I would like that too but maby all that could fill the game with lag and errors. I think EA is not prepared (or don´t want) to do the Sims 4 like that...

Sounds like Sim City. Which has it's own set of problems.

I'd like to see a neighbourhood with a bit of highrise buildings where the shops, offices and such are, as well as suburbs around it and maybe some farms around that. On one side there could be a small harbour and another side there could be a beach.

On a related note, it would be nice if with expansions, they could actually expand these neighbourhoods with a new area, making the map bigger and at the new area all the new stuff could be found such as new career buildings, shops, etc. Was a bit annoying having to find a place for the many new buildings added through expansions in sims 3 and theres really not enough place to have all kinds of bars and such in most neighbourhoods.

And of course we should be able to modify the neighbourhood more and be able to make more lots, resize lots, etc.

I think one of the neighborhoods may be Garden Heights from Pet Stories.

I like St. Claire as well - it would be great to have a world like that. Jericho is another cool custom world that has a city feel with newer and older sections and country outskirts.
I wouldn't mind a New Orleans world - I love that style of architecture.

You might as well take your own advice. If you have an issue with suburban neighborhoods and worlds (which I don't believe are suburban enough), you can always choose not to play them or edit them to suit your play style. My issue with the official worlds/hoods is when it comes to other themes (e.g. country, vacation, alien, spooky, rich and famous), they go all out and make the houses, community lots and scenery fit that theme.

I have yet to see a suburban themed neighborhood or world that doesn't consist of random houses thrown together with clashing colors and architectural styles (e.g. Sunset Valley).

My favourite the sims 3 neighborhood was Appaloosa plains because it looked realistic, while the others (sunset valley the most) looked like magic places, where trees and grass are perfect and everything shines of his own light. i didn't like that. I'd love to see a village full of houses (some not isolated), with cafes, shops, and everything else but i don't want a village with only 3 houses, some big palaces and no super mall , that has not sense. I hope th theme won't look as came out from a fairy tale, i'd love something realistic with imperfection too

How are you defining 'suburban'? To me, a suburb is what used to be a town or rural area outside of a city that got buried under housing developments and populated by people who work in the city but don't want to live there because of crime or bad schools. And if the seed for the suburb was a town, the town is usually still in there somewhere.

If we're going by a stereotypical suburb, I'd say a row of houses that are similar, but not necessarily identical. They could be Craftsman, Victorian, Georgian, Spanish, modern or ranch style and still go well together. Maybe identical picket fences or flowers to give the neighborhood a uniform look.

The residential areas of Sunset Valley do not have a uniform look, IMO. Colors and architectural styles clash (e.g. very bright orange wood, "noisy" patterns, one-story houses and two-story houses right up against each other in an unflattering way, modern pads across the street from older homes). At first glance it may seem like a town or suburb in California, but if you look closer, it's a mix of too many different architectural styles.

Take a look at the fan-made Sims 3 recreation of Wisteria Lane from Desperate Housewives. The colors are not too loud and although the houses are different in style (e.g. Craftsman, Victorian, ranch, etc), I think they go well together.

Now take a lot at Sunset Valley's houses. It's like a neighborhood with multiple personality disorder.

I don't think that's the definition of 'suburban'. What you're describing is the way towns grow, expanding around a core with neighborhoods that reflect the current architectural styles. Edit: And different styles can exist at the same time - for example, 1900-1920, Colonial Revival, Dutch Colonial, Craftsman,Foursquare, etc. And then somebody builds a 60s split level on a vacant parcel.
And why does it have to be uniform if it's not a planned community with neighborhood association rules? Seems boring to me.
Anyway as someone said, if we don't like the way the neighborhood looks we can change it. Or at least I hope we can change it.

Different styles can exist and look good together at the same time (e.g. Wisteria Lane). This is important to me because there has to be a balance between realism and visual appeal. IMO, Sunset Valley's residential areas are neither visually appealing nor realistic. The proportions, exteriors, roof design and overall styles make me cringe. Some don't resemble anything I've seen in real life.

There is a reason Wisteria Lane was made to look that way for Desperate Housewives. The people in charge of set design picked out colors that complement each other and reflect the characters' personalities. They brought the street to life and made it its own character. Both interior and exterior details were meticulously planned. Even though it's ficticious, it still represents a certain type of suburban neighborhood in America.

Sunset Valley made me think of California when I first saw the trees and the beach. All associations went flying out the window when I saw the architecture. There aren't enough planned community areas for it to be Agrestic. Lack of Spanish homes rule out Pasadena and Laguna Beach. Definitely not pretty enough to be Wisteria Lane. And not even close to "fucking Mayberry" as High Plains Gamer would say.

I don't need to take my own advice thanks, you're the one that keeps bringing up your dislike for Sunset Valley not me. I have been happily playing my save games free of any celebrities and supernaturals for months,if I don't like buildings I change them until I like them, and I haven't played Sunset Valley in years Not because it doesn't look legitimate enough to be suburban, but because I prefer cities or larger suburbs.

And because we keep coming back to it, suburbs do not look the same everywhere, they vary hugely depending on the country/region you're in and how they developed over time. They aren't all planned out perfectly from scratch and built over one specific time frame in the same style. I'm getting the impression that you seem to think that a suburb like Wisteria Lane or Agrestic is the only type of suburb that actually qualifies as such. Houses all have to look similar and be close to each other or it doesn't qualify. I lived for years in two different suburban areas that look nothing like Wisteria Lane or Agrestic, absolutely nothing. Architectural design of buildings depended on the time period in which they were built, and a row of houses could be right beside another row that was built 80 years earlier because the suburb didn't spring up out of nowhere one day, it developed over time. Not everything is 'matchy matchy' so to speak. What you seem to regard as a suburb is every bit as much of a theme as alien, spooky, vacation etc. is to me.

