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What can be done to fix sims themselves?

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  • citysimmercitysimmer Posts: 5,950 Member
    I agree with most of what has been stated here. I wish traits would have more impact on how a sim reacts to things (for example, a hot headed sim gets angry after a breakup instead of sad like other sims), and I want more powerful traits (some people find the Jealous trait annoying but I love how it is present all the time).
    Proud black simmer 🖤
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  • Sofmc9Sofmc9 Posts: 498 Member
    "Sleuth

    Features:
    Character Values- Gains some Responsibility when the trait is added in live mode (e.g. during age-up).
    Special idle animation in live mode, with the same frequency as toddler trait idles (note: idle animation you see in CAS doesn't necessarily reflect what the trait's idle will be in live mode)
    Randomly Focused moodlet (while this moodlet is active, you can click on your Sleuth and do "Follow Hunch")
    Autonomy (general)- More likely to do homework when available
    Interaction- Follow Hunch (autonomous--only available when Randomly Focused moodlet is active): Raises child skill Mental and gives Fun Need. Ends in either Focused moodlet (success) or Embarrassed moodlet (failure).
    Interaction- Watch for Crime (autonomous): Appears on Telescope. Raises child skill Mental and gives Fun Need. Can give one of a number of possible moodlets. 4 possible Focused, 3 possible Embarrassed, 1 possible Playful, and 1 possible Uncomfortable.
    Interaction- Interrogate (autonomous): Target another sim (found under Mean socials) and use the brief (and high level) tactics of startling them to reveal their traits. Loses a little relationship in the process. Doesn't do much of anything if traits are already known.

    Sweetie

    Features:
    Character Values- Gains some Empathy when the trait is added in live mode (e.g. during age-up).
    Special idle animation in live mode, with the same frequency as toddler trait idles (note: idle animation you see in CAS doesn't necessarily reflect what the trait's idle will be in live mode)
    Randomly Happy (Sweetie is more likely to hug people while this moodlet is active)
    Interaction- Calming Hug (autonomous--but not likely to happen autonomously, unless Randomly Happy moodlet is active): Found under Friendly socials. Removes Angry moodlets on the target. Gives a Happy moodlet to the giver and receiver.
    Interaction- Think Happy Thoughts (autonomous): Raises child skill Creativity and Mental, gives Fun Need, gives a Happy moodlet at the end, and lowers all Angry, Sad, Tense, and Uncomfortable moodlets.
    Interaction- Infectious Happy Dance (autonomous): Requires Happy mood to be available. Raises child skill Motor and Social, gives Fun Need, and broadcasts an infectious virus of happiness that causes nearby sims who are also in a happy mood to start doing an Infectious Happy Dance as well; unfortunately, the viral effect ends there. If it went beyond that, you would have an army of infectiously happy hordes dancing forever. Infectious Happy Dance zombie army should totally be a thing though. One day. One day.

    Tattletale

    Features:
    Character Values- Gains some Manners when the trait is added in live mode (e.g. during age-up).
    Special idle animation in live mode, with the same frequency as toddler trait idles (note: idle animation you see in CAS doesn't necessarily reflect what the trait's idle will be in live mode)
    Parental Need (the "need" itself is not visible, in case you're wondering from the word "need")- Tattletale children get Tense if they're away from parents for too long. Ways that count as being around a parent include using the Follow interaction on them, using any social interaction on them, using the interaction Tell On, or the interaction Chat With Authorities.
    Interaction- Follow (autonomous): Gain Fun. Gain parental need if the sim that Tattletale is following is one of Parent, Aunt, Uncle, Grandparent, or Caregiver. Gain Happy moodlet if Tattletale follows "parent" for long enough. Gain Confident moodlet if Tattletale follows "non-parent" for long enough.
    Interaction- Tell On... (non-autonomous): Found under Mean socials when clicking on a sim who is one of Parent, Aunt, Uncle, Grandparent, or Caregiver. Gain parental need and Happy moodlet. Sim who is told on gets scolded and gets Angry moodlet.
    Interaction- Chat With Authorities (autonomous--only autonomous if parental need Tense moodlet is active): Raises child skills Mental and Social, gives Fun and Social Need, lowers Tense buffs and parental need. "
  • Writin_RegWritin_Reg Posts: 28,907 Member
    edited March 2019
    My thoughts is I would not want my Sims to up and do their hobbies on their own as that would be in programming and they already do things on their own when I am already trying to get them to do other things. It can be annoying every time they decide they no longer want to do the tasks you had them doing for skilling to just stop and go dance or go socializing on the pc - I can just imagine how annoying it would be if they were programmed to do everything they wanted to.

