@Ceres_Meiriona, no screenshots. I was too panicked trying to fix the mess, lol. All I did was ask the romance guru about my sims new marraige. She evidently didn't think it was as great as I thought it was...and neither did my sims. So that is definitely the last time I will be inquiring of the guru.
I think the emotion system still needs work, but I like City Living because I now see my sims in different moods than happy more often. Whether it's a protest that went wrong, a mean comment left from a social networking follower, or rats and bad smells, my Sims actually feel a little more alive.
That being said, there's still a lot more work to be done. I hope the next batch of lot traits are taken to the next level, and we do indeed see more consequences. For example, they should add in police. So when you're defacing a mural, you won't just get a embarrassed moodlet if you're caught. You'll be taken to jail or something like that. We need rules and scolding for teens, WAY BETTER REACTIONS to cheating and death, and i definitely agree that being sick should have bigger results. We will have to see what happens.
@Ceres_Meiriona I'm glad things seem to be a lot different for you than for me, but sadly, my game isn't playing out like yours in anyway at all. I wish my game would play out like yours is, and I'm really jealous hearing and seeing all of that.
Yeah... so my sim just doesn't agree. >.< She is NEVER happy unless I remove her from her sordid apartment. These things do matter, and they do impact my sim's life. In fact, she was so upset by the pipes, odor, power going on and off from the unfixed electrical box, that she couldn't tend to her children. If I had not hired a Nanny, she would have lost them to social services.
I'd say that's a rather impactful thing in a sim's life.
Leaving things unfixed prevents your sim from getting sleep, dazes them (which makes them extremely easy to kill). This is exactly the kind of stuff I wanted to see in the game, so while there are a lot of things I think CL could have done better, I really like this and don't agree that there are no consequences to these traits. The lot traits override anything else your sims are feeling, and my sim's job performance, social life, and health have all suffered (she is always sick now, and I've never seen my sims sick so much). She was demoted at work (something I've never had happen before) because she couldn't keep her plum together at home (due to her environment making her that unhappy), and things are so ridiculously out of control that her neighbors often come over and clean her apartment for her, because they can't seem to stand it either.
So she can lose her children, lose her job, lose her life... what else would you like to see happen? (I actually did have her die fixing the electrical box, but I exited without saving because her children weren't old enough to live alone yet). Genuinely interested in this, because this post should be in the feedback section if you sincerely don't feel like these things are a big enough deal. TS4 has been too pretty and too perfect for me since release, but this right here... finally feels right to me.
Her b/f couldn't stand it and cleaned her toilet
My game is more eventful and environment far more immersive than it has ever been in TS4.
Edited to add:
Now if you were to say, "Hey guys, this is a great start, but I would love to see more of this! Please consider adding a :slips and falls: death if there are puddles of water on the floor... or if a sim's apartment is absolutely disgusting and it has gone on too long, it should start an antibiotic resistant plague that has a 50% chance of killing anyone in the household and will spread to the neighboring apartments... etc" Then I'd be like OH HECK YES, :whips out support sign and waves it around excitedly: but to just say... Yep, no consequences... none... this is total fail. That's just false.
OKAY! That place is just NASTY! I am so calling DHS/CPS right now before that poor little baby gets Hep C or something- LOL
@JasonAnthonySterling I definitely agree it's disgusting. rofl I think apartments like Amanda's rate a special antibiotic resistant bacterial plague death that has a 50% chance of killing everyone in the apartment complex once it spreads. LOL
I totally agree this game needs more negative consequences as a whole, and I think positive moods are way too strong in this game. Bad moods feel less strong or are placed behind positive moodlets for some weird reason. My sim will witness her husband cheating on her, be angry, then walk into another room with nice decor, and be happy! Really, I had no idea nice decor could erase the memories of an infidelity! It's too easy to make the sims happy; you can just put a nice painting on the wall, and, suddenly, they no longer care about trash on the floor, a family member dying or cockroaches! They really need to work on the mood system as a whole. Anyone know if there are any good mods to make the moods more realistic?
