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THE PERECT CREATE A SIM (CAS) WOULD BE:
AlexSimmerman
Posts: 80 Member
Overall, I’m quite happy with the CAS tool in Sims 4. However, I would like to share my thoughts on how it could be enhanced in the future mainly by adding a few extra features and bringing back some of the old, beloved features from TS2 & TS3 which helped to give Sims more personality and distinction.
Firstly, I’d love to see a ‘background selection’ feature from the start so we could have a range of backgrounds to choose from e.g beach, city skyline, suburban neighbourhood etc (not massively important but I think it would help set the scene more)
Then, I would separate CAS into 5 categories
Category 1 - IDENTITY
This would include the basics of the sim such as: name, age, gender options, relations and mannerisms.
Name and age are self-explanatory but babies should also be added as an age choice at CAS. Sims 4 have done great job with gender inclusivity IMO since the update so I’d like to see something similar from the launch of the next iteration. Mannerisms would cover things like: voice, walk-style and gestures but I’d like to see sliders for the gestures e.g 30% masculine, 50% Feminine and 20% aggressive, rather than a stringent option for gesture and body language. With relations, this would just be adding the family members similar to the tool we have in TS4, but I’d like to see a wider range of options such as cousins, uncles, step-parent as well as the parent, sibling etc we have at the moment.
Category 2- PHYSICAL
As the name suggests, this section would cover the initial appearance of the sim from body size, ethnicity, hair, eye colour, scars, tattoos. Again, the drag tool with Sims 4 is great for sculpting Sims so I wouldn’t mind keeping this feature in CAS with maybe even more places to manipulate and have more detail.
I’d love to see the return of the colour wheels for skin and hair so that we can truly have a good level of representation and diversity in our creations. Eye colour as well if possible, but it’s not a major issue for me if they added a decent range of colours for eyes. Furthermore, for the hair, it would be great if we had some kind of ‘length’ tool so we could slightly change how long a Sims hair was and select different parts like root, tip, etc and have different colours.
I’d also like to see more distinction between teenagers and adults. I understand the reason why they did this and why it’s easier to make the same size ‘skeleton’ for clothing, but I’d rather have less, but distinctive clothing solely for teenagers if it means they stand out more.
Unpopular opinion, but I don’t actually want to see a height slider in The Sims. I appreciate why it’s requested but given the amount of resources and challenges this would take up, I’d rather the SimGuru’s invested their time in other ways.
However, as part of the Physical category, I would like to see ‘physical ailments & blessings ’ added from to CAS options (but they could also start in gameplay over time) Personally, id love to see some representations for disabilities in the game. I can’t even comprehend how difficult this would be for the team for adding wheelchair using Sims for example though but even if we got some kind of inclusion whether it was robotic limbs, low immune systems, Sims having allergies and reactions to certain foods, developing diseases which affect mobility or cause physical changes. We could also see ‘blessings’ so Sims who never get ill, Sims who are naturally better at sports, Sims who are faster as recovering from injury. I know this topic has to be handled very sensitively and done right so ensure it doesn’t cause offence so I see why the Guru’s might be weary of adding these elements but I think the argument for inclusion outweighs the risks.
Finally, I’d like to see more variety of unique body options such as stretch marks, vitiligo, freckles, scars etc
Category 3 - PERSONALITY
arguably the most important and most lacking element of Sims 4’s CAS. For the personality of the Sim, I’d start with mental ‘ailments and blessings’ which again, I know could be controversial but if done correctly, would do wonders for representation.
So we could have Sims with a gloomy disposition who are more likely to have feelings of sadness to signify depression for example, or Sims with erratic ailments which could represent Bipolar / BPD. (If you think this is touchy, let’s remember Sims 3 had insane) We could also have Sims with mental health blessings which become stressed / angry less on the other spectrum. These wouldn’t be ‘traits’ - but rather mental health factors.
Next, I’d like to see the return of a more powerful aspiration system which ultimately determines / controls a Sim’s behaviour like we had in TS2. Of course, they will be driven by their traits and what’s going on around them as well, but I think the Sims aspiration should lead them and determine their fulfilment, long-term goals, short-term goals, wants/ fears and how they behave in general.
Next, we need to have 5-7 slots of personality traits to truly make Sims unique with a vast range to choose from similar to Sims 3 but I’d also like to have an ‘intensity’ option so that although a Sim may have 5 traits, they demonstrate certain ones more often/ stronger than others.
