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Personality makeover suggestion
JAL
Posts: 1,034 Member
With the new trait "socially awkward" and the new wants and fears, isn't it time the sims 4 got a complete overhaul of the sim's personalities? I have in several threads written how I would love a combination of the traits we have now, and the scales we had in sims 1 and 2, but I figured a thread that was dedicated only to this would be in order. Also to better visualise what I have in mind.
My suggestions is to create several parts of a sim personality, namely core personality, personality traits, lifestyle traits and phases. The center of this would be the core personality - or the sliders.
Core personality (all sims, toddlers and up)
What I am imagining is a core personality based on sliders like this:
These would influence everything from skill building to autonomous actions. Some traits and interactions could be locked to certain personalities. So a mean sim (70% mean or more) would not be able to perform a "friendly introduction" and a nice sim would not be able to perform a "rude introduction" unless provoked. Mean sims would not autonomously go for friendly interactions either, some of them might even be locked all together.
For younger sims (toddlers and children), they wouldn't have to be set in stone, but be fluid (but less and less as the child grows up. It might even look a bit different:
The light blue area would indicate what area the trait might move to (the start of the gray zone being impossible to reach). That way they'd be a bit similar to the character values.
Speaking of character values, this could also be used as a baseline for those, and affect what is possible or not and what is easy or not, making these much more dynamic for those with the parenthood pack. A kid with 70% or higher on mean should logically not be able to become compassionate, and a kid with a very gloomy character would have a harder time with emotional control (but as a parent it would be much more important to focus on as they would need it more than someone who is cheerful). Based on a toddler's base traits their character values could start in red, on neutral or already in green.
By the time you hit teenager the core personality should be more or less set, but with major life events being able to temporarily or permanently change certain sliders, for instance being cheated on or going through a divorce might temporarily affect confidence while finding a new partner or having kids might make the gloomiest person a bit more cheerful for a time.
Personality traits:
Lifestyle traits:
Phases:
So what do you think? Would this be doable within sims 4 or is it a pipe dream? Would it work, and bring more life and individuality to sims?
My suggestions is to create several parts of a sim personality, namely core personality, personality traits, lifestyle traits and phases. The center of this would be the core personality - or the sliders.
Core personality (all sims, toddlers and up)
What I am imagining is a core personality based on sliders like this:
These would influence everything from skill building to autonomous actions. Some traits and interactions could be locked to certain personalities. So a mean sim (70% mean or more) would not be able to perform a "friendly introduction" and a nice sim would not be able to perform a "rude introduction" unless provoked. Mean sims would not autonomously go for friendly interactions either, some of them might even be locked all together.
For younger sims (toddlers and children), they wouldn't have to be set in stone, but be fluid (but less and less as the child grows up. It might even look a bit different:
The light blue area would indicate what area the trait might move to (the start of the gray zone being impossible to reach). That way they'd be a bit similar to the character values.
Speaking of character values, this could also be used as a baseline for those, and affect what is possible or not and what is easy or not, making these much more dynamic for those with the parenthood pack. A kid with 70% or higher on mean should logically not be able to become compassionate, and a kid with a very gloomy character would have a harder time with emotional control (but as a parent it would be much more important to focus on as they would need it more than someone who is cheerful). Based on a toddler's base traits their character values could start in red, on neutral or already in green.
By the time you hit teenager the core personality should be more or less set, but with major life events being able to temporarily or permanently change certain sliders, for instance being cheated on or going through a divorce might temporarily affect confidence while finding a new partner or having kids might make the gloomiest person a bit more cheerful for a time.
Personality traits:
The regular personality traits would still be there, but some might be tied to the personality sliders. For instance:
I am sure there are more traits that could be limited in that way, as well as many character value traits.
Like now the traits can be added one slot per age, but not stop after young adult. Adults and elders should have one slot extra too. The elder slot could be reserved for specific elder traits only available to elders, such as "fullfilled life", "bitter", "grandparent" each tied to their own wants, fears and specific aspirations.
- Evil or Good would only be possible for those with 70% or more on the mean/nice scale.
- The jealous trait would require some level of insecurity (55% or more perhaps) and self absorbed would require a high level of self assurance (70% or more)
- The bro trait would require you to be on the outgoing side of the slider, and goofball would require you to be on the cheerful side
I am sure there are more traits that could be limited in that way, as well as many character value traits.
Like now the traits can be added one slot per age, but not stop after young adult. Adults and elders should have one slot extra too. The elder slot could be reserved for specific elder traits only available to elders, such as "fullfilled life", "bitter", "grandparent" each tied to their own wants, fears and specific aspirations.
Lifestyle traits:
I actually like the lifestyles and wish they were more fleshed out than they are. I also wish they were better implemented than today. I would also move certain traits to this category, such as bookworm (would require you to read books), art lover (would require you to visit museums and look at art), geek (would require you to actually choose sci-fi books, and play videogames) and vegetarian.
What I really like about the lifestyle traits is that they are based on what you do, and that you can lose them if you don't keep doing those things. Do make it harder to gain them though, and less dramatic to loose them.
What I really like about the lifestyle traits is that they are based on what you do, and that you can lose them if you don't keep doing those things. Do make it harder to gain them though, and less dramatic to loose them.
