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Family Play in TS4... the never ending loop
nanashi-sims
Posts: 4,140 Member
I have built families (all with kids, some with grandparents) and have tested out the game play. It doesn't feel any different than single sims. For example: the kids have all these goals and skills they need to accomplish at school. They have to achieve their own childish aspirations, and they are gone for most of the day and when they get home they have to fill their fun needs and then take care of their basic needs and then they can do their homework. I tried to use this time to bond with parents and grandparents and had adults take turn with helping with homework. It's not a very exciting interaction after the first week of school is over.
Breakfast has to be done separately because the kids don't eat in time if others are present and they have an hour to catch the bus. They just stare at their plates and make weird attempts to talk and then the kid has to rush off with the plate still half-full and the hunger meter half empty.
Meanwhile I played retired grandparents and *again* my family connections got hosed. They are listed as grandmother, grandfather, mother, and father to the daughter and her child, but are listed as impartial roommates to each other. I used cheats to recconnect them, but they still are not acknowledged as a married couple because they don't have options to kiss or make out and they have options for sims who would be dating for the first time.
I never use money cheats, so my sims don't have a lot of money once their house is built. I do like the challenge of earning money (retired sims do crafts, garden, fish, etc) and adult sims work. However, as soon as sims start making enough money to improve their entertainment things break and TS4 doesn't have a repairman, you only have the option to repair things yourself or replace for hefty fees. The time spent skilling to accomplish goals leaves zero time to build up inconsequential skills (such as the repair skill).
I never understood what "grind" meant when players talked about the sims, but I do now. It feels like I'm just repeating the same actions and there is no reward. Once you complete goals, there are just a new set of goals to complete. There doesn't seem to be anytime to explore. This is the first time where I have played a game for hours and have not even been tempted to leave the lot (I don't have a problem with loading screens) I just have too little time for family interaction.
I can only imagine what would happen with ageing on.
Maybe TS2 made it easier for sims to be social? I have no idea, but my sims have no friends, they barely interact with each other, and they haven't achieved much outside of a couple aspiration goals. I'd love to hear how family players--especially the ones who were gushing about it actually manage to incorporate family play in their games. Do you guys just ignore aspirations? Do you use money cheats so that sims don't have to focus on making a living? What are you doing to give you time for family interactions?
Have you had to adjust the way you play families in order to play families in TS4? Please advise.
Breakfast has to be done separately because the kids don't eat in time if others are present and they have an hour to catch the bus. They just stare at their plates and make weird attempts to talk and then the kid has to rush off with the plate still half-full and the hunger meter half empty.
Meanwhile I played retired grandparents and *again* my family connections got hosed. They are listed as grandmother, grandfather, mother, and father to the daughter and her child, but are listed as impartial roommates to each other. I used cheats to recconnect them, but they still are not acknowledged as a married couple because they don't have options to kiss or make out and they have options for sims who would be dating for the first time.
I never use money cheats, so my sims don't have a lot of money once their house is built. I do like the challenge of earning money (retired sims do crafts, garden, fish, etc) and adult sims work. However, as soon as sims start making enough money to improve their entertainment things break and TS4 doesn't have a repairman, you only have the option to repair things yourself or replace for hefty fees. The time spent skilling to accomplish goals leaves zero time to build up inconsequential skills (such as the repair skill).
I never understood what "grind" meant when players talked about the sims, but I do now. It feels like I'm just repeating the same actions and there is no reward. Once you complete goals, there are just a new set of goals to complete. There doesn't seem to be anytime to explore. This is the first time where I have played a game for hours and have not even been tempted to leave the lot (I don't have a problem with loading screens) I just have too little time for family interaction.
I can only imagine what would happen with ageing on.
Maybe TS2 made it easier for sims to be social? I have no idea, but my sims have no friends, they barely interact with each other, and they haven't achieved much outside of a couple aspiration goals. I'd love to hear how family players--especially the ones who were gushing about it actually manage to incorporate family play in their games. Do you guys just ignore aspirations? Do you use money cheats so that sims don't have to focus on making a living? What are you doing to give you time for family interactions?
Have you had to adjust the way you play families in order to play families in TS4? Please advise.
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Comments
In the sims 4 I do it for the above reasons, but also because I just don't feel I have enough time to get relationships in a meaningful place. There used to be a mod that stopped relationship decay... I miss that a lot.
