I think that this game is missing customizable settings. I'm thinking like the clubs feature in Get Together, or the NAPs in Eco Lifestyle. They are so powerful (but you should add more options 😉). What would be so neat is to have lot settings (or more lot traits) that let me customize how sims behave on that lot. For example, what if I wanted to build a café that only hipsters went to, or a theater that played movies every 3 hours, or a junkyard that hardly anyone visits. I would love to be able to set attributes for a specific lot to better tell a story.
I tried to build a haunted house attraction the other day, but was disappointed that it wasn't possible. It would be so awesome to be able to build a lot, assign employees to it, and give them each the job of only scaring visitors. What if I could build a casino with a setting that forced guests to play poker? Or a church with settings that forced visitors to sit in the pews and listen to a speaker at a specific time? It would also be nice to have lot entrance fees.
Neighborhoods should have some settings too. What if I wanted a neighborhood to only allow Vampires or Spellcasters to live there? Or I wanted all Vampires in the neighborhood to automatically hate all the mortals that lived there?
I feel like there are so many cool things that are ALMOST possible with the Sims 4, but ultimately mechanics get in the way. There are so many lot types that ALMOST work the way I think they should, but ultimately I have to set my creativity aside and go with the story that was sold to me with a pack. I know that you like to build packs that really expand on a single idea, and that is great, but ultimately a few simple settings or rules would open a whole new world of gameplay — without having to wait for a pack to be created and hoping that it is just the way you want it.
I would love for TS4 to be more challengin, one example is the clothing system in The Sims 2, you had to go to a store and buy the clothes in order to have it. Now we can do everything from the phone, which makes it unecessary to go out of the home lot and explore. It would be great to have burglars back as well.
Regarding depth, I would love for a remake of the whims. I feel like we need a system similar to the wants and fears in The Sims 2. Something that will help us create storys and that will correlate to the personality of the sims. Something else I would like to have is the ability to give more then 3 traits to sims. I like the emotions system but I feel like it outshines the sims personalities. We need a balance. Also, I wish the team could focus more on the details. It may sound silly but it adds so much to the immersion while playing. For example, kids being picked up by a school bus when going to school, sims interacting with the elevator instead of just teleporting and sims lining up in front of the cash registers to pay for the item they want in Get To Work. Something else that I would like is for townies/npcs to be contained to their world. It completely breaks my immersion to see Eliza Pancakes in Mt. Komorebi or the Landgrabbs in Henford On Bagley. And it feels like it is always the same thing over and over again.
Hello Sims Team, I was debating on making a post because from what I've read, everything I would like to see in the game has been covered. I don't want to repeat the same things as everyone below. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that what we want is DIVERSITY. The reason that we complain so much about the Sims 4 is because it's the same thing each time you play and it's boring. It almost doesn't matter what traits your sims have because it doesn't change the gameplay. Right now, I have a non-committal sim in a long term relationship. Yeah, he becomes tense every now and then, but it goes away after 4 hours. He should be able to autonomously break-up with her while he is tense. Nothing bad or exciting ever happens in the game unless we, the simmers, make it happen and it doesn't make for fun gameplay. It just becomes repetitive.
Sentiments are probably the best feature in the game. I love when my sims autonomously get grudges towards each other. It adds storyline to the game, but I think it needs to be pushed farther. For example, if my teen is getting bad grades in school, my sim should receive a "disappointed parent" sentiment. If my teen is getting good grades, my sim should receive a "proud parent" sentiment. The same is said for Likes and Dislikes, I was beyond excited when this feature was added, but I hope you're looking into adding more activities and other preferences (such as sexual orientation and turn on/turn offs, this already talked about below more in depth- and it couldn't agree with it more). For example, my sim is a bookworm, but I can't make her one of her favorite hobbies reading and I find that annoying, she should be able to gain fun while reading. To go along with this, it would be nice to make my neat sim's favorite hobby cleaning. There's so much more that could be added for this. One of my favorite features in the Sims 3 was being able to pick a sims favorite food, I hope that it can find it's way into the Sims 4.
My favorite way to play the Sims 4 is doing Legacy Challenges, I love family-oriented gameplay and making large families. My biggest problem with this is my sim's extended family doesn't act like family. My sim isn't allowed to cook at her mother's house with being called inappropriate and rude. My child sim can't sleepover with her cousin's at her aunt's house without being kicked out. I want the game to recognize the difference between friends and family. It's also upsetting when you play for 10 generations, but can only see the last 4 of them because the family tree becomes glitched- I know this isn't a suggestion, it's more of a complaint, but I think it needs to be looked into. Here are my suggestions for more realistic family gameplay: -child/teen sims being able to host slumber parties -more afterschool activities -prom/graduation -making homework a group activity -family portraits/seasonal postcards -strollers
Overall, this past couple months I think you are on the right track in understanding what we want. We miss the small details that were implemented in the Sims 2 and Sims 3, but for some reason not included in the Sims 4. I miss my sims being able to spoon at night, sims not having chemistry, sims being able to serve food, seeing my sims get on the school bus, sims leaving roses after a good date, pressing the wrong button and getting fired from my job, and more. I understand the Sims 4 has a lot that the previous games didn't have. Maybe you thought it would make up for not adding these details. Maybe you didn't think we would miss them, but I think I speak for everyone when we say: we do.
We need more depth in CAS such as pronouns, more relationship options, and expanded likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes were such a good addition to the game but it would be good to se then expanded covering things like food (select a favourite dish, doesn't like meat or dairy etc.) as some traits like lactose intolerant feel like they shouldn't be defining features of my sims personality. To give meaning to sims experiences we really need memories and a way look back on past sentiments to give more meaning to them.
Hello. I really want a poker table in SIMS 4 just like it was in SIMS 2. It would be cool if it was up to 6 people, so that the family and guests could gather at it. And that the characters themselves would willingly sit down and play for it. And the card table in SIMS 4 certainly does not reach it. I hope you will realize this poker table from SIMS 2 and my dream will come true!
I understand and agree with almost all points here, but I personally don't like playing my game with a whole lot of challenge! I would really appreciate choice in extra challenge where it can be applied. For example, making burglars optional for those who don't want to deal with them, or making death easier to achieve on accident Optional for those who don't actually want their Sim to accidentally die without any warning. I think adding these things would be amazing for many players, but I personally wouldn't get any enjoyment out of them. Extra challenge really isn't something I personally want in my game, I use sims to just chill out and relax.
Depth however, is a different story. New traits, better diversity in the way different sims act and even a relationship overhaul like others suggested would be really fun to play with.
•I feel like working with the community who comes up with challenges would be a great idea. Add a check box for a specific challenge in the game options, and when it's been selected that save file is locked in to that challenge. When selected, it will limit what you can buy, how big your house can be, etc within the guidelines of the challenge. It would be a base game change, that can be affected by additional content, but it would be much easier to not have to keep track of a binders worth amount of rules and guidelines.
•Another thing would be to either take off or raise the maximum amount of Sims you can have in a household.
•It would also be nice to have an option in game settings that would allow a random chance of having a baby from regular "Woo-Hoo" instead of only from "Try for baby"
Hi Sims Team! I just registered to the forum because I wanted to participate in this discussion. I love the sims franchise, I've been playing since the sims 1 and own every single pack and expansion.
Sims 4 is way too easy in my opinion, so when I play I created many challenges tomake it more interesting, here are a few suggestions:
1/The "taxi" to go from one lot to an other is free. When I play rags to riches I use the money cheat to take fees from my sims's "bank account" when I use it. 10 simoleons for going to a lot in the same neighborhood, 50 simoleons to go to a lot in an other neighborhood. If my sims want to use it freely, they have to pay a 1000 simoleons "lifetime membership" to this "Oober" service (I also make my sim reimburse the "bank" for the lot money we need to buy it in the beginning) it really adds a lot of challenge, because my sims rely either on the part of town they move in, or on the friends they make to invite them somewhere and it makes every save feel unique (also just saying this would be a great way to implement cars, but, you know... xD )
2/I would love more natural catastrophes. Make my house's roof to leak and make me pay 3000 simoleons to have it fixed, make my sims die from that volcan eruption happening on their lot (crushed by a boulder)
3/More consequences to diseases. I have get to work and it's quite annoying to only have to buy medicine (and one type of medicine for all diseases), I'd love my sims to really get sick and have to go to the hospital to see a doctor (even as a rabbithole) come back with a diagnosis and have to buy the right type of medicine for what they have.
Basically I want my sims to STRUGGLE and have problems, and money issues, things that will drastically affect my story, that I won't have planned of expected. Even if it's an option, like "Sims 4 survival mode" because you fear this would drive away beginner players (I love that you can have all the lot challenges on your residential lot now, I did this and this is pure chaos, I love it, my sims also have to pay if they want lot traits added/removed and lot challenges removed, with a limit of one per generation, i'm having a LOT of fun with this feature right now)
4/I'd love aspirations that don't look like tutorials, make them ALL difficult. Something I loved from the sims 2 and would love to see return is different tombstones depending on if your sims completed their aspiration / earned enough points from whims, it pushed me to fullfill them more and made graveyards more interesting
5/ speaking of whims, I think they're nice BUT I feel like I'm always getting the same whims over and over again, I want more, especially when my sims travel in Jungle Adventure, I want my lazy sim to just chill, and my fitness crazy boy to want to explore the jungle
I'm seeing a lot of other Simmers writing long and thorough posts detailing what most Sims players have been dreaming of, and I agree. So, I'll keep this brief, I want to reiterate some desires of the community so that the number of repeated requests speak for themselves: [list=1] [*] More consequential personalities and choices. Everything's so lifeless. [*] Memorieeeeees. As it is, everything's so lifeless. [*] Make it harder AND two-sided for relationship interactions/choices. Everything's so lifeless. [*] Why do 5-year-olds age up to 18-year-olds? Make teens younger and have more teen traits. Make elders have more age-related traits than just being easily over-exerted from everything. Everything's so lifeless. [*] Story progression for households not currently being played and don't delete all their furnishings when they die and new sims move into the empty home with no bed or kitchen. They should get married and have kids. My whole town ends up old and empty. Everything's so lifeless. [*] What's the point of the baby stage when they are a fixed object as they currently are? Ew. Everything's so lifeless. [*] Burglars! Arrests! Special quirky NPCs like the doctor that would show up to help a crazy sim or the garbage-rummaging bear. Everything's so lifeless. [*] The grocery lot challenge should be base game because it adds realism and a challenge. Everything's so lifeless. [/list] TL;DR Everything's so lifeless.
Sul sul Sims Team. The things I would love to see is more of a challenge overall. The difference between flirting with and then going further with a single sim is the same as a married sim which honestly doesn't sit right as a married person myself. I would like if loyalty was a thing, relationships should mean something so a married sim would reject more often than not.
Neighbours interactions or some sort of world relations. At the moment you get the welcome wagon and then depending on what you do at that point it just becomes radio silence. The odd sim walks past but nothing else happens really. Having people who live close being more likely to walk past rather than townies would be amazing. For example, from the welcome wagon I picked a fight with one sim, ignored another and flirted with the 3rd, what I would want to happen is maybe the one I picked a fight with comes round randomly to kick my bin over or steals something in the front yard or go through the post box etc. The one I ignored then ignores me making it hard to be their friend later and the one I flirted with would text me or turn up at my house and try to pursue me not the other way round.
