Fear Emotion Balance

Calico45

So the fear update is right around the corner and most people probably know by now that there is no fear emotion death. Admittedly, this is just at the moment and it could be added later, but it is an odd thing not to debut with the emotion considering the final death stage I would consider a fair portion of it.

I also think it is a rather odd emotion to not receive an emotion death, especially compared to playful and embarrassment deaths (which seem largely comedic in nature). It would probably be the most realistic emotion death, up there with anger.

This all aside, it makes you wonder why there was no emotion death. It could be the animation aspect, but I somewhat expect a balancing issue when I considered the mechanics. Haunted houses would probably be absolute death traps if they constantly caused fear, and since fear can be contagious it could theoretically wipe out swathes of Sims. I am not usually a fan of huge death risks, but I would actually kind of like to see this version. Anyway, we will get to play with it soon, but I plan to be paying keen attention to how balanced this new emotion seems.

CelSims

I'm hoping that it will be added once they are sure the balance is about right. I'm worried that they have no plans to introduce it though.

Sharonia

I find it very odd that they didn’t include a death with the scared emotion. It’s probably the only emotion that would realistically cause a death. I have all the other emotional deaths in game turned off cause they’re actually quite stupid.

Loanet

Sharonia wrote: »

I find it very odd that they didn’t include a death with the scared emotion. It’s probably the only emotion that would realistically cause a death. I have all the other emotional deaths in game turned off cause they’re actually quite stupid.

Conor (Or Grant) has said something about maybe bringing a Death By Fear to the game in due time. Maybe it's just something they didn't have the time for - Fear needed to be out for the Paranormal pack and it has a Death By Seance in it anyway, so I wouldn't be surprised if you'd be scared if you died then. Still, it's not the same as dying of prolonged fright.

Calico45

Sharonia wrote: »

I find it very odd that they didn’t include a death with the scared emotion. It’s probably the only emotion that would realistically cause a death. I have all the other emotional deaths in game turned off cause they’re actually quite stupid.

I do think death by anger is realistic enough for a fairly comedic game. Certainly right out of a dramatic movie, but anger = high blood pressure = heart attack = death. From what I remember, the animation even has them grasping their chest.

I consider a fear death to be right out of a horror movie, but the same level of realism. Fear = shock = heart attack = death.

logion

It's probably as you said, maybe fear can spread too fast so it would end up killing too many sims.

But I suspect it's because maybe you can scare sims yourself, which means that you could kill sims by scaring them. And that could be why because they don't want murder in the sims4. You can kill sims incidentally but never directly in the game.

TS1299

logion wrote: »

It's probably as you said, maybe fear can spread too fast so it would end up killing too many sims.

But I suspect it's because maybe you can scare sims yourself, which means that you could kill sims by scaring them. And that could be why because they don't want murder in the sims4. You can kill sims incidentally but never directly in the game.

Agreed. You could literally scare them to that with the Scared Emotion. In Older games there are only like interaction that could cause Death by Fear but here, the emotions is more than just interactions. If anything I don't think they will add did Death by Fear unless they figure it out.

On subject of Emotions having death when it makes sense, I remember when production when the teams are being asks at Q and A about emotional deaths. Sad Emotion being one of the biggest questions. They said that it will be too dark if sims die of sadness. I don't know if they will do the same thing on Fear

Loanet

Maybe they wanted to make sure the Fear emotion works properly before attatching a death to it. They did mention it can potentially spread after all.

I can't wait to see the reactions my Sims have in Strangerville to the Mother Plant. There's a Botanophobia emotion that turns up whenever the Vines come out of the plumbing and I want to see what my Heroes of Strangerville think of the Mother Plant now they've beaten her.

Calico45

logion wrote: »

It's probably as you said, maybe fear can spread too fast so it would end up killing too many sims.

But I suspect it's because maybe you can scare sims yourself, which means that you could kill sims by scaring them. And that could be why because they don't want murder in the sims4. You can kill sims incidentally but never directly in the game.

