Return of Fear Emotion

Paralee · November 2019

One thing I'd like to see in TS4 is the return of fear. It seems odd to me that we have a pack with emotions as a selling point but it lacks an emotion as universal as fear. Fears were a neat part of TS2 that made Sims feel fleshed out and well rounded and it would have been neat to see a variation of it in TS4, but obviously implemented a touch differently.

It would be neat if perhaps fears were tied to traits, so that traits are a little more interesting besides providing some mood or motive boosts. Like perhaps jealous sims could be afraid of catching their sim cheating or family oriented sims could be afraid of something happening to their families. Perfectionist sims could be afraid of performing/crafting poorly and good sims can be afraid of evil sims. Perhaps patch in a trait for Cats and dogs for sims who dont like animals and they can be afraid of animals.

I dunno just an idea that I think is small but would vastly improve gameplay

Dijktafone · November 2019

Dude, I love your idea! Fears have been there in one way or the other since TS2 and they have a lot of room to work with. Idk maybe the last stage of fear would result in a heart attack death? A perk to counter that pheraps?
All I can see is that, to me, that'd make sims 4 sims more relatable.

jadonbakes · November 2019

I think tense works fine as the emotional equivalent to fear. But I do wish sims had things they feared aka fears. Kind of anti-whims.

Babykittyjade · November 2019

I think tense and fear are two completely different emotions and it's something I will never truly understand, why they left it out.
I'm tense after a long busy day. I'm scared when I see a spider and go running and screaming in fear🤔

Dijktafone · November 2019

That's cause fear is encrypted in our genetics, to optimize our survival chances (if I can say so), unlike the tense sensation-and hence is a feeling we all can relate to, regardless of our age. There are already some means to bring fear in sims, like the good old thunderstorm, the movie 'sims of the dead', ghosts, bears... racoons! Also vampires and Nina Caliente... Like I'd love to see them add a fear list where you can put like 1 or 2 things a sim may find scary, and build on that, with different forces to the fear moodlet. Then why not adding a brave trait that would decrease the number/power of fears, while cowards would increase the strenght of their fears.

Paralee · November 2019

Babykittyjade wrote: »

I think tense and fear are two completely different emotions and it's something I will never truly understand, why they left it out.
I'm tense after a long busy day. I'm scared when I see a spider and go running and screaming in fear🤔

Agreed. Theres a mod that overhauls the tense emotion and turns it in to various levels of fear but I dont really like that because tense does have its place like after a long hard day at work and I don't want it to be gone completely. But it's also not nearly the same thing as being afraid of something lol

Mariefoxprice83 · November 2019

I've been wanting fear in the game for a long time. I hope they are able to give it to us. We could also get an extra slot next to whims (if turned on) where a sim can have a fear pop up.

SilentKitty · November 2019

jadonbakes wrote: »

I think tense works fine as the emotional equivalent to fear. But I do wish sims had things they feared aka fears. Kind of anti-whims.

Yes! We have traits for sims that love spending time in the water or love to watch art or listen to music or do sports. Squeamish, hates kids and those other are really quite interesting. I wish that we could get something like the vampire's system for deciding what our sims really dislikes instead of it taking up an entire trait-slot.

SERVERFRA · November 2019

I agree we need the fear trait to be add. We already have paranoid so fear would go very well with it.

LiELF · November 2019

I am SO GLAD to see other people rallying for Fear!

I have wanted this for years, lol.

I really think we need a proper Fear emotion. The emotion system feels incomplete without it because there is nothing properly representing fear and anxiety. I find it very strange that we have "inspired", "focused", and "confident" before we have "Afraid". Fear is something that is so inherently natural to human emotions and we learn it from a very, very young age. When I was a child, I was afraid of "the monster in the closet" and it went so deep that I had frequent nightmares. Fear should be something that all Sims experience, it should have triggers according to traits and could be more avoided with a "brave" trait. Children and toddlers should have it and be able to get comfort from their parents.