    My sims will already go do their favorite things the minute they go idle - perhaps because I left them doing something and left the room - myself - to go make a cup of coffee or go to the bathroom - and they finished their task and did go do something they wanted to.

    I would like them programmed to fulfill needs better though. Sometimes I get side tracked and do not realize their hunger is low or their need to go to the toilet gets in the red - well they need to make those things more important on their lists and stop all activity to take care of their needs. They do need to have programming to make them go back to a player ordered task though after they take care of their needs. Their choice things to do should be less important than meeting need and doing needed tasks. So I do not want them to get a raise in demand to fulfill their hobbies unless their needs call for that kind of activity. I could see this applied though if their traits force that kind of issue - like a lazy sim perhaps would do that or maybe a childish sim.

    Most of the rest I agree on.
    Post edited by Writin_Reg on

    "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.....

  • SimburianSimburian Posts: 6,907 Member
    @Jordan061102 I like your original post and would agree with all those.

    One I would add would be better routing round the home with Sims and pets not walking through one another. It's a too easy way to solve stuck Sims to my mind. Sloppy.

    Just make a note of the helpful ones and ignore the others. I do. :)
  • MidnightAuraMidnightAura Posts: 5,809 Member
    JoAnne65 wrote: »
    I may be annoying with my personalities but I think it's crucial for TS4 to keep it interesting at this point.

    1. Memory
    2. More impactful traits
    3. Better whims
    4. Decrease the impact of the happy emotion
    5. Better reactions (don't hug your enemy please)

    You can continue the list with your ideas. Thank's to contribute, if we want to see a change we have to make noise, it's our responsability. 🙏
    I wish more people were 'annoying' about this.

    Everything you said and:
    • No auras that trigger emotions; emotions are great but should be purely based on social interactions or events
    • Traits Sims 3 and 4 style purely based on skills, personalities handled like in Sims 2 (with sliders)
    • Emotions influenced by personality (a hot tempered sim should get easier irritated than other sims for instance)

    I agree! You aren’t annoying anyone.

    I feel honoured being singled out for my opinion.

    Sorry @JoAnne65 I’m stealing your response as that’s how I see it in a nutshell.
    I will write a more detailed response tomorrow when I’m less sleepy.
  • SerraNolwenSerraNolwen Posts: 731 Member
    edited March 2019
    I was surprised to be summoned here, but you're not annoying at all. It is a very important subject. There are a few things I would like to see added or perfected. I do miss the whims from Sims 3, but without a major overhaul of multiple systems, I don't think the team will ever manage to make them truly interesting in this iteration of the sims. I'm also a little doubtful about just adding many more traits, considering how they affect our sims. The ones we currently have are very... broad? Despite having influence only in a few ways, as someone pointed out with the bookworm trait, they are quite general and I can't imagine all that many new traits being added without some having way more weight than others.

    Instead, I think giving sims likes and dislikes in terms of activities, conversation subjects and relationships would help them behave differently and have more diverse relationships. I'm thinking of three types of preferences, really. For example, they could have favorite kinds of books, tv channels, radio stations, games, food, etc., which they might get a small buff from enjoying. They would also develop preferences in terms of what activities they enjoy doing, which could be reinforced through gameplay.
    Edit: this has been well described by MasonGamer already, and I agree with them on just about everything except the architecture (and that's mainly because it would be really hard to program and the system would probably get confused by some of the more original builds out there). /edit

    Finally, they might have preferences and dislikes regarding sims, some personality-wise which would affect all relationships, and some physical ones which would affect only romantic relationships.

    I'm not sure if I'd want it to be random or chosen. I think it would be best for all those preferences to be picked by the player upon creation, with a random button for those who don't want to spend time deciding those or who want a challenge. (Maybe even a "random, don't show me the results" for those who want a real surprise?) In an ideal world, the way child and teenage sims act while growing up would have an influence on their likes and dislikes as an adult, maybe just eliminating some options? Although that would probably also require some kind of "lifetime" reward (can't remember the english name in sims 4) to reset or change likes and dislikes, for players who end up with things they really dislike as well as for those who want their sim's preferences to change a little at some point.

