Much like others have said:
- simulation lag needs fixing. I think you're already working on that, though
- babies not being objects, just separating them from the crib so that Sims can carry them around would improve depth a lot (TS2+3)
- story progression for townies with an on/off toggle to make the game feel lived-in (TS3)
- give townies strong negative/positive relationships with other townies and families on New Game, rather than no relationships, especially where it is referenced in bios (eg. Johnny Zest to the Landgraabs, Don Lothario to the Caliente daughters). I want to start a game with families who hate each other! I want to see rivalries! I want to see affairs between married Sims! I want the drama! (TS2)
- more aspirations, WAY more (think how many TS3 had) to allow for very diverse directions of play
- more traits and more than 3 traits for each sim (TS3 again) to make Sims feel diverse, unique and fresh
- actual memories/life events system (TS2) which Sims can remember from makes gameplay feel a lot more deep and makes us feel more attached to the sim
- scrap Whims, replace with wants and fears like TS2, fears and aspiration failure were a good challenge, especially combined with memories
- attraction system (TS2+3) and online dating/dating service (TS2+3)
- curfew/sneak out for kids and teens to add challenge (TS2+3)
- more autonomous mean interactions (especially for teens/kids between each other and towards parents, maybe dependent on traits, so that sibling rivalries don't always have to be directed by the player)
- make Parenthood character traits go up/down faster
- bring back ideal work mood, the challenge was good
- more relationship types and more relationship types available in CAS (extended family)
- content improved/bug fixes for every single pack so far, ESPECIALLY game packs and expansion packs. Every single one. Dedicate a few months to each pack, start with a feedback session for a specific pack, ask the community what still needs fixing and what we want improving. I think this is what you're going for with pack refreshes, which are a fantastic idea, but please focus some time on the bugs that were never resolved from old packs - eg. Dine Out is still an extremely buggy experience
Thank you for doing this today, and thank you for improving the communication between the team and the community with the laundry list etc.
Currently my experience with the Sims 4 has the following issues
Getting money is too easy/things are too cheap There seems to be a big imbalance of money in the game. Build/buy mode items have gotten cheaper and cheaper and making promotion in careers has become easier and thus the sim gets more money. At some point you have no idea to do with all that money.
Autonomy is broken Autonomy in the original base game was ok, but it seems that with every expansion the autonomy of new gameplay elements is cranked to max. My sims constantly play with the soccer ball or get water from the sink and not to speak of the autonomic actions that cancel other actions like looking at favorite decor objects. Instead I would like to see them do more autonomous things based on their relations, needs, traits and preferences. My same hates fitness, yet the soccer ball he got from father winter is all he plays with, his cat gets completely ignored.
Skilling is ok The base game skills have great rewards like masterpieces for painting, sims stay fit longer with high fitness etc. However new skills like fabrication, robotics and candle making aren't as rewarding. Sure they give you more options to make, but the chance of failure seems just as high and the speed at which things are made does not improve with higher skill levels.
Whims need to improve At some point in the game you've accomplished what you wanted to accomplish and I find myself looking more at the whims to do stuff. However the whims are often the same thing (look at you "Buy a Beebox") and the whims only give some satisfaction points. It would be great if they gave small mood boosts as well or social whims even improving the social need faster. I still want the wants/needs system from the Sims 2, but that is not likely to happen. However I feel whims can be improved to be more like the wants in the Sims 3.
Do some major bugfixing before doing anything else For the Sims series the Sims 4 is considered "old" at this point and it shows. It doesn't feel old with all the free updates and DLC (which is great), but the basic foundation is starting to fill up with bugs and every new expansion seems to add a dozen more bugs caused by cracks in the foundation. My game lags every time I go into or come out of build/buy, this bug has been there for about 2 years now. The stairs are broken ever since the stair update, if I don't follow my sims they either teleport or become invisible. There is also the bug of cancelled actions getting stuck in the queue, it has been there since the launch of the game.
I feel like the game needs a good bugfixing before new gameplay is announced. Maybe make some more kits for a while, while the majority of the team works on fixing stuff in the game or reworking stuff so it can better support new gameplay features in the future. The bugfixes have improved lately, but I feel more can be done. Especially if you see that hobby modders can fix some bugs within hours of a new game patch/pack.
More random events, like your company downsizes and you lose your job.
Timed events and goals.
Setting whole families disagreeable.
Random fights.
Natural disasters.
Less smiling sims all the time (it's creepy).
Actual consequences.
There is too much routine, not enough chance. However, I feel the option to turn off chance encounters and events should always be there.
All over house decay so that things must be fixed like the roof and windows. Maybe paint fades, wallpaper peels, windows leak.
Sims wanting to move.
Sims getting bored of their decorations.
Alien abducted sims are never the same again and become paranoid as default, and want to quit their job especially if it involves tech and go live off the grid.
More walking paths for families! Love watching my sims walk together and chat.
Burglars.
A funny Sims dating app. ( I couldn't help but put it in)
Sims are too nice. I never dread my teen sims become teen sims. I never feel my elder sims are really that old. Life stage difficulty would be interesting.
1. I support hugs and kisses of couples lying in bed. In addition, it will be nice if the partners can carry each other on their hands (perhaps when they achieve a certain fitness skill). 2. More types of exercises. It is possible to add elements of gymnastics. Let the Sims be able to jokingly "fight" with each other (friendly or romantic interaction). 3. More vintage clothes. There is a great lack of nightgowns for men (in the Victorian fashion). 4. The ability to donate blood to feed vampires (these blood bags, they're from donor blood, right?). Let the hospital from the supplement " To work!" it will be more functional so that patients can visit it for examination and treatment of themselves and children. 5. More styles of beards and mustaches. Add, in particular, a large walrus mustache and very long beards. 6. More types of dance, in particular, classical ballet.
None of these ideas below are major or needed it's just ideas for the future; This just an idea that maybe the base game bassinet needs sprucing up a little because it's getting a little boring and basic-plus it only has 4 colour swatches that come with it. Another idea is that maybe stuff can include more mint like for example hairs can include more mint swatches because of the not so berry challenge. A memory system is a cool idea where they remember the birth of there first born or they remember when there dad got them a new bike for Winterfest. Better break ups or cheating whenever a married couple cheats they just get slapped in the face and a little bit furious. When a sim who has hates children trait accidently gets Prego's they don't get happy instead they are angry or stressed. Also maybe a new mother could be a little scared because they don't know what they need to do or prepare for. That's all the ideas I have at the moment.
First of all I'm still waiting for the team to upload Eco Lifestyle and Paranormal Stuff's trailer sims. I am really bummed out they're not in the gallery, because the fan recreations are just not it :( I don't know who to ask, where to ask, but you might be reading this now, so please upload this stuff.
Going off no-content-wishlist prompt I prepped pretty specific feedback:
Specific pack annoyances: - NAPs still add more annoyance than value, especially Sharing is Caring causing sims to strip community lots bare. - I'm tired of marry-for-money and tax rebate etc. phonecalls - there is no variance to them - they really should have a variance of outcomes - Water/power generation items and efficiency upgrades don't appear to be balanced correctly - using them increases bills, because their value impact outweighs utility savings. - Queue drop on recycler is painful. It takes forever to select all the items you want to recycle and if an NPC routes to it first it is all for naught. - Special event phonecalls being drop-everything-go-now is really annoying when you would like to go, but maybe shower or eat something first
GUI in need of improvement: - Stack handling - add ability to type number when ordering multiples or splitting stacks, make it easier to split stacks by quality, and omg please do something about moving stacks between sim and household inventory - Cooking menu - with simple living it needs an option to filter out unavailable options. It also has grown so long over time it would be nice to add categories to it, akin to store or book order menus. Maybe a search bar even? - Interaction menu organization - if you have a large amount of packs installed/your sim has a lot of skills/ finished aspirations etc. finding the correct interaction becomes really tedious
CAS: - Sims 2-style genetics with dominant+recessive traits - seems pretty doable using hidden traits? - Full-body details like freckles or vitiligo spots - Ability to edit hair and makeup on work and special outfits - they don't always fit and also don't update if you makeover a sim, it would be nice to be able to customize the clothes as well, perhaps with a specific limited selection of appropriate outfits - Ability to clone alien true form facial features onto the disguise. I like making them look somewhat similar so you can tell it's the same person. This is currently really annoying to go about. - Ability to clone appearance of sims/save custom presets - Maybe let us choose handedness in CAS - Foods in likes/dislikes
Build/buy: - Better roof tool - give us more options to control the mesh or even fuse several meshes together. Too often I find myself dealing with a roof that has a weird section I want to trim off, sometimes clipping inside the build as well or I can't choose the kind of slope I like because a part of the roof shows through another roof section. - Overhaul clutter slots - it annoys me that I can't even put a toothbrush cup and soap by the bathroom sink without debug options.
Townies: - Ability to customize townie job assignment, so I can choose who works at a specific restaurant or bar or gym as a flavor option - this could even be a debug option, I just really want it to exist for my themed savefiles - Ability to disable automatic townie creation - perhaps with a warning if the game can't find free townies to assign to jobs - again this is for themed savefiles - I can never get mods to work with this correctly - Tone down how often sims appear in worlds they don't live in. - You gave us the options to make transgender sims, but they're never created with random townie generation. They were also never included in premade families coming with any packs :( - Autonomous flirting drives me mad. Maybe if the romantic bar eventually disappeared, but I don't want to be randomly hit on by a friend (often when I'm not even playing the sims in question) and then have that bar there unless I use a cheat to delete their relationship. Is there any way to fix that bar?
Careers: - Would like to see work-from-home options added to more of them, at least where it makes sense
The things I think would help make the game more challenging are:
1. Burglars
2. Expanded aspirations for careers: why the Get To Work, Dine Out, and Dream Home Decorator don’t have an aspiration is beyond me.
3. Expanded options for babies like in Sims 2 and 3 where Sims had to learn about how to care for baby, bathe the baby and take the baby for walks.
4. Additional lot challenges: add in lot challenges like increased bills, faulty appliances etc
5. Make it harder to get promoted in careers, Sims make money too easily
6. Sims should have expanded likes and dislikes. Being limited to 20 likes or dislikes becomes limiting when you have all the packs.
