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Relationships and consequences
Vagenius
Posts: 487 Member
I was playing a sim of mine last night. He's a restaurant owner, owns 3 now. Anyways he had an affair with Bella Goth. I decided to go over and play her until she had the baby that was obviously going to be his. My problem with the whole situation is that there were no consequences for her having an affair, for her having another mans baby. She was able to tell Mort her "big news" and he was excited. What happened to consequences when sims had affairs. I usually play single sims but for some reason I just wanted this sim to have an affair with Bella and get her pregnant. I wanted to see some drama and well there is none. With the emphasis on emotions that the devs have bragged about you'd think they would get that right. Even in TS3 I had sims break up with my sims when they had an affair (without me doing it.) Where have you guys gone wrong? You say you couldn't get as in depth outside the sims because you worked so hard on them, is this a weird oversight? Don't get me wrong I like the ability of having multiple relationships but I almost don't have to be sneaky about it. Unless my sim is making out right in front of another sim (sometimes even if they're in the next room they don't react), there is no consequences.
Parenthood was a good GP. I think it made parenting more fun and I've actually for the first time in playing since Sims 1, have been playing families more. You got the parenting part down with the kids and being a good or bad parent but what about the relationship between the parents and how they affect the family. Bella had an affair, shouldn't the kids be affected by what that does to her and Mort's relationship (but let's be honest, it does nothing to their relationship because apparently Mort is an idiot). There's a new baby, a half sister, everyone loves her, why? Am I being to analytical about it all, delving deeper then I should be? I know I could get Mort to have some mean interactions with Bella and maybe even get a divorce but that's so forced. I want to leave their house to play another sim and come back to find that Mortimer has moved out and Bella is heartbroken. She would go on to raise 3 kids alone and maybe even "gasp" have to get a job, or maybe she'd move her boyfriend in and the kids would hate him. Maybe Mort could pay child support. There's so much more complexity that goes into a family and relationships, I'd like see that.
With all that said I'm gonna suggest something I wouldn't normally suggest. A relationship or romance GP. I'd much rather see Seasons or University (which honestly imo could be put into one EP, revolving seasons around school etc. but that's another post). I want some drama in my game that I don't have to manually make happen beyond the cheating or affair. Romance has always been a GP about dating and going out on dates blah blah. Well we can already do that. How about a romance GP where there are more intricate relationships and consequences to marriages and families. Maybe even bring in a therapist career much like the vet clinic so couples can do therapy to fix relationships (being a therapist would be fun too). A spouse could even leave the lot for a sim week or so in the case of an affair, come back and decide where to go from there. I understand I'd have to actively get the wheels in motion but I'm happy to do that when there are consequences for the choices I make for my sims. Right now you can pretty much do whatever you want and beyond a "moodlet" that makes little to no difference in your sims every day life, there is no consequences for our sims that make the wrong choices.
I'd really like to see some more work on relationships. They are pretty much one of the core parts of our sims lives. Maybe I haven't played around with it enough and I'm missing something, so if that's the case someone can enlighten me.
Parenthood was a good GP. I think it made parenting more fun and I've actually for the first time in playing since Sims 1, have been playing families more. You got the parenting part down with the kids and being a good or bad parent but what about the relationship between the parents and how they affect the family. Bella had an affair, shouldn't the kids be affected by what that does to her and Mort's relationship (but let's be honest, it does nothing to their relationship because apparently Mort is an idiot). There's a new baby, a half sister, everyone loves her, why? Am I being to analytical about it all, delving deeper then I should be? I know I could get Mort to have some mean interactions with Bella and maybe even get a divorce but that's so forced. I want to leave their house to play another sim and come back to find that Mortimer has moved out and Bella is heartbroken. She would go on to raise 3 kids alone and maybe even "gasp" have to get a job, or maybe she'd move her boyfriend in and the kids would hate him. Maybe Mort could pay child support. There's so much more complexity that goes into a family and relationships, I'd like see that.
With all that said I'm gonna suggest something I wouldn't normally suggest. A relationship or romance GP. I'd much rather see Seasons or University (which honestly imo could be put into one EP, revolving seasons around school etc. but that's another post). I want some drama in my game that I don't have to manually make happen beyond the cheating or affair. Romance has always been a GP about dating and going out on dates blah blah. Well we can already do that. How about a romance GP where there are more intricate relationships and consequences to marriages and families. Maybe even bring in a therapist career much like the vet clinic so couples can do therapy to fix relationships (being a therapist would be fun too). A spouse could even leave the lot for a sim week or so in the case of an affair, come back and decide where to go from there. I understand I'd have to actively get the wheels in motion but I'm happy to do that when there are consequences for the choices I make for my sims. Right now you can pretty much do whatever you want and beyond a "moodlet" that makes little to no difference in your sims every day life, there is no consequences for our sims that make the wrong choices.
I'd really like to see some more work on relationships. They are pretty much one of the core parts of our sims lives. Maybe I haven't played around with it enough and I'm missing something, so if that's the case someone can enlighten me.