I hope the next batch of lot traits are taken to the next level, and we do indeed see more consequences. For example, they should add in police. So when you're defacing a mural, you won't just get a embarrassed moodlet if you're caught. You'll be taken to jail or something like that. We need rules and scolding for teens, WAY BETTER REACTIONS to cheating and death, and i definitely agree that being sick should have bigger results. We will have to see what happens.
Holy cow @Ceres_Meiriona . lol, I don't know if I could ever do that to my favorites sims. They're like my pets and I want to show them love.
On the other hand, you have given me serious fodder for my serial killer save. Certainly I can add those traits and let her victims suffer downstairs while I have her fix things upstairs in her living space. All those townies and premades are going to know what hell is.
In fact, I am off to load this save to see how it goes with those traits. I will report back.
@Ceres_Meiriona Your screenshots are fantastic! I really like your Sim's story and I can feel myself getting emotionally involved already. The screenshot of her passed out on the toilet floor...
I agree! I support adding way more consequences to this game. We need to balance out the infinite ways of happiness and easy living this game has. I love the rough and dirty stuff City Living has added.
My electricity went out and kept going out after my sim wouldn't get the breaker box fixed. They also turn red from the rats and cockroaches and won't stop until I call the landlord.
I get it, a little bit. For some reason, it seems like the developers don't actually play the game for hours on end like we do. At the same time, it also seems like an apartment's traits, the effects and your Sim's personality may go hand in hand.
I'm not a developer, but I'd like to think that the code has a lot of "IF THIS, THEN THAT" type triggers. With that, it's kind of like one of those awful word problems from school asking you how many possible outfit combinations can wear before having to wear the same thing twice if you have X number of hats, shoes, shirts, pants, etc.
I bet if they had some more Virgo's on their staff (like me, LOL), they'd be able to cover all the bases, but then you'd likely get a "are you sure you want to do this?" prompt after every action you click.
If EA is trying to cater to a larger audience (i.e. those that prefer consistent gameplay versus rotating played households), maybe they should consider adding a "consequence" level option for gameplay.
For example, I live in a quake zone. I've seen some shaking and it wakes me up, but then I go right back to sleep. I would at least like to see some minor damage, but I have not (yet). Then there should also be major damage.
I'd like to see a consequence scale from 1-5 or 1-10 that the players can choose. I believe EA did something like this for the Sim City franchise long ago.
I do wish there were more consequenses for our actions. I'm not saying there aren't any, but I feel like my sims' life is picture perfect most of the time.
wow my fuse box went and poof no power , no lights, tv or computer.
I called the landlord and she fixed it but before she left it blew again . Maybe my sim needs to learn to fix it herself although her fiance is the handyman. He was over and didn't fix it either.
but to just say... Yep, no consequences... none... this is total fail. That's just false.
Just because wolf's experience doesn't correlate with your own doesn't mean it's false. There are a lot of things to consider that could vary between your games.
Also, from your description it sounds like your Sim only gets bad mood let's from not sleeping/bathing/eating etc. There are no moodlets directly tied to having a messy/infected apartment, which is what OP was saying.
Incorrect. Her bad moodlets are from her apartment. The mice, cockroaches, broken breakers, nasty odors etc all cause their own tense (and in some cases dazed) moodlets. This snowballs into other bad moodlets for your sim that are personal (like lack of sleep, hunger or hygiene needs not being met etc) but the lot traits will keep your sim in a constant tense and unhappy state if you do not repair them.
So yes, there are bad moodlets directly related to a messy and infested apartment. They only go away if the simmer purposefully continues to maintenance the objects.
Dang, Ceres_Meiriona! LOL! Your poor sim. And I thought things were bad for me when I took my newlywed sims to the Romance festival and that ended in catastrophe. Took me a while to sort that hot mess out.