The ai is low (noticible heavily in full sim households) and the sims are very chatty. I do not like game assigned careers, but I will assign them so that i can focus on developing relationships with my other sims.
The sims need improved personalities, faster acomplished activities, and more fleshed out family tags and ties.
I feel as though there are a lot of "little" and seemingly unrelated things that contribute to the lack of good family play.
It's not just the things they can/can't do together (though very important); it's their personalities, the time and time management, the ai "pull" (or lack there of) the family tags, the family recognition, the responses to situations, ect.
A generations ep would be great and all, but I believe the base game needs to be tweeked first of all to improve almost everything.
*There's nothing wrong with loving the Sims 4, there's also nothing wrong with seeking improvements.
A list of Mods I use.|My Sims 4 Mod and CC "Master" post. Helpful Links included.
That mod still works, but you have to configure it by putting the rate of decay directly into the cfg file. It messes up if you set it up using the console.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
Thank you for informing me. Going to try and see if I can find it again and look into setting it up. Would you happen to have any idea if it's compatible with MC CMD center? I know that mod can be used to completely destroy relationships, so I'm wondering if there would be any conflicts.
*There's nothing wrong with loving the Sims 4, there's also nothing wrong with seeking improvements.
A list of Mods I use.|My Sims 4 Mod and CC "Master" post. Helpful Links included.
My mom sim stays at home and the dad works. Mom gets up early and preps breakfast for all, then she calls to meal and the family sits together for breakfast. The kids take care of their needs (usually pee and shower) before they head off to school. If I have extra time I'll have the them either 'ponder moves' on the chess board or interact with the cube thing to make them focused before they head out. If they are low on something I will set them according during school hours. If they are fatigued I will send them for a nap while mom preps dinner, if their needs look good, they do homework. My sims kids don't do their home work every night. I find it's more realistic that way. After dinner it's usually family TV time, horseshoes, playing cards, or I'll invite a few sim friends over. (Don't forget you can meet new sims at school and work)
I usually ignore skill building, but kids can build skills just by playing so it works out for me. I play the smallest kid as kind of a brat. She's very mean to her big sister. I use the annoy interaction a lot, lol. Also, when there is a puddle, she will jump and play in it, creating an even bigger mess for her mom. When she's mad I'll have her break the doll house which poor dad has to go and fix after work.
My teen is leveling her photography. Her room is full of photos of her friends and her boyfriend. She likes to take selfies of herself, try on outfits or change her appearance. Shes texts her boyfriend and friends constantly. Her friends practically live at my sims house, so my mom sim usually makes the biggest meal possible.
Mom is a gamer, but as her family grows she's having to give her beloved hobby up a bit. She gets sad sometimes and feels the need to play, but she has her other responsibilities right now. Sometimes there just isn't time for it all, and hey, that's life.
Dad is going through a midlife crisis right now. Ive had him quit his job 3 times because he just doesn't know what he wants, lol. I may wait for a whim to guide me on that one. He is very affectionate to his wife. They are constantly hugging, kissing and flirting unprompted by me.
Evey night is different. Sometimes it's TV and chilling, other days it's horseshoes or cards. Sometimes I put the kids to bed early and throw a late night adult dinner party. On weekends I like to throw bonfire parties and have the dad grill up some burgers.
No matter what I'm doing my sims are ALWAYS talking. I find that the conversations happen so naturally.
I'm looking forward to get together because there will be natural pool lots. I hate having pools on my home lots when there are multiple sims so having a place where sims are encouraged to swim will be fun.
I enjoy TS4, but that does very little to help you in any way shape or form. LOL So I'll just say I hope some content comes along in the future that makes the game more meaningful to you, or that you find a better game that fills this void.
@Ayumap The AI definitely needs a bit of tweaking. I like how social the sims are, but sometimes it really gets in the way of things. Assigning proper traits to shape the sim how you want them helps, but it doesn't have as much bearing as I would like it to at times. Improvements are definitely needed, but I do still enjoy the game. The culling on previous generations in the genealogy REALLY needs to be fixed. I keep tweeting to the Gurus about it. LOL They're probably like... ::Facepalm:: give me a break woman! rofl
Combined? Certainly not! Better than each individual? Yes, probably. If they add toddlers then the "combined" thing is correct.
Once they seem to fancy someone through their own free will, I'll take the driver's seat and steer their interactions, but most of it is their choice. I talk about these pixels like they're real people.
And OP, don't be afraid to use vacation days when the kids are in school. I use them all the time to build relationships, to fulfill whims, and level skills.