I'd like to see traits with more consequences in the game that aren't just moodlets that last a few hours or make a very minor difference to my experience. Sims' personalities don't seem to vary much from one Sim to another, so it would be great if traits could be used to change that. Some traits could make playing with that Sim more difficult, others could not. That way the player is able to sort of determine the level of difficulty.
The Wants and Fears system from The Sims 2 was great for making Sims feel more like individuals, so building on something like that would be great. Whims weren't perfect in The Sims 4, but they at least gave the Sims a small amount of individuality - retiring them was a step in the wrong direction, it would have been better to go in the opposite direction and build them into something better.
I'd also like to be able to experience more challenges in game from negative events, in the past we've had things like burglaries that create these challenges. If my Sim does the wrong thing there are no real or long lasting consequences. If a child Sim has a poor or good upbringing there is very little consequences of that in adulthood. The Sims 4 feels a bit like a utopia where nothing bad happens, that's not real life and it isn't a challenge in game.
I think a great way to add challenge to the game would be events that cause negative consequences in game such as your house attempting to be robbed, all of your sims getting sick at once, or a sudden decrease in money due to a leaky pipe. We currently have events like these like the phone call you receive if you want to get additional simoleons but you have to get married. I love that! Anything that can disrupt normal gameplay would be appreciated.
I believe one possible method of adding depth would be making life events more impactful on the sims, such as a loved ones death or the birth of a child. Including aspects of sims remembering these moments either negatively or fondly would also positively impact the depth of the game. This could even be tied in with likes and dislikes system. A sim could love jazz music and when she passes, her son could get a moodlet when he listens to jazz music that it reminds him of his mom. Those little touches make a positive impact on family players like me.
When playing, I mostly focus on the family aspect of the game. Like my real life, my sims don't leave the house much. I would love to see more depth and realism in family life.
Babies
Babies have taken a big step back. I would love it if babies could live outside of the bassinet. Adding in features from older games such as bottles that don't just disappear and changing tables would greatly improve game play.
Toddlers
Currently, I can lock toddlers in a room and never have them interact with their parents and still max all of the toddler skills. In past games we have had playpens, walkers, and the ability to run a daycare. We have also had interactions where parents teach their toddlers how to walk. Adding these types of things back into the game would go a long way.
Children
The child stage is pretty good. The only problem I have is the lack of a boarding school option.
Teen
I LOVE the teen stage. I love being able to apply for college and scholarships while a teen. It is very realistic. I just wish we had the ability to teach teens to drive. Maybe even adding in the ability to fix/ build cars.
Romances
These tend to be very one sided and EXTREMELY predictable. The player chooses a sim, builds up relationship, proposes, and lives happily ever after. Having townies initiate, build, and end relationships would add a lot of depth and realism to the game. Once married, having the spouse randomly cheat or even ask for divorce would be great.
The only other area I think needs more realism is sim health and death. With enough practice you can ensure that your sims always die of old age. Having more/ worse illnesses including ones that lead to death, accidents that can lead to broken bones, and random unpredictable deaths would go a long way towards having more realism and depth to the game.
The Romance part of the game needs a major overhaul. You added relax in bed in a patch earlier this year but our sim couples still can't cuddle, kiss,spoon etc.
Also I think the following would add more depth to the game.
An Online Dating Feature
An Attraction System with turn on and turn offs
More kisses and a proper cuddle on the sofa were they don't break off after 5 seconds.
The return of Love Letters with the option to put them in our sims inventory to read when we want to.
The return of the Love Tester Machine and Vibrating Heart Shaped Bed.
Hand Holding while walking together
Take Romantic Pictures Together.
The Slowdance needs to return
Sims having the option to ask sim to kiss on sofa,cuddle etc.
More relationships in CAS like boy/girlfriend and best friends forever..
I play with gameplay more than any other aspect. It’s great to see you guys reaching out to us like this and possibly considering my ideas for future players too!
[b]Firstly[/b], I know this has been touched on a little, but improved traits will definitely make an impact on gameplay. An example of this: people with the slob or lazy trait get an increased chance of ‘Order pizza’ whim. They are lazy by nature and do not want to cook (also possibly, those traits could make baking/cooking skills go up slower maybe?) it would also encourage players to use the whims and reward traits system more.
Another: family oriented people have more of a chance to ‘adopt/have children’ much like how ambitious sims feel the need to switch careers and learn new skills frequently.
[b]Secondly[/b], when sims are sad or angry, it should be more powerful. If a sims parent has died, they gain a -3 sad moodlet, but give them 3 happy moodlets and suddenly they’re not sad anymore? Life doesn’t work like that and it shouldn’t be easy to forget or move on from.
[b]Thirdly[/b], occasionally having whims such as ‘go outside’, ‘go to the park’ etc. Would encourage players to explore the world. The computers make everything purchasable meaning you theoretically never have to leave your home lot, staying in one place gets repetitive and boring, encourage players to go to the lots around them. (Maybe having to travel to the hospital for medicine when your sims get sick.)
[b]Finally[/b], the little pop ups of dialogue I get are the highlight of my game. People point out how easy it is to romance people in this game and, although you want to be inclusive, the fact is, some people just aren’t attracted to each other. Flirting should have a chance of failure (especially when first talking to someone) if that’s the case, you could get a pop up rejection from that sim. Mean sims: not if you were the last person on earth (or something similar) Nicer sims: sorry, I’m just not into you.
Similarly, people could come up and start to flirt with your sims, eliminating the idea that every gameplay action feels one sided because it’s all decided by the player. In the sims 3 people were attracted to you. Your sims also got a moodlet ‘in attractive company’ if you make people work for the relationship they’ll feel more attached to it.
Hi! I would like to be able to change the color of the ceiling and roof from the inside. I often build wooden or stone houses, castles, and the white color is very distracting from the overall picture. I really hope that someday there will be an opportunity to diversify ceilings and roofs. Please! Have a nice day.
First, I want to say I love the likes and dislikes, sentiments, and the "challenge" section for lot traits. It's not clear to me how sentiments impact sim behavior, though. Also, I appreciate how many more family/child/group activities there are in game now. Snowy Escape has great family activities with the festivals and hiking, and the ability to have snowball fights, build snowmen, and make sandcastles makes family trips way more fun. I love being able to do group cooking and gardening with children. All these things added depth and interest for me, and I appreciate how much work you've been doing to add family and cooperative play to expansions and to the base game. Overall, I'm less concerned with challenge than with what I consider depth.
Depth: for me, it's about relationships
I'd like it if Sims recognized relationships with aunts, and cousins as special
would be nice if a played Sim's relationships could have an affect on the relationships of their family and friends. For example, if a sim cheats on their partner, then the partner sim's best friends might have a lower relationship to the cheater. Or sims around the cheater and cheated sims could get tense or sad. I guess this expands on the current mechanic where good, mean, and evil sims can be happy or sad from noticing the happiness or sadness of other sims?
It would be nice if there were special shared interactions for sims with similar interests. For example if my sim enthuses over violin music with another violin lover, that sim could show they are eager to talk about it, get bored if they don't care about violins, or get tense if they hate violins. Right now these kinds of interactions seem one sided, and I can't tell whether sims form friendships any faster because of shared interests. Or they could form a short-term moodlet like "cool Sim!" from meeting another sim with similar interests.
Story progression. I use MC Command Center in every save because I hate seeing all the neighbors get old and die without having any new children, divorces, or new relationships. Of course I know there are plenty of people who want to tell stories with every sim in the game, so there would have to be a way to toggle story progression off.
Whims--they could be better tailored to individual sims, especially with the new likes and dislikes. So a sim who dislikes gardening is not going to "want to get a beebox" no matter what season it is.
Romance--I would like there to be some sort of attraction/repulsion system. Is my sim more attracted to people with a particular personality trait or physical trait?
Individuality--I've had Cats and Dogs since shortly after it came out, but never played with dogs in detail until recently. I love the way dog personalities impact their behavior--pets that go on adventures, pets that love to roll in dirt, pets that independently choose to play with the obstacle course. Somehow you managed to make individual pets seem very different from each other, and I'd like my human/vampire/mermaid/alien sims to be just as distinctive.
Could vampires finally be smart enough to stay out of the sun? I'm always coming back to vampire households and finding a family member dead of sun exposure.
Finally, one feature I really miss about the Sims 2 is that my sims knew I was there and would shake their fist at me if I told them to do something they hated, or celebrate if I told them to do something they really liked doing.
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Hello Sims team - just echoing what others have already mentioned. There should be more consequences, and random events in-game. I think there is a way to implement these things while also giving those of us who don't want things to be very difficult or rigid the option to by-pass them.
For example, you have chance cards for gaining fame in different careers, or opportunities to gain character values while kids or teens are volunteering. Why not expand these things beyond fame and volunteering, and make the consequences have more impact? Always give an option to Ignore or Cancel, or find a way around these consequences, but put the option in there and don't tell us the outcome.
Once a sim passes a certain threshold of money, there's not much for them to do with it. Give us more things to sink simoleons into (new expensive bed, luxury items, own more than one lot etc). Add ways that sims can lose money (both big and small).
Free Death. I don't want my sims to die, but it is much too easy to avoid death in The Sims 4. I think you can make it a little more difficult by giving us the option to make it difficult if we want it - via lot trait, or reasonable random percentage. Let the cowplant be dangerous and make us nervous when our sims' rocket ships crash. And definitely make townies easier to off.
I think you've already done some of this around traits, but just link whims, traits and likes and dislikes as much as you dare. Creative sims should have a greater chance of instantly liking creative activities if they don't already. Snobby sims should roll to visit the museum or be more likely to like jazz, Baroque or Classical.
Thanks again for this opportunity. I'm a big fan of The Sims 4. I personally enjoy having ultimate control over my game, but think there's room to accommodate simmers like me and also simmers who desire a little more pushback from the game engine.