Like I said, I think it's important to have a balance of realism and visual appeal. I know neighborhoods like Wisteria Lane aren't that common, but I was using it as an example to emphasize the importance of getting the right mix of color and architectural styles. Wisteria Lane is not "matchy matchy", it has a uniform look. White picket fences, white roof trims, vertical clapboard sidings, wisteria hanging from various places. They're not all the same color or the same style, but they have common elements that bind them together.

And yes, I consider "suburb" as much of a theme as alien, spooky and vacation. The thing is, they have yet to get the suburban theme right. They don't seem to treat it as a theme. It may be more realistic to have houses that don't look right together, but it's not going to make me want to play it. It's important for it to look cohesive and easy on the eyes.

Sometimes it's about looks.

i'd hate a wisteria-lane type neighborhood, it is SO american. like what do americans even do with those big front lawns!? and porches and 3 stories and everything.. no thank you.

I fucking love Mayberry, and I think the style has been a consistent thing across the three games, and I'd like to see something similar with TS4. Of course I'd like it to have the capability of lots of architectural styles and themes and stuff because that's how people play, and in TS3, people were ripping all the buildings out of Sunset Valley and rebuilding in their own preferred style pretty quickly. As long as the theme is not -too- outlandish, then one world can be fairly flexible until others are available.

It might be perceived as "American" to others, but trust me, most of America is not like that. Wisteria Lane is almost as much a fantasy as The Land of Oz. There may be some places that resemble it, but only if you have money.

Most of America is not filled with vampires, aliens, unicorns, bachelor pads and beach resorts either.

They have yet to get the suburban theme right for you, that's been my point all along. I know a lot of players that actually love Sunset Valley and despite having every EP and store world like to come back to it.

Wisteria Lane is completely matchy matchy in my opinion, I mean every house in the whole place with white trim, white picket fences etc.? It's complete overkill and kind of freaky. In the previous suburban area in which I lived houses might have a stone wall, or a fence, or not have a garden at all. And there are modern apartment complexes across from houses that were built at least 60 years ago. And my favourite, there's even a tiny gated neighbourhood of colonial-style mansions which were built in the 1920s right off main road and they're surrounded by more modern housing. It looks bizarre and yet amazing. I would have loved to live in there. But let me tell you, none of these various houses/apartment complexes in the area had matching trimming and shrubbery And yet it still is a suburb just as much as Wisteria lane is, and one I would find much more visually appealing than row after row of houses that look eerily similar.

Anyway, my ultimate world (that we surely won't get) would be a city with various districts and outlying suburbs and even a nice Wisteria Lane type area just for you Original_Sim

So you're saying you want worlds that aren't based on the chaotic nature of the real world, but are more like set designs where the aesthetic is a theme, rather than reality. I can understand that. But I think you're doomed to be disappointed if you're expecting EA to come up with exactly what you want. I don't know if they suck at decorating/design or it's not a high priority or they're going for realism rather than the look of a movie set or they're trying to encourage people to customize their own towns, but usually the houses, inside and out, don't look that great.

I want a military town. Kind of like Strangetown, but more. I want a couple of streets of identical cheap houses in the middle of nowhere. And I want English villages. I used to live in one when I was growing up and it was basically ten houses in a row, a Post Office and a pub. I want that in my game.

@RoseCity - I think part of the reason is because they can only use stuff from the base game plus whatever one EP the world belongs to, so the interiors are usually hideous because they're so limited in what they can use. Considering Sunset Valley is the base game town I think they did a fair job of it.

I guess it's a matter of personal taste and what you consider important.

Personally, I'd rather have something visually appealing with some basis in reality than something true to life that isn't very pleasing to look at. Wisteria Lane may not represent every single suburban neighborhood in America, it may be a matchy matchy "fantasy" street, but the houses look like houses you'd see in real life.

Sunset Valley has houses I'd never even dreamed about. And not in a good way.

I assumed they'd want to focus on aesthetic and design, considering their penchant for themed worlds (e.g. Island Paradise, Strangetown). If they're going for realism, what's with all the alternative life states and unicorns?

Real isn't always visually appealing, but even if you're designing a gritty urban hood, it's important to consider the look you're going for instead of simply plopping things down and saying that's how it's done in the real world. The real world also has blood, poop and bald drug dealers who wear jeans and shirts buttoned all the way up.

Sometimes you have to take liberties to make things look nice.

i've seen those neighborhoods in real estate TV shows though, i know they're for the wealthy but they do exist. it's just generally the whole "big front porch" that kind of gives me bad vibes, i've never been in a house in real life that had a porch like 70% of the houses in sims 3.

^I think we have a very different opinion on what 'pretty' is. Wisteria Lane may be pretty to you, but the first thing that comes to my mind is fugly. And safe. And boring. So yes different strokes and all that, we'll only keep talking in circles I've also never seen a house like any of those in the show in my life, maybe they're more common in the States.

They probably are, but some people won't admit it. The Wisteria Lane houses look more like houses I'd see in real life than the Sunset Valley ones. I guess one simmer's Wisteria Lane is another simmer's Elm Street.