Sims 4 Economy - Is It Broken?

Bearpal64 · April 2019

I've been playing the game for about a year now. I have all the available DLC available on the console version. But something has irked me for a while.now: I am wondering if anyone else thinks the game economy is broken.

Please as always give positive yet honest feedback.

Sharonia · April 2019

I don't know if it is or not. To me it seems to easy to earn money in the game but then I see that other people actively still use money cheats so maybe it's not as easy as I think it is?

catmando830 · April 2019

What economy? You can choose how much you sims have in money.

happyopi · April 2019

The economy is only broken insofar as regular gameplay is broken. If your entire population is comprised of supergifted sims to the top of their career, money stops making sense.

If you play with low income families, you realize it's perfectly fine. Your bills stay low if you can only afford cheap furniture i.e..
Unfortunately, to do that, I have to use mods, to lock career progression or reset skills once they get too high.

Regular gameplay is not suited for aging off. I'm guessing it's more balanced on normal lifespan, but I'm not playing that.

Cupid · April 2019

For me, it's kind of hard to say. I wouldn't call it "broken" because of the nature of the game - the player for the most part has the power to adjust things the way they think they ought to be. But I will say it doesn't seem like much thought was put into the economical side of the game.

It's "easy" to make money in the sense that it's hard to ever be dirt poor to the point where your sim is living paycheck-to-paycheck unless you're heavily restricting your gameplay or handicapping yourself. Yet, at the same time it's hard to get your sims rich enough to the point where they could buy a mansion during their lifespan if you wanted them to (unless you're doing something exploity.) Sims at the bottom of their careers experience no struggle and sims at the very top don't make what they should be making.

AquaGamer1212 · April 2019

There’s no banking system, everyone shares the money despite who brought the money into the household, which isn’t fair. When someone dies the money and home disappear. A new system would be great but probably not gonna happen this iteration.

Chazzzy · April 2019

I don't understand the question.

LindsaySeddon1 · April 2019

Not really sure what you mean?

LindsaySeddon1 · April 2019

Cupid wrote: »

For me, it's kind of hard to say. I wouldn't call it "broken" because of the nature of the game - the player for the most part has the power to adjust things the way they think they ought to be. But I will say it doesn't seem like much thought was put into the economical side of the game.

It's "easy" to make money in the sense that it's hard to ever be dirt poor to the point where your sim is living paycheck-to-paycheck unless you're heavily restricting your gameplay or handicapping yourself. Yet, at the same time it's hard to get your sims rich enough to the point where they could buy a mansion during their lifespan if you wanted them to (unless you're doing something exploity.) Sims at the bottom of their careers experience no struggle and sims at the very top don't make what they should be making.

On my very first attempt at a Sims 4 legacy, with not much experience playing the game beyond a few (sim) weeks at a time, I had my founder in a mansion before he turned elder. So that was normal ageing on, 40-50ish sim days, I went from lawn-living to mansion, because I found some lilies lying around and planted them on my lot for money.

Would you count that as exploitative? It certainly felt waayyyy too easy to be so successful so fast from just farming flowers.

And if that's a legit money farming technique, then yes, the economy is broken!

Endless_Days · April 2019

Inheritance needs to be fixed, and it's comically easy to make a lot of money painting. I think only certain quality paintings should be able to be sold.

Karon · April 2019

LindsaySeddon1 wrote: »

Cupid wrote: »

For me, it's kind of hard to say. I wouldn't call it "broken" because of the nature of the game - the player for the most part has the power to adjust things the way they think they ought to be. But I will say it doesn't seem like much thought was put into the economical side of the game.

It's "easy" to make money in the sense that it's hard to ever be dirt poor to the point where your sim is living paycheck-to-paycheck unless you're heavily restricting your gameplay or handicapping yourself. Yet, at the same time it's hard to get your sims rich enough to the point where they could buy a mansion during their lifespan if you wanted them to (unless you're doing something exploity.) Sims at the bottom of their careers experience no struggle and sims at the very top don't make what they should be making.

On my very first attempt at a Sims 4 legacy, with not much experience playing the game beyond a few (sim) weeks at a time, I had my founder in a mansion before he turned elder. So that was normal ageing on, 40-50ish sim days, I went from lawn-living to mansion, because I found some lilies lying around and planted them on my lot for money.

Would you count that as exploitative? It certainly felt waayyyy too easy to be so successful so fast from just farming flowers.