    I also wish they could react more naturally to people around them. I know the team has been working on that. If I'm not mistaken, sims don't constantly mourn sims they didn't know anymore, and they don't get upset about calls concerning the death of strangers, but I wish it was a little more than that, mainly considering enemy sims, which they should naturally avoid or be mean to. Finally, the sims shouldn't be quite so oblivious. I don't know if Get Famous has fixed that partly with reputation, as I've had very little drama in my game since I got it, but sims should react to people around them fighting, for instance.
  • Jordan061102Jordan061102 Posts: 3,918 Member
    edited March 2019
    @Remy_Geneva Yeah, I mean if it's not on their plan to fix personalities they should at least say it to us. Like that we don't have to do thread like that and hoping during years and years for something that will never be a thing.

    @JoAnne65 Thank you. Yep, more people should be annoying about it! :smiley: That's a main feature to keep the game interesting over generations.

    @Sofmc9 I love the feature in this mod. Unfortunately I don't use any mods. This is great to see all the details they put in traits and little interactions, this is those kind of details we need in a Sims game. :smile:

    @citysimmer Yeah more impactful traits, pleeeease. I love the fact that with GF we had a new trait ''selfish'' (I don't know how it is called in English) wich makes sims get angry instead of sad when we forget their birthdays. For the moment traits are so shallow...

    @Writin_Reg You listed some interesting points, it's true that it could be very annoying to have sims who are programmed to do what they love, it's the reason why we should have a toggle to turn it on/off for the simmers who don't want such a programmed feature.

    @MidnightAura No problems! Thank's a lot for contribute to my thread. :blush:

    Lu4ERme.gif
  • SerraNolwenSerraNolwen Posts: 731 Member
    SimTrippy wrote: »

    Yeah I totally get your point - what I don't want though is the way this used to work in TS3. I really didn't like my sims seeing a random sim pass by and *boom* be super attracted to them. I don't mind it being somewhat clearer what does or doesn't make the attraction happen, as long as it isn't forced on me through that system either.
    Wasn't the attraction system in Sims 3 just based on wether or not two sims had traits in common? It seems everytime I've picked a partner or friend based on that, they had at least one identical trait, but I might be mistaken. I do wish we had more control, though, especially now that sims only have three traits from a small selection. It should be possible for sims to be attracted to complimentary personalities or only wish for some personalities (eg. a bookworm, snob, squeamish sim might enjoy chatting with other bookworms, but she might not specifically care about snobs and she might actually dislike other squeamish sims). That's why I wish we could pick specific traits, physical characteristics (maybe even clothes and careers?) that our sims would be attracted to or repulsed by. Relationships would be easier to build if sims correspond to the likes of the other, but still possible without that, and they might be very hard to build or impossible when one of the sims dislikes something about the other.
  • Jordan061102Jordan061102 Posts: 3,918 Member
    edited March 2019
    I was surprised to be summoned here, but you're not annoying at all. It is a very important subject. There are a few things I would like to see added or perfected. I do miss the whims from Sims 3, but without a major overhaul of multiple systems, I don't think the team will ever manage to make them truly interesting in this iteration of the sims. I'm also a little doubtful about just adding many more traits, considering how they affect our sims. The ones we currently have are very... broad? Despite having influence only in a few ways, as someone pointed out with the bookworm trait, they are quite general and I can't imagine all that many new traits being added without some having way more weight than others.

    Instead, I think giving sims likes and dislikes in terms of activities, conversation subjects and relationships would help them behave differently and have more diverse relationships. I'm thinking of three types of preferences, really. For example, they could have favorite kinds of books, tv channels, radio stations, games, food, etc., which they might get a small buff from enjoying. They would also develop preferences in terms of what activities they enjoy doing, which could be reinforced through gameplay.
    Edit: this has been well described by MasonGamer already, and I agree with them on just about everything except the architecture (and that's mainly because it would be really hard to program and the system would probably get confused by some of the more original builds out there). /edit

    Finally, they might have preferences and dislikes regarding sims, some personality-wise which would affect all relationships, and some physical ones which would affect only romantic relationships.

    I'm not sure if I'd want it to be random or chosen. I think it would be best for all those preferences to be picked by the player upon creation, with a random button for those who don't want to spend time deciding those or who want a challenge. (Maybe even a "random, don't show me the results" for those who want a real surprise?) In an ideal world, the way child and teenage sims act while growing up would have an influence on their likes and dislikes as an adult, maybe just eliminating some options? Although that would probably also require some kind of "lifetime" reward (can't remember the english name in sims 4) to reset or change likes and dislikes, for players who end up with things they really dislike as well as for those who want their sim's preferences to change a little at some point.