Also, think about using that cheat that lets you change how quickly time passes in TS4.
The number at the end is how many real-world milliseconds it takes for one sim-second to pass. Setting it to 1000 means 1 sim-second = 1 real-world second. But people like setting it to around 30, which would be almost two real-world seconds to every sim-minute. It just gives you that extra time to feed your kids and enjoy their time.
And if you play with it and really get your timing off, I believe the default is somewhere between 16 and 17, but you can always restart your game.
Yup, I use that as well
The relationship mod is here:
http://modthesims.info/d/534925
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
I pretty much gave up on building skills or reaching goals, I don't like them in this game, but my sims need friends, need to spend time together, need time to make baby's ... so I cheat.
Haha! No worries. I actually didn't like TS4 before. I'm only playing right now to test out the family play. I really liked the screenshots and wanted to see if I could get that kind of play out of my game. This is why I'm asking for player input.
I have turned ageing off and that helps a lot, but I couldn't manage to have my sims meet their aspiration goals and focus on family play at the same time. I'm guessing that family players have to choose between skilling, working, aspirations, and families
If there is any one thing in Sims that's realistic, it's this. Just add "leisure time" and "social life" in there.
This is a great suggestion! I'll try to use this to allow my kids to do more than play, do homework, toilet, shower, and sleep every weekday.
@Ceres_Meiriona Well I appreciate you trying to get their attention. Something like that could benefit us all. Yeah, sometimes I'm not too worried about the talking, it just depends on the situation. I mostly brought it up because I was thinking about them eating lol. I notice things like bladder and hunger tend to go up while they're at work/school so I tend to focus on their social, sleep, hygiene, and fun before I send them off to where ever they're off to. I know you can do "talk to friends/coworkers" while they're away, but it's not always an ideal option.
Reminds me that I really need to add a time changing mod as well. Perhaps in the near future I'll set up a post to list all the mods I use to help improve my own game play and add it to my signature as well. I'm sure many people don't read my siggy, but I always hope to help at least a few people with some info.
*There's nothing wrong with loving the Sims 4, there's also nothing wrong with seeking improvements.
A list of Mods I use.|My Sims 4 Mod and CC "Master" post. Helpful Links included.
Anyway your "problem" with kids (that they have to do homework and spend most of the day at school) was there in previous sims games too. Also have tried playing Ts2 recently? Those needs were HARD to fill. For real. I tried it recently and I had forgotten how genuinely hard was to keep sims happy. They had to had like two showers a day, use the toilet 10 times and eat 5 meals a day to keep their bars green. Not that I'm complaining (I Love the sims 2) but I find that keeping sims happy in the sims 4 is rather easy and usually leaves me more than enough time for my sims to do other stuff and socialize.
To be fair, I use Pescado's phone hack to keep in touch with friends. I don't know if a similar hack is available for TS4.
I dropped the mod in and created a txt file called mgomez-relationshipdecay.cfg. I have the following values in it like this:
30
30
That slows the rate of decay to 30%
As far as I am aware MCCC simply writes the actual relationship values rather than affecting how they change during play.
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity....
The Ghost Song - Jim Morrison
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
Also, I think the issue I'm having with TS4 is that I'm trying to play it the same way I play TS2. I think a play style adjustment is necessary (I also play with ageing on in TS4). Hence my request for suggestions.
@ModerateOsprey Thanks so much! I actually grabbed the one that says it adds 0 relationship decay. I assume I don't need to change that one right? I plan to use mc cmd and the relationship cheat if I need to kill any relationships off for my stories. At least for the moment, but I think I'll have to save your information to a note pad too just in case I decide I want the decay to come back (just with a slower delay).
I'm loving this though. Really gives me peace of mind while growing one family and not having to worry about what my other families might be feeling (or not feeling) towards each other while I'm away.
*There's nothing wrong with loving the Sims 4, there's also nothing wrong with seeking improvements.
A list of Mods I use.|My Sims 4 Mod and CC "Master" post. Helpful Links included.
The one that adds 0 is broken. You need to use the two-file option. There's a comment on about page 13 or 14 of the mod discussion area with a link to a cfg file preset.
It was on page thirteen and very easy to set up, thank you!
*There's nothing wrong with loving the Sims 4, there's also nothing wrong with seeking improvements.
A list of Mods I use.|My Sims 4 Mod and CC "Master" post. Helpful Links included.