Thunderstorms, aggressive pets growling/hissing, career failure, children doing badly in school, spiders, bugs, all of the Occults and their weird behaviors,...all of these things could be triggers for Fear. We could even have a system to give our Sims phobias, which could include bees, spiders, swimming, clowns, crowds, being alone, pregnancy (haha), Aliens, fish, frogs, being dirty, ....it could go on and on. To be able to select specific Fears for our Sims and actually have them feel anxious and afraid and exhibit the proper animations could add a world of depth to Sims 4. I see so many people who say that the base game still feels unfinished despite all of the packs we have. Well, I truly believe that this is one of the reasons why. Having Sims who only get as far as "Tense" only dumbs down the potential of having a deeper realism that adds a world of flavor and a little bit of challenge (but not too much!)...and robs us of that sweet spot of believability.

Fear is long, long overdue.

annaliese39 · November 2019

Yes please! I have never understood why fear - one of the basic emotions - was left out of TS4 or why tense would be considered interchangeable with it. I would love a fear emotion and/or phobias to be added, along with traits like brave, coward and (especially) neurotic. It would be great for personalities and storytelling, particularly for ghost/occult gameplay.

Paralee · November 2019

annaliese39 wrote: »

Yes please! I have never understood why fear - one of the basic emotions - was left out of TS4 or why tense would be considered interchangeable with it. I would love a fear emotion and/or phobias to be added, along with traits like brave, coward and (especially) neurotic. It would be great for personalities and storytelling, particularly for ghost/occult gameplay.

Especially ghosts and occults. Ghosts are so boring without sims being afraid of them. It's almost like they're just like any other sim and they arent even really dead. Just a transparent body now. I want them to be afraid of vampires, or spellcasters, or mermaids, or aliens. Cause again, Sim reactions to occults are very flat and boring.

Afraid of cats and dogs. Someone mentioned fear of pregnancy, yes! I want a sim whose afraid of that and then make her get pregnant. I loved doing terrible stuff like that to them in TS2.

Or one whose afraid of social situations and make her famous.

We have a Haunted lot trait. That would be FAR more useful to me if Sims felt fear. Otherwise it's really useless.

ChadSims2 · November 2019

jadonbakes wrote: »

I think tense works fine as the emotional equivalent to fear. But I do wish sims had things they feared aka fears. Kind of anti-whims.

Fear and tense are far from the same emotion though. Reactions to fear would be things like sweating, increased heart rate, and high adrenaline levels which would play out so much different than tense which should show up with Sims looking more tight or stressed. A scared Sim might cry, scream, refuse to do activity, cover their eyes while watching horror or hide in their bed while a tense Sim might be quick to anger one does not cover the other. But yes fears would be great such as fear of ghost aliens vegans and vampires or even things like swimming climbing the rock wall and so on.

Dianesims · November 2019

I think we need fear and phobias.

Arachnophobia, Agoraphobia, vertigo, hemophobia, germophobia, fear of dogs, of snakes, of bugs, of ghosts, of the dark etc

Also worry. Like parents could worry when their teen is out late or when their kid is sick.

SilentKitty · November 2019

We have a trait for sims that love water. Why not a trait for a sim that really does not like water, then letting them live on the little island in Sulani

There so much more we could do! When sims are only characterized by what they love they end up feeling one-dimensional. Also your sims end up overly happy. Indeed modding away the happy moodlets from decorations on lots was one of the two things that got me into modding. I just didn’t get to see my sims being bored, or angry or sad. It was just inspired or energized or happy happy happy. That got old fast.

Having fear being one of the driving-forces could balance this a bit but I don’t know if they dare to mess with the system and add that. Perhaps just adverse traits could be done.

Agrest · November 2019

Sims 4 could really use something like this. I loved how in sims 2 the aspiration bar would slowly decrease if you never completed any of their wants, and that could lead to them being depressed, which is a simplification of how it works in real life.

Babykittyjade · November 2019

Dianesims wrote: »

I think we need fear and phobias.

