There are many topics that include players expressing frustrations with the death mechanics in TS4, so I thought it would be handy to have one master topic here. Here are some of the most common concerns with the way death currently works in TS4 that I see here on the forums, plus a few of my own added on.
Sims who die off-lot leave no gravestone.
The Sims team fixed this in a patch! I haven't tested it in-game yet, but @SimGuruNick posted in another thread about how the November 7th patch changed tombstone generation to include Sims who die off-lot. - Without a gravestone, it becomes much more difficult to banish an unwanted ghost to the Netherworld. When ghosts can’t be banished, many players experience ghosts clogging up their worlds. Every dance party or night club my Sim goes to is attended by ghosts, taking up spots on the lot that could be filled by Young Adults and Teens (or whatever other life stage you want at your dances). For Simmers who play without mods that remove culling, this means that if you don’t want your ghosts taking up precious population space, you have to delete the ghost, which also removes them from the family tree.
- Ghosts will often invite Sims out to meals and send congratulatory texts. Many Simmers find this feature breaks the immersion when they are playing grieving family members, but without the gravestone available, the ghost cannot be banished and prevented from making further inappropriate contact with the living.
- If you play rotationally with Aging on, your Sims die while you are gone and leave no tombstone or urn to place on the family lot. This means that you can never have family members mourn that Sim, their ghost will also not reliably haunt the lot, and there is no reliable way to summon that ghost, whether to make them playable as a ghost, resurrect them, banish them, or chat with them. Rotational players who want there to be a tombstone have to race around their games, trying to keep track of everyone who’s about to die and sometimes prematurely hurrying them along just so they don’t miss their death. It’s a tiresome and rather demoralizing way to play. Potential Solutions: Generate a tombstone or urn in an unused spot on a lot if a Sim dies while a player is not on the lot. Or, provide a graveyard (see below) to which graves are automatically sent. Or, notify a player when any Sim in the neighbourhood dies and give them options including banish to the Netherworld and generating a tombstone. Or, give Ghost Sims the option to summon their own tombstones, and make hidden Ghost households visible in Manage Neighbourhoods under a "Beyond the Grave" category so that players can more easily manage the dead.
Sims only notice the deaths of those in their immediate vicinity. Some players have even reported problems of Sims in the same house not noticing a death if they are too far away, for example, on a different floor.
When family members, friends, or other important Sims die while living in a different household, the Sims in your active household have no idea. The deaths of parents, ex-romantic partners, grown children, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents, old friends, sworn enemies, etc. goes unnoticed. This is not realistic and undermines the deep and complex relationships many Simmers try to cultivate between their Sims. Potential Solutions: If a Sim has a relationship other than ‘Acquaintance’ with another Sim, provide a custom moodlet based on their relationship status when one of the Sims dies. There is already a mechanic that blocks ‘marked’ relationships from relationship culling, so this could build on that coding to recognize which relationships merit special moodlets. If a Sim has mixed positive and negative relationships, give them mixed emotions (eg how an ex-lover can be marked as both ‘Soulmate’ and ‘Bad Romance’ at the same time). If the Sim’s enemy dies, a Good Sim might feel sad that the relationship was never repaired, while an Evil Sim might cackle maniacally. And, of course, if a Sim loses someone who is unequivocally loved, let that Sim receive an appropriate moodlet.
A partial solution would be to add an 'Inform of Death' option so that Sims who did not witness the death can still be affected by it. However, this still doesn't account for Sims who die without any witnesses but whose loved ones (or enemies) would still be affected by their passing.
There are no graveyards.
- Simmers who play multiple generations of a single family often want to keep the tombstones of deceased Sims. (See above for the many benefits of having a Sim’s tombstone.) Over time they may run out of room for the family graves, particularly on smaller lots. If graves could be deposited in a designated community lot, players would not have to fit the tombstones onto their own lot. This mechanic existed in TS3.
- There are very few people in modern western society (on which TS4 is based) who do not bury their dead in graveyards, so it is more realistic to have a graveyard. Graveyards are meaningful and, in some cultures, a focal point for family activities on certain days of the year (such as on the Vernal Equinox in Japan, or Dìa de los Muertos in Mexico) so having a graveyard venue would enable players to tell stories that incorporate these activities. In general, graveyards serve as a focal point of family memory and would enhance family play if included. Potential Solutions: Add a Graveyard venue type.
