't lazy.

Carl's Sims Guide did a good video about these issues, sans the lazy part.  How Does The Sims 4 Work and Why are Sims Sometimes Slow?

We got “sparring” in Strangerville randomly. I believe it’s martial arts. It has a training dummy as well.

If they developed the game with any kind of sense they wouldn’t need to have game mechanics in 50 places at once rather than where they should be.

Snowy Escape on Sale........but only in the US?

https://twitter.com/SimGuruSalo/sta...936519410913286

I didn't know that the Sims 4 came out on disk. I thought it was all through Origin and now Steam.

Probably just a box with a code printed on a piece of paper inside. Like an overpackaged gift card.

Anyway I live in Canada, and I've noticed that Origin and Steam are the only places with prices adjusted for our dollar. Most places have Snowy Escape at $40, but Origin and Steam both want $52. Even with shipping, it's cheaper to get the version in a physical box.

I believe it was a disk at first. If I look at my base game and GTW I believe they were disks, but now it's just a code.

I love skiing. But honestly, seeing the animation in a yt vid once is enough, doesn't bring me anymore joy than that. This has nothing to do with that.
The best way to explain it is to go back to my least favourite TS3 pack: Showtime.
I hated it because it felt like a remake of the Famous pack and added stuff that should have been in there. In hindsight, comparing TS4 which has like endless vacation themed stuff, it was pretty original, I guess.
The only new game play mechanic in this pack are lifestyles and that is actually pretty random... I mean, what does this have to do with a snowy escape? Also, I already have quirks in my game.

Snowy Escape is on sale? So soon?

Is it my imagination or are these packs going on sale sooner than usual these days?  It used to be packs generally speaking didn't go on sale for like a month post release, now it's a week and half.

There is no disc version of TS4.  EA stopped printing discs for games back in 2012.  As it has been stated already, if you see a box at the store, it has a card inside with a code.  You still have to play the game either through Origin or Steam.

I don't care what pack it should have been in honestly. It can be whatever. Now it's in snowy escape and that is ok. It's always the same arguements "this should have been in basegame" or whatever. I don't care. They make something new and wants to get paid for the work they do. That is fine by me.

What I have seen from the slalom animation though is stiff and awkward. Perhaps it gets better at higher levels I don't know. I'm not a player usually. I get bored with gameplay and start building stuff instead.

Oh look, something Maxis could have patched in but didn't. You have to ASK/EARN for it, instead of - idk - for them to figure out they should add it. :D

Forgot to reply, but that makes a lot more sense now that you mention it. Though at the same time, I cannot comprehend how would recycling and combining animations of doors opening, A Sim go here, doors closing behind them (at bare minimum with the exclusion of button animation) would make it such a hassle task and memory demanding to point of lag creation.

Eitherway, if that's really the case and they can't implement due to freezing concern - why not they had just replace them with something else. Like idk, stairs? Sure penthouses would look strange without them, but it sure not as much as Sim's teleporting in them across floors. Better yet, what's the point of penthouses anyway, if there are no lifts and let alone have any advantages? Equivalent if the game didn't had stairs, despite being crucial element for all two-more story tall houses. Sure it's a special lot that holds more than one household, but when you can't alter it and is basically a lot restricted in BB capabilities, that makes them obsolete/pointless. But hey, that's my opinion - I probably get why players like them, and that's because of the aesthetic living in it. It's not new anyway and dunno why I'm venting on something that's already known as pet-peeve from everyone.

When it comes to any game doing resource management, there are elements which will be permanent, full time resources and others that are occasional resources. In any iteration of The Sims, the permanent ones are the things you buy to place in a home, Such as bed, which will always be visible, always there. So that type of stuff needs to stay at the top of the resource pile for permanent, unbroken access. Animations are obviously the occasional resources, such that during a game session, they may never be called into service. So they are the ones that are buried deeper. And with a game like our beloved Sims, with all the new packs that add so many more surface resources, the occasional resources get buried deeper and deeper, made more and more compacted, to make space so you can buy all 300 stuff packs full of new chairs. (Which thankfully LGR has returned to tell us all about in his glorious reviews.) Hence they are always going to get worse and worse, slower and slower, to call into service as and when required. Working on the logic you may never see them at all over many game sessions, but you will want hundreds more chairs, so we make space for you for those chairs. (But heaven forbid the animation to sit in them takes half a sim hour to dredge up form the depths of Earth's molten core.) Especially when the first time during a fresh session. Everything on a freshly booted up machine takes longer during its first load, game resources are no exception. So the more recycled a particular animation is by the devs, spread over many varying objects and their interactions, once it is called into service on your machine for first time, probably laggy and jittery, thereafter for repeat uses is should be smoother. That's just the way of computers since forever, can hardly blame Maxis for that. No need, as there're plenty of other things we can and do blame them for, of which they and their EA overlords are as guilty as sin itself. Like, selling you three hundred stuff packs full of chairs for a game that struggles to dredge up a sit in chair animation because of the weight of chairs. Any wonder sims play musical chairs all the damn time.

