I used to strictly build from house plans because I didn't trust myself to build something that looked right. Now I wing it and move stuff around. Because I play legacy style and am too poor to build a whole house, I'd have the family camped in oddly small or large rooms because of the building plans. They'd always live in the foyer the first few weeks. Now I build them exactly the rooms they need and I move them around as I add more

I've always been a lousy builder. I am much better with the ts4 build tools

Unfortunately, in some instances yes, overall no. The new building system forces me to build rooms to delete sections of the flooring so I always have to redesign or rethink my building ideas to accommodate the extra room, also I used to build the entire foundation of the house, and then the house, now I just build the house, rise the foundation, add the porch after furnishing everything. Lastly, because of the lack of tile counters when placing the walls, I just yolo my wall length which usually ends up being the correct length oddly enough, and if it isn't then I just extend the house, and because of the ability to move the entire house, I don't spend time perfecting my lot in the center, I build it then move it. Aside from all of the above, I build the traditional draw it out way.

I didn't use building mode in past Sims game, so I can't really answer, and i'm not used to either.
But i have to admit, in Sims 4 I can build faster, and is easier to fix mistakes.

It has, but to my detriment. Not being able to edit terrain shape or wall height, manipulate half levels using cheats...that's taken away a lot of options. I find myself just plopping down walls without thought because it's never going to look like I want it to.

I don't miss the terrain personally. I do miss basements. But I was such a bad builder I always flattened the lot before I started. I wish you had the choice of flat lot or terrain. I like other people's terrain

I love the room feature, I like setting up rooms fast then add things gradually.

Think have been made easier in some area, but have become a complete pain in others. There are notable improvement, but far more setbacks.

Currently, my 2 most infuriating issues are wallpapers with corner trim not showing up and not being able to simply remove a section of floor without a room being built.

Also a lack of CAST really makes it uncomfortable for me to do any design work. Especially when a door doesn't come in a basic white...

No. I still suck balls.

It's improved some areas for me but set me back in others. For instance, I can do roofs really well really easily now. Before I used to struggle with getting them right and would even alter my plans just to not have to deal with certain roofs. Being able to pick up a room or the whole house and move it is helpful but I've had issues where the game wouldn't like my room and would paint more then it should because I've drawn walls in to an existing room and it didn't detect that new room or something. We need a half wall back! Also, the windows and doors are really killing me! I can't wait until we have new ones and hopefully have a complete matching set that spans all of the size options we need! Like how do you have a matching two tile window and three tile window but not have the matching one tile window? It's totally jacking my houses up sometimes.

As I would expect the way I do things have to change, it's a new game after all. Making houses in TS4 is much easier since I don't have any cast for furniture and walls. From time to time I have to go back to 3 for the extra challenge and all the objects I can use and choose more as I like. TS4 has some advantages, like the ability to build 2 floor high rooms without those ugly floor lines.

I'm finding the process much quicker, and as mentioned before, easier to correct errors. The Sims routing has an influence also. In TS2 my builds sometimes led to trapped toilet death syndrome* and it wasn't easily predictable what huge gap the Sims would refuse to squeeze through. Now it feels like if you can build it they can usually live in it... if you don't put appliances in backwards etc.

*one sim circulating helplessly wanting to visit bathroom, another trapped inside waving their little hands pathetically. We still mimic this in real life when there's a people pile up in our kitchen.

I don't really like building in TS4 (intuitive my ass!)! It just feels very constraint in many areas so yes it has changed how I build to some degree, I think it's harder to be creative now.
There's obviously good things too but they're far less than the bad/lacking things with this game.
Some are even good and bad at the same time!

Things I like:
- the ability to set windows at whatever height
- changing the roof patterns how ever you like them
- rotating the roof pieces so they are facing the right direction
- you can decide if you want (some of) the roofs to go beyond the wall or not
- adding a foundation after you built your house
- curved foundations/fences
- you can now add spandrels, exterior trims and roof trims really easy
Edit:
- you can move the whole house to whatever part of the lot you want, how could I forget that one?

Things I don't like:
- no moveobjects cheat (yes, I have it as a mod but I want it with the game)
- no constrainfloorelevation cheat
- adding windows near a roof sucks
- only gabled and half gabled roofs can go beyond the walls, why not the hipped and half hipped roofs as well?
- lacking several roof types
- the roof trims are bleeding through the wall sometimes (half hipped roof), so ugly!
- the roof trims looks wonky sometimes
- if you want to add an exterior trim you have to add a room without walls over the porch etc, annoying!
- you have to add a fenced area before adding the stairs inside the house
- if you add a foundation it adds on every building on your lot!
- can only build 3 levels
- no terrain forming tool - I want to build basements
- I hate how sensitive the room tool is, you have to make sure no room is highlighted or you might turn the room around when you only want to see it from another angle!
- the "smartness" of the wall pattern tool! I want to decide where I have my corners, thank you very much!
- the lack of color choices with everything
- the lack of arches with different heights, only one, seriously?
- why all these midget doors? More heights please!
Edit:
- you can't delete the wall parts that comes with some of the roofs (half hipped for example) so when/if you build a half hipped roof through part of a room, there must be a wall where the roof back ends with a door or a arch or that area can't be entered by a sim! (not sure if I made myself clear here but...)
- no half walls

I'm sure there's more but this is all I can think of right now.