There are no funerals or wakes.
Sims cannot come together to mourn the loss of a loved one. Funerals are an important part of life. Especially for Simmers who get pretty attached to their Sims, it would be nice to be able to have a proper send-off. It could also be a cathartic experience for the Sims who are sad about the passing. Potential Solutions: Add a funeral or wake Social Event type. There are many good ideas about interactions and gameplay that might be associated with funerals in this thread: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/894854/i-think-it-would-be-good-to-have-funerals-in-the-sims-4#latest
Time does not speed up when ghosts are haunting a lot while all other Sims sleep.
This is mostly an annoyance. This has been fixed with guests but not with ghosts. Simmers who want to watch the ghost run around breaking everything in real time can always switch back to the regular timers, but for Simmers who want to speed through the ghostly activities on the super sleep speed, there is currently no option to do so. Potential Solutions: Make the sleep speed continue while a ghost is haunting the lot by default.
Sims get no special interactions shortly before they die. Players are notified that a Sim should put their affairs in order, but it would be nice if Sims could receive special interactions during this time, as its gameplay is currently indistinguishable from regular Elder gameplay. Potential Solutions: There are a lot of options here. Writing a will to leave money or Inventory items to other Sims; having special ‘Make Amends’ interactions with enemies or Sims who you have wronged or been wronged by; give parting wisdom to younger Sims; make special philanthropic donations; etc.
Random deaths are extremely rare.
Some players miss the rare random deaths that were possible in previous Sims games, such as meteors falling while cloudgazing in TS2. Other players feel that deaths such as electrocution and cowplant in TS4 are less fun because they are 100% preventable with the warning moodlet; these players would prefer that the decision about whether their Sim dies from those actions is left to chance. As it is now, players are left with the decision of whether to repeat the action (such as electrical repair or feeding the cowplant), which takes away the surprise and some of the fun. Potential Solutions: Give players the option in Gameplay Options to turn off "warning" moodlets for deaths such as electrocution or death by cowplant. Plenty of players prefer the current system, though, so please do not change this without making it an optional toggle. If rare and random deaths such as meteor crashes are added, please provide a toggle for players who do not want that feature, whether in the Gameplay Options or through a simple cheat code.
The "Read Obituaries" interaction on the computer has no connection to in-game deaths.
In TS3, when your Sim read the newspaper they might be notified of local goings-on, such as a recent marriage or death. In TS4, certain Traits and Moods unlock the ability to "Read Obituaries" on the computer, but this interaction is totally disconnected from what actually goes on in your game. (See this thread.) Potential Solutions:Create pop-up notifications like those that existed in TS3 that report recent in-game deaths when a Sim uses this interaction. If the Sim had a personal relationship with the deceased, give them a corresponding moodlet after they read their death notice.
Marital links are not preserved in family trees after Sims die.
When a Sim gets married, their spouse will be connected to them on the family tree even if they have no children. However, when one of the spouses dies, the marital link disappears. The spouse will only remain on the tree if the couple had children because both partners are still genetically linked to the child. This means that childless couples' marriage will not be preserved in the family tree, and the link is severed as soon as one of the spouses dies. It also means that step-relationships disappear completely after one of the spouses dies, even if that person raised their step-children and should by all rights have a familial bond with them. Potential Solutions:Adjust the family tree system to work like Sims 2, where deceased spouses remained on the family tree (e.g. Michael Bachelor remaining linked to Dina Caliente).
This isn't a direct problem with death itself, but more how certain deaths affect the gamestate. I was hoping it would be fixed with the other death updates but sadly it still seems to be an issue.
If you happen to be playing a household that contains an elder and dependents (babies, toddlers, pets) with no other "adult" sims (this includes teens, YA, adult, and elders) in the household - those dependents vanish upon the death of the elder. Even though the game allows you to continue by selecting another household, these dependent sims are permanently lost. They do not get the option to be placed with other family members in world, they do not go into the adoption pool, they just vanish.
I know that MC command center among other mods does have a fix for this, however I play vanilla. I just find it offensive that these sims just POOF! I understand that toddlers, pets and babies can't be played in a household by themselves, but the game should give us some option to preserve them, besides quitting without saving and placing a random younger caretaker sim in the household to prevent sims from vanishing if the elder drops dead.