The return of home interactions. Don't pay? Bailiffs come to take my things rather than turn off my power. We did get fire fighters but what about the police and in the same vein the robbers, maybe even tie it up with the career where if I am a criminal I won't be robbed but I will start to get hated for that choice.
Family trees: Probably been stated to death but having uncles and aunts etc would bring more life into the world. For an example if I do the 100 baby challenge I would love an option when they hit young adult to "leave home" to an empty lot and let the sims I am not playing to have children and maybe even break up (I am looking at you pancakes). So when my sim turns into an elder and the last of my household dies seeing the full family tree of everything this one sim has created and fostered would be wonderful, it would honestly feel like a reward and gives a moment of bittersweet as this would give more of a reason to care and stick to one sim to raise a family and see the outcome of your sim.
World loot and exploration. In one word: more. In two words: more please. I love going round the world and picking up stuff and seeing what comes out of walking somewhere rather than fast travel and forget that you have made beautiful world designs, let me stay in these pretty locations and reward me for digging through every nook and cranny.
Likes and dislikes. Having likes and dislikes to other sims traits. So I could make a slob sim like neat sims and having a challenge then in the household since they are conflicting. The slob sim would be happy because the neat sim is tidying but is uncomfortable because they themself want it to be a mess. Also making these likes and dislikes more impactful this would then elevate the gameplay when these things happen.
Emotions, after playing the game for... too long... it would be nice to see bigger range of emotions.
My partner shouted behind me "bring back the death phone, I want my zombies"
Wow - I would just like to say that this community is AMAZING! There posts are so detailed and in-depth with excellent constructive criticism! I hope the sims team really listens to these suggestions and works to implement them, because the game you are all describing sounds like a dream! Just to reiterate some key points other simmers have already said:
1. Please add some kind of ‘wants and fears’ system like in past games - this would add meaningful consequences that are tailored to specific sims (I really loved how in past games, not all sims were happy about having a baby, getting married etc. This felt very realistic)
2. Please overhaul the aspiration system so it is more of a singular ‘life goal’ then a broad tutorial that is too prescriptive. At this point, I’ve completed all the aspirations and don’t necessarily want to revisit them, since they are lengthy, repetitive and usually don’t involve features from multiple packs
3. Please add an attraction system!! And make sure the attractions can be one-sided, since unrequited love is such a realistic challenge we all have to deal with from time to time
There are a lots of other small tweaks but these are my top 3 suggestions for in-depth, challenging, meaningful gameplay.
So, PLEASE do not dismiss this as a request for content, because it really is not, however if you're looking to add more depth and challenge in gameplay, look no further than the basic family unit.
Players can ignore babies in their bassinets for everything except feeding and they won't be taken away. Also, feeding and changing doesn't have to be the extent of what adults do and must give their babies. What about health checkups and vaccinations? What about spitting up? What about playing with the baby so they learn things.
There is so much missed opportunity in BABIES ALONE that has been completely overlooked for 7 years. You want to hear our feedback on how to deepen gameplay, but sometimes it does coincide with requests and I'm afraid this one must. Please again, do not dismiss due to this, but please consider carefully how you can achieve some new and challenging family gameplay with babies. They aren't just objects or they shouldn't be, but that is for another time :smile: HAPPY SIMMING!
Hello Sims Team! I would love to see traits like Vegetarian and Lactose intolerant as likes/ dislikes then an actual trait. Not eating meat isn't a personality trait. The category could be something like diet preferences and maybe you could even add more options like Gluten intolerant (yes I'm a celiac). I do understand that this would mean flagging all the foods with the tags like Vegetarian safe which is more work. Thanks for this cool opportunity here! Vivi
I would like to see more challenging aspirations, like how they are more life long goals instead of tutorials. Like how in the sims 3 you had these massive goals to achieve and they would take a sim lifetime. At the moment they don't really add much to the game. A side note I would also like to be able to randomise the aspirations like you can with traits and likes/dislikes.
Risk whilst playing makes the game more fun for me. I would like my sims to struggle with robberies, random bill surges due to in game events (like a tax raise or something) the ability to get loans like you have in university but for just everyday play. For teens maybe them running away like they did in sims 2 or even just sneaking out pass curfew. Maybe flooding could be added as a thing, if you dont turn off the broken plumbing the puddles start to get worse and can break other electrical equipment nearby.
Neighbourhood traits, like how youve seperated out the semi open world into different places, those whole areas could have good and bad traits to them, for instance, increased bills due to it being nice, or cheap if its full of trash in places. Even neighbourhoods that could be affected by massive power outages.
A wants and fears system similar to sims 2. I feel it would add some good direction to peoples gameplay and would increase the challenge by having to avoid fears.
Maybe could be intergrated into the likes/dislikes, but if some sims could be naturally better or worse at gaining some skills. Like you could have a sim that loves to cook, but be terrible at it and gain the skill slowly. This could either be picked or decided at random.
I feel like its important to mention that with any of these ideas we all have and if you choose to implement any of them, that they should be allowed to be toggled on or off. Having this level of customisation in features like you have now with the fame opt out and turning off cottage living animal aging would be a good step. So people can turn off the robbers, but keep on the random bill surges (or have that as a neighbourhood trait)
Being able to set custom life stages would be great for legacy players that, like me, think the short lifespan is too short or the normal one is too long.
More negative traits, or bigger impact of the traits we have. Like mean sims arent all that mean nor are evil ones. Increase the negative stuff they can do to others, make it a big part of their personaility.
It would be really cool if there were necessary actions to level up in skills (especially at higher levels). This could make the game more challenging and add new experiences. Maybe for painting skill you might have to view items in an art gallery or for handiness skill fix a number of items.
Aspirations could also be made harder too or more secret aspirations (like grilled cheese aspiration) could be added. I feel that after playing the sims 4 for years, I know exactly what to do for each aspiration and I finish them too quickly.
Thank you for taking the time to hear player feedback.
To me, a long time simmer, I do not want to bring back anything. I want to improve the systems we have. I have all packs and all content including kits.
For me, I play a family for a specific purpose but soon find it becomes monotomous because my family lacks emotional depth. Each should have a distinct personality where emotions, intelligence, mental health, and personality determine interactions. I build stories, such as Rey from Batuu is hearing impaired since she only has certain dialogue programmed, or my Viking family is living off the land but over time they lack emotional attachment to make it worth continuing to play in that family for long periods of time and I really want that to change.
So I build. For example, a world save of Star Wars, Viking world save. Medieval/Renaissance, Fantasy world saves. Things like that. I no longer play as often because I am not playing a family or sims with depth...
1. The saddest for any family is when the children (babies, child, and teen) are not interacting as a family or fighting as a family would. Children should bicker and get into it with each other on occasion. No one is that happy. Babies should be able to be interactive, rather than an object. (Disclaimer: I know this would be difficult to recode at this junction) However, this shows a lack of parenting skills (to create babies as objects indicate that the individual doesn't or didn't have children), it really does. Babies need more than just feeding, cuddle and diaper changes. These interactions between parents and babies, family members, and babies need to have consequences for their budding personalities. For example, if they are ignored, will the budding sim grow up to have attachment issues and develop the loner and angry trait? Will they gain a happy trait no matter their situation? Are the loved and cuddled ones going to gain the social trait? Spoilt trait? Life is a rosy bucket of flowers trait? They need out of the cradle and onto a play mat, swing, or changing table!
2. We aren't able to have cousins or grandparents or teens that have children (without a mod). The family tree needs to be improved to include these options.
I want some reality in my sims game and as much as I respect the modding community, I would LOVE to have these aspects without having to rely on a mod. Of course, it is a game but has declined in aspects that don't represent most of the sims community. It is marketed toward teens but plays like toddlers. Do you know how many GenX'rs play? Probably more than Maxis and EA realize. We tend to be quieter lol.
Anyway-Traits, personality development, adding depth such as improvements to careers. For example, Cops should be able to actually arrest someone that burglarized a home and the consequence is they are brought up before a judge (What use are all those degrees in University if we can't use them). Social workers are called in for mental health cases. I built a psychiatric facility for our criminally insane trait sims. Our babies can be taken away with social services but who are these sims? Do the babies just get culled? What happens in a domestic dispute between sims? Oh wait, we don't have that...
3. One thing I have not seen yet is an improvement to the basic game color swatches for building. Wallpapers, flooring, stairs, columns, spandrels, roofs. Terrain paints need some love and added options. After 7 years of the same walls, any sim is ready to pull their hair out from lack of option. We shouldn't as a player base have to rely upon doing recolors of walls, floors, etc ourselves just to have variety. But that is what I have done, learned it so I can make it happen myself. Hmmmm.
Thank you for listening. Have a great day and Happy Sim Simming!
When I say I want more challenge in the game, what I mean by that is simple things that make realistic gameplay more difficult. The simple living lot challenge was a good first step. I was disappointed with the bust the dust kit, because I was hoping for a similar effect. The dust bunnies ruined that for me. I would love if there were some returns from previous games like house plants dying, weeds in landscaping, making the beds, burglars that steal belongings, etc. Also making it more difficult to gain skills, harder to move up in careers, etc. If I am playing a household with a single parent these things add another level of challenge to improving their life and accomplishing there goals. It is a life simulating game, don't be afraid to include the mundane things in life. (I don't think the success of the laundry day SP was a coincidence)
DEPTH:
Memories need to be fixed. Please move them back to the Simology panel, as this is the Sims "mind" where they belong. Literally copy and paste from sims 2. Why do anything in the game, if your sims has no recollection of it? With the addition of emotions it is nice to attach emotions to the memories, but we as the player should be able to decide what emotion to add. (You should also be able to alter them, ex. married a sims=happy, later got divorced married memory now = sad) Also fixing "firsts" I hate that you have a first kiss with every partner. Realistically you only have 1 first. (First kiss, first woohoo, first job, first love, etc.)
Whims need to be reimplemented and improved. Sims feel like empty shells with no meaningful desires. Giving them wants that connect solely to their personality traits, aspiration, or relationships would greatly improve this. No more "buy this" or pack related wants "bee box". They don't add anything. Also adding fears that are unique to each individual sim. (The only fear that every sims should have is a fear of death/Grim Reaper. Most adults aren't afraid of thunderstorms, please let us pick what they are afraid of)
Never again use an aspiration as a tutorial, PLEASE! These were meant to be lifetime goals. Adding more simple aspirations would be nice too, like reaching the top of specific careers. No more meaningless ones like Pristine Clean.
Changing the interactions pie menu. Right now you click and choose friendly/mean interactions etc. You know what the outcome will be before you even do it. There is no spontaneity. I want neutral interactions that have a chance of being positive/negative/or boring. Not only that, but interactions don't do anything. For example, ask about career is one of the few that gets a response. Discussing interests? They don't even have interests.