I created an account here so I can write this, so hopefully you will read this! ;)
Bugs and other issues aside, basically, it would improve the game a lot if all areas of the game were less limited/restricted by a fixed set of seemingly arbitrary numbers. The limit seems to be tied to the UI in many cases, as a higher than default quantity of certain things has not been accounted for. In some areas of the game, performance on slower machines is obviously a concern, so maybe players being able to adjust settings in the options menu, based on their preference, could be a way to remedy this (similar to how max. Sim-count, or days-per-season can already be adjusted). If my PC can handle it, I want to be able to play it!
To the points:
-more Sims in a household As far as I am aware, on a technical level adding more than 8 Sims in a household is possible with mods/cheats, but CAS seems to have a problem with that. If you will not increase/remove the limit, having it at least supported even if more than 8 are added, would be great!
-more than 3 personality traits per Sim Having only 3 slots available is pretty lackluster and does not allow for very deep characterization/unique personalities. Traits like Vegetarian or physical traits like Lactose Intolerant taking up a slot is also strange to me. In a best case scenario, the whole trait assignment system should be revamped. The recent addition of likes and dislikes is a step in the right direction (even though the 20 per Sim limit (again) is slightly annoying). I would suggest something similar with traits being split into categories like emotional response, demeanor, morality, sociability, physical and so on..., or a slider system based on ranges like good to evil, fit to unfit or calm to erratic (these could also change over a Sim's life based on certain events?). Some traits could be split up into smaller, less specific traits since there is a lot of overlap, like Foodie and Snob both relate to high quality items or Mean and Evil both cause negative interactions. Since the addition of the new likes and dislikes system, some traits have already become slightly obsolete. For example traits like Active/Lazy are not needed personality-wise if there is a like/dislike for fitness or exercise. The game already uses a lot of hidden traits in the background, so it is kind of odd to me that this has not been done from the beginning. And like before, if you do not increase the limit, having it at least supported to show correctly in CAS (in the form of a list instead of fixed slots) would be a nice little addition.
-more likes and dislikes categories, like previously mentioned More than 20 per Sim (ideally there should be no limit, let my Sim love/hate everything that exist!), and more categories like other Sim's traits, certain objects/categories of objects (like clothing styles or food ingredients; décor was even already added for the DHD game pack) and maybe even other Sim's looks (although I assume this is not supported by the game, since a Sim's appearance is mostly not defined by traits and has no bearing on gameplay whatsoever).
-more slider range in CAS There was a mod for that, but it does not work properly without screwing with existing Sims. Sometimes I want to give my Sim a really long nose or make the eyes so large, they clip out of the head. Maybe have a button or hotkey, that unlocks a Sim from the "standard" limitations?
-more body sliders in CAS While face sliders are already detailed enough to create almost every face imaginable, the customization options for the whole body are not nearly as detailed. I believe bodypart length and body height might be problematic for displaying animations correctly (this happens when using mods; maybe you could take more advantage of the IK system for body/bodypart positioning?), but being able to have more control over the width/depth and shape of bodyparts would be a great addition to the vanilla game and should not interfere with animations. (Bonus points for adding a way to individually change bone structure/muscle groups/fat deposits for bodyparts, like you can with the face!)
Some minor things:
-illnesses From GTW Expansion. Seem a little too inconsequential. Don't know if they do, but spreading to other Sims could cause a lot of interesting scenarios. A Gas And Giggles Epidemic or a seasonal Llama Flu sounds like a fun gameplay idea to me. Of course there should be a way to turn this of in the settings.
-permanent Plantsims Not much to say. Would be nice to have them around forever.
-occult hybrids Seems to work on a technical level when using cheats, but again, the UI has trouble accounting for more than one. Let us have Plant-Vampire-Ghost-Mermaids!
-Other areas -more club members (same as households, more can technically be added but not supported by UI; probably needs balancing for points gain based on number of members), -higher number of club activities/requirements, -more lot trait slots (might be OP in normal gameplay), -more retail employees, -time speed (not like fast forward, but rather how long one minute is compared to real time so a day lasts longer/shorter and there is more/less time for events, solving needs and so on; possibly changes the game's difficulty?), -and maybe more areas that I can't think of, or I do not have the packs yet
Well first to first, what I have to say is that I never played sims 2 or 3 before, so I am just going to write what I felt about sims 4.
When I was playing sims 4, I found everything are interest at the beginning, but it is also easy to feel bored, I guess the major reason is that all the sims' behaviors are definately not realistic at all and let players feels like playing the toys by themselves - everyone wish our sims have the life just as what was shown on the trailer, but not everyone want to control all the sims every time. We can easily found different characteristics of all these sims on the trailer, but when we control it, bomb, all these sims are totally the same what ever which feature they have - when u don't control them, they are just so stupid that can only eat and sleep, do not have there own life of themselves.
THEY CAN NOT DO THE CORRECT THINGS WITH CORRECT PEOPLE IN THE CORRECT SITUATION. I guess that is what I felt when playing the sims 4.
Lets just have some examples: When my sims invest their friends to enjoy a party in their home tonight, what these customers prefer to do is coming to our bedroom and playing computer games. When our sims going outside to drink a cup of coffee with their friends, their friend are more likely just stand there and play their mobile or find something interest and left our sims along. Or some hungry sims take a piece of birthday cake before we put the candle on it.
I have less experiences stay with my firend but I do know I will never do these in my real life.
I also thought EA need to make all the sims special - remember, not just our traditional citizens, but also the random sims including our family members. The feature they have should really have much more influences in their behaviors and relationships, or they just looks totally the same, that's the major reason why I will never let my sims stay in a big family before EA make our sims like a real person.
At last, as everyone, I do expect the story progression can be include in sims 4. Now I have to add the mod to let our uncontrolled sims marrage to other sims and pregnant, that also make I felt our sims are not realistic at all. and if EA really add the story progression, the thing I said before could be really important because we cannot keep our traditional citizens all the time.
I know EA really do something to make our sims special, but some of them still required players to choose, for example the life style. But come on, we do actually want to see something special, like our sims bring something unexpected back home, our children make friends with others in school, what our sims' behaviors can let us imagine what he felt right now, not just doing some meanless things randomly. We cannot understood sims' language, but we do expect to understood our sims' life story from his/ her experiences and reactions.
To conclude, please make our sims' behaviors become predictable (like a real person) and unpredictable (unexpect suprise), rather than just like playing the doll by myself.
I miss a lot the one sided relationships. It's just boring and isn't realistic, that they always have mutual feelings. It would add so much more fun to the gameplay. Also it would be better, if a rude interaction has more effects on the following conversation between two Sim. If you doing a ride interaction and it's followed by a positive one, it's just frustrating. I want the Sims to be able to not love each other always!
I think a good way to make the game more challenging is to make RELATIONSHIP between two sims separated, like my sim can be in love with a other sim, but the other sim not really. Like it was in the Sims 2.
I also think but WANTS AND FEAR for the sims that works with his/her personally, likes and dislikes, etc.
Relationships: more dynamic, have my significant other cheat on me or break up with me autonomously. Or get flirted with more by other sims, etc. have real crushes that are sometimes one sided More Dynamic NPCs: have the pancakes get divorced randomly and spontaneously. Random NPCs getting married and having babies out of my control. Debt system: be able to take out a mortgage or credit card Weather: bring back schools being closed for blizzards, etc Health: sims illnesses are boring. I’d like to see them develop bad illnesses that require treatment or they die like pneumonia or chronic illnesses (I have Crohn’s. It would be interesting to see that recreated in the sims). Have an opt out feature for severe illnesses so that if people don’t want to see it they don’t have to.
My name is Jack (@jackofallgames7 on Twitter) and I have brainstormed some ideas from all areas of the game that I think could be more challenging, without making it a nightmare for all players who don't appreciate an increase in challenge.
I love challenge in my game, but I understand not everyone does, so I tried to make all of my ideas on an ''opt in" basis.
I have also tried my best to use existing resources where possible so these ideas could be built into the game, without having to build entire systems from scratch.
***LOT CHALLENGES***:
I think this was such an excellent idea from the Cottage Living patch, but I have some more ideas that could seamlessly add challenge to the game without forcing it upon everyone;
Example 1:
"Pricey Area"
Want to live in one of the most desired locations in town for a fraction of the cost? Too bad! Businesses know you're made of money and won't be afraid to charge premiums on everything from your bills to everyday goods and services.
*Features;
- Increased cost of bills & utilities, increased cost of everyday goods and supplies such as canvasses for painting, food from the fridge etc.
- Increased costs for services such as Zoomers, Pizza and Maids
- Increased premiums for Build and Buy items"
Example 2:
"Neighbourhood Watch"
The neighbours TV being stolen was just a silly misplacement, right? And the Newbies down the road, their flamingo's just blew away in the breeze? And the footsteps downstairs, that's just the maid starting early? Right?
*Features;
- Burglars may attempt to rob items from properties. Purchasing a burglar alarm or phoning the Police in time will stop them from stealing.
- Local teens may also attempt to swipe an item from outside, make sure you have the cops on speedial!
Example 3:
"Grim Living"
The Grim Reaper is just like us! He has his favourite spots around town and he happens to have a fondness for this very lot! He will use any excuse to visit, so you might want to be extra cautious by making sure you don't burn your grilled cheese or have enough handiness skill to fix that fridge. The absence of bad things happening are short-lived around here!
*Features;
- Sims have a much higher and faster chance of dying from certain events, such as electrocution and fires. '
- Sims may be at a higher risk of drowning from low energy than usual.
Example 4:
"Old Unreliable"
It seems the area which you moved into isn't know for it's stellar electricity grid. Blackouts are frequent here, for up to 3 hours at a time. So make sure you have plenty of Off The Grid items for when things go dark.
*Features;
- The lot will have random blackouts multiple times a week for up to 3 hours each.
- Household gets a notification when the blackout has started and when it is over.
***PAYMENT OPTIONS***:
I thought it would be cool to explore some non-intrusive ways for players to avoid cheating out of necessity, but still have access to more money. But for it to be an ongoing challenge as a result: '
Bank loan for first house:
A lot of Simmers use freerealestate or motherlode to get into a big house straight away, especially if they like to play with large families and its not realistic to live in a starter home. But they may not like the lack of grind from that point on. So when you go to purchase a house from the main screen, there could be an option for "take out a loan" next to the tick and the x. This means players don't need to cheat for starting funds, however they will have to make weekly payments each week to pay off the loan. I'd say maybe 5% of the loan each week. If a payment isn't made by the time the next one is due, the RepoMan comes to take the amount equivalent in items. And the repayments continue as normal.
