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My Wants and Fears Verdict: Kind of Weaksauce
SimsLovinLycan
Posts: 1,910 Member
I've been playing a new save (on normal aging to avoid that bug), and I've gotten to experience the new Wants and Fears system. Now, while I appreciate the work the devs put into it...it's not that good. Aside from the "I wanna date my sister" glitch, the actual functionality of this system adds nothing of substance to the game. Unlike TS2 and TS3's versions, saving a Want for too long or not fulfilling at least one want within a day or two leads to awkward moodlets...Yeah, just awkward moodlets. Some are sad, or tense, or angry...but they ultimately mean nothing because negative emotions mean nothing in TS4. One of the most satisfying things in TS2 was locking a Want to be a medium-to-long-term goal and finally seeing that little UI gadget spin when you got it done. In TS4, there is no visual flare to the completion of a Want, and saving them for the long-term or medium-term can lead to useless moodlets buried in a sim's already over-crowded moodlet panel doing nothing to really affect gameplay at all.
As for the Fears, they pop up in the sim's Simology pannel and do...yep, basically nothing. There's a little jagged thought bubble that tells you how to cure it, and...yeah, that's it. It ends up just being a source of ineffectual negative moodlets until you cure it. So far, I haven't seen a single solid fear I could make come true and totally bomb a sim's whole mojo like you can in TS2. There is no break-down. There is no breaking point. Just...negative moodlets that get buried under all of the extraneous positive ones you can effortlessly rack up in this game. Fears? More like minor inconveniences. This is exactly what I was afraid this system would be when they announced it, just another useless moodlet generator with no depth. Another finger curls on the monkey's paw.
The only good thing I can say about this system is...They tried. They tried to give us Wants and Fears within the framework of a game that can't tolerate the kind of Wants and Fears systems previous games had. They tried...and failed.
As for the Fears, they pop up in the sim's Simology pannel and do...yep, basically nothing. There's a little jagged thought bubble that tells you how to cure it, and...yeah, that's it. It ends up just being a source of ineffectual negative moodlets until you cure it. So far, I haven't seen a single solid fear I could make come true and totally bomb a sim's whole mojo like you can in TS2. There is no break-down. There is no breaking point. Just...negative moodlets that get buried under all of the extraneous positive ones you can effortlessly rack up in this game. Fears? More like minor inconveniences. This is exactly what I was afraid this system would be when they announced it, just another useless moodlet generator with no depth. Another finger curls on the monkey's paw.
The only good thing I can say about this system is...They tried. They tried to give us Wants and Fears within the framework of a game that can't tolerate the kind of Wants and Fears systems previous games had. They tried...and failed.
There is a song I hear, a melody from the past...
When I woke for the first time, when I slept for the last.
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Comments
I tended to fulfill as my Whims as possible for my Sims, but now that's just not an option. The Wants I've gotten for my Sims all relate to chatting with some random Sim they met a day or two earlier --a Sim they don't even like in some cases.
The irrelevant Wants system in place of Whims means that there's no build up of Aspiration Points as you play --beyond what you get from fulfilling Aspiration Milestones.
As an example:
I like to buy reward traits for my Sims, such as 'Carefree'.
Instead, I get a Sim who comes home from their job as a Writer tense, refuses to work on writing skill, and gains a Fear moodlet that they're at a dead-end job --a moodlet I have to attempt at least three times to resolve. Their lifetime aspiration is to become an Author, so it seems like an irrelevant fear to assign, since they're well on their way to achieving that aspiration.
but I find there is yet again too many dull wants like "listen to x radio channel"
sure if you got that like once a sim week fine but almost every day of my sims lives since patch have been starting with that
alongside maybe " become emotion x" thats another vague one I don't really see point of
also i feel like we should be able to cancel dull wants like this cause they block the more interesting ones
not to even start with "stay home for 8 hours" my sims are already doing that without my input thank you very much game
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And the one is afraid of fire so he’s miserable whenever he’s near the fireplace 😅
I would rather have whims back as at least you could cancel them and get a new one.
At least in The Sims 2 there was some sort of sense to fears. The Sims 4 ones seem random and if they’re solely attached the base game and HSY then they will be limited.
Dude... if you're a vampire, you have all the time in the world. Afraid of death? Just stay inside and you're fine!
5/10, they tried.
Plus I can't use MCCC to cheat and give my sims a bunch of aspiration points anymore. I tried and got a last exception error.
I still haven't played the new wants and fears system, but I have heard good and bad things about it. I believe it needs fixing and tuning, adding wants to the older pack traits and also just generally adding more wants to have some variety, but if they work on it it might be good?
And they better work on it. I'm not going to forgive them for taking Whims out of the game if they aren't going to work on this new system and make it better.
The game, but this fears and wants is exhausting and makes the game very stressful to play. I don't want to turn them off because it is rewarding when you fulfill the wants and conquers the fears. However, does the sim ever really get over there fear? My sim had a fear of the dark, so I had her go outside at night while feeling Confident, she overcame her fear (I got a notification and everything). The next day, the fear is back. This adds no value to the game. The fear of not fulfilling dreams is way too sensitive. It takes awhile to complete aspiration milestones and dreams, so I can understand if the sim spends no time working toward their dreams then it would be reasonable to get the Angry moodlet because your sim fears they won't fulfill their dreams in time before death. But when you build skills or complete tasks that are a part of fulfilling your sim's ultimate dream, and your sim still gets the angry moodlet ALL THE TIME, it is very frustrating. When your Sim is angry, it then makes everything else in their lives hard to manage, like their health and they don't build skills or create excellent quality items when their mood is not positive. I have a family of 7, and every single sim in the household (except the toddlers) walk around angry that they haven't fulfilled their dreams, even though I make progress toward those dreams each day aside from their jobs, needs, and other things.
Fears are even worse...
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I don't think free updates should change gameplay. If users want to change the way the game is played, I think that should be exclusive to paid content. The cost is worth it if people feel strongly enough to beg for it. Either that or make the Sims 5 with all of these ideas and see how that works out.
Assuming you haven't already, turn off the wants and fears from the gameplay menu. That at least makes gameplay tolerable.