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To those that dislike goals...
esharpmajor
Posts: 1,055 Member
I was just thinking this morning, if the sims recognized that the goals were being completed I wouldn't mind them.
Currently, they are so unaware of their own desires and goals that it feels like a challenge made for and centred on the player instead of the sim. In previous games completing tasks improved a sim's mood, now it does nothing. In previous games it felt like the sims actually WANTED to achieve their goals, their wants would support that, and they would be rewarded with a better mood for completing both wants and goals/aspirations.
My sim completed his life time aspiration the other day but it didn't effect his mood at all. He just kept on being uncomfortable because there was a stinky plate near him. Shouldn't he be ecstatic!? I feel like if the sims reacted to the completion of their goals I would be much more inclined to achieve them, and also much less likely to be annoyed by them. If they were encouraging the feeling of sim-led game play I would feel less like the game is leading me by the nose.
I don't mind nearly as much being led by my sim as I do being led by the not-so-invisible hand of the developers. I don't want to achieve things for points, I want to achieve things so that my sims 'feel' fullfilled; so that they 'feel' happy.
I think a sim who has been fullfilling his whims, and aspiration goals should be happier than one who hasn't been. A sim that loves his work should be pleased with himself for fullfilling his career goals. A sim whose aspiration is being ignored should become antsy that their life isn't on track.
I still think that goals are too linear - my family oriented sim cannot complete hers for example because her child has grown up and no longer counts toward 'have child max any skill'. I feel like this is an easy rebalance, however, as are the bizarrely weighted moodlets (+1 happy for having a a baby, +3 for buying a plant? 🐸🐸🐸🐸?) but creating more reactive sims in regards to goals might be a bigger fix/struggle for the devs.
Personally, I think it would be worth while for them to implement some awareness of the goals/aspirations for the sims, and also add the option to turn off the pop-ups and musical queues. For me, it would basically remove the complaint that the game is too grindy/goal oriented. It would make the goals sim oriented, which is how they have always been in past games.
What do you think, would that be a good compromise?
Currently, they are so unaware of their own desires and goals that it feels like a challenge made for and centred on the player instead of the sim. In previous games completing tasks improved a sim's mood, now it does nothing. In previous games it felt like the sims actually WANTED to achieve their goals, their wants would support that, and they would be rewarded with a better mood for completing both wants and goals/aspirations.
My sim completed his life time aspiration the other day but it didn't effect his mood at all. He just kept on being uncomfortable because there was a stinky plate near him. Shouldn't he be ecstatic!? I feel like if the sims reacted to the completion of their goals I would be much more inclined to achieve them, and also much less likely to be annoyed by them. If they were encouraging the feeling of sim-led game play I would feel less like the game is leading me by the nose.
I don't mind nearly as much being led by my sim as I do being led by the not-so-invisible hand of the developers. I don't want to achieve things for points, I want to achieve things so that my sims 'feel' fullfilled; so that they 'feel' happy.
I think a sim who has been fullfilling his whims, and aspiration goals should be happier than one who hasn't been. A sim that loves his work should be pleased with himself for fullfilling his career goals. A sim whose aspiration is being ignored should become antsy that their life isn't on track.
I still think that goals are too linear - my family oriented sim cannot complete hers for example because her child has grown up and no longer counts toward 'have child max any skill'. I feel like this is an easy rebalance, however, as are the bizarrely weighted moodlets (+1 happy for having a a baby, +3 for buying a plant? 🐸🐸🐸🐸?) but creating more reactive sims in regards to goals might be a bigger fix/struggle for the devs.
Personally, I think it would be worth while for them to implement some awareness of the goals/aspirations for the sims, and also add the option to turn off the pop-ups and musical queues. For me, it would basically remove the complaint that the game is too grindy/goal oriented. It would make the goals sim oriented, which is how they have always been in past games.
What do you think, would that be a good compromise?
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Played S3 yesterday, and my sim was upset that I turned the TV off. Whereas I make the sims in s4 stop watching or playing, and they don't care. They just have the plastic face and stand there. Same with the family death, they just walk through the dead body with a big plastic grin on their face ...
Absolutely agree @laAbby, so here's the million dollar question: do you think you would learn to like the aspirations/goals if they were better integrated (meaning the sims reacted to them)? Or do you think they would continue to be an annoyance?
If they fix it properly, then I would of course give it a shot to try it out. I want my sims to have life in them after all.
Oh yeah I agree with you there. I don't really see a point in removing them anymore, as I don't really see this game changing too much. I've been accepting it for what it is, and because of that I'm pretty much on the verge of just giving up, and would rather wait for Sims 5 to see a change.
