The functionality is certainly there. all it needed was adding a food register, like all the other registers we have. Click on it, set what it sells and price, and boom, functionality. There were even modded objects out there that have a business functionality, like a professional home bar, or the ticket machine. If modders could accomplish it, EA certainly could.

It all comes down to "crank out products as fast as possible" mentality. I would rather wait a bit for a polished product, than to subscribe to the mentality of "Oh, it's Thursday, that means the new Premium Item has come out."

This is why I have concerns about Sims 4. Looking at the info we have, it is clear that the game was headed (and may still be) in a certain direction. Dumb down everything, to make it an equal playing field to as many people as possible, and to allow online components. Even with them saying we will not require a "persistent" online connectivity, they have not shied away from integrating online aspects in the future. Even the focus on the sims themselves, with the emotional aspects, all point to interactions with other sims over the game world as a whole. And that sounds great, sure, but not at the expense of other aspects of gameplay. I know not everyone likes Sims 3, but it DID bring some new concepts that added to the experience (like CASt). The whole point of sequels is to build on what has come before, not take away.

EDIT: Okay, at least a page of replies got posted that I missed so this post doesn't quite fit in.
All this talk about graphics is confusing and irksome. Guys, the TS4 graphics seem to be the same or slightly better than TS3. The aesthetic (Blocky hair, non-pudding faces, Etc) is the part that seems to be so dividing. Someone posted this video earlier in the thread that explains the difference.
I personally like the aesthetic minus the ugly hair, but I'm disappointed that the graphics don't seem to have improved much. Other than that, it seems that for every good thing we hear about (CAS updates, multitasking, better Sim relationships), there's something bad (No CASt, only 3 floors, Unlockable Achievements) and something no one can agree on (aesthetics, this "emotions" thing, the new Build Mode, etc)
I'm holding my breath until the reveal on the 20th, but who knows what the game will actually be like by release day.

I disagree, you can see how abandoned community lots are in the game, imagine having a business.. you would get about 6 customers a day and they would route-fail as they try to browse the items, then it would take you an hour for your sim to get in position to talk to the customer and then once they decide to purchase the item, its their work hours so they run off to work without paying.. the game engine is broken and flawed and I think and OFB expansion, as much as people want it.. would have been a disappointing and broken EP in TS3

Community lots are empty because there's too much to do around town.

Imagine if 150 people lived in town with 9 night clubs, an art gallery, a pool, 3 parks, beaches, a salon, a consignment store, a restaurant, a diner - I don't even need to go on, the answer is obvious.

Is there any actual proof that there is only three floors and no CASt? I'm not saying that anyone is a liar, but these could quite possibly be translation errors or something that the magazines got wrong. Also, I took the whole "three floors" comment as just a general statement, not "yep only 3 floors nope you can't have more nope nope".

Seriously, I think people are making way too many assumptions.

It's easier to stay pessimistic and get pleasantly surprised than the other way around.

I'd say the problem is not that there's too much to do. There's just too many places to go, which would have been fine if the autonomy to visit such places wasn't so high. That's one of the consequences of having an open world. Because of the way it's been implented in the Sims 3, sims have too much freedom to run around town, resulting in barely populated community lots and empty houses. This wasn't a problem in the Sims 1 and 2 because the game only had to generate sims for one particular lot. That meant any sim---even one that had to go to work---was fair game.

My ideal "open world" would be limited (i.e. partially closed) to allow places like clubs and restaurants to fill up. The option to visit neighbors and community lots would still be available, but the interiors of all "visitable" locations (e.g. restaurants, clubs, parks, neighbor's houses) will not load until a sim from the current household actually visits. This should cut down on the amount of work that the computer has to perform and prevent the need for every single Sunset Valley sim and their mother to be "somewhere" at all times.

I'm pretty sure someone explained this recently about the code and how nightclubs and venues work. My understanding is some community lots get population priority over others. That's why sometimes you visit a night club and it's just you and the bartender. Might have to do with the hot spot feature, some venues are more popular, etc or it might be a constant push and pull between expansion packs to highlight their respective additions. The only venue I can really think of that is almost always populated (in my world at least) is the festival grounds. I did notice a marked improvement of population distribution with the UL campus but that is likely because it's an entirely different "hood" with its own balance.

It isn't exactly too many places and not enough people, it's giving certain lots the priority over the others so the town looks evenly populated without everyone crowding at one place. Not saying this is always the case but that is how I understand it.

I agree that there is a possibility of misconstruing the information we have so far. I am just waiting for gamescon.

On the build - maybe the house they built when they were showing it to the reporter only had 3 floors, rather than that being a hard limit. Same with CAS - maybe you can't use CASt in the "body moulding" - does that mean it is gone forever, or just not an option at that moment.

I remain cautiously optimistic.

I'd say the problem is the population density is just too low. By default, Sunset Valley has less than 50 people in it, so if half of those people are working at rabbit hole jobs, and the rest are scattered around a dozen or so community lots, you can see why it might feel like a ghost town.

I am playing Enekjaer (a small island) now and it has about 40 inhabitants. The nightclubs are empty all the time, but a small building of shops that have about 5 RH rugs, the consignment shop and a coffee barista bar is the hot spot all the freaking time.



Most of the town is there or coming in there. I don't get it.

You have 5 rabbit holes on the lot.

LOL, the world's creator have the RHs like that. It's all good and usually I wouldn't worry about it, but goodness, too many Sims and no room for them to go. I wonder what's the attraction there and not at the nightclub?

Yes, but EA had 5 years to think about it.
Now in TS4 they have to show us the solution. Semi-open world, sandbox-shops, i don't mind: this is their job. They had years to beat their brains out.
No shops/OFB in TS4 is ridicolous.

Oh my god who can I sleep with to get that computer. It's so pretty.



And the angels did sing!

Yay, the wait is over in less than a day!

Everything is pretty much listed there so you could build it if you wanted. Just wouldn't have the stickers on the side

Does it look like the specs are lower or higher than TS3?

We won't know for sure because that's just the computers specs they're using for the demos. Not the actual game specs and by far not the minimum required specs.

More than likely they are higher than TS3.

Each Rabbithole by default is also a IMetaObject, once placed on the lot it advertises that the object fulfill a specific CommodityKind, so nearby sims will be attracted by the object hoping to fullfill their needs. For example: the Restaurant advertises that satisfy Hunger motive.

If it's the computer playing it at Gamescom, it can be assumed it's designed to play the game as well as possible, and thus will have little indication of what the game's actual requirements will be.

EDIT: Bah, ninja'd.

Hopefully mine will be good enough. Aint nobody got time to spend an thousand bucks on a computer.

Ain't nobody got money...

So what time is the announcement on at Gamescon tomorrow? (No doubt 3 a.m. for me ><)
And will it be recorded like their live streams, so I can watch it when it is no longer 3 a.m?

The computer is being given away, that is why the specs are listed.