The return of ‘interests’ from Sims 2 would be awesome. Whilst they weren’t a major feature, it was fun to look into each some and form a view of them based what they were interested in and watching how this would form their reactions for example, if another sim tried to talk to them about politics or fashion, they would either enthuse or reject the convo or if they were interested in cooking/ paranormal, you’d find, they were more likely to be reading or watching a show based on their interests. Interests need to be brought back.
Similarly, hobbies should be brought back in the CAS mode like: Painting, gaming, watching TV, shopping etc so sims spend more time partaking in their hobbies instead of random, vague interactions.
Attractions or a turn on / turn off system would be great, I wouldn’t necessarily mind if this was added in an expansion pack down the line but it would be great to have this feature to and make some kind of sense of why Sims Paired up together or why it was a bad match.
Star signs should make a return, they were present in TS2 & TS3 so it seems strange they have been removed? Personally, I would like to see them return, but I’m not too bothered if they were absent if all of the other personality factors were present.
Category 4 - CLOTHING
Every iteration, the Sims team seems to be getting better with their clothing styles so I wouldn’t really change what they’re doing. However, I would like to see more diversity with different cultures and a bigger range added in base game / expansions. I appreciate it’s probably difficult to add the colour wheel / texture from Sims 3 back; but if we could have some customisable options that would be great such as the length of certain items or selecting a swatch then having a range of shades possibly. It would also be nice to have ‘layers’ with Clothing too so jackets and jumpers were separate items which went over other clothes but because of how complex and time consuming this would be, I’m happy for this to be left out.
Category 5 - LIFESTYLE
This section gives the player the ‘context’ of the Sim and would allow you to pre-choose their career, what skills they have, how much money they start with. This category sets the scene for the player so you could pre-made your sim as the CEO of the business career with level 10 logic skill with 50,000 rather than every sim starting with a blank canvas.
I’d love to know your thoughts on what I’ve suggested? Anything you think I may have missed or things you disagree with.
Firstly, I’d love to see a ‘background selection’ feature from the start so we could have a range of backgrounds to choose from e.g beach, city skyline, suburban neighbourhood etc (not massively important but I think it would help set the scene more)
Then, I would separate CAS into 5 categories
Category 1 - IDENTITY
This would include the basics of the sim such as: name, age, gender options, relations and mannerisms.
Name and age are self-explanatory but babies should also be added as an age choice at CAS. Sims 4 have done great job with gender inclusivity IMO since the update so I’d like to see something similar from the launch of the next iteration. Mannerisms would cover things like: voice, walk-style and gestures but I’d like to see sliders for the gestures e.g 30% masculine, 50% Feminine and 20% aggressive, rather than a stringent option for gesture and body language. With relations, this would just be adding the family members similar to the tool we have in TS4, but I’d like to see a wider range of options such as cousins, uncles, step-parent as well as the parent, sibling etc we have at the moment.
Category 2- PHYSICAL
As the name suggests, this section would cover the initial appearance of the sim from body size, ethnicity, hair, eye colour, scars, tattoos. Again, the drag tool with Sims 4 is great for sculpting Sims so I wouldn’t mind keeping this feature in CAS with maybe even more places to manipulate and have more detail.
I’d love to see the return of the colour wheels for skin and hair so that we can truly have a good level of representation and diversity in our creations. Eye colour as well if possible, but it’s not a major issue for me if they added a decent range of colours for eyes. Furthermore, for the hair, it would be great if we had some kind of ‘length’ tool so we could slightly change how long a Sims hair was and select different parts like root, tip, etc and have different colours.
I’d also like to see more distinction between teenagers and adults. I understand the reason why they did this and why it’s easier to make the same size ‘skeleton’ for clothing, but I’d rather have less, but distinctive clothing solely for teenagers if it means they stand out more.
Unpopular opinion, but I don’t actually want to see a height slider in The Sims. I appreciate why it’s requested but given the amount of resources and challenges this would take up, I’d rather the SimGuru’s invested their time in other ways.
However, as part of the Physical category, I would like to see ‘physical ailments & blessings ’ added from to CAS options (but they could also start in gameplay over time) Personally, id love to see some representations for disabilities in the game. I can’t even comprehend how difficult this would be for the team for adding wheelchair using Sims for example though but even if we got some kind of inclusion whether it was robotic limbs, low immune systems, Sims having allergies and reactions to certain foods, developing diseases which affect mobility or cause physical changes. We could also see ‘blessings’ so Sims who never get ill, Sims who are naturally better at sports, Sims who are faster as recovering from injury. I know this topic has to be handled very sensitively and done right so ensure it doesn’t cause offence so I see why the Guru’s might be weary of adding these elements but I think the argument for inclusion outweighs the risks.