SimoliPay:
Similar to apps like AfterPay, Sims can use the app on their phone when their low on cash. Similar to the Bank Loan, they would be required to make the payments back at 25% each per week, and if they don't the RepoMan visits. I would say there should be a "Turn on SimoliPay" button in the phone the forces household funds to freeze and instead create a balance on the phone. Or maybe a new UI for when you click on the household funds to toggle from debit to credit. I'm sure you clever Guru's will slot it in nicely!
***WORLD SETTINGS***:"
This one is a bit more work, but I would see it having HUGE changes to how we add challenge and depth into the game.
Next to each world name on the mapscreen, there could be a little cog (like most settings apps) that load up a "World Settings" screen.
This could allow players to customise things such as how expensive it is to live in this world (so inflating or deflating how much food, services, build/buy, bills and items sold on community lots cost).
Or what kind of "traits/quirks" the world will have such as high crime, power blackouts, how maintained the public gardens are, alien abductions etc.
As I am a new user, I cannot post photos, but I have a mockup of how this could look on my Twitter as my pinned tweet (@jackofallgames07) that can help explain my point better.
I love this!
In special the world settings and Old Unreliable.
Here are my thoughts on what I would like to see to add more challenge to the game:
RELATIONSHIPS (ESPECIALLY NEGATIVE/ENEMY):
I played two sisters who are enemies and live together. Instead of acting like enemies, refusing to talk to each other, having negative interactions, etc. they've become best friends over the course of a single day without any intervention from me. They constantly have positive interactions and the fact that they're enemies is ignored completely by the game.
I feel the game would be much better if there were more “checks” for these kinds of things. It feels like all Sims act exactly the same regardless of relationship, traits, likes, etc.
If two Sims are enemies, they should not become best friends in a day with no intervention from the player. Their autonomous behavior should reflect their feelings for each other – which are negative.
DATING:
Dates are entirely too easy. It's impossible to have a bad date. I want my Sims to be able to have a bad date (I hate to say it, but like in The Sims 2). As it stands, you just have to have 10 interactions with your date and it's a success. That sucks. I hate dating in this game because every single date has the same outcome.
There's no challenge in trying to get another Sim to like your Sim and have a good time with them. The date “goals” are ok, but there should be a chance of failure. The date “meter” should go into the negative to allow a chance for things to go wrong. And then, it would be nice if there was a consequence, like a larger hit to the relationship or the Sim refusing to date your Sim again for a while..something to make it feel like your Sim can “lose.”
In general, we just need more ways our Sims can fail and more consequences for actions.
DEPTH OF FEATURES (LIKES/DISLIKES):
I love the likes and dislikes system. It's one of the best things that's been added to the game in my opinion. BUT, it still doesn't feel like there's enough depth. Here's why:
First, the Sims don't seem more drawn to activities they like over any other activities. Even if a Sim has several likes and dislikes, they still continue to act exactly the same as every other Sim. I basically have to use likes and dislikes as a guide for what I direct (force) my Sim to do. I feel is should impact their autonomous behavior MUCH MORE.
The dislikes feel useless while you're playing. I have a Sim who is a Goofball. He decided he dislikes mischief. Now, he's constantly unhappy because he's autonomously doing mischief interactions because he's a Goofball. Here's another example of where there should be more “checks.” For example, a Goofball Sim should not be able to dislike Mischief since it's a core part of his personality. An active Sim should not be able to dislike Fitness, etc. if it's something they will autonomously do because of traits. It makes no sense.
I feel that the likes/dislikes were implemented with no integration with the traits or personalities of Sims. Just like with so many other areas of the game, any Sim can do ANY thing. Or to put it more clearly, EVERY Sim can do EVERY thing. That makes them all feel exactly the same. No one is unique. I had high hopes the likes/dislikes would improve this, but they just added to the problem.
Second, it seems like every single Sim in town has likes/dislikes for fishing and fitness. That's it. It's very difficult for them to discover other likes/dislikes. And, there should be MORE likes/dislikes available – why is there no reading or chess or knitting?
WHIMS:
This is so incredibly important to me and one of my biggest problems with The Sims 4. Whims have been abandoned. I am a whims-based (or wants-based) player. I like letting my Sims decide what to do with their lives. Whims (and previously wants/wishes) help guide our Sims and make them feel like real people with their own wants and dreams.
Since there have been no new whims added to the game, I have to use numerous mods to have any kind of meaningful game play for my play style.
In my opinion, the whims should be much smarter if they are updated. There should be more whims and more “checks” on which whims appear based on your Sim's status.
I hate to again compare to The Sims 2, but I feel I must here. In TS2, there were “paths” that the wants would take. For example, a Family Sim would want to fall in love, then when they fell in love, they would get a want to get engaged, then when they got engaged, they would get a want to get married, then when they got married they'd want to have a baby.
The wants made sense for the Sim's life. In The Sims 4, whims are just random and make no sense. I've had a Sim get a whim to move in with another Sim while they were already living together. They will get random whims at random times based on traits, but the status of the Sim's relationships, career, etc. are not considered.
Again, everything is too simple and same-y. We need whims to be revamped, new whims added for new content, and the whims need to make sense for the Sim at that moment – and perhaps have a series of smaller whim that they complete as they get closer and closer to completing a larger goal (like getting married, having a child, getting to the top of a career, etc.) that makes sense.
Also, for the love of God! PLEASE fix the bug where all whims are reset for all Sims in the household when another Sim travels. It's impossible to keep whims pinned and work towards them when they are constantly reset every time someone travels!
TRAITS:
Traits feel mostly meaningless to me. The Goofball constantly pranking their own toilets is so annoying, I had to disable it with a mod. That's not the kind of “depth” we're looking for and I feel the mark was missed big time on that one.
Traits need to make Sims feel different from one another, and right now they just don't. A clumsy Sim might trip a lot...but that doesn't have much impact on gameplay at all.
I don't know the answer to this one. But I feel like integrating traits with whims and likes/dislikes – and making them impact autonomous behavior more - could give a lot more depth. For example, a Sim with the Foodie trait will be more likely to “like” cooking, will roll whims related to cooking, and will autonomously cook meals that require higher skill or gourmet foods, etc.
Sims just need to feel like they have unique personalities somehow, because even now after all these years, they still all feel too much alike.
MONEY/SIMOLEONS:
It is FAR too easy to earn huge amounts of money and buy all the expensive stuff in the game. I feel earning money and promotions should be a bit harder – or at least the jobs should pay less money.
I also really dislike the prices for food. It kills me every time I have to pay 108 Simoleons to make grilled cheese. I wish the money earned and spent was a bit more realistic so we could relate to it better.
CAREER CHANCE CARDS:
The chance cards in this game are useless and I completely ignore them. Performance loss or gain? Nobody cares. They should be much more risky. There should be a chance of getting demoted (or promoted), losing or gaining money – the higher the career level, the bigger the risk.
Same with school chance cards. I never pay attention to these at all. Maybe give a bit more risk – like losing a grade or being suspended from school. On the positive side, gaining a grade or earning an award of money. Just SOMETHING that make them interesting.
Thank your listening to our feedback. I love The Sims and I want to see this game improve. It has such potential to be great, but it's just missing the depth and challenge of previous games – for many of the reasons I outlined above. I'm glad to see the devs are listening and trying to make changes.
Thank you for allowing the community to give some constructive criticism and some feed back. I really hope some of the suggestions are seriously considered. I’ve been impressed with this years improvements to things like likes and dislikes, the calendar update, and many more.
• I would like to start with NPC. NPC’S in The Sims 4 sometimes feel unbearable to play with. Without mods, they sometimes feel like an empty shell. Regardless of traits everyone seems to have the same personality. Story progression is extremely important to the sims. It’s what makes the game come to life. Having the worlds evolve around your sims as your sim grows has always been something I enjoyed in previous installments. If I don’t control it myself, NPC’s stories really won’t progress. Example- relationships outside of my household growing or declining, affairs, divorces, etc.
• BABIES! Lol I know this topic is repetitive at this point. However, babies still being an object is a crime. I use to enjoy my sims getting pregnant, and taking care of their newborns once born. I barley play with babies now because theirs no depth to them. Sims should be developing traits as babies. How they’re taking care of should affect the type of sims they become. We should be able to take our babies to parks, vacations, grandmas house, etc.
• Generations EP! It’s long overdue, and I believe one single pack with a base game update can really fix a lot of issues. I would love to see babies get a free update right before a Generations EP release. In this pack I would like to see improvements to every life stage. This pack can introduce things like retirement home lot trait, events like prom, divorce party, and play dates.
Thanks for listening to our feedback, really appreciate it. I’m just gonna jump straight into the things I think could use some improvement/tweaking.
- More Realistic Careers
I’ve found that finding a job can be a little too easy in the game. In my opinion it would be a good idea to bring back daily job openings. There could be a different selection of jobs everyday when you open the career window. It could also say ‘Check back tomorrow for new job openings!’, or something like that. Maybe you could even add a ‘Harder careers’ lot challenge that could make it less likely for a Sim to get a job straight away. Sims with no skills could face rejection until they start to up their skills or go to University. Just an idea!
- Slower Romance Progress
In my experience you can build romantic relationships fairly quickly in The Sims 4. It’s a tad unrealistic to me, and I think filling the romance bar could be made more challenging (right now you can fill the bar in a few Sim hours). This could be done by making rejections more likely or putting a daily cap on successful romantic interactions. Maybe the Sim that you are flirting with could let you know that they're over it after a while with a notification, like ‘Woah! Don’t you think that’s enough flirting for today?’ Or ‘Sorry, this is becoming a bit much..’. Of course Sims with the Flirty trait would be more open towards flirting and you wouldn’t get such notifications while flirting with them.
