Sims 3 or Sims 4?

[NNS10]

Most of this forum is dedicated to FO4 and Skyrim, but when it comes to emergent storytelling it seems The Sims may have more to offer.

 

I've heard a lot since launch about how The Sims 4 is is a step backwards because of many missing features and a return to the lot-based engine in older iterations (instead of the load-less open world engine in TS3 where the entire town is simulated at once). At the same time, the multi-tasking in TS4 seems really powerful.

 

Curious to know which game people recommend overall and also when it comes to gameplay and modding.

[Shiori栞]

Wow, never been the first vote before. 100% for my answers 0% for others is like a 1-time thing to see.

 

 

1. Which is better when it comes to mechanical gameplay (e.g. features, AI, etc)?

Sims 3. Lots of bugs in Sims 3 but that's mostly because they added so very many things for a sim to do, react to, places to visit or shop at, going to work, etc etc, and SIms 4 sims are kind of dumb, annoying and seem far more soulless than sims in Sims 3.

 

2. Which is better when it comes to freedom of gameplay (e.g. which allows more choice and options on how your character lives their life)

Easily Sims 3. Practically no restrictions except the rabbit holes when you go to work. Tons of things you can't do in Sims 4.

 

3. Which do you recommend for non-adult modding?

4. Which do you recommend for adult modding?

Both of these are pretty equal. If you think of the mods, what they do, and only the mods, while not considering any actual game features, or even interacting with in-game content, and concentrate on only the mods themselves, they are tied, cuz it's basically the same kind of modding happening to each game.

 

5. Which is easier to mod?

Equal, in my experience. The only thing I can say in favor in Sims 4 is Sims 4 Studio made things pretty easy, but that doesn't point to the game, that points to that program. The things I have made were basically the same amount of effort for both games.

 

6. Which do you recommend overall?

I doubt anyone in the world would pick Sims 4 over Sims 3. Far too much more to do and far more realistic than Sims 4.

 

The only thing that could have been better about Sims 4 is the new Emotions feature, but they really screwed that up. Now they are just much more annoying. I don't wanna see someone smile from cheek to cheek, like they are smiling for a camera, at all times, just because they are in a good mood, and they can go from being overly happy to literally on the verge of crying to being so horny they can barely form a sentence to being enraged to being super happy again, all in the span of like 1 minute. They all seem like they are on hard drugs. It is very unnatural, and that is where Sims 4 went wrong. Sims 3 sims seemed much more like people and less like robots with no clear signs of free will.

 

The list of things better about Sims 3 than Sims 4 is a very long one, but in terms of mods and modding each game, they are pretty much the same deal from my experience.

[gobicii]

First I'd like to add that I've never actually played TS4, but seen plenty of gameplay of it, and I don't have much desire to change. I simply dislike TS4's visual appearance, and the whole concept feels more like Sims 2.5, with some advanced features. TS3 has plenty of problems, but it's still better overall imo.

 

1. Which is better when it comes to mechanical gameplay (e.g. features, AI, etc)?

Sims 3 has a shitload of options. If you're playing it regularly, with free-will, I'd say my main complaint is that sometimes it feels too sandboxy, while sometimes it's too linear, like Wolrd Adventures. You can create your own headcanon for your sims, but personally I liked the Memory feature from TS2, which here is pretty horrible imo. The AI's main issue is pathfinding, but all of the major problems can be solved by a few handy mods.

The game IS glitchy, you have to get used to it. But most of these are minor, and really easy to resolve if you know what you're looking for.

 

2. Which is better when it comes to freedom of gameplay (e.g. which allows more choice and options on how your character lives their life)

Easily Sims 3, just as said above. The open-world gives tons of freedom. The Create-A-Style feature on it's on is mindblowing. I use it for every single clothing, and every house I build. The game isn't entirely perfect, but personally the positives overshadow the drawbacks in my eye.