Which brings me to the next one, interests returning and differentiation between skills/interests/hobbies. Skills=how good you are at something. hobbies=liking that activity and doing it often. (Not necessarily good at it) Interests=liking that activity. (Not necessarily doing it) For example, a child may be pushed by their parent to become skilled in piano, but they don't like it which means it is not a hobby for them. They do like painting, but their parents discourage such frivolous use of time, therefore it is only an interest of theirs. They do however, spend time cooking with their parents and enjoy it therefore it is a hobby.
An attraction system. The Sims franchise has always been inclusive and accepting, but in my opinion it does a disservice by pretending everyone is the same in the Sims 4. Being able to identify with your Woohoo orientation, gender expression, or gender identity would make sims more unique and enhance storytelling. Also it is completely unrealistic to think people like everyone equally. Everyone has preferences, whether its personality traits, or physical attributes. If I am making a lesbian sim, I don't want her reacting positively to Don Lothario flirting with her.
More Drama! There isn't enough negativity in the game. Everyone is happy all the time. THIS IS BORING! Even the gossip system (text messages) is boring. "heard you became friends with ____ ,their pretty cool" The reputation system doesn't seem to affect much either.
Money and careers are disappointingly easy and boring. Work modes don't matter, since leaving it on normal will guarantee the progress bar for promotions will fill in two days, and the daily assignments don't matter for the same reason. And the few chance cards we get only have the options to make something good happen or skip the event entirely. I was delighted when I started playing the sims 2 again and a chance card got me fired and knocked me down a skill point. I'd forgotten how much more engaging actual consequences were.
Plus wages are so high that it's nearly impossible to stay poor or even mid income. I have to mod the bills to astronomical levels just to have a reason to go to work.
Hmm... Good question...
I have thought of it a long time, forgotten it, rethought it, forgotten it again, and now finally rethought it. I'll try to remember what I've thought.
Thinking about challenge, I thought about the previous games. The Sims 1, 2, and 3 seem so similar, and then The Sims 4 is so different. I'm not against it. It's refreshing. But there are ideas that could be brought in from the previous games and ideas that could be kept in The Sims 4.
Ideas I would keep is the lot challenges and pack, gameplay, and weather options. After all, players are all different. Some want a relaxing game while others want challenge and chaos. The toggles to turn them on and off is great. For example right now you can turn on NPC voting so your sim has to try their best to get another NAP active instead of "Sharing is Caring", otherwise sims are free to steal from you.
Now what made the previous game more challenging and harder? One thing is for sure, the lack of toggles.
The Sims 1 is the most difficult game in the series. The needs go down fast and time went by way too fast. Additionally, as soon as sim's mood was an half red line, sims refused to do anything. No job searching, no skill building, no accepting social interactions. What you had to do was strict routine. What time to eat, clean, work, build skills, sleep. Go off the routine at least a little bit and you're in trouble.
Now the other things what made the game difficult is skills. How? Sims won't learn cooking by cooking, but rather by reading a book. If sim with no skills cooks, they almost always set the house on fire. Getting electrocuted is instant death. According to The Sims Wiki, sims can randomly drown in pools. Sims can get fined by performing magic in front of sims who don't have a wand. The difficulty in TS1 for me is too much.
The Sims 2 does it a little better. Needs go down slower (exception being energy need for toddlers) and sims can learn skills from practice (sims finally learn cooking by cooking!). Though this game adds additional challenge in a form of aspirations, wants and fears, and aging. Fulfill wants and sims will be happy. Realize their fears and they'll eventually have a breakdown. And sims don't have forever to live anymore. Sims start their life as babies, grow into toddlers who want to learn to walk and talk, then into children who start going to school, then into teenagers who can take care of themselves, then into adults who can start their own family (pregnancy was added in that game), and then finally become elders who will eventually die by old age.
Additonally, The Sims 2 add more challenge elements in add-ons. Fury system for example, making a sim temporarily hate another sim for what they've done (and sims in TS2 will fight a lot). There are also challenge elements that have reappeared in The Sims 4 in lot challenges, for example having to order groceries in order to make food (Simple Living) and having to throw away diapers after changing them (Reduce and Recycle). Then there are some things from The Sims 1 that doesn't reappear in future games, for example, sims having different relationship bars to each other (Sim A has 87 points with Sim B while Sim B has 32 points with Sim A) and interest system.
The Sims 3 starts going easy, having needs go down slower and replacing the need-based mood bar with moodlet-based one. Additionally, this game starts the "pregnant sims cannot die" trend. It adds opportunities: some quests/errands sims can get from phone calls or work and get rewards from. Open world also presents its own challenge as you now have to think about time it takes to reach from point A to B. And it makes university harder, making sims have to study constantly to get an A. Plus the trait system can add challenges, for example having sims break things often or having harder time flirting.
Though it can't be denied that the games keep getting easier. The Sims 3 gets much less challenging with Into the Future expansion pack due to objects in there. Though it also keep some other challenges, for example having bills arrive 2 times a week. The lifetime rewards and skill challenges help to eliminate challenges like fire, bills, and fading friendships. While lifetime points can be earned by fulfilling wishes and the lifetime wish, you can also earn them by doing the loading screen minigame (find x and earn points). Plus when choosing a household to play, you can also see the difficulty which depends on how many sims are there and how old are they.
Now then, after the rundown, what makes the previous games more challenging than others?
It's harder to earn money. Bills arrive every tuesday and thursday (or every three days). After that, work and hobbies won't be making you rich quickly, so you'll have to be frugal to succeed. There are also no loans in the game (student loans exists in The Sims 4, which can result in repo-man's visit if not paid). It's much more easier to earn money in The Sims 4. Search the pockets of the clothing in laundry basket, ask the dust bunnies to search for treasure, sell the stuff that happen to end up on your lot etc.
Sims are more in danger. What do sims in the previous games do when there's a fire? They run near it and panic, panic, panic. In The Sims 2, they may even run into fire in panic. In The Sims 1, sims who are on fire cannot be saved. In previous games, I remember a lot of time when I exited the game without saving due to my sims accidentally dying. In The Sims 4, it happens much much more rarely. It has happened with bunk beds and cold weather.
There is much more chaos. Burglars coming to steal, sims your sim has angered coming to kick over the trash can, police coming to fine your sim for using the chemistry set at the wrong time etc. The Sims 4 also has chaos, that can't be denied. It can also be orchestrated by the player, for example creating a club who uses science objects and placing a satellite dish on the lot they're gathering on.
These are how I see it. As someone who likes easier gameplay, I like the toggles for challenges.
Anyway, thank you for focusing on bettering the game. Please keep up the good work!
Edit. I'm now suffering from the writer's block after writing this. I like the detail that when sim writes or programs too much, they'll get a special moodlet that disables the actions they've have done, thus forcing them to take a break.
So, basically, I love your game, but I've been playing it since 2017 (I know, I'm a n00b) and I end up making up a lot of my own challenges. I really love making up my own challenges with my own rules, but I do understand that not everyone wants that kind of self-directed play.
Things I think you've done really well, depth and challenge wise:
Gardening, as in Base Game Gardening. I love grafting and creating new plants through grafting. It's one of my favorite skills.
The Doctor career in Get to Work: I love trying to diagnose Sims with their illnesses. Now that I've played some doctors, I'm all, "Yep, my Sim is swatting in front of her face, she has Starry Eyes, what do you mean I can't give her meds yet? Hmf, fine, is the moodlet there yet?" :wink: (That said, the non-Doctor side of the illness system is pretty shallow and I wish I had different meds for different illnesses, or a clinic.)
The Vampire skill tree. I end up thinking really hard about weaknesses. I sometimes leave them at Master rather than Grand Master, because I really want sun resistance and the cool fast running, but by Grand Master I always end up picking a weakness I hate. ;smiley:
I LOOOOOOOOOVE the Get Famous work chance cards--they often give difficult decisions, where I sit there and stare at the card for a while thinking about what my Sim would actually do! I also like the Eco Lifestyle phone calls (basically I just think they're cute/funny).
I really like base game collectables and the hidden worlds and am sad that at some point you stopped doing hidden worlds. I love when you give us new incentives to use collectables, too, like Jungle Adventure relics or the Scientist career, or the Celestial Crystal Crown.
I do a lot of aspirations--I have a Super Sim challenge where she's doing every single aspiration, and some of the aspirations are more fun than others. I really enjoy Outdoor Enthusiast, Jungle Explorer, and the creative aspirations (I play a lot of painters and musicians, too). I usually play on long lifespan and have my teens do Friend of the World and Body Builder, and/or maybe Nerd Brain. And of course since I play a lot of Gardeners I often do Freelance Botanist. I really like aspirations with a cool reward trait and some interesting, challenging, non-tutorial (sorry!) type steps to them. (Beach Life isn't my favorite aspiration to do, but I do it because I love the reward trait.) Some of my favorite aspiration reward traits are Beloved from Friend of the World, Handy from Nerd Brain, Unstoppable Fame (although I don't really like doing parts of the aspiration, sorry), and I did Extreme Sports Enthusiast before Jungle Explorer in one save and LOVED that the Survival Instinct reward trait seemed to help a lot in Selvadorada!
Jungle Adventure is one of my favorite packs. I don't tend to play archaeologists who do that full-time, however. I really like the temple runs. I also really like Outdoor Retreat. (Unpopular opinion? I adore Island Living, for the beautiful world and mermaids and the Conservationist career. I play a bunch of crunchy granola saving-the-world Environmentalist type Sims. I like Eco Lifestyle, too, because it fits well into that style of play--I have an Eco-Inventor living in Sulani with her Gardener husband and her cat and they run around cleaning up trash, etc., in their spare time. I wish the trash they cleaned up went into the recycler to give her materials, though!)
Lot Challenges are AWESOME and I love that you can have more than one. I particularly love Simple Living because I play a lot of gardeners but previously I felt like there wasn't a lot of incentive to grow fruits and veggies. (Er, I usually hone in on those exotic high-value plants, lol.) I know there's a happy buff from eating high quality produce, or from cooking with high quality produce, but those fruits and veggies kept getting edged out by orchids, dragonfruit, and death flowers. :smiley: The aforementioned couple in Sulani have off-the-grid, simple living, and reduce and recycle and I adore it. <3
I play a lot of families and really like Sim kids. The interactions are really cute! That said, I've kind of fallen into a routine of getting them every possible bonus and having them all have perfect character values and straight As in school. I might need to shake things up. I've started having twins, lol.
Things I am... less enthusiastic about... include skills where they're not really useful outside one specific context and you just click it once and forget it. (Sorry, Skiing and Snowboarding.) There's a difference between, say, fishing (which is also click it and forget it and also very RNG dependent, but provides food or money) and telling your Sim to continuously ski and then putting the camera on follow and opening up your chat window. Erm. Sorry! Similarly, I like knitting more than cross-stitching because I feel like knitting provides clothing, baby and toddler onesies, etc., while cross-stitching just provides A Thing For The Wall. That said, I adore that you can use llama wool in your inventory for both of them, and cross-stitch from reference is an interesting and cool idea! I do a lot of paint from reference and photography for portraits of my Sims. <3
I also really love both aliens and mermaids, but am sad that they didn't come with aspirations, skill trees, etc.
