It's been 5 years of The Sims 4 and I still find myself only using the same base game traits all the time. Even know I love the game and want it to go on for more years, I feel like we need new traits to go on. And when I say new traits, I mean new personality traits, and that's not what we've been getting in the DLC's.
I just think it's so lame (specially considering we only have 3 trait slots) to have traits like "likes dogs" "likes cats" "likes summer" "likes winter" "likes the ocean" "likes the island". This is NOT personality, it doesn't help building a character. Not only that, but it has an irrelevant gameplay impact. The only decent pack traits I can think of are Self-absorbed, vegetarian and squeamish, since they do add to the personality of the sims in their everyday life, and not just when they're specifically doing an activity from the pack.
I wouldn't even mind if EA copied some of the Sims 3 traits (which were great), just give us more traits that are able to make sims feel actually unique, and not just "like this" "like that". We need personality.
If only we had more slots, it would be easier to build a character, but having only 3, we need good traits, otherwise the sims will always feel meh.
Just thought that maybe if more people agree with me EA might hear us. Who knows.
(I know we have mods that adds traits, but I don't use mods)
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This ^^^
Why fix something that isn’t broken?
All the personality traits in TS4 are not unique amongst each other. All they do is affect emotions. Not autonomy, how they react, what they like to talk about, who they get along with, what they prefer to do and so on. The irony of emotions in this game is that it doesn’t affect personality.
Even though The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 didn’t have traits, they were all unique among themselves due to zodiac signs (I don’t believe in this irl but that’s beside the point), personality points and interests. TS2 and TS3 has a hidden “gender preference” game mechanic that made even a bigger impact on personalities. Their reaction when they see someone “attractive” to their tastes. “Turn Ons and Turn Offs” (Chemistry) from TS2.
I firmly believe that every single Sim from this iteration will definitely interact exactly the same if you play them without any traits on them.
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I fully agree that an overhaul would be good. They've already tinkered a bit; for a while near the beginning, emotions were overwhelming and constantly fighting one another for dominance. Sims would flicker between confident and happy so much that they couldn't always accomplish the tasks you'd set them on.
We keep getting assurance that Sims 4 isn't going anywhere, that there are years of content ahead of us, so hopefully they'll do more tinkering.
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Aw, I actually like the "like cats" one cuz my sim's friend has that and every time he comes by the house, he gushes over my sim's kitten. I think it's cute. XD Though, I think for small details like this, it's better to make them 'redeemable' traits instead.
That being said, I usually just use cheats just to put in these traits so the 3 slot thing doesn't apply to me. 🙈
I now play with a mod which encourages more 'personality' to come through in gameplay and I have noticed a good difference. But these simple gameplay features should have been part of base game. I find I have to use my imagination to fill in some parts of my Sims lives and personality at times instead of the game giving me these features.
Insecure, shy, absent-minded, shallow, selfish, curious, faithful, hyperactive...
I have tried the “likes cats”-trait recently and when there was a cat in the household it was quite nice. Interactions and other things that made it feel pretty special. I seldom have pets in my households because they require so much attention and time but with that sim it felt pretty easy. Don’t know how much impact that trait has when there are no cats around.
That said, there are still several things that makes me want to climb the walls when it comes to sims. There are several traits that I feel like they don’t do too much so I feel hesitant to use them on the sims I play often. I do not wish to waste a slot. Art lover has not done much for me, perhaps I missed the details when playing, it has been a while now.
It pretty much speaks for itself; The Sims 4 traits barely even scratch the surface of something like a personality when compared to The Sims 3 (The Sims 2 as well what with the attraction system and character points)
And I agree with what they say here as well: "Don't fix what isn't broken!"
@sueplayssims what mod do you use?
Those are from the base game, and yes they're good traits. I was talking about the traits that came with the packs.
I think sometimes nostalgia overtakes us when we're dissatisfied with the here and now, in this case Sims4. I played Sims3 every day, but always had a love/hate relationship with it. It wasn't all it was advertised to be, which was a huge let down. Thankfully, I went into Sims4 less naive. I knew the base game would be bleak, for instance, and wasn't disappointed. What I looked for, was to see if the Sims, themselves, were more fully developed, as in able to autonomously carry on conversations over dinner — which was lacking completely in Sims3. The sad thing is the devs gave everything to the open world, and left the Sims themselves to be little more than pixalated automatons. I'm happy to say Sims4 Sims while different in their antics from Sims2 Sims, are very able to carry on in the background without me.
Sorry for the rant, but I do heartily agree we need additional Traits. I'd like to see Retiring (Shy), since we already have its opposite. We need Loud and Quiet, since some people really are those traits. I like what they did with Erratic. At first I was dismayed it was changed out from Insane, but it's better in the long run. My Global Superstar's dear mother is erratic. She's rather funny to watch. I love it when she arbitrarily decides to tell herself a story. She's also prone to removing her clothing and walking around in the altogether despite the fact she has four sons still in the household.
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Plumbella (a sim youtuber) discussed an idea regarding this, how they could keep all the traits but give the option to make some more powerful than others, like if you want to have a sim that is family oriented, but also a loner, you put family oriented as a higher priority so they enjoy being with family members, but not with other people.
Especially since there are those hidden non-trait traits like whether they like or hate fruitcake, or whether they prefer the heat or cold.
For that matter, does anybody know if there's any heritability to the pseudo-traits?
I do come up with my own interpretation of how sims react to different events in the game but I'd welcome the opportunity for them to be more reactive and to have more drama, I guess. I've said before that I think there should be a pack for relationships that adds some complexity.
I personally think personality and relationships are base game material, so they should be added by free updates. EA would be a major 🐸🐸🐸🐸 if they made a personality pack (not saying I wouldn't buy it, though).