That is an interesting way to think about it. I wonder about the avoidance of direct interactions just because of the playful death. Certainly more comedic than fear, but you directly tell jokes that can kill someone and even yourself.

Death by embarrassment is a little harder, though you can make just about any sim embarrassed by having them walk into a bathroom. You can stack it with peeing their pants and what not, especially with things like coffee and potions, but it certainly is much more indirect.

I very rarely have angry sims, even when they are hot headed. Sad, too, unless they are gloomy or have the eternal sadness weakness. Though it is more common than anger because of mourning. In my experience, it is not partically viable to argue and fight another sim into an anger death.

So, who knows. I suspect you are right about them wanting to limit direct kills, but I am not sure how much they actually shy away from direct actions themselves.

Kerrigan

I guess we'll see when it comes out. They may have put a cap on the fear emotion because it builds up pretty fast with the new pack and they didn't need Haunts to be a death sentence for sims. A few more days and we'll know for sure!

Loanet

Maybe they also want to make sure Fear is working okay and get a few opinions before attaching deaths to it. Once people adjust to how it works they won't kill off all their Sims in a flash and then regret it.

We don't know which actions cause fear just yet; we can only guess. Some Sad and Tense emotions feel appropriate, and so do some Uncomfortable emotions. Some situations need a Scared emotion - like Grimmy's very presence being able to trigger Fear. We might even get a few items that have Fear triggers.

We shall find out today...

LiELF

I think they didn't want to do too much too fast, which is probably the wise decision. Emotions effect the core of the game mechanics so I'm sure it's going to take some time to fine tune it to get it just right and see what the response is first. The Playful death got really annoying and a little too sensitive at one time because Sims (at least in my game) were suddenly always jumping into the hysterical and I had to keep them from being too happy all the time. But I think the Playful and Embarrassment deaths don't make any sense anyway. I could see rage, heartbreak and terror causing death, but not those other two.

CelSims

logion wrote: »

It's probably as you said, maybe fear can spread too fast so it would end up killing too many sims.

But I suspect it's because maybe you can scare sims yourself, which means that you could kill sims by scaring them. And that could be why because they don't want murder in the sims4. You can kill sims incidentally but never directly in the game.

Except you actually can already though. It's fairly easy to crack enough jokes at the Humor Festival to push sims into hysterical deaths. And my vampires kill sims all the time with Influence Emotions. A vampire spamming that is no different from another sim yelling 'BOO' a few times is it? Both are intent.

I'm hoping its simply they're making sure the balance is right first. While I do have back ups of my sims and know how to exit without saving, I can understand some people would be upset if they accidentally triggered mass hysteria and all their sims fell over.

logion

CelSims wrote: »

logion wrote: »

It's probably as you said, maybe fear can spread too fast so it would end up killing too many sims.

But I suspect it's because maybe you can scare sims yourself, which means that you could kill sims by scaring them. And that could be why because they don't want murder in the sims4. You can kill sims incidentally but never directly in the game.

Except you actually can already though. It's fairly easy to crack enough jokes at the Humor Festival to push sims into hysterical deaths. And my vampires kill sims all the time with Influence Emotions. A vampire spamming that is no different from another sim yelling 'BOO' a few times is it? Both are intent.

I'm hoping its simply they're making sure the balance is right first. While I do have back ups of my sims and know how to exit without saving, I can understand some people would be upset if they accidentally triggered mass hysteria and all their sims fell over.

There is always exceptions lol... I had no idea you could spam influence emotions as a vampire.

BreeNilla

True, I never thought about the fact that the fear (especially in a haunted house setting) could stack too high too fast to cause death, and it's potentially spreadable, too. I thought it was odd to omit and I see the frustration, but I also have my emotional deaths turned off lol.

Kinda hoping it would be possible for a mod to block certain fear moodlets or traits that increase certain fear strengths so it would be possible to create fears specific to individual sims.