One thing that upset me, non-pack-integration-wise, is that since I spend so much time making all my children "perfect" they all have the Responsible trait, which means that their daily task is autocompleted and they automatically work hard. This meant that Every. Single. One of them. Got the Workaholic lifestyle, which I LOATHE. :disappointed:
Anyway. Um. I would like for difficulty to be a slider? so you don't lock out people like my nieces, who played as tweens. (Also I was terrible at this game when I started playing, lol.) Also some of my saves are things like the Seven Toddler challenge or All Lot Challenges, and TBH some of them are just comfort food where I've had a hard day at work and just want to check in with my Sims and keep them happy and spoil them rotten. That said, yes, I do know that many other Simmers would love burglars and random meteors killing their Sims (I'm less a fan of the idea, but I'm super focused on my own thing--but don't want to deny that to others if that's what they want!). I've suggested elsewhere a High Crime Rate Lot Challenge for burglars.
That said, "difficulty" and "depth" are two different things and I'm really more interested in depth, where I need to figure out how to do something (for example grafting combinations, and where things tie together, especially across packs, than I am in "difficulty," where my Sim skills and earns slower and is more likely to be killed.
To keep it Simple. It would nice if you could just expand and update the content we already have. Basegame CAS objects look significantly different than the recent CAS objects as in quality.
Career: I think the Career system could be re-worked. In real life, finding a career even after College/University can be hard. It would nice to have the option to make it more difficult. Ex.) Job Application/Interview Process/Orientation! Even having the possibility of not receiving a job. This would also give more value to the character skills. Even if careers are rabbit holes, at least an 'orientation', or 'first day' type of thing could add more value to the basegame.
Personalities: It feels like every sim is the same! Sims who dislike cooking and don't have the skill can still pull off an "Excellent" meal. I remember when sims mimicked 'depression', and it was difficult to get them to do almost anything! It was extremely challenging just like in real life. It is easy to have a romantic relationship in the Sims 4, but no challenge in building the relationship, no challenge in keeping the relationship together, no drama, etc...
Activity: I understand this is Base Game, but there is no point to anything you do in the base game. It all leads to a dead-end. If the base game and the free content was all I could afford, I would still want my game to feel wholesome.
Finances: Like careers, I feel like the financial aspect of the game could be re-worked. More realism. Ex.) Opening multiple accounts, paying for particular services, negative account balance.
There is no real negativity or difficulty in this game! Most of us have been rocking with the Sims since it came out, and this game has become very "child-like" and "whimsical". Please don't forget about the older generation! Life is hard, and challenging! we need struggle! I want to SimCity Government knocking on my door asking where's the money at type of struggle.
Hello, I've been in love with sims for years, and while continuing to support sims 4 by buying the packs I cannot get myself to play it. I continue to support it because while it has become a mainstream game, it still feels very niche and there are not a lot of games out there like this for fans like us. Thank you so much for continuing to produce and improve upon the game.
I have not thought in depth about this as much as others have, but here are things I can think of that I feel would draw me back in and make me continue to support the game.
1. More personality for the sims. It feels like playing barbies, everything feels too player driven. I always got a sense that nothing would occur unless I initiated it. Every time I started a new save or family it felt like I just redressed my barbies and used a different play house. Relationships feel shallow. I found it hard to, for instance, make a turbulent mother/daughter relationship. Perhaps there could be some sort of relationship point system behind the veiled curtain. Things that make sims more likely to argue or fight autonomously, or more likely to hug and have in depth conversations. I don't remember ever truly being shocked or moved by my sims autonomous choices. It always felt like they were just going through the motions and waiting for me to do something. I wanted to react sometimes. Relationships are so complex irl, I would love to see them more fleshed out in the sims. People building groups not because we put them together but because they actually like each other or coming together because they have a common enemy.
2. More likes and dislikes. I remember in the past choosing that a sim doesn't like sims who wear make up, or doesn't like skinny sims, etc. These kinds of things that would make someone attracted to or repulsed by other sims. Again this adds to the feeling of nothing of consequence would happen unless I make it happen in game.
3. Larger worlds/neighborhoods. Everything feels so closed off and segmented. I know we will never have open worlds but Even from a building standpoint it felt hard to make a world feel like it had a certain theme.
4. I'm sure other people have mentioned MCCC. I feel like this is such an essential mod for so many people, it also feels like if a modder can offer this, why can the developers not offer some (if not all) that it offers? For me it is things like the flow of time. Some things seem so unbalanced, which I guess is how real life is but I suppose being able to adjust it to fit your own play style would be nice.
5. Another MCCC thing, more story progression! Again, I feel some of us enjoy the sandbox but also want a little spice. I remember with MCCC in sims 3 it would assign roles to different sims. "This sim is the vampire hunter!" "This sim is the vampire elder!" "This is the town harlot :p" "This is the most popular guy!" Things like that felt like sims had a motivation had a purpose other than doing humdrum activities waiting for the player to initiate an interaction.
6. Simstagram: As I was thinking about MCCC I remember it would announce all sorts of things that were happening in the world. Simstagram could be the face of some of these changes. Your sims could get notifications about the ongoings in the world or among their friends. Scandal, celebrations etc. Imagine a sim getting sad because they find out their best friend threw a party and didn't invite them. Everyone finding out that so and so cheated on their partner and it would affect how people respond to them. Birth announcements, wedding announcements. Club events, etc. This would also make things feel like empty in my opinion.
7. More Holiday cheer. Maybe there could be world wide holiday events. Maybe people like to gather near the bay for fireworks, or a christmas tree lighting event in a park, things that give you the option of interacting with the townies. I feel like it would fit in with the already ongoing flea markets etc.
8. school archetypes, or rather stereotypes. Things that make the stages of youth more memorable. Childhood friends, age old enemies.Rivalries. Memories? Sometimes memories have a greater impact on our emotions than anything else.
9.More on relationships. it feels like sims has the basic relationships. friends, aquaintances, bf, gf, wife, husband. what about step parents? Exes, childhood friends and enemies as mentioned before, ex step parents, inlaws. I feel like all these intricate relationships and perhaps having your sims act based on how the terms of the relationship is would be nice.
[quote="Alma;c-17959847"] These are suggestions to make the sims to feel more real and different from each other, as much as I love this game I often think the interactions are too smooth over all.
- To be able to set my sims to [b]bisexual[/b], [b]homosexual[/b], [b]hetrosexual[/b] or leave as is etc. in CAS
- That sims have more relationships to choose from, not only married or friends in CAS like girlfriend/boyfriend, fiancé/fiancée, poly etc.
- Astrological signs, would give sims more personality away from the other traits already available in game like:
The signs should also be adjusted to fit the seasons: [b]- Spring:[/b] Pisces, Aries & Taurus [b]- Summer[/b]: Gemini, Cancer & Leo [b]- Fall:[/b] Virgo, Libra & Scorpio [b]- Winter:[/b] Sagittarius, Capricorn & Aquarius
- Also [b]Fire signs[/b] should go easier with [b]Air signs[/b] and [b]Earth signs[/b] should go easier with [b]Water signs[/b] etc. but not make it impossible to work beyond the signs, just a bit harder.
- If the sims had preferences for their love interests like: hair color, body type, personality traits, astrological signs etc.
- Be able to choose from: [b]Introvert[/b], [b]Extrover[/b]t or [b]Ambivert[/b].
- More (BG) "normal" careers! They feel very limited.
Just a few things of the top of my mind for now.
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I really love the idea of having signs match seasons! I just wanted to add that maybe if they do something seasonal like that, there should be a southern/northern hemisphere option! I'm a Leo, and my sign would fit under winter here rather than summer. Just a tiny detail that might make people who live in the southern hemisphere feel more included :smile:
I would like to have illness and why not fatal illness . If a sims can die from a bed it would be interesting have real death. Memories like sims 2 could be really awsome. Also in the interest section we could chose attraction like my sims is attracted in male with brown eyes ans you could also have a randomise attraction .
Hello, Sims Team! Thank you for the opportunity to share feedback with you. Here's the list of things that would improve gameplay in the Base Game.
CAS: - I'm, unfortunately, one of those simmers who is unable to change the game language in Origin to the English language due to region restrictions. It would be a great deal to me, and many simmers in situation like mine, to have English names in CAS. What is more the number of names in CAS is severely limited and there are many townies with duplicated names in the world. It is very confusing when you play one save file for more than one generation when there are 5 different townies with the same first and last name. Please, enable us to have English names 🥺 I used to have a mod for English names but it is outdated and breaks the game. To be honest, that's the biggest issue I have with CAS at the moment.
- It would also be awesome to create girlfriends, fiances, aunts, step-family, and other relations in CAS. It gives us more opportunity for storytelling.
WORLD: - When we're starting a new game, we're playing in the same save file since 2014. Same families, same stories, same houses, etc. I'm not going to lie but it got boring over those 7 years. I and many other simmers, create our own save files to spice up the game but the issue arises when there's a bug or glitch and it gets fixed in the update. Most of the time, we're told by the Sim Gurus to start a new game to have it fixed. It would be an amazing feature to change one of our saved games as a 'default save' when we click a "new game" in the Main Menu. We could use other people's families, builds and stories, to play.
- I'm aware that an open world is a no-no feature since the TS4 engine doesn't allow that but is there a possibility to liberate the neighborhood we currently play from the loading screen? We can see in camera mode that the interior of our neighbors' houses are already loaded, so it won't hurt the performance. I think it would be amazing to see our neighbors doing outdoor activities from the comfort of our own homes. We could stop by and say hello, offer help with gardening, etc. It is an amazing opportunity to see our surrounding become more alive and have more options to get to know our neighbors.
- Also when we visit our family and friends from outside of the household it would be cool to cook for them, sleep in the guest room, etc. The relations should allow us to do more at their houses than typical guests like neighbors, without buying the "always welcome" trait.
HOUSEHOLD: - I'm aware it was said multiple times but please, give children more to do. I know since the update children can cook with adults but it would be awesome if we could clean and garden together too! I would love to see my son help his mom with the woodworking table, to see the daughter build a rocketship with dad. Those little things make a lot of difference.
- When it comes to the family gameplay. I'd greatly appreciate it if we had an opportunity to have events like a family gathering, sleepovers, funerals, prom (we have the lounges, those could host the prom for teens!), pool party, etc. ALSO! I find it weird that we can't have a date with our SO at home? I'd love my sim to cook and cuddle on the couch with their partner. Not always date means going out.
- There are some objects that can't be used by children. Toddlers also can't use the potty by themselves unless the parent teaches them, so why not extend that feature for kids too? That way, kids would have more things to do without adding new objects to the game! If they're more skilled they could garden or do flower arrangements (if you have Seasons, of course) by themselves!
- Work is an essential thing in The Sims and not only for adults. It would mean a lot if we could work from home in any career! And it also includes children, I'd love to see my child being homeschooled, having to do online classes, etc. Home offices would make more sense if we had an opportunity to work/learn from home.