Arachnophobia, Agoraphobia, vertigo, hemophobia, germophobia, fear of dogs, of snakes, of bugs, of ghosts, of the dark etc

Also worry. Like parents could worry when their teen is out late or when their kid is sick.

I like the idea of a worry emotion. And yo go with it we should have various ways of comforting other sims. It frustrates me when my sim becomes sick or sad but cannot get any care or comfort from other sims. I have to "cry it out" or "talk to the mirror" or order my own medicine online.

I think if they ever do add in fear and/or worry they should add ways of comforting sims and/or taking care of scared/worried/sick/sad sims.

That would really take this game up a level for me and I think it's such a simple thing.

Just for ideas I'm thinking maybe a sim can sit on the bed next to a sick sim lying in bed and hold their hand, they could check for fever, they could sit next to a sad or scared sim and hold them for comfort, maybe pat their back every now and then.
Those kind of things...

InfraGreen · November 2019

Funny enough they introduced traits like Squeamish and Paranoid, which would easily lead to feelings of being afraid if sims could really be afraid! I was disappointed when my first squeamish sims simply didn't like to fish or do gross things and actually wouldn't, like, freak out about it.

Dianesims · November 2019

I’d like that too. When my teen sims are sad their parents can comfort them but it’s mostly a hug and I think a bit of shoulder rubbing/patting ? It’s cute but I’d like more. My sims can be comforted the same way too when their dog runs away (he’s loved and well cared for, I can assure you).

What about being able to comfort a sim when they’re crying in their bed ? Like another sims could sit next to them and comfort them.
Also I like your idea of checking for fever and comforting a sick sim. And if that sim is a kid or a teen, take them to a doctor or give them medicine.

Babykittyjade wrote: »

Dianesims wrote: »

I think we need fear and phobias.

Arachnophobia, Agoraphobia, vertigo, hemophobia, germophobia, fear of dogs, of snakes, of bugs, of ghosts, of the dark etc

Also worry. Like parents could worry when their teen is out late or when their kid is sick.

I like the idea of a worry emotion. And yo go with it we should have various ways of comforting other sims. It frustrates me when my sim becomes sick or sad but cannot get any care or comfort from other sims. I have to "cry it out" or "talk to the mirror" or order my own medicine online.

I think if they ever do add in fear and/or worry they should add ways of comforting sims and/or taking care of scared/worried/sick/sad sims.

That would really take this game up a level for me and I think it's such a simple thing.

Just for ideas I'm thinking maybe a sim can sit on the bed next to a sick sim lying in bed and hold their hand, they could check for fever, they could sit next to a sad or scared sim and hold them for comfort, maybe pat their back every now and then.
Those kind of things...

Dianesims · November 2019

Exactly, they just get an uncomfortable moodlet. I’m afraid of spiders, when I see one, chances are I’m gonna freak out/scream. Even more so if it’s a big hairy one.

InfraGreen wrote: »

Funny enough they introduced traits like Squeamish and Paranoid, which would easily lead to feelings of being afraid if sims could really be afraid! I was disappointed when my first squeamish sims simply didn't like to fish or do gross things and actually wouldn't, like, freak out about it.

LiELF · November 2019

Dianesims wrote: »

I think we need fear and phobias.

Arachnophobia, Agoraphobia, vertigo, hemophobia, germophobia, fear of dogs, of snakes, of bugs, of ghosts, of the dark etc

Also worry. Like parents could worry when their teen is out late or when their kid is sick.

Omg "Worry"! Yes! This could actually even work in tandem with Tense. I remember in Sims 2 when Sims would stress out, their body language would say it all, you didn't need moodlets to tell you how they were feeling. They would tense their shoulders and wring their hands and their faces would show worry. I think that's one of the issues with Sims 4 is that the animations are too shallow yet over exaggerated into rare extremes. There's not enough nuanced body language for each level of each emotion. Just smiles and frowns, which they switch between just from walking through the house.