It is mostly a problem with elders because there is the chance of random death during rotational play, which quitting without saving isn't an option for because it can happen without notice.
Obviously this can happen with any single adult sim and dependants during gameplay, have a divorced mom who dies in a tragic laundry fire? Poof her toddler vanishes. The divorced father is all, "what child? I never had a child!" And I find this problematic.
I also find it systemic of how death is treated so trivially overall.
The problems with death were partially addressed by the patch, but these problems don't just affect one type of play style, and while being able to retrieve the tombstone and determine how long ghosts hang around is a vast improvement- I don't think it goes far enough. Hopefully this thread continues to bring attention to he problem and we eventually see additional fixes.
@SkyeChimes - Wow, that is such a good point. That is a HUGE problem with the death mechanic in the game.
It would be better if the game added them to the adoption pool. The problem there is that Sims 4's adoption system is really messed up. When you make the phone call to adopt, the game generates several families of single women (always a woman) with a single child. When you choose one of those children, their "mother" is left as a single woman in the households bin, while everyone else remains intact. That basically means all these women tried to put their children up for adoption, and when their kid didn't get picked, they got saddled with a kid they tried to get rid of. Instead of saving these children in an "adoption pool", next time you try to adopt, the game will generate several single woman and child families all over again. I hate this system so much it's completely put me off adopting in the game, which is a real shame. So as you can see, the way adoption currently functions in Sims 4, there is no adoption pool to add these children to.
Reforming this feature sounds like it would mean reforming the adoption system in the game. Do you have ideas for any other possible solutions to the problem? I will add this to the OP once I feel I can suggest a "possible solution" like I do for the other problems in the OP.
@SkyeChimes I have to agree with you about the divorced parents situation. If the primary parent that the child is living with dies, I don't understand why the child just vanishes and does not go to the other parent. The game already knows that the child has another living parent. Just move the child to that parent. Or any living family would work.
Life happens and it would be great for story telling. A random young cousin has to move in with a family after becoming an orphan. The new family could get a positive moodlet for taking care of their family during a hard time. Or the other parent could get a positive moodlet for having their child full time now. Honestly, there is so much that needs to be done regarding death in this game and how it connects with other sims lives on a daily basis.
There are many topics that include players expressing frustrations with the death mechanics in TS4, so I thought it would be handy to have one master topic here. Here are some of the most common concerns with the way death currently works in TS4 that I see here on the forums, plus a few of my own added on.
Sims who die off-lot leave no gravestone.
The Sims team fixed this in a patch! I haven't tested it in-game yet, but @SimGuruNick posted in another thread about how the November 7th patch changed tombstone generation to include Sims who die off-lot. - Without a gravestone, it becomes much more difficult to banish an unwanted ghost to the Netherworld. When ghosts can’t be banished, many players experience ghosts clogging up their worlds. Every dance party or night club my Sim goes to is attended by ghosts, taking up spots on the lot that could be filled by Young Adults and Teens (or whatever other life stage you want at your dances). For Simmers who play without mods that remove culling, this means that if you don’t want your ghosts taking up precious population space, you have to delete the ghost, which also removes them from the family tree.
- Ghosts will often invite Sims out to meals and send congratulatory texts. Many Simmers find this feature breaks the immersion when they are playing grieving family members, but without the gravestone available, the ghost cannot be banished and prevented from making further inappropriate contact with the living.
- If you play rotationally with Aging on, your Sims die while you are gone and leave no tombstone or urn to place on the family lot. This means that you can never have family members mourn that Sim, their ghost will also not reliably haunt the lot, and there is no reliable way to summon that ghost, whether to make them playable as a ghost, resurrect them, banish them, or chat with them. Rotational players who want there to be a tombstone have to race around their games, trying to keep track of everyone who’s about to die and sometimes prematurely hurrying them along just so they don’t miss their death. It’s a tiresome and rather demoralizing way to play. Potential Solutions: Generate a tombstone or urn in an unused spot on a lot if a Sim dies while a player is not on the lot. Or, provide a graveyard (see below) to which graves are automatically sent. Or, notify a player when any Sim in the neighbourhood dies and give them options including banish to the Netherworld and generating a tombstone. Or, give Ghost Sims the option to summon their own tombstones, and make hidden Ghost households visible in Manage Neighbourhoods under a "Beyond the Grave" category so that players can more easily manage the dead.
