My thoughts about Sims 4 and some building tips :D

Hey all!

So we've had Sims 4 for nearly two weeks now here in Europe and now I feel like I've played enough to form an opinion about this game.

Do note, this is purely my own opinion. I welcome and respect other opinions, doesn't mean I have to agree or disagree with them.
Also, this piece is written with only my own expectations in mind, as I can't speak for anyone else.

Here goes!

First and foremost, I'm a builder. My playtime in Sims 3 (TS3 from now on.) was about 5% playing and 95% building.
So I'll talk about build mode first and mostly ;)

So far I really like it. Admitted, it's a whole other way of building then I was used to in TS3. I used to use the single wall tool and 'draw' my house and see what happened. In TS4 I find I have to plan out my build a bit more and really have to use the empty rooms.

For example, while I was at Creator's camp, one of the first snags I ran into was this. I wanted to make a sort of walkway/ terrace on the second floor. So I put down some pieces of wall and wanted to draw the tiles over it. Which wasn't possible. I was puzzled, but I was lucky Aaron Houts was near.

So this is what I had in mind.

 

Here you can find the wall-less room.

  Drag the empty room tool over the part where you'd like to make your walkway.

 And there we go! You can now put a fountain under it, or plants, or whatever you like!

Old habits die hard however and it will take a little time to fully adjust to this way of building. However! I was able to realize a couple of ideas I had already and I'm completely in love with the new roofing tools. They feel far less clunky and can be used over each other without ' breaking' the roof underneath.  Not that this always happened in TS3, they just feel smoother to work with.

Also, I LOVE that you can have different color per roof!

The roof sculptures are good too. No more unsightly chimneys sticking out of roofs you don't want. Now you can just place your fireplaces where you like and your chimneys.

I also love the plants. Some of them are recolorable, not only the color is different, but some of the flowers are slightly different too, effectively making five different plans. If you enlarge them with the Shift [ ] cheat, you even have ten different ones :D

Of course, one of the much debated missing features are pools. While the fountains are not the real thing, they make for a good decorative alternative for the time being.

 You can color the walls however you like.

 Et voila! Faux pools!

Here are some more things I made since my last post :D

Everything should be tagged with my name #sarademoor

The Specter house, a Sims 2 remake.

Modern living pod:
Futuristic living for Sims 4 :D

Blue Victorian:

 

 

So far I have really enjoyed actually playing the game, without cheats and see how for I get. I love how the friending and romancing has become a lot harder. It's no longer, meet, go on a date, move in and get married in the same night.

It can get a little weird once you enable all the emotional auras of your paintings and little found MySims statues. They go from inspired to playful in quick succession. However, I played with a painter and she unlocked some sweet goodies by career progression. Her ideal mood to go to work is inspired, so I have her glance at her painting attributes before leaving to work, which in turn boosts her performance.

So if you place your items right and enable the emotional auras where and when you like, you can steer your Sim into a certain mood.

Here are some funny things that happened in my game :D

 I was working on a project for EA Belgium, where I made Sims from four radio presenters and one of the guys had long hair. So I downloaded some mod to unlock long female hair for males. Now my town is full of male townies that sport the long do in vivid colors like dark blue and aquamarine! More about the project later :D

 

Also, some NPC wardrobe choices are brilliant!  Work it man!

I love the game. I've felt closely involved eversince Simscamp at Gamescom last year and Creator's Camp this year in EA's HQ in Redwood city.
Do I love it so much because of that? That is probably a big factor too. Meeting the people that actually make this game has made a big impact on me. They are very passionate about their work.

I couldn't have dreamed about this, all those years ago, playing Sims on my mom's laptop.

This is only the basegame too! I have a whole personal wishlist of things I'd like to see in the coming expansions.

My wishlist!

- Conical roofs
- Octagonal roofs
- More levels, like 5 or something.
- MoveObjects cheat. This is the cheat that inspires so much creativity, just imagine it alongside the biggening cheat.
- Debug items. We could access these in Sims 3, I would love to get my hands on them!
- Supernatural! Witches and vampires.
- Half walls.
- Ponds, they can be shallow.
- Horses, cats and dogs and farm animals!
- 80's and 90's stuff.
- More terrain paints, like pine needles and such.

This is just the beginning, I'm very curious to see what Sims 4 has in store for us! Also coming soon, a post with new builds :D