- What is more, it would also improve gameplay if Sims on higher-level careers had more opportunities revolving around their career. We already have SMS pop-ups in-game about many things. If my Sim is on top of the Painting career they would get a message to sell their masterpiece to the museum for a higher price and gain more recognition with sims in the same career. If my Sim is a leader of the free world, I'd love to get emails with propositions to improve the neighborhood from sims like Bella Goth and when he declines, the relationship would deteriorate. Why limit the work just to gain money? Work should also influence relationships, lifestyle, etc.
- I also would love to call the repair person to improve the quality of the toilet or fridge. Why limit them to only repair the object? They're skilled enough to improve the quality of the mattress in the master bedroom too! My more posh and influential sims shouldn't be doing it by themselves.
- Also since we're at service sims, it would be great to have a live-in maid, nanny, and gardener full time just as we have the butler. I'd love to have a part of my sims house dedicated to the help, they're so rich they could afford to them live in their mansion.
- A lot of simmers want the burglars and police back and I want it too but it would be awesome if garbage man was added too! The animation is already there, it just needs an NPC to do the job.
- More autonomy outside the household. Sometimes I want to go to the party but I don't want my sims to host it. Why can't I attend my sister's wedding as a guest? If my sim dates another sim, I want the NPC to pop a question about marriage if our relationship is good enough. We need to see that not only our household has their own thing going on.
OTHER: - I know that for me and some other simmers the number of notifications we get concerning festivals and community voting is getting out of hand. Sometimes I get like 4 notifications in a row. Can we turn them off completely? We have a calendar in BG, we already know when certain events take place.
- If we silence our sims phone, can we not get messages at all? I sometimes don't care about going out on a date, I want to focus on improving my sims skills.
- AND PLEASE, let us disable the gameplay aspect of Strangerville. I know it's not the base game feature but I just want my sim to live there, without playing the storyline again. Just like we can disable the weather and fame, we could also disable the Strangerville story.
Comments
I tried to build a haunted house attraction the other day, but was disappointed that it wasn't possible. It would be so awesome to be able to build a lot, assign employees to it, and give them each the job of only scaring visitors. What if I could build a casino with a setting that forced guests to play poker? Or a church with settings that forced visitors to sit in the pews and listen to a speaker at a specific time? It would also be nice to have lot entrance fees.
Neighborhoods should have some settings too. What if I wanted a neighborhood to only allow Vampires or Spellcasters to live there? Or I wanted all Vampires in the neighborhood to automatically hate all the mortals that lived there?
I feel like there are so many cool things that are ALMOST possible with the Sims 4, but ultimately mechanics get in the way. There are so many lot types that ALMOST work the way I think they should, but ultimately I have to set my creativity aside and go with the story that was sold to me with a pack. I know that you like to build packs that really expand on a single idea, and that is great, but ultimately a few simple settings or rules would open a whole new world of gameplay — without having to wait for a pack to be created and hoping that it is just the way you want it.
Regarding depth, I would love for a remake of the whims. I feel like we need a system similar to the wants and fears in The Sims 2. Something that will help us create storys and that will correlate to the personality of the sims.
Something else I would like to have is the ability to give more then 3 traits to sims. I like the emotions system but I feel like it outshines the sims personalities. We need a balance.
Also, I wish the team could focus more on the details. It may sound silly but it adds so much to the immersion while playing. For example, kids being picked up by a school bus when going to school, sims interacting with the elevator instead of just teleporting and sims lining up in front of the cash registers to pay for the item they want in Get To Work.
Something else that I would like is for townies/npcs to be contained to their world. It completely breaks my immersion to see Eliza Pancakes in Mt. Komorebi or the Landgrabbs in Henford On Bagley. And it feels like it is always the same thing over and over again.
I was debating on making a post because from what I've read, everything I would like to see in the game has been covered. I don't want to repeat the same things as everyone below. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that what we want is DIVERSITY. The reason that we complain so much about the Sims 4 is because it's the same thing each time you play and it's boring. It almost doesn't matter what traits your sims have because it doesn't change the gameplay. Right now, I have a non-committal sim in a long term relationship. Yeah, he becomes tense every now and then, but it goes away after 4 hours. He should be able to autonomously break-up with her while he is tense. Nothing bad or exciting ever happens in the game unless we, the simmers, make it happen and it doesn't make for fun gameplay. It just becomes repetitive.
Sentiments are probably the best feature in the game. I love when my sims autonomously get grudges towards each other. It adds storyline to the game, but I think it needs to be pushed farther. For example, if my teen is getting bad grades in school, my sim should receive a "disappointed parent" sentiment. If my teen is getting good grades, my sim should receive a "proud parent" sentiment.
The same is said for Likes and Dislikes, I was beyond excited when this feature was added, but I hope you're looking into adding more activities and other preferences (such as sexual orientation and turn on/turn offs, this already talked about below more in depth- and it couldn't agree with it more). For example, my sim is a bookworm, but I can't make her one of her favorite hobbies reading and I find that annoying, she should be able to gain fun while reading. To go along with this, it would be nice to make my neat sim's favorite hobby cleaning. There's so much more that could be added for this. One of my favorite features in the Sims 3 was being able to pick a sims favorite food, I hope that it can find it's way into the Sims 4.
My favorite way to play the Sims 4 is doing Legacy Challenges, I love family-oriented gameplay and making large families. My biggest problem with this is my sim's extended family doesn't act like family. My sim isn't allowed to cook at her mother's house with being called inappropriate and rude. My child sim can't sleepover with her cousin's at her aunt's house without being kicked out. I want the game to recognize the difference between friends and family. It's also upsetting when you play for 10 generations, but can only see the last 4 of them because the family tree becomes glitched- I know this isn't a suggestion, it's more of a complaint, but I think it needs to be looked into.
Here are my suggestions for more realistic family gameplay:
-child/teen sims being able to host slumber parties
-more afterschool activities
-prom/graduation
-making homework a group activity
-family portraits/seasonal postcards
-strollers
Overall, this past couple months I think you are on the right track in understanding what we want. We miss the small details that were implemented in the Sims 2 and Sims 3, but for some reason not included in the Sims 4. I miss my sims being able to spoon at night, sims not having chemistry, sims being able to serve food, seeing my sims get on the school bus, sims leaving roses after a good date, pressing the wrong button and getting fired from my job, and more.
I understand the Sims 4 has a lot that the previous games didn't have. Maybe you thought it would make up for not adding these details. Maybe you didn't think we would miss them, but I think I speak for everyone when we say: we do.
Thank you for reading!
To give meaning to sims experiences we really need memories and a way look back on past sentiments to give more meaning to them.
Depth however, is a different story. New traits, better diversity in the way different sims act and even a relationship overhaul like others suggested would be really fun to play with.
•Another thing would be to either take off or raise the maximum amount of Sims you can have in a household.
•It would also be nice to have an option in game settings that would allow a random chance of having a baby from regular "Woo-Hoo" instead of only from "Try for baby"
Sims 4 is way too easy in my opinion, so when I play I created many challenges tomake it more interesting, here are a few suggestions:
1/The "taxi" to go from one lot to an other is free. When I play rags to riches I use the money cheat to take fees from my sims's "bank account" when I use it. 10 simoleons for going to a lot in the same neighborhood, 50 simoleons to go to a lot in an other neighborhood. If my sims want to use it freely, they have to pay a 1000 simoleons "lifetime membership" to this "Oober" service (I also make my sim reimburse the "bank" for the lot money we need to buy it in the beginning) it really adds a lot of challenge, because my sims rely either on the part of town they move in, or on the friends they make to invite them somewhere and it makes every save feel unique (also just saying this would be a great way to implement cars, but, you know... xD )
2/I would love more natural catastrophes. Make my house's roof to leak and make me pay 3000 simoleons to have it fixed, make my sims die from that volcan eruption happening on their lot (crushed by a boulder)
3/More consequences to diseases. I have get to work and it's quite annoying to only have to buy medicine (and one type of medicine for all diseases), I'd love my sims to really get sick and have to go to the hospital to see a doctor (even as a rabbithole) come back with a diagnosis and have to buy the right type of medicine for what they have.
Basically I want my sims to STRUGGLE and have problems, and money issues, things that will drastically affect my story, that I won't have planned of expected. Even if it's an option, like "Sims 4 survival mode" because you fear this would drive away beginner players (I love that you can have all the lot challenges on your residential lot now, I did this and this is pure chaos, I love it, my sims also have to pay if they want lot traits added/removed and lot challenges removed, with a limit of one per generation, i'm having a LOT of fun with this feature right now)
4/I'd love aspirations that don't look like tutorials, make them ALL difficult. Something I loved from the sims 2 and would love to see return is different tombstones depending on if your sims completed their aspiration / earned enough points from whims, it pushed me to fullfill them more and made graveyards more interesting
5/ speaking of whims, I think they're nice BUT I feel like I'm always getting the same whims over and over again, I want more, especially when my sims travel in Jungle Adventure, I want my lazy sim to just chill, and my fitness crazy boy to want to explore the jungle
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[*] More consequential personalities and choices. Everything's so lifeless.
[*] Memorieeeeees. As it is, everything's so lifeless.
[*] Make it harder AND two-sided for relationship interactions/choices. Everything's so lifeless.
[*] Why do 5-year-olds age up to 18-year-olds? Make teens younger and have more teen traits. Make elders have more age-related traits than just being easily over-exerted from everything. Everything's so lifeless.
[*] Story progression for households not currently being played and don't delete all their furnishings when they die and new sims move into the empty home with no bed or kitchen. They should get married and have kids. My whole town ends up old and empty. Everything's so lifeless.
[*] What's the point of the baby stage when they are a fixed object as they currently are? Ew. Everything's so lifeless.
[*] Burglars! Arrests! Special quirky NPCs like the doctor that would show up to help a crazy sim or the garbage-rummaging bear. Everything's so lifeless.
[*] The grocery lot challenge should be base game because it adds realism and a challenge. Everything's so lifeless.
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TL;DR Everything's so lifeless.
Neighbours interactions or some sort of world relations. At the moment you get the welcome wagon and then depending on what you do at that point it just becomes radio silence. The odd sim walks past but nothing else happens really. Having people who live close being more likely to walk past rather than townies would be amazing. For example, from the welcome wagon I picked a fight with one sim, ignored another and flirted with the 3rd, what I would want to happen is maybe the one I picked a fight with comes round randomly to kick my bin over or steals something in the front yard or go through the post box etc. The one I ignored then ignores me making it hard to be their friend later and the one I flirted with would text me or turn up at my house and try to pursue me not the other way round.
The return of home interactions. Don't pay? Bailiffs come to take my things rather than turn off my power. We did get fire fighters but what about the police and in the same vein the robbers, maybe even tie it up with the career where if I am a criminal I won't be robbed but I will start to get hated for that choice.
Family trees: Probably been stated to death but having uncles and aunts etc would bring more life into the world. For an example if I do the 100 baby challenge I would love an option when they hit young adult to "leave home" to an empty lot and let the sims I am not playing to have children and maybe even break up (I am looking at you pancakes). So when my sim turns into an elder and the last of my household dies seeing the full family tree of everything this one sim has created and fostered would be wonderful, it would honestly feel like a reward and gives a moment of bittersweet as this would give more of a reason to care and stick to one sim to raise a family and see the outcome of your sim.