 

3. Which do you recommend for non-adult modding?

If we're talking about Custom Content, like objects, or clothing, pretty much TS3. You don't even need that much new stuff thanks to Create-A-Style, and there's a shitton of good clothing, furniture, cars and all goodies. NRaas' mods resolve most of the engine issues, or at least give you the tools to do it yourself. You can tweak almost any part of the world the way you want, from changing random workers, to relationships. For me, it doesn't feel like cheating, as I know my restrains (and usually in my games money isn't the main issue, so there's also that)

4. Which do you recommend for adult modding?

Sad to say this, but TS4. KinkyWorld is unfinished, buggy, and the whole concept of if it wrong imo. Instead of module-based modding, everything is in one package, whether you want it or not. It's kind of working, but I wouldn't say it's really good. It has potential. Whereas from what I've seen from WickedWhims is really advanced, customizable, and has a good, hands-on approach. The number of animations for TS4 overshadow what we have for TS3, to the point that I've been trying to find someone to convert TS4 anims into TS3 on multiple forums. TS3 has plenty of anims, don't mind me. But TS4 has so much more it's not even comparable, and there are barely any animators left for TS3.
Also there's the fact that KW's traits and most gameplay modifiers barely change a thing. I don't like the woohoo skills, and I'd like a proper option for polyamoria, more working interactions, and a helluva lot more text messages.
Not really familiar with Passion, so not gonna say anything about it, but honestly the way KW is "developing" (no public update in more than a year, and most patreon updates are just bugfixes or bugfixes), I'm thinking about changing over.

 

5. Which is easier to mod?

Dunno about TS4. TS3 is extremely easy, if a bit time consuming with Custom Content. Creating mods, well I don't really know.

 

6. Which do you recommend overall?

TS3 no doubt. I prefer it's visual appearance, it's gameplay, it's options. Once you get the hang of handling your performance mods, and fixing minor things you don't like, it becomes really enjoyable, and you can write your own stories if you want to, or just dick around, if that's your cup of tea.

 

Sorry for the typos and other stuff. I haven't slept much tonite.

[ZenBuddhist]

hey, Nanashi,

between versions 3 and 4, Sims™ 3 beats 4 by a mile and half — no questions about it.
yet, Sims™ 2 defeats them both. and on the modding side, it was (for some still is) a breeze to mod it.

good poll, buddy. cheers.

[NNS10]

10 hours ago, gobicii said:

1. Which is better when it comes to mechanical gameplay (e.g. features, AI, etc)?

 

Sims 3 has a shitload of options. If you're playing it regularly, with free-will, I'd say my main complaint is that sometimes it feels too sandboxy, while sometimes it's too linear, like Wolrd Adventures.

Speaking of expansions, which are the ones you think are important if we don't care about the supernatural or gimmicks? From reading about them, World Adventures and Into the Future kind of feel like gimmicks that don't have much connection back to the base world of your sim.

[gobicii]

Personally I'm using every expansion and stuff pack there is, simply because I like to have variety. But indeed, there are some expansions that don't really add too much gameplay-wise.

 

Into the Future - has some neat looking furniture and a few decent clothes but I'm not really bothered with it's content, and most if it is very specific.

 

World Adventures - I loved travelling in TS2, but Wolrd Adventures isn't my cup of tea. As I said earlier, it feels very linear. It's way too much about exploration and tombs and whatnot, and not really about relaxing at an exotic location, like Bon Voyage was.

 

Supernatural - Well, I'm not into it. Some cool goth styled objects, but not my thing overall.

 

Showtime - Almost Late Night, with a different type of approach. It's not all bad, and some of the careers are fun for a while, but yeah.

 

Island Paradise - Very specific content, but I'm into tropical stuff, and I mostly like what it has to offer. The neighbourhood induces a shitton of lag if you don't manage it with mods somehow, but it still is a nice one.

 

 

As for stuff packs... Well aside from Katy Perry's hellhole it doesn't hurt having them, but if you want real, quality variety you should download your own specific CC from fan-sites.

[NNS10]

More votes for the poll came in... the results are a bit surprising.

