well i am about to have ya'll jumpin on my back but here it goes....

i could care less about what the world looks like in caw....anyworld...don't care about what TB, BP, SV, BB...none of them....look like in CAW...

i have played this new world and it looks fine....my sims goes here and there...nothing bad happens....i can click on things just like you should be able
to....cars drive around properly....i used the fountain(yep that works too)....placed some LN lots...they work...

my goodness this world is being ripped apart....when i load up my game...i expect to see a game....NOT a video of the Alps....

And I, personally, expect to see something better than I could do myself, considering they have a small team of experts and a reasonable deadline, selling to a high price market.

This isn't that.

That's the odd thing, though. I hadn't played her house at all and there's no inventor's bench and I don't think there's a washer or dryer either. Unless the TV can randomly set a sim on fire, I have no idea what happened. The TV wasn't broken, though, so I don't think the TV did it.

I will just leave this here:



For those who want to see more, google image search "Carter Shields Cabin". You will see the hideously oversaturated one is very popular, despite looking like an infected wound on a plantsim.

Looks very much like what happens when someone uses the Photoshop Hue/Saturation/Brightness filter, sets it to only affect green shades, and drags the saturation all the way up. Yuck.

All the terrains in TS3 - and many of the other textures of plants - seem WAY too bright to me. I don't need my eyeballs seared just playing the game. I've lived in beautiful lush rainforest and most of the time it was a much deeper, less saturated green than that muck.

I think the art direction in TS3 is really messed up for no apparent reason. What's with all the Fisher-Price toy colours? What's with all the glazed playdough clothing? What's with the bloom so high that dinner plates become light sources?

I just want stuff to look nice. Especially in a world that's supposed to be classy and luxurious.

Edit That said, Riverview, Bridgeport, Twinbrook and the WA destinations all had quite nice palettes, even if they are all also a bit cheesy. They still have that look of reality in them that Hidden Springs has totally forfeited.

Classy and luxurious... You want violins and french wine, EA gives you banjos and cheap beer in a brown sack.

Matrix: modders can create terrain paints to blend if EA didn't bother to. That's not to say they shouldn't have, but they didn't. The community will have to pick up the slack. As usual...

Kiwi -- I live in East Tennessee... I know how it looks, thank you. Whether that particular image I posted was goosed a little is irrelevant; it's a pretty good representation of the area, regardless. Not all the time; not all year long. But during the Spring, after the snows have melted, that vibrant green is very much apparent. You may have been all around the world, but obviously you haven't seen what I've seen. And I haven't seen what you have.

Basically, it comes down to a matter of taste, and I think it looks great. You and others don't. Okay, we'll agree to disagree, yes?

I realize you're a world creator and I don't mean to be argumentative with you, because I have a great deal of respect for those who've managed to figure out working in CAW; I certainly can't do it. (Not unless someone comes up with an absolute dummies tutorial...) I can appreciate taking pride in your work and not liking when others don't live up to your own standard. If you can do a better job of Hidden Springs, there's nothing to stop you from doing it. You can even post your revised version here on MTS; I'm sure a lot of people would love to play it.

You can complain about EA's shoddy work, and you'll not get much disagreement with me, at least some of the time. Yes, the game's expensive if you buy all the EPs and SPs and all the store content that appeals to you. And EA milks it for everything they're worth. But there's nothing that forces you or anyone to buy their product. Don't like that they charge so much? Don't feaking buy it.

I can tell you Zynga (producers of Farmville, etc.) make EA look like a bunch of Girl Scouts when it comes to providing practically nothing at outrageous prices. A cute little house that does nothing -- you can't even go inside it; know how much that costs? Ten bucks. But the thing about it is you don't have to buy that cute little house; it isn't necessary to play the game.

You don't have to buy Hidden Springs if you don't want to, for much the same reason: it isn't absolutely necessary to play the game. There's plenty of free content out there to round out your game, if you'd rather use that than what EA offers, as you well know. So why complain about how high EA's prices are? The situation is what it is; EA's probably not going to change unless sales go way down.

Look, I do my share of complaining about EA, you can find such comments scattered throughout these forums. But I think you're slagging a lot on a world which isn't nearly as bad as you're making it out to be.

To be honest, I made my purchase, in part, based on some of your remarks. Because while you laid out the problems as you saw them, you also had some nice things to say, too. I weighed it all, along with other issues, like the look of the world appealed to me, the additional items, etc.

So my posts here are intended to let other users know that there are good things about this world, too. That way they can make an informed decision, weighing everything including the costs.

