I wish TS4 had used a combination of TS2's personality trait scales (1-10 points between utter slob and neat freak) and TS3's trait system.
Had we been allowed to set the core behavior of our sims with even a simplified 1-5 scale for slob/clean, mean/nice, lazy/active, shy/outgoing, and serious/playful, then on top of that had an array of traits to add to them, 3 trait slots would have been plenty. In effect, each sim would have been allotted 8 traits to define them.
We would not have had a few traits (Good, Slob, Loner? ) because they would have been represented by the scale system, but they could have been replaced with new flavors to add depth of personality (Forgetful: tends to leave the stove on, or rushes to work or school in PJs).
TS2's attraction Turn Ons/Offs are sorely missed, and favorite foods and colors that actually meant something would have been wonderful.
Reward Traits were a great idea, but only gave us benefits and skill bonuses, no valuable flaws (i.e. vampire perks/weaknesses). For example, I would have loved to buy some of my sims a "Snores Loudly' trait with their reward points, and maybe 'Grating Voice', or 'Annoying Laugh'.
I vote Personality, because things like Favorites can influence emotions.
For example these are my personal favorites, in terms of sims.
Favorites:
Color: Blood Red
Food: Honey Glazed Ham, Reese's & Caramel Cheesecake, Grapes
Drink: NYF Root Beer, Strawberry Milkshakes
Music: R&B, Pop, Classical
Film/Novel: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Romance, Fantasy
Hobbies: Adventure, Archery, Sketching, Soccer, Video Games, Hanging Out With Best Friends/Club
Weather: Sun Showers, Blizzards, Sunsets
each category could influence emotions, positively and negatively.
Color: Blood Red
Food: Honey Glazed Ham, Reese's & Caramel Cheesecake, Grapes
+Happiness when Eating Favorite meal of good quality.
+Angry/Sadness when Favorite food is of poor quality or spoiled.
Void Anger/Sadness if sim is glutton.
Drink: NYF Root Beer, Strawberry Milkshakes
+Happiness when drinking Favorite meal of good quality.
+Angry/Sadness when Favorite food is of poor quality or spoiled.
Void Anger/Sadness if sim is glutton.
Music: R&B, Pop, Classical
+Inspired/Confidence when listening to favorite song.
Film/Novel: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Romance, Fantasy
+Focus boost when eating watching favorite show.
+Anger when another sim tries to make conversation while watching TV/Changes the channel.
Hobbies: Adventure, Archery, Sketching, Soccer, Video Games, Hanging Out With Best Friends/Club
If sim is bored, or in general sim will autominously do their favorite hobbies.
+Fun
Weather: Sun Showers, Blizzards, Sunsets
Calms sim done from extreme emotions.
These ideas would add so much depth to sims' personalities. I really hope that we'll get some of these because it would add endless possibilities to make sims unique. Espescially some flaws would be very interesting, because sims are too perfect, which makes them un-human because all people have flaws. They can even make the flaws funny, like with vampires. I like the snoring, forgetfull and annoying laugh flaw ideas a lot.
In TS3, sims would clap their hands and look happy before eating their favourite food. That was very cute I just hope that favourites would be a bit more involved this time around and have some deeper (not necessarily bigger, just deeper, like tying into life events etc.) effects.
All of those should have a place, but I definitely think personality. Recently, I haven't been able to make myself play Sims 4 (sorry to people who follow my wordpress! I'll get back to it soon!), so I installed all my old Sims 3 games on my pc and... yep, having a greater variety of traits and having those traits affect wishes, autonomous actions and reactions to things really helps. I want each sim to feel truly different from the others before I start playing them and giving them a story.
Personality, but with a better emotions system a close second (because the current system isn't doing sims' individual personalities any justice), and more meaningful relationships and better fleshed-out life stages not far behind.
For me, in this game, the lack of depth more often than not comes back to the sims themselves. They are what makes live mode entertaining most of all, and they're still kind of flat compared even to their TS2 counterparts. Part of it is that traits aren't nearly as effective as they should be. Another part is the fact that the emotions system is skewed heavily toward happiness and productivity with all of the ambient Happy moodlets flying around and the lack of a booster emotion for negative emotions. The emotions system, in turn, is part of the problem with relationships, since if two sims have a bad relationship but they are surrounded by pretty things...well, they're both happy and friendly with each other instead of fussing and fighting or avoiding each other as they should. The life stages bring up the rear, since the biggest problem is that Child and Teen sims don't have nearly enough unique interactions and activities--no playing Tag, no wild Teen parties.
The way that the memories system was destroyed and replaced with that horrible screenshot manager is a big annoyance, to the point where I never use it anymore because of what a laggy, disorganized mess it is. The dirt-easy and painfully samey nature of jobs after the "Get to Work" patch has made the default career paths much less interesting to play through...But the thing, in the end, that hurts the depth of this game the most is how overly simplified the sims themselves have become. Even giving negative emotions a booster (like uncomfortable) and adding a few personality sliders (Courage vs. Cowardice, Patience vs. Haste, Pride vs. Humility, etc.) could go a long way.