Ooooooh, this sounds awesome! Please share screenshots with me on my wall if you have any. Romantic catastrophes are one of the best kinds of catastrophes!!! rofl
@Ceres_Meiriona
Well here's one.. sort of! My sim got invited to the Romance festival with a girlfriend of hers. My sim is currently completing the "Public Enemy" aspiration and one of the requirements is make several enemies and get in a ton of fights. So while she was at the Romance Festival.. she saw one of her arch-nemesis and I clicked on him and noticed a social option that was something along the lines of "joke about getting together" and it had the tent symbol with it.. so I'm assuming that only happens at this particular festival. ANYWAYS. I had them get into an aggravating conversation and this happened..
I know it's not exactly what you were talking about.. but I thought I'd share.
Now back on topic.
I have to say I do agree with both @Ceres_Meirionaand the OP. This EP brought grunge and nastiness which, as Ceres says, if you leave untouched will have consequences. But there are lots of things in game that still have no necessity or consequence to them.
One thing that sticks out to me is clothes shopping from GTW. Why? Just go into CAS and and build the outfit. I really liked that in S2 it was necessary to shop for clothes you wanted if you wanted to change your outfit.
It's those types of things I want to see more of in the game. I want there to be necessity and consequence, or else what's the point? And I'm really sorry the "for story telling purposes" isn't enough.
Holy cow @Ceres_Meiriona . lol, I don't know if I could ever do that to my favorites sims. They're like my pets and I want to show them love.
On the other hand, you have given me serious fodder for my serial killer save. Certainly I can add those traits and let her victims suffer downstairs while I have her fix things upstairs in her living space. All those townies and premades are going to know what plum is.
In fact, I am off to load this save to see how it goes with those traits. I will report back.
Huh. No "Needs TLC" trait for lots in other places?
No It's a locked trait and I don't like that. There is already talk of modders unlocking it, but it's a trait only available to specific lots in CL. I agree that's lame, especially since it's one of the best traits imo. I wish they'd have just chosen to attach pipe and breaker box restrictions with the trait (sort of like they have for restaurants and other venues). I'd be fine with a residential lot needing to have those items installed in order to use the trait. That way I could load up my basements with the breaker boxes and pipes and let it leak all over my captive sims... I mean... uh... empty basement floor where the water and electricity won't harm a soul...
:whistles and walks away:
But as it currently stands... there is no way for us to use the TLC trait outside of the lots that have it locked to them in San Myshuno. (At least to my knowledge, I would love to be wrong in this regard!)
@Ceres_Meiriona this is a great start but now EA needs to build on it.
That's a sentiment I definitely agree with.
@KatyJay88 LOL! A physical altercation at a romance festival :snickers: I like it! Thank you for sharing.
I agree the GTW clothing system was blah, the only thing that made it worth doing for me was that it was a way to save my own outfits. Currently the styled clothing category in CAS only allows us to use Maxis made saved styles... the GTW fashion mannequins allowed me to make my own custom clothing combinations so I didn't have to go into CAS every...single...time... I wanted to remodel a sim's outfit during rotational play. I could just buy the outfit and it directly applied. Very helpful in that regard, but that was the only useful thing about the clothing retail for me.
Definitely agree more consequences are needed. I like how CL did things in that you can avoid it if you wish to, but you can find it if you want as well. I really hope to see the Sims Team continue to build on this concept.
@Ceres_Meiriona I'm glad things seem to be a lot different for you than for me, but sadly, my game isn't playing out like yours in anyway at all. I wish my game would play out like yours is, and I'm really jealous hearing and seeing all of that.
Shimrod101 has a mod on MTS that removes the "happy buffs from decorations". I can't play without it and that is one of the reasons I have gone offline with my game.
