Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.
Making the Sims 4 darker?
dreamprisoner
Posts: 1,221 Member
There have been posts that theorise the Sims 4 is a child's game and doesn't live up to its predecessors in terms of how 'dark' the game is, whether this is true or not.
To me personally, 'Dark' includes giving a harsh reality (Such as showing poverty/reactions to death), simply visual additions (Signs of decay on buildings and graffiti), interactions between sims (The slap animation has the sims smiling, which doesn't make much sense to me, as well as more mischief actions) and spooky things (Scarier ghosts/grim reaper, curses).
So I want to get the ball rolling on what exactly we're looking for -
Therefore I ask,
1: Do you think that there should be more features to make the game Darker, or not?
2: What features, if any, in the Sims 4 are Dark, or going in the right direction to achieving it?
3: Share your ideas on how to make the game Darker.
In my opinion, I'd love the game to be Darker - I enjoyed those features when I was 9 years old and playing the sims 2 and would equally appreciate them now. I think some of the features in City Living are coming close to being 'Dark', rats in the apartments, earthquakes and haunted lots. I also liked the Wishing Well from romantic garden stuff, that gave ghost children and curses.
To me personally, 'Dark' includes giving a harsh reality (Such as showing poverty/reactions to death), simply visual additions (Signs of decay on buildings and graffiti), interactions between sims (The slap animation has the sims smiling, which doesn't make much sense to me, as well as more mischief actions) and spooky things (Scarier ghosts/grim reaper, curses).
So I want to get the ball rolling on what exactly we're looking for -
Therefore I ask,
1: Do you think that there should be more features to make the game Darker, or not?
2: What features, if any, in the Sims 4 are Dark, or going in the right direction to achieving it?
3: Share your ideas on how to make the game Darker.
In my opinion, I'd love the game to be Darker - I enjoyed those features when I was 9 years old and playing the sims 2 and would equally appreciate them now. I think some of the features in City Living are coming close to being 'Dark', rats in the apartments, earthquakes and haunted lots. I also liked the Wishing Well from romantic garden stuff, that gave ghost children and curses.
4
Comments
Exactly earthquakes, rats, haunted lots those are dark but Sims 4 need to be risky like whoohoo what about whohoo in elevator and showers and others.
It wasn't just the Goth's house either, a lot of the homes had generations going back and many family tombstones on their lots that came with ghosts, especially when vampires came and the graves were stashed away under the house in a deep, deep hole. It was all very creepy, and interesting. In the Sims 4 the families don't even have generations, let alone ghost hauntings, would it really be that hard for the Devs to jump in and create some dead ancestors for their characters? Although it appears we can get hauntings in the Sims 4 City Living as a lot trait, but it's not quite as creepy without the back story (who was the ghost? who were they related to? Was their some scandal in how they died?) It's probably just a randomly genned ghost - we also can't have creepy ghost babies with it.
Not sure if this counts as Dark per say, but I'll say it anyway - We need more romantic actions at all, woohoo, kissing, slow dance, all of that. Romantic actions in the Sims 4 are pretty tame, if I could handle the butt squeeze in Sims 2 slow dance, and the weird pre-woohoo cut scene (with THAT music) at 7 years old, I'm sure the kids of today have skin just as thick. The butt slap for the bush-woohoo in Get Together, doesn't even touch the behind by far, His hand just goes toward it and then back again -> Although the wardrobe scenes are pretty intense (Thank you Sims 4) Risky woohoo would be really cool.
Oh yes I miss Risky whohoo oh I know and I dont know why Sims 4 is softening the romance kids know a lot more now than when I was a kid bustin out was the most risky game I played since we had the nudist colony I was 13 playing that and now kids that play gta 5 so I don't see the reason to tame Sims 4.
I completely agree, I think a lot of the time people underestimate what children can handle, a game doesn't have to be stripped bare of anything dark and meaningful to appeal to kids and also stay in the age limitations, even things like the prank calls and burglars would be a nice touch.
I mean come on, kids nowadays are exposed to this kind of crap through TV shows anyway.
Repose en paix mamie tu va me manquer :
1923-2016 mamie
I'm sorry you feel that way and it is your opinion but I'll have to disagree with you if you think kids don't know more about relations and murder than back in the 1990's and early 2000's because you are sadly mistaken these kids play GTA 5, COD, and etc... And also watch the most gruesome movies and shows.
We need all burglars back that was part of the entertainment annoying sometimes but entertaining none the less all you need was a burglar alarm and automatically the police arrived we need the fire department because again that was entertaining but more realistic than ever because when a fire starts house in a house you don't extinguish it yourself you call the fire department. Whohoo was apart of sims from the beginning with that vibrating heart bed lol and I do think we need more of it and more romantic gameplay such as make out I'm not just talking on the couch but standing, up on the bed after relaxing.
Nothing bad ever happen, my sims never get abducted by aliens, sims just die of old age, haven't seen a single accidental death while I know there's other ways they can die.
So I wouldn't say to add stuff to make the game ''darker'', but to make that bad stuff can happen.
Yes, deviance is one of my major play styles alienated from this iteration. Darkness is basically the balance out of a game like yīn and yáng. The Sims 4 has the least amount of yīn that I've ever seen in any iteration or side Sims game. It really needs to be worked on.
