Altering sims personalities during gameplay

Mareah

How would you guys feel about something like this? Say that your sims can change/gain traits because of their actions, kinda like parenthood. For example, if your sims read so much they can gain the bookworm trait over time, or if they stopped playing games for a very long whilel/stopped doing any other activities and interactions related to the geek trait they can lose, they start feeling tense when they first stop but after a while they just lose interest. So you start with an evil sim but you can turn them good during gameplay by your actions and to make it more challenging they can lose some progress if they do evil things automansly. It can work the opposite way too, good sims can turn evil. Or if you take a sim that hates the outdoors out a lot they wont necessarily start to love it but they can slowly get somewhat used to it and wont be as uncomfortable as they were in the start.

Another way is sims traits can get affected by who they befriend, so if your sim has a materialistic best friend that can rub off on them too, that doesnt mean they should become copies of their friends. It doesnt have to be every single sim that "works" like this, but maybe some of them can be more open to changes, or easier to be a little influenced by others. Any traits you dont want to be ever changed you can lock in place.

How would you feel about your sims personalities getting altered over time?

Calico45

I would not mind and might even enjoy it if it is kind of like parenthood, or even something akin to an occult skill tree, but I would hate if it was like the fame quirks. If just filling your hunger bar made you a foodie or neglecting the logic skill made you lose genius, it would be super annoying. I like the lock, but it may just need to be its own separate system. You make them read books, they repeat the action more, etc. I would love a system where you affect the autonomous behavior more. I have seen claims of it already being in place, but I have not seen much evidence, personally.

BK747

I certainly incorporate some of this thinking into my gameplay. For example, based on what happens to them during their childhood, I select a trait to give them when they become a teen, and so on. I did have a sim who made a best friend as a child and then I discovered the best friend had the evil trait, so when they became a teen I gave them the mean trait, thinking that the friend's evil nature would have rubbed off on them in some way. It would be cool if there were some game mechanics for this to happen automatically as well though.

Rouensims

This would be fabulous. I do change my Sims’ traits at times through cheats.

Marduc_Plays

Somewhat like in Sims 2 with Hobbies/Interest. But not every TS4 trait would work with this system.

ThePlumbob

I think that's a really good idea, I'm just not convinced they'd be able to make it nuanced enough to do the execution justice, with it being such a fine balance. I wouldn't want an evil sim becoming good after performing three good actions and vice versa (since you know, even evil sims can have a soft spot for someone/something, and good sims can do mean things in the heat of the moment). But I do like the concept!

The Parenthood character values come to mind, because at least there you can see where your sim is in terms of gaining a particular trait - but that system alone kind of shows how tricky this could get. I put very little effort into parenting my sims' kids and yet somehow they get the good character values just by performing everyday actions, meanwhile, if I want any of the bad ones, the only way I've been able to achieve them was through cheating. So the calibration would have to be done really carefully!

Netzspannung

There was a thread a couple of years ago about new career ideas. Amongst other many good ideas someone suggested therapist. I thought that would be a good career if it was active, the idea being that the therapist Sim could change their patients' traits. I put my idea from back then under a spoiler because it is somewhat related.

Netzspannung wrote: »

Therapist:
Also an active career with an actual office to hold therapy sessions. Sims would come in because they want to change something about themselves, perhaps they are unflirty, kleptomaniacs or gloomy. When you accept a sim as a patient you would schedule several sessions in the calendar and depending on the outcome of the therapy regimen you would actually change one of their traits - for better or worse, depending on your qualification, the number of sessions you planned and how you conducted them. If unsuccessful the trait they wanted help with could change from unflirty to loner, from kleptomaniac to slob (because they are starting to hord) and from gloomy to mean or evil. If successful their traits could change form unflirty to outgoing, from kleptomaniac to good (because they like to donate to charity instead of taking things) and from gloomy to cheerful. These are just examples of course.

Anyway, I would definitey like Sims changing their traits over time, but I wonder if it changing just be gameplay could get frustrating. Unless they also implemented a switch to activate or deactive the feature by ticking a box ('Make traits static'). For example, sometimes I play townies just for a while to move them into a house or have them run a restaurant for a while. I wouldn't want their traits to change just because my gameplay with them is always very focussed on reaching one or two goals as quickly as possible.

Mareah

Calico45 wrote: »

I would not mind and might even enjoy it if it is kind of like parenthood, or even something akin to an occult skill tree, but I would hate if it was like the fame quirks. If just filling your hunger bar made you a foodie or neglecting the logic skill made you lose genius, it would be super annoying. I like the lock, but it may just need to be its own separate system. You make them read books, they repeat the action more, etc. I would love a system where you affect the autonomous behavior more. I have seen claims of it already being in place, but I have not seen much evidence, personally.

Yes, i also love observing how my sims act when i dont control them so i would love autonomous behaviour to be like the reading example you suggested!

BK747 wrote: »

I certainly incorporate some of this thinking into my gameplay. For example, based on what happens to them during their childhood, I select a trait to give them when they become a teen, and so on. I did have a sim who made a best friend as a child and then I discovered the best friend had the evil trait, so when they became a teen I gave them the mean trait, thinking that the friend's evil nature would have rubbed off on them in some way. It would be cool if there were some game mechanics for this to happen automatically as well though.