 

Overwhelming consensus that TS3 has better gameplay and also pretty large majority think it's better overall. However, the polls suggest TS4 is better for modding in general. Why is that?

[NNS10]

7 hours ago, gobicii said:

Personally I'm using every expansion and stuff pack there is, simply because I like to have variety. But indeed, there are some expansions that don't really add too much gameplay-wise.

I read in various places that it's not recommended to have everything on as it causes more lag. But more importantly, it costs too much to buy everything. Series has such a terrible business model.

 

7 hours ago, gobicii said:

 but if you want real, quality variety you should download your own specific CC from fan-sites.

Is there anything like the STEP guides for Skyrim LE (SRLE Extended) and Skyrim SE (LOTD SE) for TS3/TS4?

 

Those STEP guides for Skyrim are like a curated list of mods that are up-to-date and work well. It'd be great if there was something similar for The Sims since there are just way too many mods.

[ZenBuddhist]

hey, Gobicil, 

 

On 4/15/2019 at 12:08 PM, gobicii said:

Personally I'm using every expansion and stuff pack there is, simply because I like to have variety. But indeed, there are some expansions that don't really add too much gameplay-wise.

 

Into the Future - has some neat looking furniture and a few decent clothes but I'm not really bothered with it's content, and most if it is very specific.

 

World Adventures - I loved travelling in TS2, but World Adventures isn't my cup of tea. As I said earlier, it feels very linear. It's way too much about exploration and tombs and whatnot, and not really about relaxing at an exotic location, like Bon Voyage was.

 

Supernatural - Well, I'm not into it. Some cool goth styled objects, but not my thing overall.

 

Showtime - Almost Late Night, with a different type of approach. It's not all bad, and some of the careers are fun for a while, but yeah.

 

Island Paradise - Very specific content, but I'm into tropical stuff, and I mostly like what it has to offer. The neighbourhood induces a shitton of lag if you don't manage it with mods somehow, but it still is a nice one.

 

 

As for stuff packs... Well aside from Katy Perry's hellhole it doesn't hurt having them, but if you want real, quality variety you should download your own specific CC from fan-sites.

you made some solid considerations. i know this thread isn't about TS2; nonetheless, that is the best gaming experience in the TS franchise — from both the player and the modder views.

i deem most expansions as an improved version of the stuff packs: they do add lots of content; on on the other hand, the extent of problems they generate make most just not worth it. for people out of the Windows-OS league — e.g. Macintoshers, Linuxers, and consoles' players — I wouldn't recommend going past "Showtime" expansion.
imho, from the worst to the best TS3 expansion packages (with some Pros and Cons):

11.  The Sims 3 — World Adventures (rel. 2009)

Pros: nice new content, few new skills, good new console commands, it added three new Worlds to the sandboxed TS3 (China, Egypt, and France)

Cons: holidays seem like huge burdens; trips cost several thousand $$$; the holidays themselves require you to — at times — spend days in a tomb or cave just to get one object; several programming glitches and broken paths

 

10. 10. The Sims 3 — Showtime (rel. 2012)

Pros: new content and new skills, added "Simport" to allow Internet playing

Cons: “Simport” worked poorly, mainly because TS 3 was originally designed to be played alone; in several senses, it’s quite similar to “Late Night;” several glitches and broken paths due to bad programming

9. The Sims 3 — Generations (rel. 2011)

Pros: Sim babies and toddlers

Cons: Sim babies and toddlers

 

8. The Sims 3 — Into the Future (rel. 2013)

Pros: themed around sci-fi, robots, and EA’s vision of the future; the opposite of “Generations” for its boldness; the launch of “Plumbots” — a much more customisable version of “Simbots,” introduced in “Ambitions”

Cons: for Mac and Linux players, perhaps the most buggy expansion of them all; because it's essentially a future version of the base game, it tends to get boring after a while

 

7. The Sims 3 — Pets (rel. 2011)

Pros: customisable pets with their own traits and personalities; they can be controlled and trained, and can become friends with other pets

