Well that simplifies things for me. I just won't play anymore then.

1) curved walls, foundations, etc.
2) BRIDGES, for **** sake! I should be able to get my car from the road to the garage without having to resort to Sims Magic, just because there's a pond or a pool in the way. And in that vein - RAMPS in place of stairs. People in wheelchairs can't handle stairs, just like cars can't. And sometimes a ramp is just more attractive.
3) Lots that actually snap to the road!
4) The ability to place lots that doesn't trap Sims on existing lots - for example, I can't put a lot ANYWHERE near the Goth mansion that doesn't end up trapping the Goths in their house. My experiences in that regard have made me reluctant to place a lot ANYWHERE using the in game editor lest future routing issues ruin the whole progression of the game for me once I'm 2 generations in to a dynasty.
5) COORDINATES/ORIENTATION information so that having once place a lot, I can accurately place it again later. C'mon, it isn't rocket science. All it takes is two corner coordinates and an orientation vector. Don't try to tell me the information doesn't exist in the game, I won't believe you.
6) The ability to shift a house from the library on a lot left and right and front and back. This is ridiculous. EA gives us about a dozen pre-designed houses, but they're all for 20x30 lots and there are only about 2 or 3 of those pre-defined in the game. If the house isn't oriented appropriately to start with you end up with side-ways houses (eg the front door is nowhere near the actual road/sidewalk) and nearly all of them are this way. Or you have to plop them in the middle of a larger lot and waste all that front yard space. I'd settle for snapping to the front, left, right, back. As long as we don't have to settle for plopping it in the middle and wasting all that space. Landscaping MATTERS to me.
7) stairs that WORK - it shouldn't be rocket science to get from upstairs to downstairs.
8) MUCH BETTER ROUTING. I am sick and tired of Sims who won't step past each other and dump their action cues because somebody - or something - is in the way. Especially when it's something tiny that THEY dropped there. For example, recently a kid Sim of mine wouldn't go to bed because SHE PUT HER OWN TEDDY BEAR in front of her bed. BULL****! I've seen reports of Sims trapped because a pet dropped a FEATHER in their way. GET SERIOUS!
9) FIX THE DADBLASTED BEAUTIFUL VISTA BUG! It's ridiculous that more than half the lots that come with SV can't have library houses installed on them without destroying the BV buff. Also, it's stupid that you can't modify the size of any of those lots - there's at least one that has space for enlarging the lot from 30x30 to 30x50, but doing so requires totally bulldozing the lot which (grrrr!) destroys the BV buff.
10) Stop letting sims starve to death or die of exhaustion because they're too stupid to go to sleep or feed themselves if there's a sprinkler around! Or anything else of this nature!
11) NO AUTONOMOUS ACTIONS for active Sims! Or for Sims that you designate shouldn't have them, when you're playing more than one family.
12) When I first heard about "Generations", I thought this might be the ONE EP/SP that I might be willing to pay for. Then I found out about autonomous scolding of parents to children. That can't be shut off. Needless to say, I don't want it any more.
13) Weather for those who want it; no weather for those who don't (I don't)
14) Frickin' rabbit holes! 'Nuff said.
15) The attraction system is royally screwed. Get rid of it or fix it.
16) I'm tired of the whole "woohoo" thing. If you want to watch your Sims getting it on, more power to you. *I* don't. It's enough for me to set a flag that says "trying for a baby" - I don't need to watch even a toned-down version of my Sims actually "woohooing". Jeez! If I cared about crap like that I wouldn't be playing a video game, I'd be rotting my brain watching so-called "Reality TV". Or actual porn.
17) I am sick and ***** tired of it taking 2 hours for my Sims to go to the toilet or take a shower. Bull**** EA! Get with it! I don't want to have to download a manager like Awesomemod or Twallen's Master Controller/Story Progression because you can't get your simulation sh** together. The name of the game IS "Sims" - SIMULATE for heaven's sake! Don't waste my time on the can just because you can't be bothered to actually simulate!
18) Better skins, sliders, facial construction, hair, beards, etc etc etc. For ****'s sake, this is 2013 (and counting). Why am I stuck with the same cartoonish avatars I've had access to in various games for over 15 years?
19) DO NOT TURN THIS INTO SECOND LIFE. Turn this into a non-optional online game and I guarantee you I can't be bothered. There's a reason I don't play Second Life. It's called "play to pay".
20) Fix the basement tool. There is no reason why basements shouldn't be exposable, eg connectable to S2 type "basements" or walk-in/out on their own.
21) FIX THE FOUNDATION TOOL. There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to have a graduated foundation. EG on a sloped lot, the foundation tool should allow for stepped foundations that CONNECT. So you don't end up with a 20 story high foundation at the bottom of the hill. Stairs, walls, and floors should be able to cross a foundation/wall boundary - and there should be tools that easily let us make sure that things are level going from one step to the next. Even if I can line levels up so that floors would be level, the game forces a no-go zone between foundations or wall tops and the surrounding terrains.
22) give us total control over raising/lowering ground levels so we can make sure that different floor levels are even on slopes. There's no reason why we should have to resort to constrainfloorelevation tricks.
23) Fix the stuff that makes you rely on skin-tight clothes. I'm sick of my Sims having 90% of their clothing options looking like they came out of Hookers 'R Us. If everybody dressed like that (which they don't, thankfully) it's no wonder there are so many celebrity beaver shots all over the Internet. If you WANT to dress your Sims like that, (again) more power to you. I'd rather have more options though.
24) More realistic and in-depth babies, toddlers, and elders. The sight of my elders in skin-tight black leather, looking disturbingly hot, really sets my teeth on edge (I had an elder that this was her "uniform" for work). As it is, babies look like insect larvae, toddlers are depressingly uniform and uninteresting (seriously, toddlers can't play with each other??? Does anybody at EA HAVE actual children, or, if their spouses have had them, actually ever SEE them for more than 15 minutes at a time?) and elders all look like stooped over adults. With creepily young faces. And the "age spots" EA provides look like leprosy.
25) In that vein, define actual business attire or let us define it during CAS. Recently my YA scientist was put in Hot pink short-shorts and a hot-pink super-short super-tight top as "appropriate" attire for her high-tech job. Not to mention the afore-mentioned skin-tight black leather attire for my elder going to her part-time job at the bookstore. *SHUDDER*
26) Graduated life-time wishes. If you're playing an elder Sim (which I do A LOT) LTW like "become the leader of the Free World" and "reach Level 10" of whatever profession are no longer appropriate.