The perfect addition to Romance in the game would be a Chemistry or Attraction system, in my opinion. I’m sure others will mention this as well, but such a system could make for more unexpected and varying outcomes of romantic interactions. Some Sims could have more chemistry than others, which would result in more successful romantic interactions. An attraction/chemistry system could be based around Sims’ traits and likes and dislikes.
- Desires and Fears
This could be a system that adds desires (like wanting a kid, wanting to plant a garden, wanting to visit space) based on a Sims personality traits and likes/dislikes, and Fears (not wanting to kiss anyone, fearing meeting a dog, not wanting to use technology). Your Sim could collect some lifetime points by fulfilling their desires, and lose lifetime points by doing something they fear. Also their fun-meter could drop significantly (to red) and they could become extremely scared instantly if they something they fear. This system would bring more challenge to the game as you could lose lifetime points by experiencing something fearful. This could also help with balancing the lifetime points-system in general, as I always end up with a lot of these points without trying.
- Add ‘Boosts’ to Negative Emotions
If I remember correctly, the ‘boosting […]’ state of emotions is only applied to positive emotions in the Sims 4, like happy and inspired. I think it could be a neat addition to let ‘Sad’ boost ‘Scared’ and vice versa, or let ‘Uncomfortable’ boost ‘Sad’, etc. Sims tend to be happy too often. I also think soms positive moodlets could be tweaked to add ‘happy +1’ instead of ‘happy +2’. I noticed that there are so many interactions in the game that have a happy moodlet tied to it, that I started to avoid those interactions to make the game more challenging. It would be great to give the player more control over this by adding toggles in the Options Menu. But adding negative ‘boosts’ and tweaking positive moodlets would be a great start.
- Pack-specific Ideas
- Realm of Magic - The addition of a ‘Dangerous Magic' Lot Challenge. On these lots, Sims could gain Spellcaster XP slower than normal. There could also be a higher chance of being cursed or failing at spellcasting. This would make the pack more challenging.
- Realm of Magic - A Magical Repo Man. A mysterious stranger will come to a Spellcaster’s doorstep once in a while to randomly collect some Spellcasting XP/points, which will drop the Spellcaster to a lower rank. The Magical stranger could also leave packages sometimes (like in the Vampires GP), that could contain curses like the Night Wraith. This would add a welcome challenge to RoM.
Of course more whimsical/wonky spells would be more than welcome in RoM (and spells and magic kits for kids), but I don’t think that falls into the category of ‘challenge’ improvements.
That’s all I can think of right now! Thank you again for listening to the feedback of players!
whims
whims are broken, but could update with new functions of all new content released. This helps the player to be guided through life.
Job challenges:
During The sims 3 you are given small challenges to improve your chances of getting a promotion. Reading a book, going out for coffee with the boss, or working overtime.
There could be options of getting fired or demoted too.
Relationships:
NPC story progression.
Make relationships a little more difficult like in The sims 2. NPCs need to have a steady job and their own stories. In addition to being able to ask for dating or marriage our sims bilaterally and not unilaterally.
Randomize the rate of accepting relationships such as dating or marriage. It's almost impossible to have a marriage proposal rejected these days.
Economic crisis:
It would be nice if it were possible to define economic crises from time to time so that products became more expensive or cheaper. Crises could be optional and defined according to each world in an individual menu.
Perhaps living in sunMyshuno can be more expensive and prone to economic downturns than living in StrangeVille.
I've been playing the sims 3 again and realized how hard it is to make money.
And with that trait turned on, the game would disable any cheating. It would be great for the player to plan for any future problems.
Lifelong Crises:
Children have their food crisis or humor, but adults and the elderly don't. A gameplay would be great adding midlife crisis or extreme desire to change jobs or cities. This makes the game less predictable.
Random events:
- Meteors falling on the house and destroying everything,
- alien invasions.
- Burglars!
- more random electrocuted or drowned die rate.
- Supernatural NPCs can attack our sims. CAS:
Allow us to define which types of sims attracted (male or female or both).
Allow you to choose a dream career directly from CAS, the dream city where your sim wants to live in the future.
Allow for frustration if something like that doesn't happen and the sims will have to deal with it.
Multiple stores per lot:
You could create a bar in the same lot as the gym or a cafe and a petshop without necessarily being the sole owner of the lot. This would cause the lot's rent to be divided among the owners the same occurs with the roommate system
fix world sims spawn
Sims need to stay on their worlds. Unless they're on vacation, they shouldn't be randomly in a park during the winter if they live in sulani.
Comments
- simulation lag needs fixing. I think you're already working on that, though
- babies not being objects, just separating them from the crib so that Sims can carry them around would improve depth a lot (TS2+3)
- story progression for townies with an on/off toggle to make the game feel lived-in (TS3)
- give townies strong negative/positive relationships with other townies and families on New Game, rather than no relationships, especially where it is referenced in bios (eg. Johnny Zest to the Landgraabs, Don Lothario to the Caliente daughters). I want to start a game with families who hate each other! I want to see rivalries! I want to see affairs between married Sims! I want the drama! (TS2)
- more aspirations, WAY more (think how many TS3 had) to allow for very diverse directions of play
- more traits and more than 3 traits for each sim (TS3 again) to make Sims feel diverse, unique and fresh
- actual memories/life events system (TS2) which Sims can remember from makes gameplay feel a lot more deep and makes us feel more attached to the sim
- scrap Whims, replace with wants and fears like TS2, fears and aspiration failure were a good challenge, especially combined with memories
- attraction system (TS2+3) and online dating/dating service (TS2+3)
- curfew/sneak out for kids and teens to add challenge (TS2+3)
- more autonomous mean interactions (especially for teens/kids between each other and towards parents, maybe dependent on traits, so that sibling rivalries don't always have to be directed by the player)
- make Parenthood character traits go up/down faster
- bring back ideal work mood, the challenge was good
- more relationship types and more relationship types available in CAS (extended family)
- content improved/bug fixes for every single pack so far, ESPECIALLY game packs and expansion packs. Every single one. Dedicate a few months to each pack, start with a feedback session for a specific pack, ask the community what still needs fixing and what we want improving. I think this is what you're going for with pack refreshes, which are a fantastic idea, but please focus some time on the bugs that were never resolved from old packs - eg. Dine Out is still an extremely buggy experience
Thank you for doing this today, and thank you for improving the communication between the team and the community with the laundry list etc.
Getting money is too easy/things are too cheap There seems to be a big imbalance of money in the game. Build/buy mode items have gotten cheaper and cheaper and making promotion in careers has become easier and thus the sim gets more money. At some point you have no idea to do with all that money.
Autonomy is broken Autonomy in the original base game was ok, but it seems that with every expansion the autonomy of new gameplay elements is cranked to max. My sims constantly play with the soccer ball or get water from the sink and not to speak of the autonomic actions that cancel other actions like looking at favorite decor objects. Instead I would like to see them do more autonomous things based on their relations, needs, traits and preferences. My same hates fitness, yet the soccer ball he got from father winter is all he plays with, his cat gets completely ignored.
Skilling is ok The base game skills have great rewards like masterpieces for painting, sims stay fit longer with high fitness etc. However new skills like fabrication, robotics and candle making aren't as rewarding. Sure they give you more options to make, but the chance of failure seems just as high and the speed at which things are made does not improve with higher skill levels.
Whims need to improve At some point in the game you've accomplished what you wanted to accomplish and I find myself looking more at the whims to do stuff. However the whims are often the same thing (look at you "Buy a Beebox") and the whims only give some satisfaction points. It would be great if they gave small mood boosts as well or social whims even improving the social need faster. I still want the wants/needs system from the Sims 2, but that is not likely to happen. However I feel whims can be improved to be more like the wants in the Sims 3.
Do some major bugfixing before doing anything else For the Sims series the Sims 4 is considered "old" at this point and it shows. It doesn't feel old with all the free updates and DLC (which is great), but the basic foundation is starting to fill up with bugs and every new expansion seems to add a dozen more bugs caused by cracks in the foundation. My game lags every time I go into or come out of build/buy, this bug has been there for about 2 years now. The stairs are broken ever since the stair update, if I don't follow my sims they either teleport or become invisible. There is also the bug of cancelled actions getting stuck in the queue, it has been there since the launch of the game.
I feel like the game needs a good bugfixing before new gameplay is announced. Maybe make some more kits for a while, while the majority of the team works on fixing stuff in the game or reworking stuff so it can better support new gameplay features in the future. The bugfixes have improved lately, but I feel more can be done. Especially if you see that hobby modders can fix some bugs within hours of a new game patch/pack.
Timed events and goals.
Setting whole families disagreeable.
Random fights.
Natural disasters.
Less smiling sims all the time (it's creepy).
Actual consequences.
There is too much routine, not enough chance. However, I feel the option to turn off chance encounters and events should always be there.
All over house decay so that things must be fixed like the roof and windows. Maybe paint fades, wallpaper peels, windows leak.
Sims wanting to move.
Sims getting bored of their decorations.
Alien abducted sims are never the same again and become paranoid as default, and want to quit their job especially if it involves tech and go live off the grid.
More walking paths for families! Love watching my sims walk together and chat.
Burglars.
A funny Sims dating app. ( I couldn't help but put it in)
Sims are too nice. I never dread my teen sims become teen sims. I never feel my elder sims are really that old. Life stage difficulty would be interesting.
2. More types of exercises. It is possible to add elements of gymnastics. Let the Sims be able to jokingly "fight" with each other (friendly or romantic interaction).
3. More vintage clothes. There is a great lack of nightgowns for men (in the Victorian fashion).
4. The ability to donate blood to feed vampires (these blood bags, they're from donor blood, right?). Let the hospital from the supplement " To work!" it will be more functional so that patients can visit it for examination and treatment of themselves and children.
5. More styles of beards and mustaches. Add, in particular, a large walrus mustache and very long beards.
6. More types of dance, in particular, classical ballet.
This just an idea that maybe the base game bassinet needs sprucing up a little because it's getting a little boring and basic-plus it only has 4 colour swatches that come with it.
Another idea is that maybe stuff can include more mint like for example hairs can include more mint swatches because of the not so berry challenge.
A memory system is a cool idea where they remember the birth of there first born or they remember when there dad got them a new bike for Winterfest.
