Careers: Make Accepting Promotions Optional

SimsLovinLycan

The non-active careers in The Sims 4 have been incredibly easy to master since the requirements were nerfed a few years back. That was a good thing for people who wanted an easier time getting their sims to the top of their careers within the "Normal" lifespan, but it made it maybe too easy for those of us who play on "Long" or with aging turned off completely. It also made it harder to keep a sim stalled at one level of a career due to the only promotion requirements being to have a certain level on one or two skills and having maxed-out work performance. Without a friends count or some other requirement (Make X amount of Y, Do Z N amount of times) that we can easily avoid doing (Since, let's face it, a lot of skills you just can't avoid raising unless you want your sim's life to be really, really boring), we're forced to constantly monitor and balance a sim's work performance toward mediocrity (Not good enough to get promoted, but not so bad that you get fired) since, by default, our sims' job performance will always trend upward automatically unless we hit an unlucky chance card. That...quite frankly, is tedious.

Instead, I propose an alternate idea: a prompt asking you if you want your sim to accept a promotion. The first offer of a promotion would, naturally, be as soon as your sim hits the promotion requirements. If you turn down the promotion, you would be offered a promotion again in another one to four sim weeks (depending on the lifespan you choose). If you decide that it's time for your sim to get promoted between offers, you can have your sim "Ask for Promotion" while they're at work. This action would have a 50/50 chance of your sim getting a promotion or being laughed out of the boss's office. Alternately, there could be an "Ask for Promotion" action on the computer or phone with the same odds of success or failure. Some may think the gamble on asking for a promotion to be a bit harsh, but you're taking a gamble in real life if you ask your boss for a promotion too.

Basically, giving players the ability to turn down and ask for promotions would strike a nice balance between the players who want faster career progression and those who want to take their time and/or roleplay with their sims. Those who want the quick, easy promotions get the system as it is now, virtually unchanged. Those who want a slower progression or to keep a sim at a certain level in their career for story purposes or for the sake of a challenge run that they're doing can have the option of simply choosing to delay their sims' progress with a simple dialogue box instead of having to keep a close eye on their job performance bar and fiddle around with their sims' away actions (which, let me just say, is only fun the first few times...). All in all, I think that it would be a fun addition to the game. Not as much fun as bringing back the old promotion requirements, but a good compromise.

SeanT346

Totally agree with you! The Sims 4, in general, could do with more risk, consequence and it should certainly tackle more dark and mature content while still wrapping it up in a blanket of goofy absurdish-ness (like what we had in the original Sims and The Sims 2).

I also like the idea for story purposes, that my Sim is pretty happy just staying as a Civil Servant and has no interest in becoming a National Leader. I wish they would rejig the system so that staying at one level, you can get significant raises but you don't necessarily need to reach the top of the career track.

LiaRose1435

If you use MCC you can flag your sim to freeze career progress so they won't get promoted.

Revile2nr

This is actually a really good idea:)

SimsLovinLycan

LiaRose1435 wrote: »

If you use MCC you can flag your sim to freeze career progress so they won't get promoted.

Hm, I didn't know that. I mostly just use the population and relationship options, so I haven't messed around much with the other options. Still, an official means of turning down promotions without mods (because, let's face it, not everyone uses script mods for one reason or another) is definitely something that would make the game more fun and immersive.

Simsfan99111

I like this idea

Neia

I think it would be cool if we could choose between a raise and a promotion. The raise could work like it already does when you're max level. Getting a promotion could reset the raise if that's too complicated otherwise. So until the max level, you'd get the choice, and at max level, you'll get the raise automatically.

SoapSuds

Neia wrote: »

I think it would be cool if we could choose between a raise and a promotion. The raise could work like it already does when you're max level. Getting a promotion could reset the raise if that's too complicated otherwise. So until the max level, you'd get the choice, and at max level, you'll get the raise automatically.

Definitely. I've always wanted a system like this. At the very least, it would be nice for story telling. I mean, maybe my Sim wants to have a career as a registered nurse, rather than become the chief of staff, but would still like to get a raise now and then for performing their job well.