Finally, I’d like to see more variety of unique body options such as stretch marks, vitiligo, freckles, scars etc
Category 3 - PERSONALITY
arguably the most important and most lacking element of Sims 4’s CAS. For the personality of the Sim, I’d start with mental ‘ailments and blessings’ which again, I know could be controversial but if done correctly, would do wonders for representation.
So we could have Sims with a gloomy disposition who are more likely to have feelings of sadness to signify depression for example, or Sims with erratic ailments which could represent Bipolar / BPD. (If you think this is touchy, let’s remember Sims 3 had insane) We could also have Sims with mental health blessings which become stressed / angry less on the other spectrum. These wouldn’t be ‘traits’ - but rather mental health factors.
Next, I’d like to see the return of a more powerful aspiration system which ultimately determines / controls a Sim’s behaviour like we had in TS2. Of course, they will be driven by their traits and what’s going on around them as well, but I think the Sims aspiration should lead them and determine their fulfilment, long-term goals, short-term goals, wants/ fears and how they behave in general.
Next, we need to have 5-7 slots of personality traits to truly make Sims unique with a vast range to choose from similar to Sims 3 but I’d also like to have an ‘intensity’ option so that although a Sim may have 5 traits, they demonstrate certain ones more often/ stronger than others.
The return of ‘interests’ from Sims 2 would be awesome. Whilst they weren’t a major feature, it was fun to look into each some and form a view of them based what they were interested in and watching how this would form their reactions for example, if another sim tried to talk to them about politics or fashion, they would either enthuse or reject the convo or if they were interested in cooking/ paranormal, you’d find, they were more likely to be reading or watching a show based on their interests. Interests need to be brought back.
Similarly, hobbies should be brought back in the CAS mode like: Painting, gaming, watching TV, shopping etc so sims spend more time partaking in their hobbies instead of random, vague interactions.
Attractions or a turn on / turn off system would be great, I wouldn’t necessarily mind if this was added in an expansion pack down the line but it would be great to have this feature to and make some kind of sense of why Sims Paired up together or why it was a bad match.
Star signs should make a return, they were present in TS2 & TS3 so it seems strange they have been removed? Personally, I would like to see them return, but I’m not too bothered if they were absent if all of the other personality factors were present.
Category 4 - CLOTHING
Every iteration, the Sims team seems to be getting better with their clothing styles so I wouldn’t really change what they’re doing. However, I would like to see more diversity with different cultures and a bigger range added in base game / expansions. I appreciate it’s probably difficult to add the colour wheel / texture from Sims 3 back; but if we could have some customisable options that would be great such as the length of certain items or selecting a swatch then having a range of shades possibly. It would also be nice to have ‘layers’ with Clothing too so jackets and jumpers were separate items which went over other clothes but because of how complex and time consuming this would be, I’m happy for this to be left out.
Category 5 - LIFESTYLE
This section gives the player the ‘context’ of the Sim and would allow you to pre-choose their career, what skills they have, how much money they start with. This category sets the scene for the player so you could pre-made your sim as the CEO of the business career with level 10 logic skill with 50,000 rather than every sim starting with a blank canvas.
I’d love to know your thoughts on what I’ve suggested? Anything you think I may have missed or things you disagree with.
1
Comments
The color wheel would also be great for clothes, too, but yeah.
-sketches
Sims 3 MyPage: https://mypage.thesims3.com/mypage/sketches
#FixThePersonalities
Color Wheel
Hand Sliders
Nails
Body Hair
Jackets with any tops
Longer Sweaters
Scarfs as accessories
Hairbands as accessories
Longer Necklaces
Nail Polishes
Capes
Medieval Clothes
More Eye Colors
More Ears
More Teeth
More Skin Tones
Better Hairlines
- Hobbies separated from others personality options (emotional lifestyle and social) so they do not take away from limited personality points you can use they should also expand them since hobbies have remained the same since base game
- Trun ons/turn off
- More hair color options light brown, dark brown, natural red (not clown red like we have now) and dirty blond
- Body hair customizable leg arms chest and so on separated not just one size fits all.
- Facial hair and stubble become their own category so they can be layered
- Finger nail options length and color
- Height/hand/neck slider I don't care if it comes with a warning like animations will not always work because even with a mod slider they almost always do
- More light skin colors that are not grey or yellowish
- Larger eye color selection with multiple hazel options and heterochromia
- Expanded freckles selection expanded to full body with 2 options face and body
- More male hair styles for older Sims if you want a Sim with receding or balding hair you got like 2 options