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No consequences ever
Wilderwolf
Posts: 3,406 Member
This is the biggest issue with Sims 4. The animations are great (when they actually make animations for things, that is). The graphics are amazing. The performance of the game is perfect. The towns feel vibrant and alive. That's all well and good, but oh my god the lack of consequences for anything and everything is what makes this game boring.
My sims live in the Cullpepper apartment with the Needs TLC trait. There are mice. There are cockroaches. There are leaky pipes and broken electrical boxes. But none of this matters at all.
I've left their leaky pipe go for days and it never once created a puddle on the floor for them to clean up. There's nothing wrong with their shower, sinks, or anything plumbing wise. All the leaky pipe causes is a negative tense moodlet that the apartment smells dank. And the worst part is that not all the sims even get that moodlet, only one of three has so far. I even left a sim in the bathroom with the pipe for hours and it never once got the moodlet.
The blown fuse box makes a cracking sound and sparks, but that's it. There's nothing wrong with their electricity. They can watch tv just fine. The lights are fine. Everything is fine, always.
There are mice. There are cockroaches. It's a disgusting place to live and yet all my sims still have positive moodlets for living in a good environment. They can be standing right beside the cockroaches and the mice and they still have the good environment buffs. The only thing they cause is a negative moodlet sometimes that they can hear mice and it woke them up. That's it.
There's no consequences. There's no gameplay. There's no issues at all no matter what's happening in a sims life or environment. It's so bland. I'm so bummed because I really thought the lot traits would finally make the game more difficult, but they haven't. They're just as shallow as the rest of the game and it really sucks.
My sims live in the Cullpepper apartment with the Needs TLC trait. There are mice. There are cockroaches. There are leaky pipes and broken electrical boxes. But none of this matters at all.
I've left their leaky pipe go for days and it never once created a puddle on the floor for them to clean up. There's nothing wrong with their shower, sinks, or anything plumbing wise. All the leaky pipe causes is a negative tense moodlet that the apartment smells dank. And the worst part is that not all the sims even get that moodlet, only one of three has so far. I even left a sim in the bathroom with the pipe for hours and it never once got the moodlet.
The blown fuse box makes a cracking sound and sparks, but that's it. There's nothing wrong with their electricity. They can watch tv just fine. The lights are fine. Everything is fine, always.
There are mice. There are cockroaches. It's a disgusting place to live and yet all my sims still have positive moodlets for living in a good environment. They can be standing right beside the cockroaches and the mice and they still have the good environment buffs. The only thing they cause is a negative moodlet sometimes that they can hear mice and it woke them up. That's it.
There's no consequences. There's no gameplay. There's no issues at all no matter what's happening in a sims life or environment. It's so bland. I'm so bummed because I really thought the lot traits would finally make the game more difficult, but they haven't. They're just as shallow as the rest of the game and it really sucks.
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Comments
Disappointing if the leaking pipes don't cause any issues. It would be nice if they constantly had flushing and drain problems.
I'm not a psychopath. I'm a high-functioning psychopath. Reaper
I was thinking about sickness. The only reasons to do anything about is, 1) The symptoms annoy you. 2) You're just doing it for the sake of logic.
There is no consequence for your sim.
What should happen is that a couple of illnesses should simply pass, like they do in the game.
A few should have something happen to your sim if they don't do anything about it, like pass out for hours.
And a couple should have your sim risk death if they don't take care of it.
Yeah you can get a bad smell moodlet from both things, the leaky pipe and rats. But negative moodlets are pointless because sims are always so dang happy no matter what. Moodlets don't create any sort of gameplay at all, they're just flavor text that pretend to do something. It sucks.
I'd say that's a rather impactful thing in a sim's life.
Leaving things unfixed prevents your sim from getting sleep, dazes them (which makes them extremely easy to kill). This is exactly the kind of stuff I wanted to see in the game, so while there are a lot of things I think CL could have done better, I really like this and don't agree that there are no consequences to these traits. The lot traits override anything else your sims are feeling, and my sim's job performance, social life, and health have all suffered (she is always sick now, and I've never seen my sims sick so much). She was demoted at work (something I've never had happen before) because she couldn't keep her crap together at home (due to her environment making her that unhappy), and things are so ridiculously out of control that her neighbors often come over and clean her apartment for her, because they can't seem to stand it either.