I wasn't much of a builder in any of the Sims games, but I found it really convenient that I can resize rooms by dragging the finished walls. My problem is that I make my rooms much too large.

I do like some things, creating rooms and saving them, manipulating areas for a different size and shape, moving the rooms around are all cool. Still some things are harder than it should be and it's not logical. Like having open floor areas on the second level requires a room made with fencing then you can delete the floor. All I wanted was little one tile openings over the porch and I have to build a fence around it, delete the floor within the fencing, delete fence. That is laughable.

I really miss my build cheats, MOO and CASt.

Yes it has changed the way I build. To me it stopped being a bloody chore. No longer do I have to actually house beforehand or otherwise face the problems of having to rebuild the whole it two effing squares further to the left. I can just drag around and resize rooms or move the whole house around if I feel like it.

However what I don't like is that you can't one building on the lot on a foundation and another that hasn't got one (like a garden shed), also the roof tool might be versatile, but it's a pain in the arse....I want my auto roof tool back....

It's definitely made it quicker for me to build halfway decent houses - although I would really like to eliminate the lot specifications and bring in half walls. I haven't actually *tried* to build anything for commercial use yet so have yet to form an opinion on what's available for that. In the meantime, I love the new options for window/door/wall heights, but would love to see walls that could be different heights (so you could have a taller foyer etc.), lockable doors and apartment style building options (PLEASE. There's not enough room for all my families unless I build multiple houses on those massive lots around town, but when I do that they all run around like bloody squirrels on a nut farm using each other's televisions and microwaves. Half the time I can't find the little buggers because they're cooking/napping/showering in the wrong bloody house!)

It's a room based game, you need to have hole rooms and then you can just drag the roof parts straight through it and it will look nice. No need to fiddle with removing walls. If you don't have a room there and don't want one, you will be struggling for sure.

But that's just it, if I don't want a closed room there or a wall at just that spot, it will not be usable!
Earlier game versions were not that limited since sims could still use a room with a roof in it as long as you removed the wall part. So yes, this bothers me a lot! I think this version have taken away a lot of the freedom to build however you want.
It might be easier in some aspects, especially if you don't really like building, but I for one wanted more, not less choices, to build different types of houses. =/

I both like and dislike it. I miss basement.
CAST too but maybe not on topic here.

I like to move the windows up/down.
I like the new roof building even if I am not used to plop the roof piece first and then pull on it, I am used to click-drag it first.

Many of the new methods are good, it is just matter to get re-adjusted.

Landscaping would be nice too... I do not make OMG AMAZING landscaping/building but I at least like to make the garden a little varied in height and decorate with plants and trees.

Oh yes, I miss move objects. I have yet to use the mod.

Totally agree with you, limitations kills creativity in some ways.

It is easier to use, but feels so much more restrictive. There are a couple of smaller things I like, like the ability to adjust wall height of windows, and as far as decorating goes I like being able to buy the television separately from the table I put it on. But the new "features" just don't compensate for what I was able to do in TS3. It feels like a huge loss to me - and I generally spend at least half my game time building and decorating so that is a huge part of the sims experience for me.

Yes, I barely care about the outside of houses now. To be fair that is also because there is not much for outside activities yet. But I just find it quite boring that all lots are flat. I miss being able to create ponds with landscaping tools.

What I do like is how you can control rooms though. Moving them around , resizing etc. Adding a ceiling with one click. The new roofcontrols are very nice too.

Relatively speaking I spend a lot less time building and creating lots. I grow bored with it too fast. No landscaping and no pattern creation or colourwheel. So the objects we have, feel very restricted. What doesn't help either is that I don't feel like downloading recolours. I want to just play around in build mode, not search the web for the right recolours.

I used to spend a lot of my time building in Sims 2 and Sims 3, but due to a lack of constrainfloorelevation cheat or equivalent to make basements or modular stairs, I can't build the houses I want to, so I don't bother. I also don't have the options I need objects and color wise that I'd like to use for my building projects.

What the heck is up with all of the doors only being white? And if they have a recolor, they're a two-tile door? That's fubar.

I also need the option to individually place wallpaper per segment. I tried wallpapering the inside of a roof's wall segment that made up part of a room, but it kept auto filling the entire roof - inside and out! Maybe I'm missing something, but I couldn't find a toggle for this when I looked it up.

I like that I can move a whole house on a lot really quickly. I like adjustable window height. I like being able to adjust roofs on the fly, but wish I could drag them to the size I wanted them in the first place instead of plopping down the same roof and having to maneuver it to fit after the fact. Porches suffer the same flaw.

Overall, there are a few things that make things a bit easier, but on the whole, the new build mode just frustrates me and drives me away from using it.

I think that this build mode is very user-friendly and wonderful! I love it very much!
Adjusting the wall lengths, the roof tool is much better, making decks is easier.... I just think all the tools are a lot more polished and nicer to use.