There has recently been a growing interest for the life simulation genre. We know that two new life simulation games are being created as we speak. TS5 is still in early development, but this game (The Sims) is worth mentioning because it basically established the life simulation genre. There is also a game called Stardew Valley, which has taken elements from life simulation games.

The Sims was an alone game in this genre for a long time and many players are now excited that there will be some competition. Some players also noticed that TS is becoming stagnant, with multiple problems (overpriced DLCs and the piecemealing of content) and less inovations occuring.

The purpose of this thread is to basically make a general assumption of what is the best in all previous TS titles and to add new, fresh ideas into the mix for a perfect life simulation game.

I have one idea that came to me while I was building a shopping mall in TS2. In my opinion, a perfect life simulation game needs to have a more dynamic open world. For example, an option to blend multiple different commercial lots and apartments (or hotels) together. Imagine an apartment building that has a coffee shop and a clothing store at the bottom of same building and then that you could own, for example, only the coffee shop. Add a hotel to the mix and you get a dynamic lot full of life.

Goals, incentives, and a core philosophy to inform the game design (from gameplay, customization, world building, sound, etc).

Our Lord and savior Will Wright founded the Sims on the principles of modernity and our consumerist lifestyle. What started off as a building simulator spun into the a reflection of 20th century living, complete with schmoozing your neighbors for that promotion to buy more stuff from the catalog only to have all that progress swiped away by that god awful burglar.

It needs to be customisable! I need to be able to change as much as I like about the simulations and the environment, or play it as default if I like. That includes the environment the simulations live in- what I dislike about Sims 4 is that the game dictates to me what the world is like, and what's in it. Sims 2 gave us the tools to make our own worlds, sims, clothes, floor and wall textures. Sims 3 gave us a world creator. Both on the right track for me!

Things just need to work.
Whatever it is.
If the game is nothing more than sims sitting around chatting in a coffee shop - it needs to work. (If that's what I bought the game for, playing a coffee shop. Whatever I bought it for, it NEEDS TO WORK!!)
No stupid stuff.
No ignorant sh*t
No idleness.
No lockups or simulation clogs.
No LEs
When you click a sim and tell it to do something, it does it.

That would make a perfect life simulation game to me.

Could not have said it better.

True. There are elements of 4 that I enjoy but one of my biggest gripes is that I can't make it *truly* my own.

I believe I've made 4 my own thanks to the dozens or so of mods I'm using and that I don't play in conventional ways. It just that when I do play, the sims don't always work as they should.