I love this idea!! Maybe it can work the other way too with our sims affecting their friends.

Rouensims wrote: »

This would be fabulous. I do change my Sims’ traits at times through cheats.

I should start doing it too! and change them depending on how i think their personalities could have altered during my gameplay.

Marduc_Plays wrote: »

Somewhat like in Sims 2 with Hobbies/Interest. But not every TS4 trait would work with this system.

Yes!! I had parenthood, sims 2 hobbies, and sims 3 social groups in mind when i was typing this. I get what you mean about it not working with all traits.

ThePlumbob wrote: »

I think that's a really good idea, I'm just not convinced they'd be able to make it nuanced enough to do the execution justice, with it being such a fine balance. I wouldn't want an evil sim becoming good after performing three good actions and vice versa (since you know, even evil sims can have a soft spot for someone/something, and good sims can do mean things in the heat of the moment). But I do like the concept!

The Parenthood character values come to mind, because at least there you can see where your sim is in terms of gaining a particular trait - but that system alone kind of shows how tricky this could get. I put very little effort into parenting my sims' kids and yet somehow they get the good character values just by performing everyday actions, meanwhile, if I want any of the bad ones, the only way I've been able to achieve them was through cheating. So the calibration would have to be done really carefully!

True, if they are gonna change at all then it should not be easily nor overnight, taking into account what you said about evil sims being capable of doing good deeds and so on.

Netzspannung wrote: »

There was a thread a couple of years ago about new career ideas. Amongst other many good ideas someone suggested therapist. I thought that would be a good career if it was active, the idea being that the therapist Sim could change their patients' traits. I put my idea from back then under a spoiler because it is somewhat related.

Netzspannung wrote: »

Therapist:
Also an active career with an actual office to hold therapy sessions. Sims would come in because they want to change something about themselves, perhaps they are unflirty, kleptomaniacs or gloomy. When you accept a sim as a patient you would schedule several sessions in the calendar and depending on the outcome of the therapy regimen you would actually change one of their traits - for better or worse, depending on your qualification, the number of sessions you planned and how you conducted them. If unsuccessful the trait they wanted help with could change from unflirty to loner, from kleptomaniac to slob (because they are starting to hord) and from gloomy to mean or evil. If successful their traits could change form unflirty to outgoing, from kleptomaniac to good (because they like to donate to charity instead of taking things) and from gloomy to cheerful. These are just examples of course.

Anyway, I would definitey like Sims changing their traits over time, but I wonder if it changing just be gameplay could get frustrating. Unless they also implemented a switch to activate or deactive the feature by ticking a box ('Make traits static'). For example, sometimes I play townies just for a while to move them into a house or have them run a restaurant for a while. I wouldn't want their traits to change just because my gameplay with them is always very focussed on reaching one or two goals as quickly as possible.

I can see now how it could be annoying so having a toggle like you suggested would be ideal. I would like to set it per sim but that might be impossible. Your idea is creative!!

StrawberryYogurt

As long as you dont get getting notifs about it. And phone calls. It is so.dag.annoying in TS2. And having hobby enthusiasts break into your house every ten minutes. Otherwise yes Id like this. Id also like tying it to skill. If you dont practice guitar in ages it does take a bit of practice to get back regular again.

Netzspannung

Also I just realized, as someone who likes to play rags to riches style, this mechanic could easily be played as a challenge. Like giving your Sim all or mostly negative traits (like Gloomy, Lazy and Hates children, for example) and work to improve them through gameplay. I'd definitely like to play a challenge like that.

Mareah

StrawberryYogurt wrote: »

As long as you dont get getting notifs about it. And phone calls. It is so.dag.annoying in TS2. And having hobby enthusiasts break into your house every ten minutes. Otherwise yes Id like this. Id also like tying it to skill. If you dont practice guitar in ages it does take a bit of practice to get back regular again.

Haha! yeah, i recall those house break ins. I like your idea regarding the skills system! I feel it adds a touch of realism since if you stopped doing something for a long time you could forget some parts of it and might need to go over them again, i know it does happen to me.

Netzspannung wrote: »

Also I just realized, as someone who likes to play rags to riches style, this mechanic could easily be played as a challenge. Like giving your Sim all or mostly negative traits (like Gloomy, Lazy and Hates children, for example) and work to improve them through gameplay. I'd definitely like to play a challenge like that.

Ahhh this sounds like fun! I like doing challenges from time to time and it is fun seeing people get creative with incorporating game aspects with them.

CAPTAIN_NXR7

@Rouensims wrote: »

This would be fabulous. I do change my Sims’ traits at times through cheats.

I do this constantly, because I miss a system like that in-game. I need character arcs.

I very much agree with OPs idea as a concept.

To make it work as an autonomous feature, I believe the personality traits need to be part of a different system that manages character-arc mechanics and would be heavily influenced by the choices a character makes and the relationship they have with others sims. But for this to work in a nuanced way, the relationship/emotion system requires a complete overhaul and a well structured memory system needs to be in place in order to support all these mechanics.

So...are we talking about a different game here? Unfortunately Maybe.

I do believe @Netzspannung’s Therapist idea would work best for TS4’s engine. Although user directed, it’s potentially the best way to alter personality traits through some kind of meaningful gameplay.