So, I like what you said, better implementation so it can have an impact on our sims. I think I could at least tolerate that honestly.
Yes! Yes. This.
Yes! These sims don't really have a personality at all, to the point that I don't really care what traits they get anymore. Not to mention, I even ignored the whims a long time ago.
I did say in another thread similar to what you've said (the bolded part).
Since we don't have toddlers yet, I have said that it would be nice if their traits affected them. Like say a lazy baby would take longer to learn the walk/talk skill, a bookworm toddler would prefer to look at books rather than play toys, a hot-headed baby would 'bite' and take another toddlers toy etc.
Stuff like that really give them personality, and that's what I find something fun about the sims, is that they're all different not just in looks but how they act as well. But they all pretty much act the same in TS4 ... I mean, sure they do seem a lot more animated, but it's kind of robotic at the same time.
Buuut I'm going to try to bring it back to goals one more time here - I think if the whims/aspirations had an effect on how sims acted that would go a long way toward making them appear as individuals. (Of course you guys are correct and so would more impactful traits, reactions, relationships and memories, I'm just trying to tackle one glaring error at a time here people!
It's funny, there are so many interconnected and essentially broken aspects of this game that trying to have a conversation about just one is about as difficult as using a one-man fighter to fire proton torpedoes into a thermal exhaust port that's only two meters wide.
Off topic: But yes! I even quit League for awhile because it made me angry sometimes lol.
Honestly that would blow my expectations out of the water.
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Oh, didn't even notice this thread got moved to feedback.... um... I wasn't really wanting to give feedback per se, I was interested in having a discussion on whether or not making the aspirations more impactful would make players more accepting of them. But ok, EA if you want feedback, here's some: I find it hilarious that your forum does not know that immersive, or impactful are words, and underlines them as though there were misspelled.
im·pact·ful
imˈpaktfəl
adjective
having a major impact or effect.
immersive
ih-mur-siv
adjective
pertaining to digital technology or images that deeply involves one's senses.
Learn them. Implement them.
Also, you know what? I'm sick and tired of the seemingly arbitrary distinction between the general discussion and the feedback/ideas pages.
-Feedback page: a place for people to tell devs whether or not they like the game and why. Player > Dev
-The Ideas corner: a section for players to suggest new features/content or suggest changes to current features to devs. Player > Dev
-The general discussion: a place for simmers to ask for opinions on certain topics, or discuss sim related news. Player > Player
Maybe I've misinterpreted the use of these pages, and maybe I'm overly obsessed with organization but I think in this case I was looking for a general consensus from other players before I posted in the ideas section, so that I had a better sense of how others felt, and could get their help to further flesh out my idea. I never intended this as 'feedback'. I've given my feedback ages ago... it was... mixed. (Ironically, that thread was never moved to feedback... I would have moved it myself but as I was new to the forums I wasn't even aware of the distinction at the time.) This thread is about a specific idea that I wanted more input on before writing up a specific solution for this issue, which would have been aimed at the devs and placed in Idea's Corner.
Also a little annoying that there is no auto notification when your thread it moved. I'm not sure when that went down, I only noticed when I went to catch up on the feedback section and noted my own thread there at the top. What?
Anyway, since this isn't really the place for having a 'general discussion' on whether or not altering the goals in S4 would be an acceptable compromise I guess since it was well received, we can assume that it is an acceptable solution for most.
So, to reiterate, in feedback form:The current goal implementation is terrible not immersive. Many simmers feel the game has become too goal oriented, and player driven. A possible solution is to make aspirations and goals have an effect on the sim's emotions and behaviour, for better or for worse. Here is a great example of how sims could potentially react to aspiration failure:
Make it happen.
With regard to Whims and Traits as the OP pointed out, yes, I feel these were really poorly done. They seem to affect very little other than occasionally giving them a tense, frustrated or sad moodlet if you don't do enough things in that 'genre' of traits. Sims are too heavily focused on showing off multi-tasking that they don't have the foresight to actually react to their lives, so for me the sims emotions feel false and don't effect gameplay at all.
Crowley Family Legacy Patriarch - Jonah Crowley
As it stands, I bought the game incredibly late because I really didn't want to buy it and played it for less than a week before I had to 'repair the game', which seems a common requirement, and have become incredibly disilluisioned as my sims meet no one at work or school. It just feels all together stunted and as I've said before, like a very expensive Facebook game.
Crowley Family Legacy Patriarch - Jonah Crowley
There's one in Ideas Corner that's about parties + dates - might be the one you mean.