    I also wish they could react more naturally to people around them. I know the team has been working on that. If I'm not mistaken, sims don't constantly mourn sims they didn't know anymore, and they don't get upset about calls concerning the death of strangers, but I wish it was a little more than that, mainly considering enemy sims, which they should naturally avoid or be mean to. Finally, the sims shouldn't be quite so oblivious. I don't know if Get Famous has fixed that partly with reputation, as I've had very little drama in my game since I got it, but sims should react to people around them fighting, for instance.

    I agree with all the things you said. The likes/dislikes are an interesting thing to improve their personalities. The sort of attractiveness with personality is really interesting. A neat sim shouldn't be able to build a relationship with a filthy sim, or at least it should be very hard. I think to see an evolution of the interests during they are children & teens is really interesting. And last point, we need an improvement in reactions. I have the feeling that when a sim get cheated on he/she doesn't really react. It breaks the immersion for me. And I already said it in another thread but it is so annoying that after having a bad conversation we'll get a message like ''that was cool, see you later''. Why can't we have different messages like : ''it was awful, don't recall me the next time'' ''it was great, I really want to get to know you better'' ''it was ok, I had a better date'' etc. It would add so much. Sometimes, something as simple as a message can breaks or improves the immersion.
    Lu4ERme.gif
  • luvdasims55luvdasims55 Posts: 14,645 Member
    edited March 2019
    I agree sims need to sometimes do a better job of taking care of their needs. Nothing more frustrating then returning home only to find everybody is tired, dirty, hungry, and in a bad mood as a result.

    I've also had sims go to the extreme in taking care of their needs. For example: not doing something I've put in their queue, because they want to go wash their hands when their hygiene is barely below being squeaky clean and it is not a trait related impulse.


    Poor pathing is another annoyance. TS4 has improved pathing quite a bit, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Sims should take a logical path to the nearest object required to accomplish a task I have given them.


    Personality according to their traits, with appropriate reactions.


    An attraction system.


    Whatever I put in a sims queue should be their top priority to do except to save their life.


  • Writin_RegWritin_Reg Posts: 28,907 Member
    edited March 2019
    @Remy_Geneva Yeah, I mean if it's not on their plan to fix personalities they should at least say it to us. Like that we don't have to do thread like that and hoping during years and years for something that will never be a thing.

    @JoAnne65 Thank you. Yep, more people should be annoying about it! :smiley: That's a main feature to keep the game interesting over generations.

    @Sofmc9 I love the feature in this mod. Unfortunately I don't use any mods. This is great to see all the details they put in traits and little interactions, this is those kind of details we need in a Sims game. :smile:

    @citysimmer Yeah more impactful traits, pleeeease. I love the fact that with GF we had a new trait ''selfish'' (I don't know how it is called in English) wich makes sims get angry instead of sad when we forget their birthdays. For the moment traits are so shallow...

    @Writin_Reg You listed some interesting points, it's true that it could be very annoying to have sims who are programmed to do what they love, it's the reason why we should have a toggle to turn it on/off for the simmers who don't want such a programmed feature.

    @MidnightAura No problems! Thank's a lot for contribute to my thread. :blush:

    If this game could have toggles it would be great - but from what the devs said toggles break game saves - thus why we rarely get them. They have apparently tried everything they can to add them and everytime it apparently breaks all the games saves each time they are changed. So I try not to come up with thoughts using toggles. Apparently that is why we got Vamps in their own pack.

    I too wish we had slider traits and likes/dislikes. I remember fondly of my main sim getting so happy when she got a fruit salad because it was a food liked. She'd also loved red, and would go to work overjoyed because she wore a red dress that day. When my sims had days like that they always earned a promotion. So yes those would be great to get back too.

    "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.....

  • SimburianSimburian Posts: 6,907 Member
    edited March 2019
    To me there should be a limit to how good the AI should be. A little better maybe.