Sims only notice the deaths of those in their immediate vicinity. Some players have even reported problems of Sims in the same house not noticing a death if they are too far away, for example, on a different floor.
When family members, friends, or other important Sims die while living in a different household, the Sims in your active household have no idea. The deaths of parents, ex-romantic partners, grown children, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents, old friends, sworn enemies, etc. goes unnoticed. This is not realistic and undermines the deep and complex relationships many Simmers try to cultivate between their Sims. Potential Solutions: If a Sim has a relationship other than ‘Acquaintance’ with another Sim, provide a custom moodlet based on their relationship status when one of the Sims dies. There is already a mechanic that blocks ‘marked’ relationships from relationship culling, so this could build on that coding to recognize which relationships merit special moodlets. If a Sim has mixed positive and negative relationships, give them mixed emotions (eg how an ex-lover can be marked as both ‘Soulmate’ and ‘Bad Romance’ at the same time). If the Sim’s enemy dies, a Good Sim might feel sad that the relationship was never repaired, while an Evil Sim might cackle maniacally. And, of course, if a Sim loses someone who is unequivocally loved, let that Sim receive an appropriate moodlet.
A partial solution would be to add an 'Inform of Death' option so that Sims who did not witness the death can still be affected by it. However, this still doesn't account for Sims who die without any witnesses but whose loved ones (or enemies) would still be affected by their passing.
There are no graveyards.
- Simmers who play multiple generations of a single family often want to keep the tombstones of deceased Sims. (See above for the many benefits of having a Sim’s tombstone.) Over time they may run out of room for the family graves, particularly on smaller lots. If graves could be deposited in a designated community lot, players would not have to fit the tombstones onto their own lot. This mechanic existed in TS3.
- There are very few people in modern western society (on which TS4 is based) who do not bury their dead in graveyards, so it is more realistic to have a graveyard. Graveyards are meaningful and, in some cultures, a focal point for family activities on certain days of the year (such as on the Vernal Equinox in Japan, or Dìa de los Muertos in Mexico) so having a graveyard venue would enable players to tell stories that incorporate these activities. In general, graveyards serve as a focal point of family memory and would enhance family play if included. Potential Solutions: Add a Graveyard venue type.
There are no funerals or wakes.
Sims cannot come together to mourn the loss of a loved one. Funerals are an important part of life. Especially for Simmers who get pretty attached to their Sims, it would be nice to be able to have a proper send-off. It could also be a cathartic experience for the Sims who are sad about the passing. Potential Solutions: Add a funeral or wake Social Event type. There are many good ideas about interactions and gameplay that might be associated with funerals in this thread: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/894854/i-think-it-would-be-good-to-have-funerals-in-the-sims-4#latest
Time does not speed up when ghosts are haunting a lot while all other Sims sleep.
This is mostly an annoyance. This has been fixed with guests but not with ghosts. Simmers who want to watch the ghost run around breaking everything in real time can always switch back to the regular timers, but for Simmers who want to speed through the ghostly activities on the super sleep speed, there is currently no option to do so. Potential Solutions: Make the sleep speed continue while a ghost is haunting the lot by default.
Sims get no special interactions shortly before they die. Players are notified that a Sim should put their affairs in order, but it would be nice if Sims could receive special interactions during this time, as its gameplay is currently indistinguishable from regular Elder gameplay. Potential Solutions: There are a lot of options here. Writing a will to leave money or Inventory items to other Sims; having special ‘Make Amends’ interactions with enemies or Sims who you have wronged or been wronged by; give parting wisdom to younger Sims; make special philanthropic donations; etc.
Random deaths are extremely rare.
Some players miss the rare random deaths that were possible in previous Sims games, such as meteors falling while cloudgazing in TS2. Other players feel that deaths such as electrocution and cowplant in TS4 are less fun because they are 100% preventable with the warning moodlet; these players would prefer that the decision about whether their Sim dies from those actions is left to chance. As it is now, players are left with the decision of whether to repeat the action (such as electrical repair or feeding the cowplant), which takes away the surprise and some of the fun. Potential Solutions: Give players the option in Gameplay Options to turn off "warning" moodlets for deaths such as electrocution or death by cowplant. Plenty of players prefer the current system, though, so please do not change this without making it an optional toggle. If rare and random deaths such as meteor crashes are added, please provide a toggle for players who do not want that feature, whether in the Gameplay Options or through a simple cheat code.
