thankyou!

Not sure if it is fair to compare like that. Team size of dev team can be different for each version. TS3 had 2 studios alternating expansion packs I think? Not sure if the same is true for TS2 and 4? And the amount of content that goes into what EA calls an expansion pack can be very different if you look at all the versions of the sims.

From what I know (I could be wrong) there are only 3 teams working on packs for the sims 4. One team is for Stuff Packs, another is for Game Packs and the last is for Expansion Packs.

Compare the intricacies. They add to the creative workload. TS2, to name but a few; In game picture-within-picture. The one that showed a small screen vid of who was at the front door when your sim was out in the back garden. When sims had route fail, they actually showed what was blocking their path in a thought bubble. (How frikken terrifically helpful was that?!) Deleting unwanted CC directly in-game while looking at it, because that's the best time to ever do it!!! (How frikken terrifically, terrifically helpful was that?!!!)

TS2 devs worked hard as it turns out.
TS4 devs, just turn up for work, hardly, apparently...
TS3 devs - I cant remember. I forgot the hellishness of that borked piece of shite abandonware crap in therapy and am feeling better for it. Thanks for asking.

That's how long it takes.

No idea...

Hey, I noticed you got a disagree for posting thank you. Explain that one.

Maybe due to double posting? Or maybe due to mushing "thank" and "you" together Frankenstein-style?* Or maybe it is just Inge being Inge?

* Which is better: a space or a hyphen between them? I am never quite sure, so I give both styles equal timeshare. Also...timeshare! Ack!! I just imagined THAT in TS4! ~shudders~

One of those speculative explanations is correct, so you earned an Agree. Mind you, I tend to only be invoked when people start discussing the disagrees.

-exists-

I only tried to say that if you wonder if they are late with new content, it is maybe not useful to look at earlier sims versions because those had different teams with their own timetables and goals. So it is maybe more useful to look at the pattern that the current developing team is creating by releasing their content.

I'd say TS3 had the upperhand with the Redwood Shores and Salt Lake teams alternating between expansions, plus we were fed EP's (and content in general) during the last leg which could explain the demand for a faster pace with TS4. Perhaps if it weren't for Salt Lake we wouldn't have had a schedule similar to TS2 during the TS3 era (until the end), and maybe not as much content pouring into the store.

One thing's for sure though, if Salt Lake didn't exist back then, we wouldn't have gotten University, IP and (practically) ITF back to back during the end of TS3. And, let's not forget the one month distance between Seasons and Supernatural, two heavy-resource demanding EP's. The final leg of TS3 with content was insane looking back on it. And maybe it could be argued that they could have still pushed all that content on the same schedule with one team, but the quality of those packs would have suffered immensely.

I think TS3 would have just ended late last year/a few months ago had it been just the Redwood Shore team and the same amount of expansions on the 6/7 month schedule.

TS3 suffered due to how much content was released. Not all of the content was of very good quality (especially store sets), and practically all of it wasn't integrated with other packs of content.

Island Paradise being a standout for a lack of integration with other packs - one can put a resort most anywhere, but they're made for tropical destinations. If you wanted a winter retreat, enjoy sunbathers and coconut drinks.

University Life is also a heavy hitter - limited social groups were one of the biggest mistake to grace the game, but what follows after that was joining a group accidentally. Played with the soccer ball once? You're a Jock now. ON TOP OF THAT, none of the other objects in other packs relate to these grouos at all, like snowboarding or soccer.

The list gets longer, and longer.

Oh man. The University social groups were horrible. Play video games and you're automatically a nerd. Go a long time without playing games and you get bombarded with notification after notification about how you're losing nerd influence. It was maddening. One of the reasons University was my least favorite pack. Thank God it could be modded away

I liked the social groups when I was at University. Back at home I hated it and wished they only applied when at University. I mean it's weird when the little old lady down the street all of a sudden becomes a level 4 rebel. What is she doing to earn that type of cred?

Well, the little old lady down my street is known to heckle people (namely, me) when they walk past her house.

My preference is they follow TS2's development cycle. The third EP has to be a pretty damn good one as I felt nightlife (2nd ep) was pretty good. That is true of Get together (at least it wasn't as god awful as get to work). Open for business (being the 3rd ep) while I didn't enjoy the business as much as I thought I would, it was a pretty big EP. So this 3rd ep has to be bigger and better than the other two EPs. My hope is that is why shit is taking longer. If the 3rd EP ends up being a flop idea I will be so disappointed.

Arguing with Mrs Crumplebottom about free love?

For the life of me, I can't understand the appeal of Get Together.