    I know that now Sims can ignore your commands a lot and go their own way and that can be annoying and due to poor programming but a brilliant, fully functioning, programmed AI would scare me into not playing again. I want to believe that I rule them (at least to some degree) and not them ruling me. "What the "plumb" do you want me to do that for" looks into camera! It's bad enough already. If any possible Sims 5 Sim does that I'm off!
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited March 2019
    SimTrippy wrote: »

    Yeah I totally get your point - what I don't want though is the way this used to work in TS3. I really didn't like my sims seeing a random sim pass by and *boom* be super attracted to them. I don't mind it being somewhat clearer what does or doesn't make the attraction happen, as long as it isn't forced on me through that system either.
    Wasn't the attraction system in Sims 3 just based on wether or not two sims had traits in common? It seems everytime I've picked a partner or friend based on that, they had at least one identical trait, but I might be mistaken. I do wish we had more control, though, especially now that sims only have three traits from a small selection. It should be possible for sims to be attracted to complimentary personalities or only wish for some personalities (eg. a bookworm, snob, squeamish sim might enjoy chatting with other bookworms, but she might not specifically care about snobs and she might actually dislike other squeamish sims). That's why I wish we could pick specific traits, physical characteristics (maybe even clothes and careers?) that our sims would be attracted to or repulsed by. Relationships would be easier to build if sims correspond to the likes of the other, but still possible without that, and they might be very hard to build or impossible when one of the sims dislikes something about the other.
    No, @SimTrippy is right, that attraction system is totally silly and useless. Even mummies are attracted to my sims when they start fighting *rolleye*

    Not sure by the way if I’d want an attraction system... Because what should you base that on? I don’t like each and every sim being attracted to another sim, just for having two legs, two arms and a head. But I also don’t want sims to be attracted to each other just because they share traits. Life isn’t that simple (and opposites attract as well :grimace: ). Sorry, missed the rest of your post, totally agree!
    • Turn offs and turn ons

    Great addition in relationships and players can control it.
    5JZ57S6.png
  • KottonKrownKottonKrown Posts: 259 Member
    I appreciate you tagging me, you're not being intrusive at all, this is something that should really be discussed more!

    What I really want is for things my sim does to feel more meaningful. For example, if your sim was enemies with another sim in 2, it would really show! The sim would be happy when their enemy dies, they'd knock over the bin and just be generally horrible, it was great. It's frustrating that sims still get sad when witnessing the death of an enemy.

    Traits, overall, seem to hardly mean anything. I feel like that all sims are fundamentally the same in 4, regardless of what you, as the player, does. It's ridiculously easy to improve relationships and it's really difficult to make a sim that genuinely feels mean, let alone evil.

    Something else I'd like to see the return of is zodiac signs. It's a small detail, but for me, the small details are what really counts; it's little things that add up and make your sims feel more well-rounded and nuanced, like in real life.

    I'd also like to see personality points, perhaps in addition to traits or maybe the player can choose which system they'd like to use. I actually preferred personality points to traits, if I wanted my sim to say, be a bookworm, I'd just make them read a lot and give them that hobby myself. Some of the traits are just wholly unnecessary, I feel. But if we have to have them, 3 did a much, much better job.
    Bring back the Paranormal career already.
  • keekee53keekee53 Posts: 4,328 Member
    Aww thanks for asking for my opinion :)

    The personalities are so broken at the core I am not sure what can be done to fix it. Almost all the traits have a point where the sim gets tense and therefore makes all the sims seem the same.

    I can say the one trait that I find really good is jealousy. My jealous sim was so jealous to the point of annoyance but it is the only trait where you really see a difference in sim behavior not just moodlets. I also have been enjoying the quirks for the famous people because it also drives a different behavior from Sims. I have a serious actor quirk on one of my famous sims and she doesn't like jokes much and it makes her a bit more unique.

    I used to think adding Fears could make a difference but I am afraid they might just get a tense moodlet from the fear. I would hope they would pee themselves, run away or die by fear if they experience a fear.

    At the end of the day, the way to fix the sims themselves is by recoding traits to drive sim behavior or add another element such as fears or quirks that could drive sim behavior as well. I mean snobby sims should be annoyed by goofy sims especially when they are telling jokes or barging into apartments. The snobby sim should literally yell at them when they are being too goofy not an angry moodlet, letting the goofy sim that their behavior will not be tolerated by this snobby sim...lol Then they should walk away with the snobby walk. Now we will have a reason for those walk styles...lol

    I hope that makes sense. I have had insomnia for two days and I am exhausted and I usually ramble when that happens.
  • ladybreidladybreid Posts: 3,455 Member
    edited March 2019
    Better and extensive family tree like we had in previous iteration
    Memory system/photo album
    Likes/dislikes (for the sims like turn on's and offs)
    couples slow dancing
    get rid of auras
    bring back firefighters and robbers
    Larger worlds
    more varying lot sizes
    Give the options to turn off aliens and any other occults individually

    edit to clarify
    wz3Vdbh.jpg
    Saying "not to be rude", then blatently being rude does not excuse rude behavior.
  • luvdasims55luvdasims55 Posts: 14,645 Member
    I liked the idea of the memory system with a photo album. What I didn't like was getting spammed with what I consider trivial memories. For example: the sim learned handiness, the sim took a class in handiness, etc. I spent way more time than I wanted to spend on clearing out memories that I didn't want in my scrapbook.

