Request : The game should be more challenging!

pak_ea

Getting filthy rich in the Sims 3 is basically a joke with certain expansion packs you can literally reach the money cap (99 millions) in a couple of sims days. That basically make it pointless for cool items to be expensive, as everyone can easily afford them.
Becoming immortal is also ridiculously easy by mastering one simple skill.

Having unlimited cash and unlimited lifespan makes all other challenges a joke as well.

It would be cool if the Sims 4 can be made more challenging (but still possible) to become truly wealthy and immortal like in Sims 2 or Sims 1 by removing the obvious cheese like transmogrify/transmute, tiberium gems, collectable cloning, overpower, anti-aging items that are too easy to make (ambrosia is fine, but chemistry potion is just way too easy), and other ridiculously easy-to-exploit mechanisms

sydsyrious

pak_ea wrote:

Getting filthy rich in the Sims 3 is basically a joke with certain expansion packs you can literally reach the money cap (99 millions) in a couple of sims days. That basically make it pointless for cool items to be expensive, as everyone can easily afford them.
Becoming immortal is also ridiculously easy by mastering one simple skill.

Having unlimited cash and unlimited lifespan makes all other challenges a joke as well.

It would be cool if the Sims 4 can be made more challenging (but still possible) to become truly wealthy and immortal like in Sims 2 or Sims 1 by removing the obvious cheese like transmogrify/transmute, tiberium gems, collectable cloning, overpower, anti-aging items that are too easy to make (ambrosia is fine, but chemistry potion is just way too easy), and other ridiculously easy-to-exploit mechanisms

Very simple solution to this is....don't use the "easy" items. If you feel collecting gems gives your Sims too much money...don't collect them. I really don't see the problem here. No one is forcing you to use any resources you don't want to.

I've only used the transmogrify options once to find out what it was about and felt it was too "cheaty" so stopped. Choice is good.

pak_ea

I like go all out than giving myself artificial handicap. It's like playing chess with yourself (very difficult to do).
Another example would be like playing a sports you are good at with someone who had never played, obviously you can hold back so you won't overwhelm your opponent. but it doesn't make it fun for you.

It would feel much more fun if you can do your best (with all the options you have at hand) and still feel challenging.

Elyssandariel

Like the person above me said, just don't go around collecting gems and don't play with the chemistry set. Don't "powergame." Make up a story, play a legacy, make a movie, take artsy pictures, build a great looking house, do something you haven't done before in the game instead of just powergaming to "99 million" and then having nothing to spend it on.

KirstyL

I completely agree. Its way too easy to make money. Just having two sims in a household working seems to make more money than I can spend. At the very least I'd like more expensive items or higher bills.

Usually I just pick an "heir" and have them move out and buy the most expensive house they can find. That way each generation gets a bit of a setback financially.

JoAnne65

sydsyrious wrote:

Choice is good.

This is the keyword for me: choice. No-one is forced into things. I like my Sims not having to visit the toilet all the time, I know someone who doesn't. I buy that lifetime award, she doesn't. You can make it as hard as you wish.

JeanBaby4

I agree it should be challenging. I think it's really a shame that I have to disable the celebrity feature just because I don't want to recieve expensive items from strangers.
But even so, it's still too easy. If you played a family for several generation you'll find you've accumulated quite the wealth, simply by having a job. You have to (as someone mentioned) split the family in some way to rid of some money.
The income is no problem. But there's barely anything to spend it on. Higher bills, more expenses like taxifee, perhaps phonebill. I want to be forced to think twice about what I'm getting (if i don't play a rich family that is). A bit more challenging, but not "real life" challenging xD

Cinebar

It would be better to me if the cost of new furniture or whatever else they need is relative to pay. A more expensive commode should have been needed instead of an upgrade....for free...

I would have liked TS3 better if objects were relative to pay. Sim only makes $70.00 a day...new stove cost $900.00 + etc.

But since Sims could just keep eating from a bottomless pit for another easy $8.00...no challenge at all. Where as in the past running out of food shortly, having to actually cook meals instead of 'quick meals' and getting milk from fridge for the babies all used up the groceries.