Personally I think each one of those areas all has the ability to be developed. I would love consequences to be expanded upon as I think it would add more realism. As would relationships and life-changing events. I do feel like emotions are quite well fleshed out (but that may be due to it being one of the USPs of Sims 4) but I would quite happily see that fleshed out further.
I think everything. But sadly there was no such option. I'd also say deepen the trait gameplay. What a sim will or won't do, what a sim will want and how they will behave.
> @Sigzy05 said: > I think everything. But sadly there was no such option. I'd also say deepen the trait gameplay. What a sim will or won't do, what a sim will want and how they will behave.
I would agree with this too as I don't feel like traits affect my sims as much as I thought they would (or that I have particularly noticed)
I'd go with more development of relationships and of personalities. I also do think that we should have 5 traits per sim. I'd be ok with new ones being lesser traits but I'm more interested in just having more traits as a whole.
Can I pick all? because that is everything and more I want to see in game. I really would love to see the date site return, I think it was in TS2 or 3 that had it, and their turn-ons/off. I think love is too easy in the game, just like I can feed my sims once and they are good for the day, what happened to the challenge of keeping my sims alive?
I feel like Laundry Day gave examples of doing 'danger/consequences' right. If you don't clean the lint tray in the dryer, you risk fire and possible death. If you don't mop up the water before repairing the washing machine, you risk electrocution. But you also have those ways to avoid it, in-game. You can upgrade the lint tray out of the dryer. You can mop the floor. I think you can even upgrade both machines to break down less often too?
And you can pull pranks like putting food in as an additive to make clothes smell bad, or put in flowers to make them smell good. It gives both more deviant players and more benevolant players options in how they play, without denying either way. More of that in future packs and/or base game updates would be great.
I don't want more 'danger' at the cost of no way to work around it in the game. If there are 'consequences', there should also be 'rewards'. People complain about alien abductions being nerfed before, but if they had made it easy to prevent them in-game, or isolated the abductions only to the specific household that did the process of interacting with them, they wouldn't have had to and most people would probably appreciate it more. (For me, specifically, I wish male Sims could take a pill and be immune to alien pregnancy. Then abductions could happen all the time for all I care.)
I feel like when people mention they want more danger/consequences/random negative stuff in game, they try to get it in there at the cost of the opposite, when both could exist equally, just depending on your various choices. Vampires, for example, shouldn't overrun your game unless you make it happen that way. But you can make it happen that way if you want it too.
All that said though, I'd rather vote for the 'making each age more unique' from the poll, because like with Kids' Room SP and Parenthood, it means more build/buy/CAS stuff. And as a builder, that's what I'm into most. I'd love an elder pack, for example, that I could make a retirement home build from.
Personality. I find I really can't play Sims 4 any more because no matter which sim I create, or what traits they have, it doesn't affect anything. At all. They all act, and react the same to everything.
I think all of the options would give the game more depth, honestly. I chose "Personality" but it's a tie with "Making Life Events More Meaningful". I would love to see more with both of these in the game for the future.
"Personality" with a "Like/dislike activities" system, for example: Like Basketball, dislike Swimming
"Relationship" with social event with coworker and an unique relationship with the best friend.
In fact, any details may add depth to the game.
Maybe a new basegame could allow the sims to remember/learn how the player control them, a "Habits" system
For example, my sim Abel always watches Sport channel when he eat (breakfast/lunch/dinner).
It's his habits, the game could record it and play it the next time.
The player could define 5 habits (sequential or simultaneous interactions).
"Personality" with a "Like/dislike activities" system, for example: Like Basketball, dislike Swimming
"Relationship" with social event with coworker and an unique relationship with the best friend.
In fact, any details may add depth to the game.
Maybe a new basegame could allow the sims to remember/learn how the player control them, a "Habits" system
For example, my sim Abel always watches Sport channel when he eat (breakfast/lunch/dinner).
It's his habits, the game could record it and play it the next time.
The player could define 5 habits (sequential or simultaneous interactions).
Maybe the game could take note if we make our sims always do certain interactions and then later make them do it by default if autonomy is on. That would make the sims feel like they have their own mind and personality
The way that the memories system was destroyed and replaced with that horrible screenshot manager is a big annoyance, to the point where I never use it anymore because of what a laggy, disorganized mess it is.
I agree with this. Many people found TS3's memory system annoying, but I loved it because it documented what happened in my sims' lives and I frequently went back to the scrapbook to remember what happened to them. I also always read my sims' spouses' scrapbooks to see what they were up to before the marriage. TS4's system is way too annoying for me to bother, but recording memories makes me more attached and thus it hurts the game for me. Especially the fact that the screenshot manager shows ALL screenshots you have instead of just those applicable to the save, so I have to scroll forever to actually make a memory/see it.
Even giving negative emotions a booster (like uncomfortable) and adding a few personality sliders (Courage vs. Cowardice, Patience vs. Haste, Pride vs. Humility, etc.) could go a long way.
An increase in negative things, consequenses and flaws would add so much to the game. There is no risk in anything so there is also no point in doing anything "risky," or even good because nothing comes from our sims' actions. Sims having flaws would also help us to relate to them more and have empathy for them.
