For years the life simulation community has begged for an overhaul to one of the most notoriously broken experiences in the game. It appears those pleas are finally being heard by the developers. Recently the community team put out a call for constructive feedback regarding the state of eating, drinking, and the overall restaurant experience. This has sparked intense speculation about a potential refresh for a pack that is approaching its tenth anniversary.
The idea that the development team is looking backward to fix legacy content is an interesting shift in strategy. When the restaurant pack was released back in June 2016, players were excited about the prospect of taking their families out for a nice meal. Instead they received a masterclass in frustration and broken routing. Now with rumors swirling about the next generation of the franchise, understanding why the team is suddenly interested in our virtual dining habits requires a closer look at the current state of the game and its community feedback forums.
The agonizing reality of The Sims 4 Dine Out
If you have ever attempted to take a family of four out to dinner in the current iteration of the game, you know the pain all too well. You sit down at the table, the waiter eventually takes your order, and then you wait for hours on end. A simple three course meal can easily consume twelve in game hours. By the time the dessert arrives at the table, half of your party is falling asleep in their food and the other half desperately needs to use the restroom. The pacing is entirely broken in a way that makes the simple act of dining out a miserable chore rather than a fun social outing.
The issues go far beyond the borders of commercial restaurant lots. The fundamental mechanics of eating at home are equally flawed and frustrating for long time players. Characters simply do not enjoy meal times together anymore. Even if you use the specific interaction to call everyone to a meal, they will grab a plate and scatter around the lot. One person might sit at the dining table, another will stand in the bathroom, and a third will inexplicably walk a hundred meters down the street to sit on a random park bench alone.
Seat hopping is another massive problem that ruins any sense of immersion during meal times. Your characters will constantly stand up from their chairs, switch places, or walk across the room just to talk to someone who was already sitting right next to them. This makes the dining experience feel incredibly unnatural. Older titles in the franchise handled these specific interactions flawlessly. Characters in older games would actually sit together, converse with one another, and finish their food in a completely reasonable timeframe.
Furthermore the game features a hidden weight gain system that is entirely inconsistent across different expansion packs. Certain base game foods will cause characters to gain weight rapidly, while the developers seemingly forgot to code caloric values for meals introduced in newer updates. If you want to keep your characters healthy over a long playthrough, you are almost forced to feed them a continuous diet of standard garden salads.
How modders fixed The Sims 4 Dine Out early
While the official development team is just now asking for feedback on Discord, the modding community solved these exact problems a long time ago. As pointed out in a recent community breakdown video, many players highly doubt that official developers could ever make the restaurant experience feel as exciting as the heavily modded version. Players on computer platforms have had to rely heavily on user created content to make restaurants functional for years.
The most prominent example of this is Carl’s Dine Out Reloaded mod. This massive modification completely transforms the restaurant experience into what it should have been at launch ten years ago. Not only does it fix the atrocious pacing issues and routing failures, but it actually allows you to work inside your own restaurant. You can take on the role of the head chef, the host greeting customers, or the waitstaff running plates. You can set up a functional bar, introduce a takeout delivery system, and even place arcade machines to keep your customers entertained while they wait for their food.
It is incredibly frustrating that players on PC and Mac have to rely on external files to make paid content functional, leaving console players completely stranded with a broken system. I highly reccomend testing this community mod in a brand new save file if you want to experience proper restaurant gameplay, as it completely changes the dynamic of owning a business. The fact that a single independent creator could implement these highly requested features while the official team struggled for a decade highlights a major disconnect in the ongoing development process.
Will The Sims 4 updates impact Project Rene
The sudden interest in fixing a ten year old pack brings up an interesting theory regarding the future of the simulation franchise. We know that the studio is actively working on the next major installment which is currently known under the codename Project Rene. Maintaining the current generation is incredibly expensive due to spiraling quality assurance costs and a messy internal code base that is tough to work with.
So why invest valuable time and money into fixing old eating mechanics right now? The most logical explanation is that the current game is being used as a live testing environment for Project Rene. The life simulation team might be using our current restaurant feedback to build a much better foundation for their next major release. They need to see how autonomy handles group dynamics before writing the core code for a brand new title.
It is entirely possible that the developers want to integrate fully functional restaurants and proper family dining directly into the base game of Project Rene. Currently the existence of a dedicated restaurant expansion prevents the developers from adding dining venues to any new worlds they create because it is locked behind a paywall. Fixing the core behavior now ensures that when the new game finally launches, they definately won’t repeat the exact same pacing and autonomy mistakes that plagued players for a decade.
Frequently asked questions about The Sims 4 Dine Out
Can you run a restaurant in the base game
No, running and visiting customized restaurants requires you to purchase a specific expansion pack.
Is there a thirst motive coming to the game
There are no official plans to add a thirst motive, which players feel creates annoying micromanagement.
Does food cause weight gain in the game
Yes, certain base game foods have hidden caloric values that cause physical changes to your characters.
Will older packs get completely overhauled soon
The team is gathering feedback for potential quality of life improvements, but a total overhaul remains unlikely.