    I like how TS4 doesn't automatically make memories without my permission. I choose what photo's I want to take and have in my album. The problem with the TS4 system though is that once I've got a lot of photo's in memory, it is really hard to scroll down through all of them.

    In summary, I'd like to see a memory system that allows me to choose what memories I want to make with an easy way of getting to whatever page I want to get to when I want to see a specific photo for my walk down memory lane. I hope what I just wrote makes sense lol.


    btw, forgot to thank the OP for requesting my thoughts. (Often a dangerous place to be. ;) ) Too often I feel like my posts fall on deaf ears or that my opinion doesn't matter. Thanks for asking for my input! :)
  • ListentoToppDoggListentoToppDogg Posts: 2,103 Member
    @Jordan061102 I think the AI would need to be dramatically revamped.

    For one thing, traits need to do more than just trigger moodlets and whims. I mentioned in another thread that I have an "evil" child sim and all he does is maniacally laugh from time to time, but otherwise there's nothing evil about him. He doesn't automatically make messes, use bad manners, taunt his family, do mean interactions with the pets, or anything like that. That's something I'd expect from an evil sim, but it never happens.

    Second, not only do we need more traits, we need more than just traits. We need likes, dislikes, favorites, turn ons/offs, etc. The number of traits is severally limited. Where's shy? Brave? Studious? Also, kids need way more aspirations and traits unique to their age (and on that note, ALL age groups should have unique traits and aspirations). The fact that the team thinks that kids's goals only amount to those 4 aspirations is really disheartening. Babies should also have traits (not to mention freedom from the bassinets).

    Sims also just need to use their 🐸🐸🐸🐸 brains. Stop autonomously flirting with sims of the same gender when attracted to and married to the opposite gender. Stop acting friendly with sims they're supposed to hate. And for the love of God, can they please program sims that are parents to take care of their 🐸🐸🐸🐸 kids. Parents in this game are awful. Their kids can be in their rooms starving and the parents would rather go play on the computer or watch TV than cook their kids a meal. They rarely interact with their kids outside of random hugs. We need more family interactions. Ironically enough the "check toddler" command comes up 10000000 times a day, but they never do anything other than stare at the kid. If the toddler is hunger, feed them. If they're dirty, bathe them. If they need fun, play with them. Don't just stand there or go walk off to play video games. Why does this command exist and do literally NOTHING?

    I could go on forever, but long story short, the AI needs a serious overhaul.
  • Remy_GenevaRemy_Geneva Posts: 142 Member
    I think it's unlikely they will completely change the current traits system, probably just add to it seen as the engine seems to be made of paper.

    Here is what I am thinking at the moment.

    I really think we need more trait slots, as I said before it feels needlessly restrictive and the sims end up shallow.
    Also more impactful traits and aspirations (especially negative ones), but I am sure this will come with more packs and so on.
    e.g. shy, irritable, green thumb, serious, socially awkward etc


    The club system seems like a good way to implement likes and dislikes in CAS, since club activities can alter the behaviour of sims.
    e.g. a male sim likes to play an instrument, use microscope and dislikes fishing, cooking.
    This should also affect friendships and romances, so if two sims become friends/romantic its based on shared interests like playing an instrument from my example above.

    I think turn ons/offs could be a combination of physical things and traits.
    e.g. a female sim can be turned on by beards and the ambitious trait, and turned off by makeup and the jealous trait.

    Whims are shockingly bad, why not have them related to what sims are doing.
    e.g. if a sim is on a date, the whim could be to kiss the other sim, or ditch them at the restaurant etc.

    Auras are too strong, happy moodlet from decor is basically a meme at this point.

    Having emotions like "scared" and "annoyed" would be great because a sim could feel scared from seeing a ghost, or feel annoyed at their spouse for being a slob.

    It would be awesome if marriages where affected too, so a lazy husband and a neat wife would give the wife the "annoyed" emotion. She could get new interactions like ignore husband for a couple of hours or complain to make him clean. There should be some kind of cooldown on this interaction so that the wife sim does not have "annoyed" trait all the time.