There's way way more but I can't remember everything off the top of my head. I have to say I've been sooo disappointed in how sadly lacking S3 is compared to where I THOUGHT it would be after S1.

I agree, these would be cool.



These seem to contradict each other...



I like rabbit holes for jobs anyway - I have to spend all day sat at a desk working at a computer and don't want to watch my sims do it thanks.

I've got tired of quoting, so you just get my ideas now anyway.

I think it would be great if they had something to 'cut floors'. There would be some kind of tool which could draw along edges of tiles, and the the tiles on either side of the line can be moved heights separately, with a wall appearing between them. So you could have a cutaway part of the ground that lets you have windows into the basement, or a split level house without having to leave a 1 tile gap, or whatever.

But as it looks like TS4 will be an 'internet connection required at all times' game... I won't be buying it anyway.

Apology accepted. I'm really sorry that I was right.

I agree that rabbit holes are a necessary evil. Some jobs are too boring to watch and others would be too difficult to include in the game otherwise. However, as I've said before I don't want to see anymore meaningless jobs. It's just ridiculous that our sims just disappear for seven or eight hours a day while all the real jobs are handled by NPCs.

Personally I think The Sims Studio dropped the ball when they made ambitions. Maids, repairmen, and cops should have also been made into professions. Hell, even the tattoos kinda suck. It would have been nice if I could have taken "accessory" tattoos and re-designated them to be treated as actual tattoos instead of accessories.

Also, I'd like to see terrains and textures become more three-dimensional. I've already mentioned that I'd like to see sidewalks that have actual curbs separating them from the street, but I'd also like to see grass that isn't just a terrain paint. Black & White 2 had grass that actually looked like grass; and that game came out LONG before Sims 3 did.

A few more ambient touches would be nice, too. I'd like to be able to hear the footsteps of my sims as they walk across hardwood and tile floors or through sand and dirt.

I agree, SOME rabbit holes are probably inevitable - but a lot of things that are rabbit holes right now shouldn't be. The restaurants for example. And the way you "buy in" to businesses but then can't actually simulate actually RUNNING them. Home based businesses need to come back.

How about rental properties where you actually have to interact with your tenants?

as for these points:

10) Stop letting sims starve to death or die of exhaustion because they're too stupid to go to sleep or feed themselves if there's a sprinkler around! Or anything else of this nature!
11) NO AUTONOMOUS ACTIONS for active Sims! Or for Sims that you designate shouldn't have them, when you're playing more than one family.