The "Read Obituaries" interaction on the computer has no connection to in-game deaths.
In TS3, when your Sim read the newspaper they might be notified of local goings-on, such as a recent marriage or death. In TS4, certain Traits and Moods unlock the ability to "Read Obituaries" on the computer, but this interaction is totally disconnected from what actually goes on in your game. (See this thread.) Potential Solutions:Create pop-up notifications like those that existed in TS3 that report recent in-game deaths when a Sim uses this interaction. If the Sim had a personal relationship with the deceased, give them a corresponding moodlet after they read their death notice.
Marital links are not preserved in family trees after Sims die.
When a Sim gets married, their spouse will be connected to them on the family tree even if they have no children. However, when one of the spouses dies, the marital link disappears. The spouse will only remain on the tree if the couple had children because both partners are still genetically linked to the child. This means that childless couples' marriage will not be preserved in the family tree, and the link is severed as soon as one of the spouses dies. It also means that step-relationships disappear completely after one of the spouses dies, even if that person raised their step-children and should by all rights have a familial bond with them. Potential Solutions:Adjust the family tree system to work like Sims 2, where deceased spouses remained on the family tree (e.g. Michael Bachelor remaining linked to Dina Caliente).
Please keep your discussions respectful.
Since the feedback gears seem to be working again, it’s high time to make this thread visible. I’m yearning for all of these!
Not sure if he checks the forum, but @SimGuruGrant - If you are looking for community feedback about funerals, we have a lot of material gathered into this thread about funerals and other community recommendations for fixing death mechanics in the game.
I wonder if the new death types and their ghosts can do special things? I miss those! Freezing ghosts can freeze Sims and lightning ghosts can shock Sims lol
Hi! Just shimmying my way onto this thread as I recently posted about Death in the Sims 4 - got some answers but really, I too feel this element of the game could be expanded on! The Elder lifestage in general, to be honest, but some things I miss from The SIms 3 are:
- varying life stages: they could die at 90 days but also could live longer! 92, 93, you never knew when they might go. I liked this; it was realistic. Now they just die when their bar is full, unless they have bonus days. This seems a lot less logical, although I do like the fact certain things can bring them guarenteed bonus days.
- an age tracker once their bar is full: once their bar is full, we stop being able to see how old they are! To me, this is very frustrating.
Other things I've mentioned are already here, so I'm glad I'm not the only one who has thought of them! I'd love there to be inheritance, or something along those lines; I'm also a little frustrated that you can't get random deaths so easily because it warns you about everything. I liked the slight chance you could be finished off at any moment Call me a psycho, eh. And I always build my own graveyards for exactly the reasons you've said - i always play multigenerational so it can be annoying when there's nowhere to put the graves.
I also hate they don't notice when Sims in their household die. Like, cmon!!! Their husband died and they're not even sad cuz they were out at the time?? And if your relative or best friend dies: on the sims 3, we got phone calls, warnings, etc! Here, they don't even get told 'so and so is getting pretty old...' etc.
I'd love some of these features brought back. So thanks for this thread, OP!
@YellowJane - Hi, thanks for your post! What do you mean by saying that you recently posted about death in TS4 and got some answers - was that on Twitter? Please feel free to share any answers you got here. Thanks for all your feedback about death mechanics in TS4!
Just wanted to add some welcome death-related updates from the most recent patch to the record here.
Base game: If a Sim dies while their roommate is off lot, when the roommate returns, they’ll be very sad.
My First Pet Stuff: Sims who owned a rodent will become sad for a period of time when their rodent dies.
Thanks @SimGuruGraham for listening about the rodent death issue. (That wasn't really discussed in this particular thread, but since this thread's about collecting feedback on death mechanic issues in the game, I thought it was worth mentioning here!)
Apparently this patch fixed loads of bugs so let me know if you guys find any other death-related tweaks in the game! The roommate moodlet for an off-lot death is a step in the right direction, but I'd still love to see further expansion of death-related moodlets for Sims who don't live in the household but have a significant relationship with the deceased.
I haven't experienced this in my game. Does anyone know when this was added? Do you guys think I should add it to the master post here of problems with death mechanics in the game?
Potential Solutions: If a Sim has a relationship other than ‘Acquaintance’ with another Sim, provide a custom moodlet based on their relationship status when one of the Sims dies.