But in I feel TS3 was dumbed down..it was too hard to either make a delivery truck..that cost $50.00 plus the groceries, and or to hard for a player to reach in buymode and have to 'buy' a new full fridge. :roll:

See this is where the game dumbed down. Sims didn't 'need' a better stove so they wouldn't starve..because the game didn't allow them to starve unless you forced it 48 to 72 hours later...but they could grab a quick meal if your head was turned...and for free...why work hard to get a better stove when they didn't need one? And besides the stove was going to be able to purchase anyway..since Sims were loaded down with too much pay for missing work...promoted almost daily, and never needed anyhting.

TS4 will work the same way. It's already been stated it's not about making the 'Sim happy' anymore but dealing with their emotional responses..so they have dumbed down motives, removed random deaths, an reapplied 'collecting'..I'm almost at the point of saying no thanks at all.

pak_ea

Of course you can choose to "not" do something. But the problem is that its very tiring to play the game when every other decision you make can have result of you being too rich or too powerful.
Is it not too much to ask wanting simply to play the game ANYWAY you like and still feel some challenges?

Also, as others had pointed out, there are just WAY too many way to become too rich and sometimes you cannot avoid it!
Say I want to be an alchemist, and simply want to gather some ingredients for my potions. But then I found a bunch of Palladium, Mummitomium, and Tiberium. Do I then throw them away? or should I sell them and risk becoming too rich?
Ok may be then I choose NOT to practice alchemy. And go and be a magician, but oh no, I can be 30000 per show that only takes me 2 hours!

Then you are like screw making money, I'm going to college and enjoy being dirt poor. But guess what? Your amplitude exam score is too great, and you ended up getting full scholarship with chances. and When you are doing good in school, you can apply for additional not 5000 but $10000 each week (once during weekday and once in the weekend)! Can you imagine that, you can make more money than an average job being in school?!

And then I quit school, and got this crappy resort the government gave me for free to fix up. I did what I asked and oh no, all the sudden I makes tens of thousands of simoleons every day without me even need to do work?

Yes, you can CHOOSE not to do all that, but then what's the point of the game of the game? The cheese is in every aspect of the contents.

Is it too much to ask to be able to enjoy the game and have a semi-challenging gameplay without having to walk a mine field?

I love the Sims and I just want to enjoy the game for a longer amount of time, that is just not possible without some decent challenges

I'm not proposing to make it impossible to get rich. I'm proposing to make it so your sims need to WORK to be rich. Writing novels for instance is a good example. You can become quite rich but at the same time you won't have a life, because you are stuck on the chair in front of the computer 10+ hours a day.

Similarly, to become immortal should be possible but hard! Ambrosia for instant, you need to master 3 skills, and you need to find the ingredients that are not always there (for life fruits it pretty require to get the collector tool, which cost crap load of wish points --- you need to complete your life time wish to get it). Now, this is good challenge.
Spend a couple days up your logic to 10 and spend a few thousand to make a youth potion is not.

Neonivek

I will admit the series is WAY too easy and coddles you in areas it really shouldn't.

Especially with expansions where each expansion is competing for "who can break the game over their knee first".

Which by the way the winner is the combination of Pets and World Adventures where getting Tiberium is pathetically easy.

Elyssandariel

Of course you can choose to "not" do something. But the problem is that its very tiring to play the game when every other decision you make can have result of you being too rich or too powerful.
Is it not too much to ask wanting simply to play the game ANYWAY you like and still feel some challenges?

You've got me there. I thought you were just going and finding stuff and then saying its too easy. What you're describing is WAY too easy. There needs to be more money sinks and things to spend the money on like clothes, taxis, food, bills, you know, those things that cost in real life? Buying expensive objects should be hard. Working your way to the top of the ladder should be hard.

LuckySky

That's fine as long as players who like to cheat or play rich families still have options. I don't have much fun playing poor Sims. Although I understand the simmers that do. Each type of players should have different play styles available to them.

pak_ea

LuckySky wrote:

That's fine as long as players who like to cheat or play rich families still have options. I don't have much fun playing poor Sims. Although I understand the simmers that do. Each type of players should have different play styles available to them.

No one want to play a dirt poor sims (at least I don't). What I am saying is to make getting wealthy more challenging, at least take a bit more time/effort. So becoming rich would feel more rewarding.
Also, there should always be a reason to make more money (upkeep for example or super expensive items/ money sinks)
Right now, because it's so easy with all the cheese, it doesn't feel rewarding to become rich at all. And once you are rich enough to afford the biggest house and most expensive cars and furniture, you are basically done.