I'm not sure why you think those are mutually exclusive or in conflict - the whole starving-to-death/exhaustion thing happens when your active sims drop whatever they're doing to run and play in the sprinkler. I HATE it when my Sim drops his or her whole action cue to run off and do something out of the blue, like call someone you've never heard of and who didn't appear in their friend's list before, yet they can't manage to feed themselves. I usually play with high autonomy but lately that's led to a lot of insane behavior on the part of my sims, including getting up in the middle of the night after I've put them to bed for no reason and then standing there with a blank look on their face until its time to go to work - with an empty energy bar.

The other thing that gets my goat about autonomy is wrapped around the whole attraction system. I'm really tired of the game breaking up couples in just a few minutes that it took me hours to put together. I really don't know how other people play this, but *I* like to take the time for my Sims to actually get to know each other and not have to ride herd on them or shorten the getting-to-know-you phase because the game is going to get one of my sims out of a sound sleep at 2:30 AM and send her over to some bare acquaintance's house for some simulated activity or other that ends up disrupting the story line I'd like to follow. If this game is really supposed to be teen-rated, then why is sexual activity treated so lightly and why is the game so perverse about it? Bed-hopping sims really put my teeth on edge. For those who want to play the game that way, that's fine, but I'd like to be able to turn that down to a simmer instead of the pot-boiler it usually is. They won't mention alcohol in the game (euphemisms aside, teens aren't stupid, they know what a "juice bar" is serving) but they've got it set up so Sims will actually SLEEP together before one can even ask the other out on a date!

And I've thought of a couple more wishes -

Give us back our custom music stations! There's way more to the music world than Kids, "Classic", "Pop" (that plays awful sounding stuff and no pop I'd actually care to listen to), "Indie" (ditto that), etc. Give me at least 3 custom stations. I'd like to have Big Band for my retirement home denizens, ragas or Bollywood hits for my Indian Sims, and MY type of Rock playing in my Sims homes. I understand why better music isn't packaged with the game - licensing and compression being of high concern - but I should be able to point the radio stations at my own play lists or directories/folders that are OUTSIDE the game. It would actually be a lot easier than the weirdness they're using right now. The system should let you set any of the default stations to play lists you set up, and it shouldn't matter whether it's MP3 or WAV. If they don't want to unpack the in-game music that's fine, keep using that weird semi-encrypted format - but let us set up in options pointers to folders where we keep copies of the music we want played. Not just the one "custom" channel they have now that's so temperamental we can't get it to work half the time (seriously, having to strip the tags off MP3s before they'll get played is ridiculous).

Get rid of Origins. I had to disable it because suddenly after I was forced to install Origins (I bought this game on Steam) my game would start crashing to desktop - I don't know what that piece of junk was doing but it would start running itself and every time it did my game would crash. The only reason I installed it was because somebody at EA "forgot" to fix CAW to run with the Steam version. CAP runs fine but not CAW. I'd rather give up CAW than have to run Origins, though at this point it doesn't look like I really need it running to run The Sims, their "uninstall" scare message notwithstanding.

And I'd like to see some more realistic goals in the game. I really don't need all my Sims to be at the top of their careers making gobs of money that I don't really have anything for them to spend it on anyway. Let's be a little more realistic about the money flow if we choose to be so. If I create an elder Sim he/she shouldn't be expected to follow the same life-paths as an adult or YA sim, nor should they be started out with nothing. I'd like to be able to play a grandparent scenario where the elders are retired school-teachers or firefighters or what have you and not necessarily retired at the pinnacle of those careers (which don't really exist ATM in Sims 3). I can do this with a mod but I don't feel something that basic should require a mod.

While we're at it, 16k for a single Sim as starting capitol, but only 20k for a family of 4 or 5???? SERIOUSLY? There isn't a home in town that the Funke's can move into on what they've got. I can build them a home they can afford, but only because basements are free in Edit Town. I'm pretty sure that was an oversight on the part of the developers since they cost mucho simoleans to dig in-game. I can build some odd looking homes super-cheap, but only by taking advantage of what amounts to a game bug, when the correct in-game scenario would involve renting a place until you could afford to buy.