Better break ups or cheating whenever a married couple cheats they just get slapped in the face and a little bit furious.
When a sim who has hates children trait accidently gets Prego's they don't get happy instead they are angry or stressed. Also maybe a new mother could be a little scared because they don't know what they need to do or prepare for.
That's all the ideas I have at the moment.
Going off no-content-wishlist prompt I prepped pretty specific feedback:
Specific pack annoyances:
- NAPs still add more annoyance than value, especially Sharing is Caring causing sims to strip community lots bare.
- I'm tired of marry-for-money and tax rebate etc. phonecalls - there is no variance to them - they really should have a variance of outcomes
- Water/power generation items and efficiency upgrades don't appear to be balanced correctly - using them increases bills, because their value impact outweighs utility savings.
- Queue drop on recycler is painful. It takes forever to select all the items you want to recycle and if an NPC routes to it first it is all for naught.
- Special event phonecalls being drop-everything-go-now is really annoying when you would like to go, but maybe shower or eat something first
GUI in need of improvement:
- Stack handling - add ability to type number when ordering multiples or splitting stacks, make it easier to split stacks by quality, and omg please do something about moving stacks between sim and household inventory
- Cooking menu - with simple living it needs an option to filter out unavailable options. It also has grown so long over time it would be nice to add categories to it, akin to store or book order menus. Maybe a search bar even?
- Interaction menu organization - if you have a large amount of packs installed/your sim has a lot of skills/ finished aspirations etc. finding the correct interaction becomes really tedious
CAS:
- Sims 2-style genetics with dominant+recessive traits - seems pretty doable using hidden traits?
- Full-body details like freckles or vitiligo spots
- Ability to edit hair and makeup on work and special outfits - they don't always fit and also don't update if you makeover a sim, it would be nice to be able to customize the clothes as well, perhaps with a specific limited selection of appropriate outfits
- Ability to clone alien true form facial features onto the disguise. I like making them look somewhat similar so you can tell it's the same person. This is currently really annoying to go about.
- Ability to clone appearance of sims/save custom presets
- Maybe let us choose handedness in CAS
- Foods in likes/dislikes
Build/buy:
- Better roof tool - give us more options to control the mesh or even fuse several meshes together. Too often I find myself dealing with a roof that has a weird section I want to trim off, sometimes clipping inside the build as well or I can't choose the kind of slope I like because a part of the roof shows through another roof section.
- Overhaul clutter slots - it annoys me that I can't even put a toothbrush cup and soap by the bathroom sink without debug options.
Townies:
- Ability to customize townie job assignment, so I can choose who works at a specific restaurant or bar or gym as a flavor option - this could even be a debug option, I just really want it to exist for my themed savefiles
- Ability to disable automatic townie creation - perhaps with a warning if the game can't find free townies to assign to jobs - again this is for themed savefiles - I can never get mods to work with this correctly
- Tone down how often sims appear in worlds they don't live in.
- You gave us the options to make transgender sims, but they're never created with random townie generation. They were also never included in premade families coming with any packs :(
- Autonomous flirting drives me mad. Maybe if the romantic bar eventually disappeared, but I don't want to be randomly hit on by a friend (often when I'm not even playing the sims in question) and then have that bar there unless I use a cheat to delete their relationship. Is there any way to fix that bar?
Careers:
- Would like to see work-from-home options added to more of them, at least where it makes sense
1. Burglars
2. Expanded aspirations for careers: why the Get To Work, Dine Out, and Dream Home Decorator don’t have an aspiration is beyond me.
3. Expanded options for babies like in Sims 2 and 3 where Sims had to learn about how to care for baby, bathe the baby and take the baby for walks.
4. Additional lot challenges: add in lot challenges like increased bills, faulty appliances etc
5. Make it harder to get promoted in careers, Sims make money too easily
6. Sims should have expanded likes and dislikes. Being limited to 20 likes or dislikes becomes limiting when you have all the packs.
The Wants and Fears system from The Sims 2 was great for making Sims feel more like individuals, so building on something like that would be great. Whims weren't perfect in The Sims 4, but they at least gave the Sims a small amount of individuality - retiring them was a step in the wrong direction, it would have been better to go in the opposite direction and build them into something better.
I'd also like to be able to experience more challenges in game from negative events, in the past we've had things like burglaries that create these challenges. If my Sim does the wrong thing there are no real or long lasting consequences. If a child Sim has a poor or good upbringing there is very little consequences of that in adulthood. The Sims 4 feels a bit like a utopia where nothing bad happens, that's not real life and it isn't a challenge in game.
I think a great way to add challenge to the game would be events that cause negative consequences in game such as your house attempting to be robbed, all of your sims getting sick at once, or a sudden decrease in money due to a leaky pipe. We currently have events like these like the phone call you receive if you want to get additional simoleons but you have to get married. I love that! Anything that can disrupt normal gameplay would be appreciated.
I believe one possible method of adding depth would be making life events more impactful on the sims, such as a loved ones death or the birth of a child. Including aspects of sims remembering these moments either negatively or fondly would also positively impact the depth of the game. This could even be tied in with likes and dislikes system. A sim could love jazz music and when she passes, her son could get a moodlet when he listens to jazz music that it reminds him of his mom. Those little touches make a positive impact on family players like me.
Thank you so much for listening!
Babies
Babies have taken a big step back. I would love it if babies could live outside of the bassinet. Adding in features from older games such as bottles that don't just disappear and changing tables would greatly improve game play.
Toddlers
Currently, I can lock toddlers in a room and never have them interact with their parents and still max all of the toddler skills. In past games we have had playpens, walkers, and the ability to run a daycare. We have also had interactions where parents teach their toddlers how to walk. Adding these types of things back into the game would go a long way.
Children
The child stage is pretty good. The only problem I have is the lack of a boarding school option.
Teen
I LOVE the teen stage. I love being able to apply for college and scholarships while a teen. It is very realistic. I just wish we had the ability to teach teens to drive. Maybe even adding in the ability to fix/ build cars.
Romances
These tend to be very one sided and EXTREMELY predictable. The player chooses a sim, builds up relationship, proposes, and lives happily ever after. Having townies initiate, build, and end relationships would add a lot of depth and realism to the game. Once married, having the spouse randomly cheat or even ask for divorce would be great.
The only other area I think needs more realism is sim health and death. With enough practice you can ensure that your sims always die of old age. Having more/ worse illnesses including ones that lead to death, accidents that can lead to broken bones, and random unpredictable deaths would go a long way towards having more realism and depth to the game.
The Romance part of the game needs a major overhaul. You added relax in bed in a patch earlier this year but our sim couples still can't cuddle, kiss,spoon etc.
Also I think the following would add more depth to the game.
An Online Dating Feature
An Attraction System with turn on and turn offs
More kisses and a proper cuddle on the sofa were they don't break off after 5 seconds.
The return of Love Letters with the option to put them in our sims inventory to read when we want to.
The return of the Love Tester Machine and Vibrating Heart Shaped Bed.
Hand Holding while walking together
Take Romantic Pictures Together.
The Slowdance needs to return
Sims having the option to ask sim to kiss on sofa,cuddle etc.
More relationships in CAS like boy/girlfriend and best friends forever..
[b]Firstly[/b], I know this has been touched on a little, but improved traits will definitely make an impact on gameplay. An example of this: people with the slob or lazy trait get an increased chance of ‘Order pizza’ whim. They are lazy by nature and do not want to cook (also possibly, those traits could make baking/cooking skills go up slower maybe?) it would also encourage players to use the whims and reward traits system more.
Another: family oriented people have more of a chance to ‘adopt/have children’ much like how ambitious sims feel the need to switch careers and learn new skills frequently.
[b]Secondly[/b], when sims are sad or angry, it should be more powerful. If a sims parent has died, they gain a -3 sad moodlet, but give them 3 happy moodlets and suddenly they’re not sad anymore? Life doesn’t work like that and it shouldn’t be easy to forget or move on from.
[b]Thirdly[/b], occasionally having whims such as ‘go outside’, ‘go to the park’ etc. Would encourage players to explore the world. The computers make everything purchasable meaning you theoretically never have to leave your home lot, staying in one place gets repetitive and boring, encourage players to go to the lots around them. (Maybe having to travel to the hospital for medicine when your sims get sick.)
[b]Finally[/b], the little pop ups of dialogue I get are the highlight of my game. People point out how easy it is to romance people in this game and, although you want to be inclusive, the fact is, some people just aren’t attracted to each other. Flirting should have a chance of failure (especially when first talking to someone) if that’s the case, you could get a pop up rejection from that sim. Mean sims: not if you were the last person on earth (or something similar) Nicer sims: sorry, I’m just not into you.
Similarly, people could come up and start to flirt with your sims, eliminating the idea that every gameplay action feels one sided because it’s all decided by the player. In the sims 3 people were attracted to you. Your sims also got a moodlet ‘in attractive company’ if you make people work for the relationship they’ll feel more attached to it.
Thanks for listening!
I would like to be able to change the color of the ceiling and roof from the inside. I often build wooden or stone houses, castles, and the white color is very distracting from the overall picture. I really hope that someday there will be an opportunity to diversify ceilings and roofs. Please!
Have a nice day.
Depth: for me, it's about relationships
.
For example, you have chance cards for gaining fame in different careers, or opportunities to gain character values while kids or teens are volunteering. Why not expand these things beyond fame and volunteering, and make the consequences have more impact? Always give an option to Ignore or Cancel, or find a way around these consequences, but put the option in there and don't tell us the outcome.
Once a sim passes a certain threshold of money, there's not much for them to do with it. Give us more things to sink simoleons into (new expensive bed, luxury items, own more than one lot etc). Add ways that sims can lose money (both big and small).
Free Death. I don't want my sims to die, but it is much too easy to avoid death in The Sims 4. I think you can make it a little more difficult by giving us the option to make it difficult if we want it - via lot trait, or reasonable random percentage. Let the cowplant be dangerous and make us nervous when our sims' rocket ships crash. And definitely make townies easier to off.