It is as if the game assumes that I "decorate" or put stuff in an apartment for the happiness of my sims. No, I decorate for my own benefit. When I am trying to make a really unpleasant place to live, and try to really make it gross a bean counter in the background goes + 1 happy for each new item:
1 rotting dead animal placed = *click* + 1 happy
1 howling ghost placed = *click* + 1 happy
1 puddle of sewage placed = *click* + 1 happy
And the damage doesn't stop there. If your sim is angry when coming home from work, entering your "nicely decorated" apartment will drown out that negative buff then had. Before I couldn't understand why my sims acted so strange, they had a bit of more simoleons so they had started to put up pictures and things. Then one day I really paid attention, the game was still pretty new to me, and I observed my angry sim coming home and just instantly be happy. I threw out everything from that house. I loved the look of it but my I loved alive sims even more.
To me playing Sims 4 with these cursed environmental happy buffs means choosing to play with either a good looking environment or interesting gameplay. You cannot have both in my opinion. If they wonder why people complain about pleasntville they should know that that is the outcome of using decorations. Bare box + game play or good looking environment + happy happy is the vanilla game choice.
When I removed those decoration-buffs from my game my sims became bored, angry, sad more often. It feels so much better to play this way. I wish there was a way to "opt out" from these environmental buffs, that they could be deactivated by player choice instead. A system like the auras. Now when I can use clutter and paintings at the same time as I have interesting sims I don't want to go back. It is scary to rely on a mod for that.
Anyone who feels that their sims are too unresponsive and just too dang happy all the time should try Shimrod101's mod.
No It's a locked trait and I don't like that. There is already talk of modders unlocking it, but it's a trait only available to specific lots in CL. I agree that's lame, especially since it's one of the best traits imo. I wish they'd have just chosen to attach pipe and breaker box restrictions with the trait (sort of like they have for restaurants and other venues). I'd be fine with a residential lot needing to have those items installed in order to use the trait. That way I could load up my basements with the breaker boxes and pipes and let it leak all over my captive sims... I mean... uh... empty basement floor where the water and electricity won't harm a soul...
:whistles and walks away:
But as it currently stands... there is no way for us to use the TLC trait outside of the lots that have it locked to them in San Myshuno. (At least to my knowledge, I would love to be wrong in this regard!)
I would love you to be proven wrong too
That is so lame, depriving us of the best trait. I guess they don't want to make things too complex for us, cos you know how us simmers can't cope with too many things in the game *rolls eyes*. Remember WA in ts3 where we could program a series of complex traps and secret entrances etc? Sigh. Those were the days.
I would love to see more consequences. It racked me off something rotten when we got GTW and diseases did nothing (and, once again, they deprived us of the best bits by not allowing hospitals etc in our hoods). Restrictions, restrictions and more restrictions.
I hope the next batch of lot traits are taken to the next level, and we do indeed see more consequences.
I don't know if there will be a next batch of lot traits, but nothing keep them from fixing/improving the current ones, the issue is there's no balance, the traits do too much or not enough, the gremlins break everything every night, but the earthquakes do nothing, but make your sim(s) tense, the mechanic of stuff breaking is already in game, how hard would it be to link it to the earthquakes?
No It's a locked trait and I don't like that. There is already talk of modders unlocking it, but it's a trait only available to specific lots in CL. I agree that's lame, especially since it's one of the best traits imo. I wish they'd have just chosen to attach pipe and breaker box restrictions with the trait (sort of like they have for restaurants and other venues). I'd be fine with a residential lot needing to have those items installed in order to use the trait. That way I could load up my basements with the breaker boxes and pipes and let it leak all over my captive sims... I mean... uh... empty basement floor where the water and electricity won't harm a soul...
:whistles and walks away:
But as it currently stands... there is no way for us to use the TLC trait outside of the lots that have it locked to them in San Myshuno. (At least to my knowledge, I would love to be wrong in this regard!)
I would love you to be proven wrong too
That is so lame, depriving us of the best trait. I guess they don't want to make things too complex for us, cos you know how us simmers can't cope with too many things in the game *rolls eyes*. Remember WA in ts3 where we could program a series of complex traps and secret entrances etc? Sigh. Those were the days.
I would love to see more consequences. It racked me off something rotten when we got GTW and diseases did nothing (and, once again, they deprived us of the best bits by not allowing hospitals etc in our hoods). Restrictions, restrictions and more restrictions.