Phases:
Finally I would introduce phases to all ages, because while we talk about childhood phases it really is something we go through all life. A few ideas of phases I would introduce:
- In love (come on, no one acts like normal when we are in a new relationship)
- Newlywed or Recently divorced (this could affect cheerfulness and confidence while the phase lasted)
- Different parenthood traits for new parents (during the baby stage). These could include "worried parent" (checks on baby constantly, makes web searches for baby illnesses, calls doctor...), "devoted parent" (talks/brags about their baby, tense whenever away from baby, very happy whenever near baby, shows off baby often), "cool parent" (behaves more or less like normal), "gloomy parent" (cries, doesn't naturally take care of babys needs, is annoyed and tense most of the time)
- Midlife crises phases, several different ones for variation and not every sim would get one. Which one might be aplicable might depend on personality overall.
So what do you think? Would this be doable within sims 4 or is it a pipe dream? Would it work, and bring more life and individuality to sims?
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Comments
So for example, my outgoing slob could be more on the "outgoing" part and maybe that's why he's so slobbish, because he spends all his time looking for socialization and not staying in to take a shower or clean his house.
But unfortunately, I never see this happening, and just like with everything else in TS4, the Devs would probably run out of time and/or run out of budget, which seems to be their MO when adding/updating anything, just like with these wants/fears ...... they're irrelevant now, they only include the base game, and the new expansion, what about the previous 8 years of packs that we've all bought?
They removed all of the whims and replaced them with "wants" but not for all of the other packs, so now we have even less to make our sims unique.
So yeah, while theoretically I would love the addition of that, I just don't trust the dev teams execution of that, they'd probably only do it for base game traits and remove all other traits cause they didn't have enough time but "They could go back and add more where it makes sense" as was the statement regarding the "wants/fears" and past game packs being updated with them.
But for the "degree", it reminds me that my parents always thinking that I'm slobby because of "no problem with only no odor and obvious stains", but I think one of my primary school classmate who often put unfinished foods in the desk drawer then cause the seat stinks was slobby (he get rid of it after 5th grade). I'm often described as lazy, but I'm usually diligent when it comes to things I'm interested in/want to do.
- I find slob and neat to be a good fit for sliders: for example, very neat sim are very sensitive to dirty, neat sims are generally sensitive, moderate sims are medium (no problem with only no odor and obvious stains), slobby sims can tolerate stains but not odors, very slobby sims... odors can't stop them. I also think more trait slots can be added and remove some trait conflicts.
The following content marked with * means "this might, may, probably needs more traits" This is also possible，
- Children and younger without discipline are more undomesticated, such as childish, and even "mental age backwardness"* in extreme cases.
- - I created a Socially Awkward/Childish/Inappropriate/Dramatic/Diva/ sim in TS3, my sim's bio said he was living a near-wild life since he was very young, so he is serious backwardness in mental age.
- Minors who are always severely punished are more likely to be aggressive, such as hot-headed and mean and, in extreme cases, evil.
- - The opposite are more likely to be non-aggressive.
- Minors who experience too much major negative life events tend to have "negative emotional" traits and, in extreme cases, erratic. If it combined with the previous one, they can very easily become mean and/or evil
- Minors who are often complimented tend to be more self-assured. But if it goes too far, they tend to become self-absorbed.
- - The opposite are more likely to be "insecurity"* and/or also self-absorbed (fragile self-esteem).
↑ Are these meaningful?😃
I think there can be a "calm" and an "over-emotional" traits that will affect the phases to some extent.
Sometimes it's not me who talks to you, it's machine translation
She/Her but you can call me as any pronouns
Of course in real life people can be utterly complex, and that is really why I prefer sliders over set traits. A sim who is a slob is a slob about everything, but wouldn't some sims be slobs sometimes (dirty dishes, not making their beds) but neat sometimes (flushing the toilet, washing their hands)? Someone can be sarcastic and good, but hardly mean and good. If you are truly mean, as in want bad things for other people, then you are not good. But of course you can be on a scale, somewhere between one and the other.
I do see your point about jealousy, self absorbed and and goofball though. So perhaps not limiting as many personality traits. Or just adding to the sliders. I'd love a serious-goofball, or a habitual-adventurous too, but I was afraid that would be too many, and there weren't icons for those.
- Calm & Over-emotional (it's different from erratic, it just have stronger moodlets and doesn't include behaving oddly. If both calm and erratic, the moodlets will lighter and disappear faster, like the more traits idea I came up with a long time ago)
- Hot-headed & Mild
- Social awkward & Charismatic
- Proper & Inappropriate
- Goofball & Boring
- Rebellious & Well-behaved
- Schmoozing & Blunt
Sometimes it's not me who talks to you, it's machine translation
She/Her but you can call me as any pronouns
I would prefer goofball - serious myself, but overall I like your additions. I would love a "no sense of humor" trait in general as well. My only reason for only choosing 6 is that I wonder at which point it would be too much for the game to handle, but overall yes, I like those.
I think Accelerator from A Certain Magical Index (and many of "tsundere" characters) is (are) a typical "both mean and good".
Sometimes it's not me who talks to you, it's machine translation
She/Her but you can call me as any pronouns