I think you've already done some of this around traits, but just link whims, traits and likes and dislikes as much as you dare. Creative sims should have a greater chance of instantly liking creative activities if they don't already. Snobby sims should roll to visit the museum or be more likely to like jazz, Baroque or Classical.
Thanks again for this opportunity. I'm a big fan of The Sims 4. I personally enjoy having ultimate control over my game, but think there's room to accommodate simmers like me and also simmers who desire a little more pushback from the game engine.
I created an account here so I can write this, so hopefully you will read this! ;)
Bugs and other issues aside,
basically, it would improve the game a lot if all areas of the game were less limited/restricted by a fixed set of seemingly arbitrary numbers. The limit seems to be tied to the UI in many cases, as a higher than default quantity of certain things has not been accounted for.
In some areas of the game, performance on slower machines is obviously a concern, so maybe players being able to adjust settings in the options menu, based on their preference, could be a way to remedy this (similar to how max. Sim-count, or days-per-season can already be adjusted). If my PC can handle it, I want to be able to play it!
To the points:
-more Sims in a household
As far as I am aware, on a technical level adding more than 8 Sims in a household is possible with mods/cheats, but CAS seems to have a problem with that. If you will not increase/remove the limit, having it at least supported even if more than 8 are added, would be great!
-more than 3 personality traits per Sim
Having only 3 slots available is pretty lackluster and does not allow for very deep characterization/unique personalities. Traits like Vegetarian or physical traits like Lactose Intolerant taking up a slot is also strange to me. In a best case scenario, the whole trait assignment system should be revamped. The recent addition of likes and dislikes is a step in the right direction (even though the 20 per Sim limit (again) is slightly annoying). I would suggest something similar with traits being split into categories like emotional response, demeanor, morality, sociability, physical and so on..., or a slider system based on ranges like good to evil, fit to unfit or calm to erratic (these could also change over a Sim's life based on certain events?).
Some traits could be split up into smaller, less specific traits since there is a lot of overlap, like Foodie and Snob both relate to high quality items or Mean and Evil both cause negative interactions.
Since the addition of the new likes and dislikes system, some traits have already become slightly obsolete.
For example traits like Active/Lazy are not needed personality-wise if there is a like/dislike for fitness or exercise.
The game already uses a lot of hidden traits in the background, so it is kind of odd to me that this has not been done from the beginning. And like before, if you do not increase the limit, having it at least supported to show correctly in CAS (in the form of a list instead of fixed slots) would be a nice little addition.
-more likes and dislikes categories, like previously mentioned
More than 20 per Sim (ideally there should be no limit, let my Sim love/hate everything that exist!), and more categories like other Sim's traits, certain objects/categories of objects (like clothing styles or food ingredients; décor was even already added for the DHD game pack) and maybe even other Sim's looks (although I assume this is not supported by the game, since a Sim's appearance is mostly not defined by traits and has no bearing on gameplay whatsoever).
-more slider range in CAS
There was a mod for that, but it does not work properly without screwing with existing Sims. Sometimes I want to give my Sim a really long nose or make the eyes so large, they clip out of the head. Maybe have a button or hotkey, that unlocks a Sim from the "standard" limitations?
-more body sliders in CAS
While face sliders are already detailed enough to create almost every face imaginable, the customization options for the whole body are not nearly as detailed.
I believe bodypart length and body height might be problematic for displaying animations correctly (this happens when using mods; maybe you could take more advantage of the IK system for body/bodypart positioning?), but being able to have more control over the width/depth and shape of bodyparts would be a great addition to the vanilla game and should not interfere with animations. (Bonus points for adding a way to individually change bone structure/muscle groups/fat deposits for bodyparts, like you can with the face!)
Some minor things:
-illnesses
From GTW Expansion. Seem a little too inconsequential. Don't know if they do, but spreading to other Sims could cause a lot of interesting scenarios. A Gas And Giggles Epidemic or a seasonal Llama Flu sounds like a fun gameplay idea to me. Of course there should be a way to turn this of in the settings.
-permanent Plantsims
Not much to say. Would be nice to have them around forever.
-occult hybrids
Seems to work on a technical level when using cheats, but again, the UI has trouble accounting for more than one. Let us have Plant-Vampire-Ghost-Mermaids!
-Other areas
-more club members (same as households, more can technically be added but not supported by UI; probably needs balancing for points gain based on number of members),
-higher number of club activities/requirements,
-more lot trait slots (might be OP in normal gameplay),
-more retail employees,
-time speed (not like fast forward, but rather how long one minute is compared to real time so a day lasts longer/shorter and there is more/less time for events, solving needs and so on; possibly changes the game's difficulty?),
-and maybe more areas that I can't think of, or I do not have the packs yet
When I was playing sims 4, I found everything are interest at the beginning, but it is also easy to feel bored, I guess the major reason is that all the sims' behaviors are definately not realistic at all and let players feels like playing the toys by themselves - everyone wish our sims have the life just as what was shown on the trailer, but not everyone want to control all the sims every time. We can easily found different characteristics of all these sims on the trailer, but when we control it, bomb, all these sims are totally the same what ever which feature they have - when u don't control them, they are just so stupid that can only eat and sleep, do not have there own life of themselves.
THEY CAN NOT DO THE CORRECT THINGS WITH CORRECT PEOPLE IN THE CORRECT SITUATION. I guess that is what I felt when playing the sims 4.
Lets just have some examples: When my sims invest their friends to enjoy a party in their home tonight, what these customers prefer to do is coming to our bedroom and playing computer games. When our sims going outside to drink a cup of coffee with their friends, their friend are more likely just stand there and play their mobile or find something interest and left our sims along. Or some hungry sims take a piece of birthday cake before we put the candle on it.
I have less experiences stay with my firend but I do know I will never do these in my real life.
I also thought EA need to make all the sims special - remember, not just our traditional citizens, but also the random sims including our family members. The feature they have should really have much more influences in their behaviors and relationships, or they just looks totally the same, that's the major reason why I will never let my sims stay in a big family before EA make our sims like a real person.
At last, as everyone, I do expect the story progression can be include in sims 4. Now I have to add the mod to let our uncontrolled sims marrage to other sims and pregnant, that also make I felt our sims are not realistic at all. and if EA really add the story progression, the thing I said before could be really important because we cannot keep our traditional citizens all the time.
I know EA really do something to make our sims special, but some of them still required players to choose, for example the life style. But come on, we do actually want to see something special, like our sims bring something unexpected back home, our children make friends with others in school, what our sims' behaviors can let us imagine what he felt right now, not just doing some meanless things randomly. We cannot understood sims' language, but we do expect to understood our sims' life story from his/ her experiences and reactions.
To conclude, please make our sims' behaviors become predictable (like a real person) and unpredictable (unexpect suprise), rather than just like playing the doll by myself.
I think a good way to make the game more challenging is to make RELATIONSHIP between two sims separated, like my sim can be in love with a other sim, but the other sim not really. Like it was in the Sims 2.
I also think but WANTS AND FEAR for the sims that works with his/her personally, likes and dislikes, etc.
More Dynamic NPCs: have the pancakes get divorced randomly and spontaneously. Random NPCs getting married and having babies out of my control.
Debt system: be able to take out a mortgage or credit card
Weather: bring back schools being closed for blizzards, etc
Health: sims illnesses are boring. I’d like to see them develop bad illnesses that require treatment or they die like pneumonia or chronic illnesses (I have Crohn’s. It would be interesting to see that recreated in the sims). Have an opt out feature for severe illnesses so that if people don’t want to see it they don’t have to.
I love this!
In special the world settings and Old Unreliable.
RELATIONSHIPS (ESPECIALLY NEGATIVE/ENEMY):
I played two sisters who are enemies and live together. Instead of acting like enemies, refusing to talk to each other, having negative interactions, etc. they've become best friends over the course of a single day without any intervention from me. They constantly have positive interactions and the fact that they're enemies is ignored completely by the game.
I feel the game would be much better if there were more “checks” for these kinds of things. It feels like all Sims act exactly the same regardless of relationship, traits, likes, etc.
If two Sims are enemies, they should not become best friends in a day with no intervention from the player. Their autonomous behavior should reflect their feelings for each other – which are negative.
DATING:
Dates are entirely too easy. It's impossible to have a bad date. I want my Sims to be able to have a bad date (I hate to say it, but like in The Sims 2). As it stands, you just have to have 10 interactions with your date and it's a success. That sucks. I hate dating in this game because every single date has the same outcome.
There's no challenge in trying to get another Sim to like your Sim and have a good time with them. The date “goals” are ok, but there should be a chance of failure. The date “meter” should go into the negative to allow a chance for things to go wrong. And then, it would be nice if there was a consequence, like a larger hit to the relationship or the Sim refusing to date your Sim again for a while..something to make it feel like your Sim can “lose.”
In general, we just need more ways our Sims can fail and more consequences for actions.
DEPTH OF FEATURES (LIKES/DISLIKES):
I love the likes and dislikes system. It's one of the best things that's been added to the game in my opinion. BUT, it still doesn't feel like there's enough depth. Here's why:
First, the Sims don't seem more drawn to activities they like over any other activities. Even if a Sim has several likes and dislikes, they still continue to act exactly the same as every other Sim. I basically have to use likes and dislikes as a guide for what I direct (force) my Sim to do. I feel is should impact their autonomous behavior MUCH MORE.
The dislikes feel useless while you're playing. I have a Sim who is a Goofball. He decided he dislikes mischief. Now, he's constantly unhappy because he's autonomously doing mischief interactions because he's a Goofball. Here's another example of where there should be more “checks.” For example, a Goofball Sim should not be able to dislike Mischief since it's a core part of his personality. An active Sim should not be able to dislike Fitness, etc. if it's something they will autonomously do because of traits. It makes no sense.
I feel that the likes/dislikes were implemented with no integration with the traits or personalities of Sims. Just like with so many other areas of the game, any Sim can do ANY thing. Or to put it more clearly, EVERY Sim can do EVERY thing. That makes them all feel exactly the same. No one is unique. I had high hopes the likes/dislikes would improve this, but they just added to the problem.