And please please please PLEASE give us a whole game to start off. Let's not repeat the whole Sims 2 base-game plus EPs (only with reduced capabilities and less play-value) in Sims 4 yet again. Give us a base game that has more career options, allows for self-employment and home-based businesses, puts more options for generational interaction in-game THAT WE CONTROL so we aren't slaves to things like grounding teens for going to school, and better babysitters - babysitters are at a JOB and should never ever be sitting around watching TV on a different floor than where the baby/toddler is, or outside jumping around in the sprinkler. I have to lock up everything a sitter might play with or my baby goes into the red while the babysitter makes squeaky noises running through the sprinkler.

So far I haven't seen anything in the Sims Store, including EPs, that I feel like letting loose of the $10 worth of Sim Points or whatever they're called that I got for free, let alone adding any actual money into the kitty, especially when you only sell Sim Points in $10 increments. Beef up the offerings. I won't pay extra for pets when the game does things like let the horses walk through the house, routinely intersect with each other, etc. Fix the bugs BEFORE you release the EP. You know what I'd pay for? Sims in different historical periods, or in other countries (or both). And I DON'T mean vacation worlds.

This last has nothing to do with what I wish I could get in Sims 4, but I've noticed people have some really weird ideas about what constitutes cheating in this game. It's child's play to get all the money you want at startup - between kaching and familyfunds that's pretty well covered and probably explains some of the less than brilliant planning for funding at game startup. It's even easy to set your sims up with skills and what not. Too much of that takes all the fun out of the game, but that's just my opinion, for the way *I* prefer to play. But it kills me when I see people who think store items that confer super-buffs (like the stroller or the baby swing, or the iPod like things that let Sims boost skills at work while they're wearing them) are fine, but CC or codes that confer the same benefits are "cheating". That's not just pay-to-play, that's pay-to-win, and I HATE pay-to-win.

a llama told me the sims 4 is gonna require a constant internet connection!!

Are you calling High Plains Gamer a llama?

-The controlled ability to visit the Sim towns of other players AND interact with Sims within those towns including but not limited to, making a baby from a Sim from another town, receiving a gift, painting a picture from another town and bringing it back home etc.
-Large plantable indoor areas
-household bills related to environmental impact. (Solar panels, wind energy, energy efficient car and lights out more often decreases monthly bills.)
-expand impacts related to job loss
-add drinking alcohol and associated impacts

What is it with sims games and llamas anyway? Just once I'd like to see an actual llama in one of these games.

See what happens when you don't pre-order all the EPs?

Actually, I DO pre-order all the EPs and feel like a complete jackass for doing so because most of the pre-order incentives are crap.

Okay, so I think I've made it pretty clear on how I feel about careers that have your sim just disappear for a number of hours and then just reemerge later with a paycheck, so I thought I would present a few ideas on how to make careers more meaningful:

Law Enforcement: Cops could patrol the town and respond to reports of public and domestic disturbances, vandalism, burglary, or children and teens out after curfew. If they're "evil" (assuming TS4 still uses traits in some way), they can accept bribes, plant evidence, or extort money from townsfolk.

Education: I think sims that are teachers should work in a way similar to how Peteran or Jacoban priests give sermons in TSM, but substitute popularity or fear with interest. It will be your sim's job to keep his/her students interested so they can learn the material. If the teacher gets too boring, students will fall asleep at their desks or act out by throwing paper airplanes, shooting spit wads, and otherwise being disruptive to the rest of the class. Also, rebellious sims will be more likely to act out. I imagine your teacher would have a few other responsibilities as well, such as grading papers or disciplining problem students. Teacher's would also have the option to hire teacher's aids.

Government: In this career track, your sims will be able to move up the ladder and eventually become mayor, although he'll have to be elected for the position. This would mean having a high charisma skill and winning over voters. Once elected, your sim will be responsible for things like sanitation, road maintenance, and setting tax rates.

Journalism: When your sims watch the news, wouldn't it be great if the anchorman/anchorwoman on TV was actually a sim who was in the journalism career? I'd also like to see reporters go around town with a film crew and interview different sims when they accomplish certain milestones or after certain events. Imagine if your sim fulfilled a Lifetime Wish and a news crew actually came by to interview him/her.

Criminal: Actually, it would probably make the most sense to do away with the criminal career as we know it. What's the point of being a criminal if you're still doing the usual nine to five every day? I think sims that are designated as criminals should have the ability to click on someone's house and rob it if no one's home, hot-wire a car, mug other sims, or rob banks, museums, or convenience stores. I suppose they could also eventually build gangs or even go into organized crime.

