Questions about non-retail features...

[Moonchild]

I've looked through a few older threads discussing adding features to make the game less casual and penalize players who don't play as much. Are these features being added? I did not play the EA-Land period so I don't know what may have come from there, but I don't recall repoman, bills, losing your property or a number of other things i've seen discussed.
Also I understand sometimes bigger is better can seem like a good idea but I feel that increasing the number of sims per lot can lead to some unforeseen consequences such as host/hostess having to spend entirely too much time cooking for guests,decreasing visitors to other lots. Having the smaller limit to visitors forces people to go to other lots they might not have otherwise. Also the population won't be huge so I just see this as not being a great idea. No offense to anyone but generally online gaming communities tend to be like sheep and everyone will go to th house that already has the most. Despite there being a cap to the increase in skill speed, unless this is changed as well, with everyone cramming into the same houses it will leave a lot of empty lots. I also think this will discourage people from specializing with their lots.
Am I missing something, are there some benefits that outweigh the potential economical repercussions of this decision?
I fondly remember my experience playing TSO as it was, I'm not against change I just think it was great as I remember it and it kind of makes me sad to think of a bunch of things added for non-practical purposes. I also think maybe it should be considered that decisions were made when the game was released for reasons we don't understand yet.
Regardless of all of this, I am happy to just being able to log in and see the game again and I look forward to checking things out in open beta. Thank you for your hard work, it's good to see all the familiar sim names!

 

[Rhys]

The main problem is the sims online's economy is that there are many ways to make money (slowly, which is correct!) but after you build your lot, not much to spend it on. The obvious solution is to make more ways to spend money that scale up with your progression and could help gameplay.

People bandwagoning the same lot can be an issue. I don't see it being a problem right now but it's not like changing the max number of people on a lot will take months, it's literally a one line change. Nothing is going to immediately be static. Issues with having too many people in one lot could also lead to some interesting gameplay challenges (eg. do i need to hire player characters to cook for me?) so I'm not entirely against it. Having a large number of players is not a problem, people only visiting one lot is, so there could be changes there to discourage visiting the same lot all the time.

I'll be very clear that I will not penalize people for not playing often, as that would be pretty stupid. Also, literally no point in adding "non-practical" changes, not even sure what that means as everything has a purpose. Everything you can be charged money for will be when you are online. Here are some examples of possible ideas that could be implemented:

• Visitor bonus multiplier for lot types without interesting property category objects. (maybe temporary until other benefits are implemented) For example, offbeat gets 2x visitor bonus because it is harder to keep people there, 1x on skills and money because people never stop going there.
• Bills for keeping a lot open, proportional to object count. 2400 objects for one hour (MAX) should equate to the default visitor bonus for about 8 visitors in an hour (tweakable), should be easily paid for by tips and active money earning. With half max objects, it would be 4 visitors per hour.
• To stop the city becoming full with empty lots, I might make it so lots are removed from the map if their owner is not active for a month or so. Land purchase price would be refunded, and you'd be able to place the lot again next time you logged in. This is very important since it's now free to sign up.
• SPECIAL OPTIONAL MODE: lot openable by anyone (not just roommates), but the bills accumulate over offline time. for the very rich.
• Additional MMO style gameplay like the neighbourhood mayors system aless suggested, could have ways to spend money you raise or that you already had on city changes like roads and decorative objects. Campaign itself could also cost money. Good additional gameplay and competition for people who are interested in achieving things.

This is still very new territory, and we're a while away from implementing these things. I'm looking for suggestions as I know the gameplay can certainly be improved with additional challenges and benefits, while allowing people to play the game the way they used to.

 

[Tranquill]

• Additional MMO style gameplay like the neighbourhood mayors system aless suggested, could have ways to spend money you raise or that you already had on city changes like roads and decorative objects. Campaign itself could also cost money. Good additional gameplay and competition for people who are interested in achieving things.

Politics and players taking part in political office sound amazing. Cannot wait to play this, finally! Good stuff!