Illnesses are really really boring unfortunately. If you are playing a doctor-sim there is gameplay involved but nothing much for the rest of the population. I have tried to make it a little bit more interesting myself by having a doctor-sim that I take over for house calls when someone is sick. They can at least suggest treatment or something like that.
Sims 4 is my favorite game and I play it almost daily but there are things that I really really don't like.
- Environmental happy buffs (should be nuked from orbit in my opinion)
- Sims that are enemies just happily chatting away, or just the difficulty to make sims to continue arguing
- Illnesses, I wish there was a way to opt in to Illnesses having a negative consequence
Comments
That being said, there's still a lot more work to be done. I hope the next batch of lot traits are taken to the next level, and we do indeed see more consequences. For example, they should add in police. So when you're defacing a mural, you won't just get a embarrassed moodlet if you're caught. You'll be taken to jail or something like that. We need rules and scolding for teens, WAY BETTER REACTIONS to cheating and death, and i definitely agree that being sick should have bigger results. We will have to see what happens.
OKAY! That place is just NASTY! I am so calling DHS/CPS right now before that poor little baby gets Hep C or something- LOL
Totally agree!
On the other hand, you have given me serious fodder for my serial killer save. Certainly I can add those traits and let her victims suffer downstairs while I have her fix things upstairs in her living space. All those townies and premades are going to know what hell is.
In fact, I am off to load this save to see how it goes with those traits. I will report back.
Need help falling asleep? http://wry7000.blogspot.com/
I'm not a developer, but I'd like to think that the code has a lot of "IF THIS, THEN THAT" type triggers. With that, it's kind of like one of those awful word problems from school asking you how many possible outfit combinations can wear before having to wear the same thing twice if you have X number of hats, shoes, shirts, pants, etc.
I bet if they had some more Virgo's on their staff (like me, LOL), they'd be able to cover all the bases, but then you'd likely get a "are you sure you want to do this?" prompt after every action you click.
If EA is trying to cater to a larger audience (i.e. those that prefer consistent gameplay versus rotating played households), maybe they should consider adding a "consequence" level option for gameplay.
For example, I live in a quake zone. I've seen some shaking and it wakes me up, but then I go right back to sleep. I would at least like to see some minor damage, but I have not (yet). Then there should also be major damage.
I'd like to see a consequence scale from 1-5 or 1-10 that the players can choose. I believe EA did something like this for the Sim City franchise long ago.
I called the landlord and she fixed it but before she left it blew again . Maybe my sim needs to learn to fix it herself although her fiance is the handyman. He was over and didn't fix it either.
@Ceres_Meiriona
Well here's one.. sort of! My sim got invited to the Romance festival with a girlfriend of hers. My sim is currently completing the "Public Enemy" aspiration and one of the requirements is make several enemies and get in a ton of fights. So while she was at the Romance Festival.. she saw one of her arch-nemesis and I clicked on him and noticed a social option that was something along the lines of "joke about getting together" and it had the tent symbol with it.. so I'm assuming that only happens at this particular festival. ANYWAYS. I had them get into an aggravating conversation and this happened..
I know it's not exactly what you were talking about.. but I thought I'd share.
Now back on topic.
I have to say I do agree with both @Ceres_Meiriona and the OP. This EP brought grunge and nastiness which, as Ceres says, if you leave untouched will have consequences. But there are lots of things in game that still have no necessity or consequence to them.
One thing that sticks out to me is clothes shopping from GTW. Why? Just go into CAS and and build the outfit. I really liked that in S2 it was necessary to shop for clothes you wanted if you wanted to change your outfit.
It's those types of things I want to see more of in the game. I want there to be necessity and consequence, or else what's the point? And I'm really sorry the "for story telling purposes" isn't enough.
**edited to fix the aspiration - oops!
SimmerJay CAS Challenge! ✨
Ooooh, that sounds so awesome! I like it.