Generally, I'd like to see jobs focus less on promoting your sims all the way up some corporate ladder and more on having some kind of impact on the community.

It's a running joke that started with the first SimCity. It may be based on the llama running gag by Monty Python.

I believe that it's based on the llamas that one or more maxis employees passed every day on the way to work.

Sorry, no references. I just seem to remember an article by a maxis employee discussing llamas.

I decided to do a little research to get to the bottom of all of these llama references. Unfortunately, all I've been able to find is speculation from various forums. All I know is the references started from the very beginning with Simcity, and will continue into the latest Simcity (I know this first hand because I played the beta. The medium speed is still called "llama speed" and probably won't be the only llama reference). Some boards say that llamas are Will Wright's favorite animal, others say that the llama was chosen in a company-wide vote as the unofficial mascot, and a few have even speculated that it's a Monty Python reference just as Sojourner suggested.

Now, just for the sake of getting things back onto the topic on hand, I thought I'd present another idea for Sims 4. Everyone keeps talking about how Sims 4 is going to be online. Well if that's the case Maxis damn sure better do it right. I read that Civilization V actually allows you to download and install mods while in game. I would certainly like to see this kind of functionality in a sims game. I would also like TS4 to be more moddable and easier to make mods for. Also, if TS4 has to be online, I'd like to be able to download sims and custom content in game, and maybe the game could populate my neighborhoods with sims that people have uploaded online in a way similar to how Spore works. I would certainly prefer that over having my neighborhoods populated with randomly generated sims that are dressed like complete idiots and have the most ridiculous names you ever heard. Seriously, where do they get these stupid ass names anyway?

When I think of Spore, I can't help but think about how people's universes were populated with all of those auto-downloaded penis-people. And you want that for Sims 4? Sigh.

It would be fun if they made sims like in Spore, and just sort of piece the different parts together, make them taller or shorter, and have them move according to the parts used in them. But I doubt they would do that. Anyway, the sim equivalent of the penis creatures would be sims with lots of bad CC on them.

Or perhaps the equivalent is:.

Have it actually work on Macs!!! I wish The Sims 3 had a neck so I could ******* strangle it!!!

Okay, maybe auto-downloading sims isn't the best idea, but I would definitely like to be able to download custom content and sims while in game. Point is if they're gonna make us play online, then they had better give us some damn good online features. If they make us play online just because they're paranoid the game's gonna get pirated, then I'm gonna be so pissed.

For starters give Sims a standing posture that doesn't look awkward. One of the things that bug the hell out of me in the Sims 3 is the way Sims stand. They have their hip all slung out to the side and their head always slanted at an angle. It just doesn't look right.

Also for the music, please don't abuse the angelic choir. IMO that got really annoying really fast.

Smoother animations: In TS2 when a sim would, for example, grab something from the fridge and eat they would do it somewhat seamlessly. In TS3 it goes something like this: walk up to fridge, pause, grab food, pause, walk to chair, pause, sit, scoot chair, pause, eat. I'm not sure if that's the fault of the animation engine or the open world itself.

Also, bring back fears. Those added a little spice to the game.

And make traits actually mean something none of that "take extreme shower" or "eat cereal evilly" crap.

Don't know if this has ever been brought up but how about different walking styles, I'm getting tired of every sim walking the same way.

Agreed with you, right there. And speaking of walking, please get rid of that stupid robotic looking "fast walk" in TS4. Seriously, it looks really bad.

And then there's walking up and down the stairs. Seriously, how did we go from a smooth stair walking animation in TS2 to... whatever the heck that's supposed to be in TS3? But I guess that goes with my smoother animation complaint/suggestion...

A few more things I'd like to see:

Extreme Sports: I would like to see sims be able to wear rollerblades and skate anywhere. I'd also like to see skateboards and skate parks. It just doesn't make sense to me that they made a half-pipe for snowboarding and yet it never occurred to them to do the same with skateboards. Maybe sims could do other extreme sports as well, such as skydiving, hang-gliding, or bungee jumping.

Smarter Autonomy: I get so tired of sims performing the same actions over and over again. It would be nice to see sims make smarter choices on their own and perform actions that actually make sense for the given situation. No more telling ghost stories when there is no one around to hear them, or preparing a meal when another sim is already cooking for everybody, or sims constantly getting their eyes scratched out because they keep trying to bathe the cat. I would also like to see sims go out on the town on their own more often. And, most importantly, I'd like to see less instances of sims standing around doing nothing because the game can't decide what to do with them.