 

[Moonchild]

The main problem is the sims online's economy is that there are many ways to make money (slowly, which is correct!) but after you build your lot, not much to spend it on. The obvious solution is to make more ways to spend money that scale up with your progression and could help gameplay.

People bandwagoning the same lot can be an issue. I don't see it being a problem right now but it's not like changing the max number of people on a lot will take months, it's literally a one line change. Nothing is going to immediately be static. Issues with having too many people in one lot could also lead to some interesting gameplay challenges (eg. do i need to hire player characters to cook for me?) so I'm not entirely against it. Having a large number of players is not a problem, people only visiting one lot is, so there could be changes there to discourage visiting the same lot all the time.

I'll be very clear that I will not penalize people for not playing often, as that would be pretty stupid. Also, literally no point in adding "non-practical" changes, not even sure what that means as everything has a purpose. Everything you can be charged money for will be when you are online. Here are some examples of possible ideas that could be implemented:

• Visitor bonus multiplier for lot types without interesting property category objects. (maybe temporary until other benefits are implemented) For example, offbeat gets 2x visitor bonus because it is harder to keep people there, 1x on skills and money because people never stop going there.
• Bills for keeping a lot open, proportional to object count. 2400 objects for one hour (MAX) should equate to the default visitor bonus for about 8 visitors in an hour (tweakable), should be easily paid for by tips and active money earning. With half max objects, it would be 4 visitors per hour.
• To stop the city becoming full with empty lots, I might make it so lots are removed from the map if their owner is not active for a month or so. Land purchase price would be refunded, and you'd be able to place the lot again next time you logged in. This is very important since it's now free to sign up.
• SPECIAL OPTIONAL MODE: lot openable by anyone (not just roommates), but the bills accumulate over offline time. for the very rich.
• Additional MMO style gameplay like the neighbourhood mayors system aless suggested, could have ways to spend money you raise or that you already had on city changes like roads and decorative objects. Campaign itself could also cost money. Good additional gameplay and competition for people who are interested in achieving things.

This is still very new territory, and we're a while away from implementing these things. I'm looking for suggestions as I know the gameplay can certainly be improved with additional challenges and benefits, while allowing people to play the game the way they used to.

Sounds like you've got a lot of ideas, I look forward to seeing how everything works out. Thanks for responding because as I said, I was not aware of the benefits some of the changes could bring. I'm fully aware that changes could improve gameplay and don't always only lead to negatives despite my desire to relive the old days of TSO.

 

[simsfreak]

I've looked through a few older threads discussing adding features to make the game less casual and penalize players who don't play as much. Are these features being added? I did not play the EA-Land period so I don't know what may have come from there, but I don't recall repoman, bills, losing your property or a number of other things i've seen discussed.
Also I understand sometimes bigger is better can seem like a good idea but I feel that increasing the number of sims per lot can lead to some unforeseen consequences such as host/hostess having to spend entirely too much time cooking for guests,decreasing visitors to other lots. Having the smaller limit to visitors forces people to go to other lots they might not have otherwise. Also the population won't be huge so I just see this as not being a great idea. No offense to anyone but generally online gaming communities tend to be like sheep and everyone will go to th house that already has the most. Despite there being a cap to the increase in skill speed, unless this is changed as well, with everyone cramming into the same houses it will leave a lot of empty lots. I also think this will discourage people from specializing with their lots.
Am I missing something, are there some benefits that outweigh the potential economical repercussions of this decision?
I fondly remember my experience playing TSO as it was, I'm not against change I just think it was great as I remember it and it kind of makes me sad to think of a bunch of things added for non-practical purposes. I also think maybe it should be considered that decisions were made when the game was released for reasons we don't understand yet.
Regardless of all of this, I am happy to just being able to log in and see the game again and I look forward to checking things out in open beta. Thank you for your hard work, it's good to see all the familiar sim names!

Very interesting subject I Am coming to FreeSO with an open mind. I played in 2002 this is 14 years ago. A new revamp gameplay never hurt. I cannot imagine the series of obstacles that Development and players outside have gone through to make this happen. This game was put together from scratch. I cannot say this enough... Thank You.