I don't remember which patch it was but it was a recent one where now every time an elder sim my sim happens to know dies of old age I get a call about it. I understand my sim being sad about a friend who passed away but to have my sim have the sad buff for two days every single time an elder sim they socialized with once happens to pass away is a bit ridiculous. I don't know if anyone else has this issue but I guess for a future update I would love it if my sim only morn sims they were at least friends with.
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You may like to post feedback or press “ me too” on this AHQ EA thread about the issue
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Sim-gets-quot-phone-call-quot-amp-notice-about-another-sims/m-p/6891985#M65892
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
I do think a legit cemetery should have came with this request as that is missing and the two sort of go together - perhaps it would have been received better by perhaps some of you who forgot or never played Sims 2. At the present my sims don't have any old relatives so I was not aware it was finally back after all these years of waiting as I started a new game between Cats and Dogs and Seasons because I didn't want issues with all the recoding - so if they stop it I guess if no one had mentioned it I'd never known it came back at all. Sigh.....
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I think the problem everyone is having is not the calls themselves but the frequency of them. From what I can gather it seems like you get a death call for every sim your sim has ever met. Even if you only talked to that sim once and never spoke to them again or it was just a rude sim who jumped in to your sims conversation while they were on a date or out with a friend. After your sims gets these calls, they get the mourning moodlet and are sad for a few days, even if they don't really know them. I don't think they want to get rid of them entirely, just stop them from happening for sims your sim isn't even friends with.
But as we well know Sims 4 is sort of all or nothing. We either have something or we can't as they claim it breaks saves - that's why we can't have toggles and why they went to the trouble to create gamepacks especially for things not everyone wanted in their game. In order for sims to actually get at least a good bye from an old friend or relative it took a patch to the base game - but without a way to toggle them or some how tune them to every single sims relationship would surely break the game.-Tuning down isn't the answer - we saw what happened when they tried to tune down alien abduction - most of us got none at all - and strangely it was all of us that had a playstyle that wanted them. So toggles and downtuning can't be used - as most likely downtuning cannot pick who likes these things or whose relatives are whose or what ever you are expecting in this game. I believe it could in Sims 2 because the game was built with the family tree, with the backstories and with the full memory system. This game though - none of this existed - we only got the family tree after the fact as a patch, There is no memory system for the AI to really know who is related distantly - who is just someone your sim bumped into or what ever. The game cannot read your mind - it works off of what is there to feed it and what the AI is programmed to. The fact they could even do what they did after years of us asking I am amazed - but the fact remains with the way programming works - it really is we can have it or not but we can't have it both ways.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
Death of Acquaintance: Fine moodlet for 6 hours. With this moodlet active, it'll take a bit of effort to get them into another emotional state, but at least they won't be sad.
Death of Friend: Sad moodlet for 12 hours.
Death of Good Friend: Sad moodlet for 24 hours.
Death of Best Friend/Boyfriend/Girlfriend/Spouse/Close Family Member: Sad moodlet for two days.
And another thing, toddlers shouldn't be getting these calls at all, plain and simple. They don't even have phones! How are they still getting these calls?!
I explained all that above and why there is no way the game AI can see that ifo.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
There just isn't any fun in having my Sims be so sad 24/7. Seriously, they're always so sad that they can barely even function. All they want to do is cry, often causing them to neglect their needs. It's even worse when the toddlers somehow get these calls, which shouldn't even be possible to begin with, because there's not much you can do for them to wear out their sad moodlet.
I might make a poll. It would be interesting to see how the community as a whole feels about the calls.
Theres actuallly a mod that changes the length of the sad moodlet based on the relationship your sim has with the deceased. So it should be possible for it to be changed in the game. Here's the mod for anyone who's interested: http://modthesims.info/d/615431
Thanks a lot for that link.
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I don't think this is true - my Sim with the loner trait gets a 'tense' moodlet from conversations with random Sims (or just being around NPCs), but is fine when talking to her daughter, and Sims with the family-loving trait get a sad moodlet when they don't interact with family members. Sims have different interactions that are determined by their family relationship and/or level of friendship. That's part of the reason levels like 'acquaintance' and 'good friend' exist, and why parent-child is more than just part of the family tree. They are flags that don't allow, say, a young adult to do inappropriate things with her parent.
If you can boil it down to a flag that is on or off, it can be coded. I agree that it was rather rushed out, and I do think they're working on fine-tuning it a bit. At very least, it would make more sense to generate the calls and moodlet intensity based on level of acquaintance rather than family relationship.
On a more general level, I think the real problem is that there are too many flags that generate moodlets, and that makes it hard to find the right balance. When people complain that Sims who have a fight are getting on like houses two minutes later, it's not that the Sims don't know they're supposed to be angry. When you look at their moodlets, they've got a red or mustard moodlet from the negative interaction, but it's overwhelmed by good decor and a tasty meal.
There are too many variables - when Hollie's mother died, she was only sad for a moment before she went back to being 'focused'. Meanwhile, her daugher, who never even met Ivy, was crying in the shower. I'd planned to have her call the sadness hotline, but when she got out of the shower, she was 'energised', and the sadness hotline was no longer available. Next minute, she's crying in her yoghurt.
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> This is such a interesting thread...rest assured we are looking into this issue, but with that in mind please keep up the discussion. I love reading your guys thoughts and ideas on the topic. :)
Honestly, you should fix that. Perhaps reduce the length of time to be sad for a the death of a sim based on how well our sim knew them.
It makes me happy knowing that the Gurus are aware of this issue and are listening to us. Thank you SO much! Like I said, with the way that the death calls are implemented in their current sate, my Sims are in a constant state of mourning, even over people they barely knew or only met once. Even toddlers are getting these calls, and that shouldn't even be possible, seeing as they aren't even supposed to have a phone! It's even worse when the toddlers get these calls, too, since there's little to nothing you can do to wear out their sad moodlet.
It totally takes most of the fun out of the game, really. My Sims are always SO sad that all they want to do is cry, and they often neglect their needs as a result. And right after you've finally gotten their sad moodlet worn out, they usually get another death call that stacks their mourning moodlet right back up to two days again. It's maddening!
Again, this is how I think it should go: Don't get rid of the death calls entirely, but change the way that Sims react to them based on their relationship with the deceased, not just defaulting to a two-day sad moodlet for ALL deaths regardless of relationship. For the death of an acquaintance, I'd suggest a fine moodlet that lasts for six hours. They won't be sad due to having not known the Sim very well, but flavor text in the form of a fine moodlet would be a nice little touch. For the death of a friend, a +2 sad moodlet for 12 hours, and for the death of a good friend, a +2 sad moodlet for 24 hours. For the death of a best friend/boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse/close family member, a +2 sad moodlet for two days. And, of course, stop the death calls for toddlers altogether.
The only advantage of the constant mourning is that it raises the importance of the acquired traits from Parenthood. Children gain much empathy from consoling their parents, and empathic or emotionally controlled Sims can deal much better with the mourning.