Open world, loading screens, pools or no pools, the only thing I want is far better animations, less lazy animations where sims WALK to their cars, GET INTO THEIR CARS, and PULL OUT OF THE DRIVEWAY in their cars. And pregnant sims not throwing up into the back of their toilets. The CAS stuff is appealing, the multasking sounds nice, emotions are fine. But all of that will mean jack shit to me if we have to suffer through shitty rabbit holes, shitty animations, clipping, laziness on the part of the programmers, and frustrating batshit stupidity.

Ok Graham, wait, what? So you're saying I select to go to the gym, right? So my Sim starts making their way to the gym, hits a loading screen, and appears at the gym? Then my sim walks off the gym, into the neighborhood, then decides he wants to go to the club, and walks to the club, and is hit with another loading screen, then appears in the club? After a long day out my sim then selects to go home, and is hit with a loading screen and then appears at home? Is that correct?

If I'm understanding Graham's last post right, you can only travel between neighborhoods by visiting a lot? Because one has to be active for you to go there.

I'm a little disappointed, to be honest. I expected to be able to send my Sim into another neighborhood and walk around and choose where to go. As it stands, it sounds like you will be forced to choose a lot to visit and then move into the neighborhood from there. That feels even less 'open' than I had thought.

Just gonna re-post this here cos Graham appeared again .... >_> :P

I get what you're saying, but I see why they chose to do it this way. You're going to end up at a lot one way or another and it doesn't actually keep you from exploring the public spaces. It's just a lot.. you can walk right off of it as soon as you load there. There is no load screen from leaving a lot to see the public areas, just when changing active lots.

How does being loaded at the, I assume, sidewalk of a lot really keep you from just wandering about?

Hello Graham , next time you guys reveal info can you please try to touch on things like:

*terraforming tools
*pools
*why no driveways or garages, is it not possible to have a room on ground level if there is foundation?
*world editor
*toddlers, genetics (will two different skin toned parents blend to a mid-tone baby?) and family aspects
*loading screens
*max number of lots in world, will it expand in time?

Instead of CAS and emotions, we know plenty about that already, your studio is starting to sound like a broken record.

Thanks for being the only one to give new info at E3 though, out of all the gurus it seems like you empathise most with the fanbase and it's greatly appreciated.

I'm still annoyed that Sunset Valley had 92 lots, while Willow Creek is only going to have 20 - 25. How are there only going to be like 8-10 families and 8-10 community lots? And I'm really afraid this new closed world is going to feel chopped-up and claustrophobic.

I'm scared for TS4...so much so, in fact, that I almost want to drop my Sims blog. I've recently reached 11,000 followers, yet all of my drive is gone, because we keep getting bad news about TS4. Community morale is so low, it's almost impossible to be excited for the game. It's honestly pretty depressing

So does this mean we'll never have back to back loading screens moving around the neighborhoods? And that you can't choose to visit public spaces in another neighborhood or world without selecting a lot and being sent there first?

Aw, why hammer the guy with extra questions/accusations, I'm sure he's telling us what he can when he can.

We scared him off Such a nice guy coming over and explaining on his day off.

I think so. There must always be an "active" lot. Even if you just wanted to explore a neighborhood or go to a public space, you can just choose a lot to "activate" arbitrarily and then walk around the neighborhood. And I don't think Sims teleport to the lot, I think they appear at the edge of the neighborhood, to avoid the feeling that the Sims are teleporting everywhere.

NPCs and other families, sure, but our sims would likely arrive at the lot. Think of it like TS2 when visiting a community lot.

It would be abusive if we were forced to face a loading screen to also leave the lot, it would be a loading screen spam at the players, so it's just after loading the lot it gets active then you explore the area without loadings only in the public open spaces?

If you're one exploring kind of player and you have your sims around several locations of your town, oh dear! I really hope loadings are fast enough so i don't loose the immersion playing the game because it stops to many times to load things.

I hope not. That would make the world feel so much more chopped up and separated.

Yeah, as far as I understand and I'm pretty sure I have a good grasp on the concept. You load the lot to make it active and you can go anywhere that is public space, but when you want to visit another lot you'll have a short load screen. Same goes for that lot.. if you want to leave it and run to hit on the sim at the park.. no load screens.. unless she walks to the gym, then there is a load screen. (unless you were at the gym previously.. then.. oh god I made it complicated.)

Oh wow, I'm sorry for misleading everyone

I lost all the drive for my blog during E3. Bunch of messages from lost souls asking about information last week, just sitting in my inbox. I'm excited now, though, but I'm trying to be pretty open with everything until I see how it plays. There would have to be some monumental screw up for me to lose all interest in the game entirely, and even if there was, I'd probably come crawling back in a few years.

This gone like:
Gurus - Hey guys it's not fully open world, there is loading screens to move between districts of the same world.
Us - If it improves the game performance it's perfect then!
Gurus - Hey guys there is loading screens to move between lots inside district you are at.
Us - Okay... Feels okay,i can live with loading screens!
Gurus - Hey guys community lots are also included on such loading to visit inside the area you just loaded, only open areas as parks aren't.
Us - Okay, anything else?
Gurus - TBA

Because I don't always send my Sims out to a specific lot in TS3. I like to go to map view, zoom in to a spot and use "jog here" and follow my athletic Sim on varied running routes. I send my Sim who likes to fish to random places where the fish might be biting. My Sim who collects wild animals goes to various spots to see if I can scout a creature he hasn't captured yet. None of those involve going to a lot.

I didn't say it was impossible, it just doesn't suit how I like to play my game. I hope we load at the edge of a neighborhood and then go to the lot we've selected rather than just teleporting to the edge of the lot, but I have a feeling I'm wrong on that.

I thought he wanted us to understand how the world works and was happy to explain it for us. It's pretty obvious we don't understand it fully -- except maybe lovcat does.

It would be oh so much simpler if a video of the neighborhood loading happened to "leak".

cough cough

One thing i just wondered about, if you send your sim to the Gym from another district. You will face 2 Loadings?

Because you have to load the new district, travel to the gym there, and then load the gym, am i right? Or will it "magically" appear on the gym already without need to show you enter the new district?

EDIT: It's actually a question, if you disagree so much then explain me how this madness will work.

EDIT 2: Answer: when you travel to the new area as you have to chose one lot to travel to, it will already load it as the "active lot".

The Sims 3 was, in my opinion, a monumental screw up, lol. I was super pumped about TS4, but I'm pretty bummed about the fact that we'll be getting ONE world with as many lots as Pleasantview had. And yeah, E3 was definitely the beginning of my apathetic sentiments toward The Sims 4. I spent so much time waiting for E3, defending EA...this was going to be their chance! They were finally going to unveil the game and give us everything we've been waiting for! Well, I don't even need to comment on what happened and how it was handled...we all know. It's just depressing, and I'm honestly exhausted. I feel like my emotions have been played with...maybe TS4news.com needs a hiatus...

You always load a lot when you load a neighborhood, so if you are in Neighborhood A and choose to visit the gym in Neighborhood B it will be loaded when you appear in the neighborhood.

Ah that seems to be it, you choosing to visit the Gym will already load it as the Active Lot. I hope the travel works fine when we enter the new district and it show us our sim to walk there.