Cons: the expansion's pets require a lot of dedicated time and work; if they go outside too much (and they do), they're very likely to get fleas, which can (actually will) be passed on to human sims; unfortunately they don't attack/bite babies and toddlers; apart from the pets themselves, there isn't really anything else to the gaming experience; the expansion's added world — Appaloosa — is glitchy and abnormally filled with broken and gapped paths

 

6. The Sims 3 — Supernatural (rel. 2012)

Pros: includes supernatural elements and five new life forms, along with a spooky new town and careers; theming is very "Halloween" (which is a strength and a downfall); lots of fun and interesting things to do (such as riding brooms and using magic wands)

Cons: in the "Late Night" expansion vampires were introduced to slightly change things around; in "Supernatural," however, feats were changed drastically with all the different occults and skills. although a rather interesting expansion,"Supernatural" is worthy only to those into Halloween and stuff
(note: although i own a copy, i had it uninstalled after a while, for it added some weird lagging to my gaming)

 

5. The Sims 3 — Ambitions (rel. 2010)

Pros: most popular TS3 expansion, it introduces six new careers that can be performed by the player (as opposite to the rabbit-hole ones found in the base game) — including firefighters and architects; addition of several new console commands

Cons: jobs (at times) are slightly overwhelming; some of the game’s lifetime wishes are far beyond what can be achieved

 

4. The Sims 3 — University Life (rel. 2013)

Pros: sims can go to university to get a degree — a place where the player can do more stuff than ever before: a sim can be part of either the jocks, nerds, or rebels group and build their way up to gain more respect from their peers; if a sim do well enough in her/his social group, s/he receives a job offer; among other things. even though a temporary getaway from regular base-game-sim-life, “University Life” provides several benefits thereafter

Cons: the added world is also glitchy

 

3. The Sims 3 — Seasons (rel. 2012)

Pros: adds a lot of depth to the gaming by introducing different weather types such as snow, sun, and rain; adds seasonal holidays, outdoor wear, and — of course — seasons; even though no new town comes with this expansion, it enhances the already-owned expansions by adding a new layer to them; very detailed visuals, with sims' footprints being preserved in the snow and rain running off the edge of a roof; introduction of Seasons’ Festivals, an off-work social gathering event

Cons: bad gaming experience for slower/older PCs; requires specific video cards to run smoothly

 

2. The Sims 3 — Island Paradise (rel. 2013)

Pros: a rather exotic and interesting expansion, with loads of new clothes, items, and other things suited to living on an island; adds new characters and locations (such as mermaids, the Kraken, and houseboats); new skills, activities, jobs, and lifetime rewards

Cons: nearly all the new content is only available in the new world "Isla Paradiso;" several world glitches and broken/unfinished paths; bad gaming experience for Macintohsers and Linuxers (due to some Wine app incompatibility)

 

 

1. The Sims 3 — Late Night (2010)

Pros: includes great content, such as new houses and skyscrapers, new instruments, loads of new clothes and bands; introduction of the “Celebrity” system, which allows your sim to increase her/his celebrity status (what a sim does publicly can change the public's perceptions of her/him); even in the game's old neighbourhoods the added system can have a huge impact on a sim's life — mostly from making things better to making things worse. i deem it as the best TS3 expansion.

Cons: besides some glitches in its earlier versions, none

 

 

On 4/15/2019 at 7:33 PM, nanashi50 said:

Is there anything like the STEP guides for Skyrim LE (SRLE Extended) and Skyrim SE (LOTD SE) for TS3/TS4?

 

the Sims Community isn't so organised and/or prolific as Skyrims'; yet, one may find this and related info in The Sims Wiki as well as forums such as Mod the Sims and The Sims Resource.

 

hope this helped.

cheers, all.

[KolorBiały]

Sims 4. Thats all cuz of BETTER ENGINE, no lags, sexy sims (in S3 they looks so bad novadays), sex animations looks better in S4.