Second, it seems like every single Sim in town has likes/dislikes for fishing and fitness. That's it. It's very difficult for them to discover other likes/dislikes. And, there should be MORE likes/dislikes available – why is there no reading or chess or knitting?
WHIMS:
This is so incredibly important to me and one of my biggest problems with The Sims 4. Whims have been abandoned. I am a whims-based (or wants-based) player. I like letting my Sims decide what to do with their lives. Whims (and previously wants/wishes) help guide our Sims and make them feel like real people with their own wants and dreams.
Since there have been no new whims added to the game, I have to use numerous mods to have any kind of meaningful game play for my play style.
In my opinion, the whims should be much smarter if they are updated. There should be more whims and more “checks” on which whims appear based on your Sim's status.
I hate to again compare to The Sims 2, but I feel I must here. In TS2, there were “paths” that the wants would take. For example, a Family Sim would want to fall in love, then when they fell in love, they would get a want to get engaged, then when they got engaged, they would get a want to get married, then when they got married they'd want to have a baby.
The wants made sense for the Sim's life. In The Sims 4, whims are just random and make no sense. I've had a Sim get a whim to move in with another Sim while they were already living together. They will get random whims at random times based on traits, but the status of the Sim's relationships, career, etc. are not considered.
Again, everything is too simple and same-y. We need whims to be revamped, new whims added for new content, and the whims need to make sense for the Sim at that moment – and perhaps have a series of smaller whim that they complete as they get closer and closer to completing a larger goal (like getting married, having a child, getting to the top of a career, etc.) that makes sense.
Also, for the love of God! PLEASE fix the bug where all whims are reset for all Sims in the household when another Sim travels. It's impossible to keep whims pinned and work towards them when they are constantly reset every time someone travels!
TRAITS:
Traits feel mostly meaningless to me. The Goofball constantly pranking their own toilets is so annoying, I had to disable it with a mod. That's not the kind of “depth” we're looking for and I feel the mark was missed big time on that one.
Traits need to make Sims feel different from one another, and right now they just don't. A clumsy Sim might trip a lot...but that doesn't have much impact on gameplay at all.
I don't know the answer to this one. But I feel like integrating traits with whims and likes/dislikes – and making them impact autonomous behavior more - could give a lot more depth. For example, a Sim with the Foodie trait will be more likely to “like” cooking, will roll whims related to cooking, and will autonomously cook meals that require higher skill or gourmet foods, etc.
Sims just need to feel like they have unique personalities somehow, because even now after all these years, they still all feel too much alike.
MONEY/SIMOLEONS:
It is FAR too easy to earn huge amounts of money and buy all the expensive stuff in the game. I feel earning money and promotions should be a bit harder – or at least the jobs should pay less money.
I also really dislike the prices for food. It kills me every time I have to pay 108 Simoleons to make grilled cheese. I wish the money earned and spent was a bit more realistic so we could relate to it better.
CAREER CHANCE CARDS:
The chance cards in this game are useless and I completely ignore them. Performance loss or gain? Nobody cares. They should be much more risky. There should be a chance of getting demoted (or promoted), losing or gaining money – the higher the career level, the bigger the risk.
Same with school chance cards. I never pay attention to these at all. Maybe give a bit more risk – like losing a grade or being suspended from school. On the positive side, gaining a grade or earning an award of money. Just SOMETHING that make them interesting.
Thank your listening to our feedback. I love The Sims and I want to see this game improve. It has such potential to be great, but it's just missing the depth and challenge of previous games – for many of the reasons I outlined above. I'm glad to see the devs are listening and trying to make changes.
• I would like to start with NPC. NPC’S in The Sims 4 sometimes feel unbearable to play with. Without mods, they sometimes feel like an empty shell. Regardless of traits everyone seems to have the same personality. Story progression is extremely important to the sims. It’s what makes the game come to life. Having the worlds evolve around your sims as your sim grows has always been something I enjoyed in previous installments. If I don’t control it myself, NPC’s stories really won’t progress. Example- relationships outside of my household growing or declining, affairs, divorces, etc.
• BABIES! Lol I know this topic is repetitive at this point. However, babies still being an object is a crime. I use to enjoy my sims getting pregnant, and taking care of their newborns once born. I barley play with babies now because theirs no depth to them. Sims should be developing traits as babies. How they’re taking care of should affect the type of sims they become. We should be able to take our babies to parks, vacations, grandmas house, etc.
• Generations EP! It’s long overdue, and I believe one single pack with a base game update can really fix a lot of issues. I would love to see babies get a free update right before a Generations EP release. In this pack I would like to see improvements to every life stage. This pack can introduce things like retirement home lot trait, events like prom, divorce party, and play dates.
Thanks for listening to our feedback, really appreciate it. I’m just gonna jump straight into the things I think could use some improvement/tweaking.
- More Realistic Careers
I’ve found that finding a job can be a little too easy in the game. In my opinion it would be a good idea to bring back daily job openings. There could be a different selection of jobs everyday when you open the career window. It could also say ‘Check back tomorrow for new job openings!’, or something like that. Maybe you could even add a ‘Harder careers’ lot challenge that could make it less likely for a Sim to get a job straight away. Sims with no skills could face rejection until they start to up their skills or go to University. Just an idea!
- Slower Romance Progress
In my experience you can build romantic relationships fairly quickly in The Sims 4. It’s a tad unrealistic to me, and I think filling the romance bar could be made more challenging (right now you can fill the bar in a few Sim hours). This could be done by making rejections more likely or putting a daily cap on successful romantic interactions. Maybe the Sim that you are flirting with could let you know that they're over it after a while with a notification, like ‘Woah! Don’t you think that’s enough flirting for today?’ Or ‘Sorry, this is becoming a bit much..’. Of course Sims with the Flirty trait would be more open towards flirting and you wouldn’t get such notifications while flirting with them.
The perfect addition to Romance in the game would be a Chemistry or Attraction system, in my opinion. I’m sure others will mention this as well, but such a system could make for more unexpected and varying outcomes of romantic interactions. Some Sims could have more chemistry than others, which would result in more successful romantic interactions. An attraction/chemistry system could be based around Sims’ traits and likes and dislikes.
- Desires and Fears
This could be a system that adds desires (like wanting a kid, wanting to plant a garden, wanting to visit space) based on a Sims personality traits and likes/dislikes, and Fears (not wanting to kiss anyone, fearing meeting a dog, not wanting to use technology). Your Sim could collect some lifetime points by fulfilling their desires, and lose lifetime points by doing something they fear. Also their fun-meter could drop significantly (to red) and they could become extremely scared instantly if they something they fear. This system would bring more challenge to the game as you could lose lifetime points by experiencing something fearful. This could also help with balancing the lifetime points-system in general, as I always end up with a lot of these points without trying.
- Add ‘Boosts’ to Negative Emotions
If I remember correctly, the ‘boosting […]’ state of emotions is only applied to positive emotions in the Sims 4, like happy and inspired. I think it could be a neat addition to let ‘Sad’ boost ‘Scared’ and vice versa, or let ‘Uncomfortable’ boost ‘Sad’, etc. Sims tend to be happy too often. I also think soms positive moodlets could be tweaked to add ‘happy +1’ instead of ‘happy +2’. I noticed that there are so many interactions in the game that have a happy moodlet tied to it, that I started to avoid those interactions to make the game more challenging. It would be great to give the player more control over this by adding toggles in the Options Menu. But adding negative ‘boosts’ and tweaking positive moodlets would be a great start.
- Pack-specific Ideas
- Realm of Magic - The addition of a ‘Dangerous Magic' Lot Challenge. On these lots, Sims could gain Spellcaster XP slower than normal. There could also be a higher chance of being cursed or failing at spellcasting. This would make the pack more challenging.
- Realm of Magic - A Magical Repo Man. A mysterious stranger will come to a Spellcaster’s doorstep once in a while to randomly collect some Spellcasting XP/points, which will drop the Spellcaster to a lower rank. The Magical stranger could also leave packages sometimes (like in the Vampires GP), that could contain curses like the Night Wraith. This would add a welcome challenge to RoM.
Of course more whimsical/wonky spells would be more than welcome in RoM (and spells and magic kits for kids), but I don’t think that falls into the category of ‘challenge’ improvements.
That’s all I can think of right now! Thank you again for listening to the feedback of players!
whims
whims are broken, but could update with new functions of all new content released. This helps the player to be guided through life.
Job challenges:
During The sims 3 you are given small challenges to improve your chances of getting a promotion. Reading a book, going out for coffee with the boss, or working overtime.
There could be options of getting fired or demoted too.
Relationships:
NPC story progression.
Make relationships a little more difficult like in The sims 2. NPCs need to have a steady job and their own stories. In addition to being able to ask for dating or marriage our sims bilaterally and not unilaterally.
Randomize the rate of accepting relationships such as dating or marriage. It's almost impossible to have a marriage proposal rejected these days.
Economic crisis:
It would be nice if it were possible to define economic crises from time to time so that products became more expensive or cheaper. Crises could be optional and defined according to each world in an individual menu.
Perhaps living in sunMyshuno can be more expensive and prone to economic downturns than living in StrangeVille.
I've been playing the sims 3 again and realized how hard it is to make money.
And with that trait turned on, the game would disable any cheating. It would be great for the player to plan for any future problems.
Lifelong Crises:
Children have their food crisis or humor, but adults and the elderly don't. A gameplay would be great adding midlife crisis or extreme desire to change jobs or cities. This makes the game less predictable.
Random events:
- Meteors falling on the house and destroying everything,
- alien invasions.
- Burglars!
- more random electrocuted or drowned die rate.
- Supernatural NPCs can attack our sims.
CAS:
Allow us to define which types of sims attracted (male or female or both).
Allow you to choose a dream career directly from CAS, the dream city where your sim wants to live in the future.
Allow for frustration if something like that doesn't happen and the sims will have to deal with it.
Multiple stores per lot:
You could create a bar in the same lot as the gym or a cafe and a petshop without necessarily being the sole owner of the lot. This would cause the lot's rent to be divided among the owners the same occurs with the roommate system
fix world sims spawn
Sims need to stay on their worlds. Unless they're on vacation, they shouldn't be randomly in a park during the winter if they live in sulani.