No
:whistles and walks away:
But as it currently stands... there is no way for us to use the TLC trait outside of the lots that have it locked to them in San Myshuno. (At least to my knowledge, I would love to be wrong in this regard!)
That's a sentiment I definitely agree with.
@KatyJay88 LOL! A physical altercation at a romance festival :snickers: I like it! Thank you for sharing.
I agree the GTW clothing system was blah, the only thing that made it worth doing for me was that it was a way to save my own outfits. Currently the styled clothing category in CAS only allows us to use Maxis made saved styles... the GTW fashion mannequins allowed me to make my own custom clothing combinations so I didn't have to go into CAS every...single...time... I wanted to remodel a sim's outfit during rotational play. I could just buy the outfit and it directly applied. Very helpful in that regard, but that was the only useful thing about the clothing retail for me.
Definitely agree more consequences are needed. I like how CL did things in that you can avoid it if you wish to, but you can find it if you want as well. I really hope to see the Sims Team continue to build on this concept.
Shimrod101 has a mod on MTS that removes the "happy buffs from decorations". I can't play without it and that is one of the reasons I have gone offline with my game.
It is as if the game assumes that I "decorate" or put stuff in an apartment for the happiness of my sims. No, I decorate for my own benefit. When I am trying to make a really unpleasant place to live, and try to really make it gross a bean counter in the background goes + 1 happy for each new item:
1 rotting dead animal placed = *click* + 1 happy
1 howling ghost placed = *click* + 1 happy
1 puddle of sewage placed = *click* + 1 happy
And the damage doesn't stop there. If your sim is angry when coming home from work, entering your "nicely decorated" apartment will drown out that negative buff then had. Before I couldn't understand why my sims acted so strange, they had a bit of more simoleons so they had started to put up pictures and things. Then one day I really paid attention, the game was still pretty new to me, and I observed my angry sim coming home and just instantly be happy. I threw out everything from that house. I loved the look of it but my I loved alive sims even more.
To me playing Sims 4 with these cursed environmental happy buffs means choosing to play with either a good looking environment or interesting gameplay. You cannot have both in my opinion. If they wonder why people complain about pleasntville they should know that that is the outcome of using decorations. Bare box + game play or good looking environment + happy happy is the vanilla game choice.
When I removed those decoration-buffs from my game my sims became bored, angry, sad more often. It feels so much better to play this way. I wish there was a way to "opt out" from these environmental buffs, that they could be deactivated by player choice instead. A system like the auras. Now when I can use clutter and paintings at the same time as I have interesting sims I don't want to go back. It is scary to rely on a mod for that.
Anyone who feels that their sims are too unresponsive and just too dang happy all the time should try Shimrod101's mod.
That is so lame, depriving us of the best trait. I guess they don't want to make things too complex for us, cos you know how us simmers can't cope with too many things in the game *rolls eyes*. Remember WA in ts3 where we could program a series of complex traps and secret entrances etc? Sigh. Those were the days.
I would love to see more consequences. It racked me off something rotten when we got GTW and diseases did nothing (and, once again, they deprived us of the best bits by not allowing hospitals etc in our hoods). Restrictions, restrictions and more restrictions.
I don't know if there will be a next batch of lot traits, but nothing keep them from fixing/improving the current ones, the issue is there's no balance, the traits do too much or not enough, the gremlins break everything every night, but the earthquakes do nothing, but make your sim(s) tense, the mechanic of stuff breaking is already in game, how hard would it be to link it to the earthquakes?
Illnesses are really really boring unfortunately. If you are playing a doctor-sim there is gameplay involved but nothing much for the rest of the population. I have tried to make it a little bit more interesting myself by having a doctor-sim that I take over for house calls when someone is sick. They can at least suggest treatment or something like that.
Sims 4 is my favorite game and I play it almost daily but there are things that I really really don't like.
- Environmental happy buffs (should be nuked from orbit in my opinion)
- Sims that are enemies just happily chatting away, or just the difficulty to make sims to continue arguing
- Illnesses, I wish there was a way to opt in to Illnesses having a negative consequence