2: What features, if any, in the Sims 4 are Dark, or going in the right direction to achieving it?
The features I would call dark are probably the voodoo doll, the wishing well, the scientist and detective careers, aliens, freeze ray gun, flaming spaghetti, fear when watching a movie, and the fire ghost. Some of the upcoming ones will be rats and power outtages in apartments. City pack is actually bringing a few dark elements to it, but they still have a really light undertone to them. The Day of the Dead patch is a nice touch too.
3: Share your ideas on how to make the game Darker.
Accidental deaths need to be more common, disease needs to have risk of death with it, burglar and policeman need to return, house fires need to occur again, food poisoning causing a chance of death, grunge furniture and outfits and decorations, life states with risky skills to them, aspiration failures, fear emotion, chance cards need to be scarier for the failure ones, negative traits need fine tuning to actually be darker and act more like the trait, uncomfortable needs to boost negative traits, and there needs to be a room inhibitor object to combat the room buffs in certain rooms. Electrocution really needs working on because I haven't had it occur once in game and consequences and random events need to occur.
I miss TS1..
I would like Burglars and Firefighters to make an appearance in the game. Whenever a fire breaks out, I usually just watch random NPC sims burn while the smoke detector blares in the background.
And Burglars, they brought some challenge to the game. Stealing your possessions, sometimes the extremely valuable ones. The only sims that really take things, are your Kleptomaniac Neighbors.
And places to bury the dead.
Can't put the fun in funeral if we don't have them in the game.
I certainly wouldn't mind burgulars again.
Fires need to be more common, and not all sims should be able to put them out.
There also needs to be the occasional bathtub accident caused by slipping on soap. A nice bubbly death, resulting in a ghost who is made up of iridescent bubbles.
We get it. You're disagreeable and contradictory to your name.
But that's ok.
Plenty of us disagree with you.
I love the idea of diseases in the game! If implemented, I'd like for them to develop over a time-span of a few sim weeks, so it's not like they get diagnosed and die the next day. But imagine all the negative moodlets and the interactions that could be available for that. I also really like the idea of dying after fighting. I mean, not always, but sometimes you can get a concussion/injury/etc and it can be fatal, y'know? Maybe that could happen with burglars too, and the "too low of an athletic skill" can make your chance of death higher in that case.
I'm on the fence about death by nectar/food poisoning, but if implemented well, I'd probably love to see them too! Only thing I don't agree with is death by car and ghosts causing death to sims.
― Ruskin Bond, Scenes from a Writer's Life
Sims is my outlet & has become therapy for me, helps me to cope with life through making stories & acting out different life situations in game. Makes the pain from the real world easier to deal with away, so I don't feel so sad.
I really like these ideas. I'd love to have 'Nectar Poisoning', it's true to life, but not so oblivious that it's in your face and offensive. Ghosts really need to be more dangerous, they're incredibly boring as they are. Food poisoning is a must, eating spoiled food hardly gives any consequence. The deaths you've mentioned would all be really great for story players too.
All of this, Burglars scared the bejesus out of me, but the adrenaline rush made it interesting. Firefighters were a life-saver, I think you should be able to call them instead of them just arriving by themselves - just because some people may want the house to burn down. Definitely need more pre-woohoo and post-woohoo actions, I'm lucky I have Get Together and Patio Stuff, because just relying on the bed woohoo (Which is incredibly uneventful) would kill me.
Accidental deaths are so rare, cheaper objects need to break more often and electrocution needs to be more likely for sims with low skill, fires need to spread faster and start more often and when a sim with low cooking skill steps away from the oven a fire should start, because they'd have forgotten to turn it off. Policemen also need to return, with Burglars and Firefighters. Hopefully when we get Vampires and Werewolves, as well as other negative life-states, they will be able to kill a sim, and 'changing' them will at least resemble biting or mauling - Ghosts just need to be completely done-over at this point (Maybe when Supernatural comes). Not just grunge furniture + clothes, but I think there should also be a world dedicated to either run-down, decayed looking buildings and nature, or creepy/scary looking scenery, since we're stuck with the worlds the developers give us (And they are beautiful, but so happy looking), this is the only option for story-tellers who want that environment, I bet most people would appreciate looking at those worlds, there's something so fascinating about derelict and/or scary places.
Tornadoes and Tsunamis would be amazing, especially tsunamis, if we ever got a sea expansion it would be amazing to have a giant, dark wave encapsulate everything - I'd wonder how they'd implement that though. Passing out from Nectar would also be great, along with the nectar poisoning, even Sims acting drunk would be funny, they could include a new walk style and Nectar influenced interactions, such as them leaning on the other sim and exploding into a fit of laughter, then crying and then getting angry. It would be cool if they did eat the mushrooms and then started running around acting funny and doing strange things that made no sense.
Graveyards would be amazing, as well as funerals, it made no sense that they weren't implemented; I currently have all of my graves at the park, not exactly the ideal environment for them. Bathtub accidents would be hilarious, and I'd love to see that ghost.
I'd like this too, but I imagine the Devs would say this was too difficult, they haven't even been able to make height differences. Although, it shouldn't be too hard to remove an arm or two- although the animations would be dodgy, I wonder if someone could make a mod for that?