Some people just go the extra mile. I couldn't make something like this with Sims 4 to save my life. It really is a game for builders.
https://twitter.com/TheSimStream/st...290653855248386

It certainly wasn’t at launch.

Now, we can do amazing things with build/buy, yet I can’t do something as simple as charge a sim for a message or profit from vending machine sales on owner retail lots. Sims don’t even usage lounge chairs at pools.

The standard was always two weeks. All their packs don't last long before sale time, this one just died half a week faster.

*Could

Sims can no longer go up stairs that have an open atrium, toilets can't go against walls that have a platform the other side, and as you build and change your mind and move things, invisible "obstructions" are placed all over the build reducing the tiles availability to accept objects or build items. Fences will only accept gates in random locations and same for doors in walls.

I've known about the 2 week thing,( this is how the hype train for game changers works) but there seems to be a shift.  This could be a bunch of nothing as people didn't like Journey to Bamboo, then there has been this patch, a patch then make more patches as more stuff breaks with Snowy Escape. 

Since EA has no intention of slowing down the pack train, they will provide the answer to this question, eventually.  They always do even when they think they're being sneaky and getting away with something.

Why do I find that funny? So much for the oack being hyped up by SE fans When they released reveal trailer of this pack all I seen ppl praising that EA is right back on track and that the content is new for a change. And I there was thinking "really?? Watching your Sim skii down a mountain is not that big of a difference in gameplay than your Sim cleaning the streets last monday ppl". But hey, if they're excited and are in for Looks than Gameplay I would too be stoked because it looks enticing and fun for my eyes. Though it's probably that group that didn't much like Eco Living and diss it while still loyal TS4 and were waiting for a pack that finally sparked their interest.

SimGuruGraham on the future of The Sims 4: "There's way more that we can still do with this title"

Snowy Escape introduces two new gameplay features: Lifestyles and Sentiments. I outline how Lifestyles and Sentiments work in more detail in The Sims 4 Snowy Escape preview, but in the simplest terms, they beef up the gameplay experience. The two features add complexity to Sims' personalities and their interpersonal relationships, ultimately deepening the simulation experience. It's what the community has relentlessly requested for so many years now.

And while The Sims community has consistently asked for more in-depth life simulation elements, the requests have been for things like cars, open-world elements, and more "rabbit-hole" type places like grocery stores and museums (which Sims can enter but the player cannot). With Lifestyles and Sentiments, we're getting more depth to the simulation, but in a way we didn't technically ask for.

"Players did not expect that out of us," Nardone admits. "But it is something that they have been highly discussing and requesting… I think that increased depth to the simulation is a big thing for players." EA's strategy, when filling a long-time request for more depth, is to occasionally subvert expectations. "I think it's cool, playing with those expectations a little bit while still delivering on the things that people really want at that core level," Nardone says.

https://www.gamesradar.com/amp/simg...impression=true

Clearly the person that wrote this article has never actually played TS4 or any other sims game for that matter because if they did, they would know that Lifestyles and Sentiments are completely useless.

Occasionally subvert...such a interesting choice of words.  It sums up TS4 rather nicely.

Definition of subvert

transitive verb
1 : to overturn or overthrow from the foundation : ruin
2 : to pervert or corrupt by an undermining of morals, allegiance, or faith

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/subvert

Delivering a game that is supposed to represent the sims franchise along with a game that actually works are also expectations, but those are too hard and expensive. One should just toss those goals into the folder labeled 'subvert'.

Delivery also has to meet good reception. Execution means everything. If you deliver it poorly, players will still be asking for the depth in Sims if the hole isn't properly fixed/filled in and smoothen like the surface to feel bran new and whole. Much like how Parenthood just didn't satisfied the pleas of "children are lacking! Give them something to do!" to the fullest.