This reads like a developer saw this line, missed both the 'other than Acquaintance' part AND the 'custom moodlet' part, and threw in the death calls one night at 2 AM to "please" us.
Potential Solutions: If a Sim has a relationship other than ‘Acquaintance’ with another Sim, provide a custom moodlet based on their relationship status when one of the Sims dies.
This reads like a developer saw this line, missed both the 'other than Acquaintance' part AND the 'custom moodlet' part, and threw in the death calls one night at 2 AM to "please" us.
I know what you mean! I feel like they are trying to make death more meaningful but made it equally meaningless in the opposite way - if everyone reacts equally to the death of a stranger and the death of a loved one, what's the point of the mechanic?
I know what you mean! I feel like they are trying to make death more meaningful but made it equally meaningless in the opposite way - if everyone reacts equally to the death of a stranger and the death of a loved one, what's the point of the mechanic?
Yes and if you have a highly social Sim (which I have *stopped* doing now, 3rd gen into my Legacy for this very reason), who has lots of acquaintances, that Sim will be "Very Sad" pretty much his or her entire adult/elder life, as one acquaintance after another drops dead. And as you say this makes death less meaningful, because if you are always sad, all the time, day in and day out, then a new death does not change the Sim's state.
Comments
This all sounds great!
Add Manage Neighbourhood Options - assign your own Sim to NPC jobs!
The Problems with Death in The Sims 4
Distinguish Elder gameplay with Elder-only reward traits
Filter Rugs by Room Size
If you happen to be playing a household that contains an elder and dependents (babies, toddlers, pets) with no other "adult" sims (this includes teens, YA, adult, and elders) in the household - those dependents vanish upon the death of the elder. Even though the game allows you to continue by selecting another household, these dependent sims are permanently lost. They do not get the option to be placed with other family members in world, they do not go into the adoption pool, they just vanish.
I know that MC command center among other mods does have a fix for this, however I play vanilla. I just find it offensive that these sims just POOF! I understand that toddlers, pets and babies can't be played in a household by themselves, but the game should give us some option to preserve them, besides quitting without saving and placing a random younger caretaker sim in the household to prevent sims from vanishing if the elder drops dead.
It is mostly a problem with elders because there is the chance of random death during rotational play, which quitting without saving isn't an option for because it can happen without notice.
Obviously this can happen with any single adult sim and dependants during gameplay, have a divorced mom who dies in a tragic laundry fire? Poof her toddler vanishes. The divorced father is all, "what child? I never had a child!" And I find this problematic.
I also find it systemic of how death is treated so trivially overall.
The problems with death were partially addressed by the patch, but these problems don't just affect one type of play style, and while being able to retrieve the tombstone and determine how long ghosts hang around is a vast improvement- I don't think it goes far enough. Hopefully this thread continues to bring attention to he problem and we eventually see additional fixes.
It would be better if the game added them to the adoption pool. The problem there is that Sims 4's adoption system is really messed up. When you make the phone call to adopt, the game generates several families of single women (always a woman) with a single child. When you choose one of those children, their "mother" is left as a single woman in the households bin, while everyone else remains intact. That basically means all these women tried to put their children up for adoption, and when their kid didn't get picked, they got saddled with a kid they tried to get rid of. Instead of saving these children in an "adoption pool", next time you try to adopt, the game will generate several single woman and child families all over again. I hate this system so much it's completely put me off adopting in the game, which is a real shame. So as you can see, the way adoption currently functions in Sims 4, there is no adoption pool to add these children to.
Reforming this feature sounds like it would mean reforming the adoption system in the game. Do you have ideas for any other possible solutions to the problem? I will add this to the OP once I feel I can suggest a "possible solution" like I do for the other problems in the OP.
Add Manage Neighbourhood Options - assign your own Sim to NPC jobs!
The Problems with Death in The Sims 4
Distinguish Elder gameplay with Elder-only reward traits
Filter Rugs by Room Size
Life happens and it would be great for story telling. A random young cousin has to move in with a family after becoming an orphan. The new family could get a positive moodlet for taking care of their family during a hard time. Or the other parent could get a positive moodlet for having their child full time now. Honestly, there is so much that needs to be done regarding death in this game and how it connects with other sims lives on a daily basis.
Since the feedback gears seem to be working again, it’s high time to make this thread visible. I’m yearning for all of these!