    Bonus points
    Greatest fears
    Favourite things
    Memories

    Come on developers, please address these long standing issues. Players have made countless threads, given tons of feedback and ideas on this. Whilst many players ask university and witches (which you have no obligation to implement), we ask for something that should have been there from the start (at least in some form). I've said it before, TS4 store page says and I quote "...customize your Sims’... unique personalities". This currently isn't a feature in the game. Every sim reads books, every sim plays video games, every sim gets happy moodlet from decor, every sim is social (even loners just get tense and keep talking) and that is fundamentally not unique... its repetitive regardless of what traits the sims have. I would like to actually play the game instead of critcising it lol, its just too boring right now.
  • KaronKaron Posts: 2,332 Member
    @Jordan061102 First and foremost, your opinions about how Sims 4 treats its personality system is not annoying, its important and will never be enough to talk about it!

    Getting out of the way, I don't have time to read what everyone is say right now, so I'm have to excuse if I repeat what someone said already. I think that some of the relationships could be better if some systems were made to respond on how your sim acts towards others and vice-versa.
    The best example I have in my mind is Sims 2's Fury/Jealousy system. Yes, yes... I know that some sims overreacted to certain stimulations, but Sims 4 treats that as a joke or something. The other day I had my sims husband cheat on her, then she got inside the room and didn't react at all. Maybe it was a bug or something, but either way the most reaction I would get out of her would be to hit her foot on the floor, growl and rage for 2 seconds. Thats probably way our sims start being friendly seconds after being insulted... Oh, i miss how my sims would think something bad about their enemies when they got in the same room at the same time, haha.
    Maybe Sims 4 should take that sims 2 rage/jealouse system and apply it, if nothing more can be done, I would be more okay with that than the current situation, but... If the devs can develop that better they could take their time to polish that by adding levels of anger/hate/offensiveness.
    If your sim is insulted, but nothing more, they would fell insulted. Some would get angry, some would get sad and cry, some would overreact, etc (depending on their traits), but mostly it wouldn't be a big thing. The difference is that their emotions would be attached to the other sim who caused it, like in SIms 2 that a red timer would appear over their picture on the friendship list.
    But, some things would be so powerful and remarkable in their lives that it would work differently. Let's say that your gold digger married an old man... One day she's cheating on him while he's at work, but suddenly he arrives (maybe he retired and could get back earlier), then he catches his wife cheating on him with Don Lothario. His age would influence how his emotions would function... He would get so angry that Grim Reaper would come by to say hello!
    Depending on the importance, the impact and the traits of your sims they would be angry over small things for more time than other sims, but all most important memories would make them super angry for the longest time.
    And I am not only talking about range/jealousy, more systems like that, based on human interactions, should be thought about and included. Maybe a joy system, were your sim would be most likely to have a faster relationship with someone who made something good to them, or they would feel flattered for a period of time after someone made a complimment over their appearance and would be more likely to treat said sim better.
    For know, thats all I wanted. Meaningful reactions and more interesting human interactions, and I think thats why many simmers love Sims 2 (besides nostalgia), cuz those things make our sims more alive, more attacheable.
  • Sk8rblazeSk8rblaze Posts: 7,570 Member
    I agree with the posts of many others, but one thing I’d really like to see return would be an improved/upgraded interests system.

    The Sims 2’s AI is just unmatched to every other game because you had all of these systems which gave them complex personality and uniqueness. The interests system was a nice way of cultivating their personality based on the activities they would do often.

    I just feel like leaving it to emotions and traits is not enough to create smart Sims.
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited March 2019
    Sk8rblaze wrote: »
    I agree with the posts of many others, but one thing I’d really like to see return would be an improved/upgraded interests system.

    The Sims 2’s AI is just unmatched to every other game because you had all of these systems which gave them complex personality and uniqueness. The interests system was a nice way of cultivating their personality based on the activities they would do often.

    I just feel like leaving it to emotions and traits is not enough to create smart Sims.
    I wouldn’t want smartness of sims being focused on completely autonomous behaviour anyway. Smartness indeed should come from this: their different personalities making them react differently, unique. My evil sim should just never ever hug her sister who she doesn’t like, nor should she autonomously take selfies with her. In my mind she’d never ever take a selfie anyway, that’s just really out of character. Problem is, she doesn’t have one, just in my imagination. I’d even go as far as saying taking selfies shouldn’t be a thing for every sim. My daughter constantly takes selfies (though not as much as a couple of years ago so it might really be an age thing), her brother and parents do not. I’d like to see that difference in behaviour where it comes to my sims.