So she can lose her children, lose her job, lose her life... what else would you like to see happen? (I actually did have her die fixing the electrical box, but I exited without saving because her children weren't old enough to live alone yet). Genuinely interested in this, because this post should be in the feedback section if you sincerely don't feel like these things are a big enough deal. TS4 has been too pretty and too perfect for me since release, but this right here... finally feels right to me.
Her b/f couldn't stand it and cleaned her toilet
My game is more eventful and environment far more immersive than it has ever been in TS4.
Edited to add:
Now if you were to say, "Hey guys, this is a great start, but I would love to see more of this! Please consider adding a :slips and falls: death if there are puddles of water on the floor... or if a sim's apartment is absolutely disgusting and it has gone on too long, it should start an antibiotic resistant plague that has a 50% chance of killing anyone in the household and will spread to the neighboring apartments... etc" Then I'd be like OH HECK YES, :whips out support sign and waves it around excitedly: but to just say... Yep, no consequences... none... this is total fail. That's just false.
The consequence thing seems to be too hit or miss. I've seen threads where the person's Sims broke up because the wife was unhappy and they showed the wife slowly becoming more depressed, drinking juice more, etc. followed by their marriage breaking up and the ex hubby crying in the shower over it.
And then I go into my game and have to force two people to fight and even the tiniest pause in me pushing negative interactions has them sitting and chatting happily in between the fight. It's definitely frustrating that they've haven't tweaked the emotions/buffs more at this point, among other things.
I'm not a psychopath. I'm a high-functioning psychopath. Reaper
Yes, I totally agree! I think what you're describing is the type of depth needed in this game. I purposely make my vegetarian Sims eat meat. Not because I want to torture them, but because I want them to be in a bad mood. I almost have to force different things to happen so my Sims aren't so happy all the time. I haven't played in the Needs TLC apartment, but I think I will get frustrated if I do lol. The lack of reaction/consequence is a big issue.
That is one of the most disgusting apartments I have ever seen, No wonder your sims isn't happy.
Oh, I missed this. Glad to see this! I thought the electric would go off if you left the box broken for too long. Looks like your poor Sim is juggling waay to much in her life.
I'm not a psychopath. I'm a high-functioning psychopath. Reaper
I love the failure states just as much as the success states in The Sims series. Very excited to see more adversity in TS4 finally.
@ebuchala She definitely is, but that's the way I like it. There is something really fun for me about having a sim surrounded by an environment that is constantly sabotaging her for failure... I like that challenge to see if I can ensure she succeeds anyway. lol I had to take drastic measures for her to keep her kids, and I really liked that. I also had to cave and take some vacation days off from work, because while she was pregnant she just couldn't keep up... she kept passing out in the hallway on her way to work and wetting herself. She only had 1 vacation day, so she ended up getting demoted at work for missing 2 days, and going to work with hygiene and hunger needs unmet probably didn't help that any. lol Once she has a teenager, I'm not going to give her any slack and I'll send her anyway, but I don't want her to die just yet. I need her son to be a teen first... then the gloves are off.
For example, when electrical box brokes, after some time, the apartment goes out of electricity and my sims keep complaining about the noises created by broken wires.
And regarding mice, cockroaches and dank smell, my sims get tense and that moodlet overpowers the others and they keep coming in front of the problem and complain about it- they can either try to fix these problems by themselves or call a landlord (I don't know what else they are supposed to do). In addition, if they decide to solve these problems by themsevles, they can succeed by using mice trap and bug spray or fail and get grungy (I think that there isn't more gameplay that can be added to it and be meaningful).
Loud neigbours are also something that drives my sims crazy. They get angry, wake up if they were sleeping and cannot fall asleep again unless they confront the neighbours (and sometimes the outcome can be hilarious).
In my opinion, the lot traits have been doing their job pretty well so far and they cause disturbances that affect both my sims and their environment (they are not all perfect- for instance, I would like that earthquake would cause my sims to react more dramatically, but maybe that depends on the severity of one, I am not sure- but they do make a difference depending on what's their purpose). All of this create something that makes living in these apartments unique.
being "unhappy" in this context doesn't necessarly always mean being sad.........