I say what good are personalities if they bring no consequences? So might as well skip the middle man and go straight to adding more consequences. My sim's memories would shine trough his actions. I think it opens more avenues for storytelling than say, earning a positive moodlet because I just ate a grilled cheese.
Comments
These ideas would add so much depth to sims' personalities. I really hope that we'll get some of these because it would add endless possibilities to make sims unique. Espescially some flaws would be very interesting, because sims are too perfect, which makes them un-human because all people have flaws. They can even make the flaws funny, like with vampires. I like the snoring, forgetfull and annoying laugh flaw ideas a lot.
In TS3, sims would clap their hands and look happy before eating their favourite food. That was very cute
Pirates!! http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/906481/pirate-gp-smuggling-dueling-live-on-ship-or-build-own-and-more#latest
For me, in this game, the lack of depth more often than not comes back to the sims themselves. They are what makes live mode entertaining most of all, and they're still kind of flat compared even to their TS2 counterparts. Part of it is that traits aren't nearly as effective as they should be. Another part is the fact that the emotions system is skewed heavily toward happiness and productivity with all of the ambient Happy moodlets flying around and the lack of a booster emotion for negative emotions. The emotions system, in turn, is part of the problem with relationships, since if two sims have a bad relationship but they are surrounded by pretty things...well, they're both happy and friendly with each other instead of fussing and fighting or avoiding each other as they should. The life stages bring up the rear, since the biggest problem is that Child and Teen sims don't have nearly enough unique interactions and activities--no playing Tag, no wild Teen parties.
The way that the memories system was destroyed and replaced with that horrible screenshot manager is a big annoyance, to the point where I never use it anymore because of what a laggy, disorganized mess it is. The dirt-easy and painfully samey nature of jobs after the "Get to Work" patch has made the default career paths much less interesting to play through...But the thing, in the end, that hurts the depth of this game the most is how overly simplified the sims themselves have become. Even giving negative emotions a booster (like uncomfortable) and adding a few personality sliders (Courage vs. Cowardice, Patience vs. Haste, Pride vs. Humility, etc.) could go a long way.
> I think everything. But sadly there was no such option. I'd also say deepen the trait gameplay. What a sim will or won't do, what a sim will want and how they will behave.
I would agree with this too as I don't feel like traits affect my sims as much as I thought they would (or that I have particularly noticed)
Great post!
And you can pull pranks like putting food in as an additive to make clothes smell bad, or put in flowers to make them smell good. It gives both more deviant players and more benevolant players options in how they play, without denying either way. More of that in future packs and/or base game updates would be great.
I don't want more 'danger' at the cost of no way to work around it in the game. If there are 'consequences', there should also be 'rewards'. People complain about alien abductions being nerfed before, but if they had made it easy to prevent them in-game, or isolated the abductions only to the specific household that did the process of interacting with them, they wouldn't have had to and most people would probably appreciate it more. (For me, specifically, I wish male Sims could take a pill and be immune to alien pregnancy. Then abductions could happen all the time for all I care.)
I feel like when people mention they want more danger/consequences/random negative stuff in game, they try to get it in there at the cost of the opposite, when both could exist equally, just depending on your various choices. Vampires, for example, shouldn't overrun your game unless you make it happen that way. But you can make it happen that way if you want it too.
All that said though, I'd rather vote for the 'making each age more unique' from the poll, because like with Kids' Room SP and Parenthood, it means more build/buy/CAS stuff.
-Balance personality and make it more meaningful
My CC!
My screenshot comics!
My Family tree!
"Personality" with a "Like/dislike activities" system, for example: Like Basketball, dislike Swimming
"Relationship" with social event with coworker and an unique relationship with the best friend.
In fact, any details may add depth to the game.
Maybe a new basegame could allow the sims to remember/learn how the player control them, a "Habits" system
For example, my sim Abel always watches Sport channel when he eat (breakfast/lunch/dinner).
It's his habits, the game could record it and play it the next time.
The player could define 5 habits (sequential or simultaneous interactions).
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The Sims 4 General DiscussionThe sims are also clones of each other and rarely do anything special.
Maybe the game could take note if we make our sims always do certain interactions and then later make them do it by default if autonomy is on. That would make the sims feel like they have their own mind and personality
Pirates!! http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/906481/pirate-gp-smuggling-dueling-live-on-ship-or-build-own-and-more#latest
I agree with this. Many people found TS3's memory system annoying, but I loved it because it documented what happened in my sims' lives and I frequently went back to the scrapbook to remember what happened to them. I also always read my sims' spouses' scrapbooks to see what they were up to before the marriage. TS4's system is way too annoying for me to bother, but recording memories makes me more attached and thus it hurts the game for me. Especially the fact that the screenshot manager shows ALL screenshots you have instead of just those applicable to the save, so I have to scroll forever to actually make a memory/see it.
An increase in negative things, consequenses and flaws would add so much to the game. There is no risk in anything so there is also no point in doing anything "risky," or even good because nothing comes from our sims' actions. Sims having flaws would also help us to relate to them more and have empathy for them.
Pirates!! http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/906481/pirate-gp-smuggling-dueling-live-on-ship-or-build-own-and-more#latest
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