World loot and exploration. In one word: more. In two words: more please. I love going round the world and picking up stuff and seeing what comes out of walking somewhere rather than fast travel and forget that you have made beautiful world designs, let me stay in these pretty locations and reward me for digging through every nook and cranny.
Likes and dislikes. Having likes and dislikes to other sims traits. So I could make a slob sim like neat sims and having a challenge then in the household since they are conflicting. The slob sim would be happy because the neat sim is tidying but is uncomfortable because they themself want it to be a mess. Also making these likes and dislikes more impactful this would then elevate the gameplay when these things happen.
Emotions, after playing the game for... too long... it would be nice to see bigger range of emotions.
My partner shouted behind me "bring back the death phone, I want my zombies"
Thanks for reading, dag dag!
1. Please add some kind of ‘wants and fears’ system like in past games - this would add meaningful consequences that are tailored to specific sims (I really loved how in past games, not all sims were happy about having a baby, getting married etc. This felt very realistic)
2. Please overhaul the aspiration system so it is more of a singular ‘life goal’ then a broad tutorial that is too prescriptive. At this point, I’ve completed all the aspirations and don’t necessarily want to revisit them, since they are lengthy, repetitive and usually don’t involve features from multiple packs
3. Please add an attraction system!! And make sure the attractions can be one-sided, since unrequited love is such a realistic challenge we all have to deal with from time to time
There are a lots of other small tweaks but these are my top 3 suggestions for in-depth, challenging, meaningful gameplay.
Players can ignore babies in their bassinets for everything except feeding and they won't be taken away. Also, feeding and changing doesn't have to be the extent of what adults do and must give their babies. What about health checkups and vaccinations? What about spitting up? What about playing with the baby so they learn things.
There is so much missed opportunity in BABIES ALONE that has been completely overlooked for 7 years. You want to hear our feedback on how to deepen gameplay, but sometimes it does coincide with requests and I'm afraid this one must. Please again, do not dismiss due to this, but please consider carefully how you can achieve some new and challenging family gameplay with babies. They aren't just objects or they shouldn't be, but that is for another time :smile: HAPPY SIMMING!
I would love to see traits like Vegetarian and Lactose intolerant as likes/ dislikes then an actual trait. Not eating meat isn't a personality trait. The category could be something like diet preferences and maybe you could even add more options like Gluten intolerant (yes I'm a celiac). I do understand that this would mean flagging all the foods with the tags like Vegetarian safe which is more work.
Thanks for this cool opportunity here!
Vivi
Risk whilst playing makes the game more fun for me. I would like my sims to struggle with robberies, random bill surges due to in game events (like a tax raise or something) the ability to get loans like you have in university but for just everyday play. For teens maybe them running away like they did in sims 2 or even just sneaking out pass curfew. Maybe flooding could be added as a thing, if you dont turn off the broken plumbing the puddles start to get worse and can break other electrical equipment nearby.
Neighbourhood traits, like how youve seperated out the semi open world into different places, those whole areas could have good and bad traits to them, for instance, increased bills due to it being nice, or cheap if its full of trash in places. Even neighbourhoods that could be affected by massive power outages.
A wants and fears system similar to sims 2. I feel it would add some good direction to peoples gameplay and would increase the challenge by having to avoid fears.
Maybe could be intergrated into the likes/dislikes, but if some sims could be naturally better or worse at gaining some skills. Like you could have a sim that loves to cook, but be terrible at it and gain the skill slowly. This could either be picked or decided at random.
I feel like its important to mention that with any of these ideas we all have and if you choose to implement any of them, that they should be allowed to be toggled on or off. Having this level of customisation in features like you have now with the fame opt out and turning off cottage living animal aging would be a good step. So people can turn off the robbers, but keep on the random bill surges (or have that as a neighbourhood trait)
Being able to set custom life stages would be great for legacy players that, like me, think the short lifespan is too short or the normal one is too long.
More negative traits, or bigger impact of the traits we have. Like mean sims arent all that mean nor are evil ones. Increase the negative stuff they can do to others, make it a big part of their personaility.
Aspirations could also be made harder too or more secret aspirations (like grilled cheese aspiration) could be added. I feel that after playing the sims 4 for years, I know exactly what to do for each aspiration and I finish them too quickly.
Thanks Sims Team <3
To me, a long time simmer, I do not want to bring back anything. I want to improve the systems we have. I have all packs and all content including kits.
For me, I play a family for a specific purpose but soon find it becomes monotomous because my family lacks emotional depth. Each should have a distinct personality where emotions, intelligence, mental health, and personality determine interactions. I build stories, such as Rey from Batuu is hearing impaired since she only has certain dialogue programmed, or my Viking family is living off the land but over time they lack emotional attachment to make it worth continuing to play in that family for long periods of time and I really want that to change.
So I build. For example, a world save of Star Wars, Viking world save. Medieval/Renaissance, Fantasy world saves. Things like that. I no longer play as often because I am not playing a family or sims with depth...
1. The saddest for any family is when the children (babies, child, and teen) are not interacting as a family or fighting as a family would. Children should bicker and get into it with each other on occasion. No one is that happy. Babies should be able to be interactive, rather than an object. (Disclaimer: I know this would be difficult to recode at this junction) However, this shows a lack of parenting skills (to create babies as objects indicate that the individual doesn't or didn't have children), it really does. Babies need more than just feeding, cuddle and diaper changes. These interactions between parents and babies, family members, and babies need to have consequences for their budding personalities. For example, if they are ignored, will the budding sim grow up to have attachment issues and develop the loner and angry trait? Will they gain a happy trait no matter their situation? Are the loved and cuddled ones going to gain the social trait? Spoilt trait? Life is a rosy bucket of flowers trait? They need out of the cradle and onto a play mat, swing, or changing table!
2. We aren't able to have cousins or grandparents or teens that have children (without a mod). The family tree needs to be improved to include these options.
I want some reality in my sims game and as much as I respect the modding community, I would LOVE to have these aspects without having to rely on a mod. Of course, it is a game but has declined in aspects that don't represent most of the sims community. It is marketed toward teens but plays like toddlers. Do you know how many GenX'rs play? Probably more than Maxis and EA realize. We tend to be quieter lol.
Anyway-Traits, personality development, adding depth such as improvements to careers. For example, Cops should be able to actually arrest someone that burglarized a home and the consequence is they are brought up before a judge (What use are all those degrees in University if we can't use them). Social workers are called in for mental health cases. I built a psychiatric facility for our criminally insane trait sims. Our babies can be taken away with social services but who are these sims? Do the babies just get culled? What happens in a domestic dispute between sims? Oh wait, we don't have that...
3. One thing I have not seen yet is an improvement to the basic game color swatches for building. Wallpapers, flooring, stairs, columns, spandrels, roofs. Terrain paints need some love and added options. After 7 years of the same walls, any sim is ready to pull their hair out from lack of option. We shouldn't as a player base have to rely upon doing recolors of walls, floors, etc ourselves just to have variety. But that is what I have done, learned it so I can make it happen myself. Hmmmm.
Thank you for listening. Have a great day and Happy Sim Simming!
When I say I want more challenge in the game, what I mean by that is simple things that make realistic gameplay more difficult. The simple living lot challenge was a good first step. I was disappointed with the bust the dust kit, because I was hoping for a similar effect. The dust bunnies ruined that for me. I would love if there were some returns from previous games like house plants dying, weeds in landscaping, making the beds, burglars that steal belongings, etc. Also making it more difficult to gain skills, harder to move up in careers, etc. If I am playing a household with a single parent these things add another level of challenge to improving their life and accomplishing there goals. It is a life simulating game, don't be afraid to include the mundane things in life. (I don't think the success of the laundry day SP was a coincidence)
DEPTH:
Memories need to be fixed. Please move them back to the Simology panel, as this is the Sims "mind" where they belong. Literally copy and paste from sims 2. Why do anything in the game, if your sims has no recollection of it? With the addition of emotions it is nice to attach emotions to the memories, but we as the player should be able to decide what emotion to add. (You should also be able to alter them, ex. married a sims=happy, later got divorced married memory now = sad) Also fixing "firsts" I hate that you have a first kiss with every partner. Realistically you only have 1 first. (First kiss, first woohoo, first job, first love, etc.)
Whims need to be reimplemented and improved. Sims feel like empty shells with no meaningful desires. Giving them wants that connect solely to their personality traits, aspiration, or relationships would greatly improve this. No more "buy this" or pack related wants "bee box". They don't add anything. Also adding fears that are unique to each individual sim. (The only fear that every sims should have is a fear of death/Grim Reaper. Most adults aren't afraid of thunderstorms, please let us pick what they are afraid of)
Never again use an aspiration as a tutorial, PLEASE! These were meant to be lifetime goals. Adding more simple aspirations would be nice too, like reaching the top of specific careers. No more meaningless ones like Pristine Clean.
Changing the interactions pie menu. Right now you click and choose friendly/mean interactions etc. You know what the outcome will be before you even do it. There is no spontaneity. I want neutral interactions that have a chance of being positive/negative/or boring. Not only that, but interactions don't do anything. For example, ask about career is one of the few that gets a response. Discussing interests? They don't even have interests.
Which brings me to the next one, interests returning and differentiation between skills/interests/hobbies. Skills=how good you are at something. hobbies=liking that activity and doing it often. (Not necessarily good at it) Interests=liking that activity. (Not necessarily doing it) For example, a child may be pushed by their parent to become skilled in piano, but they don't like it which means it is not a hobby for them. They do like painting, but their parents discourage such frivolous use of time, therefore it is only an interest of theirs. They do however, spend time cooking with their parents and enjoy it therefore it is a hobby.
An attraction system. The Sims franchise has always been inclusive and accepting, but in my opinion it does a disservice by pretending everyone is the same in the Sims 4. Being able to identify with your Woohoo orientation, gender expression, or gender identity would make sims more unique and enhance storytelling. Also it is completely unrealistic to think people like everyone equally. Everyone has preferences, whether its personality traits, or physical attributes. If I am making a lesbian sim, I don't want her reacting positively to Don Lothario flirting with her.
More Drama! There isn't enough negativity in the game. Everyone is happy all the time. THIS IS BORING! Even the gossip system (text messages) is boring. "heard you became friends with ____ ,their pretty cool" The reputation system doesn't seem to affect much either.
Plus wages are so high that it's nearly impossible to stay poor or even mid income. I have to mod the bills to astronomical levels just to have a reason to go to work.
I have thought of it a long time, forgotten it, rethought it, forgotten it again, and now finally rethought it. I'll try to remember what I've thought.
Thinking about challenge, I thought about the previous games. The Sims 1, 2, and 3 seem so similar, and then The Sims 4 is so different. I'm not against it. It's refreshing. But there are ideas that could be brought in from the previous games and ideas that could be kept in The Sims 4.