With the above shots I didn't force anything. I simply left the apartment features alone to do as they were programmed to do and chaos and debilitating emotions ensued... which is how it SHOULD be imo. Up until now, I would have agreed that there was little consequence in the game, but that's simply not the case with this EP.
I didn't fix anything, clean up anything, call the Landlord, kill the mice, or eradicate the cockroaches. When you as the player allow those things to run their course, bad things do happen. No cheats or staging was done, I simply let the game do its thing.
I find that often simmers don't actually like their sim not doing as they are telling them to do, and so people fix the sink, cause that's what you naturally want to do when it's broken... they fix the electrical box so the power will always work and not shut off in the middle of making food (which leaves your sim hungry and unable satisfy their hunger needs)... they clean the toilets and mop the floor instead of letting it all pile up and cause your sim to become nauseous, tense, and then dazed. They let their sims sleep when they're tired, instead of forcing them to work from home etc and possibly pass out on the way to work the next day, thus missing it and potentially being demoted or fired (if it has happened before).
If there is no adversity in your sim's environment, then there is no reason for them not to be happy. Let the adversity happen, don't get rid of the rats, clean up that mouse pee, or spray those cockroaches... don't fix the electrical box so the power comes and goes interrupting EVERYTHING your sim is trying to accomplish (including working from home because your PC is unavailable when the power is out). When you let the apartment break, your sim can't sleep well because the rats wake them up, (the neighbors also do this), eventually the smells and environment begin to daze them, and if you do decide to repair anything, it becomes a serious danger to their life... because when a sim is dazed they're guaranteed to die if they get in any trouble.
This is the kind of gameplay I have been screaming for since TS4 released, and it's freaking awesome to finally see it. I want them to do more along this line and to expand upon this concept. It's wonderful, and I hope to see more things like this!
I do agree sickness is kind of lame in TS4. Sims should be able to die of this, and I've never had one die to it, which is really vexing. However, something I just learned today is your sim can become dazed due to medicating too much. I never knew this was a thing so I'll be overly medicating my sims in the future.
Xoxk9 shared this screenshot in the Activity Feed. I had no idea medicine could do this, and I like that it's a "thing".
I often feel sorry for her too, Monaveil. LOL It's both really awesome and tragically sad at the same time. >.<
That's where mods can fill in the gaps -- I use a mod that drastically tunes down the mood buffs from decor, so rather than Sims being Happy all the time they're more in a Fine state, which makes it easier for them to be negatively affected by events (both my Sims got Angry when the loud noise from next door woke them up).
Remember that not everyone is in the same spot in their lives. Some are playing Sims to escape from Real Life drama, so they would prefer less drama in their game. Some might have disabilities so they appreciate optional features that can make learning skills or getting job promotions a little easier (like the lot traits that boost skills). EA needs to respond to those players as well if they want to keep selling games.
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
As far as sickness, I wish sims could eventually die from illness too. The only consequence I have noticed with sickness is if you don't cure your sims the sickness we I'll spread to the whole household and sims will become progressively sicker (i.e. they constantly have something) which makes it harder for them to accomplish tasks, especially work related ones required for promotion. Illness might not kill a sim but it can definitely make them miserable.
Just because wolf's experience doesn't correlate with your own doesn't mean it's false. There are a lot of things to consider that could vary between your games.
Also, from your description it sounds like your Sim only gets bad mood let's from not sleeping/bathing/eating etc. There are no moodlets directly tied to having a messy/infected apartment, which is what OP was saying.
Incorrect. Her bad moodlets are from her apartment. The mice, cockroaches, broken breakers, nasty odors etc all cause their own tense (and in some cases dazed) moodlets. This snowballs into other bad moodlets for your sim that are personal (like lack of sleep, hunger or hygiene needs not being met etc) but the lot traits will keep your sim in a constant tense and unhappy state if you do not repair them.
So yes, there are bad moodlets directly related to a messy and infested apartment. They only go away if the simmer purposefully continues to maintenance the objects.
Ooooooh, this sounds awesome! Please share screenshots with me on my wall if you have any. Romantic catastrophes are one of the best kinds of catastrophes!!! rofl