Well, fair enough. I do strongly recommend anyone who considers buying the world also considers waiting for something like Johnnywr's brilliant looking project Great Bear. He is a talented creator, clearly passionate about US landscapes, and his worlds are always very functional. It looks, in its early stages, to be gearing up to be a lot of what HS might have been.

I think the greatest shame is that they don't sell the objects from HS as a separate pack. I'm glad to have them. I was gifted the world by the incredibly kind SimsVIP, and I'm glad to have the objects, but I would never have spent half that much for them. Not because I'm "cheap", but because I have the sort of income one needs to manage carefully. I can't buy things if they're overpriced, and HS is massively overpriced at $NZ42 = US$35. It would be overpriced at $NZ20! I would almost certainly part with NZ$13-15 for this amount of content, though - even with the ugly world, it'd be worth it for that price.

I'm fairly certain EA could earn more by dropping the prices than by ramping them up. They've priced working people out of the store almost completely.

Kiwi:

Regarding the side by sides you posted, allow me to elucidate you and others. The grass here tends to start out in Spring very brightly green. As the season wears on, particularly once we hit Summer, the yellow in it takes over as it dies back. It's usually pretty brown over winter.

It has to do with the particular species our grass is, and I don't recall off the top of my head what it is...

We get it, you and Hysterical Paroxysm don't like "over-saturated." Personally, I find your preferences a little dull... but again, maybe that's just me.

I'll end this on an agreement: I, too, hate the shiny clothes EA does. What's that about?

But writerchick, my most pressing question is:

Is this world really worth anywhere even close to US$25 for people in the US, and US$36 for those in Europe and Australia/NZ?

The store has already priced most people out unless they're on a pretty damned decent wage or unless they're just really irresponsible with their money, especially factoring in what people pay for the games themselves. I mean, seriously, who buys simpoints instead of saving or paying off the mortgage? 2000 Simpoints costs about half a week's groceries!

That's far outside of a microtransaction. The whole idea is supposed to be that lots of consumers - especially with such a broad player base as the Sims franchise has - can factor the cost into their budget. That's how you make a profit from microtransactions. Not from making the transactions really big and expensive for a small affluent audience. Kinda defeats the whole purpose of the pricing model.

I am waiting for Great Bear! Johnnywr is very talented with the building and setting up his lots for realism, using just the EA stuff. Impressive.

I think that is the main reason I bought this world, just in case he uses items from it. I bought Barnacle Bay for his Mariner's Reach. EA owes some props for his contributions to sales.

Okay, it is NOT the grass on the ground that bother's me. It is the colors in the mountains. And while I don't live in East Tennessee, I have spent quite a bit of time there because we had property there when I was a kid. It was sometimes nice and green during a nice rainy season..but the mountains did not have a lime green cast...although maybe with global warming that has changed in the last 20 years..so I of course will take your word for it. That said I do think people see things differently. Our senses are very different and it is one reason a person can live in a house full of brightly colored walls while another feels stressed in such an environment. To my eye, the world is not very realistic. I am a hiker, a camper, canoeist and spend time outdoors. I love nature. Hidden Springs does not look like anywhere I have ever been. You can take a small shot of the world and it is fine, but when immersed it is glaring. Even the pictures I see here of the mountains do not look as bright as in MY computer screen.

Of course, maybe it is our graphics cards? I suppose that could make a difference..or monitors?

No one is saying you can't like it, Writerchick. We are giving our opinions. Yours is as valid as ours is valid. I come to these forums to read what people say, weigh their opinions and make my own decisions. I made the decision to get it, even after reading Kiwi's review, knowing that I could put it in CAW and very easily edit the terrain colors. On the other hand, people who are disturbed by the colors might not know how to do that so I want them to hear my opinion as well.

As a fantasy world, HS is fine. As a realistic world, which is what I wanted to use it for, it fails big time.

You do have an unusually high level of talent, Kiwi_Tea

I'd agree that the HS palette is kinda unnatural, but it's supposed to be a kind of fairytale world... so a palette from a disney cartoon doesn't really bother me there. I can certainly see the perspective of those who dislike it, though. There are legitimately different perspectives on the aesthetic value of the choices the artists made.

It's too green for my eyes. Yeah, and I agree that the world should look luxurious and classy like half of what was advertised, but I only see a vast barren area in the town center and plain, boring lots surrounding it. The only shiny exception may be the new spa, but it's just another rabbit hole anyway (I'm using Jynx rugs all the time), the pool is okay too. I'm pissed off when I read that we have to put the heavily featured Fountain of Youth into the world ourself, I won't bother to put it in my backyard when I already have working Age Freeze and Young Again potions, but is it supposed to be tuck away, hidden and make us go on a interesting quest to search for the only mysterious magical thing in that weirdly pricy world?