 

 

[twgrb1]

So the results so far haven't been too surprising. Since this is LL, though, I thought I'd expand a little on the adult modding side of things, rather than just go on about how TS4's restrictive or TS3's broken/laggy:

 

TS3/KW:

Pros:

- Even now has more adult situation types than WW, particularly in the non-con department. Also TS3 has horses, so you get that as well.

- Leverages TS3's much more expansive scope to allow for situations happening in houses/lots other than the one you're on.

- Has a number of unique, if laggy, event structures, such as simulating high schools as a career/profession rather than a rabbit hole.

Cons:

- KW's mostly done; Oniki's been playing around with other projects, and there's been no significant new content for over a year now.

- KW's not modular

- KW's can be very script-heavy and TS3 still lags like a bitch after playing on a map for a few dozen hours, even on a decent rig with a SSD.

- chances of getting new players into TS3 are fairly low now, so most of the modding's just done by a few guys and gals.

 

TS4/WW:

Pros:

- WW runs pretty well now, compared to how it used to be. WW updates are slow, but fairly consistent.

- There's a pretty wide breadth of adult mods now, so it's not as bare as it used to be.

- Also as an ancillary note, TS4's base game is also somewhat better than it was last year or before, with a more consistent emotion system, and a number of major bugfix patches recently. Some of the free updates has been pretty wacky (first-person view is interesting, but nausea-inducing), but at the very least there is new stuff to play around with.

Cons:

- TS4's much more restrictive in terms of what the rest of the NPCs are doing, so 'simulating' their activities at the moment with WW, outside of normal hookups, is literally just pairing them up for an animation on map-load, with no stories or whatever happening behind the scenes.

 

TL;DR:

TS3 offers much more freedom, but as its adult modding scene is mostly undead now, TS4's slowly (perhaps too slowly for our liking) creeping ahead for adult-related content.

[MrGrey]

On 4/15/2019 at 3:22 PM, nanashi50 said:

More votes for the poll came in... the results are a bit surprising.

 

Overwhelming consensus that TS3 has better gameplay and also pretty large majority think it's better overall. However, the polls suggest TS4 is better for modding in general. Why is that?

With TS3 I can create a world, populate it with sims of my own choosing, and play two Player Characters at once in different locations e.g. Joe at the Gym and Linda at the Library. I'm not limited to the same characters and the same houses in the same world. None of that is possible in Sims 4. Sims 4 was targeted for online play, but failed. Sims 4  has the common world required for online play without the online play; that's the worst of both worlds. However, I don't particularly want to share my personal sex cranks with an entire online world, and I don't want to have others share their sex cranks with me.

TS4 is written in python... many people like python more than C#. Also, the recolors that you could do in Sims 3 as part of the game is a "mod" in Sims 4. People think they're making mods. Bah!

Neither Sims 3 nor Sims 4 was written with sex animations in mind. there can be no practical way of a strip tease, and there is no collision or mesh physics e.g. you can't have a sim squeeze another sim's breast without making a lot of different animations for different breast sizes and including logic to match the squeezed sim to the appropriate animation.  Different heights can't be done either.

 

[NNS10]

10 hours ago, MrGrey said:

With TS3 I can create a world, populate it with sims of my own choosing, and play two Player Characters at once in different locations e.g. Joe at the Gym and Linda at the Library. I'm not limited to the same characters and the same houses in the same world. None of that is possible in Sims 4. Sims 4 was targeted for online play, but failed. Sims 4  has the common world required for online play without the online play; that's the worst of both worlds. However, I don't particularly want to share my personal sex cranks with an entire online world, and I don't want to have others share their sex cranks with me.

TS4 is written in python... many people like python more than C#. Also, the recolors that you could do in Sims 3 as part of the game is a "mod" in Sims 4. People think they're making mods. Bah!