And if that's a legit money farming technique, then yes, the economy is broken!

@LindsaySeddon1 Would be cooler if wild flowers were more cheaper than then best quality of flowers. IRL, when you pick flowers from a wild plant usually they have bite marks on them, some of them are rotting, etc... While in captivity you can avoid msot of the things that make a flower bad or ugly.
I guess the devs have to adjust them in the future to be more realistic.

N0NoTToN0N · April 2019

Karon wrote: »

LindsaySeddon1 wrote: »

Cupid wrote: »

For me, it's kind of hard to say. I wouldn't call it "broken" because of the nature of the game - the player for the most part has the power to adjust things the way they think they ought to be. But I will say it doesn't seem like much thought was put into the economical side of the game.

It's "easy" to make money in the sense that it's hard to ever be dirt poor to the point where your sim is living paycheck-to-paycheck unless you're heavily restricting your gameplay or handicapping yourself. Yet, at the same time it's hard to get your sims rich enough to the point where they could buy a mansion during their lifespan if you wanted them to (unless you're doing something exploity.) Sims at the bottom of their careers experience no struggle and sims at the very top don't make what they should be making.

On my very first attempt at a Sims 4 legacy, with not much experience playing the game beyond a few (sim) weeks at a time, I had my founder in a mansion before he turned elder. So that was normal ageing on, 40-50ish sim days, I went from lawn-living to mansion, because I found some lilies lying around and planted them on my lot for money.

Would you count that as exploitative? It certainly felt waayyyy too easy to be so successful so fast from just farming flowers.

And if that's a legit money farming technique, then yes, the economy is broken!

@LindsaySeddon1 Would be cooler if wild flowers were more cheaper than then best quality of flowers. IRL, when you pick flowers from a wild plant usually they have bite marks on them, some of them are rotting, etc... While in captivity you can avoid msot of the things that make a flower bad or ugly.
I guess the devs have to adjust them in the future to be more realistic.

Aren't all wild plants at normal quality and worth less than plants that you tend and evolve to better quality?
All my highly evolved plants are way more valuable than the ones in the world.

purpleplum · April 2019

I wouldn't say TS4 economy is really broken, but it is relatively easy to get rich. I sometimes stick a violin in the attics of my houses to make bills higher. I definitely wish there was some kind of inheritance/will system.

In reply to the comments saying you shouldn't be able to sell lower quality items, this is what I do: How about just not selling lower quality items? You could keep them in your home or delete them or give them as gifts. That way it feels more realistic to you, but others who like that aspect of the game can keep doing it.

N0NoTToN0N · April 2019

I think some aspects work well and make sense but others don't. I think over all it's probably most realistic if you play on a normal lifespan. Sometimes the cost of buy mode objects (furniture) don't match the quality of the object. I think the comfort, environment, etc. Level should be factored in to the cost. Most of the times it seems like it is... others not so much. I guess I could see a really cheap sofa or chair being comfortable though.
When making money some things do seem like glitches and cheaty to me. And it's so tempting to take advantage of that.

In real life there are career paths that you will never get super rich (human services, education) in comparison to others but not in TS4.
I'd kind of like it if you got to, let's say, level 4 of certain careers you can't get promoted unless you pay to get a college degree and absolutely have to complete the promotion requirements (college requirement) and not just happy mood your way to promotion. So maybe to get to level 7 you need your masters to get to 9, your doctorate.

purpleplum · April 2019

> @treece01 said:

> I'd kind of like it if you got to, let's say, level 4 of certain careers you can't get promoted unless you pay to get a college degree and absolutely have to complete the promotion requirements (college requirement) and not just happy mood your way to promotion. So maybe to get to level 7 you need your masters to get to 9, your doctorate.

I know it's purely speculation, but I really think one of the new packs will have something to do with education. An option to pay for rabbit hole classes/degrees would be a nice addition to the base game. It would be like paying for training for your employees.

N0NoTToN0N · April 2019

purpleplum wrote: »

> @treece01 said:

> I'd kind of like it if you got to, let's say, level 4 of certain careers you can't get promoted unless you pay to get a college degree and absolutely have to complete the promotion requirements (college requirement) and not just happy mood your way to promotion. So maybe to get to level 7 you need your masters to get to 9, your doctorate.