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Anyway, he was at the bar with his co-workers and I led him flirt with her again, and I sent his wife over. She literally didn't notice that her husband flirted with another woman even though she stood right next to them. She needed to stand by them even closer until she finally realized it and just did the "shouting forbidden words"-animation and got an angry moodlet. But there was nothing afterwards. No autonomous mean interaction with neither her husband, nor the woman he cheated on her with. I needed to direct her to it first. Well, I managed to get both their friendship and romance levels in the red, but the player shouldn't direct their sims to do it first, it should come from alone (even with free will off). Or is this just the way the devs want to give the players more "control"?
This just reminded me of a couple I had in TS3. They were married for quiet some time and had a child together, but suddenly, they regularly argued with each other from free will, without me doing anything. Then suddenly they divorced without me directing them to do it. The child stood next to them and seemed really sad about it. I wish it were like this in TS4. My couple there isn't divorced yet but I will direct them to in front of their daughters to see if they have any reactions to it (problably not).
Just to show you how the consequences and reactions are significantly lacking in this game compared to TS3.
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But then you get other players who want the game itself to put its own consequences in. Not judgement to other simmers, but I never understood the "I want to tell my own stories" argument. Like the OP, it feels forced and contrived. It's what I loved about the cats and dogs ep. The pets are totally surprising. You don't know what they're going to do. I still don't think I've seen every pet animation, in fact I know I haven't as I haven't started training dogs yet.
So which is it? Player controlled drama, or uncontrolled drama from the game?
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I do wish if he caught her though he could question paternity or something along those lines, or she could confess affair or even let him know he isn't the daddy. I would be okay if other's saw them cheating also that the reputation could be questioned. That could make the player's trait more valuable too. It could be a get out of jail free card if everyone has it. That tool would already be in game for those of us that might want to play sneaky stuff sometimes. It might be harder to get the trait in the first place but the tool is there at least for those that want to use it.
Though did many complain there was drama in TS1/TS2/TS3 ? I don't think out of the blue, the 'many' would be outrage that a patch came and brough consequences to the game, and even instead those who didn't mind the absence of dysutopia game would appreciate the drama put in the game. I feel implanting such a feature would do more good than bad, because I think If the game, for one of the reasons it is heavily critize, didn't had at the very start up to now this whole happy-villy sort of stuff it wouldn't be most bashed game in the sims franchise. Though seriously, I haven't really ever heard from my experence of a player complaining that 'Previous game are such a disaster, because they have too much drama and sims aren't oblivious to the death/affairs happening around their loved one's, which is why I like TS4 a lot better'.
I remember an incident where I had a serial romantic woohoo with a townie right in front of her husband. Nothing happened, other than the husband stomping around the house. There was no fighting, kicking out my sim, or kicking out his wife. Everything just went on like normal.
The fact that you are playing with free will off might exacerbate the problem, though. She can't autonomously confront her husband if autonomy isn't on.
I don't have a problem with spouses not caring about seeing cheating in my game - they seem to care a reasonable amount. But what does bother me is that the kids have no reaction. TS2 was too extreme in that the kids ended up hating their parents after a split because they'd get upset at their divorced parents for "cheating" every time they flirted with their new partner. But in TS4 there's just no long-term consequences. It was really moving to see children and even toddlers getting upset in TS2. The lack of a functional memories system in TS4 is a big part of this flaw.
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I just feel like there isn't anything distinguishable between traits and relationship types. Sims get jealous/sad if you're flirting with someone else even if you aren't officially dating them, and if you are exclusive they'll barely react at cheating during certain times (although I had one sim go ballistic at a wedding when the groom was caught being flirted with by the ex or something, lmaoooo).
I want my open/non-committal sims to have open, fun, romantic relationships without the drama, but I also want a line distinguished when actual cheating within committed relationship occurs. Sims 3 was a mess because you couldn't DO anything because of the 🐸🐸🐸🐸 reputation system, while here the consequences are far too watered down.
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I get that there are people who like to micromanage every reaction in game and don’t like their sims autonomously doing things like slapping their cheating spouse or disciplining their children without their input but for me I prefer my sims to react to cheating. I don’t understand how for the first three versions of The Sims they managed to handle relationships and their breakdowns with a sim reacting to the point where cheating just causes a sad or angry moodlet and can be offset by a nicely decorated room and it’s very much a case of business as usual. I hate it.
Also I really want my sims daughter, now a grown women, to visit her married neighbour slash lover and destroy his marriage by telling his wife about their four kids. Cruel yes. Entertaining...very
Sometimes I want to tell a story of someone not being excited for the new baby.
The worst is when the spouse that was cheated on texts “the other woman/man” to congratulate them on their new girlfriend/boyfriend. I’m like “That’s your wife/Husband, you muppet!”
Try sharing the "big news" with a sim daddy that has the hates children trait. It is built in possible to not always have a great reaction.
Sims are just so happy that I want to make them all miserable. I just wish they'd release a good stuff pack that instead of focusing on material stuff, it focused on interaction stuff, like romance etc.
Maybe if a sims parents were always arguing and eventually divorced when the sim grows older they might think marriage is a sham. Maybe if a sim was cheated on they could start to have trust issues and forgo relationships altogether. These are some of the things I feel would enchance the Sims experience and help simmers create richer stories but as of now everything in the Sims 4 seems shallow and vain, in my opinion.
I've done that, and he still reacted with being excited.