It has one mechanic, a pretty world, nice build/buy/CAS content, and lot of rehashed gameplay objects.

It never felt like it added much beyond something they could have patched it. *shrug*

Funny how this thread is about GP yet we're talking about EP

@matrix54
On paper the pack sounds so simple that it doesn't seem that interesting yet it feels so natural it's something I didn't know that I wanted. Even though I don't have my sims go to club gatherings everyday I almost always use it for when they go out with friends. It just makes groups so much more easier to manage.

I find it the same. Some of my families even have an '<Name> Family' club that I set to do stuff like cleaning and repairing so I can have them do a big spring clean or something every so often. I also make them for career groups so I can have my scientists hang out at a Science Museum and teach people, or my doctors at the walk-in clinic I added to the Willow Creek Library lot so I can get my other pregnant Sims to go there for check-ups. Even in my Alien Invasion world, I use clubs to have the Alien Queens, Alien Drones, and Human Slaves act in specific ways to the other groups.

It seems a simple concept on paper, but in practice it can get quite intricate and versatile depending on your imagination.

Also, I think the reason we've started to talk about EPs at this point is mainly because EA's delaying tactic is just getting annoying at this point. At first I was wondering if we're going to get an announcement by the time I go on holiday on 11th May. Now I'm starting to wonder if there is going to be any news by the time I get back two weeks later...

Okay, that's one mechanic. One very simple (though flexible) mechanic. What about the rest of the pack?

The pack has considerable number of useful build and buy items, as well as plenty of new activities that sims can do together.

Dancing and DJ skill, are one of the things I like as well. Though dancing is far too easy to learn, and sometimes annoying.

Then you have that soccer table, darts, don't wake the llama. And the towns is the best one so far.

However, the pack is not to blame for the bad base it was built upon, wich makes it quite boring after a while. If Get Together was made as a nightlife pack for TS3, I would've bought it right away. Compared to this pack, TS3 Late Night only has vampires and high rises as selling point. I much prefer it the way they did Get Together.

I wish they allowed us more flexible control over the AI, not just in groups but also over the individual sims. I hope they learn that from Get Together, and give us some kind of Generations/Personality EP. And also... emotions are very annoying as there is no wide variety of them, and they all apply almost the same to all of the sims. I want them to deepen their emotion system.

I already said this, but I'll say it again. Unless they change the emotion system (wich would be quite easy actually, considering what they've done with Get Together), unless they add more traits, toddlers, give us bigger spaces (I don't mind loading screens), give us more customization options and give us CAW, I would give this shitty game another try. I can't play it like this. I really can't.

I know what's in the pack, I was referencing game mechanics. There's one major mechanic that the game is "built around." Beyond that's, it's mostly standard fare.

It's very game-packy.

I also do not recall any mechanics beeing in TS3 Late Night ( OK, celebrity system, but it was so annoying ), and in TS2 nightlife there was only group system and chemistry ( why can't they bring this chemistry back?! ). There is so much that you can do with nightlife EP.

TS4's problem is not that there is less things to do ( Club mechanic is powerful enough to justify absence of other mechanics ), it's problem is that the mechanics are not interconnected in order to form a logical or any kind of a system at all. It's all chaos.

Also, about it beeing "Game-packy" , I agree. But the game packs haven't been a thing up untill now, so if it were normal situation ( only Ep's and SP's ) I would be mad. At least this way I know they will make another, EP or GP that will include some of the missing mechanics ( like incoming restaurant GP ).

Though, that's the way they milk us. I've seen people on FB waiting for another EP, yelling that they are ready for EA to take all of their money. In those exact same words. And I don't think it was sarcasm.

Late Night has fair few mech game mechanics. You have a system for mixing drinks, for groups, apartments/penthouses, celebrities, various nightclubs types, bands, and vampires. I think I'm missing something...

Nightlife has few mechanics than Late Night, but more than Get Together: groups, dating, chemistry, restaurants, clubs/bars, and vampires.

Get Together (basically) has one: Groups. Despite its flexibility, you have one new mechanic. An addition would be cafes. Everything else in the pack that's "new" isn't. It's a lot of repurposed stuff, like natural pools.

Get To Work can be considered an extension pack, as it has quite a new mechanics, but they're tied to the careers themselves. Get Together gets a pass due to the world and content, but it's still lack in game mechanics.

Something like Outdoor Retreat is a game because it's a pack focused on one small theme. There's a core mechanics: traveling, and a few very small ones. Spa day is also composed on very small mechanics, but that lack of a major theme is made up for with lots of game objects, and activities. Get Together can't get away with that. Take away groups, and you don't have much. The yoga from Spa Day and you've still got a solid game pack.