I know it's purely speculation, but I really think one of the new packs will have something to do with education. An option to pay for rabbit hole classes/degrees would be a nice addition to the base game. It would be like paying for training for your employees.

I'm sure they will. Yeah, that was kind of my thinking.

stilljustme2 · April 2019

AquaGamer1212 wrote: »

There’s no banking system, everyone shares the money despite who brought the money into the household, which isn’t fair. When someone dies the money and home disappear. A new system would be great but probably not gonna happen this iteration.

If/when University is A Thing I'd love to see some sort of system where you have a household account but the game keeps track of what each Sim has contributed to the household. I'll have my teens write books and paint, but hold off on selling the finished works until they move out as YAs so they can immediately upgrade their starting space, or I'll move them to an apartment, sell off everything and if they have enough money move them to a small house right away. It would give more weight to the current part-time job system if teens could work to earn money for University rather than rely on the household money. Especially if we get the "odd jobs" board back from Sims 3, so students can earn extra money while they're at campus -- maybe be a science test subject (could return with different moodlets from the experiments) or maybe a librarian (pro: time to study, con: increased chance of Bored moodlet).

keekee53 · April 2019

I would say yes because it is very difficult to lose money. I miss those chance cards from Sims 2 where sims could get fired, have to pay $50000 fines for making a mistake at work, etc. A few of my sims have like 3.5 million earned not cheated...one did hit the lottery though. I have decided those families will stop working a few generations to see if I can burn through some of that money. It will be hard when everything is pretty cheap. The most money you spend is buying a house and paying the bills for that monster house. Maids are cheap, eating out is cheap, vacations are pretty cheap, butlers are worthless so I don't hire them.

MLadyAzzera · April 2019

I'm sure I'm not the only one who have my sims only dedicate themselves to work and skill building, always trying to get to the top of their careers. If you play this way, yes, money is going to come easy.

I've been trying to make my sims more social, have them visit other lots, and try to make them less "skill build happy" to slow career progress. Sometimes I will purposely not raise a skill so they don't get promoted. Switching/quitting jobs help too. Move to a bigger, more expensive lot that you have to redecorate/upgrade. Donate to charity a couple times a day. Hire every service and don't have either the frugal or free services rewards.

I had downloaded an updated version of Judith Ward's lot, and her bills were a whopping 27,000 simoleans for the week. That and I've noticed that the bills are much higher in the game thanks to the thermostat that came with Seasons. I've even had to move some sims to apartments because their weekly bills would leave them only with a few hundred simoleans left, especially if I had only one sim in the household working and had the thermostat on when it was super hot or cold.

I agree painting and writing have problems. They finish paintings in only a few sim hours and my sims write an entire novel in one day! For this reason, I have both the slower painting and a slower writing mods (I think it doubles or triples the normal time) so it seems so much more realistic and helps with the ridiculously fast income gains. No longer can my sims write a book in one day, and a masterpiece takes them almost the whole day to complete. This way it takes more time to make money, slowing down income and having it feel more authentic.

ShadyLady89 · April 2019

I wouldn't necessarily say it's broken, but it could certainly use improvement. I agree with a lot of what's been said here about funds not all just going into one big pot for the household; I would love a budget panel, and bills that made sense, or at least a way to see where I was spending the majority of my money. I feel I have a healthy economy in my game. Yeah, most of my sims are filthy rich, but I also cheated to get a lot of them there. Gardening used to be a huge money maker, and I'm sure it still is, but with seasons is does limit to some degree what sims can harvest during the year. I still use the money tree because honestly I hate having to worry about bills. I like my sims to be more social, so the economy in the game isn't a thing I spend too much time worried about. I think if we had the ability to work part-time jobs (maybe multiple part times jobs?) and university as a block to higher ends of careers, that would probably fix some of the ease in money making; the exception being gardening, painting and writing. However, you can do those things less and won't accrue as much money.

Bearpal64 · April 2019

First of all thank you all for the responses.

I guess for me it just seems like on the one hand I have Sims who have $80,000 and their bills are basically nothing. But then their kids moved out and they were given $22,000 magically. So they will struggle for a bit but I imagine it won't be long before one of the two brothers moves out. Meanwhile the parents will continue to be rich.

Even if I could just have ways to burn through money. That would help.

A budget with separate bank accounts would be helpful I think.

Lilypink79 · April 2019

it is imo, far too easy to earn money

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Sims 4 Economy - Is It Broken?

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