Worry or Anxious could be the lower level of Afraid in the emotion system. I could see it as "Anxious" to "Afraid" to "Terrified", and then if you don't calm your Sim down, they could die of fright. It's one of the emotional deaths that would actually make sense. The Playful and Embarrassment deaths are so ridiculous.

Nushnushganay · November 2019

Love that you brought this up, and it is a big hole in the game, but unfortunately I think the same reasoning behind never mentioning the "b" word (calling it plasma for crying out loud) is why real fear isn't allowed in the game, and we have far less potent emotions sort of filling the gap as best they can. Couldn't agree more that none of it makes any sense, if a Sim can die, literally die, of embarrassment or of getting too playful, yet being genuinely afraid, even terrified, is a big no-no.

It's another of the many little ways in which the game comes across as having multiple personalities and not making a lot of sense.

Edited to add: it may be that the aim of keeping it something little kids can play that's making it hard to focus on the actual core demographic of users--if there even is a core. Seriously, it's the only game that even pretends to be also for kids, that has steamy action under the covers complete with some rather nicely realistic sounds (at least for the male Sims, whereas the females seem to mostly giggle and coo, like they are having a nice time, but not a fantastic one). Not that I want them to now get rid of the sounds, but it is inconsistent how the game wants to walk both sides of the fence at once.

I guess I'm glad it's not my job to figure out how to appease everyone in a game that is so perniciously resistant to appealing to just one demographic. Maybe it's more lucrative to focus on games with less of a broad appeal, because the players then all mostly agree on what they are after?

Paralee · November 2019

Nushnushganay wrote: »

Love that you brought this up, and it is a big hole in the game, but unfortunately I think the same reasoning behind never mentioning the "b" word (calling it plasma for crying out loud) is why real fear isn't allowed in the game, and we have far less potent emotions sort of filling the gap as best they can. Couldn't agree more that none of it makes any sense, if a Sim can die, literally die, of embarrassment or of getting too playful, yet being genuinely afraid, even terrified, is a big no-no.

It's another of the many little ways in which the game comes across as having multiple personalities and not making a lot of sense.

Edited to add: it may be that the aim of keeping it something little kids can play that's making it hard to focus on the actual core demographic of users--if there even is a core. Seriously, it's the only game that even pretends to be also for kids, that has steamy action under the covers complete with some rather nicely realistic sounds (at least for the male Sims, whereas the females seem to mostly giggle and coo, like they are having a nice time, but not a fantastic one). Not that I want them to now get rid of the sounds, but it is inconsistent how the game wants to walk both sides of the fence at once.

I guess I'm glad it's not my job to figure out how to appease everyone in a game that is so perniciously resistant to appealing to just one demographic. Maybe it's more lucrative to focus on games with less of a broad appeal, because the players then all mostly agree on what they are after?

That's the really annoying thing about it though is it's not even *for* little kids. Its rated "Teen". Technically little kids shouldn't even be playing it. Yet they keep making the game as if it's for little kids, and people use little kids to excuse them. Even though they actually arent even supposed to be playing it lol

Froil · November 2019

It never made sense to me why there's a lack of fear and anything "scary" makes you tense. A good time to have added it, besides from the start, would've been with Vampires.

Paralee · November 2019

Froil wrote: »

It never made sense to me why there's a lack of fear and anything "scary" makes you tense. A good time to have added it, besides from the start, would've been with Vampires.

Yeah. Cats and Dogs added fear. Sim pets are more well rounded than sim humans, the pets have actual fears. Sims just have stuff that makes them feel tense lol

Mariefoxprice83 · November 2019

somethingstellar wrote: »

Froil wrote: »

It never made sense to me why there's a lack of fear and anything "scary" makes you tense. A good time to have added it, besides from the start, would've been with Vampires.

Yeah. Cats and Dogs added fear. Sim pets are more well rounded than sim humans, the pets have actual fears. Sims just have stuff that makes them feel tense lol

That's weird. I don't have Cats and Dogs. What kind of fears do they have?

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Return of Fear Emotion

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