I hope they do it
Oooh cool! Maybe someone should link him this thread - I'm not on Twitter!
Add Manage Neighbourhood Options - assign your own Sim to NPC jobs!
The Problems with Death in The Sims 4
Distinguish Elder gameplay with Elder-only reward traits
Filter Rugs by Room Size
Add Manage Neighbourhood Options - assign your own Sim to NPC jobs!
The Problems with Death in The Sims 4
Distinguish Elder gameplay with Elder-only reward traits
Filter Rugs by Room Size
- varying life stages: they could die at 90 days but also could live longer! 92, 93, you never knew when they might go. I liked this; it was realistic. Now they just die when their bar is full, unless they have bonus days. This seems a lot less logical, although I do like the fact certain things can bring them guarenteed bonus days.
- an age tracker once their bar is full: once their bar is full, we stop being able to see how old they are! To me, this is very frustrating.
Other things I've mentioned are already here, so I'm glad I'm not the only one who has thought of them! I'd love there to be inheritance, or something along those lines; I'm also a little frustrated that you can't get random deaths so easily because it warns you about everything. I liked the slight chance you could be finished off at any moment
I also hate they don't notice when Sims in their household die. Like, cmon!!! Their husband died and they're not even sad cuz they were out at the time?? And if your relative or best friend dies: on the sims 3, we got phone calls, warnings, etc! Here, they don't even get told 'so and so is getting pretty old...' etc.
I'd love some of these features brought back. So thanks for this thread, OP!
@paradiseplanet - Yeah, that would be cool! We'll see...
Add Manage Neighbourhood Options - assign your own Sim to NPC jobs!
The Problems with Death in The Sims 4
Distinguish Elder gameplay with Elder-only reward traits
Filter Rugs by Room Size
Base game: If a Sim dies while their roommate is off lot, when the roommate returns, they’ll be very sad.
My First Pet Stuff: Sims who owned a rodent will become sad for a period of time when their rodent dies.
Thanks @SimGuruGraham for listening about the rodent death issue. (That wasn't really discussed in this particular thread, but since this thread's about collecting feedback on death mechanic issues in the game, I thought it was worth mentioning here!)
Apparently this patch fixed loads of bugs so let me know if you guys find any other death-related tweaks in the game! The roommate moodlet for an off-lot death is a step in the right direction, but I'd still love to see further expansion of death-related moodlets for Sims who don't live in the household but have a significant relationship with the deceased.
Add Manage Neighbourhood Options - assign your own Sim to NPC jobs!
The Problems with Death in The Sims 4
Distinguish Elder gameplay with Elder-only reward traits
Filter Rugs by Room Size
I haven't experienced this in my game. Does anyone know when this was added? Do you guys think I should add it to the master post here of problems with death mechanics in the game?
I've also noticed this mod has come out which might be of interest to some people in this thread: http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=615431
Add Manage Neighbourhood Options - assign your own Sim to NPC jobs!
The Problems with Death in The Sims 4
Distinguish Elder gameplay with Elder-only reward traits
Filter Rugs by Room Size
It's really annoying cause even though my sim barely knew Sim, sad buffs are really strong
My sims are constantly depressed ever since the latest patch. I hope they tone it down a bit with a new patch or something.
This reads like a developer saw this line, missed both the 'other than Acquaintance' part AND the 'custom moodlet' part, and threw in the death calls one night at 2 AM to "please" us.
I know what you mean! I feel like they are trying to make death more meaningful but made it equally meaningless in the opposite way - if everyone reacts equally to the death of a stranger and the death of a loved one, what's the point of the mechanic?
Add Manage Neighbourhood Options - assign your own Sim to NPC jobs!
The Problems with Death in The Sims 4
Distinguish Elder gameplay with Elder-only reward traits
Filter Rugs by Room Size
Yes and if you have a highly social Sim (which I have *stopped* doing now, 3rd gen into my Legacy for this very reason), who has lots of acquaintances, that Sim will be "Very Sad" pretty much his or her entire adult/elder life, as one acquaintance after another drops dead. And as you say this makes death less meaningful, because if you are always sad, all the time, day in and day out, then a new death does not change the Sim's state.
Add Manage Neighbourhood Options - assign your own Sim to NPC jobs!
The Problems with Death in The Sims 4
Distinguish Elder gameplay with Elder-only reward traits
Filter Rugs by Room Size