Ideas I would keep is the lot challenges and pack, gameplay, and weather options. After all, players are all different. Some want a relaxing game while others want challenge and chaos. The toggles to turn them on and off is great. For example right now you can turn on NPC voting so your sim has to try their best to get another NAP active instead of "Sharing is Caring", otherwise sims are free to steal from you.
Now what made the previous game more challenging and harder? One thing is for sure, the lack of toggles.
The Sims 1 is the most difficult game in the series. The needs go down fast and time went by way too fast. Additionally, as soon as sim's mood was an half red line, sims refused to do anything. No job searching, no skill building, no accepting social interactions. What you had to do was strict routine. What time to eat, clean, work, build skills, sleep. Go off the routine at least a little bit and you're in trouble.
Now the other things what made the game difficult is skills. How? Sims won't learn cooking by cooking, but rather by reading a book. If sim with no skills cooks, they almost always set the house on fire. Getting electrocuted is instant death. According to The Sims Wiki, sims can randomly drown in pools. Sims can get fined by performing magic in front of sims who don't have a wand. The difficulty in TS1 for me is too much.
The Sims 2 does it a little better. Needs go down slower (exception being energy need for toddlers) and sims can learn skills from practice (sims finally learn cooking by cooking!). Though this game adds additional challenge in a form of aspirations, wants and fears, and aging. Fulfill wants and sims will be happy. Realize their fears and they'll eventually have a breakdown. And sims don't have forever to live anymore. Sims start their life as babies, grow into toddlers who want to learn to walk and talk, then into children who start going to school, then into teenagers who can take care of themselves, then into adults who can start their own family (pregnancy was added in that game), and then finally become elders who will eventually die by old age.
Additonally, The Sims 2 add more challenge elements in add-ons. Fury system for example, making a sim temporarily hate another sim for what they've done (and sims in TS2 will fight a lot). There are also challenge elements that have reappeared in The Sims 4 in lot challenges, for example having to order groceries in order to make food (Simple Living) and having to throw away diapers after changing them (Reduce and Recycle). Then there are some things from The Sims 1 that doesn't reappear in future games, for example, sims having different relationship bars to each other (Sim A has 87 points with Sim B while Sim B has 32 points with Sim A) and interest system.
The Sims 3 starts going easy, having needs go down slower and replacing the need-based mood bar with moodlet-based one. Additionally, this game starts the "pregnant sims cannot die" trend. It adds opportunities: some quests/errands sims can get from phone calls or work and get rewards from. Open world also presents its own challenge as you now have to think about time it takes to reach from point A to B. And it makes university harder, making sims have to study constantly to get an A. Plus the trait system can add challenges, for example having sims break things often or having harder time flirting.
Though it can't be denied that the games keep getting easier. The Sims 3 gets much less challenging with Into the Future expansion pack due to objects in there. Though it also keep some other challenges, for example having bills arrive 2 times a week. The lifetime rewards and skill challenges help to eliminate challenges like fire, bills, and fading friendships. While lifetime points can be earned by fulfilling wishes and the lifetime wish, you can also earn them by doing the loading screen minigame (find x and earn points). Plus when choosing a household to play, you can also see the difficulty which depends on how many sims are there and how old are they.
Now then, after the rundown, what makes the previous games more challenging than others?
It's harder to earn money. Bills arrive every tuesday and thursday (or every three days). After that, work and hobbies won't be making you rich quickly, so you'll have to be frugal to succeed. There are also no loans in the game (student loans exists in The Sims 4, which can result in repo-man's visit if not paid). It's much more easier to earn money in The Sims 4. Search the pockets of the clothing in laundry basket, ask the dust bunnies to search for treasure, sell the stuff that happen to end up on your lot etc.
Sims are more in danger. What do sims in the previous games do when there's a fire? They run near it and panic, panic, panic. In The Sims 2, they may even run into fire in panic. In The Sims 1, sims who are on fire cannot be saved. In previous games, I remember a lot of time when I exited the game without saving due to my sims accidentally dying. In The Sims 4, it happens much much more rarely. It has happened with bunk beds and cold weather.
There is much more chaos. Burglars coming to steal, sims your sim has angered coming to kick over the trash can, police coming to fine your sim for using the chemistry set at the wrong time etc. The Sims 4 also has chaos, that can't be denied. It can also be orchestrated by the player, for example creating a club who uses science objects and placing a satellite dish on the lot they're gathering on.
These are how I see it. As someone who likes easier gameplay, I like the toggles for challenges.
Anyway, thank you for focusing on bettering the game. Please keep up the good work!
Edit. I'm now suffering from the writer's block after writing this. I like the detail that when sim writes or programs too much, they'll get a special moodlet that disables the actions they've have done, thus forcing them to take a break.
So, basically, I love your game, but I've been playing it since 2017 (I know, I'm a n00b) and I end up making up a lot of my own challenges. I really love making up my own challenges with my own rules, but I do understand that not everyone wants that kind of self-directed play.
Things I think you've done really well, depth and challenge wise:
Gardening, as in Base Game Gardening. I love grafting and creating new plants through grafting. It's one of my favorite skills.
The Doctor career in Get to Work: I love trying to diagnose Sims with their illnesses. Now that I've played some doctors, I'm all, "Yep, my Sim is swatting in front of her face, she has Starry Eyes, what do you mean I can't give her meds yet? Hmf, fine, is the moodlet there yet?" :wink: (That said, the non-Doctor side of the illness system is pretty shallow and I wish I had different meds for different illnesses, or a clinic.)
The Vampire skill tree. I end up thinking really hard about weaknesses. I sometimes leave them at Master rather than Grand Master, because I really want sun resistance and the cool fast running, but by Grand Master I always end up picking a weakness I hate. ;smiley:
I LOOOOOOOOOVE the Get Famous work chance cards--they often give difficult decisions, where I sit there and stare at the card for a while thinking about what my Sim would actually do! I also like the Eco Lifestyle phone calls (basically I just think they're cute/funny).
I really like base game collectables and the hidden worlds and am sad that at some point you stopped doing hidden worlds. I love when you give us new incentives to use collectables, too, like Jungle Adventure relics or the Scientist career, or the Celestial Crystal Crown.
I do a lot of aspirations--I have a Super Sim challenge where she's doing every single aspiration, and some of the aspirations are more fun than others. I really enjoy Outdoor Enthusiast, Jungle Explorer, and the creative aspirations (I play a lot of painters and musicians, too). I usually play on long lifespan and have my teens do Friend of the World and Body Builder, and/or maybe Nerd Brain. And of course since I play a lot of Gardeners I often do Freelance Botanist. I really like aspirations with a cool reward trait and some interesting, challenging, non-tutorial (sorry!) type steps to them. (Beach Life isn't my favorite aspiration to do, but I do it because I love the reward trait.) Some of my favorite aspiration reward traits are Beloved from Friend of the World, Handy from Nerd Brain, Unstoppable Fame (although I don't really like doing parts of the aspiration, sorry), and I did Extreme Sports Enthusiast before Jungle Explorer in one save and LOVED that the Survival Instinct reward trait seemed to help a lot in Selvadorada!
Jungle Adventure is one of my favorite packs. I don't tend to play archaeologists who do that full-time, however. I really like the temple runs. I also really like Outdoor Retreat. (Unpopular opinion? I adore Island Living, for the beautiful world and mermaids and the Conservationist career. I play a bunch of crunchy granola saving-the-world Environmentalist type Sims. I like Eco Lifestyle, too, because it fits well into that style of play--I have an Eco-Inventor living in Sulani with her Gardener husband and her cat and they run around cleaning up trash, etc., in their spare time. I wish the trash they cleaned up went into the recycler to give her materials, though!)
Lot Challenges are AWESOME and I love that you can have more than one. I particularly love Simple Living because I play a lot of gardeners but previously I felt like there wasn't a lot of incentive to grow fruits and veggies. (Er, I usually hone in on those exotic high-value plants, lol.) I know there's a happy buff from eating high quality produce, or from cooking with high quality produce, but those fruits and veggies kept getting edged out by orchids, dragonfruit, and death flowers. :smiley: The aforementioned couple in Sulani have off-the-grid, simple living, and reduce and recycle and I adore it. <3
I play a lot of families and really like Sim kids. The interactions are really cute! That said, I've kind of fallen into a routine of getting them every possible bonus and having them all have perfect character values and straight As in school. I might need to shake things up. I've started having twins, lol.
Things I am... less enthusiastic about... include skills where they're not really useful outside one specific context and you just click it once and forget it. (Sorry, Skiing and Snowboarding.) There's a difference between, say, fishing (which is also click it and forget it and also very RNG dependent, but provides food or money) and telling your Sim to continuously ski and then putting the camera on follow and opening up your chat window. Erm. Sorry! Similarly, I like knitting more than cross-stitching because I feel like knitting provides clothing, baby and toddler onesies, etc., while cross-stitching just provides A Thing For The Wall. That said, I adore that you can use llama wool in your inventory for both of them, and cross-stitch from reference is an interesting and cool idea! I do a lot of paint from reference and photography for portraits of my Sims. <3
I also really love both aliens and mermaids, but am sad that they didn't come with aspirations, skill trees, etc.
One thing that upset me, non-pack-integration-wise, is that since I spend so much time making all my children "perfect" they all have the Responsible trait, which means that their daily task is autocompleted and they automatically work hard. This meant that Every. Single. One of them. Got the Workaholic lifestyle, which I LOATHE. :disappointed:
Anyway. Um. I would like for difficulty to be a slider? so you don't lock out people like my nieces, who played as tweens. (Also I was terrible at this game when I started playing, lol.) Also some of my saves are things like the Seven Toddler challenge or All Lot Challenges, and TBH some of them are just comfort food where I've had a hard day at work and just want to check in with my Sims and keep them happy and spoil them rotten. That said, yes, I do know that many other Simmers would love burglars and random meteors killing their Sims (I'm less a fan of the idea, but I'm super focused on my own thing--but don't want to deny that to others if that's what they want!). I've suggested elsewhere a High Crime Rate Lot Challenge for burglars.
That said, "difficulty" and "depth" are two different things and I'm really more interested in depth, where I need to figure out how to do something (for example grafting combinations, and where things tie together, especially across packs, than I am in "difficulty," where my Sim skills and earns slower and is more likely to be killed.
I hope that helps!
To keep it Simple.
It would nice if you could just expand and update the content we already have. Basegame CAS objects look significantly different than the recent CAS objects as in quality.
Career: I think the Career system could be re-worked. In real life, finding a career even after College/University can be hard. It would nice to have the option to make it more difficult. Ex.) Job Application/Interview Process/Orientation! Even having the possibility of not receiving a job. This would also give more value to the character skills. Even if careers are rabbit holes, at least an 'orientation', or 'first day' type of thing could add more value to the basegame.
Personalities: It feels like every sim is the same! Sims who dislike cooking and don't have the skill can still pull off an "Excellent" meal. I remember when sims mimicked 'depression', and it was difficult to get them to do almost anything! It was extremely challenging just like in real life. It is easy to have a romantic relationship in the Sims 4, but no challenge in building the relationship, no challenge in keeping the relationship together, no drama, etc...