Neither Sims 3 nor Sims 4 was written with sex animations in mind. there can be no practical way of a strip tease, and there is no collision or mesh physics e.g. you can't have a sim squeeze another sim's breast without making a lot of different animations for different breast sizes and including logic to match the squeezed sim to the appropriate animation.  Different heights can't be done either.

 

Thanks for clarifying what's different about TS4 that makes it limiting to play.

 

I don't care for sex mods in TS3/TS4, but what about the general modding point? The poll suggests TS4 is preferred for modding in general. Is there a reason why? Is it easier? Or does TS3 have some issue with mod compatibility not being clear on the newer versions? (a lot of the mod websites don't seem to clearly state what version a gameplay mod is for)

[ZenBuddhist]

On 4/23/2019 at 7:25 PM, nanashi50 said:

The poll suggests TS4 is preferred for modding in general. Is there a reason why? Is it easier?

reinforcing @MrGrey's excellent post, i believe this is the case where a Python versus C# comparison is needed, Nanashi-San.
 

Python

1. • Open-Source;
2. • Powers websites such as Youtube, Pinterest, and Instagram;
3. • One of the most popular languages, it finds excellent use in recent development trends such as machine learning;
4. • While Object-Oriented, developers write Procedural Code as well;
5. • Dynamically-Interpreted Language;
6. • Outperforms C# in development time;
7. • Free of charge, and maintained by a passionate community;
8. • Works in all Systems/Platforms;
9. • Since it’s maintained by its community, cannot guarantee the same support as Microsoft.
    

C#

1. • Proprietary, part Microsoft .NET;
2. • Powers Stack Overflow and cutting-edge technologies such as MS Hololens;
3. • Designed for the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI);
4. • Fully Object-Oriented;
5. • Statically-Typed Compiled Language;
6. • Outperforms Python in applications such as game engines;
7. • Paid, and maintained by Microsoft and its vast and resourceful ecosystem;
8. • Developed for Windows — still the best OS to develop in this language (i'm a Mac user, so to develop in C# i have to stick to Visual Studio Code and a generator called Yeoman);
9. • By paying a Premium plan, developers get excellent support by Microsoft.

in 2015 — November, if i'm not wrong — TS3 was patched to its last version: 1.69.43 (Windows platform). versions for Linux and Mac OS X, which use an Windows OS emulator named "Wine," remained in patch's version 1.67.2 (released in January 24, 2014). most Mods developed after 2014 works for the latter, while many Mods developed for earlier versions were updated and sometimes overhauled.

hope this helps.

cheers,

 

 

[NNS10]

1 hour ago, ZenBuddhist said:

reinforcing @MrGrey's excellent post, i believe this is the case where a Python versus C# comparison is needed, Nanashi-San.

Ah, I missed that the question could be interpreted from the mod author's perspective. I was thinking from the mod user.

 

Do we have that many mod author's that responded to the poll?

[ZenBuddhist]

On 4/23/2019 at 10:16 PM, nanashi50 said:

Do we have that many mod author's that responded to the poll?

 

hello, Nanashi-San,

i couldn't really say. i've been away from LL for a couple years; even though i developed mods and CC (mostly the latter) for TS2, i never truly got into modding for TS3. some developers such as Twallan (NRaas) or J.M.Pescado and his team (from MATY — More Awesome Than You) did a significant job at that; i decided to lay back and be a player.
i do feel like getting into creating some TS3 animations, though.



MrGrey's post inferred some elements a developer would be aware of, such as in his sentences; "Sims 4 was targeted for online play, but failed" and "there is no collision or mesh physics." even if it's not his field of work, he knows what he is writing about: is well-informed about the differences between TS3 and 4 as well the latter flaws.  
i read in Shiori栞-San's profile she has done some modding; she's probably more capable of answering your question than I. 

i wish you the very best, Nanashi-San;

cheers,

[ujhnikju]

Cool to hear some technical bits regarding S3 and S4.  サンキュー☆彡

[ZenBuddhist]

26 minutes ago, ujhnikju said:

サンキュー☆彡

 

☆彡 ¡ You're Welcome ! ☆彡