I agree with Srikandi; I think it was meant to be a little over the top/fantasy. I agree that if you're really into realism, you're probably not going to like this world. They don't have any real magic in it (as mentioned the functions are already available) so all they got is whatever sparks someone's imagination.

I have discovered over the past year is that, while everyone has to be interested in playability, some simmers care more about it than the way the world appears. How it looks really isn't all that important to them as long as the world plays well. Others really care about how the world looks to them as much as how it plays. That's cool; it's all good since it's just a matter of opinion.

It's too soon to know whether this world will fail in the playability category. If it does, then yes, it will be one big fat fail.

Europeans have been paying around half the actual amount compared to what Americans pay, when you consider the currency exchange rate. Seriously, it's freaking annoying. That's why Thoma$ at T$R wanted to switch to the euro last year, don't know if he ever did it or not. Also, if it helps, the last time I checked (a few hours ago) Origin was offering the sale to everyone, regardless of country.

Anyway, on the colors. Just from the screenshots I've seen around (cos I haven't bought it and probably wont after reading Kiwi's critique) it seems like the brightness of the ground doesn't match the diffused quality of the sky. They were probably trying to make the sky look like it would if you were viewing a mountain range off in the distance, that kind of "smoky haze" vibe, which is actually done quite well, but the ground being so up close and personal would look like it matched better if it were a *deeper* shade of forest green. Even from the screenshots, it's the "mis-match" which is a *tiny bit* disconcerting. I can't believe anybody who knows anything about art could have missed that. But it's a tiny thing, really, it's the island spawning NPC's who can't get to work which is going to cause actual performance issues.

Edit: I had a conversation elsewhere about the exchange rate and for some reason that person was convinced that if $22 US dollars were converted into euros, then they'd wind up paying 38 euros for HiddenSprings. But I checked an actual currency converter, and it said the price is 15 euros. So I don't understand how they arrived at their initial figure.

I'm Playability over Looks person - to an extent. I won't touch it if it looks like a steaming pile of dung, no matter how nice it's supposed to play. I also seek out nice looking worlds to test. This one looks alright to me. Nothing spectacular, but I could play a Legacy in it without gouging my eyes out. It's the waiting Routing disasters that bother me here. I'm used to EA giving us middling housing with nothing much in them, odd placements and missing lot sizes. But I'm just bewildered by the lack of concern in making sure that these worlds are PLAYABLE. Isn't that the whole point, after all? That we have a new world to play in? I'm certainly not going to pay 25$ to download something just to LOOK at it. HA!

To be fair, I haven't seen any complaints of mystery lag yet. And if there is sudden lag, we know the first places to look. Especially if pets start spawning in the holes, which is my fear.

Does this world have any custom sea/ sky parameters, or a flyover when you start a new game?

No ini files at all that I saw in the world file. Certainly the sea and sky are default. Edit: Checked the world file. No ini files.

Well, how disappointing. Barnacle Bay just used the default sky too, which was a shame as it would have looked great with some brooding clouds. But I would have thought they could have done a custom water colour, and some pretty purple sunsets, and a nice flyover to show off the terrain for this world, to carry on the fairy theme.

It's not as if it would have taken them long to do that, we could have knocked them up some INIs and colour ramps if they'd paid us! :D

You're making the mistake of thinking they're paying US$22 for the same amount of simpoints as you do. Simpoints cost LOTS more in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, so you can't take what it costs to buy 2500 simpoints in the US and compare that directly. You'll get a totally incorrect figure.

2500 simpoints in New Zealand costs NZ$42. Go put that figure in a currency converter.

I'm fairly sure they were saying they're paying about US$38 for the world. Which is roughly in the ballpark of what it costs in Europe/Australia.

kiwi_tea, why do we pay so much more than the US? I'm hoping this not a dumb question... but i'm baffled & rather pissed off...

Well, game prices in Australia and NZ have been unaffordably high for decades, and companies have conspired to keep them high. The Sims Franchise appears to want to take advantage of that fact and also the fact that even at highest price their brand will sell.

The problem is... ...it won't sell as much. I guess they're banking on stretching out that really long tail of sales even longer, starting the prices really, really high, and drooping them everso slightly over time?

God. That makes no sense. The prices barely go down for years. Honest: I have no bloody idea. Their pricing makes no sense to me. They have a big franchise with a huge following, they'd net enormous sales if the games were affordable, but instead they like to value their products as if they were selling luxury yachts. If I had a franchise this popular, I'd turn a profit by selling to what most people can afford, rather than what those few with more money than sense are willing to pay. I'm pretty sure that would make me richer. But what do I know about it.