Activity: I understand this is Base Game, but there is no point to anything you do in the base game. It all leads to a dead-end. If the base game and the free content was all I could afford, I would still want my game to feel wholesome.
Finances: Like careers, I feel like the financial aspect of the game could be re-worked. More realism. Ex.) Opening multiple accounts, paying for particular services, negative account balance.
There is no real negativity or difficulty in this game! Most of us have been rocking with the Sims since it came out, and this game has become very "child-like" and "whimsical". Please don't forget about the older generation! Life is hard, and challenging! we need struggle! I want to SimCity Government knocking on my door asking where's the money at type of struggle.
Thank You for your time.
I have not thought in depth about this as much as others have, but here are things I can think of that I feel would draw me back in and make me continue to support the game.
1. More personality for the sims. It feels like playing barbies, everything feels too player driven. I always got a sense that nothing would occur unless I initiated it. Every time I started a new save or family it felt like I just redressed my barbies and used a different play house. Relationships feel shallow. I found it hard to, for instance, make a turbulent mother/daughter relationship. Perhaps there could be some sort of relationship point system behind the veiled curtain. Things that make sims more likely to argue or fight autonomously, or more likely to hug and have in depth conversations. I don't remember ever truly being shocked or moved by my sims autonomous choices. It always felt like they were just going through the motions and waiting for me to do something. I wanted to react sometimes. Relationships are so complex irl, I would love to see them more fleshed out in the sims. People building groups not because we put them together but because they actually like each other or coming together because they have a common enemy.
2. More likes and dislikes. I remember in the past choosing that a sim doesn't like sims who wear make up, or doesn't like skinny sims, etc. These kinds of things that would make someone attracted to or repulsed by other sims. Again this adds to the feeling of nothing of consequence would happen unless I make it happen in game.
3. Larger worlds/neighborhoods. Everything feels so closed off and segmented. I know we will never have open worlds but Even from a building standpoint it felt hard to make a world feel like it had a certain theme.
4. I'm sure other people have mentioned MCCC. I feel like this is such an essential mod for so many people, it also feels like if a modder can offer this, why can the developers not offer some (if not all) that it offers? For me it is things like the flow of time. Some things seem so unbalanced, which I guess is how real life is but I suppose being able to adjust it to fit your own play style would be nice.
5. Another MCCC thing, more story progression! Again, I feel some of us enjoy the sandbox but also want a little spice. I remember with MCCC in sims 3 it would assign roles to different sims. "This sim is the vampire hunter!" "This sim is the vampire elder!" "This is the town harlot :p" "This is the most popular guy!" Things like that felt like sims had a motivation had a purpose other than doing humdrum activities waiting for the player to initiate an interaction.
6. Simstagram: As I was thinking about MCCC I remember it would announce all sorts of things that were happening in the world. Simstagram could be the face of some of these changes. Your sims could get notifications about the ongoings in the world or among their friends. Scandal, celebrations etc. Imagine a sim getting sad because they find out their best friend threw a party and didn't invite them. Everyone finding out that so and so cheated on their partner and it would affect how people respond to them. Birth announcements, wedding announcements. Club events, etc. This would also make things feel like empty in my opinion.
7. More Holiday cheer. Maybe there could be world wide holiday events. Maybe people like to gather near the bay for fireworks, or a christmas tree lighting event in a park, things that give you the option of interacting with the townies. I feel like it would fit in with the already ongoing flea markets etc.
8. school archetypes, or rather stereotypes. Things that make the stages of youth more memorable. Childhood friends, age old enemies.Rivalries. Memories? Sometimes memories have a greater impact on our emotions than anything else.
9.More on relationships. it feels like sims has the basic relationships. friends, aquaintances, bf, gf, wife, husband. what about step parents? Exes, childhood friends and enemies as mentioned before, ex step parents, inlaws. I feel like all these intricate relationships and perhaps having your sims act based on how the terms of the relationship is would be nice.
that's all i can think of at the moment.
These are suggestions to make the sims to feel more real and different from each other, as much as I love this game I often think the interactions are too smooth over all.
- To be able to set my sims to [b]bisexual[/b], [b]homosexual[/b], [b]hetrosexual[/b] or leave as is etc. in CAS
- That sims have more relationships to choose from, not only married or friends in CAS like girlfriend/boyfriend, fiancé/fiancée, poly etc.
- Astrological signs, would give sims more personality away from the other traits already available in game like:
[b]- Aries:[/b] Passionate, Adventurous, Impulsive
[b]- Taurus:[/b] Patient, Reliable, Possessive
[b]- Gemini:[/b] Adaptable, Witty, Superficial
[b]- Cancer:[/b] Protective, Caring, Needy
[b]- Leo:[/b] Generous, Loyal, Self-centered
[b]- Virgo:[/b] Meticulous, Serious, Overcritical
[b]- Libra:[/b] Charming, Idealistic, Indecisive
[b]- Scorpio:[/b] Intense, Affectionate, Secretive
[b]- Sagittarius:[/b] Jovial, Philosophical, Tactless
[b]- Capricorn:[/b] Practical, Humorous, Reserved
[b]- Aquarius:[/b] Friendly, Independent, Unpredictable
[b]- Piesces:[/b] Imaginative, Emotional, Flaky
The signs should also be adjusted to fit the seasons:
[b]- Spring:[/b] Pisces, Aries & Taurus
[b]- Summer[/b]: Gemini, Cancer & Leo
[b]- Fall:[/b] Virgo, Libra & Scorpio
[b]- Winter:[/b] Sagittarius, Capricorn & Aquarius
- Also [b]Fire signs[/b] should go easier with [b]Air signs[/b] and [b]Earth signs[/b] should go easier with [b]Water signs[/b] etc. but not make it impossible to work beyond the signs, just a bit harder.
- If the sims had preferences for their love interests like: hair color, body type, personality traits, astrological signs etc.
- Be able to choose from: [b]Introvert[/b], [b]Extrover[/b]t or [b]Ambivert[/b].
- More (BG) "normal" careers! They feel very limited.
Just a few things of the top of my mind for now.
[/quote]
I really love the idea of having signs match seasons! I just wanted to add that maybe if they do something seasonal like that, there should be a southern/northern hemisphere option! I'm a Leo, and my sign would fit under winter here rather than summer. Just a tiny detail that might make people who live in the southern hemisphere feel more included :smile:
Sorry for my english
CAS:
- I'm, unfortunately, one of those simmers who is unable to change the game language in Origin to the English language due to region restrictions. It would be a great deal to me, and many simmers in situation like mine, to have English names in CAS. What is more the number of names in CAS is severely limited and there are many townies with duplicated names in the world. It is very confusing when you play one save file for more than one generation when there are 5 different townies with the same first and last name. Please, enable us to have English names 🥺 I used to have a mod for English names but it is outdated and breaks the game. To be honest, that's the biggest issue I have with CAS at the moment.
- It would also be awesome to create girlfriends, fiances, aunts, step-family, and other relations in CAS. It gives us more opportunity for storytelling.
WORLD:
- When we're starting a new game, we're playing in the same save file since 2014. Same families, same stories, same houses, etc. I'm not going to lie but it got boring over those 7 years. I and many other simmers, create our own save files to spice up the game but the issue arises when there's a bug or glitch and it gets fixed in the update. Most of the time, we're told by the Sim Gurus to start a new game to have it fixed. It would be an amazing feature to change one of our saved games as a 'default save' when we click a "new game" in the Main Menu. We could use other people's families, builds and stories, to play.
- I'm aware that an open world is a no-no feature since the TS4 engine doesn't allow that but is there a possibility to liberate the neighborhood we currently play from the loading screen? We can see in camera mode that the interior of our neighbors' houses are already loaded, so it won't hurt the performance. I think it would be amazing to see our neighbors doing outdoor activities from the comfort of our own homes. We could stop by and say hello, offer help with gardening, etc. It is an amazing opportunity to see our surrounding become more alive and have more options to get to know our neighbors.
- Also when we visit our family and friends from outside of the household it would be cool to cook for them, sleep in the guest room, etc. The relations should allow us to do more at their houses than typical guests like neighbors, without buying the "always welcome" trait.
HOUSEHOLD:
- I'm aware it was said multiple times but please, give children more to do. I know since the update children can cook with adults but it would be awesome if we could clean and garden together too! I would love to see my son help his mom with the woodworking table, to see the daughter build a rocketship with dad. Those little things make a lot of difference.
- When it comes to the family gameplay. I'd greatly appreciate it if we had an opportunity to have events like a family gathering, sleepovers, funerals, prom (we have the lounges, those could host the prom for teens!), pool party, etc. ALSO! I find it weird that we can't have a date with our SO at home? I'd love my sim to cook and cuddle on the couch with their partner. Not always date means going out.
- There are some objects that can't be used by children. Toddlers also can't use the potty by themselves unless the parent teaches them, so why not extend that feature for kids too? That way, kids would have more things to do without adding new objects to the game! If they're more skilled they could garden or do flower arrangements (if you have Seasons, of course) by themselves!
- Work is an essential thing in The Sims and not only for adults. It would mean a lot if we could work from home in any career! And it also includes children, I'd love to see my child being homeschooled, having to do online classes, etc. Home offices would make more sense if we had an opportunity to work/learn from home.
- What is more, it would also improve gameplay if Sims on higher-level careers had more opportunities revolving around their career. We already have SMS pop-ups in-game about many things. If my Sim is on top of the Painting career they would get a message to sell their masterpiece to the museum for a higher price and gain more recognition with sims in the same career. If my Sim is a leader of the free world, I'd love to get emails with propositions to improve the neighborhood from sims like Bella Goth and when he declines, the relationship would deteriorate. Why limit the work just to gain money? Work should also influence relationships, lifestyle, etc.
- I also would love to call the repair person to improve the quality of the toilet or fridge. Why limit them to only repair the object? They're skilled enough to improve the quality of the mattress in the master bedroom too! My more posh and influential sims shouldn't be doing it by themselves.
- Also since we're at service sims, it would be great to have a live-in maid, nanny, and gardener full time just as we have the butler. I'd love to have a part of my sims house dedicated to the help, they're so rich they could afford to them live in their mansion.
- A lot of simmers want the burglars and police back and I want it too but it would be awesome if garbage man was added too! The animation is already there, it just needs an NPC to do the job.
- More autonomy outside the household. Sometimes I want to go to the party but I don't want my sims to host it. Why can't I attend my sister's wedding as a guest? If my sim dates another sim, I want the NPC to pop a question about marriage if our relationship is good enough. We need to see that not only our household has their own thing going on.
OTHER:
- I know that for me and some other simmers the number of notifications we get concerning festivals and community voting is getting out of hand. Sometimes I get like 4 notifications in a row. Can we turn them off completely? We have a calendar in BG, we already know when certain events take place.
- If we silence our sims phone, can we not get messages at all? I sometimes don't care about going out on a date, I want to focus on improving my sims skills.
- AND PLEASE, let us disable the gameplay aspect of Strangerville. I know it's not the base game feature but I just want my sim to live there, without playing the storyline again. Just like we can disable the weather and fame, we could also disable the Strangerville story.