    How did the interests system work?
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  • MidnightAuraMidnightAura Posts: 5,809 Member
    I agree with many of the posts here. I also think sims should have the interest system back. It really helped to flesh out sims and their different personalities. I also liked that it could be altered slightly in game.

    Traits don’t mean anything in the sims 4. All traits do is unlock some “unique” interactions or re use some animations. Most traits just give a buff. Traits should mean something. My evil sim should not manage to get a great reputation on his own. He shouldn’t be giving out hugs likes sweets - but he does. The only thing that makes him different is an “evil laugh” and I’m sorry but that does not make someone evil.

    The sims 2 relationship system with the furious state was useful and something similar would not be a bad thing for Ts4. Yes the constant trash kicking could be annoying but at least sims cared. Your actions had consequences. Sims 4 sims react to things the exact same way and there’s no excuse for it.



  • Jordan061102Jordan061102 Posts: 3,918 Member
    Thank you guys for your support this is really really nice! 🤗 I will respond to some posts later when I have more time. There's some great ideas that I never thought about. I hope the devs are aware & are workin' on better personalities/reactions, it is really needed at this point.
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  • GrumpyGlowfishGrumpyGlowfish Posts: 2,207 Member
    I was a little surprised when I suddenly got a notification from this thread that I had never even seen before, thought the forums were glitching again, but wait, no! Someone tagged me to hear my opinion. Well then, here it comes! :D

    As others have said, we need to be able to select more traits per sim, and also a bigger pool of traits to select from. The traits that already exist should be expanded on and better balanced. There are already some that work quite well, like Loner for example. If your sim has this trait, you will always notice it in their interactions (or lack thereof) with other people, and being a loner myself in real life, and unflirty, I find that my simself feels and reacts exactly like I would in most situations. So the potential for great traits that really make a difference is definitely there. But then there are others, like Clumsy for example, which seem completely pointless; I haven't actually noticed this trait doing anything at all. It says in the description that sims are more prone to accidents while working out, but why limit it to working out? There are so many other activities where clumsy sims could mess up more than others.

    Hobbies could determine what a sim will get up to autonomously while you're not giving them orders, and what you find them doing when you load a household. Basically, when I load a household, the situation is always the same: All computers are occupied, one sim is making food, the others are getting up to random things that may or may not have anything to do with their personalities. Well, give us a CAS option to determine the sims' hobbies (and yes, determine - I don't want them to be assigned randomly like in TS2), and you can be sure they'll keep themselves busy in a meaningful way. Also, the hobby should be fun! It annoys me that even though my simself is a writer like real me, I can't get her to actually have fun writing books.

    What else, hm... An attraction system, fears, favourites. A sim's favourite colour would make it easier to dress them in CAS because clothes that have a swatch in that colour would automatically show the right swatch for them. Favourite food could add more meaning to the different meals you can cook, because let's be honest, unless the sim is a vegetarian, a picky eater, or trying to get into Selvadoradian culture, it doesn't matter at all what they eat. As for the attraction system, I don't think I have to explain that, and fears could be used to make sims tense when they're around something they're afraid of. That Tense emotion could then enhance other negative emotions, just like Happy enhances positive ones.

    Speaking of emotions, what I definitely don't want is more of them, they're already messy enough as it is, especially with all the happy moodlets completely overriding negative ones. Good luck trying to get your sim angry or sad to use these emotions for paintings, books, or vlogs. More than once I simply couldn't accomplish a career objective because of different emotional triggers coming from all sides, and never the right ones - wouldn't want even more interferences thrown into the mix! But as I said, making it so that Tense enhances negative emotions could help with that, whether the tenseness is caused by fear or something else.

    And pleeeaaase, make sims more intelligent! That this iteration of the game has the smartest sims to date was the biggest, fattest lie in the history of gaming, those creatures are dumber than ever! Sims who only have time for a quick meal before work should just sit down at the dining table and eat instead of wasting their time walking through the entire house to chat with another sim while eating. Sims who really need to pee shouldn't seek out that one special toilet on the other side of the map just because it talks to them, rather than the perfectly fine normal toilet in the next room. Oh, and you there, there's enough leftover food in the fridge, you don't have to cook a new group meal just so it can spoil! This, too, could be solved with better traits: Leave it to snobby sims to autonomously seek out the highest quality objects no matter how much time it will take them to get there, while outgoing sims can only eat in company, loners will avoid the talking toilet, and ambitious sims are always ready to drop everything and go to work because that's their favourite place.

    That's... not all, I guess, but some of my suggestions!
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